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
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
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
all their Controversies In Conaght the Archbishop of Tuam the Bishop of Clonfert Captain Wakeley Captain Ovington In Munster the Bishop of Waterford the Bishop of Cork and Ross the Mayor of Cork and Mayor of Youghal In Vlster the Archbishop of Ardmagh and the Lord of Lowth And if any difference did arise which they could not end either for the difficulty of the cause or for the obstinacy of the parties they were to certifie the Lord Deputy Council who would decide the matter by their Authority Hereupon the Irish Captains of lesser Territories which had ever been oppressed by the greater and mightier some with risings out others with Bonaght and others with Cuttings and spendings at pleasure did appeal for Justice to the Lord Deputy who upon hearing their complaints did always order that they should all immediately depend upon the King and that the weaker should have no dependancy upon the stronger Lastly he prevailed so much with the greatest of them namely O Neal O Brien and Mac William as that they willingly did pass into England and presented themselves to the King who thereupon was pleased to advance them to the degree and honor of Earls and to grant unto them their several Countreys by Letters-patents Besides that they might learn Obedience and Civility of manners by often repairing unto the State the King upon the motion of the same Deputy gave each of them a house and lands neer Dublin for the entertainment of their several trains This course did this Governor take to reform the Irishry but withal he did not omit to advance both the honor and profit of the King For in the Parliament which he held the 33 of Hen. the eighth he caused an Act to pass which gave unto K. Henry the eighth his Heirs and Successors the Name Stile and Title of King of Ireland whereas before that time the Kings of England were stiled but Lords of Ireland albeit indeed they were absolute Monarchs thereof and had in right all Royal and Imperial Jurisdiction and power there as they had in the Realm of England And yet because in the vulgar conceit the name of King is higher than the name of Lord Assuredly the assuming of this Title hath not a little raised the Soveraignty of the King of England in the mindes of this people lastly this Deputy brought a great augmentation to the Kings Revenue by dissolving of all the Monasteries and Religious Houses in Ireland which was done in the same Parliament and afterward by procuring Min and Cavendish two skilful Auditors to be sent over out of England Who took an exact survey of all the possessions of the Crown and brought many things into charge which had been concealed and substracted for many years before And thus far did Sir Anthony Saint Leger proceed in the course of Reformation which though it were a good beginning yet was it far from reducing Ireland to the perfect obedience of the Crown of England For all this while the Provinces of Conaght and Vlster and a good part of Leinster were not reduced to Shire-ground And though Munster were anciently divided into Counties the people were so degenerate as no Justice of Assize durst execute his Commission amongst them None of the Irish Lords or Tenants were setled in their possessions by any Grant or Confirmation from the Crown except the three great Earls before named who notwithstanding did govern their Tenants and Followers by the Irish or Brehon Law so as no treason murther rape or theft committed in those Countries was inquired of or punisht by the Law of England and consequently no Escheat Forfeiture or Fine no Revenue certain or casual did accrew to the Crown out of those Provinces The next worthy Governor that endeavoured to advance this Reformation was Thomas Earl of Sussex who having throughly broken and subdued the two most rebellious and powerful Irish Septs in Leinster namely the Moores and O Connors possessing the Territories of Leix and Offaly did by Act of Parliament 3. and 4. Phil. and Mariae reduce those Countries into two several Counties naming the one the Kings and the other the Queens County which were the first two Counties that had been made in this Kingdom since the twelfth year of King John at what time the Territories then possessed by the English Colonies were reduced into twelve Shires as is before expressed This Noble Earl having thus extended the Jurisdiction of the English Law into two Counties more was not satisfied with that addition but took a resolution to divide all the rest of the Irish Countries un-reduced into several Shires and to that end he caused an Act to pass in the same Parliament authorising the Lord Chancellor from time to time to award Commissions to such Persons as the Lord Deputy should nominate and appoint to view and perambulate those Irish Territories and thereupon to divide and limit the same into such and so many several Counties as they should think meet which being certified to the Lord Deputy and approved by him should be