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A 
 
 COMPENDIUM 
 
 OF THK 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 FllOM THE EARLIEST PERIOD 
 
 TO THE 
 
 REIGN OF GEORGE I. 
 
 JOHN LAWLESS, Esq. 
 
 PROPRIETOR AND EDITOR OF THE IRISHMAN, 
 PUBLISHED IN BELFAST. 
 
 Historia est lemporum testis, lux veritatis, magistra vitte, vita memoriae, 
 
 et nuncia antiquitatis. — Cicero. 
 
 History is the witness of times past, the light of truth, the mistress of 
 
 life, the h'fe of memon-, and the herald of antiquity^ 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 
 Printed by Michael Anderson, 
 
 AND SOLD BY 
 
 illCHARD GRIFFIN, GLASGOW; 
 
 AND JOSEPH SMYTH, HIGH STEEET, BELFAST. 
 
 1823. 
 
141 
 
TO 
 
 <& 
 
 THE IRISH PEOPLE. 
 
 - The book, which I now have the honour to 
 present to my countrymen, has been written in 
 
 I the hope that it will contribute, in some de- 
 
 gree, to the promotion of that liberal^ enlighten- 
 ed and benevolent feelings which has been mak- 
 ing such rapid strides for the last thirty years of 
 our history. If the author has been guilty of 
 any exaggeration in description, or in commen- 
 tary (which he has industriously struggled to 
 avoid), let the Irishman reflect that his errors 
 are on the side of the honour of his country ; 
 that his feelings, if too warm, are heated by an 
 anxious desire to vindicate the insulted charac- 
 ter of a people who have been eternally the vic- 
 
 ^ tims of calumny, the prey to every speculator 
 
 Z on their fame and their glory, the devoted sa- 
 
 voL. I. a 
 
IV DEDICATION. 
 
 crifice to insatiable avarice, to dishonourable 
 ambition, and a sanguinary foreign ascendan- 
 It is hoped that the reader of every class and 
 description, of every persuasion, and sect of 
 Christianit)^, will observe through the pages of 
 this volume of Irish history, that the leading 
 object of its author was the inculcation of that 
 grand and paramount principle of Christianity, 
 which imperatively tells us to respect the reli^ 
 gious feelings of every human being — to prac- 
 tise that toleration which each sect is perpe- 
 tually demanding, and leave to God and to his 
 creature the settlement of those points which 
 are beyond all human control, and should ever 
 commandthe veneration of the wise, the libe- 
 ral, and the enlightened* 
 
 That the partizan of faction, or the partizan 
 of the people — that the advocate of into- 
 lerance, as well as the advocate of equal and im- 
 partial privilege, will find much to censure, 
 and perhaps little to praise, must be expected 
 by him who pleads the cau^e of truth with firm- 
 ness and impartiality, 
 
 Tho author has endeavomed to refute the 
 libeller of Ireland, with tcmpciancc and dcco- 
 
DEDICATION. V 
 
 rum. The composer of an abridgment of Irish 
 history can lay but Httle claim to the merit of 
 invention : his duty is to select with industry 
 and with judgment ; to compare his authori- 
 ties wdth caution, anxiety, and impartiality ; 
 and to put into as small a space as possible 
 tjie grand and leading features of his history. 
 To such claims, the author will flatter himself 
 he may, without the hazard of contradiction, 
 put in his humble pretensions. If, on closing 
 this volume, the heart of the reader shall sym- 
 pathise with the sufferings of Ireland — if he 
 be inclined to shed a single tear over the graves 
 of those illustrious dead who combated, though 
 unsuccessfully, for the liberty, the religion, and 
 the fame of their country — if he be disposed 
 to acknowledge that no country under heaven 
 ever suffered so much from the crimes and the 
 follies of its rulers, the author will congratu- 
 late Ireland on the effects of his labours, and 
 will thankfully acknowledge his ample remu- 
 neration in the benefits which must flow^ to his 
 countrymen from the dissemination of such 
 feelings. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It is universally admitted by every friend to the religion, 
 the liberties, and the welfare of Ireland, that nothing can 
 contribute so much to their promotion, as the dissemination 
 of that historical knowledge which informs the Irish people 
 what tlwir country has been — what it now is— and by 'what 
 means its future prosperity may be retarded or advanced. 
 The Irishman who is ignorant of the history of his country, 
 can but little contribute to the councils of men whose opinions 
 are regulated by the wisdom of their ancestors, and whose 
 errors are corrected by the accurate knowledge of the mis- 
 takes of those who have gone before them. He who is a 
 stranger to the history of Ireland, can draw no resources from 
 the laborious lucubrations of talent, or the brilliant discoveries 
 of genius, to which his country has given birth, and which 
 time has swept into the grave. Such a man can receive no 
 supplies from the treasury of antiquity. Centuries have roll- 
 ed by, without advantage to him against whom the book of 
 history has been closed : the author and his productions sink 
 into the same tomb, unobserved ^nd unthought of. For him 
 the ancient magnificence of Ireland is in vain established by 
 the successful researches of the antiquarian ; and the wisdom 
 of former ages lies mouldering in records, which perhaps he 
 has had no opportunity of examining. 
 
Vlll niEFACE. 
 
 The principal object of the present work, is to give uni- 
 versa circulation to the leading and remarkable features of 
 Irish history ; — to give those features with veracity — with 
 conciseness — and at such a price as may render them acces- 
 sible to the poor, though independent Irishman. 
 
 The early period of Irish history may perhaps be consi- 
 dered more interesting to the curious antiquarian than to the 
 practical politician. The records of Keating, however flat- 
 tering to the pride of an Irishman, will be found but little 
 calculated to add to that stock of useful information, which 
 our modern history so abundantly affords. The memory of 
 his reader is oppressed by the labour of recollection ; and the ef- 
 forts of the historian to establish the authenticity of Irish fame, 
 and the superior claim of Irish genealog}^, too frequently entan- 
 gle the understanding of the reader in unprofitable researches, vi- 
 sionary inquiries, and idle conjectures. The present compen- 
 dium takes a rapid view of those days of greatness, of which 
 the Irish bards have sung with rapturous enthusiasm: it then 
 passes to the second Henrj^ of England, and carries the records 
 of the principal and most leading events down to the reign of 
 George the First, This task, it is hoped, will be found to be 
 performed with proper anxiety for the interest of truth, aa 
 well as the honour and welfare of our country. 
 
 The writer of this volume has another object in view% and 
 he hopes, one which will find shelter in every Irish bosom 
 — namel}^, to excite an honest and an ardent feeling a- 
 mong his countiymen, for the recorded sufferings of Ire- 
 land, and to teach, from the experience of the past, the most 
 certain and judicious mode of guarding against the calamities 
 of the future. To accomplish these views in one volume at 
 once compemlious and satisfactory, will be admitted by the 
 candid and ingenuous reader, ttt be a task of difficulty and 
 hazard. 
 
PREFACE. iX 
 
 To rdate the afflicting and melancholy events which crowd 
 the history of Ireland, without incurring the charge of preju^ 
 dice, or the suspicions of party, will perhaps be impossible. 
 Such suspicions, however, do not discourage the attempt to 
 give a brief narrative of our history, with truth, and with 
 impartiality ; with an anxiety to please all parties, but with 
 a determination to sacrifipe the cause of justice to none. 
 
 It is hoped that the reader of this cheap and compendious 
 volume, will find that the first and last feeling which influen- 
 ced the pen of him who wrote it, was a sincere and zealous 
 anxiety for the establishment of political and religious ^reedom 
 ^mong Irishmen of every persuasion. 
 
 January Isf, 1814. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Page 
 
 Invasion of Henry IL 20 
 
 Reign of Rkhard I 64 
 
 I > John ».... 71 
 
 Henry HI. 81 
 
 Edward J...^. ^....». 95 
 
 Edward H 105 
 
 Edward HI. 122 
 
 Bicbofd n, 140 
 
 Henry IV.... US 
 
 Hejiry V. 153 
 
 Henry TJ... ^ 158 
 
 Edward IV. 168 
 
 Henry VIL 174^ 
 
 Hemy VUI. - 195 
 
 Edward V. 237 
 
 Mary 247 
 
 Elizabeth.... « ^... 262 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND, 
 
 PREVIOUS AND SUBSEQUENT TO THE INTRODUCTION OF 
 CIIRISTIAXITY. 
 
 The history of Ireland, previous to the intro- 
 duction of Christianity, has been considered by the 
 enemies of her ancient fame, as much the theme 
 of the poet, as the calm subject of the dispassionate 
 historian. — The faithful records of our country are 
 rejected as the tales of credulity, and the establish- 
 ed glories of its ancient state are considered the 
 dreams of poetry, or the fabrications of national 
 vanity. The satisfactory and laborious researches 
 of O'Connor, O'Halioran, and Vallancey, excite the 
 sneer of scepticism, and their triumphant demon- 
 strations are sarcastically styled the elaborate fic- 
 tions of a credulous imagination : thus do we often 
 see the English reader, interested perhaps in the 
 calumny and dishonour of Ireland, smile at the 
 honest labours of the patriot, and repel with the 
 affectation of profound philosophy, the struggles of 
 those who have succeeded in proving that Ireland 
 
 VOL. I. A 
 
^ THE HISTORT 
 
 has been distinguished among the nations of Eu- 
 rope, as the asylum of the muses, the seat of learn- 
 ing and dispenser of knowledge. The enemies of 
 Ireland will in vain labour to tear from the Irish 
 bosom those dear and fond remembrances which 
 their faithful historians have handed down to pos- 
 terity. The history of ancient Ireland will ever be 
 read by the Irishman as a source of instructive gra- 
 tification : he will ever look back with honest pride 
 upon those days of her history, when her bards 
 were heard attuning their harps to the glory of their 
 country ; immortalizing by their verses the heroism 
 of her sons, and rousing her pride by the ardour 
 and enthusiasm of their appeals. 
 
 The Irishman has often found refuge from the 
 misfortunes which were pressing him, in the cherish- 
 ed and sacred reflection, that however afflicted his 
 country, or however borne down her liberties-r- 
 however oppressed his countrymen, or however 
 hopeless their cause, still he could look back on the 
 history of his country with some degree of com- 
 placency ; for he saw her described as the instruc- 
 tress of Europe, the dispenser of justice, and the 
 island of saints. With O'Flaherty, he speaks with 
 rapture of the one hundred and seventy-one mo- 
 narchs, who governed Ireland for two thousand 
 years previous to the invasion of Henry II. all of 
 the same house and lineage : — with him he pas- 
 sionately recurs to his monuments of ancient re- 
 nown, and contends, with an honest and honourable 
 warmth, for the veracity of poetry, and the accuracy 
 of fancy. 
 
OF IRELAND. 3 
 
 He cannot be the friend of Ireland, who would 
 wantonly attempt to shake the Irish belief in the 
 ancient magnificence and honours of his country ; 
 it should never be forgotten that the finest feelings 
 of the heart are produced by the strong impressions 
 of the ancient fame and glory of our country ; that 
 the human mind is improved and animated by the 
 splendid examples which the historian has recorded, 
 and that he who would advance the cause of reli- 
 gion or of morality, should not struggle to throw a 
 shade on the authenticity of those achievements, or 
 dispute the existence of those names, which, as long 
 as they are credited, must excite the admiration, 
 and perhaps the imitation of mankind. — For those 
 reasons it is hoped that the early history of Ireland 
 would be read by every Irishman as a source of in- 
 structive reflection, not as a subject of cold and 
 critical scepticism — he should sympathize with the 
 ardour of the patriot, and shed tears over the grave 
 which covered him — his heart should swell with 
 the independence of his country — with the gallant 
 achievements of her heroes, and he should sink in- 
 to sadness when those achievements were perform- 
 ed in vain, or when perhaps the most precious blood 
 of his countrymen was sacrificed to the exaltation 
 of foreign or domestic tyranny — with those senti^ 
 ments I shall proceed to give a brief and faithful, 
 though rapid review of the ancient state of Ireland* 
 
 It seems to be acknowledged, that there are no 
 literary monuments in Ireland previous to the in- 
 troduction of Christianity ; that the evidence of 
 any transaction anterior to this period, solely rests 
 
^ THE HISXOUY 
 
 on the credit of Christian writers : that these, lastly, 
 have taken transcripts from the ancient Irish bards, 
 or from records composed during the ages of pagan- 
 ism. A long list of kings is thus made out from 
 the earliest ages of the world, such as Partholan 
 and his sons, with his hounds and his oxen, the 
 gigantic Fomerians, the Numidians, the Firbolgs, 
 and the Tuatha de Danans. These ancient records 
 state, that about 500 years before the Christian era, 
 a colony of Scythians, immediately from Spain, set- 
 tled in Ireland, and introduced the Phoenician 
 language and letters ; it is also conjectured that 
 previous to the invasion of the Scythians, Ireland 
 might have been peopled from Gaul or Britain ; 
 but it is more generally supposed that the sons of 
 Milesius, Heber, Heremon, and Ith, gave a race of 
 kings to Ireland, under whose government Ireland 
 proceeded from barbarism and anarchy, to civiliza- 
 tion and refinement ; that at length Ollam Fodla 
 arose, and gave to Ireland a regular form of go- 
 vernment, instituted a grand seminary of learning, 
 and assembled the Fes, or triennial convention of 
 kings, priests, and bards, at Tarah, in Meath. — 
 Keating wTites that the object of this convention 
 was to introduce order, and to punish and suppress 
 those crimes which generally predominate in a pe- 
 riod of rudeness and violence. Ollam Fodla, the 
 monarch so celebrated in Irish annals, was succeed- 
 ed by Kimbath and Hugony ; both made great ad- 
 vances in the work of reformation. There were in 
 Ireland ^ve provincial dynasties, and Hugony, to 
 break the power of those rivals, divided the country 
 
OF IRELAND. 5 
 
 into twenty-five dynasties. This arrangement did 
 not long exist ; the pentarchy was again restored, 
 and subsequent to this event, the celebrated code 
 or body of laws, called the Celestial Decisions^ were 
 drawn up by the Irish bards, or Filias, who were in 
 those ages the dispensers and depositories of the 
 laws. The tranquillity expected to follow from 
 the promulgation of this celebrated code of laws did 
 not take place ; and the distraction of the country 
 became so extreme, that an Irish chieftain encour- 
 aged Agricola to make a descent on Ireland. The 
 invitation was not accepted, and the Irish historian 
 records with triumph, that the Irish monarch of 
 that day, not only was able to repel any foreign 
 invader, but actually sailed to the assistance of the 
 Picts against the Romans, and returned laden with 
 treasure. On the death of this monarch, whose 
 name was Crimthan, Tuathal succeeded, a prince of 
 the Milesian line ; the latter separated Meath from 
 the other provinces of Ireland, and appointed it the 
 special appendage of the monarch : he revived the 
 famous assembly at Taltion in Meath, the great re- 
 sort of the whole nation. The peace of TuathaPs 
 reign was interrupted by a domestic affliction, which 
 was afterwards the source of national sorrow and dis- 
 traction. The provincial king of Leinster was mar- 
 ried to the daughter of Tuathal, but conceiving an 
 adulterous passion for her sister, pretended his wife 
 had died. He demanded and obtained her sister 
 in marriage ; the two ladies met in the royal house 
 of Leinster : the Irish monarch invaded his son-in- 
 law, and the province of Leinster was obliged to pay 
 
6 THE HISTORY 
 
 a tribute, as a perpetual memorial of Tuathal's re- 
 sentment. This tribute was resisted ; and Con, 
 one of the most famous of the Irish monarchs, 
 (called Con of the Hundred Battles,) was slain in 
 his struggles to enforce so odious an exaction. 
 
 Cormac O'Con, grandson of this king, is cele- 
 brated by historians as the most renowned of all 
 the Irish monarchs. * The magnificence and splen- 
 dour of his court, his warlike sons, the number 
 of his generals, his powerful army, their illus- 
 trious leader, Finn, the father of Ossian, the im- 
 mortal bard ; the terror of his arms in war, and the 
 mildness of his philosophy in solitude, were equally 
 the theme of universal praise. This distinguished 
 prince is said to have reigned about 254 years after 
 Christ. Cormac O'Con was succeeded by his son 
 Carbray Liffecar, who inherited the wisdom as well 
 as the power of his father. Such was the fury and 
 the fanaticism of faction, that this monarch, with 
 his immediate successors, died by the sword in the 
 field, or by treachery in the palace. Crimthan, 
 who carried his arms into Gaul, and Nial of the 
 
 * The days of Cormac were those of the greatest glory ; in 
 his time most of the utensils of the court were of pure gold or 
 silver ; when he dined in state, he was waited upon by the most 
 distinguished gentlemen of the kingdom, besides 1000 men to 
 guard his palace ; on his side-board were 150 cups of massy gold 
 and silver. We may form some idea of the munificence, truly 
 royal, which prevailed at Tara, from the annual consumption of 
 the provincial palace of Brian Boru ; 2670 beeves, 1 370 hogs, 
 365 pipes of red, and 150 hogsheads of other wine. Such are 
 the relations of Irish annalists, from Stanihurst and Keating, to 
 O'Connor and O'Halloran. 
 
OF IRELAND. 7 
 
 Nine Hostages, fell victims to the assassin. To 
 Dathy, the last of the Pagan monarchs, annalists 
 assign a long and peaceful reign. It is written, 
 that he was killed by lightning at the foot of the 
 Alps. 
 
 The period above described was marked with all 
 those strong and leading features of the human 
 character, which for the most part distinguish the 
 progress of society in other European settlements. 
 Here are to be found a grand display of all the 
 noble passions of our nature, undaunted valour, the 
 most generous effusions of benevolence and hospi- 
 tality, great disinterestedness, and an insatiable 
 ambition of fame and glory ; — on the other hand 
 will be seen examples of implacable resentment, 
 of desperate and vindictive cruelty. To poetry 
 and music * the ancient Irish were peculiarly de- 
 voted ; to the influence of the bardt every other 
 
 • Giraldus Cambrensis, who would conceal the flattering tes- 
 timony if he could, is obliged to acknowledge the musical genius 
 of our country : " In musicis solum, proe-omni natione quam vi- 
 demus, incomparabiliter est instructa gens haec." 
 
 f The controversies of the ancient Irish were generally deter- 
 mined by the Brehons. The Brehon seated himself in the open 
 air on a heap of stones, and his decree was final. King John 
 abolished the Brehon laws of Ireland. The Brehons were all of 
 one family, without any knowledge of civil or canon law. They 
 only retain in memory certain decisions, which by use or length 
 of time obtained force, and, by their construction of those, they 
 framed a sort of art, which they by no means suffered to be pub- 
 lished, but reserved to themselves as abstruse and recondite mys- 
 teries, concealed from common comprehension. Such is the ac- 
 count of those celebrated tribunals, given by Archbishop Usher, 
 Sir James Ware, Sir Richard Cox, Stanihurst, Spencer^ and 
 Davis. 
 
5 THE HISTORY 
 
 power gave way, and to be made mention of in the 
 poet's song was to the Irish hero sufficient com- 
 pensation for all his toils, and the most consoling 
 soothing of all his sorrows. The ministers of re- 
 ligion were accounted more than human. To 
 the druid was submitted all differences, and from 
 him there was no appeal. He was the oracle of 
 Irish law, and the grand dispenser of public jus- 
 tice. Thus do we see, that the ancient Irish were 
 riot insensible to the value of settled laws ; and 
 that, while the annalists of other countries have to 
 describe the savage conflicts of the various clans 
 into which their countrymen were perpetually di- 
 vided, the Irish historian has to record the solemn 
 and venerated decisions of the Druids, before whom 
 the sword of the warrior, and the vengeance of the 
 chieftain bowed with deferential homage. Such 
 was the state of Ireland previous to the introduc- 
 tion of Christianity. From this period we may 
 trace its history with more certainty, less clouded 
 with legendary or poetical fiction. The adversa- 
 ries of Irish antiquity endeavour to prove, that St 
 Patrick, the great apostle of Christianity in Ire- 
 land, was the first to dispel the mists of ignorance 
 and barbarity, and that he abolished the order of 
 Druidism, so ancient, so venerated, and so power- 
 ful. On the other hand, the advocates for the old 
 Irish character, contend, that the Irish were pre- 
 pared by their learned men to receive the divine 
 and benevolent doctrines of Christ, * and that they 
 
 * The year 432 commences a new era. — A revolution in reli- 
 gion, and the introduction of Latin letters into Ireland by St 
 
OF IRELAND. 9 
 
 transcribed the scriptures and liturgies given to 
 them by the Irish apostle with the greatest facility. 
 It is however to be admitted, that many instances of 
 revenge and barbarity are exhibited after the intro- 
 duction of Christianity, and that the divine morality 
 of the * Christian doctrine did not entirely succeed 
 
 Patrick, after whom a succession of pious and learned men arose, 
 who gave celebrity to their country for the four following centu- 
 ries, during which polite and solid literature languished in almost 
 every other corner of Europe. After Rome had again and again 
 been plundered by the Goths, they ceased, it is said, to speak 
 Latin in Rome itself. 
 
 * Dr Campbell, in his learned and enlightened Strictures on 
 the Ecclesiastical and Literary History of Ireland, makes the fol- 
 lowing observations on the labours of the Irish Apostle : — " Full 
 thirty years did St Patrick employ in the most active and exem- 
 plary discharge of his ministry, instructing the Irish people in the 
 principles of piety and virtue, beginning, as he did, with the ele- 
 ments of knowledge, pointing to the First Author, as the Moral 
 Governor of the Universe, opening, by degrees, the mysteries 
 of Providence in the gracious scheme of redemption, imitating, 
 in this, the procedure of Divine Wisdom, which, at different pe- 
 riods, was pleased to give different revelations of his will, to frail 
 and fallible man, letting in the rays of illumination by little and 
 little, lest, like Meak eyes, they should be dazzled by the splen- 
 dour of too great a blaze, till at length, when the fulness of time 
 was come, he sent that great Light which was finally to irradiate 
 every corner of the earth, the Author and Finisher of our faith, 
 who delivered the glad tidings of our salvation, love to God, good 
 will to man, without distinction of nations, or respect of persons, 
 teaching what philosophy could never teach, that, denying our 
 ungodliness and our worldly lusts, we should live soberly and 
 righteously in this present world, to entitle us to another and a 
 better, when the world shall pass away, and time and place shall 
 be no more. This excellent personage, being now ninety years 
 old, committed the care of those churches he founded to the pas- 
 tors which he had set over them, and dedicated the remainder of 
 
10 THE HISTORY 
 
 in eradicating the old vicious habits of the countrv. 
 The monks multiplied to a great extent, and be- 
 came the arbiters of the people. The monks (says 
 Mr O'Connor of Ballenagar), fixed their habitation 
 in deserts, which they cultivated with their own 
 hands, and rendered the most delightful spots. 
 These deserts became well-policed cities ; and it is 
 remarkable enough, that to the monks we owe so 
 useful an institution in Ireland as bringing great 
 numbers into one civil community. In those cities 
 the monks set up schools, in which they educated 
 youth, not only of the island, but the neighbouring 
 nations. So writes the venerable Bede. His testi- 
 mony cannot be contradicted by the enemies of 
 Ireland, that the inhabitants of all parts of Europe 
 resorted to Ireland as the mother of the arts and 
 sciences, the nurse of learning, and the great en- 
 courager of the most liberal and philanthropic prin- 
 ciples. The darkness of Europe, at this period, 
 gave increased celebrity to the fame of Irish litera- 
 ture ; and the 7000 students in the seminary of Ar- 
 magh alone circulated through the civilized world 
 the literary glory of our illustrious ancestors. Eu- 
 rope, with gratitude, confessed the superior know- 
 
 his life to contemplation in different convents. — The entire vir- 
 tues of a life, already protracted beyond the ordinary limits, and 
 now continued in the pious discharge of monastic functions, could 
 not fail attracting to this venerated patron a sovereign influence 
 over the minds of his converts, and, therefore, we may believe 
 what is recorded of him, that he was enabled to make a temporal 
 provision for the ministers of that religion he had planted, by ob- 
 taining from several chieftains endowments of lands, and from 
 the people grants of the tithes of their com and cattle." 
 
OF IRELAND. 11 
 
 ledge, the piety, and zeal and purity of the Island 
 of Saints. Mr O'Connor (a name dear to the ho- 
 nour of our country) writes, that no essential alte- 
 rations were attempted by the first Christian mis- 
 sionaries ; because they thought that schemes of 
 political legislation belonged properly to the civil 
 power alone. A new code of laws was framed and 
 published by St Patrick in the 5th century, in con- 
 junction with the most celebrated bards and eccle- 
 siastics of that period. This code was denomi- 
 nated Seanchas Moer, or the great antiquity. Some 
 writers (as Sir John Davis and Sir Richard Cox) 
 assert, that the old Irish never had any settled ju- 
 risprudence among them, or any written laws ; that 
 the judgments of their Brehon or judge were arbi- 
 trary and decisive, and that he regulated his opi- 
 nions more by the uncertain guides of tradition 
 than the settled and confirmed rules of authenti- 
 cated records. On the other hand, Joseline, Saint 
 Bernard, Cambrensis Eversus (authorities of more 
 credit), contend, that several collections of laws 
 existed in their own days. Roddy, a celebrated 
 Irish antiquarian, removed the doubts of Sir Richard 
 Cox, by shewing him some old Irish law books. 
 
 Of the ancient manners of the Irish, it is impos- 
 sible to give such an account as the mind can rest 
 upon with satisfaction. Credulity and scepticism 
 so balance the scales, that the historian who means 
 to be impartial, should draw a middle line ; and it 
 is no small gratification to reflect, that notwith- 
 standing the ardour and enthusiasm with which the 
 advocates of the Irish character relate the achieve' 
 
12 THE II IS TOP. Y 
 
 ments of their countrymen, tlie wisdom of their 
 laws and regulations, the mildness and paternal 
 tenderness of their government, that much more is 
 to be found worthy of our admiration than the 
 enemies of Ireland are wilHng to acknowledge; 
 and that the manners of the ancient Irish were 
 neither odious nor disgusting, nor barbarous, as the 
 great historian of England has industriously repre- 
 sented — thus sacrificing the character, and pride, 
 and honour of Ireland, to the malignant jealousy 
 and envy of his adopted country. 
 
 According to the old Irish records, called the 
 book of tributes, the obligations of the monarch 
 and his subjects were reci})rocal ; each had their 
 rights defined, and each lived in perpetual and 
 watchful jealousy of the other. Tiie dignity of the 
 monarch was supported by tributes paid by inferior 
 princes ; the withholding of those tributes w^as of- 
 ten a source of war and convulsion, and each pro- 
 vincial king was interested in supporting the rights 
 of the monarch under whom he derived all his 
 power. 
 
 The power and government of each provincial 
 king were exactly similar to that of the monarch ; 
 his successor or tainist was elected in his life-time ; 
 he also received tributes from inferior chieftains, 
 paid for their services, and was entertained by them 
 in his visitations and attendances on his wars. The 
 same system of controul and of service was carried 
 on through all ranks of society. Throughout Ire- 
 land the tenure of lands determined with the life 
 of the possessor j hence the cultivation of grounds 
 
OF IRELxVND. 13 
 
 was only in proportion to the immediate demands 
 of nature, and the tributes to be paid to superiors. 
 Among the ancient Irish, hospitality was consider- 
 ed a duty — it was enjoined by law ; and no family 
 was suffered to leave their abode without due no- 
 tice, lest the traveller should be disappointed of 
 his expected reception. The duties to be perform- 
 ed by the subject, and the protection to be afford- 
 ed by the king, were reciprocal ; they were regu- 
 lated by law ; the laird could exact his penalties, 
 or his taxes, under the denomination of Coshie- 
 rings, * and Bonnaught, and Cuddies, names deno- 
 ting particular modes of provision for the tempo- 
 rary support of himself and his attendants ; and 
 which, under the odious titles of coin and livery, 
 were so severely condemned, and so violently re- 
 sisted. The laws of the old Irish provided against 
 murder, rape, adultery, theft, robbery; but the 
 punishment inflicted for the perpetration of the 
 most odious crime, with the exception of murder, 
 which w^as punished with death, was no more than 
 the imposition of a pecuniary penalty or eric, which 
 was generally to be paid to the relations of the 
 party injured. Some opinion of the extreme lenity 
 of the old Irish penal code may be deduced from 
 this example ; nor are we to wonder that a people 
 who manifested such anxiety to proportion the pu- 
 nishment to the offence as they always did, should 
 
 * Coshiering was free quarters for the chieftain himself — Bon- 
 naught was free quarters for his soldiers — Cuddy was a supper 
 and lodging, which a chief had a right to demand, not only from 
 his subjects, but from his equals. There were other imposts for 
 dogs and horses. 
 
14 THE HISTORY 
 
 be considered, by Sir John Davis, the greatest 
 lovers of equal and impartial justice. 
 
 From the invasion of the English may be dated 
 the decline of that moral and honest principle which 
 seems to have regulated the old Irish in the perfor- 
 mance of their duties to their Sovereign and to 
 each other. With regard to their dress, it is mi- 
 nutely and accurately described by Irish authors.* 
 The vest, the trows, the mantle, the enormous 
 linen sleeves dyed with saffron, (the men generally 
 assuming a w^arhke aspect), their thick beards and 
 great whiskers, their bushy hair hanging over their 
 whiskers, gave them a fierce and formidable ap- 
 pearance. Their customs were as remarkable as 
 their dress. The custom of fosterage! particularly 
 has excited the curiosity of the antiquarian. The 
 Brehon laws seem to intimate that fostering was 
 the occupation of those whose inferior condition 
 rendered them incapable of doing other services to 
 the public. Irish writers state that children were 
 given from different families to be nursed and bred 
 up in others, and that inferiors thus purchased the 
 
 * It is a remarkable fact, that linen was so plenty amongst the 
 ancient Irish, that even in the reign of Henry the Eighth, an act 
 passed, prohibiting them putting more than seven yards of linen 
 in a shirt or shift. — Stat. ^Sth, Henry 8th. 
 
 f Stanihurst says, on the custom of fosterage, " You cannot 
 find one instance of perfidy, deceit, or treachery among fosterers ; 
 nay, they are ready to expose themselves to all manner of dan- 
 gers for the safety of those who sucked their mother's milk. You 
 may beat them to mummy, you may put them upon the rack, you 
 may burn them on a gridiron, you may expose them to the most 
 exquisite torture that the cruellest tyrant can invent, yet you will 
 never remove them from that innate fidelity which is grafted in 
 them — you will never induce them to betray their duty. 
 
OF IRELAND. 15 
 
 honour of fostering the children of the rich. Thus, 
 say they, a stricter connection was formed between 
 different families and different tribes. The frag- 
 ments of the Brehon law, however, contradict this 
 statement. In those laws it is laid down, that 
 wages shall be given to fosterers, in proportion to 
 the time that children continue under their care, 
 and the instruction they have received. The youth 
 in fosterage was instructed in the management of 
 cattle, in husbandry and tillage ; and thus an affec' 
 tion and attachment were created between the in- 
 structor and the instructed, which seemed to emu- 
 late the attachments of the closest affinity. Thus 
 it appears, that the laws, and manners, and customs 
 of the old Irish, do not merit the idle and absurd 
 denunciations, which ignorant malignity has so often 
 pronounced against them. That the rights of Irish- 
 men were accurately defined by their laws, their 
 properties and liberties protected by an impartial 
 administration of justice ; that they had their le- 
 gislative assemblies, their judges, and their clergy, 
 all equally venerated and looked up to by the 
 people; that the noblest sentiments of the heart were 
 cultivated and cherished, and that the Irishman 
 considered his country, when compared with the 
 surrounding world, as the envied land of justice 
 and learning — her bards contributing the efforts of 
 their genius to render her immortal, while the first 
 characters in Europe, with Charlemagne * at their 
 
 ♦ It is universally admitted, that, in early times, Ireland was 
 the great mart of literature in Europe. Spencer contends that 
 the Irish had the use of letters long before England, and that 
 
IG THE HISTORY 
 
 head, were paying homage to her superiority in 
 letters, and to her valour in the fiehl. 
 
 Of the invasions of Ireland which took place pre- 
 vious to the invasion of the English monarch, the 
 first was that of Egfred, the king of Northumber- 
 land, who made a descent on Ireland in the year 
 684, as we are informed by Bede, who laments 
 with a kind and benevolent heart the misery and 
 devastation suffered by a people who were most 
 friendly to the English nation. Perhaps for this 
 reason, Henry and his successors visited the beau- 
 tiful and fertile plains of Ireland with misery and 
 desolation. Soon after, this country was invaded 
 by the Danes and Norwegians ; their expeditions 
 commenced about the eighth century. About this 
 period the monarchy of Ireland was enjoyed in al- 
 ternate succession by the two branches of the Hy- 
 Nial race, the northern house of Tyrone, and the 
 southern, or Clan Colman, seated in Meath. The 
 
 Oswald, a Saxon king, applied to Ireland for learned men to in- 
 struct his people in the principles of Christianity. Camden says 
 it abounded with men of genius and erudition, when learning was 
 trampled on in every other quarter of the globe. Irish monks 
 were the founders of the most celebrated abbeys and monaste- 
 ries in France, Italy, Switzerland, England. The younger Sca- 
 liger writes, that, 200 years before the age of Charlemagne, all 
 the learned were of Ireland. The great Alfred brought profes- 
 sors from this seat of science, to his college of Oxford. Mr. 
 Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, superci- 
 liously remarks, on the ancient literary fame of Ireland, " A 
 people," he writes, " dissatisfied with their present condition, 
 grasp at any vision of the past or future glory ;" — thus does this 
 luminous historian draw his pen across the successful labours of 
 our Insh antiquarians," 
 
OF IRELAND. 17 
 
 power of the monarch was limited, but the people 
 were happy, and the country respected by surround- 
 ing powers. In the space of twenty years, frequent 
 invasions of these northern hordes took place, each 
 of which harassed the country, and at length suc- 
 ceeded in establishing some small settlements iri 
 various parts. In 825, Turgesius, a warlike Nor- 
 wegian, landed with a powerful armament, pillaged 
 and devastated the country, and seated himself at 
 Armagh, from which he expelled the clergy, and 
 confiscated their property. The Irish, after some 
 resistance, submitted to the conquerors, and the 
 northern leader, after a residence of thirty years, 
 was proclaimed monarch of Ireland. 
 
 Historians describe the barbarities of the Norwe- 
 gians in the most affecting and pathetic colours ; 
 their insolence and oppression, their destruction of 
 every monument of learning, their profane havoc 
 of the most sacred records, the overthrow of the 
 most renowned seminaries and religious houses. 
 Such scenes at length awoke the slumbering spirit 
 of Irishmen, and the Danes we're annihilated by a 
 sudden and simultaneous insurrection of the people. 
 New colonies came from the north of Europe, and 
 settled in the cities of Dublin, Waterford, Lime- 
 rick, and other principal towns. Being a trading 
 and industrious race of people, they were suffered 
 to remain unmolested, until large reinforcements 
 of their countrymen made them once more formid- 
 able to Ireland. 
 
 The most vigorous and dreadful opponent which 
 the northern foreigners ever experienced, was the 
 
 VOL. L B 
 
is THE HISTORY 
 
 illustrious and renowned Brian Boromy, or Brian 
 Boreu. He was king of Munster, and was called 
 to the throne by the unanimous voice of his ad- 
 miring countrymen ; he defeated the Danes and 
 Norwegians in many pitched battles, and roused 
 his countrymen to one universal exertion ; his va- 
 lour threw the king of Ireland into the shade ; Ma- 
 lachy was deposed, and Brian Boreu was declared 
 sovereign of his country. Under his parental reign 
 the wounds of Ireland began to heal ; churches and 
 seminaries rose from their ruins, lands were culti- 
 vated, confidence restored, laws administered and 
 strongly enforced ; and while this patriot king was 
 completing his great w^ork of regenerating his na- 
 tive land, he was again invaded by the Danes, with 
 whom he fought the celebrated battle at Clontarf, 
 which, it is supposed, struck at the root of the 
 Danish power in Ireland. The old king numbered 
 his 88th year ; he witnessed the fall of his beloved 
 son in this great conflict with the Danes, and it is 
 supposed, that the king himself fell a victim to the 
 dagger of an assassin from the camp of the enemy. 
 
 The deposed Malachy was again called to the 
 throne, and after several battles, totally extinguish- 
 ed the power of the Danes in Ireland. The suc- 
 cession being interrupted by the election of Brian 
 Boreu, the Irish nation was involved in the most 
 melancholy scenes of anarchy and distraction, by 
 the struggles of competitors for the Irish throne. 
 The son of Brian disputed the crown with various 
 success. At length the nephew of the Irish mo- 
 narch was proclaimed king of Ireland. 
 
OF IRELAND, l9 
 
 The laws and the religion of the country were 
 silenced and trampled on, among the clamours of 
 faction and the tumult of arms ; and Bernard the 
 monk, paints those times as the most calamitous in 
 the history of ancient Ireland. Convulsed and 
 weakened by internal feuds and animosities, Ire- 
 land was an easy prey to the first invader who des- 
 cended on her shores. Magnus, the king of Nor- 
 way, made the experiment, and, in the full confi- 
 .dence of victory, rushed into the heart of the coun- 
 try, without caution or vigilance. The Irish, 
 whose native securities enabled them to take ad- 
 vantage of the precipitate conduct of the king of 
 Norway, darted unexpectedly from their retreats 
 and fastnesses, and cut the invading army to pieces. 
 Factions still continued to mangle and debilitate 
 the Irish people ; and it would appear as if Provi- 
 dence had ordered that Ireland should be prepared, 
 by the follies of her own sons, for that invasion 
 which the English nation soon after effected. 
 
 B 2 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 INVASION OF HENRY II. 
 
 For a length of time previous to the invasion of 
 Ireland by Henry II. this country might have fal- 
 len an easy prey to the ambition of any foreign 
 prince inclined to make the experiment. Torn 
 and convulsed by faction, she would have been un- 
 able to struggle with the well regulated excursions 
 of an invading enemy, and the errors of her children 
 might have been the successful allies of Denmark, 
 of Norway, of Sweden, or of England. But all 
 these countries were too much occupied by more 
 important interests, to allow them the opportunity 
 of taking advantage of Ireland's follies and divi- 
 sions. The mind and passions of Europe were car- 
 ried down the torrent of religious fanaticism, and 
 the wealth and enterprise of its principal kingdoms 
 found ample employment in the wild and unpro- 
 ductive struggles for the recovery of the Holy Land. 
 The strength, the resources, and value of Ireland, 
 
THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 21 
 
 were not, however, unknown or overlooked by the 
 governments of surrounding nations: her people 
 were celebrated for their valour, their hospitality, 
 and their heroism; the English and the Welsh 
 have fled for succour and protection to Ireland, 
 and the three sons of Harold found a safe and hos- 
 pitable asylum in this country, when pursued by 
 the triumphant arms of William the Conqueror. 
 An Irish army contended on English ground for 
 the rights of Englishmen, against the merciless and 
 despotic ambition of William ; and we are inform- 
 ed by Irish annalists, that Murtough, the Irish 
 monarch, was solicited by the Earl of Pembroke 
 to defend him against the vengeance of Henry I. 
 France assiduously courted Irish alliance ; and the 
 formidable co-operation of this country with the 
 enemy of England, first pointed out to Henry II. 
 the pohcy of annexing Ireland to his English 
 dominions. 
 
 Various pretexts were assigned by the English 
 monarch, to justify the invasion of a country, which 
 might be either a perpetual source of strength or of 
 weakness, which might be the bulwark of England, 
 or its most formidable enemy; and possessed of 
 the wealth and resources with which it was known 
 to abound, would be ever an object of jealousy and 
 rivalship to the wealth and the industry of English- 
 men, and of respect and regard to foreigners. We 
 are not to wonder, therefore, that every artifice which 
 power and talents could suggest, or which the su- 
 perstition of the times would countenance and en- 
 courage, should have been practised by Henry, to 
 
22 THjE HISTORY 
 
 justify the violence of his proceedings against a 
 brave and unoffending nation. We accordingly 
 find, that Pope Adrian was prevailed on by the so- 
 licitation of the English monarch, to grant a bull, 
 investing Henry with full power and authority to 
 invade the kingdom of Ireland ; and that, in the 
 language of this solemn instrument issued by his 
 holiness, " Henry 11. should enter the kingdom of 
 Ireland, with the pious purpose of extending the 
 borders of the church, restraining the progress of 
 vice, correcting the manners of its inhabitants, and 
 increasing the influence of religion ; and that in 
 consideration for this power so vested in the Eng- 
 lish monarch, the annual pension of one penny for 
 every ]^ouse, be levied and delivered over to the 
 service of St Peter.'* This bull, with a ring, the 
 token of investiture, was presented to Henry, as 
 lightful sovereign of Ireland. 
 
 Such is the ground of Henry's justification for 
 the invasion of this country ; and such is the flimsy 
 covering which interested historians throw over the 
 spirit of usurpation and ambition, that first urged 
 the EngUsh nation to trample upon the liberties of 
 Ireland j and by fraud and violence to desolate a 
 country, illustrious for its kindness and its hospi- 
 tality, its sincerity and honour ; possessed of quali- 
 ties which w^ould have made her a useful and power- 
 ful ally, and which afterwards became the fruitful 
 source of bitterness and disaster to Englishmen. 
 
 It is recorded, that about the period of the Eng- 
 lish invasion, certain ceremonies and points of dis- 
 {:ipHne of the Irish church were first assimilated tq 
 
OF IRELAND. 58 
 
 those of Rome ; that Cardinal Paparon was dele- 
 gated by the Pope to new-model the ecclesiastical 
 constitution of Ireland, for which purpose, Irish 
 annalists state, that he assembled three thousand 
 clergymen, regular and secular, in the town of Drog- 
 heda, about the year 1152 ; that at this period the 
 discipline of Rome was universally established, and 
 the spiritual pre-eminence of the Pope formally 
 recognised. The preparations of Henry for the 
 invasion were interrupted by the insurrections of 
 his brother Geoffry in the province of Anjou ; — 
 his invasion of Wales, and his contests with Becket 
 and the church, kept him in a continued state of 
 agitation, and suspended the fate of Ireland for a 
 considerable time. The circumstances of this coun- 
 try were peculiarly well calculated to encourage 
 the speculations of a king, whose force was undi- 
 vided and entire, whose power was uncontrouled, 
 and whose genius was equal to the magnitude of 
 the undertaking, Ireland was then governed by 
 a monarch, the tenure of whose government de- 
 pended for the most part on his personal valour 
 and abilities : perpetually harassed by factions, and 
 opposed by powerful rivals ; his subjects frequent- 
 ly disputing the extent of his powers, the rights of 
 his sovereignty, and taking up or laying down their 
 arms according to the caprice of the hour, or the 
 influence of faction. For example :— of Ulster, the 
 family of Hy-Nial were the hereditary sovereigns ; 
 of Munster, the descendants of the illustrious O'- 
 Brian ; of Connaught, the family of O'Connor : 
 and Leinster gave the title of royalty to Dermod 
 
24 THE HISTORY 
 
 M*Murchad, a prince handed down to posterity 
 by Irish annalists in the most odious and contemp- 
 tible colours. 
 
 The rival monarchs of Ireland were, O'Connor, 
 king of Connaught, and Hy-Nial, king of Ulster. 
 The former, in conjunction with Dermod, king of 
 Leinster, overran the territory of O'Rourk, the 
 prince of BrefFney or Leitrim ; and seduced O'- 
 Kourk-s wife, whose name was Deverghall. This 
 outrage was the fruitful parent of that long series 
 of misery experienced by Ireland for centuries af- 
 ter. O'Rourk succeeds in his efforts to separate 
 O'Connor from his alliance with the king of Lein- 
 ster, and, aided by the arms of the western monarch, 
 recovers his wife from the adulterer. Roderic 
 O'Connor succeeded to the throne of his father, 
 Turlogh O'Connor. This prince proceeded to 
 Dublin, immediately after his father's death, and 
 was there solemnly inaugurated. He then march- 
 ed to the north, and was received by the chieftains 
 of Ulster with every mark of the most respectful 
 submission. Dermod fled before the united forces 
 of Roderic and O'Rourk, whose honour he had a- 
 bused ; and his subjects unanimously deposed him 
 as unworthy to be their king. Roderic, in his pro- 
 gress through the country, appeared in all the pomp 
 and pride of majesty, acknowledged by all as their 
 rightful and beloved sovereign. He held a magni- 
 ficent convention of the states at Meath, where the 
 honours and magnificence of his country were re- 
 vived with all their ancient glory ; and independ- 
 ent and imperial Ireland, which had been rudely 
 
OF IRELAND. g5 
 
 assailed by factions, seemed once more to raise 
 her head under the guidance of a monarch whose 
 courage and whose talents were the boast and 
 admiration of his countrymen. Dermod, de- 
 serted by his people, an object of detestation and 
 contempt, prompted by the indignant feelings of 
 insulted and fallen pride, threw himself into the 
 arms of England, as the last and only refuge he 
 could find from the persecution of his malignant 
 fortunes. He embarked for England with sixty of 
 his most trusty followers, where he was received 
 with unbounded hospitality. Henry, the English 
 monarch, was at this time endeavouring to suppress 
 the insurrection of his subjects in his French domi- 
 nions. Dermod immediately repaired to Henry, 
 and laid at his feet the story of his misfortunes and 
 persecutions in his native country. He implored 
 the aid of the British king, and, if supported by 
 his arms in the assertion of his undoubted rights, 
 promised to hold his recovered dominions in vas- 
 salage to Henry and his heirs. 
 
 The insurrection of Henry's French subjects, 
 the obstinate rebellion of his brother GeofFry, and 
 the more obstinate resistance of Bishop Becket, 
 prevented Henry going in person to vindicate the 
 cause, and assert the rights of the exiled Irish king ; 
 but he gave a licence to such of his English subjects 
 as were disposed to aid Dermod in the recovery of 
 his rights. Dermod returned to England, full of 
 hope and confidence. He was joined by Earl Pem- 
 broke and Robert Fitzstephen, both Welsh noble- 
 men, and celebrated in their own country as men 
 
26 THE HISTORY 
 
 of high spirit, and splendid achievements. To these 
 adventurers Dermod promised the entire dominion 
 of the town of Wexford, with a large adjoining ter- 
 ritory, as soon as, by their assistance, he should be 
 reinstated in his rights. After Dermod had con- 
 cluded this treaty with these Welsh adventurers, he 
 proceeded to Ireland to inform his friends that he 
 was about to be supported by a powerful foreign al- 
 liance. He landed at Wexford, where he lay con- 
 cealed in a monastery, until the returning spring 
 brought round the period at which the arrival and 
 co-operation of the English alHes were expected. 
 Roderic, king of Ireland, hearing of the arrival of 
 Dermod, immediately marched against the latter, 
 and forced him to fly for shelter to the woods. 
 Dermod, sensible of his inability to wage so unequal 
 a war with Roderic, submitted to the Irish monarch, 
 and gave hostages for his future peaceable and loyal 
 conduct. Roderic agreed to the terms of submis- 
 sion, and again reposed confidence in his fidelity. 
 These pledges of peace had not long been given by 
 Dermod to Roderic, when his English alHes appear- 
 ed on the coast of Wexford. Robert Fitzstephen, 
 with thirty knights, sixty men in armour, and three 
 hundred archers, all chosen men of Wales, arrived 
 in Ireland in the year 1170. — The army was rein- 
 forced with ten knights, and two hundred archers, 
 under the command of Maurice ap Pendergast, the 
 valiant Welshman. The report of this formidable 
 invasion, (formidable when we consider the divi- 
 sionsof Ireland,) had no sooner circulated through 
 the neighbouring counties, than the old subjects of 
 
OF IRELAND. 27 
 
 Dermod conceived it expedient to resume their al- 
 legiance, and to crowd round his standard, with all 
 the ardour of the most zealous loyalty. The com^ 
 bined forces marched to Wexford, and the Irish 
 and Ostmen, who then governed the town, march- 
 ed out to meet the enemy. The Irish army were 
 conlpelled to return to the town, and the enemy, 
 encouraged by this temporary success, pursued them 
 to the gates of the city. The Irish turned upon 
 their pursuers, and drove back the enemy with con- 
 siderable loss. At length the clergy of the garrison 
 interposed their mediation between the besieged 
 and besiegers, and Wexford was given up to Der- 
 mod, and Earl Pembroke, who was immediately in- 
 vested with the lordship of the city and domain.^ 
 Harvy of Mountmauris was also head of two con- 
 siderable districts, on the coast between Wexford 
 and Waterford. Here was settled the first colony 
 of British inhabitants, differing in manners, cus- 
 toms, and language, from the natives, and even to 
 this day preserving that difference in a very re- 
 miarkable degree, notwithstanding the lapse of many 
 ages. Dermod immediately proceeded at the head 
 of his combined forces, amounting to 3000 men, 
 to lay waste the territory of the prince of Ossory, 
 (a part of Leinster,) which he desolated with fire 
 and sword ; and though the Irish army made a most 
 heroic resistance to the invader, the superiority of 
 EngHsh discipline and Enghsh arms, counterba- 
 lanced the advantages which the Irish enjoyed from 
 their superior knowledge of the country. Had the 
 latter patiently remained in the woods and morasses, 
 
28 THE HISTORY 
 
 where the English cavalry could not act, they would 
 have wearied the courage, and baffled the discip- 
 line of the invaders, and perhaps would have pre- 
 served the independence of their country, A re- 
 liance on the intrepidity of their soldiers, betrayed 
 them from their native situations into the open 
 plains, where they were exposed to the superior ge- 
 neralship of the English invader. 
 
 English historians have laboured, with malicious 
 industry, to paint the comparative superiority of 
 their countrymen, over the wild and barbarous na- 
 tives of Ireland ; and hesitate not to brand with the 
 infamous epithets of cruel, and savage, and uncul- 
 tivated, these unoffending people, whose properties 
 the English were desolating, whose peace they were 
 disturbing, and on the rights and liberties of whose 
 country they were about to trample. 
 
 The vengeance of an unprincipled and exiled 
 Irish monarch found refuge in the ambition and 
 avarice of English adventurers ; and the miserable 
 and afflicting scenes, which the reader of Irish his- 
 tory is doomed to wade through, were acted under 
 the specious and insulting pretext of order, religion, 
 and morahty-^— but to proceed. Dermod succeed- 
 ed in bringing to subjection the revolted subjects 
 of his government, and prepared to defend himself 
 against the denunciations of the Irish monarch, who 
 now began to be alarmed, at an invasion which he 
 had hitherto viewed with contempt, and without 
 apprehension. 
 
 The Irish reader contemplates, with a mixture 
 of gratification and melancholy, the picture of mag- 
 
OF IRELAND* 29 
 
 nificence and grandeur which the preparations of 
 the monarch of Ireland present to his view, for the 
 invasion of the territories of Dermod, and the ex- 
 pulsion of the English army, who presumed to vio- 
 late the independence of Ireland. He conven- 
 ed the estates of the nation at Tarah, in Meath. 
 He ordained new laws, raised and regulated new 
 seminaries, distributed splendid donations to the 
 various professors of learning, and assembled and 
 reviewed the army in presence of the vassal Irish 
 sovereigns, who waited on their monarch, Der- 
 mod, deserted by his subjects on the approach of 
 the Irish monarch, fled to his fastnesses in Wexford, 
 where he strongly entrenched himself. 
 
 Before Roderic unsheathed his sword, he remon- 
 strated with the English leaders on the injustice 
 and cruelty of their invasion ; on the shameful and 
 odious connection they had formed with an adul- 
 terer, and traitor to his country ; and that the war 
 they were about to wage with the Irish, was as im- 
 politic as it was unprincipled ; for surely, said the 
 monarch of Ireland, Englishmen cannot suppose 
 that Ireland will surrender her rights to a foreign 
 power, without a dreadful and sanguinary strug- 
 gle. 
 
 Fitzstephen, the English general, refused to de- 
 sert his Irish ally, and determined to abide the event 
 of the contest. Roderic still hesitated, before he 
 would proceed to force ; and at the moment he 
 could have crushed this infant effort of the English, 
 to subjugate his country, he was solicited by the 
 clergy to enter into a treaty with Dermodj the prin- 
 
so l^'ttE MISTOHY 
 
 cipal condition of which was, that he should im- 
 mediately dismiss the British, with whom again he 
 was never to court an alliance. Soon after this 
 treaty, we find the English general, Fitzstephen, 
 building a fort at Carrig, remarkable for the natural 
 strength of its situation. Dermod, supported by his 
 English allies, proceeded to Dublin, and laid waste 
 the territories surrounding that city with fire and 
 sword. The citizens laid down their arms, and sup* 
 plicated mercy from the cruel and malignant ene- 
 my. It is the duty of the historian to record, that 
 the inhabitants of this devoted city found refuge 
 in the mercy of the English general, who interpos- 
 ed to allay the fury of Dermod's vengeance. Der- 
 mod was not inattentive to every opportunity which 
 afforded him a pretext to violate the treaty, into 
 which force alone obliged him to enter with the 
 Irish monarch. He defended the son-in-law of 
 Donald O'Brien, prince of Thomond, against the 
 efforts of Roderic to reduce him to obedience, and 
 again solicited the aid of his English allies, to as- 
 sert the rights of his family, against the ambition 
 and pretensions of the Irish monarch. The Eng- 
 lish generals cheerfully obeyed the invitation ; and 
 Roderic, alarmed by the rumours of the formid- 
 able strength of the allied armies, declined, for the 
 present, to curb the licentiousness of the prince of 
 Thomond, or to dispute the rights of Dermod to 
 the sovereignty of Leinster, 
 
 The son of Dermod was then in the power of 
 Roderic, as an hostage for the allegiance of his fa- 
 ther. He threatened Dermod with the destruction 
 
OP IRELAND. SI 
 
 of his child, if he did not instantly return to his 
 obedience, dimiss his English allies, and ceased to 
 harass and disturb his unoffending neighbours. 
 
 Dermod defied the power of Roderic, was care- 
 less of the fate of his son, and openly avowed his 
 pretensions to the sovereignty of Ireland. The 
 head of the young Dermod was instantly struck 
 off by order of Roderic. The English continued 
 to spread through the country the wide wasting 
 calamities of a sanguinary war ; their thirst of blood 
 seemed to increase with the number of their vic- 
 tims, and their spirit of destruction with the boun- 
 tiful productions of nature, which covered the 
 country around them. At length the jealousy of 
 the British sovereign awoke, and suspended the 
 fate of this unhappy people ; and the meanest pas- 
 sion of the human mind prompted Henry to take 
 those measures which justice should have dictated. 
 
 Henry issued his edict, forbidding any future sup- 
 plies of men or of arms to be sent to Ireland, and 
 commanding all his subjects there* instantly to re- 
 turn. Strongbow immediately dispatched Raymond 
 to his sovereign, to endeavour to allay his jealousy, 
 and to impress his sovereign with the conviction, 
 that whatever they had conquered in Ireland, was 
 conquered for Henry, and that he alone was the 
 rightful possessor of all those territories which had 
 submitted to the arms of Strongbow. Raymond 
 was received wuth haughtiness and distrust by the 
 English monarch, who refused to comply with his 
 solicitations. At this period bishop Becket was 
 murdered j a circumstance which to Henry was a 
 
Sg THE HISTORY 
 
 source of bitter affliction. The king of Leinster 
 died, amidst the triumphs of his allies, despised by 
 the English, who took advantage of his treason, 
 and execrated by the Irish as an infamous and un- 
 principled exile. The death of this prince was 
 immediately followed by an almost total defection 
 of the Irish from the earl Strongbow. The earl 
 was compelled to shut himself up : cut off' from 
 supplies, and dejected in spirits, he was thus pre- 
 cipitated from the summit of victory, to the lowest 
 gradation of distress. This cheering fact flew 
 through Ireland ; and the Irish chieftains crowded 
 from all quarters, went from province to province, 
 animating the people to one bold and general ef- 
 fort against the common enemy of Irish liberty. 
 
 Laurence, archbishop of Dublin, distinguished 
 himself on this occasion by the zeal and vigour of 
 his patriotism. The sanctity of his character gave 
 weight to his representations. His appeals to the 
 insulted spirit of Irish independence were heard 
 with rapture ; and an army, composed of men de- 
 termined to assert the rights of Ireland, rose up at 
 his call. Dublin was surrounded on all sides, the 
 harbour blocked up, and Strongbow, with an army, 
 which had a few weeks back been desolating the 
 fields of Ireland, was threatened with annihilation 
 by a powerful and indignant monarch. Roderic 
 encamped his troops at Castlenock, westward of 
 Dublin. O'Rourke of Leitrim placed himself north 
 of the harbour, near Clontarf. The lord of O'Kin- 
 selagh occupied the opposite side, while the prince 
 of Thomond advanced to Kilmainham, within less 
 
OF IRELAND. BS 
 
 than a mile from the walls of the metropolis. Even 
 Laurence, the archbishop, appeared in arms, ani- 
 mating his countrymen to the defence of their li- 
 berties against the cruel and desolating invasion 
 of foreign adventurers. The English army might 
 now have paid the forfeit of the injustice and the 
 cruelty which they practised on the Irish, had the 
 latter been animated by one spirit, or directed by 
 one absolute commander. Strongbow took advan- 
 tage of jealousies and rivalsliips which existed in 
 the Irish army, and, driven by the desperation of 
 his circumstances, boldly rushed upon the besieg- 
 ing army, and succeeded in dispersing a force which 
 threatened the besieged with annihilation. So con- 
 fident was the Irish monarch of expelling from his 
 country that proud and insolent force which dared 
 to invade its shores, that he rejected with disdain 
 the overtures of Strongbow, who proposed to ac- 
 knowledge Roderic as his sovereign, provided the 
 latter would raise the siege. Nothing short of 
 Strongbow's departure from Ireland, with all his 
 forces, would appease the insulted majesty of Ire- 
 land. So humiliating a condition served but to 
 rouse from despair the brave and intrepid spirit of 
 Strongbow. He made one effort more, which suc- 
 ceeded in rescuing himself and his faithful followers 
 from the most distressing difficulties. Strongbow 
 immediately proceeded to Wexford and Waterford, 
 and devoted some time at Ferns to the exercise of 
 his sovereign authority as undisputed king of Lein- 
 ster. Here he distributed rewards among his 
 friends, and inflicted punishments on the disaffect- 
 
 VOL. I. C 
 
S4 THE HISTORY 
 
 ed. Strongbow was at length summoned to appear 
 before the British monarch, who, having conquered 
 all the difficulties with which he had to combat, 
 both from foreign and domestic enemies, was 
 alarmed at the triumphs of his EngHsh subjects in 
 Ireland. The earl obeyed. He appeared before 
 his sovereign, and justified his conduct 5 he sur- 
 rendered Dublin, with all the maritime forts and 
 towns, to Henry. Strongbow was suffered by the 
 monarch to retain all his Irish possessions, to be held 
 by the British sovereign and his heirs. O'Rourk 
 of BrefFney made a vigorous attack on Dublin, 
 which was bravely defended by Milo de Cogan, one 
 of the boldest and the most intrepid of the English 
 adventurers. O'Rourk lost his son in the attack ; 
 a source of bitter affliction to the Irish army. Those 
 extraordinary successes, by an army who were re- 
 duced to the greatest extremity, impressed the 
 people of Ireland with dreadful anticipations of that 
 force, which the English monarch had determined 
 to march into their country. The artifices adopted 
 by Henry were not less calculated to conciliate, 
 than the fame of his arms and his talents were to 
 intimidate. He affected to be incensed at the de- 
 predations committed by his English subjects on 
 the unoffending people of Ireland, and promised 
 this credulous nation, that he would inflict on their 
 oppressors the most exemplary punishment. Such 
 professions induced numbers to proffer their sub- 
 mission to Henry, and to co-operate with this artful 
 monarch in the conquest of their native land. Not 
 less auxiliary to the designs and speculations of 
 Henry were the malignant jealousies of the Irish 
 
OF IRELAND. ^^ 
 
 chieftains towards each other. Each seemed to 
 think only for his own ambition, for his own ag- 
 grandisement; all sacrificed their common country 
 to the miserable passions of envy, of jealousy, or of 
 rivalship. Henry, with his accustomed talent, 
 seized the opportunity which Irish folly afforded 
 him, and determined to invade Ireland, with such 
 a force as would ensure an easy conquest of this 
 beautiful and fertile country. He collected a fleet 
 of 240 ships, which conveyed an army consisting 
 of 400 knights and 4000 soldiers, headed by Strong- 
 bow. 
 
 William Fitzansdelm, Hugh de Lacy, and Ro- 
 bert Fitzbernard, with this powerful force, arrived 
 in Waterford, in October, 1172. The fame of this 
 celebrated expedition, the magnitude of the under- 
 taking, the well known talents of its leader, his art- 
 ful and dexterous negotiations w^ith the respective 
 Irish chieftains, the misfortunes which flowed from 
 struggles with comparatively petty adventurers, — 
 all these circumstances concurred to induce the 
 various Irish chieftains to volunteer in doing ho- 
 mage to the English monarch. The same senti- 
 ment seemed to influence the minds of all ; and we 
 are therefore told that Dermod MacCarty, prince 
 of Desmond, * resigned the city of Limerick to the 
 
 * Desmond, anciently Desmunham or south Munster, was 
 formerly a country in the province of Munster, but now a part 
 of the counties of Kerry, or Cork. Its ancient kings were the 
 M'Cartys, hereditary chiefs of Cork. After the arrival of the 
 English, it gave title to a branch of the Fitzgeralds, who were 
 afterwards attainted by Queen Elizabeth ; also to Sir Richard 
 Preston, Lord Dingwall, in Scotland ; and at present it gives 
 title to the family of Fielding, Earl of Denbigh, in England, 
 
 C 'i 
 
36 THE HISTORY 
 
 sovereignty of Henry, engaging to pay tribute, on 
 condition that he was to enjoy a certain portion of 
 territory without any further molestation or re- 
 straint. The chiefs of Munster vied with each other 
 in the alacrity of their submissions. Henry returned 
 to Wexford, and stationed garrisons at Cork, Wa- 
 terford, and Limerick. He then proceeded to 
 Dublin, and in passing through the country, the 
 Irish chieftains of Limerick appeared before the 
 English monarch, and became his tributaries. The 
 rapid progress of Henry's arms, and the defection 
 of the Irish chiefs, from the standard of their lawful 
 monarch, alarmed the Irish king. 
 
 Roderic, though abandoned by those vassal kings 
 who swore allegiance to him, and harassed by the 
 dissensions of his family and tlie factions of his peo- 
 ple, would not resign his title to the monarchy of 
 Ireland, without a great and formidable struggle. 
 He collected his faithful troops, and intrenched 
 himself on the banks of the Shannon. Hugh de 
 Lacy, and Fitzansdelm, were ordered by Henry to 
 reduce the refractory monarch to subjection. The 
 brave and powerful chiefs of Ulster still remained 
 unsubdued, and Roderic determined to surrender 
 the dignity of his country but with his life. Henry 
 left no arts unpractised to seduce the Irish chief- 
 tains from their allegiance. He dazzled the eyes of 
 the people by the splendour of his hospitality ; he 
 deceived them by the most conciliating expressions 
 of kindness ; he intoxicated the base and degraded 
 Irishman by the magnitude of his professions, and 
 consoled the afflicted and depressed spirits of a 
 
OF IRELAND, 37 
 
 subjugated people, by a perpetual round of costly 
 pleasures, of empty though splendid pageantry. 
 Such, for 600 years, has been the insidious practice 
 of England towards this devoted country ; the hos- 
 pitality of the viceroy's table, put into the scale 
 against the miserable consequences of a narrow and 
 malignant policy, which, full of jealousy and terror, 
 cramps the industry, corrupts the morals, and en- 
 courages the most vicious and unprincipled pro- 
 pensities of our nature. 
 
