Fitz-Adelme his Lieutenant of Ireland hath this direction Archiepiscopis Episcopis Regibus Comitibus Baronibus omnibus fidelibus suis in Hibernia Salutem Whereby it is manifest that he gave those Irish Lords the Title and stile of Kings King John likewise did grant divers Charters to the King of Conaght which remain in the Tower of London And afterwards in the time of King Henry the Third we find in the Tower a grant made to the King of Thomond in these words Rex Regi Tosmond salutem Concessimus vobis terram Tosmond quam prius tenuistis per firmam centum triginta marcarum Tenendum de nobis usque ad aetatem nostram And in the pipe Rolls remaining in Bremighams Tower in the Castle of Dublin upon sundry Accompts of the Seneshall of Vlster when that Earldom was in the Kings hands by reason of the minority of the Earl the entry of all such charges as were made upon Oneale for Rent-Beeves or for aids towards the maintainance of the Kings wars are in this form Oneal Regulus 400. vaccas pro arreragio Reddit Oneal Regulus 100. â—i de Auxilio Domini Regis ad guerram suam in Wasconia sustinendam And in one Roll the 36. of Henry the third Oneal Rex 100 li. de auxilio Domini Regis ad guerram suam in Wallia sustinendam Which seemed strange to me that the Kings civil Officer should give him that stile upon Record unless he meant it in that sense as Maximilian the Emperor did when speaking of his disobedient Subjects The Title said he of Rex Regum doth more properly belong to me than to any mortal Prince for all my Subjects do live as Kings they obey me in nothing but do what they list And truly in that sense these Irish Lords might not unfitly be termed Kings But to speak in proper terms we must say with the Latin Poet Qui rex est Regnum maxime non habeat But touching these Irish Kings I will add this note out of an ancient Manuscript the black book of Christ-Church in Dublin Isti Reges non fuerunt ordinati solemnitate alicujus ordinis nec unctionis Sacramento nec jure haereditario vel aliqua proprietatis successione sed vi armis quilibet Regnum suum obtinuit and therefore they had no just cause to complain when a stronger King than themselves became a King and Lord over them But let us return to our purpose and see the proceeding of the Martial affairs King Henry the second being returned into England gave the Lordship of Ireland unto the Lord John his youngest son sur-named before that time Sans Terre And the Pope confirming that gift sent him a Crown of Pea-cocks feathers as Pope Clement the eighth sent the Feather of a Phoenix as he called it to the Traitor Tirone This young Prince the Kings Son being but twelve years of age with a train of young Noblemen and Gentlemen to the number of 300. but not with any main army came over to take possession of his new Patrimony and being arrived at Waterford divers Irish Lords who had submitted themselves to his father came to perform the like duty to him But that youthful company using them with scorn because their demeanours were but rude and barbarous they went away much discontented and rraised a general rebellion against him Whereby it was made manifest that the Submission of the Irish Lords and the Donation of the Pope were but slender and weak assurances for a Kingdom Hereupon this young Lord was revoked and Sir John de Courcy sent over not with the Kings Army but with a company of Voluntaries in number four hundred or thereabout With these he attempted the conquest of Vlster and in four or five encounters did so beat the Irishry of that Province as that he gained the Maritime Coasts thereof from the Boyne to the Bann and thereupon was made Earl of Vlster So as now the English had gotten good footing in all the Provinces of Ireland In the first three Provinces of Leinster Mounster and Conaght part by the Sword and part by submission and alliance And lastly in Vlster by the invasion and victories of Sir John de Courcy From this time forward until the seventeenth year of King John which was a space of more than 30. years there was no army transmitted out of England to finish the Conquest Howbeit in the mean time the English Adventurers and Colonies already planted in Ireland did win much ground upon the Irish Namely the Earl Strongbow having married the Daughter of Mac Murrogh in Leinster the Lacies in Meth the Geraldines and other Adventurers in Mounster the Audleyes Gernons Clintons Russels and other Voluntaries of Sir John de Courcies retinue in Vlster and the Bourkes planted by William Fitz-Adelme in Conaght Yet were the English reputed but Part-Owners of Ireland at this time as appeareth by the Commission of the Popes Legate in the time of King Richard the first whereby he had power to exercise his Jurisdiction in Anglia Wallia ac illis Hiberniae partibus in quibus Johannes Moretonii Comes potestatem habet dominium as it is recorded by Mat. Paris King John in the twelfth year of his Reign came over again into Ireland the Stories of that time say with a great army but the certain numbers are not recorded yet it is credible in regard of the troubles wherewith this King was distressed in England that this army was not of sufficient strength to make an entire Conquest of Ireland and if it had been of sufficient strength yet did not the King stay a sufficient time to perform so great an action for he came over in June and returned in September the same year Howbeit in that time the Irish Lords for the most part submitted themselves to him as they had done before to his Father which was but a mear mockery and imposture For his back was no sooner turned but they returned to their former Rebellion and yet this was reputed a second Conquest And so this King giving order for the building of some Castles upon the Borders of the English Colonies left behind him the Bishop of Norwich for the civil Government of the Land but he left no standing army to prosecute the conquest only the English Colonies which were already planted were left to themselves to maintain what they had got and to gain more if they could The personal presence of these two great Princes King Henry the second and King John though they performed no great thing with their armies gave such countenance to the English Colonies which encreased daily by the coming over of new Voluntaries and Adventurers out of England as that they enlarged their Territories very much Howbeit after this time the Kings of England either because they presumed that the English Colonies were strong enough to root out the Irish by degrees or else because they were diverted or
