STATE OF SOCIETY AND LEARNING IN IRELAND DURING THE NORMAN PERIOD.
We have already spoken of the character of the war waged by and against
the Normans on Irish soil, and as war was then almost every man's
business, we may be supposed to have described all that is known of the
time in describing its wars. What we have to add of the other pursuits
of the various orders of men into which society was divided, is neither
very full nor very satisfactory.
The rise, fall, and migrations of some of the clans have been already
alluded to. In no age did more depend on the personal character of the
chief than then. When the death of the heroic Godfrey left the free
clansmen of Tyrconnell without a lord to lead them to battle, or rule
them in peace, the Annalists represent them to us as meeting in great
perplexity, and engaged "in making speeches" as to what was to be done,
when suddenly, to their great relief, Donnell Oge, son of Donnell More,
who had been fostered in Alba (Scotland), was seen approaching them.
Not more welcome was Tuathal, the well-beloved, the restorer of the
Milesian monarchy, after the revolt of the _Tuatha_. He was immediately
elected chief, and the emissaries of O'Neil, who had been waiting for
an answer to his demand of tribute, were brought before him. He
answered their proposition by a proverb expressed in the Gaelic of
Alba, which says that "every man should possess his own country," and
Tyrconnell armed to make good this maxim.
The Bardic order still retained much of their ancient power, and all
their ancient pride. Of their most famous names in this period we may
mention Murray O'Daly of Lissadil, in Sligo, Donogh O'Daly of Finvarra,
sometimes called Abbot of Boyle, and Gilbride McNamee, laureate to King
Brian O'Neil. McNamee, in lamenting the death of Brian, describes
himself as defenceless, and a prey to every spoiler, now that his royal
protector is no more. He gave him, he tells us, for a poem on one
occasion, besides gold and raiment, a gift of twenty cows. On another,
when he presented him a poem, he gave in return twenty horned cows, and
a gift still more lasting, "the blessing of the King of Erin." Other
chiefs, who fell in the same battle, and to one of whom, named Auliffe
O'Gormley, he had often gone "on a visit of pleasure," are lamented
with equal warmth by the bard. The poetic Abbot of Boyle is himself
lamented in the Annals as the Ovid of Ireland, as "a poet who never had
and never will have an equal." But the episode which best illustrates
at once the address and the audacity of the bardic order is the story
of Murray O'Daly of Lissadil, and Donnell More O'Donnell, Lord of
Tyrconnell.
In the year 1213, O'Donnell despatched Finn O'Brollaghan, his _Aes
graidh_ or Steward, to collect his tribute in Connaught, and Finn,
putting up at the house of O'Daly, near Drumcliff, and being a plebeian
who knew no better, began to wrangle with the poet. The irritable
master of song, seizing a sharp axe, slew the steward on the spot, and
then to avoid O'Donnell's vengeance fled into Clanrickarde. Here he
announced himself by a poem addressed to de Burgh, imploring his
protection, setting forth the claims of the Bardic order on all
high-descended heroes, and contending that his fault was but venial, in
killing a clown, who insulted him. O'Donnell pursued the fugitive to
Athenry, and de Burgh sent him away secretly into Thomond. Into
Thomond, the Lord of Tyrconnell marched, but O'Brien sent off the Bard
to Limerick. The enraged Ulsterman appeared at the gates of Limerick,
when O'Daly was smuggled out of the town, and "passed from hand to
hand," until he reached Dublin. The following spring O'Donnell appeared
in force before Dublin, and demanded the fugitive, who, as a last
resort, had been sent for safety into Scotland. From the place of his
exile he addressed three deprecatory poems to the offended Lord of
Tyrconnell, who finally allowed him to return to Lissadil in peace, and
even restored him to his friendship.
The introduction of the new religious orders—Dominicans, Franciscans,
and the order for the redemption of Captives into Ireland, in the first
quarter of this century gradually extinguished the old Columban and
Brigintine houses. In Leinster they made way most rapidly; but Ulster
clung with its ancient tenacity to the Columban rule. The Hierarchy of
the northern half-kingdom still exercised a protectorate over Iona
itself, for we read, in the year 1203, how Kellagh, having erected a
monastery in the middle of Iona, in despite of the religious, that the
Bishops of Derry and Raphoe, with the Abbots of Armagh and Derry and
numbers of the Clergy of the North of Ireland, passed over to Iona,
pulled down the unauthorized monastery, and assisted at the election of
a new Abbot. This is almost the last important act of the Columban
order in Ireland. By the close of the century, the Dominicans had some
thirty houses, and the Franciscans as many more, whether in the walled
towns or the open country. These monasteries became the refuge of
scholars, during the stormy period we have passed, and in other days
full as troubled, which were to come. Moreover, as the Irish student,
like all others in that age, desired to travel from school to school,
these orders admitted him to the ranks of widespread European
brotherhoods, from whom he might always claim hospitality. Nor need we
reject as anything incredible the high renown for scholarship and
ability obtained in those times by such men as Thomas Palmeran of Naas,
in the University of Paris; by Peter and Thomas Hibernicus in the
University of Naples, in the age of Aquinas; by Malachy of Ireland, a
Franciscan, Chaplain to King Edward II. of England, and Professor at
Oxford; by the Danish Dominican, Gotofrid of Waterford; and above all,
by John Scotus of Down, the subtle doctor, the luminary of the
Franciscan schools, of Paris and Cologne. The native schools of Ireland
had lost their early ascendancy, and are no longer traceable in our
annals; but Irish scholarship, when arrested in its full development at
home, transferred its efforts to foreign Universities, and there
maintained the ancient honour of the country among the studious
"nations" of Christendom. Among the "nations" involved in the college
riots at Oxford, in the year 1274, we find mention of the Irish, from
which fact it is evident there must have been a considerable number of
natives of that country, then frequenting the University.
The most distinguished native ecclesiastics of this century were
Matthew O'Heney, Archbishop of Cashel, originally a Cistercian monk,
who died in retirement at Holy Cross in 1207; Albin O'Mulloy, the
opponent of _Giraldus_, who died Bishop of Ferns in 1222; and Clarus
McMailin, Erenach of Trinity Island, Lough Key—if an _Erenach_ may be
called an ecclesiastic. It was O'Heney made the Norman who said the
Irish Church had no martyrs, the celebrated answer, that now men had
come into the country who knew so well how to make martyrs, that
reproach would soon be taken away. He is said to have written a life of
Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, and we know that he had legantine powers
at the opening of the century. The _Erenach_ of Lough Key, who
flourished in its second half, plays an important part in all the
western feuds and campaigns; his guarantee often preserved peace and
protected the vanquished. Among the church-builders of his age, he
stands conspicuous. The ordinary churches were indeed easily built,
seldom exceeding 60 or 70 feet in length, and one half that width, and
the material still most in use was, for the church proper, timber. The
towers, cashels, or surrounding walls, and the cells of the religious,
as well as the great monasteries and collegiate and cathedral churches,
were of stone, and many of them remain monuments of the skill and
munificence of their founders.
Of the consequences of the abolition of slavery by the Council of
Armagh, at the close of the twelfth century, we have no tangible
evidence. It is probable that the slave trade, rather than domestic
servitude, was abolished by that decree. The cultivators of the soil
were still divided into two orders—Biataghs and Brooees. "The former,"
says O'Donovan, "who were comparatively few in number, would appear to
have held their lands free of rent, but were obliged to entertain
travellers, and the chief's soldiers when on their march in his
direction; and the latter (the Brooees) would appear to have been
subject to a stipulated rent and service." From "the Book of Lecan," a
compilation of the fourteenth century, we learn that the Brooee was
required to keep an hundred labourers, and an hundred of each kind of
domestic animals. Of the rights or wages of the labourers, we believe,
there is no mention made.
BOOK V.
THE ERA OF KING EDWARD BRUCE.
CHAPTER I.
THE RISE OF "THE RED EARL"—RELATIONS OF IRELAND AND SCOTLAND.
During the half century which comprised the reigns of Edward I. and II.
in England (A.D. 1272 to 1327), Scotland saw the last of her first race
of Kings, and the elevation of the family of Bruce, under whose
brilliant star Ireland was, for a season, drawn into the mid-current of
Scottish politics. Before relating the incidents of that revolution of
short duration but long enduring consequences, we must note the rise to
greatness of the one great Norman name, which in that era mainly
represented the English interest and influence in Ireland.
Richard de Burgh, called from his ruddy complexion "the Red Earl" of
Ulster, nobly bred in the court of Henry III. of England, had attained
man's age about the period when the de Lacys, the Geraldines, de
Clares, and other great Anglo-Irish, families, either through the
fortune of war or failure of issue, were deprived of most of their
natural leaders. Uniting in his own person the blood of the O'Conors,
de Lacys, and de Burghs, his authority was great from the beginning in
Meath and Connaught. In his inroads on West-Meath he seems to have been
abetted by the junior branches of the de Lacys, who were with his host
in the year 1286, when he besieged Theobald de Verdon in Athlone, and
advanced his banner as far eastward as the strong town of Trim, upon
the Boyne. Laying claim to the possessions of the Lord of Meath, which
touched the Kildare Geraldines at so many points, he inevitably came
into contact with that powerful family. In 1288, in alliance with Manus
O'Conor, they compelled him to retreat from Roscommon into
Clanrickarde, in Mayo. De Verdon, his competitor for West-Meath,
naturally entered into alliance with the Kildare Geraldine, and in the
year 1294, after many lesser conflicts, they took the Red Earl and his
brother William prisoners, and carried them in fetters to the Castle of
Lea, in Offally. This happened on the 6th day of December; a Parliament
assembled at Kilkenny on the 12th of March following, ordered their
release; and a peace was made between these powerful houses. De Burgh
gave his two sons as hostages to Fitzgerald, and the latter surrendered
the Castle of Sligo to de Burgh. From the period of this peace the
power of the last named nobleman outgrew anything that had been known
since the Invasion. In the year 1291, he banished the O'Donnell out of
his territory, and set up another of his own choosing; he deposed one
O'Neil and raised up another; he so straitened O'Conor in his patrimony
of Roscommon, that that Prince also entered his camp at Meelick, and
gave him hostages. He was thus the first and only man of his race who
had ever had in his hand the hostages both of Ulster and Connaught.
When the King of England sent writs into Ireland, he usually addressed
the Red Earl, before the Lord Justice or Lord Deputy—a compliment
which, in that ceremonious age, could not be otherwise than flattering
to the pride of de Burgh. Such was the order of summons, in which, in
the year 1296, he was required by Edward I. to attend him into
Scotland, which was then experiencing some of the worst consequences of
a disputed succession. As Ireland's interest in this struggle becomes
in the sequel second only to that of Scotland, we must make brief
mention of its origin and progress.
By the accidental death of Alexander III., in 1286, the McAlpine, or
Scoto-Irish dynasty, was suddenly terminated. Alexander's only
surviving child, Margaret, called from her mother's country, "the Maid
of Norway," soon followed her father; and no less than eight
competitors, all claiming collateral descent from the former Kings,
appeared at the head of as many factions to contest the succession.
This number was, however, soon reduced to two men—John Baliol and
Robert Bruce—the former the grandson of the eldest, the latter the son
of the second daughter of King David I. After many bickerings these
powerful rivals were induced to refer their claims to the decision of
Edward I. of England, who, in a Great Court held at Berwick in the year
1292, decided in favour of Baliol, not in the character of an
indifferent arbitrator, but as lord paramount of Scotland. As such,
Baliol there and then rendered him feudal homage, and became, in the
language of the age, "his man." This sub-sovereignty could not but be
galling to the proud and warlike nobles of Scotland, and accordingly,
finding Edward embroiled about his French possessions, three years
after the decision, they caused Baliol to enter into an alliance,
offensive and defensive, with Philip IV. of France, against his English
suzerain. The nearer danger compelled Edward to march with 40,000 men,
which he had raised for the war in France, towards the Scottish border,
whither he summoned the Earl of Ulster, the Geraldines, Butlers, de
Verdons, de Genvilles, Berminghams, Poers, Purcells, de Cogans, de
Barrys, de Lacys, d'Exeters, and other minor nobles, to come to him in
his camp early in March, 1296. The Norman-Irish obeyed the call, but
the pride of de Burgh would not permit him to embark in the train of
the Lord Justice Wogan, who had been also summoned; he sailed with his
own forces in a separate fleet, having conferred the honour of
knighthood on thirty of his younger followers before embarking at
Dublin. Whether these forces arrived in time to take part in the bloody
siege of Berwick, and the panic-route at Dunbar, does not appear; they
were in time, however, to see the strongest places in Scotland yielded
up, and John Baliol a prisoner on his way to the Tower of London. They
were sumptuously entertained by the conqueror in the Castle of
Roxburgh, and returned to their western homes deeply impressed with the
power of England, and the puissance of her warrior-king.
