FROM THE YEAR 1346 TO THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VII.
[Sidenote: Lionel, Duke of Clarence, is not more successful than
D'Ufford.]
[Sidenote: Lionel holds a Parliament at Kilkenny, 1367.]
The Crown did nothing for Ireland. Torn by intestine quarrels, and denied
a just government, the colony grew yearly weaker. Many of the settlers
found their position intolerable, and, in spite of severe ordinances,
absenteeism constantly increased. In 1361 Edward summoned to Westminster
no less than sixty-three non-resident landowners, including the heads of
several great abbeys, who derived revenues from Ireland and gave nothing
in return. They were ordered to provide an army suitable for the King's
son Lionel, Duke of Clarence and Earl of Ulster by marriage, who
proceeded to Ireland as Viceroy. He was accompanied by his wife, but
failed, as D'Ufford had done, to obtain any profit from her lordship of
Ulster, and was scarcely successful even against the clans near Dublin.
The O'Byrnes and O'Tooles cut off many of his English soldiers, and the
Duke was obliged to seek aid from the more experienced colonists. Like
many governors who have come to Ireland with great pretensions, Lionel
found his position most humiliating, and he spent a great part of his
time in England. His authority was delegated to deputies, and the feuds
between English by blood and English by birth ran higher than ever. In
1367 he returned and summoned a Parliament, whose enactments gave legal
sanction to the fact that the King was no longer lord of more than a
comparatively small portion of Ireland.
The statute of Kilkenny contains a great many rather heterogeneous rules.
What makes it of such great importance is its formal recognition of the
existence of an English Pale, and of a hostile Irish people outside it.
The word Pale may not have been in use for a century later, but the
thing was fully established.
[Sidenote: Composition of the Parliament of Kilkenny.]
The Parliament of Kilkenny did not, however, confine its attention to the
narrow limits of the 'four obedient shires.' The distinction between
English and Irish land was conceded, but it was still hoped that most of
the shireland would be preserved to English law. The sheriffs or
seneschals of ten counties or liberties, comprising all Leinster, except
the modern King's and Queen's Counties, as well as Tipperary and
Waterford, were required to produce their accounts at Dublin; but those
of Connaught, Kerry, Cork, and Limerick were excused on account of
distance, and were required only to attend commissioners of the exchequer
when they came to their bailiwicks, and to render an account to them.
Ulster, the Duchess of Clarence's patrimony, is not even mentioned by her
husband's Parliament. Of the composition of that assembly we have no
record, but it was attended by the Archbishops of Dublin, Cashel, and
Tuam, and by the Bishops of Waterford and Lismore, Killaloe, Ossory,
Leighlin, and Cloyne. The Archbishops of Cashel and Tuam and the Bishop
of Killaloe were Irishmen; the rest were of English race, and some of
them born in England.
[Sidenote: The Statute of Kilkenny endeavours to separate the two races.]
The statute begins by reciting that for a long time after the conquest
the English in Ireland spoke English, and in general behaved like
Englishmen; but that of late years many had fallen away and adopted the
Irish language and habits, whereby the King's authority and the English
interest were depressed, and the Irish enemy 'against reason' exalted. In
order to remedy this marriage, fosterage, gossipred, and even concubinage
with the Irish was declared high treason. Supplying horses and armour to
Irishmen at any time was visited with like penalties, and so was
furnishing them with provisions in time of war. Englishmen and even
Irishmen living among the English were to speak English, to bear English
names only, and to ride and dress in the English fashion, on pain of
forfeiture until they should submit and find security. If they had no
lands they might lie in prison till security was forthcoming. Special
penalties were provided for offenders who had 100_l._ a year in land.