returned and enrolled in the Chancery and from thenceforth be of like force and effect as if it were done by Act of Parliament Thus did the Earl of Sussex lay open a passage for the Civil Government into the unreformed parts of this Kingdom but himself proceeded no further than is before delared HOwbeit afterwards during the Raign of Queen Elizabeth Sir Henry Sidney who hath left behind him many Monuments of a good Governour in this Land did not only pursue that course which the Earl of Sussex began in reducing the Irish Countries into Shires and placing therein Sheriffs and other Ministers of the Law for first he made the Annaly a Territory in Leinster possessed by the Sept of Offerralles one entire Shire by it self and called it the County of Longford and after that he divided the whole Province of Conaght into six Counties more namely Clare which containeth all Thomond Gallaway Sligo Mayo Roscomon and Leytrim But he also had caused divers good Laws to be made and performed sundry other services tending greatly to the reformation of this Kingdom For first to diminish the greatness of the Irish Lords and to take from them the dependancy of the Common people in the Parliament which he held 11. Eliz. He did abolish their pretended and usurped Captain-ships and all exactions and extortions incident thereunto Next to settle their Seigniories and possessions in a course of inheritance according to the course of the Common law he caused an Act to pass whereby the Lord Deputy was authorised to accept their Surrenders and to regrant estates unto them to hold of the Crown by English tenures and services Again because the inferiour sort were loose and poor and not amesuable to the law he provided by another Act that five of the best and eldest persons of every Sept should bring in all the idle persons of their surname to be justified by the law Moreover
HISTORICAL RELATIONS OR A DISCOVERY Of the true causes why IRELAND Was never intirely Subdu'd nor brought under obedience OF THE CROWN OF ENGLAND UNTIL The beginning of the Reign of King James of happy memory By Sir John Davis Knight His Majesties Attorney General of Ireland The third Edition corrected and amended Dublin Printed for Samuel Dancer Bookseller in Castlestreet 1666. THE PRINTER TO THE READER THE former Edition of this Book being rarely now to be got and much sought after by many for the worth thereof I procured from the Honourable Sir James Ware one of the former printed Books according to which I now publish this second Edition The Author of the Work was Sir John Davis a Learned man and an excellent Orator who for his great Abilities was by King James first made His Solicitor and afterwards his Attorney-General in this Kingdom of Ireland Which Place he discharged for divers years and having access to the Records from them for the most part as from the purest Fountains he gathered these his Observations A DISCOVERY OF THE True causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued and brought under obedience of the Crown of England until the beginning of His Majesties happy Reign DUring the time of my Service in IRELAND which began in the first year of His Majesties Reign I have visited also the Provinces of that Kingdom in sundry journeys and circuits Wherein I have observed the good Temperature of the Ayre the Fruitfulness of the Soyl the pleasant and commodious seats for habitation the safe and large Ports and Havens lying open for Traffick into all the West parts of the World the long Inlets of many Navigable Rivers and so many great Lakes and fresh Ponds within the Land as the like are not to be seen in any part of Europe the rich Fishings and Wilde Fowl of all kinds and lastly the Bodies and Mindes of the people endued with extraordinary abilities of Nature THe observation whereof hath bred in me some curiosity to consider what were the true causes why this Kingdom whereof our Kings of England have borne the Title of Soveraign Lords for the space of four hundred and odde years a period of time wherein divers great Monarchies have risen from Barbarism to Civility and fallen again to ruine was not in al that space of time thoroughly subdued and reduced to Obedience of the Crown of England although there hath been almost a continual War between the English and the Irish and why the manners of the meer Irish are so little altered since the days of King Henry the second as appeareth by the description made by Giraldus Cambrensis who lived and wrote in that time albeit there have been since that time so many English Colonies planted in Ireland as that if the people were numbered at this day by the poll such as are descended of English race would be found more in number than the ancient Natives AND truly upon consideration of the conduct and passage of affairs in former times I find that the State of England ought to be cleared of an imputation which a vulgar errour hath cast upon it in one point namely That Ireland long since might have been subdued and reduced to Civility if some Statesmen in policy had not thought it more fit to continue that Realm in