course hath been held from the beginning when an Irish Lord doth offer to surrender his Country his surrender is not immediately accepted but a Commission is first awarded to enquire of three speciall points First of the quantity and limits of the Land whereof he is reputed owner Next how much himself doth hold in demeasne and how much is possest by his Tenants and Followers And thirdly what customs Duties and services he doth yearly receive out of those lands This Inquisition being made and returned the Lands which are found to be the Lords proper possessions in demeasne are drawn into a Particular and his Irish duties as Cosherings Sessings Rents of Butter and Oatmeal and the like are reasonably valued and reduced into certain sums of mony to be paid yearly in lieu thereof This being done the surrender is accepted and thereupon a grant passed not of the whole Country as was used in former times but of those Lands only which are found in the Lords possession and of those certain sums of Mony as Rents issuing out of the rest But the Lands which are found to be possest by the Tenants are left unto them respectively charged with these certain Rents only in lieu of all uncertain Irish exactions In like manner upon all grants which have past by vertue of the commission for defective Titles the Commissioners have taken special caution for preservation of the Estates of all particular Tenants And as for Grants of Captain-ships or Seneschal-ships in the Irish Countries albeit this Deputy had as much power and authority to grant the same as any other Governors had before him and might have raised as much profit by bestowing the same if he had respected his private more than the publick good yet hath he been so far from passing any such in all his time as he hath endeavoured to resume all the Grants of that kind that have been made by his Predecessors to the end the inferiour Subjects of the Realm should make their only and immediate dependency upon the Crown And thus we see how the greatest part of the possessions as well of the Irish as of the English in Leinster Conaght and Munster are setled and secured since his Majesty came to the Crown whereby the hearts of the people are also setled not only to live in peace but raised and encouraged to build to pâ—ant to give better education to their children and to improve the commodities of their Lands whereby the yearly value thereof is already encreased double of that it was within these few years and is like daily to rise higher till it amount to the price of our Land in England LAstly the possessions of the Irishry in the Province of Vlster though it were the most rude and unreformed part of Ireland and the Seat and Nest of the last great Rebellion are now better disposed and established than any the Lands in the other Provinces which have been past and setled upon Surrenders For as the occasion of the disposing of those Lands did not happen without the special providence and finger of God which did cast out those wicked and ungrateful Traitors who were the only enemies of the reformation of Ireland so the distribution and plantation thereof hath been projected and prosecuted by the special direction and care of the King himself wherein his Majesty hath corrected the errors before spoken of committed by King Henry 2. and K. John in distributing and planting the first conquered Lands For although there were six whole Shires to be disposed His Majesty gave not an entire Country or County to any particular person much less did he grant Jura Regalia or any extraordinary Liberties For the best Brittish undertaker had but a proportion of 3000. Acres for himself with power to create a Mannor and hold a Court Baron Albeit many of these undertakers were of as great birth and quality as the best Adventurers in the first conquest Again his Majesty did not utterly exclude the Natives out of this plantation with a purpose to root them ouâ— as the Irish were excluded out of the first English Colonies but made mixt plantation of Brittish and Irish that they might grow up together in one Nation Only the Irish were in some places transplanted from the Woods and Mountains into the Plains and open countries that being removed like wild fruit-trees they might grow the milder and bear the better and sweeter fruit And this truly is the Master-piece and most excellent part of the work of Reformation and is worthy indeed of His Majesties royal pains For when this plantation hath taken root and been fixt and setled but a few years with the favour and blessing of God for the Son of God himself hath said in the Gospel Omnis plantatio quam non plantavit pater meus eradicabitur it will secure the peace of Ireland assure it to the Crown of England for ever and finally make it a civil and a Rich a Mighty and a Flourishing Kingdom I omit to speak of the increase of the Revenue of the Crown both certain and casual which is raised to a double proportion at lest above that it was by deriving the publick Justice into all parts of the Realm by setling all