 It is asserted by English historians, that the Irish 
 clergy pressed forward with peculiar alacrity, to 
 make their submission to Henry ; but, for the hon- 
 our of the Irish clergy, it is very remarkable, that 
 the most celebrated prelate of Ireland at that period, 
 Gelasius, primate of Armagh, refused to attend ; 
 or, in other words, refused to sanction, by his pre- 
 sence, the usurpations of Henry. The English mo- 
 narch, it is true, found some ready instruments 
 among the Irish clergy, who prostituted their mi- 
 nistry in the service of the invader. They were a 
 small and contemptible minority ; and in the age 
 of Henry II., as well as in subsequent times, the 
 majority of the Irish clergy could not be seduced 
 by corruption, nor intimidated by terror, into a sur- 
 render of their liberties, or the rights of their coun- 
 trymen. The synod assembled at Cashel, ordered 
 that no marriages should take place within the pro- 
 hibited degrees of consanguinity ; it directed, that 
 baptism should be publicly administered, that the 
 youth should be instructed, tythes regularly paid, 
 and the land of the clergy exempted from secular 
 
fliR THE HISTORY 
 
 exactions. At this synod, Henry did not presume 
 to innovate upon the ancient discipline and usages 
 of the Irish church. The old Irish customs re- 
 mained untouched, but, with regard to the clergy, 
 some mitigation of the heavy penalties imposed on 
 them was recommended and adopted. It appears, 
 that Henry never hazarded the experiment of im- 
 posing tlie laws of England on his Irish subject 
 chieftains. The latter stipulated to become his 
 vassals and tributaries ; and Henry, on his part, 
 engaged to protect them in the administration of 
 their separate governments, according to their own 
 laws and customs. * They governed their people, 
 
 * The unwarranted contempt and malignity with which Mr 
 Hume speaks of the old Irish character, and which he so unphi- 
 losophically discovers in all his observations on the people of this 
 insulted country, cannot but excite the indignation, and wound 
 the pride of every man who has read our ancient history, or who 
 has followed the melancholy relation of Irish suffering. The an- 
 cient fame of this beautiful island, in arts as well as in arms, 
 and the cruel devastation which it suffered from those hands that 
 calumniated and slandered the memory of the people whom they 
 plundered, are recorded by authors too powerful, and too com- 
 manding of universal credit, to be set aside by a philosophic 
 sneer of contempt, or satirical sarcasm of incredulity, though 
 coming from the pen of so great and so profound an historian as 
 Mr Hume. On this subject his usual love of truth- and justice 
 deserts him ; and we behold with sorrow one of the ablest histo- 
 rians which the world has produced, carried down the stream of 
 inveterate prejudice with the humblest names, who have pre- 
 sumed to defame and falsify the character of the Irish nation. 
 Mr Hume thus writes of the ancient state of Ireland : 
 
 " The Irish, from the beginning of time, had been buried 
 in the most profound barbarism and ignorance ; and as they 
 were never conquered, or even invaded by the Romans, from 
 whom all the western world derived its civility, they continued 
 
OF IRELAND. 39 
 
 tsays Sir John Davis, by the Brehon law, they made 
 their own magistrates, they pardoned and punish- 
 ed all malefactors within their respective jurisdic- 
 tions, they made war and peace, without any foreign 
 controul or dictation ; and this they did, not only 
 in the reign of Henry IL, but in all subsequent 
 times, until the reign of Elizabeth- Soon after 
 Henry obtained possession of Dublin, he granted 
 it by charter to the inhabitants of Bristol, to be 
 
 still in the most rude state of society, and were distinguished 
 only by those vices to which human nature, not tamed by educa- 
 tion, nor restrained by laws, is for ever subject. The small 
 principalities, into which they were divided, exercised perpetual 
 rapine and violence against each other. The uncertain succes- 
 sion of their princes was a continual source of domestic convul- 
 sions. The usual title of each petty sovereign, was the murder 
 of his predecessor. Courage and force, though exercised in the 
 commission of crimes, were more honoured than any pacific vir- 
 tues ; and the most simple arts of life, even tillage and agricul- 
 ture, were almost wholly unknown among them. They had felt 
 the invasions of the Danes, and other northern people ; but these 
 inroads, which had spread barbarism in the other northern parts 
 of Europe, tended rather to improve the Irish; and the only 
 towns which were to be found in this island, had been planted 
 along the coast by the freebooters of Norway and Denmark. 
 The other inhabitants exercised pasturage in the open country, 
 sought protection from any danger in their forts and morasses, 
 and being divided by the severest animosities against each other, 
 were still more intent on the means of mutual injury, than on ex- 
 peditions for the common, or even for private interest." Thus 
 writes Mr Hume against the testimony of Bade, Camden, 
 Keating, Usher, O'Connor, and almost every name worthy of 
 our veneration. And thus does the great English historian fling 
 into the shade, the enormities of that power, which was the fruit- 
 ful parent of all those jealousies and convulsions, that rendered 
 Ireland an easy prey to its insatiable and consuming rapacity. 
 
40 THE HISTORY 
 
 held of him and his heirs, with the same liberties 
 and customs which they enjoyed at Bristol. He also 
 divided that part of Ireland which was immediately 
 subject to him, or which is generally denominated 
 within the pale, into shires and counties. He ap- 
 pointed sheriffs for counties and cities, with judges 
 itinerant; officers of justice, and of state, and all 
 the appendages of English government, and Eng- 
 lish law. He also appointed a chief governor, who 
 was to exercise the royal authority in his absence ; 
 and made such regulations as were in his mind cal- 
 culated to perpetuate his authority, and confirm 
 his conquests. The affairs of England now de- 
 manded the attention of Henry ; and the threat- 
 ened denunciations of the Roman pontiff obliged 
 him to suspend his proceedings against Ireland, 
 and to return, with all possible expedition, to the 
 protection of his English dominions. Henry was 
 thus compelled to leave the greater part of Ireland 
 unsubdued ; and those parts which submitted to 
 him, were under the government of men whose al- 
 legiance was questionable, and whose ambition and 
 avarice were insatiable. The west of Ireland, un- 
 der Roderic, the north, under O'Neil, was still un- 
 conquered. — Henry settled his confidential officers, 
 and gave to each the command of the most prin- 
 cipal places which had submitted to hirn. To Hugh 
 de Lacy, he granted the whole territory of Meath, 
 and made him governor of Dublin. He com- 
 manded forts and castles to be raised in Dublin ; 
 and granted to John de Courcy the entire province 
 
OF IRELAND. 41 
 
 of Ulster, provided he could reduce it by force of 
 arms. 
 
 Had not the English monarch been thus inter- 
 rupted in his efforts to reduce the kingdom of Ire- 
 land, the latter might have escaped the tedious and 
 lingering torture of protracted warfare. The in- 
 triguing talents of Henry would have achieved 
 what the merciless sword of the mercenary soldier 
 could scarcely effect, and prosperity would have 
 been rescued from the afflicting visitations of civil 
 war, flowing from the struggles of the rapacity of 
 a vindictive conqueror, with the indignant bravery 
 of insulted freedom. 
 
 Henry embarked at Wexford, and landed at 
 Pembrokeshire, on the feast of Easter 1173. From 
 hence he proceeded to Normandy, to meet the con- 
 vention of cardinals there, assembled by the direc- 
 tion and authority of the Pope. It is said, the 
 Roman pontiff Alexander, consented, at this con- 
 vention, to confirm the grant of Ireland by Pope 
 Adrian. 
 
 Sir John Davis observes, that Henry left not one 
 true or faithful subject behind him, more than he 
 found when he first landed. A small interval of 
 time elapsed, until the old animosities and jea- 
 lousies of the Irish chieftains broke out with their 
 accustomed fury, and, impatient of the yoke to 
 which they had submitted, manifested a disposition 
 to rebel against the authority, to which they had so 
 lately, and so reluctantly submitted. 
 
 The followers of Henry proceeded, after the de- 
 parture of their master, to make such regulations, 
 
42 THE HISTORY 
 
 and adopt such measures, as might secure the sub- 
 jection of the conquered Irish. They parcelled 
 out lands to their most attached English friends, 
 and drove the unoffending natives from the inhe- 
 ritance of their forefathers. Such measures roused 
 the indignation of Roderic, the prince of BrefFney* 
 or Leitrim. He repaired to Dublin, and insisted 
 upon a conference at Tara. This conference was 
 held ; but, as English historians relate, O'Rourk 
 endeavoured, insiduously, to ensnare the unwary 
 English general, who had nigh fallen a victim to 
 his confidence in his honour. Here it may be 
 permitted to observe, that the situation of O'Rourk, 
 the Irish chieftain, rendered him more independent 
 of the dishonourable artifices, with which he is 
 charged, than that of the English viceroy De Lacy. 
 That the cautions which historians put into the 
 mouths of De Lacy*s friends not to trust to the 
 honour of O'Rourk, were only more artful modes 
 of concealing the stratagem, which was planned 
 and executed by the English, and that an Irish 
 chieftain, from his rank, situation, and condition, 
 would be less likely to put into practice the low or 
 
 * BrefFney or Breghane, that is, the country of the Httle hills, 
 called also Hy-re Leigh, or the district of the country of the 
 king, the chiefs of which were the O'Reillys. The subordinate 
 districts of this country were each governed by their respective 
 chiefs, viz. O'Rourk, O'Brady, O'Carry, O'Sheridan, MacKur- 
 nam, and MacGaurolI, most of whom were in possession of their 
 estates at the beginning of the last century. Breffney is now 
 called the county of Cavan, in the province of Ulster, though 
 formerly it took in Leitrim, and was divided into east and west 
 Breffney. 
 
OF IRELAND. 43 
 
 the mean artifices of cowardly policy, than those 
 administrations, whose diminished forces were now 
 confined to a very small portion of Irish territory, 
 and who would leave no experiment untried by 
 which their objects could be obtained, or their 
 enemy vanquished. O'Rourk fell a victim at this 
 conference, and De Lacy was thus liberated from 
 one of his most formidable opponents. 
 
 The Irish loudly proclaimed the treachery by 
 which their favourite prince was sacrificed, and 
 vowed the most dreadful vengeance on his de- 
 stroyers. At. this period the English monarch was 
 engaged in endeavouring to suppress the formidable 
 rebellion of his son Henry in Normandy. The latter 
 was joined by the French and Scottish monarchs, 
 and threatened his royal parent with the loss of his 
 foreign dominions. Henry, with that promptitude 
 which always distinguished his character, led a 
 powerful army into France. Strongbow flew from 
 Ireland to the assistance of his master, and entrust- 
 ed its government to Raymond le Gross. Strong- 
 bow's departure was no sooner made known to the 
 Irish, than their chieftains disavowed their submis- 
 sions, and boldly hurled defiance against those of 
 the English adventurers who presumed to remain 
 in Ireland. The English army became mutinous 
 and discontented, and their commanders jealous, 
 and envious of each other. Such differences would 
 have been fatal to the English interests in Ireland, 
 were they not put an end to by the appointment of 
 Strongbow to the vice-regency of Ireland, The 
 latter, however useful an auxiliary to Henry, in his 
 
44 THE HISTORY 
 
 foreign wars, was again sent to Ireland, to pursue 
 the conquests of the British monarch in that country. 
 Raymond le Gross, being called on by the unani- 
 mous voice of the EngUsh army, was appointed 
 their general. He marched into OfFaiy. He over- 
 ran and ravaged the country, and proceeded to 
 Lismore, where he committed similar depredations. 
 Raymond having performed illustrious military ser- 
 vices, flattered himself that he might, vv^ithout pre- 
 sumption, seek the sister of the viceroy in marriage. 
 Stronsbow received the overture of Raymond with 
 coldness, and the latter, provoked and mortified, re- 
 tired abruptly into Wales. The command of the 
 English army was immediately conferred upon 
 Harvey of Mountmorris. This general led his 
 army against the insurgents in Meath, but not con- 
 sidering the force he commanded sufficiently strong, 
 he prevailed on the viceroy to lend 400 men to 
 join him. The latter, headed by Strongbovv, pro- 
 ceeded on their march from Dublin, and were over- 
 taken by O'Brien of Thomond, a valiant and in- 
 trepid Irish chieftain, who conceived the design of 
 cutting off this reinforcement. He suffered them to 
 encamp in careless security at Thurles, in the county 
 of Tipperary, and falling suddenly upon them, he 
 gave them a total overthrow. This memorable de- 
 feat was the signal for all the Irish chieftains once 
 more to re-assert their independence. Strongbow 
 retreated with precipitation to Waterford. His dis- 
 tresses obliged him to solicit the services of Ray- 
 mond, who was then in Wales, and who, flattered by 
 such an application, and such an unequivocal acknow- 
 
OF IRELAND. 
 
 45 
 
 ledgment of his military superiority, immediately 
 einbarlced for Waterford, with thirty of his relatives, 
 one hundred knights, and three hundred archers. 
 The presence of this celebrated general prevented 
 the massacre of the English who were in that city. 
 Raymond proceeded to Wexford to meet his in- 
 tended bride Basilica, the sister of the viceroy, to 
 whom he was solemnly espoused with all the pomp 
 and magnificence the country could afford. At 
 the moment the nuptial rites were celebrating, the 
 Irish monarch crossed the Shannon, entered the 
 territory of Meath, expelled the English, and laid 
 waste their settlements. Raymond le Gross, with 
 Strongbow, arrived in time to check the progress 
 of Roderic. He re-estabhshed the English set- 
 tlements in Meath, and rebuilt those forts which 
 the Irish monarch had destroyed. The spirit of 
 disaffection was again extinguished throughout the 
 English territories, and Strongbow turned his at- 
 tention to the affairs of Munster. The prince 
 of Thomond was then in possession of Limerick. 
 Raymond attacked it, and plunging into the Shan- 
 non, with singular intrepidity, the soldiers followed 
 him, and carried the city by the terror which such 
 an achievement excited in the Irish army. He 
 enriched his soldiers by plunder, and raised his 
 military fame still higher than it was at any former 
 period. A new scene now opens to the reader 
 of Irish history, which at once excites the pity 
 and contempt of every independent mind. It may 
 conciliate the tender and mild feelings of huma- 
 nity, but it must raise the indignation, and insult 
 
46 THE HISTORY 
 
 the pride of every independent Irishman. The 
 Irish monarch, fatigued with the repeated efforts 
 which he made to restore peace to his country, and 
 depressed by the perfidy of his chieftains, deter- 
 mined at length to submit to Henry, under whom 
 he might be able to hold his sovereignty, and to 
 preserve his people against the afflicting cala- 
 mities of war. It is almost impossible to look 
 back to the conduct of th e Irish monarch, on 
 this occasion, without partaking of that sensibili- 
 ty which semeed to animate his royal bosom. 
 Full of ardent and parental affection for his sub- 
 jects, he preferred even the mortification of be- 
 ing the royal vassal of Henry, to making an un- 
 profitable effort for the assertion of his sovereignty. 
 He therefore determined on treating with the Eng- 
 lish monarch himself, and not through the me- 
 dium of his generals. He sent forward his ambas- 
 sadors to England, Catholicus, archbishop of Tuam, 
 the abbot of St Brandon, and Laurence, chancel- 
 lor to Roderic. The terms of accommodation were 
 agreed upon between the two monarchs. Roderic 
 bound himself by treaty to pay an annual tribute, 
 namely, every tenth merchantable hide, and to ac- 
 knowledge the king of England as his liege lord. 
 The Irish monarch was, by the conditions of his 
 treaty with Henry, to enjoy the uncontrolled ad- 
 ministration of his kingdom ; his royal rights were 
 left inviolate ; the English laws were to be confin- 
 ed, as we have said before, to the English pale. 
 The submission of Roderic promised days of peace 
 to Ireland j of strength and of glory to England. 
 
OF IRELAND. 47 
 
 But the jealousies of Henry's generals, their am- 
 bition and their avarice, were new sources of an- 
 xiety to their king, and of distraction to his Irish 
 subjects. Raymond le Gross (one of the most dis- 
 tinguished officers in the service of Henry), was im- 
 peached by Harvey of Mountmorris, and were it 
 not that O'Brien of Thomond, the irreconcileable 
 enemy of England, had laid siege to Limerick, 
 Raymond would have been obliged to defend him- 
 self against the unjust and malicious charges of his 
 enemies. He was solicited by his persecutors to 
 lead the English army against the common enemy ; 
 he yielded, and immediately advanced against the 
 prince of Thomond, whose army he defeated. 
 O'Brien, exhausted by an unsuccessful contest, 
 submitted to become the vassal of Henry ; he pre- 
 sented his hostages, and took the oath of fealty in 
 company with Roderic the Irish king, who also 
 gave hostages as a security for his future allegiance. 
 The destructive quarrels and animosities which 
 frequently disgraced the first Irish families, again 
 gave an opportunity to Raymond le Gross to extend 
 his conquests in Munster. MacCarty, prince of 
 Desmond, was deposed by his son Cormac, and fled 
 for refuge and revenge to the English general, who 
 instantly engaged in an enterprize which promised 
 to extend his fame. He invaded the territories of 
 Desmond, and plundered them without mercy; — a 
 great portion of that part of Desmond called Kerry, 
 w^as conferred by MacCarty on Raymond for this 
 achievement. About this period (1176) the vice- 
 roy, Earl Strongbow, died. The manner of his 
 
48 THE HISTORY 
 
 death is accurately described by the pen of super- 
 stitious vengeance ; nor is it to be wondered by the 
 impartial reader, of the sad variety of suffering in- 
 flicted upon Ireland, by the arms of England, that 
 the Irish annalist should have given credit to the 
 rumours that devoted this celebrated English ad- 
 venturer to a mysterious and miserable termination 
 of his existence. The desolation and calamity with 
 which this unhappy country was visited, the degra- 
 dation with which it w^as threatened, and the sad 
 and affecting story which history was doomed to 
 record, must have naturally called up those honest 
 feelings of resentment which fill the bosoms of fal- 
 len pride and insulted honour. No wonder the per- 
 secuted Irish should look up to Heaven for its ven- 
 geance on their oppressors, and that their tortured 
 fancies should anticipate the mediation of that God 
 w^hose altars were insulted, and whose temples were 
 laid prostrate. 
 
 Raymond le Gross being informed of Strongbow's 
 death, immediately repaired to Dublin. He entrust- 
 ed to Donald O'Brien, prince of Thomond, the pro- 
 tection of Limerick. Raymond had no sooner de- 
 parted, than O'Brien declared that Limerick should 
 no longer be a nest of foreigners. In the meantime, 
 Strongbow was interred with the most solemn pomp 
 in Christ church, Dublin, and the ceremonies per- 
 formed by the celebrated prelate, Laurence O'Tooie. 
 Soon after, a council was called, and Raymond le 
 Gross unanimously elected viceroy of Ireland. This 
 election, notwithstanding the past services of Ray- 
 mond, did not meet with the approbation of Henry ; 
 
OP IRELAND. 49 
 
 he forbade the nomination, and substituted WJlliam 
 Fitzansdelm, a nobleman allied to Henry by blood. 
 John de Courcy, Robert Fitzstephen, Milo de Co- 
 gan, and Vivian, the pope's legate, accompanied 
 the viceroy to Ireland. The legate was the bearer 
 of the pope's brief, confirming Henry's title to Ire- 
 land. Raymond received the new viceroy with all 
 due respect. An assembly of the Irisli clergy was 
 convened at Waterford, at which the brief of Alex- 
 ander, and the bull of Adrian, were solemnly pro- 
 mulgated. This assembly of the clergy took place 
 in the year 1177. The administration of Fitzans- 
 delm seemed to be more directed against his pre- 
 decessors in power, than to the extension of his 
 royal master's interests. Giraldus Cambrensis says, 
 that he was sensual and corrupt, rapacious and ava- 
 ricious ; and though not formidable from the ter- 
 ror of his arms, yet full of craft, of fraud, and dis- 
 simulation. Raymond le Gross was thrown into 
 the shade, his property exchanged, and every mark 
 of indignity and insult offered to those adventurers 
 who had succeeded in making the first English es- 
 tablishment in Ireland. The north of Ireland was 
 now marked out by the English adventurers as a 
 scene of plunder and confiscation, which would af- 
 ford ample rewards to the spirit of heroic enter- 
 prise, and ample compensation for the hardships and 
 difficulties to be contended with. The cruel and 
 rapacious De Courcy selected the north as the thea- 
 tre of his military fame. He was the first to visit 
 its inhabitants with the calamities of war, and the 
 more disastrous effects of foreign intrigue, with do- 
 
 VOL. I. D 
 
"50 THE historV 
 
 mestic treachery. Astonished and confounded at 
 the horrid outrages committed by those unprovoked 
 invaders, they abandoned their habitations, and, 
 for some time, made but a feeble resistance to their 
 persecutors. At length the people collected, and 
 appeared in arms under their prince ; and in a short 
 time De Courcy was doomed to trace back his 
 sano-uinary steps with mortification, and give up 
 those places which his cruelty had desolated. Such 
 were the persecutions of De Courcy, that Vivian, 
 the pope's legate, who accompanied this English 
 leader to Ireland, and was the bearer of the bull 
 for its annexation to England, could no longer 
 restrain his indignation, and boldly stimulated the 
 Irish to fly to their arms. An Irish army was imme- 
 diately collected, and marched against De Courcy 5 
 who, depending on the discipline and experience of 
 his troops, advanced to meet the tumultuous Irish 
 forces. The northern Irish fought many severe 
 and obstinate battles, before they yielded to the 
 superior skill of the English general. In one of 
 those, Murtough O'Carrol, chieftain of Oriel, or 
 Louth, particularly distinguished himself. He at- 
 tacked De Courcy in his camp, and almost destroy- 
 ed his entire force, within his own entrenchments. 
 While John de Courcy was thus wasting the beau- 
 tiful province of Ulster with fire and sword, Milo 
 de Cogan marched into Connaught, to support the 
 rebellion of Murrough, son of Roderic O'Connor. 
 Such was the dreadful impression which these visits 
 of the English adventurers made on the Irish mind 
 
OF IRELAND. 51 
 
 that on the approach of Milo de Cogan, the inha- 
 bitants drove away the cattle, secreted their most 
 valuable effects, and reduced their country to a de- 
 sert. It was the practice of the Irish to deposite 
 provisions in their churches, where, amidst all their 
 domestic quarrels, they lay secure, as in a sanctuary. 
 To the English those consecrated temples were not 
 more sacred nor more respected than any other 
 place where treasure might be secreted — all were 
 indiscriminately destroyed. The Irish of the west 
 determined to anticipate the fury of their invaders. 
 They prostrated their churches, destroyed the pro- 
 perty they could not carry away, and left the coun- 
 try to be invaded without human sustenance or 
 shelter. This policy succeeded — the English were 
 compelled to a mortifying and disgraceful retreat. 
 They abandoned their ally, Murrough, to an igno- 
 minious fate, and regained their quarters in Dublin, 
 after an unsuccessful effort to plunder an unoffend- 
 ing people. 
 
 Nothing can so much excite the indignation of 
 an honest or feeling heart, as the insolent reflec- 
 tions of the English historians, on the miserable 
 feuds and animosities which, they say, disgraced all 
 parts of this most devoted country. " Even," say 
 they, '* the presence of the invading enemy could 
 not unite those infatuated people : it could not ob- 
 literate the impressions of domestic jealousy, and 
 family rivalship." May it not be asked, what so 
 calculated to keep alive those distracting divisions, 
 as the hope of foreign support to domestic trea- 
 chery ; what so much as the distribution of foreign 
 
 D 2 
 
52 THE HISTORY 
 
 gold, the artifices of foreign policy, the intrigues of 
 English fraud, and the insatiable ambition of Eng- 
 lish adventurers ? What treacherous or rebellious 
 child could not find an asylum in the arms of an 
 English general ? Or what bad or malignant passion 
 would not the breath of English ambition blow into 
 a flame, when such a policy extended the triumphs 
 of their arms, increased the wealth of their families, 
 and gratified the ambition of their monarch ? It is 
 not to be wondered that we should see so much 
 treachery, and so much mutual bloodshed ; that 
 father and son should draw their swords against 
 each other, and that the nobler virtues of humanity 
 should have been lost in the conflict of those malig- 
 nant passions which found protection and encou- 
 ragement in the destructive policy of England. 
 Much better had the sword annihilated every Irish 
 arm which was willing to defend the liberties of 
 the country, than to wade through centuries of a 
 lingering struggle, in which nothing is to be seen 
 but courage betrayed on one side, and ambition 
 sanguinary and insatiable on the other ; an innocent 
 and brave people contending for their families, their 
 properties, their altars, and their liberties, against 
 the unprincipled machinations of English adven- 
 turers, whose motive was plunder, whose pretext 
 was religion and social order, and whose achieve- 
 ments were marked with the bravery of the mid- 
 night robber, who exposes his life to satiate his pas- 
 sions, and estimates his heroism by the atrocity of 
 his courage, and the fearless contempt of the laws 
 of God, and civilized society. Such are the reflec- 
 
OF IRELAND. 53 
 
 tions which must occur to every mind, not rendered 
 callous by corruption, or not sacrificing his convic- 
 tion to the hired purposes of the moment at which 
 he is writing the history of his country. 
 
 The complaints against the viceroy Fitzansdelm, 
 having reached the ears of Henry, the latter re- 
 moved him from the government of Ireland. Hugh 
 de Lacy was appointed to succeed the late viceroy ; 
 an active and vigorous officer, well calculated to 
 extend the power of his master. 
 
 His administration was marked with a spirit of 
 equity, to which the Irish were unaccustomed since 
 England first invaded their shores. It atoned, in 
 some degree, for the violence and injustice of those 
 who preceded him. In this year (1178) Henry 
 constituted his son John, lord of Ireland : this 
 prince never assumed any other title. He also 
 made grants of large portions of Irish territory to 
 his principal generals. The power with which John 
 was now invested by his father, seemed to supersede 
 the treaty made by Henry with the Irish monarch, 
 and John was now what Roderic stipulated to be. 
 The adventurers to whom Henry had made large 
 grants of Irish territory, were resisted, when en- 
 deavouring to take possession of them. The pre- 
 sent possessors were unconscious of any act which 
 could justify the English monarch to expel them 
 from their properties. They therefore unanimously 
 resisted the bold and despotic order, and compelled 
 their despoilers to the surrender of claims so unjust 
 and so indefensible. The mild spirit of Hugh de 
 I^acy's administration was not very congenial to the 
 
54 THE HISTORY 
 
 feelings of his English companions in arms ; and 
 secret whispers and calumnious insinuations were 
 communicated to Henry against the fidelity and al- 
 legiance of the viceroy. Hugh de Lacy was re- 
 called ; but, on investigation, the charge against 
 his administration was found to be malicious and 
 unfounded, and Henry immediately restored him 
 to power. While Hugh de Lacy was endeavouring, 
 by the mild and efficient measures of a humane and 
 equitable system, to preserve the English power in 
 Leinster, De Courcy was desolating Ulster with 
 fire and sword. — The Irish exhibited in their bat- 
 tles with the English leaders, an heroism worthy of 
 men fighting for their liberties and properties ; and 
 under Murtough O'Carrol, reduced De Courcy and 
 his veteran troops to the most disastrous extremi- 
 ties. The English government succeeded in keep- 
 ing alive, throughout the south and west, the most 
 desperate spirit of faction among the principal Irish 
 families, and thus conquered by division with more 
 effect than by the sword. According to Henry's 
 treaty with the Irish monarch, the former was 
 bound to support him against his rebellious vassals. 
 Such a policy, however, would have been consider- 
 ed but little calculated to extend the English power ; 
 and we therefore see the opportunity warmly che- 
 rished by Henry, to widen the breach between Ro- 
 deric and his subjects, and thus take advantage of 
 divisions which must ultimately extinguish the 
 country. — About this period (1181) died Laurence 
 O'Toole, the prelate of Dublin ; a man illustrious 
 for his conscientious hatred of English oppression ; 
 
OF, IRELAND. 65 
 
 his unconquerable spirit in defence of his country ; 
 his enthusiastic attachment to her interests •, his 
 honest indignation at the calamities with which she 
 was afflicted ; and his unwearied efforts to obtain 
 justice for her wrongs, and punishment against her 
 persecutors. — ^When he was obliged by force to 
 submit to the English monarch, his sympathy for 
 the sufferings of his country did not diminish ; he 
 frequently remonstrated against the practices of his 
 English subjects, and at length appealed to the 
 council of Lateran against the persecutions of Eng- 
 land. So formidable were his representations, that 
 Henry would not suffer him to return to his native 
 land. He was succeeded in the archbishopric of 
 Dublin by an Englishman, named John Comyn ; a 
 man, it may be anticipated, remarkable for quali- 
 ties of an opposite character to the humane and 
 lamented O'Toole. While the English historians 
 feel gratification in relating those circumstances of 
 our history, calculated to humble the Irish charac- 
 ter, and while they anxiously seize the pen to paint 
 those scenes in which Irish vengeance frequently 
 gained the ascendancy over the native benignity of 
 the Irish heart — be it my office to set down those 
 anecdotes which elevate my countrymen, and re- 
 cord those characters who command the veneration 
 of posterity. It is a source of melancholy reflec- 
 tion, that a modern Irish historian * of talents is to 
 be found, and living in an age of liberahty and re- 
 finement, to echo those tales which were fabricated, 
 perhaps, by malice ; or which, if ever they had any 
 
 * Mr Leland, 
 
56 THE HISTORY 
 
 foundation in fact, may be palliated by the exas- 
 perations with which this devoted people were 
 cruelly visited. 
 
 The most determined calumniator of the Irish 
 character now came to Ireland by order of Henry, 
 as the adviser and historian to his son John, who, 
 created Lord of Ireland, was immediately to fol- 
 low. This celebrated historian of falsehood and 
 malignity, Giraldus Cambrensis, or Gerald Barry, 
 inflated with all the pride of the conqueror, and 
 the more disgusting petulance of the pedagogue,, 
 came to Ireland with the predetermined purpose 
 of mocking and insulting the misery the arms of 
 his master had inflicted. We find him constantly 
 engaged in the most irritating controversies with 
 the Irish clergy, wounding their patriotic feelings 
 by his arrogance, and insulting them by his me- 
 naces — yet this is the authority which some Irish 
 historians will follow, when writing the history of 
 the English invasion of Ireland. 
 
 Ireland was now about to be sacrificed to ano- 
 ther whim of the English monarch. He again re- 
 moved De Lacy from the government, and substi- 
 tuted Philip de Braosa, or Philip of Worcester : a 
 man of furious and vindictive temper, voracious 
 and insatiable, whose object was plunder, and whose 
 means to obtain it were fraud and violence. The 
 Irish clergy were the victims of his avarice, and 
 their churches the object of his unlimited rapacity. 
 The governor was at length obliged to surrender 
 his administration to young prince John, son of 
 the English monarch j who, b^ing knighted by his 
 
OF IRELAND. 57 
 
 father, proceeded to Ireland with a train of Nor- 
 man courtiers, and dissolute and abandoned bank- 
 rupt adventurers, who, desperate in their fortunes, 
 transported themselves to Ireland, as the last re- 
 fuge from the persecutions of their difficulties. 
 Glenvil, the celebrated lawyer, also accompanied 
 prince John. The royal retinue arrived at Water- 
 ford in the latter end of the year 1 1 85, when they 
 were received with the accustomed hospitality of 
 the Irish. The courtly and delicate companions of 
 the young prince, astonished at the foreign and war- 
 like appearance of their Irish visitors, indiscrimin- 
 ately yielded to those sentiments of contempt and 
 abhorrence which the savage would have excited. 
 They thoughtlessly practised on the Irish chieftains, 
 of whose hospitality they were partaking, the most 
 insulting indignities. Such treatment roused the 
 Irish to furious courage, and had the extraordinary 
 effect of extinguishing the voice of faction, obli- 
 terating domestic jealousies, and uniting every 
 heart and arm of the country. 
 
 The flame of national resentment spread through 
 every county, and one unanimous determination 
 prevailed, to liberate Ireland from the insolent op- 
 pressors of their rights. The English were attack- 
 ed in all their strongest positions, and the most sig- 
 nal ravage inflicted on the violators of the nation- 
 al pride of Ireland. Thus the administration of 
 this inexperienced and insolent prince had nearly 
 destroyed the hopes of England, when Henry or- 
 dered De Courcy to take into his hands the reins 
 of administration. Hugh de Lacy fell a victim 
 
58 THE HISTORY 
 
 about this period, to the knife of the assassin, who, 
 historians say, was found among his own country- 
 men ; and it may be truly said, that the wisdom of 
 his mercy did more to extend the English power 
 in Ireland, than the most determined valour of 
 Henry's best generals. De Courcy was consider- 
 ed by the British monarch best qualified to succeed 
 De Lacy. The whole country was now torn with 
 civil war ; the fury of faction facilitating the pro- 
 gress of the invader's sword. 
 
 The Irish monarch, unable and unwilling to 
 make any fuither efforts in stemming the torrent 
 which threatened to sweep away every vestige of 
 Ireland's glory, retired, in despondency and sorrow, 
 to, the solitude and protection of a convent. His 
 unnatural children triumphed over an indulgent 
 father, and the nominal sovereignty of Ireland was 
 doomed again to be disputed by the most furious 
 competition. 
 
 The viceroy endeavoured to take advantage of 
 the feuds of the Irish, and confidently and incau- 
 tiously marched his forces into Connaught. Such 
 a step had the effect of uniting the Irish chieftains 
 of the West, who assembled their forces, and com- 
 pelled the viceroy to measure back his hasty and 
 imprudent steps. De Courcy lost his most dis- 
 tinguished officers in this rash adventure. 
 
 This victory over the English, if followed up, 
 would have annihilated their power in Ireland ; but 
 the victories of the Irish were almost always the 
 sources of new divisions among themselves, and of 
 new hopes to their enemies. Party spirit destroy- 
 
OF IRELAND. 59 
 
 ed the spirit of perseverance, overthrew the opera- 
 tions of system, and rendered it impossible for the 
 most undaunted heroism to complete an achieve- 
 ment, always bravely commenced. Such was the 
 situation of Ireland when Henry died. 
 
 The character of this monarch, as far as that 
 character can be drawn from his conduct towards 
 Ireland, may be described in a very few words ; — 
 cruel, and humane, according to the expediency 
 of either to promote his speculations of conquest. 
 As the extension of his power in Ireland was the 
 grand object of his ambition, he little considered 
 the morality and integrity of the means by which 
 he was to obtain its possession. He was careless 
 about the reproaches of the humane or the just, 
 and deaf to every monitor, but that which could 
 facilitate his conquests, and minister to his avarice 
 of plunder. The cries of an unoffending and in- 
 nocent nation reached his ears in vain. He an- 
 swered those cries by the sword, or by fraud ; and 
 heard the accusation of the usurper and destroyer 
 of Irish rights without compassion, and without 
 pity, even in those parts of Ireland which submit- 
 ted to his arms. 
 
 We have seen that the English monarch practis- 
 ed towards his English subjects the same duplicity, 
 and the same cunning, which distinguishes his first 
 operations in Ireland. He deprived his English 
 colony of the administration of De Lacy, because 
 it was mild and merciful, and parental ; and he 
 substituted De Courcy, because he was cruel, and 
 vindictive, and unprincipled. The same appre- 
 
60 THE HISTORY 
 
 hensions which Henry's successors have always en- 
 tertained least Irishmen should be united, operated 
 on the mind of Henry against the union of the first 
 English settlers in Ireland. The adventurers who 
 first devoted their lives and fortunes to the con- 
 quest of Ireland, he discouraged ; and changed his 
 governors and generals, whenever he suspected they 
 had obtained the confidence of the Irish, either by 
 their courage, or their wisdom. A model of the 
 same unprincipled and varying system of politics 
 which has distinguished the English government in 
 their administration of Irish affairs for the last cen- 
 tury, may be found in the uncertain policy of Hen- 
 ry towards his English colony. 
 
 Giraldus Cambrensis, Mathew Paris, and a crowd 
 of defamers of the Irish character, labour to prove 
 that the treaty between Henry and Roderic amount- 
 ed to the conquest of Ireland ; and that when the 
 Irish monarch volunteered in becoming the tribu- 
 tary of Henry, he surrendered his Irish crown, and 
 became the subject of England. " The calumny 
 can be best replied to," says the ingenious Dr 
 Campbell, " by taking into consideration the dif- 
 ference between subjects and tributaries. A tri- 
 butary is not a subject, but a vassal who stipulates 
 to pay tribute, and perhaps do homage and swear 
 fealty to a superior power, that he may live in peace. 
 A sovereign may be tributary to a more potent so- 
 vereign, without obeying any of his ordinances ; 
 that is, he may acknowledge his own inferiority 
 by these tokens of submission, yet retain his sove- 
 reignty over his subjects, without owning any other 
 
OF IRELAND. 61 
 
 duty to his liege lord." This was precisely the case 
 of Ireland before Henry set foot in this kingdom, 
 and after he departed from it. The provincial kings 
 paid tribute to the monarch, and the subordinate 
 toparchs to the provincial kings, without any dimi- 
 nution of their jurisdiction over their respective 
 subjects. 
 
 Roderic the monarch did not submit to Henry 
 during his stay in Ireland ; but in a year or two af- 
 ter he volunteered to do homage, and swear fealty, 
 and resigned by deed the sovereignty of certain dis- 
 tricts, that he might enjoy the remainder. This is 
 placed beyond doubt by the " Finis et Concoi'dia^^ 
 that final agreement made between them at Wind- 
 sor, wherein it is expressly stipulated, that except in 
 those districts he had surrendered, the jurisdiction 
 of Roderic was to remain undiminished over the 
 rest of the island, " totam illam terram^^ and " ha- 
 hitationes terrce. liaheat subse" Thus was Roderic 
 pledged to make the vassal princes pay their tribute 
 to himself, and through his hand it was to be con- 
 veyed to Henry : so that Roderic no more ceased 
 to be monarch of Ireland, than he did to be king 
 of Connaught. To those who have read the tri- 
 umphant arguments of Mr Molyneaux, in his ines- 
 timable tract, called " The Case of Ireland," or the 
 fourth Drapier's letter, by our immortal country- 
 man Swift, little need be urged to demonstrate the 
 fallacy and folly of the assertion that Henry II. con- 
 quered the kingdom of Ireland. 
 
 We have devoted more time to the reign of Hen- 
 ry II. than such a work as the present would, per- 
 
<S2 THE HISTORY 
 
 haps, have warranted 5 but, as the circumstances 
 which crowd the reign of this monarch are, for the 
 most part, re-acted in many of the reigns which are 
 to follow, and as the policy acted upon by the first 
 English invaders of Ireland has been industriously 
 imitated by his successors, it was deemed useful 
 and instructive to detail more particularly the 
 events of a reign which opened a scene of misery 
 and distraction to Ireland, which even the lapse of 
 six hundred years has not yet terminated.* 
 
 * " Had it not been," says Sir William Temple, " for circum- 
 stances prejudicial to the increase of trade and riches in a coun- 
 try, and which seem natural, or at least, to have been ever inci- 
 dent to the government of Ireland, the native fertility of the Irish 
 soil and seas, in so many rich commodities, improved by a mul- 
 titude of people and industry, with the advantage of so many 
 excellent havens, and a situation so commodious for all foreign 
 trade, must needs have rendered the kingdom one of the richest 
 m Europe, and made a mighty increase both of strength and re- 
 venue to the Crown of England." 
 
 " Ireland," says Mr Brown, an intelligent writer in the com- 
 mencement of the last century, " is, in respect of its situation, 
 the number of its commodious harbours, and the natural wealth 
 which it produces, the fittest island to acquire riches of any in 
 the European seas. For, as by its situation, it hes the most com- 
 modious for the West Indies, so it is not only supplied by na- 
 ture with all the necessaries of life, but can, over and above, ex- 
 port large quantities to foreign countries, insomuch that had it 
 been mistress of a free trade, no nation in Europe of its extent 
 could in an equal number of years acquire greater wealth." Such 
 is the testimony of the greatest enemies, as well as the best 
 friends of Ireland, yet how abused have been the bounties of 
 God! 
 
 The friends of Ireland, and the ardent supporters of British 
 connection, credulously hoped that the year 1782 would have 
 been the commencement of an sera of peace and happiness, and 
 
OF IRELAND. 63 
 
 independence to their country, and of harmony and strength to 
 the empire : — that the two countries, united by a free constitu- 
 tion, would also be united in mutual affection and respect ; that 
 the wealth and prosperity of each would have been considered 
 the wealth and prosperity of both; that all further causes of jea- 
 lousy were removed, and that one common sentiment of sincere 
 attachment to the English constitution would have pervaded all 
 parts of the empire. 
 
 These hopes, however just and reasonable, were doomed to be 
 frustrated by the presiding genius of discord, which has perpe- 
 tually governed English counsels with regard to Ireland. The 
 confidence reposed by the Catholic in the liberality of his Prote- 
 stant fellow-citizen, the growing prosperity of the country, alarm- 
 ed the avaricious and contracted policy of the British cabinet, and 
 Ireland was again doomed to be the victim of schemes of oppres- 
 sion, and new arrangements of cunning and insincerity. 
 
 Irishmen were again to be divided, in order to be plundered 
 of their liberty, secured to them by the pledged faith of Eng- 
 land ; and the Union was to be the closing act of that bloody 
 tragedy which extinguished our freedom. Irishmen of rank and 
 property were to be seen carried dow^n the stream of British de- 
 ception, and idly and infamously administering to the views and 
 the stratagems of the English minister, conspirators against their 
 own consequence, and the degraded betrayers of the rights and 
 character of their country. The policy of Mr Pitt was not more 
 liberal than the policy of Henry IL, and the same frauds and 
 violence which were practised against Ireland in the 12th, were 
 acted over again, with equal malignity and success, in the 18th 
 century. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 RICHARD I. 
 
 The reign of Richard I. was too much devoted to 
 prosecution of the holy wars, which, at this period, 
 almost depopulated Europe ; and this monarch was 
 so distinguished as the great and illustrious leader 
 of those fanatical and destructive expeditions, we 
 are not to wonder that we find him not only re- 
 gardless of his own country, but completely indif- 
 ferent to his Irish dominions, and to that authority 
 which his brother John continued to exercise there- 
 in. 
 
 The deputies appointed to govern in Ireland, 
 were chosen by John ; and the style and title al- 
 ways assumed by the latter, was Earl of Morton and 
 Lord of Ireland. To Dublin, he gave new fran- 
 chises and increased immunities, and the same 
 scene which has wearied our eyes in the last reign, 
 presents itself again to us in the present, the build- 
 
OF IRELAND. 65 
 
 ing of churches in one part, while plunder and de- 
 vastation are making their baneful progress in ano- 
 ther — the destruction of Irish convents and monas- 
 teries, and the erection of new convents and mo- 
 nasteries, with English monks devoted to the Eng- 
 lish interests. 
 
 We find the authority of John solely confined to 
 those parts immediately possessed by the Irish. 
 Satisfied with the exercise of those safe duties of 
 raising monasteries and forts in various parts of his 
 Irish dominions, John retired to England, and en- 
 trusted his Irish administration to the younger De 
 Lacy ; an appointment which excited the jealousy 
 and resentment of the late viceroy, De Courcy. 
 This indignant English baron retired to Ulster, se- 
 parated from his countrymen, and determined to 
 confine himself to the promotion of his own person- 
 al interest and ambitious views, unaided and un- 
 supported by England. Such was the weakness of 
 the English government, that they were unable to 
 punish the rebellion of De Courcy, or restrain the 
 dangerous spirit of rivalship which, at this period, 
 distinguished the British adventurers. 
 
 A new and powerful enemy arose in the west of 
 Ireland, animated with the vindictive spirit of his 
 family, and an ardent ambition for military glory : 
 He vowed the most implacable .vengeance against 
 the English, who had desolated with fire and sword 
 the fairest and most fertile parts of Ireland, and 
 were then threatening to reduce the entire country 
 to a degrading subjection. — This formidable Irish 
 chieftain was named Cathal the bloody-handed. 
 
 VOL. I, E 
 
66 THE HISTORY 
 
 Possessed of all those qualities which could recom- 
 mend him to a brave people, they followed Cathal 
 to the field with confidence, and obeyed him with 
 alacrity. De Courcy, alarmed at the progress of 
 this furious and vindictive Irish chieftain, ordered 
 his friend and adviser, Armoric of St Laurence, to 
 inarch without delay and join his forces. Armoric 
 being obliged to pass through a part of Cathal's ter- 
 ritories, was intercepted ; and, after a furious en- 
 gagement, in which he and his troops peculiarly 
 distinguished themselves, his brave though small 
 detachment was annihilated. This partial defeat 
 was the signal for universal insurrections and confe- 
 deracies among the Irish ; and the misery of the 
 nation was peculiarly aggravated by a destructive 
 fire, which, at this period, consumed the greater 
 part of Dubhn. Cathal the bloody-handed, ani- 
 mated by the late triumph of his arms, roused the 
 surrounding chieftains to the assertion of their 
 country's rights ; and Daniel O'Brien, prince of 
 Thomond, gained an important victory over the 
 English at Thurles. 
 
 The arms of this celebrated chieftain were at 
 length repulsed, and his territories, with those of 
 the prince of Desmond, were over-run by the Eng- 
 lish, who, in their progress, practised the most bar- 
 barous cruelties. . They put out the eyes of the 
 young prince of Thomond, and tearing his brother 
 from the sanctuary in which he concealed himself, 
 they put him to a cruel and lingering death. Ca- 
 thal, the king of Connaught, took ample and im- 
 mediate vengeance on the enemies of his country. 
 
OF IRELAND. 6? 
 
 He entered Munster at the head of a powerful army, 
 ravaged the English castles, drove the English army 
 before him, and, had he followed up his victory, 
 would perhaps have expelled those adventurers 
 from Ireland. But such was not to be the Irish 
 destiny. For her, the Irish hero seemed to be born 
 in vain. The victories of a province or a county, 
 were considered by the bravest and most renown- 
 ed Irish chieftain as the victory of Ireland, and 
 the expulsion of the English from their respective 
 territories, satisfied the vengeance, and completed 
 the ambition of the Irish chiefs. Cathal, content 
 with this partial defeat of his enemies, retired to 
 his kingdom of Connaught, and thus disappointed 
 the hopes and expectations of the nation. The Eng- 
 lish had no sooner restored the castles and forts 
 which Cathal had destroyed, and repaired the in- 
 juries which his armies had inflicted on their terri- 
 tories, than they were again attacked by MacCar- 
 ty of Desmond, who drove them out of Limerick, 
 and twice baffled their efforts to recover this im- 
 portant station. Cork, the best and most consi- 
 derable port in Munster now occupied by the Eng- 
 lish, would have fallen into the hands of the Irish, 
 had it not been for the fatal jealousies which 
 existed between the rival Irish chieftains, Cathal, 
 the king of Connaught, and O'Laughlin, chief of 
 the ancient house of the northern Hi-Nial. The 
 military fame of Cathal awoke the envy of the 
 northern prince, whose pride of genealogy was in- 
 sulted by the acknowledged superiority of his ally 
 in arms. He contrived, therefore, by a secret in 
 
 e2 
 
68 THE HISTORV 
 
 trigue with MacCarty, to raise the siege of Cork, 
 and the fate of the second strongest English 
 settlement in Ireland was for the present suspend- 
 ed. At length, in want of provision, and hope- 
 less of succour, tliis brave garrison surrendered to 
 the prince of Desmond. Nothing can demonstrate 
 the miserable weakness of the English government 
 in Ireland at this period more than the feeble efforts 
 that were made to preserve the most important pla- 
 ces in the kingdom. Notwithstanding the infatuated 
 divisions which distracted the councils of the Irish 
 chieftains, the English suffered themselves to be de- 
 prived of all those conquests, which cost them so 
 much treasure in the acquisition. 
 
 Hamo de Valois was now (1197) appointed vice- 
 roy of Ireland. The English interest, since the 
 invasion, was never weaker than at this moment — 
 even the province of Leinster was with difficulty 
 maintained. Hamo had recourse to the only mea- 
 sure which he thought calculated to restore the arms 
 and strength of England. He seized the lands 
 granted to the see of Dublin ; plundered the Irish, 
 whose properties were considerable, under the pro- 
 tecting plea of necessity ; accumulated all the trea- 
 sure his rapacity could embrace. — Comyn, the 
 English archbishop, expostulated against this act 
 of usurpation, in loud and bitter lamentations ; 
 threatened the denunciations of the church, and 
 appealed to the British monarch, and the lord of 
 Ireland for redress. Comyn appealed in vain. Rich- 
 ard and John were deaf to his entreaties 5 but in 
 some years after, Hamo de Valois gave to the arch- 
 
OF IRELAND. 69 
 
 bishop some compensation for the property of which 
 he was despoiled. During this scene of disaster, Ro- 
 deric, the Irish monarch, died in the monastery of 
 Cong, where he resided for twelve years in the peace 
 and tranquiUity of a pious solitude. Were we to re- 
 gulate our opinions of the character of Roderic by 
 the estimation in which his country held him, we 
 should describe him as a great warrior, a humane and 
 tender prince, possessing all those good and amiable 
 qualities which are calculated to inspire us with re- 
 verence and affection ; but looking back to the his- 
 tory of the events which we have been relating, it 
 is not easy to discern those distinguishing character- 
 istics for which the Irish annalists have celebrated 
 him. It should be admitted, however, that great 
 allowances are to be made for the distraction of 
 mind created by the unnatural rebellion of his own 
 children, as well as by the nature of the authority 
 which the constitution of his country enabled him 
 to exercise over those provincial sovereigns whom 
 he brought out to the field with him, uncertain in 
 their allegiance, and whimsical in their support of 
 the common cause. The virtues of the monarch 
 were often sacrificed to the painful peculiarity of 
 his situation ; and during this struggle wath Eng- 
 land, we have often as much cause to commiserate 
 the distress of an amiable mind, as we have to ap- 
 plaud its undaunted spirit, and indefatigable exer- 
 tion for the independence of Ireland. The last 
 hours of his long life were somewhat cheered by 
 the reflection, that at length a hero amidst the dis- 
 tractions of his family, whose genius promised to 
 
70 THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 obliterate the disgraceful impressions of the past, 
 by the glorious achievements of the future j and the 
 Irish monarch, in his ninety-ninth year, sunk in- 
 to the grave, consoled and comforted by the hope, 
 that Cathal was destined by Providence to restore 
 the liberty and pride of his country, and to exter- 
 minate the foreign invader, who struggled to en- 
 slave it. In this year also, died the English mo- 
 narch, to whom John, the lord of Ireland, succeed- 
 ed, bringing with him to the English throne, those 
 rights over Ireland with which he had been in- 
 vested. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 The first act of the British monarch, when he 
 came to the throne, was to yield to the complaints 
 of his Irish subjects, against the oppression of his 
 viceroy, Hamo de Valois, who was amassing consi- 
 derable wealth from the plunder of the clergy and 
 laity under his immediate jurisdiction. He was 
 succeeded by Meyler Fitzhenry, natural son of 
 Henry I. and one of the most distinguished barons 
 who had originally adventured into Ireland. 
 
 Hugh de Lacy, and John de Courcy, two of the 
 most powerful of the English settlers in Ireland, 
 had for some time assumed a state of complete in- 
 dependence of the English monarch. De Courcy 
 impeached the title of John to the English crown, 
 asserted the claims of Arthur, and boldly renoun- 
 ced his allegiance to England. Philip de Burgo, 
 to whom John, when lord of Ireland, made a grant 
 of Limerick, proceeded to form a settlement in 
 
T2 THE HISTORY 
 
 Munster, which threatened the destruction of Ca- 
 thal's authority in the kingdom of Connaught. 
 
 Cathal, from whose arms and valour so much was 
 expected by the Irish, fell a victim to the intriguing 
 practices of his enemies, and the artful conspiracy 
 of Carragh O'Connor, a prince of his blood, who 
 made overtures to Philip de Burgo, and with his 
 co-operation expelled Cathal from his dominions, 
 and took possession of the royal dignity of Con- 
 naught. Such a revolution was heard with asto- 
 nishment, and Cathal fled to 0*Nial of Tyrone for 
 protection against the arms of the usurper. A con- 
 federacy was immediately formed to effect the res- 
 toration of Cathal ; and it is worthy of observation, 
 that, in this confederation, we see the English 
 lords, De Courcy and De Lacy, engaged with 
 O'Nial, to assert the claims of Cathal against the 
 usurpations of Carragh O'Connor, supported by the 
 arms of another English lord, Philip de Burgo. So 
 various and so conflicting were the interests of par- 
 ties and factions in Ireland, and so reduced the 
 English power, that Englishmen are to be seen 
 shedding the blood of Englishmen in the cause of 
 the rival chieftains of Ireland. 
 
 Battles were fought by those contending factions 
 with various success, till at length victory declared 
 in favour of the usurper, Carragh 0*Connor, and 
 Philip de Burgo. O'Nial was deposed by his sub- 
 jects, and the powers of De Burgo were greatly in- 
 creased by the triumph of his arms. He also for- 
 got his allegiance to his sovereign, and made war 
 and peace by his proper authority. He laid waste 
 
OF IRELAND. 73 
 
 the territories of Desmond, and obliged many gf 
 the neighbouring chieftains to pay him tribute. 
 
 The deposed Cathal having succeeded in sepa- 
 rating Philip de Burgo from his alliance with the 
 usurper, Carragh O'Connor, and supported by the 
 arms of the English baron, recovered his kingdom 
 of Connaught. • Cathal returned the services of 
 Philip de Burgo with the basest ingratitude ; he 
 refused to perform his promises of large and valu- 
 able accessions of territory, which he made to the 
 English baron, when pressed by adverse fortune; 
 and the latter having recourse to arms, to enforce 
 Cathal's adherence to his engagements, was obliged 
 to make a dishonourable retreat. 
 
 In the mean time the viceroy, Meyler Fitzhenry, 
 having raised a considerable force, determined to 
 reduce to subjection those English barons, who had 
 appeared in arms against his royal master. He pro- 
 ceeded first to Limerick, against De Burgo ; and 
 the sword of the viceroy was no sooner unsheathed, 
 than the king of Connaught, and O'Brien of Tho- 
 mond, immediately made him a tender of their ser- 
 vices ; prompted more by the mean desire to hum- 
 ble the common enemy, Philip de Burgo, than in- 
 timidated by the threats or the arms of Meyler 
 Fitzhenry, Limerick was besieged, and Philip de 
 Burgo, having no hopes of making an efficient re- 
 sistance, surrounded on all sides by his enemies, 
 capitulated to the viceroy. Cathal's submission to 
 the British monarch on this occasion was most im- 
 portant ; being no less than two parts of his king- 
 dom of Connaught, absolutely, and to pay one hun- 
 
-74 THE HISTURY 
 
 dred marks for the other part. The spirit of re- 
 sistance to king John, which at this period distin- 
 guished the Enghsh barons in England, animated 
 with equal zeal the bosoms of their countrymen in 
 Ireland ; they were equally indignant at his oppres- 
 sion and his cruelty. The Baron de Courcy, yield- 
 ing to the natural sincerity of his character, loudly 
 exclaimed against his sovereign. Hugh de Lacy, 
 more artful, suppressed his indignation ; and, affect- 
 ing a zealous loyalty, gave secret information of the 
 thoughtless and hasty expressions of his country- 
 man. John summoned De Courcy to appear be- 
 fore him. — De Courcy treated the summons with 
 contempt. — De Lacy was ordered by his sovereign 
 to reduce this refractory vassal to obedience. The 
 result of the various battles fought by those Eng- 
 lish barons was the submission of De Courcy, on 
 condition of obtaining a safe conduct to England. 
 A romantic and idle tale is told of the feats and 
 achievements of this celebrated English adventurer. 
 He was condemned by king John to perpetual im- 
 prisonment 5 and, as English historians relate, was 
 released from prison to enter the lists with a cham- 
 pion of Phihp, king of France, whom that monarch 
 sent to England to assert his master's claim to Nor- 
 mandy ; or, as others say, to some castle of this 
 province. The stern aspect, the enormous giant- 
 size, the notorious strength of De Courcy, are said 
 to have alarmed the French champion, who declined 
 the combat, and fled into Spain. He exhibited 
 before the English monarch extraordinary proofs 
 of bodily strength, for which he obtained his liberty. 
 
OF IRELAND. 75 
 
 and regained the possession of his extensive pro- 
 perties. John further granted to De Courcy, and 
 to his heirs, the privilege of standing covered in 
 their first audience with the king of England. Upon 
 the death of this celebrated baron, the earldom of 
 Ulster was conferred by John upon Hugh de Lacy. 
 The latter, with the viceroy, Meyler Fitzhenry, 
 were about this period called over to England to 
 defend their monarch against the increasing com- 
 binations of his enemies. In addition to the num- 
 berless embarrassments by which the British king 
 was pressed, he was also involved in a contest with 
 the pope, relative to the election of the prelate of 
 Armagh. The Irish clergy, encouraged by the 
 Roman pontiff, proceeded to elect a countryman of 
 their own, Eugene, as successor to Thomas O'Con- 
 nor, late prelate of Armagh. The king forbade 
 his Irish subjects to acknowledge Eugene as the 
 prelate, and sent forward the archdeacon of Meath 
 to take possession of the see of Armagh. This 
 contest continued a long time ; till, at length, it 
 is written, that the king, soothed by a present of 
 300 marks of silver, and 100 of gold, consented 
 that Eugene should be invested with all the rights 
 of the see. The exemplary character of Eugene, 
 his great virtues, and well-merited popularity, con- 
 tributed more particularly to establish his election, 
 than the pre-eminence of papal authority, or the 
 corruption of the English monarch. However the 
 latter may have come in aid of the prayers of the 
 nation, they cannot be considered the leading 
 
76 THE HISTORY 
 
 causes of the victory obtained over the pride and 
 passions of the British sovereign. 
 
 The Enghsh interest, in the south and west of 
 Ireland, was now (1208) considerably established 
 and secured by the active and efficient administra- 
 tion of the viceroy, Meyler Fitzhenry, and scarcely 
 a power remained in Ireland sufficiently formidable 
 to excite the reasonable apprehensions of the Bri- 
 tish monarch ; but, anxious to enjoy the opportu- 
 Eiity \yhich would enable him to raise an army in 
 England without offending his sturdy and inde- 
 pendent barons, he affected to dread the growing 
 power of the De Lacys ; and, under the pretext 
 of circumscribing their authority within reasonable 
 bounds, marched an army into Ireland. The Eng- 
 Ikh monarch arrived in Dublin, in the year 1210; 
 is?here not less than 20 Irish chieftains attended 
 to do him homage. Hugh and Walter de Lacy 
 fed to France. The Irish princes consented to 
 pay tribute to John, but refused to invest him with 
 their lands, resign their respective sovereignties, or 
 accept the English laws. They always insisted 
 upon the right of administering their own govern- 
 ment, according to the Irish laws and customs. 
 John brought with him the most celebrated law- 
 yers of England ; by whose counsel a regular code 
 cf laws was prepared and determined upon for 
 Ireland, and deposited under the king's seal, in 
 the exchequer of Dublin. The lands of Ireland, 
 iiomediateiy in possession of the British monarch, 
 were divided into counties, where sheriffs and other 
 oScers were appointed. Twelve counties were 
 
OF IRELAND. 7Y 
 
 established by John: Dublin, Meath, Kildare, 
 Argial (now called Louth), Katerlagh (now called 
 Carlow), Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford, Cork, 
 Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary. 
 
 During the three months king John remained in 
 Ireland he was, for the most part, engaged in assi- 
 milating its laws and jurisprudence to those of 
 England ; that the two countries might be go- 
 verned by the same system of legislation, as well 
 as the same monarch. 
 
 On the departure of John, the administration of 
 Ireland was given to John de Grey, first Bishop of 
 Norwich ; who first caused money to be coined of 
 the same weight with that of England ; and by 
 whose vigorous and firm regulations, the English 
 colony were able to send a large force to the as- 
 sistance of John when threatened by an invasion 
 from the king of France. It would, perhaps, be 
 more correct to attribute the undisturbed and peace- 
 able state of the English power in Ireland, to the 
 mild and conciliating policy which the English 
 councils then adopted. They found, by experience, 
 that little was to be obtained by violence ; and that 
 much had been sacrificed. John therefore ordered 
 his viceroy to treat his feodaries, or those Irish 
 chieftains who had submitted to do him homage, 
 with all respect and attention ; to protect them 
 against their rebellious vassals ; and as long as they 
 demeaned themselves with loyalty to his govern- 
 ment, to treat them with kindness and regard. 
 Perhaps, in accounting for this unusual extension of 
 royal benignity, we may be permitted to observe, 
 
78 THE HISTORY 
 
 that the patriotic and successful struggles of the 
 English barons against the unjust pretensions of 
 their monarch, may have inclined the latter to court 
 the allegiance of his Irish subjects by kind and 
 parental concessions. The history of mankind de- 
 monstrates, that the liberties of a nation only rise 
 as their governments liave been weakened and 
 humbled ; and that the people have always found 
 the surest refuge in the adversity of the monarch. 
 To protect the crown against the insolent and 
 usurping demands of aristocracy, the former has 
 had recourse to the people ; and the consequence 
 of all has been usually promoted by the alternate 
 rise and decline of monarchy, aristocracy, and de- 
 mocracy. Cathal, the prince of Connaught, was 
 thus protected by John against his vassals, and a 
 present of costly robes was delivered by the viceroy 
 to each Irish chieftain, as a mark of favour and 
 protection. Some historians have supposed, that 
 the object of the present was to seduce the Irish to 
 the wearing of English attire, and to an assimilation 
 of dress with that of the people to whom they were 
 united. John was now engaged in that disgraceful 
 and memorable transaction which stains his me- 
 mory and country ; namely, his abject submission 
 to the Pope, and his resignation of the kingdoms 
 of England and Ireland to the see of Rome. In 
 return for this act of national debasement. Pope 
 Innocent addressed a letter to the prelates and 
 princes of Ireland, commanding them, by his apos- 
 tolical mandate, to persevere in their allegiance to 
 the king and his heirs, who were now the objects 
 
OF IRELAND. 79 
 
 of his parental protection. The celebrated contest 
 between the British monarch and his barons im- 
 mediately followed these transactions; and the 
 Magna Charta, or the great charter of English 
 freedom, was signed by a reluctant king, in the 
 presence of his armed subjects, at Runnimead. 
 This sacred instrument, so deservedly the object of 
 British veneration, gave freedom only to the clergy, 
 the barons, and the gentry of England : it did not 
 abolish slavery among the great body of the people. 
 A long interval elapsed, before they enjoyed a free 
 and impartial constitution. 
 
 On this memorable occasion, Ireland, (or rather 
 the English colony in Ireland) was forgotten or un- 
 noticed, nor was any concession obtained by the 
 English barons in this country, until the commence- 
 ment of the reign of Henry HI., when we find 
 them petitioning for the removal of those grie- 
 vances, which they suffered so severely under the 
 reign of his father, and a cessation of that violence, 
 which he so wantonly practised, in the confiscation 
 and plunder of their properties, the levying exorbi- 
 tant taxes, and the practice of every mode of op- 
 pression which his avarice could suggest. 
 
 They also prayed that the queen-dowager, or the 
 king's brother, should reside in Ireland. To this 
 petition, a most gracious answer was given by 
 Henry. He declared '* That the same liberties 
 which have been granted to his subjects of England^ 
 shall be extended to his subjects in Ireland,^' Thus 
 were the rights and privileges of the English colony 
 in Ireland, or of those Irish who had submitted to 
 
80 THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 England, ascertained and confirmed. All the ad- 
 vantages of a free constitaton, were hereafter to be 
 enjoyed by the English colony, and their descend- 
 ants, in as full and as ample a manner as their 
 countrymen in England, who succeeded in their 
 glorious struggles with their king for the assertion 
 of human right, and laid tlie foundation in their 
 great charter of the future glory and splendour of 
 the English nation. — The English monarch at 
 length fell a victim to the indignation of his in- 
 sulted and injured subjects. It is said he died of 
 a broken heart, after a useless and destructive 
 struggle against the liberty of his country. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORr OF IRELAND, 
 
 HENRY III. 
 
