Irish did not exceed the number of twelve hundred men as appeareth by the Treasurers Accompt of Ireland now remaining in the Exchequer of England With these Forces did Sir Henry Sidney then Lord Deputy march into the farthest parts of Tirone and joyning with Captain Randal did much distress but not fully defeat O Neal who was afterwards slain upon a meer accident by the Scots and not by the Queens Army TO prosecute the Wars in Munster against Desmond and his Adherents there were transmitted out of England at several times three or four thousand men which together with the standing Garrisons and some other supplies raised here made at one time an Army of six thousand and upwards which with the Vertue and Valour of Arthur Lord Gray and others the Commanders did prove a sufficient power to extinguish that Rebellion But that being done it was never intended that these Forces should stand till the rest of the Kingdom were settled and reduced onely that Army which was brought over by the Earl of Essex Lord Lieutenant and Governor General of this Kingdom in the nine and thirtieth year of Queen Elizabeth to suppress the Rebellion of Tirone which was spread universally over the whole Realm That Army I say the command whereof with the Government of the Realm was shortly after transferred to the command of the Lord Montjoy afterwards Earl of Devonshire who with singular wisdom valour and industry did prosecute and finish the War did consist of such good men of War and of such numbers being well-nigh twenty thousand by the Poll and was so royally supplied and paid and continued in full strength so long a time as that it brake and absolutely subdued all the Lords and Chieftains of the Irishry and degenerate or rebellious English Whereupon the multitude who ever loved to be followers of such as could master and defend them admiring the power of the Crown of England being bray'd as it were in a Morter with the Sword Famine and Pestilence altogether submitted themselves to the English Government received the Laws and Magistrates and most gladly embraced the Kings Pardon and Peace in all parts of the Realm with demonstration of joy and comfort which made indeed an entire perfect and final Conquest of Ireland And though upon the finishing of the War this great Army was reduced to less numbers yet hath His Majestie in his Wisdom thought it fit still to maintain such competent Forces here as the Law may make her progress and Circuit about the Realm under the protection of the Sword as Virgo the figure of Justice is by Leo in the Zodiack until the people have perfectly learned the Lesson of Obedience and the Conquest be established in the hearts of all men THus far have I endeavoured to make it manifest that from the first adventure and attempt of the English to subdue and conquer Ireland until the last War with Tyrone which as it was Royally undertaken so it was really prosecuted to the end there hath been four main defects in the carriage of the Martial Affairs here First the Armies for the most part were too weak for a Conquest Secondly when they were of a competent strength as in both the journeys of Richard the second they were too soon broken up and dissolved Thirdly they were ill paid And fourthly they were ill governed which is always a consequent of ill payment BUt why was not this great work performed before the latter end of Queen Elizabeths Reign considering that many of the Kings her Progenitors were as great Captains as any in the World and had elsewhere larger Dominions and Territories First who can tell whether the Divine Wisdom to abate the glory of those Kings did not reserve this Work to be done by a Queen that it might rather appear to be his own immediate work And yet for her greater Honor made it the last of her great actions as it were to Crown all the rest And to the end that a secure peace might settle the Conquest and make it firm and perpetual to Posterity caused it to be made in that fulness of time when England and Scotland became to be united under one Imperial Crown and when the Monarchy of Great Britany was in League and Amity with all the World Besides the Conquest at this time doth perhaps fulfil that prophesie wherein the four great Prophets of Ireland do concur as it is recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis to this effect That after the first Invasion of the English they should spend many ages in crebris conflictibus longoque certamine multis caedibus And that Omnes fere Anglici ab Hibernia turbabuntur nihilominus orientalia maritima semper obtinebunt Sed vix paulo antè diem Judicii plenam Anglorum populo victoriam compromittunt Insula Hibernica de mari usque ad mare de toto subacta incastellata If S. Patrick and the rest did not utter this Prophesie certainly Giraldus is a Prophet who hath reported it To this we may adde the Prophesie of Merlin spoken of also by Giraldus Sextus moenia Hiberniae subvertet regiones in Regnum redigentur Which is performed in the time of King James the sixth in that all the