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
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
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
of Vlster a man of courage and severity was made Lord Justice who forthwith calling a Parliament sent a special Commandment to the Earl of Desmond to appear in that great Councel but the Earl wilfully refused to come Whereupon the Lord Justice raised the Kings Standard and marching with an Army into Munster seized into the Kings hands all the possessions of the Earl took and executed his principal followers Sir Eustace le Poer Sir William Graunt and Sir John Cotterell enforced the Earl himself to fly and lurk till 26. Noblemen and Knights became Mainpernors for his appearance at a certain day prefixed But he making default the second time the uttermost advantage was taken against his sureties Besides at the same time this Lord Justice caused the Earl of Kildare to be arrested and committed to the Castle of Dublin indited and imprisoned many other disobedient Subjects called in and cancelled such Charters asw ere lately before resumed and proceeded every way so roundly and severely as the Nobility which were wont to suffer no controulment did much distaste him and the Commons who in this Land have ever been more devoted to their immediate Lords here whom they saw every day than unto their Soveraign Lord and King whom they never saw spake ill of this Governor as of a rigorous and cruel man though in troth he were a singular good Justicer and if he had not dyed in the second year of his Government was the likeliest person of that Age to have reformed and reduced the degenerate English Colonies to their natural obedience of the Crown of England THus much then then we may observe by the way that Maurice Fitz-Thomas the first Earl of Desmond was the first English Lord that imposed Coign and Livery upon the Kings Subjects and the first that raised his Estate to immoderate greatness by that wicked Extortion and Oppression that he was the first that rejected the English Laws and Government and drew others by his example to do the like that he was the first Peer of Ireland that refused to come to the Parliament summoned by the Kings Authority that he was the first that made a division and distinction between the English of blood and the English of birth AND as this Earl was the onely Author and first Actor of these mischiefs which gave the greatest impediment to the full Conquest of Ireland So it is to be noted that albeit others of his rank afterwards offended in the same kinde whereby their Houses were many times in danger of ruine yet was there not ever any Noble house of English race in Ireland utterly destroyed and finally rooted out by the hand of Justice but the house of Desmond onely nor any Peer of this Realm ever put to death though divers have been attainted but Tho Fitz-James the Earl of Desmond onely and onely for those wicked customs brought in by the first Earl and practised by his posterity though by several Laws they were made High-Treason And therefore though in the 7 of Edward the 4. during the Government of the Lord Tiptoft Earl of Worcester both the Earls of Desmond and Kildare were attainted by Parliament at Droghedah for alliance and fostering with the Irish and for taking Coigne and Livery of the Kings Subjects yet was Desmond onely put to death for the Earl of Kildare received his pardon And albeit the son of this Earl of Desmond who lost his head at Droghedah were restored to the Earldom yet could not the Kings grace regenerate obedience in that degenerate house but it grew rather more wilde and barbarous than before For from thenceforth they reclaimed a strange priviledge That the Earls of Desmond should never come to any Parliament or Grand Council or within any walled Town but at their will and pleasure Which pretended Priviledge James Earl of Desmond the Father of Girald the last Earl renounced and surrendred by his Deed in the Chancery of Ireland in the 32 of Henry the eighth At what time among the meer Irishry he submitted himself to Sir Anthony Saint-Leger then Lord Deputy took an Oath of Allegiace Covenanted that he would suffer the Law of England to be executed in his Countrey and assist the Kings Judges in their Circuits and if any Subsidies should be granted by Parliament he would permit the same to be levied upon his Tenents and followers Which Covenants are as strange as the priviledge it self spoken of before But that which I conceive most worthy of Observation upon the fortunes of the house of Desmond is this that as Maurice Fitz-Thomas the first Earl did first raise the greatness of that house by Irish exactions and oppressions so Girald the last Earl did at last ruine and reduce it to nothing by using the like extortions For certain it is that the first occasion of his Rebellion grew from hence that when he attempted to charge the Decies in the County of Waterford with Coigne and Livery Black Rents and Cosheâ—ies after the Irish manner he was resisted by the