 No event of importance took place in the first year 
 of Henry III. (1216). The acknowledged vigour 
 and ability of William Marshall, earl of Pembroke, 
 who was appointed protector during the minority 
 of Henry, prevented the recurrence of those dis- 
 tractions in the English colony, which we have 
 witnessed in the reign of John, and which were 
 nigh undermining the English interests in Ireland. 
 The celebrated Henry de Londres, who was brand- 
 ed with the name of " Burn-Bill," was appointed 
 coadjutor to GeofFry de Maurisco, in the adminis- 
 tration of Ireland. He was also made archbishop 
 of Dublin ; and in his ecclesiastical, as well as po- 
 litical character, was remarkable for his insolence 
 and tyranny. He summoned the tenants of his see 
 to produce the instruments by which they held 
 their lands ; which he no sooner received, under 
 the pretence of examining them, than, in an affect- 
 voL. I. r 
 
82 THE HISTORY 
 
 ed passion, he cast them into the fire. Hence the 
 ignominious title of Burn-Bill, which ever adhered 
 to him. 
 
 " A striking example," says Mr Leland, ** of the 
 contempt with which the rights of the subject in 
 Ireland were treated in those times, by the more 
 powerful of the neighbouring kingdom." 
 
 On the death of the earl of Pembroke, who pos- 
 sessed most extensive estates in Ireland, and whose 
 character seemed to awe into silence and submis- 
 sion, the vicious passions of the colonists, Hugh de 
 Lacy immediately laid claim to some lands held by 
 that distinguished Englishman. 
 
 The son of the earl of Pembroke proceeded to 
 Ireland, to defend his inheritance against de Lacy, 
 and both, after wasting the territories of each other, 
 and sacrificing the innocent inhabitants of Leinster 
 and Meath, terminated their idle and sanguin- 
 ary efforts by mutual concessions. In the mean 
 time new rebellions sprung up in the country of the 
 MacCartys, against whom the viceroy was obliged 
 to draw the sword. Donald O'Brien, of Thomond, 
 to defend himself against the Irish, on one side, 
 and the English colonists on the other, petitioned, 
 and obtained from Henry, a grant of the kingdom 
 of Thomond, now called Clare, to be held of the 
 English king, at a yearly rent of L.lOO, and a fine 
 of 1000 marks. 
 
 This low and humble tribute seems to be rather 
 the evidence of the homage which was to be ren- 
 dered, than of the measure of value of the county 
 conceded. Henry, at this period, also granted to 
 
OF IRELAND. 83 
 
 Richard de Burgo, the reversion of the whole king- 
 dom of Connaught, on the decease of Cathal, the 
 bloody-handed. With so little attention to justice 
 were the poor people of this country handled, from 
 one adventurer to another, to gratify* the avarice 
 of a favourite, or appease the vengeance of an 
 enemy. The death of the celebrated Cathal, gave 
 Richard de Burgo an opportunity to plead the 
 grant of his sovereign ; but the Irish would not de- 
 part from their old customs, and proceeded to elect 
 a successor. 
 
 The prince of Ulster interposed, and assisted 
 Turlough, the brother of Cathal, in the assertion 
 of his right to the crown of Connaught. The vice- 
 roy led an army into the latter kingdom ; and by 
 the triumphs of his arms, substituted the son of 
 Cathal in the sovereignty of the west. The en- 
 croachments of the colonists on the territories of 
 this prince, established by their interposition, were 
 so intolerable as to oblige him to take up arms. 
 After a desolatino: struo-o^le, he surrendered to the 
 
 * Notwithstanding the distractions with which the Irish mind 
 must have been oppressed, during this melancholy predatory war- 
 fare, it is some consolation to fin^ mention made of the great 
 learning with which some of our countrymen were then dis- 
 tinguished. We meet in our annals many names eminent for the 
 extent of their literature — among those was the celebrated Cor- 
 nelius, called Historicus ; of whom Bale and Stanihurst make 
 honourable mention. He was the great source from which future 
 historians collected the materials of their work. His Multarum 
 rerum Chronicon, is referred to by the old authors, Enghsh and 
 Scotch, with the most implicit reliance on the soundness and 
 fidelity of his statements. 
 
 F 2 • 
 
84 THE HISTORY 
 
 viceroy. Fedlira, or Phelim, the second son of 
 Cathal, succeeded his brother, and repelled, with 
 dreadful effect, the struggles of the English to sub- 
 due him. The Irish prince* had recourse to an 
 expedient, which strongly establishes the truth of 
 the complaint, that the people of this country were 
 eternally the victims of calumny : of a party inte- 
 rested in concealing the grievances under which 
 they laboured ; or, in magnifying the reasonable 
 resistance of violated right into wanton rebellion, 
 and causeless insurrection. Phelim, of Connaught, 
 
 * So true is the remark of Sir John Davis, " That the peo- 
 ple of Ireland merited far diiferent treatment from the Crown of 
 England : for," he continues, " when they were admitted to the 
 condition of subjects, they gave many signal proofs of their du- 
 tifulness and obedience ; and would gladly continue in that con- 
 dition, as long as they might be protected, and justly governed, 
 without oppression on the one hand, or impunity on the other ; 
 there being, in his opinion, no nation under the sun that did love 
 equal and indifferent justice better than the Irish, or that would 
 rest better satisfied with the execution thereof, although it were 
 against themselves ; so as they might have the protection and be- 
 nefit of the law, when upon a just cause they did desire it." — 
 " I dare affirm," says the same liberal and enlightened Enghsh- 
 man, who was Attorney-General to James I. " that for the space 
 of five years last past, there have not been found so many male- 
 factors, worthy of death, in all the six circuits of this realm, 
 (Ireland,) which is now divided into thirty-six shires at large, as 
 in one circuit of six shires, namely, the western circuit of Eng- 
 land. For the truth is, that in times of peace, the Irish are 
 more fearful to offend the law than the English, or any other na- 
 tion whatever." Is not this a good lecture to those legislators 
 who recommend the fiery decisions of martial law, in preference 
 to the sober and impartial inquiry of a constitutional tribunal, 
 Avhenevcr a disturbance exists, or a grievance is tc be reme- 
 died. 
 
OF lUELAND. 85 
 
 addressed himself to the king of England, and re- 
 presented in respectful and pathetic terms, the per- 
 secutions which his people had suffered from the 
 representative of his majesty ; that he was driven, 
 by injury, to rebellion 5 that he was the victim of 
 the avarice of his English subjects ; and that he 
 challenged his enemies to an inqniry into the truth 
 of the charges which he brought against them be- 
 fore the common parent of the colonists and the 
 native Irish. So sad and so affecting a story excit- 
 ed the astonishment of Henry, who had been list- 
 ening to exaggerated accounts of Irish treason ; to 
 whom Phelim had been represented as the head 
 and cause of an unnatural rebellion, without provo- 
 cation or injury, laying waste the territories of his 
 majesty's subjects, and exciting the people of Ire- 
 land to universal resistance. In answer to Phelim's 
 humble petition, praying an interview with the Bri- 
 tish sovereign, the latter writes a letter to the vice- 
 roy, desiring him to inquire into the statement 
 made by Phelim ; and to ascertain the real situation 
 of Ireland. " To guard against deception,** writes 
 the English monarch, '* be cautious of the channels 
 through which you shall receive your informations j 
 let them be as impartial as possible to either par- 
 ty." The result of this application by Phehm, 
 was, the peaceful settlement of the kingdom of 
 Connaught, and the satisfaction of its plundered 
 inhabitants. So easy is it for a spirit of justice to 
 tranquillize the people of any nation, that no in- 
 stance can be found in the history of Ireland, nor 
 in the history of any other country, where the hq^g 
 
86 ^ THE HISTORY 
 
 nest anxiety of the monarch, or the ruling powers, 
 to do justice to their subjects, does not excite cor- 
 responding sentiments of gratitude, loyalty, and 
 allegiance.* 
 
 The death of the son of the earl of Pembroke, 
 which took place about this period, (1231), gave 
 rise to a train of events which involved Ireland in 
 new scenes of anarchy and confusion. 
 
 Richard, the second son of that illustrious noble- 
 man, succeeded to the princely inheritance of his 
 brother; and possessed that bold and independent 
 spirit, which distinguished the life of his illustrious 
 predecessor. Such qualities incurred the suspicion, 
 and excited the fears of the king ; and every arti- 
 fice which the most malignant ingenuity could sug- 
 gest to remove so formidable an enemy, was prac- 
 tised by the insidious prelate of Winchester, who 
 was then the minister of England. Earl Richard 
 remonstrated against the insolent and violent usur- 
 pations of this minister ; and particularly expostu- 
 lated with his sovereign on the alarming increase 
 of foreigners in every part of the state ; he absents 
 
 * Notwithstanding the long continuance of tragic scenes, in a 
 land violently torn by all the horrors of anarchy and oppression, 
 it may be some relief to the mind to reflect, that strong traces 
 of erudition are to be discovered. Joannes de S. Bosco has been 
 claimed for Ireland, by Ware, Harris, and Abbe Groghegan. 
 He wrote a Treatise on the Sphere ; on the Calculation of the 
 Ecclesiastical Year ; a Breviary of Law. He died at Paris, in 
 1256, where he was long a highly-esteemed professor. Florence 
 MacFlin, chancellor of the church of Tuam, is another celebrat- 
 ed name in the Irish annals ; he was remarkable for his know- 
 ledge of canon law. 
 
OF IRELAND. 87 
 
 ed himself from parliament; and at length flew to 
 arms in defence of his country. This being an in- 
 surrection against an odious minister, rapidly ac- 
 quired strength ; and, at length, a treacherous and 
 cowardly conspiracy was formed against the spirit- 
 ed and gallant Richard. By this stratagem the 
 large estates of this English baron, in Ireland, 
 were divided among the rapacious settlers in that 
 country. A price was put on his head, and every 
 inducement held out to encourage the infidelity of 
 his followers. — He fell a victim to the treason of 
 his friends. The information of his fall, drew from 
 the king tears of the most degrading hypocrisy ; and 
 the universal sympathy in flivour of the betrayed 
 and beloved baron, extorted even from his enemies 
 the affectation of sorrow for his untimely and unwor- 
 thy fate. So great was the popular sentiment in 
 favour of his memory, that the king, in all the mean- 
 ness of hypocrisy and terror, yielded to the public 
 indignation ; and the death of this illustrioui Eng- 
 lishman, had the eflect of accomplishing what the 
 triumphs of his arms could only have achieved, 
 namely, the banishment of those foreigners which 
 had monopolized all the places of profit and confi- 
 dence under the crown, and the total annihilation of 
 that fabric, which the ambition and the obstinacy of 
 the bishop of Winchester had so lately raised. The 
 people of Ireland sympathized with the friends of 
 Kichard, earl of Pembroke, and the people of Lein- 
 ster, laying claim to the honour of being governed 
 by the family of the earl of Pembroke, mainfested 
 
88 THE HISTORY 
 
 the most ardent zeal against the murderers of their 
 prince. 
 
 Soon after the death of Richard, earl of Pem- 
 broke, Fedlim, or Phelim, prince of Connaught, 
 presented himself before his sovereign, to complain 
 of the grievances under which he and his people 
 laboured from Richard de Burgo, His complaints 
 were heard with respect, and immediately attended 
 to by the king. — Orders were issused to suppress 
 the outrages of the baron de Burgo, who was the 
 oppressor of his Irish subjects. This act of justice 
 by the English monarch is a good deal diminished 
 in value by the royal conquest whi-ch immediately 
 followed. It appears as the result of royal policy, 
 more than of royal mercy ; and discovers the arts 
 of the politician, more than the protection of the 
 sovereign. 
 
 Henry immediately summoned the prince of Con- 
 naught, in return for the protection he afforded the 
 Irish, to assist him against the king of Scotland. 
 
 We find Fedlim soon after leading his troops in- 
 to Wales, against David, and co-operating with the 
 Irish viceroy to reduce the Welsh. The deaths of 
 Richard de Burgo, Hugh de Lacy, and Geoffry de 
 Maurisco, became new sources of national distrac- 
 tion and misery. The disorders and calamities of 
 England gave opportunities to the ambition of the 
 English adventurers in Ireland ; and the native 
 Irish, amidst the contending great families, were 
 the common * victims of ambition, jealousy and 
 
 * The following observations are made by an Irish historian 
 (Mr Taaffej) who discovers in every page of his work^ an ardent 
 
OF IRELAND. 89 
 
 avarice. The reader of the scenes just related, can- 
 not suppress his smiles at the stories so gravely told 
 by the apologists of England, of the two mandates 
 which were issued by king Henry, directing that 
 the nobility, knights, freeholders, and bailiffs of the 
 several counties, should be convened, in order that 
 
 sensibility to the suflferings, and an honest anxiety for the fame 
 of his countrymen, " It is surprising the incessant din of arms 
 did not entirely banish the muses from this ill-fated island ; but 
 it seems the person of a bard was held more sacred than that of 
 a priest. The English settlers frequently plundered and mas^ 
 sacred the clergy ; while we find few or no instances of similar 
 cruelty exercised on the children of the muses. In addition to 
 the high respect entertained for their profession, ambition was 
 interested in their protection. They were, in a great measure, 
 arbiters of fame ; and the murder of one of their body would in- 
 flame the whole irritable race of poets and harpers, to consign 
 the perpetrator to the execration of posterity. Sensible that cha- 
 racter forms one speciea of power, the chief of the settlers not 
 only avoided insulting men possessed of such influence on public 
 opinion, but be kept pensioned bards to sound and extend his 
 credit : at his command they sounded the war song, inveighed 
 against his enemies, extolled his success in collecting their spoils, 
 and praised the munificence with which he shared the fruits of 
 his victories among his followera. In the book of Fermoy, there 
 remains a curious collection of such mercenary rhapsodies, com- 
 posed by Roche's bards. In those times of anarchy, they were 
 generally employed as trumpeters of war, and served, by their 
 melodious notes, and rapturous strains, to attract enthusiastic 
 youth to the standard of the chief, and to influence their ardour 
 in the day of battle." — For 600 years, the enemies of Ireland 
 have found their mercenary poets and historians to sing their 
 praises, and conceal their tyrrany ; and to the hour in which this 
 line is writing, may we see the interests and happiness of Ire- 
 land sacrificed to the mercenary poverty of some despicable ca- 
 lumniator, whose only hope of decent existence is his sycophan- 
 cy to the worst passion of an avaricious monopoly. 
 
90 THE HISTORY 
 
 the great charter should be read over in their pre- 
 sence ; and that they should be directed to adhere 
 to the laws and customs received from king John, 
 and strictly to obey them; that^the Arglo-lrish 
 barons be requested to permit Ireland to be govern- 
 ed by the laws of England ; and that peace should 
 at length be restored to that unfortunate country. 
 
 May it not be permitted us to ask, at this distant 
 period of time, how it came to pass, that the power 
 which w^as able to extinguish the efforts of those 
 barons, whenever they rebelled against the English 
 interests, was so feeble and so petitioning, when the 
 object of its interposition was the peace and happi- 
 ness of Ireland ? May it not be conjectured, with- 
 out any great stretch of sagacity, that the English 
 government connived at the extortions and the 
 plunder of the colonists, in order the more effec- 
 tually to compel the devoted inhabitants of Ireland 
 to solicit the royal interposition, in terms sufficient- 
 ly humiliating to the national pride ; and thus ob- 
 tain, by the slow and lingering torments of continu- 
 ed persecution, those advantages which could not, 
 perhaps, be won in the field ? 
 
 In this view of the subject, we shall not be sur- 
 prised when we see Henry humbly sumg for the 
 permission of his barons ; or some of the persecut- 
 ed people of Ireland petitioning, in turn, for royal 
 patents, by which they may enjoy the rights and pri- 
 vileges of English subjects. It is idle to talk of the 
 obstinate resistance of the Irish to the English laws 
 and customs, after perusing the history of national 
 suffering we have already passed through, produ- 
 
OF IRELAND. 91 
 
 ced by English ambition and avarice. It is worse 
 than idle, to express our wonder at the inflexible 
 attachment of the Irish to their old laws and cus- 
 toms, under which they experienced the blessings 
 of independence ; or to be surprised that they 
 would close their eyes and their ears to the instruc- 
 tion of their enlightened invaders, who were deso^ 
 lating their beautiful country with fire and sword. 
 
 It is said thai Henry, in order to repress the vio- 
 lence of his barons in Ireland, made the experiment 
 of sending, as his representatives, a succession of 
 Englishmen, who would have no interest to consult 
 but that of their master, and the country to which 
 they were sent. But such rapid successions always 
 produce the miseries inseparable from distracted 
 and conflicting councils j and the wisdom and vir- 
 tue of one viceroy, was counteracted by the folly or 
 the vices of his successor. 
 
 An event of high importance occurred at this 
 period (1253), which, if the circumstances of the 
 English nation had permitted, might have been at- 
 tended with the most fortunate consequences to 
 Ireland. Prince Edward, the son of the English 
 monarch, being married to the infanta of Spain, was 
 invested by his royal father with the sovereignty of 
 all that part of Ireland then under English domi- 
 nion, excepting the cities and counties of Dabhn, 
 Limerick, and Athlone ; excepting also the lands 
 of the church, on the proviso that the territories so 
 granted should never be separated from the crown, 
 but remain for ever to the kings of England. The 
 lands, therefore, which were claimed, or possessed 
 
92 THE HISTORY 
 
 by the king's subjects in Ireland, were called the 
 lands of lord Edward, and all writs ran in this 
 prince's name. Edward, from whose great talents 
 much might have been expected, had he assumed 
 the administration of Ireland, was carried down the 
 current of the day, which ran so strongly in favour 
 of the wild and adventurous expeditions of the cru- 
 sades. Ireland, in the mean time, suffered all the 
 calamities inseparable from a state of anarchy and 
 civil war. The Fitzgeralds and the MacCartys 
 desolated each other's territories, till at length the 
 family of the Geraldines were completely destroy- 
 ed, by one general engagement. 
 
 The English government were indolent or indif- 
 ferent spectators of the sanguinary scene. The 
 English monarch, as it is recorded, made no great- 
 er effort than to write to the rival combatants, 
 commanding them to suspend their animosities. 
 The miserable confusion which was created by those 
 rival factions, generated death and disease in every 
 part of Ireland. 
 
 The severity of the season aggravated the mise- 
 ries of civil war ; and the finest portion of the Bri- 
 tish dominions lay mangled and torn by the barba- 
 rity of the most rancorous feuds. In addition to 
 the inflictions under v/hich Ireland now suffered, 
 we have to enumerate the insolent exactions of the 
 papal authority, as well as of the English monarch. 
 
 Henry, whom we saw, some time back, lament- 
 ing the distraction of the kingdom of Ireland, we 
 now find co-operating with the pope in levying ex- 
 orbitant taxes on the beggary of the country — a 
 
OF IRELAND. 93 
 
 fifteenth of all the cathedral churches, and a six- 
 teenth of all the ecclesiastical revenues, as well as 
 the most intolerable taxes on the laity. Thus do 
 we see this ill-fated country, in the extremity of 
 her distress, resorted to by the English monarchy, 
 to remunerate him for the loss he sustained in his 
 foreign wars ; and while Ireland is thus writhing 
 under the miseries of English invasion, we are 
 stopped by the historians of the colonists, to re- 
 flect on the singular want of judgment evinced by 
 the Irish nation, in not embracing the laws and 
 customs of England. Ireland was, at this period, 
 as well as England, overrun with Italian ecclesias- 
 tics, who were invested with the dignities and reve- 
 nues of the church, within the territories of the 
 English powers. It Is to be observed, that the op- 
 pressive exactions of the pope, and usurpations of 
 the Italian ecclesiastics, were confined to the po- 
 pish limits of English jurisdiction, and were effec- 
 tually resisted by the native catholics. The native 
 Irish, sensible of the abuse of the pope's spiritual 
 authority, were little Inclined to pay him tribute, 
 or to submit to the Insolent impositions of his 
 foreign emissaries. 
 
 The Irish princes, who as yet retained their in- 
 dependence, scornfully rejected such encroach- 
 ments as unchristian. The evils of this ecclesiasti- 
 cal tyranny became so oppressive to the colonists, 
 that remonstrances crowded from every corner of 
 the pale to the viceroy, against so destructive a 
 practice. Thus unfortunate Ireland seemed to be 
 doomed the resting-place for every greedy adven- 
 
94 THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 turer, lay and ecclesiastical, who pleased to fatten 
 on her spoils, or plunder her of her property. 
 
 The native Irish came to a determination on this 
 occasion, that no foreigner should he admitted or 
 received into any of the Irish churches ; and it 
 should not be forgotten, that within the English 
 pale alone, do we find the Italian, or foreign cler- 
 gy, presume to obtrude themselves. It is a well 
 ascertained fact, that the native Irish clergy pre- 
 served the most uninterrupted harmony with their 
 countrymen, and that the exactions of which some 
 historians speak, in those days, were practised 
 solely by the English and Italian clergy, who had 
 no other object but the enriching themselves, and 
 the beggary of Ireland. 
 
 The native Irish exulted in the venerable an- 
 tiquity of their church. They gloried in their 
 catalogue of saints, and found consolation in the 
 piety and sanctity of their clergy. They despised 
 tlie English, as well as the Italian intruders on the 
 peace and independence of their country ; and 
 though they bowed to the spiritual, they as firmly 
 denied this temporal power, and repelled the exac- 
 tions of papal authority, with as much boldness as 
 they resisted the usurpations of the English adven- 
 turers. Such has been the religion of the Irish 
 cathoHc for eighteen hundred years, during which 
 period, we see numberless instances of the com- 
 patibility of that spiritual power of the pope, which 
 the Irish acknowledge, with the political freedom 
 of their country, and the most ardent allegiance to 
 a Protestant government. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 EDWARD I. 
 
 He who has read the history of England, 
 
 1272 ^"^ ^^^^ ^^^^ observed the wisdom and po- 
 licy of those regulations which Edward here 
 introduced and enforced, will perhaps expect that 
 the distractions of Ireland would have attracted the 
 attention of so wise a monarch ; and that some ef- 
 fort would have been made to heal those wounds, 
 from which the life blood of the most valued mem- 
 ber of the British dominions was so abundantly 
 flowing. The conquest of Wales, and of Scotland, 
 however, were, in the eyes of Edward, a more im- 
 portant concern ; and little alteration is to be found 
 in those melancholy scenes which we are about to 
 record, during the reign of one of the wisest and 
 most powerful monarchs that ever ascended the 
 English throne. The same miseries, and the same 
 -petty warfare ; the same recital of usurpations, on 
 the one hand, and resistance on the other 5 the 
 
&6 THE HISTORY 
 
 same partial and puny effort to preserve the inte- 
 rests of the colony j the same narrow and contract- 
 ed policy, which was satisfied with the temporary 
 suppression of an insurrection, and the ephemeral 
 triumph of a particular family. — All this wearying 
 round of miserable civil war is again to be witness- 
 ed during the reign of a prince, by whom Ireland 
 could have been made the most productive, as she 
 was the most beautiful portion of the British em- 
 pire. On the accession of Edward to the English 
 throne, Maurice Eitzmaurice was appointed his re- 
 presentative in Ireland. 
 
 The royal letter was received by the viceroy, 
 promising protection to his Irish subjects ; and the 
 nobility, knights, and free tenants, were called on 
 to take the oaths of allegiance to Edward. 
 
 Maurice Eitzmaurice was not long in the seat of 
 government, when a formidable insurrection broke 
 out in the most flourishing parts of Leinster, and 
 after a feeble struggle with the Irish, he was taken 
 prisoner in Ophaly, (King's county) and committed 
 to prison. The conquerors retaliated on the colo- 
 nists, the depredations committed on their own 
 territories ; and Glenviile, the successor of Eitz- 
 maurice, also experienced a singular defeat. In 
 the mean time, the north of Ireland, supported by 
 the marauders from the Scottish isles, was involved 
 in the most afflicting dissentions, and Maurice Eitz- 
 maurice, when released from prison, united with 
 the lord Theobald Butler, and invaded the terri- 
 tories of the O'Briens. The family of Eitzmaurice 
 had gained a great accession of force, by their con* 
 
OF IRELAND. 97 
 
 nection with Thomas de Clare, to whom Edward 
 made extensive grants in the country of Thomond. 
 This young nobleman was followed by a powerful 
 train of attendants. The O'Briens expostulated, 
 and the contest was at length to be terminated by 
 the sword. Thus the perpetual encroachments of 
 some English adventurer was wasting and usurping 
 the property of the natives. 
 
 O'Brien fell a victim to treachery ; but his sons, 
 who succeeded, took nK)st ample vengeance, and 
 this furious war ended in the total overthrow of the 
 family of the Geraldines 5 the O'Briens were de- 
 clared sovereigns of Thomond, and the castles and 
 forts surrendered to their generals. 
 
 De Clare appealed to Edward for protection j 
 but new distractions and commotions in the west of 
 Ireland, seemed to obliterate the remembrance of 
 De Lacy's misfortunes from the royal bosom. Ed- 
 ward issued his royal mandate to the prelates of the 
 pale, to interpose their spiritual authority, and to 
 endeavour to compose the public disorders; but 
 the impotence of such mandates can well be con- 
 ceived, when thrown into the scale against the in- 
 satiable ambition and avarice, which perpetually 
 stimulated the plunderers of the Irisli> 
 
 The miseries experienced by that people, the 
 uninterrupted persecutions with which their families 
 and properties were desolated, the unsuccessful ef- 
 forts which they made to expel the invaders of their 
 country, broke down their spirits, and reconciled 
 them to the alternative of peace, though on thje 
 condition of surrendering the ancient laws and cus- 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
98 THE KiSTORY 
 
 toms of their country. The historians of the Eng- 
 lish write, that the Irish embraced the laws, from 
 the conviction that only under such laws, and such 
 an administration, could the peace and tranquillity 
 of their country be restored, the blessings of free- 
 dom communicated, and the rights and privileges 
 of man asserted. The fact is not so ; and if this 
 calumny on the Irish nation were not refuted by 
 tiie most respected authorities, it would be contra- 
 '' •■' ' hv the observation of every man who attends 
 
 V ^ .jrking of the human heart. As well may 
 i: b r said that the Irish petitioned for the desolation 
 ^1 ^hcii properties, as the overthrow of their laws 
 and constitution. " They petitioned, it is true, 
 under the torture of the lash, but this," says Mr 
 TaafFe, " only proves their deplorable situation, 
 and not a preference of English law to the old ' es- 
 tablished and cherished laws of the countiy, under 
 which their monarchy so long and so illustriously 
 flourished." Mr Leland, after endeavouring to 
 convince his readers that the Irish solicited the 
 protection of English law, is obliged to admit the 
 general sentiment of opposition, which animated 
 that people against any innovation whatever : " Nor 
 did those of the Irish who lived most detached from 
 the English, perceive any advantage in exchanging 
 their old institutions for another system. On the 
 contrary, it was with the utmost labour and diffi- 
 culty, and the most obstinate reluctance on their 
 part, that the English law could be obtruded on 
 them, even some centuries after the present period." 
 
 The answer of Edward to the petition of the per- 
 
OF lilELAND. 99 
 
 secuted people of Ireland, is so very remarkable 
 for the hard and rigid terms on which he concedes 
 to their wishes, that if we had no other reason to 
 conclude against the degrading charge brought 
 against them, that they volunteered in surrender- 
 ing the laws and customs of their country, this in- 
 strument alone would prove that the king of Eng- 
 land was determined to make his Irish subjects pay 
 very dear indeed for vv^hat he and his generals called 
 the blessings of the English constitution. Per- 
 haps human pride can sustain no greater insult, 
 nor the human heart be more bitterly afflicted, 
 than by the promise of protection from that power, 
 who, at the moment he is making professions of 
 kindness and affection, is plundering our proper- 
 ty, degrading our country, and trampling on the 
 most honourable feelings of our nature. With the 
 sword in one hand, and his free constitution in the 
 other, it would be perhaps more than can be ex- 
 pected from the firmness of human nature to resist 
 the kind and protecting offer. With the Irish, at 
 this period, it would have been folly ; because it was 
 a choice of evils on v/hich the mind could not ba- 
 lance for a moment, distracted and divided as thev 
 were by foreign tyranny, and domestic treachery. 
 The answer of Edward is too remarkable in its 
 policy and its language, to omit it even in this 
 compendium of Irish history.* It seems to be the 
 
 * Have we not seen a similar reply to the petition of those 
 infamous and prostituted characters, who agreed to that humbling 
 and degrading measure, called " an union between England and 
 keland"— have we not had great and flattering promises of a more 
 
 g2 
 
100 THE HISTORY 
 
 artful model of subsequent concessions to Ireland ; 
 which are, in substance, " give me your liberties 
 — give me your properties at my disposal — give up 
 your country, and I will give to you in return the 
 blessings of the English constitution." 
 It thus proceeds : 
 
 *' Edward, by the grace of God, king of Eng- 
 land, lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine, to 
 our trusty and well-beloved Robert de Clifford, 
 justiciary of Ireland, greeting : 
 
 " The improvement of the state and peace of 
 our land of Ireland, signified to us by your letter, 
 gives us exceeding joy and pleasure. We entirely 
 commend your diligence in this matter, hoping, by 
 the divine assistance, that the things there begun 
 so happily by you, shall, as far as in you lieth, be 
 still further prosecuted with the greater vigour and 
 success. 
 
 " And whereas the community of Ireland hath 
 made a tender to us of eight thousand merks, 
 on condition that we grant to them the laws of 
 England, to be used in the aforesaid land, we will 
 give you to know% that in as much as the laws used 
 by the Irish are hateful to God, and having held 
 diligent conference and full deliberation with our 
 council in this matter, it seems sufficiently expe- 
 
 substantlal communication of English privileges, English capi- 
 tal, English manners, English improvements in arts and indus- 
 try ; and for these specious and intoxicating blessings, we should 
 stipulate to surrender that liberty which raised our country from 
 beggary to independence, and should again agree to rely on the 
 ))arental protection of that power, which chained down the rich 
 ^md prolilic energies of our country for 600 years. 
 
OF IRELAND. 101 
 
 dient to us and to our council, to grant to them 
 the English laws ; provided always that the general 
 consent of our people, or at least of the prelates 
 and nobles of that land, well affected to us, shall 
 uniformly concur on that behalf. We therefore 
 command you, that, having entered into treaty 
 with those Irish people, and examined diligently 
 into the wills of our commons, prelates, and nobles, 
 well affected to us, in this behalf, and having agreed 
 between you and them on the highest fine of money 
 that you can obtain, to be paid to us on this ac- 
 count — you do, with the consent of all, at least of 
 the greater and sounder part aforesaid, make such 
 a composition with the said people, on the premises, 
 as you shall judge, in your diligence, to be most ex- 
 pedient for our honour and interest ; provided, 
 however, that these people should hold in readi- 
 ness a body of good and stout footmen, amounting 
 to such a number as you shall agree upon with them, 
 for one turn only, to repair to us when we shall 
 think fit to demand them." Such is the language 
 of a king, communicating what he terms the bles- 
 sings of English law ; and such are the conditions 
 on which the tortured Irish inhabitants of the pale 
 were to obtain the protection of his majesty Ed- 
 ward the first. But such is tlie language of tyranny 
 over every conquered people ; the bayonet and 
 the sword are the forerunners of the blessings which 
 despotism dispenses ; and the sighs of a persecuted 
 nation are generally answered by hypocritical pro- 
 fessions of kindness from the hand which caused 
 them. 
 
102 THE HISTORY 
 
 Such was the influence of the petty tyrants of the 
 Irish, that they were able to intercept the rays of 
 royal mercy, however feeble in their heat ; and 
 the English ascendancy of the pale struggled with 
 their sovereign, for the perpetuity of that mono- 
 poly of despotism, from which the native Irish pe- 
 titioned to be relieved. It should be here observ- 
 ed, that the men who opposed the communication 
 of English laws to the native Irish, professed the 
 same religion and the same faith, as the unfortunate 
 people over v;hom they ruled ; that the ascendan- 
 cy here complained of was an P]nglis]i ascendancy, 
 and that the same opportunities, enjoyed by Ca- 
 tholic, as well as Protestant, would be equally 
 abused, and the same tyranny equally exercised. 
 No Irish Protestant has oppressed his countryman, 
 because he is a Catholic — no — he has oppressed 
 him because it was the policy of England to en- 
 courage and support a monopoly of power in the 
 hands of a few, and when England became Pro- 
 testant, her Irish tyrants were Protestants, as her 
 Irish tyrants were Catholics in the time of Edward, 
 'because England was Catholic. 
 
 The commons, the prelates and nobles, who 
 threw themselves between Edward and his subjects, 
 and who endeavoured to preserve the little petty 
 tyranny of monopoly, were catholics: but such is the 
 nature of man under such circumstances; the temp- 
 tation is too seducing, and the motive too strong to 
 be weighed against the remote, though certain re- 
 wards of integrity and public virtue. Two years 
 elapsed, and a second petition was presented by the 
 
OF IRELAND. 103 
 
 native Irish, and a second time resisted by the ca- 
 tholic barons, clergy and commons. The conse- 
 quence of this tantalizing policy, was the universal 
 distraction of the country, the renewal of the most 
 implacable hostilities, and a wild, barbarous, and 
 destructive civil war. 
 
 The English, adventurers, the Fitzgeralds, the 
 Burkes, the Butlers, Eustaces, and Lacys, rose on 
 the ruins which spread around them, and notwith- 
 standing the wise and benevolent remonstrances of 
 MacCarty, the deluded. natives seemed to vie with 
 each other in promoting the schemes and con- 
 federacies of their common enemy. The great and 
 important undertakings, in which the arms of Ed- 
 ward were now engaged, (1286), involved his go- 
 vernment in embarrassments, and the sufferings of 
 Ireland were no reason why an experiment to raise 
 new resources, should not there be tried : he there- 
 fore demanded of the clergy, or rather of all the 
 spiritualities within the pale, an additional fifteenth. 
 After some altercation and delay, this demand of 
 Edward was acceded to. 
 
 The distractions of Ireland were so great at this 
 period, that Edward determined to make some effort 
 to prevent their recurrence. For this purpose he 
 deputed Sir John Wogan, in 1 295, to administer the 
 affairs of Ireland, or rather of that part of Ireland 
 in possession of England. No viceroy as yet ap- 
 peared better qualified, from the mildness of L- 
 temper, his excellent understanding, and sound di.; 
 cretion, to heal the bleeding wounds of Ireland. 
 With firmness to put into execution, the well di- 
 
104 THE HISTORY OF IRELAND* 
 
 gested resolutions of parliament, he suppressed 
 those whom he could not sooth ; and we therefore 
 see much done by this nobleman to compose the 
 exhausting dissentions of the English barons with 
 each other, and of the native Irish with both. He 
 summoned parliament more frequently than usual, 
 and we find the acts of this assembly at this period, 
 more deserving of notice than those which have 
 preceded them. Various regulations were made to 
 restrain the insolence and tyranny of the barons, to 
 put a stop to their perpetual encroachments on the 
 territories of each other, and to prevent the recur- 
 rence of those exasperating practices which so fre- 
 quently drove the native Irish to rebellion* 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 EDWARD II. 
 
 A. D. The important events of this reign should 
 1308. have been to England a source of useful 
 instruction on the inevitable evils flowing from that 
 narrow and confined policy, which estimated its se- 
 curity by the distracting divisions of Irishmen, by 
 its success in running county against county, the 
 Irish within the pale against their native country- 
 men, and erecting on the ruins and weakness of 
 both parties, a disgusting and torturing English as- 
 cendancy. 
 
 The successful invasion of Edward Bruce, bro- 
 ther of the celebrated Scottish monarch, the de- 
 vastation committed by his arms, and the univer- 
 sal shock then given to the English interests in Ire- 
 land, should have taught the sister country, the ne- 
 cessity of no longer relying on the power of a fac- 
 tion to keep down the resentment of an injured and 
 insulted people. From this example, succeeding 
 
lOG THE HISTORY 
 
 rulers might have learned the wisdom of mild and 
 parental government. They might have seen that 
 the avarice of English speculators on the misfortunes 
 of the people v/as the cause of general dissatisfac- 
 tion, and that the first opportunity which may offer 
 to a nation to release itself from the persecution 
 of its enemies, will be embraced with equal ardour, 
 as the Irish received the Scottish alliance of Ed- 
 ward Bruce. 
 
 Mr Hume, who does not often sympathise with 
 the sufferings of this country, whose sensibility 
 would be more affected by the misfortunes of a royal 
 individual, than the miserable scene of distress 
 which covered the whole people of Ireland for cen- 
 turies, breaks out into the following indignant ob- 
 servation on the oppression practised by his country- 
 men on its devoted inhabitants ; " The horrible 
 and absurd oppressions which the Irish suffered 
 under the English government, made them at first 
 fly to the standard of the Scots, whom they re- 
 garded as their deliverers." Should not such an 
 example have operated as a source of instruction 
 to succeeding governments, not to be making so 
 important a member of the British empire as Ire- 
 land, the comm.on subject on which every experi- 
 ment, suggested by tyranny or by ambition, was here- 
 after to be tried ; the retreat of an odious favourite, 
 or a bankrupt lord ; the resting-place of every 
 political adventurer who would submit to be the 
 instrument of the sovereign, administering to his 
 views of folly, passion, or tyranny. In the time 
 of Edward II. we see the royal favourite, Pierce 
 
OF IIIELAND. 107 
 
 Gaveston, odious to Englishmen, appointed the re- 
 presentative of majesty in Ireland. In succeeding 
 times we shall find Ireland the grand refugium 
 feccatorum of Englishmen ; the place of refuge for 
 every bad or vicious passion, and the great scene 
 of remuneration for every public delinquent, who 
 has incurred the resentment, or merited the dis- 
 pleasure of the English nation. The vicegerent of 
 Edv/ard 11., Pierce Gaveston, had so much offended 
 the pride and independent spirit of the English 
 barons, by the insolence of his demeanour, and the 
 abuse of his royal master's partiality, that Edward 
 was obliged to yield to the general sentiment against 
 his favourite ; and, to blunt the ^digQ of public 
 vengeance, sent him to Ireland, where the services 
 of Gaveston might, in some degree, obliterate the 
 remembrance of those injuries of wliich the barons 
 of England so loudly complained. The personal 
 qualities of Gaveston were highly calculated to raise 
 great public expectations of the effects of his ad- 
 ministration 5 and in this hope the English colonists 
 were not disappointed. He displayed great vigour 
 and ability as viceroy ; he extinguished rebellion 
 the moment it raised its head, and established peace 
 and tranquillity throughout his government, as much 
 by the independent firmness of his administration, 
 as by the promptitude and triumph of his- arms. 
 The splendour of the governor threw the English 
 barons into the shade. Accustomed to dictate to 
 the viceroy, those petty lords could not brook the 
 high and supercilious demeanour of Gaveston ; and 
 arivalship of parade and ostentation between those 
 
108 THE HISTORY 
 
 lords and the viceroy, had frequently the effect of 
 protecting the people against the insolence and 
 torture of petty tyranny. 
 
 Those symptoms of discontent had just appeared, 
 when the favourite Gaveston was recalled ; and the 
 government was again entrusted, but with limited 
 powers, to Sir John Wogan, who was compelled to 
 consume his time, and that of parliament, with an 
 idle contest for precedence between the prelates of 
 Armagh and Dublin, 
 
 New wars were carried on between the lords of 
 the pale, and the native Irish ; and the Earl of 
 Ulster, whose ambition had no bounds, wantonly 
 invaded the territories of Thomond, where he suf- 
 fered a signal defeat from the Geraldines. The re- 
 sult of those sanguinary contests was the union of 
 the two families of the Geraldines and the family 
 of the Earl of Ulster, an union which promised an 
 interval of repose to the people of Ireland. A new 
 scene now opened, which brought back all the mi- 
 series and distress from which Ireland flattered her- 
 self in some degree released. The triumph of liberty 
 in Scotland roused the patrioticardour of the native 
 Irish, and the degrading contrast which their own 
 situation exhibited, when compared with the glori- 
 ous independence enjoyed by the Scottish nation, 
 prompted the bold and intrepid spirits of Ireland, 
 to emulate the conduct of the illustrious Bruce, 
 who successfully asserted the freedom of his coun- 
 trymen. They entered into correspondence with 
 the monarch of Scotland ; they solicited his pro- 
 tection in strong and pathetic language, and pro- 
 
OF IRELAND, 109 
 
 mised the universal co-operation of Ireland with 
 his invading arms. The preparations making 
 throughout Ireland for the reception of the Scot- 
 tish invader, alarmed the government of the pale 
 so much, that a deputation, composed of the Lords 
 of Ulster, Edmond Butler, and Theobald de Ver- 
 dun, was sent forward to consult with the king, his 
 prelates, and nobles, on the critical and alarming 
 situation of the English interests. We find these 
 commissioners, who had communicated with the 
 British monarch and his parliament, sent back to 
 Ireland, to lay a statement of the royal determi- 
 nation in favour of the Irish, before the principal 
 chieftains of the latter; promising redress of griev- 
 ances, cessation of persecution, and stooping to the 
 humility and meanness of soliciting the alliance of 
 those people, whom the violence of English perse- 
 cution had driven into the arms of rebellion. 
 
 Among other measures, oifensive and defensive, 
 adopted on this occasion by the Irish people, and 
 the English monarch, we find an appeal to the 
 pope, the grand arbiter of Europe, the thunder of 
 whose bulls w^ere heard with veneration in the re- 
 motest corners of the civilized world. 
 
 The pathetic and able remonstrance presented 
 by the Irish people, on this occasion, to the most 
 holy father, is the best picture which can be pre- 
 sented to posterity of the sufferings which Ireland 
 experienced from the invasion of England. It is 
 a compendium of human sorrow, ai.d of goading 
 exasperation, which no future pen could more 
 strongly delineate j which brings tears into the 
 
110 THE BIST OUT 
 
 eyes of the Irish reader, and justifies, in a loud and 
 emphatic tone, the efforts of our ancestors, who 
 struggled for their deliverance^ 
 
 The Irish chieftains, being only catholics, and 
 not having the claims on papal partiality which the 
 English monarch had, relied on the justice of their 
 cause ; and, fearless of contradiction, related the 
 story of their sufferings in such strong and glowing 
 terms, as called for the sympathy of the royal fa- 
 ther, and moved him to interpose between the per- 
 secuted people of Ireland and the British monarch. 
 Even in this abridgment of Irish history, we cannot 
 refrain from giving, at length, and without curtail- 
 ment, this interesting document of Irish grievances. 
 To the English reader, it should be a fertile source 
 of instruction ; and to the rulers of Ireland it 
 should be strong and satisfactory evidence of the 
 necessity of securing the allegiance of Irishmen by 
 services, rather than weakly endeavouring to hum- 
 ble and reduce their spirit by persecution. This 
 Irish remonstrance is an able recapitulation of Eng- 
 lish administration, from the invasion of Henry II.; 
 and is a triumphant vindication of their present re- 
 sistance to England. 
 
 " To the most holy father in Christ, lord John, 
 by the grace of God ; his devoted children, Donald 
 O'Neil, king of Ulster, and by hereditary right true 
 heir of Ireland, as also the chieftains, and nobles, 
 and the people of Ireland, recommend themselves 
 most humbly, &c. &c. 
 
 " It is extremely painful to us, that the vicious 
 detractions of slanderous Englishmen, and their in- 
 
OF IRELAND. Ill 
 
 iquitous suggestions against the defenders of our 
 rights, should exasperate your holiness against the 
 Irish nation ; but alas ! you know us only by the 
 misrepresentation of our enemies ; and you are ex- 
 posed to the danger of adopting the infamous false- 
 hoods which they propagate, without hearing any 
 thing of the detestable cruelties they have commit- 
 ted against our ancestors, and continue to commit 
 even to this day against ourselves. 
 
 *' Heaven forbid that your holiness should be thus 
 misguided ; and it is to protect our unfortunate peo- 
 ple from such a calamity, that we have resolved here 
 to give you a faithful account of the present state 
 of a kingdom we can call the melancholy remains 
 of a nation that so long groans under the tyranny 
 of the kings of England, and of the barons : some 
 of whom, though born among us, continue to prac- 
 tise the same rapine and cruelties against us, v» hich 
 their ancestors did against ours heretofore. We 
 shall speak nothing but the truth, and we hope that 
 your holiness will not delay to inflict condign pu- 
 nishment on the authors and abettors of such inhu- 
 man calamities. 
 
 *' Know, then, that our forefathers came from 
 Spain ; and our chief apostle, St Patrick, senf by 
 your predecessor pope Celestine, in the year 435, 
 did, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, most ef- 
 fectually teach us the truth of the holy Roman 
 catholic faith, and that ever since that period, our 
 kings, well instructed in the faith that w^as preach- 
 ed to them, have, in number sixty-one, without 
 mixture of foreign blood, reigned in Ireland, to 
 
112 THE HISTORY 
 
 the year 1170; and those kings were not English- 
 men, nor of any other nation but our own ; who 
 with pious liberality bestowed ample endowments 
 in lands, and many immunities on the Irish church ; 
 though in modern times our cliurches were most 
 barbarously plundered by the English, by whom 
 they are almost despoiled ; and though those our 
 kings so long and so strenuously defended against 
 the tyrants and kings of different regions, the in- 
 heritance given them by God, preserving their in- 
 nate liberty at all times inviolate, yet Adrian IV, 
 your predecessor, an Englishman more even by af- 
 fection and prejudice than by birth, blinded by that 
 affection, and the false suggestions of Henry 11. 
 king of England, under whom, and perhaps by 
 whom, St Thomas of Canterbury was murdered, 
 gave the dominions of this our kingdom, by a cer- 
 tain form of words, to that same Henry IL whom he 
 ought rather to have stripped of his own, on account 
 of the above crime — thus omitting all legal and judi- 
 cial order : and also, his national prejudices and pre- 
 dilections, blindfolding the discernment of the pon- 
 tifl) without our being guilty of any crime, without 
 any rational cause whatever, he gave us up to be 
 mangled to pieces by the teeth of the most cruel 
 and voracious of all monsters ; and if, sometimes 
 nearly flayed alive, we escape from the deadly bite 
 of those treacherous and greedy wolves, it is but 
 to descend into the miserable abysses of slavery, 
 to drag on the doleful remains of a life more ter- 
 rible than death itself, ever since those English ap- 
 peared first upon our coasts, in virtue of the above 
 
OF IRELAND. 113 
 
 surreptitious donation. They entered our territo- 
 ries under a certain specious pretext: of piety and 
 external hypocritical show of religion ; endeavour- 
 ing in the mean time, by every artifice malice could 
 suggest, to extirpate us root and branch, and with- 
 out any other right than that of strength, they have 
 so far succeeded by base and fraudulent cunning, 
 that they have forced us to quit our fair and ample 
 habitations, and paternal inheritances, and to take 
 refuge, like wild beasts, in the mountains, woods, 
 and morasses of the country ; nor can even the ca- 
 verns and dens protect us against their insatiable 
 avarice. They pursue us even into those frightful 
 abodes, endeavouring to dispossess us of the wild 
 uncultivated rocks, and arrogating to themselves the 
 property of every place on which we can stamp the 
 figure of our feet; and through the excess of the 
 most profound ignorance, impudence, arrogance, 
 or blind insanity, scarcely conceivable, they dare 
 to assert that not a single part of Ireland is ours, 
 but by right entirely their own ! 
 
 " Hence the implacable animosities and exter- 
 minating carnage which are perpetually carried on 
 between us ; hence our continual hostilities, our 
 bloody reprisals, our numberless massacres, in which, 
 since their invasion to this day, more than 50,000 
 men have perished on both sides ; not to speak of 
 those who died by famine, despair, the rigours of 
 captivity, and a thousand other disorders, which it 
 is impossible to remedy, on account of the anarchy 
 in which we live — an anarchy which, alas ! is tre- 
 mendous, not only to the state but also to the church 
 
 VOL. L H " 
 
114 THE HISTOllY 
 
 of Ireland ; the ministers of which are daily expo- 
 sed, not only to the loss of the frail and transitory 
 things of this world, but also to the loss of those 
 solid and substantial blessings which are eternal 
 and immortal. 
 
 " Let those few particulars concerning our origin, 
 and the deplorable state to which we have been re- 
 duced by the above donation of Adrian IV. suffice 
 for the present. 
 
 " We have now to inform your holiness, that 
 Henry, king of England, and the four kings his 
 successors, have violated the conditions of the pon- 
 tifical bull, by which they were empowered to in- 
 vade this kingdom ; for the said Henry promised, 
 as appears by the said bull, to extend the patrimony 
 of the church, and to pay to the apostolical see, 
 annually, one penny for each house. Now this 
 promise, both he and his successors above mention- 
 ed, and their iniquitous ministers, observed not at 
 all with regard to Ireland ; on the contrary, they 
 have entirely and intentionally eluded them, and 
 endeavoured to force the reverse. 
 
 ** As to the church lands, so far from extending 
 them, they have confined and retrenched and in- 
 vaded them on all sides ; insomuch, that some ca- 
 thedral churches have been, by open force, notori- 
 ously plundered of half their possessions : nor have 
 the persons of our clergy been more respected ; for, 
 in every part of the country, we find bishops and 
 prelates cited, arrested, and imprisoned, without 
 distinction ; and they are oppressed with such ser- 
 vile fear, by these frequent and unparalleled injuries. 
 
OF IRELAND. 115 
 
 that they have not the courage to represent to your 
 holiness, the sufferings they are so wantonly con- 
 demned to undergo. 
 
 " The English promised also to introduce a bet- 
 ter code of laws, and to enforce better morals among 
 the Irish people ; but, instead of this, they have so 
 corrupted our morals, that the holy and dove-like 
 simplicity of our nation is, on account of the flagi- 
 tious example of those reprobates, changed into 
 the malicious cunning of the serpent. 
 
 " We had a written code of laws, according to 
 which our nation was governed hitherto : they have 
 deprived us of those laws, and of every law, except 
 one, which it is impossible to wrest from us ; and, 
 for the purpose of exterminating our people, they 
 have established other iniquitous laws, by which in- 
 justice and inhumanity are combined for our des- 
 truction, — some of which we here insert for your 
 inspection, as being so many fundamental rules of 
 English jurisprudence, established in this kingdom.'* 
 
 (The statement of the Irish then sets forth the 
 laws, by which the lives, and properties, and feel- 
 ings of their country, were sacrificed to the rapa- 
 cious and cruel ascendancy of England. It then 
 goes on in the following strong and emphatic lan- 
 guage :— ) 
 
 " All hope of peace between us is therefore 
 completely destroyed ; for such is their pride, such 
 their excessive lust of dominion, such our ardent 
 ambition to shake off this insupportable yoke, and 
 recover the inheritance which they have so unjustly 
 usurped, that as there never was, so there never 
 
 H 2 
 
116 THE HISTORY 
 
 will be, any sincere coalition between them and us; 
 nor is it possible there should, in this life ; for we 
 entertain a certain natural enmity against each 
 other, flowing from mutual malignity, descending 
 by inheritance from father to son, and spreading 
 from generation to generation. Let no person won- 
 der, then, if v;e endeavour to preserve our lives and 
 defend our liberties as well as we can, against those 
 cruel tyrants. So far from thinking it unlawful, 
 we hold it to be a meritorious act ; nor can we be 
 accused of perjury or rebelHon, since neither our 
 fathers nor we did^, at any sime, bind ourselves by 
 an oath of allegiance, to their fathers or to them ; 
 and therefore, without the least remorse of con- 
 science, while breath remains, we will attack them 
 in defence of our just rights ; and never lay down 
 our arms until we force them to desist. Besides, 
 we are fully satisfied to prove, in a judicial manner, 
 before twelve or more bishops, the facts which we 
 have stated, and the grievances which we have 
 complained of; not like these English, who, in 
 time of prosperity, discontinue all legal ordinances, 
 and, if they enjoyed prosperity at present, would 
 not recur to Rome, as they do now ; but would 
 crush, with their overbearing and tyrannical haugh- 
 tiness, all the surrounding nations, despising every 
 law, human and divine. 
 
 ** Thereupon, on account of all those injuries, 
 and a thousand others which human wit cannot 
 easily comprehend ^ and on account of the kings of 
 England, and their wicked ministers, who, instead 
 of governing us, as they are bound to do, with jus- 
 
OF IRELAND. 117 
 
 tice and moderation, have wickedly endeavoured to 
 exterminate us off the face of the earth ; and to 
 shake off their detestable yok^and recover our native 
 liberties, which we lost by their means, we are forced 
 to carry on an exterminating war, choosing, in de- 
 fence of our liberties and lives, rather to rise like 
 men, and expose our persons bravely to all the 
 dangers of war, than any longer to bear like women 
 those atrocious and detestable injuries; and, in 
 order to obtain our interest the more speedily and 
 consistently, we invite the gallant Edward Bruce ; 
 to whom, being descended from our most noble an- 
 cestors, we transfer, as we justly may, our right of 
 royal dominion, unanimously declaring him cur 
 king, by common consent, who, in our opinion, and 
 the opinion of most men, is as just, prudent, and 
 pious, as he is powerful and courageous ; who will 
 do justice to all classes of people." 
 
 The pope had strong and influential reasons for 
 his partiality to England, which did not exist in fa- 
 vour of Ireland. The English allow^ed his holiness 
 both temporal and spiritual power — the Irish confined 
 him to spiritual power. This accounts, in no small 
 degree, for the papal partiality in favour of the 
 former. A bull of excommunication was published 
 some time afterwards, in which Robert and Edward 
 Bruce are mentioned by name. 
 
 The thunders of the Vatican, however, were but 
 a small impediment to the Scottish chief. Lord 
 Edward Bruce appeared on the north-eastern coast 
 of Ireland, on the 25th of May, 1S15, with a fleet 
 of 300 sail, carrying GOOO men ; with this force 
 
118 THE HISTORY 
 
 he laid waste the English settlements in the north 
 of Ireland, Dundalk and Atherdee opened their 
 gates. 
 
 The west and south hailed their deliverer with 
 enthusiasm, and flocked to his standard, animated 
 with the hope that the hour had arrived when the 
 wrongs of their country would be redressed. The 
 disunion of the English lords facilitated the pro- 
 gress of the enemy ; and the artifices of Bruce, 
 practised with success on the ambition of Fedlim 
 O'Connor, the king of Connaught, detached a 
 large and powerful force from the ranks of his 
 enemies. 
 
 Fedlim O'Connor is deposed by his brother Ro* 
 deric ; and the former, aided by English auxilia- 
 ries, recovers his throne, and, contrary to his solemn 
 engagements, joins the forces of the Scotch invader, 
 Edward Bruce. O'Brien of Thomond, the chief- 
 tains of Munster and Meath, declare for Bruce ; 
 the clergy proclaim him as the deliverer of Ireland 
 from the tyranny of England ; and the coronation 
 of Edward Bruce at Dundalk, gave confidence to 
 the timid, and increased boldness to the friends of 
 Irish freedom. The illustrious Robert Bruce came 
 over to Ireland with a large force, to confirm the 
 pretensions of his brother to its sovereignty ; and 
 though opposed by the most unprecedented dearth 
 of provisions, took many of the strongest places in 
 Ulster, and laid waste the country through which 
 he passed. 
 
 The fears of the colony at length began to rouse 
 them from their lethargy j and the danger of being 
 
OF IRELAND. 119 
 
 expelled by the Scotch invaders from those great 
 and princely estates which they had purchased with 
 their blood, united the English lords in one com- 
 mon sentiment, and determined them to make one 
 general effort against this formidable enemy. On 
 this occasion the most distinguished English barons 
 received new titles and new honours from the hands 
 of the British monarch. John Fitzthomas, baron of 
 Ophaly, was created Earl of Kildare ; Lord Edmund 
 Butler received the title of Earl of Carrick. An 
 army was sent by the colony into Connaught, against 
 Fedlim O'Connor, who laid waste the territories of 
 a number of English barons surrounding his king- 
 dom, and threatened an universal annihilation of 
 the English name, had it not been for the battle of 
 Athunree, in which the English put forth all their 
 strength, and gained a most decisive victory. Fed- 
 lim O'Connor fell on the field of battle, with eight 
 thousand of his troops. In the mean time, Bruce 
 proceeded in his destructive progress through the 
 north, and met with no obstacle to his ambition, 
 until he arrived at the walls of the metropolis. 
 Here the Scottish chief met with a resistance that 
 compelled him to march into Kildare, which he de- 
 solated with all the cruelty of a disappointed and 
 baffled general. The fury of Bruce, and the ha- 
 voc committed by his army on the property of the 
 English colony, united those barons whom a more 
 artful policy might have divided, and rendered tri- 
 butary to his purposes. The miserably impover- 
 ished state of the country at this period, proved 
 more formidable to Bruce than the sword of his 
 
120 THE HISTORY 
 
 enemies. It is related, that the famine was so 
 dreadful, that the carcasses of the dead soldiers were 
 the only sustenance of the living. Bruce, how- 
 ever, after all his losses from the visitation of Pro- 
 vidence, made a desperate effort to maintain his 
 conquest. He met the English near Dundalk ; the 
 conflict was violent, and sustained on each side with 
 equal bravery ; but at length victory declared for 
 the English general. — Edward was slain in this des- 
 perate engagement ; and thus terminated an expe- 
 dition, which promised in its commencem.ent a 
 speedy deliverance from the English power, and 
 which, at the end of three years, left her an ob- 
 ject of pity and wretchedness to surrounding na-» 
 tions. 
 
 The miseries of the people were greatly aggra- 
 vated at this period, (1318,) by the different modes 
 of jurisdiction that governed the native and the co- 
 lonist. The calamitous effects which flowed to the 
 governors as w^ell as the governed, demonstrated 
 the fatuity of such a policy. To murder an Irish" 
 man was punishable only by fine ; the murder of an 
 Englishman was a capital offence. The English- 
 man who plundered his neighbour was condemned 
 to death ; the Irishman who committed the same 
 crime was often handed over to his Brehon, or Irish 
 judge, who had it in his power to compound with 
 the offender ; an indulgence which, it is related, 
 seduced numbers of disorderly Englishmen to re- 
 nounce their name and nation. This wretched 
 policy gave unlimited reins to the vengeance of an 
 enemy, and exposed society to all the horrors of 
 
OF IRELAND. 
 
 121 
 
 civil war and anarchy. The worst passions found 
 protection in the law, and the weak and innocent 
 fell victims to the strong and the guilty. The 
 partial administration of justice, the corruption of 
 the judges, the depraved state of the public mind, 
 were evils sufficiently great to impoverish the poli- 
 tical body ; but the absurd and cruel practice of 
 quartering the soldiers on the miserable inhabi- 
 tants, and exposing them to the insatiable exac- 
 tions of an unbridled soldiery, filled up the cup of 
 Irish suffering, and presented to the eye a universal 
 scene of anarchy, rapine, and massacre. The con- 
 sequence of this baneful practice was, that the Eng- 
 lish freeholders, rather than endure such perpetual 
 torture, fled to the country of the native Irish, 
 learned their language and their manners, and were 
 undistinguished, in the course of time, from the 
 native inhabitants. Among those of the English 
 barons who imposed those arbitrary exactions on 
 the unfortunate people, was Maurice Fitzthomas of 
 Desmond ; w4io, it is said, to preserve the power he 
 had usurped, (having expelled ail the EngHsh set- 
 tlers from his immense estates, which were soon 
 occupied by his Irish followers,) he became an Irish 
 chieftain, and only acknowledged those laws which 
 secured him undiminished or unlimited power over 
 his tenantry. The English and Irish soon united 
 into one mass, and became one people, united a- 
 gainst English lav/, and English connection. Such 
 was the scene which Ireland exhibited when Ed- 
 ward III. came to the English throne. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 EDWARD III. 
 
 A.D. Xhe miserable situation to which Ireland 
 *^^^' was reduced by the Scottish invasion, which 
 let loose the violent and furious passions of a 
 people unrestrained by law, and uncontrolled by 
 a settled and impartial system of jurisprudence, 
 would incline us to suppose that the barbarities and 
 atrocities committed by the colonists on the na- 
 tives, were rather the offspring of particular circum- 
 stances, and peculiar only to that country in which 
 such circumstances existed, than a miniature of the 
 universal anarchy which the British empire then 
 exhibitedr* 
 
 Mr Hume, when describing the manners of the 
 English people in the reign of Edward 11. writes 
 thus : '* The estate of an English baron was mana- 
 ged by his bailiffs, and cultivated by his villains. 
 Its produce was consumed in rustic hospitality by 
 the baron and his officers. A number of idle re- 
 
THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 123 
 
 tainers, ready for any mischief or disorder, were 
 maintained by him ; all who lived upon his estate 
 were absolutely at his disposal ; and instead of ap- 
 plying to courts of justice, he usually sought re- 
 dress by open force and violence. The great no- 
 bility were a kind of independent potentates, who, 
 if they submitted to any regulations at all, were 
 less governed by the municipal law than by a rude 
 species of the law of nations.'* 
 
 How the historian who, in the impartial spirit of 
 history, gives such a description of the state of so- 
 ciety among his own countrymen, in the reign of 
 Edward II. can be seduced to designate the Irish 
 as barbarians, whose manners and customs were ex- 
 actly similar, can only be accounted for by that 
 determined spirit of hostility which Mr Hume al- 
 ways manifests against the Irish nation. It is not 
 surprising, that a nation like Ireland, which has 
 been the common prey of foreign invasion, of the 
 Danes, the English, and the Scotch, should con- 
 tain within its bosom all the pernicious materials of 
 intestine warfare and distraction — that an English 
 party and a Scotch party should be found to fly to 
 arms in the hour of invasion, and that a system of 
 government which put the great mass of the peo-' 
 pie out of the protection of the law, should have 
 generated all those miserable scenes which perpe- 
 tually present themselves. 
 
 In England, we find from Mr Hume, that the 
 strong arm of the sovereign could not restrain the 
 barbarous tyranny of the English baron. How then 
 could it be expected that the feeble orders of the 
 
124 THE HISTORY 
 
 royal deputy should have silenced the clamours of 
 faction, repressed the violence of the petty lord, 
 or introduced a spirit of order or civilization into 
 the great political body of the Irish people ? 
 
 Amidst the distractions which disfigured the fair 
 face of Ireland at this melancholy aera of her de- 
 pression, we are relieved in some degree by the 
 philanthropic efforts made by a few prelates to 
 check the vices and disorders of the community. 
 Two archbishops laboured to establish a university 
 in Dubhn, not only for the study of theology, but 
 that of the civil and canon law, then a fashionable 
 part of European literature. Archbishop Bricknor 
 distinguished himself on this occasion by the libe- 
 rality of his patronage, and Edward III. enlarged 
 the original endowment, and granted his protec- 
 tion to the students of the new seminary, some 
 years after its first establishment ; but the dawn of 
 public instruction was greatly clouded by the sad 
 examples of fanaticism which some of the ecclesi- 
 astical colonists exhibited at this period. Charges 
 of heresy were brought by private resentment and 
 vengeance against the most distinguished families, 
 and the punishment of the church made instrumen- 
 tal to the gratification of malice and ambition, 
 Richard Ledred, bishop of Ossory, a man of vio- 
 lent and vindictive passions, encouraged the per- 
 secutions of the fanatic ; and charges of heresy 
 were brought against the magistrate as well as the 
 peasant, who in many instances were destroyed by 
 tiie faggot, or withered away in a prison. The 
 bishop of Ossory himself became a victim in turn, 
 
OF IRELAND. 125 
 
 and was obliged to fly the country which he had 
 visited with the fury of his superstition. 
 
 We do not find that the accession of Edward III. 
 to the British throne, contributed in any degree to 
 restrain the violence of faction, or lo prevent each 
 English baron from pursuing, as usual, his own 
 personal schemes of ambition. He despised the 
 authority of the deputy, and treated with equal 
 contempt the royal mandate of Edward, who wrote 
 letters to the principal barons, enjoining them, on 
 their allegiance, to pay due obedience to the chief 
 governor, Thomas Fitzjohn, Earl of Kildare. 
 