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
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
and are of better credit than any Monks story that during the Reign of King Edward the third the Revenue of the Crown of Ireland both certain and casual did not rise unto Ten thousand pound per annum though the Medium be taken of the best seven years that are to be found in that Kings time The like Fable hath Hollingshead touching the Revenue of the Earldom of Vlster which saith he in the time of King Richard the second was thirty thousand Marks by the year whereas in truth though the Lordships of Conaght and Meath which were then parcel of the inheritance of the Earl of Vlster be added to the accompt the Revenue of that Earldom came not to the third part of that he writeth For the Accompt of the profits of Vlster yet remaining in Breminghams Tower made by William fitz-Warren Seneshal and Farmour of the Lands in Vlster seized into the Kings hands after the death of Walter de Burgo Earl of Vlster from the fifth year of Edward the third until the eight year do amount but to nine hundred and odde pounds at what time the Irishry had not made so great an invasion upon the Earldome of Vlster as they had done in the time of King Richard the second As vain a thing it is that I have seen written in an ancient Manuscript touching the Customs of this Realm in the time of King Edward the third that those duties in those days should yearly amount to Ten thousand Marks which by mine own search and view of the Records here I can justly control For upon the late reducing of this ancient Inheritance of the Crown which had been detained in most of the Port-Towns of this Realm for the space of a hundred years and upwards I took some pains according to the duty of my place to visit all the Pipe-Rolls wherein the Accompts of Customs are contained and found those duties answered in every Port for two hundred and fifty years together but did not finde that at any time they did exceed a thousand pound per annum and no marvel for the subsidy of Pondage was not then known and the greatest profit did arise by the Cocquet of Hides for Wool and Wool-fels were ever of little value in this Kingdom But now again let us see how the Martial affairs proceeded in Ireland Sir William Winsor continued his government till the latter end of the Reign of King Edward the third keeping but not enlarging the English borders IN the beginning of the Reign of King Richard the second the State of England began to think of the recovery of Ireland For then was the first Statute made against Absentes commanding all such as had Land in Ireland to return and reside thereupon upon pain to forfeit two third parts of the profit thereof Again this King before himself intended to pass over committed the Government of this Realm to such great Lords successively as he did most love and favour First to the Earl of Oxford and chief Minion whom he created Marquess of Dublin and Duke of Ireland next to the Duke of Surry his half Brother and lastly to the Lord Mortimer Earl of March and Vlster his Cosin and Heir apparent Among the Patent Rolls in the Tower the ninth year of Richard the second we find five hundred men at Arms at twelve pence a piece per diem and a thousand Archers at six pence a piece per diem appointed for the Duke of Ireland Super Conquestu illius terrae per duos annos For those are the words of that Record But for the other two Lieutenants I do not find the certain numbers whereof their Armies did consist But certain it is that they were scarce able to defend the English borders much less to reduce the whole Island For one of them namely the Earl of March was himself slain upon the borders of Meath for revenge of whose death the King himself made his second voyage into Ireland in the last year of his Reign For his first voyage in the eighteenth year of his Reign which was indeed a Voyage-Royal was made upon another motive and occasion which was this Upon the vacancy of the Empire this King having married the King of Bohemiahs Daughter whereby he had great alliance in Germany did by his Ambassadors solicite the Princes Electors to choose him Emperor but another being elected and his Ambassadors returned he would needs know of them the cause of his repulse in that Competition They told him plainly that the Princes of Germany did not think him fit to Command the Empire who was neither able to hold that which his Ancestors had gained in France nor to rule his insolent Subjects in England nor to Master his Rebellious people of Ireland This was enough to kindle in the heart of a young Prince a desire to perform some great enterprize And therefore finding it no fit time to attempt France he resolved to finish the Conquest of Ireland and to that end he levied a mighty Army consisting of four thousand men at Arms and thirty thousand Archers which was a sufficient power to have reduced the whole Island if he had first broken the Irish with a War and after established the English Laws among them and not have been satisfied with their light submissions onely wherewith in