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
Hiberniae Tritavus Domini Regis nunc fuit in Hibernia legem Anglicorum in Hibernia usque ad hunc diem haberc secundum ipsam legem judicari deduci debent And so pleaded the Charter of Denization granted to the Oostmen recited before All which appeareth at large in the said Record Wherein we may note that the killing of an Irish man was not punished by our Law as Man-slaughter which is Fellony and Capital for our Law did neither protect his life nor revenge his death but by a Fine or pecuniary punishment which is called an Erick according to the Brehon or Irish Law Again at a Gaol-delivery before the same Lord Justice at Limerick in the Roll of the same year we finde that Willielmus filius Rogeri rectatus de morre Rogeri de Canteton felonice per ipsum interfecti venit dicit quod feloniam per interfectionem praedictam committere non potuit quia dicit quod praedict Rogerus Hibernic est non de libero sanguine dicit etiam quod praedict Rogerus fuit de Cognomine de Ohederiscal non de cognonime de Cantetons de hoc ponit se super patriam c. Et Jurati dicunt super Sacram. suum quod praedictus Rogerus Hibernicus fuit de cognonime de Ohederiscal pro Hibernico habebatur tota vita sua Ideo praedict Willielmus quoad feloniam praedict quietus Sed quia praedictus Rogerus Ottederiscal fuit Hibernicus Domini Regis praedict Willielmus recommittatur Gaolae quousque plegios invenerit de quinque marcis solvendis Domino Regi pro solutione praedicti Hibernici But on the other side if the Jury had found that the party slain had been of English race and Nation it had been adjudged Fellony as appeareth by a Record of 29 of Edward the first in the Crown-Office here Coram Waltero Lenfant sociis suis Justitiariis Itinerantibus apud Drogheda in Comitatu Louth Johannes Laurens indictat de morte Galfridi Douedal venit non dedicit mortem praedictam sed dicit quod praedict Galfridus fuit Hibernicus non de libero sanguine dâ— bono malo ponit se super patriam c. Et Jurat dicunt super Sacram. suum quod praedict Galfridus Anglicus fuit ideo praedict Johannes culpabilis eâ—â— de morte Galfridi praedict Ideo suspend Catalla 13. s. unde Hugo de Clinton Vicâ— com respondet Hence it is that in all the Parliament Rolls which are extant froâ— the fortieth year of Edward the third when the Statutes of Kilkenny were enacted till the Reign of King Henry the eighth we finde the degenerate and disobedient English called Rebels but the Irish which were not in the Kings peace are called Enemies Statute Kilkenny c. 1.10 and 11.11 Hen. 4. c. 24.10 Hen. 6. c. 1.18.18 Hen. 6. c. 4.5 Edw. 4. c. 6.10 Hen. 7. c. 17. All these Statutes speak of English Rebels and Irish Enemies as if the Irish had never been in condition of Subjects but always out of the Protection of the Law and were indeed in worse case than Aliens of any Forreign Realm that was in Amity with the Crown of England For by divers heavy Penal Laws the English were forbidden to marry to foster to make Gossips with the Irish or to have any trade or commerce in their Markets or Fairs nay there was a Law made no longer since than the 28 year of Henry the eighth that the English should not marry with any person of Irish blood though he had gotten a Charter of Denization unless he had done both Homage and Fealty to the King in the Chancery and were also bound by Recognizance with sureties to continue a Loyal Subject Whereby it is manifest that such as had the Government of Ireland under the Crown of England did intend to make a perpetual separation and enmity between the English and the Irish pretendng no doubt that the English should in the end root cut the Irish which the English not being able to do did cause a perpetual War between the Nations which continued four hundred and odde years and would have lasted to the Worlds end if in the end of Queen Elizabeths Reign the Irishry had not been broken and conquered by the Sword And since the beginning of his Majesties Reign had not been protected and governed by the Law BUt perhaps the Irishry in former times did wilfully refuse to be subject to the Laws of England and would not be partakers of the benefit thereof though the Crown of England did desire and therefore they were reputed Aliens Out-laws and Enemies Assuredly the contrary doth appear as well by the Charters of Denization purchased by the Irish in all ages as by a Petition preferred by them to the King Anno 2 Edward the third desiring that an Act might pass in Ireland whereby all the Irishry might be inabled to use and enjoy the Laws of England without purchasing of particular Denizations Upon which Petition the King directed a special Writ to the Lord Justice which is found amongst the Close-Rolls in the Tower of London in this form Rex dilecto fideli suo Johanni Darcile Mepieu Justic suo Hiberniae Salutem Ex parte quorundam hominum de Hibernia nobis extitit supplicatum ut per Statutum inde faciendum concedere velimus quod omnes Hibernici qui voluerint legibus utatur Anglicanis ita quod necesse non habeant super hoc Chartas alienas à nobis impetrare nos igitur Certiorari volentes si sine alieno praejudicio praemissis annuere valeamus vobis mandamus quod voluntatem magnatum terrae illius in proximo Parliamento nostro ibidem tenendo super hoc cum diligentia perscrutari facias de eo quod inde inveneritis una cum Consilio advisamento nobis certificetis c. Whereby