But the independence of Scotland was not to be trodden out in a single
campaign. During Edward's absence in France, William Wallace and other
guerilla chiefs arose, to whom were soon united certain patriot nobles
and bishops. The English deputy de Warrane fought two unsuccessful
campaigns against these leaders, until his royal master, having
concluded peace with France, summoned his Parliament to meet him at
York, and his Norman-Irish lieges to join him in his northern camp,
with all their forces, on the 1st of March, 1299. In June the English
King found himself at Roxburgh, at the head of 8,000 horse, and 80,000
foot, "chiefly Irish and Welsh." With this immense force he routed
Wallace at Falkirk on the 22nd of July, and reduced him to his original
rank of a guerilla chief, wandering with his bands of partizans from
one fastness to another. The Scottish cause gained in Pope Boniface
VII. a powerful advocate soon after, and the unsubdued districts
continued to obey a Regency composed of the Bishop of St. Andrews,
Robert Bruce, and John Comyn. These regents exercised their authority
in the name of Baliol, carried on negotiations with France and Rome,
convoked a Parliament, and, among other military operations, captured
Stirling Castle. In the documentary remains of this great controversy,
it is curious to find Edward claiming the entire island of Britain in
virtue of the legend of Brute the Trojan, and the Scots rejecting it
with scorn, and displaying their true descent and origin from Scota,
the fabled first mother of the Milesian Irish. There is ample evidence
that the claims of kindred were at this period keenly felt by the Gael
of Ireland, for the people of Scotland, and men of our race are
mentioned among the companions of Wallace and the allies of Bruce. But
the Norman-Irish were naturally drawn to the English banner, and when,
in 1303, it was again displayed north of the Tweed, the usual noble
names are found among its followers. In 1307 Scotland lost her most
formidable foe, by the death of Edward, and at the same time began to
recognize her appointed deliverer in the person of Robert Bruce. But we
must return to "the Red Earl," the central figure in our own annals
during this half century.
The new King, Edward II., compelled by his English barons to banish his
minion, Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, had created him his lieutenant of
Ireland, endowed him with a grant of the royalties of the whole island,
to the prejudice of the Earl and other noblemen. The sojourn of this
brilliant parasite in Ireland lasted but a year—from June, 1308, till
the June following. He displayed both vigour and munificence, and
acquired friends. But the Red Earl, sharing to the full the antipathy
of the great barons of England, kept apart from his court, maintained a
rival state at Trim, as Commander-in-Chief, conferring knighthood,
levying men, and imposing taxes at his own discretion. A challenge of
battle is said to have passed between him and the Lieutenant, when the
latter was recalled into England by the King, where he was three years
later put to death by the barons, into whose hands he had fallen. Sir
John Wogan and Sir Edmund Butler succeeded him in the Irish
administration; but the real power long remained with Richard de Burgh.
He was appointed plenipotentiary to treat with Robert Bruce, on behalf
of the King of England, "upon which occasion the Scottish deputies
waited on him in Ireland." In the year 1302 Bruce had married his
daughter, the Lady Ellen, while of his other daughters one was Countess
of Desmond, and another became Countess of Kildare in 1312. A thousand
marks—the same sum at which the town and castle of Sligo were then
valued—was allowed by the Earl for the marriage portion of his
last-mentioned daughter. His power and reputation, about the period of
her marriage, were at the full. He had long held the title of Commander
of the Irish forces, "in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Gascony;" he had
successfully resisted Gaveston in the meridian of his court favour; the
father-in-law of a King, and of Earls of almost royal power, lord
paramount of half the island—such a subject England had not seen on
Irish ground since the Invasion. This prodigious power he retained, not
less by his energy than his munificence. He erected castles at
Carlingford, at Sligo, on the upper Shannon, and on Lough Foyle. He was
a generous patron of the Carmelite Order, for whom he built the Convent
of Loughrea. He was famed as a princely entertainer, and before
retiring from public affairs, characteristically closed his career with
a magnificent banquet at Kilkenny, where the whole Parliament were his
guests. Having reached an age bordering upon fourscore he retired to
the Monastery of Athassil, and there expired within sight of his family
vault, after half a century of such sway as was rarely enjoyed in that
age, even by Kings. But before that peaceful close he was destined to
confront a storm the like of which had not blown over Ireland during
the long period since he first began to perform his part in the affairs
of that kingdom.
CHAPTER II.
THE NORTHERN IRISH ENTER INTO ALLIANCE WITH KING ROBERT BRUCE—ARRIVAL
AND FIRST CAMPAIGN OF EDWARD BRUCE.
No facts of the ages over which we have already passed are better
authenticated than the identity of origin and feeling which existed
between the Celts of Erin and of Albyn. Nor was this sympathy of race
diminished by their common dangers from a common enemy. On the eve of
the Norman invasion we saw how heartily the Irish were with Somerled
and the men of Moray in resisting the feudal polity of the successors
of Malcolm _Caen-More_. As the Plantagenet Princes in person led their
forces against Scotland, the interest of the Irish, especially those of
the North, increased, year by year, in the struggles of the Scots.
Irish adherents followed the fortunes of Wallace to the close; and when
Robert Bruce, after being crowned and seated in the chair of the
McAlpin line, on the summit of the hill of Scone, had to flee into
exile, he naturally sought refuge where he knew he would find friends.
Accompanied by three of his brothers, several adherents, and even by
some of the females of his family, he steered, in the autumn of 1306,
for the little island of Rathlin—seven miles long by a mile wide—one
point of which is within three miles of the Antrim beach. In its most
populous modern day Rathlin contained not above 1,000 souls, and little
wonder if its still smaller population, five centuries ago, fled in
terror at the approach of Bruce. They were, however, soon disarmed of
their fears, and agreed to supply the fugitive King daily with
provisions for 300 persons, the whole number who accompanied or
followed him into exile. His faithful adherents soon erected for him a
castle, commanding one of the few landing places on the island, the
ruins of which are still shown to strangers as "Bruce's Castle." Here
he passed in perfect safety the winter of 1306, while his emissaries
were recruiting in Ulster, or passing to and fro, in the intervals of
storm, among the western islands. Without waiting for the spring to
come round again, they issued from their retreat in different
directions; one body of 700 Irish sailed under Thomas and Alexander,
the King's brothers, for the Clyde, while Robert and Edward took the
more direct passage towards the coast of Argyle, and, after many
adventures, found themselves strong enough to attack the foreign forces
in Perth and Ayrshire. The opportune death of Edward of England the
same summer, and the civil strife bred by his successor's inordinate
favour towards Gaveston, enabled the Bruces gradually to root out the
internal garrisons of their enemies; but the party that had sailed,
under the younger brothers, from Rathlin, were attacked and captured in
Loch Ryan by McDowell, and the survivors of the engagement, with Thomas
and Alexander Bruce, were carried prisoners to Carlisle and there put
to death.
The seven years' war of Scottish independence was drawn to a close by
the decisive campaign of 1314. The second Edward prepared an
overwhelming force for this expedition, summoning, as usual, the
Norman-Irish Earls, and inviting in different language his "beloved"
cousins, the native Irish Chiefs, not only such as had entered into
English alliances at any time, but also notorious allies of Bruce, like
O'Neil, O'Donnell, and O'Kane. These writs were generally unheeded; we
have no record of either Norman-Irish or native-Irish Chief having
responded to Edward's summons, nor could nobles so summoned have been
present without some record remaining of the fact. On the contrary all
the wishes of the old Irish went with the Scots, and the Normans were
more than suspected of leaning the same way. Twenty-one clans,
Highlanders and Islemen, and many Ulstermen, fought on the side of
Bruce, on the field of Bannockburn; the grant of "Kincardine-O'Neil,"
made by the victor-King to his Irish followers, remains a striking
evidence of their fidelity to his person, and their sacrifices in his
cause. The result of that glorious day was, by the testimony of all
historians, English as well as Scottish, received with enthusiasm on
the Irish side of the channel.
Whether any understanding had been come to between the northern Irish
and Bruce, during his sojourn in Rathlin, or whether the victory of
Bannockburn suggested the design, Edward Bruce, the gallant companion
of all his brother's fortunes and misfortunes, was now invited to place
himself at the head of the men of Ulster, in a war for Irish
independence. He was a soldier of not inferior fame to his brother for
courage and fortitude, though he had never exhibited the higher
qualities of general and statesman which crowned the glory of King
Robert. Yet as he had never held a separate command of consequence, his
rashness and obstinacy, though well known to his intimates, were lost
sight of, at a distance, by those who gazed with admiration on the
brilliant achievements, in which he had certainly borne the second
part. The chief mover in the negotiation by which this gallant soldier
was brought to embark his fortunes in an Irish war, was Donald, Prince
of Ulster. This Prince, whose name is so familiar from his celebrated
remonstrance addressed to Pope John XXII., was son of King Brian of the
battle of Down, who, half a century before, at the Conference of
Caeluisge, was formally chosen Ard-Righ, by the nobles of three
Provinces. He had succeeded to the principality—not without a
protracted struggle with the Red Earl—some twenty years before the date
of the battle of Bannockburn. Endued with an intensely national spirit,
he seems to have fully adopted the views of Nicholas McMaelisa, the
Primate of Armagh, his early cotemporary. This Prelate—one of the most
resolute opponents of the Norman conquest—had constantly refused to
instal any foreigner in a northern diocese. When the Chapter of Ardagh
delayed their election, he nominated a suitable person to the Holy See;
when the See of Meath was distracted between two national parties he
installed his nominee; when the Countess of Ulster caused Edward I. to
issue his writ for the installation of John, Bishop of Conor, he
refused his acquiescence. He left nearly every See in his Province, at
the time of his decease (the year 1303), under the administration of a
native ecclesiastic; a dozen years before he had established a formal
"association" among the Prelates at large, by which they bound
themselves to resist the interference of the Kings of England in the
nomination of Bishops, and to be subject only to the sanction of the
See of Rome. In the Provinces of Cashel and Tuam, in the fourteenth
century, we do not often find a foreign born Bishop; even in Leinster
double elections and double delegations to Rome, show how deeply the
views of the patriotic Nicholas McMaelisa had seized upon the clergy of
the next age. It was Donald O'Neil's darling project to establish a
unity of action against the common enemy among the chiefs, similar to
that which the Primate had brought about among the Bishops. His own
pretensions to the sovereignty were greater than that of any Prince of
his age; his house had given more monarchs to the island than any
other; his father had been acknowledged by the requisite majority; his
courage, patriotism, and talents, were admittedly equal to the task.
But he felt the utter impossibility of conciliating that fatal family
pride, fed into extravagance by Bards and Senachies, which we have so
often pointed out as the worst consequence of the Celtic system. He saw
chiefs, proud of their lineage and their name, submit to serve a
foreign Earl of Ulster, who refused homage to the native Prince of
Ulster; he saw the seedlings of a vice of which we have seen the
fruit—that his countrymen would submit to a stranger rather than to one
of themselves, and he reasoned, not unnaturally, that, by the hand of
some friendly stranger, they might be united and liberated. The attempt
of Edward Bruce was a failure, and was followed by many disasters; but
a more patriotic design, or one with fairer omens of success, could not
have entered the mind or heart of a native Prince, after the event of
the battle at Bannockburn. Edward of England, having intelligence of
the negotiations on foot between the Irish and Scots, after his great
defeat, summoned over to Windsor during the winter, de Burgh,
Fitzgerald, de Verdon, and Edmund Butler, the Lord Deputy. After
conferring with them, and confirming Butler in his office, they were
despatched back in all haste to defend their country. Nor was there
time to lose. Edward Bruce, with his usual impetuosity, without waiting
for his full armament, had sailed from Ayr with 6,000 men in 300
galleys, accompanied by Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, Sir John
Stuart, Sir Philip Moubray, Sir Fergus of Ardrossan, and other
distinguished knights. He landed on the 25th day of May, 1315, in the
Glendun river, near Glenarm, and was promptly joined by Donald O'Neil,
and twelve other chiefs. Their first advance was from the coast towards
that angle of Lough Neagh, near which stands the town of Antrim. Here,
at Rathmore, in the plain of Moylinny, they were attacked by the
Mandevilles and Savages of the Ards of Down, whom they defeated. From
Antrim they continued their route evidently towards Dublin, taking
Dundalk and Ardee, after a sharp resistance. At Ardee they were but 35
miles north of Dublin, easy of conquest, if they had been provided with
siege trains—which it seemed they were not.
