into the hands of the De Burghs; the powerful head of which family, Richard, carl of Ulster, commonly called the Red Earl, attained, during this reign, such immense authority, that his name is frequently, in the king's letters, found mentioned before that of the lord justice. Presuming upon this great power, and without any grounds, as it appears, but his own grasping self-will, he laid claim to the lands in Meath inherited by Theobald de Verdon, in right of Margaret, his mother, daughter of Walter de Lacy. With a large tumultuary force, De Burgh invaded this territory, and besieged De Verdon in one A. D. of his castles; but no other result of this daring aggression is mentioned, than the usual havoc and horror attendant on such inroads. 1288. A. D. 1289. It was during the time when John Sandford, archbishop of Dublin, held the office of chief governor, that the irruption just mentioned took place; and the same period is rendered, in another sense, memorable, by the statute entitled "An Ordinance for the State of Ireland," which was made in the seventeenth year of this reign, and which, in the now defunct controversy respecting the right of the English parliament to bind Ireland, forins part of the evidence adduced in support of that questioned right.† The reader has already been prepared, on entering into this Anglo-Irish period, to find the people of the land thrown darkly into the background of their country's history, while a small colony of foreign intruders usurp, insultingly, their place. So lamentably is this the case, that it is only in the feuds and forays of the English barons that the historianif he may lay claim to such a title-can find materials for his barren and unhonoured task. A personal quarrel of this description, which now occurred, excited in both countries, from the peculiar circumstances attendant upon it, a more than ordinary share of attention. William de Vescy, a lord high in favour with Edward, having been appointed lord justice of Ireland in the year 1290, a mutual jealousy sprung up between him and John Fitz-Thomas Fitz-Gerald, baron of Offaley, which broke out, at last, 1290. into open enmity; and each, accusing the other of treason and rebellion, hurried to England to lay their complaints before the king. A. D. Being admitted to plead their cause before him, in council, they there poured out upon each other speeches full of abuse and recrimination, of which a report, professing to be faithful, is preserved by the English chronicler. De Vescy having, by his marriage with one of the co-heiresses of the house of Pembroke, become possessor of the actual territory of Kildare, while Fitz-Thomas was but the titular earl of that district, the latter alluded thus to this circumstance, in one of his speeches :-" By your honour and mine, my lord, and by king Edward's hand, you would if you durst, approach me in plain terms of treason or felony. For, where I have the title, and you the fleece, of Kildare, I wot well how great an eye-sore I am in your sight; so that, if I might be handsomely trussed up for a felon, then might my master, your son, become a gentleman." When their cause was again heard, before the king in council, Fitz-Thomas concluded his speech with the following defiance :-" Wherefore, to justify that I am a true subject, and that thou, Vescy, art an arch-traitor to God and my king, I here, in the presence of his highness, and in the hearing of this honourable assembly, challange the combat." Whereat (says the chronicler) all the auditory shouted. T De Vescy accepted the challange; but, on the day fixed for the combat, when all was ready, the lists prepared, and a crowd assembled to witness the trial, it was found that he had withdrawn privately to France. This unchivalrous step being regarded as an avowal of guilt, the king bestowed on the baron of Offaley the lordships of Kildare and Rathangan, which had hitherto been held by his rival, saying that, "though De Vesey had conveyed his person to France, he had left his lands behind him in Ireland."** Elated with this great success, the ambitious and turbulent lord of Offaley indulged, unrestrainedly, on his return to Ireland, in a course of insulting aggression upon all who had, in any manner, opposed his domineering views; and among the first objects of his hostility was Richard de Burgh, earl of Ulster, whom he took prisoner, together with his brother in Meath, and confined them both in the strong castle of Ley. He then transferred the scene of his activity to Kildare, where the Irish, rising in immense 1294. force, under Calwagh, brother of the king of Offaley, had seized on the castle of • Marleburrough.-Davies. † See this work, chap. xxxii. p. 296. et seq. 1 Ibid. A. D. This lord, who sat as baron of Offaley, in the parliament of 1295, is, in the pedigree of the earls of Kil, dare, made the seventh lord Offaley.