of King Henry the third for the eldest being married to Hugh Bigot Earl of Norfolk who in right of his wife had the Marshalship of England The second to Warren de Mountchensey whose sole Daughter and Heir was match to William de Valentia half Brother to King Henry the third who by that match was made Earl of Pembroke the third to Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester The fourth to William Ferrers Earl of Darby The fifth to William de Bruce Lord of Brecknock These great Lords having greater inheritances in their own right in England than they had in Ireland in right of their Wives and yet each of the Coparceners had an entire County allotted for her purparty as is before declared could not be drawn to make their personal residence in this Kingdom but managed their Estates here by their Seneschals and Servants And to defend their Territories against the bordering Irish they entertained some of the Natives who pretended a perpetual Title to those great Lordships For the Irish after a thousand conquests and Attainders by our Law would in those days pretend title still because by the Irish Law no man could forfeit his Land These natives taking the opportunity in weak and desperate times usurped those Seigniories and so Donald mac Art Cavanagh being entertained by the Earl of Nolfork made himself Lord of the County of Catherlough And Lisagh O Moor being trusted by the Lord Mortimer who married the Daughter and Heir of the Lord Bruce made himself Lord of the lands in Leix in the latter end of King Edward the seconds Reign as is before declared Again the decay and loss of Vlster and Connaught is attributed to this that the Lord William Bourk the last Earl of that name died without issue male whose Ancestors namely the Red Earl and Sir Hugh de Lacy before him being personally resident held up their greatness there and kept the English in peace and the Irish in awe But when those Provinces descended upon an Heir Female and an Infant the Irish over-ran Vlster and the younger branches of the Bourkes usurped Connaught And therefore the Ordinance made in England the third of Richard the second against such as were absent from their Lands in Ireland and gave two third parts of the profits thereof unto the King until they returned or placed a sufficient number of men to defend the same was grounded upon good reason of State which Ordinance was put in execution for many years after as appeareth by sundry seizures made thereupon in the time of K. Richard the second Henry the fourth Henry the fifth Henry the sixth whereof there remain Records in the Remembrancers Office here Among the rest the Duke of Norfolk himself was not spared but was impleaded upon this Ordinance for two parts of the profits of Dorburies Island and other Lands in the County of Wexford in the time of King Henry the sixth And afterwards upon the same reason of State all the lands of the house of Norfolk of the Earl of Shrewsbury the Lord Barkley and others who having lands in Ireland kept their continual residence in England were entirely resumed by the Act of Absentees made in the 28 year of King Henry the eigth But now again let us look back and see how long the effect of that Reformation did continue which was begun by Lionel Duke of Clarence in the fortieth year of King Edward the third and what courses have been held to reduce and reform this people by other Lieutenants and Governors since that time The English Colonies being in some good measure reformed by the Statutes of Kilkenny did not utterly fall away into Barbarism again till the Wars of the two Houses had almost destroyed both these Kingdoms for in that miserable time the Irish found opportunity without opposition to banish the English Law and Government out of all the Provinces and to confine it onely to the English Pale Howbeit in the mean time between the Government of the Duke of Clarence and the beginning of those Civil Wars of York and Lancaster we find that the State of England did sundry times resolve to proceed in this work of reformation For first King Richard 2. sent over Sir Nicholas Dagworth to survey the possessions of the Crown and to call to accompt the Officers of the revenue Next to draw his English Subjects to manure and defend their lands in Ireland he made that Ordinance against Absentees spoken of before Again he shewed an excellent example of Justice upon Sir Philip Courtney being his Lieutenant of that Kingdom when he caused him to be arrested by special Commissioners upon complaint made of sundry grievous oppressions and wrongs which during his Government he had done unto that people After this the Parliament of England did resolve that Thomas Duke of Glocester the Kings Uncle should be imployed in the reformation and reducing of that Kingdom the Fame whereof was no sooner bruted in Ireland but all the Irishry were ready to submit themselves before his coming so much the very Name of a great personage specially of a Prince of the blood did ever prevail with this people But the King and his Minions who were ever jealous of this Duke of Glocester would not suffer him to have the honour of that service But the King himself thought it a work worthy of his own presence and pains and thereupon Himself in person made those two royal journeys mentioned before At what time he received the submissions of all the Irish Lords and Captains who bound themselves both by Indenture and oath to become and continue his Loyal Subjects And withall laid a particular project for a civil plantation of the Mountains and Maritime Counties between Dublin and Wexford