A. D ing family of England. An unsuccessful trial of this experiment took place, as we have seen, under Henry Plantagenet; and the reign at present occupying our attention exhibits an equally injudicious partition of the royal title and power; the first suggestion of such a plan having originated with the Irish barons themselves, who, in the memorial addressed by them to Henry, on his accession,* desired, among other requests, that either the queen dowager or the king's brother should be sent to reside in that country. In giving an account of the transmission to Ireland, by Henry III., of a copy or duplicate of the great charter, historians have left it too much to be implied that the charters for both countries were exactly the same; without any, even, of those 1216. adaptations and compliances which the variance in customs between the two countries would reasonably require. The language of Henry himself, in transmitting the document, somewhat favours this view of the transaction. But such was not likely to have been the mode in which an instrument, then deemed so important, was framed. Among the persons by whose advice it had been granted were William Marshall, lord of Leinster, Walter de Lacy, lord of Meath, John, lord marshal of Ireland,† and several other noblemen, all connected, as lords of the soil and public functionaries, with Ireland, and intimately acquainted with the peculiar laws and customs of the land. As might naturally be expected, therefore, several minute but not unimportant differences are found to exist between the two charters: some in the forms, for instance, of administering justice; others in the proceedings for the advowsons of churches; and some arising out of the peculiar Irish custom as to dowers; while all imply, in those who drew up the document, a desire to accommodate the laws of the new settlers to the customs and usages of the country in which they were located.‡ It appears strange, however, that any such deference for the native customs and institutions should be shown by legislators, who yet left the natives themselves almost wholly out of their consideration; the monstrous fact being, that the actual people of Ireland were wholly excluded from any share in the laws and measures by which their own country was to be thus disposed of and governed. Individual exceptions, indeed, to this general exclusion of the natives occur so early as the time of king John, during whose reign there appear "charters" of English laws and liberties, to such of the natives as thought it necessary to obtain them; and it is but just to say of John, as well as of his immediate successors, Henry and Edward, that they endeavoured, each of them, to establish a community of laws among all the inhabitants of the country. But the foreign lords of the land were opposed invariably to this wise and just policy; and succeeded in substituting for it a monstrous system of outlawry and proscription, the disturbing effects of which were continued down from age to age, nor have ceased to be felt and execrated even to the present day. The desire of plunder, which had hitherto united the English settlers against the natives, was now, by a natural process, dividing the enriched English among themselves. The first very violent interruption of the peace that occurred in Henry's reign arose out of the rival pretensions of two powerful barons, Hugh de Lacy and the young William, earl of Peinbroke, the latter of whom, on the death of his father, in 1219, had succeeded to his vast Irish possessions. Some part of the lands which thus descended to him having been claimed, as rightfully his own, by De Lacy, the arbitrement of the sword was appealed to, in preference to that of the law, and fierce hostilities between them ensued; in the course of which Trim was besieged by Pembroke, and gallantly defended, and the counties of Leinster and Meath were alternately laid waste. The powerful chief of Tyrone, O'Neill, lent his aid, in this war of plunder to De Lacy.T How little of fairness or good faith the wretched natives had to expect in their dealings with the foreigner, was, about this time, made but two warningly manifest. Regarding the throne as their only refuge against the swarm of petty tyrants by whom they were harassed, more than one of the great Irish captains now followed the example of Cathal of Connaught, in formally surrendering to the king their ancient principalities, and then receiving back a portion by royal grant, to be held in future by them as tenants of the English crown;-thus making a sacrifice of part of their hereditary rights, in order to * Close Roll. 1 Henry III. A. D. 1220. Nephew of the lord William Marshall, and appointed by king John to the marshalsea of all Ireland, in the ninth year of his reign. Lynch, View of the Legal Institutions, &c. established in Ireland, chap. 2. So early as the year 1216, John had laid a precedent for this sort of charters, by his grant of “English law and liberty" to Donald O'Neill.