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
are yet preserved in Breminghams Tower this Case is adjudged Simon Neal brought an action of Trespass against William Newlagh for breaking his Close in Clandalkin in the County of Dublin the Defendant doth plead that the Plaintiff is Hibernicus non de Quinque sanguinibus and demandeth Judgement if he shall be answered The Plaintiff replieth Quod ipse est de quinque sanguinibus viz De les Oneiles de Vlton qui per Concessionem progenitorum Domini Regis Libertatibus Anglicis gaudere debent utuntur proliberis hominibus reputantur The Defendant rejoyneth that the Plaintiff is not of the Oneals of Vlster Nec de quinque sanguinibus And thereupon they are at issue Which being found for the Plaintiff he had Judgement to recover his damages against the Defendant By this Record it appeareth that five principal Bloods or Septs of the Irishry were by special grace enfranchised and enabled to take benefit of the Laws of England And that the Nation of ô Neals in Vlster was one of the five And in the like case 3 of Edward the second among the Plea-Rolls in Breminghams Tower All the five Septs or Bloods Qui gaudeant lege Anglicana quoad brevia portanda are expressed namely Oneil de Vltonia O Molaghlin de Minia O Connoghor de Connacia O Brin de Thotmonia Mac Murrogh de Lagenia And yet I find that O Neal himself long after viz. in 20 Edw. 4. upon his marriage with a Daughter of the house of Kildare to satisfie the friends of the Lady was made denizen by a special Act of Parliament 20 Edw. 4. C. 8. Again in the 29 of Edw 1. before the Justices in Eire at Droghedah Thomas le Botteler brought an action of Detinue against Robert de Almain for certain goods The Defendant pleadeth Quod non tenetur ei inde respondere eo quod est Hibernicus non de libero sanguine Et praedictus Thomas dicit quod Anglicus est hoc petit quod inquiratur per patriam Ideo fiat inde Jurat c. Jurat dicunt super Sacrament suum quod praedict Thomas Anglicus est ideo consideratum est quod recuperet c. These two Records among many other do sufficiently shew that the Irish were disabled to bring any actions at the Common Law Touching their Denizations they were common in every Kings Reign since Henry the second and were never out of use till His Majestie that now is came to the Crown Among the Pleas of the Crown of 4. Edw. 2. we finde a Confirmation made by Edward the first of a Charter of Denization granted by Henry the second to certain Oostmen or Easterlings who were Inhabitants of Waterford long before Henry the second attempted the Conquest of Ireland Edwardus Dei gratia c. Justitiario suo Hiberniae Salutem Quia per Inspectionem Chartae Dom. Hen. Reg. filii Imperatricis quondam Dom. Hiberniae proavi nostri nobis Constat quod Ostmanni de Waterford legem Anglicorum in Hibernia habere secundum ipsam legam Judicari deduci debènt vobis mandamus quod Gillicrist Mac Gilmurrii Willielmum Johannem Mac Gilmurrii alios Ostmannos de civitate Comitatu Waterford qui de predictis Ostmannis praedict Dom. Henr. proavi nostri originem duxerunt legem Anglicorum in partibus illis juxta tenorem Chartae praedict habere eos secundum ipsam legem quantum in nobis est deduci faciatis donec aliud de Consilio nostro inde duxerimus ordinand In cujus rei c. Teste meipso apud Acton Burnell 15. Octobris anno regni nostri undecimo Again among the Patent Rolls of 1 Edward the fourth remaining in the Chancery here we finde a Patent of Denization granted the 13 of Edward the first in these words Edwardus Dei gratia Rex Angliae Dom. Hiberniae Dux Aquitaniae c. Omnibus Ballivis fidelibus suis in Hibernia Salutem Volentes Christophero filio Donaldi Hibernico gratiam sacere specialem concedimus pro nobis haeredibus nostris quod idem Christopherus hanc habeat libertatem viz. Quod ipse de catero in Hibernia utatur legibus Anglicanis prohibemus ne quisquam contra hanc concessionem nostram dictum Christopherum vexet in aliquo vel perturbet In cujus rei Testimonium c. Teste meipso apud Westm 27. die Junii anno regni nostri 13. In the same Roll we finde another Charter of Denization granted in the first of Edward the fourth in a more larger and beneficial form Edw. Dei gratia c. Omnibus Ballivis c. Salutem Sciatis quod nos volentes Willielmum O Bolgir capellanum de Hibernica Natione existentem favore prosequi gratioso de gratia nostra speciali c. Concessimus eidem Willielmo quod ipse liberi sit Status liberae conditionis ab omni servitute Hibernicâ liber quietus quod ipse legibus Anglicanis in omnibus per omnia uti possit gaudere eodem modo quo homines Anglici infra dictam terram eas habent iis gaudent utuntur quodque ipse respondeat respondeatur in quibuscumque Curiis nostris ac omnimod terras tenementa redditus servitia perquirere possit sibi haere dibus suis imperpetuum c. If I should collect out of the Records all the Charters of this kind I should make a Volume thereof but these may suffice to shew that the meer