-See Lodge. He had issue two sons, says the same authority;-John, the eighth lord of Offaley, created earl of Kildare; and Maurice, created earl of Desmond. A report on Ireland, in the State Papers (K. Henry VIII.,) in speaking of William de Vescy, styles him one Vescy, which was lord of Kildar befor ther was aney erle of Kildar."-Vol. ii. Holinshed. See Rymer, tom. ii.; " De adjornatione duelli inter Willielmum de Vescy et Johannem filium Thomæ." ** Cox. tt Annal. Hibern. ap. Camden, Kildare, and burnt all the rolls and tallies relating to the county records and accounts. Between its English and Irish depredators, that district was entirely laid waste, and death and desolation followed wherever they went. At length an attempt was made, during the government of sir John Wogan, to moderate the dissensions of these lawless barons; and a truce for two years having been agreed upon between the Giraldines and the De Burghs, the lord justice was enabled, by this short respite from strife, to consider of some means of remedying the unquiet and A. D. disorganized state of the kingdom. A general parliament was accordingly as1295. sembled by him, which, though insignificant in point of numbers, passed sonie measures of no ordinary importance and use. It was during this reign, as the reader will recollect, that the parliament of England, after a long series of progressive experiments, was moulded into its present shape; nor did a house of commons, before this period, form a regular and essential part of the English legislature. In Ireland, where, from obvious causes, the materials of a third estate were not easily to be found, the growth of such an institution would be, of course, proportionably slow; and the assemblies held there during this reign, and for some time after, though usually dignified with the name of parliament, differed but little, it is clear, in their constitution, from those ancient common councils, at which only the nobles and ecclesiastics, together with, occasionally, a few tenants in capite, and, perhaps, the retainers of some of the great lords, were expected to give their attendance. Among the acts passed by this parliament, there is one ordaining a new division of the kingdom into counties; the division established under king John, as well as the distribution then made of sheriffs, having been found defective and inconvenient. Another object that engaged their attention was the defenceless state of the English territory, and the harassing incursions of the natives dwelling upon its borders; and, as this scourge was owing chiefly to the absence of the lords marchers, it was now enacted that all such marchers as neglected to maintain their necessary wards should forfeit their lands. Among other measures for the maintenance of a military force, it was ordained that all absentees should assign, out of their Irish revenues, a competent portion for that purpose :— a proof how early the anomalies involved in the forced connexion between the two countries began to unfold their disturbing effects. To check the private expeditions, or forays, of the barons, a provision was made that, for the future, no lord should wage war but by license of the chief governor, or by special mandate of the king. With a like view to curbing the power of the great lords, an effort was made at this time to limit the number of their retainers, by forbidding every person, of whatever degree, to harbour more of such followers than he could himself maintain; and for all exactions and violences committed by these idle-men, or kerns (as they were styled,) their lords were to be made answerable.{ To this parliament is likewise attributed an ordinance,-belonging, really however, to a somewhat later period,-which, in reference to the tendency already manifested by the English to conform to the customs and manners of the natives, ordains that all Englishmen should still, in their garb and the cut of their hair, adhere to the fashion of their own country; that whoever, in the mode of wearing their hair, affected to appear like Irishmen, would be treated as such; that their lands and chattels would be seized, and themselves imprisoned. During the two or three following years, supplies of troops were sent from IreA. D. land, at different intervals, to the aid of the king in his Scottish wars;|| the sort of 1298. warfare the Irish were accustomed to among their own lakes and mountains, rendering them a force peculiarly suited to the present state of the war in Scotland, where the northern and mountainous parts of the country alone remained to be subdued. In the spring of the present year, John Wogan, the lord justice, having been summoned to join the king, T in Scotland, repaired thither with a select force, and A. D. 1299. Black Book of Christ Church, Dublin.