AUTHORITIES.--_The Annals of the Four Masters_, ed. J. O'Donovan (7

vols., Dublin, 1856); _Annals of Ulster_ (4 vols., London, 1887-1892);

Keating's _Forus Feasa ar Eirinn_ (3 vols., ed. D. Comyn and P.

Dinneen, London, 1902-1908); E. Windisch, _Tain Bo Cualnge_ (Leipzig,

1905), with a valuable introduction; P. W. Joyce, _A Social History of

Ancient Ireland_ (2 vols., London, 1903), also _A Short History of

Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1608_ (London, 1895); A. G. Richey,

_A Short History of the Irish People_ (Dublin, 1887); W. F. Skene,

_Celtic Scotland_ (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1876-1880); J. Rhys, "Studies

in Early Irish History," in _Proceedings of the British Academy_, vol.

i.; John MacNeill, papers in _New Ireland Review_ (March 1906-February

1907); _Leabhar na gCeart_, ed. O'Donovan (Dublin, 1847); E. O'Curry,

_The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish_, ed. W. K. Sullivan (3

vols., London, 1873); G. T. Stokes, _Ireland and the Celtic Church_,

revised by H. J. Lawlor (London^6, 1907); J. Healy, _Ireland's Ancient

Schools and Scholars_ (Dublin^3, 1897); H. Zimmer, article "Keltische

Kirche" in Hauck's _Realencyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie und

Kirche_ (trans. A. Meyer, London, 1902), cf. H. Williams, "H. Zimmer

on the History of the Celtic Church," _Zeitschr. f. celt. Phil._ iv.

527-574; H. Zimmer, "Die Bedeutung des irischen Elements in der

mittelalterlichen Kultur," _Preussische Jahrbucher_, vol. lix., trans.

J. L. Edmands, _The Irish Element in Medieval Culture_ (New York,

1891); J. H. Todd, _St Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland_ (Dublin,

1864); J. B. Bury, _Life of St Patrick_ (London, 1905); W. Reeves,

_Adamnan's Life of Columba_ (Dublin, 1857; also ed. with introd. by J.

T. Fowler, Oxford, 1894); M. Roger, _L'Enseignement des lettres

classiques d'Ausone a Alcuin_ (Paris, 1905); J. H. Todd, _The War

of the Gaedhil with the Gall_ (London, 1867); L. J. Vogt, _Dublin som

Norsk By_ (Christiania, 1897); J. Steenstrup, _Normannerne_, vols.

ii., iii. (Copenhagen, 1878-1882); W. G. Collingwood, _Scandinavian

Britain_ (London, 1908). (E. C. Q.)

_History from the Anglo-Norman Invasion._

"Bull" of Adrian IV.

According to the _Metalogus_ of John of Salisbury, who in 1155 went on a

mission from King Henry II. to Pope Adrian IV., the only Englishman who

has ever occupied the papal chair, the pope in response to the envoy's

prayers granted to the king of the English the hereditary lordship of

Ireland, sending a letter, with a ring as the symbol of investiture.

Giraldus Cambrensis, in his _Expugnatio Hibernica_, gives what purports

to be the text of this letter, known as "the Bull Laudabiliter," and

adds further a _Privilegium_ of Pope Alexander III. confirming Adrian's

grant. The _Privilegium_ is undoubtedly spurious, a fact which lends

weight to the arguments of those who from the 19th century onwards have

attacked the genuineness of the "Bull." This latter, indeed, appears to

have been concocted by Gerald, an ardent champion of the English cause

in Ireland, from genuine letters of Pope Alexander III., still preserved

in the _Black Book of the Exchequer_, which do no more than commend King

Henry for reducing the Irish to order and extirpating _tantae

abominationis spurcitiam_, and exhort the Irish bishops and chiefs to be

faithful to the king to whom they had sworn allegiance.[13]

Henry was, indeed, at the outset in a position to dispense with the

moral aid of a papal concession, of which even if it existed he

certainly made no use. In 1156 Dermod MacMurrough (Diarmait

MacMurchada), deposed for his tyranny from the kingdom of Leinster,

repaired to Henry in Aquitaine (see _Early History_ above). The king was

busy with the French, but gladly seized the opportunity, and gave Dermod

a letter authorizing him to raise forces in England. Thus armed, and

provided with gold extorted from his former subjects in Leinster, Dermod

went to Bristol and sought the acquaintance of Richard de Clare, earl of

Pembroke, a Norman noble of great ability but broken fortunes. Earl

Richard, whom later usage has named Strongbow, agreed to reconquer

Dermod's kingdom for him. The stipulated consideration was the hand of

Eva his only child, and according to feudal law his sole heiress, to

whose issue lands and kingdoms would naturally pass. But Irish customs

admitted no estates of inheritance, and Eva had no more right to the

reversion of Leinster than she had to that of Japan. It is likely that

Strongbow had no conception of this, and that his first collision with

the tribal system was an unpleasant surprise. Passing through Wales,

Dermod agreed with Robert Fitzstephen and Maurice Fitzgerald to invade

Ireland in the ensuing spring.