While Bruce and O'Neil were coming up from the north, Hugh O'Donnell,
lord of Tyrconnell, as if to provide occupation for the Earl of Ulster,
attacked and sacked the castle and town of Sligo, and wasted the
adjacent country. The Earl, on hearing of the landing of the Scots, had
mustered his forces at Athlone, and compelled the unwilling attendance
of Felim O'Conor, with his clansmen. From Athlone he directed his march
towards Drogheda, where he arrived with "20 cohorts," about the same
time that the Lord Deputy Butler came up with "30 cohorts." Bruce,
unprepared to meet so vast a force—taken together some 25,000 or 30,000
men—retreated slowly towards his point of debarkation. De Burgh, who,
as Commander-in-Chief, took precedence in the field of the Lord Deputy,
ordered the latter to protect Meath and Leinster, while he pursued the
enemy. Bruce, having despatched the Earl of Moray to his brother, was
now anxious to hold some northern position where they could most easily
join him. He led de Burgh, therefore, into the North of Antrim, thence
across the Bann at Coleraine, breaking down the bridge at that point.
Here the armies encamped for some days, separated by the river, the
outposts occasionally indulging in a "shooting of arrows." By
negotiation, Bruce and O'Neil succeeded in detaching O'Conor from de
Burgh. Under the plea—which really had sufficient foundation—of
suppressing an insurrection headed by one of his rivals, O'Conor
returned to his own country. No sooner had he left than Bruce assumed
the offensive, and it was now the Red Earl's turn to fall back. They
retreated towards the castle of Conyre (probably Conor, near Ballymena,
in Antrim), where an engagement was fought, in which de Burgh was
defeated, his brother William, Sir John Mandeville, and several other
knights being taken prisoners. The Earl continued his retreat through
Meath towards his own possession; Bruce followed, capturing in
succession Granard, Fenagh, and Kells, celebrating his Christmas at
Loughsweedy, in West-Meath, in the midst of the most considerable
chiefs of Ulster, Meath, and Connaught. It was probably at this stage
of his progress that he received the adhesion of the junior branches of
the Lacys—the chief Norman family that openly joined his standard.
This termination of his first campaign on Irish soil might be
considered highly favourable to Bruce. More than half the clans had
risen, and others were certain to follow their example; the clergy were
almost wholly with him; and his heroic brother had promised to lead an
army to his aid in the ensuing spring.
CHAPTER III.
BRUCE'S SECOND CAMPAIGN, AND CORONATION AT DUNDALK—THE RISING IN
CONNAUGHT—BATTLE OF ATHENRY—ROBERT BRUCE IN IRELAND.
From Loughsweedy, Bruce broke up his quarters, and marched into
Kildare, encamping successively at Naas, Kildare, and Rathangan.
Advancing in a southerly direction, he found an immense, but disorderly
Anglo-Irish host drawn out, at the moat of Ardscull, near Athy, to
dispute his march. They were commanded by the Lord Justice Butler, the
Baron of Offally, the Lord Arnold Poer, and other magnates; but so
divided were these proud Peers, in authority and in feeling, that,
after a severe skirmish with Bruce's vanguard, in which some knights
were killed on both sides, they retreated before the Hiberno-Scottish
army, which continued its march unmolested, and took possession of
Castledermot.
Animated by these successes, won in their midst, the clans of Leinster
began in succession to raise their heads. The tribes of Wicklow, once
possessors of the fertile plains to the east and west, rallied in the
mountain glens to which they had been driven, and commenced that long
guerilla war, which centuries only were to extinguish. The McMurroghs
along the ridge of Leinster, and all their kindred upon the Barrow and
the Slaney, mustered under a chief, against whom the Lord Justice was
compelled to march in person, later in the campaign of 1316. The Lord
of Dunamase was equally sanguine, but 800 men of the name of O'Moore,
slain in one disastrous encounter, crippled for the time the military
strength of that great house. Having thus kindled the war, in the very
heart of Leinster, Bruce retraced his march through Meath and Louth,
and held at Dundalk that great assembly in which he was solemnly
elected King of Ireland. Donald O'Neil, by letters patent, as son of
Brian "of the battle of Down," the last acknowledged native king,
formally resigned his right, in favour of Bruce, a proceeding which he
defends in his celebrated letter to Pope John XXII., where he speaks of
the new sovereign as the illustrious Earl of Carrick, Edward de Bruce,
a nobleman descended from the same ancestors with themselves, whom they
had called to their aid, and freely chosen as their king and lord. The
ceremony of inauguration seems to have been performed in the Gaelic
fashion, on the hill of Knocknemelan, within a mile of Dundalk, while
the solemn consecration took place in one of the churches of the town.
Surrounded by all the external marks of royalty, Bruce established his
court in the castle of Northburgh (one of de Courcy's or de Verdon's
fortresses), adjoining Dundalk, where he took cognizance of all pleas
that were brought before him. At that moment his prospects compared
favourably with those of his illustrious brother a few years earlier.
The Anglo-Irish were bitterly divided against each other; while,
according to their joint declaration of loyalty, signed before de
Hothun, King Edward's special agent, "all the Irish of Ireland, several
great lords, and many English people," had given in their adhesion to
Bruce. In Ulster, except Carrickfergus, no place of strength remained
in the hands of any subject of Edward of England. The arrival of
supplies from Scotland enabled Bruce to resume that siege in the autumn
of 1316, and the castle, after a heroic defence by Sir Thomas de
Mandeville, was surrendered in mid-winter. Here, in the month of
February, 1317, the new King of Ireland had the gratification of
welcoming his brother of Scotland, at the head of a powerful auxiliary
force, and here, according to Barbour's _Chronicle_, they feasted for
three days, in mirth and jollity, before entering on the third campaign
of this war.
We have before mentioned that one of the first successes obtained by
Bruce was through the withdrawal of Felim O'Conor from the Red Earl's
alliance. The Prince thus won over to what may be fairly called the
national cause, had just then attained his majority, and his martial
accomplishments reflected honour on his fosterer, McDermott of Moylurg,
while they filled with confidence the hearts of his own clansmen. After
his secession from de Burgh at Coleraine, he had spent a whole year in
suppressing the formidable rival who had risen to dispute his title.
Several combats ensued between their respective adherents, but at
length Roderick, the pretender, was defeated and slain, and Felim
turned all his energies to co-operate with Bruce, by driving the
foreigner out of his own province. Having secured the assistance of all
the chief tribes of the west, and established the ancient supremacy of
his house over Breffni, he first attacked the town of Ballylahen, in
Mayo, the seat of the family of de Exeter, slew Slevin de Exeter, the
lord de Cogan, and other knights and barons, and plundered the town. At
the beginning of August in the same year, in pursuance of his plan,
Felim mustered the most numerous force which Connaught had sent forth,
since the days of Cathal More. Under his leadership marched the Prince
of Meath, the lords of Breffni, Leyny, Annally, Teffia, Hy-Many, and
Hy-Fiachra, with their men. The point of attack was the town of
Athenry, the chief fortified stronghold of the de Burghs and
Berminghams in that region. Its importance dated from the reign of King
John; it had been enriched with convents and strengthened by towers; it
was besides the burial place of the two great Norman families just
mentioned, and their descendants felt that before the walls of Athenry
their possessions were to be confirmed to them by their own valour, or
lost for ever. A decisive battle was fought on St. Laurence's day—the
10th of August—in which the steel-clad Norman battalion once more
triumphed over the linen-shirted clansmen of the west. The field was
contested with heroic obstinacy; no man gave way; none thought of
asking or giving quarter. The standard bearer, the personal guard, and
the Brehon of O'Conor fell around him. The lords of Hy-Many, Teffia,
and Leyny, the heir of the house of Moylurg, with many other chiefs,
and, according to the usual computation, 8,000 men were slain. Felim
O'Conor himself, in the twenty-third year of his age, and the very
morning of his fame, fell with the rest, and his kindred, the
Sil-Murray, were left for a season an easy prey to William de Burgh and
John de Bermingham, the joint commanders in the battle. The spirit of
exaggeration common in most accounts of killed and wounded, has
described this day as fatal to the name and race of O'Conor, who are
represented as cut off to a man in the conflict; the direct line which
Felim represented was indeed left without an immediate adult
representative; but the offshoots of that great house had spread too
far and flourished too vigorously to be shorn away, even by so terrible
a blow as that dealt at Athenry. The very next year we find chiefs of
the name making some figure in the wars of their own province, but it
is observable that what may be called the national party in Connaught
for some time after Athenry, looked to McDermott of Moylurg as their
most powerful leader.
The moral effect of the victory of Athenry was hardly to be compensated
for by the capture of Carrickfergus the next winter. It inspired the
Anglo-Irish with new courage. De Bermingham was created
commander-in-chief. The citizens of Dublin burned their suburbs to
strengthen their means of defence. Suspecting the zeal of the Red Earl,
so nearly connected with the Bruces by marriage, their Mayor proceeded
to Saint Mary's abbey, where he lodged, arrested and confined him to
the castle. To that building the Bermingham tower was added about this
time, and the strength of the whole must have been great when the
skilful leaders, who had carried Stirling and Berwick, abandoned the
siege of Dublin as hopeless. In Easter week, 1317, Roger Mortimer,
afterwards Earl of March, nearly allied to the English King on the one
hand, and maternally descended from the Marshals and McMurroghs on the
other, arrived at Youghal, as Lord Justice, released the Earl of Ulster
on reaching Dublin, and prepared to dispute the progress of the Bruces
towards the South.
The royal brothers had determined, according to their national Bard, to
take their way with all their host, from one end of Ireland to the
other. Their destination was Munster, which populous province had not
yet ratified the recent election. Ulster and Meath were with them;
Connaught, by the battle of Athenry, was rendered incapable of any
immediate effort, and therefore Edward Bruce, in true Gaelic fashion,
decided to proceed on his royal visitation, and so secure the hostages
of the southern half-kingdom. At the head of 20,000 men, in two
divisions, the brothers marched from Carrickfergus; meeting, with the
exception of a severe skirmish in a wood near Slane, with no other
molestation till they approached the very walls of Dublin. Finding the
place stronger than they expected, or unwilling to waste time at that
season of the year, the Hiberno-Scottish army, after occupying
Castleknock, turned up the valley of the Liffey, and encamped for four
days by the pleasant waterfall of Leixlip. From Leixlip to Naas they
traversed the estates of one of their active foes, the new made Earl of
Kildare, and from Naas they directed their march to Callan in Ossory,
taking special pleasure, according to Anglo-Irish Annals, in harrying
the lands of another enemy, the Lord Butler, afterwards Earl of Ormond.
From Callan their route lay to Cashel and Limerick, at each of which
they encamped two or three days without seeing the face of an enemy.
But if they encountered no enemies in Munster, neither did they make
many friends by their expedition. It seems that on further acquaintance
rivalries and enmities sprung up between the two nations who composed
the army; that Edward Bruce, while styling himself King of Ireland,
acted more like a vigorous conqueror exhausting his enemies, than a
prudent Prince careful for his friends and adherents. His army is
accused, in terms of greater vehemence than are usually employed in our
cautious chronicles, of plundering churches and monasteries, and even
violating the tombs of the dead in search of buried treasure. The
failure of the harvest, added to the effect of a threefold war, had so
diminished the stock of food that numbers perished of famine, and this
dark, indelible remembrance was, by an arbitrary notion of cause and
effect, inseparably associated in the popular mind, both English and
Irish, with the Scottish invasion. One fact is clear, that the election
of Dundalk was not popular in Munster, and that the chiefs of Thomond
and Desmond were uncommitted, if not hostile towards Bruce's
sovereignty. McCarthy and O'Brien seized the occasion, indeed, while he
was campaigning in the North, to root out the last representative of
the family of de Clare, as we have already related, when tracing the
fortunes of the Normans in Munster. But of the twelve reguli, or
Princes in Bruce's train, none are mentioned as having come from the
Southern provinces.
This visitation of Munster occupied the months of February and March.
In April, the Lord Justice Mortimer summoned a Parliament at Kilkenny,
and there, also, the whole Anglo-Irish forces, to the number of 30,000
men, were assembled. The Bruces on their return northward might easily
have been intercepted, or the genius which triumphed at Bannockburn
might have been as conspicuously signalized on Irish ground. But the
military authorities were waiting orders from the Parliament, and the
Parliament were at issue with the new Justice, and so the opportunity
was lost. Early in May, the Hiberno-Scottish army re-entered Ulster, by
nearly the same route as they had taken going southwards, and King
Robert soon after returned into Scotland, promising faithfully to
rejoin his brother, as soon as he disposed of his own pressing affairs.