by removing all the Irish Septs from thence as appeareth by the covenants between the Earl Marshal of England and those Irish Septs which are before remembred and are yet preserved and remain of Record in the Kings Remembrancers Office at Westminster Lastly this King being present in Ireland took special care to supply and furnish the Courts of Justice with able and sufficient Judges And to that end he made that Grave and Learned Judge Sir William Hankeford Chief Justice of the Kings Bench here who afterwards for his service in this Realm was made chief Justice of the Kings Bench in England by King Henry 4. and did withall associate unto him William Sturmy a well Learned man in the law who likewise came out of England with the King that the legal proceedings which were out of order too as all other things in that Realm were might be amended and made formal according to the course and Presidents of England But all the good purposes and projects of this King were interrupted and utterly defeated by his suddain departure out of Ireland and unhappy deposition from the Crown of England HOwbeit King Henry the fourth intending likewise to prosecute this Noble
disabled otherwise as shall be declared hereafter never sent over any Royal army or any numbers of men worthy to be called an army into Ireland untill the thirty sixth year of King Edward the third when Lionel Duke of Clarence the Kings second Son having married the Daughter and Heir of Vlster was sent over with an extraordinary power in respect of the time for the wars betwixt England and France were then in their heat as well to recover his Earldom of Vlster which was then over-run and possest by the Irish as to reform the English Colonies which were become strangely degenerate throughout the whole Kingdom FOr though King Henry the Third gave the whole Land of Ireland to Edward the Prince his eldest Son and his Heirs Ita quod non Separetur a Corona Angliae Whereupon it was styled the Land of the Lord Edward the Kings eldest Son and all the Officers of the Land were called the Officers of Edward Lord of Ireland and though this Edward were one of the most active Princes that ever lived in England yet did he not either in the life time of his father or during his own Raign come over in person or transmit any army into Ireland but on the other side he drew sundry aids and supplies of men out of Ireland to serve him in his wars in Scotland Wales and Gascoigne And again though King Edward the Second sent over Piers Gaveston with a great retinue it was never intended he should perfect the Conquest of Ireland for the King could not want his company so long a time as must have been spent in the finishing of so tedious a work So then in all that space of time between the twelfth year of King John and the 36. year of King Edward the Thâ—rd containing 150. years or thereabouts although there were a continual bordering war between the English and the Irish there came no Royal Army out of England to make an end of the War But the chief Governors of the Realm who were at first called Custodes Hiberniae and afterwards Lords Justices and the English Lords who had gotten so great possessions and Royalties as that they presumed to make war and peace without direction from the State did levy all their forces within the land But those forces were weakly supplied and ill governed as I said before Weakly supplyed with men and Mony and governed with the worst Discipline that ever was seen among men of war And no marvel for it is an infallible rule that an army ill paid is ever unruly and ill governed The standing forces here were seldom or never re-enforced out of England and such as were either sent from thence or raised here did commonly do more huâ—t and damage to the English Subjects than to the Irish enemies by their continual Sess and Extortion Which mischief did arise by reason that little or no Treasure was sent out of England to pay the soldiers wages Only the Kings revenue in Ireland was spent and wholly spent in the publick service and therefore in all the ancient Pipe-Rols in the times of Henry the Third Edward the first Edward the second and Edward the third between the Receipts and allowances there is this entrie In Thesauro nihil For the Officers of the State and the Army spent aâ—l so as there was no surplusage of Treasure and yet that All was not sufficient For in default of the Kings pay as well the ordinary Forces which stood continually as the extraordinary which were levied by the chief Governor upon journeys and general hoastings were for the most part laid upon the poor subject descended of English race howbeit this burthen was in some measure tolerable in the time of King Henry the third and King Edward the first but in the time of King Edward the second Maurice fitz-Thomas of Desmond being chief Commander of the Army against the Scots began that wicked extortion of Coigne and Livery and pay that is He and his Army took Horse meat and Mans meat and money at their pleasure without any Ticket or other satisfaction And this was after that time the general fault of all the Governors and Commanders of the Army in this Land Onely the Golden saying of Sir Thomas Rookesby who was Justice in the thirtieth year of King Edward the third is recorded in all the Annales of this Kingdom That he would eat in wodden dishes but would pay for his meat Gold and Silver Besides the English Colonies being dispersed in every Province of this Kingdom were enforced to keep continual guards upon the Borders and Marches round about them which Guards consisting of idle Souldiers