time was securely setled in peace and Obedience and hath attained to that Civility of Manners and plenty of all things as now we find it not inferiour to the best parts of England I will therefore knit up this point with these conclusions First that the Kings of England which in former Ages attempted the Conquest of Ireland being ill advised and counselled by the great men here did not upon the submissions of the Irish communicate their Laws unto them nor admit them to the state and condition of Free-subjects Secondly that for the space of 200. years at â—east after the first arrival of Henry the second in Ireland the Irish would gladly have embraced the Laws of England and did earnestly desire the benefit and protection thereof which being denyed them did of necessity cause a continual bordering war between the English and the Irish And lastly if according to the examples before recited they had reduced as well the Irish Countries as the English Colonies under one form of civil government as now they are the Meers and Bounds of the Marches and Borders had been long since worne out and forgotten for it is not fit as Cambrensis writeth that a King of an Island should have any Marches or Borders but the four Seas both Nations had been incorporated and united Ireland had been entirely Conquered Planted and Improved and returned a rich Revenue to the Crâ—wn of England THE next error in the Civil pollicy which hindered the perfection of the Conquest of Ireland did consist in the Distribution of the Lands and Possessions which were won and conquered from the Irish For the Scopes of Land which were granted to the first Adventures were too large and the Liberties and Royalties which they obtained therein were too great for Subjects though it stood with reason that they should be rewarded liberally out of the fruits of their own Labours since they did Militare propriis stipendiis and received no pay from the Crown of England Notwithstanding there ensued divers inconveniences that gave great impediment to the Conquest FIrst the Earl Strongbow was entituled to the whole Kingdom of Leinster partly by Invasion and partly by Marriage albeit he surrendred the same entirely to King Henry the second his Soveraign for that with his license he came over and with the Ayd of his Subjects he had gained that great inheritance yet did the King regrant back again to him and his Heirs all that Province reserving onely the City of Dublin and the Cantreds next adjoyning with the Maritime Towns and principal Forts and Castles Next the same King granted to Robert Fitz-Stephen and Miles Cogan the whole Kingdom of Cork from Lismore to the Sea To Phillip Bruce he gave the whole Kingdom of Limerick with the Donation of Bishopwricks and Abbies except the City and one Cantred of land adjoyning To Sir Hugh de Lacy all Meath To Sir John de Courcy all Vlster To William Burke Fitz-Adelm the greatest part of Conaght In like manner Sir Thomas de Clare obtained a grant of all Thomond and Otho de Grandison of all Tipperary and Robert le Poer of the Territory of Waterford the City it self and the Cantred of the Oastmen only excepted And thus was all Ireland Cantonized among ten persons of the English Nation and though they had not gained the possession of one third part of the whole Kingdom yet in Title they were Owners and Lords of all so as nothing was left to be granted to the Natives And therefore we do not find in any Record or story for the space of three hundred years after these Adventurers first arived in Ireland that any Irish Lord obtained a grant of his Country from the Crown but onely the King of Thomond who had a grant but during King Henry the third his Minority and Rotherick O Connor King of Conaght to whom King Henry the second before this distribution made did grant as is before declared Vt sit Rex sub eo and moreover Vt teneat terram suam Conactiae it a bene in pace sicut tenuit antequam Dominus Rex intravit Hiberniam And whose Successor in the 24 of Henry the third when the Bourkes had made a strong Plantation there and had well-nigh expelled him out of his Territory he came over into England as Matth. Paris writeth and made complaint to King Henry the third of this Invasion made by the Bourkes upon his Land insisting upon the grants of King Henry the second and King John and affirming that he had duely paid an yearly tribute of five thousand marks for his Kingdom Whereupon the King called unto him the Lord Maurice fitz-Girald who was then Lord Justice of Ireland and President in the Court and commanded him that he should root out that unjust plantation which Hubert Earl of Kent had in the time of his greatness planted in those parts and wrote withal to the great men of Ireland to remove the Bourks and to establish the King of Conaght in the quiet possession of his Kingdom Howbeit I do not read that the King of Englands commandment or direction in this behalf was ever put in execution For the troth is Richard de Burgo had obtained a grant of all Conaght after the death of the