The King of England in the meantime, in consternation at the news from
Ireland, applied to the Pope, then at Avignon, to exercise his
influence with the Clergy and Chiefs of Ireland, for the preservation
of the English interest in that country. It was in answer to the Papal
rescripts so procured that Donald O'Neil despatched his celebrated
Remonstrance, which the Pontiff enclosed to Edward II., with an urgent
recommendation that the wrongs therein recited might be atoned for, and
avoided in the future.
CHAPTER IV.
BATTLE OF FAUGHARD AND DEATH OF KING EDWARD BRUCE—CONSEQUENCES OF HIS
INVASION—EXTINCTION OF THE EARLDOM OF ULSTER—IRISH OPINION OF EDWARD
BRUCE.
It is too commonly the fashion, as well with historians as with others,
to glorify the successful and censure severely the unfortunate. No such
feeling actuates us in speaking of the character of Edward Bruce, King
of Ireland. That he was as gallant a knight as any in that age of
gallantry, we know; that he could confront the gloomiest aspect of
adversity with cheerfulness, we also know. But the united testimony,
both of history and tradition, in his own country, so tenacious of its
anecdotical treasures, describes him as rash, headstrong, and
intractable, beyond all the captains of his time. And in strict
conformity with this character is the closing scene of his Irish
career.
The harvest had again failed in 1317, and enforced a melancholy sort of
truce between all the belligerents. The scarcity was not confined to
Ireland, but had severely afflicted England and Scotland, compelling
their rulers to bestow a momentary attention on the then abject class,
the tillers of the soil. But the summer of 1318 brightened above more
prosperous fields, from which no sooner had each party snatched or
purchased his share of the produce, than the war-note again resounded
through all the four Provinces. On the part of the Anglo-Irish, John de
Bermingham was confirmed as Commander-in-Chief, and departed from
Dublin with, according to the chronicles of the Pale, but 2,000 chosen
troops, while the Scottish biographer of the Bruces gives him "20,000
trapped horse." The latter may certainly be considered an exaggerated
account, and the former must be equally incorrect. Judged by the other
armaments of that period, from the fact that the Normans of Meath,
under Sir Miles de Verdon and Sir Richard Tuit, were in his ranks, and
that he then held the rank of Commander-in-Chief of all the English
forces in Ireland, it is incredible that de Bermingham should have
crossed the Boyne with less than eight or ten thousand men. Whatever
the number may have been, Bruce resolved to risk the issue of battle
contrary to the advice of all his officers, and without awaiting the
reinforcements hourly expected from Scotland, and which shortly after
the engagement did arrive. The native chiefs of Ulster, whose counsel
was also to avoid a pitched battle, seeing their opinions so lightly
valued, are said to have withdrawn from Dundalk. There remained with
the iron-headed King the Lords Moubray, de Soulis, and Stewart, with
the three brothers of the latter; MacRory, lord of the Isles, and
McDonald, chief of his clan. The neighbourhood of Dundalk, the scene of
his triumphs and coronation, was to be the scene of this last act of
Bruce's chivalrous and stormy career.
On the 14th of October, 1318, at the hill of Faughard, within a couple
of miles of Dundalk, the advance guard of the hostile armies came into
the presence of each other, and made ready for battle. Roland de Jorse,
the foreign Archbishop of Armagh—who had not been able to take
possession of his see, though appointed to it seven years
before—accompanied the Anglo-Irish, and moving through their ranks,
gave his benediction to their banners. But the impetuosity of Bruce
gave little time for preparation. At the head of the vanguard, without
waiting for the whole of his company to come up, he charged the enemy
with impetuosity. The action became general, and the skill of de
Bermingham as a leader was again demonstrated. An incident common to
the warfare of that age was, however, the immediate cause of the
victory. Master John de Maupas, a burgher of Dundalk, believing that
the death of the Scottish leader would be the signal for the retreat of
his followers, disguised as a jester or fool, sought him throughout the
field. One of the royal esquires, named Gilbert Harper, wearing the
surcoat of his master, was mistaken for him, and slain; but the true
leader was at length found by de Maupas, and struck down with the blow
of a leaden plummet or slung-shot. After the battle, when the field was
searched for his body, it was found under that of de Maupas, who had
bravely yielded up life for life. The Hiberno-Scottish forces dispersed
in dismay, and when King Robert of Scotland landed a day or two
afterwards, he was met by the fugitive men of Carrick, under their
leader Thompson, who informed him of his brother's fate. He returned at
once into his own country, carrying off the few Scottish survivors. The
head of the impetuous Edward was sent to London; but the body was
interred in the churchyard of Faughard, where, within living memory, a
tall pillar stone was pointed out by every peasant of the neighbourhood
as marking the grave of "King Bruce."
The fortunes of the principal actors, native and Norman, in the
invasion of Edward Bruce, may be briefly recounted before closing this
book of our history, John de Bermingham, created for his former victory
Baron of Athenry, had now the Earldom of Louth conferred on him with a
royal pension. He promptly followed up his blow at Faughard by
expelling Donald O'Neil, the mainspring of the invasion, from Tyrone;
but Donald, after a short sojourn among the mountains of Fermanagh,
returned during the winter and resumed his lordship, though he never
wholly recovered from the losses he had sustained. The new Earl of
Louth continued to hold the rank of Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, to
which he added in 1322 that of Lord Justice. He was slain in 1329, with
some 200 of his personal adherents, in an affair with the natives of
his new earldom, at a place called Ballybeagan. He left by a daughter
of the Earl of Ulster three daughters; the title was perpetuated in the
family of his brothers.
In 1319, the Earls of Kildare and Louth, and the Lord Arnold le Poer,
were appointed a commission to inquire into all treasons committed in
Ireland during Bruce's invasion. Among other outlawries they decreed
those of the three de Lacys, the chiefs of their name, in Meath and
Ulster. That illustrious family, however, survived even this last
confiscation, and their descendants, several centuries later, were
large proprietors in the midland counties.
Three years after the battle of Faughard, died Roland de Jorse,
Archbishop of Armagh, it was said, of vexations arising out of Bruce's
war, and other difficulties which beset him in taking possession of his
see. Adam, Bishop of Ferns, was deprived of his revenues for taking
part with Bruce, and the Friars Minor of the Franciscan order, were
severely censured in a Papal rescript for their zeal on the same side.
The great families of Fitzgerald and Butler obtained their earldoms of
Kildare, Desmond, and Ormond, out of this dangerous crisis, but the
premier earldom of Ulster disappeared from our history soon afterwards.
Richard, the Red Earl, having died in the Monastery of Athassil, in
1326, was succeeded by his son, William, who, seven years later, in
consequence of a family feud, instigated by one of his own female
relatives, Gilla de Burgh, wife of Walter de Mandeville, was murdered
at the Fords, near Carrickfergus, in the 21st year of his age. His
wife, Maud, daughter of Henry Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, fled into
England with her infant, afterwards married to Lionel, Duke of
Clarence, son of King Edward III., who thus became personally
interested in the system which he initiated by the odious Statute of
Kilkenny. But the misfortunes of the Red Earl's posterity did not end
with the murder of his immediate successor. Edmond, his surviving son,
five years subsequently, was seized by his cousin, Edmond, the son of
William, and drowned in Lough Mask, with a stone about his neck. The
posterity of William de Burgh then assumed the name of McWilliam, and
renounced the laws, language, and allegiance of England. Profiting by
their dissensions, Turlogh O'Conor, towards the middle of the century,
asserted supremacy over them, thus practising against the descendants
the same policy which the first de Burghs had successfully employed
among the sons of Roderick.
We must mention here a final consequence of Edward Bruce's invasion
seldom referred to,—namely, the character of the treaty between
Scotland and England, concluded and signed at Edinburgh, on St.
Patrick's Day, 1328. By this treaty, after arranging an intermarriage
between the royal families, it was stipulated in the event of a
rebellion against Scotland, in Skye, Man, or the Islands, or against
England, in Ireland, that the several Kings would not abet or assist
each other's rebel subjects. Remembering this article, we know not what
to make of the entry in our own Annals, which states that Robert Bruce
landed at Carrickfergus in the same year, 1328, "and sent word to the
Justiciary and Council, that he came to make peace between Ireland and
Scotland, and that he would meet them at Green Castle; but that the
latter failing to meet him, he returned to Scotland." This, however, we
know: high hopes were entertained, and immense sacrifices were made,
for Edward Bruce, but were made in vain. His proverbial rashness in
battle, with his total disregard of the opinion of the country into
which he came, alienated from him those who were at first disposed to
receive him with enthusiasm. It may be an instructive lesson to such as
look to foreign leaders and foreign forces for the means of national
deliverance to read the terms in which the native Annalists record the
defeat and death of Edward Bruce: "No achievement had been performed in
Ireland, for a long time," say the Four Masters, "from which greater
benefit had accrued to the country than from this." "There was not a
better deed done in Ireland since the banishment of the Formorians,"
says the Annalist of Clonmacnoise! So detested may a foreign liberating
chief become, who outrages the feelings and usages of the people he
pretends, or really means to emancipate!
BOOK VI.
THE NATIVE, THE NATURALIZED, AND "THE ENGLISH INTEREST."
CHAPTER I.
CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND—ITS EFFECTS ON THE ANGLO-IRISH—THE KNIGHTS OF
SAINT JOHN—GENERAL DESIRE OF THE ANGLO-IRISH TO NATURALIZE THEMSELVES
AMONG THE NATIVE POPULATION—A POLICY OF NON-INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE
RACES RESOLVED ON IN ENGLAND.
The closing years of the reign of Edward II. of England were endangered
by the same partiality for favourites which, had disturbed its
beginning. The de Spensers, father and son, played at this period the
part which Gaveston had performed twenty years earlier. The Barons, who
undertook to rid their country of this pampered family, had, however,
at their head Queen Isabella, sister of the King of France, who had
separated from her husband under a pretended fear of violence at his
hands, but in reality to enjoy more freely her criminal intercourse
with her favourite, Mortimer. With the aid of French and Flemish
mercenaries, they compelled the unhappy Edward to fly from London to
Bristol, whence he was pursued, captured, and after being confined for
several months in different fortresses, was secretly murdered in the
autumn of 1327, by thrusting a red hot iron into his bowels. His son,
Edward, a lad of fifteen years of age, afterwards the celebrated Edward
III., was proclaimed King, though the substantial power remained for
some years longer with Queen Isabella, and her paramour, now elevated
to the rank of Earl of March. In the year 1330, however, their guilty
prosperity was brought to a sudden close; Mortimer was seized by
surprise, tried by his peers, and executed at Tyburn; Isabella was
imprisoned for life, and the young King, at the age of eighteen, began
in reality that reign, which, through half a century's continuance,
proved so glorious and advantageous for England.
It will be apparent that during the last few years of the second, and
under the minority of the third Edward, the Anglo-Irish Barons would be
left to pursue undisturbed their own particular interests and enmities.
The renewal of war with Scotland, on the death of King Robert Bruce,
and the subsequent protracted wars with France, which occupied, with
some intervals of truce, nearly thirty years of the third Edward's
reign, left ample time for the growth of abuses of every description
among the descendants of those who had invaded Ireland, under the
pretext of its reformation, both in morals and government. The
contribution of an auxiliary force to aid him in his foreign wars was
all the warlike King expected from his lords of Ireland, and at so
cheap a price they were well pleased to hold their possessions under
his guarantee. At Halidon hill the Anglo-Irish, led by Sir John Darcy,
distinguished themselves against the Scots in 1333; and at the siege of
Calais, under the Earls of Kildare and Desmond, they acquired
additional reputation in 1347. From this time forward it became a
settled maxim of English policy to draft native troops out of Ireland
for foreign service, and to send English soldiers into it in times of
emergency.
In the very year when the tragedy of Edward the Second's deposition and
death was enacted in England, a drama of a lighter kind was performed
among his new made earls in Ireland. The Lord Arnold le Poer gave
mortal offence to Maurice, first Earl of Desmond, by calling him "a
Rhymer," a term synonymous with poetaster. To make good his reputation
as a Bard, the Earl summoned his allies, the Butlers and Berminghams,
while le Poer obtained the aid of his maternal relatives, the de
Burghs, and several desperate conflicts took place between them. The
Earl of Kildare, then deputy, summoned both parties to meet him at
Kilkenny, but le Poer and William de Burgh fled into England, while the
victors, instead of obeying the deputy's summons, enjoyed themselves in
ravaging his estate. The following year (A.D. 1328), le Poer and de
Burgh returned from England, and were reconciled with Desmond and
Ormond by the mediation of the new deputy, Roger Outlaw, Prior of the
Knights of the Hospital at Kilmainham. In honour of this reconciliation
de Burgh gave a banquet at the castle, and Maurice of Desmond
reciprocated by another the next day, in St. Patrick's Church, though
it was then, as the Anglo-Irish Annalist remarks, the penitential
season of Lent. A work of peace and reconciliation, calculated to spare
the effusion of Christian blood, may have been thought some
justification for this irreverent use of a consecrated edifice.