were likewise imposed as a continual burthen upon the poor Engglish Freeholders whom they oppressed and impoverished in the same manner And because the great English Lords and Captains had power to impose this charge when and where they pleased many of the poor Freeholders were glad to give unto those Lords a great part of their Lands to hold the rest free from that extortion And many others not being able to endure that intolerable oppression did utterly quit their freeholds and returned into England By this mean the English Colonies grew poor and weak though the English Lords grew rich and mighty for they placed Irish Tenants upon the Lands relinquished by the English upon them they levied all Irish exactions with them they married and fostered and made Gossips so as within one age the English both Lords and Freeholders became degenerate and meer Irish in their Language in their apparel in their arms and manner of fight and all other Customes of life whatsoever By this it appeareth why the extortion of Coigne and Livery is called in the old Statutes of Ireland A damnable custom and the imposing and taking thereof made High Treason And it is said in an ancient Discourse Of the Decay of Ireland that though it were first invented in Hell yet if it had been used and practised there as it hath been in Ireland it had long since destroyed the very Kingdom of Belzebub In this manner was the War of Ireland carried before the coming over of Lionel Duke of Clarence This young Prince being Earl of Vlster and Lord of Conaght in right of his wife who was daughter and Heir of the Lord William Bourk the last Earl of Vlster of that Family slain by treachery at Knockefergus was made the Kings Lieutenant of Ireland and sent over with an Army in the six and thirtieth year of King Edward the third The Roll and List of which Army doth remain of Record in the Kings Remembrancers Office in England in the press de Rebus tangentibus Hiberniam and doth not contain above fifteen hundred men by the Poll which because it differs somewhat fâ—om the manner of this age both in respect of the Command and the Entertainment I think it not impertinent to take a brief view thereof The Lord Lionel was
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
Reign when the Lord Lionel brought over a Regiment of 1500. men as is before expressed which that wise and warlick Prince did not transmit as a competent power to make a full conquest but as an honorable retinue for his son and withall to enable him to recover some part of his Earldom of Vlster which was then over-run with the Irish But on the other part though the English Colonies were much degenerate in this Kings time and had lost a great part of their possessions yet lying at the siege of Callis he sent for a supply of men out of Ireland which were transported under the conduct of the Earl of Kildare and Fulco de lâ— Freyn in the year 1347. AND now are we come again to the time of King Richard the second who for the first ten years of his Reign was a Minor and much disquieted with popular Commotions and after that was more troubled with the factions that arose between his Minions and the Princes of the blood But at last he took a resolution to finish the Conquest of this Realm And to that end he made two Royal voyages hither Upon the first he was deluded by the faigned submissions of the Irish but upon the latter when he was fully bent to prosecute the war with effect he was diverted and drawn from hence by the return of the Duke of Lancaster into England and the general defection of the whole Realm AS for Henry the Fourth he being an Intruder upon the Crown of England was hindered from all Forraign actions by sundry Conspiracies and Rebellions at home moved by the house of Northumberland in the North by the Dukes of Surrey and Exceter in the South and by Owen Glendour in Wales so as he spent his short Raign in establishing and setling himself in the quiet possession of England and had neither leisure nor opportunity to undertake the final conquest of Ireland Much less could King Henry the fifth perform that work for in the second year of his Reign he transported an Army into France for the recovery of that Kingdom and drew over to the siege of Harflew the Prior of Kilmaineham with 1500. Irish In which great action this victorious Prince spent the rest of his life AND after his death the two Noble Princes his Brothers the Duke of Bedford and Glocester who during the minority of King Henry the sixth had the Government of the Kingdoms of England and France did employ all their Counsels and endeavours to perfect the Conquest of France the greater part whereof being gained by Henry the fifth and retained by the Duke of Bedford was again lost by King Henry the sixth a manifest argument of his disability to finish the Conquest of this Land But when the civil War between the two Houses was kindled the Kings of England were so far from reducing all the Irish under their Obedience as they drew out of Ireland to strengthen their parties all the Nobility and Gentry descended of English race which gave opportunity to the Irishry to invade the Lands of the English Colonies and did hazard the Loss of the whole Kingdom For though the Duke of York did while he lived in Ireland carry himself respectively towards all the Nobility to win the general love of all bearing equal favour to the Giraldines and the Butlers as appeared at the Christning of George Duke of Clarence who was born in the Castle of Dublin where he made both the Earl of Kildare and the Earl of Ormonde his Gossips And having occasion