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
time was securely setled in peace and Obedience and hath attained to that Civility of Manners and plenty of all things as now we find it not inferiour to the best parts of England I will therefore knit up this point with these conclusions First that the Kings of England which in former Ages attempted the Conquest of Ireland being ill advised and counselled by the great men here did not upon the submissions of the Irish communicate their Laws unto them nor admit them to the state and condition of Free-subjects Secondly that for the space of 200. years at â—east after the first arrival of Henry the second in Ireland the Irish would gladly have embraced the Laws of England and did earnestly desire the benefit and protection thereof which being denyed them did of necessity cause a continual bordering war between the English and the Irish And lastly if according to the examples before recited they had reduced as well the Irish Countries as the English Colonies under one form of civil government as now they are the Meers and Bounds of the Marches and Borders had been long since worne out and forgotten for it is not fit as Cambrensis writeth that a King of an Island should have any Marches or Borders but the four Seas both Nations had been incorporated and united Ireland had been entirely Conquered Planted and Improved and returned a rich Revenue to the Crâ—wn of England THE next error in the Civil pollicy which hindered the perfection of the Conquest of Ireland did consist in the Distribution of the Lands and Possessions which were won and conquered from the Irish For the Scopes of Land which were granted to the first Adventures were too large and the Liberties and Royalties which they obtained therein were too great for Subjects though it stood with reason that they should be rewarded liberally out of the fruits of their own Labours since they did Militare propriis stipendiis and received no pay from the Crown of England Notwithstanding there ensued divers inconveniences that gave great impediment to the Conquest FIrst the Earl Strongbow was entituled to the whole Kingdom of Leinster partly by Invasion and partly by Marriage albeit he surrendred the same entirely to King Henry the second his Soveraign for that with his license he came over and with the Ayd of his Subjects he had gained that great inheritance yet did the King regrant back again to him and his Heirs all that Province reserving onely the City of Dublin and the Cantreds next adjoyning with the Maritime Towns and principal Forts and Castles Next the same King granted to Robert Fitz-Stephen and Miles Cogan the whole Kingdom of Cork from Lismore to the Sea To Phillip Bruce he gave the whole Kingdom of Limerick with the Donation of Bishopwricks and Abbies except the City and one Cantred of land adjoyning To Sir Hugh de Lacy all Meath To Sir John de Courcy all Vlster To William Burke Fitz-Adelm the greatest part of Conaght In like manner Sir Thomas de Clare obtained a grant of all Thomond and Otho de Grandison of all Tipperary and Robert le Poer of the Territory of Waterford the City it self and the Cantred of the Oastmen only excepted And thus was all Ireland Cantonized among ten persons of the English Nation and though they had not gained the possession of one third part of the whole Kingdom yet in Title they were Owners and Lords of all so as nothing was left to be granted to the Natives And therefore we do not find in any Record or story for the space of three hundred years after these Adventurers first arived in Ireland that any Irish Lord obtained a grant of his Country from the Crown but onely the King of Thomond who had a grant but during King Henry the third his Minority and Rotherick O Connor King of Conaght to whom King Henry the second before this distribution made did grant as is before declared Vt sit Rex sub eo and moreover Vt teneat terram suam Conactiae it a bene in pace sicut tenuit antequam Dominus Rex intravit Hiberniam And whose Successor in the 24 of Henry the third when the Bourkes had made a strong Plantation there and had well-nigh expelled him out of his Territory he came over into England as Matth. Paris writeth and made complaint to King Henry the third of this Invasion made by the Bourkes upon his Land insisting upon the grants of King Henry the second and King John and affirming that he had duely paid an yearly tribute of five thousand marks for his Kingdom Whereupon the King called unto him the Lord Maurice fitz-Girald who was then Lord Justice of Ireland and President in the Court and commanded him that he should root out that unjust plantation which Hubert Earl of Kent had in the time of his greatness planted in those parts and wrote withal to the great men of Ireland to remove the Bourks and to establish the King of Conaght in the quiet possession of his Kingdom Howbeit I do not read that the King of Englands commandment or direction in this behalf was ever put in execution For the troth is Richard de Burgo had obtained a grant