Irish were not reputed free Subjects nor admitted to the benefit of the Laws of England until they had purchased Charters of Denization Lastly the meer Irish were not onely accounted Aliens but Enemies and altogether out of the Protection of the Law so as it was no capital Offence to kill them and this is manifest by many Records At a Gaol-delivery at Waterford before John Wogan Lord Justice of Ireland the fourth of Edward the second we finde it recorded among the Pleas of the Crown of that year Quod Robertus le Wayleys rectatus de morte Johannis filii Juor Mac Gillemory felonice per ipsum interfecti c Venit bene cognovit quod praedictum Johannem interfecit dicit tamon quod peri◠ejus interfectionem feloniam committere non potuit quia dicit quod praedictus Johannes fuit purus Hibernicus non de libero sanguine c. Et cum Dominus dicti Johannis cujus Hibernicus idem Johannes suit die quo interfectus fuit solutionem pro ipso Johanne Hibernico suo sic interfecto petere voluerit ipse Robertus paratus erat ad respondend ' de solutione praedict prout Justitia suadebit Et super hoc venit quidam Johannes le Poer dicit pro Domino Rege quod praedict Iohannes filius Iuor Mac Gillemory antecessores sui de cognonime praedict à tempore quo Dominus Henricus filius Imperatricis quondam Dominus
of King Henry the third for the eldest being married to Hugh Bigot Earl of Norfolk who in right of his wife had the Marshalship of England The second to Warren de Mountchensey whose sole Daughter and Heir was match to William de Valentia half Brother to King Henry the third who by that match was made Earl of Pembroke the third to Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester The fourth to William Ferrers Earl of Darby The fifth to William de Bruce Lord of Brecknock These great Lords having greater inheritances in their own right in England than they had in Ireland in right of their Wives and yet each of the Coparceners had an entire County allotted for her purparty as is before declared could not be drawn to make their personal residence in this Kingdom but managed their Estates here by their Seneschals and Servants And to defend their Territories against the bordering Irish they entertained some of the Natives who pretended a perpetual Title to those great Lordships For the Irish after a thousand conquests and Attainders by our Law would in those days pretend title still because by the Irish Law no man could forfeit his Land These natives taking the opportunity in weak and desperate times usurped those Seigniories and so Donald mac Art Cavanagh being entertained by the Earl of Nolfork made himself Lord of the County of Catherlough And Lisagh O Moor being trusted by the Lord Mortimer who married the Daughter and Heir of the Lord Bruce made himself Lord of the lands in Leix in the latter end of King Edward the seconds Reign as is before declared Again the decay and loss of Vlster and Connaught is attributed to this that the Lord William Bourk the last Earl of that name died without issue male whose Ancestors namely the Red Earl and Sir Hugh de Lacy before him being personally resident held up their greatness there and kept the English in peace and the Irish in awe But when those Provinces descended upon an Heir Female and an Infant the Irish over-ran Vlster and the younger branches of the Bourkes usurped Connaught And therefore the Ordinance made in England the third of Richard the second against such as were absent from their Lands in Ireland and gave two third parts of the profits thereof unto the King until they returned or placed a sufficient number of men to defend the same was grounded upon good reason of State which Ordinance was put in execution for many years after as appeareth by sundry seizures made thereupon in the time of K. Richard the second Henry the fourth Henry the fifth Henry the sixth whereof there remain Records in the Remembrancers Office here Among the rest the Duke of Norfolk himself was not spared but was impleaded upon this Ordinance for two parts of the profits of Dorburies Island and other Lands in the County of Wexford in the time of King Henry the sixth And afterwards upon the same reason of State all the lands of the house of Norfolk of the Earl of Shrewsbury the Lord Barkley and others who having lands in Ireland kept their continual residence in England were entirely resumed by the Act of Absentees made in the 28 year of King Henry the eigth But now again let us look back and see how long the effect of that Reformation did continue which was begun by Lionel Duke of Clarence in the fortieth year of King Edward the third and what courses have been held to reduce and reform this people by other Lieutenants and Governors since that time The English Colonies being in some good measure reformed by the Statutes of Kilkenny did not utterly fall away into Barbarism again till the Wars of the two Houses had almost destroyed both these Kingdoms for in that miserable time