all their Controversies In Conaght the Archbishop of Tuam the Bishop of Clonfert Captain Wakeley Captain Ovington In Munster the Bishop of Waterford the Bishop of Cork and Ross the Mayor of Cork and Mayor of Youghal In Vlster the Archbishop of Ardmagh and the Lord of Lowth And if any difference did arise which they could not end either for the difficulty of the cause or for the obstinacy of the parties they were to certifie the Lord Deputy Council who would decide the matter by their Authority Hereupon the Irish Captains of lesser Territories which had ever been oppressed by the greater and mightier some with risings out others with Bonaght and others with Cuttings and spendings at pleasure did appeal for Justice to the Lord Deputy who upon hearing their complaints did always order that they should all immediately depend upon the King and that the weaker should have no dependancy upon the stronger Lastly he prevailed so much with the greatest of them namely O Neal O Brien and Mac William as that they willingly did pass into England and presented themselves to the King who thereupon was pleased to advance them to the degree and honor of Earls and to grant unto them their several Countreys by Letters-patents Besides that they might learn Obedience and Civility of manners by often repairing unto the State the King upon the motion of the same Deputy gave each of them a house and lands neer Dublin for the entertainment of their several trains This course did this Governor take to reform the Irishry but withal he did not omit to advance both the honor and profit of the King For in the Parliament which he held the 33 of Hen. the eighth he caused an Act to pass which gave unto K. Henry the eighth his Heirs and Successors the Name Stile and Title of King of Ireland whereas before that time the Kings of England were stiled but Lords of Ireland albeit indeed they were absolute Monarchs thereof and had in right all Royal and Imperial Jurisdiction and power there as they had in the Realm of England And yet because in the vulgar conceit the name of King is higher than the name of Lord Assuredly the assuming of this Title hath not a little raised the Soveraignty of the King of England in the mindes of this people lastly this Deputy brought a great augmentation to the Kings Revenue by dissolving of all the Monasteries and Religious Houses in Ireland which was done in the same Parliament and afterward by procuring Min and Cavendish two skilful Auditors to be sent over out of England Who took an exact survey of all the possessions of the Crown and brought many things into charge which had been concealed and substracted for many years before And thus far did Sir Anthony Saint Leger proceed in the course of Reformation which though it were a good beginning yet was it far from reducing Ireland to the perfect obedience of the Crown of England For all this while the Provinces of Conaght and Vlster and a good part of Leinster were not reduced to Shire-ground And though Munster were anciently divided into Counties the people were so degenerate as no Justice of Assize durst execute his Commission amongst them None of the Irish Lords or Tenants were setled in their possessions by any Grant or Confirmation from the Crown except the three great Earls before named who notwithstanding did govern their Tenants and Followers by the Irish or Brehon Law so as no treason murther rape or theft committed in those Countries was inquired of or punisht by the Law of England and consequently no Escheat Forfeiture or Fine no Revenue certain or casual did accrew to the Crown out of those Provinces The next worthy Governor that endeavoured to advance this Reformation was Thomas Earl of Sussex who having throughly broken and subdued the two most rebellious and powerful Irish Septs in Leinster namely the Moores and O Connors possessing the Territories of Leix and Offaly did by Act of Parliament 3. and 4. Phil. and Mariae reduce those Countries into two several Counties naming the one the Kings and the other the Queens County which were the first two Counties that had been made in this Kingdom since the twelfth year of King John at what time the Territories then possessed by the English Colonies were reduced into twelve Shires as is before expressed This Noble Earl having thus extended the Jurisdiction of the English Law into two Counties more was not satisfied with that addition but took a resolution to divide all the rest of the Irish Countries un-reduced into several Shires and to that end he caused an Act to pass in the same Parliament authorising the Lord Chancellor from time to time to award Commissions to such Persons as the Lord Deputy should nominate and appoint to view and perambulate those Irish Territories and thereupon to divide and limit the same into such and so many several Counties as they should think meet which being certified to the Lord Deputy and approved by him should be returned and enrolled in the Chancery and from thenceforth be of like force and effect as if it were done by Act of Parliament Thus did the Earl of Sussex lay open a passage for the Civil Government into the unreformed parts of this Kingdom but himself proceeded no further than is before delared HOwbeit afterwards during the Raign of Queen Elizabeth Sir Henry Sidney who hath left behind him many Monuments of a good Governour in this Land did not only pursue that course which the Earl of Sussex began in reducing the Irish Countries into Shires and placing therein Sheriffs and other Ministers of the Law for first he made the Annaly a Territory in Leinster possessed by the Sept of Offerralles one entire Shire by it self and called it the County of Longford and after that he divided the whole Province of Conaght into six Counties more namely Clare which containeth all Thomond Gallaway Sligo Mayo Roscomon and Leytrim But he also had caused divers good Laws to be made and performed sundry other services tending greatly to the reformation of this Kingdom For first to diminish the greatness of the Irish Lords and to take from them the dependancy of the Common people in the Parliament which he held 11. Eliz. He did abolish their pretended and usurped Captain-ships and all exactions and extortions incident thereunto Next to settle their Seigniories and possessions in a course of inheritance according to the course of the Common law he caused an Act to pass whereby the Lord Deputy was authorised to accept their Surrenders and to regrant estates unto them to hold of the Crown by English tenures and services Again because the inferiour sort were loose and poor and not amesuable to the law he provided by another Act that five of the best and eldest persons of every Sept should bring in all the idle persons of their surname to be justified by the law Moreover
Hiberniae Tritavus Domini Regis nunc fuit in Hibernia legem Anglicorum in Hibernia usque ad hunc diem haberc secundum ipsam legem judicari deduci debent And so pleaded the Charter of Denization granted to the Oostmen recited before All which appeareth at large in the said Record Wherein we may note that the killing of an Irish man was not punished by our Law as Man-slaughter which is Fellony and Capital for our Law did neither protect his life nor revenge his death but by a Fine or pecuniary punishment which is called an Erick according to the Brehon or Irish Law Again at a Gaol-delivery before the same Lord Justice at Limerick in the Roll of the same year we finde that Willielmus filius Rogeri rectatus de morre Rogeri de Canteton felonice per ipsum interfecti venit dicit quod feloniam per interfectionem praedictam committere non potuit quia dicit quod praedict Rogerus Hibernic est non de libero sanguine dicit etiam quod praedict Rogerus fuit de Cognomine de Ohederiscal non de cognonime de Cantetons de hoc ponit se super patriam c. Et Jurati dicunt super Sacram. suum quod praedictus Rogerus Hibernicus fuit de cognonime de Ohederiscal pro Hibernico habebatur tota vita sua Ideo praedict Willielmus quoad feloniam praedict quietus Sed quia praedictus Rogerus Ottederiscal fuit Hibernicus Domini Regis praedict Willielmus recommittatur Gaolae quousque plegios invenerit de quinque marcis solvendis Domino Regi pro solutione praedicti Hibernici But on the other side if the Jury had found that the party slain had been of English race and Nation it had been adjudged Fellony as appeareth by a Record of 29 of Edward the first in the Crown-Office here Coram Waltero Lenfant sociis suis Justitiariis Itinerantibus apud Drogheda in Comitatu Louth Johannes Laurens indictat de morte Galfridi Douedal venit non dedicit mortem praedictam sed dicit quod praedict Galfridus fuit Hibernicus non de libero sanguine dâ— bono malo ponit se super patriam c. Et Jurat dicunt super Sacram. suum quod praedict Galfridus Anglicus fuit ideo praedict Johannes culpabilis eâ—â— de morte Galfridi praedict Ideo suspend Catalla 13. s. unde Hugo de Clinton Vicâ— com respondet Hence it is that in all the Parliament Rolls which are extant froâ— the fortieth year of Edward the third when the Statutes of Kilkenny were