the possessions of both of the Irish and English by re-establishing the compositions by restoring and resuming the customs by reviving the Tenures in Capite and Knights-service and reducing many other things into charge which by the confusion and negligence of former times became concealed and subtracted from the Crown I forbear likewise to speak of the due and ready bringing in of the Revenue which is brought to pass by the well ordering of the Court of Exchequer and the authority and pains of the Commissioners for Accompts I might also add hereunto the encouragement that hath been given to the Maritime Towns and Citties as well to increase their Trade of Merchandize as to cherish Mechanical Arts and Sciences in that all their Charters have been renewed and their Liberties more inlarged by His Majesty than by any of his Progenitors since the Conquest As likewise the care and course that hath been taken to make Civil Commerce and entercourse between the Subjects newly reformed and brought under Obedience by granting Markets and Fairs to be holden in their Countries and by erecting of corporate Towns among them Briefly the clock of the civil Government is now well set and all the wheels thereof do move in Order The strings of this Irish Harp which the Civil Magistrate doth finger are all in tune for I omit to speak of the State Ecclesiastical and make a good Harmony in this Common-weal So as we may well conceive a hope that Ireland which heretofore might properly be called the Land of Ire because the Irascible power was predominant there for the space of 400. years together will from henceforth prove a Land of Peace and Concord And though heretofore it hath been like the lean Cow of
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
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
both Kingdoms than it did at any time since the Norman Conquest Then did the State of England send over John de Hotham to be Treasurer here with commission to call the great Lords of Ireland together and to take of them an Oath of Association that they should loyally joyn together in life and death to preserve the right of the King of England and to expel the common enemy But this Treasurer brought neither men nor mony to perform this service At that time though Richard Bourk Earl of Vlster commonly called the Red Earl were of greater power than any other Subject in Ireland yet was he so far stricken in years as that he was unable to manage the martial affairs as he had done during all the raign of King Edward the first having been General of the Irish forces not only in this Kingdom but in the Wars of Scotland Wales and Gascoign And therefore Maurice Fitz-Thomas of Desmond being then the most active Noble man in this Realm took upon him the chief command in this War for the support whereof the Revenue of this Land was farr too short and yet no supply of Treasure was sent out of England Then was there no means to maintain the Army but by Sessing the Soldiers upon the Subject as the Irish were wont to impose their Bonaught Whereupon grew that wicked Extortion of Coigne and Livery spoken of before which in short time banished the greatest part of the Free-holders out of the County of Kerry Limerirk Corke and Waterford Into whose possessions Desmond and his Kinsemen Allies and Followers which were then more Irish than English did enter and appropriate these Lands unto themselves Desmond himself taking what scopes he best liked for his demeasnes in every Countrey and reserving an Irish Seigniory out of the rest And here that I may verifie and maintain by matter of Record that which is before delivered touching the Nature of this wicked Extortion called Coigne and Livery and the manifold mischiefs it did produce I think it fit and pertinent to insert the preamble of the Statute of 10. of Henry seventh c. 4. not printed but recorded in Parliament Rols of Dublin in these words At the request and supplication of the Commons of this Land of Ireland that where of long time there hath been used and exacted by the Lords and Gentlemen of this Land many and divers damnable customs and usages which been called Coigne and Livery and Pay that is Horse meat and Mans meat for the finding of their Horsemen and Foot-men and over that 4. d. or 6. d. daily to every of them to be had and paid of the poor Earth Tillers and Tenants inhabitants of the said Land without any thing doing or paying therefore Besides many Murders Robberies Rapes and other manifold extortions and oppressions by the said Horsemen and Footmen daily and nightly committed and done which been the principal causes of the desolation and destruction of the said Land and hath brought the same into ruine and Decay so as the most part of the English Free-holders and Tenants of this Land been departed out thereof some into the Realm of England and other some to other strange Lands whereupon the foresaid Lords and Gentlemen of this Land have intruded into the said Free-holders and Tenants inheritances and the same keepeth and occupieth