their homage to him who thereupon came and performed the same accordingly which was don in the year after our Saviour's nativitie 579 and this prove's a claim at least made by the Kings of great Britain to the Island of Ireland as part of their dominions Afterwards as is known to all men of anie reading the Saxons and Angles out of Germanie invaded great Britain and by manie contests in Arms and bloudie Battels obteined the Dominion thereof dividing it into several Kingdoms amongst themselvs which continued for manie years In all which times the Irish Inhabitants took more Libertie to root themselvs in their barbarous usurpation and tyrannie for wee cannot finde that then before or since they established anie certain Government either regal or otherwise neither are there extant anie authentick memories of anie certain or passable Laws ordeined by them for the regulating of anie Christian people yet soon after the Saxon's Heptarchie was reduced into an Entire Monarchie It is manifest by good Historie and Record that Edgar King of great Britain then and now called England not unmindful of that Kingdom 's ancient right and interest in Ireland labored and obteined another reducement and had the possession of most of that continent as appear's by the Books of that excellent writer Judg Cook extracted out of Records of the Tower Afterwards when the Danes obteined the Rule and power in great Britain they so little forgot the ancient and just challenge to Ireland as that they sent thither good numbers of men who gained large footing in several places of the best parts of the Island of whom there yet remain manie visible Monuments as their intrenchments and Fortifications to this daie called Danes Mounts or Rathes in Irish Lisses and round slender high Towers yet called Danes Steeples or Danes Towers yea the best and largest Suburbs about Dublin is yet called Ostmantown which term the Saxons gave to the Danes as Easterlings and doubtless it is their then access and som former incursions made by them as aforesaid which left manie of them there fixed who were the ancestors to the now pretended original Nation as pretended to bee given to them by God and Nature Afterwards the Norman William the Conqueror became possessed of the Dominions of England it is universally known what business hee had aswel to settle that so gained Land as to content his Allies and parties brought with him and to preserv what hee left behind him in France to which retrospect hee was enforced by manie disturbances and attempts neither is it unknown how unwarrantably his three next successors came to the Crown in England and against what counterworkings and heart-burnings they held Regencie there besides their distractions in their affairs and from their neighbors of France beeing not free from incumbrances of Scots and Welsh whereby all judicious men may conclude that none of them could safely embrace the restitution of Ireland howsoever it concerned them But assoon as one lineal descent had setled the Crown of England upon King Henry the second who was great Granchilde of the said William the Norman and who is recorded to bee the most powerful English Monarch both in England and France since the Normans coming in That King applied to the Pope for his consent to regain his said Land of Ireland who consenting thereunto to the end it might bee brought into orderly Government as well Ecclesiastical as Civil Hee yet suspended all action thither for som years beeing interrupted by his affairs in France and the disobedient combinations of his sons But after an occasion hapning by the invocation of one of the Irish pettie Kings hee permitted manie of his Subjects of England and Wales to pass thither who by their valor possessed themselvs of a good part of that Island Then in the year 1172 did that King with a competent Armie repair thither in person and resumed into his hands his ancient right of Dominion and interest there without much bloudshed and was therein confirmed by the absolute and free submissions of all the pettie Kings and other Rulers aswel Ecclesiastical as Temporal and by all others then of anie value there which they delivered unto him under their Seals There did hee also receiv the Homage Fealtie Allegiance and subjection of all those pettie usurping Princes and others as his Liege Subjects There did hee hold a great Council or general Assmblie of all the Prime inhabitants of that Island at Lismore which they called a Parlament and gave them the English Laws Vbi Leges Angliae ab omnibus sunt gratanter receptae juratoriâ cautioone praestitâ confirmatae There did hee send his Mandats to the Archbishops Bishops and Clergie of Ireland to assemble in a Synod at Cashel wherein Cbristianus Bishop of Lismore was President in which Synod that King's entrance actions and atchievments there were declared to bee lawful and it was there also concluded that it was most meet that as Ireland by God's appointment had recovered a lawful Lord and King from England so also they should from thence receiv a better from of living they also then established that all Divine Offices of holy