c. born Subjects to the Crown of England paying ever to the King his Duties reserved Title to Meth. Hugh de Lacy Conquerour of Meth had Issue Walter de Lacy who held the same of King John paying a Fine of four thousand Marks Sterling and hence began all the several Claims there with Alegiance sworn and done by their Ancestors Title to Mounster At the very first arrival of Henry the Second the Princes of Mounster came universally and did homage voluntarily and acknowledged to him and his Heirs Duties and pays for ever John de Courcy Conquerour and Earl of Vlster dyed without Issue Title to Ulster Connaght King John Lord of Ireland gave the Earldome to Hugh de Lacy who who had Issue Walter and Hugh who died without Issue and one Daughter married to Reymond Burke Conquerour and Lord of Connaght Connaght descended to divers Heirs owing service to the Prince but Vlster returned by devolution to the special Inheritance and the Revenues of the Crown of England in this manner The said de Burgo had Issue Richard who had Issue John who had Issue William who was slain without Issue and a Daughter Elizabeth entitled to thirty thousand Marks yearly by the Earldome of Vlster whom Edward the Third gave in marriage to Lionel his second Son Duke of Clarence who had Issue a Daughter Philippe married to Edward Mortimer who had Issue Edmund Anne Elianor Edmund and Elianor died without Issue Anne was married to Richard Earl of Cambridge Son to Edmund of Langley Duke of York fift Son to Edward the Third which said Richard had Issue Richard Plantaginet Father to Edward the Fourth Father to Elizabeth Wife to Henry the Seventh and Mother to Henry the Eighth Father to Mary Edward the Sixth and Elizabeth Several Claims to the Land of Ireland Several claims to the Land of Ireland 1. Mac Gil-murrow King of Ireland with all his Petty Princes Lords and Captains summoned to King Arthurs Court held in Carlion Anno 519. did accordingly their homage and attended all the while his great Feast and Assembly lasted 2. The Monarch of all Ireland and all other both Reges and Reguli for them and for theirs for ever betook themselves to Henry the Second An. Dom. 1172. namely those of the South whiles he lay at Waterford Dermot K. of Corke which is the Nation of the Mac Cartyes at Cashel Donald K. of Limrick which is the Nation of the Obrenes Donald K. of Ossory Mac Shaghlon King of Ophaly at Divelin did the like Okernel King of Vriel Ororick King of Meth Roderick King of all Ireland and of Connaght This did they with consents and shouts of their People and King Henry returned without any Battle given Only Vlster remained which John de Courcy soon after conquered and Oneale Captain of all the Irish there came to Dublin to Richard the Second An. 1399. and freely bound himself by Oath and great Sums of Money to be true to the Crown of England 3. The same time O Brien of Thomond Oconar of Connaght Arthur Mac Murrow of Leinster and all the Irish Lords which had been somewhat disordered renewed their Obedience 4. When Ireland first received the Christian Faith they gave themselves into the Jurisdiction both Spiritual and Temporal of the See of Rome The Temporal Lordship Pope Adrian conferred upon Henry the Second and he gave the same to John his younger Son afterwards King of England and so it returned home to the Crown 5. Alexander the Third confirmed the Gift of Adrian as in both their Charters is expressed at large 6. Vivian the Legate on the Popes behalf did Accurse and Excommunicate all those that fell from the Obeysance of the Kings of England 7. The Clergy twice Assembled once at Cashell secondly at Armagh plainly determined the Conquest to be Lawful and threatnad all people under pain of Gods and holy Churches indignation to accept of the English Kings for their Lords from time to time 8. It would ask a Volume to recite the Name of such Irish Princes who since the Conquest have continually upon Occasions Revolts or Petitions sworn Truth and Faith to the Kings of England and from time to time received Honors Wages Fees Pardons and made Petitions And thus I think no reasonable man will doubt of a Right so old so continued so ratified and so many ways confessed The Kings Revenue in Ireland was spent and wholy exhausted in the publick service and therefore The Kings Revenue in Ireland wholy spent on that Kingdome in all the ancient Pipe-Rolls in the times of King Henry the Third Edward the First Edward the Second and Edward the Third between the Receipts and Allowances there is this entrie In Thesauro nihil For the Officers of the State and the Army spent all so as there was no surplusage of Treasure And here I may well take occasion to shew the vanity of that which is reported in the Story of Walsingham touching the Revenue of the Crown in Ireland which he saith did amount to thirty thousand Pounds a year in the time of King Edward the Third The vain story of 30000 l. yearly Revenue in E 3ds time refuted If this Writer had known that the Kings Courts had been established in Ireland more than a hundred years before King Edward the Third was born or had seen either the Parliament Rolls in England or the Records of the Receits and Issues in Ireland he had not left this vain report to