The mention of the Lord Deputy, Sir Roger Outlaw, the second Prior of
his order though not the last, who wielded the highest political power
over the English settlements, naturally leads to the mention of the
establishment in Ireland, of the illustrious orders of the Temple and
the Hospital. The first foundation of the elder order is attributed to
Strongbow, who erected for them a castle at Kilmainham, on the high
ground to the south of the Liffey, about a mile distant from the Danish
wall of old Dublin. Here, the Templars flourished, for nearly a century
and a half, until the process for their suppression was instituted
under Edward II., in 1308. Thirty members of the order were imprisoned
and examined in Dublin, before three Dominican inquisitors—Father
Richard Balbyn, Minister of the Order of St. Dominick in Ireland,
Fathers Philip de Slane and Hugh de St. Leger. The decision arrived at
was the same as in France and England; the order was condemned and
suppressed; and their Priory of Kilmainham, with sixteen benefices in
the diocese of Dublin, and several others, in Ferns, Meath, and
Dromore, passed to the succeeding order, in 1311. The state maintained
by the Priors of Kilmainham, in their capacious residence, often
rivalled that of the Lords Justices. But though their rents were ample,
they did not collect them without service. Their house might justly be
regarded as an advanced fortress on the south side of the city,
constantly open to attacks from the mountain tribes of Wicklow.
Although their vows were for the Holy Land, they were ever ready to
march at the call of the English Deputies, and their banner, blazoned
with the _Agnus Dei_, waved over the bloodiest border frays of the
fourteenth century. The Priors of Kilmainham sat as Barons in the
Parliaments of "the Pale," and the office was considered the first in
ecclesiastical rank among the regular orders.
During the second quarter of this century, an extraordinary change
became apparent in the manners and customs of the descendants of the
Normans, Flemings, and Cambrians, whose ancestors an hundred years
earlier were strangers in the land. Instead of intermarrying
exclusively among themselves, the prevailing fashion became to seek for
Irish wives, and to bestow their daughters on Irish husbands. Instead
of clinging to the language of Normandy or England, they began to
cultivate the native speech of the country. Instead of despising Irish
law, every nobleman was now anxious to have his Brehon, his Bard, and
his Senachie. The children of the Barons were given to be fostered by
Milesian mothers, and trained in the early exercises so minutely
prescribed by Milesian education. Kildare, Ormond, and Desmond, adopted
the old military usages of exacting "coyne and livery"—horse meat and
man's meat—from their feudal tenants. The tie of Gossipred, one of the
most fondly cherished by the native population, was multiplied between
the two races, and under the wise encouragement of a domestic dynasty
might have become a powerful bond of social union. In Connaught and
Munster where the proportion of native to naturalized was largest, the
change was completed almost in a generation, and could never afterwards
be wholly undone. In Ulster the English element in the population
towards the end of this century was almost extinct, but in Meath and
Leinster, and that portion of Munster immediately bordering on Meath
and Leinster, the process of amalgamation required more time than the
policy of the Kings of England allowed it to obtain.
The first step taken to counteract their tendency to _Hibernicize_
themselves, was to bestow additional honours on the great families. The
baronry of Offally was enlarged into the earldom of Kildare; the
lordship of Carrick into the earldom of Ormond; the title of Desmond
was conferred on Maurice Fitz-Thomas Fitzgerald, and that of Louth on
the Baron de Bermingham. Nor were they empty honours; they were
accompanied with something better. The "royal liberties" were formally
conceded, in no less than nine great districts, to their several lords.
Those of Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny, Kildare, and Leix, had been
inherited by the heirs of the Earl Marshal's five daughters; four other
counties Palatine were now added—Ulster, Meath, Ormond, and Desmond.
"The absolute lords of those palatinates," says Sir John Davis, "made
barons and knights, exercised high justice within all their
territories; erected courts for civil and criminal causes, and for
their own revenues, in the same form in which the king's courts were
established at Dublin; they constituted their own judges, seneschals,
sheriffs, coroners, and escheators." So that the king's writs did not
run in their counties, which took up more than two parts of the English
colony; but ran only in the church-lands lying within the same, which
was therefore called THE CROSSE, wherein the Sheriff was nominated by
the King. By "high justice" is meant the power of life and death, which
was hardly consistent with even a semblance of subjection. No wonder
such absolute lords should be found little disposed to obey the summons
of deputies, like Sir Ralph Ufford and Sir John Morris, men of merely
knightly rank, whose equals they had the power to create, by the touch
of their swords.
For a season their new honours quickened the dormant loyalty of the
recipients. Desmond, at the head of 10,000 men, joined the lord deputy,
Sir John Darcy, to suppress the insurgent tribes of South Leinster; the
Earls of Ulster and Ormond united their forces for an expedition into
West-Meath against the brave McGeoghegans and their allies; but even
these services—so complicated were public and private motives in the
breasts of the actors—did not allay the growing suspicion of what were
commonly called "the old English," in the minds of the English King and
his council. Their resolution seems to have been fixed to entrust no
native of Ireland with the highest office in his own country; in
accordance with which decision Sir Anthony Lucy was appointed, (1331;)
Sir John Darcy, (1332-34; again in 1341;) and Sir Ralph Ufford,
(1343-1346.) During the incumbency of these English knights, whether
acting as justiciaries or as deputies, the first systematic attempts
were made to prevent, both by the exercise of patronage or by penal
legislation, the fusion of races, which was so universal a tendency of
that age. And although these attempts were discontinued on the
recommencement of war with France in 1345, the conviction of their
utility had seized too strongly on the tenacious will of Edward III. to
be wholly abandoned. The peace of Bretigni in 1360 gave him leisure to
turn again his thoughts in that direction. The following year he sent
over his third son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence and Earl of Ulster, (in
right of his wife,) who boldly announced his object to be the total
separation, into hostile camps, of the two populations.
This first attempt to enforce non-intercourse between the natives and
the naturalized deserves more particular mention. It appears to have
begun in the time of Sir Anthony Lucy, when the King's Council sent
over certain "Articles of Reform," in which it was threatened that if
the native nobility were not more attentive in discharging their duties
to the King, his Majesty would resume into his own hands all the grants
made to them by his royal ancestors or himself, as well as enforce
payment of debts due to the Crown which had been formerly remitted.
From some motive, these articles were allowed, after being made public,
to remain a dead letter, until the administration of Darcy, Edward's
confidential agent in many important transactions, English and Irish.
They were proclaimed with additional emphasis by this deputy, who
convoked a Parliament or Council, at Dublin, to enforce them as law.
The same year, 1342, a new ordinance came from England, prohibiting the
public employment of men born or married, or possessing estates in
Ireland, and declaring that all offices of state should be filled in
that country by "fit Englishmen, having lands, tenements, and benefices
in England." To this sweeping proscription the Anglo-Irish, as well
townsmen as nobles, resolved to offer every resistance, and by the
convocation of the Earls of Desmond, Ormond, and Kildare, they agreed
to meet for that purpose at Kilkenny. Accordingly, what is called
Darcy's Parliament, met at Dublin in October, while Desmond's rival
assembly gathered at Kilkenny in November. The proceedings of the
former, if it agreed to any, are unrecorded, but the latter despatched
to the King, by the hands of the Prior of Kilmainham, a Remonstrance
couched in Norman-French, the court language, in which they reviewed
the state of the country; deplored the recovery of so large a portion
of the former conquest by the old Irish; accused, in round terms, the
successive English officials sent into the land, with a desire suddenly
to enrich themselves at the expense both of sovereign and subject;
pleaded boldly their own loyal services, not only in Ireland, but in
the French and Scottish wars; and finally, claimed the protection of
the Great Charter, that they might not be ousted of their estates,
without being called in judgment. Edward, sorely in need of men and
subsidies for another expedition to France, returned them a
conciliatory answer, summoning them to join him in arms, with their
followers, at an early day; and although a vigorous effort was made by
Sir Ralph Ufford to enforce the articles of 1331, and the ordinance of
1341, by the capture of the Earls of Desmond and Kildare, and by
military execution on some of their followers, the policy of
non-intercourse was tacitly abandoned for some years after the
Remonstrance of Kilkenny. In 1353, under the lord deputy, Rokeby, an
attempt was made to revive it, but it was quickly abandoned; and two
years later, Maurice, Earl of Desmond, the leader of the opposition,
was appointed to the office of Lord Justice for life! Unfortunately
that high-spirited nobleman died the year of his appointment, before
its effects could begin to be felt. The only legal concession which
marked his period was a royal writ constituting the "Parliament" of the
Pale the court of last resort for appeals from the decisions of the
King's courts in that province. A recurrence to the former favourite
policy signalized the year 1357, when a new set of ordinances were
received from London, denouncing the penalties of treason against all
who intermarried, or had relations of fosterage with the Irish; and
proclaiming war upon all kernes and idle men found within the English
districts. Still severer measures, in the same direction, were soon
afterwards decided upon, by the English King and his council.
Before relating the farther history of this penal code as applied to
race, we must recall the reader's attention to the important date of
the Kilkenny Remonstrance, 1342. From that year may be distinctly
traced the growth of two parties among the subjects of the English
Kings in Ireland. At one time they are distinguished as "the old
English" and "the new English," at another, as "English by birth" and
"English by blood." The new English, fresh from the Imperial island,
seem to have usually conducted themselves with a haughty sense of
superiority; the old English, more than half _Hibernicized_, confronted
these strangers with all the self-complacency of natives of the soil on
which they stood. In their frequent visits to the Imperial capital, the
old English were made sensibly to feel that their country was not
there; and as often as they went, they returned with renewed ardour to
the land of their possessions and their birth. Time, also, had thrown
its reverent glory round the names of the first invaders, and to be
descended from the companions of Earl Richard, or the captains who
accompanied King John, was a source of family pride, second only to
that which the native princes cherished, in tracing up their lineage to
Milesius of Spain. There were many reasons, good, bad, and indifferent,
for the descendants of the Norman adventurers adopting Celtic names,
laws, and customs, but not the least potent, perhaps, was the fostering
of family pride and family dependence, which, judged from our present
stand-points, were two of the worst possible preparations for our
national success in modern times.
CHAPTER II.
LIONEL, DUKE OF CLARENCE, LORD LIEUTENANT—THE PENAL CODE OF RACE—"THE
STATUTE OF KILKENNY," AND SOME OF ITS CONSEQUENCES.
While the grand experiment for the separation of the population of
Ireland into two hostile camps was being matured in England, the Earls
of Kildare and Ormond were, for four or five years, alternately
entrusted with the supreme power. Fresh ordinances, in the spirit of
those despatched to Darcy, in 1342, continued annually to arrive. One
commanded all lieges of the English King, having grants upon the
marches of the Irish enemy, to reside upon and defend them, under pain
of revocation. By another entrusted to the Earl of Ormond for
promulgation, "no mere Irishman" was to be made a Mayor or bailiff, or
other officer of any town within the English districts; nor was any
mere Irishman "thereafter, under any pretence of kindred, or from any
other cause, to be received into holy orders, or advanced to any
ecclesiastical benefice." A modification of this last edict was made
the succeeding year, when a royal writ explained that exception was
intended to be made of such Irish clerks as had given individual proofs
of their loyalty.
Soon after the peace of Bretigni had been solemnly ratified at Calais,
in 1360, by the Kings of France and England, and the latter had
returned to London, it was reported that one of the Princes would be
sent over to exercise the supreme power at Dublin. As no member of the
royal family had visited Ireland since the reign of John—though Edward
I., when Prince, had been appointed his father's lieutenant—this
announcement naturally excited unusual expectations. The Prince chosen
was the King's third son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence; and every
preparation was made to give _eclat_ and effect to his administration.