as their own inheritances and setten under them in the same Land the Kings Irish Enemies to the diminishing of Holy Churches Rites the disherison of the King and his obedient Subjects and the utter ruine and desolation of the Land For reformation whereof be it enacted That the King shall receive a Subsidy of 26. s. 8. d. out of every 120. acres of arable land manured c. But to return to Thomas Fitz-Maurice of Desmond By this extortion of Coigne and Livery he suddainly grew from a mean to a mighty estate insomuch as the Baron Finglas in his discourse of the decay of Ireland affirmeth that his ancient inheritance being not one thousand marks yearly he became able to dispend every way ten thousand pounds per annum These possessions being thus unlawfully gotten could not be maintained by the just and honourable Law of England which would have restored the true Owners to their Land again And therefore this Great man found no means to continue and uphold his ill-purchased greatness but by rejecting the English Law and Government and assuming in lieu thereof the barbarous customs of the Irish And hereupon followed the defection of those four shires containing the greatest part of Munster from the obedience of the Law In like manner saith Baron Finglas the Lord of Tipperary perceiving how well the house of Desmond had thrived by Coigne and Livery and other Irish exactions began to hold the like course in the Counties of Tipperary and Kilkenny whereby he got great scopes of Land especially in Ormond and raised many Irish exactions upon the English Free-holders there which made him so potent and absolute among them as at that time they knew no other Law than the will of their Lord. Besides finding that the Earl of Desmond excluded the ordinary Ministers of Justice under colour of a Royal liberty which he claimed in the Counties of Kerry Corke and Waterford by a grant of King Edward the first as appeareth in a Quo warranto brought against him Anno 12. Edw. 1. the Record whereof remaineth in Breminghams Tower among the common Plea-Rolls there This Lord also in the third of Edward the third obtained a Grant of the like liberty in the County of Tipperary whereby he got the Law into his own hands and shut out the Common Law and Justice of the Realm And thus we see that all Munster fell away from the English law and Government in the end of King Edward the second his raign and in the beginning of the raign of King Edward the third Again about the same time viz. in the 20. year of King Edward the second when the State of England was well-ny ruined by the Rebellion of the Barons and the Government of Ireland utterly neglected there arose in Leinster one of the Cavanaghes named Donald Mac Art who named himself Mac Murrogh King of Leinster and possessed himself of the County of Catherlogh and of the greatest part of the County of Wexford And shortly after Lisagh O Moore called himself O Moore took eight Castles in one Evening destroyed Duamase the principal house of the L. Mortimer in Leix recovered that whole Country De servo Dominus de subjecto princeps effectus saith Friar Clynn in his Annalls Besides the Earl of Kildare imitating his Cosin of Desmond did not omit to make the like use of Coigne and Livery in Kildare and the West part of Meath which brought the like Barbarisme into those parts And thus a great part of Leinster was lost and fell away from the Obedience of the Crown near about the time before expressed Again in the
King and his successors all their Lands and possessions which they held in Leinster and taking with them only their moveable goods should serve him in his wars against his other Rebels In consideration whereof the King should give them pay and pensions during their lives and bestow the inheritance of all such Lands upon them as they shouâ—d recover from the Rebels in any other part of the Realm And thereupon a pension of eighty Marks per annum was granted to Art ' Mac Murrogh chief of the Kavanaghes the enroulment whereof I found in the White book of the Exchequer here And this was the effect of the service performed by the Earl Marshal by vertue of his Commission The King in like manner received the submissions of the Lords of Vlster namely O Neal O Hanlon Mac Donel Mac Mahon and others who with the like Humility and Ceremony did homage and fealty to the Kings own person the words of O Neales homage as they are recorded are not unfit to be remembred Ego Nelanus Oneal Senior tam pro meipso quam pro filiis meis tota Natione mea Parentelis meis pro omnibus subditis meis devenio Ligeus homo vester c. And in the Indenture between him and the King he is not only bound to remain faithful to the Crown of England but to restore the Bonaght of Vlster to the Earl of Vlster as of right belonging to that Earldom and usurped among other things by the Oneals These Indentures and submissions with many other of the same kind for there was not a Chieftain or head of an Irish sept but submitted himself in one form or other the King himself caused to be inrolled and