Fitz-Adelme his Lieutenant of Ireland hath this direction Archiepiscopis Episcopis Regibus Comitibus Baronibus omnibus fidelibus suis in Hibernia Salutem Whereby it is manifest that he gave those Irish Lords the Title and stile of Kings King John likewise did grant divers Charters to the King of Conaght which remain in the Tower of London And afterwards in the time of King Henry the Third we find in the Tower a grant made to the King of Thomond in these words Rex Regi Tosmond salutem Concessimus vobis terram Tosmond quam prius tenuistis per firmam centum triginta marcarum Tenendum de nobis usque ad aetatem nostram And in the pipe Rolls remaining in Bremighams Tower in the Castle of Dublin upon sundry Accompts of the Seneshall of Vlster when that Earldom was in the Kings hands by reason of the minority of the Earl the entry of all such charges as were made upon Oneale for Rent-Beeves or for aids towards the maintainance of the Kings wars are in this form Oneal Regulus 400. vaccas pro arreragio Reddit Oneal Regulus 100. â—i de Auxilio Domini Regis ad guerram suam in Wasconia sustinendam And in one Roll the 36. of Henry the third Oneal Rex 100 li. de auxilio Domini Regis ad guerram suam in Wallia sustinendam Which seemed strange to me that the Kings civil Officer should give him that stile upon Record unless he meant it in that sense as Maximilian the Emperor did when speaking of his disobedient Subjects The Title said he of Rex Regum doth more properly belong to me than to any mortal Prince for all my Subjects do live as Kings they obey me in nothing but do what they list And truly in that sense these Irish Lords might not unfitly be termed Kings But to speak in proper terms we must say with the Latin Poet Qui rex est Regnum maxime non habeat But touching these Irish Kings I will add this note out of an ancient Manuscript the black book of Christ-Church in Dublin Isti Reges non fuerunt ordinati solemnitate alicujus ordinis nec unctionis Sacramento nec jure haereditario vel aliqua proprietatis successione sed vi armis quilibet Regnum suum obtinuit and therefore they had no just cause to complain when a stronger King than themselves became a King and Lord over them But let us return to our purpose and see the proceeding of the Martial affairs King Henry the second being returned into England gave the Lordship of Ireland unto the Lord John his youngest son sur-named before that time Sans Terre And the Pope confirming that gift sent him a Crown of Pea-cocks feathers as Pope Clement the eighth sent the Feather of a Phoenix as he called it to the Traitor Tirone This young Prince the Kings Son being but twelve years of age with a train of young Noblemen and Gentlemen to the number of 300. but not with any main army came over to take possession of his new Patrimony and being arrived at Waterford divers Irish Lords who had submitted themselves to his father came to perform the like duty to him But that youthful company using them with scorn because their demeanours were but rude and barbarous they went away much discontented and rraised a general rebellion against him Whereby it was made manifest that the Submission of the Irish Lords and the Donation of the Pope were but slender and weak assurances for a Kingdom Hereupon this young Lord was revoked and Sir John de Courcy sent over not with the Kings Army but with a company of Voluntaries in number four hundred or thereabout With these he attempted the conquest of Vlster and in four or five encounters did so beat the Irishry of that Province as that he gained the Maritime Coasts thereof from the Boyne to the Bann and thereupon was made Earl of Vlster So as now the English had gotten good footing in all the Provinces of Ireland In the first three Provinces of Leinster Mounster and Conaght part by the Sword and part by submission and alliance And lastly in Vlster by the invasion and victories of Sir John de Courcy From this time forward until the seventeenth year of King John which was a space of more than 30. years there was no army transmitted out of England to finish the Conquest Howbeit in the mean time the English Adventurers and Colonies already planted in Ireland did win much ground upon the Irish Namely the Earl Strongbow having married the Daughter of Mac Murrogh in Leinster the Lacies in Meth the Geraldines and other Adventurers in Mounster the Audleyes Gernons Clintons Russels and other Voluntaries of Sir John de Courcies retinue in Vlster and the Bourkes planted by William Fitz-Adelme in Conaght Yet were the English reputed but Part-Owners of Ireland at this time as appeareth by the Commission of the Popes Legate in the time of King Richard the first whereby he had power to exercise his Jurisdiction in Anglia Wallia ac illis Hiberniae partibus in quibus Johannes Moretonii Comes potestatem habet dominium as it is recorded by Mat. Paris King John in the twelfth year of his Reign came over again into Ireland the Stories of that time say with a great army but the certain numbers are not recorded yet it is credible in regard of the troubles wherewith this King was distressed in England that this army was not of sufficient strength to make an entire Conquest of Ireland and if it had been of sufficient strength yet did not the King stay a sufficient time to perform so great an action for he came over in June and returned in September the same year Howbeit in that time the Irish Lords for the most part submitted themselves to him as they had done before to his Father which was but a