Posterity for both the Benches and Exchequer were erected in the twelfth year of King John And it is Recorded in the Parliament Rolls of 21. of Edward the Third remaining in the Tower that the Commons of England made Petition that it might be enquired why the King received no benefit of his Land in Ireland considering he possessed more there than any of his Ancestors had before him Now if the King at that time when there were no standing Forces maintained there had received thirty thousand pounds yearly at his Exchequer in Ireland he must needs have made profit by that Land considering that the whole charge of the Kingdome in the 47th year of Edward the Third when the King did pay an Army there did amount to no more than eleven thousand and two hundred pounds per Annum as appeareth by the Contract of William Winsore Besides it is manifest by the Pipe-Rolls of that time whereof many are yet preserved in Breminghams Tower and are of better credit than any Monks story that during the Reign of King Edward the Third the Revenue of the Crown of Ireland both certain and casual did not rise unto ten thousand pound per Annum though the medium be taken of the best seven years that are be found in that Kings time The like Fable hath Hollingshead touching the Revenue of the Earldome of Vlster which saith he in the time of King Richard the Second was thirty thousand Marks by the year Whereas in
the policy of the King of Meth the only Irish Prince then in favour with the Tyrant These Northern Nations were the first that brought the Irish acquainted with Traffick and Commerce and with building of Castles and Fortresses only upon the Sea-coasts having hitherto known no other defence but Woods Boggs or Stoakes And last of all by the English in K. Henry 2ds reign An. 1172. After this the Roytelets or petty Princes enjoying their former Dominions till the year 1172. in which Dermot Mac Morogh King of Lynster having forced the Wife of Maurice O Rorke King of Meth was driven by him out of his Kingdome who applying himself to Henry the Second of England for succor received Aid under the leading of Richard de Clare Sir-named Strongbow Earle of Pembroke to be restored to his Kingdom by whose good success and the rest of the Adventurers upon the Arrival of Henry the Second in Ireland his very Presence without drawing his Sword prevailed so far as that all the petty Kings or great Lords within Lynster Connaght and Munster submitted themselves unto him promising to pay him Tribute and acknowledging him their chief and Soveraign Lord But as the Conquest was but slight and superficial so the Irish Submissions were but weak and fickle assurances to hold in Obedience so considerable a Kingdom for no sooner were the Kings of Englands backs turned but the Irish returned to their former Rebellions and the Kings of England had here no more power or profit than the great ones of the Country were pleased to give them for they governed their People by the Brehon Law they made their own Magistrates and Officers pardoned and punished all Malefactors within their several Countries made War and Peace one with the other without controulment and this they did not only during the Reign of King Henry the Second but also in the times succeeding even until the Reign of Queen Elizabeth which Conquest became thus imperfect by reason of two great Defects first in the faint prosecution of the War and next in the loosness of the Civil Government The Conquest of Ireland by the English imperfect till of late by reason of two defects viz. first faint Prosecution of the War the Causes of it As touching the carriage of Martial Affairs from the seventeenth year of King Henry the Second at what time the first overture was made for the Conquest of Ireland until the nine and thirtieth year of Queen Elizabeth when that Royal Army was sent over to suppress the the Rebellion of Tyrone which in the end made an universal and absolute Conquest of all the Irishry It is very evident that the English either raised here or sent hither from time to time out of England were alwaies 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 arrived out of England an Army of competent strength and power it did rather terrifie than break or subdue this People being ever broken and dissolved by some one accident and impediment or other before the perfection of the Conquest of it as namely Henry the Second by the Rebellion of his Sons King John Henry the Third and Edward the Second by the Barrons Wars Edward the First by his Wars in Wales and Scotland Edward the Third and Henry the Fift by the Wars of France Richard the Second Henry the Fourth Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth by Domestick contention for the Crown of England it self Richard the Third not worth mentioning as having never got the quiet possession of England but was cast out by Henry the Seventh within two years and an half after his Usurpation And Henry the Seventh himself though he made the happy Union of the two Houses of York and Lancaster yet for more than half the space of his Reign there were walking Spirits of the House of York which he could not conjure down without the expence of some Bloud and Treasure Henry the Eighth was