enacted till the Reign of King Henry the eighth we finde the degenerate and disobedient English called Rebels but the Irish which were not in the Kings peace are called Enemies Statute Kilkenny c. 1.10 and 11.11 Hen. 4. c. 24.10 Hen. 6. c. 1.18.18 Hen. 6. c. 4.5 Edw. 4. c. 6.10 Hen. 7. c. 17. All these Statutes speak of English Rebels and Irish Enemies as if the Irish had never been in condition of Subjects but always out of the Protection of the Law and were indeed in worse case than Aliens of any Forreign Realm that was in Amity with the Crown of England For by divers heavy Penal Laws the English were forbidden to marry to foster to make Gossips with the Irish or to have any trade or commerce in their Markets or Fairs nay there was a Law made no longer since than the 28 year of Henry the eighth that the English should not marry with any person of Irish blood though he had gotten a Charter of Denization unless he had done both Homage and Fealty to the King in the Chancery and were also bound by Recognizance with sureties to continue a Loyal Subject Whereby it is manifest that such as had the Government of Ireland under the Crown of England did intend to make a perpetual separation and enmity between the English and the Irish pretendng no doubt that the English should in the end root cut the Irish which the English not being able to do did cause a perpetual War between the Nations which continued four hundred and odde years and would have lasted to the Worlds end if in the end of Queen Elizabeths Reign the Irishry had not been broken and conquered by the Sword And since the beginning of his Majesties Reign had not been protected and governed by the Law BUt perhaps the Irishry in former times did wilfully refuse to be subject to the Laws of England and would not be partakers of the benefit thereof though the Crown of England did desire and therefore they were reputed Aliens Out-laws and Enemies Assuredly the contrary doth appear as well by the Charters of Denization purchased by the Irish in all ages as by a Petition preferred by them to the King Anno 2 Edward the third desiring that an Act might pass in Ireland whereby all the Irishry might be inabled to use and enjoy the Laws of England without purchasing of particular Denizations Upon which Petition the King directed a special Writ to the Lord Justice which is found amongst the Close-Rolls in the Tower of London in this form Rex dilecto fideli suo Johanni Darcile Mepieu Justic suo Hiberniae Salutem Ex parte quorundam hominum de Hibernia nobis extitit supplicatum ut per Statutum inde faciendum concedere velimus quod omnes Hibernici qui voluerint legibus utatur Anglicanis ita quod necesse non habeant super hoc Chartas alienas à nobis impetrare nos igitur Certiorari volentes si sine alieno praejudicio praemissis annuere valeamus vobis mandamus quod voluntatem magnatum terrae illius in proximo Parliamento nostro ibidem tenendo super hoc cum diligentia perscrutari facias de eo quod inde inveneritis una cum Consilio advisamento nobis certificetis c. Whereby I collect that the great Lords of Ireland had informed the King that the Irishry might not be naturalized without damage and prejudice either to themselves or to the Crown But I am well assured that the Irishry did desire to be admitted to the benefit of the Law not onely in this Petition exhibited to King Edward the third but by all their submissions made to King Richard the second and to the Lord Thomas of Lancaster before the Wars of the two Houses and afterwards to the Lord Leonard Grey and Sir Anthony Saint-Leger when King Henry the eighth began to reform this Kingdom In particular the Birns of the Mountains in the 34 of Henry the eighth desire that their Countrey might be made Shire-ground and called the County of Wicklow And in the 23 of Henry the eighth O Donnel doth Covenant with Sir William Skeffington Quod si Dominus Rex velit reformare Hiberniam whereof it should seem he made some doubt that he and his people would gladly be governed by the Laws of England Only that ungrateful Traytor Tirone though he
time was securely setled in peace and Obedience and hath attained to that Civility of Manners and plenty of all things as now we find it not inferiour to the best parts of England I will therefore knit up this point with these conclusions First that the Kings of England which in former Ages attempted the Conquest of Ireland being ill advised and counselled by the great men here did not upon the submissions of the Irish communicate their Laws unto them nor admit them to the state and condition of Free-subjects Secondly that for the space of 200. years at â—east after the first arrival of Henry the second in Ireland the Irish would gladly have embraced the Laws of England and did earnestly desire the benefit and protection thereof which being denyed them did of necessity cause a continual bordering war between the English and the Irish And lastly if according to the examples before recited they had reduced as well the Irish Countries as the English Colonies under one form of civil government as now they are the Meers and Bounds of the Marches and Borders had been long since worne out and forgotten for it is not fit as Cambrensis writeth that a King of an Island should have any Marches or Borders but the four Seas both Nations had been incorporated and united Ireland had been entirely Conquered Planted and Improved and returned a rich Revenue to the Crâ—wn of England THE next error in the Civil pollicy which hindered the perfection of the Conquest of Ireland did consist in the Distribution of the Lands and Possessions which were won and conquered from the Irish For the Scopes of Land which were granted to the first Adventures were too large and the Liberties and Royalties which they obtained therein were too great for Subjects though it stood with reason that they should be rewarded liberally out of the fruits of their own Labours since they did Militare propriis stipendiis and received no pay from the Crown of England Notwithstanding there ensued divers inconveniences that gave great impediment to the Conquest FIrst the Earl Strongbow was entituled to the whole Kingdom of Leinster partly by Invasion and partly by Marriage albeit he surrendred the same entirely to King Henry the second his Soveraign for that with his license he came over and with the Ayd of his Subjects he had gained that great inheritance yet did the King regrant back again to him and his Heirs all that Province reserving onely the City of Dublin and the Cantreds next adjoyning with the Maritime Towns and principal Forts and Castles Next the same King granted to Robert Fitz-Stephen and Miles Cogan the whole Kingdom of Cork from Lismore to the Sea To Phillip Bruce he gave the whole Kingdom of Limerick with the Donation of Bishopwricks and Abbies except the City and one Cantred of land adjoyning To Sir Hugh de Lacy all Meath To Sir John de Courcy all Vlster To William Burke Fitz-Adelm the greatest part of Conaght In like manner Sir Thomas de Clare obtained a grant of all Thomond and Otho de Grandison of all Tipperary and Robert le Poer of the Territory of Waterford the City it self and the Cantred of the Oastmen only excepted And thus was all Ireland Cantonized among ten persons of the English Nation and though they had not gained the possession of one third part of the whole Kingdom yet in Title they were Owners and Lords of all so as nothing was left to be granted to the Natives And therefore we do not find in any Record or story for the space of three hundred years after these Adventurers first arived in Ireland that any Irish Lord obtained a grant of his Country from the Crown but onely the King of Thomond who had a grant but during King Henry the third his Minority and Rotherick O Connor King of Conaght to whom King Henry the second before this distribution made did grant as is before declared Vt sit Rex sub eo and moreover Vt teneat terram suam Conactiae it a bene in pace sicut tenuit antequam Dominus Rex intravit Hiberniam And whose Successor in the 24 of Henry the third when the Bourkes had made a strong Plantation there and had well-nigh expelled him out of his Territory he came over into England as Matth. Paris writeth and made complaint to King Henry the third of this Invasion made by the Bourkes upon his Land insisting upon the grants of King Henry the second and King John and affirming that he had duely paid an yearly tribute of five thousand marks for his Kingdom Whereupon the King called unto him the Lord Maurice fitz-Girald who was then Lord Justice of Ireland and President in the Court and commanded him that he should root out that unjust plantation which Hubert Earl of Kent had in the time of his greatness planted in those parts and wrote withal to the great men of Ireland to remove the Bourks and to establish the King of Conaght in the quiet possession of his Kingdom Howbeit I do not read that the King of Englands commandment or direction in this behalf was ever put in execution For the troth is Richard de Burgo had obtained a grant of all Conaght after the