divers times to pass into England he left the sword with Kildare at one time and with Ormonde at another and when he lost his life at Wakefield there were slain with him divers of both those families Yet afterwards thâ—se two Noble houses of Ireland did severally follow the two Royal houses of England the Giraldines adhering to the house of York and the Butlers to the house of Lancaster Whereby it came to pass that not only the principal Gentlemen of both those Sur-names but all their friends and dependants did pass into England leaving their Lands and possessions to be over-run by the Irish These impediments or rather impossibilities of finishing the Conquest of Ireland did continue till the Wars of Lancaster and York were ended which was about the twelfth year of King Edward the fourth Thus hitherto the Kings of England were hindred from finishing this Conquest by great and apparent impediments Henry the second by the rebellion of his Sons King John Henry the third and Edward the second by the Barons Wars Edward the first by his Wars in Wales and Scotland Edward the third and Henry the fifth by the Wars of France Richard the second Henry the fourth Henry the sixth and Edward the fourth by Domestick contention for the Crown of England it self BUT the fire of the civil war being utterly quenched and King Edward the fourth setled in the peaceable possession of the Crown of England what did then hinder that warâ—ick Prince from reducing of Ireland also First the whole Realm of England was miserably wasted depopulated and impoverished by the late civil dissentions yet as soon as it had recovered it self with a little peace and rest this King raised an Army and revived the Title of France again howbeit this Army was no sooner transmitted and brought into the field but the two Kings also were brought to an interview Whereupon partly by the fair and white promises of Lewis the 11. and partly by the corruption of some of King Edwards Minions the English forces were broken and dismissed and King Edward returned into England where shortly after findâ—ng himself deluded and abused by the French he dyed with melancholy and vexation of spirit I Omit to speak of Richard the Usurper who never got the quiet possession of England but was cast out by Henry the seventh within two years and a half after his Usurpation AND for King Henry the seventh himself though he made that happy Union of the two houses yet for more than half the space of his Reign there were walking spirits of the house of Yorke as well in Ireland as in England which he could not conjure down without expence of some bloud and Treasure But in his later times he did wholly study to improve the Revenues of the Crown in both Kingdomes with an intent to provide means for some great action which he intended which doubtless if he had lived would rather have proved a journey into France than into Ireland because in the eyes of all men it was a fairer enterprize THerefore King Henry the eighth in the beginning of his raign made a Voyage Royal into France wherein he spent the greatest part of that treasure which his Father had frugally reserved perhaps for the like purpose In the latter end of his Reign he made the like journey being enricht with the Revenues of the Abby Lands But in the
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
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
Grants of extraordinary Honours and Liberties made by a King to his Subjects do no more diminish his greatness than when one Torch lightet◠another for it hath no less light that it had before Quis vetat apposito lumen de lumine sumi Yet many time◠inconveniences do arise thereupon and those Princes have held up their Soveraignty best which have been sparing in those Grants And truly as these Grants of little Kingdoms and great Royalties to a few private persons did produce the mischiefs spoken of before So the true cause of the making of these Grants did proceed from this That the Kings of England being otherwise employed and diverted did not make the Conquest of Ireland their own work and undertake it not royally at their own charge but as it was first begun by particular Adventurers so they left the prosecution thereof to them and other voluntaries who came to seek their fortunes in Ireland wherein if they could prevail they thought that in reason and honour they could do no less than make them proprietors of such scopes of Land as they could conquer people and plant at their own charge reserving only the Soveraign Lordship to the Crown of England But if the Lyon had gone to hunt himself the shares of the Inferiour Beasts had not been so great If the invasion had been made by an army transmitted furnished and supplyed only at the Kings charges and wholly paid with the Kings Treasure as the Armies of Queen Elizabeth and King James have been as the conquest had been sooner atchieved so the serviters had been contented with lesser proportions For when Scipio Pompey Caesar and other Generals of the Roman Armies as Subjects and Servants of that State and with the publick charge had conquered many Kingdoms and Commonweals we find them rewarded with Honourable Offices and Triumphes at their return and not made Lords and proprietors of whole Provinces and Kingdoms which they had subdued to the Empire of Rome Likewise when the Duke of Normandy had conquered England which he made his own work and performed it in his own person he distributed sundry Lordships and Mannors unto his followers but gave not away whole Shires and Countreys in demeasne to any of his servitors whom he most