Among those involved in planning and overseeing the plantation were King James, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Arthur Chichester, and the Attorney-General for Ireland, John Davies. They saw the plantation as a means of controlling, anglicising and "civilising" Ulster. The province was almost wholly Gaelic, Catholic and rural, and had been the region most resistant to English control. The plantation was also meant to sever Gaelic Ulster's links with the Gaelic Highlands of Scotland. The colonists (or "British tenants") were required to be English-speaking, Protestant, and loyal to the king. Some of the undertakers and settlers however were Catholic and it has been suggested that a significant number of the Scots could speak Gaelic. The Scottish settlers were mostly Presbyterian Lowlanders and the English mostly members of the Church of England. Although some 'loyal' natives were granted land, the native Irish reaction to the plantation was generally hostile, and native writers bewailed what they saw as the decline of Gaelic society and the influx of foreigners.