The English born in Ireland and in England were to be in all respects
equal, and were not to call each other English hobbe or Irish dog, on
pain of a year's imprisonment and a fine at the King's pleasure. War with
the Irish was inculcated as a solemn duty, and the practice of buying off
invasions was condemned. The end aimed at was that Irish enemies should
be finally destroyed, and many minute rules were made for arming the
colony properly. The rude Irish game of hurling was discountenanced, and
the borderers were enjoined to make themselves fit for constant war by
practising such gentlemanlike sports as archery and lance-play.
Imprisonment and fine were to follow a neglect of these precepts.
Provision was made to prevent the Irish from forestalling the markets by
establishing fairs of their own, and from grazing their cattle in the
settled districts. Very severe regulations were made against Irish
hangers-on--pipers to wit, story-tellers, babblers, and rhymers, all of
whom acted habitually as spies. The keeping of kerne and idlemen, armed
or unarmed, at the expense of other people, was sternly forbidden, and
qualified as open robbery. It became, nevertheless, the greatest and
commonest of all abuses. Private war among the English was to be punished
as high treason, and so was the common practice of enticing friendly
Irishmen to acts of violence.
[Sidenote: The Statute of Kilkenny respects the Church, but makes
distinctions.]
The rights and privileges of Holy Church were jealously guarded by the
Parliament of Kilkenny. Persons excommunicated for infringing her
franchises were to be imprisoned by the civil power until restitution was
made. Tithes were specially protected, and the excommunicated were not to
be countenanced by King or people. But the distinction between the
hostile races was maintained in matters ecclesiastical. No Irishman was
to be admitted by provision, collation, or presentation among the
English. Such preferments were declared void, and the next presentation
was to lapse to the Crown. Religious houses situated among the English
were strictly forbidden to receive Irishmen, but Englishmen by birth and
by blood were given equal rights. The Irish prelates present probably
found no difficulty in accepting these principles, for they might, and
did, retaliate by refusing to receive English clerks in Irish districts.
The Archbishops and Bishops assembled at Kilkenny lent a special sanction
to the statute by agreeing to excommunicate all who broke it, and they
declared such offenders duly excommunicated in advance.
[Sidenote: Effects of the Statute of Kilkenny.]
Sir John Davies, with less than his usual accuracy, has declared that
'the execution of these laws, together with the presence of the King's
son, made a notable alteration in the state and manners of the people
within the space of seven years, which was the term of this prince's
lieutenancy.' Now, the Statute of Kilkenny was not passed till 1367, and
Lionel died in 1368. The Act of Henry III., on which Davies chiefly
founded his statement, says the land continued in prosperity and honour
while the Kilkenny laws were executed, and fell to ruin and desolation
upon their falling into abeyance. But the annalists tell a different
story, and it is not easy to say what those fat years were. In 1370, only
three years after the passing of the much vaunted statute, the Earl of
Desmond and others were taken prisoners by the O'Briens and Macnamaras,
and the deputy, Sir William de Windsor, was obliged to leave the O'Tooles
unchastised in order to hurry to the defence of Munster. Newcastle,
within a day's ride from Dublin, was taken and dismantled. The judges
could not get as far as Carlow. In 1377 the O'Farrells gained a great
advantage over the English of Meath. The general result of the fighting
during the ten years which followed the Parliament of Kilkenny was that
the Irish retained possession of at least all which they had previously
won. What the statute really did was to separate the two races more
completely.
[Sidenote: Edward III. weakens the colony by drawing men from it.]