-See Ledwich (Hist. and Antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny,) who confounds this parliament with one held in 1309. † Speaking of the ordainers in the following reign, Lingard says, "From the tenor of the ordinances, it is plain that the authority of the parliament was hitherto supposed to reside in the baronage, the great council of former reigns. The commons had nothing to do but to present petitions and to grant money." For the different divisions of the kingdom into counties by John and Edward I., see Ware, Antiq. c. 5. Whatever may have been the improved distribution made by Edward I., it is clear that the ancient form. which allotted one sheriff to Connaught, and another to Roscommon, was still in use in the time of Edward II. Thus we find in rolls of that reign, Gerald Tirrel, " vice-comes de Roscommon," and Henry Bermingham, "nuper vice-comes Connacia."-See Serjeant Mayart's Answer to Sir R. Bolton, Hibernica, 35. Black Book of Christ Church, Dublin. The contributions of Ireland towards this object had commenced some time before, and a tenth of the revenues of the clergy had been granted for it.-Rymer, tom. ii. 519, tom. iii. 442. The king sent unto John Wogan, lord justice, commanding him to give summons unto the nobles of Ireland, to prepare themselves with horse and armour, to come in their best array for the war, to serve against the Scots."-Holinshed. joining in the pageant of that invasion, was, together with his followers, royally feasted by the triumphant monarch, at Roxburgh castle.* During this expedition of the lord justice, William de Ross, prior of Kilmainham, was left to act as his deputy; and the natives, availing themselves of the absence of so many of the choicest of the English nobles and soldiers, broke out into rebellion in several places. The people of the Maraghie mountains burnt Leighlin and other towns; but in Orgiel,† where O'Hanlon and Mac Mahon endeavoured to rouse the spirit of their countrymen, they were both of them vanquished and slain. On the return of Wogan from Scotland, a few years of unwonted tranquillity A. D. ensued; owing chiefly, us it appears, to the skill and firmness with which this 1298. functionary, who was evidently a favourite with king Edward, succeeded in keeping down the old family feud between the De Burghs and the Geraldines:—so much has the tranquillity of Ireland, at all periods, depended on the example and judicious conduct of her chief nobles and rulers. A. D. During the remaining nine years of this reign, the Irish records supply us with few Occurrences worthy of any notice. On the renewed revolt of the Scots, under the regent, John Cummin, the earl of Ulster, with a large force, and accompanied 1303. by Eustace de Poer, went to the king's aid in Scotland, -the earl having created thirty-three knights, in the castle of Dublin, before his departure. Among these summoned to attend the king, was Edmund le Botiller, afterwards earl of Carrick, who hastened to Dublin to embark with his followers for that purpose. But some disturbances having just then occurred, it was not thought advisible that he should leave the kingdom; and Edward, offended at his absence, refused to grant him livery of some lands that had lately fallen to him. On being made acquainted, however, with the truth of the matter, the king ordered the livery to be granted.§ Though war, and its attendant horrors, must form, in all cases, too large a portion of the historian's theme, the enumeration of a list of mere private murders is a task to which rarely his pen is called upon to descend. When the victims, however, are of high rank and station, and when-as, unfortunately, was the case in more countries than Ireland, at this period-murders are held to be little else than a sort of private warfare, the duty of noticing them, however revolting, cannot honestly be avoided. I shall therefore recount, and as nearly as possible in the brief language employed by the chronicler, some barbarous events of this kind which occurred in the last years of Edward's reign; and it will be seen that both English and Irish were alike implicated in the savage actions recorded. A. D. In the year 1305, Murtogh O'Connor, king of Offaley, and his brother Calwagh, were murdered in Pierce Bermingham's house, at Carbery, in the county of Kildare; and in the same year, sir Gilbert Sutton, seneschal of Wexford, was put to death in the house of Hamon le Gras; the host himself, who was of the ancient family of Grace 1305. having narrowly escaped the same fate. In the following year, O'Brian, prince of Thomond, was also murdered; and Donald Ruadh, the king of Desmond, met with the same violent end, at the hands of his son, Daniel Oge M'Carthy. About the same time, on a wider scale of murder, the sept of the O'Dempsys made great slaughter of A. D. the O'Connors, near Geashill, in Offaley; and O'Dempsy, the chief of the O'Re 1306. gans, was, on the same occasion, slain. Shortly after, Pierce Bermingham suffered a defeat in the marches of Meath, and the town of Ballymore was burnt by the Irish. On this, the war spread rapidly throughout that whole district, and the English were summoned out of the other provinces to the relief of Leinster, where, in a hardfought battle, at Glenfell, sir Thomas Madeville, the English leader, had his horse killed under him, and his troops thrown into confusion; but at length succeeded, by skilful captainship, in retrieving the fortunes of the day.