death of the King of Conaght then living For which he gave a thousand pound as the Record in the Tower reciteth the third of Henry the third claus 2. And besides our great English Lords could not endure that any Kings should Reign in Ireland but themselves nay they could hardly endure that the Crown of England it self should have any Jurisdiction or Power over them For many of these Lords to whom our Kings had granted these petty Kingdoms did by vertue and colour of these Grants claim and exercise Jura Regalia within their Territories insomuch as there were no less than eight Counties Palatines in Ireland at one time For William Marshal Earl of Pembroke who married the Daughter and Heir of Strongbow being Lord of all Leinster had Royal Jurisdiction thoroughout all that Province This great Lord had five sons and five daughters every of his sons enjoyed that Seigniory successively and yet all dyed without issue Then this great Lordship was broken and divided and partition made between the five daughters who were married into the Noblest Houses of England The County of Catherlough was allotted to the eldest Wexford to the secâ—nd Kilkenny to the third Kildare to the fourth the greatest part of Leix now called the Queens County to the fifth In every of these portions the Ceparceners severally exercised the same Jurisdiction Royal which the Earl Marshal and his Sons had used in the whole Province Whereby it came to pass that there were five County Palatines erected in Leinster Then had the Lord of Meath the same Royal liberty in all that Territory the Earl of Vlster in all that Province and the
work in the third year of his raign made the Lord Thomas of Lancaster his second son Lieutenant of Ireland Who came over in person and accepted again the submissions of divers Irish Lords and Captains as is before remembred and held also a Parliament wherein he gave new life to the Statutes of Kilkenny and made other good Laws tending to the Reformation of the Kingdom But the troubles raised against the King his Father in England drew him home again so soon as that seed of reformation took no root at all neither had his service in that kind any good effect or success After this the State of England had no leisure to think of a general reformation in this Realm till the civil dissentions of England were appeased and the peace of that Kingdom setled by King Henry the seventh For albeit in the time of King Henry 6. Richard Duke of York a Prince of the blood of great wisdom and valour and heir to a third part of Kingdom at least being Earl of Vlster and Lord of Conaght and Meath was sent the Kings Lieutenanr into Ireland to recover and reform that Realm where he was resident in person for the greatest part of ten years yet the troth is he aimed at another mark which was the Crown of England And therefore he thought it no pollicy to distast either the English or Irish by a course of Reformation but sought by all means to please them and by popular courses to steal away their hearts to the end he might strengthen his party when he should set on foot his Title as is before declared Which pollicy of his took such effect as that he drew over with him into England the Flower of all the English Colonies especially of Vlster and Meath whereof many Noblemen and Gentlemen were slain with him at Wakefield as is likewise before remembred And after his death when the wars between the Houses were in their heat almost all the good English blood which was left in Ireland was spent in those civil dissentions so as the Irish became victorious over all without blood or sweat Only that little Canton of Land called the English Pale containing four small Shires did maintain a bordering was with the Irish and retain the forme of English Government But out of that little Precinct there were no Lords Knights or Burgesses summoned to the Parliament neither did the Kings Writ run in any other part of the Kingdom and yet upon the Marches and Borders which at that time were grown so large as they took up half Dublin half Meath and a third part of Kildare and Lowth there was no law in use but the March-Law which in the Statutes of Kilkenny is said to be no law but a leud Custom So as upon the end of these civil wars in England the English Law and Government was well nigh banisht out of Ireland so as no foot-step or print was left of any former Reformation THen did King Henry 7. send over Sir Edward Poynings to be his Deputy a right worthy servitor both in war and peace The principal end of his employment was to expel Perkin Warbecke out of this Kingdom but that service being performed that worthy Deputy finding nothing but a common misery took the best course he possibly could to establish a Common-wealth in Ireland and to that end he held a Parliament no less famous than that of Kilkenny and more available for the reformation of the whole Kingdom For whereas all wise men did ever concur in opinion that the readiest way to reform Ireland is to settle a form of Civil Government there conformable to that of England To bring this to pass Sir Edward Poynings did pass an Act whereby all the Statutes made in England before that time were enacted established and made of force in Ireland Neither did he only respect the time past but provided also for the time to come For he caused another Law to be made that no Act should be propounded in any Parliament of Ireland but such as should be first transmitted into England and approved by the King and Council there as good and expedient for that Land and so returned back again under the Great Seal of England This Act though it seem Prima facie to restrain the liberty of the Subjects of Ireland yet was it made at the Prayer of the Commons upon just and important cause For the Governors of that Realm specially such as were of that Country Birth had laid many oppressions upon the Commons and amongst the rest they had imposed Laws upon them nor tending to the general good but to serve private turns and to strengthen their particular factions This moved them to refer all Laws that were to be passed in Ireland to be considered corrected and allowed first by the State of England which had alwayes been tender and carefull of the good of this people and had long since made them a Civil Rich and Happy Nation if their own Lords and Governors there had not sent bad intelligence into England Besides this he took special order that the summons of Parliament should go into all the shires of Ireland and not to the four shires onely and for that cause specially he caused all the Acts of a Parliament lately before holden by the Viscount of Gormanston to be repealed and made void Moreover that the Parliaments of Ireland might want no decent or honorable form that was used in England he caused a particular Act to pass that the Lords of Ireland should appear in the like Parliament Robes as the English Lords are wont to wear in the Parliaments of England Having thus established all the Statutes of England in Ireland and set in order the great Council of that Realm he did not omit to pass other Laws as well for the encrease of the Kings Revenue as the preservation of the publick peace To advance the profits of the Crown First he obtained a Subsidy of 26 shillings eight pence out of every six score acres manured payable yearly for five years Next he resumed all the Crownland which had been aliened for the most part by Richard Duke of York and lastly he procured a Subsidy of Pondage out of all Merchandizes imported and exported to be granted to the Crown in perpetuity To preserve the publick peace he revived the Statutes of Kilkenny He made wilful Murther High-treason he caused the Marchers to book their men for whom they should answer and restrained the making War or Peace without special Commission from the State These Laws and others as important as these for the making of a Common-wealth in Ireland were made in the Government of Sir Edward Poynings But these Laws did not spread their Vertue beyond the English Pale though they were made generally for the whole Kingdom For the Provinces without the Pale which during the War of York and Lancaster had wholly cast off the the English Government were not apt to receive this