of all Conaght after the death of the King of Conaght then living For which he gave a thousand pound as the Record in the Tower reciteth the third of Henry the third claus 2. And besides our great English Lords could not endure that any Kings should Reign in Ireland but themselves nay they could hardly endure that the Crown of England it self should have any Jurisdiction or Power over them For many of these Lords to whom our Kings had granted these petty Kingdoms did by vertue and colour of these Grants claim and exercise Jura Regalia within their Territories insomuch as there were no less than eight Counties Palatines in Ireland at one time For William Marshal Earl of Pembroke who married the Daughter and Heir of Strongbow being Lord of all Leinster had Royal Jurisdiction thoroughout all that Province This great Lord had five sons and five daughters every of his sons enjoyed that Seigniory successively and yet all dyed without issue Then this great Lordship was broken and divided and partition made between the five daughters who were married into the Noblest Houses of England The County of Catherlough was allotted to the eldest Wexford to the secâ—nd Kilkenny to the third Kildare to the fourth the greatest part of Leix now called the Queens County to the fifth In every of these portions the Ceparceners severally exercised the same Jurisdiction Royal which the Earl Marshal and his Sons had used in the whole Province Whereby it came to pass that there were five County Palatines erected in Leinster Then had the Lord of Meath the same Royal liberty in all that Territory the Earl of Vlster in all that Province and the
of Vlster a man of courage and severity was made Lord Justice who forthwith calling a Parliament sent a special Commandment to the Earl of Desmond to appear in that great Councel but the Earl wilfully refused to come Whereupon the Lord Justice raised the Kings Standard and marching with an Army into Munster seized into the Kings hands all the possessions of the Earl took and executed his principal followers Sir Eustace le Poer Sir William Graunt and Sir John Cotterell enforced the Earl himself to fly and lurk till 26. Noblemen and Knights became Mainpernors for his appearance at a certain day prefixed But he making default the second time the uttermost advantage was taken against his sureties Besides at the same time this Lord Justice caused the Earl of Kildare to be arrested and committed to the Castle of Dublin indited and imprisoned many other disobedient Subjects called in and cancelled such Charters asw ere lately before resumed and proceeded every way so roundly and severely as the Nobility which were wont to suffer no controulment did much distaste him and the Commons who in this Land have ever been more devoted to their immediate Lords here whom they saw every day than unto their Soveraign Lord and King whom they never saw spake ill of this Governor as of a rigorous and cruel man though in troth he were a singular good Justicer and if he had not dyed in the second year of his Government was the likeliest person of that Age to have reformed and reduced the degenerate English Colonies to their natural obedience of the Crown of England THus much then then we may observe by the way that Maurice Fitz-Thomas the first Earl of Desmond was the first English Lord that imposed Coign and Livery upon the Kings Subjects and the first that raised his Estate to immoderate greatness by that wicked Extortion and Oppression that he was the first that rejected the English Laws and Government and drew others by his example to do the like that he was the first Peer of Ireland that refused to come to the Parliament summoned by the Kings Authority that he was the first that made a division and distinction between the English of blood and the English of birth AND as this Earl was the onely Author and first Actor of these mischiefs which gave the greatest impediment to the full Conquest of Ireland So it is to be noted that albeit others of his rank afterwards offended in the same kinde whereby their Houses were many times in danger of ruine yet was there not ever any Noble house of English race in Ireland utterly destroyed and finally rooted out by the hand of Justice but the house of Desmond onely nor any Peer of this Realm ever put to death though divers have been attainted but Tho Fitz-James the Earl of Desmond onely and onely for those wicked customs brought in by the first Earl and practised by his posterity though by several Laws they were made High-Treason And therefore though in the 7 of Edward the 4. during the Government of the Lord Tiptoft Earl of Worcester both the Earls of Desmond and Kildare were attainted by Parliament at Droghedah for alliance and fostering with the Irish and for taking Coigne and Livery of the Kings Subjects yet was Desmond onely put to death for the Earl of Kildare received his pardon And albeit the son of this Earl of Desmond who lost his head at Droghedah were restored to the Earldom yet could not the Kings grace regenerate obedience in