Earl of Ormond and upon an encounter overthrown and taken prisoner which made his heart so unquiet as it easily conceived Treason against the Crown and brought forth actual and open Rebellion wherein he perished himself and made a final extinguishment of his house and honor Oppression and extortion did maintain the greatness and oppression and extortion did extinguish the greatness of that house Which may well be exprest by the old Emblem of a Torch turned downwards with this word Quod me alit extinguit NOw let us return to the course of Reformation held and pursued here after the death of Sir Raphe Vfford which hapned in the twentieth year of King Edward 3. After which time aâ—beâ—t all the power and Council of England was converted towards the conquest of France yet was not the work of Reformation altogether discontinued For in the 25 year of King Edward the third Sir Thomas Rookeby another worthy Governor whom I have once before named held a Parliament at Kilkenny wherein many excellent Laws were propounded and enacted for the reducing of the English Colonies to their obedience which Laws we finde enrolled in the Remembrancers Office here and differ not much in substance from those other Statutes of Kilkenny which not long after during the Government of Lionel Duke of Clarence were not onely enacted but put in execution This noble Prince having married the Daughter and Heir of Vlster and being likewise a Coparcener of the County of Kilkenny in the 36 year of King Edward the third came over the Kings Lieutenant attended with a good Retinue of Martial men as is before remembred and a grave and honorable Council as well for peace as for war But because this Army was not of a competent strength to break and subdue all the Irishry although he quieted the borders of the English Pale and held all Ireland in awe with his name and presence The principal service that
General and under him Raulf Earl of Stafford James Earl of Ormond Sir John Carew Banneret Sir William Winsor and other Knights were Commanders The entertainment of the General upon his first arrival was but six shillings eight pence per diem for himself for five Knights two shillings a piece per diem for sixty four Esquires twelve pence a piece per diem for 70 Archers six pence a piece per diem But being shortly after created Duke of Clarence which honour was conferred upon him being here in Ireland his entertainment was raised to thirteen shillings four pence per diem for himself and for eight Knights two shillings a piece per diem with an encrease of the number of his Archers viz. three hundred and sixty Archers on horseback out of Lancashire at six pence a piece per diem and twenty three Archers out of Wales at two pence a piece per diem The Earl of Staffords entertainment was for himself six shillings eight pence per diem for a Banneret four shillings per diem for seventeen Knâ—ghts two shillings a piece per diem for seventy eight Esquires twelve pence a piece per diem for one hundred Archers on Horseback six pence a piece per diem Besides he had the command of four and twenty Archers out Staffordshire fourty Archers out of Worcestershire and six Archers out of Shropshire at four pence a piece per diem The entertainment of James Earl of Ormond was for himself four shillings per diem for two Knights two shillings a piece per diem for seven and twenty Esquires twelve pence a piece per diem for twenty Hoblers armed the Irish Horsemen were so called because they served on Hobbies six pence a piece per diem and for twenty Hoblers not armed four pence a piece per diem The entertainment of Sir John Carew Banneret was for himself four shillings per diem for one Knight two shillings per diem for eight Esquires twelve pence a piece per diem for ten Archers on Horseback six pence a piece per diem The entertainment of Sir William Winsore was for himself two shillings per diem for two Knights two shillings a piece per diem for forty nine Squires twelve pence a piece per diem for six Archers on Horseback six pence a piece per diem The like entertainment rateably were allowed to divers Knights and Gentlemen upon that List for themselves and their several retinues whereof some were greater and some less as they themselves could raise them among their Tenents and Followers FOr in ancient times the King himself did not levy his Armies by his own immediate Authority or Commission but the Lords and Captains did by Indenture Covenant with the King to serve him in his Wars with certain numbers of men for certain wages and entertainments which they raised in greater or less numbers as they had favour or power with the people This course hath been changed in latter times upon good reason of State For the Barons and Chief Gentlemen of the Realm having power to use the Kings Prerogative in that point became too popular whereby they were enabled to raise Forces even against the Crown it self which since the Statutes made for levying and mustering of Souldiers by the Kings special Commission tâ—ey cannot so easily