Barbarism Doubtless this vulgar opinion or report hath no true ground but did first arise either out of Ignorance or out of Malice For it will appear by that which shall hereafter be laid down in this Discourse that ever since Our Nation had any footing in this Land the State of England did earnestly desire and I did accordingly endeavour from time to time to perfect the Conquest of this Kingdom but that in every age there were found such impediments and defects in both Realms as caused almost an impossibility that things should have been otherwise than they were THe Defects which hindred the Perfection of the Conquest of Ireland were of two kindes and consisted first In the faint prosecution of the war and next In the looseness of the Civil Government For the Husbandman must first break the Land before it be made capable of good seed and when it is thoroughly broken and manured if we do not forthwith cast good seed into it it will grow wilde again and bear nothing but weeds So a barbarous Country must be first broken by a war before it will be capable of good Government and when it is fully subdued and conquered if it be not well planted and governed after the Conquest it will eft soons return to the former Barbarism TOuching the carriage of the Martial affairs from the seventeenth year of King Henry the second when the first overture was made for the Conquest of Ireland I mean the first after the Norman Conquest of England until the nine and thirtieth year of Queen ELIZABETH when that Royal Army was sent over to suppress Tirones Rebellion which made in the end an universal and absolute conquest of all the Irishrie It is most certain that the English forces sent hither or raised here from time to time were ever too weak to subdue and master so many warlike Nations or Septs of the Irish as did possess this Island and besides their weakness they were Ill paid and worse Governed And if at any time there came over an Army of competent strength and power it did rather terrifie than break and subdue this people being ever broken and dissolved by some one accident or other before the perfection of the Conquest FOR that I call a Perfect Conquest of a Countrey which doth reduce all the people thereof to the Condition of Subjects and those I call Subjects which are governed by the ordinary Laws and Magistrates of the Soveraign For though the Prince doth bear the Title of Soveraign Lord of an entire Countrey as our Kings did of all Ireland yet if there be two third parts of that Countrey wherein he cannot punish Treasons Murthers or Thefts unless he send an Army to do it if the Jurisdiction of his ordinary Courts of Justice doth not extend into those parts to protect the people from wrong and Oppression if he have no certain Revenue no Escheates or Forfeitures out of the same I cannot justly say that such a Countrey is wholly conquered FIrst then That we may judge and discern whether the English Forces in Ireland were at any time of sufficient strength to make a full and final Conquest of that Land let us see what extraordinary Armies have been transmitted out of England thither and what ordinary Forces have been maintained there and what service they have performed from time to time since the seventeenth year of King Henry the second IN that year Mac Murugh Lord of Leinster being oppressed by the Lords of Meath and Connaught and expelled out of his Territory moved King Henry the second to invade Ireland and made an overture unto him for
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
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
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
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
seventh year of King Edward the Third the Lord William Bourke Earl of Vlster and Lord of Conaght was treacherously murdered by his own Squires at Knockfergus leaving behinde him Vnicam unius anni filiam saith Friar Clinne Immediately upon the murder committed the Countess with her young daughter fled into England so as the Government of that Country was wholly neglected until that young Lady being married to Lionel Duke of Clarence that Prince came over with an Army to recover his Wives inheritance and so reform this Kingdom Anno 36. of Edward the third But in the mean time what became of that great inheritance both in Vlster and Conaght Assuredly in Vlster the Sept of Hugh Bog O Neal then possessing Glaucoukeyn and Killeightra in Tyrone took the opportunity and passing over the Banne did first expel the English out of the Barony of Tuscard which is now called the Rout and likewise out of the Glynnes and other Lands up as far as Knockfergus which Countrey or extent of Land is at this day called the lower Clan Hugh-Boy And shortly after that they came up into the great Ardes which the Latin writers call Altitudines Vltoniae and was then the inheritance of the Savages by whom they were valiantly resisted for divers years but at last for want of Castles and fortifications for the saying of Henry Savage mentioned in every Story is very memorable That a Castle of Bones was better