paces are cleared and places of fastness laid open which are the proper Walls and Castles of the Irish as they were of the British in the time of Agricola and withall the Irish Countreys being reduced into Counties make but one entire and undivided Kingdom But to leave these high and obscure causes the plain and manifest truth is that the Kings of England in all ages had been powerful enough to make an absolute Conquest of Ireland if their whole power had been employed in that enterprize but still there arose sundry occasions which divided and diverted their power some other way Let us therefore take a brief view of the several impediments which arose in every Kings time since the first Overture of the Conquest whereby they were so employed and busied as they could not intend the final Conquest of Ireland KIng Henry the second was no sooner returned out of Ireland but all his four Sons conspired with his Enemies rose in Arms and moved War against him both in France and in England This unnatural Treason of his Sons did the King express in an Emblem painted in his Chamber at Winchester wherein was an Eagle with three Eglets tiring â—n her breast and the fourth pecking at one of her eyes And the troth is these ungracious practises of his Sons did impeach his journey to the Holy-Land which he had once vowed vexed him all the days of his life and brought his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave Besides this King having given the Lordship of Ireland to John his youngest Son â— his ingratitude afterwards made the King careless to settle him in the quiet and absolute possession of that Kingdom RIchard the first which succeeded
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
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
had no colour or shadow of Title to that great Lordship but only by grant from the Crown and by the Law of England for by the Irish Law he had been ranked with the meanest of his Sept yet in one of his Capitulations with the State he required that no Sheriff might have Jurisdiction within Tyrone and consequently that the Laws of England might not be executed there Which request was never before made by O Neale or any other Lord of the Irishry when they submitted themselves but contrariwise they were humble sutors to have the benefit and protection of the English Laws THis then I note as a great defect in the civil policy of this Kingdom in that for the space of three hundred and fifty years at least after the Conquest first attempted the English laws were not communicated to the Irish nor the benefit and protection thereof allowed unto them though they earnestly desired and sought the same For as long as they were out of the protection of the Law so as every English-man might oppress spoil and kill them without controulment how was it possible they should be other than Out-laws and Enemies to the Crown of England If the King would not admit them to the condition of Subjects how could they learn to acknowledge and obey him as their Soveraign When they might not converse or Commerce with any Civil Men nor enter into any Town or City without peril of their Lives whither should they flye but into the Woods and Mountains and there live in a wilde and barbarous manner If the English Magistrates would not rule them by the Law which doth punish Treason and Murder and Theft with death but leave them to be ruled by their own Lords and Laws why should they not embrace their own Brehon Law which punisheth no offence but with a Fine or Ericke If the Irish be not permitted to purchase Estates of Free-holds or Inheritance which might descend to their Children according to the course of our Common Law must they not continue their custom of Tanistrie which makes all their possessions uncertain and brings Confusion Barbarism and Incivility In a word if the English would neither in peace Govern them by the Law nor could in war root them out by the sword must they not needs be pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides till the worlds end and so the Conquest never be brought to perfection BUT on the other side If from the beginning the Laws of England had been established and the Brehon or Irish Law utterly abolished as well in the Irish Countries as the English Colonies If there had been no difference made between the Nations in point of Justice and protection but all had been governed by one Equal Just and Honourable Law as Dido speaketh in Virgil Tros Tyriusvè mihi nullo discrimine habetur If upon the first submission made by the Irish Lords to King Henry the second Quem in Regem Dominum receperunt saith Matth. Paris or upon the second submission made to King John when Plusquam viginti Reguli maximo timore perterriti homagium ei fidelitatem fecerunt as the same Author writeth or upon the third general submission made to King Richard the second when they did not only do Homage and fealty but bound themselves by Indentures and Oaths as is before expressed to become and continue loyal subjects to the Crown