This Prince had married, a few years before, Elizabeth de Burgh, who
brought him the titles of Earl of Ulster and Lord of Connaught, with
the claims which they covered. By a proclamation, issued in England,
all who held possessions in Ireland were commanded to appear before the
King, either by proxy or in person, to take measures for resisting the
continued encroachments of the Irish enemy. Among the absentees
compelled to contribute to the expedition accompanying the Prince, are
mentioned Maria, Countess of Norfolk, Agnes, Countess of Pembroke,
Margery de Boos, Anna le Despenser, and other noble ladies, who, by a
strange recurrence, represented in this age the five co-heiresses of
the first Earl Marshal, granddaughters of Eva McMurrogh. What exact
force was equipped from all these contributions is not mentioned; but
the Prince arrived in Ireland with no more than 1,500 men, under the
command of Ralph, Earl of Strafford, James, Earl of Ormond, Sir William
Windsor, Sir John Carew, and other knights. He landed at Dublin on the
15th of September, 1361, and remained in office for three years. On
landing he issued a proclamation, prohibiting natives of the country,
of all origins, from approaching his camp or court, and having made
this hopeful beginning he marched with his troops into Munster, where
he was defeated by O'Brien, and compelled to retreat. Yet by the
flattery of courtiers he was saluted as the conqueror of Clare, and
took from the supposed fact, his title of _Clarence_. But no adulation
could blind him to the real weakness of his position: he keenly felt
the injurious consequences of his proclamation, revoked it, and
endeavoured to remove the impression he had made, by conferring
knighthood on the Prestons, Talbots, Cusacks, De la Hydes, and members
of other families, not immediately connected with the Palatine Earls.
He removed the Exchequer from Dublin to Carlow, and expended 500
pounds—a large sum for that age—in fortifying the town. The barrier of
Leinster was established at Carlow, from which it was removed, by an
act of the English Parliament ten years afterwards; the town and castle
were retaken in 1397, by the celebrated Art McMurrogh, and long
remained in the hands of his posterity.
In 1364, Duke Lionel went to England, leaving de Windsor as his deputy,
but in 1365, and again in 1367, he twice returned to his government.
This latter year is memorable as the date of the second great stride
towards the establishment of a Penal Code of race, by the enactment of
the "Statute of Kilkenny." This memorable Statute was drawn with
elaborate care, being intended to serve as the corner stone of all
future legislation, and its provisions are deserving of enumeration.
The Act sets out with this preamble: "Whereas, at the conquest of the
land of Ireland, and for a long time after, the English of the said
land used the English language, mode of riding, and apparel, and were
governed and ruled, both they and their subjects, called Betaghese
(villeins), according to English law, &c., &c.,—but now many English of
the said land, forsaking the English language, manners, mode of riding,
laws, and usages, live, and govern themselves according to the manners,
fashion, and language of the Irish enemies, and also have made divers
marriages and alliances between themselves and the Irish enemies
aforesaid—it is therefore enacted, among other provisions, that all
intermarriages, fosterings, gossipred, and buying or selling with the
'enemie,' shall be accounted treason—that English names, fashions, and
manners shall be resumed under penalty of the confiscation of the
delinquent's lands—that March-law and Brehon-law are illegal, and that
there shall be no law but English law—that the Irish shall not pasture
their cattle on English lands—that the English shall not entertain
Irish rhymers, minstrels, or newsmen; and, moreover, that no 'mere
Irishmen' shall be admitted to any ecclesiastical benefice, or
religious house, situated within the English districts."
All the names of those who attended at this Parliament of Kilkenny are
not accessible to us; but that the Earls of Kildare, Ormond, and
Desmond, were of the number need hardly surprise us, alarmed as they
all were by the late successes of the native princes, and overawed by
the recent prodigious victories of Edward III. at Cressy and Poictiers.
What does at first seem incomprehensible is that the Archbishop not
only of Dublin, but of Cashel and Tuam—in the heart of the Irish
country—and the Bishops of Leighlin, Ossory, Lismore, Cloyne, and
Killala, should be parties to this statute. But on closer inspection
our surprise at their presence disappears. Most of these prelates were
at that day nominees of the English King, and many of them were English
by birth. Some of them never had possession of their sees, but dwelt
within the nearest strong town, as pensioners on the bounty of the
Crown, while the dioceses were administered by native rivals, or
tolerated vicars. Le Reve, Bishop of Lismore, was Chancellor to the
Duke in 1367; Young, Bishop of Leighlin, was Vice-Treasurer; the Bishop
of Ossory, John of Tatendale, was an English Augustinian, whose
appointment was disputed by Milo Sweetman, the native Bishop elect; the
Bishop of Cloyne, John de Swasham, was a Carmelite of Lyn, in the
county of Norfolk, afterwards Bishop of Bangor, in Wales, where he
distinguished himself in the controversy against Wycliffe; the Bishop
of Killala we only know by the name of Robert—at that time very unusual
among the Irish. The two native names are those of the Archbishops of
Cashel and Tuam, Thomas O'Carrol and John O'Grady. The former was
probably, and the latter certainly, a nominee of the Crown. We know
that Dr. O'Grady died an exile from his see—if he ever was permitted to
enter it—in the city of Limerick, four years after the sitting of the
Parliament of Kilkenny. Shortly after the enactment of this law, by
which he is best remembered, the Duke of Clarence returned to England,
leaving to Gerald, fourth Earl of Desmond, the task of carrying it into
effect. In the remaining years of this reign the office of Lord
Lieutenant was held by Sir William de Windsor, during the intervals of
whose absence in England the Prior of Kilmainham, or the Earl of
Kildare or of Ormond, discharged the duties with the title of Lord
Deputy or Lord Justice.
It is now time that we should turn to the native annals of the country
to show how the Irish princes had carried on the contest during the
eventful half century which the reign of Edward III. occupies in the
history of England.
In the generation which elapsed from the death of the Earl of Ulster,
or rather from the first avowal of the policy of proscription in 1342,
the native tribes had on all sides and continuously gained on the
descendants of their invaders. In Connaught, the McWilliams, McWattins,
and McFeoriss retained part of their estates only by becoming as Irish
as the Irish. The lordships of Leyny and Corran, in Sligo and Mayo,
were recovered by the heirs of their former chiefs, while the powerful
family of O'Conor Sligo converted that strong town into a formidable
centre of operations. Rindown, Athlone, Roscommon, and Bunratty, all
frontier posts fortified by the Normans, were in 1342, as we learn from
the Remonstrance of Kilkenny, in the hands of the elder race.
The war, in all the Provinces, was in many respects a war of posts.
Towards the north Carrickfergus continued the outwork till captured by
Neil O'Neil, when Downpatrick and Dundalk became the northern barriers.
The latter town, which seems to have been strengthened after Bruce's
defeat, was repeatedly attacked by Neil O'Neil, and at last entered
into conditions, by which it procured his protection. At Downpatrick
also, in the year 1375, he gained a signal victory over the English of
the town and their allies, under Sir James Talbot of Malahide, and
Burke of Camline, in which both these commanders were slain. This
O'Neil, called from his many successes Neil _More_, or the Great, dying
in 1397, left the borders of Ulster more effectually cleared of foreign
garrisons than they had been for a century and a half before. He
enriched the churches of Armagh and Derry, and built a habitation for
students resorting to the primatial city, on the site of the ancient
palace of Emania, which had been deserted before the coming of St.
Patrick.
The northern and western chiefs seem in this age to have made some
improvements in military equipments, and tactics. _Cooey-na-gall_, a
celebrated captain of the O'Kanes, is represented on his tomb at
Dungiven as clad in complete armour—though that may be the fancy of the
sculptor. Scottish gallowglasses—heavy-armed infantry, trained in
Bruce's campaigns, were permanently enlisted in their service. Of their
leaders the most distinguished were McNeil _Cam_, or the Crooked, and
McRory, in the service of O'Conor, and McDonnell, McSorley, and
McSweeney, in the service of O'Neil, O'Donnell, and O'Conor Sligo. The
leaders of these warlike bands are called the Constables of Tyr-Owen,
of North Connaught, or of Connaught, and are distinguished in all the
warlike encounters in the north and west.
The midland country—the counties now of Longford, West-Meath, Meath,
Dublin, Kildare, King's and Queen's, were almost constantly in arms,
during the latter half of this century. The lords of Annally,
Moy-Cashel, Carbry, Offally, Ely, and Leix, rivalled each other in
enterprise and endurance. In 1329, McGeoghegan of West-Meath defeated
and slew Lord Thomas Butler, with the loss of 120 men at Mullingar; but
the next year suffered an equal loss from the combined forces of the
Earls of Ormond and Ulster; his neighbour, O'Farrell, contended with
even better fortune, especially towards the close of Edward's reign
(1372), when in one successful foray he not only swept their garrisons
out of Annally, but rendered important assistance to the insurgent
tribes of Meath. In Leinster, the house of O'Moore, under Lysaght their
Chief, by a well concerted conspiracy, seized in one night (in 1327) no
less than eight castles, and razed the fort of Dunamase, which they
despaired of defending. In 1346, under Conal O'Moore, they destroyed
the foreign strongholds of Ley and Kilmehedie; and though Conal was
slain by the English, and Rory, one of their creatures, placed in his
stead, the tribe put Rory to death as a traitor in 1354, and for two
centuries thereafter upheld their independence. Simultaneously, the
O'Conors of Offally, and the O'Carrolls of Ely, adjoining and kindred
tribes, so straightened the Earl of Kildare on the one hand, and the
Earl of Ormond on the other, that a cess of 40 pence on every carucate
(140 acres) of tilled land, and of 40 pence on chattels of the value of
six pounds, was imposed on all the English settlements, for the defence
of Kildare, Carlow, and the marches generally. Out of the amount
collected in Carlow, a portion was paid to the Earl of Kildare, "for
preventing the O'Moores from burning the town of Killahan." The same
nobleman was commanded, by an order in Council, to strengthen his
Castles of Rathmore, Kilkea, and Ballymore, under pain of forfeiture.
These events occurred in 1356, '7, and '8.
In the south the same struggle for supremacy proceeded with much the
same results. The Earl of Desmond, fresh from his Justiceship in
Dublin, and the penal legislation of Kilkenny, was, in 1370, defeated
and slain near Adare, by Brian O'Brien, Prince of Thomond, with several
knights of his name, and "an indescribable number of others." Limerick
was next assailed, and capitulated to O'Brien, who created Sheedy
McNamara, Warden of the City. The English burghers, however, after the
retirement of O'Brien, rose, murdered the new Warden, and opened the
gates to Sir William de Windsor, the Lord Lieutenant, who had hastened
to their relief. Two years later the whole Anglo-Irish force, under the
fourth Earl of Kildare, was, summoned to Limerick, in order to defend
it against O'Brien. So desperate now became the contest, that William
de Windsor only consented to return a second time as Lord Lieutenant in
1374, on condition that he was to act strictly on the defensive, and to
receive annually the sum of 11,213 pounds 6 shillings 8 pence—a sum
exceeding the whole revenue which the English King derived from Ireland
at that period; which, according to Sir John Davies, fell short of
11,000 pounds. Although such was the critical state of the English
interest, this lieutenant obtained from the fears of successive
Parliaments annual subsidies of 2,000 pounds and 3,000 pounds. The
deputies from Louth having voted against his demand, were thrown into
prison; but a direct petition from the Anglo-Irish to the King brought
an order to de Windsor not to enforce the collection of these grants,
and to remit in favour of the petitioners the scutage "on all those
lands of which the Irish enemy had deprived them."
In the last year of Edward III. (1376), he summoned the magnates and
the burghers of towns to send representatives to 'London to consult
with him on the state of the English settlements in Ireland. But those
so addressed having assembled together, drew up a protest, setting
forth that the great Council of Ireland had never been accustomed to
meet out of that kingdom, though, saving the rights of their heirs and
successors, they expressed their willingness to do so, for the King's
convenience on that occasion. Richard Dene and William Stapolyn were
first sent over to England to exhibit the evils of the Irish
administration; the proposed general assembly of representatives seems
to have dropped. The King ordered the two delegates just mentioned to
be paid ten pounds out of the Exchequer for their expenses.
The series of events, however, which most clearly exhibits the decay of
the English interest, transpired within the limits of Leinster, almost
within sight of Dublin. Of the actors in these events, the most
distinguished for energy, ability, and good fortune, was Art McMurrogh,
whose exploits are entitled to a separate and detailed account.
CHAPTER III.
ART McMURROGH, LORD OF LEINSTER—FIRST EXPEDITION OF RICHARD II., OF
ENGLAND, TO IRELAND.