King and his successors all their Lands and possessions which they held in Leinster and taking with them only their moveable goods should serve him in his wars against his other Rebels In consideration whereof the King should give them pay and pensions during their lives and bestow the inheritance of all such Lands upon them as they shouâ—d recover from the Rebels in any other part of the Realm And thereupon a pension of eighty Marks per annum was granted to Art ' Mac Murrogh chief of the Kavanaghes the enroulment whereof I found in the White book of the Exchequer here And this was the effect of the service performed by the Earl Marshal by vertue of his Commission The King in like manner received the submissions of the Lords of Vlster namely O Neal O Hanlon Mac Donel Mac Mahon and others who with the like Humility and Ceremony did homage and fealty to the Kings own person the words of O Neales homage as they are recorded are not unfit to be remembred Ego Nelanus Oneal Senior tam pro meipso quam pro filiis meis tota Natione mea Parentelis meis pro omnibus subditis meis devenio Ligeus homo vester c. And in the Indenture between him and the King he is not only bound to remain faithful to the Crown of England but to restore the Bonaght of Vlster to the Earl of Vlster as of right belonging to that Earldom and usurped among other things by the Oneals These Indentures and submissions with many other of the same kind for there was not a Chieftain or head of an Irish sept but submitted himself in one form or other the King himself caused to be inrolled and testified by a Notary publick and delivered the enrolments with his own hands to the Bishop of Salisbury then Lord Treasurer of England so as they have been preserved and are now to be found in the Office of the Kings Remembranceâ— there With these humilities they satisfied the young King and by their bowing and bending avoided the present storm and so brake that Army which was prepared to break them For the King having accepted their submissions received them in Osculo pacis feasted them and given the honor of Knighthood to divers of them did break up and dissolve his army and returned into England with much honor and small profit saith Froissard For though he had spent a huge mass of Treasure in transporting his army by the countenance whereof he drew on their submissions yet did he not encrease his revenue thereby one sterling pound nor enlarged the English borders the bredth of one Acre of Land neither did he extend the Jurisdiction of his Courts of Justice one foot further than the English Colonies wherein it was used and exercised before Besides he was no sooner returned into England but those Irish Lords laid aside their masks of humility and scorning the weak forces which the King had left behind him began to infest the borders in defence whereof the Lord Roger Mortimer being then the Kings Lieutenant and Heir apparent to the Crown of England was slain as I said before Whereupon the King being moved with a just appetite of revenge came over again in person in the 22. year of his Reign with as potent an army as he had done before with a full purpose to make a full Conquest of Ireland he landed at Waterford and passing from thence to Dublin through the wast Countries of the Murroghes Kinshelaghes Cauanaghes Birnes and Tooles his great army was much distressed for want of victuals and carriages so as he performed no memorable thing in that journey only in the Cavanaghes Country he cut and cleared the paces and bestowed the honour of Knighthood upon the Lord Henry the Duke of Lancasters son who was afterwards King Henry the fifth and so came to Dublin where entring into Counsel how to proceed in the war he received news out of England of the arrival of the banished Duke of Lancaster at Ravenspurgh usurping the Regal authority and arresting and putting to death his principal Officers This advertisement suddainly brake off the Kings purpose touching the prosecution of the war in Ireland and transported him into England where shortly after he ended both his Reign and his life Since whose time until the 39. year of Queen Elizabeth there was never any Army sent â—ver of a Competent strength or power to subdue the Irish but the war was made by the English Colonies only to defend their borders or if any forces were transmitted over they were sent only to suppress the rebellions of such as were descended of English race and not to enlarge our Dominion over the Irish DUring the Raign of King Henry the Fourth the Lord Thomas of Lancaster the Kings second Son was Lieutenant of Ireland who for the first eight years of that Kings Reign made the Lord Scroope and others his Deputies who only defended the Marches with forces levyed within the Land In the eighth year that Prince came over in person with a smal retinue So as wanting a sufficient power to attempt or perform any great service he returned within seven moneths after into England Yet during his personal abode there he was hurt in his own person within one mile of Dublin upon an incounter with the Irish enemy He took the submissions of O Birne of the Mountains Mac Mahon and O Rely by several Indentures wherein O Birne doth Covenant that the King shall quietly enjoy the Mannor of New-Castle Mac Mahon accepteth a State in the Ferny for life rendering ten pound a year and O Rely doth promise to perform such duties to the Earl of March and Vlster as were contained in an Indenture dated the 18. of Richard the second IN the time of K. Henry the fifth there came no forces out of England Howbeit the Lord Furnival being the Kings Lieutenant made a martial circuit or journey round about the Marches and Borders of the pale and brought all the Irish to the Kings peace beginning with the Birnes Tooles and Cauanaghes on the South and so passing to the Moores O Connors and O Forals in the West and ending with the O Relies Mac Mahons O Neales and O Hanlons in the North. He had power to make them seek the Kings peace but not power to reduce them to the Obedience of Subjects yet this was then held so great and worthy a service as that the Lords and chief Gentlemen of the Pale made certificate thereof in French unto the King being then in France which I have seen Recorded in the White Booke of the Exchequer at Dublin Howbeit his Army was so ill paid and governed as the English suffered more damage by the Sess of his Souldiers for now that Monster Coigne and Livery which the Statute of Kilkenny had for a time abolished was risen again from hell than they gained profit or security by abating the pride of their
enemies for a time DUring the minority of King Henry the sixth and for the space of seven or eight years after the Lieutenants and Deputies made only a bordering war upon the Irish with small and scattered forces howbeit because there came no Treasure out of England to pay the Souâ—dier the poor English Subject did bear the burthen of the men of war in every place and were thereby so weakned and impoverished as the State of things in Ireland stood very desperately Whereupon the Cardinal of Winchester who after the death of Humfrey Duke of Glocester did wholly sway the State of England being desirous to place the Duke of Somerset in the Regency of France took occasion to remove Richard Duke of York from that Government and to send him into Ireland pretending that he was a most able and willing person to perform service there because he had a great inheritance of his own in Ireland namely the Earldom of Vlster and the Lordships of Conaght and Meth by discent from Lionel Duke of Clarence We do not finde that this great Lord came over with any numbers of waged Souldiers but it appeareth upon what good terms he took that Government by the Covenants between the King and him which are recorded and confirmed by Act of Parliament in Ireland and were to this effect 1. That he should be the Kings Lieutenant of Ireland for ten years 2. That to support the charge of that Country he should receive all the Kings Revenues there both certain and casual without accompt 3. That he should be supplyed also with treasure out of England in this manner he should have four thousand Marks for the first year whereof he should be imprested 2000. li. before hand and for the other nine years he should receive 2000. li. per annum 4. That he might Let to Ferm the Kings Lands and place and dis-place all Officers at his pleasure 5. That he might levy and wage what numbers of men he thought fit 6. That he might make a Deputy and return at his pleasure We cannot presume that this Prince kept any great army on foot as well because his means out of England were so mean and those ill paid as appeareth by his passionate letter written to the Earl of Salisbury his Brother in Law the Copy whereof is Registred in the Story of this time as also because the whole Land except the English Pale and some part of the Earldome of Vlster upon the Sea-Coasts were possest by the Irish So as the Revenue of the Kingdom which he was to receive dâ—d amount to little He kept the borders and Marches of the Pale with much adoe he held many Parliaments wherein sundry Laws were made for erecting of Castles in Louth Meath and Kildare to stop the incursions of the Irishry And because the Souldiers for want of pay were sessed and laid upon the Subjects against their wills upon the prayer and importunity of the Commons this extortion was declared to be High-Treason But to the end that some means might be raised to nourish some forces for defence of the Pale by another Act of Parliament every twenty pound Land was charged with the furnishing and maintenance of one Archer on horseback Besides the native subjects of Ireland seeing the Kingdom utterly ruined did pass in such numbers into England as one Law was made in England to transmit them back again and another Law made here to stop their passage in every Port and Creek Yet afterwards the greatest parts of the Nobility and Gentry of Meth past over into