 Private wars continued to be Waged as usual; 
 and the calling a name, or offering a personal in- 
 sult, involved the Irish chiefs, with their respec- 
 tive followers, in the most sanguinary contests. 
 Hence the destructive battles of Maurice of Des- 
 mond with John de la Poer. The king command- 
 ed them to lay down their arms ; and at length the 
 apprehension that the native Irish would take ad- 
 vantage of their divisions, put an end to hostilities 
 which desolated the English territories. 
 
 Another effort is now made by the native Irish 
 to enjoy the shelter of British law, and no longer 
 to be the victims of the ambition and avarice of the 
 contending barons, who were perpetually oppress- 
 ing the Irish, and goading them to insurrection, 
 in order to plunder them of their properties. The 
 Irish petition for the privileges of English subjects, 
 and their petition is insolently rejected by an An- 
 glo-Irish parliament, whose monoply could only be 
 preserved by the persecution of the people. The 
 
126 THE HISTORY 
 
 consequence of such contumelious treatment was 
 a most formidable insurrection of the Irish ; and 
 so formidable was this Irish insurrection^ that the 
 power which could not be conquered by the 
 sword, they practised on by bribery. Maurice of 
 Desmond was invited by the English to join their 
 forces, and promises of the most alluring kind were 
 held out to this Irish prince, if he deserted the 
 ranks of his countrymen. They created him Earl 
 of Desmond, and bestowed new territories on him. 
 
 The Irish, with the celebrated O'Brien at their 
 head, continued to harass the English settlement, 
 and almost threatened it with annihilation. Sir 
 Anthony Lacy was appointed to the government of 
 the colony. He determined, by a prosecution of 
 the war, to reduce the Irish, as well as to discon- 
 cert that formidable confederacy formed by the 
 English barons to circumscribe his power- He sum- 
 moned a parliament to meet him at Dublin : his 
 order was neglected ; — he seized the Earl of Des- 
 mond, Mandeville, Walter de Burgo, William and 
 Walter Birmingham. 
 
 It was about this period (1330), that Edward 
 III. declared his intention of visiting Ireland. He 
 issued some ordinances for the better regulation of 
 the kingdom, and the more impartial administra- 
 tion of justice : he resumed all the Irish grants 
 made during the reign of his mother, and her fa- 
 vourite, Mortimer. 
 
 Notwithstanding the magnitude of the prepa- 
 rations which Edward made for his visit to Ire- 
 laud, it soon appeared that his real object was the 
 
OF IRELAND. 127 
 
 invasion of Scotland, and, imitating the example 
 of his illustrious grandfather, to recover the do- 
 minion of that important kingdom. Ireland was 
 thus left to be preyed upon by new competitors for 
 her riches, and new adventurers for plunder. The 
 denunciations of a rigorous government subsided 
 into the timid concessions of a weak and impotent 
 administration ; and the assassination of the Earl of 
 Ulster completed the despair of all those who trem- 
 bled for the security of the English colonists. 
 Many of the English barons declared for the Irish j 
 and the governor had not only to contend with the 
 common enemy, but with the treason of those chief- 
 tains on whose allegiance he thought he might rea- 
 sonably rely. He seized two of the noble house of 
 De la Poer ; he confined Maurice Fitzmaurice of 
 Kerry, and visited with severe punishment those 
 who had disturbed the peace of Leinster. 
 
 Such a state of things as we have been describ- 
 ing, was ill calculated to enrich the treasury of the 
 ambitious and martial Edward. His Irish resources 
 were far below his expectations ; and his disap- 
 pointment at the alarming deficiency so extreme, 
 that he withdrew all confidence from those of his 
 Irish servants who had the administration of Irish 
 affairs. He therefore resolved on the most violent 
 and offensive measures ; all the principal ministers 
 and officers of government were discharged ; the 
 justices of the king's bench and common pleas. He 
 issued the most rigid and severe ordinances for the 
 future regulation of his possessions in Ireland ; and 
 by one very remarkable order, he withdrew his 
 
128 THE HISTORY 
 
 conficlerice entirely from all those Englishmen who 
 held any Irish properties, under the impression 
 that they were interested in the distractions of that 
 unhappy country, which gave them an opportunity 
 of increasing the extent of their territories, and 
 plundering the devoted natives. The spirit and 
 purport of this order is so very singular, and so well 
 describes the total sacrifice of the English interests 
 by the colonists to their own aggrandizement, that 
 we shall set it down here for the satisfaction of the 
 reader. 
 
 " The king to his trusty and beloved John 
 D'Arcy, justiciary of Ireland, greeting : 
 
 " Whereas it appeareth to us and to our council, 
 for many reasons, that our service shall the better 
 and more profitably be conducted in the said land, 
 by English ofiicers, having revenues and possessions 
 in England, than by Irish or EngHshmen married 
 and estated in Ireland, and without any possessions 
 in our realm of England ; we enjoin you that you 
 diligently inform yourself of all our ofiicers, greater 
 or lesser, within our land of Ireland aforesaid ; and 
 that all such officers beneficed, married and estated 
 in the said land, and having nothing in England, 
 be removed from their offices ; that you place and 
 substitute in their room other Jit Englishmen^ having 
 lands, tenements, and benefices in England ; and 
 that you cause the said offices for the future to be 
 executed by such Englishmen, and none other, any 
 order of ours to you made in contrarywise notwith- 
 standing," 
 
 The effect of such an order was the immediate 
 
OF IRELAND, 129 
 
 disaffection of all the principal barons of the colony, 
 whose pride was wounded, and whose past services 
 were thus rewarded by the most wanton and contu- 
 melious insult. The chief governor, Sir John Mor- 
 ris, undistinguished by birth or by property, deem- 
 ed it necessary to summon a parliament in Dubhn 
 on this critical occasion ; but the lords whom he 
 had to govern, were determined not to be insulted 
 with impunity. They therefore embarrassed, by 
 every possible expedient, the administration of the 
 colony. Under the direction of Desmond, they 
 convened a parliament at Kilkenny ; they styled 
 themselves the prelates, nobles, and commons of 
 the land ; and prepared a remonstrance to be 
 transmitted to the British monarch. In this 
 remonstrance the barons charged the viceroy with 
 a base and unprincipled neglect of the king^s in- 
 terests ; the desertion of his castles ; the abandon- 
 ment of his territories to the native Irish, which 
 cost so much treasure and blood in the acqui- 
 sition ; the insolent exercise of authority over the 
 nobles of the land ; the plunder and the extor- 
 tion of their properties, and an infamous monopoly 
 of the wealth of the country. They complained 
 that they had been misrepresented to the throne, 
 by mean, ignorant, and avaricious adventurers from 
 England ; — that they had been ever faithful in their 
 allegiance to his majesty ; — that they had borne 
 arms in his cause at their own expence ; — and that, 
 in return for such services, they had been plundered 
 of their properties, and insulted in their feelings. 
 To this remonstrance, Edward replied in a gracious 
 
 VOL, I. I 
 
130 THE HISTORY 
 
 and condescending tone; — he promised a milder 
 administration, and ia future correction of the evils 
 complained of by his subjects. 
 
 The remonstrance, which we have just mentioned 
 as being presented by the English lords of the 
 colony, against the rapacity of the new adventurers, 
 is a good picture of the oppression and sufferings 
 of which the native Irish could have complained, 
 and with the perpetration of which they might 
 have justly charged those very lordsi, who were now 
 swept away by the new tide of rapacity, wliich 
 rushed in from the chief source of misfortune. It 
 was a just retaliation for the barbarities inflicted on 
 the ancient Irish, and the great retribution of Pro- 
 vidence for the miseries which they had inflicted 
 on an unoffending people : — '' Whatever measure 
 you measure unto others, the same measure shall 
 be measured unto you." 
 
 In the course of this history^ it will be found 
 that one wave of English enterprise washed away 
 the preceding ; that every fresh swarm of English 
 adventurers annihilated their predecessors, and gave 
 them the exact measure which was given to the an- 
 cient inhabitants. 
 
 The dissensions and discontents were but little 
 diminished by the royal promise to redress the 
 grievances of the remonstrancers. The spirit of 
 monopoly among the new rulers of the pale, coun- 
 teracted the purpose and interests of the monarch ; ; 
 and the same jealousies between the old English 
 settlers and the nev/ English settlers continued with 
 unabated rancour. The attention of Edward was 
 
OF IRELAND. 131 
 
 too much occupied with his grand and magnificent 
 speculations of conquest and glory in France, to 
 turn for a moment to a careful consideration of the 
 best remedies for the disorders which convulsed his 
 Irish dominions; but a chief governor happened to 
 be appointed about this period (1345), who possess- 
 ed those qualities of vigour and determination, 
 which were well suited to curb and restrain the 
 vindictive and violent passions of the people he was 
 to govern. 
 
 Sir Ralph de UfFord was entrusted with the Irish 
 administration. This firm and active deputy not 
 only suppressed the common enemy, but he also 
 reduced to obedience those English barons, of 
 whom Desmond and Kildare were at the head. 
 The sudden death of this efHcient chief governor, 
 replunged the colony into its old factions, and re- 
 vived all its old animosities. Sir John Morris, pos- 
 sessing a mild and conciliating disj^osition, succeed- 
 ed, and was unequal to the task of awing into obe- 
 dience these turbulent lords whom Sir Ralph de 
 Ufford had put down. 
 
 Edward had now (1346) completed his prepara- 
 tions for the invasion of France ; and Desmond 
 having appeared before this monarch to complain 
 of the injuries he had received from the chief go- 
 vernor, was solicited by Edward to join his stand- 
 ard, and participate in the fame and laurels he was 
 about to acquire against the common enemy of 
 England. The complaints of Desmond and Kil- 
 dare were attended to ; their lands restored, and 
 tjiose noliie and powerful barons, with their numer* 
 
 1 '^ 
 
132 THE HISTORY 
 
 ous followers, contributed in an eminent degree to 
 the fame of English arms, in the celebrated battle 
 of Cressy. Edward witnessed with the enthusiasm 
 of a hero, the agility and strength, and skill at 
 arms, displayed by his Irish auxiliaries; and the 
 Earl Kildare so greatly distinguished himself at the 
 siege of Calais, that he received the honour of 
 knighthood from the king's hand, and returned to 
 Ireland, covered with military glory and royal 
 honours. 
 
 The restoration of Desmond and Kildare to their 
 extensive estates in Ireland, contributed in a great 
 degree to tranquillize the colony ; but the animosi- 
 ty of the old English against their newly arrived 
 brethren, was too deeply rooted to suffer that com- 
 plete harmony, w4)ich would have insured the sta- 
 bility of the English interests in this country. The 
 old English formed alliances with the native Irish ; 
 their manners and customs and affections became 
 Irish, and the union of the people was considered 
 by the viceroy, as the certain forerunner of the de- 
 struction of the English power. It was therefore 
 enjoined by royal mandate, that " No mere Irish- 
 men should be admitted into any office or trust in 
 any city, borough, or castle in the king's land ; that 
 no bishop or prior, under the king's dominion and 
 allegiance, should admit any of this race to an ec- 
 clesiastical benefice, or into any religious house, on 
 account of consanguinity or other pretence what- 
 ever ;" thus breaking up all those social and en- 
 dearing connections which time had formed, which 
 good policy would have strengthened, and which 
 
OF IRELAND. 133 
 
 only excited the envy, the jealousy, and malignity 
 of a short-sighted monopoly. Such is the epitome 
 of Irish history, and in those few words might Ire- 
 land's story be told, for 600 years of English do- 
 mination. Of those impolitic ordinances the native 
 chiefs took advantage, and «* Bellum ad internecio. 
 nem'^ was the signal from one corner of the king- 
 dom to the other : O'Neil from the north, O'Brien 
 from the south, recruited their forces by the foolish 
 denunciations of their inveterate enemies. They 
 desolated the English territories, and threatened 
 the English power in Ireland with complete anni- 
 hilation. " A want of concert and union,'' writes 
 Mr Leland, " among the Irish, prevented them 
 from demolishing the whole fabric of English power, 
 by one general and decisive assault." 
 
 Edward, habituated to victory, saw, with con- 
 siderable agitation, the miserable disorders of his 
 Irish dominions. He sent forward his second son. 
 Lord Lionel, who was affianced, in his tender years, 
 to the daughter of the Earl of Ulster, and by right 
 of his wife, claimed immense property in Ireland. 
 A royal proclamation was issued, that all English- 
 men holding lands in Ireland, should join the prince's 
 standard. Fifteen hundred men were thus collect- 
 ed ; and, in 1361, Lord Lionel, accompanied by 
 Ralph, Earl of Stafford, James, Earl of Ormond, 
 Sir John Carew, Sir William Windsor, and other 
 knights of distinction, landed in Ireland. 
 
 Lionel, diffident of the old settlers, trusted en- 
 tirely to his new companions in arms, who were ig- 
 norant of the nature of the country, the habits and 
 
134 THE HISTORY 
 
 manners of the Irish, and unequal to the struggle 
 with their experienced leaders. Defeat and disaster 
 were the consequences of such imprudent steps. 
 This partial poHcy therefore was abandoned, and 
 the old English settlers were invited to the prince* 
 This new system in some degree checked the career 
 of the Irish ; but Lionel having carefully observed 
 the circumstances of the colony, did not place any 
 great confidence in temporary expedients. He 
 summoned a parliament at Kilkenny, which proved 
 more respectable and more numerous than was ever 
 before convened in Ireland. 
 
 The prelates of Dublin, Cashel, Tuam, Lismore, 
 Waterford, Killaloe, Ossory, Leighlin, and Cloyne, 
 obeved the summons of the kind's son. The tern- 
 poral peers and commons cheerfully attended. It 
 is to be observed, that both estates sat together ; 
 and the result of their deliberations was that famous 
 ordinance, the statute of Kilkenny. It is impossi- 
 ble to look back upon this statute, without deplor- 
 ing that barbarous selfishness and absurd antipathy, 
 wiiich such an instrument exhibits to posterity. 
 That a people remarkable for their hospitality and 
 kindness to strangers, as the Irish are acknowledged 
 to be ; that the connections formed by the impe- 
 rative ordinances of time, among a people distin- 
 ^cjuished by the strength of their social affections, 
 the acute sensibility of their feelings, and the ho- 
 nour and candour of their hearts, should be thus 
 driven out of the pale of civilization, and denied 
 the common rights of mankind, is only to be ac- 
 counted for by that infuriate and poisoned sentiment 
 
OF IRELAND, 135 
 
 which monopoly generates in the human breast ; 
 which makes man a tyger among his species, swal- 
 lowing up and devouring, with insatiable appetite, 
 all those rights, privileges, and advantages, which 
 it imagines w^ould be lost by participation among 
 his countrymen. The same blind and w^'etched 
 sentiment characterised the Spartan, as well as the 
 English settler; and the miseries of the Helot, and 
 the Irish native, were sweet sounds to the ears of 
 the monopolist, whom it had pleased Providence to 
 arm with ascendancy. " This statute of Kilkenny," 
 says Mr Taafie, with iionourable feelings of indig- 
 nation, '* empaled the pale from social life ; it 
 formed an insulated Jewish cast, abhorring all, and 
 abhorred by all ; the Jews were insulated from the 
 neighbouring idolatrous nations, to guard them a- 
 gainst idolatry.'* 
 
 " This English pale excluded the intercourse of a 
 people better Christians than they, better men, more 
 civilized. What crime," says Mr Taaffe, " could 
 be in the melody of the Irish harps, chanting the 
 sweet strains of Erin's bards ? Why should Irish 
 learning and piety be excluded from benefices found- 
 ed by Irishmen, or from monasteries founded by 
 them ? — The Norman conquerors passed no such 
 statute in England, nor the heathen Danes in Ire- 
 land." Yet, let it not be forgotten, that the par- 
 liament which enacted this statute was a popish one ; 
 that its denunciations against Catholics are by Ca- 
 tholics, and that the same unwearied despotism, 
 which, in succeeding times, poured new blood on 
 the pages of our statute-book, caused the enact- 
 
136 THE HISTORY 
 
 ment of this infamous statute of Kilkenny. To 
 England alone should our eyes be perpetually turn- 
 ed, the prolific source of all our sorrows, and the 
 indefatigable corrupter of our people. A Catholic 
 or a Protestant Parliament, under its malignant in- 
 fluence, is equally blasting of the energies, and tor- 
 turing to the feelings of our country. The Catho" 
 lie is a blockhead who condemns the Protestant as 
 the enemy of Irish freedom. The Catholic, under 
 the burning heat of an English treasury, would be 
 equally malleable to English purposes. We should 
 therefore learn to look to the first cause of Ireland's 
 treachery to herself. 
 
 The statute of Kilkenny enacted, that marriage, 
 nurture of infants, and gossipred, with the Irish, 
 should be considered and punished as high treason. 
 It enacted, that if any man of English race shall 
 use an Irish name, the Irish language, or the Irish 
 apparel, or any mode or custom of the Irish, he shall 
 forfeit lands and tenements, until he hath given se- 
 curity in the Court of Chancery, to conform in every 
 particular to the English manners 5 or if he has no 
 lands, that he shall be imprisoned until the like se- 
 curity be given. This kind and benevolent statute 
 made it penal to the English to permit their Irish 
 neighbours to graze their lands, to present to eccle- 
 siastical benefices, or receive them into monasteries 
 or religious houses. It also enacted, that the colo- 
 nists should not entertain the Irish bards, who per- 
 verted their imaginations by romantic tales, or their 
 news-tellers, who seduced them by false reports. 
 Such are the provisions of an act for the better se- 
 
OF IRELAND. 13/ 
 
 curing the English interests in Ireland, and the more 
 effectually extirpating the Irish name and nation. 
 Such has ever been the impotent instrument, and 
 the barren expedient of despotism, in all ages and 
 countries, which has no security but in chains, re- 
 poses no confidence but in the sword, and looks at 
 every object around it with eyes of jealousy and sus- 
 picion. The reflection of Mr Leland on this celebrat- 
 ed statute, is very unworthy the kind and benignant 
 feelings which should distinguish the Irish historian; 
 " Such,'* he writes, " were the institutions of an 
 assembly quoted in Ireland with reverence, con- 
 firmed and renewed in after times as of most salu- 
 tary influence." What Irishman, with the feelings 
 of an honest man, can quote with reverence the 
 provisions of such an act as the statute of Kilken- 
 ny, unless proscription, barbarity, selfishness, and 
 a complete abandonment of principle, be such qua- 
 lities as human nature will praise and admire. The 
 effect of this cruel statute, was the suppression of 
 those factions, in some degree, which distracted the 
 pale ; but it had also the effect of making the hos- 
 tility of the Irish take a deeper root; and we soon 
 find that O'Brien and O'Connor visit the colonists 
 with implacable vengeance. So miserable was the 
 state of Ireland, so barbarised were the natives by 
 the enlightened legislation of English adventurers, 
 that we have to record the refusal of Sir Hichard 
 Pembridge to administer the affairs of Ireland, or 
 to fill the hazardous and dangerous station of vice- 
 roy of Ireland. It was therefore assigned to Sir 
 
138 THE HISTORY 
 
 William Vv'Indsor. He obtained from the king an 
 annual appointment of eleven thousand pounds, to 
 defray the charges of his government; and we are 
 informed by Sir Jolm Davis, that the whole revenue 
 of the pale, certain and casual, did not amount to 
 ten thousand pounds annually. 
 
 The barren and unproductive CiTects of that sys- 
 tem which Edward acted upon in Ireland, are well 
 illustrated by a remarkable occurrence which now 
 (1376) took place. It should teach government 
 how unprofitable are the eviscerations of tyranny, 
 and the extortions of avarice. The distractions 
 and poverty of Ireland were now so great, that Ed- 
 ward sent forward an agent, Nicholas Dagworth, 
 to ascertain the real cause of deficiency of revenue 
 experienced in his Irish dominions. Edward sum- 
 moned the parliament of the pale to Westminster. 
 The Irish representatives sat at Westminster ; and 
 what success Edward had from this interview with 
 his Irish parliament, is not on record ; but the im- 
 potency of the statute of Kilkenny is acknowledged 
 by the rapid declension of the English interest, the 
 multiplication of English and Irish connections, 
 and the necessary relaxation of the severe and cruel 
 provisions that statute contained. The reign of 
 one of the most renowned of the English monarchs 
 closed, without imparting a single benefit to this 
 ill-fated country. Too much occupied with the 
 brilliant and unproductive glories of foreign con- 
 quest, he consigjied his kingdom of Ireland to the 
 })assions and follies, and experiments of deputies. 
 
OF IRELAND. 139 
 
 who had neither the talents nor the power to pro- 
 mote any lasting scheme of sound or profound po- 
 licy. Mr Leland truly observes, ** It was the per- 
 verse fate of Ireland to suffer more from the most 
 renowned, than the weakest of the English mo- 
 narchs." 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 RICHARD II. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1377. 
 
 J- HE events of this reign are well calculat- 
 ed to exhibit the follies of the last ; and the 
 devastation which the colony suffered from 
 the vengeance of the Irish, is no bad commentary 
 on the wretched effects of that policy which seeks 
 its safety rather in the strength of the chain, than 
 the affections of the heart. The English were 
 either driven from their lands, or those who were 
 suffered to preserve them were obliged to pay tri- 
 bute to the native Irish chieftains. 
 
 The parliament of England murmured at the 
 constant waste of blood and treasure incurred by 
 the maintenance of the Irish dominions. The na- 
 tional treasury, exhausted by the foreign wars in 
 w^hich England was so long involved by the ambi- 
 tion of Edward, had recourse to every expedient 
 which ingenuity or wisdom could suggest. Absen- 
 tees were heavily taxed. The Irish were permitted 
 
THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 141 
 
 to work their mines, on condition of paying a ninth 
 of the produce ; they were allowed to coin money, 
 and to hold a free trade with Portugal ; thus grant- 
 ing to Ireland, from necessity, what should have 
 been long before suggested by sound national po- 
 licy. The foreign enemies of England took advan- 
 tage of the unfortunate counsels of the colony, and 
 the Scotch and French invaded the Irish shores. 
 Those strong illustrations of the folly of govern- 
 ing Ireland by harsh and violent measures, were 
 not sufficient to open the eyes of England. Richard, 
 always the victim of his passions and partialities, in- 
 trusted the Irish government to PhiHp de Courtney, 
 a man of the most violent and oppressive disposi- 
 tion. So excessive were the extortions of this baron, 
 that even Richard was obliged to surrender him to 
 the vengeance of his accusers. 
 
 A new scene now opens, in which the weakness, 
 the vanity, and the tyranny of Richard, eminently 
 contribute to increase the calamities of Ireland. To 
 a monarch, possessed of a good understanding, and 
 armed with the power which Richard was able to 
 command, the opportunity enjoyed by the latter to 
 put an end to the distractions of Ireland, might 
 have been the beginning of a new and prosperous 
 era, and the establishment of such a system as would 
 give permanent tranquillity to the empire ; but the 
 most unmeaning partialities for the most worthless 
 of his subjects, and a complete abandonment of the 
 solid and substantial interests of his empire to the 
 gratification of his favourites, kept Ireland expos- 
 ed to a perpetuity of that bad government which 
 
142 THE HISTORY 
 
 generated so much calamity to the colony, as well 
 as the native Irish, 
 
 Richard, in obedience to his ruling passion, in- 
 vested the corrupt and profligate Earl of Oxford 
 with the marquisate of Dublin. He also granted 
 to him the entire dominion of Ireland, and empow- 
 ered this young and giddy lord to appoint all offi- 
 cers of state and justice. The latter was bound in 
 return to pay into the English exchequer five thou- 
 sand marks annually. The inordinate partiality of 
 the king would not sufJ'er his favourite to leave the 
 royal presence ; but he continued to heap new ho- 
 nours on his head, and sent forward deputies to per- 
 form the duties of the Earl of Oxford as duke of 
 Ireland. 
 
 The indignation of the English barons at the im- 
 pudent arrogance of Oxford, vv^ho trampled on their 
 dignity and their feelings, broke out in every corner 
 of England, and Richard and his favourite were 
 obliged to yield to the storm of public vengeance. 
 The Earl of Oxford was stripped of all his honours, 
 and the Irish administration ceased to be carried on 
 in the name or under the seal of the deposed earl. 
 
 We find nothing very novel in the transactions 
 of the colony until the determination of Richard 
 to visit his Irish dominions. This monarch landed 
 at Waterford in the year ISO^, with a royal army, 
 consisting of 4000 cavalry, and 30,000 archers, 
 attended by the duke of Gloucester, Earls of Not- 
 tingham and Rutland, Thomas, lord Percy, and 
 other distinguished personages. The reflections of 
 Mr Leland on this royal visit to Ireland, is both 
 
OF IRELAND. 143 
 
 just and philosophic. — ^* An army,'* says he, " com- 
 manded by some of the prime nobility of England, 
 with the monarch at their head ; the presence of 
 the king to inspect the conduct of his ministers, to 
 hear and examine the complaints of his subjects, 
 were circumstances of considerable moment, if duly 
 improved ; and, if united with a liberal and equit- 
 able spirit of policy, must have established the au- 
 thority of the English government, and the gene- 
 ral pacification and civility of the kingdom, on the 
 firmest basis ; but," he continues, '• the pride of 
 the English forbade them to propose the generous 
 scheme of receiving all the inhabitants into the bo- 
 dy of English subjects, or of communicating the 
 benefits of a free and equitable constitution to those 
 whom they most absurdly called their inferiors. 
 However lively their own regard to liberty, they 
 accounted it a blessing too precious not to be 
 confined to themselves ; for," says Mr Leland, 
 " they had not acquired that extended and com- 
 prehensive benevolence which is the effect of re- 
 finement and deep moral reflection.'' This is a 
 great admission, from such an authority, of the fol- 
 ly of those counsels that would close the door of a 
 free constitution against a people petitioning for its 
 benefits. It well describes the selfish spirit of mo- 
 nopoly, and the events which follow in the reign 
 of the unfortunate and foolish Richard, dem.onstrate, 
 to the most superficial thinker, the weakness and 
 distraction which must unavoidably flow from bi- 
 goted and contracted counsels. 
 
 Had that spirit of equitable policy, of which Mr 
 
144 THE HISTORY 
 
 Leland speaks, influenced the English counsels of 
 Ireland, we should have been long since united to 
 the sister country by the ties of kindness and gra- 
 titude ; their injuries and triumphs would be our's ; 
 we should have rejoiced as they rejoiced, and the 
 defeat and depression of the English power would 
 never have been proclaimed the elevation and vic- 
 tory of Ireland. 
 
 Richard, instead of making such arrangements 
 as might give permanent security to the Irish do- 
 minions, employed himself and his followers in an 
 idle display of his royal magnificence. He brought 
 over his crown jewels, and seemed more anxious 
 to dazzle the Irish chieftains by the splendour of 
 his living and retinue,* than by the wisdom of his 
 counsels, or intimidate them by the terror of his 
 arms. He considered the voluntary surrender of 
 the principal chieftains as equivalent to their com- 
 
 * " We have already," says Mr TaafFe, " obsei'ved the rude- 
 ness and ill-breeding of John's courtiers ; but then — they were 
 young ! Well ; let us see the behaviour of Richard's courtiers, 
 the prime nobility of England. The four principal kings, O'Neil, 
 O'Connor, O'Brien, M'Murchad, sat at King Richard's table, 
 in their robes of state. Ormond, and Henry Castile, a gentle- 
 man of Richard's court, interpreted. The staring courtiers im- 
 portuned them with such questions as argued the meanest con- 
 ceptions of their manners and understanding, and were answered 
 * with indignation and affected dignity.' Why, Mr Leland, * af- 
 fected dignity ?' Dignity was a sentiment habitual to the mind 
 of an Irish chieftain, needing no affectation. Froissard, an eye- 
 witness, does not call that dignity affected. Rudeness may be 
 a part of English politeness : I cannot otherwise account for the 
 supercilious and unmannerly conduct of the English courtiers to- 
 wards their master's guests, men every way their superiorly" 
 
OF IRELAND. 145 
 
 plete reduction. Possessed with the importance of 
 his achievements, he communicated them in form 
 to the Duke of York, regent of England. He 
 pointed out the three distinctions of inhabitants in 
 Ireland — the Irish enemies, the rebels of both 
 races, and the English subjects. The Irish, he 
 said, had submitted, and become his vassals ; the 
 rebels, he conceived, had received but too just 
 provocation, and was therefore disposed to grant 
 them a general pardon. Thus, after a residence of 
 nine months in Ireland, Richard embarked for Eng- 
 land, without being able to boast of having added 
 a single acre to the English pale, or having gain- 
 ed a single advantage, though the leader of the 
 largest force ever brought into Ireland, The im- 
 mediate effect of the departure of Richard was the 
 renewal of hostilities, the infraction of treaties, by 
 the avarice and ambition of both parties : the flame 
 of war broke out with its old fury, and every part 
 of the colony was again involved in confusion and 
 anarchy. 
 
 Ormond marches against the O'Byrnes of Wick- 
 low, and the sept of O'Toole annihilate a large 
 body of the royal forces. Mortimer, the son of 
 Lionel, Duke of Clarence, is slain in a battle with 
 the O'Byrnes, and the death of this gallant baron 
 again prompts the British monarch to revisit his 
 kingdom of Ireland, and revenge the death of his 
 favourite. 
 
 In the spring of the year 1399, his preparations 
 were complete ; the reports of secret conspiracies 
 which reached the royal ear, did not slacken his de- 
 
 VOL, I. K 
 
146 THE HISTORY 
 
 termination ; and, accompanied by the Duke of 
 
 Exeter, the Earl of Salisbury, some prelates, and 
 the young Lord Henry of Lancaster, he sailed for 
 Ireland, to re-act the same scene of folly we have 
 already witnessed. 
 
 The character of Richard was now tolerably well 
 appreciated by the Irish chieftains ; and the cele- 
 brated Arthur MacMurchad O'Kavenagh, a youth 
 of sixteen, determined that the EngHsh monarch 
 should dearly purchase his conquests in Ireland. 
 We find that this Irish hero, at the head of 30O0 
 men only, was able, by the admirable skill and dex- 
 terity of his movements, to baffle the immense force 
 which England brought into the field against him. 
 His knowledge of the country, — the numberless re-, 
 sources it offered to an ingenious mind, full of re- 
 sources, and prompt and vigorous to put them into 
 effect, — the various artifices and traps which he laid 
 to embarrass the progress of the enemy, — at length 
 succeeded in compelling the boasting Richard to 
 make him offers of castles, and forts, and territory, 
 on condition of his sheathing his avenging and 
 powerful sword. The Irish prince for some time 
 hesitated ; but having at length agreed to enter 
 into a negociation, Richard appointed Gloucester 
 to meet the Irish chieftain. 
 
 Eroissard describes the Irish prince, tall in sta- 
 ture ; formed for agility and strength ; of aspect 
 fierce and severe ; mounted on a swift and stately 
 horse, without saddle, and darting rapidly from a 
 mountain between two woods adjacent to the sea, 
 attended by his train. At his command they halt- 
 
OF IRELAND. 1 4Y 
 
 ed at due distance, while their leader, casting his 
 spear from him, which he grasped in his right hand, 
 rushed forward to meet the English lord. The 
 parley was continued for a considerable time ; the 
 Irish prince was reminded of his late engagements, 
 his grievous infractions, his attack on the king's 
 vicegerent, and the slaughter both of him and his 
 forces : The Irish chieftain proudly answered, and 
 with dignity justified his conduct. He would be 
 at peace with the English monarch, but would yield 
 to no humiliating conditions to procure it. 
 
 Gloucester returned to the king ; and the result 
 of the conference so severely wounded the feelings 
 and pride of the English monarch, that he passion- 
 ately vowed he would never depart from Ireland, 
 until he had possessed himself of this rebel, dead 
 or alive ; — a vain and empty threat. He retreated 
 with his routed army to Dublin, where he remained 
 six weeks, hurling impotent proclamations against 
 the illustrious MacMurchad O'Kavenagh, till the 
 rapid strides of his rebel subjects of England, rous- 
 ed him from his idle dreams of conquest in Ireland. 
 He returned to England, where he fell a victim to 
 an indignant and abused nation. The sufferings 
 of this unfortunate monarch, inflicted on him in his 
 last moments, incline the feeling heart to forget the 
 errors of his government. The barbarity of his 
 English enemies obliterates the remembrance of 
 the oppression and folly which ended the reign of 
 the weak and miserable Richard. 
 
 K 2 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 HENRY IV. 
 
 A. D. The accession of the house of Lancaster 
 1400. gave birth to a new epoch in Irish suffer- 
 ing, and threw back the hopes of those who sighed 
 for the return of tranquilUty and peace* Ireland, 
 during the reigns of Henry IV., V.and VL, presents 
 to the reader one uninterrupted scene of anarchy 
 and confusion ; of predatory warfare, and retaUat- 
 ing violence ; of violated rights, and insatiable re- 
 venge ; of impolitic and absurd cruelty, and reso- 
 lute and unconquerable patience ; of furious laws, 
 and more furious resistance to those laws ; of nar- 
 row-sighted monopoly, and victorious rebellion. It 
 appears that no calamity could teach wisdom or 
 mercy to the rulers of Ireland j and that the prin- 
 ciple of extermination of the natives was the only 
 mode within the understanding of the British ca- 
 binet, to preserve the English interests in Ireland, 
 
THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 149 
 
 - Henry sent his son Thomas, Duke of Lancaster, 
 to administer the affairs of Ireland, in the hope that 
 a personage of such distinction would give weight 
 and dignity to his government, and that the pride 
 of those English barons, who could not brook an 
 association with an humbler character than the son 
 of a king, might in some degree be checked by the 
 presence of the royal duke. The north is invaded 
 by the Scotch ; who, supported by the native Irish, 
 obtained some important settlements in that coun- 
 try. The Duke of Lancaster, anxious, if possible, 
 to satisfy the complaints which were made to him 
 by his subjects of the colony, of the oppressions 
 and exactions under which they suffered, appointed 
 commisioners to hold inquisition in several counties, 
 to ascertain the names of the sufferers, and the ac- 
 tual damage they had sustained. Even the hope of 
 redress tranquillized the public mind. Several of 
 the Irish chieftains of Leinster renewed their sub- 
 missions to the duke ; and the whole province be- 
 ing considered as restored to peace, a parliament^ 
 was summoned at Castledermot, to consider of the 
 most effectual means of repelHng the Scotch in- 
 vasion. 
 
 The citizens of Dublin and Drogheda collected their 
 troops, and carried the marauding war to the coast 
 of Scotland, where they amply revenged the depre- 
 dations of the enemy. " Amidst all this parade 
 and triumph,'' says Mr Leland, " the celebrated 
 Arthur MacMurchad lay like a canker in the heart 
 of the Leinster territory." This unwearied spirit 
 was not to be soothed by concessions, nor intimida- 
 
150 THE HISTORY 
 
 ted by the sword. He despised the power of the 
 English, and was indefatigable in seducing from their 
 allegiance those chieftains who had submitted to 
 the Duke of Lancaster. The deputy, aided by the 
 arms of Ormond and Desmond, marched against 
 him ; and, after a furious battle, MacMurchad re- 
 treated, with a diminished though unconquered ar- 
 my. The English had no sooner repelled Mac- 
 Murchad, than they were attacked from other quar- 
 ters, and the impositions and exactions which such 
 repeated contests with the native Irish induced, 
 were so excessive, that the deputy found it neces- 
 sary to put in force the provisions of the statute of 
 Kilkenny. 
 
 The Duke of Lancaster, convinced of the necessity 
 of the most vigorous and decisive measures, not only 
 for the purpose of repelling with effect the common 
 enemy, but also for restraining the insolent licen- 
 tiousness of the great lords of his government, ar- 
 med himself with powers more extensive than those 
 he possessed when he first landed in Ireland. He 
 insisted on an annual pension of one thousand marks, 
 to render him independent of the precarious issues 
 of the Irish revenue. But all the measures adopt- 
 ed by the Duke of Lancaster to preserve the peace 
 of the colony were ineffectual, when opposed to the 
 desperate valour of MacMurchad. The viceroy was 
 pursued to the walls of Dublin, wounded, and for- 
 ced to surrender his administration to Butler, the 
 prior of St John of Jerusalem. Thus were the 
 English abandoned to their own resources and ex- 
 pedients. The necessity of the times, and power 
 
OF IRELAND. 151 
 
 of the great lords, again imposed the torturing taxes 
 of coyne and livery. The statute of Kilkenny was 
 put in force ; but, as the historian very properly 
 observes, " such a statute was only politic or useful 
 in case the parties putting it in force, were able to 
 follow up, with the sword, the principles of exter- 
 mination it enacted :" The Irish were too powerful, 
 and the sanguinary statute of Kilkenny served but 
 to recruit their ranks, and inflame their animosity ; 
 its absurd provisions were defeated by the circum- 
 stances of the colony ; and the excluding and bar- 
 barous object of the legislator was counteracted by 
 the weakness of the hand which was doomed to 
 execute his law. 
 
 The^ colony, by this statute of Kilkenny, were 
 prohibited from holding any commerce or trajSic 
 with the Irish enemy ; but their richest and most 
 flourishing towns were so environed with the native 
 Irish, that they had no other people to trade with, 
 and were often reduced, by legal restraints, to the 
 danger of being utterly impoverished. Still so re- 
 fined was the cruelty of English policy against the 
 native Irish, that the very same malignity which 
 dictated the statute of Kilkenny, recommended the 
 act which would not permit the persecuted Irish to 
 migrate. Thus, in the same moment, refusing to 
 incorporate them with their own people, and deny- 
 ing them the opportunity of seeking peace and 
 tranquillity in a foreign land. 
 
 By an act of the Irish parliament, in the eleventh 
 year of Henry IV. it was ordained, that no native 
 Irishman should be permitted to depart from the 
 
152 THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 realm, without special license, under the great seal 
 of Ireland ; and that the person and goods of an 
 Irishman, attempting to transport himself without 
 such licence, might be seized by any subject, who 
 was to receive one moiety of the goods for such 
 service, the other to be forfeited to the king. The 
 devoted Irish would not be received as subjects, 
 nor even suffered to leave their country, where per- 
 petual persecution awaited them. — " This can ap- 
 pear in no other light," says Mr Taaffe, " than a 
 game-act ; not unlike the act forbidding the tran- 
 sportation of hawks, under a penalty heavier than 
 the eric allowed for the murder of twenty.four 
 mere Irishmen, residing within English jurisdic- 
 tion." • 
 
 Notwithstanding the ingenious cruelty with which 
 the native Irish were hunted by the law-makers of 
 the colony, it is consolatory to find that the effects 
 of such legislation were as unprofitable as the poli- 
 cy was infamous ; and that the English interests 
 declined in exact proportion to the fury and mul- 
 tiplicity of their statutes against humanity and 
 justice. The English were forced to the dishon- 
 ourable refuge of paying to the victorious Irish the 
 annual tribute called the black rent ; thus recog- 
 nizing the ancient sovereignty of the Irish chief- 
 tains, ministering to their pride, and gratifying 
 their vengeance. Such has ever been the conse- 
 quence of vicious and cruel counsels— defeat, po- 
 verty, and dishonour. 
 
THB 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 HENRY V. 
 
 A.D. Xhe same melancholy scene of distress, 
 ^^^^' turbulence, disaffection, oppression, and re- 
 sistance, continues to weary our eyes until the ar- 
 rival of Sir John Talbot, in the reign of Henry V. 
 This Englishman was distinguished by his mihtary 
 abilities ; his vigorous and decisive character. Even 
 the proud and intrepid MacMurchad bowed to his 
 superior talents, and gave his son as an hostage 
 for his peaceable demeanour. Other chieftains in 
 the west and in the north, followed the example of 
 Arthur MacMurchad. Though vigorous and able 
 in his military achievements, and peculiarly suc- 
 cessful in checking the progress of the common 
 enemy, yet Sir John Talbot is handed down to 
 posterity as partial, oppressive, and severe in the 
 administration of his government. We find at this 
 period a notable instance of the barbarous policy 
 with which Ireland was pursued by the sister coun- 
 
154 THE HISTORY 
 
 try. An act was passed by the English parliament, 
 that all those Irish who wandered from their own 
 country in search of that protection denied them 
 in their native land, should immediately depart 
 from the English territory ; and this infamous and 
 inhospitable statute was not only directed against 
 the poorest or the meanest of the Irish, but against 
 the Irish students, who were contumeliously ex- 
 cluded from the British inns of court, lest the Eng- 
 lish people should be infected with the barbarous 
 principles of the mid and inhospitable Irislu Such 
 were the ignorant and insolent denunciations of a na- 
 tion, at the moment it was outraging every feeling 
 of the heart, and violating every law human and 
 divine, against a people whom English historians 
 record as the most generous, the most hos.pitable, 
 the most social and warm-hearted on earth. So 
 writes the venerable Bede, Keating, Camden, Sir 
 John Davis, and every authority of respectability 
 and veracity. We are not to wonder that those 
 English viceroys who came over to Ireland, should 
 have exercised their authority with insolence or 
 with scorn, over a people whose characters and 
 principles were represented in so odious and so hor- 
 rible a light, nor should it excite our astonishment, 
 that the national animosity should be extreme, after 
 the laborious efforts of the enemies of Ireland to 
 root out of its breast those sentiments of forgive- 
 ness or pardon, which are the offspring of generous 
 hearts, and the grand characteristic of the Irish dis- 
 position. 
 
 So fallen were the Irish of the pale, as well as its 
 
OF IRELAND. 155 
 
 English inhabitants, and so completely at the mercy 
 of their task-masters, that we find the chancellor 
 Merbury, hardy enough to refuse affixing the seal 
 to the petition framed by the old English settlers 
 against the monopohzing avarice of their modern 
 countrymen. Here we find a chancellor resisting 
 the wishes of the parliament of the colony, com- 
 posed of those very persons whose forefathers stifled 
 the prayers of the native Irish. 
 
 There is a law of action, and re-action, pervad- 
 ing every department of nature ; there is a law of 
 retributive justice, in the moral system of intelli- 
 gent beings, which the settlers experienced in an 
 eminent and striking degree. All appointed to 
 station and office were of English birth. Every 
 English swarm of adventurers treated the settlers 
 of Irish birth with the most mortifying contempt 
 and injustice. Sir John Talbot, who encouraged 
 this insidious and absurd policy, departed from the 
 Irish administration with general execrations. His 
 extortions, exactions and oppression, were balanced 
 against his efforts to repel the common enemy of 
 the pale, or to restore the latter to peace and tran- 
 quillity. He was succeeded by Ormond, who, be- 
 ing well disposed to redress the grievances of the 
 pale, was popular among the English. A subsidy 
 was granted, amounting to one thousand marks, 
 accompanied as usual with a representation of griev- 
 ances. The petition to the king was sent forward, 
 and the archbishop of Armagh and Sir Christopher 
 Preston were appointed agents to present it. This 
 petition is a distressing picture of the injustice and 
 
156 THE HISTORY 
 
 extortion suffered by the inhabitants of the pale. 
 They say, between the terror of the common enemy, 
 the native Irish, and the rapacious monopoly of the 
 English viceroys and ministers, they passed a life 
 of perpetual misery and torture. They impeached 
 Stanley and Sir John Talbot. They pray that the 
 chancellor Merbury may be cited before the throne, 
 to answer for his insolent refusal to affix the seal to 
 their petition. They complain in strong and em- 
 phatic language, that such a scene of various ini- 
 quities would be thus discovered, as w^ere utterly 
 abhorrent to the equity of the throne, and utterly 
 intolerable to the subject. The effects of this pe- 
 tition were the removal of the odious chancellor, 
 and the continuance of Ormond in the government, 
 which gave general satisfaction by the mildness and 
 kindness of his administration. 
 
 In this reign we find the odious passions of jea- 
 lousy and rivalship, infecting and influencing the 
 conduct of the higher order of the clergy of the 
 pale. We see them bringing their disputes before 
 the parliament, and charging each other with the 
 most detestable crimes. An English bishop of Lis- 
 more accusing O'Hedian of Casliel of the most 
 scandalous offences. These ecclesiastical conten- 
 tions did not meet any very great countenance 
 from the parliament. 
 
 The common enemy, as the native Irish were 
 called, were always engaged in their contests for 
 precedence and leadership among their respective 
 septs. If a particular sept were in danger of total 
 annihilation, and, as other annalists express it, " for 
 
OF IRELAND. 157 
 
 the sake of the Irish language," the neighbouring 
 septs assembled to rescue their countrymen, and 
 thus avenge the insult offered to Irish independence. 
 The situation of Ireland, and her chieftains at this 
 period, may be fairly illustrated by the species of 
 affection which we sometimes see between men 
 and their wives. Though some husbands correct 
 their wives rather severely, they see no reason 
 why a stranger should presume to indulge in the 
 same liberty ; and the Irish chieftains, who fre- 
 quently w^aged most merciless wars with each other, 
 were indignant that the English colony should pre- 
 sume to follow their example. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 HENRY VI. 
 
 A. D. The infancy of this monarch when he came 
 1420. to the throne, little contributed to the re- 
 formation of Ireland. The anarchy of Eng- 
 lish factions, the want of vigour in the Irish admi- 
 nistration, left the colony exposed to the furious 
 and jealous passions of its inhabitants, as well as to 
 the unresisted incursions of the native Irish. De- 
 puties were sent from England, who either incur- 
 red the contempt or hatred of the men they were 
 to govern. The most disgraceful and infamous 
 charges were brought against the viceroy, and so- 
 lemn inquiries held before the parliament to prove 
 their veracity. We see the country invaded with 
 impunity by the Scotch, where they are retained 
 and encouraged by the Irish chieftains, who gladly 
 assist them in ravaging the English settlement. 
 The administration of the Earl of Ormond rescued 
 the colony, in a great degree, from the imminent 
 
THE HISTORY OF IKELAXD. 159 
 
 danger into which it was thrown by the imbecile 
 conduct of former governors ; he abolished, in 1425, 
 the yearly tribute of black rent, paid by the colony 
 to the Irish chieftains. The same historian who 
 relates the triumphs of Ormond over the Irish, in 
 the next page cites a petition of the Irish parlia- 
 ment, representing to the king, that all the Irish 
 enemies and English rebels are sworn to put his 
 loyal people of the colony under tribute to them ; 
 and that no part of Ireland remained unconquered 
 by the Irish, but the county of Dublin. Mr Le- 
 land observes, for the honour of the colony, that 
 the object of so humiliating a representation on the 
 part of the Irish parliament, was for no other pur- 
 pose than to gain supplies from England. The ra- 
 pid declension of the English interests, suggested 
 the necessity of enforcing the statutes against marry- 
 ing, or fostering, or trafficking with the Irish. 
 
 The leading families of the old English settlers 
 complain of the incapacity of the persons appointed 
 to the viceregency of Ireland. They pray to be 
 considered and treated as Englishmen, agreeably to 
 their rightful claims, and the express stipulation of 
 their ancestors. Hence the jealousies and animo- 
 sities between Ormond, (the only nobleman of 
 Irish birth in whom the crown confided,) and the 
 Earls of Kildare and Desmond. The power of 
 Desmond was so formidable, that he was able, by 
 his influence, to remove from the government of 
 Ireland, the popular Earl of Ormond, whose senti- 
 ments, Mr Leland says, were liberal, whose man- 
 ners were polished, and for the purity and mild-* 
 
IGO THE HISTORY 
 
 ness of whose administration, the most honourable 
 testimonies were given. He was obliged to yield 
 to the confederated power of his enemies, and Tal- 
 bot, Earl of Shrewsbury, was sent into Ireland to 
 take the reins of government. 
 
 Talbot came attended with a troop of 700 cho- 
 sen men, and the Irish again rose in arms to op- 
 pose the new viceroy, aided by the Butlers, and the 
 Berminghams, and the MacWilliams of Clanrick- 
 ard. The Irish chieftains w^ere reduced, and the 
 most obnoxious among them, particularly of the 
 sept of Bermingham, seized, condemned, and exe- 
 cuted. A parliament was summoned by Talbot, 
 in the year 1447, which again made it penal to con- 
 form to the Irish fashion of the hair and the beard. 
 It was forbidden to use gold trappings, horse fur- 
 niture or gilded harness, except by knights and 
 prelates. 
 
 The administration of Richard, Duke of York, of 
 which we are now about to give an account, de- 
 monstrates, if examples were w^anting, how easy 
 it is to govern Irishmen by the simple and unso- 
 phisticated principles of justice, kindness, and hu- 
 manity ; how productive that policy is which is 
 guarded by a fair and impartial spirit, and how pro- 
 lific to the rulers is the gratitude of a people who 
 enjoy equal protection, equal law, and equal pri- 
 vileges. We have here a proof how a conciliating 
 and equitable disposition can tranquiUize a distract- 
 ed state, and how impotent are the efforts of vio- 
 lence and of tyranny, compared with the soothing 
 voice of parental government, which extends equal 
 
OF IRELAND. 161 
 
 protection to all, and impartially shelters under its 
 wings the subjects who submit to it. 
 
 The scene we are now about to describe, cheers 
 and animates the historian. It gives him hope that 
 the prospect is brightening, and that the cloud 
 wliich so long mildewed the fairest blossoms of his 
 country, will soon be dispelled ; that the native 
 energies of Ireland are about to enjoy the sunshine 
 of a pure and equitable government, which will 
 enrich the hand that confers the benefit. The Duke 
 of York, valiant, prudent, and temperate, was 
 compelled, by the jealousy of the rival faction of 
 Lancaster, to administer the affairs of Ireland. It 
 would perhaps be an act of injustice to the memory 
 of that excellent personage, to insinuate that the 
 pecuHar situation in which he stood, as the pre- 
 sumptive heir of the British crown, influenced his 
 conduct as viceroy of Ireland ; or that the kind 
 and conciliating system on which he acted in the 
 latter country, was prompted by the artifices of 
 policy, and not by the dictates of an honest and 
 manly understanding. Our experience of English 
 government naturally inclines us to doubt the sin- 
 cerity of Richard ; but the mild and benevolent 
 acts of his government obliterate the impression, 
 and the historian who would write in candour 
 should confidently hold up the heir of the house of 
 York, as the model to future governors of Ireland, 
 of wisdom, of moderation, and of justice. 
 
 The partizans of Lancaster were glad to seize upon 
 any pretext by which they could be liberated from 
 the watchful jealousy of so formidable a rival as Rich* 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
162 THE HISTORY 
 
 ard Duke of York ; and therefore represented Ire- 
 land as peculiarly demanding, from the turbulence 
 and disorder which convulsed that country, the pre- 
 sence of so efficient a ruler. The duke, enjoying 
 most extensive and powerful connections in Ire- 
 land, hoped that his absence from his own country 
 would not much diminish his pretensions to the 
 English crown ; but in assuming the government 
 of Ireland, he took care that he should be vested 
 with almost unhmited power, and that the period of 
 his administration should at least be ten years ; that 
 he should have a pension of two thousand marks 
 from England, independent of his Irish revenue, 
 and that he should have the power of appointing 
 such officers as to him seemed most fit for their res- 
 pective stations. He arrived in Ireland in the year 
 1449, and his appearance in this country was splen- 
 did and magnificent. In his deportment to all par- 
 ties, he was conciliating and polite ; he united the 
 ease and cordiality of the companion, with the dig- 
 nity of the prince, and even disarmed those of his 
 Irish subjects who were prepossessed against his 
 government. The opposing rival lords, Ormond 
 and Osmond, he courted with equal success ; and 
 the followers of the reigning house of Lancas- 
 ter seemed to forget the spirit of party, in their 
 respect for the amiable and insinuating manners of 
 the noble viceroy. In the various negociations he 
 had with the native Irish, he studiously recom- 
 mended himself by his moderation and his equity. 
 To his subjects of the colony he manifested the 
 greatest zeal for their safety and tranquillity j and, 
 
. OF IllELAND. 163 
 
 by no other power than that of a firm and undaunt- 
 ed determination to act impartially by all, did this 
 excellent personage govern the colony with univer- 
 sal satisfaction and advantage. He convened a 
 parliament at Dublin, in which various laws were 
 passed for the security of the subject, and the pre- 
 vention of oppression by the petty tyrant of the 
 pale. Coin and coshierings were abolished. It was 
 ordained that no lord should entertain more horse 
 and footmen than he could support without burden 
 to his neighbours. The number of the Duke's ad- 
 herents multiplied every hour, and the popular 
 voice of Ireland was universally resounding the 
 praises of his mild and honest government ; but 
 such scenes of peace were not to last very long. 
 This happy interval for Ireland was short and tran- 
 sient ; and the great theatre of ambition in Eng- 
 land demanded the immediate presence of Richard. 
 He was succeeded by Sir Edward FitzEustace, un- 
 der whose administration, though vigorous and de- 
 cided, we are to witness the resurrection of these 
 petty wars which convulsed the country. The 
 native Irish chieftains of the west, the south, and 
 the north, the O'Connors and the O'Neils, again 
 rose in arms. They were checked by the strong 
 and decided measures of FitzEustace. In the 
 meantime the prospect in England became more 
 and more gloomy. The general discontent in- 
 creased, and the total loss of the French dominions 
 roused and inflamed the public mind. The Duke 
 of York openly declared for the throne, and the 
 
 L 2 
 
164 THE HISTORY 
 
 victory gained by that Prince at St Alban's, put 
 the British monarch in his possession. 
 
 The spirit of Margaret of Anjou, wife of the weak 
 and impotent Henry VI. rose in proportion to the 
 violence with which she w^as opposed ; and the 
 battle of Bloreheath drove Richard for shelter to 
 Ireland.* Here the reader of Irish history should 
 
 * A love of justice and obedience to the laws distinguished the 
 Irish people in a more eminent degree than any other nation per- 
 haps in the world. To this fact we have the most irresistible tes- 
 timony. Sir John Davis, who observed this country with the eye 
 of a philosopher as well as a lawyer, and who long resided in it 
 as attorney-general, writes, " That no nation in the world loved 
 impartial justice more than the Irish, though it should make 
 against themselves." Lord Howth says, " The Irish obey the 
 laws framed for them on their hills, better than the English do 
 theirs, framed by parliament in walled towns." IVIr TaafFe writes, 
 (and this gentleman, from his intimate knowledge of the Irish 
 language, and his industry in research, may be relied on by the 
 Irish readers, as no bad authority on the following interesting 
 facts), " The ancient Irish nation not only supphed themselves 
 with all sorts of manufactures of necessity, but even of elegance, 
 and exported besides. They enjoyed a flourishing agriculture, 
 cloth, and linen manufacture ; iron and timber works, curious 
 workmanship in gold and silver, a circumstance belonging to no 
 other country in Europe. Their great monasteries, that were 
 colleges, had botanic gardens. To their knowledge of astronomy 
 some fragments of their books on astronomy, which we yet see, 
 bear testimony : their knowledge of this science was much greater 
 before than after Christianity." Of the Irish language, Mr TaafFe 
 says, " It was more copious and elegant than any contemporary 
 language, which the remains of their compositions in prose and 
 verse abundantly evince. The ancient Irish music was acknow- 
 ledged by their bitterest enemies, incomparably superior to that 
 of the neighbouring nations ; and the remains thereof preserved 
 in Ireland, Scotland, and England, though plagiarised, leave no 
 doubt on that head. If music be sentiment guided by harmony, 
 
OF IRELAND. 165 
 
 pause to consider and observe the effects of good 
 and impartial government on the hearts of the Irish 
 nation. Let the enemies of Ireland here stop to 
 contemplate the reception which this country gave 
 to that prince, under whom she enjoyed the bles- 
 sings of equal law. Let the viceroys of Ireland 
 learn from this example how to govern, so as to 
 secure the loyalty and affection of the people.— 
 Here we will find the Irish nation throwing them- 
 
 they possessed in the perfection of sublime simplicity, the most 
 soul -moving melody ; never descending to the caterwauling semi- 
 demiquivers of some farraginous, incongruous, unmeaning over- 
 lures. A passion for literature, especially history, poetrj^, and 
 music, was so firmly grafted in the Milesians, that it could not be 
 extirpated without the expiration of the nation. Every clan had 
 hereditary lawyers, hereditary historians, hereditary physicians, 
 hereditary bards, combining poetry and music. Thus family in- 
 terest was engaged in the improvement and preservation of every 
 art and profession. Every generation was sedulous to hand down 
 the records, containing the rules and improvements of each pro- 
 fession, to their posterity. Hence the Danish wars of two hun- 
 dred years, and the English and Irish wars of four hundred 
 years continuance, were unable to pluck up the strong and deep 
 roots of Irish learning, until the nation and it fell together ; even 
 still there is no such general passion for learning to be found ia 
 the bulk of the people in any other country, working against a 
 current of obstacles and oppressions." The fate of English litera- 
 ture was quite different, because it had not its roots in the con- 
 stitution. The wars and policy of the Danes extirpated the learn- 
 ing which Ireland had planted ; so that until the Norman con- 
 quest, few barons could write their names. " In former times 
 many farms and manors were given by bare word, without writing, 
 only with the sword of the lord on his head-piece, with a lance 
 or a standing goblet, and many tenements with a quill, with a 
 horsecomb, with a bow, with an arrow." So writes Hayward ift 
 liis life of William the conqueror. 
 
166 THE HISTORY 
 
 selves between their benefactor and his enemies, 
 and, with all the ardour of the most grateful affec- 
 tion, offering their lives and fortunes in his defence. 
 This was not the extortion of monopoly ; it was the 
 kind offering of the heart overflowing with grati- 
 tude, and burning for the opportunity to give ex- 
 pression to its sensibility. Writs were sent over to 
 Ireland to bring Richard to justice, but the Irish 
 parliament answered those writs in the memorable 
 language, " that it had ever been customary in 
 their land, to receive and entertain strangers with 
 due support and hospitality." The same assem- 
 bly soon after enacted laws for the preservation of 
 the duke's person. They declared that Ireland 
 was only to be governed by laws enacted by the 
 king, lords, and commons of Ireland; that this 
 realm hath also its constable and marshal, before 
 whom all appeals are to be made. Richard is a- 
 gain encouraged to embark for England. Back- 
 ed by the men and treasure of Ireland, he arrived 
 in London, and was declared by the British Par- 
 liament successor to Henry. Margaret prepared to 
 oppose him, and the battle of Wakefield, in which 
 Richard opposed the royal army with a dispropor- 
 tioned force, terminated his life, and the hopes of 
 the party. 
 
 The result of this celebrated action shook to its 
 centre the English interest in Ireland, and the co- 
 lony was again assailed on all sides by the incur- 
 sions of the surrounding chieftains. Tributes were 
 again imposed and paid by the colony, and thus a 
 partial peace was purchased. O'Neil in the north. 
 
OF IRELAND. 167 
 
 O'Brien and MacCarty in the south, received those 
 annual tributes. Thus did the various fluctuation 
 of the houses of York and Lancaster operate with 
 malignant and cruel effect on the peace and com- 
 forts of the Irish people, as well as the English co- 
 lony. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 EDWARD III. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 14^1. 
 
 The reign of Edward affords to the reflect- 
 ing mind, few materials from which either 
 instruction or entertainment may be derived. 
 It exhibits a painful picture of vindictive triumph 
 and party fury, of narrow contracted policy with 
 regard to Ireland, and avaricious rapacity with re- 
 gard to the colony. 
 
 George, Duke of Clarence, was created viceroy 
 on the accession of Edward ; and the adherents of 
 the house of York were honoured with new distinc- 
 tions, and increased confidence. Sir Rowland 
 Fitz Eustace was created baron of Portlester, and 
 Sir Robert Barnwall baron of Trimbleston. The 
 Earl of Ormond first fell a victim to the vengeance 
 of the Yorkists, and an act of attainder was passed 
 by the Irish parliament against the family of But- 
 ler in 1462, for adhering to the king's enemies. 
 Sir John Ormond, brother of the late earl, fled into 
 
THE HISTORY OP IRELAND. 169 
 
 Munster, and took up arms against the deputy. 
 The house of Desmond oppose him, and, after a 
 furious engagement, Ormond received a disastrous 
 overthrow. The triumphant Desmond was now ap- 
 pointed viceroy, and, elated with his exaltation, the 
 pride of his demeanour peculiarly mortified his ene- 
 mies. The sept of Melachlin, the ruling Irish fami- 
 ly of Meath, were at this time invaded by one of the 
 most ancient English settlers, called Petit, from 
 whom the family of the Marquis of Lansdown flow. 
 The sept rose in arms ; and Desmond having sup- 
 ported the claims of Petit, the neighbouring clans 
 flew to the relief of Melachlin, routed the army of 
 the deputy, and took the latter prisoner, with most 
 of his distinguished followers. The Earl of Des- 
 mond fell into the hands of an honourable enemy j 
 and, as if mortified by the generous treatment he ex- 
 perienced, it was during his administration we find 
 the most cruel and fiend-like enmity manifested to- 
 wards the native Irish. Desmond being restored 
 to his government by the generosity of an enemy 
 who despised his power, did not provide against the 
 dangers which threatened the English interests on 
 all sides of the pale. The sept of O'Brien issued 
 from the south, crossed the Shannon, and expelled 
 the English settlers of Munster. They peaceably 
 negociated with the native Irish in Leinster, Ar- 
 gial, and Breffney (or Cavan), and hung over the 
 English pale with dreadful denunciations. The 
 Irish chieftains were content with forcing the com- 
 mon enemy to the disgraceful payment of tribute ; 
 and, as usual, retired within their respective ter- 
 
170 THE HISTORY 
 
 ritories, without striking at the root of the suffer- 
 ings of their country. Such mortifying defeats and 
 indignities exposed Desmond to much obloquy, 
 and afforded peculiar triumph to his enemies. 
 
 The bishop of Meath charges Desmond with op- 
 pression and extortion, and both parties send for- 
 ward their respective representations to the British 
 monarch. The Irish parliament address the king 
 in favour of Desmond, and implore his majesty to 
 give no credence to any accusers of the earl. With 
 such honourable testimonials, Desmond presents 
 himself before Edward, silences the accusations of 
 his opponents, and returns to Ireland to indulge a 
 thoughtless triumph over his enemies. 
 
 In 1465, we find this deputy, with his catholic 
 parliament of the pale, enacting laws which at once 
 excite our indignation and our ridicule ; sanguinary 
 and absurd, impotent and furious — the offspring of 
 folly and malignity. The torments they give birth 
 to, turn on the inventor j and the cathoHc English 
 colony will hereafter be seen suffering in property 
 and in person from those very laws that were di- 
 rected by them against the devoted Irish. They 
 passed an act setting a price upon the heads of 
 Milesians going from, or coming into, any part of 
 the pale, if he or they be not in company with an 
 Englishman of good repute, wearing English ap- 
 parel. They also passed an act, that every Irish- 
 man living among the English settlers, shall change 
 their sirnames, speak English, and wear English 
 apparel. They enacted that no ship or other ves- 
 sel of any^ foreign country shall go for fish to Irish 
 
OF IRELAND. 171 
 
 counties. What spirit prompted this infernal con* 
 federacy against the laws of God and humanity ? 
 Was it religion or superstition ? No. Was it be- 
 cause the Irish were a barbarous nation ? No ; this 
 cannot be urged by such legislators. — Why did 
 this catholic pale thus endeavour to make the hu- 
 mane and tender, savage and ferocious — the hos- 
 pitable Irishman, the merciless barbarian? The 
 Irish reader will immediately answer — because Eng- 
 land so ordered it ; because the monoply of the 
 pale which she either wickedly or foolishly cherish- 
 ed, was insatiable for Irish blood, and should be 
 gratified. Could a protestant parliament enact 
 laws more barbarous than these we have quoted by 
 a catholic parliament ? Certainly not ; but a pro- 
 testant parliament has followed the footsteps of this 
 catholic parliament, and has obeyed the instruc- 
 tions of England with equal fidelity. 
 