all ages they have mockt and abused the State of England But the Irish Lords knowing this to be a sure pollicy to dissolve the forces which they were not able to resist for their Ancestors had put the same trick and imposture upon King John and King Henry the second as soon as the King was arrived with his army which he brought over under S. Edwards Banner whose name was had in great veneration amongst the Irish they all made offer to submit themselves Whereupon the Lord Thomas Mowbray Earl of Nottingham and Marshal of England was authorized by special Commission to receive the homages and Oaths of fidelity of all the Irishry of Leinster And the King himself having received humble Letters from Oneal wherein he stileth himself Prince of the Irishry in Vlster and yet acknowledgeth the King to be his Soveraign Lord perpetuus Dominus Hiberniae removed to Droghedah to accept the like submissions from the Irish of Vlster The Men of Leinster namely Mac Murrogh O Byrne O Moore O Murrogh O Nolan and the chief of the Kinshelaghes in an humble and solemn manner did their homages and made their Oaths of fidelity to the Earl Marshal laying aside their girdles their skeins and their Caps and falling down at his feet upon their knees Which when they had performed the Earl gave unto each of them Osculum pacis Besides they were bound by several Indentures upon great pains to be paid to the Apostolick Chamber not only to continue loyal subjects but that by a certain day prefixed they and all their Sword-men should clearly relinquish and give up unto 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
and York being ended and Henry the seventh being in the actual and peaceable possession of the Kingdom of England let us see if this King did send over a Competent Army to make a perfect Conquest of Ireland Assuredly if those two Idols or Counterfeits which were set up against him in the beginning of his Reign had not found footing and followers in this Land King Henry the seventh had sent neither Horse nor Foot hither but let the Pale to the Guard and defence of the Fraternity of Saint George which stood till the tenth year of his Reign And therefore upon the erection of the first Idol which was Lambert the Priests Boy he transmitted no Forces but sent over Sir Richard Edgecomb with Commission to take an Oath of Allegiance of all the Nobility Gentry and Citizens of this Kingdom which service he performed fully and made an exact return of his Commission to the King And immediately after that the King sent for all the Lords of Parliament in this Realm who repairing to his presence were first in a Kingly manner reproved by him for among other things he told them that if their King were still absent from them they would at length Crown Apes but at last entertained them and dismissed them graciously This course of clemency he held at first But after when Perkin Warbeck who was set up and foâ—lowed chiefly by the Giraldines in Leinster and Citizens of Cork in Munster to suppress this Counterfeit the King sent over Sir Edward Poynings with an Army as the Histories call it which did not consist of a thousand men by the Poll and yet it brought such terror with it as all the Adherents of Perkin Warbeck were scattered and retired for succour into the Irish Countreys to the Marches whereof he marched with his weak Forces but eft-soons returned and held a Parliament Wherein among many good Laws one Act was made That no Subject should make any War or Peace within the Land without the special Licence of the Kings Lieutenant or Deputy A manifest argument that at that time the bordering Wars in this Kingdom were made altogether by Voluntaries upon their own head without any pay or entertainment and without any Order or Commission from the State And though the Lords and Gentlemen of the Pale in the nineteenth of year of this Kings Reign joyned the famous Battel of Knocktow in Conaght wherein Mac William with four thousand of the Irish and degenerate Engglish were slain yet was not this journey made by Warrant from the King or upon his charge as it is expressed in the Book of Howth but onely upon a private quarrel of the Earl of Kildare so loosly were the Martial affairs of Ireland carried during the Reign of King Henry the seventh IN the time of King Henry the eighth the Earl of Surrey Lord Admiral was made Lieutenant and though he were the greatest Captain of the English Nation then living yet brought he with him rather an honorable Guard for his person than a competent Army to recover Ireland For he had in his Retinue two hundred tall Yeomen of the Kings Guard But because he wanted means to perform any great action he made means to return the sooner yet in the mean time he was not idle but passed the short time he spent here in holding a Parliament and divers journeys against the Rebels of Leinster insomuch as he was hurt in his own person upon the borders of Leix After the revocation of this honourable personage King Henry the eighth sent no Forces into Ireland till the Rebellion of the Giraldines which hapned in the seven and twentieth year of his Reign Then sent he over Sir William Skevington with five hundred men onely to quench that fire and not to enlarge the border or to rectifie the Government This Deputy dyed in the midst of the service so as the Lord Leonard Gray was sent to finish it Who arriving with a supply of two hundred men or thereabouts did so prosecute the Rebels as the Lord Garret their Chieftain and his five Uncles submitted themselves unto him and were by him transmitted into England But this service being ended that active Nobleman with his little Army and some aids of the Pale did oftentimes repel O Neal and O Donel attempting the invasion of the Civil Shires and at last made that prosperous fight at Belahoo on the Confines of Meath the memory