England and were slain with him at Wakefield in Yorkshire Lastly the State of England was so farr from sending an army to subdue the Irish at this time as among the Articles of grievances exhibited by the Duke of Yorke against King Henry the sixth this was one That divers Lords about the King had caused his Highness to write Letters unto some of his Irish enemies whereby they were encouraged to attempt the conquest of the said Land Which Letters the same Irish enemies had sent unto the Duke marvailing greatly that such Letters should be sent unto them and speaking therein great shame of the Realm of England After this when this great Lord was returned into England and making claim to the Crown began the War betwixt the two Houses It cannot he conceived but that the Kingdom fell into a worse and weaker estate WHen Edward the fourth was setled in the Kingdome of England he made his Brother George Duke of Clarence Lieutenant of Ireland This Prince was born in the Castle of Dublin during the Government of his father the Duke of York yet did he never pass over into this Kingdom to govern it in person though he held the Lieutenancy many years But it is manifest that King Edward the fourth did not pay any Army in Ireland during his Reign but the Men of War did pay themselves by taking Coigne and Livery upon the Country which extortion grew so excesssive and intolerable as the Lord Tiptoft being Deputy to the Duke of Clarence was enforced to execute the Law upon the greatest Earl in the Kingdom namely Desmond who lost his head at Droghedagh for this offence Howbeit that the State might not seem utterly to neglect the defence of the Pale there was a fraternity of men at armes called the Brother-hood of St. George erected by Parliament the 14. of Edward the fourth consisting of thirteen the most Noble and worthy persons within the four shires Of the first foundation were Thomas Earl of Kildare Sir Rowland Eustace Lord of Port-lester and Sir Robert Eustace for the County of Kildare Robert Lord of Howth the Mayor of Dublin and Sir Robert Dowdal for the County of Dublin the Viscount of Gormanston Edward Plunket Senesha I of Meth Alexander Plunket and Barnabe Barnewale for the County of Meth the Mayor of Droghedagh Sir Lawrence Taaffe and Richard Bellewe for the County of Lowth These and their Successors were to meet yearly upon St. Georges day and to choose one of themselves to be Captain of that Brother-hood for the next year to come Which Captain should have at his command 120. Archers on horseback forty horsemen and forty Pages to suppress Out-laws and rebels The wages of every Archer should be six pence Per diem and every Horseman five pence Per diem and four marks Per annum And to pay these entertainments and to maintain this new fraternity there was granted unto them by the same Act of Parliament a subsidy of Poundage out of all Marchandizes exported or imported thoroughout the Realm hydes and the goods of Free-men of Dublin and Droghedah only excepted These 200. men were all the standing forces that were then maintained in Ireland And as they were Natives of the Kingdom so the Kingdom it self did pay their wages without expecting any treasure out of England BUt now the wars of Lancaster
Irish did not exceed the number of twelve hundred men as appeareth by the Treasurers Accompt of Ireland now remaining in the Exchequer of England With these Forces did Sir Henry Sidney then Lord Deputy march into the farthest parts of Tirone and joyning with Captain Randal did much distress but not fully defeat O Neal who was afterwards slain upon a meer accident by the Scots and not by the Queens Army TO prosecute the Wars in Munster against Desmond and his Adherents there were transmitted out of England at several times three or four thousand men which together with the standing Garrisons and some other supplies raised here made at one time an Army of six thousand and upwards which with the Vertue and Valour of Arthur Lord Gray and others the Commanders did prove a sufficient power to extinguish that Rebellion But that being done it was never intended that these Forces should stand till the rest of the Kingdom were settled and reduced onely that Army which was brought over by the Earl of Essex Lord Lieutenant and Governor General of this Kingdom in the nine and thirtieth year of Queen Elizabeth to suppress the Rebellion of Tirone which was spread universally over the whole Realm That Army I say the command whereof with the Government of the Realm was shortly after transferred to the command of the Lord Montjoy afterwards Earl of Devonshire who with singular wisdom valour and industry did prosecute and finish the War did consist of such good men of War and of such numbers being well-nigh twenty thousand by the Poll and was so royally supplied and paid and continued in full strength so long a time as that it brake and absolutely subdued all the Lords and Chieftains of the Irishry and degenerate or rebellious English Whereupon the multitude who ever loved to be followers of such as could master and defend them admiring the power of the Crown of England being bray'd as it were in a Morter with the Sword Famine and Pestilence altogether submitted themselves to the English Government received the Laws and Magistrates and most gladly embraced the Kings Pardon and Peace in all parts of the Realm with demonstration of joy and comfort which made indeed an entire perfect and final Conquest of Ireland And though upon the finishing of the War this great Army was reduced to less numbers yet hath His Majestie in his Wisdom thought it fit still to maintain such competent Forces here as the Law may make her progress and Circuit about the Realm under the protection of the Sword as Virgo the figure of Justice is by Leo in the Zodiack until the people have perfectly learned the Lesson of Obedience and the Conquest be established in the hearts of all men THus far have I endeavoured to make it manifest that from the first adventure and attempt of the English to subdue and conquer Ireland until the last War with Tyrone which as it was Royally undertaken so it was really prosecuted to the end there hath been four main defects in the carriage of the Martial Affairs here First the Armies for the most part were too weak for a Conquest Secondly when they were of a competent strength as in both the journeys of Richard the second they were too soon broken up and dissolved Thirdly they were ill paid And fourthly they were ill governed which is always a consequent of ill payment BUt why was not this great work performed before the latter end of Queen Elizabeths Reign considering that many of the Kings her Progenitors were as great Captains as any in the World and had elsewhere larger Dominions and Territories First who can tell whether the Divine Wisdom to abate the glory of those Kings did not reserve this Work to be done by a Queen that it might rather appear to be his own immediate work And yet for her greater Honor made it the last of her great actions as it were to Crown all the rest And to the end that a secure peace might settle the Conquest and make it firm and perpetual to Posterity caused it to be made in that fulness of time when England and Scotland became to be united under one Imperial Crown and when the Monarchy of Great Britany was in League and Amity with all the World Besides the Conquest at this time doth perhaps fulfil that prophesie wherein the four great Prophets of Ireland do concur as it is recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis to this effect That after the first Invasion of the English they should spend many ages in crebris conflictibus longoque certamine multis caedibus And that Omnes fere Anglici ab Hibernia turbabuntur nihilominus orientalia maritima semper obtinebunt Sed vix paulo antè diem Judicii plenam Anglorum populo victoriam compromittunt Insula Hibernica de mari usque ad mare de toto subacta incastellata If S. Patrick and the rest did not utter this Prophesie certainly Giraldus is a Prophet who hath reported it To this we may adde the Prophesie of Merlin spoken of also by Giraldus Sextus moenia Hiberniae subvertet regiones in Regnum redigentur Which is performed in the time of King James the sixth in that all the paces are cleared and places of fastness laid open which are the proper Walls and Castles of the Irish as they were of the British in the time of Agricola and withall the Irish Countreys being reduced into Counties make but one entire and undivided Kingdom But to leave these high and obscure causes the plain and manifest truth is that the Kings of England in all ages had been powerful enough to make an absolute Conquest of Ireland if their whole power had been employed in that enterprize but still there arose sundry occasions which divided and diverted their power some other way Let us therefore take a brief view of the several impediments which arose in every Kings time since the first Overture of the Conquest whereby they were so employed and busied as they could not intend the final Conquest of Ireland KIng Henry the second was no sooner returned out of Ireland but all his four Sons conspired with his Enemies rose in Arms and moved War against him both in France and in England This unnatural Treason of his Sons did the King express in an Emblem painted in his Chamber at Winchester wherein was an Eagle with three Eglets tiring â—n her breast and the fourth pecking at one of her eyes And the troth is these ungracious practises of his Sons did impeach his journey to the Holy-Land which he had once vowed vexed him all the days of his life and brought his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave Besides this King having given the Lordship of Ireland to John his youngest Son â— his ingratitude afterwards made the King careless to settle him in the quiet and absolute possession of that Kingdom RIchard the first which succeeded