I collect that the great Lords of Ireland had informed the King that the Irishry might not be naturalized without damage and prejudice either to themselves or to the Crown But I am well assured that the Irishry did desire to be admitted to the benefit of the Law not onely in this Petition exhibited to King Edward the third but by all their submissions made to King Richard the second and to the Lord Thomas of Lancaster before the Wars of the two Houses and afterwards to the Lord Leonard Grey and Sir Anthony Saint-Leger when King Henry the eighth began to reform this Kingdom In particular the Birns of the Mountains in the 34 of Henry the eighth desire that their Countrey might be made Shire-ground and called the County of Wicklow And in the 23 of Henry the eighth O Donnel doth Covenant with Sir William Skeffington Quod si Dominus Rex velit reformare Hiberniam whereof it should seem he made some doubt that he and his people would gladly be governed by the Laws of England Only that ungrateful Traytor Tirone though he
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
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-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
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
HISTORICAL RELATIONS OR A DISCOVERY Of the true causes why IRELAND Was never intirely Subdu'd nor brought under obedience OF THE CROWN OF ENGLAND UNTIL The beginning of the Reign of King James of happy memory By Sir John Davis Knight His Majesties Attorney General of Ireland The third Edition corrected and amended Dublin Printed for Samuel Dancer Bookseller in Castlestreet 1666. THE PRINTER TO THE READER THE former Edition of this Book being rarely now to be got and much sought after by many for the worth thereof I procured from the Honourable Sir James Ware one of the former printed Books according to which I now publish this second Edition The Author of the Work was Sir John Davis a Learned man and an excellent Orator who for his great Abilities was by King James first made His Solicitor and afterwards his Attorney-General in this Kingdom of Ireland Which Place he discharged for divers years and having access to the Records from them for the most part as from the purest Fountains he gathered these his Observations A DISCOVERY OF THE True causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued and brought under obedience of the Crown of England until the beginning of His Majesties happy Reign DUring the time of my Service in IRELAND which began in the first year of His Majesties Reign I have visited also the Provinces of that Kingdom in sundry journeys and circuits Wherein I have observed the good Temperature of the Ayre the Fruitfulness of the Soyl the pleasant and commodious seats for habitation the safe and large Ports and Havens lying open for Traffick into all the West parts of the World the long Inlets of many Navigable Rivers and so many great Lakes and fresh Ponds within the Land as the like are not to be seen in any part of Europe the rich Fishings and Wilde Fowl of all kinds and lastly the Bodies and Mindes of the people endued with extraordinary abilities of Nature THe observation whereof hath bred in me some curiosity to consider what were the true causes why this Kingdom whereof our Kings of England have borne the Title of Soveraign Lords for the space of four hundred and odde years a period of time wherein divers great Monarchies have risen from Barbarism to Civility and fallen again to ruine was not in al that space of time thoroughly subdued and reduced to Obedience of the Crown of England although there hath been almost a continual War between the English and the Irish and why the manners of the meer Irish are so little altered since the days of King Henry the second as appeareth by the description made by Giraldus Cambrensis who lived and wrote in that time albeit there have been since that time so many English Colonies planted in Ireland as that if the people were numbered at this day by the poll such as are descended of English race would be found more in number than the ancient Natives AND truly upon consideration of the conduct and passage of affairs in former times I find that the State of England ought to be cleared of an imputation which a vulgar errour hath cast upon it in one point namely That Ireland long since might have been subdued and reduced to Civility if some Statesmen in policy had not thought it more fit to continue that Realm in Barbarism Doubtless this vulgar opinion or report hath no true ground but did first arise either out of Ignorance or out of Malice For it will appear by that which shall hereafter be laid down in this Discourse that ever since Our Nation had any footing in this Land the State of England did earnestly desire and I did accordingly endeavour from time to time to perfect the Conquest of this Kingdom but that in every age there were found such impediments and defects in both Realms as caused almost an impossibility that things should have been otherwise than they were THe Defects which hindred the Perfection of the Conquest of Ireland were of two kindes and consisted first In the faint prosecution of the war and next In the looseness of the Civil Government For the Husbandman must first break the Land before it be made capable of good seed and when it is thoroughly broken and manured if we do not forthwith cast good seed into it it