Edward III. repeated his grandfather's mistake, and drew away many of the
colonists to his Scotch and Continental wars. An Anglo-Irish contingent
fought at Halidon Hill, and it was while making preparations for that
campaign that the Earl of Ulster lost his life. Ireland was also well
represented at Creçy, and many brave men fell victims to disease at
Calais. The Viceroys sent over from time to time seem to have been
regarded as licensed oppressors, and it is recorded of many that they
left Dublin without paying their debts. Sir Thomas Rokeby, who was Deputy
in 1349 and 1356, is praised by the contemporary chronicler Pembridge for
beating the Irish well, and for paying his way honestly. 'I will,' he
said, 'use wooden cups and platters, but give gold and silver for my food
and clothes, and for the men in my pay.' That this golden saying, as
Davies calls it, should have been thought worth recording shows what the
general practice was. The three great pestilences which ravaged England
ran their course in Ireland also. It was to the first of these
visitations that the annalist Clyn succumbed. 'I have,' he records, 'well
weighed what I have written, as befits a man who dwells among the dead in
daily expectation of death; and lest the writer should perish with the
writing, and the work with the workman, I leave parchment for a
continuation, if by chance any of the race of Adam should escape this
plague and resume my unfinished task.' On the whole, the reign of Edward
III. must be regarded as one of the most disastrous in the annals of the
English in Ireland.
[Sidenote: Richard II. determines to visit Ireland.]
[Sidenote: His first visit, 1394.]
The reign of Richard II. is mainly remarkable for the King's two visits
to Ireland. But that step was not taken until many others had failed.
James Butler, third Earl of Ormonde, was Viceroy when the old King died.
He continued in office, and held a Parliament at Castle Dermot, whose
deliberations were interrupted by an invasion of Leinster on the western
side. The O'Briens were bought off with 100 marks, but there were only
nine in the treasury, and the residue was supplied by individuals who
gave horses, a bed, or moderate sums of money. Ormonde resigned an office
which there was no means of supporting properly, and the Earl of Kildare
refused the post. In 1380 Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, who claimed
Ulster through his wife Philippa, the daughter of Duke Lionel, agreed to
accept the burden for three years. He covenanted for 20,000 marks and for
absolute control over the revenue of Ireland. The Irish scarcely ventured
to oppose him openly; and he recovered Athlone, built a bridge at
Coleraine, put down rebels in southern Leinster, and might have extended
his power still further had he not died of a chill, caught in fording a
river near Cork. Ormonde and Desmond refused to accept the vacant
government, and the Irish continued to enlarge their borders. In 1385
Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, the King's favourite and grandson of
Ralph d'Ufford and the Countess of Ulster, was appointed Viceroy for
life, and created first Marquis of Dublin, and then Duke of Ireland. All
the attributes of royalty, such as the right to coin money and issue
writs in his own name, were conferred on him, and he undertook to pay the
King 5,000 marks a year, which the latter agreed to remit until the
conquest of Ireland was complete. De Vere did not visit Ireland; but the
government was carried on in his name for some years, during which the
colony grew weaker and weaker. Nor did his disgrace make any more
difference than his appointment had done. Limerick and Cork could
scarcely defend themselves. Waterford was harassed by the Le Poers and
their Irish allies. Towns in Kildare were burned, and the English Bishop
of Leighlin was unable to approach his diocese. Galway threw off its
allegiance, and sought the protection of MacWilliam. In 1391 the Earl of
Ormonde was again persuaded to undertake the government with a salary of
3,000 marks; but he could do little more than temporise. Payments to the
Irish were frequent, and as they constantly advanced the dispossessed
settlers carried the story of their woes to England. Proclamations
against absentees were of small effect, and at last the King determined
to go himself. He landed at Waterford on October 2, 1394, with 4,000 men
at arms and 30,000 archers. As soon as Art MacMurrough, whom the Leinster
Irish accepted as their king, heard of Richard's arrival, he attacked New
Ross, 'burned its houses and castles, and carried away gold, silver, and
hostages.'
[Sidenote: Richard has but little success.]
Richard II.'s army, augmented as it was by the forces of the colony, was
the largest seen in Ireland during the middle ages, and has hardly been
exceeded in modern times. William III. had about 36,000 at the Boyne.