Henry the second in the Kingdom of England had less reason to bend his power towards the Conquest of this Land which was given in perpetuity to the Lord John his Brother And therefore went he in person to the Holy War by which journey and his Captivity in Austria and the heavy ransome that he paid for his liberty he was hindred and utterly disabled to pursue any so great an action as the Conquest of Ireland And after his delivery and return hardly was he able to maintain a Frontier War in Normandy where by hard fortune he lost his life KIng John his Brother had greatest reason to prosecute the War of Ireland because the Lordship thereof was the portion of his inheritance given unto him when he was called John Sans-Terre Therefore he made two journeys thither one when he was Earl of Morton and very young about twelve years of age the other when he was King in the twelfth year of his Reign In the the first his own youth and his youthful company Roboams Counsellors made him hazard the loss of all that his Father had won But in the latter he shewed a resolution to recover the entire Kingdom in taking the submissions of all the Irishry and settling the estates of the English and giving order for the building of many Castles and Forts whereof some remain until this day But he came to the Crown of England by a defeasible Title so as he was never well settled in the hearts of the people which drew him the sooner back out of Ireland into England where shortly after he fell into such trouble and distress The Clergy cursing him on the one side and the Barons Rebelling against him on the other as he became so far unable to return to the Conquest of Ireland as besides the forfeiture of the Territories in France he did in a manner lose both the Kingdoms For he surrendred both to the Pope and took them back again to hold in Fee-farm which brought him into such hatred at home and such contempt abroad as all his life time after he was possest rather with fear of loosing his head than with hope of reducing the Kingdom of Ireland DUring the infancy of Henry the third the Barons were troubled in expelling the French whom they had drawn in against King John But this Prince was no sooner come to his majority but the Barons raised a long and cruel war against him Into these troubled waters the Bishops of Rome did cast their Nets and drew away all the wealth of the realm by their provisions and infinite exactions whereby the Kingdom was so impoverished as the King was scarce able to feed his own houshold and train much less to nourish Armies for the conquest of Forraign Kingdoms And albeit he had given this Land to the Lord Edward his eldest son yet could not that worthy Prince ever find means or opportunity to visit this Kingdom in person For from the time he was able to bear armes he served continually against the Barons by whom he was taken prisoner at the battel of Lewes And when that rebellion was appeased he made a journey to the Holy Land an employment which in those dayes diverted all Christian Princes from performing any great actions in Europe from whence he was returned when the Crown of England descended upon him THis King Edward the first who was a Prince adorned with all vertues did in the managing of his affairs shew himself a right good husband who being Owner of a Lordship ill husbanded doth first enclose and mannure his demeasnes near his principal house before he doth improve his wasts afar off Therefore he began first to establish the Common-wealth of England by making many excellent Laws and instituting the form of publick Justice which remaineth to this day Next he fully subdued and reduced the Dominion of Wales then by his power and authority he setled the Kingdom of Scotland and lastly he sent a Royal army into Cascoigne to recover the Dutchy of Aquitain These four great actions did take up all the raign of this Prince And therefore we find not in any Record that this King transmitted any Forces into Ireland but on the other side we find it recorded both in the Annals and in the Pipe-Rolls of this Kingdom that three several Armies were raised of the Kings subjects in Ireland and transported one into Scotland another into Wales and the third into Cascoigne and that several aids were levyed here for the setting forth of those armies THe Son and Successor of this excellent Prince was Edward the second who much against his will sent one small army into Ireland not with a purpose to finish the Conquest but to guard the person of his Minion Piers Gaveston who being banished out of England was made Lieutenant of Ireland that so his exile might seem more honourable He was no sooner arrived here but he made a journey into the Mountains of Dublin brake and subdued the Rebels there built New-Castle in the Birnes Country and repaired Castlekeuin and after passed up into Mounster and Thomond performing every where great service with much Vertue and Valour But the King who could not live without him revokt him within less than a year After which time the invasion of the Scots and Rebellion of the Barons did not only disable this King to be a Conqueror but deprived him both of his Kingdom and life And when the Scottish nation had over-run all this land under the conduct of Edw. le Bruce who stiled himself King of Ireland England was not then able to send either men or mony to save this Kingdom Only Roger de Mortimer then Justice of Ireland arrived at Youghall cum 38. milit saith Friar Clinn in his Annals But Bremingham Verdon Stapleton and some other private Gentlemen rose out with the Commons of Meth and Vriel and at Fagher near Dondalke a fatal place to the enemies of the Crown of England overthrew a potent army of them Et sic saith the red Book of the Exchequer wherein the victory was briefly recorded per manus communis populi dextram dei deliberatur populus dei a servitute machinata praecogitata IN the time of King Edward the third the impediments of the Conquest of Ireland are so notorious as I shall not need to express them to wit the war which the King had with the Realms of Scotland and of France but especially the Wars of France which were almost continual for the space of forty years And indeed France was a fairer mark to shoot at than Ireland and could better reward the Conqueror Besides it was an inheritance newly descended upon the King and therefore he had great reason to bend all his power and spend all his time and treasure in the recovery thereof And this is the true cause why Edward the third sent no army into Ireland till the 36. year of his
condemned and abolished and the use and practice thereof made High-Treason But this Law extended to the English only and not to the Irish For the Law is penned in this form Item Forasmuch as the diversity of Government by divers Laws in one Land doth make diversity of ligeance and debates between the people It is accorded and established that hereafter no English man have debate with another English man but according to the course of the Common Law And that no English man be ruled in the definition of their debates by the March-Law or the Brehon Law which by reason ought not to be named a Law but an evil Custom but that they be ruled as right is by the common Law of the Land as the Lieges of our Soveraign Lord the King And if any do to the contrary and thereof be attainted that he be taken and imprisoned and judged as a Traytor And that hereafter there be no diversity of ligeance between the English born in Ireland and the English born in England but that all be called and reputed English and the Lieges of our Soveraign Lord the KING c. This Law was made only to reform the degenerate English but there was no care taken for the reformation of the meer Irish no Ordinance no provision made for the abolishing of their barbarous Customs and manners Insomuch as the Law then made for Apparel and riding in Saddles after the English fashion is penal only to English men and not to the Irish But the Roman State which conquered so many Nations both barbarous and Civil and therefore knew by experience the best and readiest way of making a perfect and absolute conquest refused not to communicate their Laws to the rude and barbarous people whom they had Conquered neither did they put them out of their protection after