whereof is yet famous as that he defeated well-nigh all the power of the North and so quieted the border for many years Hitherto then it is manifest that since the last transfretation of King Richard the second the Crown of England never sent over either numbers of men or quantities of treasure sufficient to defend the small Territory of the Pale much less to reduce that which was lost or to finish the Conquest of the whole Island After this Sir Anthony S. Leger was made chief Governor who performed great service in a Civil course as shall be expressed hereafter But Sir Edward Bellingham who succeeded him proceeded in a Martial course against the Irishry and was the first Deputy from the time of King Edward the third till the Reign of King Edward the sixth that extended the border beyond the limits of the English Pale by beating and breaking the Moors and Connors and building the Forts of Leix and Offaly This service he performed with six hundred horse the monethly charge whereof did arise to seven hundred and seventy pound And four hundred foot whose pay did amount to four hundred and forty six pound per mensem as appeareth upon the Treasurers Accompt remaining in the Office of the Kings Remembrancer in England Yet were not these Countreys so fully recovered by this Deputy but that Thomas Earl of Sussex did put the last hand to this work and rooting out these two rebellious Septs planted English Colonies in their rooms which in all the tumultuous times since have kept their Habitations their Loyalty and Religion And now are we come to the time of Queen ELIZABETH who sent over more men and spent more treasure to save and reduce the Land of Ireland than all her Progenitors since the Conquest DUring her Reign there arose three notorious and main Rebellions which drew several Armies out of England The first of Shane O Neal the second of Desmond the last of Tyrone for the particular insurrections of the Viscount Baltinglass and Sir Edmund Butler the Moors the Cavanaghes the Birnes and the Bourkes of Conaght were all suppressed by the standing Forces here To subdue Shane O Neal in the height of his Rebellion in the year 1566. Captain Randal transported a Regiment of one thousand men into Vlster and planted a Garrison at Loughfoâ—le Before the coming of which supply viz. in the year 1565. the List of the standing Army of Horse and foot Engâ—ish and
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
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
had no colour or shadow of Title to that great Lordship but only by grant from the Crown and by the Law of England for by the Irish Law he had been ranked with the meanest of his Sept yet in one of his Capitulations with the State he required that no Sheriff might have Jurisdiction within Tyrone and consequently that the Laws of England might not be executed there Which request was never before made by O Neale or any other Lord of the Irishry when they submitted themselves but contrariwise they were humble sutors to have the benefit and protection of the English Laws THis then I note as a great defect in the civil policy of this Kingdom in that for the space of three hundred and fifty years at least after the Conquest first attempted the English laws were not communicated to the Irish nor the benefit and protection thereof allowed unto them though they earnestly desired and sought the same For as long as they were out of the protection of the Law so as every English-man might oppress spoil and kill them without controulment how was it possible they should be other than Out-laws and Enemies to the Crown of England If the King would not admit them to the condition of Subjects how could they learn to acknowledge and obey him as their Soveraign When they might not converse or Commerce with any Civil Men nor enter into any Town or City without peril of their Lives whither should they flye but into the Woods and Mountains and there live in a wilde and barbarous manner If the English Magistrates would not rule them by the Law which doth punish Treason and Murder and Theft with death but leave them to be ruled by their own Lords and Laws why should they not embrace their own Brehon Law which punisheth no offence but with a Fine or Ericke If the Irish be not permitted to purchase Estates of Free-holds or Inheritance which might descend to their Children according to the course of our Common Law must they not continue their custom of Tanistrie which makes all their possessions uncertain and brings Confusion Barbarism and Incivility In a word if the English would neither in peace Govern them by the Law nor could in war root them out by the sword must they not needs be pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides till the worlds end and so the Conquest never be brought to perfection BUT on the other side If from the beginning the Laws of England had been established and the Brehon or Irish Law utterly abolished as well in the Irish Countries as the English Colonies If there had been no difference made between the Nations in point of Justice and protection but all had been governed by one Equal Just and Honourable Law as Dido speaketh in Virgil Tros Tyriusvè mihi nullo discrimine habetur If upon the first submission made by the Irish Lords to King Henry the second Quem in Regem Dominum receperunt saith Matth. Paris or upon the second submission made to King John when Plusquam viginti Reguli maximo timore perterriti homagium ei fidelitatem fecerunt as the same Author writeth or upon the third general submission made to King Richard the second when they did not only do Homage and fealty but bound themselves by Indentures and Oaths as is before expressed to become and continue loyal subjects to the Crown of England If any of these three Kings who came each of them twice in person into