mear mockery and imposture For his back was no sooner turned but they returned to their former Rebellion and yet this was reputed a second Conquest And so this King giving order for the building of some Castles upon the Borders of the English Colonies left behind him the Bishop of Norwich for the civil Government of the Land but he left no standing army to prosecute the conquest only the English Colonies which were already planted were left to themselves to maintain what they had got and to gain more if they could The personal presence of these two great Princes King Henry the second and King John though they performed no great thing with their armies gave such countenance to the English Colonies which encreased daily by the coming over of new Voluntaries and Adventurers out of England as that they enlarged their Territories very much Howbeit after this time the Kings of England either because they presumed that the English Colonies were strong enough to root out the Irish by degrees or else because they were diverted or
disabled otherwise as shall be declared hereafter never sent over any Royal army or any numbers of men worthy to be called an army into Ireland untill the thirty sixth year of King Edward the third when Lionel Duke of Clarence the Kings second Son having married the Daughter and Heir of Vlster was sent over with an extraordinary power in respect of the time for the wars betwixt England and France were then in their heat as well to recover his Earldom of Vlster which was then over-run and possest by the Irish as to reform the English Colonies which were become strangely degenerate throughout the whole Kingdom FOr though King Henry the Third gave the whole Land of Ireland to Edward the Prince his eldest Son and his Heirs Ita quod non Separetur a Corona Angliae Whereupon it was styled the Land of the Lord Edward the Kings eldest Son and all the Officers of the Land were called the Officers of Edward Lord of Ireland and though this Edward were one of the most active Princes that ever lived in England yet did he not either in the life time of his father or during his own Raign come over in person or transmit any army into Ireland but on the other side he drew sundry aids and supplies of men out of Ireland to serve him in his wars in Scotland Wales and Gascoigne And again though King Edward the Second sent over Piers Gaveston with a great retinue it was never intended he should perfect the Conquest of Ireland for the King could not want his company so long a time as must have been spent in the finishing of so tedious a work So then in all that space of time between the twelfth year of King John and the 36. year of King Edward the Thâ—rd containing 150. years or thereabouts although there were a continual bordering war between the English and the Irish there came no Royal Army out of England to make an end of the War But the chief Governors of the Realm who were at first called Custodes Hiberniae and afterwards Lords Justices and the English Lords who had gotten so great possessions and Royalties as that they presumed to make war and peace without direction from the State did levy all their forces within the land But those forces were weakly supplied and ill governed as I said before Weakly supplyed with men and Mony and governed with the worst Discipline that ever was seen among men of war And no marvel for it is an infallible rule that an army ill paid is ever unruly and ill governed The standing forces here were seldom or never re-enforced out of England and such as were either sent from thence or raised here did commonly do more huâ—t and damage to the English Subjects than to the Irish enemies by their continual Sess and Extortion Which mischief did arise by reason that little or no Treasure was sent out of England to pay the soldiers wages Only the Kings revenue in Ireland was spent and wholly spent in the publick service and therefore in all the ancient Pipe-Rols in the times of Henry the Third Edward the first Edward the second and Edward the third between the Receipts and allowances there is this entrie In Thesauro nihil For the Officers of the State and the Army spent aâ—l so as there was no surplusage of Treasure and yet that All was not sufficient For in default of the Kings pay as well the ordinary Forces which stood continually as the extraordinary which were levied by the chief Governor upon journeys and general hoastings were for the most part laid upon the poor subject descended of English race howbeit this burthen was in some measure tolerable in the time of King Henry the third and King Edward the first but in the time of King Edward the second Maurice fitz-Thomas of Desmond being chief Commander of the Army against the Scots began that wicked extortion of Coigne and Livery and pay that is He and his Army took Horse meat and Mans meat and money at their pleasure without any Ticket or other satisfaction And this was after that time the general fault of all the Governors and Commanders of the Army in this Land Onely the Golden saying of Sir Thomas Rookesby who was Justice in the thirtieth year of King Edward the third is recorded in all the Annales of this Kingdom That he would eat in wodden dishes but would pay for his meat Gold and Silver Besides the English Colonies being dispersed in every Province of this Kingdom were enforced to keep continual guards upon the Borders and Marches round about them which Guards consisting of idle Souldiers were likewise imposed as a continual burthen upon the poor