than a Castle of Stones the English were over-run by the multitude of the Irishry So as about the thirtieth of King Edward the third some few years before the arrival of the Duke of Clarence the Savages were utterly driven out of the Great Ardes into a little nook of Land near the River of Strangford where they now possess a little Territory called the little Ardes and their greater patrimony took the name of the upper Clan Hugh-Boy from the Sept of Hugh Boy O Neale who became Invaders thereof FOr Conaght some younger branches of the Family of the Bourkes being planted there by the Red Earl and his Ancestors seeing their chief to be cut off and dead without Heir-male and no man left to govern or protect that Province intruded presently into all the Earls Lands which ought to have been seized into the Kings hands by reason of the minority of the heir And within a short space two of the most potent among them divided that great Seigniory betwixt them the one taking the name of Mac William Oughtier and the other of Mac William Fighter as if the Lord William Bourke the last Earl of Vlster had left two Sons of one name behind him to inherit that Lordship in course of Gavel-kind But they well knew that they were but Intruders upon the Kings possession during the minority of the heir they knew those Lands were the rightfull inheritance of that young Lady and consequently that the Law of England would speedily evict them out of their possession and therefore they held it the best pollicy to cast off the yoak of English Law and to become meer Irish and according to their example drew all the rest of the English in that Province to do the like so as from thenceforth they suffered their possessions to run in course of Tanistry and Gavel-kinde They changed their names language and apparel and all their civil manners and Customs of living Lastly about the 25. year of King Edward the third Sir Richard de Clare was slain in Thomond and all the English Colonies there utterly supplanted Thus in that space of time which was between the tenth year of King Edward the second and the 30. year of King Edward the third I speak within compass by the concurrence of the mischiefs before recited all the old English Colonies in Munster Conaght and Vlster and more than a third part of Leinster became degenerate and fell away from the Crown of England so as only the four shires of the English Pale remained under the Obedience of the Law and yet the Borders and Marches thereof were grown unruly and out of order too being subject to Black-Rents and Tribute of the Irish which was a greater defection than when ten of twelve Tribes departed and fell away from Kings of Juda. But was not the State of England sensible of this loss and dishonour Did they not endeavour to recover the Land that was lost and to reduce the Subjects to their Obedience Truly King Edward the Second by the incursions of the Scottish Nation and by the insurrection of his Barons who raised his Wife and his Son against him and in the end deposed him was diverted and utterly disabled to reform the disorders of Ireland But as soon as the Crown of England was transferred to King Edward the third though he were yet in his minority the State there began to look into the desperate estate of things here And finding such a general defection Letters were sent from the King to the great men and Prelates requiring them particularly to swear fealâ—y to the Crown of England Shortly after Sir Anthony Lucy a Person of great authority in England in those dayes was sent over to work a reformation in this Kingdom by a severe course and to that end the King wrote expresly to the Earl of Vlster and others of the Nobility to assist him as is before remembred presently upon his arrival he arrested Maurice Fitz-Thomas Earl of Desmond and Sir William Bremingham and committed them prisoners to the Castle of Dublin where Sir William Bremingham was executed for Treason though the Earl of Desmond were left to Mainprize upon condition he should appear before the King by a certain day and in the mean time to continue loyal AFter this the King being advertised that the over-large Grants of Lands and Liberties made to the Lords of English blood in Ireland made them so insolent as they scorned to obey the Law and the Magistrate did absolutely resume all such Grants as is before declared But the Earl of Desmond above all men found himself grieved with this resumption or Repeal of Liberties and declared his dislike and discontentment insomuch as he did not only refuse to come to a Parliament at Dublin summoned by Sir William Morris Deputy to the Lord John Darcy the Kings Lieutenant But as we have said before he raised such dissention between the English of blood and the English of birth as the like was never seen from the time of the first planting of our Nation in Ireland And in this factious and seditious humour he drew the Earl of Kildare and the rest of the nobility with the Citizens and Burgesses of the principal Towns to hold a several Parliament by themselves at Kilkenny where they framed certain Articles against the Deputy and transmitted the same into England to the King Hereupon Sir Raphe Vfford who had lately before married the Countess