Whether Donald Kavanagh McMurrogh, son of Dermid, was born out of
wedlock, as the Lady Eva was made to depose, in order to create a claim
of inheritance for herself as sole heiress, this, at least, is certain,
that his descendants continued to be looked upon by the kindred clans
of Leinster as the natural lords of that principality. Towards the
close of the thirteenth century, in the third or fourth generation,
after the death of their immediate ancestor, the Kavanaghs of Leighlin
and Ballyloughlin begin to act prominently in the affairs of their
Province, and their chief is styled both by Irish and English "the
McMurrogh." In the era of King Edward Bruce, they were sufficiently
formidable to call for an expedition of the Lord Justice into their
patrimony, by which they are said to have been defeated. In the next
age, in 1335, Maurice, "the McMurrogh," was granted by the Anglo-Irish
Parliament or Council, the sum of 80 marks annually, for keeping open
certain roads and preserving the peace within its jurisdiction. In
1358, Art, the successor of Maurice, and Donald Revagh, were proclaimed
"rebels" in a Parliament held at Castledermot, by the Lord Deputy
Sancto Amando, the said Art being further branded with deep ingratitude
to Edward III., who had acknowledged him as "the Mac-Murch." To carry
on a war against him the whole English interest was assessed with a
special tax. Louth contributed 20 pounds; Meath and Waterford, 2
shillings on every carucate (140 acres) of tilled land; Kilkenny the
same sum, with the addition of 6 pence in the pound on chattels. This
Art captured the strong castles of Kilbelle, Galbarstown, Rathville,
and although his career was not one of invariable success, he
bequeathed to his son, also called Art, in 1375, an inheritance,
extending over a large portion—perhaps one-half—of the territory ruled
by his ancestors before the invasion.
Art McMurrogh, or Art Kavanagh, as he is more commonly called, was born
in the year 1357, and from the age of sixteen and upwards was
distinguished by his hospitality, knowledge, and feats of arms. Like
the great Brian, he was a younger son, but the fortune of war removed
one by one those who would otherwise have preceded him in the captaincy
of his clan and connections. About the year 1375—while he was still
under age—he was elected successor to his father, according to the
Annalists, who record his death in 1417, "after being forty-two years
in the government of Leinster." Fortunately he attained command at a
period favourable to his genius and enterprise. His own and the
adjoining tribes were aroused by tidings of success from other
Provinces, and the partial victories of their immediate predecessors,
to entertain bolder schemes, and they only waited for a chief of
distinguished ability to concentrate their efforts. This chief they
found, where they naturally looked for him, among the old ruling family
of the Province. Nor were the English settlers ignorant of his promise.
In the Parliament held at Castledermot in 1377, they granted to him the
customary annual tribute paid to his house, the nature of which calls
for a word of explanation. This tribute was granted, "as the late King
had done to his ancestors;" it was again voted in a Parliament held in
1380, and continued to be paid so late as the opening of the
seventeenth century (A.D. 1603). Not only was a fixed sum paid out of
the Exchequer for this purpose—inducing the native chiefs to grant a
right of way through their territories—but a direct tax was levied on
the inhabitants of English origin for the same privilege. This tax,
called "black mail," or "black rent," was sometimes differently
regarded by those who paid and those who received it. The former looked
on it as a stipend, the latter as a tribute; but that it implied a
formal acknowledgment of the local jurisdiction of the chief cannot be
doubted. Two centuries after the time of which we speak, Baron Finglas,
in his suggestions to King Henry VIII. for extending his power in
Ireland, recommends that "no black rent be paid to any Irishman _for
the four shires_"—of the Pale—"and any black rent they had afore this
time be paid to them for ever." At that late period "the McMurrogh" had
still his 80 marks annually from the Exchequer, and 40 pounds from the
English settled in Wexford; O'Carroll of Ely had 40 pounds from the
English in Kilkenny, and O'Conor of Offally 20 pounds from those of
Kildare, and 300 pounds from Meath. It was to meet these and other
annuities to more distant chiefs, that William of Windsor, in 1369,
covenanted for a larger revenue than the whole of the Anglo-Irish
districts then yielded, and which led him besides to stipulate that he
was to undertake no new expeditions, but to act entirely on the
defensive. We find a little later, that the necessity of sustaining the
Dublin authorities at an annual loss was one of the main motives which
induced Richard II. of England to transport two royal armies across the
channel, in 1394 and 1399.
Art McMurrogh, the younger, not only extended the bounds of his own
inheritance and imposed tribute on the English settlers in adjoining
districts, during the first years of his rule, but having married a
noble lady of the "Pale," Elizabeth, heiress to the barony of Norragh,
in Kildare, which included Naas and its neighbourhood, he claimed her
inheritance in full, though forfeited under "the statute of Kilkenny,"
according to English notions. So necessary did it seem to the Deputy
and Council of the day to conciliate their formidable neighbour, that
they addressed a special representation to King Richard, setting forth
the facts of the case, and adding that McMurrogh threatened, until this
lady's estates were restored and the arrears of tribute due to him
fully discharged, he should never cease from war, "but would join with
the Earl of Desmond against the Earl of Ormond, and afterwards return
with a great force out of Munster to ravage the country." This allusion
most probably refers to James, second Earl of Ormond, who, from being
the maternal grandson of Edward I., was called the noble Earl, and was
considered in his day the peculiar representative of the English
interest. In the last years of Edward III., and the first of his
successor, he was constable of the Castle of Dublin, with a fee of 18
pounds 5 shillings per annum. In 1381—the probable date of the address
just quoted—he had a commission to treat with certain rebels, in order
to reform them and promote peace. Three years later he died, and was
buried in the Cathedral of St. Canice, Kilkenny, the place of sepulture
of his family.
When, in the year 1389, Richard II., having attained his majority,
demanded to reign alone, the condition of the English interest was most
critical. During the twelve years of his minority the Anglo-Irish
policy of the Council of Regency had shifted and changed, according to
the predominance of particular influences. The Lord Lieutenancy was
conferred on the King's relatives, Edward Mortimer, Earl of March
(1379), and continued to his son, Roger Mortimer, a minor (1381); in
1383, it was transferred to Philip de Courtenay, the King's cousin. The
following year, de Courtenay having been arrested and fined for
mal-administration, Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, the special
favourite of Richard, was created Marquis of Dublin and Duke of
Ireland, with a grant of all the powers and authority exercised at any
period in Ireland by that King or his predecessors. This extraordinary
grant was solemnly confirmed by the English Parliament, who, perhaps
willing to get rid of the favourite at any cost, allotted the sum of
30,000 marks due from the King of France, with a guard of 500
men-at-arms and 1,000 archers for de Vere's expedition. But that
favoured nobleman never entered into possession of the principality
assigned him; he experienced the fate of the Gavestons and de Spencers
of a former reign; fleeing, for his life, from the Barons, he died in
exile in the Netherlands. The only real rulers of the Anglo-Irish in
the years of the King's minority, or previous to his first expedition
in 1394, (if we except Sir John Stanley's short terms of office in 1385
and 1389,) were the Earls of Ormond, second and third, Colton, Dean of
Saint Patrick's, Petit, Bishop of Meath, and White, Prior of
Kilmainham. For thirty years after the death of Edward III., no
Geraldine was entrusted with the highest office, and no Anglo-Irish
layman of any other family but the Butlers. In 1393, Thomas of
Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, uncle to Richard, was appointed Lord
Lieutenant, and was on the point of embarking, when a royal order
reached him announcing the determination of the King to take command of
the forces in person.
The immediate motives for Richard's expedition are variously stated by
different authors. That usually assigned by the English—a desire to
divert his mind from brooding over the loss of his wife, "the good
Queen Anne," seems wholly insufficient. He had announced his intention
a year before her death; he had called together, before the Queen fell
ill, the Parliament at Westminster, which readily voted him "a tenth"
of the revenues of all their estates for the expedition. Anne's
sickness was sudden, and her death took place in the last week of July.
Richard's preparations at that date were far advanced towards
completion, and Sir Thomas Scroope had been already some months in
Dublin to prepare for his reception. The reason assigned by Anglo-Irish
writers is more plausible: he had been a candidate for the Imperial
Crown of Germany, and was tauntingly told by his competitors to conquer
Ireland before he entered the lists for the highest political honour of
that age. This rebuke, and the ill-success of his arms against France
and Scotland, probably made him desirous to achieve in a new field some
share of that military glory which was always so highly prized by his
family:
Some events which immediately preceded Richard's expedition may help us
to understand the relative positions of the natives and the naturalized
to the English interest in the districts through which he was to march.
By this time the banner of Art McMurrogh floated over all the castles
and raths, on the slope of the Ridge of Leinster, or the steps of the
Blackstair hills; while the forests along the Barrow and the Upper
Slaney, as well as in the plain of Carlow and in the South-western
angle of Wicklow (now the barony of Shillelagh), served still better
his purposes of defensive warfare; So entirely was the range of country
thus vaguely defined under native sway that John Griffin, the English
Bishop of Leighlin, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, obtained a grant
in 1389 of the town of Gulroestown, in the county of Dublin, "near the
marches of O'Toole, seeing he could not live within his own see for the
rebels." In 1390, Peter Creagh, Bishop of Limerick, on his way to
attend an Anglo-Irish Parliament, was taken prisoner in that region,
and in consequence the usual fine was remitted in his favour. In 1392,
James, the third Earl of Ormond, gave McMurrogh a severe check at
Tiscoffin, near Shankill, where 600 of his clansmen were left dead
among the hills.
This defeat, however, was thrown into the shade by the capture of New
Ross, on the very eve of Richard's arrival at Waterford. In a previous
chapter we have described the fortifications erected round this
important seaport towards the end of the thirteenth century. Since that
period its progress had been steadily onward. In the reign of Edward
III. the controversy which had long subsisted between the merchants of
Ross and those of Waterford, concerning the trade monopolies claimed by
the latter, had been decided in favour of Ross. At this period it could
muster in its own defence 363 cross-bowmen, 1,200 long-bowmen, 1,200
pikemen, and 104 horsemen—a force which would seem to place it second
to Dublin in point of military strength. The capture of so important a
place by McMurrogh was a cheering omen to his followers. He razed the
walls and towers, and carried off gold, silver, and hostages.
On the 2nd of October, 1394, the royal fleet of Richard arrived from
Milford Haven, at Waterford. To those who saw Ireland for the first
time, the rock of Dundonolf, famed for Raymond's camp, the abbey of
Dunbrody, looking calmly down on the confluence of the three rivers,
and the half-Danish, half-Norman port before them, must have presented
scenes full of interest. To the townsmen the fleet was something
wonderful. The endless succession of ships of all sizes and models,
which had wafted over 30,000 archers and 4,000 men-at-arms; the royal
galley leading on the fluttering pennons of so many great nobles, was a
novel sight to that generation. Attendant on the King were his uncle,
the Duke of Gloucester, the young Earl of March, heir apparent, Thomas
Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, the Earl of Rutland, the Lord Thomas
Percy, afterwards Earl of Westmoreland, and father of Hotspur, and Sir
Thomas Moreley, heir to the last Lord Marshal of the "Pale." Several
dignitaries of the English Church, as well Bishops as Abbots, were also
with the fleet. Immediately after landing, a _Te Deum_ was sung in the
Cathedral, where Earl Richard had wedded the Princess Eva, where Henry
II. and John had offered up similar thanksgivings.
Richard remained a week at Waterford; gave splendid _fetes_, and
received some lords of the neighbouring country, Le Poers, Graces, and
Butlers. He made gifts to churches, and ratified the charter given by
John to the abbey of Holy Cross in Munster. He issued a summons to
Gerald, Earl of Desmond, to appear before him by the feast of the
Purification "in whatever part of Ireland he should then be," to answer
to the charge of having usurped the manor, revenues, and honour of
Dungarvan. Although it was then near the middle of October, he took the
resolution of marching to Dublin, through the country of McMurrogh, and
knowing the memory of Edward the Confessor to be popular in Leinster,
he furled the royal banner, and hoisted that of the saintly Saxon king,
which bore "a cross patence, or, on a field gules, with four doves
argent on the shield." His own proper banner bore lioncels and
fleur-de-lis. His route was by Thomastown to Kilkenny, a city which had
risen into importance with the Butlers. Nearly half a century before,
this family had brought artizans from Flanders, who established the
manufacture of woollens, for which the town was ever after famous. Its
military importance was early felt and long maintained. At this city
Richard was joined by Sir William de Wellesley, who claimed to be
hereditary standard-bearer for Ireland, and by other Anglo-Irish
nobles. From thence he despatched his Earl Marshal into "Catherlough"
to treat with McMurrogh. On the plain of Ballygorry, near Carlow, Art,
with his uncle, Malachy, O'Moore, O'Nolan, O'Byrne, MacDavid, and other
chiefs, met the Earl Marshal. The terms proposed were almost equivalent
to extermination. They were, in effect, that the Leinster chieftains,
under fines of enormous amount, payable into the Apostolic chamber,
should, before the first Sunday of Lent, surrender to the English King
"the full possession of all their lands, tenements, castles, woods, and
forts, which by them and all other of the Kenseologhes, their
companions, men, or adherents, late were occupied within the province
of Leinster." And the condition of this surrender was to be, that they
should have unmolested possession of any and all lands they could
conquer from the King's other Irish enemies elsewhere in the kingdom.