they had once submitted themselves But contrariwise it is said of Julius Caesar Quâ vicit victos protegit ille manu And again of another Emperor Fecisti patriam diversis gentibus unam Profuit invitis te dominante capi Dumque offers victis proprii consortia juris Vrbem fecisti quod priùs orbis erat And of Rome it self Haec est in gremium vict os quae sola recepit Humanumque genus communi nomine fovit Matris non dominae ritu Civesque vocavit Quos domuit nexusque pio longinqua revinxit Therefore as Tacitus writeth Julius Agricola the Romane General in Brittany used this policy to make a perfect Conquest of our Ancestours the ancient Brittains They were saith he rude and dispersed and therefore prone upon every occasion to make war but to induce them by pleasure to quietness and rest he exhorted them in private and gave them helps in common to build Temples Houses and places of publick resort The Noblemens Sons he took and instructed in the Liberal Sciences c. preferring the wits of the Brittains before the Students of France as being now curious to attain the Eloquence of the Romane Language whereas they lately rejected that speech After that the Roman Attire grew to be in account and the Gown to be in use among them and so by little and little they proceeded to curiosity and delicacies in Buildings and furniture of Houshould in Bathes and exquisite Banquets and so being come to the heighth of Civility they were thereby brought to an absolute subjection LIkewise our Norman Conqueror though he oppressed the English Nobility very sore and gave away to his servitors the Lands and possessions of such as did oppose his first invasion though he caused all his Acts of Counsel to be published in French and some legal proceedings and pleadings to be framed and used in the same tongue as a mark and badge of a conquest yet he governed All both English and Normans by one and the same Law which was the ancient common Law of England long before the Conquest Neither did he deny any English Man that submitted himself unto him The benefit of that Law though it were against a Norman of the best rank and in greatest favour as appeared in the notable Controversie between Warren the Norman and Sherburne of Sherburne Castle in Norfolke for the Conqueror had given that Castle to Warren yet when the Inheritors thereof had alledged before the King that he never boar Armes against him that he was his subject as well as the other and that he did inherit and hold his Lands by the rules of that Law which the King had established among all his Subjects The King gave judgment against Warren and commanded that Sherborne should hold his land in peace By this means himself obtained a peaceable possession of the Kingdom within few years whereas if he had cast all the English out of his protection and held them as Aliens and Enemies to the Crown the Normans perhaps might have spent as much time in the Conquest of England as the English have spent in the Conquest of Ireland THe like prudent course hath been observed in reducing of Wales which was performed partly by King Edward the first and altogether finished by King Henry the eighth For we find by the Statute of Rutland made the 12. of Edward the first when the Welshmen had submitted themselves De alto Basso to that King he did not reject and cast them off as Out-lawes and Enemies but caused their Laws and customs to be examined which were in many points agreeable to the Irish or Brehon Law Quibus diligenter auditis plenius intellectis quasdam illarum saith the King in that Ordinance Consilio procerum delevimus quasdam permissimus quasdam correximus ac etiam quasdam alias adjiciendas faciend decrevimus and so established a Common-wealth among them according to the form of the English Government After this by reason of the sundry insurrections of the Barons the Wars in France and the dissention between the houses of Yorke and Lancaster the State of England neglected or omitted the execution of this Statute of Rutland so as a great part of Wales grew wilde and barbarous again And therefore King Henry the eighth by the Statutes of 27. and 32. of his raign did revive and recontinue that Noble work begun by King Edward the first and brought it indeed to full perfection For he united the Dominion of Wales to the Crown of England and divided it into Shires and erected in every Shire one Burrough as in England and enabled them to send Knights and Burgesses to the Parliament established a Court of Presidency and ordaâ—ned that Justices of Assise and Gaol-delivery should make their half year circuits there as in England made all the Laws and Statutes of England in force there and among other Welsh Customs abolished that of Gavel-kinde whereby the Heirs-Females were utterly excluded and the Bastards did inherit as well as the Legitimate which is the very Irish Gavel-kinde By means whereof that entire Country in a short
Lord of Desmond and Kerry within that County All these appear upon Record and were all as ancient as the time of King John onely the liberty of Tipperary which is the onely Liberty that remaineth at this day was granted to James Butler the first Earl of Ormond in the third year of King Edward the third These absolute Palatines made Barons and Knights did exercise high Justice in all points within their Territories erected Courts for Criminal and Civil Causes and for their own Revenues in the same form as the Kings Courts were established at Dublin made their own Judges Seneshals Sheriffs Coroners and Escheators so as the Kings Writ did not run in these Counties which took up more than two parts of the English Colonies but onely in the Church Lands lying within the same which were called the Cross wherein the King made a Sheriff And so in each of these Counties Palatines there were two Sheriffs One of the Liberty and another of the Cross As in Meath we find a Sheriff of the Liberty and a Sheriff of the Cross And so in Vlster and so in Wexford And so at this day the Earl of Ormond maketh a Sheriff of the Liberty and the King a Sheriff of the Cross of Tipperary Hereby it is manifest how much the Kings Jurisdiction was restrained and the power of these Lords enlarged by these High Priviledges And it doth further appear by one Article among others preferred to King Edward the third touching the Reformation of the state of Ireland which we find in the Tower in these words Item les Francheses grantes in Ireland que sont Roialles telles come Duresme Cestre vous oustont cybien de les profits Come de graunde partie de Obeisance des persons enfrancheses en quescum frenchese est Chancellerie Chequer conusans de pleas cybien de la Coronne Come autres communes grantont auxi Charters de pardon sont sovent per ley et reasonable cause seisses en vostre main a grand profit de vous leigerment restitues per maundement hors de Englettere a damage c. Unto which Article the King made answer Le Roy voet que les franchese que sont et serront per juste cause prises en sa main ne soent my restitues auant que le Roy soit certifie de la cause de la prise de acelles 26 Ed. 3. claus m. 1. Again these great Undertakers were not tied to any form of Plantation but all was left to their discretion and pleasure And although they builded Castles and made Free-holders yet were there no Tenures or Services reserved to the Crown but the Lords drew all the respect and dependancy of the common people unto Themselves Now let us see what inconveniences did arise by these large and ample Grants of Lands and Liberties to the first Adventurers in the Conquest ASsuredly by these Grants of whole Provinces and petty Kingdoms those few English Lords pretended to be Proprietors of all the Land so as there was no possibility left of settling the Natives in their Possessions and by consequence the conquest became impossible without the utter extirpation of all the Irish which these English Lords were not able to do nor perhaps willing if they had been able Notwithstanding because they did still hope to become Lords of those Lands which were possessed by the Irish whereunto they pretended Title by their large Grants and because they did fear that if the Irish were received into the Kings protection and made Liege-men and Free-Subjects the State of England would establish them in their Possessions by Grants from the Crown reduce their Countreys into Counties ennoble some of them and enfranchise all and make them amesueable to the Law which would have abridged and cut off a great part of that greatness which they had promised unto themselves they perswaded the King of England that it was unfit to communicate the Laws of England unto them that it was the best policy to hold them as Aliens and Enemies and to prosecute them with a continual War Hereby they obtained another Royal Prerogative and Power which was to make War and Peace at their pleasure in every part of the Kingdom Which gave them an absolute command over the bodies lands and goods of the English Subjects here And besides the Irish inhabiting the lands fully conquered and reduced being in condition of Slaves and Villains did