Engglish Freeholders whom they oppressed and impoverished in the same manner And because the great English Lords and Captains had power to impose this charge when and where they pleased many of the poor Freeholders were glad to give unto those Lords a great part of their Lands to hold the rest free from that extortion And many others not being able to endure that intolerable oppression did utterly quit their freeholds and returned into England By this mean the English Colonies grew poor and weak though the English Lords grew rich and mighty for they placed Irish Tenants upon the Lands relinquished by the English upon them they levied all Irish exactions with them they married and fostered and made Gossips so as within one age the English both Lords and Freeholders became degenerate and meer Irish in their Language in their apparel in their arms and manner of fight and all other Customes of life whatsoever By this it appeareth why the extortion of Coigne and Livery is called in the old Statutes of Ireland A damnable custom and the imposing and taking thereof made High Treason And it is said in an ancient Discourse Of the Decay of Ireland that though it were first invented in Hell yet if it had been used and practised there as it hath been in Ireland it had long since destroyed the very Kingdom of Belzebub In this manner was the War of Ireland carried before the coming over of Lionel Duke of Clarence This young Prince being Earl of Vlster and Lord of Conaght in right of his wife who was daughter and Heir of the Lord William Bourk the last Earl of Vlster of that Family slain by treachery at Knockefergus was made the Kings Lieutenant of Ireland and sent over with an Army in the six and thirtieth year of King Edward the third The Roll and List of which Army doth remain of Record in the Kings Remembrancers Office in England in the press de Rebus tangentibus Hiberniam and doth not contain above fifteen hundred men by the Poll which because it differs somewhat fâ—om the manner of this age both in respect of the Command and the Entertainment I think it not impertinent to take a brief view thereof The Lord Lionel was
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
Reign when the Lord Lionel brought over a Regiment of 1500. men as is before expressed which that wise and warlick Prince did not transmit as a competent power to make a full conquest but as an honorable retinue for his son and withall to enable him to recover some part of his Earldom of Vlster which was then over-run with the Irish But on the other part though the English Colonies were much degenerate in this Kings time and had lost a great part of their possessions yet lying at the siege of Callis he sent for a supply of men out of Ireland which were transported under the conduct of the Earl of Kildare and Fulco de lâ— Freyn in the year 1347. AND now are we come again to the time of King Richard the second who for the first ten years of his Reign was a Minor and much disquieted with popular Commotions and after that was more troubled with the factions that arose between his Minions and the Princes of the blood But at last he took a resolution to finish the Conquest of this Realm And to that end he made two Royal voyages hither Upon the first he was deluded by the faigned submissions of the Irish but upon the latter when he was fully bent to prosecute the war with effect he was diverted and drawn from hence by the return of the Duke of Lancaster into England and the general defection of the whole Realm AS for Henry the Fourth he being an Intruder upon the Crown of England was hindered from all Forraign actions by sundry Conspiracies and Rebellions at home moved by the house of Northumberland in the North by the Dukes of Surrey and Exceter in the South and by Owen Glendour in Wales so as he spent his short Raign in establishing and setling himself in the quiet possession of England and had neither leisure nor opportunity to undertake the final conquest of Ireland Much less could King Henry the fifth perform that work for in the second year of his Reign he transported an Army into France for the recovery of that Kingdom and drew over to the siege of Harflew the Prior of Kilmaineham with 1500. Irish In which great action this victorious Prince spent the rest of his life AND after his death the two Noble Princes his Brothers the Duke of Bedford and Glocester who during the minority of King Henry the sixth had the Government of the Kingdoms of England and France did employ all their Counsels and endeavours to perfect the Conquest of France the greater part whereof being gained by Henry the fifth and retained by the Duke of Bedford was again lost by King Henry the sixth a manifest argument of his disability to finish the Conquest of this Land But when the civil War between the two Houses was kindled the Kings of England were so far from reducing all the Irish under their Obedience as they drew out of Ireland to strengthen their parties all the Nobility and Gentry descended of English race which gave opportunity to the Irishry to invade the Lands of the English Colonies and did hazard the Loss of the whole Kingdom For though the Duke of York did while he lived in Ireland carry himself respectively towards all the Nobility to win the general love of all bearing equal favour to the Giraldines and the Butlers as appeared at the Christning of George Duke of Clarence who was born in the Castle of Dublin where he made both the Earl of Kildare and the Earl of Ormonde his Gossips And