this Kingdom had upon these submissions of the Irishry received them all both Lords and Tenants into their immediate protection divided their several Countries into Counties made Sheriffs Coroners and Wardens of the peace therein sent Justices Itinerants half yearly into every part of the Kingdom as well to punish Malefactors as to hear and determine causes between party and party according to the course of the Laws of England taken surrenders of their Lands and Territories and granted Estates unto them to hold by English Tenures granted them Markers Fairs and other Franchises and erected Corporate Towns among them all which hath been performed since his Majesty came to the Crown assuredly the Irish Countries had long since been reformed and reduced to Peace Plenty and Civility which are the effects of Laws and good Government they had builded Houses planted Orchards and Gardens erected Town-ships and made provision for their posterities there had been a perfect Union betwixt the Nations and consequently a perfect Conquest of Ireland For the Conquest is never perfect till the war be at an end and the war is not at an end till their be peace and unity and there can never be Unity and Concord in any one Kingdom but where there is but one King one Allegiance and one Law TRue it is that King John made twelve shires in Leinster and Mounster namely Dublin Kildare Meth Vriel Catherlogh Kilkenny Wexford Waterford Corke Limerick Kerrie and Tipperary Yet these Counties did stretch no farther than the Lands of the English Colonies did extend In them only were the English Laws published and put in Execution and in them only did the Itinerant Judges make their circuits and visitations of Justice and not in the Countries possessed by the Irishry which contained two third parts of the Kingdom at least And therefore King Edward the first before the Court of Parliament was established in Ireland did transmit the Statutes of England in this form Dominus Rex mandavit Breve suum in haec verba Edwardus Dei gratia Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae c. Cancellario suo Hiberniae Salutem Quaedam statuta per nos de assensu Praelatorum Comitum Baronum Communitat regni nostri nuper apud Lincolne quaedam alia statuta postmodum apud Eborum facta quae in dicta terra nostra Hiberniae ad Communem utilitatem populi nostri ejusdem terrae observari volumus vobis mittimus sub sigillo nostro mandantes quod statuta illa in dicta Cancellaria nostra Custodiri ac in rotulis ejusdem Cancellariae irrotulari ad singulas placeas nostras in terra nostra Hiberniae singulos Commitatus ejusdem terrae mitti faciatis ministris nostris placearum illarum Vicecomitibus dictorum Comitatum mandantes quod statuta illa coram ipsis publicari ea in omnibus singulis Articulis suis observari firmiter faciatis Testè meipso apud Nottingham c. By which Writ and by all the Pipe-Rolls of that time it is manifest that the Laws of England were published and put in execution only in the Counties which were then made and limited and not in the Irish Countries which were neglected and left wilde and have but of late years been divided in one and twenty Counties more Again true it is that by the Statute of Kilkenny enacted in this Kingdom in the fortieth year of King Edward the Third the Brehon Law was
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
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
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
Irish did not exceed the number of twelve hundred men as appeareth by the Treasurers Accompt of Ireland now remaining in the Exchequer of England With these Forces did Sir Henry Sidney then Lord Deputy march into the farthest parts of Tirone and joyning with Captain Randal did much distress but not fully defeat O Neal who was afterwards slain upon a meer accident by the Scots and not by the Queens Army TO prosecute the Wars in Munster against Desmond and his Adherents there were transmitted out of England at several times three or four thousand men which together with the standing Garrisons and some other supplies raised here made at one time an Army of six thousand and upwards which with the Vertue and Valour of Arthur Lord Gray and others the Commanders did prove a sufficient power to extinguish that Rebellion But that being done it was never intended that these Forces should stand till the rest of the Kingdom were settled and reduced onely that Army which was brought over by the Earl of Essex Lord Lieutenant and Governor General of this Kingdom in the nine and thirtieth year of Queen Elizabeth to suppress the Rebellion of Tirone which was spread universally over the whole Realm That Army I say the command whereof with the Government of the Realm was shortly after transferred to the command of the Lord Montjoy afterwards Earl of Devonshire who with singular wisdom valour and industry did prosecute and finish the War did consist of such good men of War and of such numbers being well-nigh twenty thousand by the Poll and was so royally supplied and paid and continued in full strength so long a time as that it brake and absolutely subdued all the Lords and Chieftains of the Irishry and degenerate or rebellious English Whereupon the multitude who ever loved to be followers of such as could master and defend them admiring the power of the Crown of England being bray'd as it were in a Morter with the Sword Famine and Pestilence altogether submitted themselves to the English Government received the Laws and Magistrates and most gladly embraced the Kings Pardon and Peace in all parts of the Realm with demonstration of joy and comfort which made indeed an entire perfect and final Conquest of Ireland And though upon the finishing of the War this great Army was reduced to less numbers yet hath His Majestie in his Wisdom thought it fit still