of Vlster a man of courage and severity was made Lord Justice who forthwith calling a Parliament sent a special Commandment to the Earl of Desmond to appear in that great Councel but the Earl wilfully refused to come Whereupon the Lord Justice raised the Kings Standard and marching with an Army into Munster seized into the Kings hands all the possessions of the Earl took and executed his principal followers Sir Eustace le Poer Sir William Graunt and Sir John Cotterell enforced the Earl himself to fly and lurk till 26. Noblemen and Knights became Mainpernors for his appearance at a certain day prefixed But he making default the second time the uttermost advantage was taken against his sureties Besides at the same time this Lord Justice caused the Earl of Kildare to be arrested and committed to the Castle of Dublin indited and imprisoned many other disobedient Subjects called in and cancelled such Charters asw ere lately before resumed and proceeded every way so roundly and severely as the Nobility which were wont to suffer no controulment did much distaste him and the Commons who in this Land have ever been more devoted to their immediate Lords here whom they saw every day than unto their Soveraign Lord and King whom they never saw spake ill of this Governor as of a rigorous and cruel man though in troth he were a singular good Justicer and if he had not dyed in the second year of his Government was the likeliest person of that Age to have reformed and reduced the degenerate English Colonies to their natural obedience of the Crown of England THus much then then we may observe by the way that Maurice Fitz-Thomas the first Earl of Desmond was the first English Lord that imposed Coign and Livery upon the Kings Subjects and the first that raised his Estate to immoderate greatness by that wicked Extortion and Oppression that he was the first that rejected the English Laws and Government and drew others by his example to do the like that he was the first Peer of Ireland that refused to come to the Parliament summoned by the Kings Authority that he was the first that made a division and distinction between the English of blood and the English of birth AND as this Earl was the onely Author and first Actor of these mischiefs which gave the greatest impediment to the full Conquest of Ireland So it is to be noted that albeit others of his rank afterwards offended in the same kinde whereby their Houses were many times in danger of ruine yet was there not ever any Noble house of English race in Ireland utterly destroyed and finally rooted out by the hand of Justice but the house of Desmond onely nor any Peer of this Realm ever put to death though divers have been attainted but Tho Fitz-James the Earl of Desmond onely and onely for those wicked customs brought in by the first Earl and practised by his posterity though by several Laws they were made High-Treason And therefore though in the 7 of Edward the 4. during the Government of the Lord Tiptoft Earl of Worcester both the Earls of Desmond and Kildare were attainted by Parliament at Droghedah for alliance and fostering with the Irish and for taking Coigne and Livery of the Kings Subjects yet was Desmond onely put to death for the Earl of Kildare received his pardon And albeit the son of this Earl of Desmond who lost his head at Droghedah were restored to the Earldom yet could not the Kings grace regenerate obedience in that degenerate house but it grew rather more wilde and barbarous than before For from thenceforth they reclaimed a strange priviledge That the Earls of Desmond should never come to any Parliament or Grand Council or within any walled Town but at their will and pleasure Which pretended Priviledge James Earl of Desmond the Father of Girald the last Earl renounced and surrendred by his Deed in the Chancery of Ireland in the 32 of Henry the eighth At what time among the meer Irishry he submitted himself to Sir Anthony Saint-Leger then Lord Deputy took an Oath of Allegiace Covenanted that he would suffer the Law of England to be executed in his Countrey and assist the Kings Judges in their Circuits and if any Subsidies should be granted by Parliament he would permit the same to be levied upon his Tenents and followers Which Covenants are as strange as the priviledge it self spoken of before But that which I conceive most worthy of Observation upon the fortunes of the house of Desmond is this that as Maurice Fitz-Thomas the first Earl did first raise the greatness of that house by Irish exactions and oppressions so Girald the last Earl did at last ruine and reduce it to nothing by using the like extortions For certain it is that the first occasion of his Rebellion grew from hence that when he attempted to charge the Decies in the County of Waterford with Coigne and Livery Black Rents and Cosheâ—ies after the Irish manner he was resisted by the Earl of Ormond and upon an encounter overthrown and taken prisoner which made his