the Irish found opportunity without opposition to banish the English Law and Government out of all the Provinces and to confine it onely to the English Pale Howbeit in the mean time between the Government of the Duke of Clarence and the beginning of those Civil Wars of York and Lancaster we find that the State of England did sundry times resolve to proceed in this work of reformation For first King Richard 2. sent over Sir Nicholas Dagworth to survey the possessions of the Crown and to call to accompt the Officers of the revenue Next to draw his English Subjects to manure and defend their lands in Ireland he made that Ordinance against Absentees spoken of before Again he shewed an excellent example of Justice upon Sir Philip Courtney being his Lieutenant of that Kingdom when he caused him to be arrested by special Commissioners upon complaint made of sundry grievous oppressions and wrongs which during his Government he had done unto that people After this the Parliament of England did resolve that Thomas Duke of Glocester the Kings Uncle should be imployed in the reformation and reducing of that Kingdom the Fame whereof was no sooner bruted in Ireland but all the Irishry were ready to submit themselves before his coming so much the very Name of a great personage specially of a Prince of the blood did ever prevail with this people But the King and his Minions who were ever jealous of this Duke of Glocester would not suffer him to have the honour of that service But the King himself thought it a work worthy of his own presence and pains and thereupon Himself in person made those two royal journeys mentioned before At what time he received the submissions of all the Irish Lords and Captains who bound themselves both by Indenture and oath to become and continue his Loyal Subjects And withall laid a particular project for a civil plantation of the Mountains and Maritime Counties between Dublin and Wexford by removing all the Irish Septs from thence as appeareth by the covenants between the Earl Marshal of England and those Irish Septs which are before remembred and are yet preserved and remain of Record in the Kings Remembrancers Office at Westminster Lastly this King being present in Ireland took special care to supply and furnish the Courts of Justice with able and sufficient Judges And to that end he made that Grave and Learned Judge Sir William Hankeford Chief Justice of the Kings Bench here who afterwards for his service in this Realm was made chief Justice of the Kings Bench in England by King Henry 4. and did withall associate unto him William Sturmy a well Learned man in the law who likewise came out of England with the King that the legal proceedings which were out of order too as all other things in that Realm were might be amended and made formal according to the course and Presidents of England But all the good purposes and projects of this King were interrupted and utterly defeated by his suddain departure out of Ireland and unhappy deposition from the Crown of England HOwbeit King Henry the fourth intending likewise to prosecute this Noble
in this Vineyard since the beginning of his Majesties happy raign I shall therefore summarily without any amplification at all shew in what manner and by what degrees all the defects which I have noted before in the Government of this Kingdom have been supplyed since his Majesties happy Raign began and so conclude these observations concerning the State of Ireland FIrst then touching the Martial affairs I shall need to say little in regard that the War which finished the Conquest of Ireland was ended almost in the instant when the Crown descended upon his Majesty and so there remained no occasion to amend the former errors committed in the prosecution of the War Howbeit sit hence his Majesty hath still maintained an Army here as well For a Seminary of Martial men as to Give strength and countenance to the civil Magistrate I may justly observe that this army hath not been fed with Coign and Livery or Sess with which Extortions the Souldier hath been nourished in the times of former Princes but hath been as justly and royally paid as ever Prince in the world did pay his men of war Besides when there did arise an occasion of employment for this Army against the Rebel Odoghertie neither did his Majestie delay the re-inforcing thereof but instantly sent supplies out of England and Scotland neither did the Martial men dally or prosecute the Service faintly but Did forthwith quench that fire whereby themselves would have been the warmer the longer it had continued as well by the encrease of their entertainment as by booties and spoil of the Countrey And thus much I thought fit to note touching the amendment of the Errours in the Martial affairs SEcondly For the supply of the Defects in the Civil Government these courses have been pursued since His Majesties prosperous Reign began First albeit upon the end of the War whereby Tyrones