* ** Among the events of the last year of this reign, we find recorded the murder A. D. of an Irishman, Murtogh Balloch, by an English knight, sir David Canton, or 1307. Condon; and the circumstances attending the act must have been of no ordinary atrocity, as, by a rare instance of justice, in such cases, the English knight was hanged, in Dublin, for this murder, in the second year of the following reign. A rising of the Holinshed.-At Roxborough, says Dr. Lingard, the king "found himself at the head of 8000 horse and 80,000 foot, principally Irish and Welsh. A territory comprehending the present Louth, Monaghan, and Armagh. Annal. Hibern. § Carte's Life of Ormond, Introduct. See evidences of the Earl of Ormond's Lands, taken out of an old Ledger, b. 31. Ed. I. Lambeth, 608. fol. 9. Holinshed. Annal. Hibern. ** Ibid. O'Kellys, in Connaught, where they surprised and slew a number of English, and some daring efforts of the wild mountaineers of Offaley, who destroyed the castle of Geashill, and burnt the town of Ley, are among the last of the miserable records contributed by Ireland to the history of a reign, whose whole course, as traced through England's proud annals, present such a series of shining achievements, both in legislation and warfare, as no period, perhaps, of the same duration, in the history of any other country, ever yet equalled. It was in the seventh year of this reign, under the administration of sir Stephen de Fulburn, that a new kind of coin was struck by order of the king,-who, having, highly to his honour, fixed a certain rule or standard for money, in England, applied the same rule to the regulation of the mints in Ireland, both in the weight and fineness. He also descried, a few years after, by proclamation, the base money called crockards and pollards.* CHAPTER XXXVI. EDWARD II. The new king, on his accession, recalls Gaveston from banishment-sends him to Ireland as lord-lieutenant.-Rivalry between Gaveston and the earl of Ulster-his government active and beneficial. Strong interest felt by the Irish in the fortunes of Robert Bruce.Bruce takes refuge in the Isle of Rachlin-his expedition from thence attended by two Irish princes.-Effects of the victory of Bannockburn on the minds of the Irish.-Deputies sent by them to invite Bruce to Ireland.-Landing of Edward Bruce at Larne.-Consternation of the English authorities.-Cause of the English espoused by Feidlim, prince of Connaught. The earl of Ulster defeated by the Scots,-Great battle between the O'Connors.Feidlim O'Connor joins the Scots.-Successful progress of the invaders.-The English defeated in Meath and in Kildare.-General rebellion of the Irish.-Great battle at Athenry.Feidlim's army defeated and himself killed.-Landing of Robert Bruce in Ireland.-The earl of Ulster suspected of concert with the Scots-is thrown into prison.-Intrepid conduct of the citizens of Dublin.-Robert Bruce at the Salmon-leap.-Dreadful famine, and severe sufferings of the Scots.-Inaction and indecision of the English leaders.-Retreat of the Scots into Ulster.-Departure of Robert Bruce.-Earl of Ulster liberated.-Ordinance for annual parliaments.-Mutual hostility of the English and Irish churches.-Great battle between Edward Bruce and the English near Dundalk.-The Scots defeated, and Bruce himself slain.-Remonstrance addressed to the pope by O'Neill and his brother chieftains.Suppression of the knights Templars in Ireland, A. D. ONE of the first acts of Edward II., on his accession, was to recall his favourite, 1307. Gaveston, from banishment; a step which his father, on his death-bed, had solemnly forbidden under pain of his malediction. Shortly after, too, when Edward passed over into France, for the purpose of espousing the beautiful Isabella, daughter of Philip the Fair, he appointed Gaveston to be regent of the kingdom during his absence, with powers that usually, on such occasions, were reserved by the sovereign to himself. In like manner, the high distinction of carrying the crown at the coronation, and walking immediately before the king, had, with insulting neglect of the claims of the ancient nobility, been allotted to this foreign minion. The anger of the barons, at A. D. these proceedings, soon found a vent in the voice of parliament, which, demanding 1307. the immediate expulsion of Gaveston from the country, compelled the favourite himself to swear he would never return, and bound the bishops to excommunicate him should he violate his oath. Though thus deprived of his favourite's society, the king was determined still to uphold and advance his fortunes; and, having bestowed upon him new grants of land, both in Ware, Antiquities, chap. 32. "To this coinage I am inclined to refer a very curious penny found at Youghal in 1830, together with a large hoard of English and Irish coins of Edward L., and now in the cabinet of the Dean of St. Patrick's. It exactly resembles the penny of this reign, but is of ruder work, and bears the king's head without the triangle."