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
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
or read that it was in that use or reputation in any other Countrey Barbarous or Civil as it hath been and yet is in Ireland where they put away all their children to Fosterers the potent and rich men Sellings the meaneri sort Buying the alterage of their Children and the reason is because in the opinion of this people Fostering hath always been a stronger alliance than Blood and the Foster-Children do love and are beloved of their Foster-Fathers and their Sept more than of their own natural Parents and Kindred and do participate of their means more frankly and do adhere unto them in all Fortunes with more affection and constancy And though Tully in his Book of Friendship doth observe that children of Princes being sometimes in cases of necessity for saving of their lives delivered to Shepherds to be nourished and bred up when they have been restored to their great fortunes have still retained their love and affection to their Fosterers whom for many years they took to be their Parents yet this was a rare case and few examples are to be found thereof But such a general custom in a Kingdom in giving and taking children to Foster making such a firm alliance as it doth in Ireland was never seen or heard of in any other Countrey of the World besides THE like may be said of Gossipred or Compaternity which though by the Canon Law it be a Spiritual affinity and a Juror that was Goship to either of the parties might in former times have been challenged as not indifferent by our Law yet there was no Nation under the Sun that ever made so Religious account thereof as the Irish Now these two Customs which of themselves are indifferent in other Kingdoms became exceeding evil and full of mischief in this Realm by reason of the inconveniences which followed thereupon For they made as I said before strong parties and factions whereby the great men were enabled to oppress their Inferiors and to oppose their Equals and their followers were born out and countenanced in all their lewd and wicked actions For Fosterers and Gossips by the common custom of Ireland were to maintain one another in all causes lawful and unlawful which as it is a Combination and Confederacy punishable in all well-govern Commonweals so was it not one of the least causes of the common misery of this Kingdom I omit their common repudiation of their Wives their promiscuous generation of Children their neglect of lawful Matrimony their uncleanness in Apparel Diet and Lodging and their contempt and scorn of all things necessary for the civil life of man These were the Irish Customs which the English Colonies did embrace and use after they had rejected the Civil and Honorable Laws and Customs of England whereby they became Degenerate and Metamorphosed like Nebuchadnezzar who although he had the face of a man had the heart of a beast or like those who had drunk of Circes Cup and were turned into very Beasts and yet took such pleasure in their beastly manner of life as they would not return to their shape of men again Insomuch as within less time than the age of a man they had no marks or differences left amongst them of that Noble Nation from which they were descended For as they did not onely forget the English Language and scorn the use thereof but grew to be ashamed of their very English Names though they were Noble and of great Antiquity and took Irish Sirnames and Nick-names Namely the two most potent Families of the Bourks in Conaght after the House of the Red Earl failed of Heirs males called their Chiefs Mac William Fighter and Mac William Oughter In the same Province Bremingham Baron of Athenrie called himself Mac Yoris Dexecester or De'exon was called Mac Jordan Mangle or de Angulo took the name of Mac Costelo Of the Inferior families of the Bourkes one was called Mac Hubbard another Mac David In Munster of the great Families of the Geraldines planted there one was called Mac Morice chief of the House of Lixnaw and another Mac Gibbon who was also called the White Knight The chief of the Baron of Dunboynes house who is a branch of the House of Ormond took the Sirnames of Mac Pheris Condon of the County of Waterford was called Mac Maioge and the Arch-deacon of the County of Kilkenny Mac Odo And this they did in contempt and hatred of the English Name and Nation whereof these degenerate families became more mortal enemies than the meer Irish And whereas the State and Government being grown weak by their defection did to reduce them to Obedience grant them many Protections and Pardons The cheapness whereof in all ages hath brought great dishonor and damage to this Commonweal they grew so ungrateful and unnatural as in the end they scorned that gâ—ace and favour because the acceptance thereof did argue them to be sâ—bjects and they desired rather to be accounted Enemies than Rebels to the Crown of England Hereupon was that old Verse made which I finde written in the White Book of the Exchequer in a hand as ancient as the time of King Edward the third By granting Charters of peas To false English withouten les This Land shall be mich undoo But Gossipred and alterage And leesing of our Languge Have mickely holp theretoo And therefore in a Close Roll in the Tower bearing this title Articuli in Hibernia observandi we finde these two Articles among others 1. Justiciarius Hiberniae non concedat perdonationes de morte hominis nec de Roberiis seu incendiis quod de caetero certificet dominum regem de nominibus petentium 2. Item Quod nec Justiciarius nec aliquis Magnas Hiberniae concedat protectiones alicui contra pacem Regis existent c. But now it is fit to look back and consider when the old English Colonies became so degenerate and in what age they fell away into that Irish Barbarism rejecting the English Laws and Customes Assuredly by comparing the ancient Annales of Ireland with the Records remaining here and in the Tower of London I do finde that this general defection fell out in the latter end of the Reign of King Edward the second and in the beginning of the Reign of King Edward the third And all this great Innovation grew within the space of thirty years within the compass of which time there fell out divers mischievous accidents whereby the whole kingdom was in a manner lost For first Edward de Bruce invaded Ireland with the Scottish Army and prevailed so far as that he possessed the Maritime parts of Vlster marched up to the walls of Dublin spoiled the English Pale passed thorough Leinster and Munster as far as Limerick and was Master of the field in every part of the Kingdom This hapned in the tenth year of King Edward the second at what time the Crown of England was weaker and suffered more dishonour in