perform if they should forget their duties THis Lord Lieutenant with this small Army performed no great service and yet upon his coming over all men who had Land in Ireland were by Proclamation remanded back out of England thither and both the Clergy and Laity of this Land gave two years profits of all their Lands and Tythes towards the maintenance of the War here onely he suppressed some Rebeâ—s in low Leinster and recovered the Maritime parts of his Earldome of Vlster But his best service did consist in the well-governing of his Army and in holding that famous Parliament at Kilkenny wherein the extortion of the Souldier and the degenerate manners of the English briefly spoken of before were discovered and Laws made to reform the same which shall be declared more at large hereafter THe next Lieutenant transmitted with any Forces out of England was Sir William Winsore who in the 47 year of King Edward the third undertook the Custody not the Conquest of this Land for now the English made rather a Defensive than an Invasive war and withal to defray the whole charge of the Kingdom for eleven thousand two hundred thirteen pounds six shillings and eight pence as appeareth by the Indenture between him and the King remaining of Record in the Tower of London But it appeareth by that which Froissard reporteth that Sir William Winsore was so far from subduing the Irish as that himself reported That he could never have access to understand and know their Countries albeit he had spent more time in the service of Ireland than any Englishman then living AND here I may well take occasion to shew the vanity of that which is reported in the Story of Walsingham touching the Revenue of the Crown in Ireland in the time of King Edward the third For he setting forth the state of things there in the time of King Richard the second writeth thus Cum Rex Angliae illusiris Edwardus tertius illic posuisset Bancum suum atque Judices cum Scaccario percepit inde ad Regalem Fisâ—um annuatim triginta millia librarum modò propter absentiam ligeorum hostium potentiam nihil inde venit sed Rex per annos singulos de suo Marsupio terrae defensoribus solvit Triginta millia marcarum ad regni sui dedecus fisci gravissimum detrimentum If this Writer had known that the Kings Courts had been established in Ireland more than a hundred years before King Edward the third was born or had seen either the Parliament Rolls in England or the Records of the Receipts and Issues in Ireland he had not left this vain report to posterity For both the Benches and the Exchequer were erected in the twelfth year of King John And it is recorded in the Parliament Rolls of 21 of Edward the third remaining in the Tower that the Commons of England made petition that it might be enquired why the King received no benefit of his Land of Ireland considering he possessed more there than any of his Ancestors had before him Now if the King at that time when there were no standing Forces maintained there had received Thirty thousand pound yearly at his Exchequer in Ireland he must needs have made profit by that Land considering that the whole charge of the Kingdom in the 47 year of Edward the third when the King did pay an Army there did amount to no more than Eleven thousand and two hundred pounds per annum as appeareth by the Contract of Sir William Winsore Besides it is manifest by the Pipe-Rolls of that time whereof many are yet preserved in Breminghams Tower
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
middle time between these two attempts the great alteration which he made in the State Ecclesiastical caused him to stand upon his guard at home the Pope having sollicited all the Princes of Christendom to revenge his quarrel in that behalf And thus was King Henry the eighth detained and diverted from the absolute reducing of the Kingdom of Ireland LAstly the infancy of King Edward the sixth and the Coverture of Qu. Mary which are both Non abilities in the Law did in fact disable them to accomplish the Conquest of Ireland SO as now this great work did remain to be performed by Queen ELIZABETH who though she were diverted by suppressing the open rebellion in the North by preventing divers secret Conspiracies against her person by giving aids to the French and States of the Low-Countries by maintaining a Naval war with Spain for many years together yet the sundry rebellions joyned with forraign invasions upon this Island whereby it was in danger to be utterly lost and to be possessed by the Enemies of the Crown of England did quicken her Majesties care for the preservation thereof and to that end from time to time during her Reign she sent over such supplies of men and treasure as did suppress the Rebels and repell the invaders Howbeit before the transmitting of the last great army the forces sent over by Queen Elizabeth were not of sufficient power to break and subdue aâ—l the Irishry and to reduce and reform the whole Kingdom but when the general defection came which came not without a special providence for the