-Pat. Roll, 17 John. It is generally believed that the still existing castle of Trim was built by the younger De Lacy, soon after this seige. ¶ Hanmer. enjoy, as they hoped, more securely what remained. In this manner O'Brian, prince of Thomond, received from Henry a grant of part of that territory, for which he was A. D. to pay a yearly rent of 130 marks. The fate of Connaught, however, held forth 1221. but scanty encouragement to those inclined to rely on such specious compacts. In despite of the solemn engagement entered into by king John,† in the year 1219, assuring to Cathal the safe possession of a third part of Connaught, on the condition of his surrendering the other two parts to the king, the whole of that province was now, by a grant of Henry III., bestowed upon Richard de Burgh, the factious baron who had caused so much trouble to the crown, in the reign of king John,-to be taken possession of by him after Cathal's death. A. D. This violation of public faith was not allowed to pass unresisted or unrevenged. On the death of Cathal, which occurred soon after, the people of his province, regardless of Henry's grant, and supported by the ever ready sword of O'Neill, pro1223. ceeded to elect a successor to the chieftainship, and conferred that dignity upon Tirlogh, Cathal's brother. So daring a defiance of the will of the government called down on the offenders the vengeance of the lord justice, Geoffrey de Marisco; and a long furious struggle ensued, during which, the sovereignty of Connaught, after having passed from Tirlogh to Aedh, a son of Cathal, settled at last on the brow of Feidlim, another son of that prince. However fertile were these dark times in acts of injustice, violence, and treachery, there are few events in which all these qualities can be found more odiously exemplified, than in the melancholy fate of the young Richard, earl marshal, son of the late protector of the realm. This lord, having incurred the resentment of Henry, by joining in A. D. a confederacy against him, with the earl of Cornwall and other malcontent lords, 1233. found himself, without trial, deprived of his high office of marshal, and was forced to retire for safety into Wales; where entering into an alliance with Llewellyn and other chiefs of that province, he successfully defended one of his own castles that had been attacked by the king's troops, and made reprisals on the royal territories in return. To repress such daring movements by force, would have been, on the king's part, no more than an exercise of a natural right of self-defence. But treachery was the means employed to get rid of this refractory young lord. By the base contrivance, as it is said, of the bishop of Winchester, Henry's chief adviser, letters under the kings seal, fraudulently obtained, were sent to the lord justice, Maurice Fitz-Gerald, to Hugh and Walter de Lacy, Richard de Burgh, Geoffrey de Marisco, and others of the Irish barons, informing them that Richard, late earl marshal of England, having been proscribed, banished, and deprived of his estates, by the king, yet still continuing in rebellion against his authority, it was required of these lords, that should Richard by chance land in Ireland, they should forthwith seize upon his person, and send him, dead or alive, to the king. In consideration, it was added, of this service, all the possessions and lands that had devolved to Richard in Ireland, and were now at the king's disposal, would by him be granted to them and their heirs forever.‡ So tempting a bribe, to men brought up in no very scrupulous notions of right and wrong, could not fail to appeal with irresistible effect; and from thenceforth, no art or treachery appears to have been spared to lure the victim into their toils. In order to in duce him to pass over into Ireland, exaggerated accounts were conveyed to him of A. D. the force of his immediate adherents; together with secret assurances of support 1334. from many of the barons themselves. Thus deceived as to the extent of his re sources, he rashly ventured over with a guard of but fifteen followers, and, immediately on his arrival, was waited upon by the chief actor in the plot, Geoffrey de Marisco; who, reminding him of his ancient rights, and of the valiant blood flowing in his veins, advised him to avenge the insults he had received by attacking the king's territories without delay. This advice the unsuspecting young earl adopted; and, taking the field with whatever force he could hastily collect, succeeded in recovering some of his own castles, and got possession of the city of Limerick after a siege of but four days. Still farther to carry on the delusion till all should be ripe for his ruin, the treacherous barons now affected alarm at the success of his arms, as threatenep danger to the king's government; and, proposing a truce, requested an interview with him for the purpose Cox. According to Leland, but, I think, incorrectly, the payment was a yearly rent of 1002. and a fine of 1000 marks. "This was the only grant (says Cox) made by the crown of England to any mere Irishman to that time, excepting that to the king of Connaught." Cox. Mathew Paris. “Limeric quoque famosam Hiberniæ civitatem quadriduana cepit obsidione."