diverted by his two Expeditions into France at the first and latter part of his Reign and in the middle thereof wholly taken up with the troubles created to him by the great alteration of Ecclesiastical Affairs And lastly the Infancy of King Edward and the Coverture of Queen Mary which were both not-abilities in Law did likewise in fact disable them to accomplish the Conquest of Ireland so that all the Kings of England coming thus far short as to the perfecting of the true Conquest of Ireland let us examine what other impediments were given thereunto in point of Martial Affairs by the Adventurers themselves that first undertook the Conquest of this Kingdom upon their own account That the first English Adventurers had good success in Ireland during the first forty years It doth appear that for the space of about forty years after the first landing of the English in Ireland till the seventeenth year of King John during all which time there was no Army transmitted out of England to finish the Conquest of Ireland that the Adventurers and Colonies already planted there proceeded with so much good success as they gained very large portions of ground in every Province As namely the Earl of Strongbow by his Marriage with the Daughter of Mac Morrogh in Lynster the Laâ—ies in Meth the Giraldines and other Adventurers in Munster the Andeleyes Gernons Clintons Russels and other Voluntaries of Sir John de Courcies retinue in Vlster and the Bourkes planted by William Fitz-Adelme in Connaght The English Colonies being thus dispersed through all the Provinces of Ireland were necessitated But being necessitated for a long time to maintain a bordering War against the Irish at the charge of the English Planters from the twelfth year of King John till the six and thirtieth year of King Edward the Third being about an hundred and fifty years to maintain a continual bordering War between them and the Irish without receiving during all that time any supply either of Men or Money out of England to manage the same So that all the chief Governours of the Realm and the English Lords who had gotten such great Possessions and Royalties as that they presumed to make War and Peace at their pleasure without the least advice or direction from the State being forced to levy all their Forces within the Land who being ill Paid and worse Governed it so came to pass the publick Revenues of Ireland being then inconsiderable to sustain such a charge that as well the Ordinary Forces which stood continually as the extraordinary which were levied by the chief Governour upon Journeys and general Hostings were for the most part laid upon the poor Subjects descended of English race which burden was in some measure tollerable during the Reign of King Henry the Third and Edward the First but afterwards became insupportable in the time of King
Edward the Second For Morrice Fitz-Thomas Earl of Desmond being chief Commander of the Army against the Scots began that wicked extortion of Coyn and Livery and pay that is he and his Army took Horse-meat Mans-meat and Money at their pleasure without giving any Ticket or other satisfaction for the same This wicked imposition made High Treason by the Statute of 11. The English Plantations in Ireland began to decay H. 4. became afterwards so habitual and general a fault of all the Governours and Commanders of the Army in this Land that in a short time it inforced because the great English Lords and Captains had power to impose this charge when and where they pleased many of the poor English Free-holders to give unto those Lords a great part of their Lands that they might hold the rest free from that extortion And many others not being able to endure so intollerable a burthen did utterly quit their Free-holds and returned into England by means whereof the English Colonies did soon grow poor and feeble and the English Lords became rich and mighty for having placed Irish Tenants upon the Lands relinquished by the English upon whom they levied all Irish exactions and with whom they married fostered and made Gossips so as within one age both English Lords and Free-holders became degenerate and meer Irish in their Language Apparel Arms and manner of fight and all other Customs of life whatsoever That Morrice Fitz-Thomas Earl of Desmond was the first began that wicked Custome of Coyn and Livery But that I may not quit my self so soon of this subject before I give a more particular satisfaction to the Reader touching the evil consequences that ensued upon the general practice of this wicked Extortion of Coin and Livery which indeed was one of the chiefest causes of the sudden decay and ruine of the first English Colonies in Ireland he may be pleased to understand that the forementioned Thomas Fitz-Morrice Earl of Desmond did soon by these oppressive courses grow from a mean to a mighty Estate in so much that his ancient inheritance being not one thousand Marks yearly he became able to dispend every way ten thousand pound per Annum These possessions being thus unlawfully gained could not be maintained by the just and honorable Laws of England which would have restored the true owners to their Land again And therefore this Great Man found no better means to