heart so unquiet as it easily conceived Treason against the Crown and brought forth actual and open Rebellion wherein he perished himself and made a final extinguishment of his house and honor Oppression and extortion did maintain the greatness and oppression and extortion did extinguish the greatness of that house Which may well be exprest by the old Emblem of a Torch turned downwards with this word Quod me alit extinguit NOw let us return to the course of Reformation held and pursued here after the death of Sir Raphe Vfford which hapned in the twentieth year of King Edward 3. After which time aâ—beâ—t all the power and Council of England was converted towards the conquest of France yet was not the work of Reformation altogether discontinued For in the 25 year of King Edward the third Sir Thomas Rookeby another worthy Governor whom I have once before named held a Parliament at Kilkenny wherein many excellent Laws were propounded and enacted for the reducing of the English Colonies to their obedience which Laws we finde enrolled in the Remembrancers Office here and differ not much in substance from those other Statutes of Kilkenny which not long after during the Government of Lionel Duke of Clarence were not onely enacted but put in execution This noble Prince having married the Daughter and Heir of Vlster and being likewise a Coparcener of the County of Kilkenny in the 36 year of King Edward the third came over the Kings Lieutenant attended with a good Retinue of Martial men as is before remembred and a grave and honorable Council as well for peace as for war But because this Army was not of a competent strength to break and subdue all the Irishry although he quieted the borders of the English Pale and held all Ireland in awe with his name and presence The principal service that
work in the third year of his raign made the Lord Thomas of Lancaster his second son Lieutenant of Ireland Who came over in person and accepted again the submissions of divers Irish Lords and Captains as is before remembred and held also a Parliament wherein he gave new life to the Statutes of Kilkenny and made other good Laws tending to the Reformation of the Kingdom But the troubles raised against the King his Father in England drew him home again so soon as that seed of reformation took no root at all neither had his service in that kind any good effect or success After this the State of England had no leisure to think of a general reformation in this Realm till the civil dissentions of England were appeased and the peace of that Kingdom setled by King Henry the seventh For albeit in the time of King Henry 6. Richard Duke of York a Prince of the blood of great wisdom and valour and heir to a third part of Kingdom at least being Earl of Vlster and Lord of Conaght and Meath was sent the Kings Lieutenanr into Ireland to recover and reform that Realm where he was resident in person for the greatest part of ten years yet the troth is he aimed at another mark which was the Crown of England And therefore he thought it no pollicy to distast either the English or Irish by a course of Reformation but sought by all means to please them and by popular courses to steal away their hearts to the end he might strengthen his party when he should set on foot his Title as is before declared Which pollicy of his took such effect as that he drew over with him into England the Flower of all the English Colonies especially of Vlster and Meath whereof many Noblemen and Gentlemen were slain with him at Wakefield as is likewise before remembred And after his death when the wars between the Houses were in their heat almost all the good English blood which was left in Ireland was spent in those civil dissentions so as the Irish became victorious over all without blood or sweat Only that little Canton of Land called the English Pale containing four small Shires did maintain a bordering was with the Irish and retain the forme of English Government But out of that little Precinct there were no Lords Knights or Burgesses summoned to the Parliament neither did the Kings Writ run in any other part of the Kingdom and yet upon the Marches and Borders which at that time were grown so large as they took up half Dublin half Meath and a third part of Kildare and Lowth there was no law in use but the March-Law which in the Statutes of Kilkenny is said to be no law but a leud Custom So as upon the end of these civil wars in England the English Law and Government was well nigh banisht out of Ireland so as no foot-step or print was left of any former Reformation THen did King Henry 7. send over Sir Edward Poynings to be his Deputy a right worthy servitor both in war and peace The principal end of his employment was to expel Perkin Warbecke out of this Kingdom but that service being performed that worthy Deputy finding nothing but a common misery took the best course he possibly could to establish a Common-wealth in Ireland and to that end he held a Parliament no less famous than that of Kilkenny and more available for the reformation of the whole Kingdom For whereas all wise