testified by a Notary publick and delivered the enrolments with his own hands to the Bishop of Salisbury then Lord Treasurer of England so as they have been preserved and are now to be found in the Office of the Kings Remembranceâ— there With these humilities they satisfied the young King and by their bowing and bending avoided the present storm and so brake that Army which was prepared to break them For the King having accepted their submissions received them in Osculo pacis feasted them and given the honor of Knighthood to divers of them did break up and dissolve his army and returned into England with much honor and small profit saith Froissard For though he had spent a huge mass of Treasure in transporting his army by the countenance whereof he drew on their submissions yet did he not encrease his revenue thereby one sterling pound nor enlarged the English borders the bredth of one Acre of Land neither did he extend the Jurisdiction of his Courts of Justice one foot further than the English Colonies wherein it was used and exercised before Besides he was no sooner returned into England but those Irish Lords laid aside their masks of humility and scorning the weak forces which the King had left behind him began to infest the borders in defence whereof the Lord Roger Mortimer being then the Kings Lieutenant and Heir apparent to the Crown of England was slain as I said before Whereupon the King being moved with a just appetite of revenge came over again in person in the 22. year of his Reign with as potent an army as he had done before with a full purpose to make a full Conquest of Ireland he landed at Waterford and passing from thence to Dublin through the wast Countries of the Murroghes Kinshelaghes Cauanaghes Birnes and Tooles his great army was much distressed for want of victuals and carriages so as he performed no memorable thing in that journey only in the Cavanaghes Country he cut and cleared the paces and bestowed the honour of Knighthood upon the Lord Henry the Duke of Lancasters son who was afterwards King Henry the fifth and so came to Dublin where entring into Counsel how to proceed in the war he received news out of England of the arrival of the banished Duke of Lancaster at Ravenspurgh usurping the Regal authority and arresting and putting to death his principal Officers This advertisement suddainly brake off the Kings purpose touching the prosecution of the war in Ireland and transported him into England where shortly after he ended both his Reign and his life Since whose time until the 39. year of Queen Elizabeth there was never any Army sent â—ver of a Competent strength or power to subdue the Irish but the war was made by the English Colonies only to defend their borders or if any forces were transmitted over they were sent only to suppress the rebellions of such as were descended of English race and not to enlarge our Dominion over the Irish DUring the Raign of King Henry the Fourth the Lord Thomas of Lancaster the Kings second Son was Lieutenant of Ireland who for the first eight years of that Kings Reign made the Lord Scroope and others his Deputies who only defended the Marches with forces levyed within the Land In the eighth year that Prince came over in person with a smal retinue So as wanting a sufficient power to attempt or perform any great service he returned within seven moneths after into England Yet during his personal abode there he was hurt in his own person within one mile of Dublin upon an incounter with the Irish enemy He took the submissions of O Birne of the Mountains Mac Mahon and O Rely by several Indentures wherein O Birne doth Covenant that the King shall quietly enjoy the Mannor of New-Castle Mac Mahon accepteth a State in the Ferny for life rendering ten pound a year and O Rely doth promise to perform such duties to the Earl of March and Vlster as were contained in an Indenture dated the 18. of Richard the second IN the time of K. Henry the fifth there came no forces out of England Howbeit the Lord Furnival being the Kings Lieutenant made a martial circuit or journey round about the Marches and Borders of the pale and brought all the Irish to the Kings peace beginning with the Birnes Tooles and Cauanaghes on the South and so passing to the Moores O Connors and O Forals in the West and ending with the O Relies Mac Mahons O Neales and O Hanlons in the North. He had power to make them seek the Kings peace but not power to reduce them to the Obedience of Subjects yet this was then held so great and worthy a service as that the Lords and chief Gentlemen of the Pale made certificate thereof in French unto the King being then in France which I have seen Recorded in the White Booke of the Exchequer at Dublin Howbeit his Army was so ill paid and governed as the English suffered more damage by the Sess of his Souldiers for now that Monster Coigne and Livery which the Statute of Kilkenny had for a time abolished was risen again from hell than they gained profit or security by abating the pride of their