King of Conaght then living For which he gave a thousand pound as the Record in the Tower reciteth the third of Henry the third claus 2. And besides our great English Lords could not endure that any Kings should Reign in Ireland but themselves nay they could hardly endure that the Crown of England it self should have any Jurisdiction or Power over them For many of these Lords to whom our Kings had granted these petty Kingdoms did by vertue and colour of these Grants claim and exercise Jura Regalia within their Territories insomuch as there were no less than eight Counties Palatines in Ireland at one time For William Marshal Earl of Pembroke who married the Daughter and Heir of Strongbow being Lord of all Leinster had Royal Jurisdiction thoroughout all that Province This great Lord had five sons and five daughters every of his sons enjoyed that Seigniory successively and yet all dyed without issue Then this great Lordship was broken and divided and partition made between the five daughters who were married into the Noblest Houses of England The County of Catherlough was allotted to the eldest Wexford to the secâ—nd Kilkenny to the third Kildare to the fourth the greatest part of Leix now called the Queens County to the fifth In every of these portions the Ceparceners severally exercised the same Jurisdiction Royal which the Earl Marshal and his Sons had used in the whole Province Whereby it came to pass that there were five County Palatines erected in Leinster Then had the Lord of Meath the same Royal liberty in all that Territory the Earl of Vlster in all that Province and the
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
of King Henry the third for the eldest being married to Hugh Bigot Earl of Norfolk who in right of his wife had the Marshalship of England The second to Warren de Mountchensey whose sole Daughter and Heir was match to William de Valentia half Brother to King Henry the third who by that match was made Earl of Pembroke the third to Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester The fourth to William Ferrers Earl of Darby The fifth to William de Bruce Lord of Brecknock These great Lords having greater inheritances in their own right in England than they had in Ireland in right of their Wives and yet each of the Coparceners had an entire County allotted for her purparty as is before declared could not be drawn to make their personal residence in this Kingdom but managed their Estates here by their Seneschals and Servants And to defend their Territories against the bordering Irish they entertained some of the Natives who pretended a perpetual Title to those great Lordships For the Irish after a thousand conquests and Attainders by our Law would in those days pretend title still because by the Irish Law no man could forfeit his Land These natives taking the opportunity in weak and desperate times usurped those Seigniories and so Donald mac Art Cavanagh being entertained by the Earl of Nolfork made himself Lord of the County of Catherlough And Lisagh O Moor being trusted by the Lord Mortimer who married the Daughter and Heir of the Lord Bruce made himself Lord of the lands in Leix in the latter end of King Edward the seconds Reign as is before declared Again the decay and loss of Vlster and Connaught is attributed to this that the Lord William Bourk the last Earl of that name died without issue male whose Ancestors namely the Red Earl and Sir Hugh de Lacy before him being personally resident held up their greatness there and kept the English in peace and the Irish in awe But when those Provinces descended upon an Heir Female and an Infant the Irish over-ran Vlster and the younger branches of the Bourkes usurped Connaught And therefore the Ordinance made in England the third of Richard the second against such as were absent from their Lands in Ireland and gave two third parts of the profits thereof unto the King until they returned or placed a sufficient number of men to defend the same was grounded upon good reason of State which Ordinance was put in execution for many years after as appeareth by sundry seizures made thereupon in the time of K. Richard the second Henry the fourth Henry the fifth Henry the sixth whereof there remain Records in the Remembrancers Office here Among the rest the Duke of Norfolk himself was not spared but was impleaded upon this Ordinance for two parts of the profits of Dorburies Island and other Lands in the County of Wexford in the time of King Henry the sixth And afterwards upon the same reason of State all the lands of the house of Norfolk of the Earl of Shrewsbury the Lord Barkley and others who having lands in Ireland kept their continual residence in England were entirely resumed by the Act of Absentees made in the 28 year of King Henry the eigth But now again let us look back and see how long the effect of that Reformation did continue which was begun by Lionel Duke of Clarence in the fortieth year of King Edward the third and what courses have been held to reduce and reform this people