men did ever concur in opinion that the readiest way to reform Ireland is to settle a form of Civil Government there conformable to that of England To bring this to pass Sir Edward Poynings did pass an Act whereby all the Statutes made in England before that time were enacted established and made of force in Ireland Neither did he only respect the time past but provided also for the time to come For he caused another Law to be made that no Act should be propounded in any Parliament of Ireland but such as should be first transmitted into England and approved by the King and Council there as good and expedient for that Land and so returned back again under the Great Seal of England This Act though it seem Prima facie to restrain the liberty of the Subjects of Ireland yet was it made at the Prayer of the Commons upon just and important cause For the Governors of that Realm specially such as were of that Country Birth had laid many oppressions upon the Commons and amongst the rest they had imposed Laws upon them nor tending to the general good but to serve private turns and to strengthen their particular factions This moved them to refer all Laws that were to be passed in Ireland to be considered corrected and allowed first by the State of England which had alwayes been tender and carefull of the good of this people and had long since made them a Civil Rich and Happy Nation if their own Lords and Governors there had not sent bad intelligence into England Besides this he took special order that the summons of Parliament should go into all the shires of Ireland and not to the four shires onely and for that cause specially he caused all the Acts of a Parliament lately before holden by the Viscount of Gormanston to be repealed and made void Moreover that the Parliaments of Ireland might want no decent or honorable form that was used in England he caused a particular Act to pass that the Lords of Ireland should appear in the like Parliament Robes as the English Lords are wont to wear in the Parliaments of England Having thus established all the Statutes of England in Ireland and set in order the great Council of that Realm he did not omit to pass other Laws as well for the encrease of the Kings Revenue as the preservation of the publick peace To advance the profits of the Crown First he obtained a Subsidy of 26 shillings eight pence out of every six score acres manured payable yearly for five years Next he resumed all the Crownland which had been aliened for the most part by Richard Duke of York and lastly he procured a Subsidy of Pondage out of all Merchandizes imported and exported to be granted to the Crown in perpetuity To preserve the publick peace he revived the Statutes of Kilkenny He made wilful Murther High-treason he caused the Marchers to book their men for whom they should answer and restrained the making War or Peace without special Commission from the State These Laws and others as important as these for the making of a Common-wealth in Ireland were made in the Government of Sir Edward Poynings But these Laws did not spread their Vertue beyond the English Pale though they were made generally for the whole Kingdom For the Provinces without the Pale which during the War of York and Lancaster had wholly cast off the the English Government were not apt to receive this
in this Vineyard since the beginning of his Majesties happy raign I shall therefore summarily without any amplification at all shew in what manner and by what degrees all the defects which I have noted before in the Government of this Kingdom have been supplyed since his Majesties happy Raign began and so conclude these observations concerning the State of Ireland FIrst then touching the Martial affairs I shall need to say little in regard that the War which finished the Conquest of Ireland was ended almost in the instant when the Crown descended upon his Majesty and so there remained no occasion to amend the former errors committed in the prosecution of the War Howbeit sit hence his Majesty hath still maintained an Army here as well For a Seminary of Martial men as to Give strength and countenance to the civil Magistrate I may justly observe that this army hath not been fed with Coign and Livery or Sess with which Extortions the Souldier hath been nourished in the times of former Princes but hath been as justly and royally paid as ever Prince in the world did pay his men of war Besides when there did arise an occasion of employment for this Army against the Rebel Odoghertie neither did his Majestie delay the re-inforcing thereof but instantly sent supplies out of England and Scotland neither did the Martial men dally or prosecute the Service faintly but Did forthwith quench that fire whereby themselves would have been the warmer the longer it had continued as well by the encrease of their entertainment as by booties and spoil of the Countrey And thus much I thought fit to note touching the amendment of the Errours in the Martial affairs SEcondly For the supply of the Defects in the Civil Government these courses have been pursued since His Majesties