having occasion divers times to pass into England he left the sword with Kildare at one time and with Ormonde at another and when he lost his life at Wakefield there were slain with him divers of both those families Yet afterwards thâ—se two Noble houses of Ireland did severally follow the two Royal houses of England the Giraldines adhering to the house of York and the Butlers to the house of Lancaster Whereby it came to pass that not only the principal Gentlemen of both those Sur-names but all their friends and dependants did pass into England leaving their Lands and possessions to be over-run by the Irish These impediments or rather impossibilities of finishing the Conquest of Ireland did continue till the Wars of Lancaster and York were ended which was about the twelfth year of King Edward the fourth Thus hitherto the Kings of England were hindred from finishing this Conquest by great and apparent impediments Henry the second by the rebellion of his Sons King John Henry the third and Edward the second by the Barons Wars Edward the first by his Wars in Wales and Scotland Edward the third and Henry the fifth 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 BUT the fire of the civil war being utterly quenched and King Edward the fourth setled in the peaceable possession of the Crown of England what did then hinder that warâ—ick Prince from reducing of Ireland also First the whole Realm of England was miserably wasted depopulated and impoverished by the late civil dissentions yet as soon as it had recovered it self with a little peace and rest this King raised an Army and revived the Title of France again howbeit this Army was no sooner transmitted and brought into the field but the two Kings also were brought to an interview Whereupon partly by the fair and white promises of Lewis the 11. and partly by the corruption of some of King Edwards Minions the English forces were broken and dismissed and King Edward returned into England where shortly after findâ—ng himself deluded and abused by the French he dyed with melancholy and vexation of spirit I Omit to speak of Richard the Usurper who never got the quiet possession of England but was cast out by Henry the seventh within two years and a half after his Usurpation AND for King Henry the seventh himself though he made that happy Union of the two houses yet for more than half the space of his Reign there were walking spirits of the house of Yorke as well in Ireland as in England which he could not conjure down without expence of some bloud and Treasure But in his later times he did wholly study to improve the Revenues of the Crown in both Kingdomes with an intent to provide means for some great action which he intended which doubtless if he had lived would rather have proved a journey into France than into Ireland because in the eyes of all men it was a fairer enterprize THerefore King Henry the eighth in the beginning of his raign made a Voyage Royal into France wherein he spent the greatest part of that treasure which his Father had frugally reserved perhaps for the like purpose In the latter end of his Reign he made the like journey being enricht with the Revenues of the Abby Lands But in the
middle time between these two attempts the great alteration which he made in the State Ecclesiastical caused him to stand upon his guard at home the Pope having sollicited all the Princes of Christendom to revenge his quarrel in that behalf And thus was King Henry the eighth detained and diverted from the absolute reducing of the Kingdom of Ireland LAstly the infancy of King Edward the sixth and the Coverture of Qu. Mary which are both Non abilities in the Law did in fact disable them to accomplish the Conquest of Ireland SO as now this great work did remain to be performed by Queen ELIZABETH who though she were diverted by suppressing the open rebellion in the North by preventing divers secret Conspiracies against her person by giving aids to the French and States of the Low-Countries by maintaining a Naval war with Spain for many years together yet the sundry rebellions joyned with forraign invasions upon this Island whereby it was in danger to be utterly lost and to be possessed by the Enemies of the Crown of England did quicken her Majesties care for the preservation thereof and to that end from time to time during her Reign she sent over such supplies of men and treasure as did suppress the Rebels and repell the invaders Howbeit before the transmitting of the last great army the forces sent over by Queen Elizabeth were not of sufficient power to break and subdue aâ—l the Irishry and to reduce and reform the whole Kingdom but when the general defection came which came not without a special providence for the final good of that Kingdom though the second causes thereof were the faint prosecution of the War against Tyrone the practises of Priests and Jesuites and the expectation of the aids from Spain Then the extream peril of loosing the Kingdom the dishonour and danger that might thereby grow to the Crown of England together with a just disdain conceived by that great minded Queen that so wicked and ungratefull a Rebell should prevail against Her who had ever been victorious against all her enemies did move and almost enforce her to send over that mighty army and did withall enflame the hearts of the Subiects of England chearfully to contribute towards the maintaining thereof a Million of sterling pounds at least which was done with a purpose only to Save and not to Gain a Kingdom