continue and uphold his ill purchased greatness then by rejecting the English Laws and Government and assuming in lieu thereof the barbarous Customs of the Irish whereupon followed the defection of those four Counties Which proved the utter ruine of the first English Colonies in Ireland except those within the Pale containing the greatest parts of Munster viz. Kerry Limrick Cork and Waterford from the obedience of the Law and so successively by the same means and much about the same time the rest of the English Lords and Free-holders in Ireland except those of the English Pale fell away from the English Law and Government in the end of King Edward the Second's Reign and in the beginning of King Edward the third And truly it is here a fit subject of wonder All the English Colonies in Ireland except those within the Pale degenerate into meer Irish manners to consider to what height of baseness the English arrived unto by this defection in so much as within less time then the Age of a Man they had no marks or differences left amongst them of that Noble Nation from which they were descended for they did not onely forget the English Language and scorn the use thereof but grew to be ashamed of their very English Names though they were Noble and of great Antiquity and took Irish Sir-names and Nick-names Namely the two most potent families of the Bourkes in Connaght after the house of the Red Earl failed of Heirs Males called their Chiefs Mac William Eighter and Mac William Oughter In the same Province Bremingham Baron of Athenry called himself Mac Yeoris D'Execester or d' Exon was called Mac Jordan Mangle or d' Angulo took the name of Mac Costello Of the inferiour Families of the Bourks one was called Mac Hubbard another Mac David In Munster of the great Families of the Geraldines planted there one was called Mac Morrice chief of the house of Lixnaw and another Mac Gibbon who was also called the White Knight The chief of the Baron of Dunboyns house who is a branch of the House of Ormond took Sir-names of Mac Pheris Condon of the County of Waterford was called Mac Majoke and the Arch-Deacon of the County of Kilkenny Mac Odo And this they did in contempt and hatred of the English Name and Nation of whom these degenerated Families became more mortal enemies then the meer Irish The Native Subjects of Ireland The Civil War of York and Lancaster furthered the ruine of the English Colonies in Ireland of English Race in Henry the 6th's time seeing the Kingdome thus utterly ruined passed in such numbers into England as one Law was made there to transmit them back again and another Law made in Ireland to stop their passage in every Port and Creek And as one ill fortune happens in the neck of another the greatest part of the Nobility and Gentry of Meth past over afterwards into England and were slain with Richard Duke of York who had been long Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at the Battle of Wakefield in York-shire after whose death while the Wars between the two Houses of York and Lancaster were in their heat almost all the good English blood which was left in Ireland was spent in these civil dissentions so as the Irish became Victorious over all without blood or sweat except onely that little Canton of Land as aforesaid called the English Pale containing the Counties of Dublin Louth Kildare and Meth which last hath since the time of King Henry the Eight been subdivided into three Counties that is to say East-Meath West-Meath and Longford which onely maintained a bordering War and retained the form of an English Government so that by the fourteenth of King Edward the Fourth the State of Ireland was grown to so low an ebbe upon an English account that at their erecting a Fraternity of men of Armes called the Brotherhood of S. George for the defence of the said Pale they exceeded not in number above 200. being all the standing Forces that were then in Ireland and as they were Natives of the Kingdom so the Kingdom it self did pay their wages without expecting any Treasure out of England However the great Lords of the natural Irish and degenerate English being divided into many factions and never conjoyned in any one principle of common interest and thereby consequently becoming very inconsiderable this small spot of ground was valiantly maintained for a long time by the weak but united Forces of the Kings of England Having proceeded thus far in examining
great loss whether it turned to the benefit of the Queen or no is not known But to the Treasurers and Paymasters without doubt it brought in good gain whose avarice which is a diligent searcher of hidden gains may seem to have devised it The Money now generally used in Ireland there being little of English because prohibited to be transported thither beyond the summe of five pounds as I take it for the better encouragement of Trade between both Kingdoms is most of all Spanish Coyn to wit pieces of Eight at 4 s. 6 d. the piece consisting of Plate pieces Mexico and old Peru with half and quarter pieces The new Perues whereof there was a good quantity being not long since called in and by reason they were thought to be abused and falsified converted into Plate to the great benefit of some in