condemned and abolished and the use and practice thereof made High-Treason But this Law extended to the English only and not to the Irish For the Law is penned in this form Item Forasmuch as the diversity of Government by divers Laws in one Land doth make diversity of ligeance and debates between the people It is accorded and established that hereafter no English man have debate with another English man but according to the course of the Common Law And that no English man be ruled in the definition of their debates by the March-Law or the Brehon Law which by reason ought not to be named a Law but an evil Custom but that they be ruled as right is by the common Law of the Land as the Lieges of our Soveraign Lord the King And if any do to the contrary and thereof be attainted that he be taken and imprisoned and judged as a Traytor And that hereafter there be no diversity of ligeance between the English born in Ireland and the English born in England but that all be called and reputed English and the Lieges of our Soveraign Lord the KING c. This Law was made only to reform the degenerate English but there was no care taken for the reformation of the meer Irish no Ordinance no provision made for the abolishing of their barbarous Customs and manners Insomuch as the Law then made for Apparel and riding in Saddles after the English fashion is penal only to English men and not to the Irish But the Roman State which conquered so many Nations both barbarous and Civil and therefore knew by experience the best and readiest way of making a perfect and absolute conquest refused not to communicate their Laws to the rude and barbarous people whom they had Conquered neither did they put them out of their protection after they had once submitted themselves But contrariwise it is said of Julius Caesar Quâ vicit victos protegit ille manu And again of another Emperor Fecisti patriam diversis gentibus unam Profuit invitis te dominante capi Dumque offers victis proprii consortia juris Vrbem fecisti quod priùs orbis erat And of Rome it self Haec est in gremium vict os quae sola recepit Humanumque genus communi nomine fovit Matris non dominae ritu Civesque vocavit Quos domuit nexusque pio longinqua revinxit Therefore as Tacitus writeth Julius Agricola the Romane General in Brittany used this policy to make a perfect Conquest of our Ancestours the ancient Brittains They were saith he rude and dispersed and therefore prone upon every occasion to make war but to induce them by pleasure to quietness and rest he exhorted them in private and gave them helps in common to build Temples Houses and places of publick resort The Noblemens Sons he took and instructed in the Liberal Sciences c. preferring the wits of the Brittains before the Students of France as being now curious to attain the Eloquence of the Romane Language whereas they lately rejected that speech After that the Roman Attire grew to be in account and the Gown to be in use among them and so by little and little they proceeded to curiosity and delicacies in Buildings and furniture of Houshould in Bathes and exquisite Banquets and so being come to the heighth of Civility they were thereby brought to an absolute subjection LIkewise our Norman Conqueror though he oppressed the English Nobility very sore and gave away to his servitors the Lands and possessions of such as did oppose his first invasion though he caused all his Acts of Counsel to be published in French and some legal proceedings and pleadings to be framed and used in the same tongue as a mark and badge of a conquest yet he governed All both English and Normans by one and the same Law which was the ancient common Law of England long before the Conquest Neither did he deny any English Man that submitted himself unto him The benefit of that Law though it were against a Norman of the best rank and in greatest favour as appeared in the notable Controversie between Warren the Norman and Sherburne of Sherburne Castle in Norfolke for the Conqueror had given that Castle to Warren yet when the Inheritors thereof had alledged before the King that he never boar Armes against him that he was his subject as well as the other and that he did inherit and hold his Lands by the rules of that Law which the King had established among all his Subjects The King gave judgment against Warren and commanded that Sherborne should hold his land in peace By this means himself obtained a peaceable possession of the Kingdom within few years whereas if he had cast all the English out of his protection and held them as Aliens and Enemies to the Crown the Normans perhaps might have spent as much time in the Conquest of England as the English have spent in the Conquest of Ireland THe like prudent course hath been observed in reducing of Wales which was performed partly by King Edward the first and altogether finished by King Henry the eighth For we find by the Statute of Rutland made the 12. of Edward the first when the Welshmen had submitted themselves De alto Basso to that King he did not reject and cast them off as Out-lawes