Nothing was performed worthy of so great a host or of the King's
presence. One division of the royal army was defeated with great loss by
the O'Connors of Offaly, and another by the O'Carrolls. Richard saw that
his troops were unfit for war in bogs and mountains, and could not but
confess that the natives had many just causes of complaint. He adopted a
conciliatory policy, and induced O'Neill, O'Connor, MacMurrough, and
O'Brien, as representatives of the four royal Irish races, to do homage
and to receive the honour of knighthood at his hands. These four, and a
great number of other chiefs, bound themselves to the King by indenture;
but no money was actually paid, and for all practical purposes Caligula's
shells were quite as good a badge of conquest. The German princes had a
right to say that Richard was not fit for empire, since he had been
unable to subdue his rebellious subjects of Ireland. He remained nine
months in the island, and left the government to Roger Mortimer, Earl of
March, heir-presumptive to the Crown, and claiming to be Earl of Ulster
in right of his mother, the only child of Lionel, Duke of Clarence.
[Sidenote: The Irish grow continually stronger. Richard's second visit,
1399.]
Besides the earldom of Ulster, Mortimer claimed enormous estates all over
Ireland, but possession had been completely divorced from feudal
ownership. He attacked the Wicklow clans, but was defeated with loss. In
1398 he made a final attempt to recover some portion of his Leinster
inheritance, but was defeated and slain in Carlow by the O'Tooles,
O'Nolans, and Kavanaghs. In the following year Richard again visited
Ireland in person. His army was nearly as large as on the first occasion,
and vast quantities of stores had been collected. The Crown jewels were
carried with the King, as was a yet more precious flask of oil which had
been transmitted straight from heaven to Archbishop Becket while praying
at the shrine of Columba. But neither arms, nor gems, nor even the sacred
chrism had any effect upon Art MacMurrough. The King again landed at
Waterford, and after a few days' rest moved forward to meet the
redoubtable Irishman, who was posted in a wood with 3,000 men. An open
space having been secured by burning houses and villages, Richard
knighted young Henry of Lancaster, the future victor of Agincourt, and
ordered a large number of labourers to fell the wood which sheltered the
enemy. Aided by the ground, MacMurrough held the royal army in check for
eleven days. The communications were cut, and the men at arms had nothing
but green oats for their horses. It was early in July; but the weather
was wet, and the whole army suffered from exposure and hunger. A convoy
which arrived at Waterford rather added to the disaster. 'Soldiers,' says
a contemporary chronicler, 'rushed into the sea as if it were straw.'
Casks were broached, and more than 1,000 at a time were seen drunk with
the Spanish wine. Abandoning the hope of attacking the Kavanaghs in their
fastnesses, Richard made his way to Dublin, the Earl of Gloucester having
failed to treat with MacMurrough.
[Sidenote: Richard's failure.]
The Leinster chieftain had married an Anglo-Norman heiress, and through
her claimed the barony of Narragh in Kildare. He demanded to be put in
full possession of his wife's lands, and to be left unmolested to enjoy
his chiefry. Otherwise he refused to come to any terms with the King.
Richard threatened, but his Irish plans were interrupted by the news that
Henry of Lancaster had landed in England. He lingered for some weeks in
Ireland, and that delay was fatal to him. He reached Milford only to find
that he had no longer a party, and thus Art MacMurrough may be said to
have crowned the House of Lancaster. The Irish chief continued
irreconcilable, and defied the Government until his death in 1417.
[Sidenote: Ireland neglected by Henry IV.]