that degenerate house but it grew rather more wilde and barbarous than before For from thenceforth they reclaimed a strange priviledge That the Earls of Desmond should never come to any Parliament or Grand Council or within any walled Town but at their will and pleasure Which pretended Priviledge James Earl of Desmond the Father of Girald the last Earl renounced and surrendred by his Deed in the Chancery of Ireland in the 32 of Henry the eighth At what time among the meer Irishry he submitted himself to Sir Anthony Saint-Leger then Lord Deputy took an Oath of Allegiace Covenanted that he would suffer the Law of England to be executed in his Countrey and assist the Kings Judges in their Circuits and if any Subsidies should be granted by Parliament he would permit the same to be levied upon his Tenents and followers Which Covenants are as strange as the priviledge it self spoken of before But that which I conceive most worthy of Observation upon the fortunes of the house of Desmond is this that as Maurice Fitz-Thomas the first Earl did first raise the greatness of that house by Irish exactions and oppressions so Girald the last Earl did at last ruine and reduce it to nothing by using the like extortions For certain it is that the first occasion of his Rebellion grew from hence that when he attempted to charge the Decies in the County of Waterford with Coigne and Livery Black Rents and Cosheâ—ies after the Irish manner he was resisted by the Earl of Ormond and upon an encounter overthrown and taken prisoner which made his heart so unquiet as it easily conceived Treason against the Crown and brought forth actual and open Rebellion wherein he perished himself and made a final extinguishment of his house and honor Oppression and extortion did maintain the greatness and oppression and extortion did extinguish the greatness of that house Which may well be exprest by the old Emblem of a Torch turned downwards with this word Quod me alit extinguit NOw let us return to the course of Reformation held and pursued here after the death of Sir Raphe Vfford which hapned in the twentieth year of King Edward 3. After which time aâ—beâ—t all the power and Council of England was converted towards the conquest of France yet was not the work of Reformation altogether discontinued For in the 25 year of King Edward the third Sir Thomas Rookeby another worthy Governor whom I have once before named held a Parliament at Kilkenny wherein many excellent Laws were propounded and enacted for the reducing of the English Colonies to their obedience which Laws we finde enrolled in the Remembrancers Office here and differ not much in substance from those other Statutes of Kilkenny which not long after during the Government of Lionel Duke of Clarence were not onely enacted but put in execution This noble Prince having married the Daughter and Heir of Vlster and being likewise a Coparcener of the County of Kilkenny in the 36 year of King Edward the third came over the Kings Lieutenant attended with a good Retinue of Martial men as is before remembred and a grave and honorable Council as well for peace as for war But because this Army was not of a competent strength to break and subdue all the Irishry although he quieted the borders of the English Pale and held all Ireland in awe with his name and presence The principal service that
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
Sir Richard Capel Prisoner with divers Lords of Munster being then in his Company In the year 1288. Richard Bourke Earl of Vlster commonly called the Red Earl pretending title to the Lordship of Meath made war upon Sir Theobald de Verdun and besieged him in the Castle of Athlone Again in the year 1292. John Fitz-Thomas the Geraldine having by contention with the Lord Vesci gotten a goodly inheritance in Kildare grew to that heighth of imagination saith the story as he fell into difference with divers great Noblemen and among many others with Richard the Red Earl whom he took Prisoner and detained him in Castle-Ley and by that dissention the English on the one side and the Irish on the other did waste and destroy all the Countrey After in the year 1311. the same Red Earl coming to besiege Bonratty in Thomond which was then held by Sir Richard de Clare as his inheritance was again taken prisoner And all his Army consisting for the most part of English overthrown and cut in pieces by Sir Richard de Clare And after this again in the year 1327. most of the great Houses were banded one against another viz. The Giraldines Butlers and Breminghams on the one side and the Bourks and Poers on the other The ground of the quarrel being none other but that the Lord Arnold Poer had called the Earl of Kildare Rimer But this quarrel was prosecuted with such malice and violence as the Counties of Waterford and Kilkenny were destroyed with fire and sword till a Parliament was called of purpose to quiet this dissention Shortly after the Lord John Bremingham who was not long before made Earl of Louth for that noble service which he performed