To keep and retain that Soveraignty which the Crown of England had in Ireland such as it was and not to recover a more absolute Dominion But as it faileth out many times that when a house is on fire the Owner to save it from burning pulleth it down to the ground but that pulling down doth give occasion of building it up again in a better form So these last Wars which to save the Kingdome did utterly break and destroy this people produced a better effect than was at first expected For every Rebellion when it is supprest doth make the subject weaker and the Prince stronger So this general revolt when it was overcome did produce a general Obedience and Reformation of all the Irishry which ever before had been disobedient and unreformed and thereupon ensued the final and full conquest of Ireland And thus much may suffice to be spoken touching the defects in the martial affairs and the weak and faint prosecution of the war and of the several Impediments or employments which did hinder or divert every King of England successively from reducing Ireland to their absolute subjection IT now remaineth that we shew the defects of the Civil Policy and Government which gave no less impediment to the perfection of this Conquest THe first of that kind doth consist in this That the Crown of England did not from the beginning give Laws to the Irishry whereas to give Laws to a conquered people is the principal mark and effect of a perfect Conquest For albeit King Henry the second before his return out of Ireland held a Council or Parliament at Lissemore Vbi Leges Angliae ab omnibus sunt gratanter receptae Juratoria Cautione praestita confirmatae as Matth. Paris writeth And though King John in the twelfth year of his Reign did establish the English Laws and Customes here and placed Sheriffs and other Ministers to rule and govern the people according to the Law of England and to that end Ipse duxit secum viros discretos legis peritos quorum communi consilio scatuit praecepit leges Anglicanas teneri in Hibernia c. as we finde it recorded among the Patent Rolls in the Tower 11 Hen. 3. m. 3. Though likewise King Henry the third did grant and transmit the like Charter of Liberties to his Subjects of Ireland as himself and his Father had granted to the Subjects of England as appeareth by another Record in the Tower 1 Hen. 3. Pat. m. 13. And afterwards by a special Writ did command the Lord Justice of Ireland Quod convocatis Archiepiscopis Episcopis Comitibus Baronibus c. Coram eis legi faceret Chartam Regis Johannis quam ipse legi fecit jurari à Magnatibus Hiberniae de legibus Constitutionibus Angliae observandis quod leges illas teneant observent 12 Hen. 3. Claus m. 8. And after that again the same King by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England did confirm the Establishment of the English Laws made by King John in this form Quia pro Communi utilitate terrae Hiberniae ac unitate terrarum de Communi Consilio provisum sit quod omnes leges consuetudines quae in regno Angliae tenentur in Hiberniâ teneantur eadem terra ejusdem legibus subjaceat ac per easdem regatur sicut Johannes Rex cum illic esset Statuit firmiter mandavit ideo volumus quod omnia brevia de Communi Jure quae currunt in Anglia similiter currant in Hibernia sub novo sigillo nostro c. Teste meipso apud Woodstock c. Which Confirmation is found among the Patent Rolls in the Tower Anno 30. Hen. 3. Notwithstanding it is evident by all the Records of this Kingdom that onely the English Colonies and some fews Septs of the Irishry which were enfranchised by special Charters were admitted to the benefit and protection of the Laws of England and that the Irish generally were held and reputed Aliens or rather enemies to the Crown of England insomuch as they were not onely disabled to bring any actions but they were so far out of the protection of the law as it was often adjudg'd no felony to kill a meer Irishman in the time of peace That the meer Irish were reputed Aliens appeareth by sundry Records wherein Judgement is demanded if they shall be answered in Actions brought by them and likewise by the Charters of Denization which in all ages were purchased by them In the Common Plea Rolls of 28 Edward the third which
amongst whom the whole Kingdom was divided had been good Hunters and had reduced the Mountains Boggs and Woods within the limits of Forrests Chases and Parks assuredly the very Forrest Law and the Law de Malefactoribus in parcis would in time have driven them into the Plains and Countries inhabited and manured and have made them yield up their fast places to those wilde Beasts which were indeed less hurtful and wilde than they But it seemeth strange to me that in all the Records of this Kingdom I seldom find any mention made of a Forrest and never of any Parke or Free-warren considering the great plenty both of Vert and Venison within this Land and that the chief of the Nobility and Gentry are descended of English race and yet at this day there is but one Parke stored with Deer in all this Kingdom which is a Parke of the Earl of Ormonds neer Kilkenny It is then manifest by that which is before expressed that the not communicating of the English laws to the Irish the over large Grants of Lands and Liberties to the English the plantation made by the English in the Plains and open Countries leaving the Woods and Mountains to the Irish were great Defects in the Civil pollicy and hindered the perfection of the Conquest very much Howbeit notwithstanding these Defects and