With a bad title and an insecure throne Henry IV. could not be expected
to pay much attention to Ireland. The strength of the colony continued to
decline during his reign. He made his second son, Thomas, Viceroy, but a
child in his twelfth year was not the sort of governor required. The
treasury was empty, and the young prince's council had soon to announce
that he had pawned his plate, and that not another penny could be
borrowed. The soldiers had deserted, the household were about to
disperse, and the country was so much impoverished that relief could
scarcely be hoped for. The settlement was only preserved by paying black
mail to the Irish. The towns defended themselves as they best could, and
sometimes showed considerable martial enterprise. Thus Waterford was
several times attacked by the O'Driscolls, a piratical clan in West Cork,
who habitually allied themselves with the Le Poers. In 1413 the citizens
assumed the offensive, and armed a ship, in which the mayor and bailiffs
with a strong band sailed to Baltimore, where they arrived on Christmas
Day. A messenger was sent to say that the Mayor of Waterford had brought
a cargo of wine, and admission was thus gained to the chief's hall. 'The
Mayor,' we are told, 'took up to dance O'Driscoll and his son, the prior
of the Friary, O'Driscoll's three brethren, his uncle, and his wife, and
having them in their dance, the Mayor commanded every of his men to hold
fast the said persons; and so, after singing a carol, came away bringing
with them aboard the said ship the said O'Driscoll and his company,
saying unto them they should go with him to Waterford to sing their carol
and make merry that Christmas; and they being all aboard made sail
presently, and arrived at Waterford, St. Stephen's day at night, where
with great joy received they were with lights.'
This exploit seems to have tamed the O'Driscolls for a time, but they
invaded Waterford in 1452 and 1461. On the first occasion the citizens
had the worst, but on the second they gained the victory, and took the
chief with six of his sons.[37]
[Sidenote: Henry V. makes Talbot Viceroy.]
In the first year of his reign Henry V. made the famous Sir John Talbot
Viceroy. He was entitled to lands in Westmeath in right of his wife, and
the lordship of Wexford had devolved upon his elder brother. He adopted
the plan by which Bellingham and Sidney afterwards reconquered the
greater part of Ireland. The array of the counties was called out under
heavy penalties, and Talbot remained six days in Leix, which he so
ravaged as to bring O'More to his senses. The bridge of Athy, which had
been of use to none but the assailants of the Pale, was rebuilt and
fortified, so that the cattle of loyal people might graze in safety,
which they had not done for thirty years. Passes were cut in the woods
bordering on the settled districts, and there seemed some hope for the
shrunken and shattered colony. But Talbot's salary of 4,000 marks fell
into arrear, and his unpaid soldiers became a worse scourge than the
Irish had been. The Viceroy and his brother, the Archbishop of Dublin,
were constantly at daggers drawn with the White Earl of Ormonde, and the
feud continued nearly till the Earl's death in 1450. It was, however, due
both to Sir John Talbot and to Ormonde, his antagonist, that the Irish
were kept at bay. Shakespeare's hero was the bugbear with which French
mothers quieted naughty children, and he was no less feared in Ireland.
With the colonists he was not popular, because the Crown refused him the
means of paying his debts, and Irish writers stigmatise him as the worst
man who had appeared in the world since the time of Herod.
[Sidenote: Drain of colonists to the English civil wars.]
'France,' says Sir John Davies, 'was a fairer mark to shoot at than
Ireland, and could better reward the conqueror.' The latter part of his
statement is questionable, but such was the view taken by the kings of
England from Henry II. to Henry VII. Thomas Butler, Prior of Kilmainham,
who ought to have been engaged in the defence of the Pale, took 1,500 men
to help Henry V. at the siege of Rouen in 1418. The contemporary
chronicler, Robert Redman, says they did excellent service with very
sharp darts and crossbows. Trained in the irregular warfare of Ireland,
they easily outran the Frenchmen, to whom they showed extraordinary
animosity, but were less honourably distinguished by their practice of
kidnapping children and selling them as slaves to the English. James,
Earl of Ormonde and Wiltshire, also raised troops in Ireland for foreign
service, and it is probable that many other contingents were furnished of
which no record has been preserved. These forces consisted of
Anglo-Irish, or at least of Irishmen settled in obedient districts, and
their absence from home must have had a constant tendency to weaken the
colony.
[Sidenote: Richard of York made Lord-Lieutenant for ten years, 1449.]
In 1449 Richard of York visited Ireland as Viceroy. He accepted the
office for ten years, in consideration of 4,000 marks for the first, and
2,000_l._ for each succeeding year, and of the whole local revenue.