and Enemies but caused their Laws and customs to be examined which were in many points agreeable to the Irish or Brehon Law Quibus diligenter auditis plenius intellectis quasdam illarum saith the King in that Ordinance Consilio procerum delevimus quasdam permissimus quasdam correximus ac etiam quasdam alias adjiciendas faciend decrevimus and so established a Common-wealth among them according to the form of the English Government After this by reason of the sundry insurrections of the Barons the Wars in France and the dissention between the houses of Yorke and Lancaster the State of England neglected or omitted the execution of this Statute of Rutland so as a great part of Wales grew wilde and barbarous again And therefore King Henry the eighth by the Statutes of 27. and 32. of his raign did revive and recontinue that Noble work begun by King Edward the first and brought it indeed to full perfection For he united the Dominion of Wales to the Crown of England and divided it into Shires and erected in every Shire one Burrough as in England and enabled them to send Knights and Burgesses to the Parliament established a Court of Presidency and ordaâ—ned that Justices of Assise and Gaol-delivery should make their half year circuits there as in England made all the Laws and Statutes of England in force there and among other Welsh Customs abolished that of Gavel-kinde whereby the Heirs-Females were utterly excluded and the Bastards did inherit as well as the Legitimate which is the very Irish Gavel-kinde By means whereof that entire Country in a short
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
Grants of extraordinary Honours and Liberties made by a King to his Subjects do no more diminish his greatness than when one Torch lightet◠another for it hath no less light that it had before Quis vetat apposito lumen de lumine sumi Yet many time◠inconveniences do arise thereupon and those Princes have held up their Soveraignty best which have been sparing in those Grants And truly as these Grants of little Kingdoms and great Royalties to a few private persons did produce the mischiefs spoken of before So the true cause of the making of these Grants did proceed from this That the Kings of England being otherwise employed and diverted did not make the Conquest of Ireland their own work and undertake it not royally at their own charge but as it was first begun by particular Adventurers so they left the prosecution thereof to them and other voluntaries who came to seek their fortunes in Ireland wherein if they could prevail they thought that in reason and honour they could do no less than make them proprietors of such scopes of Land as they could conquer people and plant at their own charge reserving only the Soveraign Lordship to the Crown of England But if the Lyon had gone to hunt himself the shares of the Inferiour Beasts had not been so great If the invasion had been made by an army transmitted furnished and supplyed only at the Kings charges and wholly paid with the Kings Treasure as the Armies of Queen Elizabeth and King James have been as the conquest had been sooner atchieved so the serviters had been contented with lesser proportions For when Scipio Pompey Caesar and other Generals of the Roman Armies as Subjects and Servants of that State and with the publick charge had conquered many Kingdoms and Commonweals we find them rewarded with Honourable Offices and Triumphes at their return and not made Lords and proprietors of whole Provinces and Kingdoms which they had subdued to the Empire of Rome Likewise when the Duke of Normandy had conquered England which he made his own work and performed it in his own person he distributed sundry Lordships and Mannors unto his followers but gave not away whole Shires and Countreys in demeasne to any of his servitors whom he most desired to advance Only he made Hugh Lupus County Palatine of Chester and gave that Earldom to him and his Heirs to hold the same Ita liberè ad gladium sicut Rex tenebat Angliam ad Coronam Whereby that Earldom indeed had a royal Jurisdiction and Seigniory though the Lands of that County in demeasne were possessed for the most part by the ancient Inheritors Again from the time of the Norman Conquest till the raign of King Edward the first many of our English Lords made war upon the Welshmen at their own charge the Lands which they gained they held to their own use were called Lords Marchers and had Royal Liberties within their Lordships Howbeit these particular Adventurers could never make a perfect Conquest of Wales But when King Edward the first came in person with his army thither kept his residence and Court there made the reducing of Wales an enterprize of his own he finished that work in a year or two whereof the Lords Marchers had not performed a third part with their continual bordering war for two hundred years before And withall we may observe that though this King had now the Dominion of Wales in Jure proprietatis as the Statute of Rutland affirmeth which before was subject unto him but