Errours the English Colonies stood and maintained themselves in a reasonable good estate as long as they retained their own ancient Laws and customs according to that of Ennius Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque But when the civil Government grew so weak and so loose as that the English Lords would not suffer the English laws to be put in execution within their Territories and Seigniories but in place thereof both they and their people embraced the Irish customs Then the estate of things like a Game at Irish was so turned about as the English which hoped to make a perfect Conquest of the Irish were by them perfectly and absolutely conquered because Victi victoribus leges dedere A just punishment to our Nation that would not give Laws to the Irish when they might and therefore now the Irish gave Laws to them Therefore this Defect and failing of the English Justice in the English Colonies and the inducing of the Irish customs in lieu thereof was the main impediment that did arrest and stop the course of the Conquest and was the only mean that enabled the Irishry to recover their strength again FOr if we consider the Nature of the Irish Customs we shall find that the people which doth use them must of necessity be Rebels to all good Government destroy the commonwealth wherein they live and bring Barbarisme and desolation upon the richest and most fruitfull Land of the World For whereas by the just and Honourable Law of England and by the Laws of all other well-governed Kingdoms and Commonweals Murder Man-slaughter Rape Robbery and Theft are punished with death By the Irish Custom or Brehon Law the highest of these offences was punished only by Fine which they called an Ericke Therefore when Sir William Fitz-Williams being Lord Deputy told Maguyre that he was to send a Sheriff into Fermannagh being lately before made a County your Sheriff saâ—d Maguyre shall be welcome to me but let me know his Ericke or the price of his head afore hand that if my people cut it off I may cut the Ericke upon the Countrey As for Oppression Extoâ—tion and other trespasses the weaker had never any remedy against the stronger whereby it came to pass that no man could enjoy his Life his Wife his Lands or Goods in safety if a mightier man than himself had an appetite to take the same from him Wherein they were little better than Cannibal who do hunt one another and he that hath most strength and swiftness doth eat and devour all his fellowes Again in England and all well ordered Common-weaâ—s Men have certain estates in their Lands and possessions and their inheritances descend from Father to Son whâ—ch doth give them encouragement to build and to plant and to improve their Lands and to make them better for their posterities But by the Irish Custom of Tanistry the Chieftanes of every Country and the chief of every Sept had no longer estate than for life in their Cheefeâ—ies the inheritance whereof did â—est in no man And these Cheeferies though they had some portions of Lands allotted unto them did consist chiefly in cuttings and Cosheries and other Irish exactions whereby they did spoile and impoverish the people at their pleasure And when their Chieftanes were dead their Sons or next heirs did not succeed them but their Tanistes who were Elective and purchased their elections by strong hand And by the Irish Custom of Gavel-kinde the inferiour Tennanties were partible amongst all the Males of the Sept both Bastards and Legitimate and after partition made if any one of the Sept had dyed his portion was not divided among his Sons but the chief of the sept made a new partition of all the Lands belonging to that Sept and gave every one his part according to his antiquity THese two Irish Customs made all their possessions uncertain being shuffled and changed and removed so often from one to another by new elections and partitions which uncertainty of estates hath been the true cause of such Desolation and Barbarism in this Land as the like was never seen in any Countrey that professed the name of Christ For though the Irishry be a Nation of great Antiquity and wanted neither wit nor valour and though they had received the Christian Faith above 1200 years since and were lovers of Musick Poetry and all kinde of Learning and possessed a Land abounding with all things necessary for the civil life of man yet which is strange to be related they did never build any houses of brick or stone some few poor Religious Houses excepted before the Reign of King Henry the second though they were Lords of this Island for many hundred years before and since the Conquest attempted by the English Albeit when they saw us build Castles upon their borders they have onely in imitation of us erected some few piles for the Captains of the Countrey yet I dare boldly say that never any particular person either before or since did build any stone or brick house for his private habitation but such as have lately obtained estates according to the course of the Law of England Neither did any of them in all this time plant any Gaâ—dens or Orchards inclose or improve their Lands live together in settâ—ed Viâ—lages or Towns nor made any provision for posterity which beâ—ng against all common sense and reason must needs be imputed to those unreasonable Customs which made their estates so uncertain and transitory in their possessions For who would plant or improve or build upon that Land which a stranger whom he knew not
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