 Irishmen should never confound the errors of 
 their countrymen with the crimes of England, nor 
 contend with each other when the prolific source 
 of all Ireland's wrongs stands before them. Yet 
 Mr Leland writes of this parliament, that ** the 
 statutes it passed were particularly calculated not 
 only for the defence of the pale, but for the re- 
 fining the manners of its inhabitants, and forming 
 them by the English model." Mr Leland's idea 
 of refinement is somewhat singular, if it can only 
 be brought about by the establishment of principles 
 which tear from the human breast the finest feel- 
 ings of our nature, proclaim war against our neigh- 
 
172 THE HISTORY 
 
 hour, and level humanity with the beast of the 
 field, or the fowl of the air. 
 
 The deputy, Desmond, who thus refined the man- 
 ners of the Irish, shortly after his honourable la- 
 bours, was brought to the block by his enemies. 
 Kildare repaired to the British monarchy and made 
 such representations as restored the family of the 
 Geraldines to their ancient power and authority. 
 The Irish parliament co-operate with Kildare in 
 visiting on the enemies of his house the most mer* 
 ciless vengeance. The temporary revolution ef- 
 fected in England by the Earl of Warwick re- 
 storing Henry VI. to the throne, left Kildare un- 
 disturbed in the government of the English colony. 
 " The measures he adopted," says Mr TaafFe, 
 " for the defence of the pale, demonstrate the nul- 
 lity of its resources, and that it was not power, 
 but will, the ancient proprietors wanted, to pluck 
 that deleterious thorn out of their side.'' 
 
 The reader will find but little entertainment in 
 perusing the detail of the family quarrels of the But- 
 lers and Fitzgeralds. A native of England is ap- 
 pointed deputy by Edward IV. without consult- 
 ing the colonists. He was opposed and disowned ; 
 Kildare kept the lieutenancy : Keating, governor 
 of the castle, refused him entrance ; Kildare form- 
 ed an alliance with Con O'NIal of the north, which 
 fixed and established his influence, and made it al- 
 most imperative on the British monarch to retain 
 him as deputy. He continued viceroy during the 
 reigns of Edward V. and Richard III. a period 
 which affords no subject to the historian worthy of 
 
OF IRELAND. 173 
 
 record* We read the same round of internal feuds 
 and animosities, terminating in civil war and blood, 
 and the same scenes of violence to perpetuate and 
 extend the English interests, without regard to the 
 obh'gations of justice, of humanity, or religion. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 HENRY Vir. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1480. 
 
 The triumphs of Henry VII. over the 
 House of York, were heard in Ireland with 
 feelings of deep and sincere regret. The 
 vices of Richard III. were unknown and unexpe- 
 rienced, and the virtues of his ancestor lived in 
 the grateful recollection of the Irish nation. It 
 would be reasonably expected, that the policy of 
 the conqueror would have suggested the expedi- 
 ency of placing in the administration of his Irish 
 government, the partizans of the house of Lancas- 
 ter ; but, whether from fear, or from a more pro- 
 found policy, he continued the friends of the house 
 of York in the enjoyment of all the honours and 
 emoluments of the vice-regal administration. He 
 reposed confidence in the Earl of Kildare as lord 
 lieutenant, and the brother of the earl as his Irish 
 chancellor. Rowland, lord Portlester, another zea- 
 lous Yorkist, continued treasurer, with all the old 
 
THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 175 
 
 ofiBcers of state, and former privy council. Were 
 we to form an opinion of the motive which ac- 
 tuated Henry to preserve the ministers of York in 
 the administration of Ireland, we should be in- 
 clined to conclude, that the formidable power of 
 the English lords of the pale, who were devoted 
 to the interests of the house of York, could more 
 easily be gained over by the affected confidence of 
 the monarch, than restrained or put down by the 
 violence of his jealousy, or the terror of his arms. 
 
 The desperate resistance of Keating, the prior of 
 Kilmainham, to the appointment of Lumley, who 
 was selected by Henry to succeed him in his ec- 
 clesiastical dignities, fully demonstrates the strength 
 of the York party in Ireland. Keating ordered 
 Lumley to be seized and thrown into prison, in op- 
 position to the threats of Henry. The Earl of Kil- 
 dare governed in Ireland without any restraint, even 
 from the rivalship or the jealousy of the great barons 
 of the colony. Desmond slumbered in the lazy 
 pride of rude magnificence ; he boasted of his ex- 
 emption from the labours of legislation, and left 
 the administration of the colony to the sole direc- 
 tion of Kildare. In England, the British monarch 
 manifested the most relentless and unforgiving 
 spirit against the house of York. The young Earl 
 of Warwick, son^of the unhappy Duke of Clarence, 
 was committed to close custody, — the daughter of 
 Edward was treated with coldness and neglect by 
 her husband Henry, — and the friends of the 
 Yorkists were pursued on all sides by attainders, 
 forfeitures, and confiscations. 
 
176 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The widow of Edward IV. could no longer repress 
 her indignation at the treatment of her daughter, 
 the relentless persecutions of her friends, and the 
 unwearied spirit with v/hich Henry insulted the 
 feelings of the family. She secretly consulted 
 with his enemies, and industriously encouraged 
 the disposition to disaffection throughout the 
 kingdom. 
 
 Henry having received information from Ireland, 
 which excited his apprehensions of the fidelity of 
 Kildare, he summoned the latter to repair to his 
 court ; who artfully evaded the royal mandate, by a 
 parliamentary representation of the dangers to be 
 incurred by his absence from the administration of 
 Irish affairs. At length, the suspicions of Henry 
 were confirmed by the developement of a scheme 
 conceived by an ecclesiastic of Oxford, to make an 
 experiment on the disaffection of Henry's subjects. 
 Richard Lemon, a monk of Oxford, prevailed on a 
 youth called Lambert Simnel, to represent the Earl 
 of Warwick, who, as report stated, had escaped 
 from confinement. Simnel, being possessed of con- 
 siderable address, personated the young earl with 
 so much success, that he was adopted by persons 
 of the highest consequence and distinction, as a 
 fit instrument by which an effort could be made 
 to effect a revolution of the government. Though 
 Simnel sustained his part with ease and dignity, 
 Ireland (a country where the young Warwick 
 was least known, and where a discovery of the irn- 
 position was least probable), was considered by the 
 conspirators as the fittest theatre on which this cu- 
 
OF IRELAND. 177 
 
 rious and interesting drama ought to be acted. The 
 national zeal of Ireland for the house of York 
 pointed out that country as the certain asylum of 
 Warwick, and the grand support on which he might 
 rely to advance his pretensions to the throne. 
 
 Simnel, and his attendant the monk, arrived in 
 Dublin, where he was received with all the warmth 
 of a people grateful for the services rendered to 
 them by his ancestor. The whole colony, with 
 some few exceptions, embraced his cause. Kildare 
 summoned the council. Simnel was conveyed in 
 pomp to the castle of Dublin ; received the homage 
 and acclamations of his numerous adherents, with 
 the most gracious dignity ; was entertained and 
 treated as a sovereign, and in a few days publicly 
 proclaimed king, by the name of Edward VL 
 
 Henry, who was considerably alarmed at the ex- 
 traordinary scene then acting in his Irish dominions, 
 proceeded to take such steps as were calculated to 
 check the growing danger. He seized the queen 
 dowager, who was supposed to be the principal 
 agent in the conspiracy, and committed her to a 
 nunnery. To demonstrate the imposition practised 
 on his subjects by the artifices of his enemies, he 
 ordered the real Earl of Warwick to be taken from 
 the Towner and conducted through the streets of 
 London, where he conversed with some of the 
 principal nobility. The zeal of the Irish colony for 
 the house of York, retorted upon the king the charge 
 of imposition, and upbraided in their turn the cre- 
 dulity of the English nation, who refused to acknow- 
 ledge Simnel as the real Earl of Warwick. Emissaries 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
178 THE HISTORY 
 
 repaired to England to sound the disposition and as- 
 certain the numbers of those who were ready to 
 vindicate and support the claims of the house of 
 York. Ambassadors were sent to the Duchess of 
 Burgundy, the sister of Edward IV., who saw with 
 mortification the prosperity and triumphs of the 
 Lancastrians, Francis, Lord Lovel, chamberlain of 
 Richard, and John, Earl of Lincoln, whom Richard 
 IIL designed to leave as his successors to the throne, 
 w^ere at that time resident at the court of the Duch- 
 ess of Burgundy. They immediately embraced the 
 cause of Simnel, and landed in Ireland in the year 
 14S7, with a force of 2000 Flemish troops, under 
 the command of Swaart, a valiant and experienced 
 officer. Animated by such support, the colonists 
 proceeded to the coronation of Simnel. He was 
 conducted in due state to Christ-church, attended 
 by the lord deputy and his officers of state ; the 
 Bishop of Meath explained and enforced his right 
 to the crown, even from the pulpit. From the 
 church he was conveyed in pomp to the castle of 
 Dublin, elevated on the shoulders of D'Arcy, chief 
 of a considerable English family of Meath ; a cere- 
 mony, Mr Leland says, adopted from the native 
 Irish. 
 
 The young king convened a parliament ; subsi- 
 dies were granted ; the whole administration of go- 
 vernment, the procedure of law, and execution of 
 justice, passed some time regularly in the name of 
 Edward VI. 
 
 The state of the colony at this period was (even 
 according to colonial writers) very circumscribed j 
 
OF IIIELAND. 179 
 
 it seemed to exist rather from the sufferance of the 
 native Irish chieftains, than by its own strength. 
 The names of Kildare, Desmond, and Ormond, 
 commanded respect more as Irish princes, than 
 English lords ; more from their connections with 
 the native Irisii, to whom they were now a good 
 deal assimilated in manners, than as the descend- 
 ants of those English barons who invaded Ireland ; 
 the resources of the deputy's treasury were inade- 
 quate to the expense of a large military establish- 
 ment ; and it ceased, therefore, to be a matter of 
 choice whether he should determine on the invasion 
 of England, aided by Flemish allies. The invasion 
 of England was determined upon, and Simnel, with 
 his alHes, landed in Lancashire, at a place called 
 Foud ery. 
 
 Henry lost no time in endeavouring to repel the 
 invaders. He met the Irish at a village called 
 Stoke, in Nottingham. The desperate valour of 
 the Irish, aided by the discipline of the German 
 veterans, kept the battle a long time doubtful. At 
 length victory declared for Henry. The gallant 
 Swaart, Lord Lovel, Sir Thomas Broughton, and a 
 number of distinguished Irishmen, fell on the field 
 of battle. Among the prisoners were Simnel, and his 
 tutor the priest, who thus closed their short career 
 of imposture and fraud. Henry spared SimnePs 
 life, but consigned him to the menial offices of his 
 kitchen, where he might be the subject of public 
 derision and contempt. Lemon, the clergyman, 
 was thrown into prison, and it is supposed, sacrificed 
 to the vengeance of Henry. Thus terminated one 
 
 M 2 
 
180 THE HISTORY 
 
 of the most singular impositions ever practised on 
 a whole nation in the annals of history. This 
 dream of the English colony closed in the most 
 mortifying disappointment and disaster. The ven- 
 geance of Henry was averted by the timely ac- 
 knowledgments of error on the part of Kildare and 
 the principal barons ; and the king, pressed by 
 more important considerations in his own country, 
 seized the opportunity the repentance of his sub- 
 jects offered, and granted amnesty for past offences. 
 The dependence of Henry on the barons of the co- 
 lony to repel the more formidable efforts of the 
 Irish, who were anxious to extinguish the English 
 interests in Ireland, obliged him to dissemble his 
 indignation at the late eflbrt of his Irish subjects to 
 drive him from his throne. 
 
 Soon after, Henry commissioned Sir Richard 
 Edgecombe to go to Ireland, in order that he might 
 there tender the royal pardon to such as would re- 
 new their oaths of allegiance. After some remon- 
 strance from Kildare, and a few of the principal 
 barons of the pale, the latter agreed to perform 
 homage and fealty to Henry in the most public 
 manner. Accordingly the Lords Portlester, Gor- 
 manston, Slane, Howth, Trimbleston, and Dunsany 
 took the oaths of allegiance. The prelates and ab- 
 bots of Dublin submitted in like manner. The on- 
 ly persons to whom the royal favour was denied were 
 Plunket, Chief Justice, and Keating, the prior of 
 Kilmainham, who were particularly obnoxious from 
 their distinguished zeal in the cause of the impostor 
 yimnQl. 
 
OF IRELAND. 181 
 
 In consequence of the jealousies which arose be- 
 tween Kildare, who took up arms against his mo- 
 narch, and those barons who had continued faithful 
 in their allegiance, Henry summoned the contend- 
 ing lords to his court, where he exhibited the mock 
 prince, Simnel, in the capacity of butler ; thus mor- 
 tifying the Irish lords by representing the idol be- 
 fore wdiom they bent the knee, reduced to the hum- 
 ble and degrading situation of servant to the mo- 
 narch whom they threatened to depose. 
 
 The result of the interview with the English mo- 
 narch was the reconciliation of all parties. The 
 Irish were dismissed with confidence and assurances 
 of the royal favour. The south and the north of 
 Ireland were disturbed by the struggles of the Earl 
 of Desmond with the O'Carrols of Thomond, and 
 the MacCartys of Desmond, over whom lie gained 
 two great victories, which, though not immediately 
 contributing to extend the territories of the colony, 
 had the effect of weakening and dividing the Irish 
 force, and exposing the country hereafter to the 
 more subtle practices of its enemies. In the north, 
 the O'Nials and Tyrconnells waged a sanguinary 
 and destructive war, which the interposition of the 
 deputy could not prevent. About this time a se- 
 cond impostor rose up, called Perkin Warbeck, 
 whose pretensions were encouraged by the intrigu- 
 ing Duchess of Burgundy. Henry seeing the storm 
 approach, took all necessary precautions to guard 
 against its effects. He removed Kildare from the 
 Irish administration, and with him all those officers 
 w^hom he had reason to suspect favourable to the 
 new conspiracy. Such a change in the government 
 
182 THE mSTORY 
 
 of Ireland generated all the malignant passions of 
 jealousy and envy among the principal barons of the 
 pale ; and Ormond and Kildare sacrificed to their 
 mutual hatred the solid interests of their sovereign, 
 and the tranquillity and happiness of the colony. 
 Ireland was thus torn by contending factions, when 
 Perkin Warbeck made his appearance in the cha- 
 racter of Richard Plantagenet, who was supposed 
 to have escaped from the Tower. He was received 
 with all the honours due to that young prince. The 
 result, however, of the efforts of this impostor in 
 Ireland, were little more than the multiplication of 
 those fruitless struggles between the great barons, 
 which desolated the colony. In addition to those 
 calamities, Ireland was visited with the sweating 
 sickness, a species of malady that raged with hor- 
 rible fury in London at this period ; and which, Mr 
 Hume says, was not propagated by any contagious 
 infection, but arose from the general disposition of 
 the air, and of the human body — thousands fell vic- 
 tims to it. 
 
 The complaints made to Henry of Irish distress 
 and suffering were so great, that he summoned 
 Walter, the archbishop of Dublin, to appear before 
 him with a clear and satisfactory detail of the causes 
 of the calamities under which Ireland then labour- 
 ed. The archbishop appeared before his monarch, 
 who demanded the reason why " so little advantage 
 had been hitherto derived from the acquisitions of 
 his predecessors in Ireland, notwithstanding the 
 natural w^ealth and frultfulness of that country ?" It 
 is written, that the answer of the bishop discovered 
 neither integrity nor penetration. Like many An- 
 
OP IKE LAND. 183 
 
 glo-Irishinen who have succeeded him, he fled for 
 refuge from the honest inquiries of his sovereign, 
 to the senseless calumny of the country which he 
 presumed to represent : he told the king the people 
 of Ireland were an idle, w^andering, and turbulent 
 people ', and that even the English colony in that 
 country were diseased with the destructive habits 
 of the Irish. 
 
 The representations of the bishop had the effect 
 of gratifying the vengeance, if not of healing the 
 wounds of Ireland ; and Kildare, the powerful, was 
 obliged to yield to the stern rebuke of the monarch, 
 who was now better enabled, by his circumstances 
 in England, to act a decided part in the govern- 
 ment of his Irish dominions. He therefore selected 
 Sir Edward Poynings, as the person best qualified 
 to extinguish the insolent tyranny of the factious 
 lords. He invested this knight with unlimited 
 powers to hear all complaints, to punish the guilty, 
 and reward the meritorious, as his judgment point- 
 ed out. No confidence was reposed by Henry in 
 any of his Irish officers of the colony. He sub- 
 stituted in their places Englishmen of the highest 
 character, and thus determined to strike at the root 
 of that torturing monopoly, which enriches itself 
 with the tears and the miseries of the people it 
 rules over. 
 
 Henry sent over an English lord chancellor, an 
 English lord treasurer, English judges and law of- 
 ficers. All embarked with Sir Edward Poynings, 
 and, on his arrival, were sworn of the privy council. 
 It is instructive to observe the effort made by 
 
1&4 THE HISTORY 
 
 Henry at this period to establish such an admini- 
 stration in his colony in Irehmd, as would render 
 that country in some degree less formidable, and 
 more productive to the royal treasury, than it had 
 heretofore been. It is curious to observe the little 
 shiftings of a narrow and envious policy, and to re- 
 mark how slow is the progress of that enlightened 
 spirit of legislation, which sees sincere loyalty in 
 the communication of benefit, and estimates the 
 returns of the heart by the magnitude of the pri- 
 vilege conferred. We have hitherto seen England 
 balancing Ormond against Desmond, the north 
 against the south ; we are now to see her distrust- 
 ing all parties, and endeavouring to govern the 
 colony on their ruins. 
 
 The reflections of Mr Leland are too valuable 
 not to be introduced, even in this compendium of 
 Irish history. '• The late transactions in Ireland, 
 the bold attempt in favour of Simnel, and the des- 
 perate valour displayed by the troops led into Eng- 
 land by the Geraldines, had made this country the 
 subject of general discourse and speculation ; and 
 the rising spirit of project and inquiry had engaged 
 individuals to search deeply into the revolutions ex- 
 perienced in Ireland since the reign of Henry II. 
 The declension of the English interests, the dis- 
 positions, temper, and power of the old natives, 
 the designs and competitions of great lords, the 
 conduct of the king's officers, and the means of 
 rendering an appendage to the crown of England, 
 in itself so valuable, of real weight and consequence 
 to the general weal." There is a discourse still ex- 
 
OF IRELAND. 185 
 
 tant in some repositories of curious papers, said to 
 have been presented to the king and council, not 
 later than the present period, in which the affair > 
 of Ireland are copiously examined. The author 
 labours to engage the king in the complete reduc- 
 tion and settlement of this country ; his researches 
 are accurate, and his policy judicious. He recounts 
 no less than 60 regions, of different dimensions, all 
 governed by Irish chieftains, after their laws and 
 manners ; together with a long catalogue of dege- 
 nerate English, who had renounced all obedience 
 to government in the several provinces. The pale 
 of English law he confines within the narrow bounds 
 of half the counties of Uriel, Meath, Kildare, 
 Dublin, and Wexford ; and the common people of 
 those districts he represents as entirely conform- 
 ing to the Irish habit and language, although they 
 professed obedience to the laws ; so general had 
 been the intercourse of fostering, marriage, and 
 alliance with the enemy. The grievances of those 
 counties, from oppressive exactions, unnatural feuds, 
 expeditions undertaken by deputies from personal 
 animosity or private interest, to the utter ruin of 
 the subject, and without the least advantage to the 
 state ; laws forgotten, neglected, and defied ; an 
 increasing degeneracy, a general ignorance, and 
 scandalous inattention to instruct and reform the 
 people, are all detailed fully. 
 
 The remedies proposed are — a competent force 
 sent out of England, to support the authority of a 
 chief governor of integrity and equity ; a strict atten- 
 tion to the training the people to the English art of 
 
186 THE HISTORY 
 
 war; garrisons stationed so as to awe the Irish ene- 
 mies and rebels, to put an end to local quarrels, and 
 gradually to reduce the whole body of the inhabi- 
 tants to obedience ; equitable and moderate taxa- 
 tion, substituted in the place of arbitrary imposi- 
 tions : with other particular regulations, many of 
 which were afterwards adopted. — CPandarus sive la- 
 tuspopulL M, S, Trin, CoL Dub. J Such remains 
 of antiquity are not unworthy of notice, as the sen- 
 timents and opinions of cotemporaries serve to il- 
 lustrate and confirm the representations collected 
 from history or records. 
 
 In this instrument, we do not find any recommen- 
 dation to extend the protection of the constitution 
 —to impart its advantages — to cultivate confidence 
 — to promote social and friendly intercourse with 
 the natives — to exhibit a disposition kind and af- 
 fectionate, to a people most sensible to such en- 
 dearing sentiments. No ; we see more new friends 
 from England recommended: more strong measures, 
 more national distrust. Still it must be acknow- 
 ledged that throughout this document a milder 
 spirit of equity is discernible than we have before 
 witnessed 5 and that from this period we may date 
 the dawn of that day which discovered to English- 
 men the great and paramount importance of Ire- 
 land as a member of the British empire. 
 
 The arrival of Sir Edward Poynings in Ireland, 
 promised no extraordinary extension of the coloni- 
 al territory: his mission seemed to be more directed 
 to a reformation of the colony itself, than the sub- 
 jugation of the native Irish ; and the merit of ex- 
 
OF IRELAND. 187 
 
 tingiiishing the wretched factions of the pale, which 
 were eating up the resources of the Irish nation, 
 was reserved for Sir Edward Poynings, whose cha^ 
 racter and whose talents were particularly calculated 
 to accomplish so desirable an object. 
 
 The pohcy of this chief governor was nothing less 
 than that of the general and extensive reformation 
 of the state ; to put an end to the iniquity of mi- 
 nisters, and the oppositions of the people, as well as 
 to extinguish every remaining spark of disaffection 
 and rebellion. Sir Edward Poynings was opposed 
 by an Irish chieftain named O'Hanlon, in such and 
 so effectual a manner as calls up the anger and con- 
 temptible resentment of some colonial writers, at 
 what they call the cowardly warfare of the Irish. 
 
 Mr Leiand says, that Sir Edward Poynings found 
 the Irish an embarrassing, though not a very hon- 
 ourable enemy. In what did the want of Irish ho- 
 nour consist ? In taking advantage of the various re- 
 treats their country afforded, they kept their enemy 
 in perpetual terror and anxiety, without striking a 
 decisive blow ; and thus the Irish defeated the hopes 
 of this aspiring deputy, who was to have conquered 
 the barbarous Irish with so much facility. Sir Ed- 
 ward Poynings was determined that his legislative 
 war against the vices of his subjects of the pale, 
 should obliterate the remembrance of his unsuccess- 
 ful struggles against the native Irish ; and accord- 
 ingly, in 1495 he convened a parliament, which 
 commenced the enactment of those laws that were 
 well calculated to curb the licentiousness oftheco- 
 
188 THE HISTORY 
 
 lonial barons, and to liberate the people from those 
 oppressive exactions which the former imposed to 
 such intolerable excess. The taxes paid by the peo- 
 ple of the pale were defined, and the power of the 
 nobles was bounded and circumscribed by the law. 
 This parliament of Sir Edward Poynings assimilat- 
 ed the laws of the pale with those of England j for 
 instance, in the important and paramount case of 
 murder, they were forbidden to prosecute the offen- 
 der in the old Irish method of compelling his sept 
 to pay a fine, but to proceed regularly according 
 to the English law ; and this crime of murder, by a 
 severity most expedient and necessary, in times of 
 turbulence, was declared to be high treason. Be- 
 sides some statutes against individuals, we find, in 
 the proceedings of this famous parliament, an act 
 of attainder passed against Gerald Fitzthomas, 
 Earl ofKildare, for treason and rebellion, corres- 
 ponding with O'Hanlon, practising the extortion 
 of coyne and livery, and intriguing with the king 
 of the Scots. The vengeance of Sir Edward's par- 
 liament was extended to all his adherents and kins- 
 men, of whom we find a long catalogue attainted 
 of high treason, so as to reduce this noble family, 
 which had so long maintained the first rank in Ire- 
 land, to the lowest state of depression and disgrace. 
 So suspected were the inhabitants of the colony 
 by this chief governor, that it was determined 
 none but Eno^lish should be entrusted with the care 
 of the principal places of strength, throughout the 
 whole English settlements j and the turbulent and 
 
OF IRELAND. 189 
 
 seditious conduct of the prior of Kilmainham, 
 Keating, suggested another statute, by which an 
 Englishman alone was to be invested with the pri- 
 ory of St John of Jerusalem. 
 
 The most memorable law enacted by the parlia- 
 ment of Sir Edward Poynings, and of which Eng- 
 lish historians have deigned to take some notice, is 
 the law called Poynings' law. The principal pro- 
 vision of which is as follows : — " Whereas many 
 statutes lately made within the realm of England 
 would contribute to the wealth and prosperity of 
 Ireland, if used and executed in the same, it is or- 
 dained and established by the authority of parlia- 
 ment, and by the assent of the lords and commons, 
 that all statutes late y made within the realm of 
 England, belonging to the public weal of the same, 
 be deemed good and effectual in law, accepted, 
 used, and executed within this land of Ireland ; 
 authorised, approved, and confirmed.'* Lord Ba- 
 con calls this a memorable law, and the first provi- 
 sion for making the statutes of England in force 
 in Ireland ; but, as Mr Leland observes, the same 
 provision is made by a statute of the 7th of Ed- 
 ward IV. and the terms of the statute of Poynings 
 contradicts and refutes the idea that the Irish co- 
 lony resigned their rights to England of making- 
 laws for the regulation of its own people. But 
 there was another law, called Poynings' law also, 
 which roused the indignation and fired the pride of 
 Ireland, at a great and memorable period of its 
 history. It is called an act " that no parliament 
 
190 THE MISTOHY 
 
 be holden in Ireland, until the acts be certified in- 
 to England."* 
 
 The parliament of Sir Edward Poynings yielded 
 to the malignant jealousies of the rivals of Kildare, 
 and pursued that prince with an implacable hosti- 
 
 * Sir John Davis, in his celebrated speech to the Irish House 
 of Lords, in the reign of James I., on his appointment to the si- 
 tuation of speaker or chairman of the commons, makes the fol- 
 lowing observations on this celebrated law of Poynings : — " In 
 the tenth year of Henry VII. Sir Edward Poynings summoned 
 and held that famous parliament, in which, doubtless, he showed 
 a large heart, and a great desire of a general reformation ; and, 
 to that end, procured many general laws to pass, which we find 
 most profitable and necessary for the commonwealth at this day. 
 
 " Among the rest he caused two laws to be made, which may 
 rightly be called leges legum, being excellent laws, concerning the 
 laws themselves, whereof one did look backwards to the time 
 past, and gave a great supply to the defects of former parliaments, 
 by confirming and establisliing at once in this realm, all the sta- 
 tutes formerly made in England. 
 
 " The other looked forward to the time to come, by providing, 
 that from thenceforth there should be no parliament holden here 
 until the acts which should be propounded were first certified into 
 England, and approved by the king and his council there, and 
 then returned hither, under the great seal of that realm. 
 
 " This latter act," says Sir John Davis, " is that we call Poyn- 
 ings' act, and is, indeed, that act of parHament which is a rule for 
 our parliaments until this day. 
 
 " But these acts," continued Sir John Davis, " by Sir Edward 
 Poynings, though they were made and meant for the general 
 good, and gave, indeed, the first overture for the general reforma- 
 tion that hath followed since .that time, yet could they not produce 
 so good and so great an effect as was intended by those laws ; be- 
 cause that more than three parts in four of this kingdom at least, 
 were then and long after possessed by the Irish, and unreformed 
 English, which were not answerable to the law." 
 
OF IRELAND. 191 
 
 lity. Sir Edward declined to take cognizance of 
 the various accusations that were so industriously 
 made against Kildare, and sent him prisoner to the 
 British monarch, before whom he should meet the 
 charges of his enemies. Thus the great and lead- 
 ing enemy of the English was put into the posses- 
 sion of Henry ; and Sir Edward Poynings, after the 
 triumphant establishment of his celebrated civil 
 institutions, returned to England, where he was 
 rewarded by his sovereign for his services in Ire- 
 land, with the honour of the garter. 
 
 The bishop of Bangor succeeded Sir Edward 
 Poynings in the administration of Ireland. Dur- 
 ing his government, the native Irish, and the dege- 
 nerate English, were consuming and destroying 
 each other by perpetual contests. In the mean 
 time, his secret and public enemies were busy in 
 their endeavours to poison the mind of Henry a- 
 gainst Kildare, who was at length summoned before 
 the British monarch, to answer the host of accusers 
 who were pledged to confront him. The honest, 
 open, and candid demeanour of Kildare won the 
 esteem of Henry, and constituted his best defence 
 against his accusers. An anecdote is told of this 
 Irish nobleman, which illustrates his character in a 
 very striking and remarkable manner. The king 
 desired Kildare to be prepared for his defence, and 
 to provide himself with able counsel, as he feared 
 his cause would require it. — " Yes, the ablest in 
 the realm," replied the earl, seizing Henry by the 
 hand, with an uncourtly familiarity ; " your high- 
 ness I take for my counsel against these false 
 
192 THE HISTORY 
 
 knaves." The king smiled at the novelty of this 
 address, and the uncouth compliment to his equity 
 and discernment ; his accusers were heard, and, 
 among the nuirieroas accusations which were made 
 against him, there was one which called forth a re- 
 ply, the simpHcity, and candour and manliness of 
 which, at once excited tiie admiration and astonish- 
 ment of Henry. Kildare w^as charged with sacri- 
 legiously burning the cliurch of Cashel to the 
 ground. *' Spare your evidence," said Kildare, 
 ** I did set fire to the church, for I thought the bi- 
 sliop had been in it." His accusers closed their 
 charge with a warm and passionate declaration, that 
 " all Ireland could not govern this earl." '* Well, 
 then," replied Henry, " this earl shall govern all 
 Ireland." 
 
 Thus the triumph of Kildare was complete ; he 
 was restored to his estates and honours, and soon 
 after created viceroy of Ireland. In this situation 
 he displayed that vigilance and activity, which, 
 aided by the late regulations of Sir Edward Poy- 
 nings, were well calculated to give permanency to 
 the English interests in Ireland. Connected by fa- 
 mily ties with the O'Nials of the north, he quelled 
 his opponents in that quarter, and forced them to 
 a submission. He subdued the south, and conci- 
 liated the heads of the principal families — the arch- 
 bishop of Armagh and the Prince of Ormond. He 
 formed alliances with the most powerful chieftains, 
 and gave his daughter to Uliac of Clanrickard, a 
 powerful lord of Connaught. This Irish chieftain 
 did not treat the daughter of Kildare in a manner 
 
OF IRELAND. 193 
 
 suited to her birth and character j and the earl re- 
 sented the indignity by declaring war against Clan- 
 rickard, which terminated in one of the most san- 
 guinary battles recorded in Irish annals. Clanrick- 
 ard was joined by O'Brien, and some Irish associates 
 of Munster, Those of the pale, united with the 
 deputy, were reinforced by O'Nial, his kinsman, 
 and other northern dynasties. 
 
 Though the cause of difference between the Earl 
 of Kildare and the Earl of Clanrickard was com- 
 pletely a private one, yet, on this occasion, the en- 
 tire forces of the colony and of the Irish chieftains 
 were drawn forth, as if the question to be decided 
 was the liberty or the slavery of Ireland. The 
 two armies met at Knoctore, within five miles of 
 Galway, (J 492,) and the Irish sustained a dreadful 
 defeat from the superior generalship and skill of 
 Kildare. So pleasing was the information of this 
 great victory to Henry, that he immediately con- 
 ferred the garter on the Earl of Kildare. The re- 
 sult of this battle was the surrender of Galway and 
 Athunree. 
 
 Mr Leland says, that from this reign we may 
 date the first revival of the English power in Ire- 
 land, which, from the Scottish war, in the reign of 
 Edward II. had gradually declined into a miserable 
 and precarious state of weakness. The connections 
 which were formed by the Earl of Kildare with the 
 principal Irish chieftains, the activity and genero- 
 sity of his disposition, the vigour of his arms, and 
 the fidelity of his zeal, established the power of the 
 English crown more firmly than we have hitherto 
 
 VOL, I. N 
 
184 THE HISTORY OF IRELAND, 
 
 seen it. Though the pale was not extended, it was 
 secured more effectually than in former reigns ; and 
 though the ignominious tribute paid by the English 
 colony was not withdrawn, yet, from the family 
 connection of the deputy with the principal Irish 
 chieftains, the influence of the English became 
 more extensive than it hitherto had been. Those 
 of the English whose manners and habits became 
 completely Irish, or who, in the language of Mr 
 Leland, had degenerated into the barbarous cha- 
 racter of the Irish, were more hostile to the increase 
 of English influence than even the natives them- 
 selves. Mr Leland attributes this degeneracy to a 
 lawless spirit of riot and disorder ; but, at the same 
 time, admits, that it may be reasonably imputed 
 to the weakness of English government, and to 
 that good-natured sociability and hospitality by 
 which the Irish were distinguished. The laws for- 
 bade all intermarrying with the Irish, but laws were 
 insignificant barriers against the propensities of hu- 
 manity, and the power of mutual intercourse and 
 affection. Even within the pale, at this period, the 
 Irish manners and language were predominant ; so 
 little progress did England make, by the fury of 
 her policy, or the terror of her arms, among the 
 Irish people. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 HENRY VIII. 
 
 A, D. The accession of Henry VIII. was produc- 
 1509. tive of little advantage to Ireland. The 
 gaiety of youth, and the influence of adula- 
 ti<i:n, the pride and pomp of royal dignity, the vain 
 pursuit of empty glory in foreign wars and ne- 
 gotiations, the intrigues of foreign courts, their po- 
 verty and their venality, the flatteries of the em- 
 peror Maximilian, and of Ferdinand of Spain, call- 
 ed olT the attention of Henry from the more useful 
 occupation of looking to the settlement of his Irish 
 dominions, and the firm establishment of his power 
 in that valuable member of his empire. 
 
 The Earl of Kildare was continued the viceroy 
 of Ireland, and was perpetually engaged in restrain- 
 ing the turbulent and factious spirit of the native 
 Irish, who were no sooner suppressed in one cor- 
 ner of the island, than they rose up in another. At 
 length the death of this celebrated nobleman, in the 
 
 N 2 
 
196 THE HISTORY 
 
 year 1513, produced a general sentiment of terror 
 among the friends of English government. In this 
 critical emergency, the council and nobles elected 
 Gerald, the son of the late earl, lord deputy, who 
 manifested the same spirit and energy in the sup- 
 pression of rebellion, which distinguished his fa- 
 ther. 
 
 After Gerald had completely restored tranquillity 
 and security to the English colony, he sailed for 
 England to receive further orders from his sove- 
 reign. He soon returned, and convened a parlia- 
 ment. In this parliament a subsidy of thirteen shil- 
 lings on every plowland was granted for ten years 
 to the king. Absentees were heavily taxed, and 
 the use of archery by the colony particularly en- 
 forced. Notwithstanding the vigorous and deci- 
 sive policy with which Gerald had administered the 
 affairs of this colony, the envy and jealousy of a 
 rival family were destined to counteract all his 
 efforts, and again plunge the people into new con- 
 vulsions. 
 
 Thomas Earl of Ormond died at this period, and 
 Peter or Piers Butler succeeded to his immense 
 estates. He saw with impatience the rising power 
 of the family of the Geraldines, and adopted every 
 stratagem which the most ingenious policy could 
 devise, to undermine the house of Kildare in the 
 estimation and confidence of the British monarch. 
 The result was, that Kildare was summoned to an- 
 swer to the charges that were brought by his ene- 
 mies. 
 
OF IRELAND. 197 
 
 At this period Henry VIII. was at leisure to de* 
 vote his mind to the consideration of his Irish 
 affairs ; and Cardinal Wolsey pointed out the ne- 
 cessity of no longer confiding in the administration 
 of an Irish viceroy, if his majesty wished to put an 
 end to the feuds and factions with which Ireland 
 had been perpetually distracted ; — that a neutral 
 person, a nobleman in no manner connected with 
 the parties and competitions which so long lacerat- 
 ed the country, was the most likely to restore tran- 
 quillity, and speedily effect the complete reduction 
 of the common enemy. The present circumstances 
 of Henry with relation to foreign powers, were par- 
 ticularly favourable to the experiment which his 
 minister suggested. He had concluded his treaty 
 with France. Louis had been succeeded by Francis 
 L Charles V. had not only succeeded to the crown 
 of Spain, but was advanced to the imperial dignity. 
 Henry was courted by those great rivals ; he had the 
 honour of being considered the arbitrator of Europe, 
 and his kingdom of England was in profound tran- 
 quillity. Such were the circumstances of Henry, 
 when Wolsey called his attention to his Irish do- 
 minions. — Thomas, Earl of Surry, was appointed 
 viceroy of Ireland. Kildare was thus removed from 
 the Irish administration, and his enemies gratified. 
 
 The Earl of Surry had no sooner assumed the 
 reins of power, than he was compelled to take the 
 field against Con O'Nial, distinguished among his 
 countrymen by the title of hoccagh^ or the limper. 
 The latter, finding that Surry was better prepared 
 for resistance than he had at first supposed, sent an 
 
198 THE HISTORY 
 
 embassy to the deputy, and disavowed all intention 
 of hostility. Mr Leland says that this submission 
 of so powerful a chieftain was considered as a fa- 
 vourable presage of the general reformation of the 
 entire island ; and it is recorded that the king had 
 the discernment and the candour to declare his opi- 
 nion, that until all the inhabitants were admitted to 
 the benefit of English law, permanent tranquillity 
 could never be effected in Ireland, Surry was or- 
 dered by Henry to confer the honour of knighthood 
 on the well affected chieftains of the north. A col- 
 lar of gold was presented to O'Nial, and a royal in- 
 vitation was given to that chieftain to visit the court 
 of the British monarch. Had Earl Surry been per- 
 mitted to examine into the administration of Ire- 
 land, the equity and moderation of his government, 
 and the firmness of his determinations, might have 
 prevented the recurrence of those factions and di- 
 visions which disgraced and impoverished the coun- 
 try ; but, as Mr Leland truly remarks, it was the 
 unhappiness of Ireland, that an English governor, 
 who had abilities to pursue any deliberate scheme 
 of reformation, was generally so necessary to the 
 more urgent interests of the crown, that he could 
 not long be spared to this service ; or so ill sup- 
 ported and supplied from England, that he could 
 not continue it with honour and with advantage. 
 
 Surry, after two years of a wise and equitable ad- 
 ministration of Ireland, was summoned by his sove- 
 reign to the command of the British army against 
 France. He was succeeded by Owen, Earl of Rich- 
 mond, the inveterate enemy of Kildare. The weak- 
 
OF IRELAND. 199 
 
 ness of this governor gave encouragement to the 
 turbulent and rebellious chieftains of Ireland to re- 
 new their contests ; and perhaps the divisions among 
 the Irish protected the colony against the imbecili- 
 ty of its governor. Mr Leland relates an anecdote 
 which illustrates the fancied or real importance of 
 those dynasties into which Ireland was then parti- 
 tioned, and also demonstrates the miserable weak- 
 ness of the English colony at this period, Mac 
 Gilpatrick, the Irish chieftain of Ossory, had been 
 insulted by the viceroy. Earl of Ormond. In all the 
 dignity of offended majesty, he determined to ap- 
 ply to the king of England for redress. He sent 
 forward his ambassador, who appeared at the cha- 
 pel door where Henry was going to his devotions ; 
 and advancing with a composed and undismayed 
 gravity of deportment, delivered his commission in 
 these words : " Sta pedibus, domine rex ; — dominus 
 mens Gillapatricius, me misitad te, et jussit dicere, 
 cjuod si non vis castigare Petrum Rufum, ipse faciet 
 bellum contra te." What satisfaction Henry gave 
 to the Irish chieftain, Mac Gilpatrick, or whether 
 any, is not known ; but the anecdote is illustrative 
 of the manners of the times, as well as the high opi- 
 nion the Irish prince entertained of his royal dignity. 
 The history of Ireland, at this period, is little 
 more than a history of the struggles of the principal 
 chieftains for ascendancy over each other — the un- 
 fortunate inhabitants being the perpetual victims of 
 ambition, of cruelty, or of caprice. In 1528, Sir 
 William Skeffington was created viceroy ; and in a 
 short time, we find this English knight undermined 
 
200 " THE HISTORY 
 
 in the royal favour by the representations of Kil- 
 dare, and the latter appointed deputy. The death 
 of Cardinal Wolsey confirmed the power of Kildare 5 
 he ceased to be content with the humble and se- 
 condary honours of viceroy ; he affected the rude 
 grandeur of a king, and was surrounded by those 
 lords of the old Irish race, who had ever been most 
 hostile to the English power ; he married two of 
 his daughters to O'Connor of Offaly, and O'CarrolI, 
 two powerful chieftains. Kildare treated those laws 
 of the pale with scorn which forbade such connec- 
 tions. The extension of his own power was his 
 chief object, and this violent and zealous partizan 
 monopolized all the honours and emoluments of 
 the state. 
 
 Those Englishmen of rank and information, who 
 had extensive settlements in Ireland, began to ap^ 
 prehend that the result of the violent dictatorial 
 measures of Kildare would be, perhaps, the destruc- 
 tion of their properties, because they might lead to 
 a complete overthrow of the English power in Ire- 
 land. They trembled for the precarious state of 
 the connection ; and they communicated their ap- 
 prehensions, and called upon Henry to interpose 
 with all his powder, to prevent the ruin which the 
 councils of Kildare must bring on his Irish domi- 
 nions. They represented to the English sovereign 
 the confined extent of the English laws and man- 
 ners, language and habits, — they stated, that they 
 were hmited to the narrow circle of 20 miles,-^ 
 they described, in strong and glowing terms, the 
 exactions and oppressions which they suffered, the 
 
OF IRELAND. 201 
 
 enormous jurisdictions of the English lords, the 
 destructive mutability of their government ; and, 
 lastly, they supplicated their monarch, that he would 
 be graciously pleased to entrust the charge of his 
 Irish government to some loyal subject sent from 
 his realm of England, whose sole object should be 
 the honour and interest of the crown, unconnected 
 with the Irish factions, and uninfluenced by partial 
 favour or affection. 
 
 Kildare was summoned to appear before his 
 sovereign, in consequence of these representations ; 
 and, notwithstanding the various artifices adopted 
 by Kildare to excuse his obedience to the royal 
 will, he was obliged to resign his government into 
 the hands of his son Thomas, a youth of 22 years, 
 and repair to England. The difficulties of inter- 
 course between London and Dublin, at this period 
 (1534) were so great, that no accurate intelligence 
 was for a length of time obtained, relative to the 
 fate of the Earl of Kildare, after his interview with 
 Henry. Reports were circulated that he had been 
 thrown into prison and poisoned. So dexterous were 
 the enemies of the house of Kildare, that young Lord 
 Thomas, the viceroy, was confirmed in the persuasion 
 that his father was put to death. He consulted with 
 his Irish associates, and thoughtlessly plunged into 
 a desperate rebelHon. Attended by a body of 160 
 followers, he entered the city of Dublin, rushed 
 into the council, then assembled in Mary's Abbey, 
 and resigning the sword of state, declared he was 
 determined to rely upon his own arms, and the as- 
 sistance of his brave companions, Cromer, the 
 
202 THE HISTORY 
 
 primate and chancellor, remonstrated with this rash 
 and violent youth, but he remonstrated in vain. 
 The silken lord, as the Irish bards styled him, 
 rushed forth at the head of his Irish train. The 
 Irish septs joined him, and traversed the pale, ex- 
 acting an oath of fidelity from the inhabitants. 
 Emissaries were dispatched by Lord Thomas to 
 the pope, and to the Emperor Charles, soliciting 
 succours in support of his rebellion. Lord Thomas 
 laid waste the fertile fields of Fingal, and threaten- 
 ed Dublin with fire and sword. He proposed to 
 his rivals the Eutlers, that all past animosities and 
 complaints should be buried in oblivion ; that the 
 independence of their commerce should be pre- 
 ferred, and, if possible, asserted ; and that Ireland 
 should be divided between the Geraldines and the 
 Butlers. The proposal was insolently rejected; 
 and the devastation of Ossory, the territory of the 
 Butlers, immediately followed. Dublin was be- 
 sieged by the rebel chieftain ; and, had it not been 
 for the seasonable supplies of soldiers and money 
 from England, must have fallen into the hands of 
 Lord Thomas, Lord Thomas retreated into Con- 
 naught, to practise with the Irish chieftains; and, 
 if possible, to procure a force which might enable 
 him to meet the governor with his new and in- 
 creased force. After many desperate contests with 
 the king's troops, the young and imprudent Lord 
 Thomas was abandoned by his followers, and left 
 to repent the wild and precipitate scheme in which 
 he involved so manv of his innocent and brave 
 countrymen. He was sent into England a prisoner. 
 
OF IRELAND. 203 
 
 and was there sacrificed to the vengeance of the 
 enraged Henry. Before he fell a victim to his folly, 
 he learned that his father, for whose supposed death 
 he first engaged in rebellion, was still living. Henry 
 was not satisfied with the single life of Lord Tho- 
 mas. In the insatiable fury of his rage, this san- 
 guinary and infamous monster smuggled over to 
 England the ^ve uncles of Lord Thomas, who, 
 though innocent of the crime with which they were 
 charged, were sacrificed to the vengeance of a re- 
 lentless despot. Such was the disastrous fate of a 
 young nobleman, who is described by the historian 
 as possessing a captivating person, manners the 
 most popular and interesting, and a courage which 
 no danger nor no difiiculty could appal. The 
 noblest feelings of our nature first impelled this 
 young lord to draw his sword against the laws of 
 his country ; and the martial ambition with which 
 he was fired by the praises and sycophancy of his 
 followers, robbed him of that prudence and sound 
 discretion which would have rendered him an orna- 
 ment to his country. 
 
 We have now arrived at that period of L'ish his- 
 tory which gave birth to new sources of calamity, 
 and new causes of national distraction and suffering. 
 A new era opens upon us 5 and the accumulated 
 opinions of ages, fenced round by the terrors of 
 power, and the fears of prejudice, are assailed by 
 the bold and intrepid hand of innovation. We shall 
 behold that king of England, who obtained from 
 the pope the high and flattering title of defender of 
 the faith, severing his kingdom from the church of 
 
204 THE HISTORY 
 
 Rome, — sacrificing his religion to his passions, — 
 opening the flood-gates of error, and letting in an 
 inundation of opinions as mutable as they were wild, 
 and fleeting as they were uncertain. We behold 
 the human mind broke loose, and sent adrift upon 
 the wide and tempestuous ocean of speculation, — 
 the abuses which disfigured the religion of Rome 
 (and what system of 1500 years standing would 
 not be corrupted by human passions ?) magnified 
 into abominations, — the power of the pope, which 
 the civilized world had been accustomed to revere, 
 denominated despotism, — and to rebel against that 
 religion which had so often sheathed the sword of 
 revolution, and illuminated the darkness of bar- 
 barism, was now considered the best evidence of 
 liberal and enlightened minds, and the best service 
 which the learned could render their country. Mr 
 TaafFe, speaking of the Reformation, has the fol- 
 lowing just observations: " English historians, as 
 well as their Irish partizans, give such accounts of 
 this Reformation begun by Henry VIII. as favour 
 their own party, and for want of knowing the real, 
 attributed to imaginary causes, its tardy and small 
 progress in Ireland. That arbitrary and cruel ty- 
 rant never meant any alteration in the creed or 
 ritual he had learned, but solely thirsted for mo- 
 ney and pleasure. To indulge his capricious lusts 
 he created the schism j to acquire money, and also 
 to deprive the pope of partizans, he suppressed 
 monasteries, and seized their estates and moveables^ 
 He had too much need of partizans, to lock up his 
 vast plunder of ecclesiastical property in his owa 
 
OF IRELAND. 205 
 
 coffers. He prudently distributed a great portion 
 of it among men of rank and talent, whom he thus 
 interested to espouse his innovations ; adding with- 
 al, such titles of honour and distinction as gene- 
 rally captivate human vanity. With these means, 
 and the exercise of unlimited power, the authority 
 of an obsequious parliament, the concurrence of a 
 corrupt prelacy, and the general timidity and pro- 
 crastinating policy of English catholics, the schism 
 was completed in England — in Ireland it met 
 greater opposition." Why in Ireland the Refor- 
 mation should meet with greater opposition than 
 in England may be accounted for, without having 
 recourse to the odious and humiliating causes stated 
 by Mr Leland, and other -advocates of the reform- 
 ed religion. 
 
 The people of Ireland were more interested in 
 the preservation of their religion and the protec- 
 tion of their priesthood than the people of Eng- 
 land, because there were a fewer number of abuses 
 to be complained of; few^er examples of hypocrisy 
 and fraud to be found in Ireland than in England. 
 In the former, the minister of religion was never 
 detected making the sacred functions of his office 
 the instruments of his ambition or his aggrandize- 
 ment. Here he did not feed on public credulity, 
 nor amass treasure at the expence of the public rea- 
 son. Here the altar was not bartered for the favour 
 of the court, or the smiles of corruption. The 
 Irish clergy exercised hospitality, the native virtue 
 of their country ; their abbeys were seats of litera- 
 ture and humanity. To clothe the naked, to feed 
 
206 THE HISTORY 
 
 the hungry, to relieve the sick, were their eharac* 
 terlstic duties. The superior chastity of the Irish 
 clergy (attested by foreign writers) above those of 
 surrounding nations, was an insuperable barrier to 
 the principles of the rapacious and lascivious re- 
 former. The Irish abhorred the plundering and 
 schismatic schemes of the rapacious Henry VIII. 
 because they foresaw the dechne of Christianity, in 
 the abolition of that unity and universality which is 
 the grand principle of the catholic church, and the 
 certain preservative of the Christian doctrine. They 
 foresaw that the church of England, torn from the 
 main body of the faithful, would, like a branch torn 
 from a tree, wither and produce insects ; and that 
 a schismatical limb of the catholic church, severed 
 from the communion of the faithful, would decay, 
 and be overrun with innumerable heresies. They 
 foresaw that reform, effected by the vilest and most 
 infamous instruments, by substituting reason for 
 authority, sapped the foundation of revealed reli- 
 gion, and let loose the most destructive and deso- 
 lating passions of the human heart. The Irish, 
 therefore, holding firmly by the anchor of their old 
 and venerated faith, bufFetted the storms of refor- 
 mation, and to this hour exhibit a nation professing 
 sober and rational religion 5 while the neighbouring 
 country (England) is distracted with conflicting 
 sectaries, like the waves of the ocean, each burying 
 the other in eternal oblivion. 
 
 Three hundred years have now elapsed since this 
 great and extraordinary revolution of the human 
 mind took place j and those who have the volume 
 
OF IRELAND. 20T 
 
 of history before them, can best discover the ad- 
 vantages or the evils which have flowed to man- 
 kind from the destruction of that unity and univer- 
 sality of religious doctrine which preserved the 
 peace of nations for so many centuries. In 1536, 
 Henry VIII. summoned a convocation in England, 
 to deliberate on the necessity of making a new 
 translation of the scriptures. Tindal had formerly 
 given to the world a translation, which the clergy 
 complained of as very inaccurate and unfaithful. 
 It was therefore proposed, in the convocation sum- 
 moned by Henry, that a new translation be made, 
 which could not be liable to any objection. The 
 arguments made use of, at this period, in defence 
 of the principles and views of the reformers, and of 
 the consequences of the reformation of the human 
 mind, as well as the arguments made use of by the 
 advocates of the old religion, in opposition to the 
 innovation recommended by the reformers, are 
 worthy of the serious and deliberate consideration 
 of every man, who, seduced by the specious senti- 
 ment of liberal and enlightened toleration, encou- 
 rages the principle of leaving to each individual the 
 formation of his own religious tenets, or the pro- 
 fession of his own religious doctrines. 
 
 The arguments of the reformers of 1536 have 
 been the prolific source of the innumerable sects 
 which now cover the face of England : which have 
 divided, and subdivided, and distracted the protes- 
 tant congregations, and have at length exposed the 
 divine religion of Christ to the scoffs, and sneers, 
 and sarcasms of the deist and the atheist. Mr 
 
208 THE HISTORY 
 
 Hume has preserved those arguments for and 
 against the reformers ; he has weighed them in the 
 philosophic balance ; and we will now leave it to 
 our reader to determine on which side truth, jus- 
 tice, and common sense lie, and whether the prin- 
 ciples of Leo X. or of Henry VHI. are at this day 
 most deserving the respect and the deference of 
 mankind. We will give the argument in Mr Hume's 
 words ; they are prophetic of the consequences 
 which mankind has experienced, and conclusive 
 against those latitudinarian doctrines which block- 
 heads affect, because some philosophers are found 
 among their supporters. In 1536, the friends of 
 the reformation asserted that " nothing could be 
 more absurd than to conceal in an unknown tongue 
 the word itself of God, and thus to counteract the 
 will of heaven, which, for the purpose of universal 
 salvation, had published that salutary doctrine to 
 all nations : that if this practice was not very ab- 
 surd, the artifice was at least barefaced, and shew- 
 ed a consciousness, that the glosses and traditions 
 of the clergy stood in direct opposition to the ori- 
 ginal text, dictated by supreme intelligence : that 
 it was now necessary for the people, so long abused 
 by interested pretensions, to see with their own 
 eyes, and to examine whether the claims of ec- 
 clesiastics were founded on that charter, which was 
 on all hands acknowledged to be derived from 
 heaven ; and that as a spirit of research and curio- 
 sity was happily revived, and men were now obliged 
 to make a choice among the pretensions of different 
 sects, the proper materials for decision, and, above 
 
OP IRELAND. 209 
 
 all, the holy scriptures, should be set before them 5 
 and the revealed will of God, which the change of 
 language had somewhat obscured, be again, by their 
 means, revealed to mankind." Such was the lan- 
 guage of the first English reformers, flattering to the 
 pride, and grateful to the vanity of the human mind. 
 Let us now turn to the reasons which were given 
 by the advocates of the old religion, and the ene- 
 mies of innovation. The favourers of the ancient 
 religion maintained, that " the pretence of making 
 the people see with their own eyes, w^as a mere 
 cheat, and was itself a very barefaced artifice, by 
 which the new preachers hoped to obtain the guid- 
 ance of them, and to seduce them from those pas- 
 tors, whom the laws, whom ancient establishments, 
 whom heaven itself had appointed for their spiritual 
 direction: that the people were, by their ignor- 
 ance, their stupidity, their necessary avocations, 
 totally unqualified to choose their own principles ; 
 and that it was a mockery to set materials before 
 them, of which they could not possibly make any 
 proper use : that even in the affairs of common 
 life, and the temporal concerns which lay more 
 within the compass of human reason, the laws had, 
 in a great measure, deprived them of the right of 
 private judg nent, and had, happily for their own 
 and the public interest, regulated their conduct 
 and behaviour : that theological questions were 
 placed far beyond the sphere of vulgar comprehen- 
 sion ; and that ecclesiastics themselves, though 
 assisted by all the advantages of education, erudi- 
 tion, and an assiduous study of the science, could 
 
 VOL. L o 
 
210 THE HISTORY 
 
 not be fully assured of a just decision, except by 
 the promise made them in scripture, that God 
 would be ever present with his church, and that the 
 gates of hell should not prevail against her : that 
 the gross errors adopted by the wisest heathens, 
 proved how unfit men were to grope their own way, 
 through their profound ignorance j nor would the 
 scriptures, if trusted to their own judgment, be able 
 to remedy — on the contrary, they would augment 
 those fatal illusions : that sacred writ itself was in- 
 volved in so much obscurity, was exposed to so 
 many apparent contradictions, that it was the most 
 dangerous weapon which could be entrusted into 
 the hands of the ignorant and giddy multitude ; 
 that the poetical style in/which a great part of it 
 was composed, at the same time that it occasioned 
 uncertainty in the sense, by its multiplied tropes 
 and figures, was sufficient to kindle the zeal of fa- 
 naticism, and thereby throw civil society into the 
 most furious combustion : that a thousand sects 
 must arise, which would pretend, each of them, to 
 derive its tenets from the scripture ; and would be 
 able, by specious arguments, or even without spe- 
 cious arguments, to deceive silly women and ignorant 
 mechanics into a belief of the most monstrous princi- 
 ples : that, if ever this disorder, dangerous to the ma- 
 gistrate himself, received a remedy, it must be from 
 the tacit acquiescence of the people in some new 
 authority ; and that it was evidently better, with- 
 out further contest or inquiry, to adhere peaceably 
 to ancient, and therefore the more secure establish- 
 ments.'* 
 
OF IRELxVND. 211 
 
 Has not the history of the last three hundred 
 years most unanswerably verified and established 
 the truth and the wisdom of those arguments ? 
 Have not the fantastic and whimsical wanderings 
 of the human mind, on the subject of religion, com- 
 pletely demonstrated the good sense of that argu- 
 ment, which says, " how unfit men were to grope 
 their own way through their profound ignorance, 
 and that the scriptures, if construed by the fallible 
 judgment of each individual, would only entangle 
 him in new embarrassment, and involve him in new 
 ignorance ?" The experiment of seeing with our 
 own eyes has been tried ; and what has been the 
 consequence ? A thousand sects have arisen, each 
 more absurd than the other ; and the protestant 
 reformed religion, the most rational of all, is broken 
 up into a thousand different forms, whigh distract 
 the reason and corrupt the hearts of its follow- 
 ers. 
 
 That great abuses crept into the old establishment 
 of the catholic church, that great and insulting 
 frauds were practised, that the terrors of the priest 
 were made tributary to his ambition, and that the 
 thunders of the church were often wielded by the 
 hand of earthly corruption and despotism, will be 
 admitted by every candid reader of the papal his- 
 tory ; but that the evils flowing from the abuses of 
 the ancient church, were much less destructive to 
 the interests, and the peace, and the harmony of 
 mankind, than the chaos and confusion which flow- 
 ed from the wild and desolating principles of the 
 reformers, the cool observer of their progress, for 
 
 o2 
 
212 THE HISTORY 
 
 the last three centuries, cannot hesitate to acknow- 
 ledge. The admirers of the reformation have at- 
 tributed to its influence, those consequences, which 
 perhaps are most justly attributable to that most 
 powerful instrument of human information and hap- 
 piness — the discovery of printing. Had the refor- 
 mation never taken place — had Henry VHI. never 
 existed — had mankind the good fortune to have 
 kept within those bounds, beyond which the ungo- 
 vernable passions of this fanatical monarch swept 
 himself and his people, the press would have gra- 
 dually reformed the abuses of fifteen hundred years 
 growth ; the public mind would have been enlight- 
 ened, and public opinion would have peaceably 
 driven into the shade those shameless superstitions, 
 which disgraced the religion of Christ, usurped the 
 liberty of the human mind, and depressed the ho- 
 nest industry of man. But the rage of reformation 
 rushed into the extremity of a pestilential fanaticism, 
 and the enlightened opponents of papal bigotry 
 were burning the faithful adherents of the old re- 
 ligion at the stake, and perpetrating all the excesses 
 of the most ignorant supporters of catholic doctrine- 
 The reformation produced those scenes of blood 
 with which every page of English history, for almost 
 two centuries, is full. The fanaticism of Mary and 
 Elizabeth, the furious persecuting spirit of the 
 Stuarts, the more desolating hypocrisy of Cromwell, 
 and the sanguinary statute book of Anne, were the 
 fruit of this, the reforming principle, brought into 
 life by the most brutal tyrant that ever disgraced a 
 throne. On the other hand, the reformation alarmed 
 
OF IRELAND. 213 
 
 the minds, roused the apprehensions, and whetted 
 the swords of the followers of the ancient religion. 
 A war was commenced of the new against the old 
 church ; and the world was deluged with blood, 
 distracted with horror, and torn up by all the furies 
 of a desperate fanaticism. Such have been the con- 
 sequences of the reformation, according to the evi- 
 dence of history ; yet the great and powerful mind 
 of Mr Hume can see much good flowing to man- 
 kind from the triumph of the reformers ; and the 
 same pen which is in one page recording the miseries 
 that his country suffered from this tremendous visi- 
 tation, in another coolly fehcitates mankind on the 
 vast advantages which flowed to the human race, 
 from the murders, and lusts, and rapacity of Henry 
 YllL 
 
 Mr Hume, speaking of the catholic religion, pre- 
 vious to Henry's first efforts at reformation, observes, 
 " The great increase of monasteries, if matters be 
 considered merely in a political light, will appear 
 the radical inconvenience of the catholic religion, 
 and every other disadvantage attending that com- 
 munion, seems to have an inseparable connection 
 with those religious institutions. Papal usurpations, 
 the tyranny of the inquisition, the multiplication of 
 hoUdays, all those fetters on liberty and industry, 
 were ultimately derived from the authority and in- 
 sinuation of monks, whose habitations being esta- 
 blished every where, proved so many colonies of 
 superstition and folly." Again he says, " The au- 
 thority of the popes, like all exorbitant power, was 
 ruined by the excess of its acquisitions, and by 
 
214 THE HISTOIIY 
 
 Stretching beyond what it was possible for any hu- 
 man principles or prepossessions to sustain. The 
 right of granting indulgences had, in former ages, 
 contributed extremely to enrich the holy see, but 
 being openly abused, they served to excite the first 
 commotions and oppositions in Germany. A way 
 was proposed for checking the exorbitancy of su- 
 perstition,* and breaking those shackles by which 
 
 * Mr Hume might have seen the powerful repubhc of Venice, 
 rising up in the neighbourhood of the papal tyranny, and dis- 
 playing a strength and extent of resources, which excited the ap- 
 prehensions of the most powerful monarchs of Europe. It does 
 not appear that the catholic religion cramped the industry, or 
 that the papal power palsied the arms of the Venetians. Mr Ro- 
 bertson, in his admirable view of the state of Europe in the middle 
 centuries, thus speaks of the power and greatness of the com- 
 monwealth of Venice : — " It is not, liowever, by its military, but 
 by its naval and commercial power, that the importance of the 
 Venetian commonwealth must be estimated. The latter consti- 
 tuted the real force and nerves of the State. The senate encou- 
 raged the nobles to trade, and to serve on board the fleet ; they 
 became merchants and admirals ; they increased the wealth of 
 their country by their industry ; they added to its dominions by 
 the valour with which they conducted its naval armaments. — 
 Commerce was an inexhaustible source of opulence to the Ve- 
 netians. All the nations in Europe depended upon them, not 
 only for the commodities of the east, but for various manufac- 
 tures, fabricated by them alone, or finished with a dexterity and 
 elegance unknown in these countries. From this extensive com- 
 merce the State derived such immense supplies, as concealed 
 those views in its constitution, v/hich I have mentioned ; and en- 
 abled it to keep on foot such armies as were not only an over- 
 match for the force which any of its neighbours could bring into 
 the field, but were sufficient to contend for some time with the pow- 
 erful monarchs beyond the Alps. During its struggles with the 
 princes united against it by the league of Cambray, the republic 
 
OF IRELAND. 215 
 
 all human reason, policy, and industry, had been 
 so long encumbered. The prince, it may be sup- 
 posed, being head of the religion, as well as of the 
 temporal jurisdiction of the kingdom, though he 
 might sometimes employ the former as an engine 
 of government, had no interest, like the Roman 
 pontiff, in nourishing its excessive growth ; and, 
 except when blinded by ignorance or by bigotry, 
 would be sure to retain it within tolerable limits, 
 and prevent its abuses. And, on the whole, there 
 followed from those revolutions very beneficial con- 
 sequences ; though, perhaps, neither foreseen nor 
 intended by the persons who had the chief hand in 
 conducting them.'* 
 
 That mankind have derived any solid or substan- 
 tial advantages from the wars and massacres, the 
 persecutions and sufferings, which the same able 
 historian gives us a faithful history of, and to which 
 humanity was the victim, from the period of the 
 reformation, in a much greater degree than history 
 can furnish at any former period, of the same dura- 
 tion, will be much doubted by the philanthropist, 
 who estimates human advantages by human happi- 
 
 levied sums which, even in the present age, would be deemed 
 considerable ; and while the king of France paid exorbitant in- 
 terest for the money advanced to him, and the emperor, eager to 
 borrow, but destitute of credit, was known by the name of Maxi- 
 milian the moneyless, the Venetians raised whatever sums they 
 pleased, at the moderate premium of five per cent." 
 