final good of that Kingdom though the second causes thereof were the faint prosecution of the War against Tyrone the practises of Priests and Jesuites and the expectation of the aids from Spain Then the extream peril of loosing the Kingdom the dishonour and danger that might thereby grow to the Crown of England together with a just disdain conceived by that great minded Queen that so wicked and ungratefull a Rebell should prevail against Her who had ever been victorious against all her enemies did move and almost enforce her to send over that mighty army and did withall enflame the hearts of the Subiects of England chearfully to contribute towards the maintaining thereof a Million of sterling pounds at least which was done with a purpose only to Save and not to Gain a Kingdom To keep and retain that Soveraignty which the Crown of England had in Ireland such as it was and not to recover a more absolute Dominion But as it faileth out many times that when a house is on fire the Owner to save it from burning pulleth it down to the ground but that pulling down doth give occasion of building it up again in a better form So these last Wars which to save the Kingdome did utterly break and destroy this people produced a better effect than was at first expected For every Rebellion when it is supprest doth make the subject weaker and the Prince stronger So this general revolt when it was overcome did produce a general Obedience and Reformation of all the Irishry which ever before had been disobedient and unreformed and thereupon ensued the final and full conquest of Ireland And thus much may suffice to be spoken touching the defects in the martial affairs and the weak and faint prosecution of the war and of the several Impediments or employments which did hinder or divert every King of England successively from reducing Ireland to their absolute subjection IT now remaineth that we shew the defects of the Civil Policy and Government which gave no less impediment to the perfection of this Conquest THe first of that kind doth consist in this That the Crown of England did not from the beginning give Laws to the Irishry whereas to give Laws to a conquered people is the principal mark and effect of a perfect Conquest For albeit King Henry the second before his return out of Ireland held a Council or Parliament at Lissemore Vbi Leges Angliae ab omnibus sunt gratanter receptae Juratoria Cautione praestita confirmatae as Matth. Paris writeth And though King John in the twelfth year of his Reign did establish the English Laws and Customes here and placed Sheriffs and other Ministers to rule and govern the people according to the Law of England and to that end Ipse duxit secum viros discretos legis peritos quorum communi consilio scatuit praecepit leges Anglicanas teneri in Hibernia c. as we finde it recorded among the Patent Rolls in the Tower 11 Hen. 3. m. 3. Though likewise King Henry the third did grant and transmit the like Charter of Liberties to his Subjects of Ireland as himself and his Father had granted to the Subjects of England as appeareth by another Record in the Tower 1 Hen. 3. Pat. m. 13. And afterwards by a special Writ did command the Lord Justice of Ireland Quod convocatis Archiepiscopis Episcopis Comitibus Baronibus c. Coram eis legi faceret Chartam Regis Johannis quam ipse legi fecit jurari à Magnatibus Hiberniae de legibus Constitutionibus Angliae observandis quod leges illas teneant observent 12 Hen. 3. Claus m. 8. And after that again the same King by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England did confirm the Establishment of the English Laws made by King John in this form Quia pro Communi utilitate terrae Hiberniae ac unitate terrarum de Communi Consilio provisum sit quod omnes leges consuetudines quae in regno Angliae tenentur in Hiberniâ teneantur eadem terra ejusdem legibus subjaceat ac per easdem regatur sicut Johannes Rex cum illic esset Statuit firmiter mandavit ideo volumus quod omnia brevia de Communi Jure quae currunt in Anglia similiter currant in Hibernia sub novo sigillo nostro c. Teste meipso apud Woodstock c. Which Confirmation is found among the Patent Rolls in the Tower Anno 30. Hen. 3. Notwithstanding it is evident by all the Records of this Kingdom that onely the English Colonies and some fews Septs of the Irishry which were enfranchised by special Charters were admitted to the benefit and protection of the Laws of England and that the Irish generally were held and reputed Aliens or rather enemies to the Crown of England insomuch as they were not onely disabled to bring any actions but they were so far out of the protection of the law as it was often adjudg'd no felony to kill a meer Irishman in the time of peace That the meer Irish were reputed Aliens appeareth by sundry Records wherein Judgement is demanded if they shall be answered in Actions brought by them and likewise by the Charters of Denization which in all ages were purchased by them In the Common Plea Rolls of 28 Edward the third which