-Mathew Paris. of arranging the terms. To this, little suspecting the treachery that hung over him, the gallant young earl assented; and, attended by Geoffrey de Marisco and about a hundred followers, proceeded to the place of conference on the great plain of Kildare. But it was soon manifest that he had been decoyed thither only to be betrayed. The pretence of a conference had been devised with the sole view of provoking a conflict: and the signal for onset having been given on the side of the barons, Richard found himself suddenly deserted by his perfidious prompter, De Marisco, who, drawing off eighty of the earl's band, left him with little more than the fifteen followers who had accompanied him from Wales, to stand the shock of a force ten times their number. Even thus abandoned and beset, the earl marshal kept his ground, till at length unhorsed, and attacked by a traitor from behind, who plunged a dagger up to the hilt in his back, he fell, all but lifeless, on the field; and being conveyed from thence to one of his own castles, which had just fallen into the hands of the justiciary, Maurice Fitz-Gerald, breathed his last, in the midst of enemies, with only a youth of his own household to watch over him in his dying moments.* A. D. Richard was one of five brothers, the sons of the protector Pembroke, who all lived to be earls of Pembroke, and all died childless; in consequence of which default of heirs, the high and warlike house of Marshal became extinct. The death of this 1234. gallant nobleman, from the peculiar circumstances attending it, created a strong sensation, not only throughout Ireland, but in England where he was looked up to, says Mathew Paris, as "the very flower of the chivalry of modern times."t Among the few legislative measures, directed to peaceful or useful objects, that greet the course of the historian through these times, must be mentioned a writ addressed by the king to his chief justice in Ireland, for free commerce between the subjects of both kingdoms, without any impediment or restraint;-a measure which “some,” it is added, "endeavoured to hinder, to the great prejudice of both." The rapacity and violence which had marked the conduct of De Burgh and his kinsman, throughout these contests, had been made known to Henry through various channels. Among others, Feidlim, the new dynast of Connaught, had addressed the king A. D. confidentially on the subject, and requested leave to visit him in England, for the 1240. purpose of consulting with him on their mutual interests and concerns. After due deliberation, on the part of Henry, the conference with his royal brother of Connaught was accorded; and, so successfully did Feidlim plead his own suit, and expose the injustice of the grasping family opposed to him, that the king wrote to Maurice FitzGerald, then lord justice, and, with a floridness of style, caught, as it would seem, from his new Irish associates, desired that he would "pluck up by the root that fruitless sycamore, De Burgh, which the earl of Kent, in the insolence of his power, had planted in those parts, nor suffer it to bud forth any longer."¶ * "Cum uno tantum Juvene de suis inter hostes remansit."-Mathew Paris. This story of the last days and death of the earl Richard occupies in the diffuse narrative of the old historian no less than fourteen or fifteen folio pages. "Militia flos temporum modernorum." The following are tributes to his fame from contemporary writers : Close Roll, 29 Henry III. Walter Hemingford, a chronicler, who himself lived in this reign, and of whom Leland (Comment. de Script. Britann.) says, that he narrated the events of his own time with the greatest care (" summa curâ,") yet states, that an army was led by the king at this time into Ireland, in consequence of the expedition thither of earl Richard, and that having pacified the country, after that lord's death, he returned the same year to England! § Prynne, cap. 76. Rymer, tom. i. 391.-The following is an extract from Feidlim's letter:-"Grates referimus infinitas ; et maxime pro eo quod pro nobis Willielmo de Dene justo vesto Hiberniæ bonæ memoriæ pro restitutione habenda de dampnis nobis per Walterum de Burgo et suam seguelam, in terra nostra de Tyrmara, illatis, devote scrip. sisti." See also, writ for the safe conduct of Feidlim (ib. 422,) wherein he is styled "Fedlinius O'Cancanir, filius regis Conact." TUt ipsius iniquæ palntationis, quam Comes Cantiæ Hubertus in illis pratibus, dum suá potentiâ debaccharet, plantavit, infructaosam sicomorum radicitus evulsam, non sineret amplius pullulare." During the disputes that arose between Henry and two successive sovereigns of Wales, Llewellyn and David, respecting the clain of feudal superiority advanced by the A. D. English king, a perpetual warfare continued to be maintained between the bor1240. derers of the two nations, which grew, at times, into sufficient importance to call into the field the respective sovereigns themselves. On an occasion of this kind, which occurred in the year 1245, the king, being then hard pressed by the Welsh, and likewise suffering from the intense severity of the winter, summoned to his aid Maurice FitzGerald, with his Irish forces.