desired to advance Only he made Hugh Lupus County Palatine of Chester and gave that Earldom to him and his Heirs to hold the same Ita liberè ad gladium sicut Rex tenebat Angliam ad Coronam Whereby that Earldom indeed had a royal Jurisdiction and Seigniory though the Lands of that County in demeasne were possessed for the most part by the ancient Inheritors Again from the time of the Norman Conquest till the raign of King Edward the first many of our English Lords made war upon the Welshmen at their own charge the Lands which they gained they held to their own use were called Lords Marchers and had Royal Liberties within their Lordships Howbeit these particular Adventurers could never make a perfect Conquest of Wales But when King Edward the first came in person with his army thither kept his residence and Court there made the reducing of Wales an enterprize of his own he finished that work in a year or two whereof the Lords Marchers had not performed a third part with their continual bordering war for two hundred years before And withall we may observe that though this King had now the Dominion of Wales in Jure proprietatis as the Statute of Rutland affirmeth which before was subject unto him but in Jure feodali And though he had lost divers principal Knights and Noblemen in that war yet did he not reward his servitors with whole Countries or Counties but with particular Mannors and Lordships as to Henry Lacy Earl of Lincolne he gave the Lordship of Denbigh and to Reignold Gray the Lordship of Ruthen and so to others And if the like course had been used in the winning and distributing the lands of Ireland that Island had been fully conquered before the continent of Wales had been reduced But the troth is when Private men attempt the Conquest of Countries at their own charge commonly their enterprizes do perish without success as when in the time of Queen Elizabeth Sir Thomas Smith undertook to recover the Ardes and Chatterton to reconquer then Fues and Orier The one lost his Son and the other Himself and both their Adventures came to nothing And as for the Crown of England it hath had the like fortune in the Conquest of this land as some purchasers have who desire to buy land at too easie a Rate they finde those cheap purchases so full of trouble as they spend twice as much as the Land is worth before they get the quiet possession thereof And as the best pollicy was not observed in the distribution of the conquered Lands so as I conceive that the first Adventurers intending to make a full Conquest of the Irish were deceived in the choise of the fittest places for their plantation For they sate down and erected their Castles and Habitations in the Plains and open Countries where they found most fruitful and profitable Lands and turned the Irish into the Woods and Mountains Which as they were proper places for Out-Laws and Thieves so were they their Natural Castles and Fortifications thither they drave their preys and stealths there they lurkt and lay in wait to do mischief These fast places they kept unknown by making the wayes and Entries thereunto impassible there they kept their Creaghts or Heardes of Cattle living by the milke of the Cow without Husbandry or Tillage there they encreased and multiplied unto infinite numbers by promiscuous generation among themselves there they made their Assemblies and Conspiracies without discovery But they discovered the weakness of the English dwelling in the open plains and thereupon made their sallies and retreats with great advantage Whereas on the other side if the English had builded their Castles and Towns in those places of fastness and had driven the Irish into the Plains and open Countries where they might have had an eye and observation upon them the Irish had been easily kept in Order and in short time reclaimed from their wildeness there they would have used Tillage dwelt together in Town-ships and learned Mechanical Arts and Sciences The woods had been wasted with the English Habitations as they are about the Forts of Mariborough and Philipston which were built in the fastest places in Leinster and the wayes and passages throughout Ireland would have been as clear and open as they are in England at this day AGain if King Henry the Second who is said to be the King that Conquered this Land had made Forrests in Ireland as he did enlarge the Forrests in England for it appeareth by Charta de Foresta that he afforrested many woods and wasts to the grievance of the Subject which by that Law were disaforrested or if those English Lords
he intended was to reform the degenerate English Colonies and to reduce them to obedience of the English Law and Magistrate To that end in the fortieth year of King Edward the third he held that famous Parliament at Kilkenny wherein many notable Laws were enacted which do shew and lay open For the Law doth best discover enormities how much the English Colonies were corrupted at that time and do infallibly prove that which is laid down before That they were wholly degenerate and faln away from their obedience For first it appeareth by the Preamble of these Laws that the English of this Realm before the coming over of Lionel Duke of Clarence were at that time become meer Irish in their Language Names Apparel and all their manner of living and had rejected the English Laws and submitted themselves to the Irish with whom they had many Marriages and Alliances which tended to the utter ruine and destruction of the Commom-wealth Therefore alliance by Marriage Nurture of Infants and Gossipred with the Irish are by this Statute made