 Such is the history of a great republic, in the neighbourhood 
 of that influence which Mr Hume and Mr Robertson charge with 
 withering the energies of mankind, degrading its spirit, and ris- 
 ing on the ruins of human hberty. 
 
216 THE HISTORY 
 
 ness, and whose heart sickens at the relations of the 
 mutual and recriminating cruelties of the catholic 
 and the protestant, the presbyterian and the church- 
 man, for the last three hundred years. If the hu- 
 man mind has arrived at its present expanded and 
 enlightened epoch, by the instrumentaHty of the 
 reforming spirit, and by the bold rebellion against 
 the accumulated wisdom and experience of cen- 
 turies, let it not be forgotten that the human heart 
 has waded through an ocean of affliction ; and that 
 the miserable exhibitions of the struggles of into- 
 lerance have more than counterbalanced the advan- 
 tages which the philosopher will deduce from the 
 dignity of mental independence, or emancipation 
 from the chains of credulity. Still does mankind 
 smart under the consequences of the glorious re- 
 formation, and still is the human heart visited with 
 all the merciless persecutions of intolerance from 
 that power, which boasts of professing a liberal and 
 enlightened religion. 
 
 Ireland stood firm amidst the storm of contend- 
 ing sects, wrapped up in the sanctity of her priest- 
 hood, and protected by the ignorance of the preach- 
 ers of the reformation.* Connected with the most 
 
 * Mr Leland says, in his history of this period, that " even 
 within the Enghsh pale, (viz. the counties of Dubhn, Louth, 
 Meath, and Kildare), the Irish language was become so predo- 
 minant, that laws were repeatedly enacted to restrain it, but in 
 vain. In those tracts of Irish territory which intersected the 
 English settlements, no other language was at all known ; so that 
 here the wretched flock was totally inaccessible to those strangers 
 who were become their pastors/' 
 
OF IRELAND. 217 
 
 furious and vindictive power, exposed to all the arts 
 of intrigue, and all the measures of violence, she 
 exhibited the rare and singular spectacle of a nation 
 determined to prefer extermination to a surrender 
 of that faith on which she conceived her everlast- 
 ing salvation depended. The unwearied tyranny 
 of England for 400 years preceding the reforma- 
 tion, secured the allegiance of Ireland to that prin- 
 ciple, which even in a temporal point of view, had 
 often flung its shield over her people. The power 
 of the pope had often stopped the rigour of Eng- 
 lish domination, and more than once have we seen 
 Rome appealed to, as moderator between the Eng- 
 lish throne and the Irish peasant. Ireland, there- 
 fore, clung to that path which had been her securi- 
 ty on earth, and her hope in heaven. Eighteen 
 hundred years have rolled by, and the catholic and 
 Christian doctrine has maintained its purity in Ire- 
 land, though assailed by corruption, by ferocious 
 fanaticism, and unwearied bigotry. During that 
 period she has been loyal, though persecuted, and 
 always ready to pour out her blood for that very 
 power which endeavoured to extinguish her : a great 
 and instructive lesson to England, to make no far- 
 ther experiment on catholic Ireland, but rather to 
 consider whether the truest allegiance is not con- 
 sistent with her religious doctrines, and the best 
 subjects with her religious principles. It is not the 
 province of a history like the present to enter into 
 any theological discussions ; to make a comparison 
 between the doctrines of this and of that sect ; to 
 prefer the protestant to the catholic religion, or the 
 
218 THE HISTORY 
 
 catholic religion to the protestant; or the presbyte- 
 rian religion to either; but it is the duty of the histo- 
 rian, however limited his plan, to poini out the ienipo- 
 red advantages or disadvantages which have flowed 
 to mankind from the greatest revolution the iumian 
 mind ever experienced : to ascertain, by a compa- 
 rison of historical facts, whether the happiness of 
 man has been promoted, or his mind advanced, by 
 the overthrow of those religious principles which 
 held the Christian world together for fifteen hun- 
 dred years : wdiether charity to each other, benevo- 
 lence, and philanthropy, have flow^ed from the 
 same source which deluged Europe with blood — 
 created divisions among men, that time has not 
 been able to heal, and armed the civil authority of 
 all Christian countries with the remorseless weapons 
 of fanaticism and intolerance. 
 
 The illustrious and eloquent Robertson has devo- 
 ted many pages of his history of Charles V. to de- 
 monstrate the glorious and triumphant result toman- 
 kind, from the rise and progress of the reformation. 
 This able and enlightened historian, as well as Mr 
 Hume, can see no calamities, no misfortunes, no 
 fatal and disastrous events in the history of the re- 
 formation ; all is one uninterrupted course of illumi- 
 nation. The fancy of the historian is at a loss to 
 describe the glories which mankind have reaped from 
 the extinction of papal supremacy. The human 
 mind is raised from degradation to a dignified 
 assertion of its right ; * and the contentions of Lu- 
 
 * Doctor Robertson, in that part of the history of Charles V. 
 vAiicxQ he takes a review of the pohtical constitutions and civil 
 
OF IRELAND. 219 
 
 ther, and Zuinglius, and Calvin, with the establish- 
 ed opinions of mankind, are considered by Mr Ro- 
 
 governments of Europe, during the 13th, 14th, and 15th centu- 
 ries, bears no weak testimony to the illustrious example of pol i- 
 tical spirit and national independence manifested by the catholic 
 states of Europe, though acknowledging the spiritual supremacy 
 of the pope. Though numberless examples can be found in the 
 volumes of English history to establish the fact, that a faithful 
 adherence to the doctrines of the catholic religion were never in- 
 compatible with the most rigid assertion of human right ; though 
 it may be recollected, that cathoHcs are the founders of English 
 freedom, and the framers of Magna Charta, — yet, as Mr Robert- 
 son maintains the opinion, that the reformation was the great 
 cause of the poHtical, as well as religious liberties of mankind, it 
 would be well to observe his description of the political senti- 
 ments, and political institutions of the Spanish nation in the 14th 
 and 15th centuries — a people most zealous in their attachment to 
 the spiritual supremacy of the papal power. Protestant England 
 exhibits no stronger example of public spirit, nor no greater 
 anxiety for circumscribing the power of its sovereigns, or assert- 
 ing the rights and privileges of the people. 
 
 " In Arragon," writes Mr Robertson, " the form of govern- 
 ment was monarchical, but the genius and maxims of it were 
 purely repubhcan. The kings, who were long elective, retained 
 only the shadow of power ; the real exercise of it was in the 
 cortes, or parliament of the kingdom." And again, " It is evident, 
 from a bare enumeration of the privileges of the Arragonese cor- 
 tes, as well as of the rights belonging to the Justiza, that a very 
 small portion of power remained in the hands of the king. The 
 Arragonese seem to have been solicitous that their monarchs 
 should know and feel this state of impotence to which they were 
 reduced. Even in swearing allegiance to their sovereign, an act 
 which ought naturally to be accompanied with professions of sub- 
 mission and respect, they decreed an oath in such a form as to 
 remind him of his dependence on his subjects. ' We,' said the 
 Justiza, in the name of his high-spirited barons, ' who are each 
 of us as good, and who are altogether more powerful than you, 
 promise obedience to your government, if you maintain our rights 
 
220 THE HISTORY 
 
 bertson as the inspirations of Heaven, and the gi- 
 gantic efforts of transcendent minds. The miseries 
 which such schisms entailed on mankind are flung 
 into the shade ; and the blood flows from the scaf- 
 fold, or on the field, without a single expression of 
 regret from the philosophic historian, or a single 
 observation on the fatal and calamitous cause which 
 produced such events. It is curious to observe the 
 tone and the expression in which this celebrated 
 historian speaks of Luther, the chieftain of the re- 
 formers. The mild and gentle spirit of Sir Thomas 
 More, who adhered to the religion of his ancestors, 
 is forgotten. The great men who, illustrious for 
 learning, wisdom, and virtue, resisted the rebellious 
 and distracting principles of the reformers, are pas- 
 sed by unnoticed ; and Luther, as if he had mono- 
 polized the virtues and the knowledge of the ci- 
 vilized world, is held up by Mr Robertson, as 
 the immediate agent of Heaven, commissioned 
 to burst the fetters imposed by papal superstitioa 
 on the human mind. Mr Robertson, in his His- 
 tory of the reign of Charles V. thus speaks of the 
 
 and liberties ; — if not — not.' " Can the reader suppose, that the 
 followers of Luther could have asserted in language more strong, 
 or in sentiment more lofty, the dignity and independence of the 
 human mind ? But it would appear from Mr Robertson, that 
 Martin Luther was not only the apostle of salvation to man, but 
 also the first man who had the courage to stand up for the rights 
 of human nature. The catholic religion, no more than the pro- 
 testant, makes man a slave. In both, great and brilliant exam- 
 ples of the most exalted and dignified nature are to be found — 
 an Alfred and an Henry VIH., a Mary and a William, have been 
 produced by the same country. 
 
OF IRELAND. 221 
 
 apostle of the reformation. — The reader will ob- 
 serve, that the historian becomes the theologian, 
 and that Mr Robertson discovers all the acrimony 
 of the polemic, though always covered with the 
 mantle of a fascinating eloquence. " Though Lu- 
 ther," says Mr Robertson, " was a perfect stranger 
 to the maxims of worldly wisdom, and incapable, 
 from the impetuosity of his temper, of observing 
 them, he was led naturally by the method in which 
 he made his discoveries, to carry on his operations 
 in a manner which contributed more to their suc- 
 cess, than if any step he took had been prescribed 
 by the most artful policy : at the time when he set 
 himself to oppose Tetzel, he was far from intending 
 that reformation which he afterwards effected, and 
 would have trembled with horror at the thoughts of 
 what at last he gloried in accomplishing. The 
 knowledge of truth was not poured into his mind 
 all at once by any special revelation j* he acquired 
 
 * This observation of a philosophic historian, Is pecuharly wor- 
 thy of the attention of those who have read the hfe and writings 
 of Martin Luther. That profound knowledge of mankind, and 
 philosophy of conduct, which Mr Robertson attributes to this ce- 
 lebrated polemic, in his contests with the church of Rome, are 
 invisible to all other eyes but those of the historian of Charles 
 V. Mr Leland speaks of the mad licentiousness of Luther, as 
 one of the causes of the resistance of the Irish church to the re- 
 ception of his doctrine ; and Dr Curry, to whose labours the 
 Irish people are so much Indebted, makes the following observa- 
 tions, in his valuable review of the civil wars of Ireland : — " The 
 prejudices of which Mr Leland speaks, and which the Irish nation 
 entertained against the reforming principles recommended by the 
 servants of Henry VIII., were originally occasioned by the mad 
 licentiousness which appeared in the conduct and wTitlngs of the 
 
222 THE HISTORY 
 
 it by industry and meditation, and his progress, of 
 consequence, was gradual. The doctrines of po- 
 pery are so closely connected, that the exposing of 
 one error conducted him naturally to the detection 
 of another ; and all the parts of that artificial fa- 
 bric were so united together, that the pulling down 
 of one loosened the foundation of the rest, and ren- 
 dered it more easy to overturn them. In confuting 
 the extravagant tenets concerning indulgencies, he 
 was obliged to. inquire into the true cause of our 
 justification and acceptance with God. The know- 
 ledge of that discovered to him, by degrees, the 
 inutility of pilgrimages and penances ; the vanity 
 of relying on the intercession of saints ; the impiety 
 of worshipping them ; the abuses of auricular con- 
 fession, and the imaginary existence of purgatory. 
 " The detection of so many errors led him, of 
 
 first reformers, particularly those of Martin Luther ; for, (to say- 
 nothing of his libidinous practice and doctrine, in marrying a nun, 
 and preaching to his married followers, ' si non vult uxor, veneat 
 ancilla,") the manner in which he drew up his last will and testa- 
 ment, on which occasion men are apt to exert their best and most 
 serious thoughts, seem totally void of humility and common 
 sense ; though his panegyrist, Dr Robertson, says, * there is a 
 certain elevation of sentiment in it.' ' I am known,' says Luther, 
 * in heaven, and on earth, and in hell ; and have authority enough 
 to expect, that credit should be given to my single testimony, 
 without the usual legal forms in such cases, since God has en- 
 trusted the gospel of his Son to me, though a damnable sinner, 
 and truth has owned me for its teacher, in contempt of the au- 
 thority of the pope, and Caesar, and of the hatred of all the devils 
 in hell. Why, then, it should be sufficient to say, Mr Martin 
 Luther wrote this will, God Almighty's notary, and the witness 
 of his gospel.' " 
 
OF IRELAND. 223 
 
 course, to consider the character of the clergy who 
 taught them, and their exorbitant wealth. The 
 severe injunction of celibacy, together with the in- 
 tolerable rigour of monastic vows, appeared to him 
 the great sources of their corruption. From thence 
 it was but one step to call in question the divine 
 original of the papal power, which authorized such 
 a system of errors as the unavoidable result of the 
 whole. He disclaimed the infallibility of the pope, 
 the decisions of schoolmen, or any other human 
 authority, and appealed to the word of God as the 
 only standard of theological truth. To this gra- 
 dual progress Luther owed his success. His hear- 
 ers were not shocked at first by any proposition too 
 repugnant to their ancient prejudices, or too re- 
 mote from established opinions. They were insen- 
 sibly conducted from one doctrine to another ; 
 their faith and conviction were equal to keep pace 
 with his discoveries. To the same cause was ow- 
 ing the inattention and indifference with which 
 Leo X. viewed Luther's first proceedings. A di- 
 rect or violent attack upon the authority of the 
 church would at once have drawn upon Luther the 
 whole weight of its vengeance ; but as this was far 
 from his thoughts, as he continued long to profess 
 great respect for the pope, and made repeated of- 
 fers of submission to his decision, there seemed to 
 be no reason for apprehending that he would prove 
 the author of any desperate revolt ; and he was 
 suftered to proceed, step by step, in undermining 
 the constitution of the church, until the remedy 
 
224 THE HISTORY 
 
 applied at last, came too late to produce any 
 effect.'* 
 
 Such was the plan of operations against the an- 
 cient religion of Europe, by the profound and 
 learned Luther ; and so dexterous was this great 
 reformer (according to Mr Robertson) in his mode 
 of attacking the old prejudices of mankind, that we 
 cannot refuse him the aid of inspiration, when we 
 contemplate the difficulties he had to conquer, and 
 the enemies he had to contend with. But what has 
 been the real effect of this boasted reformation, this 
 contempt for all human authority — this appeal to 
 the word of God, as the only standard of theological 
 truth ? The question will be answered by the hun- 
 dred sects into which Lutheranism and presbyte- 
 rianism have branched ; the innumerable theologi- 
 cal opinions with which England now swarms. 
 The empty churches, and the crowded meeting- 
 houses of various denominations ; the inspired tai- 
 lors, and cobblers, and tinkers, and soldiers, whom 
 we see travelling through the protestant world, 
 bear testimony to the light which the reformation 
 has shed upon the human mind. Mankind, tossed 
 about on the tempestuous ocean of polemical dis- 
 cussion, sink into the grave before their minds are 
 able to find a resting-place ; before their under- 
 standings are fixed on that belief which tranquil- 
 lizes the feelings, gives confidence to the heart, and 
 puts to flight all doubt and uncertainty on the sub- 
 ject most important and interesting to man. The re- 
 former, ceasing to be credulous, becomes miserably 
 
OF IRELAND. 225 
 
 sceptical, and perpetually oscillating between hope 
 and fear, passes through life without a pilot, 
 and in the last moments of his existence is still 
 seeking that doctrine most likely to secure his sal- 
 vation. Such are the effects of the reformation 
 upon a great majority of the protestant minds of 
 Europe at this moment. 
 
 It has been the good fortune of Irishmen to have 
 clung with fidelity to the faith of their forefathers. 
 It is their consolation on the bed of affliction, and 
 has often blunted the edge of that relentless prose- 
 cution with which ambition, rapacity, and fanati- 
 cism, has visited them. A milder spirit of govern- 
 ment has succeeded ; and the only remedy for the 
 misfortunes flowing from the conflicts and struggles 
 of different religious prosecutions, is now more ge- 
 nerally acted upon in every part of Europe. To- 
 leration, the radical cure for the bigotry of sects, 
 seems now to be the principle by which the great- 
 est monarchs regulate their government of man- 
 kind. It is the precious secret by which the most 
 acrimonious and unforgiving passions are recon- 
 ciled, and the silken thread by which mankind are 
 conducted through the labyrinths of superstition 
 and credulity. 
 
 The foregoing observations naturally precede the 
 relation of those events which took place on the 
 introduction of the reformed religion, and subse- 
 quent to its establishment in Ireland ; and an in- 
 quiry into the effects of the latter on the human 
 mind, and the happiness of man, was considered 
 not unnecessary nor uninteresting, in a work which 
 
 VOL. I. p 
 
226 THE HISTORY 
 
 has for its object the instruction of the people in 
 those principles that are best calculated to secure 
 their comforts and perpetuate their honour. We 
 shall now proceed to relate the various efforts that 
 were made by the first reformers to root out of the 
 Irish heart the ancient religion of the country. 
 
 Henry VIII. had made such triumphant progress 
 in his scheme of reformation in England, that he 
 resolved to make the experiment in Ireland. For 
 this purpose, George Browne, provincial of the 
 friars of St Augustine, was appointed to the see 
 of Dublin, and instructed by his sovereign to adopt 
 such plans, in conjunction with the clergy and no- 
 biUty of the pale, as would be calculated to pro- 
 mote the views of the reformers. 
 
 The observations of Mr Leland on the resistance 
 made by Ireland to any attempt at innovation up- 
 on the ancient religion, discovers but little of that 
 regard for truth, or of that honourable anxiety to 
 render justice to the Irish who are no more, which 
 should more particularly animate the breast of an 
 Irish historian, and which should be the leading 
 feature of every Irish history that pretends to cha- 
 racter or to credit. The reader will observe the fol- 
 lowing lines ; and, after he has read them, let him 
 turn back the pages of this little history, and ask 
 himself — were the priesthood of Ireland deserving 
 of the censures which the historian of the pale has 
 thought proper to pass on them ? Were they the 
 tyrants and oppressors ? Or rather were they wo^the 
 guardians and protectors of their flocks ? And was 
 not the parental feeling which warmed the bosom 
 
OF IRELAND. 227 
 
 of the Irish priesthood, returned with an affection- 
 ate and grateful sensibility, by a brave and honest 
 nation ? Mr Leland writes otherwise. " Ireland 
 w^as not a place for these circumstances to operate, 
 which favoured the first reformers in other parts of 
 Europe. A people not connected by one and the 
 same system of polity, and, for the most part, 
 strangers to the refinements and advantages of po- 
 litical union, — harassed by a perpetual succession 
 of petty wars, distracted by mutual jealousy, and 
 the most civilized among them being in continual 
 alarm, and daily called out to repel invasion, could 
 have little leisure for speculation, and little disposi- 
 tion for those inquiries which were pursued with 
 such avidity in countries more composed. The 
 people had severely felt the oppression of the 
 clergy ; but what in other countries appeared to be 
 the capital and leading grievance, was but one of 
 those oppressions which the land experienced. 
 When Europe had declared almost unanimously 
 against the yoke of ecclesiastical power, a slight at- 
 tempt made in one province of Ireland to circum- 
 scribe the privilege of the clergy, raised a most 
 violent and insolent clamour among the order, 
 though it amounted to nothing more than empower- 
 ing the civil magistrate to imprison ecclesiastical 
 debtors." Well might it be asked of Mr Leland, 
 would he think the refusal of the Irish catholic to 
 pay tithes to a protestant hierarchy, such an inno- 
 vation as should raise an insolent and violent cla- 
 mour among his protestant brethren ? Certainly he 
 would think this a monstrous innovation, and that 
 
 p 2 
 
228 THE HISTORY 
 
 the clamours which the clergy would undoubtedly 
 raise against it, would be most sacred and rehgious. 
 May it not be allowed to the old Irish, to lament 
 the innovation which the rude and savage hand of 
 Henry VIII. struggled to make on their venerated 
 religion ; and may it not be considered a harsh and 
 unworthy expression to use against this people, so 
 grateful to the religion which was their refuge in 
 calamity, that they raised a violent and insolent 
 clamour against the introduction of new and strange 
 doctrine, which entangled the learned, plunged the 
 ignorant into darkness, and all into uncertainty ? 
 
 No sooner had Browne and his colleagues de- 
 manded an acknowledgment of the supremacy of 
 the English king, than Cromer, primate of Armagh, 
 openly and boldly declared against an attempt so 
 impious. He dispatched emissaries to Rome, to 
 represent the danger of the church, and to entreat 
 the interposition of the pontiff in defending the 
 rights and the religion of Ireland, a general sen- 
 timent of resistance having pervaded the country. 
 Henry ordered Leonard Grey to summon a parlia- 
 ment, which was accordingly convened in Dublin, 
 on the first day of May \5SQ, The law of Poyn- 
 ings was for the present suspended by Henry, which 
 made it necessary previously to certify and trans- 
 mit the bills before their discussion and adoption 
 by parliament. The latter echoed with rigid fide- 
 lity, the acts of the English parliament relative to 
 the right of succession— the pronouncing the mar- 
 riage of Catharine of Arragon with Henry, null and 
 void, and the sentence of dispensation by the Arch- 
 
OF IRELAND. 229 
 
 bishop of Canterbury, good and effectual — they de- 
 clared the inheritance of the crown to be in Anne 
 Boleyn and her heirs — they declared it treason to 
 oppose this succession, and misprison to slander it. 
 No sooner had those acts passed, than the informa- 
 tion of Anne Boleyn's death arrived, and the king's 
 marriage with Lady Jane Seymour. This compliant 
 parliament soon undid all they had done, to sooth 
 their amorous monarch. They passed an act of at- 
 tainder against the late queen, and all her friends 
 and relations. Both the former marriages were by 
 this act declared null and void ; the succession 
 confirmed anew to the heirs of the king by Queen 
 Jane, and in default of such heirs, Henry was em- 
 powered to dispose of the inheritance of the crown 
 of England, and lordship of Ireland, by letters 
 patent at will. 
 
 Henry was declared, by stat. 20, to be the su- 
 preme head of the church of Ireland. All appeals 
 to Rome in spirituals taken away : the supporters 
 of papal supremacy, were made liable to all the pe- 
 nalties of premunire. At length the national in- 
 dignation at those measures of the legislature was 
 so great, that the animosities of the septs sunk into 
 the general sentiment of resistance to such daring 
 innovation on the religion of the country. Lord 
 Leonard Grey made many efforts to overawe the 
 people, and put in force all the barbarous and ex- 
 cluding acts of former reigns against the Irish. The 
 spirit of Ireland was roused against her oppressors ; 
 and O'Nial, the chieftain of the north, led his forces 
 through the territories of Meath, reviewed his troops 
 
230 THE HISTORY 
 
 at Tarah, and denounced vengeance against the in- 
 vaders of their religious rights. The battle of Kil- 
 lahoe, on the borders of Meath, was soon after 
 fought, in which the Irish displayed their usual cou- 
 rage ; but, dispirited by the fall of their illustrious 
 leader, they retreated to the main body of the Irish 
 army, which lay at some distance, and which, on 
 hearing the death of O'Nial, broke up into all the 
 old divisions that distinguished the various septs of 
 which they were composed. In this instance, as in 
 others which preceded it, the cause of Ireland was 
 sacrificed to some idle feud, or some contemptible 
 vanity ; and a nation of as brave men as ever drew 
 the sword, were obliged to fly before a compact, 
 united, and rapacious invader. The Lord Leonard 
 Grey, who commanded the colonists in the battle 
 of Killahoe, displayed the highest valour and acti- 
 vity ; and though the victory which he gained, by 
 a fortunate concurrence of circumstances, struck 
 terror into the opponents of his master, yet this 
 distinguished soldier fell a victim to the intrigues 
 of faction, and was rewarded with an ignominious 
 death on the scaffold, by the king whom he had so 
 faithfully served. 
 
 The death of Lord Grey gave new courage to the 
 friends of the old religion, and they resolved once 
 more to draw the sword in its defence. Murrough 
 O'Brien, successor to the sovereignty of Thomond, 
 took the command of the Irish army ; but the ac- 
 cursed spirit of jealousy among the rival chieftains 
 prevented that cordial and efficient co-operation be- 
 fore which the English colony should have yielded. 
 
OF IRELAND. 
 
 231 
 
 The Irish leaders despaired of success against the 
 arms of England, backed by the divisions of their 
 own people ; and O'Brien agreed to submit to 
 Henry, and acknowledge his supremacy. To give 
 brilliancy to the triumph which Henry gained over 
 his Irish subjects, his ministers artfully proposed to 
 give a king to Ireland. They said that Ireland 
 was degraded by the humble honour of being go- 
 verned by a lord, the title which the kings of Eng- 
 land assumed in their government of Ireland. They 
 therefore recommended the Irish parliament to con- 
 fer upon Henry, and his heirs, the title of king of 
 Ireland. An act to this effect was passed by par- 
 liament, making it high treason to impeach this 
 title, or to oppose the royal authority. It is mani- 
 fest from the extraordinary change which took 
 place in the minds of the principal chieftains of the 
 Irish, at this period, that the ministers of Henry 
 VIII. felt it necessary to court the Irish mind, with 
 which they seemed afraid to combat ; and that the 
 bribes of titles and honours, places of trust and 
 emolument, were engines with which they now 
 thought it would be more prudent to assail the in- 
 tegrity and fidelity of Irishmen to the independence 
 of their religion and their country. We therefore 
 see peerages and promotions flowing abundantly 
 upon the suspected chfeftain, as well as the trusted 
 royalist ; and the monarch shaking hands with the 
 Irishman, whom a less artful minister than Wolsey 
 would have advised him to have hanged. O'Nial 
 from the north, the Earl of Desmond from the 
 south, O'Connor from the west, the O'Rourks, and 
 
232 THE HISTORY 
 
 the O'Briens, are become objects of royal favour ; 
 and the experiment on the heart and the vanity of 
 Ireland was found more successful in subjugating 
 Irishmen, than the devastation of the sword, or the 
 slower murder of the scaffold. The following list 
 of promotions which now took place, is the best 
 evidence of the new policy that actuated the Eng- 
 lish cabinet. Edmund Butler was created baron 
 of Dunboyne, Bernard Fitzpatrick, baron of Upper 
 Ossory, Sir Oliver Plunket, baron of Louth, Wil- 
 liam Bermingham, baron of Carbery, Rawson, late 
 prior of Kilmainham, Viscount Clontarfe,. Thomas 
 Eustace, Viscount Baltinglass. Henry did not con- 
 fine his policy to the mere conferring of title, or 
 honourable distinctions. He professed to place 
 particular confidence in the Irish chieftains he pro- 
 moted ; ordered them to his court, received them 
 with gracious and royal favour, and sent them back 
 to Ireland intrusted with the royal confidence, and 
 prompt to execute its wishes. Thus Henry and 
 his ministers managed the Irish with dexterity and 
 effect ; and the scene now acted affords an example 
 to his successors, that even from the hands of the 
 most infamous monarch that ever reigned in Eng- 
 land, affected kindness and clemency was attended 
 with results which all the power he could wield 
 would not have effected. We find the house of 
 O'Nial degrading itself by the offer of surrendering 
 the ancient customs of his country ; assimilating 
 its habits and its manners to those of England. 
 We find the northern chieftain, unbending as he 
 was to the threats of England, surrendering to the 
 
OF IRELAND. 233 
 
 hypocritical compliments of the English court, and 
 foro^ettincc the fountain from which he flowed. The 
 northern chieftain O'Nial is created a peer of the 
 realm, by the title of Earl of Tyrowen, and his son, 
 Baron of Dungannon, and a priest, are also promot- 
 ed, and obtain the honour of knighthood from the 
 chaste and spotless hands of Henry, for two rea- 
 sons, first, because he was chaplain to O'Nial ; and, 
 secondly, because he broke the oath of allegiance 
 which he swore to his religion. These are the for- 
 midable weapons which find their way through the 
 strongest barrier — break down the proud and 
 haughty spirit of patriotism — and that man is con- 
 sidered a fool who rejects the temptation, and 
 clings to his country. The people sometimes un- 
 thinkingly joined in the sneer of corruption ; and 
 the honest and pure patriot had no consolation to 
 repose on, but the great and unpurchasable satis- 
 faction of having acted with truth and with inte- 
 grity. Notwithstanding the arts which the English 
 cabinet successfully practised at this period, on the 
 vanity and the corruption of Ireland, we do not 
 find any alteration in the system of jurisdiction 
 among the people. The principal Irish chieftains 
 agreed to hold of the king by mihtary service ; but 
 the inferior chieftains remained in their usual state 
 of dependence on their more powerful neighbours, 
 and the old Irish vassalage and Brehon jurisdiction 
 were still continued. So unwise was the policy 
 which directed the Irish administration of those 
 days, that even the supplications of some of the 
 Irish to be governed by English laws, were either 
 
2S4 THE HISTORY 
 
 resisted with effect by the powerful Irish chieftains, 
 or unattended to by an improvident government. 
 
 Little advantage was therefore derived to the 
 connection with England by the brilliant display of 
 allegiance among the chief lords of Ireland. Most 
 of the counties that were imperfectly reduced to 
 submission to English polity, went back to their 
 old laws and their old customs. In Munster, Con- 
 naught, Leinster, and Ulster, the people returned 
 to an ancient and venerated jurisdiction ; and the 
 acts of Parliament that were pompously promulgat- 
 ed by the colony, with the intention of regulating 
 the administration of justice in those countries, 
 w^ere heard with contemptuous silence,'* and often 
 resisted by force of arms. Though the measures 
 lately adopted by the ministers of king Henry VIII. 
 did not succeed in extending the power of England 
 in this country, yet some progress was made in the 
 reformation of the ancient religion, and a period 
 of peace and tranquiUity was the consequence of 
 their conciliatory and artful counsels. If examples 
 in the history of Ireland were wanting, to establish 
 the good sense of appealing to the honourable feel- 
 ings of Irishmen, rather than having recourse to 
 the artifices of dupHcity and the efforts of violence, 
 the scenes which took place after Henry had dis- 
 tributed the honours of royal confidence among the 
 
 * Of this Sir John Davis gives a remarkable instance. " The 
 abbeys and religious houses of Tyrowen, Tyrconnell and Ferma- 
 nagh," he writes, " though they were dissolved in the thirty- 
 third year of Henry VIH. were never surveyed nor reduced into 
 diarge, but were continually possessed by religious persons." 
 
OF IRELAND. 235 
 
 principal Irish chieftains, should be a source of in- 
 struction to the succeeding governors of Ireland, 
 and should convince the most stubborn monopo- 
 list, that the allegiance of an honourable mind is 
 more to be depended upon than the ferocious pro- 
 visions of an intolerant penal code, or the galling 
 ascendancy of a privileged class of favoured sub- 
 jects. Francis I. in vain endeavoured to seduce 
 from their allegiance those Irish chieftains who had 
 been honoured with the royal patronage ; and the 
 armies of France had now to contend with Henry's 
 intrepid Irish auxiliaries, who excited universal ad- 
 miration by the agility of their movements, the 
 fury of their courage, and their unconquerable pa- 
 tience of the hardships and privations of war. Mr 
 Leland is induced to attribute to the influence of 
 terror those effects which the impartial observer 
 must acknowledge to be the natural consequence 
 of a mild and protecting policy. Henry VIII. re- 
 stored peace to Ireland by the cheap and easy re- 
 medy of stars, and garters, and royal honours. For- 
 mer sovereigns convulsed it by an idle display of 
 power which could not follow up its blow, and a 
 destructive system of policy, which recoiled on its 
 authors. From this reign the reader of Irish history 
 should peruse its pages with more than ordinary 
 attention. The scenes that were acted, as well as 
 the characters which appeared, have a greater bear- 
 ing on the politics of succeeding times, than those 
 which we have been describing. 
 
 The great lights which burst upon Europe in the 
 commencement of the sixteenth century, communi- 
 
236 THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 cated some of their rays to the Irish mind ; and al- 
 though the reforming spirit met in Ireland with a 
 resistance unexampled as it is wonderful, when we 
 consider the varied efforts of its propagators, yet 
 Ireland participated in that improvement which 
 flowed to the civilized world from the struggles of 
 the new and the old religion. The universal agi- 
 tation of the mind, and the perpetual exertion 
 which the understanding was obliged to make in 
 the attack and defence of the most sacred interests 
 of mankind— the art of printing— the improve- 
 ments in navigation — thediscovery of a new world — 
 the bold and intrepid spirit of innovation upon all 
 the venerated systems, religious and poUtical, to 
 which men had been accustomed for centuries — 
 render the history of those times, which we are 
 now about to relate, sources of instruction to the 
 youthful and inexperienced, and of admiration and 
 delight to the philosopher. The latter sees, in the 
 successful progress of the human mind to its pre- 
 sent great and enlightened epoch, the certainty of 
 that infinite perfection which extends the limits of 
 human to the verge of divine intelHgence, and rea- 
 lizes the prophecies of those superior souls, whose 
 speculations have been considered the dreams of 
 the poet, or the ravings of insanity. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 EDWARD VI. 
 
 A D^ The reign which we have just conckided, 
 1547. having given existence to such novel and 
 alarming innovations upon the ancient prin- 
 ciples and habits of the Irish, it is not matter of any 
 great surprise that the annaHsts who were zealously 
 devoted to the ancient reHgion of Ireland, should 
 visit the last moments of Henry VIII. with all the 
 penalties of an apostate, and the terrific omens of 
 future misery. The imagination of the fanatic of 
 all religions deems himself the most favoured of all 
 human beings, and consigns to the vengeance of 
 an insulted deity those unhappy persons who may 
 conscientiously dissent from his opinions. It is ex- 
 traordinary that the readers of history do not learn, 
 from the numerous examples with which its pages 
 are crowded, of the ludicrous folHes that intole- 
 rance has been always committing, and the laugh- 
 
238 THE HISTORY 
 
 able denunciations it has been ever proclaiming, 
 how much more wise and useful, how much more 
 Christian and kind is that principle which leaves 
 every man to the dictates of his own conscience, 
 and to the profession of that form of religion which 
 either education or prejudice may incline him to 
 pursue. Three hundred years of an intolerant 
 warfare have been waged by the innumerable sects 
 of Christianity, almost all guilty of the same enor- 
 mities — all violating the sacred principles of that 
 religion they affect to advance, under the pretence 
 of vindicating the rights of Heaven, insulting the 
 majesty of its benevolent doctrines, and perverting 
 the spirit of mercy which breathes through its in- 
 structions. We therefore see the various contend- 
 ing sects alternately denouncing and damning each 
 other, and the zeal of the sectarian estimated by 
 the violence of his unchristian illiberality, and the 
 fury of his persecution. Modern philosophy has 
 discovered the remedy for this desolating folly; and 
 the mild and parental spirit of toleration protects 
 mankind from the absurd struggles of the polemic, 
 and the sanguinary violence of fanaticism. When 
 Henry VHI. had closed his eventful life, the ene- 
 mies of the Reformation were industrious in circu- 
 lating among the credulous the most dreadful fic- 
 tions which their enraged fancy could conceive. 
 They reported that angels of darkness hovered round 
 his bed during the last moments of his existence, 
 and snatched away his spirit to irredeemable 
 suifering. The more sober contented themselves 
 with the consolation, that Henry, since his schism 
 
OF IRELAND. 239 
 
 and divorce, had not a moment's tranquillity of 
 mind ; that his numerous wives were concubines ; 
 that the heresies which he detested crept in through 
 the breaches which his passions or his folly had 
 made ; that he died unregretted ; that he was not 
 even honoured with a sepulchre nor an epitaph by 
 his children ; that the latter died without issue, and 
 that the seed of the wicked had perished — thus de- 
 feating the hopes and the ambition of the apostate 
 monarch. Such were the consolations of those who 
 deprecated the principles of the reign of Hen- 
 ry VIII. 
 
 We have little to record during the reign of his 
 successor interesting to the reader. Sir Anthony 
 St Leger, whose administration of Ireland, in the 
 latter part of Henry's reign, was considered vigo- 
 rous and efficient, alienated the affections of the 
 principal Irish chieftains by the weight of his ex- 
 actions, and the excess of those taxes which he le- 
 vied to recruit the resources of an exhausted ex- 
 chequer. We find Ormond and his partizans re- 
 sisting the viceroy ; and in the course of the con- 
 test which arose between those rival powers, it is 
 lamentable to behold the treachery to which the 
 enemies of Ormond had recourse, in order to gain 
 the ascendant over their formidable rival. It is 
 recorded, that Ormond, with sixteen of his retinue, 
 were poisoned at a feast in Ely-house, and that the 
 instruments of this disgusting treachery were the 
 devoted friends of the English interest. 
 
 As the protector of England, Somerset deter- 
 mined to follow up the principles of reformation in 
 
 / 
 
240 THE HISTORY 
 
 Ireland with all the vigour of which he was master, 
 it was deemed necessary to send into the latter a 
 reinforcement of 600 horse and 4000 foot, which, 
 on their arrival, were soon brought into action, 
 against the Irish headed by O' Moore, chieftain of 
 Leix, and O'Connor of Offally. The celebrated 
 Bellingham, an old and experienced officer, led 
 the English ; and after some unsuccessful efforts, 
 O'Connor and O'Moore surrendered to the pledged 
 faith of the English commander, who promised the 
 royal clemency, held out hopes that they would be 
 received into the royal confidence, and perhaps ob- 
 tain the same dignities as were formerly conferred 
 upon their countrymen who had submitted to Hen- 
 ry. The Irish chieftains had no sooner arrived in 
 England, than they were committed to prison, 
 their lands declared forfeit, and granted to those 
 very men who had so infamously violated their 
 words. 0*Moore died in captivity, by treachery 
 or by force. Bellingham reduced the territories of 
 those devoted Irishmen, and thus left on record an 
 example which should ever have destroyed the con- 
 fidence of Ireland in the honour and integrity of Eng- 
 lish faith. Two considerable districts were thus add- 
 ed to the English colony ; and as England began her 
 operations in Ireland in fraud and violence, she 
 seemed to rely on the same despicable and deceit- 
 ful means for the extension and security of her 
 power. It may be observed, that such a policy 
 has cost 600 years of national misfortune, and that 
 for nearly this period Ireland has been the grave of 
 English blood and treasure. Until this policy was 
 
OF IRELAND. 241 
 
 changed— until an honest and ingenuous feeling 
 succeeded to the distrustful and jealous spirit ; Ire- 
 land never contributed a shilling to the English 
 treasury. Her resources were chained down ; her 
 heart was alienated ; her inhabitants were dreaded 
 and suspected ; consuming English strength, in- 
 stead of adding to it, and palsying that arm, which 
 a humane and enlightened system would have nerv- 
 ed. Bellingham received the reward of knight- 
 hood for that act, for which he merited the most 
 degrading punishment, and this monstrous viola- 
 tion of pubhc feeling, contributed to prepare the 
 public mind for that resistance to the reformers, 
 which we shall shortly relate. 
 
 It is curious to remark, that Mr Leland repre* 
 sents this Bellingham, to whose treachery O'Moore 
 and O^Connor fell victims, as an active and efficient 
 governor of the colony, and laments that Ireland 
 should have been so soon deprived of his protecting 
 genius ; but Mr Leland always writes for England, 
 and the English colony, and if the Irish be extin- 
 guished, *no matter what means are employed, 
 what sentiment is violated, what heart is broken, or 
 what misery is produced. All such considerations 
 are swallowed up in the grand and paramount one 
 of English ascendancy. — An Irishman^should have 
 a different feeling. 
 
 Somerset, the protector, about this period (1550) 
 resolved that the liturgy of the church of England, 
 lately established by the legislature, should be in- 
 troduced into Ireland. For the purpose^Jie ap- 
 pointed Sir Anthony St Leger viceroy, with a 
 
 VOL. I, Q 
 
242 THE HISTORY 
 
 commission to convene a parliament in that king- 
 dom. Mr Leland says, that '* In England the 
 dispositions of a great part of the people ran before 
 their rulers in their revolt from popery." In Ireland 
 the sentiment was different ; and he writes, that 
 " the factious opposers of administration naturally 
 regarded every new regulation in the affairs of Re- 
 ligion, as arbitrary, oppressive, and injurious." 
 He quotes a chancellor's words in a letter to the 
 Duke of Northumberland. " Hard it is," said the 
 chancellor, " that men should know their duties to 
 God and to the king, when they shall not hear 
 teaching or preaching throughout the year. At a 
 time when the mechanic * in England can hear and 
 can convey instruction, and is habituated to religi- 
 ous inquiry, in Ireland we have no preaching, which 
 is our lack, and without which the ignorant can 
 have no knowledge." Were we to estimate the 
 
 * " It is a great wonder," says Mr Spenser, who was secre- 
 tary to Lord Leonard Grey, deputy of Ireland, in the reign of 
 Ehzabeth, " to see the odds which is between the^ zeal of po- 
 pish priests, and the ministers of the gospel. For they spare not 
 to come out of Spain, from Rome, and from Rheims, by a long 
 toil, and dangerous travelling hither, when they know peril of 
 death awaiteth them, and no reward or riches to be found, only 
 to draw the people to the church of Rome. Whereas, some of 
 our idle ministers having a way for credit and estimation thereby 
 offered, and having livings of the country offered to them, and 
 without peril, will neither for the same, nor for any love of God, 
 or zeal for religion, be drawn from their warm nests, to look out 
 into God's harvest." It was a great omission in the reformers 
 not to have sent over to Ireland some of those famous gospel 
 mechanics, to resist the preaching of such priests as Spenser here 
 describes. 
 
OF IRELAND. 243 
 
 English mechanics of those days by the English 
 mechanics of whom England now boasts, we could 
 not hesitate to say, that they might be good me- 
 chanics, but certainly very bad preachers ; nor can 
 we see any great injury the religion of Irishmen 
 has sustained by the not having the Irish mechanics 
 preaching their various constructions of the gospel 
 through the land, and setting up their opinions 
 against the old and venerated doctrines of the Irish 
 church. Mr Leland is displeased that Irishmen 
 did not part with their religion as he would part 
 with his coat — change it as the fashion changes, 
 and make it black, or white, or brown, or any other 
 colour, as the whims and caprices of human fancy 
 might please to dictate. We can see no great com- 
 fort flowing to mankind from this perpetual change ; 
 nor do we discern that the catholic of the present 
 day is at all deficient, or at all inferior to his pro- 
 testant countryman, in those arts and sciences 
 which distinguish the enlightened of modern times j 
 but Mr Leland goes on, and deplores not only the 
 invincible stubbornness of Ireland in support of its 
 religion, but the ignorance and vicious conduct of 
 those reformers who were commissioned to dissemi- 
 nate the new light among the Irish. Ignorant of 
 the language, strangers to the habits of the Irish, 
 they were unsuccessful opponents to those Irish 
 clergy, whose zeal and whose purity increased with 
 opposition. The reformers translated into the mo- 
 ther tongue the prayers of the reformed church— 
 this was done by royal proclamation ; but an Irish 
 priest now^ rose up, named Dowdal,>who boldly and 
 
 q2 
 
244 THE HISTORY 
 
 resolutely opposed the proclamation of the reform- 
 ers, and the popularity thus gained by the spirited 
 resistance of Dowdal, was not a little increased 
 by the furious and destructive progress of plunder 
 and desolation from the hands of the reformers. 
 Even Mr Leland, who cannot be considered on this 
 subject a bad authority, reprobates the conduct of 
 those officers of the Irish government, who despoil- 
 ed the churches of all the sacred ornaments they 
 contained, and exposed them to sale without decency 
 or reserve. The Irish annalists, on this occasion, 
 loudly exclaim against the sacrilegious plunder, and 
 describe with feeling and pathetic force, the pain- 
 ful insults offered to the sacred temples. 
 
 The power of the people, and the advocates of 
 the old religion, were so formidable, that we find 
 an overture to Dowdal by the viceroy, to confer 
 with the reformed clergy, and to discuss those 
 points of controversy which had divided the people 
 and their governors. It is recorded, that the con- 
 ference was held ; — that the tenets of the catholic 
 religion were ably defended by Dowdal, and that 
 Staples, bishop of Meath, pleaded with ability the 
 cause of the reformers. Upon this occasion, both 
 parties returned with the same conviction with 
 which they entered the place of controversy, and, 
 as it will be seen in all succeeding contests of this 
 nature, the combatants only dispute each other in- 
 to a more firm adherence to their own opinions. 
 The pride of the polemic always gets the ascend- 
 ancy of his sincerity ; and though he should be 
 convinced, he always prefers sacrificing candour to 
 
OF IRELAND. 245 
 
 the degradation of being vanquished in argument. 
 Dowdal was to be punished for his obstinacy, by de- 
 priving the archbishop of Armagh of the high and 
 dignifying title of primate of all Ireland. This title 
 was, for the future, to be conferred on the arch- 
 bishop of DubHn ; a change which wounded the 
 pride and depressed the spirits of the Roman 
 catholic archbishop. His courage forsook him, 
 and, in the apprehension of greater violence from 
 government, he retired to the continent. So de» 
 termined was the nation to resist the efforts of the 
 reformers, that we are informed John Bale, arch- 
 bishop of Ossory, was assailed by the people, when 
 preaching the reforming doctrines. Five of his 
 domestics were slain, and he himself narrowly es- 
 caped. Mr Leland writes, that ** This inveterate 
 adherence to the manners and institutions of former 
 ages, was now become the great obstacle to the 
 Irish viceroy in his attempts to preserve the dif- 
 ferent inhabitants within the bounds of peace and 
 submission." We have already the seductive argu- 
 ments made use of by the reformers, in the viola- 
 tion of the altars, the stripping of their temples, 
 and the constant outrages on the old attachments 
 of the people. Is it matter of surprise, therefore, 
 to the philosophic historian, that Irishmen should 
 be so difficult of governing, and that the tranquil- 
 lity of the colony should be of so short a duration ? 
 The principal opposition experienced at this 
 period (1553), by the English government of the 
 pale, arose from the factious disorders of the great 
 northern family of O'Niah John, or as he is stiled^ 
 
246 THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 Shane O'Nial, a youth of great vigour and intrepidi- 
 ty, and animated with the spirit of his ancestors, 
 once more asserted the ancient dignity and inde- 
 pendence of his house. He was joined by the 
 Scotch ; invaded the territories of the English co- 
 lony, and laid waste one of the most fertile districts 
 in the north of Ireland. Various efforts were made 
 by Sir James Crofts, to induce him to obedience ; 
 and the flame thus kindled in Tyrowen was not 
 extinguished for a long series of years. The re- 
 forming principles bound their opponents together 
 in the strongest bonds of fidelity ; and the divisions 
 which have hitherto disgraced the Irish people, 
 seemed to yield to the common concern for the in- 
 terests of the national religion. 
 
 The death of Edward VI. defeated the hopes 
 and expectation of the zealous reformers of the co- 
 lony ; and the interval of reflection thus given to 
 the country on the efforts which had been made to 
 alter their ancient religion, gave new vigour to their 
 ardour for the maintenance of those doctrines and 
 tenets which had been rendered venerable by time, 
 and to which their fathers had adhered with fideli- 
 ty under all circumstances and changes which their 
 country had experienced. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 MARY I. 
 
 A. D. The reign which we are now about to re- 
 1553. cord, is a great and prominent instance of 
 the miseries which flowed to the human race 
 from the distractions of an unsettled religion, ^and 
 the wild fanaticism of a varying credulity. Man- 
 kind were doomed to be the victims of every pas- 
 sion, and the humble instruments of every theolo- 
 gical tyrant. No sooner is one despot wearied 
 with persecuting the catholic into an acknowledge- 
 ment of his favourite tenets, than a catholic tyrant 
 starts up equally sanguinary, and equally remorse- 
 less, to force back the current of public opinion, 
 and if his victim should not be compliant to the 
 dictates of his sacred director, to consign him to 
 the faggot or the scaffold. With the same enthusi- 
 astic devotion, we may see Cranmer and Gardiner 
 leading their protestant and catholic victims to the 
 flames. With the same zeal in the cause of God, 
 
248 THE HISTORY 
 
 have each plunged their hands into the blood of 
 the innocent. What was the cause of this wide 
 wastino; desolation ? Was it not that reformation, 
 so much the them.e of the philosophic historian and 
 the unthinking zealot ? But may it not be asked, 
 what is our best protection against the return of 
 the devouring monster of fanaticism ? It cannot be 
 too often repeated in this compendium of Irish his- 
 tory, that the sacred principle of toleration is the 
 only extinguisher of the bigot's fire — the power 
 which blunts the edge of his vengeance, snatches 
 the poniard from his hand, and, leaving the mind 
 without opposition, suffers it to evaporate in silent 
 neglect and contemptuous indifference. Had such 
 a principle been known in the 16th century, we 
 should not have to enumerate the religious murders 
 which disgust the reader, and force him ahnost to 
 abjure his species. We should not have to deplore 
 the miserable spectacle exhibited so often, of those 
 persons whose characters are considered by their 
 countrymen worthy of their highest esteem, so far 
 degraded by the spirit of fanaticism, as to become 
 the insatiable destroyers of every man who chose 
 to think for himself, or who refused to sacrifice his 
 conviction to his fears. We should not have seen 
 the amiable and learned Sir Thomas More, con- 
 sign a fellowvcreature to the scaffold for the crime 
 of differing in a point of theology which no human 
 tribunal is capable of deciding upon. Even in this 
 compendium, it would be injustice to the reader to 
 omit the admirable and enlightened observations 
 of Mr Hume on the effects of toleration. They 
 
OF IRELAND. 249 
 
 are to be found in his reign of Mary ; but as many 
 will peruse this book whose time and occupation 
 may not permit them to refer to the history of Eng- 
 land, I shall transcribe the passage, and recom- 
 mend it to the serious reflection of every man who 
 has at heart the peace and happiness of his fellow- 
 creatures. 
 
 <* The practice of persecution," writes Mr Hume, 
 " is the scandal of all religion ; and the theological 
 animosity, so fierce and so violent, far from being 
 an argument of men's conviction in their opposite 
 tenets, is a certain proof that they never reached 
 any serious persuasion with regard to those remote 
 and sublime subjects. Even those who are the 
 most impatient, in other controversies, are mild and 
 moderate in comparison of polemical divines ; and 
 when a man's knowledge and experience give him 
 a perfect assurance of his own opinion, he regards 
 with contempt, rather than anger, the opposition 
 and mistakes of others. But while men zealously 
 maintain what they neither clearly comprehend, 
 nor entirely believe, they are shaken in their ima- 
 gined faith by the opposite persuasion, or even 
 doubts of other men, and vent on their antagonists 
 that impatience which is the result of so disagree- 
 able a state of the understanding. They then em- 
 brace easily any pretence for representing oppo- 
 nents as impious and profane ; and if they can also 
 find a colour for connecting this violence with the 
 interests of civil government, they can no longer 
 be constrained from giving uncontrouled scope to 
 vengeance and resentment. But surely never en- 
 
250 THE HISTORY 
 
 terprlse was more unfortunate than founding per- 
 secution upon policy, or endeavouring, for the sake 
 of peace, to settle an entire uniformity of opinion, 
 in questions which, of all others, are least subject- 
 ed to the extent of human reason. The universal 
 and uncontradicted prevalence of one opinion on 
 religious subjects, can only be owing, at first, to 
 the stupid ignorance and barbarism of the people, 
 who never indulge themselves in any speculation 
 or inquiry ; and there is no other expedient for 
 maintaining that uniformity so fondly sought, but by 
 banishing for ever all curiosity and all improvement 
 in science and cultivation. It may not, indeed, 
 appear difficult to check, by a steady severity, the 
 first beginnings of controversy ; but besides that 
 this policy exposes, for ever, the people to all the 
 abject terrors of superstition, and the magistrate to 
 the endless encroachments of ecclesiastics, it also 
 renders men so delicate, that they never can en- 
 dure to hear of opposition, and they will some time 
 pay dearly for that false tranquillity in which they 
 have been so long indulged. As healthful bodies 
 are ruined by too mild a regimen, and are hereby 
 rendered incapable of bearing the unavoidable in- 
 cidents of human life, a people who never were al- 
 lowed to imagine that their principles would be 
 contested, fly out into the most outrageous vio- 
 lence, when any sect (and such sects are com-) 
 mon,) produces a faction among their clergy, and 
 gives rise to any difference in tenet or opinion. 
 But whatever may be said in favour of suppressing, 
 by persecution, the first beginnings of heresy, no 
 
OF IRELAND. 251 
 
 solid argument can be alleged for extending se- 
 verity towards multitudes, or endeavouring, by 
 capital punishments, to extirpate an opinion which 
 has diffused itself through men of every rank and 
 station. Besides the extreme barbarity of such an 
 attempt, it -proves commonly ineffectual to the pur- 
 pose intended, and seems only to make men more 
 obstinate in their persuasion, and to increase the 
 number of their proselytes. The melancholy with 
 which the fear of death, torture, and persecution 
 inspires the sectaries, is the proper disposition for 
 fostering religious zeal. The prospect of eternal 
 rewards, when brought near, overpowers the dread 
 of temporal punishment. The glory of martyrdom 
 animates all the more furious zealots, especially the 
 leaders and preachers. Where a violent animosi- 
 ty is excited by oppressions, men pass naturally 
 from hating the persons of their tyrants, to a more 
 violent abhorrence of their doctrines : and the spec- 
 tators, moved with pity towards the supposed mar- 
 tyrs, are naturally seduced to embrace those prin- 
 ciples which can inspire men with a constancy 
 almost supernatural. Open the door to toleration — 
 the mutual hatred relaxes among the sectaries ; 
 their attachment to their particular religion de- 
 cays ; the common occupations and pleasures suc- 
 ceed to the acrimony of disputation, and the same 
 man, who in other circumstances would have brav- 
 ed flames and tortures, is engaged to change his 
 religion from the smallest prospect of power and 
 advancement, or even from the frivolous hopes of 
 becoming more fashionable in his principles. If 
 
252 THE HISTORY 
 
 any exception can be admitted to this maxim of 
 toleration, it will be only where a theology altoge- 
 ther new, nowise connected with the ancient reli- 
 gion of the state, is imported from foreign coun- 
 tries, and may easily at one blow, be eradicated, 
 without leaving the seeds of future innovations. 
 But as this instance would involve some apology 
 for the ancient pagan persecutions, or for the ex- 
 tirpation of Christianity in China or Japan, it ought, 
 surely, on account of the detested consequence, to 
 be rather buried in eternal silence and oblivion." 
 
 Such are the profound and masterly observations 
 of Mr Hume, on the folly of endeavouring to ex- 
 tinguish the liberty of thought on subjects of which 
 no human tribunal can take cognizance ; and the 
 history of the world demonstrates the wisdom of 
 that principle, which Mr Hume recommends as 
 the only cure for the disease of fanaticism, and the 
 only preventative of those evils which flow from 
 the zeal of the bigot of every religious persuasion. 
 The pride of the adherents of the ancient religion, 
 and the innovating frenzy of the professors of the 
 jiew, were too excessive to allow the mild and 
 healing voice of toleration to be heard amidst their 
 tumultuary conflicts. Mankind took the alarm, 
 when they saw the daring spirit of reformation 
 breaking dowm those bounds which restrained and 
 directed human passions. The licentiousness of 
 the reformer increased as he went on in his work 
 of innovation, and every effort made to reunite 
 the parties in controversy but added fresh fuel to 
 the flames, and fresh ardour to their enthusiasm. 
 
OF IRELAND. 25 
 
 The reign of Mary was not so productive of cala- 
 mity to Ireland as to England. The principles of 
 the reformer had not succeeded in making any 
 great progress, and the few who struggled to in- 
 culcate the new doctrines were not so steady in their 
 principles, as to refuse yielding to the threats or 
 the remonstrances of the ministers of Mary. In 
 Ireland, therefore, Mary and Philip had few vic- 
 tims to sacrifice to their depraved fanaticism, but 
 we shall find this sanguinary queen following up the 
 political principles of her predecessors in this de- 
 voted country, and treachery and murder of the 
 basest kind, are to be the distinguishing marks of 
 that reign which covered England with scaffolds, 
 and shed the blood of thousands to gratify the pas- 
 sions of a remorseless theologian, or, in the cant of 
 the day, to promote the glory and religion of the 
 Almighty. 
 
 On the accession of Mary, there was no mate- 
 rial alteration of Irish ministers. The celebrated 
 George Dowdal was restored to the dignity and 
 office of primate of all Ireland, and invested with 
 the priory of Atherdee. " A licence," Mr Le- 
 land says, " was granted for the celebration of mass, 
 without penalty or compulsion ; and among the 
 royal titles, that of supreme head of the church of 
 Ireland still continued to be inserted in the acts of 
 state.*' 
 
 The family of Kildare were restored to all their 
 ancient honours. The young Lord Gerald, a fa- 
 vourite of the queen, was vested with all estates pos- 
 sessed by his ancestors. Charles Kavanagh, also. 
 
254 THE HISTORY 
 
 the head of the great Leinster family of Mac Mur- 
 chad, was created a peer of the reahn, by the title 
 of Baron Balyan. O'Connor of OfFaJy was restored 
 to his own county by the mediation of his own 
 daughter with the queen. Yfe find Sir Anthony 
 St Leger, w^ho was the instrument of Edward in 
 the prosecution of his reforming principles, accom- 
 modating himself to the doctrines of the queen, and 
 re-appointed in the office of her representative. The 
 return of Dowdal was the unerring signal of Mary's 
 determination to restore the ancient faith. The 
 partizans of the reformation fled from the impend- 
 ing storm ', having none of those earthly induce- 
 ments to martyrdom which presented themselves to 
 their English colleagues. They could neither ex- 
 pect the wonder nor the pity of any number of the 
 Irish people, however patient in suffering, or how- 
 ever inflexible in their principles ; and the hope of 
 obtaining the crown of salvation was too distant a 
 prize to animate such men as Bale of Ossory, and 
 Casey of Limerick. *« They fled in dismay," says 
 Mr Leland. The general amnesty published by 
 Mary on her accession, made an exception, which 
 sufficiently marks the character of the times, how 
 little sense of justice was entertained by those whose 
 bigotry was to be gratified. Those priests of the 
 colony whom the laws of Henry and Edward allow- 
 ed to marry, were punished for their violation of the 
 Catholic religion, by the loss of their sees and their 
 livings. 
 
 But a transaction now occurred, (J 554,) which 
 consigns the memory of Mary's Irish administration 
 
OF IRELAND. 255 
 
 to perpetual infamy. It is not the madness of fa- 
 naticism ; it is not the ignorant and ludicrous anxie- 
 ty for the future welfare of its victim ; it is not a 
 holy zeal for the preservation of a religion which 
 the persecutor of humanity may consider the best. 
 No — the execrable transaction which w^e have now 
 to record, is the oiFspring of avarice and tyranny, 
 of an insatiable lust of power, and a desire to pos- 
 sess the property of an innocent and unoffending 
 people. — The inhabitants of Offaly and Leix are 
 doomed to a treacherous and cowardly slaughter. 
 The instruments of the assassin are preferred to the 
 honourable warfare of soldiers, and Englishmen are 
 degraded into the cold-blooded executioners of a 
 generous and hospitable nation. The inhabitants 
 of Leix (or the Queen's county) were almost per- 
 petually at war with the colony of the pale. The 
 latter beheld with greedy eyes the fertile fields of 
 Leix and Offaly, and thirsted for the opportunity of 
 plundering its wealth and its comforts. Its brave 
 inhabitants could not be conquered in the field ; it 
 remained, therefore, to the English colony, to adopt 
 any expedient, however infamous, to get possession 
 of so valuable an acquisition. The laws of God or 
 of man were no restraint on their passions; the 
 principles of honour, of generosity and hospitality, 
 gave way to the insatiable spirit of rapacity, and the 
 unsuspecting Irish were to be slaughtered in those 
 hours when confidence was at its height, — when the 
 heart overflowed with sensibility, — when the cup of 
 peace and friendship was circulating round the fes- 
 tive board, — when the eye glistened with philan- 
 
256 » HISTORY OF 
 
 thropy, and the cheek glowed with benevolence, — 
 this was the sacred hour selected by the English 
 colony, to extirpate the chieftains and the nobles 
 of Leix and OfiPaly. The chief men of the two 
 septs, in number four hundred, were invited by the 
 Earl of Sussex, successor to St Leger, as to an 
 amicable conference, to the rathmore of Mullah- 
 mast. Thither they came, — all the most eminent 
 in law, war, physic, and divinity, and all the lead- 
 ing men of talents and authority in either sept. 
 " They rode,'' says an historian who lived a few 
 years subsequent to this event, '* into the fatal rath, 
 (confiding in the olive branch of peace, held out to 
 allure,) in the character of ambassadors, — sacred 
 among all nations, even barbarians and heathens. 
 The cup of friendship was pledged by the ambas- 
 sadors of the colony ; refreshments given with the 
 accustomed hospitality ; when the Irish found them- 
 selves suddenly surrounded by a triple line of horse 
 and foot, who, on a given signal, fell on the unarm- 
 ed, defenceless gentlemen, and murdered them all 
 on the spot. 
 
 On reading the sad and dismal scenes of Roman 
 and Grecian treachery, the heart is desired by our 
 instructors to pause, and reflect on the enormity of 
 the crime ; and the youthful talent is employed in 
 the defence and the impeachment of those charac- 
 ters who were the prominent actors on the barba- 
 rous theatre of antiquity. Here is a theme of deep 
 and melancholy reflection to the Irish mind, from 
 which a volume of instruction may be drawn. Here 
 is a transaction which calls forth the tear of sensi- 
 
OF IRELAND. 257 
 
 bllity, and in the contemplation of which the ho- 
 nest and indignant heart sinks into a sad and me- 
 lancholy reverie. Yet the Irish should not forget 
 that the sacred blood thus barbarously shed, was 
 the work of a papist English queen ; and they 
 should be taught to remember that the monoply of 
 the colony, whether in the robes of catholicity or 
 protestantism, was equally savage, equally relent- 
 less, and equally insatiable. Leland passes over 
 those disastrous scenes ; — Dr Curry places them 
 in the reign of Elizabeth ;— -but as this massacre 
 seems to have preceded the change of the names 
 of Leix, for the Queen's county, and Offaly for the 
 King's county, (a change which could not have 
 taken place without the destruction of its principal 
 inhabitants by massacre, as at Mullahmast, or by a 
 series of battles, of which w^e have no account), we 
 have placed this horrid transaction in the reign of 
 Mary. Mr TaafFe, who has accurately examined 
 the old annalists, asserts that this murder took 
 place in the reign of Mary ; that the principal fort 
 in Leix was called Maryborough, from the same 
 queen ; that the fort in Offaly was called Philips- 
 town, from her husband Philip ; and that the Eng- 
 lish colony passed an act, about the year J 556, 
 confiscating the two counties, and vesting the mur- 
 derers of the Irish with the property of their vic- 
 tims. Thus were the noble and illustrious families 
 of the O'Moores, the O'Connors, the Dempsies, 
 swept away by the daggers of the assassins ; and 
 Mullahmast remains a monument of English treach«* 
 ery which the Irish can never forget, until Eng<s 
 
 VOL. I. R 
 
258 THE HISTORY 
 
 land, by the mildness and protection of her laws, 
 convinces the people that their interest and happi- 
 ness is her's — their privileges and their Hberties, the 
 strength and bulwark of the British empire. The 
 commemorations of ascendancy have often provok- 
 ed the unboLight Irishman to turn his eye back on 
 tlie sad record which relates the transactions at 
 ^lullahmast; and the reflection that such scenes 
 are countenanced by their rulers, tears open the 
 wound which time, and the native forgiveness of 
 the Irish heart, would long since have healed. 
 