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
seed of Reformation because they were not first broken and mastered again with the sword Besides the Irish Countreys which contained two third parts of the Kingdom were not reduced to Shire-ground so as in them the Laws of England could not possibly be put in execution Therefore these good Laws and provisions made by Sir Edward Poynings were like good Lessons set for a Lute that is broken and out of tune of which Lessons little use can be made till the Lute be made fit to be plaid upon And that the execution of all these Laws had no greater latitude than the Pale is manifest by the Statute of the thirteenth of Henry the eighth cap. 3. which reciteth that at that time the Kings Laws were obeyed and executed in the four shires onely and yet then was the Earl of Surrey Lieutenant of Ireland a Governor much feared of the Kings Enemies and exceedingly honored and beloved of the Kings subjects And the Instructions given by the state of Ireland to John Allen Master of the Rolls employed into England neer about the same time do declare as much wherein among other things he is required to advertise the King that his Land of Ireland was so much decayed as that the Kings Laws were not obeyed twenty miles in compass Whereupon grew that By-word used by the Irish viz. That they dwelt By-west the Law which dwelt beyond the River of the Barrow which is within thirty miles of Dublin The same is testified by Baron Finglas in his Discourse of the decay of Ireland which he wrote about the twentieth year of King Henry the eighth And thus we see the effect of the Reformation which was intended by Sir Edward Poynings THE next Attempt of Reformation was made in 28 year of King Henry the eighth by the Lord Leonard Gray who was created Viscount of Grane in this Kingdom and held a Parliament wherein many excellent Laws were made But to prepare the mindes of the people to obey these Laws he began first with a Martial course For being sent over to suppress the Rebellion of the Giraldines which he performed in few moneths he afterwards made a victorious Circuit round about the Kingdom beginning in Offaly against O Connor who had aided the Giraldines in their Rebellion and from thence passing along through all the Irish Countreys in Leinster and so into Munster where he took pledges of the degenerate Earl of Desmond and thence into Conaght and thence into Vlster and then concluded this Warlike Progress with the Battel of Belahoo in the borders of Meath as is before remembred The principal Septs of the Irishry being all terrified and most of them broken in this journey many of their chief Lords upon this Deputies return came to Dublin and made their submissions to the Crown of England namely the O Neals and O Relies of Vlster Mac Murrogh O Birn and O Carrol of Leinster and the Bourks of Conaght This preparation being made he first propounded and passed in Parliament these Laws which made the great alteration in the State Ecclesiastical namely the Act which declared King Henry the eighth to be supreme head of the Church of Ireland The Act prohibiting Appeals to the Church of Rome the Act for first-fruits and twentieth part to be paid to the King the Act for Faculties and Dispensations And lastly the Act that did utterly abolish the usurped authority of the Pope Next for the encrease of the Kings Revenue by one Act he suppressed sundry Abbies and Religious Houses and by another Act resumed the Lands of the Absentees as is before remembred And for the Civil Government a special Statute was made to abolish the Black-rents and Tributes exacted by the Irish upon the English Colonies and another Law enacted that the English Apparel Language and manner of living should be used by all such as would acknowledge themselves the Kings Subjects This Parliament being ended the Lord Leonard Gray wâ—s suddenly revokt and put to death in England so as he lived not to finish the work of Reformation whâ—ch he had begun which notwithstanding was weâ—l pursued by his Successor Sir Anthony Saint Leger unto whom all the Lords and Chieftains of the Irishry and of the degenerate English throughout the Kingdom made their several submissions by Indenture which was the fourth general submission of the Irish made since the first attempt of the Conquest of Ireland whereof the first was made to King Henry the second the second to King John the third to K. Richard the second and his last to Sir Anthony Saint Leger in 33 H. 8. IN these Indentures of Submission all the Irish Lords do acknowledge King Henry the eighth to be their Soveraign Lord and King and desire to be accepted of him as Subjects They confess the Kings Supremacy in all causes and do utterly renounce the Popes Jurisdiction which I conceive to be worth the noting because when the Irish had once resolved to obey the King they made no scruple to renounce the Pope And this was not onely done by the meer Irish but the chief of the degenerate English Families did perform the same as Desmond Barry and Roche in Munster