render a greater Profit and Revenue than if they had been made the Kings Free-Subjects And for these two causes last expressed they were not willing to root out all the Irishry We may not therefore marvel that when King Edward the third upon the Petition of the Irish as is before remembred was desirous to be certified De voluntate magnatum suorum in proximo Parliamento in Hibernia tenend si sine alieno praejudicio concedere possit quod per statut inde fact Hibernici utantur legibus Anglicanis sive Chartis Regiis inde Impetrandis that there was never any Statute made to that effect For the troth is that those great English Lords did to the uttermost of their power cross and withstand the enfranchisement of the Irish for the causes before expressed Wherein I must still clear and acquit the Crown and State of England of negligence or ill policy and lay the fault upon the Pride Covetousness and ill counsel of the English planted here which in all former ages have been the chief impediments of the final conquest of Ireland AGain those large scopes of Land and great Liberties with the absolute power to make War and Peace did raise the English Lords to that height of Pride and Ambition as that they could not endure one another but grew to a mortal War and Dissention among themselves as appeareth by all the Records and Stories of this Kingdom First in the year 1204. the Lacies of Meath made War upon Sir John Courcy who having taken him by treachery sent him prisoner into England In the year 1210. King John coming over in person expelled the Lacies out of the Kingdom for their Tyrannie and oppression of the English howbeit upon payment of great Fines they were afterward restored In the year 1228. that family being risen to a greater heighth for Hugh de Lacy the younger was created Earl of Vlster after the death of Courcy without issue there arose dissention and War between that house and William Marshal Lord of Leinster whereby all Meath was destroyed and laid waste In the year 1264. Sir Walter Bourke having married the Daughter and Heir of Lacy whereby he was Earl of Vlster in right of his Wife had mortal debate with Maurice Fitz-Morice the Geraldine for certain Lands in Conaght So as all Ireland was full of Wars between the Bourkes and the Geraldines say our Annals Wherein Maurice Fitz-Morice grew so insolent as that upon a meeting at Thistledermot he took the Lord Justice himself
both Kingdoms than it did at any time since the Norman Conquest Then did the State of England send over John de Hotham to be Treasurer here with commission to call the great Lords of Ireland together and to take of them an Oath of Association that they should loyally joyn together in life and death to preserve the right of the King of England and to expel the common enemy But this Treasurer brought neither men nor mony to perform this service At that time though Richard Bourk Earl of Vlster commonly called the Red Earl were of greater power than any other Subject in Ireland yet was he so far stricken in years as that he was unable to manage the martial affairs as he had done during all the raign of King Edward the first having been General of the Irish forces not only in this Kingdom but in the Wars of Scotland Wales and Gascoign And therefore Maurice Fitz-Thomas of Desmond being then the most active Noble man in this Realm took upon him the chief command in this War for the support whereof the Revenue of this Land was farr too short and yet no supply of Treasure was sent out of England Then was there no means to maintain the Army but by Sessing the Soldiers upon the Subject as the Irish were wont to impose their Bonaught Whereupon grew that wicked Extortion of Coigne and Livery spoken of before which in short time banished the greatest part of the Free-holders out of the County of Kerry Limerirk Corke and Waterford Into whose possessions Desmond and his Kinsemen Allies and Followers which were then more Irish than English did enter and appropriate these Lands unto themselves Desmond himself taking what scopes he best liked for his demeasnes in every Countrey and reserving an Irish Seigniory out of the rest And here that I may verifie and maintain by matter of Record that which is before delivered touching the Nature of this wicked Extortion called Coigne and Livery and the manifold mischiefs it did produce I think it fit and pertinent to insert the preamble of the Statute of 10. of Henry seventh c. 4. not printed but recorded in Parliament Rols of Dublin in these words At the request and supplication of the Commons of this Land of Ireland that where of long time there hath been used and exacted by the Lords and Gentlemen of this Land many and divers damnable customs and usages which been called Coigne and Livery and Pay that is Horse meat and Mans meat for the finding of their Horsemen and Foot-men and over that 4. d. or 6. d. daily to every of them to be had and paid of the poor Earth Tillers and Tenants inhabitants of the said Land without any thing doing or paying therefore Besides many Murders Robberies Rapes and other manifold extortions and oppressions by the said Horsemen and Footmen daily and nightly committed and done which been the principal causes of the desolation and destruction of the said Land and hath brought the same into ruine and Decay so as the most part of the English Free-holders and Tenants of this Land been departed out thereof some into the Realm of England and other some to other strange Lands whereupon the foresaid Lords and Gentlemen of this Land have intruded into the said Free-holders and Tenants inheritances and the same keepeth and occupieth as their own inheritances and setten under them in the same Land the Kings Irish Enemies to the diminishing of Holy Churches Rites the disherison of the King and his obedient Subjects and the utter ruine and desolation of the Land For reformation whereof be it enacted That the King shall receive a Subsidy of 26. s. 8. d. out of every 120. acres of arable land manured c. But to return to Thomas Fitz-Maurice of Desmond By this extortion of Coigne and Livery he suddainly grew from a mean to a mighty estate insomuch as the Baron Finglas in his discourse of the decay of Ireland affirmeth that his ancient inheritance being not one thousand marks yearly he became able to dispend every way ten thousand pounds per annum These possessions being thus unlawfully gotten could not be maintained by the just and honourable Law of England which would have restored the true Owners to their Land again And therefore this Great man found no means to continue and uphold his ill-purchased greatness but by rejecting the English Law and Government and assuming in lieu thereof the barbarous customs of the Irish And hereupon followed the defection of those four shires containing the greatest part of Munster from the obedience of the Law In like manner saith Baron Finglas the Lord of Tipperary perceiving how well the house of Desmond had thrived by Coigne and Livery and other Irish exactions began to hold the like course in the Counties of Tipperary and Kilkenny whereby he got great scopes of Land especially in Ormond and raised many Irish exactions upon the English Free-holders there which made him so potent and absolute among them as at that time they knew no other Law than the will of their Lord. Besides finding that the Earl of Desmond excluded the ordinary Ministers of Justice under colour of a Royal liberty which he claimed in the Counties of Kerry Corke and Waterford by a grant of King Edward the first as appeareth in a Quo warranto brought against him Anno 12. Edw. 1. the Record whereof remaineth in Breminghams Tower among the common Plea-Rolls there This Lord also in the third of Edward the third obtained a Grant of the like liberty in the County of Tipperary whereby he got the Law into his own hands and shut out the Common Law and Justice of the Realm And thus we see that all Munster fell away from the English law and Government in the end of King Edward the second his raign and in the beginning of the raign of King Edward the third Again about the same time viz. in the 20. year of King Edward the second when the State of England was well-ny ruined by the Rebellion of the Barons and the Government of Ireland utterly neglected there arose in Leinster one of the Cavanaghes named Donald Mac Art who named himself Mac Murrogh King of Leinster and possessed himself of the County of Catherlogh and of the greatest part of the County of Wexford And shortly after Lisagh O Moore called himself O Moore took eight Castles in one Evening destroyed Duamase the principal house of the L. Mortimer in Leix recovered that whole Country De servo Dominus de subjecto princeps effectus saith Friar Clynn in his Annalls Besides the Earl of Kildare imitating his Cosin of Desmond did not omit to make the like use of Coigne and Livery in Kildare and the West part of Meath which brought the like Barbarisme into those parts And thus a great part of Leinster was lost and fell away from the Obedience of the Crown near about the time before expressed Again in the