 In the year 1556, Mary concluded her treaty of 
 marriage with Philip, and received cardinal Pole 
 into England, in the character of legate, for the 
 purpose of reconciling her kingdom to the holy see. 
 The cardinal is represented by all parties, as a mild, 
 moderate, and benevolent minister of religion, who 
 would, if possible, have softened the rancour of the 
 bigot, and endeavoured to procure the ascendancy 
 of his religious tenets rather by persuasion than by 
 violence — by the powers of reason, rather than the 
 terrors of the scaffold. Mr Hume says, in his cha- 
 racter of cardinal Pole, ** In a nation where the 
 most furious persecution was carried on, and the 
 most violent religious factions prevailed over jus- 
 tice, even by most of the reformers, has justice 
 been done to his merit.'^ The benign character of 
 this prelate, his modesty and humanity, made him 
 universally beloved. The lords and commons as- 
 sembled on the 1st of June, J 556; and the bull 
 from the legate, cardinal Pole, was read in full par- 
 liament, congratulating the nation on its return to 
 
OF IRELAND. 259 
 
 the ancient faith of their ancestry. Tin's bull was 
 read aloud by the chancellor on his knees, and re- 
 ceived by the whole assembly of lords and com- 
 mons, in token, says Leland, of reverence and con- 
 trition. 
 
 The law of this parliament most worthy of no- 
 tice, is that for the explanation of the law of Poyn- 
 ings. — Thirteen years had elapsed, in which no 
 parliament had been held in Ireland, and the pow- 
 ers of that assembly required an accurate definition 
 with regard to the law of Poynings, by which they 
 were to be hereafter regulated. This parliament, 
 therefore, formally defined the intent and meaning 
 of Poynings' law. It was enacted, that no parlia- 
 ment should be summoned or holden in Ireland, 
 until the chief governor and council should certify 
 to the throne, the causes and considerations, and 
 such acts and ordinances as they judged meet to 
 be enacted ; that when these were approved and 
 returned under the great seal of England, a par- 
 liament should be summoned for the purpose of 
 passing such acts, and no other. Thus the usage 
 of holding parHaments and enacting laws in Ire- 
 land, was finally established, by which all contest 
 and debate on the construction of the act of 
 Henry VIII. or of Poynings, was for the future 
 put an end to. It is consoling to be able to re- 
 mark, that in this reign we cannot set down the 
 horrible examples of infuriated bigotry that disgrace 
 the page of English history during the same period ; 
 that we cannot record the same unrelenting and 
 uiipitying religious fury in Ireland which governed 
 
 u 2 
 
260 THE HISTORY 
 
 the councils of Mary in England. An Irishman, 
 partial even to his native air, imputes to its influ- 
 ence, as well as to the generous sentiment that dis- 
 tinguished his countrymen for centuries, the mild 
 spirit of toleration which directed the administra- 
 tion of the colony, during the sanguinary reign of 
 Mary ; and triumphantly seizes the opportunity of 
 boasting their superior qualifications in head and 
 heart, compared with those of Englishmen, who 
 were to be seen sacrificing each other to the gloomy 
 demon of fanaticism j but the progress of the refor- 
 mation in Ireland was comparatively slow^ and the 
 converts from popery were too few to provoke the 
 severity of persecution ; nor can we believe, with 
 Mr Leland, that we are to attribute this great bless- 
 ing of religious freedom, which every writer of 
 those times, however prejudiced, allows to have ex- 
 isted in Ireland, to the '* stupid composure of ig- 
 norance and superstition." We rather attribute 
 the existence of such a blessing to the fortunate 
 circumstance, that the rage of fanaticism had made 
 no very successful encroachments on the ancient 
 faith of the country, and that the few who opposed 
 were too insignificant to excite the fears or the 
 jealousy of the ascendant religion. It remained 
 for future days to experience the effects of break- 
 ing down the venerated principles of antiquity, and 
 disturbing the conscience and belief of those who 
 lived with their neighbours in harmony and peace. 
 *' What a pity,*' writes an honest and animated his- 
 torian, " that the Irish are not roused from their 
 stupid composure, by running after crazy mounte* 
 
OF IRELAND. 261 
 
 banks, — vending their quackeries of new invented 
 doctrines, with as great an assortment of sample 
 patterns, as there are delirious fancies in the heat- 
 ed brains of bible-mad fanatics ! So, the calm en- 
 joyed by the Protestants in Ireland, when they were 
 few, and the Catholics all-powerful, (the effect of 
 an enlightened philosophy, or great native genero- 
 sity,) is, according to Leland, the effect of a stupid 
 composure in ignorance and superstition." No 5 we 
 should rather conclude, with the writer of these ob- 
 servations, that the native kindness of the Irish heart 
 did not feel any gratification in the bloody triumphs 
 of bigotry, and that the indulgence granted to the 
 propagators of reformation in Ireland, flowed from 
 the influence of that generosity, which has so long 
 and so remarkably characterised the Irish nation. 
 Ware informs us, that several English families fled 
 into Ireland, and there enjoyed their opinions and 
 Worship in privacy, without notice or molestation. 
 
 During the remainder of this reign, there is lit- 
 tle worthy of record— little calculated to instruct the 
 understanding or improve the heart. The battles 
 fought between the houses of Tyrowen and Tyr- 
 connel, display all that fruitless bravery which al- 
 ways distinguished the contending Irish septs ; and 
 the reader of the sanguinary scene must lament the 
 v/aste of so much precious blood in the odious 
 struggles of civil war. We have passed through 
 so many occurrences of this kind, that w^e deem 
 it an unprofitable labour to re-echo either the 
 courage or the follies of our countrymen. ^ 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF IRELAND. 
 
 ELIZABETH. 
 
 j^ jy The history of Ireland may be considered 
 1558. the only history in which the mind and 
 heart of the reader are unable to find a rest- 
 ing-place from the miseries and sorrows of his fel- 
 low-creatures, in which even a short interval of 
 peace cannot be discovered, or*a momentary ces- 
 sation from human calamity cannot be enjoyed — 
 in which a perpetual succession of afflictions, unre- 
 lieved by one gleam of comfort, or by one ray of 
 hope, passes before the eye — wearying and exhaust- 
 ing its sensibility by the reiteration of sorrow- 
 Despair takes possession of the Irish patriot ; and 
 all future efforts to rescue his country from the mi- 
 serable distractions to which Providence seems to 
 have doomed it, strike him to be the dreams of the 
 visionary, rather than the result of reflection, or the 
 sober dictate of cool and dispassionate reason. The 
 
THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. 263 
 
 Irishman who is not insensible to the long course 
 of misery experienced by his country, who has 
 sympathized with her sufferings, and has followed 
 her varied fortunes — who has reflected upon the hun- 
 dred struggles made by the mutual exertions of the 
 prudent, and the violent precipitancy of the enthu- 
 siastic, is inclined to close the record of such re- 
 peated disappointment, with the humane and be- 
 nevolent exclamation of regret, that the sword had 
 not, in the infancy of Ireland's connection with 
 England, extirpated the seed of that spirit which 
 has struggled with despotism in vain for a period 
 of seven hundred years, and which only contributed 
 to excite by resistance that persecution which has 
 so long desolated the richest and most beautiful 
 island on the globe. The Irishman, who, from 
 time to time, flattered his country with hope, has 
 done little more than prepare her for the scaffold, 
 and the struggles which promised the fairest pros- 
 pects, and the most triumphant issue, have hitherto 
 terminated in general disaster — unprofitable to the 
 conqueror, and ruinous to the conquered. That a 
 people, possessing the great and enviable qualities 
 of Irishmen — brave^ generous and humane ; — that 
 a nation illustrious for its hospitality and kindness, 
 should for centuries be the victims of the most un- 
 equalled misfortunes, excite the pity and indigna^ 
 tion of every reader. For four hundred years pre- 
 vious to Elizabeth, we have witnessed one unbroken 
 chain of calamity ; — we have seen the wealth and 
 resources of our country sacrificed to the rapacity 
 of monopoly, and a small and contemptible band of 
 
264 THE HISTORY 
 
 settlers gnawing the vitals of a nation who could 
 have extinguished them by the union of its people. 
 During this dreary period, the catholic English co- 
 lony are to be found plundering the people of Ire- 
 land professing the same religion, and worshipping 
 the same God with their persecutors. We see the 
 spirit of robbery generating the same torments 
 against their victims as we shall shortly see adopted 
 by the furious spirit of bigotry; and when the 
 Irish native was nearly stripped of his property, and 
 had almost ceased to be worthy the notice of per- 
 secution, we shall find him uncovered, and unshel- 
 tered — exposed to the fury of the fanatical reformer, 
 and the sacred liberty of serving the Supreme Be- 
 ing as his conscience dictated, rudely torn from him 
 by the ministers of that British Queen, who gave 
 an asylum to the victims of popish fanaticism, and 
 rescued from the dagger of the assassin the Hugo- 
 nots of France. It seems that the principle which 
 gave protection to the persecuted of a foreign 
 country dictated the persecution of Irishmen, and 
 that the examples of the sanguinary and ferocious 
 Charles, and the stupid and bigotted Philip, were 
 worthy of imitation, against the devoted people of 
 Ireland. ** If the scene," says Mr TaafFe, ** has 
 been hitherto turbulent and sanguinary, it is speedi- 
 ly to be darkened by a louring tempest, pregnant 
 with ruin to the inhabitants. The ancient glory 
 and happiness of the island of sanctity, learning, 
 hospitality and heroism, are to be trampled under 
 foot. In addition to their former misfortunes, a 
 fresh scourge is prepared for Ireland. If popish 
 
OF IRELAND. ^65 
 
 England assails their persons and fortunes, protest- 
 ant England assaults even the sanctuary of con- 
 science. The loss of life and its comforts, God 
 knows, were grievous enough ; but the attempt of 
 wresting from them, by tyrannic violence, their be- 
 lief and hopes of an immortal inheritance, was still 
 reserved to fill the cup of misery brim full, and 
 drive a religious people to utter despair." That 
 the ministers of England could see no safer mode 
 of governing Ireland than by persecution, was not 
 the cause of the cruel war which they waged against 
 the feelings of the Irish nation j the torture in Ire- 
 land had the effect of propagating, by its terror, 
 the principles of reformation in England ; the pre- 
 text of conformity gave an opportunity to the artful 
 Cecil to provide the factious and turbulent and dis- 
 affected of his own country, with the forfeited pro- 
 perty of conscientious Ireland, not so indifferent to 
 the creed of their ancestors as Englishmen. The 
 Irish offered up their lives and their fortunes on the 
 altar of their religion, and preferred the miseries of 
 poverty to the crime of apostacy. Not so England : 
 no matter from what quarter the wind of their re- 
 ligious doctrine blew; whether from the brutal 
 Henry VIII. the fanatic ministers of Edward VL 
 or the wretched bigotry of Mary, — they were equal- 
 ly ready to embrace the creed of each, and equally 
 ready to plunder the altar of the Catholic, and burn 
 the bible of the Protestant. The Irish were not so 
 fortunate in the mutability of their belief, and it 
 has pleased Providence, that for adhering to the 
 religion of their fathers, they should be visited with 
 
266 THE HISTORY 
 
 temporal suffering, Inflicted with all the remorseless 
 fury of paganism. Future times will startle when 
 they read the miseries which one sect of christians 
 inflicted on another; and they will repeat those 
 names with indignation, who converted fidelity into 
 crime, and sincere religion into superstitious fanati- 
 cism. 
 
 We shall find, in the reign which we are about to 
 record, the calamitous effects of that wretched po- 
 licy which would force a religion upon the people 
 of any nation. Notwithstanding the blood that has 
 been shed, and the tears which have flowed, what 
 have been the fruits of persecution to the reformed 
 religion of Ireland ? Where are its numbers, com- 
 pared with the persecuted Catholic? Is not Catho- 
 lic Ireland more powerful at this moment than ever 
 she was ? and have not the struggles to weaken her 
 but increased her strength, and raised her character 
 and importance in Europe ? We may learn from 
 the past, that no religion can be propagated by the 
 violence of the sword, or the statute-book ; that 
 persecution covers the human mind with an impe- 
 netrable armour ; that it multiplies its victims, or 
 impoverishes and destroys itself; and that there is 
 no axiom better established by the page of history, 
 than that to which Pagan persecution gave birth, — 
 ** Sanguis martyrum est semen religionis." The 
 Catholic religion has arisen in Ireland from the 
 ashes of its professors, and now displays to the rea^ 
 son of mankind a sober and settled rule, by which 
 humanity can regulate its future hopes, or its pre- 
 sent consistency. The folly of that zeal which would 
 
OF IRELAND. 267 
 
 compel, by privations and political disabilities and 
 indignities, the profession of a particular specula- 
 tive opinion,* is universally acknowledged; and 
 the civilized world now seem to be anxious for the 
 general establishment of that tolerant principle which 
 is best calculated to procure and perpetuate the 
 peace and harmony of mankind. 
 
 On the accession of Elizabeth, the west and north 
 of Ireland were desolated by the aspiring ambition 
 of the two houses of Desmond and O'Nial. The 
 latter claimed the sovereignty of all Ulster, and re- 
 assumed the ancient grandeur of his house. O'Nial 
 perceived that a great exertion should be made to 
 save himself from a fate similar to that of the two 
 powerful clans of Offaly and Leix ; and he there- 
 fore, with becoming spirit, determined to put forth 
 
 * The following observations, coming from Lord Clare, the ex- 
 cessive liberality of whose opinions cannot be complained of by 
 the partizans of bigotry, fully demonstrate that the most preju- 
 diced mind cannot refuse assent to the instruction which history 
 gives to mankind. In the year 1800, he thus spoke in the Irish 
 House of Lords, « It seems difficult," said his lordship, " to 
 conceive any more unjust or impolitic act of government, than an 
 attempt to force new modes of religious faith and worship, by se- 
 vere penalties, upon a rude, superstitious, and unlettered people. 
 Persecution, or attempts to force conscience, will never produce 
 conviction ; they are calculated only to make hypocrites and mar- 
 tyrs ; and, accordingly, the violence committed by the regency 
 of Edward, and continued by Elizabeth, to force the reformed re- 
 ligion on Ireland, had no other effect than to foment a general 
 disaffection to the English government ; a disaffection so general, 
 as to induce Philip II. of Spain, to attempt partial descents on 
 the southern coasts of this island, preparatory to his meditated 
 attack upon England." 
 
268 THE HISTORY 
 
 all his strength, consolidate his kingdom, unite the 
 distracted chieftains who were subordinate to him 
 in one common bond of union, and boldly assert 
 his independence against the violence and fraud of 
 his English enemies. He reduced the O'Reillys of 
 Cavan, and Calvach O'Donnell of Donegal). The 
 colony were alarmed at the rapidity of O'Nial's 
 progress ; and their deputy, the Earl of Sussex, led 
 all his forces against the Irish chieftain. Before a 
 blow was struck, an accommodation was agreed to. 
 O'Nial pleaded the justice of his resistance, and a 
 treaty was concluded, in which he was acknow- 
 ledged dynast of Tyrowen. The treaty being finally 
 arranged, he attended the Lord-Deputy to Dublin, 
 swore allegiance, and promised to repair to the 
 queen, and renew his dutiful submission at the foot 
 of the throne. It is said that he appeared before 
 EHzabeth with all the pomp and magnificence pe- 
 culiar to his country. He was attended, on the 
 day of audience, by a guard of gallow-glasses, ar*. 
 rayed in the richest habiliments of their country, 
 armed with the battle-axe, their heads bare, their 
 hair flowing on their shoulders, their linen vests 
 dyed with saffron, with long and open sleeves, and 
 surcharged with their short military harness ; a 
 spectacle astonishing to the people, who imagined 
 that they beheld the inhabitants of some distant 
 quarter of the globe. Elizabeth received the Irish 
 chieftain with the greatest courtesy, and patiently 
 listened to his defence. The candour and mag- 
 nanimity of O'NiaPs deportment so gained upon 
 the queen, that she dismissed him with assurances 
 
OF IRELAND. 269 
 
 of her favour and protection. O'Nial did not dis- 
 appoint the hopes of the queen when he returned 
 to his native country. His fidelity to her interests 
 was zealous and sincere. He led his forces against 
 the Hebridean Scots, defeated and drove them 
 from the castles they had occupied on the northern 
 coast. Notwithstanding these strong demonstra- 
 tions of attachment to the cause of Elizabeth, the 
 deputy still entertained unworthy suspicions of the 
 sincerity of O'Nial, and communicated those sus- 
 picions to his royal mistress. The answer of 
 Elizabeth, on this occasion, displays at once her 
 determination and her sagacity. *' Be not dis- 
 mayed," said she ; '* tell my friends, if he arise, 
 it will turn to their advantage ; there will be 
 estates for them who wantj — from me he must 
 expect no further favour." 
 
 Sir Henry Sydney was now appointed to the 
 vice-regency of Ireland; which, at this period, re- 
 quired all the intelligence and activity which that 
 enterprising Englishman was known to possess. 
 Sir William St Leger was ordered to co-operate 
 with Sir Henry Sydney ; and special instructions 
 were given to the privy council of the colony, to 
 devise such measures, in concurrence with the de- 
 puty, as were calculated to enforce the queen's 
 authority *, and propogate the reformed religion. 
 
 * It has been often observed by the Hberal readers of Irish 
 history, that Ireland is distinguished from all other countries, not 
 so much by the magnitude of her misfortunes, and the excess of 
 her sufferings, as she is by the malignant calumnies of the hired 
 traducer, and the abandoned testimony of her prostitute children* 
 
270 THE HISTORY 
 
 To intimidate the male-contents of Ulster, Arnold, 
 an English officer, was stationed with a strong 
 force in Derry ; and O'Nial, determined to expel 
 
 At the moment some of our Irish historians are recording the 
 greatest provocations which human feehngs could be goaded by, 
 we find some merciless epithet, some insolent denunciation of the 
 barbarous character of the country which they describe as bleed- 
 ing from every pore. In the same page which registers the des- 
 potic violence with which Elizabeth insulted the conscience of 
 the nation, by prescribing a form of religion that warred with the 
 feelings of Irishmen, and which might be considered the fantastic 
 composition of Elizabeth herself, we see some impudent sneer 
 against that honourable fidelity to the venerated religion of their 
 fathers, which distinguished our countrymen. The pen of the 
 historian is employed in covering with obloquy those sacred names 
 who resisted with their lives, the arrogant dictates of that power, 
 that presumed to pare down the religion of Ireland to the mea- 
 sure of its passions, its ambition, and its avarice. The historians 
 who have hitherto devoted their talents to the investigation of 
 Irish calamity, can see no causes for Ireland's sufferings in the 
 dreadful efforts of that tyranny which endeavoured, if the expres- 
 sion be allowed, to tear out her heart — ^^hich trampled on the 
 most sacred right of human nature — the liberty of communicating 
 with God in the form and manner the conscience of the people 
 dictated. The protestant who reads the persecution of his fel- 
 low-protestant, whether under Charles of France, who presided 
 over the horrible scenes of St Bartholomew's day, or of Philip of 
 Spain, lays down the book in an agony of distress, and all the 
 manly and honourable feelings of his nature are roused to an in- 
 stantaneous deprecation of the fanaticism which could so bruta- 
 lise our nature. Such a feeling, no doubt, is as salutary to our 
 country, as it is full of dignity and honour ; and the historian 
 who most successfully calls forth the vengeance of his reader 
 against such monsters as Charles and Philip, do the greatest ser- 
 vice to the cause of true religion and humanity. But how comes 
 it to pass, that amidst the dreadful and fanatical persecutions of 
 our countrymen, amidst the slaughter of the most sacred feelings 
 
OF IRELAND, 271 
 
 from his territories the only obstacle which now 
 presented itself to the completion of his ambitious 
 views. He could no longer hold terms with a go- 
 of our nature, which covered our country, not a sigh is heard— 
 not a single sentiment of indignation at the hand which inflicted 
 the suffering ? No voice of pity whispers consolation to the honour- 
 able men who have braved and survived the storm. This would not 
 be prudent for the writer's purposes. This perhaps would wound 
 the sensibility of the ruling powers. It would be opening the 
 wound which their kindness would close for ever ; and therefore 
 it is much better, say the grave and judicious, to go on slander- 
 ing and defaming the memory of those who have fallen in the 
 cause of religious and political freedom ; much better to go on 
 denominating those honourable Irishmen who resisted the refor- 
 mation, barbarous, ignorant, and incapable of improvement. We 
 think differently ; and shall, in obedience to truth, set down what 
 we conceive to be the cause of Irish misfortune, and the fruitful 
 source of those disastrous divisions, which have rendered one 
 party odious, another feared, and all weak and impotent. The 
 reformation has been to Ireland, what the invasion of the Spa- 
 niard was to South America. It propagated civilization by the 
 sword, and cultivated religion by extirpating the original inhabi- 
 tants ; it commenced in despotism, and has ended in the acknow- 
 ledged impotency of its efforts. Another and a better policy has 
 succeeded to the fanaticism of the reformer; and Ireland, left to 
 the direction of her own conscience, on questions of religion, pro- 
 mises as much strength to her rulers as she has been hitherto a 
 source of weakness and torment. The measures adopted by the 
 Irish parliament to promote the success of the reformation in Ire- 
 land, were well calculated for the object they had in view. The 
 parliament of the pale, at the accession of Elizabeth, was not 
 composed of those malleable materials, that would, without a 
 struggle, surrender the religion of their fathers ; we find, however, 
 that such were the threats of despotism, that in a session of a few 
 weeks, the whole ecclesiastical system of the colony was changed. 
 The act of supremacy, the act empowering the viceroy to nomi- 
 nate to sees, for the space of ten years, the act for erecting schools 
 
272 THE HISTORY 
 
 vernment which would not place the most com- 
 plete confidence in his professions of loyalty ; and 
 he resolved rather to struggle for his independ- 
 
 of reformation, the act enacting, that all persons in office shall 
 take the oath of supremacy, the act making it high treason to 
 defend the ancient religion, either by word or by ^\Titing — the 
 punishment death ; the act making the Book of Common Prayer, 
 composed by EHzabeth, the only book of prayer to be read by 
 the clergy of the pale, who, on refusal, were subject to the pe- 
 nalty of confinement for hfe. These were some of the acts enact- 
 ed by Elizabeth, for the propagation of her religion ; but it is to 
 be remarked, that she always reserved to herself the power of 
 prescribing other forms and ceremonies, as it might please her 
 majesty. Tliese were the acts which Irishmen resisted with their 
 blood, because they were taught to believe it was more religious, 
 as well as more honourable, to die in defence of religious freedom, 
 than embrace doctrines which they could not believe. For this 
 fidehty, which should have raised Ireland in the estimation of a 
 great statesman, the ministerial hypocrite and the plunderer laid 
 waste her property, and deluged her fields with blood ; and the 
 experience of two centuries was necessary to develope the infatu- 
 ated weakness of such a policy. Is it to be wondered that the 
 Irish peasant should, after the lapse of such a period of horror, 
 connect the name of protestant with persecutor ? And that the 
 mild and merciful protestants of the present day should some- 
 times hear the murmurings of those men, whose ancestors have 
 fallen victims in the defence of principles, which none prize more 
 highly than the enlightened and benevolent reformers of the pre- 
 sent day. The reflecting mind will admit, that years of kindness 
 can only obliterate the impression which two centuries of perse- 
 cution has made on the Irish heart ; and that the greatest enemy 
 that Ireland has, will have the candour to acknowledge, that no 
 nation more promptly forgives an injury, nor more gratefully re- 
 members a benefit. It is therefore the duty of the Protestant to 
 respect the man his ancestors would have persecuted ; and it is 
 the duty of the Catholic, wherever that feeling is acted upon, to 
 forget and to forgive the vices and the follies of the ages that are 
 past. 
 
OF IRELAND. 273 
 
 euce> than pass a precarious existence under a pow- 
 er which discredited his character. 
 
 The Lord of Desmond had now surrendered to 
 the arms of the queen ; his lands were restored 
 to him, to be held by English tenure, and he him- 
 self created a lord of parliament by the title of the 
 Earl of Clancarthy. The exclamation of O'Nial 
 on this occasion, does not indicate that savage and 
 debased ferocity, for which he has been distinguish- 
 ed by the pen of Mr Leland. A spirit of deter- 
 mined independence and honest patriotism mark 
 the observations we are about to read. " A pre- 
 cious earl!" said O'Nial to some English com- 
 missioners, sent to treat with him. " I keep a lac- 
 quey at my table as noble as he ; but let him en- 
 joy his honour, it is not worthy of O'Nial ! 1 have 
 indeed made peace with the queen at her desire ; 
 but I have not forgotten the royal dignity of my 
 ancestors. Ulster was theirs, and shall be mine ; 
 with the sword they won it — with the sword I will 
 maintain it." From this moment we find O'Nial 
 the furious and relentless enemy of England, carry- 
 ing fire and sword through the entire of the north ; 
 burning down the reformed churches ; pursuing 
 the propagators of reformation, and calling up the 
 dormant spirit of Irishmen in every corner of the 
 island. O'Nial could only be opposed with effect 
 by a division among the Irish themselves ; and this 
 was the policy which the prudent Sydney preferred 
 to the precarious result of the sword. He concili- 
 ated the principal chieftains of the north, Calvagh 
 of Tyrconnel, Macguire, the lord of Fermanagh, 
 
 VOL. I. s 
 
274 THE HISTORY 
 
 and some otner chieftains of the north-west ; who 
 from motives of jealousy and envy, basely preferred 
 the humiliation of their brave enemy, O'Nial, to 
 the greater object of weakening the common ene- 
 my of their country. 
 
 O'Nial, unsupported by foreign or domestic aid, 
 w^as obliged to yield before superior force. A 
 temporary gleam of hope shone upon his fortunes ; 
 he was invited to join the Scots, now encamped in 
 Clanterboy ; but here O'Nial had to contend with 
 the base and contemptible practices of treachery 
 and cowardice. O'Nial was invited by the Scots 
 in all the confidence of the most generous friend- 
 ship ; he accepted the invitation, and at the mo- 
 ment the unthinking Irish chieftain was enjoying 
 the feast of hospitality, the soldiers of his infamous 
 host rushed in and butchered the brave Irishman 
 and all his followers. To this act of indehble in- 
 famy the Scotch were excited by the artifices of 
 Sydney ; and by such practices have we already 
 seen the power of the colony triumph over the 
 honourable credulity of a brave and generous people. 
 
 Mr Leland relates this transaction with his ac- 
 customed coldness ; not a single sigh of resentment 
 escapes his lips, and innocence falls unpitied and 
 unrevenged, even by the historian, under the poi- 
 soned cup of the coward, or the dagger of the as- 
 sassin. For this great and magnanimous achieve- 
 ment the murderers received a reward of one thou- 
 sand drachms from the deputy, who immediately 
 marched into the territories of the intrepid O'Nial. 
 
 The contests between Ormond and Desmond 
 
OF IRELAND. 275 
 
 continued to exhaust their respective territories. 
 Their conflicts were sanguinary and destructive to 
 each party, and their petty war ended in the defeat 
 of Desmond, who was made a prisoner. The Or- 
 mondians carrying their wounded prisoner in tri- 
 umph from the field of battle, were assailed by a 
 rebuke from Desmond, which may be considered 
 a singular instance of resolution as well as wit- 
 " Where," said the victors, " Is now the great 
 lord of Desmond !" — " Where,'* replied the heroic 
 Desmond, " But in his proper place ? — Still upon 
 the necks of the Butlers T 
 
 A temporary submission on the part of Desmond 
 to the English government took place, but the old 
 feuds broke out again between Ormond and him. 
 The deputy, in conjunction with the former, re- 
 duced Desmond, took him prisoner, and sent him 
 to England. — Here Elizabeth's ministers considered 
 it prudent to confine him. Sir Henry Sydney ac- 
 companied his prisoner, in order to defend the acts 
 of his government before his royal mistress, and in 
 his absence we find the colony assailed and convul- 
 sed by the rival chieftains, Butler, the Geraldines, 
 the O'Moores, and the O'Connors. Sydney, on 
 his return, convened a parliament, to consult them 
 on the most efficacious means of restoring peace to 
 the country. The enemies of the reformation in 
 Ireland were so numerous and so important a body, 
 that it required all the artifices and influence of the 
 Queen's Irish government to assemble such a par- 
 liament as would forward the objects for which 
 they were convened. Every eflfort that corruption 
 s 2 
 
276 THE HISTOIIY 
 
 could make was exerted to procure such a house of 
 commons as would be obedient to the nod of the 
 viceroy. Sir Christopher Barnewell charged the 
 House of Commons with being illegally constituted ; 
 that numbers were returned for towns not incor- 
 porated; — that several sheriffs and magistrates had 
 returned themselves ; — that numbers of Englishmen 
 had been returned as burgesses for towns which they 
 had never seen nor known, far from being residents 
 as the law directs. Great and warm debates ensued, 
 and the speaker attended the deputy and council 
 to explain the objections urged against the consti- 
 tution of the House of Commons. The judges 
 were consulted, who declared, that those members 
 returned for towns not incorporated, and magi- 
 strates who had returned themselves, were in- 
 capable of sitting in parliament; but, as to the 
 members not resident within towns for which they 
 were returned, that they were entitled to their seats. 
 This decision of the judges insured the triumph of 
 government ; and here do we see a constitutional 
 stand made in the house of parliament, against the 
 measures of a party, opprobriously designated the 
 Enghsh faction. Sir Christopher Barnewall headed 
 this popular party. It is curious to observe the 
 popular party in this parliament advocating the 
 continuance of Poynings' law, and reprobating the 
 struggles of the court to suspend its operation. 
 The objection to its suspension is a singular one, 
 and worthy of record. That it was an attempt by 
 the court against the foundation of public security ; 
 that its effect would be to deliver up the kingdom 
 
OF lUELAND. 277 
 
 to the mercy of a viceroy and his English ministers, 
 who might then conspire to enact such laws as their 
 ambition or avarice might dictate. So writes 
 Hooker, who was cotemporaneous with those 
 events ; and perhaps the argument, considering the 
 constitution of the commons, was a fair and un- 
 answerable one ; for surely there is no tyranny so 
 rapacious nor so cruel as the tyranny of an aristo- 
 cracy, which multiplies the sufferings of the subject 
 in proportion to its numbers, and visits on every 
 village and hamlet a more malignant despotism than 
 the most unlimited monarch would dare to exercise. 
 An act of attainder was passed by this parliament 
 against the late John O'Nial ; it declares all Ulster 
 exempt from the authority of O'Nial, and vests his 
 lands for ever in the crown. By another act of this 
 parliament, worthy of notice, the chancellor was 
 empowered to appoint commissioners for viewing 
 all territories not reduced to English counties, and 
 the deputy authorized them, on their certificate, to 
 divide them into shires. The act of presentation 
 for ten years, and for the erection of free schools, 
 was now passed, and the most remorseless efforts 
 made to propagate the reformed creed. Such were 
 the occupations of the ten first years of Elizabeth's 
 government ; and surely no impartial mind who 
 reads the inflexible tyranny with which she and 
 her officers inflicted the penalties of the reforming 
 acts, will be surprised at the scene of distraction 
 and misery through w^hich we are doomed to wade 
 during the succeeding reigns. 
 
 The reader of Mr Leland can with difficulty 
 
278 TliJ:. HlSTOllY 
 
 suppress his indignation, when he finds the histo- 
 rian lamenting the perverse continuance of the 
 Irish in their ancient barbarous habits, as he is 
 pleased to call them, and recording in the very 
 same page, the miserable revolutions which this 
 unhappy people were doomed to suffer. Mr Le- 
 land laments that the same vigour which violated 
 the feeling, was not sufficient to extirpate the man; 
 and that the lenient impolicy of one governor fre- 
 quently revived the spirit of resistance which his 
 predecessor endeavoured to extinguish. Though 
 the strong and decisive measures adopted by Eliza- 
 beth to tear up the old religion of Ireland, and sub- 
 stitute her own, were apparently well calculated to 
 promote her object, yet causes still existed to coun- 
 teract her efforts ; and the policy in preserving the 
 conquests she had made over the Irish mind, was 
 not so prudent or so provident as the principle was 
 vigorous, which enabled her to obtain them. '* Those 
 causes arose," says Sir John Davis, " from an in- 
 satiable avarice to grasp at more territory than she 
 was able to regulate. Elizabeth passed from coun- 
 ty to county, without placing those securities, or 
 making those regulations which were only calcu- 
 lated to preserve the system she had introduced. 
 She divided the province of Connaught, in 1570, 
 into six counties — Clare, Galway, Sligo, Leitrim, 
 Mayo, and Roscommon ; but she sent no justices 
 of assize into those counties to administer justice 
 according to the laws of England. She left them 
 to the merciful direction of a governor, armed with 
 civil and military powers ; and the people were 
 
OF IRELAND. 279 
 
 permitted to relapse into the same customs, for the 
 extirpation of which so much blood had been shed.*' 
 Mr Leland has assigned a better reason for the 
 small progress of that civility and good order which 
 an impartial administration of justice must produce 
 in every country. " Those," says Mr Leland, 
 '* whom the revival of the English power in Ireland 
 had tempted into the kingdom, came with the most 
 unfavourable prejudices against the old natives, 
 whom they were interested to represent (both of 
 the native and the old English race) as dangerous 
 and disaffected. The natives were provoked at the 
 partiality shown to those insolent adventurers. They 
 were treated like aliens and enemies, as the annalist 
 of Elizabeth observes, and excluded with contemp- 
 tuous insolence from every office of trust and power. 
 It is therefore natural to find them not always zea- 
 lously affected to the administration of the Irish go- 
 vernment." 
 
 Such has been the true cause of Irish disaffec- 
 tion ; — the upstart adventurer shouldering the an- 
 cient and revered settler, — the offspring of public 
 misfortune rising on the ashes of the ancient pro- 
 prietor, and perhaps an attorney, or revenue officer, 
 whose names are lost in the obscurity of their ori- 
 gin, encouraged by the English patron to struggle 
 for precedency with the Irish nobleman, who enjoys 
 the confidence and affection of the people. Such 
 creatures are generated in tiie corrupt principle of 
 division ; and even to this hour, though centuries 
 of misfortune and weakness have flowed from it, 
 the meanest and most ignorant followers of English 
 
280 THE HISTORY 
 
 faction are encouraged to beard the dignity and in- 
 dependence of our country, and audaciously pre- 
 sume to monopolize the confidence of government, 
 the distribution of honour, and the possession of 
 emolument. Such a system could not long exist 
 without producing its natural effects. Sir Henry 
 Sydney, whom we see packing a parliament to car- 
 ry his projects of reformation, insults Sir Edmund 
 Butler, who, careless of consequences, yields to 
 his resentment, and involves the south in war and 
 desolation. Sir James Fitzmaurice, brother of the 
 Earl of Desmond, with the Earl of Clancarthy, take 
 up arms against the desperate encroachment on 
 their religion and their properties. The Irish an- 
 nalists of those days describe the ravages of Fitz- 
 maurice's arms in the most excessive colours. He 
 intrigued with Turlough O'Nial, the northern chief- 
 tain ; he dispatched messengers to Rome and to 
 Spain, soliciting aid against the tyrannical reformers 
 who governed his country. The present distracted 
 state of the colony greatly alarmed EHzabeth. She 
 relied not solely on the power of her arms ; she soli- 
 cited the mediation of the Earl of Ormond with his 
 brother. Sir Edmund Butler, who was prevailed on 
 by the Earl to abandon the cause of Fitzmaurice. 
 Thus, partly by intrigue, partly by force, was the re- 
 bellion of Sir Edmund Butler and Fitzmaurice put 
 an end to. Turlough O'Nial seceded from the 
 confederacy, and the north and south were once 
 more restored to tranquillity. Sir John Perrot was 
 appointed governor of Munster. His administra- 
 tion was at once just and vigorous. Hooker says 
 
OF IRELAND. 281 
 
 that his government gave an unusual appearance of 
 peace, industry and civility to the entire province. 
 It is reasonable to suppose that Sir John Perrot de- 
 serves the character which English historians re- 
 cord of him, from the single fact, that he held his 
 court of justice in different quarters, heard and re^ 
 dressed grievances, and though he enforced the 
 law with firmness, yet he administered it with 
 mercy. 
 
 The justice of an individual had but little efiect, 
 balanced against the paramount principle of Eng- 
 lish policy, " divide and conquer." Ireland was 
 doomed to be the subject on which every state em- 
 piric might practise with impunity — the bank on 
 which every creature of despotism might hope to 
 draw, and the hospital in which every incurable 
 Englishman might flatter himself with shelter. The 
 bastard of a secretary, or the mistress of a minister, 
 might look with confidence to Ireland, as the source 
 of their fortune, of their fame, and their dominion. 
 The native Irish were to be plundered, to enrich 
 the profligate and corrupt adventurer, and thou- 
 sands of our countrymen were doomed to surren- 
 der their property and their religion, for the grati- 
 fication of lust, of avarice, and ambition. The se- 
 cretary of Elizabeth, Sir Thomas Smith, had a na- 
 tural son, who was to be provided for : a portion 
 of the north of Ireland and its inhabitants were to 
 be sacrificed to this pure and immaculate English- 
 man. He was commissioned to take possession of 
 a place called Ardes, in the eastern parts of Ul- 
 ster ; and lands were assigned to his jfollowers, at 
 
282 THE HISTORY 
 
 the rate of oixe penny per acre. The Irish, most un- 
 naiiirally^ became indignant that their famihes were 
 to be plundered, their wives and chihlren driven 
 from their homes, and exposed to nakedness and 
 want. The young EngHsh bastard was assassinat- 
 ed by those exasperated people ; and the fate of 
 thousands of the native Irish was for a time sus- 
 pended by the desperate catastrophe. The fate of 
 this adventurer was not sufficient to intimidate. 
 Walter Devereux, lately created Earl of Essex, 
 proposes to plant an English colony in Ulster ; or 
 in other words, to plunder and desolate the Irish. 
 Elizabeth supplied him with forces, and with mo- 
 ney : every horseman is promised a grant of four 
 hundred acres, and every footman two hundred 
 acres, at two pence per acre. Essex is appointed 
 governor of the colony for seven years ; and a num- 
 ber of the principal English noblemen join with the 
 earl, mortgage their properties in England, and 
 sail for Ireland, in the hope of gratifying the ut- 
 most aspirings of their ambition. They were but 
 the dreams of avarice, — defeat and disappointment 
 pursued their efforts. The Irish were roused, and 
 united against those audacious plunderers. Bryan 
 Macphelan, Hugh O'Nial, Turlough O'Nial, the 
 Lord of Tyrowen, forgot their animosities, and 
 marched against the common enemy. Essex, and 
 his noble associates, fellow plunderers and colo- 
 nists, retreated with afflicted and broken hearts ; 
 and though Essex remained some time in Ireland, 
 after the failure of his attempt on Ulster, he at 
 length fell a victim to his ambition, and sunk into 
 
OF IRELAND. 283 
 
 the grave, unpitied by his countrymen, and hated 
 by the Irish. 
 
 At this period (1576) Ireland, almost in every 
 point, north, east, west and south, exhibited one 
 scene of confusion and conflict. The struggles 
 of the reformers with the intrepid fidelity of the 
 people — the zeal of fanaticism, and the insa- 
 tiable avarice of extended dominion, animated 
 the ministers of Elizabeth. The O'Moores in 
 Leinster, the sons of Clanrickard in Connaught, 
 the friends of Desmond in Munster, and the O'Nials 
 of the north, exhausted the treasury of Elizabeth, 
 and consumed her soldiers in perpetual engage- 
 ments. The confederacy was a formidable one ; 
 and, unless dissolved by intrigue or broken by force, 
 might terminate in the expulsion of Elizabeth from 
 her Irish dominions. The power of the purse, and 
 the seduction of royal blandishment was considered 
 a more potent weapon against the Irish, than the 
 sword or the cannon — and the principal allies of 
 Desmond and O'Nial were soon seduced from that 
 confederacy which threatened the destruction of 
 the connection with England. Sir Henry Sydney 
 was again recalled to the government of Ireland, 
 and for some time after he took into his hands the 
 reins of power, the kingdom enjoyed an interval of 
 peace and tranquillity. A transaction occurred 
 about this period in the south of Ireland, which 
 peculiarly marks the character of her governors, 
 at once discovering the fear and the cruelty of cow- 
 ards. Under the pretence of introducing Eng- 
 lish law, the rights of human nature are violated, 
 
284 THE HISTORY 
 
 the sacred principles of hospitality abused and in- 
 suited, and the innocent and unoffending Irishman 
 plundered of his property, his peace, and his hap- 
 piness. Sir William Drury was appointed gover- 
 nor of Munster by the viceroy, and so great was 
 his anxiety to extend English jurisprudence through- 
 out the south of Ireland, that he determined to 
 treat with contempt the rights of Desmond, who 
 was by patent the chief of that country, and who, 
 on this occasion, pleaded his ancient and acknow- 
 ledged privilege, as lord of the lands of Kerry. 
 Desmond appealed from Drury to the viceroy, and 
 before his appeal was heard, assurances of warm 
 regard were given by the Irish chief to the Eng- 
 lish governor. Though Desmond claimed his ac- 
 knowledged privileges of exemption from the in- 
 terference of an English authority, yet he profess- 
 ed the sincerest respect for the man whose autho- 
 rity he disputed ; and, in the kindness of the most 
 genuine hospitality, hoped that there would be no 
 interruption to that social intercourse which the 
 Irish ever wished to cultivate with the stranger. 
 With those feelings, the Earl of Desmond invited 
 the president to partake of the good cheer his table 
 afforded. — Sir William Drury accepted the invita- 
 tion, and on the appointed day went to the enter- 
 tainment of the earl. Desmond, in obedience to 
 the customs of his country, received Drury with all 
 the honours of his house. Seven hundred of Des- 
 mond's followers appeared as if meditating some 
 hostile movement ; having been summoned to con- 
 tribute to the amusement of the president, by an 
 
OF IRELAND. 285 
 
 exhibition of the noble sport of hunting, to which 
 the people of England were greatly addicted. Sir 
 WilUam Drury stopped not to reflect, but ordered 
 the soldiers who accompanied him, to anticipate 
 their attack. The Desmondians returned in amaze- 
 ment at the extraordinary movement, and the coun- 
 tess of Desmond laboured to explain the appearance 
 of that body of Desmond's people which created 
 such unnecessary alarms. Though the president 
 might have been easily the victim of his own rash- 
 ness, we find Desmond and his countess interpose 
 and protect the man who thus had entertained such 
 unworthy suspicions. 
 
 The English policy of governing Ireland is now 
 about to develope its fruits to the most sceptical of 
 those who do not consider the most impartial ad- 
 ministration of justice as the best or the most secure 
 system, by which the affairs of this country could 
 be regulated. The poverty and embarrassment 
 which followed the struggles of the reformers, with 
 the stubborn fidelity of Ireland, are a good lesson 
 of instruction to those who measure dominion by 
 plunder, and consider the connection between the 
 countries most secure when the energies of the na- 
 tion are most exhausted — who consult their safety 
 in the extirpation of public spirit, and measure their 
 loyalty to their king by their persecution of the 
 people. The Irish governors of Elizabeth were 
 zealous and indefatigable in their efforts to break 
 down the Irish heart, and extirpate the Irish reli- 
 gion. What was the result? A' beggared exche- 
 quer and a trembling government : an exhausted 
 
286 THE HISTORY 
 
 and wearied spirit of persecution on one side, and 
 an eternal spirit of vengeance on the other : per- 
 petual complaints from Elizabeth, that Ireland was 
 a burthen to her empire, the torment of her mind, 
 and the insatiable vortex which swallowed up the 
 fruits of her most rigid economy. Though profuse 
 of the blood and the treasure of her people in her 
 struggles with Ireland, still no progress was mak- 
 ing by her generals ; not a convert was added to 
 her religion, nor a guinea to her treasury. Such 
 complaints naturally roused the loyal zeal of Sir 
 Henry Sydney. He determined to make the ex- 
 periment of the queen's prerogative, and to dis- 
 pense with the usual forms of obtaining supplies 
 through the representations of the people. He 
 converted the annual contribution or assessment 
 granted by the various districts over which the 
 English authority extended, into a regular and per- 
 manent revenue : he dissolved those patents which 
 gave exclusive privileges to certain great lords, and 
 by a mandate of his council, imposed the new tax 
 on the people. This tax, when first imposed, a- 
 mounted to ten pounds on every plowland. The 
 tax was reduced to five pounds; but the prin- 
 ciple of raising the tax by the mere authority of 
 the viceroy and council, warred with the consti- 
 tutional feelings of the English settlers, and an ap- 
 peal to Elizabeth was immediately determined up- 
 on. The inhabitants of the pale assembled — deli- 
 berated : they intrusted their cause to three agents, 
 of distinguished celebrity, eminent for their know- 
 ledge in the laws. The Lords Baltinglass, Dillon, 
 
OF IRELAND. 287 
 
 Howth, Trimblestown, Bellew, Nangle, Plunket, 
 Nucrent, siorned the remonstrance, for and on be- 
 half of all the subjects of the pale. Sydney was 
 not inactive in poisoning the mind of the queen 
 and her ministers against the petition of her Irish 
 subjects. He misrepresented their motives and 
 characters ; and as usual, the cause of Ireland 
 came on to be heard before an English tribunal in- 
 flamed with prejudice, and exasperated by expos- 
 tulation. Even Elizabeth, who we cannot suppose 
 much sympathized with the sufferings of Irishmen, 
 could not suppress her classic illustrations of Irish 
 misfortune. She for a moment relaxed the reins of 
 her power, and cast her eyes on the wounds of her 
 people. " Ah ! (she exclaimed) how I fear, lest 
 it be objected to us, as it was to Tiberius by Bato, 
 concerning the Dalmatian commotions — * You — 
 7/ou it is that are in fault, xvho have committed your 
 Jlocks, 7iot to shepherds, but to wolves.'*' Notwith- 
 standing this charitable ejaculation, she preferred 
 her darling prerogative to the comfort of her 
 Irish subjects ; and reprimanded her Irish minister, 
 for not having immediately punished the auda- 
 cious opposers of her will, however sanctioned by 
 right, or justified by the laws of their country. 
 Such severity of denunciation had but little effect 
 on the lords and gentlemen of the pale ; and the 
 spirit manifested by the Irish and English at this 
 period is a singular instance of the benefits often 
 flowing to Ireland from the operation of foreign 
 causes. It will be admitted, that had Elizabeth put 
 forth her entitle strength against those of her Irish 
 
288 THE HISTORY 
 
 subjects who resisted her prerogative, she would 
 have been able to crush the spirit of opposition, 
 however determined or however united. It is to be 
 recollected, that the inhabitants of the pale were 
 but a small part of Ireland, and that its menaces 
 against the despotism of Elizabeth were, as com- 
 pared with the voice of Ireland, the murmurs of a 
 faction and the cries of infancy 5 but when the pale 
 had the power of throwing into the scale the arms 
 of France or of Spain, their resentment was for- 
 midable, and the folly of persevering in measures 
 of irritation obvious to the most superficial. Eliza- 
 beth, therefore, yielded to the peculiar circumstan- 
 ces of Ireland, and relaxed in that rigid policy 
 which distinguished her character and conduct 
 against EngHshmen. 
 
 The reformation rendered Ireland a perpetual 
 bank of discontent on which foreign powers, anxi- 
 ous to curb the ambition of Elizabeth, could per- 
 petually draw ; and the open and avowed exercise 
 of an undoubted prerogative alienated even the 
 hearts of her subjects of the pale, rendering the 
 entire island a mass of destructive inflammability. 
 The ministers of EHzabeth wisely provided against 
 the storm, and preferred yielding to circumstances 
 they could not controul, rather than persevere in 
 an idle contest which might terminate in the dis- 
 memberment of the empire. On this occasion Mr 
 Leland's words are remarkable. " The conclusion 
 of this dispute, which so little corresponded with 
 that imperious violence first expressed by the queen, 
 is only to be explained by her apprehensions of fo- 
 
OF IRELAND. 289 
 
 reign enemies, and the intelligence now received 
 from the continent." May it not here be observed, 
 that what was wisdom in Cecil, Elizabeth's minis- 
 ter, cannot be folly in those men, who deem it 
 courage and consistency to persevere in goading to 
 distraction, not the people of the pale, not a faction, 
 but the whole people of Ireland — courted and se- 
 duced by an intriguing and powerful enemy, who 
 is vigilant to take advantage of the errors of Eng- 
 land, as he is tremendous in the execution of his 
 threats, and faithful in the performance of his pro- 
 mises. Elizabeth yielded to the pale, because 
 Phihp of Spain, and Charles of France, threatened 
 to take advantage of the misgovernment of Ireland. 
 The British sovereign of the present day is advised 
 by his ministers to persevere in a system of exclu- 
 sion and indignity, though the common enemy of 
 England, with tenfold his ancient strength, mena- 
 ces our shores with those legions who have hum- 
 bled ail the powers of Europe, and raised on their 
 ruins a despotism as colossal as it is unparalleled in 
 the annals of the world. This was not the policy 
 of Eh'zabeth ; she regulated her temper by the cir- 
 cumstances of her empire, and advanced to, and 
 retreated from the exercise of her favourite prero- 
 gative, according to the peculiar events which pre- 
 sented themselves to the contemplation of her ad- 
 visers. Elizabeth had to contend with the ancient 
 religious attachments of Europe. The anathemas 
 of the pope preceded the arms of Philip, and any 
 adventurer, desperate enough to engage in any eu- 
 terprize calculated to harass the dominions of the 
 
 VOL, I, T 
 
290 THE HISTORY 
 
 English queen, was supported with all the ardency 
 of religious and political zeal. To embark in such 
 a contest was, in other words, fighting the battles 
 of the Alnjighty, and the zeal of the sectarian, as 
 well as the ambition of the politician, were prompt 
 in embracing every plan which might weaken and 
 distract the councils of Elizabeth. With those 
 views, Thomas Stukely, whose vanity and falsehood 
 were detected in the reign of Edward VI. was encou- 
 raged by Rome to raise a formidable armament for 
 the invasion of Ireland; and James Fitzmaurice, who . 
 was driven from his country by Sir John Perrot, 
 succeeded in obtaining from Philip of Spain, and 
 Pope Gregory XIII. , such a force and such a sanc- 
 tion, as was only sufficient to plunge Ireland into 
 all the horrors of civil war. Ehzabeth lost no time 
 in taking those measures which were best calculat- 
 ed to meet the difficulties with which she was sur- 
 rounded. With regard to Stukely and his Italian 
 army, he was diverted from his original intention 
 of invading Ireland by the more pressing consider- 
 ation of accompanying Don Sebastian, the king of 
 Portugal, into Africa, under whose banners he had 
 the honour to terminate a life which might have 
 otherwise visited its native country with all the ca- 
 lamities of war. The force with which Fitzmau- 
 rice had the boldness or the folly to invade his na- 
 tive country, was composed of about fourscore 
 Spaniards, and some English and Irish fugitives. 
 With this contemptible band, he landed at a bay 
 called Smerwick, in Kerry. On their arrival, their 
 little army was increased by the followers of Sir 
 
OF IRELAND. 291 
 
 John and James, brothers to the Earl of Desmond. — 
 The earl himself dissembled his real intentions, and 
 made professions of great zeal for the cause of Eli- 
 zabeth against the invaders. His dissimulation was 
 carried so far, as to alarm their fears and even ex- 
 cite their suspicions ; and Fitzmaurice was so irri- 
 tated by the duplicity of the earl's conduct, that 
 he upbraided Sir John in terms of the most poig- 
 nant and insulting nature. Sir John retired in vex- 
 ation, not to revenge the insult offered to his pride, 
 but to endeavour, by an act of base and sangui- 
 nary treachery to an innocent and unoffending Eng- 
 lishman, to demonstrate to his foreign friends, and 
 to Fitzmaurice, the sincerity of his zeal for their 
 cause, and his monstrous hostility to the cause of the 
 English. 
 
 The relation of acts so infamously treacherous, 
 and so wantonly cruel, though the duty of the his- 
 torian has often the effect of diminishing our hor- 
 ror of its authors, and too frequently accustom the 
 human mind to read, without proper sentiments of 
 honest emotion, those transactions which so degrade 
 and blacken our species. Every man contemplates 
 the assassin with vindictive indignation — every 
 heart burns for satisfaction, and every eye sheds 
 tears of pity over the grave of that helpless and un- 
 defended fellow-creature, who falls under the stroke 
 of a mean and cowardly murderer. We join with 
 Mr Leland in the strongest expressions of his re- 
 sentment against the base and abandoned treachery 
 which sacrificed the good and amiable Englishman 
 whose story we are now about to relate, and only 
 
 T 2 
 
292 THE HISTORY 
 
 lament that the sufferings of the honest Irish pea- 
 sant, faithful to the creed of his fathers, and to the 
 independence of his country, can never find a sym- 
 pathetic sigh of commiseration, or condolence for 
 the miseries with which a cruel and relentless policy 
 lias visited him. The humble inhabitants of the 
 cabin are covered under its ruins without a single 
 recollection of their sad and dismal fate ; and the 
 fields of the native Irish are devastated by the 
 foreign sword of reformation, without exciting in 
 the breast of Mr Leland a particle of that generous 
 pity which he so profusely lavishes on the tomb of 
 the murdered Englishman. This is not liberal, and 
 should not be the spirit of the historian. But to pro- 
 ceed : Henry Davels, a gentleman of Devonshire, 
 bad for some time served in Ireland ; and by the 
 humanity and correctness of his conduct, endeared 
 himself to all those of the Irish with whom he came 
 in contact, Mr Leland says, and he takes the fact 
 from Hooker, that this gentleman had frequently 
 administered to the wants of Sir John Desmond, 
 who now planned his destruction. Mr Davels was 
 commissioned by the deputy, Sir William Drury, 
 to reconnoitre the strength and position of the 
 invaders, and to communicate to the govern- 
 ment of the pale all the information he could 
 collect. He was also commissioned to repair to 
 the Earl of Desmond, whose disaffection was as 
 yet unknown to the deputy, to inform him that 
 he would expect his co-operation against the 
 common enemy. Davels, reposing the most un- 
 limited confidence in the old friendship which sub- 
 
OF IRELAND. 293 
 
 sisted between him and Sir John, entreated him to 
 join him with his own followers, and drive the 
 enemy from their present position. Sir John was 
 deaf to his solicitation, and Davels prepared to re- 
 turn to the deputy with whatever information he 
 was able to collect. On his return, he was obliged 
 to pass through the town of Tralee, to which place 
 Sir John Desmond pursued him. The house in 
 which Davels lay was surrounded at the awful and 
 silent hour of midnight; the porter was bribed, 
 and the assassins immediately obtained admittance. 
 They entered Davel's chamber, with Sir John 
 Desmond at their head. « What, my son," cried 
 Davels, when he cast his eye on Sir John, " What 
 means this brawl ?" The cowardly assassin replied 
 to his old defenceless friend with his sword, which 
 he plunged into his breast, while his barbarous fol- 
 lowers flew from chamber to chamber, making in- 
 discriminate slaughter of the attendants of Davels. 
 — Mr Leland writes, that this atrocious deed is 
 panegyrized by O'Sullivan ; and Hooker says, that 
 Saunders, the clergyman, called it a sx&)eet sacrifice. 
 Bigotry, it is true, sometimes steels the heart against 
 every sentiment of our nature ; but seldom has it 
 succeeded in so far brutalizing it as to convert the 
 black and detested crime of ingratitude into a 
 virtue worthy of studied eulogium. It is not the 
 nature of an Irishman ; and the bigot historian, 
 who triumphs in the sanguinary victory of Sir 
 John Desmond over the helpless and unoffending 
 Davels, little knew the tribunal before which he 
 was about to present the fruits of his historical 
 
294 THE HISTOUY 
 
 labours. Had Davels, in his dispatches, given as 
 much information as could have inevitably insured 
 the defeat of the invaders, as well as the ambitious 
 views of Sir John Desmond — nay more, was the in- 
 dependence of Ireland to be determined by the 
 committal of such an act, Irishmen would rather 
 wear their chains for ever, than be released by the 
 instrumentality of such a hand as Sir John Des- 
 mond's. Like the Earl of Desmond, his brother, 
 they would denounce the murderer to posterity, 
 and hold him up as a perpetual object of their 
 country's detestation. 
 
 Notwithstanding the efforts made by the invaders 
 to rouse the native Irish, they as yet received but 
 little support, and experienced but little of that 
 great co-operation with which they were flattered 
 by their Irish leaders. Fitzmaurice soon after fell in 
 a rencounter with one of the sons of Sir William de 
 Burgho, whom he endeavoured to seduce from his 
 allegiance. The deputy, Sir William, had now as- 
 sembled such a force as the pale could at this 
 period (15S1) afford, namely, four hundred foot, 
 and two hundred horse, and was joined by those 
 English officers who were acquainted with the 
 country through which they w^ere to march. Even 
 the Earl of Desmond came to the deputy's camp 
 with a well appointed force ; but he could not con- 
 ceal his dissimulation from the discerning judgment 
 of Sir William Drury, who ordered him to be arrest- 
 ed, and, for security of his allegiance, insisted tliat 
 his son should be given up to him as an hostage. 
 When we consider the very small and insignificant 
 
OF IRELAND. 295 
 
 number of the invading army, we cannot agree with 
 Mr Leland in despising the struggles which were 
 made by the Irish on this occasion, aided by so in- 
 considerable a force. When Fitzmaurice fell. Sir 
 John Desmond assumed the command ; and we 
 find by the authority of English writers, Hooker, 
 Leland, &c. that nine weeks were consumed in an 
 unprofitable struggle to subdue this little invading 
 army, aided by their Irish allies. We also find that 
 Sir John Desmond succeeded in cutting ofi* two 
 hundred of the English troops, by reason of his 
 superior knowledge of the country. We find the 
 deputy petitioning the Queen for a reinforcement 
 of six hundred men ; and, at length, conquered by 
 fatigue and want of health, retiring from his com- 
 mand, and falling a victim to the hardships he sus- 
 tained. — All these circumstances demonstrate what 
 a nation can be made to efiect, when impelled by a 
 deep and goading resentment against the intole- 
 rant violators of conscience ; and how miserably 
 weak is that policy which struggles to mould to its 
 will, and its fantastic despotism, those feelings 
 which no human power should presume to control, 
 and which seem to be defended by Heaven against 
 the insolence of human pride. This infatuated 
 struggle between the tyrant and the freeman has 
 been the source of infinite calamity to the human 
 race. We find Elizabeth cruelly and idly attack- 
 ing the civil and religious liberties of Ireland ; and 
 the same historian, who extols to the skies the re- 
 volution of 1688, endeavours to blacken the cha- 
 racter of those brave Irish, who fought and died in 
 
296 THE HISTOllY 
 
 one of the most righteous causes that ever engag- 
 ed human courage. Englishmen drove James from 
 the throne, because they were apprehensive that he 
 meditated the overthrow of their liberties. Irish- 
 men drew their swords against Elizabeth, because 
 they experienced the ruthless dominion of her in- 
 tolerance, and smarted under the chains of her 
 petty tyrants. James II. was suspected of a de- 
 sign to establish the catholic religion on the ruins 
 of the protestant ; but Elizabeth openly and impla- 
 cably tore up the roots of the catholic religion in 
 Ireland, and menaced a war of extermination against 
 its natives. Was not such a system of government 
 well calculated to multiply the Irish armies ? and 
 have we not seen it the fruitful fountain of weak- 
 ness and mortification to the persecutor, and of mi- 
 sery to the persecuted ? 
 
 The English army consisted of 900 men. Three 
 hundred infantry, and fifty horse, were quartered 
 at a place called Kilmallock ; and Malby, having 
 received information that Sir John Desmond lay a 
 few miles distant from Limerick, marched with 60O 
 men to attack him. The allied army of Spanish 
 and Irish amounted, according to Hooker, to 2000, 
 directed by Spanish officers. The onset of the Irish 
 army was so furious, and the battle so obstinately 
 maintained by them, that victory was for a long 
 time doubtful to which side she would incline. At 
 length the superior discipline of the English army 
 prevailed, and the Irish were pursued with consi- 
 derable loss. The Earl of Desmond wrote a con- 
 gratulatory letter to Malby, which that officer was 
 
OF IRELAND. 297 
 
 pleased to consider as a cover to some real designs 
 against the English by Desmond. Indeed the sus- 
 picions so perpetually entertained against this earl 
 by the English, would naturally drive him to those 
 acts of disloyalty, which it appears his enemies 
 were panting for. The Earl of Desmond's estates 
 were viewed with the voracious eye of confiscation ; 
 and circumspect indeed must his conduct have 
 been, if some act of his life could not be construed 
 by the ingenuity of rapacity into proofs of disaffec- 
 tion and rebellion. Malby asserted that he found 
 on the person of Allen, tlie priest, who was disco- 
 vered among the dead on the field of battle, certain 
 papers, which satisfactorily implicated the Earl of 
 Desmond ; and upon the evidence of those papers, 
 he conceived himself justified in occupying Rath- 
 keale, a town belonging to that earl. Desmond, 
 provoked by this monstrous act of injustice, attacks 
 ed the camp of the English in the night. Malby 
 was proceeding to reduce the various castles of the 
 earl, when the intelligence of the deputy's death 
 caused a suspension of hostilities. Sir William Pel- 
 ham was appointed chief governor, on the decease 
 of Sir William Drury, He proceeded to the south, 
 and there endeavoured, as we are assured by Eng- 
 lish writers, to prevail on the Earl of Desmond, 
 through the mediation of the Earl O'Nial, to aban- 
 don his foreign allies, and give them up to the Eng- 
 lish government. He was called upon to attend 
 the governor and the council, and to submit to the 
 judgment of her majesty ; and also to surrender the 
 castle of Carrick-on-Eoyle. The devoted earl an- 
 
298 THE HISTOriY 
 
 svvered those peremptory demands by complaints 
 of injuries that he had suffered; upon the redress 
 of which, he promised to establish the peace and 
 tranquillity of the country. The deputy. Sir Wil- 
 liam Pelham, immediately proclaimed the Irish lord 
 a traitor to the laws of the land. May it not here 
 be asked, — had the Earl of Desmond any grievan- 
 ces to redress, or did he wantonly take up arms 
 against a parental sovereign, whose government was 
 administered in the spirit of mercy and toleration ? 
 Even Mr Lelandwill not deny the existence of that 
 despotism which now goaded Irishmen to madness ; 
 which made them prefer the hazards of rebellion to 
 the persecutions of bigotry ; which made war and 
 all its calamities preferable to the lingering tor- 
 ments of religious persecution, or the disgraceful 
 alternative of abandoning the religion and princi- 
 ples of their fathers. What was the great crime 
 with which Desmond was charged by the govern- 
 ment of the pale ? The demand of redress for the 
 unparalleled sufferings of his country. What were 
 the inducements to his enemies to refuse him re- 
 dress, to reject his remonstrances, and to proclaim 
 him a traitor ? The Desmond estates were the most 
 princely and extensive in Ireland ; would not these 
 reward the adventuring converts to the new belief? 
 and was not Desmond the very person on whose 
 widely extended property the greedy eye of con- 
 fiscation would cast its devouring glance I Slight 
 may the pretext be, which will satisfy the convic- 
 tion of the political plunderer ; and strong indeed 
 ought that evidence to be, which would convince 
 
OF IRELAND. 299 
 
 posterity tlmt the Earl of Desmond ought to be 
 handed down as the unprincipled rebel to his sove- 
 reign, rather than the bold and honourable defen- 
 der of the political and religious liberties of his 
 countrymen. The contest was as unequal as the 
 devastation was merciless ; the territories of the 
 unfortunate earl were immediately exposed to all 
 the horrors of a licentious soldiery, and the most 
 fruitful fields of Ireland were covered with the ruins 
 of their ancient possessors. Elizabeth seemed to 
 have closed her eyes on the sufferings of the Irish, 
 and nothing short of the extermination of the de- 
 voted natives would appease the murderous passions 
 of their persecutors. The castles of the earl, which 
 had surrendered to the honour of their besiegers, 
 were razed to the ground, and their credulous in- 
 habitants devoted to the sword or the gallows. " It 
 would be equally shocking and tedious," writes Dr 
 Curry, " to recite all those well attested acts of 
 cruelty and pei-fidy, which were perpetrated on those 
 unhappy people, by the order and connivance of 
 her majesty's ministers of Ireland." So writes this 
 humane and laborious inquirer after truth. He 
 then gives that miserable instance which it is our du- 
 ty to detail, and which alone would be sufficient to 
 palliate the thousand acts of sanguinary vengeance, 
 that the reader of the following pages is doomed to 
 peruse. 
 