by other Lieutenants and Governors since that time The English Colonies being in some good measure reformed by the Statutes of Kilkenny did not utterly fall away into Barbarism again till the Wars of the two Houses had almost destroyed both these Kingdoms for in that miserable time the Irish found opportunity without opposition to banish the English Law and Government out of all the Provinces and to confine it onely to the English Pale Howbeit in the mean time between the Government of the Duke of Clarence and the beginning of those Civil Wars of York and Lancaster we find that the State of England did sundry times resolve to proceed in this work of reformation For first King Richard 2. sent over Sir Nicholas Dagworth to survey the possessions of the Crown and to call to accompt the Officers of the revenue Next to draw his English Subjects to manure and defend their lands in Ireland he made that Ordinance against Absentees spoken of before Again he shewed an excellent example of Justice upon Sir Philip Courtney being his Lieutenant of that Kingdom when he caused him to be arrested by special Commissioners upon complaint made of sundry grievous oppressions and wrongs which during his Government he had done unto that people After this the Parliament of England did resolve that Thomas Duke of Glocester the Kings Uncle should be imployed in the reformation and reducing of that Kingdom the Fame whereof was no sooner bruted in Ireland but all the Irishry were ready to submit themselves before his coming so much the very Name of a great personage specially of a Prince of the blood did ever prevail with this people But the King and his Minions who were ever jealous of this Duke of Glocester would not suffer him to have the honour of that service But the King himself thought it a work worthy of his own presence and pains and thereupon Himself in person made those two royal journeys mentioned before At what time he received the submissions of all the Irish Lords and Captains who bound themselves both by Indenture and oath to become and continue his Loyal Subjects And withall laid a particular project for a civil plantation of the Mountains and Maritime Counties between Dublin and Wexford by removing all the Irish Septs from thence as appeareth by the covenants between the Earl Marshal of England and those Irish Septs which are before remembred and are yet preserved and remain of Record in the Kings Remembrancers Office at Westminster Lastly this King being present in Ireland took special care to supply and furnish the Courts of Justice with able and sufficient Judges And to that end he made that Grave and Learned Judge Sir William Hankeford Chief Justice of the Kings Bench here who afterwards for his service in this Realm was made chief Justice of the Kings Bench in England by King Henry 4. and did withall associate unto him William Sturmy a well Learned man in the law who likewise came out of England with the King that the legal proceedings which were out of order too as all other things in that Realm were might be amended and made formal according to the course and Presidents of England But all the good purposes and projects of this King were interrupted and utterly defeated by his suddain departure out of Ireland and unhappy deposition from the Crown of England HOwbeit King Henry the fourth intending likewise to prosecute this Noble
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
he intended was to reform the degenerate English Colonies and to reduce them to obedience of the English Law and Magistrate To that end in the fortieth year of King Edward the third he held that famous Parliament at Kilkenny wherein many notable Laws were enacted which do shew and lay open For the Law doth best discover enormities how much the English Colonies were corrupted at that time and do infallibly prove that which is laid down before That they were wholly degenerate and faln away from their obedience For first it appeareth by the Preamble of these Laws that the English of this Realm before the coming over of Lionel Duke of Clarence were at that time become meer Irish in their Language Names Apparel and all their manner of living and had rejected the English Laws and submitted themselves to the Irish with whom they had many Marriages and Alliances which tended to the utter ruine and destruction of the Commom-wealth Therefore alliance by Marriage Nurture of Infants and Gossipred with the Irish are by this Statute made High-Treason Again if any man of English race should use any Irish Name Irish Language or Irish Apparel or any other guise or fashion of the Irish if he had Lands or Tenements the same should be seized till he had given security to the Chancery to conform himself in all points to the English manner of living And if he had no Lands his body was to be taken and imprisoned till he found Sureties as aforesaid Again it was established and commanded that the English in all their Controversies should be ruled and governed by the Common Law of England and if any