and the Bourks which bâ—re the title of Mac William in Conaght These Submissions being thus taken the Lord Deputy and Council for the present Government of those Irish Countreys made certain Ordinances of State not agreeable altogether with the Rules of the Law of England the reason whereof is exprest in the Preamble of those Ordinances Quia nondum sic sapiunt leges Jura ut secundum ea jam immediate vivere regi possint The chief points or Articles of which Orders registred in the Council Book are these That King Henry the eighth should be accepted reputed and named King of Ireland by all the Inhabitants of the Kingdom that all Archbishops and Bishops should be permitted to exercise their Jurisdiction in every Diocess throughout the Land that Tythes should be duely set out and paid that Children should not be admitted to Benefices that for every Man-sâ—aughter and theft above fourteen pence committed in the Irish Countrys the offendor should pay a fine of forty pound twenty pound to the King and twenty pound to the Captain of the Countrey and for every theft under fourteen pence a fine of five marks should be paid forty six shilling eight pence to the Captain twenty shillings to the Tanister that Horsemen Kearn should not be imposed upon the common people to be fed maintained by them that the Master should answer for his servants and the Father for his children That Cuttings should not be made by the Lord upon his Tenants to maintain war with his neighbours but onely to bear his necessary expences c. These Ordinances of State being made and published there were nominated and appointed in every Province certain Orderers or Arbitrators who instead of these Irish Brehons should hear and determine
to give a civil education to the Youth of this Land in the time to come provision was made by another Law that there should be one Free schoole at least erected in every Diocess of the Kingdom And lastly to inure and acquaint the people of Munster and Conaght with the English Government again which had not been in use among them for the space of 200. years before he instituted two Presidency Courts in those two Provinces placing Sir Edward Fitton in Conaght and Sir John Perrot in Munster To augment the Kings Revenue in the same Parliament upon the attainder of Shane O Neale he resumed and vested in the Crown more than half the Provinne of Vlster He raised the customs upon the principal commodities of the Kingdom He reformed the abuses of the Exchequer by many good orders and instructions sent out of England and lastly he established the composition of the Pale in lieu of Purveyance and Sess of Souldiers These were good proceedings in the work of Reformation but there were many defects and omissions withall for though he reduced all Conaght into Counties he never sent any Justices of Assize to visit that Province but placed Commissioners there who governed it only in a course of discretion part Martial and part Civil Again in the Law that doth abolish the Irish Captain-ships he gave way for the reviving thereof again by excepting such as should be granted by Letters Patents from the Crown which exception did indeed take away the force of that law For no Governor during Queen Elizabeths Reign did refuse to grant any of those Captain-ships to any pretended Irish Lord who would Desire and with his thankfulness Deserve the same And again though the greatest part of Vlster were vested by Act of Parliament in the actual and real possession of the Crown yet was there never any seisure made thereof nor any part thereof brought into charge but the Irish were permitted to take all the profits without rendering any duty or acknowledgement for the same and though the Name of O Neale were damned by that Act and the assuming thereof made High-Treason yet after that was Tirlagh Leynnagh suffered to bear that Title and to intrude upon the possessions of the Crown and yet was often entertained by the State with favour Neither were these lands resumed by the Act of II of Elizabeth neglected only for the Abbyes and religious Houses in Tyrone Tirconnell and Fermanagh though they were dissolved in the 33. of Henry 8. were never surveyed nor reduced into charge but were continualy possest by the religious persons untill His Majesty that now is came to the Crown and that which is more strange the Donations of Bishopricks being a flower of the Crown which the Kings of England did ever retain in all their Dominions when the Popes usurped Authority was at the highest There were three Bishopricks in Vlster namely Derry Rapho and Clogher which neither Queen Elizabeth nor any of her Progenitors did ever bestow though they were the undoubted Patrons thereof So as King James was the first King of England that did ever supply these Sees with Bishops which is an argument either of great negligence or of great weakness in the State and Governors of those times And thus far proceeded Sir Henry Sidney AFter him Sir John Perrot who held the last Parliament in this Kingdom did advance the Reformation