High-Treason Again if any man of English race should use any Irish Name Irish Language or Irish Apparel or any other guise or fashion of the Irish if he had Lands or Tenements the same should be seized till he had given security to the Chancery to conform himself in all points to the English manner of living And if he had no Lands his body was to be taken and imprisoned till he found Sureties as aforesaid Again it was established and commanded that the English in all their Controversies should be ruled and governed by the Common Law of England and if any did submit himself to the Brehon Law or March Law he should be adjudged a Traytor Again because the English at that time made War and Peace with the bordering Enemy at their pleasure they were expresly prohibited to levy War upon the Irish without special Warrant and Direction from the State Again it was made paenal to the English to permit the Irish to Creaght or graze upon their Lands to present them to Ecclesiastical Benefices to receive them into any Monasteries or Religious Houses or to entertain any of their Minstrels Rimers or News-tellers to impose or sess any Horse or Foot upon the English subjects against their wills was made felony And because the great Liberties or Franchises spoken of before were become Sanctuaries for all Malefactors express power was given to the Kings Sheriffs to enter into all Franchises and there to apprehend all Felons and Traytors And lastly because the great Lords when they levied Forces for the Publike Service did lay unequal burthens upon the Gentlemen and Freeholders it was ordained that four Wardens of the Peace in every County should set down and appoint what Men and Armor every man should bear according to his Freehold or other ability of esate THese and other Laws tending to a general reformation were enacted in that Parliament And the Execution of these Laws together with the Presence of the Kings Son made a notable alteration in the State and Manners of this people within the space of seven years which was the term of this Princes Lieutenancy For all the Discourses that I have seen of the Decay of Ireland do agree in this that the presence of the Lord Lionel and these Statutes of Kilkenny did restore the English Government in the degenerate Colonies for divers years And the Statute of the tenth of Henry the seventh which reviveth and confirmeth the Statutes of Kilkenny doth confirm as much For it declareth that as long as these Laws were put in â—ure and execution this Land continued in prosperity and honor and since they were not executed the Subjects rebelled and digressed from their Allegeance and the Land fell to ruine and desolation And withal we finde the effect of these Laws in the Pipe-Rolls and Plea-Roâ—ls of this Kingdom For from the 36 of Edw. 3. when this Prince entred into his Government till the beginning of Richard the second his Reign we finde the Revenue of the Crown both certain and casual in Vlster Munster and Conaght accounted for and that the Kings Writ did run and the Common Law was executed in every of these Provinces I joyn with these Laws the personal presence of the Kings Son as a concurrent cause of this Reformation Because the people of this Land both English and Irish out of a natural pride did ever love and desire to be governed by great persons And therefore I may here justly take occasion to note that first the absence of the Kings of England and next the absence of those great Lords who were inheritors of those mighty Seigniories of Leinster Vlster Conaghtâ— and Meath have been main causes why this Kingdom was not reduced in so many ages TOuching the absence of our Kings three of them onely since the Norman Conquest have made Royal journeys into this Land namely King Henry the second King John and King Richard the second And yet they no sooner arrived here but that all the Irishry as if they had been but one man submitted themselves took Oathes of fidelity and gave pledges and hostages to continue loyal And if any of those Kings had continued here in person a competent time till they had settled both English and Irish in their several possessions and had set the Law in a due course throughout the Kingdom these times wherein we live had not gained the honor of the final conquest and reducing of Ireland For the King saith Salomon dissipat omne malum intuitu suo But when Moses was absent in the Mount the people committed Idolatry and when there was no King in Israel every man did what seemed best in his own eyes And therefore when Alexander had conquered the East part of the World and demanded of one what was the fitest place for the seat of his Empire he brought and laid a dry hide before him and desired him to set his foot on the one side thereof which being done all the other parts of the hide did rise up but when he did set his foot in the middle of the hide all the other parts lay flat and even Which was a lively demonstration that if a Prince keep his residence in the border of his Dominions the remote parts will easily rise and rebel against him But if he make the Centre thereof his Seat he shall easily keep them in peace and obedience TOuching the absence of the great Lords All Writers do impute the decay and loss of Leinster to the absence of these English Lords who married the five Daughters of William Marshal Earl of Pembroke to whom that great Seigniory descended when his five Sons who inherited the same successively and during their times held the same in peace and obedidence to the Law of England were all dead without issue which hapned about the fortieth year