will grow wilde again and bear nothing but weeds So a barbarous Country must be first broken by a war before it will be capable of good Government and when it is fully subdued and conquered if it be not well planted and governed after the Conquest it will eft soons return to the former Barbarism TOuching the carriage of the Martial affairs from the seventeenth year of King Henry the second when the first overture was made for the Conquest of Ireland I mean the first after the Norman Conquest of England until the nine and thirtieth year of Queen ELIZABETH when that Royal Army was sent over to suppress Tirones Rebellion which made in the end an universal and absolute conquest of all the Irishrie It is most certain that the English forces sent hither or raised here from time to time were ever too weak to subdue and master so many warlike Nations or Septs of the Irish as did possess this Island and besides their weakness they were Ill paid and worse Governed And if at any time there came over an Army of competent strength and power it did rather terrifie than break and subdue this people being ever broken and dissolved by some one accident or other before the perfection of the Conquest FOR that I call a Perfect Conquest of a Countrey which doth reduce all the people thereof to the Condition of Subjects and those I call Subjects which are governed by the ordinary Laws and Magistrates of the Soveraign For though the Prince doth bear the Title of Soveraign Lord of an entire Countrey as our Kings did of all Ireland yet if there be two third parts of that Countrey wherein he cannot punish Treasons Murthers or Thefts unless he send an Army to do it if the Jurisdiction of his ordinary Courts of Justice doth not extend into those parts to protect the people from wrong and Oppression if he have no certain Revenue no Escheates or Forfeitures out of the same I cannot justly say that such a Countrey is wholly conquered FIrst then That we may judge and discern whether the English Forces in Ireland were at any time of sufficient strength to make a full and final Conquest of that Land let us see what extraordinary Armies have been transmitted out of England thither and what ordinary Forces have been maintained there and what service they have performed from time to time since the seventeenth year of King Henry the second IN that year Mac Murugh Lord of Leinster being oppressed by the Lords of Meath and Connaught and expelled out of his Territory moved King Henry the second to invade Ireland and made an overture unto him for
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
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
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
amongst whom the whole Kingdom was divided had been good Hunters and had reduced the Mountains Boggs and Woods within the limits of Forrests Chases and Parks assuredly the very Forrest Law and the Law de Malefactoribus in parcis would in time have driven them into the Plains and Countries inhabited and manured and have made them yield up their fast places to those wilde Beasts which were indeed less hurtful and wilde than they But it seemeth strange to me that in all the Records of this Kingdom I seldom find any mention made of a Forrest and never of any Parke or Free-warren considering the great plenty both of Vert and Venison within this Land and that the chief of the Nobility and Gentry are descended of English race and yet at this day there is but one Parke stored with Deer in all this Kingdom which is a Parke of the Earl of Ormonds neer Kilkenny It is then manifest by that which is before expressed that the not communicating of the English laws to the Irish the over large Grants of Lands and Liberties to the English the plantation made by the English in the Plains and open Countries leaving the Woods and Mountains to the Irish were great Defects in the Civil pollicy and hindered the perfection of the Conquest very much Howbeit notwithstanding these Defects and Errours the English Colonies stood and maintained themselves in a reasonable good estate as long as they retained their own ancient Laws and customs according to that of Ennius Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque But when the civil Government grew so weak and so loose as that the English Lords would not suffer the English laws to be put in execution within their Territories and Seigniories but in place thereof both they and their people embraced the Irish customs Then the estate of things like a Game at Irish was so turned about as the English which hoped to make a perfect Conquest of the Irish were by them perfectly and absolutely conquered because Victi victoribus leges dedere A just punishment to our Nation that would not give Laws to the Irish when they might and therefore now the Irish gave Laws to them Therefore this Defect and failing of the English Justice in the English Colonies and the inducing of the Irish customs in lieu thereof was the main impediment that did arrest and stop the course of the Conquest and was the only mean that enabled the Irishry to recover their strength again FOr if we consider the Nature of the Irish Customs we shall find that the people which doth use them must of necessity be Rebels to all good Government destroy the commonwealth wherein they live and bring Barbarisme and desolation upon the richest and most fruitfull Land of the World For