of England If any of these three Kings who came each of them twice in person into this Kingdom had upon these submissions of the Irishry received them all both Lords and Tenants into their immediate protection divided their several Countries into Counties made Sheriffs Coroners and Wardens of the peace therein sent Justices Itinerants half yearly into every part of the Kingdom as well to punish Malefactors as to hear and determine causes between party and party according to the course of the Laws of England taken surrenders of their Lands and Territories and granted Estates unto them to hold by English Tenures granted them Markers Fairs and other Franchises and erected Corporate Towns among them all which hath been performed since his Majesty came to the Crown assuredly the Irish Countries had long since been reformed and reduced to Peace Plenty and Civility which are the effects of Laws and good Government they had builded Houses planted Orchards and Gardens erected Town-ships and made provision for their posterities there had been a perfect Union betwixt the Nations and consequently a perfect Conquest of Ireland For the Conquest is never perfect till the war be at an end and the war is not at an end till their be peace and unity and there can never be Unity and Concord in any one Kingdom but where there is but one King one Allegiance and one Law TRue it is that King John made twelve shires in Leinster and Mounster namely Dublin Kildare Meth Vriel Catherlogh Kilkenny Wexford Waterford Corke Limerick Kerrie and Tipperary Yet these Counties did stretch no farther than the Lands of the English Colonies did extend In them only were the English Laws published and put in Execution and in them only did the Itinerant Judges make their circuits and visitations of Justice and not in the Countries possessed by the Irishry which contained two third parts of the Kingdom at least And therefore King Edward the first before the Court of Parliament was established in Ireland did transmit the Statutes of England in this form Dominus Rex mandavit Breve suum in haec verba Edwardus Dei gratia Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae c. Cancellario suo Hiberniae Salutem Quaedam statuta per nos de assensu Praelatorum Comitum Baronum Communitat regni nostri nuper apud Lincolne quaedam alia statuta postmodum apud Eborum facta quae in dicta terra nostra Hiberniae ad Communem utilitatem populi nostri ejusdem terrae observari volumus vobis mittimus sub sigillo nostro mandantes quod statuta illa in dicta Cancellaria nostra Custodiri ac in rotulis ejusdem Cancellariae irrotulari ad singulas placeas nostras in terra nostra Hiberniae singulos Commitatus ejusdem terrae mitti faciatis ministris nostris placearum illarum Vicecomitibus dictorum Comitatum mandantes quod statuta illa coram ipsis publicari ea in omnibus singulis Articulis suis observari firmiter faciatis Testè meipso apud Nottingham c. By which Writ and by all the Pipe-Rolls of that time it is manifest that the Laws of England were published and put in execution only in the Counties which were then made and limited and not in the Irish Countries which were neglected and left wilde and have but of late years been divided in one and twenty Counties more Again true it is that by the Statute of Kilkenny enacted in this Kingdom in the fortieth year of King Edward the Third the Brehon Law was
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
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
Henry the second in the Kingdom of England had less reason to bend his power towards the Conquest of this Land which was given in perpetuity to the Lord John his Brother And therefore went he in person to the Holy War by which journey and his Captivity in Austria and the heavy ransome that he paid for his liberty he was hindred and utterly disabled to pursue any so great an action as the Conquest of Ireland And after his delivery and return hardly was he able to maintain a Frontier War in Normandy where by hard fortune he lost his life KIng John his Brother had greatest reason to prosecute the War of Ireland because the Lordship thereof was the portion of his inheritance given unto him when he was called John Sans-Terre Therefore he made two journeys thither one when he was Earl of Morton and very young about twelve years of age the other when he was King in the twelfth year of his Reign In the the first his own youth and his youthful company Roboams Counsellors made him hazard the loss of all that his Father had won But in the latter he shewed a resolution to recover the entire Kingdom in taking the submissions of all the Irishry and settling the estates of the English and giving order for the building of many Castles and Forts whereof some remain until this day But he came to the Crown of England by a defeasible Title so as he was never well settled in the hearts of the people which drew him the sooner back out of Ireland into England where shortly after he fell into such trouble and distress The Clergy