in three principal points First in establishing the great composition of Conaght in which service the wisdom and industry of Sir Richard Bingham did concur with him next in reducing the unreformed parts of Vlster into seven shires namely Adrmagh Monahan Tirone Colerain Donagall Fermannagh and Cavan though in his time the law was never executed in these new Counties by any Sheriffs or Justices of Assize but the people left to be ruled still by their own barbarous Lords and laws And lastly by vesting in the Crown the Lands of Desmond and his Adherents in Munster and planting the same with English though that plantation were imperfect in many points AFter Sir John Perrot Sir William Fitz-Williams did good service in two other points First in raising a composition in Munster and then in setling the possessions both of the Lords and Tenants in Monahan which was one of the last Acts of State tending to the reformation of the civil Government that was performed in the raign of Queen Elizabeth Thus we see by what degrees and what pollicy and success the Governors of this Land from time to time since the beginning of the raign of King Edward the third have endeavoured to reform and reduce this people to the perfect obedience of the Crown of England And we finde that before the Civil Wars of Yorke and Lancaster they did chiefly endeavour to bring back the degenerate English Colonies to their Duty and Allegiance not respecting the meer Irish whom they reputed as Aliens or Enemies of the Crown But after King Henry 7. had united the Roses they laboured to reduce both English and Irish together which work to what pass and perfection it was brought in the latter end of Qu. Elizabeths raign hath been before declared Whereof sometimes when I do consider I do in mine own conceit compare these later Governors who went about to reform the Civil Affairs in Ireland unto some of the Kings of Israel of whom it is said That they were good Kings but they did not cut down the Groves and High places but suffered the people still to burn Incense and commit Idolatry in them so Sir Anthony Saint-Leger the Earl of Sussex Sir Henry Sidney and Sir John Perrot were good Governors but they did not abolish the Irish Customs nor execute the Law in the Irish Countries but suffered the people to worship their barbarous Lords and to remain utterly ignorant of their Duties to God and the King AND now I am come to the happy Reign of my most Gracious Lord and Master K. James in whose time as there hath been a concurrence of many great Felicities so this among others may be numbred in the first rank that all the Defects in the â—overnment of Ireland spoken of before have been fully supplyed in the first nine years of his raign In which time there hath been more done in the work and reformation of this Kingdom than in the 440. years which are past since the Conquest was first attempted Howbeit I have no purpose in this Discourse to set forth at large all the proceedings of the State here in reforming of this Kingdom since his Majesty came to the Crown for the parts and passages thereof are so many as to express them fully would require a several Treatise Besides I for my part since I have not flattered the former times but have plainly laid open the negligence and errors of every Age that is past would not willingly seem to flatter the present by amplifying the diligence and true Judgment of those Servitors that have laboured
seventh year of King Edward the Third the Lord William Bourke Earl of Vlster and Lord of Conaght was treacherously murdered by his own Squires at Knockfergus leaving behinde him Vnicam unius anni filiam saith Friar Clinne Immediately upon the murder committed the Countess with her young daughter fled into England so as the Government of that Country was wholly neglected until that young Lady being married to Lionel Duke of Clarence that Prince came over with an Army to recover his Wives inheritance and so reform this Kingdom Anno 36. of Edward the third But in the mean time what became of that great inheritance both in Vlster and Conaght Assuredly in Vlster the Sept of Hugh Bog O Neal then possessing Glaucoukeyn and Killeightra in Tyrone took the opportunity and passing over the Banne did first expel the English out of the Barony of Tuscard which is now called the Rout and likewise out of the Glynnes and other Lands up as far as Knockfergus which Countrey or extent of Land is at this day called the lower Clan Hugh-Boy And shortly after that they came up into the great Ardes which the Latin writers call Altitudines Vltoniae and was then the inheritance of the Savages by whom they were valiantly resisted for divers years but at last for want of Castles and fortifications for the saying of Henry Savage mentioned in every Story is very memorable That a Castle of Bones was better than a Castle of Stones the English were over-run by the multitude of the Irishry So as about the thirtieth of King Edward the third some few years before the arrival of the Duke of Clarence the Savages