Richard was Earl of Ulster, but he preferred conciliation to any attempt
at reconquest, and was, consequently, able to command the services of
many Irish clans, including Magennis, MacArtane, MacMahon, and O'Reilly.
The O'Byrnes were put down with the help of the Northern chiefs, O'Neill
himself sent presents to the Duke, and most of the central districts
became tributary. The Anglo-Normans of Munster, who had partially
degenerated, renewed their allegiance, and it was generally supposed that
the task of making Ireland English would at last be accomplished. The
Viceroy's son George, the 'false, fleeting, perjured Clarence,' of later
years, was born in Dublin, and his sponsors were Ormonde and Desmond. But
very soon the fair prospect was clouded. The stipulated salary was not
paid. The Irish discovered that Richard had no greater force than his
predecessors, and the MacGeohegans, who had submitted, openly defied his
power. He left Ireland suddenly in the autumn of 1450, and did not return
for nine years.
[Sidenote: Richard is popular, and creates a Yorkist party. Ireland
almost independent.]
Richard had not done much to increase the King's power in Ireland, but he
created a Yorkist party there. At the time he was accused of prompting
Cade's rebellion, and Jack himself was said to be a native of Ireland.
The fact that both Simnel and Warbeck afterwards found their best support
among the Anglo-Irish seems to show that the Kildare and Desmond
partisans were already familiar with the notion of a Yorkist pretender.
It is very probable that the adherents of the White Rose saw their
opportunity in the fact that the Earldom of Ulster belonged to their
chief, and Cade must have had an object in calling himself Mortimer. All
this is plausible conjecture; but about the significance of Richard's
second viceroyalty there can be no reasonable doubt. In 1459, after
Salisbury's defeat at Blore Heath, the Duke of York was forced to fly,
and he took refuge in Ireland, where he seized the government in spite of
the Coventry Parliament. The local independence of Ireland was now for
the first time seriously attempted. Richard held a Parliament, which
acknowledged the English Crown while repudiating the English Legislature
and the English Courts of Law. The Duke of York's person was declared
inviolable, and rebellion against him was made high treason. The royal
privilege of coining money was also given to him. William Overy, a squire
of the Earl of Ormonde, who was already acknowledged as head of the Irish
Lancastrians, attempted to arrest the Duke as an attainted traitor and
rebel; but he was seized, tried before Richard himself, and hanged,
drawn, and quartered. After the victory of his friends at Northampton the
Duke returned to England. He took with him a considerable body of
Anglo-Irish partisans, and he committed the government to the Earl of
Kildare.
[Sidenote: The Yorkist faction headed by the Earl of Kildare.]
Richard of York fell at Sandal Hill, but the popularity which he had
gained in Ireland descended to his son. In the bloody battle of Towton
the flower of the Anglo-Irish Lancastrians fell, and their leader, the
Earl of Ormonde, was taken and beheaded. His house suffered an eclipse
from which it was destined to emerge with greater brilliancy than ever,
and the rival family of Kildare became for a time supreme in the Pale.
The native Irish everywhere advanced, and English law rapidly shrunk
within the narrowest limits. A Parliament, held by the Earl of Desmond in
1465, enacted that every Irishman dwelling among the English in Dublin,
Meath, Louth, and Kildare, should dress in the English fashion, shave his
moustache, take the oath of allegiance within a year, and assume as a
surname the name of a town, of a colour, or of a trade. In the Parliament
of 1480, held by the Earl of Kildare, all trade between the Pale and the
Irish was forbidden by law. The Parliament of Drogheda in 1468 had
already passed an Act which declared that the castle of Ballymore
Eustace, 'lying between the counties of Dublin and Kildare, among the
O'Byrnes and O'Tooles, Irish enemies,' should be garrisoned by Englishmen
only. The Eustaces, it was explained, had given it in charge to 'one
Lawrence O'Bogan, an Irishman both by father and mother, who by nature
would discover the secrets of the English.' Other Acts to a similar
effect might be cited, and it may be said that the main object of Edward
IV.'s government in Ireland was to separate the two races more
completely.