Church should from thenceforth bee handled in all parts of Ireland according as the Church of England did observ them In that Synod also they made divers other Canons concerning the Church-Government there which Acts were ratified by the Regal Autoritie of the same Henrie the second To the same purposes another general Synod was soon after held at Armagh in Vlster where the same things and others for right ordering of that Government were resolved and agreed upon There was also placed Hugh Lacie Justice of Ireland for the Government of that Land wherein that Land then seemed to bee formally setled in a peaceable subject condition to England as it ought to bee Thus may the Querist and all others see that that Land and supposed original Nation did not continue manie hundreds or thousands of years nor was enjoied till these times without anie others laying claim to have right to the same It may bee demanded though standing thus how might King Henrie the second seiz all that Land into his own hands and grant it to adventurers as after hee did To this the answer is easie For in a short time after that King and the greatest part of his Army withdrew into England Then did all those pettie Kings Rulers and men of value and the other Inhabitants falsly and traiterously join in a Confederacie and action to extirpate and expuls all the English and Welsh then left there and did cast aside their dutie and obedience to England and the good order and Laws so freely and lately entertained by them breaking all Faith and Allegiance to him to whom they had formerly sworn it they murthered as manie as they could take at advantage and at last besieged Dublin and other Towns intending to destroie all the English But the valor of those men left there and the
uncertainely and falsly grounded are worthie of no answer at all having all along the plain marks of insoliditie and sedition upon them yet to satisfie the doubts of such judicious and upright men as onely desire to know the truth and com not with a minde pre-occupate and suborned by injurious principles I shall indeavor to lay open the Querist's errors and delirements resolve the Queres hee makes and discover the truth in the things hee most harp's upon for his advantage and becaus I conceiv the Jesuit's first Quere though not in plain words yet implicitely by insinuation intend's principally Ireland and the pretended interest of the Irish as hee in som of them after expresseth And although also my short and weak wings are farr deficient to soar so high a pitch as to cite all or neer the sum of all authentick Authors and Records manifesting the proprietie right and interest of the Land of Ireland to be originally in the British yet becaus those of the Nation of England already led away with the aërie and vain pretenses of the Irish and who never yet scrutinized the English interest may bee undeceived made sensible of their former errors possessed with the English right bee acquainted with the iterated rebellions of the Irish in manie ages the often reducing and bringing them to subjection by the British or English and with other things by these Queres made disputable I shall freely contribute my Talent to this so necessarie work and first set down the Queres in order and then answer them severally AN ANSWER TO THE Irish Queres The first Quere WHether the Land or inheritance that a Nation hath for som hundreds or thousands of yeers enjoyed and possessed without any others laying claim to have a more special right to the same bee not their special right which God and nature hath given them The first Answer IN this first Quere the Querist desire 's to have it inferred and also granted that the Irish Inhabitants as they now stand in opposition to England are an entire Nation and that they were the first and sole Proprietors of Ireland as given unto them by God and nature whereas in truth they are a people composed partly of the old Britains the first Inhabitants thereof partly of Scythians and Gothes sent thither out of Biscaie in Spain partly of Danes and other Easterlings som sent in by the Kings of Britain and others intruding themselvs and principallly of English sent thither by the Kings of England in several ages as in the ensuing discours shall appear so as the fraud and fallacie of this first Quere being cleerly laid open strike's farr to the answering of all the rest And first to say somthing of the soil and Island now called Ireland which by several ancient writers hath been rendred by several other names signifying for the most part that it is a Western part of Britain which the very name now given unto it by the Irish viz. Eirin signifying a western Countrie doth much demonstrate and besides at this day a part of Mounster in Ireland is called Hiermoun in English West-Mounster which shew the name Eirin to bee derived from Hier which is west as appear's plainly by Mr Cambden a faithful relater of the best antiquities extant the ancient Geographer writeth in these words of Islands for greatness the Indian Taprobane is prime and principal next after it Britain and in third degree another British Island