in Jure feodali And though he had lost divers principal Knights and Noblemen in that war yet did he not reward his servitors with whole Countries or Counties but with particular Mannors and Lordships as to Henry Lacy Earl of Lincolne he gave the Lordship of Denbigh and to Reignold Gray the Lordship of Ruthen and so to others And if the like course had been used in the winning and distributing the lands of Ireland that Island had been fully conquered before the continent of Wales had been reduced But the troth is when Private men attempt the Conquest of Countries at their own charge commonly their enterprizes do perish without success as when in the time of Queen Elizabeth Sir Thomas Smith undertook to recover the Ardes and Chatterton to reconquer then Fues and Orier The one lost his Son and the other Himself and both their Adventures came to nothing And as for the Crown of England it hath had the like fortune in the Conquest of this land as some purchasers have who desire to buy land at too easie a Rate they finde those cheap purchases so full of trouble as they spend twice as much as the Land is worth before they get the quiet possession thereof And as the best pollicy was not observed in the distribution of the conquered Lands so as I conceive that the first Adventurers intending to make a full Conquest of the Irish were deceived in the choise of the fittest places for their plantation For they sate down and erected their Castles and Habitations in the Plains and open Countries where they found most fruitful and profitable Lands and turned the Irish into the Woods and Mountains Which as they were proper places for Out-Laws and Thieves so were they their Natural Castles and Fortifications thither they drave their preys and stealths there they lurkt and lay in wait to do mischief These fast places they kept unknown by making the wayes and Entries thereunto impassible there they kept their Creaghts or Heardes of Cattle living by the milke of the Cow without Husbandry or Tillage there they encreased and multiplied unto infinite numbers by promiscuous generation among themselves there they made their Assemblies and Conspiracies without discovery But they discovered the weakness of the English dwelling in the open plains and thereupon made their sallies and retreats with great advantage Whereas on the other side if the English had builded their Castles and Towns in those places of fastness and had driven the Irish into the Plains and open Countries where they might have had an eye and observation upon them the Irish had been easily kept in Order and in short time reclaimed from their wildeness there they would have used Tillage dwelt together in Town-ships and learned Mechanical Arts and Sciences The woods had been wasted with the English Habitations as they are about the Forts of Mariborough and Philipston which were built in the fastest places in Leinster and the wayes and passages throughout Ireland would have been as clear and open as they are in England at this day AGain if King Henry the Second who is said to be the King that Conquered this Land had made Forrests in Ireland as he did enlarge the Forrests in England for it appeareth by Charta de Foresta that he afforrested many woods and wasts to the grievance of the Subject which by that Law were disaforrested or if those English Lords
made themselves Owners of all by Force were now by the Law reduced to this point That wanting means to defray their ordinary charges they resorted ordinarily to the Lord Deputy and made Petition that by License and Warrant of the State they might take some aid and contribution from their people as well to discharge their former debts as for competent maintenance in time to come But some of them being impatient of this diminution fled out of the Realm to forreign Countreys Whereupon we may well observe That as Extortion did banish the old English Free-holder who could not live but under the Law So the Law did banish the Irish Lord who could not live but by Extortion Again these Circuits of Justice did upon the end of the War more terrifie the loose and idle persons than the execution of the Martial Law though it were more quick and sudden and in a short time after did so clear the the Kingdom of Thieves and other Capital Offendors as I dare affirm that for the space of five years last past there have not been found so many Malefactors worthy of death in all the six Circuits of this Realm which is now divided into thirty two shires at large as in one Circuit of six shires namely the Western Circuit in England for the truth is that in time of Peace the Irish are more fearful to offend the Law than the English or any other Nation whatsoever Again whereas the greatest advantage that the Irish had of us in all their Rebellions was Our Ignorance of their Countreys their Persons and their Actions Since the Law and her Ministers have had a passage among them all their places of Fastness have been discovered and laid open all their paces cleared and notice taken of every person that is