cursing him on the one side and the Barons Rebelling against him on the other as he became so far unable to return to the Conquest of Ireland as besides the forfeiture of the Territories in France he did in a manner lose both the Kingdoms For he surrendred both to the Pope and took them back again to hold in Fee-farm which brought him into such hatred at home and such contempt abroad as all his life time after he was possest rather with fear of loosing his head than with hope of reducing the Kingdom of Ireland DUring the infancy of Henry the third the Barons were troubled in expelling the French whom they had drawn in against King John But this Prince was no sooner come to his majority but the Barons raised a long and cruel war against him Into these troubled waters the Bishops of Rome did cast their Nets and drew away all the wealth of the realm by their provisions and infinite exactions whereby the Kingdom was so impoverished as the King was scarce able to feed his own houshold and train much less to nourish Armies for the conquest of Forraign Kingdoms And albeit he had given this Land to the Lord Edward his eldest son yet could not that worthy Prince ever find means or opportunity to visit this Kingdom in person For from the time he was able to bear armes he served continually against the Barons by whom he was taken prisoner at the battel of Lewes And when that rebellion was appeased he made a journey to the Holy Land an employment which in those dayes diverted all Christian Princes from performing any great actions in Europe from whence he was returned when the Crown of England descended upon him THis King Edward the first who was a Prince adorned with all vertues did in the managing of his affairs shew himself a right good husband who being Owner of a Lordship ill husbanded doth first enclose and mannure his demeasnes near his principal house before he doth improve his wasts afar off Therefore he began first to establish the Common-wealth of England by making many excellent Laws and instituting the form of publick Justice which remaineth to this day Next he fully subdued and reduced the Dominion of Wales then by his power and authority he setled the Kingdom of Scotland and lastly he sent a Royal army into Cascoigne to recover the Dutchy of Aquitain These four great actions did take up all the raign of this Prince And therefore we find not in any Record that this King transmitted any Forces into Ireland but on the other side we find it recorded both in the Annals and in the Pipe-Rolls of this Kingdom that three several Armies were raised of the Kings subjects in Ireland and transported one into Scotland another into Wales and the third into Cascoigne and that several aids were levyed here for the setting forth of those armies THe Son and Successor of this excellent Prince was Edward the second who much against his will sent one small army into Ireland not with a purpose to finish the Conquest but to guard the person of his Minion Piers Gaveston who being banished out of England was made Lieutenant of Ireland that so his exile might seem more honourable He was no sooner arrived here but he made a journey into the Mountains of Dublin brake and subdued the Rebels there built New-Castle in the Birnes Country and repaired Castlekeuin and after passed up into Mounster and Thomond performing every where great service with much Vertue and Valour But the King who could not live without him revokt him within less than a year After which time the invasion of the Scots and Rebellion of the Barons did not only disable this King to be a Conqueror but deprived him both of his Kingdom and life And when the Scottish nation had over-run all this land under the conduct of Edw. le Bruce who stiled himself King of Ireland England was not then able to send either men or mony to save this Kingdom Only Roger de Mortimer then Justice of Ireland arrived at Youghall cum 38. milit saith Friar Clinn in his Annals But Bremingham Verdon Stapleton and some other private Gentlemen rose out with the Commons of Meth and Vriel and at Fagher near Dondalke a fatal place to the enemies of the Crown of England overthrew a potent army of them Et sic saith the red Book of the Exchequer wherein the victory was briefly recorded per manus communis populi dextram dei deliberatur populus dei a servitute machinata praecogitata IN the time of King Edward the third the impediments of the Conquest of Ireland are so notorious as I shall not need to express them to wit the war which the King had with the Realms of Scotland and of France but especially the Wars of France which were almost continual for the space of forty years And indeed France was a fairer mark to shoot at than Ireland and could better reward the Conqueror Besides it was an inheritance newly descended upon the King and therefore he had great reason to bend all his power and spend all his time and treasure in the recovery thereof And this is the true cause why Edward the third sent no army into Ireland till the 36. year of his