* A letter written at the time, by a nobleman in Henry's camp, thus gives, with the freshness of a sketch taken at the moment, an account of the state of the English army. "The king with his army lyeth at Gannock, fortifying that strong castle, and we live in our tents, thereby, watching, fasting, praying, and freezing with cold. We watch, for fear of the Welshmen, who are wont to in1245. vade and come upon us in the night-time; we fast, for want of meat, for the halfpenny loaf is worth five-pence; we pray to God to send us home speedily; we starve with cold, wanting our winter garments, having no more but a thin linen cloth between us and the wind. There is an arm of the sea under the castle where we lie, whereto the tide cometh, and many ships come up to the haven, which bring victuals to the camp from Ireland and Chester."+ A. D. All this time the king was looking impatiently for the Irish forces. At length their sails, says the chronicler, were descried; the fleet reached the shore; and Maurice FitzGerald, and the prince of Connaught, presented themselves in battle array before the king. But the tardiness of the lord justice, on this pressing occasion, was by no means forgiven by his royal master. Among other peculiar rights which the Irish barons, in those times, claimed, it was asserted by them that they were not bound to attend the king beyond the realm; differing in this from the nobles of England, who were obliged by law to assist the king in his expeditions as well without as within the kingdom. That Henry was aware of the exemption claimed by them, is clear, from the writs issued by him on this occasion having been accompanied by an express declaration that their attendance now should not be brought forward as a precedent. To mark his displeasure, however, at the lord justice's conduct, he soon after dismissed him from his high office,notwithstanding some eminent services performed recently by him in Ulster, and appointed Fitz-Geoffrey de Marisco to be his successor; on which Fitz-Gerald, retiring from the world, took upon him the habit of St. Francis, and dying about ten years after, was buried in the friary of that order, of which he had himself been the founder, at Youghal. He had lived all his life, says Mathew Paris, worthily and laudably, with the sole exception of the mark of infamy left, unjustly, perhaps, upon his name, by the share he was supposed to have taken in the events that led to the melancholy death of earl Richard. A similar requisition for military aid had been addressed by Henry, the preceding year, to those Irish dynasts who had made their submission to the English government, desiring that they would join his standard with their respective forces in the expedition then meditated against the Scottish king. A list of the different Irish toparchs to whom this summons was addressed is found appended to the requisition, and they consist of about the same number, and are supposed to have been chiefly the same individuals who hastened to pay homage to king John, on his last expedition into Ireland. The great charter of liberty communicated by Henry to his Irish subjects, proved, in the hands of those deputed to dispense its benefits, a worthless and barren gift. In vain were new writs issued, from time to time, by the English monarch, ordering the charter and laws of John to be observed. The absolute will of the petty tyrants among whom the country had been parcelled out now stood in the place of all law; and so low was the crown compelled to stoop, in submission to a tyranny of its own creating, that, A. D. in a writ or mandate sent over by the king in the 30th year of his reign, we find 1246. him enjoining his lay and spiritual lords, that, for the sake of the peace and tranquillity of the kingdom, they should "permit" it to be governed by English law. T It must at the same time be always kept in mind, that this anxiety to extend to Ireland the benefit of English law, implied by no means a wish to include in that benefit the Irish people. It was only by rare and reluctant exceptions that the few natives admitted to the protection of the conqueror's law were invested with that high privilege. In a writ of Henry, granting this favour to two brothers, Mamorch and Rotheric, care is taken to mark the exception, by an assertion of the general principle;-the writ stating that Rymer, tom. i. 431. § Close Roll, 28 Henry III. † Mathew Paris. Ware's Annals. "Quod pro pace et tranquillitate ejusdem terræ, per easdem leges eos regi et et deduci permittant."