[Sidenote: George, Duke of Clarence, twice Viceroy.]
[Sidenote: Execution of Thomas, Earl of Desmond, 1467.]
George, Duke of Clarence, was Viceroy from 1461 to 1470, and again from
1472 till his mysterious death in 1478. Though born in Dublin, he never
visited Ireland as a man, and the government was administered by a
succession of Deputies. The fate of one of these Deputies, Thomas, eighth
Earl of Desmond, deserves particular mention. John Tiptoft, Earl of
Worcester, whose beautiful Latinity had moved Pope Æneas Sylvius to
tears, was entrusted with the government in 1467, and he assembled a
Parliament in which Desmond and Kildare were attainted. Kildare escaped
to England, and procured a reversal of the attainder, but Desmond was
enticed to Drogheda, and there beheaded. The ostensible cause for this
severity is declared by an unpublished statute to have been 'alliance,
fosterage, and alterage with the King's Irish enemies, and furnishing
them with horses, harness, and arms, and supporting them against the
King's loyal subjects.' The Anglo-Irish tradition attributes it to the
vengeance of Queen Elizabeth Woodville, whose marriage Desmond had
opposed. According to Russell, he told Edward that Sir John Grey's widow
was too mean a match for him, that he needed allies sorely, and that he
had better cast her off and link himself with some powerful prince. By
this account the Queen stole the royal signet, and transmitted a secret
order for the Earl's death to Ireland. Three years later Worcester was
taken and beheaded during the short Lancastrian restoration; and this
quite disposes of Russell's statement that King Edward 'struck his head
from his neck to make satisfaction to the angry ghost of Desmond.' What
is historically important in Desmond's execution is that it gave his
successors an excuse for not attending Parliaments or entering walled
towns. Their claim to legal exemption was not indeed allowed, but it may
have had considerable effect on their conduct.[38]
[Sidenote: Under Edward IV. and Richard III. the House of Kildare is
all-powerful. The Butlers overshadowed.]
After the death of Clarence, Edward made his sons, George and Richard,
Viceroys, and Richard III. conferred the same office on his infant son
Edward. The government was carried on by Deputies, and during the last
twenty years of the Yorkist dynasty almost all real power centred in the
House of Kildare. It was the seventh Earl who established the brotherhood
of St. George for the defence of the Pale. The thirteen members of this
fraternity were chosen from among the principal landowners of the four
obedient shires, thus excluding the Butlers, who formed a small Pale of
their own about Kilkenny. The brothers of St. George had rather more than
200 soldiers under them, who were paid out of the royal revenue; and that
constituted the entire standing army. The cities and towns maintained a
precarious existence by themselves. In the charter which Richard III.
granted to Galway it was specially declared that the Clanricarde Burkes
had no jurisdiction within the town which their ancestors had taken and
fortified. An Act passed in 1485 declares that various benefices in the
diocese of Dublin were situated among the Irish, that English clerks
could not serve the churches because they could not be understood or
because they refused to reside, and that it was therefore necessary to
collate Irish clerks; and power was given to the Archbishop to do so for
two years. The statute of Kilkenny and the Acts subsidiary to it had had
their natural effect. The English, in trying to become perfectly English,
had shrunk almost to nothing; and the Irish, by being held always at
arm's length, had become more Irish and less civilised than ever.
FOOTNOTES:
[37] The quarrels of Waterford with the O'Driscolls are given in the
_Calendar of Carew MSS._, _Miscellaneous vol._ p. 470. Smith refers to a
MS. in Trinity College.
[38] Besides those in the Statute Book many Irish Acts of Edward IV.'s
reign may be studied in Hardiman's _Statute of Kilkenny_.