able to do either good or hurt It is known not onely how they live and what they do but it is foreseen what they purpose or intend to do Insomuch as Tyrone hath been heard to complain that he had so many eyes watching over him as he could not drink a full Carouse of Sack but the State was advertized thereof within few hours after And therefore those allowances which I finde in the ancient Pipe Rolls Pro guidagio spiagio may be well spared at this day For the Under-Sheriffs and Bailiffs errant are better Guides and Spies in the time of Peace than any were found in the time of War Moreover these Civil Assemblies at Assizes and Sessions have reclaimed the Irish from their Wildness caused them to cut off their Glibs and long Hair to convert their Mantles into Cloaks to conform themselves to the manner of England in all their behaviour and outward forms And because they finde a great inconvenience in moving their suits by an Interpreter they do for the most part send their Children to Schools especially to learn the English Language so as we may conceive and hope that the next generation will in tongue and heart and every way else become English so as there will be no difference or distinction but the Irish Sea betwixt us And thus we see a good conversion and the Irish Game turned again For heretofore the neglect of the Law made the English degenerate and become Irish and now on the other side the execution of the Law doth make the Irish grow civil and become English Lastly these general Sessions now do teach the people more obedience and keep them more in awe than did the general Hostings in former times These Progresses of the Law renew and confirm the Conquest of Ireland every half year and supply the defect of the Kings absence in every part of the Realm In that every Judge sitting in the Seat of Justice doth represent the person of the King himself These effects hath the establishment of the Publick Peace and Justice produced since his Majesties happy Reign began Howbeit it was impossible to make a Common-Weal in Ireland without performing another service which was the setling of all the Estates and Possessions as well of Irish as English thoroughout the Kingdom For although that in the twelfth year of Queen ELIZABETH a special Law was made which did enable the Lord Deputy to take Surrenders and regrant Estates unto the Irishry upon signification of Her Majesties pleasure in that behalf yet were there but few of the Irish Lords that made offer to surrender during her Reign and they which made Surrenders of entire Countreys obtained Grants of the whole again to themselves onely and to no other and all in Demesn In passing of which Grants there was no care taken of the Inferiour Septs of people inhabiting and possessing these Countreys under them but they held their several portions in course of Tanistry and Gavelkinde and yielded the same Irish Duties or Exactions as they did before So that upon every such Surrender and Grant there was but one Free-holder made in a whole Countrey which was the Lord himself all the rest were but Tenants at Will or rather Tenants in Villenage and were neither fit to be sworn in Juries nor to perform any Publick service And by reason of the uncertainty of their Estates did utterly neglect to build or to plant or to improve the Land And therefore although the Lord were become the Kings Tenant his Countrey was no whit reformed thereby but remained in the former Barbarism and Desolation Again in the same Queens time there were many Irish Lords which did not surrender yet obtained Letters-Patents of the Captain-ships of their Countreys and of all Lands and duties belonging to those Captainships For the Statute which doth condemn and abolish these Captain-ries usurped by the Irish doth give power to the Lord Deputy to grant the same by Letters Patents Howbeit these Irish Captains and likewise the English which were made Seneschalles of the Irish Countries did by colour of these grants and under pretence of Government claim an Irish Seigniory and exercise plain tyranny over the Common people And this was the fruit that did arise of the Letters Patents granted of the Irish Countries in the time of Queen Elizabeth where before they did extort and oppress the people only by colour of a lewd and barbarous custom they did afterwards use the same Extortions and oppressions by warrant under the great Seal of the Realm But now since his Majesty came to the Crown two special Commissions have been sent out of England for the setling and quieting of all the possessions in Ireland The one for accepting Surrenders of the Irish and degenerate English and for regranting Estates unto them according to the course of the common Law The other for strengthening of defective Titles In the Execution of which Commissions there hath ever been had a special care to settle and secure the under-Tenants to the end there might be a repose and establishment of every Subjects Estate Lord and Tenant Free-holder and Farmer thoroughout the Kingdom Upon Surrenders this