 Soon after the Earl of Desmond was proclaimed 
 a traitor by the deputy, his territories were desolat- 
 ed by a rapacious soldiery, and every act of barba- 
 rous and insatiable outrage practised upon the in- 
 
300 THE HlSTOllY 
 
 noceiit and unoffending inhabitants. Nature, at 
 length roused by the excess of suffering, made a 
 desperate effort : the Irish attacked the town of 
 Youghall, which they plundered without mercy, and 
 cut off a large detachment which the deputy had 
 commissioned to defend it. This partial success 
 animated the courage and determination of Des- 
 mond, and we find him making those artful appeals 
 to the religious and patriotic feelings of his coun- 
 trymen, that were best calculated to rouse them to 
 a great and universal effort. Tlie sufferings of the 
 Earl of Desmond and his family, in their various 
 struggles for their great possessions, excite the sym- 
 pathy of every mind that contemplates the ancient 
 power of this persecuted nobleman ;* when we find 
 them taking shelter in the woods of the estates of 
 which Desmond was the lawful and honoured mas- 
 ter, we cannot refrain from deprecating that in- 
 famous principle, which, under the pretext of 
 civilization, desolated the fairest portion of Ire- 
 land, and drove to ruin the oldest and most re- 
 pected of the Irish chieftains. The various cas- 
 tles of Earl Desmond were reduced ; and the mur- 
 der of the Irish in the castle of Carrick-on-Foyle, 
 under the command of the Italian called Julio, af- 
 ter they had surrendered to the British arms, may 
 be taken by the reader as an epitome of the savage 
 
 ♦ Desmond (according to Baker's chronicles) possessed whole 
 counties, besides the county palatine of Kerry ; and had of his 
 own name and race, at least five hundred gentlemen at his com- 
 mand ; all of whom, and his own life also, he lost within the 
 space of three years ; very few of the house being left ahvc. 
 
OF IRELAND. 301 
 
 warfare waged by England against the country. 
 Soon after, the ignorance of a new deputy contri- 
 buted to raise the almost exhausted spirits of the 
 followers of Desmond. Lord Grey, whose admini- 
 stration was an uninterrupted course of the most 
 insatiable barbarity and plunder, was appointed 
 Lord-deputy ; and so ardent was his zeal to dis- 
 tinguish himself as the destroyer of the Irish peo- 
 ple, that it plunged him into difficulties discredit- 
 able and injurious to his military character. Ig- 
 norant of the country, he presumed to lead his 
 troops against the Irish, into the valley of Glenda- 
 lough, in the county of Wicklow ; which, fortified 
 by nature, and defended by enthusiasm, could bid 
 defiance to the most experienced and skilful of the 
 British generals : Lord Grey was surrounded with 
 enemies which he could not reach, and assailed on 
 all sides by attacks which he could not return ; he 
 lost his principal officers, and returned to the seat 
 of government, covered with confusion and dis- 
 honour. So decided a victory raised the spirits of 
 the Irish, and the arrival of an army of Italians 
 and Spaniards in the south, inspired the followers 
 of Desmond with increased confidence and energy ; 
 they landed at a place called Smerwick ; they 
 brought arms and ammunition for five thousand men, 
 and a large sum of money which was to be delivered 
 to the Earl of Desmond. The Earl of Ormond was 
 ordered to march against the invaders, and Sir Wil- 
 liam Winter proceeded to invest the enemy by sea, 
 while Ormond was collecting his forces by land ; 
 thus surrounded, the fort of Smerwick was sum- 
 
302 THE HISTORY 
 
 moneJ to surrender ; the refusal of liie Spaniards 
 and their Irish auxiliaries was bold and peremptory : 
 they went on with vigour, and the Spaniards find- 
 ing it impossible to hold out much longer, agreed 
 to capitulate on certain conditions, honourable to 
 the besieged ; Lord Grey, in the confidence of vic- 
 tory disdained to grant any terms to an enemy 
 whom he insultingly denominated traitors; from 
 them no money could be expected ; from them no 
 money was received: the garrison was forced to sur- 
 render, and after being disarmed, were cruelly 
 butchered, under the direction and immediate au- 
 thority of Sir Walter Raleigh *. Elizabeth, it is 
 said, expressed the utmost concern and displeasure 
 at the atrocious and barbarous scene: the continent 
 of Europe heard the account of the massacre with 
 horror, and every heart and every hand volunteer- 
 ed in offering their services to avenge such an out- 
 rage on humanity. In Ireland the effects of such 
 sanguinary proceedings were to multiply new ene- 
 mies, and create new insurrections ; the spirit of 
 vengeance ran through the country, proclaiming 
 the wantonness of English cruelty, and appealing 
 to all the honourable sympathies of the heart for 
 
 * Dr. Curry says, that a Roman catholic writer, who lived 
 near that time, thus relates the affair we have detailed above. 
 " Nine hundred Spaniards, except about eleven officers, were 
 stript of their weapons, and all slain or cast over the cliffs into 
 the sea, (for the fort of Smerwick stood upon a mighty high rock 
 over the sea), notwithstanding the lord deputy's word and faith 
 inito them all for their lives, liberties and goods, and safe con- 
 duct into Spain." — Theatre of CatJi. Belig. 
 
OF IRELAND. 303 
 
 satisfaction, and the punishment of such barbarous 
 deh'nqiiency. The seat of government was threat- 
 ened with a conspiracy, and the principal Irish fa- 
 milies which surrounded the metropolis, were sus- 
 pected of being concerned in the plot against the 
 English Government. Such are the invariable con- 
 sequences of persecution ; it multiplies the evil 
 supposed to be exterminated, and the blood of the 
 victim seems to produce nevv enemies to the op- 
 pressor, and new proselytes to the principle he vain- 
 ly imagines he is extinguishing. Lord Grey, in the 
 brutality of his fury, was determined to make a great 
 and signal example ; he seized several of the most 
 distinguished persons, some of whom he executed. 
 Among these was Nugent, baron of the exchequer, 
 a man, (Mr Leland writes), of a singular good life 
 and reputation ; he was sacrificed to the blind and 
 indiscriminate barbarity of the deputy, whom we 
 soon find so detested in his government of Ireland, 
 that even he can no longer bear the eternal indig- 
 nation with which he is surrounded ; he is weary 
 of his station, and petitions for his recal. 
 
 In the history of this unfortunate country, the 
 reader will find numerous instances of the most un- 
 accountable passion for the destruction of its un- 
 offending and innocent inhabitants. They will 
 wonder that the miserable unproductiveness of a 
 system, so often experienced, should not have in- 
 duced the ministers of Elizabeth to try the mild 
 and merciful plan of equal and impartial protection ; 
 but we shall find the voracious spirit of confiscation 
 swallowing up all other considerations, and the cold 
 
304 THE HISTORY 
 
 blooded murderers of the Irish rewarded with the 
 possession of estates and of titles. In Carte's life 
 of Ormond, we read (says Dr Curry) that for the 
 slaughter of the Irish at Limerick, and at other 
 places, Sir Walter Raleigh had forty thousand acres 
 of land bestowed on him, in the county of Cork, 
 which he afterwards sold to Richard, first Earl of 
 Cork. We may form some idea of the misery ex- 
 perienced by our country^ during the persecution 
 of the Earl of Desmond, from the following pas- 
 sage, quoted by Dr Curry from Spencer. He was 
 secretary to Lord Grey during his administration 
 of Ireland ; and we should conclude, from the pa- 
 thetic and feeling language of his narrative, was 
 the indignant observer of the wretched scene which 
 he describes. " Notwithstanding that the province 
 of Munster was a most plentiful country, full of 
 corn and cattle, yet ere one year and a half, they 
 were brought to such wretchedness, as that any 
 heart would rue the same ; out of every corner of 
 the woods and glens, they came creeping forth up^ 
 on their hands, for their legs could not bear them ; 
 they looked like anatomies of death ; they spake 
 like ghosts crying out of their graves : they did eat 
 the dead carrions, happy where they could find 
 them ; yea, and one another soon after, insomuch 
 as the very carcases they spared not to scrape out 
 of their graves ; and if they found a plot of water- 
 cresses or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast 
 for the time, yet not able to continue there withal ; 
 that in a short space there was none almost left, and 
 a most populous and plentiful country suddenly left 
 
OF IRELAND. 305 
 
 void of man and beast." Such is the description of 
 the desolation and misery depicted on one of the 
 fairest portions of Ireland by the secretary of that 
 chief governor, who was the author of such unpa- 
 ralleled calamity. Mr Leland says, that Lord Grey 
 tyrannized with such merciless barbarity, that it 
 was represented to the queen, ''• that little was left 
 in Ireland for her majesty to reign over, hut ashes 
 and carcasses'* At length Lord Grey was recalled, 
 and a pardon offered to those Irish who would ac- 
 cept it. 
 
 The war had now nearly terminated ; the forces 
 and the spirits of the Earl of Desmond were nearly 
 exhausted : pursued on all sides by the indefatig- 
 able vigour of Ormond, he entreated to be receiv- 
 ed into mercy. His applications were rejected ; he 
 fled for refuge to the woods and bogs, and depend- 
 ed on the fidelity of his followers for the support of 
 nature. He was at length discovered in a misera- 
 ble hut, his head cut off, and carried to the Earl of 
 Ormond : it was immediately conveyed to the 
 queen, and impaled on London bridge. 
 
 Dr Curry writes, that after Desmond^s death, 
 and the entire suppression of his rebellion, unheard- 
 of cruelties were committed on the provincials of 
 Munster, by the English commanders. Great com- 
 panies of those provincials, men, women and chil- 
 dren, were often forced into castles and other 
 houses, which were then set on fire ; and if any of 
 them attempted to escape from the fiames, they 
 were shot or stabbed by the soldiers who guarded 
 them. It w^as a diversion to these monsters of men 
 
 VOL. I. u 
 
306 THE HISTORY 
 
 to take up infants on the points of their spears, and 
 whirl them about in their agony, apologizing for 
 their cruelty by saying, *' that if they suffered them 
 to live to grow up, theif would become popish rebels,^* 
 Many of the women were found hanging on trees, 
 with their children at their breasts, strangled with 
 the mother's hair. Will any man who reads those 
 atrocities, so much wonder at the horrible venge- 
 ance which the Irish took upon their oppressors, 
 when the fortune of war in some years after left 
 the English at the mercy of Ireland ? Mr Leland 
 says, that Desmond and about one hundred and 
 forty of his accomplices were attainted, and their 
 estates declared forfeited to the Queen. Those 
 estates were offered to the younger sons of English- 
 men at three pence, in some places two pence per 
 acre, and for three years more, half only of the 
 stipulated rent was to be paid. In another place 
 Mr Leland writes, that *' none of the native Irish 
 were to be admitted among these tenantry," Thus 
 the ecctermination of the Irish was the grand prin- 
 ciple of Elizabeth's government in Ireland ; and to 
 this infatuated and wicked principle may the reader 
 attribute all the scenes of suffering, and cruelty, 
 and calamity, which the English adventurers m 
 Ireland experienced, and which should be a lesson 
 to future governments never to put in practice that 
 system, which may be visited on themselves with 
 -such dreadful vengeance. What Irishman can read 
 the following^^^fact, without yielding to those honest 
 feeHngs of indignation, by which the hearts of our 
 ancestors must have been inflamed to madness? 
 
OF IIIELAND. 307 
 
 " Upon the attainder of the Earl of Desmond and 
 his confederates," says Dr Curry, " not less than 
 574,623 acres of land, English measure, fell to the 
 crown, and were disposed of by Queen Elizabeth, 
 to English undertakers." M 
 
 The death of the Earl of Desmond, and the de- 
 feat of his confederates, gave an interval of tran- 
 quillity to the south of Ireland. That country 
 wliich, under a protecting government, could have 
 contributed to enrich the royal treasury, and sup- 
 ply its inhabitants with every comfort, presented 
 one unvaried scene of wretchedness and desolation : 
 the solitude of the desert and the tranquillity of the 
 grave; — ** Cum solitud'mem faciant, pacem appellant^" 
 It might be supposed that the jealousy of the An- 
 glo-Irish rulers would have been buried in the same 
 tomb with its miserable victims ; yet we find Eliza- 
 beth's counsellors determining to continue that sys- 
 tem of division and distraction, which had already 
 caused such shedding of human blood, and waste 
 of Irish treasure. After the experience of six hun- 
 dred years of weakness and poverty, it is incredible 
 to suppose that Irishmen or Englishmen, in the 
 nineteenth century, should be found to echo the 
 sentiments and opinions of some of those selfish 
 and unenlightened counsellors of Elizabeth, who 
 thus spoke to their sovereign : — " Should we exert 
 ourselves," said they, ** in reducing Ireland to or- 
 der and civility, it must soon acquire power, conse- 
 quence, and riches ; the inhabitants will be thus 
 alienated from England ; they wdll cast themselves 
 into the arms of some foreign power, or perhaps 
 
 u 2 
 
o 
 
 08 THE HISTORY 
 
 erect themselves into an independent and separate 
 state. Let us rather connive at their disorder ; for 
 a weak and disordered people never can attempt to 
 detach themselves from the crov/n of England."* 
 May it not then be asked, have such been the ef- 
 fects of that mild and benignant policy which ex- 
 tended to Ireland the rights and privileges of the 
 British constitution ? Have those who accumulated 
 fortunes and obtained honours, under the protect- 
 ing patronage of a free constitution, exhibited any 
 disposition to destroy the hand which enriched 
 them, or overturn the government which sheltered 
 them ? The people and the government of a free 
 country are both equally anxious to defend each 
 other ; the wealth and strength of the one are the 
 w^ealth and strength of the other ; but the govern- 
 ment which rests its security on the poverty of the 
 people, must trust to the terror of the bayonet, or 
 the cruelty of penal law, for its defence against the 
 disaffection of that people it rules over. The reign 
 Vv^e are giving a brief account of, demonstrates this 
 truth in the most glaring colours ; its policy was as 
 impoverishing to the royal treasury, as it was cruel 
 and merciless to the Irish people. 
 
 * The same miserable policy recommended to Elizabeth, has 
 been zealously acted upon, even within the last fifty years. Men 
 of talents and plausibility have been found among the ranks of 
 the monopolists, who will unblushingly advocate a system, which 
 they are convinced leads to public ruin and convulsion. Lord 
 Clare and Mr Foster, in our own times, have sacrificed the rights 
 and feelings of three-fourths of their countrymen, to the ascen- 
 dancy of a faction, of which they might be the leaders and demi- 
 gods. Such is the wretched ambition of some men, whose ta- 
 lents secretly despise the duty their corruption and their vanity 
 prompt them to perform. 
 
OF IllELAND. 309 
 
 Sir John Perrot, an Englishman of whose charac- 
 ter historians speak with much admiration, was now, 
 (1584,) appointed deputy ; and it is with pleasure 
 we observe his honourable efforts to heal the wounds 
 inflicted by his predecessor ; he was an advocate 
 for mild and parental measures. Convinced of the 
 superiority of British law, in the dispensation of 
 equal and impartial justice, we find him making 
 every exertion to communicate to the distracted 
 people of the south, those salutary regulations 
 which were calculated to procure peace and tran* 
 quiUity. The Irish meet their viceroy with corres- 
 ponding sentiments, regard and confidence, and 
 profess the most dutiful alacrity to acquiescence ; 
 they agree with the regulations of Sir John Perrot, 
 who appoints sheriffs to the counties of Clare, Gal- 
 way, Shgo, Mayo, Roscommon, Leitrim, and as- 
 signs the presidency of the whole province to Sir 
 Richard Bingham. We shall now see great exam- 
 ples of the happy and productive effects of fair and 
 equitable government. When Sir John Perrot was 
 making his usual and salutary arrangement in the 
 south, an account arrives of the landing of one 
 thousand Scotch in Ulster : The deputy returned to 
 Dubhn, received the subscriptions of some of the 
 Leinster chieftains, and marched to the north. Mr 
 Leland's reflection is here worthy the attention of 
 every reader : " Here the appearance of a gover- 
 nor, renowned for valour and justice, and noted 
 especially for a humane and equitable attention to 
 the ancient natives, had a sudden and powerful ef- 
 fect. The new arrived Scots fled to their ships, 
 
310 THE HisTony 
 
 and left their brethren of Ulster, after some inef- 
 fectual resistance, to make their peace with govern- 
 ment." Is not this fact a volume to every gover- 
 nor of Ireland, to act towards Ireland with justice 
 and with mercy ? '* The Irish chieftains crowded 
 to Sir John Perrot," says Mr Leland, ** with the 
 most zealous professions of loyalty and submission." 
 — Would the cold and frozen heart of such a man 
 as Lord Gray, whose bravery was that of the assas- 
 sin, and whose mercy was that of the tyger — would 
 his appearance produce an instantaneous movement 
 of loyal and grateful fidelity at the moment of for- 
 midable invasion ? The Irish heart, which is not 
 insensible to services, nor unforgetful of injuries, will 
 answer the question ; but the effects of Sir John 
 Perrot's wisdom do not stop here ; he prevails on 
 the Irish to maintain a force of eleven hundred men 
 at their own expence, to be devoted to the service 
 of Elizabeth.* This, no doubt, astonished the 
 men who reposed no confidence in Ireland ; but 
 such will ever be the effects of a generous and man- 
 ly policy. England is now convinced of it, and 
 every year adds new force to its truth, and new in- 
 ducements to its adoption. The honourable and 
 useful course which this wn'se and excellent man 
 "was pursuing, was doomed to be interrupted by 
 those little intriguing reptiles, which sometimes 
 undermine the most sound and generous understan- 
 
 * The Irish chieftains agreed to maintain eleven hundred men 
 for the queen, at their own charge, provided they were allowed 
 the free exercise of their religion, and l>e liberateil from the r4- 
 va^cs and oppressions of the sheriffs. 
 
OF IRKLAND. {f^l 
 
 dings, and by misrepresentation and falsehood suc- 
 ceed in perverting every act, discolouring every 
 motive, and making tlie virtues which they, hate 
 the instruments of ruin to their amiable and mr 
 lightened possessors. ,j^- 
 
 '* Sir John Perrot," says Mr Leland, ** ever pro- 
 fessed a tender regard for the rights of the old na- 
 tive Irish ;* a principle equally honourable and po- 
 litic, and which naturally made him attentive to 
 guard against oppression and abuses in the lower 
 offices of administration ; and this could scarcely 
 fail of raising a number of secret enemies. 
 I^Xoftus, the archbishop of Dublin, inconsequence 
 of a plan suggested by Sir John Perrot, to erect a 
 university in Ireland militating against his personal 
 
 ♦ the results of Sir John Perrot's administration incontrover!^ 
 liBly prove, if proof were wanting to elucidate a self-evident pro- 
 position, " that such a national emancipation could have been 
 effected, — uniting the two races, English and Irish, into one peo- 
 ple ; obeying one government, agreeably to one constitution and 
 system of laws, without fighting a blow ; but it would not suit 
 the inhuman policy of those who wished to keep the Irish divided 
 and poor, to ensure their obedience, nor of those blood-thirsty 
 vultures, who sought the confiscation of a kingdom, by extermi*- 
 Hating a nation always renowned for hospitality, generosity, sanc- 
 tity, and learning ; the eminent benefactress of England and Eu^ 
 rope J nor the queen, whose unquenchable fury against the ca- 
 tliolic fiiith, required the extirpation thereof out of the lantT. 
 What if the Milesians were exterminated by war, perished by fa- 
 mine, by murderous banquets and negociations, sham plots? 
 Elizabeth could colonize the land, and thus get rid of the super- 
 abundant population of Ireland." The above reflection came 
 from the pen of Mr TaafFe, whose integrity and warm feelings 
 for his countr3^'s sufferings render his history truly valuable to 
 Irishmen. 
 
312 THE HISTORY 
 
 interest, made every possible effort to misrepresent 
 the deputy to Elizabeth. The friend of the Irish 
 people was immediately assailed by all the satellites 
 which circulate round corruption and rapacity ; the 
 queen was surrounded with a crowd of whisperers a- 
 gainst the character of Sir John Perrot ; and the 
 services of a v/ise and faithful servant were oblite- 
 rated from the royal mind by the ceaseless impor- 
 tunities of a despicable faction. So certain was Per- 
 rot that he could successfully confute his accusers, 
 that he petitioned EUzabeth to suffer him to appear 
 before her, to justify his conduct, and to confound 
 his enemies. A Spanish invasion being at the time 
 apprehended. Sir John Perrot proposed to Elizabeth, 
 as the best evidence of the regard in which he was 
 held in Ireland, and of the influence which he en- 
 joyed, that he would bring with him to her majesty 
 a number of Irish chieftains of the several provin- 
 ces, on whom the common enemy relied for the 
 success of their enterprise, — and that those very 
 chieftains would be hostages to her majesty for the 
 fidelity of her Irish people. The applications of 
 Sir John Perrot do not appear to have been atten- 
 ded to ; for the present, however, he was not dis- 
 turbed in his government. The Irish parliament 
 proceeded to attaint the Earl of Desmond and his 
 adherents ; and the favourite plan of re-peopling 
 Munster with English adventurers, began to be act- 
 ed upon with vigour. Those English officers who 
 distinguished themselves in the persecution of the 
 Irish people, received grants of large portions of 
 Irish territory. Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Christo- 
 
OF IRELAND, 313 
 
 pher Hatton, Sir Thomas Morris, Sir Warham St 
 Leger, received exclusive donations ; it is easy to 
 conceive the miserable state of the poor devoted in- 
 habitants, who still occupied those lands, whom the 
 sword had spared for the cold relentless cruelty of 
 those unjust task-masters that were doomed to be 
 their landlords. Such persons as these we have 
 named, entrusted the settlement of their estates to 
 agents, middle men^ ignorant, voracious and corrupt. 
 They became powerful sources of that heart-burn- 
 ing vexation that found relief only in those mo- 
 ments of public convulsion, which frequently expo- 
 sed to hazard the connexion between England and 
 Ireland. Had the same spirit of kindness and mer- 
 cy which governed the bosom of Sir John Perrot, 
 characterized those English governors who were 
 sent into the different provinces, much advantage 
 would have flowed from the communication of Bri- 
 tish laws and British customs ; but the wanton ty- 
 ranny of Sir Richard Bingham disgusted them with 
 every thing English in the province of Connaught. 
 The sheriffs, and other officers of justice, emulated 
 the example of the president : and the whole pro- 
 vince presented a scene of suffering on the side of 
 the people, and the most goading tyranny on the 
 part of their governors. Sir John Perrot listened 
 with respect to the complaints of the people, and 
 summoned the president to the seat of government : 
 the Scotch invade the province, and Sir John Perrot 
 is obliged to take the reins of power into his own 
 hands, and thus protectSir Richard Bingham against 
 the consequences of his own cruelty and folly. The 
 people of the north were equally oppressed and plun- 
 
Q 
 
 14 THE nrSTOUY 
 
 dered by those law officers of Elizabeth. Her she- 
 rifFs were here equally odious as in Connaught, and 
 the whole system of English policy the subject of 
 general execration. About this period, Hugh 
 O'Nial, whose power was formidable to England, 
 obtained from the Irish parliament the title of 
 Earl of Tyrone ; he also succeeded in obtaining the 
 inheritance of his ancestor, John O'Nial, by his 
 personal application to the queen. The abilities 
 and address of this celebrated Irishman are describ- 
 ed by historians as of the first note. Mr Leland 
 thus describes him : ** Less respected in his sept, 
 on account of the illegitimacy of his descent, he 
 entered easily into the service of the English go- 
 vernment, and in the rebellion of Desmond, was 
 distinguished for his industry, activity, and valour. 
 By an English education, and a constant inter- 
 course with the state, he added the polish of Eng- 
 lish manners to a temper naturally insinuating and 
 subtile ; but this refinement he could easily disguise 
 among his own people, and assume all the port, and 
 accommodate himself to all the barbarous manners 
 of O'Nial. He succeeded in his interviews with 
 Elizabeth, and made the most favourable impression 
 on her mind ; she dismissed him with sentiments of 
 the greatest confidence in his zeal and fidelity 
 to her throne and interest. Every act of his life, 
 from the period of his being vested with the title 
 and inheritance of Tyrone, seems to have been 
 auxiliary to the great scheme of asserting his in- 
 dependence against the usurpation of England. 
 At the moment most confidence was reposed, he 
 
OF ir.ELAN-D. 315 
 
 was most securely laying the foundation of that 
 power which became so truly formidable to the 
 British interests. Surrounded as the Earl was by 
 rival chieftains, and a wily administration, he has 
 given no small proofs of great dexterity in his ad- 
 dress, and great ingenuity in his designs.'- »mJdG 
 About this period, (1587), Ireland was deprived 
 of the kind and parental government of Sir John 
 Perrot ; and the same scenes of confusion and deso^ 
 lation which we have recorded, are about to be 
 again visited on this ill-fated country, by the cruelty 
 or the folly of his successor. The Irish followed 
 their beloved governor in tears ; and by the lamen- 
 tations with which Sir John Perrot was accompanied, 
 when giving up his administration, we may conceive 
 that the people had a melancholy foreboding of the 
 scenes which were to follow. Sir William FitzwiU 
 liam succeeded to Sir John Perrot ; and, as if it 
 were the study of the English government to undo 
 the wise and beneficent work of his predecessor, 
 they took care to select that man whose vicious and 
 corrupt propensities could best accomplish its wishes* 
 Cruel, avaricious, and despotic, no mercy was great 
 enough to impede the progress of his sword — no 
 submission sufficiently passive to restrain the fury 
 of his despotism. After the defeat of the celebrat- 
 ed armada, pompously stiled the invincible, seven- 
 teen ships belonging to this Quixotic expedition of 
 the Spanish monarch v;ere driven by a storm on the 
 northern coasts of Ireland ; they carried five thou- 
 sand four hundred men — a formidable force, cori- 
 siderinsj the then alienated state of the Irish, ;P5 
 
316 THE IIISTOIIY 
 
 well as the colony. O'Ruarc, the chieftain of Breff- 
 ney, hospitably received the enemy. He flattered 
 himself that with such co-operation, another struggle 
 might be made for the liberty of his country, and 
 the safety of his religion. The Spanish commander, 
 however, declined the overtures made to him by the 
 Irish, and left his host and Ireland to the vengeance 
 of an enraged English governor. O'Ruarc was con- 
 quered in the field, and being taken prisoner, was 
 sent to London, where he was executed as a traitor. 
 The avarice of Sir Wilham Fitzwilliam was sharpen- 
 ed by the reports, that the Spanish vessels driven in- 
 to the north, carried large quantities of gold and sil- 
 ver ; he sent forward his emissaries to pursue their in- 
 quiries with fire and sword ; and enraged by the 
 barrenness of his pursuit, he sacrificed Sir Owen 
 O'Toole, and Sir John O'Doherty to his disap- 
 pointed avarice. These two Irishmen were re- 
 markable for the zeal of their loyalty, and the sin- 
 cerity of their fidehty. Such wanton atrocity suc- 
 ceeded in obliterating the favourable impressions 
 which the government of Sir John Perrot had made 
 on the minds of the Irish ; he soon after ordered 
 MacMahon, the head of one of the principal 
 families in Monaghan, to be tried by a jury of 
 private soldiers, for the violation of a law of 
 which the accused was not aware, or before such 
 law was established in the country : the pretext 
 was sufHcient when the reward was taken into con- 
 sideration 'y the estates of this devoted Irish chief- 
 tain were distributed among the followers of the 
 deputy. The natural effect of such proceedings 
 
OF IRELAND. 317 
 
 was an universal abhorrence of every institution 
 recommended by England ; the distribution of 
 English justice was, in the opinion of the Irish, the 
 dissemination of ruin and desolation ; the sheriffs 
 were considered as executioners, and their boasted 
 trial byjury was looked on as a mere plausible scheme 
 by which their plans of barbarity might be perpe- 
 trated. The celebrated saying of Macguire, the 
 chieftain of Fermanagh, demonstrates the feelings 
 of horror with which the Irish contemplated the 
 introduction of British law. When Fitzwilliam, 
 the deputy, told Macguire that he intended to send 
 a sheriff into his district, he answered with a sim- 
 plicity and humour peculiar to his country — " Your 
 sheriff* shall he welcome ; but let me know his eric, 
 that if my people should cut off his head, I may 
 levy it upon the country.*' — The protestant univer- 
 sity of Dublin was founded about this period, and 
 notwithstanding the miserable illiberality and nar- 
 rowness of the principles on which it was esta- 
 blished, has succeeded in giving to Ireland, and 
 to the world, the greatest geniuses in every art and 
 science. 
 
 The mind which even this partial patronage has 
 brought forth, demonstrates the abundance of in- 
 tellectual wealth with which Ireland is pregnant ; 
 and though we must ever consider the seminary 
 in which Usher, Swift, Burke, Flood, Grattan, 
 and Curran had graduated, as a blessing to our 
 country, yet we cannot forget that Trinity college 
 has also been the nurse of every prejudice, the slave 
 of every despot, and the sycophantic tool of every 
 
sis THE HISTOKY 
 
 bad passion which has guided the helm of our coun* 
 try for the last two hundred years. 
 
 The artful minister of Elizabeth recommended 
 this perennial fountain of hatred to the mere Irish, 
 as the chief monument of her antipathy to the an- 
 cient religion of Irishmen ; and under the fasci- 
 nating robe of national education, she concealed 
 the secret design of establishing an everlasting bank 
 of national antipathy, on which England might draw 
 without the possibility of exhaustion. 
 .y Trinity college was incorporated on the 29th day 
 of December, 1591. It was to consist of a pro- 
 vost, three fellows, in the name of more, and three 
 scholars in the name of more. Cecil, the great and 
 artful minister of Elizabeth, was named in the char- 
 ter first chancellor, and all future elections were 
 vested in the provost and fellows ; they were to hold 
 their stations for seven years, and to be visited by 
 the Archbishop of Dublin, Bishop of Meath, vice- 
 treasurers, treasurer at war, chief justice, and 
 mayor of Dublin. Mr Leland writes, that the in- 
 stitution had to struggle with the poverty of the 
 kingdom, and the reluctance of the popish party : 
 a most extraordinary circumstance, no doubt, when 
 it is considered that the object of its foundation was 
 the extinction of the Irish religion, and the sub- 
 jugation of the Irish conscience. It was one of 
 those expedients which fanaticism is perpetually 
 furnishing to the passions of its votaries, in which 
 we see the mild and universal tolerance of the 
 Christian sacrificed to the idle and fruitless visions 
 of the sectarian ; — in which the human mind is for- 
 ced to move, as in a magic circle, out of whose peri. 
 
OF IBELAXD. S19 
 
 phery neither truth is to be heard, nor salvation t6 
 be obtained. Exclusive doctrines, which presump- 
 tuously pronounce on the everlasting doom of 
 humanity, are no longer attended to by the reflect- 
 ing or the merciful : every man is suffered, (with- 
 out being exposed to the reproach of libertinism,) 
 to follow the suggestions of his own conscience. 
 The comprehensive principles of Christianity are 
 preferred to the contracted feelings of religious mo- 
 nopoly, and a happy futurity is no longer denied to 
 be the reward of every man who conscientiously 
 fellows the religion of his fathers. 
 -'^ It was about the year 1594-, that O'Nial, the Earl 
 bf Tyrone, excited the suspicions of the English 
 government, by his wily and inexplicable conduct ; 
 at one time manifesting a spirit of dissatisfation, at 
 another co-operating with the viceroy in the estab- 
 lishment of English laws and English habits. On 
 the death of Turlough 0*Nial, the Earl of Tyrone 
 assumed the high and important title of *« the 
 O'Nial," and seized and threw into prison the sons 
 of John O'Nial, who were the only bars to his am- 
 bition. The government of Elizabeth in Ireland 
 was unable to punish such violence, and was con- 
 tent to receive the well-dissembled homage of this 
 artful Irish chieftain. The power of the English ia 
 Ireland, was now formidably threatened by the vi- 
 gorous and rapid movements of O'Donnell in Fer- 
 managh. The Earl of Tyrone, though so often 
 successful in conciliating the confidence df the En- 
 glish, was suspected to be the principal source of 
 all the calamities which now visited the colony. 
 JisElizabeth became alarmed for her English sub- 
 
316 THE HISTORY 
 
 jects in Ireland, and immediately sent forward one 
 of her most experienced captains, Sir John Morris, 
 at the head of three thousand veteran troops, to put 
 down the formidable combination with which the 
 Irish government was threatened. The Earl of 
 Tyrone, on this occasion, put forth all the resour- 
 ces which an ingenious duplicity could suggest: 
 secretly stirring up tlie most powerful Irish chief- 
 tains against the English, while he was professing 
 the most passive submission, and courting, in the 
 most earnest manner, the co-operation of the Spa- 
 nish monarch, at the moment he was admitted to 
 the confidence of Elizabeth's Irish government. 
 We cannot suppose that any other consideration 
 but the prudent apprehension of the formidable 
 power of the Irish chieftains, could have induced 
 the ministers of EHzabeth to advise her to sooth 
 and conciliate an enemy whose guilt was so palpa- 
 ble, and whose violence was so flagrant. We there- 
 fore find commissioners appointed to treat with 
 Tyrone and O'Donnell, and the redress of all griev- 
 ances of which the Irish had to complain, set forth 
 as the condition of their alHance and the price of 
 their friendship 5 the full and free exercise of their 
 religion, (the constant prayer of Ireland,) and that 
 the part of the country possessed by the rebel chief- 
 tains, should be freed from the dreadful scourge of 
 English garrisons and English sheriffs. Those 
 terms were rejected, and the Irish flew to arms to 
 assert their rights and privileges. Sir John Mor- 
 ris, a brave and humane soldier, marched against 
 the enemy 5 but inexperienced in a species of war- 
 
OF IRELAND. 321 
 
 fare peculiar to Ireland, he was deprived of the op- 
 portunity of acquiring any considerable military 
 fame. The soldiers whom he commanded, were 
 unaccustomed to the air as well as food of Ireland ; 
 they were less patient of labour and distress, and 
 little capable of bearing up against that perpetual 
 harassing, to which they were exposed from the 
 practice of retreating within the bogs and fortresses 
 which covered the country. All those parts of Ul* 
 ster, which are now scenes of the most improved 
 agriculture, and the favoured seat of an enriching 
 manufacture, was, at the period of which we are 
 writing, covered with woods, deep and impenetrable 
 to the English. 
 
 It is to this ignorance of the country, that we 
 are to attribute the facility with which the English 
 general was induced to treat with Tyrone and the 
 Irish, who had now despaired of the promised re- 
 lief from Spain. The power and menaces of the 
 Spanish monarch occupied the entire mind of Eli- 
 zabeth ; and she was not displeased at any expe- 
 dient that could, even for the moment, protect her 
 against the embarrassment of an Irish war. Ty- 
 rone, experienced in all the arts of diplomacy, did 
 not hesitate to subscribe to any conditions which 
 might conciliate so powerful an enemy ; he agreed, 
 in the year 1596, to admit sheriffs into his country; 
 he surrendered the title of O'Nial, confessed his 
 correspondence with foreign powers, and almost 
 agreed to become the vassal of an English viceroy. 
 O'Donnell, O'Ruarc, and MacGuire made similar 
 submissions. 
 
 TOL. I. X 
 
822 THE HISTORY 
 
 The affairs of the north being thus settled, Sir 
 John Morris proceeded to Connaught, the scene of 
 the most wanton oppressions, by Sir Kichard Bing- 
 ham. The pecuHar address with which Tyrone 
 must have conducted himself to disarm the resent- 
 ment of his enemies, after so many provocations, 
 must compel the most partial historian to allow, 
 that the talents of the Irish chieftain must have 
 been of the first order. In answer to the charges 
 of dissimulation and hypocrisy which Mr Leland 
 brings against Tyrone, in all his communications 
 with the English government, through servants of 
 the colony, Mr Taaffe makes the following very 
 just observations : — " Tyrone had two incompatible 
 interests to manage ; that of the northern Irish, who 
 daily experienced such violent oppressions from 
 government as seemed to announce a settled plan 
 for their total extirpation, and that of the extermi- 
 nating power, which though it chose to employ him, 
 gave him abundant proof that it did not trust him, and 
 meanttodevourhim, perhaps thelast. In all his trials, 
 (and he had severe ones), he acted with great judg- 
 ment, and cool steady resolution, confounding his 
 enemies, and bringinghomeconviction to the queen, 
 her council, and her generals, by facts and argu- 
 ments which they were unable to withstand. It 
 has been said, he had great powers of persuasion ; 
 they must have been great indeed, were they able 
 to deceive such understandings as the ministers of 
 Elizabeth possessed : such minds as Bacon's, Ce- 
 cil's, Walsingham's. If he possessed talents equal 
 
OF IRELAND. 323 
 
 to the conviction, or rather, to the fascination of 
 such men as those, without truth or justice on his 
 side, he must have been the most eloquent of ora- 
 tors. The fact is, he struggled to keep the peace 
 of the north as long as it could be kept, without 
 sacrificing his rehgion and the interests of the nor- 
 therns, which would cause a general alienation of 
 all hearts from him, and degrade him to a vile sa- 
 tellite of tyranny, despised even by those whom he 
 served. It appears that Tyrone was able to baffle 
 the exertions of Sir John Morris, whose unproduc- 
 tive campaigns now began to excite the dissatisfac- 
 tion of his sovereign ; he was ordered to surrender 
 the vice-regency of the colony to Lord Burgh, 
 whose character fitted him for that desperate war- 
 fare which Ireland then exhibited. Sir John Mor- 
 ris, a man of the highest honour and most acute 
 sensibility, fell a victim to the displeasure of Eliza- 
 beth, and is said to have died of a broken heart in 
 the arms of his brother. We shall pass over the 
 various subordinate efforts made by the colony to 
 reduce the power of Tyrone, and proceed to that 
 in which Tyrone succeeded in obtaining a signal 
 triumph over his enemies. Tyrone determined to 
 attack the fort of Blackwater; this fort, being one 
 of the most important depots of English strength 
 in the north, was defended with as much spirit as 
 it was assailed. The Enghsh and Irish armies, 
 headed by two generals, not more remarkable for 
 their valour and their prowess, than for the rancorous 
 antipathy they entertained towards each other, 
 seemed determined to decide the fate of Ireland 
 
 X 2 
 
324 THE HISTORY 
 
 by a single battle. Marshal Bagnal commanded four 
 thousand five hundred foot and five hundred horse, 
 composed of those veterans who distinguished them- 
 selves in the campaigns of the continent; they were 
 opposed to an Irish army nearly of equal numbers, 
 animated by every stimulant that can inflame the 
 human bosom. The onset of the Irish was furious 
 and irresistible ; the English army retired before 
 the shock, and the marshal was one of the first who 
 fell under the swords of the Irish. Victory almost 
 immediately declared for Tyrone ; fifteen hundred 
 English fell on the field of battle ; the slaughter of 
 their principal officers was unexampled : Tyrone 
 became master of all the artillery, and provisions 
 and ammunition of the royal army, and the fort 
 of Blackwater, the great object of his ambition, 
 surrendered at discretion. Borlase, speaking of 
 this victory, says, that '* such a victory the Irish 
 never gained since the English first set foot in Ire- 
 land." Tyrone's implacable enemy. Marshal Bag- 
 nal, with other principal officers, was slain. The 
 brilliant triumph of the Irish under Tyrone, fan- 
 ned the almost extinguished embers of insurrec- 
 tion in the western and southern counties of Ire- 
 lane. The lords of Lixnaw, Fermoy, Mountgar- 
 rett, Cahir, united with the Irish against the Eng- 
 lish ; and the Geraldines, who were distinguished 
 by the popular titles of the Knights of the Valley^ 
 and the While Knights, joined the general confe- 
 deracy for the restoration of Irish independence. 
 The power of England never received so great a 
 shock as at this period ; and Elizabeth had suffer- 
 
OF IRELAND. S25 
 
 ed so much in her finances, and in her peace of 
 mind, by the exasperating prolongation of the Irish 
 war, that she would not, according to the English 
 historian, have much regretted the total loss of such 
 an incumbrance on her government. " The Eng- 
 lish council," Mr Hume writes, " were now sen- 
 sible that the rebellion of Ireland was come to a 
 dangerous head, and that the former temporizing 
 acts of granting truce and pacification to the re- 
 bels, and of allowing them to purchase pardons by 
 resigning part of the plunder acquired during their 
 insurrection, served only to encourage the spirit of 
 mutiny and disorder among them. Elizabeth, there- 
 fore, determined that a decided blow should be 
 struck, and that a force should be sent into Ireland, 
 which, from its magnitude, must command the re- 
 duction of the island." A tolerably correct idea 
 may be formed of the resources of the Irish, by 
 the extent of the force they were now to bring into 
 the field against the English. The Earl of Essex, 
 to whom Elizabeth was personally devoted, was se- 
 lected to command the greatest expedition ever 
 sent against Ireland ; he was created Lord Lieu- 
 tenant, and put at the head of twenty thousand 
 men, with a power of pardoning all treasons, of re- 
 moving officers, and conferring dignities ; he might 
 conduct the war as his discretion dictated, and was 
 only responsible to Elizabeth, whose aflfections he 
 commanded with unprecedented success. Tyrone 
 and his companions in arms were undismayed by 
 those gigantic preparations of Elizabeth : the flame 
 of liberty spread through every corner of Ireland^ 
 
326 THE HISTORY 
 
 and the glory of making a great and unanimous 
 struggle for their freedom animated every bosom at 
 this most eventful crisis. The Earl of Essex was 
 in a short time undeceived with respect to the re- 
 sistance which the Irish were able to make ; he was 
 opposed in every quarter ; harassed by indefatigable 
 enemies, who were intimately informed in all the 
 difficulties which the country possessed, and at 
 length forced to acknowledge, that even the great 
 force committed to his direction by Elizabeth, was 
 inadequate to the reduction of so formidable a 
 power as the Irish commanded. He complains that 
 the great cement which held the Irish together was 
 their inveterate antipathy to the reformed religion j 
 that the priests of their own persuasion so entirely 
 possessed their confidence, that unless by fraud or 
 by force something was done to reduce their power, 
 England would have little chance of making a per- 
 manent conquest of Ireland. The enemies of Es- 
 sex lost no time in exaggerating the disgrace of the 
 British arms, and the vain-glorious boastings of their 
 leader. The army of the latter was reduced so low 
 as four thousand, when Tyrone, who expected a 
 considerable supply of arms, money, and ammu- 
 nition from Spain, proposed a parley to the Eng- 
 lish general. The circumstances in which Es- 
 sex stood, forced him to embrace an offer which 
 might be the means of retrieving his strength. — 
 A truce for five weeks was agreed to, and the 
 usual conditions which we see the Irish demanding 
 after every struggle with England, of a free exer- 
 cise of their religion, the restoration of their lands, 
 
OF IRELAND. 
 
 32Y 
 
 and an exemption from the English government, 
 were agreed to by Essex as a reasonable ground of 
 conciliation between the two powers. Such a treaty, 
 with such an enemy as Tyrone, was a source of the 
 bitterest mortification to the queen, who at this" 
 time began to suspect the designs of her favourite 
 Essex. It is said she wrote to that general with 
 her own hand, a letter of severe remonstrance, 
 which stung him so poignantly, that he determined 
 to repair immediately to her royal presence and 
 confront his enemies. He left the government of 
 Ireland to Sir George Carew and Chancellor Lof- 
 tus. Elizabeth was dressing in her bed-chamber 
 when Essex rushed in, covered with dust. All the 
 fond recollections of former confidence returned, 
 which succeeded in suspending the indignation her 
 misfortunes in Ireland had created ; but when re- 
 flection began to return, and pride re-assumed its 
 place in the bosom of the queen, the bold and im- 
 petuous favourite was repelled with indignity, he 
 was ordered to confine himself to his chamber, and 
 after being examined before the council, he was 
 committed to the custody of the lord keeper. The 
 disgrace suffered by Essex was a sure source of tri- 
 umph to the Irish leaders; and the co-operation of 
 Spain soon after, who sent supplies of money and 
 ammunition, elevated their hopes to the highest 
 pinnacle, of re-estabHshing the ancient liberties of 
 their country. Tyrone, or rather O'Nial, the title 
 so dear to Irish vanity, declared himself the cham- 
 pion of the holy faith, and thus backed by every 
 passion of the human bosom, determined to make 
 one effort more against the common enemy. 
 
328 THE HJSTOKT 
 
 The power of the colony was never more formid- 
 ably assailed than at the momentous crisis when its 
 defence was entrusted to a governor who was not 
 heretofore distinguished, either in the field or in 
 the cabinet. Charles Blunt, Lord Mountjoy, was 
 appointed deputy of Ireland, with full power to act 
 in this country in such a manner as his own judg- 
 ment should best direct. A man of studious and 
 secluded habits, little of enterprize was expected 
 from his administration. He started from his study 
 into the field, no doubt with an improved and high- 
 ly cultivated understanding : and the results of his 
 administration demonstrated, that it did not require 
 years of practical experience to make a man of his 
 capacity an efficient and successful officer. Under 
 his administration, the power of the Irish received the 
 most fatal blow ; under him, the Irish spirit was first 
 obliged to bend to the overwhelming combination 
 of force and fraud ; under him, England most suc- 
 cessfully practised her schemes of division among 
 the rival chieftains of Ireland ; he prosecuted the 
 'war against the Irish with an unprecedented vigour ; 
 and the fame of O'Nial, which rendered the Irish 
 €0 formidable an enemy, sunk before the ascendant 
 fortune of Mountjoy. The various septs seceded 
 from the standard of O'Nial, who was beaten in al- 
 most every effort to recover his military reputation. 
 Mountjoy introduced a new system of warfare, 
 which distressed the Irish much more than their 
 accustomed pitched battles with the English ; he 
 desolated the country, and thus deprived the Irish 
 ©f the necessaries of life. Famine was judged by 
 
OF IRELAND. 329 
 
 him his most powerful ally ; and the fields of Ire- 
 land, which once exhibited the fruits of industry, 
 were laid waste by the unpitying sword of an Eng- 
 lish army. To these evils were added the destruc- 
 tive plan of circulating a base currency through 
 Ireland, by which the rival chieftains might be de- 
 prived of the means of procuring supplies from 
 foreign countries. This plan, though it had the 
 effect of multiplying the distresses of the Irish, re- 
 coiled on its authors ; for the army of the English 
 were almost beggared, and their spirit almost con- 
 quered by the reflection, that the reward of all their 
 toils was to be the possession of a depreciated and 
 debased currency. " The hearts of the queen's 
 soldiers," says Morrison, " failed herewith, for they 
 served in discomfort, and came home beggars ; so 
 that only the treasurers and pay-masters, who were 
 thereby infinitely enriched, had cause to bless the 
 authors of the invention." The murmurs of the 
 soldiers were so great, that Mountjoy determined 
 to give them all the occupation he could ; and with 
 this view he portioned them into small divisions, 
 and proceeded to the north against O'Nial, where 
 he received the submission of many of the allies of 
 this fallen chieftain. 
 
 The south of Ireland now presented a scene of 
 formidable hostility, and Sir George Carew was in- 
 structed to lead his forces into that part of the 
 country where the Irish strength appeared to be 
 most advantageously posted. The people of the 
 south had long complained of the oppression under 
 which they suffered, the extortions of the English 
 
330 THE HISTORY 
 
 sheriffs, the legal murders which were constantly 
 perpetrating, on the base diabolical speculation of 
 confiscating their properties, and the cruel and re- 
 morseless execution of the penal laws. The Irish 
 historians of those days vindicate the resistance of 
 their countrymen to the proselytizing spirit of 
 Elizabeth, to which they attribute all the calami- 
 ties under which Ireland now suffered. To the 
 successful practice of intrigue and corruption, the 
 Irish chieftains of the greatest influence were found 
 to give their countenance : the rivalship of faction, 
 the hatred of families, the jealousy of those little 
 powers into which the Irish were divided, were so 
 miany instruments in the hands of Sir George 
 Carew, to effect the subjugation of all. We there- 
 fore find the houses of MacArthy, in Munster, ex- 
 hausting themselves in those destructive contests 
 which left their country exposed to the common 
 enemy. At the time Sir George Carew proceeded 
 against Munster, the Irish had in a great measure 
 settled all their domestic feuds, and from the ap- 
 prehension of the common danger, joined against 
 the invader of their territories ; but their numbers, 
 however formidable, being commanded by separate 
 and independent leaders, jealous of each other, and 
 restrained by no superior authority, could never be 
 able to cope with the English army, under a leader 
 of decision and of talent, to whom all those he 
 commanded looked up with common reverence, 
 and among whom the spirit of faction and division 
 could never enter. Against such an enemy as the 
 Irish, the weapons of corruption are more formid- 
 
OF IRELAND. 531 
 
 able than the sword or the bayonet : the one would 
 succeed in dividing and weakening, the other in 
 uniting and strengthening. Sir George Carew 
 therefore employed the artillery of jealousies and 
 suspicions among the Irish, and succeeded in 
 making the Irish chieftain the instrument of his 
 own degradation. He stooped to the meanest arti- 
 fices to entrap the Irish ; he would bribe the sister 
 to betray the brother, as in the case of the sister of 
 the Earl of Desmond, who was married to Dermot 
 O'Connor ; and the servant to assassinate his mas- 
 ter, as in the case of the servant of the said earl, 
 who confessed at the place of execution, that he 
 was bribed by Sir George Carew to perform so ho- 
 nourable a duty. Such were the practices by which 
 he endeavoured to effect the humiliation of the 
 Irish. When he drew his sword, the country through 
 which he passed was marked with desolation ; a 
 divided people fled before the misery of famine ; 
 and the principal strong-hold of the south fell into 
 the hands of Sir George Carew, by which he com- 
 pleted its conquest. Peace was restored ; the peace 
 of annihilation was established ; and the Irish only 
 then began to reflect on the folly of those jealousies 
 which exposed them to the fury and the avarice of 
 the common enemy. 
 
 The arms of Mountjoy and Sir George Carew 
 had almost extinguished the spirit of insurrection, 
 when the reports of a new supply from Spain, of 
 men, arms, and money, circulated through every 
 corner of the kingdom. For a length of time the 
 rumour was discredited j it was supposed that the 
 
332 THE lirSTORY 
 
 advice of CNiaPs reverse of fortune might have 
 reached the court of Spain, and prevented the ef- 
 fort which, in the days of victory, might have se- 
 cured the freedom of Ireland. The Spaniards 
 succeeded in effecting a landing at Kinsale in 
 1601, and as it generally happens in all such cases, 
 the hopes of the invaders were considerably damp- 
 ed by the unflattering prospect which the country 
 now presented of an active and efficient co-opera- 
 tion on the part of the Irish. O'Nial and O'Don- 
 nell, the one at the head of a considerable force 
 from Connaught and Leinster, the other with the 
 flower of the Ulster forces, marched to the assis- 
 tance of their foreign friendsjwho were then besieg- 
 ed at Kinsale by Sir George Carew. The poor 
 people of Ireland were once more animated with 
 the hope of being able to recover their liberty and 
 to preserve their religion ; the clergy, whom Mr 
 Leland so often represents as the bigotted fermen- 
 ters of sedition, yielded to those feelings by which 
 every honest Irish mind was impelled, and stimula- 
 ted their oppressed and persecuted countrymen to 
 a vigorious resistance of that power which had in- 
 flicted such unprecedented suffering throughout the 
 land. The colony, on the other hand, put forth all 
 their strength ; and the English government lost 
 no time in sending forward a large force to co-ope- 
 rate with the Lord Deputy. The Spaniards received 
 a reinforcement, and all the disaffected septs of 
 Ireland conceived that the hour of their deliverance 
 from England had at length arrived. The exertion 
 was universal, and the English army seemed threat- 
 
OF IRELAND. 333 
 
 ened with immediate annihilation, when they are 
 rescued by the temerity and precipitancy of the Spa^ 
 iiish commander. The English had laid siege to 
 Cork, and, pressed by the army of O'iSial in their 
 rear, they were nearly starved into submission, when 
 the Spanish commander insisted that O'Nial should 
 no longer delay attacking the English in their camp, 
 who were diminished in numbers, and exhausted 
 in spirit : the fatal order was obeyed, contrary to 
 the advice of O'Nial, and the Irish army, after a 
 furious conflict, was disgracefully routed. The vai. 
 rious forces of which the Irish army was composed, 
 retired to their respective provinces ; and O'Nial 
 and O'Donnell, stung with disappointment and vex- 
 ation, from that day gave up the cause for which 
 they had endured so much toil, and incurred so 
 much danger. 
 
 The Spanish general, Don Juan, under the im- 
 pression that the Irish had betrayed their country as 
 well as their allies, immediatelyproposed a truce with 
 Mountjoy, which, after some conferences, was grant- 
 ed. Mr Leland has written a speech for the Spanish 
 general, which is not more disgraceful to the head 
 than to the heart of the Spaniard ; he makes him 
 upbraid the Irish, who must have been so interested 
 in the success of his enterprise, with treachery, weak- 
 ness, and cowardice ; and he represents the officer 
 of a gallant and generous nation indulging in all 
 the wretched effusions of pride, disappointment, and 
 malice. We cannot subscribe to those relations, so 
 inconsistent with the dictates of common sense, or 
 the obvious suggestions of those circumstances un- 
 
S34 THE HISTORY 
 
 der which the Spaniards then acted in Ireland ; but 
 we cannot close our eyes against the object of that 
 historian, who, in every page of his history, strug- 
 gles to obscure the character of a people who so 
 long made a glorions resistance to the greatest des- 
 potism in Europe. After the failure of this last 
 effort, O'Nial considered all further struggles as 
 increasing the calamities of his country: we there- 
 fore find him submitting to the humiliating condi- 
 tions of Mountjoy ; and almost at the moment the 
 inveterate oppressor of his country, Elizabeth, was 
 sinking into the tomb, O'Nial and his gallant com- 
 panions were obliged to bow to the superior fortune of 
 her arms. A tolerably correct opinion may be form- 
 ed of the calamities endured by the Irish nation,* 
 
 * Mr Hume, whenever he writes of Ireland, indulges in all 
 that high and swelling tone of national ascendancy, which the 
 conqueror always assumes, when speaking of a fallen nation ; he 
 takes but little pains in ascertaining the truth of his opinions, 
 but suffers himself to be carried down the current of public ru- 
 mour, which represented the Irish as a wild and barbarous na- 
 tion. The volume of Bede, in which Mr Hume might have read 
 of the ancient fame of Ireland, was open to him in vain ; the 
 testimony of Alfred to the learning of Ireland, was for him re- 
 corded in vain. The integrity with which the poor people of Ire- 
 land clung to their ancient religion was, in the opinion of Mr 
 Hume, an additional evidence of her barbarism ; and the virtues 
 which should raise the Irish people in the estimation of every 
 mind of sensibility and honour, are the proofs of that incorrigible 
 spirit of resistance to the promulgation of those laws, and the ra- 
 tionality of that religion, which England so piously laboured to 
 disseminate by fire and sword. " Even at the end of the six- 
 teenth century," wTites Mr Hume, " when every Christian nation 
 was cultivating with ardour every civil art of life, that island, lying 
 in a temperate climate, enjoying a fertile soil, accessible in its 
 
OP IRELAND. 3S5 
 
 during this remorseless struggle for her complete 
 subjugation, by a view of the extraordinary prices 
 
 situation, possessed of innumerable harbours, was still, notwith- 
 standing these advantages, inhabited by a people, whose customs 
 and manners approached nearer those of savages, than of barba- 
 rians." Mr Hume has these observ^ations on Ireland in his reign 
 of Elizabeth; but in the reign of Henry VIII. the sam^ his- 
 torian seems to have forgotten, that he has most philosophically 
 accounted for the barbarity which he so unfeehngly charges upon 
 that country. Speaking of the cruelty and folly with which Ire- 
 land was treated by England, he says, that, " thrown out of the 
 protection of justice, the natives could find no security but irr 
 force ; and flying the neighbourhood of cities, which they could 
 not approach with safety, they sheltered themselves within 
 marshes and forests from the insolence of their unknown masters ; 
 being treated like wild beasts, they became such ; and joining the 
 ardour of revenge to their yet untamed barbarity, they grew 
 every day more intractable and more dangerous." These were 
 the reasons why Ireland, in the sixteenth century, presented such 
 a scene of ruin, and desolation, and barbarity ; and they were 
 bad reasons for upbraiding a nation which had been distinguish- 
 ed in Europe as a principal asylum of the arts and sciences. The 
 ancient prosperity of Irish agriculture is well attested by the 
 most respectable authorities, and the researches of the learned of 
 modern days furnish us with proofs that even the mountains of 
 Ireland were once the seats of wealth, population and refinement. 
 Molyneux, in a letter to the Archbishop of Dublin, thus writes : 
 " Ireland has certainly been better inhabited formerly, than it is 
 at present. Mountains that are now covered with bogs, have 
 been formerly ploughed, for where you dig five or six feet deep, 
 you discern a proper soil for Vegetation, and find it ploughed into 
 ridges and furrows. This is observable in the wild mountains be- 
 tween Armagh and Dundaik, and likewise on the mountains of 
 Altimore ; the same, as I am informed, has been observed in the 
 counties of Derry and Donegal. A plough was found in a very 
 deep bog in the latter, and an hedge with wattles standing under 
 a bog that was five or six feet in depth. I have seen likewise 
 large old oaks grow on land that had the remains of furrows and 
 
356 THE HISTORY 
 
 of every necessary of life. If the Irishman was 
 able to console himself with the reflection, that the 
 
 ridges, and I am told that on the top of a high mountain in the 
 north there are yet remaining the streets, and other marks of a 
 large town ; and in truth there are few places, but either at pre- 
 sent, or when the bog is removed, exhibit marks of the plough, 
 which must surely have proved the country formerly to be well 
 inhabited." 
 
 Morrison, from whom Mr Leland takes the burthen of his re* 
 lation during the reign of Elizabeth, and who accompanied 
 Mountjoy during the ferocious progress of that deputy's arms 
 through Ireland, bears testimony to the prosperous state of the 
 Irish agriculture, even in the sixteenth century. " I was surpris- 
 ed," he writes, " at the beauty and fertility of O'Moore's coun- 
 try, and the neat manner in which it was laid out for tillage." 
 Giraldus Cambrensis, one of the most malignant and prejudiced 
 writers of Irish misfortune, gives the following picture of Ireland: 
 ** The plains are fertile in corn, the mountains are covered with 
 flocks, the woods abound with game :" also, " This island is 
 rich in pasture and agriculture, in milk, in honey, and in wines, 
 though not of its own growth. Stanihurst says, that Ireland 
 was known to be rich in mines of different metals. Donatus, 
 bishop of Fesul, near Florence, who wrote eleven centuries back, 
 affirmed, that Ireland abounded with gems, cloth and gold; the 
 great plenty of gold is attested by the quantity of plate used by 
 the sovereigns of Tara, and in churches throughout the kingdom. 
 The lofty golden goblets, which distinguished the ancient Irish 
 feasts, are an evidence of the luxury of private families. With 
 respect to the ancient commerce of Ireland, Tacitus, in his life 
 of Agricola, affirms that the harbours of Ireland were more fre- 
 quented by foreign merchants than Britain, and that' Ireland 
 connected the most powerful provinces of the empire;, by a great 
 commercial intercourse." Notwithstanding the denunciation of 
 Mr Hume against the civilization of ancient Ireland, we must 
 totally reject historical evidence, or admit that Ireland was the 
 mart of civilization and science for the west of Europe. Her 
 hospitality and learning are extolled by all the writers of the 
 middle ages ; from all parts of Europe, its youth flocked hither in 
 
OF IRELAND. 337 
 
 last act of Ireland's sufFering closed with the life of 
 Elizabeth, and that its devoted inhabitants were 
 hereafter to enjoy the blessings of protection and 
 tranquillity ; the blood which had been shed in the 
 defence of this licentious liberty, enjoyed by the 
 various septs into which Irishmen were divided, 
 and by which they were so often distracted and 
 convulsed, would not be considered a dear pur- 
 chase for the establishment of legitimate govern- 
 ment, and the impartial dispensation of justice. 
 The most ardent lover of Irish freedom might not 
 have lamented the overthrow of a system which 
 contained in its principles such fruitful seed of 
 anarchy and weakness; and the introduction of 
 English laws and customs would have been receiv- 
 ed by the patriot and the philosopher as the healer 
 of those wounds with which the fugitive and cow- 
 ardly wars of nearly five centuries had disfigured 
 
 crowds, and Irish professors laid the first foundation of semina- 
 ries and universities abroad. 
 
 The ancient state of Irish learning, so flattering to the pride 
 of an Irishman, is proved beyond the possibility of controversy. 
 There is not a fact in history which may not be disputed, if we 
 hesitate to give credit to the testimonies in favour of our ancient 
 literature. Bede, Usher, Camden, abound with evidence in 
 support of the ancient literary fame of Ireland. Camden, speak- 
 ing of Sulgenus, who flourished in the tenth century, thus writes; 
 " He was sent into Ireland for his education ; he went hither to 
 court the muses in a land far famed for admirable wisdom ; and 
 our English ancestors appear to have borrowed thence their al- 
 phabet, as they formerly used the same which is employed to this 
 day in Ireland ; so that Ireland was adorned with the splendour 
 of genius in those ages, when the rest of the christian world lay 
 immured in darkness." 
 
 VOL. I. Y 
 
338 THE HISTORY or irelaxd. 
 
 liis countrj. The scenes wliicii are to follow aiForJ 
 no such consolation to the afflicted reader ; the 
 ^ruelty of the sword only gives way to the more 
 , .rturing cruelty of the law 5 and the ambition of 
 \e soldier, which so often threw a ray of glor}- 
 over the most dreadful catastrophe, is hereafter to 
 be succeeded by the creeping and insidious artifice 
 of the legal trader on the feelings and the miseries 
 of Irishmen. Elizabeth succeeded in breaking 
 down the hitherto untameable spirit of Ireland ; 
 and prosecuted the war against a brave and con- 
 scientious nation, with a fear and barbarity almost 
 unexampled in the annals of history. 
 
 By an unrelenting system of oppression and vio* 
 lence she overturned a power which had existed for 
 three thousand years ; a power which sometimes 
 greatly struggled with difficulties, was often distin- 
 guished by its splendour, its glory, and its intrin- 
 sic benefit to mankind ; renowned for its sanctity, 
 its learning, hospitality, charity, valour and honour. 
 This country, which an insatiable tliirst of domi- 
 nion and avarice laid waste with such unpitying 
 desolation, had once the merit of dilfasii'g through 
 tlie nations of Europe religion, learning, and the 
 arts ; a proud and consoling flict, to wliich the 
 liigh and undisputed authority of Bede, Alfred and 
 Camden, bear a willing and ingenuous testimony. 
 
 END OV VOLUME TIUST. 
 
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