To these hard conditions some of the minor chiefs, overawed by the
immense force brought against them, would, it seems, have submitted,
but Art sternly refused to treat, declaring that if he made terms at
all, it should be with the King and not with the Earl Marshal; and that
instead of yielding his own lands, his wife's patrimony in Kildare
should be restored. This broke up the conference, and Mowbray returned
discomfitted to Kilkenny.
King Richard, full of indignation, put himself at the head of his army
and advanced against the Leinster clans. But his march was slow and
painful: the season and the forest fought against him; he was unable to
collect by the way sufficient fodder for the horses or provisions for
the men. McMurrogh swept off everything of the nature of food—took
advantage of his knowledge of the country to burst upon the enemy by
night, to entrap them into ambuscades, to separate the cavalry from the
foot, and by many other stratagems to thin their ranks and harass the
stragglers. At length Richard, despairing of dislodging him from his
fastnesses in Idrone, or fighting a way out of them, sent to him
another deputation of "the English and Irish of Leinster," inviting him
to Dublin to a personal interview. This proposal was accepted, and the
English king continued his way to Dublin, probably along the sea coast
by Bray and the white strand, over Killiney and Dunleary. Soon after
his arrival at Dublin, care was taken to repair the highway which ran
by the sea, towards Wicklow and Wexford.
CHAPTER IV.
SUBSEQUENT PROCEEDINGS OF RICHARD II.—LIEUTENANCY AND DEATH OF THE EARL
OF MARCH—SECOND EXPEDITION OF RICHARD AGAINST ART McMURROGH—CHANGE OF
DYNASTY IN ENGLAND.
At Dublin, Richard prepared to celebrate the festival of Christmas,
with all the splendour of which he was so fond. He had received letters
from his council in England warmly congratulating him on the results of
his "noble voyage" and his successes against "his rebel Make Murgh."
Several lords and chiefs were hospitably entertained by him during the
holidays—but the greater magnates did not yet present themselves—unless
we suppose them to have continued his guests at Dublin, from Christmas
till Easter, which is hardly credible.
The supplies which he had provided were soon devoured by so vast a
following. His army, however, were paid their wages weekly, and were
well satisfied. But whatever the King or his flatterers might pretend,
the real object of all the mighty preparations made was still in the
distance, and fresh supplies were needed for the projected campaign of
1395. To raise the requisite funds, he determined to send to England
his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. Gloucester carried a letter to the
regent, the Duke of York, countersigned "Lincolne," and dated from
Dublin, "Feb. 1, 1395." The council, consisting of the Earls of Derby,
Arundel, de Ware, Salisbury, Northumberland, and others, was convened,
and they "readily voted a tenth off the clergy, and a fifteenth off the
laity, for the King's supply." This they sent with a document, signed
by them all, exhorting him to a vigorous prosecution of the war, and
the demolition of all forts belonging to "MacMourgh [or] le grand
O'Nel." They also addressed him another letter, complimentary of his
valour and discretion in all things.
While awaiting supplies from England, Richard made a progress as far
northward as Drogheda, where he took up his abode in the Dominican
Convent of St. Mary Magdalen. On the eve of St. Patrick's Day, O'Neil,
O'Donnell, O'Reilly, O'Hanlon, and MacMahon, visited and exchanged
professions of friendship with him. It is said they made "submission"
to him as their sovereign lord, but until the Indentures, which have
been spoken of, but never published, are exhibited, it will be
impossible to determine what, in their minds and in his, were the exact
relations subsisting between the native Irish princes and the King of
England at that time. O'Neil, and other lords of Ulster, accompanied
him back to Dublin, where they found O'Brien, O'Conor, and McMurrogh,
lately arrived. They were all lodged in a fair mansion, according to
the notion of Master Castide, Froissart's informant, and were under the
care of the Earl of Ormond and Castide himself, both of whom spoke
familiarly the Irish language.
The glimpse we get through Norman spectacles of the manners and customs
of these chieftains is eminently instructive, both as regards the
observers and the observed. They would have, it seems, very much to the
disedification of the English esquire, "their minstrels and principal
servants sit at the same table and eat from the same dish." The
interpreters employed all their eloquence in vain to dissuade them from
this lewd habit, which they perversely called "a praiseworthy custom,"
till at last, to get rid of importunities, they consented to have it
ordered otherwise, during their stay as King Richard's guests.
On the 24th of March the Cathedral of Christ's Church beheld the four
kings devoutly keeping the vigil preparatory to knighthood. They had
been induced to accept that honour from Richard's hand. They had
apologized at first, saying they were all knighted at the age of seven.
But the ceremony, as performed in the rest of Christendom, was
represented to them as a great and religious custom, which made the
simplest knight the equal of his sovereign, which added new lustre to
the crowned head, and fresh honour to the victorious sword. On the
Feast of the Annunciation they went through the imposing ceremony,
according to the custom obtaining among their entertainers.
While the native Princes of the four Provinces were thus lodged
together in one house, it was inevitable that plans of co-operation for
the future should be discussed between them. Soon after the Earl of
Ormond, who knew their language, appeared before Richard as the accuser
of McMurrogh, who was, on his statement, committed to close confinement
in the Castle. He was, however, soon after set at liberty, though
O'Moore, O'Byrne, and John O'Mullain were retained in custody, probably
as hostages, for the fulfilment of the terms of his release. By this
time the expected supplies had arrived from England, and the festival
of Easter was happily passed. Before breaking up from his winter
quarters Richard celebrated with great pomp the festival of his
namesake, St. Richard, Bishop of Chichester, and then summoned a
parliament to meet him at Kilkenny on the 12th of the month. The acts
of this parliament have not seen the light; an obscurity which they
share in common with all the documents of this Prince's progress in
Ireland. The same remark was made three centuries ago by the English
chronicler, Grafton, who adds with much simplicity, that as Richard's
voyage into Ireland "was nothing profitable nor honourable to him,
therefore the writers think it scant worth the noting."
Early in May a deputation, at the head of which was the celebrated
William of Wyckham, arrived from England, invoking the personal
presence of the King to quiet the disturbances caused by the progress
of Lollardism. With this invitation he decided at once to comply, but
first he appointed the youthful Earl of March his lieutenant in
Ireland, and confirmed the ordinance of Edward III., empowering the
chief governor in council to convene parliament by writ, which writ
should be of equal obligation with the King's writ in England. He
ordained that a fine of not less than fifty marks, and not more than
one hundred, should be exacted of every representative of a town or
shire, who, being elected as such, neglected or refused to attend. He
reformed the royal courts, and appointed Walter de Hankerford and
William Sturmey, two Englishmen, "well learned in the law" as judges,
whose annual salaries were to be forty pounds each. Having made these
arrangements, he took an affectionate leave of his heir and cousin, and
sailed for England, whither he was accompanied by most of the great
nobles who had passed over with him to the Irish wars. Little dreamt
they of the fate which impended over many of their heads. Three short
years and Gloucester would die by the assassin's hand, Arundel by the
executioner's axe, and Mowbray, Earl Marshal, the ambassador at
Ballygorry, would pine to death in Italian banishment. Even a greater
change than any of these—a change of dynasty—was soon to come over
England.
The young Earl of March, now left in the supreme direction of affairs,
so far as we know, had no better title to govern than that he was heir
to the English throne, unless it may have been considered an additional
recommendation that he was sixth in descent from the Lady Eva
McMurrogh. To his English title, he added that of Earl of Ulster and
Lord of Connaught, derived from his mother, the daughter of Lionel,
Duke of Clarence, and those of Lord of Trim and Clare, from other
relations. The counsellors with whom he was surrounded included the
wisest statesmen and most experienced soldiers of "the Pale." Among
them were Almaric, Baron Grace, who, contrary to the statute of
Kilkenny, had married an O'Meagher of Ikerrin, and whose family had
intermarried with the McMurroghs; the third Earl of Ormond, an
indomitable soldier, who had acted as Lord Deputy, in former years of
this reign; Cranley, Archbishop of Dublin, and Roche, the Cistercian
Abbot of St. Mary's, lately created Lord Treasurer of Ireland; Stephen
Bray, Chief Justice; and Gerald, fifth Earl of Kildare. Among his
advisers of English birth were Roger Grey, his successor; the new
Judges Hankerford and Sturmey, and others of less pacific reputation.
With the dignitaries of the Church, and the innumerable priors and
abbots, in and about Dublin, the court of the Heir-Presumptive must
have been a crowded and imposing one for those times, and had its
external prospects been peaceful, much ease and pleasure might have
been enjoyed within its walls.
In the three years of this administration, the struggle between the
natives, the naturalized, and the English interest knew no cessation in
Leinster. Some form of submission had been wrung from McMurrogh before
his release from Dublin Castle, in the spring of 1395, but this
engagement extorted under duress, from a guest towards whom every rite
of hospitality had been violated, he did not feel bound by after his
enlargement. In the same year an attempt was made to entrap him at a
banquet given in one of the castles of the frontier, but warned by his
bard, he made good his escape "by the strength of his arm, and by
bravery." After this double violation of what among his countrymen,
even of the fiercest tribes, was always held sacred, the privileged
character of a guest, he never again placed himself at the mercy of
prince or peer, but prosecuted the war with unfaltering determination.
In 1396, his neighbour, the chief of Imayle, carried off from an
engagement near Dublin, six score heads of the foreigners: and the next
year—an exploit hardly second in its kind to the taking of Ross—the
strong castle and town of Carlow were captured by McMurrogh himself. In
the campaign of 1398, on the 20th of July, was fought the eventful
battle of Kenlis, or Kells, on the banks of the stream called "the
King's river," in the barony of Kells, and county of Kilkenny. Here
fell the Heir-Presumptive to the English crown, whose premature removal
was one of the causes which contributed to the revolution in England, a
year or two later. The tidings of this event filled "the Pale" with
consternation, and thoroughly aroused the vindictive temper of Richard.
He at once despatched to Dublin his half-brother, Thomas Holland, Earl
of Kent, recently created Duke of Surrey. To this duke he made a gift
of Carlow castle and town, to be held (if taken) by knights' service.
He then, as much, perhaps, to give occupation to the minds of his
people, as to prosecute his old project of subduing Ireland, began to
make preparations for his second expedition thither. Death again
delayed him. John of Ghent, Duke of Lancaster, his uncle, and one of
the most famous soldiers of the time, suddenly sickened, and died. As
Henry, his son, was in banishment, the King, under pretence of
appropriating his vast wealth to the service of the nation, seized it
into his own hands, and despite the warnings of his wisest counsellors
as to the disturbed state of the kingdom, again took up his march for
Milford Haven.
A French knight, named Creton, had obtained leave with a
brother-in-arms to accompany this expedition, and has left us a very
vivid account of its progress. Quitting Paris they reached London just
as King Richard was about "to cross the sea on account of the injuries
and grievances that his mortal enemies had committed against him in
Ireland, where they had put to death many of his faithful friends."
Wherefore they were further told, "he would take no rest until he had
avenged himself upon MacMore, who called himself most excellent King
and Lord of great Ireland; where he had but little territory of any
kind."
They at once set out for Milford, where, "waiting for the north wind,"
they remained "ten whole days." Here they found King Richard with a
great army, and a corresponding fleet. The clergy were taxed to supply
horses, waggons, and money—the nobles, shires, and towns, their
knights, men-at-arms, and archers—the seaports, from Whitehaven to
Penzance, were obliged, by an order in council, dated February 7th, to
send vessels rated at twenty-five tons and upwards to Milford, by the
octave of Easter. King's letters were issued whenever the usual
ordinances failed, and even the press-gang was resorted to, to raise
the required number of mariners. Minstrels of all kinds crowded to the
camp, enlivening it by their strains, and enriching themselves the
while. The wind coming fair, the vessels "took in their lading of
bread, wine, cows and calves, salt meat and plenty of water," and the
King taking leave of his ladies, they set sail.
In two days they saw "the tower of Waterford." The condition to which
the people of this English stronghold had been reduced by the war was
pitiable in the extreme. Some were in rags, others girt with ropes, and
their dwellings seemed to the voyagers but huts and holes. They rushed
into the tide up to their waists, for the speedy unloading of the
ships, especially attending to those that bore the supplies of the
army. Little did the proud cavaliers and well-fed yeomen, who then
looked on, imagine, as they pitied the poor wretches of Waterford, that
before many weeks were over, they would themselves be reduced to the
like necessity—even to rushing into the sea to contend for a morsel of
food.