to maintain such competent Forces here as the Law may make her progress and Circuit about the Realm under the protection of the Sword as Virgo the figure of Justice is by Leo in the Zodiack until the people have perfectly learned the Lesson of Obedience and the Conquest be established in the hearts of all men THus far have I endeavoured to make it manifest that from the first adventure and attempt of the English to subdue and conquer Ireland until the last War with Tyrone which as it was Royally undertaken so it was really prosecuted to the end there hath been four main defects in the carriage of the Martial Affairs here First the Armies for the most part were too weak for a Conquest Secondly when they were of a competent strength as in both the journeys of Richard the second they were too soon broken up and dissolved Thirdly they were ill paid And fourthly they were ill governed which is always a consequent of ill payment BUt why was not this great work performed before the latter end of Queen Elizabeths Reign considering that many of the Kings her Progenitors were as great Captains as any in the World and had elsewhere larger Dominions and Territories First who can tell whether the Divine Wisdom to abate the glory of those Kings did not reserve this Work to be done by a Queen that it might rather appear to be his own immediate work And yet for her greater Honor made it the last of her great actions as it were to Crown all the rest And to the end that a secure peace might settle the Conquest and make it firm and perpetual to Posterity caused it to be made in that fulness of time when England and Scotland became to be united under one Imperial Crown and when the Monarchy of Great Britany was in League and Amity with all the World Besides the Conquest at this time doth perhaps fulfil that prophesie wherein the four great Prophets of Ireland do concur as it is recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis to this effect That after the first Invasion of the English they should spend many ages in crebris conflictibus longoque certamine multis caedibus And that Omnes fere Anglici ab Hibernia turbabuntur nihilominus orientalia maritima semper obtinebunt Sed vix paulo antè diem Judicii plenam Anglorum populo victoriam compromittunt Insula Hibernica de mari usque ad mare de toto subacta incastellata If S. Patrick and the rest did not utter this Prophesie certainly Giraldus is a Prophet who hath reported it To this we may adde the Prophesie of Merlin spoken of also by Giraldus Sextus moenia Hiberniae subvertet regiones in Regnum redigentur Which is performed in the time of King James the sixth in that all the paces are cleared and places of fastness laid open which are the proper Walls and Castles of the Irish as they were of the British in the time of Agricola and withall the Irish Countreys being reduced into Counties make but one entire and undivided Kingdom But to leave these high and obscure causes the plain and manifest truth is that the Kings of England in all ages had been powerful enough to make an absolute Conquest of Ireland if their whole power had been employed in that enterprize but still there arose sundry occasions which divided and diverted their power some other way Let us therefore take a brief view of the several impediments which arose in every Kings time since the first Overture of the Conquest whereby they were so employed and busied as they could not intend the final Conquest of Ireland KIng Henry the second was no sooner returned out of Ireland but all his four Sons conspired with his Enemies rose in Arms and moved War against him both in France and in England This unnatural Treason of his Sons did the King express in an Emblem painted in his Chamber at Winchester wherein was an Eagle with three Eglets tiring â—n her breast and the fourth pecking at one of her eyes And the troth is these ungracious practises of his Sons did impeach his journey to the Holy-Land which he had once vowed vexed him all the days of his life and brought his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave Besides this King having given the Lordship of Ireland to John his youngest Son â— his ingratitude afterwards made the King careless to settle him in the quiet and absolute possession of that Kingdom RIchard the first which succeeded
Lord of Desmond and Kerry within that County All these appear upon Record and were all as ancient as the time of King John onely the liberty of Tipperary which is the onely Liberty that remaineth at this day was granted to James Butler the first Earl of Ormond in the third year of King Edward the third These absolute Palatines made Barons and Knights did exercise high Justice in all points within their Territories erected Courts for Criminal and Civil Causes and for their own Revenues in the same form as the Kings Courts were established at Dublin made their own Judges Seneshals Sheriffs Coroners and Escheators so as the Kings Writ did not run in these Counties which took up more than two parts of the English Colonies but onely in the Church Lands lying within the same which were called the Cross wherein the King made a Sheriff And so in each of these Counties Palatines there were two Sheriffs One of the Liberty and another of the Cross As in Meath we find a Sheriff of the Liberty and a Sheriff of the Cross And so in Vlster and so in Wexford And so at this day the Earl of Ormond maketh a Sheriff of the Liberty and the King a Sheriff of the Cross of Tipperary Hereby it is manifest how much the Kings Jurisdiction was restrained and the power of these Lords enlarged by these High Priviledges And it doth further appear by one Article among others preferred to King Edward the third touching the Reformation of the state of Ireland which we find in the Tower in these words Item les Francheses