-Pat. Roll, 30 Henry III. this favour is conferred upon them notwithstanding that they were Irishmen, and alleging as the grounds of the exception, that they and their forefathers had stood firmly by the English, in their wars against the natives. This exclusive spirit, on the part of the state, called forth, even thus early, and while yet the two races were of one religion, an antagonist principle on the part of the Irish church,-the only portion of the native community that was still strong enough to make any effectual resistance. In a synod held about the year 1250, the archbishops, bishops, and clergy of Ireland, who were of Irish birth, enacted a decree that no Englishman born should be admitted a canon in any of their churches. A papal bull, however, issued at the instance of the king, compelled the clergy to rescind this retaliatory act. A. D. 1250. There occurred, frequently, in the course of this reign, disputes between England and Scotland, arising out of those pretensions of feudal superiority on the part of England, which were carried to their highest pitch and realized by Henry's heroic, successor. Among other preparations for an expected war, at one of those junctures, a writ was addressed by the English monarch to Donald, king of Tyrconnel, and about twenty other great Irish chiefs, requiring them to join him with their respective forces, in an expedition against Scotland.† Another of those exigencies in which Henry had recourse for assistance to Ireland, occurred in the 38th year of his reign, when, under the apprehension that his dominions in Gascony were about to be invaded by the king of Castile, he issued writs to his lord justice in Ireland, pointing out how fatal to both countries might be the success of such an aggression, and urging him to embark, with all his friends, the following Easter, at Waterford, for the purpose of joining him, with horses, arms, and trusty soldiers, in Gascony. "Never, at any time," he adds, "would their aid and counsel be of such importance to him as the present." The same request was shortly after repeated, in writs directed "to the archbishops, bishops, &c.," whereby queen Elianor acquaints them that she had sent over John Fitz-Geoffrey, justiciary of Ireland, to explain to them the state of Gascony and imminent dangers of the crown; while, in another, they are told that their compliance with these requests will be "a measure redounding to their eternal honour." From all this it may fairly be concluded, that, though so backward in many other essential points, this country already, in the peculiar aptitude of its people for inilitary pursuits, contributed largely and usefully to the disposable strength of England for foreign warfare. A. D. In contemplation of the approaching marriage between his son, prince Edward, and the infanta of Spain, Henry made a grant to him and his heirs for ever of the kingdom of Ireland, subjoining certain exceptions, and providing, by an express condition, that Ireland was never to be separated from the English crown. Not content with 1254. this provision, he also, in more than one instance, took care to assert his own jurisdiction, as supreme lord of that land; and even reserved and set aside certain acts of authority, such as the appointment of the lord justice, the issue of a writ of entry out of the Irish Court of Chancery, and one or two other acts of power, which the prince, presuming on his supposed rights, as lord of Ireland, had taken upon him to perform.|| The motive of the monarch, in thus superseding, occasionally, the authority of his son, arose doubtless from the same fear which appears to have influenced Henry II. under similar circumstances, lest the example of a completely separate and independent sovereign of Ireland, might, in after times, be adduced as a precedent for measures affecting the integrity and strength of the whole empire. How far the lot of that country might have been ameliorated or brightened, had prince Edward, as was once intended, gone over thither as lord lieutenant, and assumed personally the administration of its affairs, there is now no use in speculating. That he would have allowed any ordinary scruples, either of justice or humanity, to stand in the way of his stern policy, the course pursued by him afterwards in Scotland sufficiently forbids us to suppose. Whether, among the Irish chiefs of that day, he would have found or called forth a Bruce, a Douglas, or a Randolph, is a question involving too melancholy a contrast between the champions of the respective countries, to be more than thus glanced at in passing, and then left to the charity of silence. These reflections are of course founded upon the generally received notion that "Quia si ipsi et antecessores sui sic se habuerunt cum Anglicis quamvís Hibernenses, injustum est, lice Hibernenses sint, quod," &c.-Close Roll, 37 Henry III. Pat. Roll, 38 Henry III. + Pat. Roll, 28 Henry III, Rymer. Ita tamen quod prædictæ terræ et castra omnia nunquam separentur a coronâ, sed integre remaneant regibus Angliæ in perpetuum." See in Prynne, cap. 76., the memorable writ (as he styled it) of Henry to the chief justice of Ireland, to stop all proceedings in law upon the illegal writ issued by the prince, his son. |