Part 29 (2/2)

[329] _Christ_.--Annals, vol. iii. p. 281.

[330] _Find_.--_Ib._ vol. iii. p. 275.

[331] _Usher's Island_.--This was once a fas.h.i.+onable resort. Moira House stood here. It was ornamented so beautifully, that John Wesley observed, when visiting Lady Moira, that one of the rooms was more elegant than any he had seen in England. Here, in 1777, Charles Fox was introduced to Grattan. Poor Pamela (Lady Edward FitzGerald) was at Moira House on the evening of her husband's arrest; and here she heard the fatal news on the following morning, her friends having concealed it from her until then. In 1826 it was converted into a mendicity inst.i.tution, and all its ornamental portions removed.

[332] _Defeated_.--O'Neill's bard, MacNamee, wrote a lament for the chieftains who fell in this engagement. He states that the head of ”O'Neill, King of Tara, was sent to London;” and attributes the defeat of the Irish to the circ.u.mstance of their adversaries having fought in coats-of-mail, while they had only satin s.h.i.+rts:--

”Unequal they entered the battle, The Galls and the Irish of Tara; Fair satin s.h.i.+rts on the race of Conn, The Galls in one ma.s.s of iron.”

He further deplores the removal of the chief's n.o.ble face from Down, lamenting that his resurrection should not be from amongst the limestone-covered graves of the fathers of his clan at Armagh.

[333] _MacCarthy_.--Four Masters, vol. iii. p. 389.

[334] _Ulster_.--The Annals of Innisfallen say he obtained this t.i.tle in 1264, after his marriage with Maud, daughter of Hugh de Lacy the younger.

[335]

_Ladies_.--”Tantz bele dames ne vi en fossee, Mult fu cil en bon sire nee, Re purreit choisir a sa volonte.”

[336]

_Clergy_.--”E les prestres, quant on chante, Si vont ovrir au fosse, E travellent mut durement, Plus qe ne funt autre gent.”

This ballad has been published, with a translation by W. Crofton Croker.

CHAPTER XXI.

Reign of Edward I.--Social State of Ireland--English Treachery--Irish Chieftains set at Variance--The Irish are refused the Benefit of English Law--Feuds between the Cusacks and the Barretts--Death of Boy O'Neill--The Burkes and the Geraldines--Quarrel between FitzGerald and De Vesci--Possessions obtained by Force or Fraud--Why the Celt was not Loyal--The Governors and the Governed--Royal Cities and their Charters--Dublin Castle, its Officers, Law Courts--A Law Court in the Fourteenth Century--Irish Soldiers help the English King--A Murder for which Justice is refused--Exactions of the n.o.bles--Invasion of Bruce--Remonstrance to the Pope--The Scotch Armies withdrawn from Ireland.

[A.D. 1271--1326.]

It was now nearly a century since the Anglo-Normans invaded Ireland.

Henry III. died in 1272, after a reign of fifty-six years. He was succeeded by his son, Edward I., who was in the Holy Land at the time of his father's death. In 1257 his father had made him a grant of Ireland, with the express condition that it should not be separated from England.

It would appear as if there had been some apprehensions of such an event since the time of Prince John. The English monarchs apparently wished the benefit of English laws to be extended to the native population, but their desire was invariably frustrated by such of their n.o.bles as had obtained grants of land in Ireland, and whose object appears to have been the extermination and, if this were not possible, the depression of the Irish race.

Ireland was at this time convulsed by domestic dissensions. Sir Robert D'Ufford, the Justiciary, was accused of fomenting the discord; but he appears to have considered that he only did his duty to his royal master. When sent for into England, to account for his conduct, he ”satisfied the King that all was not true that he was charged withal; and for further contentment yielded this reason, that in policy he thought it expedient to wink at one knave cutting off another, and that would save the King's coffers, and purchase peace to the land. Whereat the King smiled, and bid him return to Ireland.” The saving was questionable; for to prevent an insurrection by timely concessions, is incomparably less expensive than to suppress it when it has arisen. The ”purchase of peace” was equally visionary; for the Irish never appear to have been able to sit down quietly under unjust oppression, however hopeless resistance might be.

The Viceroys were allowed a handsome income; therefore they were naturally anxious to keep their post. The first mention of salary is that granted to Geoffrey de Marisco. By letters-patent, dated at Westminster, July 4th, 1226, he was allowed an annual stipend of 580.

This was a considerable sum for times when wheat was only 2s. a quarter, fat hogs 2s. each, and French wine 2s. a gallon.

Hugh O'Connor renewed hostilities in 1272, by destroying the English Castle of Roscommon. He died soon after, and his successor had but brief enjoyment of his dignity. In 1277 a horrible act of treachery took place, which the unfortunate Irish specially mention in their remonstrance to Pope John XXII., as a striking instance of the double-dealing of the English and the descendants of the Anglo-Normans then in Ireland, Thomas de Clare obtained a grant of Th.o.m.ond from Edward I. It had already been secured to its rightful owners, the O'Briens, who probably paid, as was usual, an immense fine for liberty to keep their own property. The English Earl knew he could only obtain possession by treachery; he therefore leagued with Roe O'Brien, ”so that they entered into gossipred with each other, and took vows by bells and relics to retain mutual friends.h.i.+p;” or, as the Annals of Clonmacnois have it, ”they swore to each other all the oaths in Munster, as bells, relics of saints, and bachalls, to be true to each other for ever.”

The unfortunate Irish prince little suspected all the false oaths his friend had taken, or all the villany he premeditated. There was another claimant for the crown as usual, Turlough O'Brien. He was defeated, but nevertheless the Earl turned to his side, got Brian Roe into his hands, and had him dragged to death between horses. The wretched perpetrator of this diabolical deed gained little by his crime,[337] for O'Brien's sons obtained a victory over him the following year. At one time he was so hard pressed as to be obliged to surrender at discretion, after living on horse-flesh for several days. In 1281 the unprincipled Earl tried the game of dissension, and set up Donough, the son of the man he had murdered, against Turlough, whom he had supported just before. But Donough was slain two years after, and Turlough continued master of Th.o.m.ond until his death, in 1306. De Clare was slain by the O'Briens, in 1286.

In 1280 the Irish who lived near the Anglo-Norman settlers presented a pet.i.tion to the English King, praying that they might be admitted to the privileges of the English law. Edward issued a writ to the then Lord Justice, D'Ufford, desiring him to a.s.semble the lords spiritual and temporal of the ”land of Ireland,” to deliberate on the subject. But the writ was not attended to; and even if it had been, the lords ”spiritual and temporal” appear to have decided long before that the Irish should not partic.i.p.ate in the benefit of English laws, however much they might suffer from English oppression. A pagan nation pursued a more liberal policy, and found it eminently successful. The Roman Empire was held together for many centuries, quite as much by the fact of her having made all her dependencies to share in the benefits of her laws, as by the strong hand of her cohorts. She used her arms to conquer, and her laws to retain her conquests.

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