called Hibernia that is Ireland whereupon Ptolomie in his writings of Geographie call's it in plain words Britannia parva the old Geographers called it the Britains Island Strabo called the Inhabitants Britains Diodorus Siculus termed Irin a part of Britain and Aristotle in his book de mundo Cap. 3. hath these words as they stand translated viz. Ibi sunt Insulae quae quantitate maximae habentur numero verò duae sunt Britanicae dicuntur Albion Hibernia By all which it fall's cleer that by the most ancient and authentick writers the Island of Ireland was ever taken and accounted a British Island only belonging to great Britain neither is it found in any approved Writer or Record that ever any King or Potentate claimed right or interest in the soil or Land of that Island save only the Kings of great Britain in right of their Kingdom now called England which in several ages they have not failed to doe by reducing and subduing the unjust rebellion and usurpation of those unrulie Inhabitants and if you look into Monuments or Records of later time you shall never finde it called a Kingdom or a Realm till in the reign of Henrie the 8. when by Act of Parlament it was made and styled a Kingdom and that King declared and confessed King thereof unanimously agreed by all the Inhabitants of that Island But that by all Acts of Parlament in that Land and other Records it was alwaies till then for 400 yeers or thereabouts called the King's land of Ireland and by several Acts of Parlament viz. one Act in the twentie eighth yeer of that King Henry the 8 reign Cap. 2. That Land is declared to be appending and belonging to England And by another Act there made in that King's reign the said Island is declared to be a Member appending and rightfully belonging to England and united to the same and in severall other Acts there the same in substance is asserted and ordained and all this agreed and assented unto by the very Ancestors of those now in Arms there against England and the Governors thereof and yet by this Querist it is esteemed to bee an Original entire Nation distinct from any Conqueror yea such as hee scruple 's to have them call'd Rebels Thus having given you the opinion and report of the ancient and som modern proofs of the denomination and full relation of that Island to Great Britain it will bee requisite that by the like ancient and modern evidence the just right and proprietie of the English to that Land and to the dominion thereof and to the naturall subjection of all the Inhabitants thereof to England bee also manifested and avowed the better to let the world see the Querist's fraud and subtiltie in this general vast Quere and indeed throughout all the rest of his abusive Queres and insinuations Mr Cambden that faithfull searcher into Antiquities affirmeth that most of the best approved and knowing Writers out of Antiquities do determin that the first known Inhabitants of Ireland were Britains sent thither by the Kings of Great Britain of which opinion he conclude's himself to bee but that they could not send sufficient Inhabitants to replenish such a Continent and that by a great mortalitie happening among them they were much diminished and you may perceiv by a Statute made in Ireland in the 11. yeer of Queen Elizabeth that Gormond by som Writers called Gorgund Son to Belin King of Great Britain was Lord of Biscaie in Spain as his posteritie long after him
continued and having occasion to com into Britain his Father being dead he voyaged into Denmak and in his return a great multitude of his Subjects of Biscaie met him at Sea being streightned for relief in their Countrie and humbly besought him to assign them som place for habitation whereunto by advice of his Council he assented and directed them to his Island now called Ireland which wanted people and sent with them guides to bring them thither where finding a fertile soil they encreased abundantly bringing their language with them and being then the greater number of people after the new access involved the British-tongue into theirs yet in som sort mixed as may appear by many new words and names of things well understood by the Welsh It being of dailie experience that the Welsh do much more soon and easilie learn Irish then the English can do and that much of the Irish is understood by them Giraldus Cambrensis called these Biscayners Besclenses and Cambden write's very largely of their Ancestors coming into Spain at the confluence of the Northern Nations into those parts alleging that part of them were Scythians and part Gothes and to add to the truth of this relation their so coming thither is specified in many of the rude yet ancient Irish annals both in Irish and Latine The British Histories and som of the English Chronicles do make mention of Hiberus and Hermion then Captains of those Besclenses and their Bards who to this daie keep and at all feasts and publique meetings do chaunt and publish the Pedidigrees and Acts of the Irish do derive the most ancient Irish from those that came out of Spain rather choosing to glorifie themselvs in them then from the Britains from whom so manie