-Lindsey, View of the Coinage of Ireland. + Lingard. England and Gascony, he accompanied him on his supposed exile as far as Bristol. A. D. From that port Gaveston sailed; but, to the surprise and mortification of all who 1308. had expected to see him humbled, it was now discovered that Ireland was the chosen place of his banishment; that he had been sent thither as the king's lieutenant,t and went loaded with the royal jewels. During the short period of his administration, there was no want of, at least, activity in the new viceroy, whom our records represent as being almost constantly in the field, engaging and subduing the refractory chiefs, and enforcing obedience to the English power. But like most governors of that country, both before his time and since, he applied himself solely to the task of suppressing rebellion, forgetting the higher.duty of investigating and endeavouring to remove its causes. In so confined a sphere as formed the compass of English dominion at this time in Ireland, it would have been difficult for two such potent lords as the king's favourite, and the Red Earl, to move in their respective orbits of rule, without coming hostilely into collision. It was, of course, with no ordinary feelings of jealousy, that the haughty De Burgh, whose name took precedence of that of the representative of majesty, saw an upstart thus put in possession of the royal resources of the realm; while to Gaveston, it could have been no less galling and mortifying, to find himself confronted by the princely state and feudal authority of the proud earl. Shortly after the lieutenant's arrival, a grand feast was given by De Burgh, in the lordly castle of Trim, where, in the course of the pomps and festivities of the day, he conferred upon two of the noble family of De Lacy the honour of knighthood.§ Among the benefits resulting from Gaveston's government is mentioned, particularly, the attention paid by him to public works; several castles, bridges, and causeways having been constructed, we are told, during his administration. But, however beneficial A. D. his continuance in that post might have proved to the country,-depravity of 1309. morals being, in him, not incompatible with shining and useful talents,-the infatuated monarch could no longer endure his favourite's absence, and he was immediately recalled to England; the pope absolving him from his late vow, and the barons, in consequence of the king's promises of amendment, giving their consent to his return. The successor of Gaveston, at the head of the government, was sir John Wogan, a gentleman high in the royal favour, who had already three times filled the office of lord justice. Soon after his arrival, a parliament was held at Kilkenny, of which the enactments are still preserved; and among them are some directed against the gross exactions and general misconduct of the nobility. A. D. Still farther to embroil and complicate those scenes of strife of which Ireland was now the theatre, each of the two contending parties became divided into fierce factions within itself; and the brief pauses between their conflicts with each other were filled up with equally rancorous strife among themselves. In this year, Richard, earl of Ulster, leading a force into Thomond, attacked the castle built at Bunratty by the earl Thomas de Clare; but, being encountered by the lord Richard de Clare, sustained a signal 1311 defeat; himself and his brother, lord William, were made prisoners, and John de Lacy and several others of his followers slain. In the mean while, the native septs wer no less active in civil dissension than their foreign masters; but, to their shame THE weapon of the assassin was often substituted by them for the sword of civilized WETILTS In this base spirit, Donogh O'Brian, a descendant of their ancient princes, was ment in Thomond by some of his own people; and John Mac O'Hedan fell in list muY.". the hand of a brother chieftain, Manmoy.* To the English, a feud that now sprung up among themselves, we NE? ***, of serious mischief. The Byrnes and O'Tools, the hardy septs of the med low, having risen, this year, in great force, had attacked the towns a Rathcoole, and, advancing to the woods of Glendalory, from tum Them Instead of being able to repress and punish this audacious memel 1 *Walsingham. The king's locum tenens, as he is styled in the instrument o' he san Annal. Hibern. "Heretofore every person dubbed a kezet po read in Clyn's Annals, that, ann. 1341, the earl of Deamon and on the same day the new knight made three other appears from Selden that the same practice prevalue. Honour. Bolton's Irish Statutes. This lord, whose achievements in Thomonë have strear : THE MERREL him with one of the O'Brians, in the year 1977 —Arnas ** Annal. Hibern. |