were utterly driven out of the Great Ardes into a little nook of Land near the River of Strangford where they now possess a little Territory called the little Ardes and their greater patrimony took the name of the upper Clan Hugh-Boy from the Sept of Hugh Boy O Neale who became Invaders thereof FOr Conaght some younger branches of the Family of the Bourkes being planted there by the Red Earl and his Ancestors seeing their chief to be cut off and dead without Heir-male and no man left to govern or protect that Province intruded presently into all the Earls Lands which ought to have been seized into the Kings hands by reason of the minority of the heir And within a short space two of the most potent among them divided that great Seigniory betwixt them the one taking the name of Mac William Oughtier and the other of Mac William Fighter as if the Lord William Bourke the last Earl of Vlster had left two Sons of one name behind him to inherit that Lordship in course of Gavel-kind But they well knew that they were but Intruders upon the Kings possession during the minority of the heir they knew those Lands were the rightfull inheritance of that young Lady and consequently that the Law of England would speedily evict them out of their possession and therefore they held it the best pollicy to cast off the yoak of English Law and to become meer Irish and according to their example drew all the rest of the English in that Province to do the like so as from thenceforth they suffered their possessions to run in course of Tanistry and Gavel-kinde They changed their names language and apparel and all their civil manners and Customs of living Lastly about the 25. year of King Edward the third Sir Richard de Clare was slain in Thomond and all the English Colonies there utterly supplanted Thus in that space of time which was between the tenth year of King Edward the second and the 30. year of King Edward the third I speak within compass by the concurrence of the mischiefs before recited all the old English Colonies in Munster Conaght and Vlster and more than a third part of Leinster became degenerate and fell away from the Crown of England so as only the four shires of the English Pale remained under the Obedience of the Law and yet the Borders and Marches thereof were grown unruly and out of order too being subject to Black-Rents and Tribute of the Irish which was a greater defection than when ten of twelve Tribes departed and fell away from Kings of Juda. But was not the State of England sensible of this loss and dishonour Did they not endeavour to recover the Land that was lost and to reduce the Subjects to their Obedience Truly King Edward the Second by the incursions of the Scottish Nation and by the insurrection of his Barons who raised his Wife and his Son against him and in the end deposed him was diverted and utterly disabled to reform the disorders of Ireland But as soon as the Crown of England was transferred to King Edward the third though he were yet in his minority the State there began to look into the desperate estate of things here And finding such a general defection Letters were sent from the King to the great men and Prelates requiring them particularly to swear fealâ—y to the Crown of England Shortly after Sir Anthony Lucy a Person of great authority in England in those dayes was sent over to work a reformation in this Kingdom by a severe course and to that end the King wrote expresly to the Earl of Vlster and others of the Nobility to assist him as is before remembred presently upon his arrival he arrested Maurice Fitz-Thomas Earl of Desmond and Sir William Bremingham and committed them prisoners to the Castle of Dublin where Sir William Bremingham was executed for Treason though the Earl of Desmond were left to Mainprize upon condition he should appear before the King by a certain day and in the mean time to continue loyal AFter this the King being advertised that the over-large Grants of Lands and Liberties made to the Lords of English blood in Ireland made them so insolent as they scorned to obey the Law and the Magistrate did absolutely resume all such Grants as is before declared But the Earl of Desmond above all men found himself grieved with this resumption or Repeal of Liberties and declared his dislike and discontentment insomuch as he did not only refuse to come to a Parliament at Dublin summoned by Sir William Morris Deputy to the Lord John Darcy the Kings Lieutenant But as we have said before he raised such dissention between the English of blood and the English of birth as the like was never seen from the time of the first planting of our Nation in Ireland And in this factious and seditious humour he drew the Earl of Kildare and the rest of the nobility with the Citizens and Burgesses of the principal Towns to hold a several Parliament by themselves at Kilkenny where they framed certain Articles against the Deputy and transmitted the same into England to the King Hereupon Sir Raphe Vfford who had lately before married the Countess