of them are descended and from whom they had permission to dwell there For doubtless there are manie evident demonstrations that much of the East part of that Island continued still inhabited by Britains and that those Besclenses most inhabited the more Western parts of Mounster and Connaght where their former neighbors and friends might most easily eom to them yet dispersed as they found caus those in the Western parts speaking more broad do hardly understand much of the language of the other And to shew further that the Britains had a good share in the Original ancestrie of the ancient Irish the verie Officers which the Irish have from age to age used for their pedigrees and Annals are to this daie called Bards which were the same in office and denomination imploied by the ancient Britains And for their manner of holding Land it was till the first year of King James by Gavelkind as the ancient Britains held theirs though so corrupted in Ireland as when the Laws came to bee setled in the begining of King James his time it was adjudged a barbarous and unreasonable custom and so abolished Also their Irish Custom of Tainestrie which they called their Law is derived from British for amongst them the word Tane or Thane signified an Elder Governor or Lord of a territorie And the same word amongst the Irish had the same sence and therefore the second person to the Lord of the Countrie who was to succeed if a stronger force interpos'd not was called the Tanaist setled upon him as Seniori digniori and hee had Lands and Impositions on the Countrie assigned to him in right of that Office The Lord also of the Countrie beeing put into Office by the same Law where force did not overbear it all which is now also abolished as unlawful It appear's also by antiquitie that the Irish agreed with the Britains in the custom of observing the time of Easter both then therein differing from the Church of Rome The first known Inhabitants beeing thus sent into and setled in Ireland by the Britains they so continued in subjection to the King of great Britain for several ages the contrarie whereof hath appeared in no memorie And to enter into further Inquisition thereinto is not much material no other King Prince or Potentate having at anie time made claim unto them until the Romans entered Britain and held the same by conquest after manie and often conflicts In all which time during their strugling against and subjection to the Romans the British could not have that care and over-sight of them as formerly they had so as in that time they took head and set up amongst them in a barbarous waie Rulers and pettie Kings which Rulers and Kings Giraldus Cambrensis calleth Tributaries and what kinde of Kings those then were and afterwards continued to bee till King Henrie the second 's entrie into Ireland may much appear in an ancient Manuscript called the Book of Christ-Church in Dublin then a priorie lately a Cathedral Church In which Manuscript are these words concerning them viz. Isti Reges non fuerunt ordinati solemnitate alicujus ordinis nec unctionis Sacramento nec jure hereditario vel aliquâ proprietatis successione sed vi armis quilibet regnum suum obtinuit In all which time of the Roman's power in great Britain neither the ancient Britains in Ireland nor those permitted new-com Besclenses could extinguish or alter the original right which the Kings of great Britain undeniably had to their dominion there or to those Inhabitant's subjection It appeareth in Mr Cambden's and other Chronicles and Histories that during the Roman's power in great Britain the Norweyans and other Easterlings by waie of piracie and incursion infested those inhabitants of Ireland and though often beaten off yet manie got footing there the Monuments of whom remain to this daie and in after times when the Saxons warred in Britain they several times came over again and so setled on manie of the Sea-coasts as they built of the walled Sea-Towns excluding from amongst them the Irish not admitting them entrance other then with great caution for Merchandise onely And whereas the Querist would have it believed that the Irish as an entire Nation were originally impropriated in Ireland by God and nature for manie hundreds and some thousands of years without anie others laying claim to have special right to the same which hee seem's to insinuate did so continue to these times It doth and will appear aswel by what is formerly here remembred as what shall follow in this ensuing tract that it is a ridiculous and illusive surmise for it must not bee forgotten especially appearing by good Historie that soon after the Roman's departure out of great Britain the noble Prince Arthur obteined that Land who beeing a man of great action aswel at home as abroad passed into Ireland and reduced those Inhabitants to their ancient Subjection In proof whereof having som years after occasion for a time to keep his Court at Carlion in great Britain hee summoned the Governors and pettie Kings of Ireland of whom one viz. Mr Gellomurroe or Mr Gillemurry is by name recorded to appear before him at Carlion aforesaid there to do