Dublin and the no small loss at that time of a great many people in Ireland A piece of old English Gold is hardly to be seen in Ireland except what is closely kept in private hands though there was a great proportion thereof before the late Wars which commonly passed from hand to hand in ordinary Payments There is a small quantity of Brass Coyn that is used there for the conveniency of change I have already hinted Buildings how that the Irish by reason of their Barbarous Laws and Customs did never build any Houses of Brick or Stone some few poor Religious Houses excepted before the Reign of King Henry the Second which seems as manifest as strange by the entertainment of the said King received at their chief City of Dublin Anno 1172. who was unavoidably necessitated for meer accommodation finding there no fit place for his reception to set up a long house made of smoothed Wattles after the manner of the Country wherein he pompously entertained the greâ—t Irish Lords and Princes at Christmas All their Forts Castles Stately Buildings and other Edifices were afterwards Erected by the English except as I said some of the Maritine Towns which were built by the Ostmanni or Easterlings who antiently came and Inhabited Ireland The Buildings of Ireland much improved by the last forty years Peace During the last forty years peace in Ireland there were many lovely Houses built through most part of that Kingdom by the English Nobility and Gentry with delicate improvements in Orchards Gardens and Inclosures correspondent thereunto There was also at the same time by way of imitation the like good indeavours of making handsome Improvements and Buildings by the better sort of Irish both in Towns and Country But the fair Dwellings of the English were so badly handled by the Irish in the heat of the War that scarce any part of them except the main Walls escaped from fireing upon which being generally made of Massy Stone the English have rebuilt and are building besides a great number upon new foundations many fair Structures But that which has been hitherto The Nasty Irish Cabbins a great blemish to Ireland and I doubt will ever hereafter be a blemish to the flourishing state of Ireland in point of Building is the great number of Nasty-Smoaky-Cabbins every where made up of Wattles without any Chimnies wherein the poorer sort of Irish do well which cannot be altogether ascribed to their meer poverty and antient custom but rather much more to the uncertainty of the tenure whereby they hold the same being Tenants only but from May to May that so they may more easily quit their Station and try their fortunes else where for an other year though many times to as little effect in case they find themselves over-much opprest by their Landlords Their Parish Churches were generally as meanly built in Ireland as their practice was in Religion but now that the Country comes to be inhabited by a more civil and better Principled people it may be justly hoped and likewise expected that there will be by degrees a Reformation in this particular as well as in other matters of less moment since the handsome building and adorning of Churches do conduce much to draw the rude people to the the reverencing and frequenting thereof CHAP. II. Of the Inhabitants their Laws Religion and Manners Of their Number Language Stature Dyet Attire Recreations Names and Sir-names I have already declared how it is most probable that the first Inhabitants of this Island came hither out of Britain Inhabitants and Laws now called England and Wales And therefore shall proceed to give some farther Account touching the Laws of this Realm both Ancient and Modern The Brehon Law by which the Irish governed themselves was a Rule of Right unwritten but delivered by Tradition from one to another in which often times there appeared great shew of Equity in determining the Right between party and party but in many things repugning quite both to Gods Law and Mans The partiality and impiety of the Brehon Irish Law As for example in the case of Murder the Brehon that is their Judge would compound between the Murderer and the Friends of the party Murdered which Prosecuted the Action that the Malefactor should give unto them or to the Child or Wife of him that is slain a recompence which they called an Eriach By which vile Law of theirs many Murders amongst them were made up and smothered And this Judge being as he was called the Lords Brehon adjudged for the most part a better share unto this Lord that is the Lord of the Soil or the head of that Sept and also unto himself for his judgment a greater portion then unto the Plaintiffs or parties grieved Sir Edward Poynings the best Reformer of the Laws of Ireland He that gave the fairest beginning to the Reformation of the Laws of Ireland of any till his time was Sir Edward Poynings Lord Deputy of Ireland in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh who finding in that Realm nothing but a common misery took the best course he possibly could to establish there a well governed Common-wealth 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 was 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 an other 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