did submit himself to the Brehon Law or March Law he should be adjudged a Traytor Again because the English at that time made War and Peace with the bordering Enemy at their pleasure they were expresly prohibited to levy War upon the Irish without special Warrant and Direction from the State Again it was made paenal to the English to permit the Irish to Creaght or graze upon their Lands to present them to Ecclesiastical Benefices to receive them into any Monasteries or Religious Houses or to entertain any of their Minstrels Rimers or News-tellers to impose or sess any Horse or Foot upon the English subjects against their wills was made felony And because the great Liberties or Franchises spoken of before were become Sanctuaries for all Malefactors express power was given to the Kings Sheriffs to enter into all Franchises and there to apprehend all Felons and Traytors And lastly because the great Lords when they levied Forces for the Publike Service did lay unequal burthens upon the Gentlemen and Freeholders it was ordained that four Wardens of the Peace in every County should set down and appoint what Men and Armor every man should bear according to his Freehold or other ability of esate THese and other Laws tending to a general reformation were enacted in that Parliament And the Execution of these Laws together with the Presence of the Kings Son made a notable alteration in the State and Manners of this people within the space of seven years which was the term of this Princes Lieutenancy For all the Discourses that I have seen of the Decay of Ireland do agree in this that the presence of the Lord Lionel and these Statutes of Kilkenny did restore the English Government in the degenerate Colonies for divers years And the Statute of the tenth of Henry the seventh which reviveth and confirmeth the Statutes of Kilkenny doth confirm as much For it declareth that as long as these Laws were put in â—ure and execution this Land continued in prosperity and honor and since they were not executed the Subjects rebelled and digressed from their Allegeance and the Land fell to ruine and desolation And withal we finde the effect of these Laws in the Pipe-Rolls and Plea-Roâ—ls of this Kingdom For from the 36 of Edw. 3. when this Prince entred into his Government till the beginning of Richard the second his Reign we finde the Revenue of the Crown both certain and casual in Vlster Munster and Conaght accounted for and that the Kings Writ did run and the Common Law was executed in every of these Provinces I joyn with these Laws the personal presence of the Kings Son as a concurrent cause of this Reformation Because the people of this Land both English and Irish out of a natural pride did ever love and desire to be governed by great persons And therefore I may here justly take occasion to note that first the absence of the Kings of England and next the absence of those great Lords who were inheritors of those mighty Seigniories of Leinster Vlster Conaghtâ— and Meath have been main causes why this Kingdom was not reduced in so many ages TOuching the absence of our Kings three of them onely since the Norman Conquest have made Royal journeys into this Land namely King Henry the second King John and King Richard the second And yet they no sooner arrived here but that all the Irishry as if they had been but one man submitted themselves took Oathes of fidelity and gave pledges and hostages to continue loyal And if any of those Kings had continued here in person a competent time till they had settled both English and Irish in their several possessions and had set the Law in a due course throughout the Kingdom these times wherein we live had not gained the honor of the final conquest and reducing of Ireland For the King saith Salomon dissipat omne malum intuitu suo But when Moses was absent in the Mount the people committed Idolatry and when there was no King in Israel every man did what seemed best in his own eyes And therefore when Alexander had conquered the East part of the World and demanded of one what was the fitest place for the seat of his Empire he brought and laid a dry hide before him and desired him to set his foot on the one side thereof which being done all the other parts of the hide did rise up but when he did set his foot in the middle of the hide all the other parts lay flat and even Which was a lively demonstration that if a Prince keep his residence in the border of his Dominions the remote parts will easily rise and rebel against him But if he make the Centre thereof his Seat he shall easily keep them in peace and obedience TOuching the absence of the great Lords All Writers do impute the decay and loss of Leinster to the absence of these English Lords who married the five Daughters of William Marshal Earl of Pembroke to whom that great Seigniory descended when his five Sons who inherited the same successively and during their times held the same in peace and obedidence to the Law of England were all dead without issue which hapned about the fortieth year