prosperous Reign began First albeit upon the end of the War whereby Tyrones universal Rebellion was supprest the mindes of the people were broken and prepared to Obedience of the law yet the State upon good reason did conceive that the publick peace could not be settled till the hearts of the people were also quieted by securing them from the danger of the Law which the most part of them had incurred one way or other in that great and general confusion Therefore first by a general Act of State called the Act of oblivion published by Proclamation under the Great-Seal All offences against the Crown and all particular Trespasses between Subject and Subject done at any time before His Majesties Reign were to all such as would come in to the Justices of Assize by a certain day and claim the benefit of this Act pardoned remitted and utterly extinguished never to be revived or called in question And by the same Proclamation all the Irishry who for the most part in former times were left under the tyrannie of their Lords and Chieftains and had no defence or Justice from the Crown were received into his Majesties immediate protection This bred such comfort and security in the hearts of all men as there upon ensued the calmest and most universal peace that ever was seen in Ireland The publick peace being thus established the State proceeded next to establish the publick Justice in every part of the Realm And to that end Sir George Cary who was a prudent Governor and a just and made a fair entry into the right way of reforming this Kingdom did in the first year of His Majesties Reign make the first Sheriffs that ever were made in Tyrone and Tirconnel and shortly after sent Sir Edmund Pelham Chief Baron and my self thither the first Justices of Assize that ever sat in those Countreys and in that Circuit we visited all the shires of that Provinces besides which Visitation though it were somewhat distasteful to the Irish Lords was sweet and most welcome to the common people who albeit they were rude and barbarous yet they quickly apprehended the difference between the Tyrannie and Oppression under which they lived before and the just Government and Protection which we promised unto them for the time to come The Law having made her Progress into Vlster with so good success Sir Arthur Chichester who with singular Industry Wisdom and Courage hath now for the space of seven years and more prosecuted the great work of Reformation and brought it well-neer to an absolute perfection did in the first year of his Government establish two other New Circuits for Justices of Assize the one in Conaght and the other in Munster I call them New Circuits for that although it be manifest by many Records that Justices Itinerant have in former times been sent into all the shires of Munster and some part of Conaght yet certain it is that in two hundred years before I speak much within compass no such Commission had been executed in either of these two Provinces But now the whole Realm being divided into Shires and every bordering Territory whereof any doubt was made in what County the same should lie being added or reduced to a County certain among the rest the Mountains and Glyns on the South side of Dublin were lately made a Shire by it self and called the County of Wicklow whereby the Inhabitants which were wont to be Thorns in the side of the Pale are become civil and quiet Neighbours thereof the streams of the Publick Justice were derived into every part of the Kingdom and the benefit and protection of the Law of England communicated to all as well Irish as English without distinction or respect of persons by reason whereof the work of deriving the publick Justice grew so great as that there was Magna messis sed Operarii pauci And therefore the number of the Judges in every Bench was increased which do now every half year like good Planets in their several Sphaeres or Circles carry the â—ight and influence of Justice round about the Kingdom whereas the Circuits in former times went but round about the Pale like the Circuit of the Cinosura about the Pole Quae cursu interiore brevi convertitur orbe UPon these Visitations of Justice whereby the iust and honourable Law of England was imparted and communicated to all the Irishry there followed these excellent good effects First the common people were taught by the Justices of Assize that they were free Subjects to the Kings of England and not Slaves and Vassals to their pretended Lords That the Cuttings Cosheries Sessings and other Extortions of their Lords were unlawful and that they should not any more submit themselves thereunto since they were now under the protection of so just and mighty a Prince as both would and could protect them from all wrongs and oppressions They gave a willing ear unto these Lessons and thereupon the greatness and power of those Irish Lords over the people suddenly fell and vanished when their Oppressions and Extortions were taken away which did maintain their greatness Insomuch as divers of them who formerly
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