grantes in Ireland que sont Roialles telles come Duresme Cestre vous oustont cybien de les profits Come de graunde partie de Obeisance des persons enfrancheses en quescum frenchese est Chancellerie Chequer conusans de pleas cybien de la Coronne Come autres communes grantont auxi Charters de pardon sont sovent per ley et reasonable cause seisses en vostre main a grand profit de vous leigerment restitues per maundement hors de Englettere a damage c. Unto which Article the King made answer Le Roy voet que les franchese que sont et serront per juste cause prises en sa main ne soent my restitues auant que le Roy soit certifie de la cause de la prise de acelles 26 Ed. 3. claus m. 1. Again these great Undertakers were not tied to any form of Plantation but all was left to their discretion and pleasure And although they builded Castles and made Free-holders yet were there no Tenures or Services reserved to the Crown but the Lords drew all the respect and dependancy of the common people unto Themselves Now let us see what inconveniences did arise by these large and ample Grants of Lands and Liberties to the first Adventurers in the Conquest ASsuredly by these Grants of whole Provinces and petty Kingdoms those few English Lords pretended to be Proprietors of all the Land so as there was no possibility left of settling the Natives in their Possessions and by consequence the conquest became impossible without the utter extirpation of all the Irish which these English Lords were not able to do nor perhaps willing if they had been able Notwithstanding because they did still hope to become Lords of those Lands which were possessed by the Irish whereunto they pretended Title by their large Grants and because they did fear that if the Irish were received into the Kings protection and made Liege-men and Free-Subjects the State of England would establish them in their Possessions by Grants from the Crown reduce their Countreys into Counties ennoble some of them and enfranchise all and make them amesueable to the Law which would have abridged and cut off a great part of that greatness which they had promised unto themselves they perswaded the King of England that it was unfit to communicate the Laws of England unto them that it was the best policy to hold them as Aliens and Enemies and to prosecute them with a continual War Hereby they obtained another Royal Prerogative and Power which was to make War and Peace at their pleasure in every part of the Kingdom Which gave them an absolute command over the bodies lands and goods of the English Subjects here And besides the Irish inhabiting the lands fully conquered and reduced being in condition of Slaves and Villains did render a greater Profit and Revenue than if they had been made the Kings Free-Subjects And for these two causes last expressed they were not willing to root out all the Irishry We may not therefore marvel that when King Edward the third upon the Petition of the Irish as is before remembred was desirous to be certified De voluntate magnatum suorum in proximo Parliamento in Hibernia tenend si sine alieno praejudicio concedere possit quod per statut inde fact Hibernici utantur legibus Anglicanis sive Chartis Regiis inde Impetrandis that there was never any Statute made to that effect For the troth is that those great English Lords did to the uttermost of their power cross and withstand the enfranchisement of the Irish for the causes before expressed Wherein I must still clear and acquit the Crown and State of England of negligence or ill policy and lay the fault upon the Pride Covetousness and ill counsel of the English planted here which in all former ages have been the chief impediments of the final conquest of Ireland AGain those large scopes of Land and great Liberties with the absolute power to make War and Peace did raise the English Lords to that height of Pride and Ambition as that they could not endure one another but grew to a mortal War and Dissention among themselves as appeareth by all the Records and Stories of this Kingdom First in the year 1204. the Lacies of Meath made War upon Sir John Courcy who having taken him by treachery sent him prisoner into England In the year 1210. King John coming over in person expelled the Lacies out of the Kingdom for their Tyrannie and oppression of the English howbeit upon payment of great Fines they were afterward restored In the year 1228. that family being risen to a greater heighth for Hugh de Lacy the younger was created Earl of Vlster after the death of Courcy without issue there arose dissention and War between that house and William Marshal Lord of Leinster whereby all Meath was destroyed and laid waste In the year 1264. Sir Walter Bourke having married the Daughter and Heir of Lacy whereby he was Earl of Vlster in right of his Wife had mortal debate with Maurice Fitz-Morice the Geraldine for certain Lands in Conaght So as all Ireland was full of Wars between the Bourkes and the Geraldines say our Annals Wherein Maurice Fitz-Morice grew so insolent as that upon a meeting at Thistledermot he took the Lord Justice himself