upon the Scots between â—undalk and the Faher was so extremely envied by the Gernons Verdons and others of the ancient Colony planted in the County of Louth as that in the year 1329. they did most wickedly betray and murther that Earl with divers principal Gentlemen of his name and family using the same speech that the Rebellious Jews are said to use in the Gospel Nolumus hunc regnare super nos After this the Geraldines and the Butlers being become the most potent families in the Kingdom for the great Lordship of Leinster was divided among Coparceners whose Heirs for the most part lived in England and the Earldom of Vlster with the Lordship of Meath by the match of Lionel Duke of Clarence at last discended upon the Crowne had almost a continuall warre one with another In the time of King Henry the sixt saith Baron Finglas in his Discourse of the Decay of Ireland in a sight betweene the Earles of Ormond and Desmond almost all the Townes-men of Kilkenny were slaine And as they followed contrary parties during the Warres of Yorke and Lancaster so after that civil dissention ended in England these Houses in Ireland continued their opposition and feud still even till the time of K. Henry the eight when by the Marriage of Margaret Fitz-Girald to the Earl of Ossory the houses of Kildare and Ormond were reconciled and have continued in amity ever since Thus these great Estates and Royalties granted to the English Lords in Ireland begate Pride and Pride begat Contention among themselves which brought forth divers mischiefs that did not onely disable the English to finish the conquest of all Ireland but did endanger the loss of what was already gained And of Conquerors made them Slaves to that Nation which they did intend to Conquer For whensoever one English Lord had vanquished another the Irish waited and took the opportunity and fell upon that Countrey which had received the blow and so daily recovered some part of the Lands which were possessed by the English Colonies Besides the English Lords to strengthen their parties did ally themselves with the Irish and drew them in to dwell among them gave their Children to be fostered by them and having no other means to pay or reward them suffered them to take Coigne and Livery upon the English Free-holders which Oppression was so intollerable as that the better sort were enforced to quit their Free-holds and flye into England and never returned though many Laws were made in both Realms to remand them back again and the rest which remained became degenerate and meer Irish as is before declared And the English Lords finding the Irish exactions to be more profitable than the English Rents and services and loving the Irish Tyranny which was tyed to no Rules of Law or Honour better than a just and lawful Seigniory did reject and cast off the English Law and Government received the Irish Laws and Customs took Irish Surnames as Mac William Mac Pheris Mac Yoris refused to come to the Parliaments which were summoned by the King of Englands Authority and scorned to obey those English Knights which were sent to command and govern this Kingdom Namely Sir Richard Capel Sir John Morris Sir John Darcy and Sir Raphe Vfford And when Sir Anthony Lucy a man of great Authority in the time of King Edward the third was sent over to reform the notorious abuses of this Kingdom the King doubting that he should not be obeyed directed a special Writ or Mandate to the Earl of Vlster and the rest of the Nobility to assist him And afterwards the same King upon good advise and Counsel resumed those excessive Grants of Lands and Liberties in Ireland by a special ordinance made in England which remaineth of Record in the Tower in this form Quia plures excessivoe donationes terrarum libertatum in Hibernia ad subdolam machinationem petentium factae sunt c. Rex delusorias hujusmodi machinationes volens elidere de consilio peritorum sibi assistentium omnes donationes Terrarum libertatum praedict duxit revocandas quousque de meritis donatoriorum causis ac qualitatibus donationum melius fuerit informat ideo mandatum est Justiciario Hiberniae quod seisiri faciat c. Howbeit there followed upon this resumption such a division and faction between the English of Birth and the English of blood and race as they summoned and held several Parliaments apart one from the other Whereupon there had risen a general war betwixt them to the utter extinguishing of the English Name and Nation in Ireland if the Earl of Desmond who was head of the faction against the English of Birth had not been sent into England and detained there for a time yet afterwards these liberties being restored by direction out of England the 26. of Edward the third complaint was made to the King of the easie restitution whereunto the King made answer as is before expressed so as we may conclude this point with that which we find in the Aâ—nals published by Master Camden Hâ—bernici debellati consumpti fuissent nisi seditio Anglicorum impedivisseâ— Whereunto I may add this note that though some are of opinion that