whereas by the just and Honourable Law of England and by the Laws of all other well-governed Kingdoms and Commonweals Murder Man-slaughter Rape Robbery and Theft are punished with death By the Irish Custom or Brehon Law the highest of these offences was punished only by Fine which they called an Ericke Therefore when Sir William Fitz-Williams being Lord Deputy told Maguyre that he was to send a Sheriff into Fermannagh being lately before made a County your Sheriff saâ—d Maguyre shall be welcome to me but let me know his Ericke or the price of his head afore hand that if my people cut it off I may cut the Ericke upon the Countrey As for Oppression Extoâ—tion and other trespasses the weaker had never any remedy against the stronger whereby it came to pass that no man could enjoy his Life his Wife his Lands or Goods in safety if a mightier man than himself had an appetite to take the same from him Wherein they were little better than Cannibal who do hunt one another and he that hath most strength and swiftness doth eat and devour all his fellowes Again in England and all well ordered Common-weaâ—s Men have certain estates in their Lands and possessions and their inheritances descend from Father to Son whâ—ch doth give them encouragement to build and to plant and to improve their Lands and to make them better for their posterities But by the Irish Custom of Tanistry the Chieftanes of every Country and the chief of every Sept had no longer estate than for life in their Cheefeâ—ies the inheritance whereof did â—est in no man And these Cheeferies though they had some portions of Lands allotted unto them did consist chiefly in cuttings and Cosheries and other Irish exactions whereby they did spoile and impoverish the people at their pleasure And when their Chieftanes were dead their Sons or next heirs did not succeed them but their Tanistes who were Elective and purchased their elections by strong hand And by the Irish Custom of Gavel-kinde the inferiour Tennanties were partible amongst all the Males of the Sept both Bastards and Legitimate and after partition made if any one of the Sept had dyed his portion was not divided among his Sons but the chief of the sept made a new partition of all the Lands belonging to that Sept and gave every one his part according to his antiquity THese two Irish Customs made all their possessions uncertain being shuffled and changed and removed so often from one to another by new elections and partitions which uncertainty of estates hath been the true cause of such Desolation and Barbarism in this Land as the like was never seen in any Countrey that professed the name of Christ For though the Irishry be a Nation of great Antiquity and wanted neither wit nor valour and though they had received the Christian Faith above 1200 years since and were lovers of Musick Poetry and all kinde of Learning and possessed a Land abounding with all things necessary for the civil life of man yet which is strange to be related they did never build any houses of brick or stone some few poor Religious Houses excepted before the Reign of King Henry the second though they were Lords of this Island for many hundred years before and since the Conquest attempted by the English Albeit when they saw us build Castles upon their borders they have onely in imitation of us erected some few piles for the Captains of the Countrey yet I dare boldly say that never any particular person either before or since did build any stone or brick house for his private habitation but such as have lately obtained estates according to the course of the Law of England Neither did any of them in all this time plant any Gaâ—dens or Orchards inclose or improve their Lands live together in settâ—ed Viâ—lages or Towns nor made any provision for posterity which beâ—ng against all common sense and reason must needs be imputed to those unreasonable Customs which made their estates so uncertain and transitory in their possessions For who would plant or improve or build upon that Land which a stranger whom he knew not
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
work in the third year of his raign made the Lord Thomas of Lancaster his second son Lieutenant of Ireland Who came over in person and accepted again the submissions of divers Irish Lords and Captains as is before remembred and held also a Parliament wherein he gave new life to the Statutes of Kilkenny and made other good Laws tending to the Reformation of the Kingdom But the troubles raised against the King his Father in England drew him home again so soon as that seed of reformation took no root at all neither had his service in that kind any good effect or success After this the State of England had no leisure to think of a general reformation in this Realm till the civil dissentions of England were appeased and the peace of that Kingdom setled by King Henry the seventh For albeit in the time of King Henry 6. Richard Duke of York a Prince of the blood of great wisdom and valour and heir to a third part of Kingdom at least being Earl of Vlster and Lord of Conaght and Meath was sent the Kings Lieutenanr into Ireland to recover and reform that Realm where he was resident in person for the greatest part of ten years yet the troth is he aimed at another mark which was the Crown of England And therefore he thought it no pollicy to distast either the English or Irish by a course of Reformation