Henry the second in the Kingdom of England had less reason to bend his power towards the Conquest of this Land which was given in perpetuity to the Lord John his Brother And therefore went he in person to the Holy War by which journey and his Captivity in Austria and the heavy ransome that he paid for his liberty he was hindred and utterly disabled to pursue any so great an action as the Conquest of Ireland And after his delivery and return hardly was he able to maintain a Frontier War in Normandy where by hard fortune he lost his life KIng John his Brother had greatest reason to prosecute the War of Ireland because the Lordship thereof was the portion of his inheritance given unto him when he was called John Sans-Terre Therefore he made two journeys thither one when he was Earl of Morton and very young about twelve years of age the other when he was King in the twelfth year of his Reign In the the first his own youth and his youthful company Roboams Counsellors made him hazard the loss of all that his Father had won But in the latter he shewed a resolution to recover the entire Kingdom in taking the submissions of all the Irishry and settling the estates of the English and giving order for the building of many Castles and Forts whereof some remain until this day But he came to the Crown of England by a defeasible Title so as he was never well settled in the hearts of the people which drew him the sooner back out of Ireland into England where shortly after he fell into such trouble and distress The Clergy cursing him on the one side and the Barons Rebelling against him on the other as he became so far unable to return to the Conquest of Ireland as besides the forfeiture of the Territories in France he did in a manner lose both the Kingdoms For he surrendred both to the Pope and took them back again to hold in Fee-farm which brought him into such hatred at home and such contempt abroad as all his life time after he was possest rather with fear of loosing his head than with hope of reducing the Kingdom of Ireland DUring the infancy of Henry the third the Barons were troubled in expelling the French whom they had drawn in against King John But this Prince was no sooner come to his majority but the Barons raised a long and cruel war against him Into these troubled waters the Bishops of Rome did cast their Nets and drew away all the wealth of the realm by their provisions and infinite exactions whereby the Kingdom was so impoverished as the King was scarce able to feed his own houshold and train much less to nourish Armies for the conquest of Forraign Kingdoms And albeit he had given this Land to the Lord Edward his eldest son yet could not that worthy Prince ever find means or opportunity to visit this Kingdom in person For from the time he was able to bear armes he served continually against the Barons by whom he was taken prisoner at the battel of Lewes And when that rebellion was appeased he made a journey to the Holy Land an employment which in those dayes diverted all Christian Princes from performing any great actions in Europe from whence he was returned when the Crown of England descended upon him THis King Edward the first who was a Prince adorned with all vertues did in the managing of his affairs shew himself a right good husband who being Owner of a Lordship ill husbanded doth first enclose and mannure his demeasnes near his principal house before he doth improve his wasts afar off Therefore he began first to establish the Common-wealth of England by making many excellent Laws and instituting the form of publick Justice which remaineth to this day Next he fully subdued and reduced the Dominion of Wales then by his power and authority he setled the Kingdom of Scotland and lastly he sent a Royal army into Cascoigne to recover the Dutchy of Aquitain These four great actions did take up all the raign of this Prince And therefore we find not in any Record that this King transmitted any Forces into Ireland but on the other side we find it recorded both in the Annals and in the Pipe-Rolls of this Kingdom that three several Armies were raised of the Kings subjects in Ireland and transported one into Scotland another into Wales and the third into Cascoigne and that several aids were levyed here for the setting forth of those armies THe Son and Successor of this excellent Prince was Edward the second who much against his will sent one small army into Ireland not with a purpose to finish the Conquest but to guard the person of his Minion Piers Gaveston who being banished out of England was made Lieutenant of Ireland that so his exile might seem more honourable He was no sooner arrived here but he made a journey into the Mountains of Dublin brake and subdued the Rebels there built New-Castle in the Birnes Country and repaired Castlekeuin and after passed up into Mounster and Thomond performing every where great service with much Vertue and Valour But the King who could not live without him revokt him within less than a year After which time the invasion of the Scots and Rebellion of the Barons did not only disable this King to be a Conqueror but deprived him both of his Kingdom and life And when the Scottish nation had over-run all this land under the conduct of Edw. le Bruce who stiled himself King of Ireland England was not then able to send either men or mony to save this Kingdom Only Roger de Mortimer then Justice of Ireland arrived at Youghall cum 38. milit saith Friar Clinn in his Annals But Bremingham Verdon Stapleton and some other private Gentlemen rose out with the Commons of Meth and Vriel and at Fagher near Dondalke a fatal place to the enemies of the Crown of England overthrew a potent army of them Et sic saith the red Book of the Exchequer wherein the victory was briefly recorded per manus communis populi dextram dei deliberatur populus dei a servitute machinata praecogitata IN the time of King Edward the third the impediments of the Conquest of Ireland are so notorious as I shall not need to express them to wit the war which the King had with the Realms of Scotland and of France but especially the Wars of France which were almost continual for the space of forty years And indeed France was a fairer mark to shoot at than Ireland and could better reward the Conqueror Besides it was an inheritance newly descended upon the King and therefore he had great reason to bend all his power and spend all his time and treasure in the recovery thereof And this is the true cause why Edward the third sent no army into Ireland till the 36. year of his