universal Rebellion was supprest the mindes of the people were broken and prepared to Obedience of the law yet the State upon good reason did conceive that the publick peace could not be settled till the hearts of the people were also quieted by securing them from the danger of the Law which the most part of them had incurred one way or other in that great and general confusion Therefore first by a general Act of State called the Act of oblivion published by Proclamation under the Great-Seal All offences against the Crown and all particular Trespasses between Subject and Subject done at any time before His Majesties Reign were to all such as would come in to the Justices of Assize by a certain day and claim the benefit of this Act pardoned remitted and utterly extinguished never to be revived or called in question And by the same Proclamation all the Irishry who for the most part in former times were left under the tyrannie of their Lords and Chieftains and had no defence or Justice from the Crown were received into his Majesties immediate protection This bred such comfort and security in the hearts of all men as there upon ensued the calmest and most universal peace that ever was seen in Ireland The publick peace being thus established the State proceeded next to establish the publick Justice in every part of the Realm And to that end Sir George Cary who was a prudent Governor and a just and made a fair entry into the right way of reforming this Kingdom did in the first year of His Majesties Reign make the first Sheriffs that ever were made in Tyrone and Tirconnel and shortly after sent Sir Edmund Pelham Chief Baron and my self thither the first Justices of Assize that ever sat in those Countreys and in that Circuit we visited all the shires of that Provinces besides which Visitation though it were somewhat distasteful to the Irish Lords was sweet and most welcome to the common people who albeit they were rude and barbarous yet they quickly apprehended the difference between the Tyrannie and Oppression under which they lived before and the just Government and Protection which we promised unto them for the time to come The Law having made her Progress into Vlster with so good success Sir Arthur Chichester who with singular Industry Wisdom and Courage hath now for the space of seven years and more prosecuted the great work of Reformation and brought it well-neer to an absolute perfection did in the first year of his Government establish two other New Circuits for Justices of Assize the one in Conaght and the other in Munster I call them New Circuits for that although it be manifest by many Records that Justices Itinerant have in former times been sent into all the shires of Munster and some part of Conaght yet certain it is that in two hundred years before I speak much within compass no such Commission had been executed in either of these two Provinces But now the whole Realm being divided into Shires and every bordering Territory whereof any doubt was made in what County the same should lie being added or reduced to a County certain among the rest the Mountains and Glyns on the South side of Dublin were lately made a Shire by it self and called the County of Wicklow whereby the Inhabitants which were wont to be Thorns in the side of the Pale are become civil and quiet Neighbours thereof the streams of the Publick Justice were derived into every part of the Kingdom and the benefit and protection of the Law of England communicated to all as well Irish as English without distinction or respect of persons by reason whereof the work of deriving the publick Justice grew so great as that there was Magna messis sed Operarii pauci And therefore the number of the Judges in every Bench was increased which do now every half year like good Planets in their several Sphaeres or Circles carry the â—ight and influence of Justice round about the Kingdom whereas the Circuits in former times went but round about the Pale like the Circuit of the Cinosura about the Pole Quae cursu interiore brevi convertitur orbe UPon these Visitations of Justice whereby the iust and honourable Law of England was imparted and communicated to all the Irishry there followed these excellent good effects First the common people were taught by the Justices of Assize that they were free Subjects to the Kings of England and not Slaves and Vassals to their pretended Lords That the Cuttings Cosheries Sessings and other Extortions of their Lords were unlawful and that they should not any more submit themselves thereunto since they were now under the protection of so just and mighty a Prince as both would and could protect them from all wrongs and oppressions They gave a willing ear unto these Lessons and thereupon the greatness and power of those Irish Lords over the people suddenly fell and vanished when their Oppressions and Extortions were taken away which did maintain their greatness Insomuch as divers of them who formerly