but sought by all means to please them and by popular courses to steal away their hearts to the end he might strengthen his party when he should set on foot his Title as is before declared Which pollicy of his took such effect as that he drew over with him into England the Flower of all the English Colonies especially of Vlster and Meath whereof many Noblemen and Gentlemen were slain with him at Wakefield as is likewise before remembred And after his death when the wars between the Houses were in their heat almost all the good English blood which was left in Ireland was spent in those civil dissentions so as the Irish became victorious over all without blood or sweat Only that little Canton of Land called the English Pale containing four small Shires did maintain a bordering was with the Irish and retain the forme of English Government But out of that little Precinct there were no Lords Knights or Burgesses summoned to the Parliament neither did the Kings Writ run in any other part of the Kingdom and yet upon the Marches and Borders which at that time were grown so large as they took up half Dublin half Meath and a third part of Kildare and Lowth there was no law in use but the March-Law which in the Statutes of Kilkenny is said to be no law but a leud Custom So as upon the end of these civil wars in England the English Law and Government was well nigh banisht out of Ireland so as no foot-step or print was left of any former Reformation THen did King Henry 7. send over Sir Edward Poynings to be his Deputy a right worthy servitor both in war and peace The principal end of his employment was to expel Perkin Warbecke out of this Kingdom but that service being performed that worthy Deputy finding nothing but a common misery took the best course he possibly could to establish a Common-wealth in Ireland and to that end he held a Parliament no less famous than that of Kilkenny and more available for the reformation of the whole Kingdom For whereas all wise men did ever concur in opinion that the readiest way to reform Ireland is to settle a form of Civil Government there conformable to that of England To bring this to pass Sir Edward Poynings did pass an Act whereby all the Statutes made in England before that time were enacted established and made of force in Ireland Neither did he only respect the time past but provided also for the time to come For he caused another Law to be made that no Act should be propounded in any Parliament of Ireland but such as should be first transmitted into England and approved by the King and Council there as good and expedient for that Land and so returned back again under the Great Seal of England This Act though it seem Prima facie to restrain the liberty of the Subjects of Ireland yet was it made at the Prayer of the Commons upon just and important cause For the Governors of that Realm specially such as were of that Country Birth had laid many oppressions upon the Commons and amongst the rest they had imposed Laws upon them nor tending to the general good but to serve private turns and to strengthen their particular factions This moved them to refer all Laws that were to be passed in Ireland to be considered corrected and allowed first by the State of England which had alwayes been tender and carefull of the good of this people and had long since made them a Civil Rich and Happy Nation if their own Lords and Governors there had not sent bad intelligence into England Besides this he took special order that the summons of Parliament should go into all the shires of Ireland and not to the four shires onely and for that cause specially he caused all the Acts of a Parliament lately before holden by the Viscount of Gormanston to be repealed and made void Moreover that the Parliaments of Ireland might want no decent or honorable form that was used in England he caused a particular Act to pass that the Lords of Ireland should appear in the like Parliament Robes as the English Lords are wont to wear in the Parliaments of England Having thus established all the Statutes of England in Ireland and set in order the great Council of that Realm he did not omit to pass other Laws as well for the encrease of the Kings Revenue as the preservation of the publick peace To advance the profits of the Crown First he obtained a Subsidy of 26 shillings eight pence out of every six score acres manured payable yearly for five years Next he resumed all the Crownland which had been aliened for the most part by Richard Duke of York and lastly he procured a Subsidy of Pondage out of all Merchandizes imported and exported to be granted to the Crown in perpetuity To preserve the publick peace he revived the Statutes of Kilkenny He made wilful Murther High-treason he caused the Marchers to book their men for whom they should answer and restrained the making War or Peace without special Commission from the State These Laws and others as important as these for the making of a Common-wealth in Ireland were made in the Government of Sir Edward Poynings But these Laws did not spread their Vertue beyond the English Pale though they were made generally for the whole Kingdom For the Provinces without the Pale which during the War of York and Lancaster had wholly cast off the the English Government were not apt to receive this
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
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