The invasion of Strongbow.

About the 1st of May 1169 Fitzstephen landed on the Wexford shore with a

small force, and next day Maurice de Prendergast brought another band

nearly to the same spot. Dermod joined them, and the Danes of Wexford

soon submitted. According to agreement Dermod granted the territory of

Wexford, which had never belonged to him, to Robert and Maurice and

their heirs for ever; and here begins the conflict between feudal and

tribal law which was destined to deluge Ireland in blood. Maurice

Fitzgerald soon followed with a fresh detachment. About a year after the

first landing Raymond Le Gros was sent over by Earl Richard with his

advanced guard, and Strongbow himself landed near Waterford on the 23rd

of August 1170 with 200 knights and about 1000 other troops.

The natives did not understand that this invasion was quite different

from those of the Danes. They made alliances with the strangers to aid

them in their intestine wars, and the annalist writing in later years

(_Annals of Lough Ce_) describes with pathetic brevity the change

wrought in Ireland:--"Earl Strongbow came into Erin with Dermod

MacMurrough to avenge his expulsion by Roderick, son of Turlough

O'Connor; and Dermod gave him his own daughter and a part of his

patrimony, and Saxon foreigners have been in Erin since then."

Most of the Norman leaders were near relations, many being descended

from Nesta, daughter of Rhys Ap Tudor, prince of South Wales, the most

beautiful woman of her time, and mistress of Henry I. Her children by

that king were called Fitzhenry. She afterwards married Gerald de

Windsor, by whom she had three sons--Maurice, ancestor of all the

Geraldines; William, from whom sprang the families of Fitzmaurice,

Carew, Grace and Gerard; and David, who became bishop of St David's.

Nesta's daughter, Angareth, married to William de Barri, bore the

chronicler Giraldus Cambrensis, and was ancestress of the Irish Barries.

Raymond le Gros, Hervey de Montmorency, and the Cogans were also

descendants of Nesta, who, by her second husband, Stephen the Castellan,

was mother of Robert Fitzstephen.

While waiting for Strongbow's arrival, Raymond and Hervey were attacked

by the Danes of Waterford, whom they overthrew. Strongbow himself took

Waterford and Dublin, and the Danish inhabitants of both readily

combined with their French-speaking kinsfolk, and became firm supporters

of the Anglo-Normans against the native Irish.

Alarmed at the principality forming near him, Henry invaded Ireland in

person, landing near Waterford on the 18th of October 1172. Giraldus

says he had 500 knights and many other soldiers; Regan, the metrical

chronicler, says he had 4000 men, of whom 400 were knights; the _Annals

of Lough Ce_ that he had 240 ships. The Irish writers tell little about

these great events, except that the king of the Saxons took the hostages

of Munster at Waterford, and of Leinster, Ulster, Thomond and Meath at

Dublin. They did not take in the grave significance of doing homage to a

Norman king, and becoming his "man."

Henry II. in Ireland.

Henry's farthest point westward was Cashel, where he received the homage

of Donald O'Brien, king of Thomond, but he does not appear to have been

present at the famous synod. Christian O'Conarchy, bishop of Lismore and

papal legate, presided, and the archbishops of Dublin, Cashel and Tuam

attended with their suffragans, as did many abbots and other

dignitaries. The primate of Armagh, the saintly Gelasius, was absent,

and presumably his suffragans also, but Giraldus says he afterwards came

to the king at Dublin, and favoured him in all things. Henry's

sovereignty was acknowledged, and constitutions made which drew Ireland

closer to Rome. In spite of the "enormities and filthinesses," which

Giraldus says defiled the Irish Church, nothing worse could be found to

condemn than marriages within the prohibited degrees and trifling

irregularities about baptism. Most of the details rest on the authority

of Giraldus only, but the main facts are clear. The synod is not

mentioned by the Irish annalists, nor by Regan, but it is by Hoveden and

Ralph de Diceto. The latter says it was held at Lismore, an error

arising from the president having been bishop of Lismore. Tradition says

the members met in Cormac's chapel.

Henry at first tried to be suzerain without displacing the natives, and

received the homage of Roderick O'Connor, the high king. But the

adventurers were uncontrollable, and he had to let them conquer what

they could, exercising a precarious authority over the Normans only

through a viceroy. The early governors seemingly had orders to deal as

fairly as possible with the natives, and this involved them in quarrels

with the "conquerors," whose object was to carve out principalities for

themselves, and who only nominally respected the sovereign's wishes. The

mail-clad knights were not uniformly successful against the natives, but

they generally managed to occupy the open plains and fertile valleys.

Geographical configuration preserved centres of resistance--the O'Neills

in Tyrone and Armagh, the O'Donnells in Donegal, and the Macarthies in

Cork being the largest tribes that remained practically unbroken. On the

coast from Bray to Dundalk, and by the navigable rivers of the east and

south coasts, the Norman put his iron foot firmly down.

Prince John landed at Waterford in 1185, and the neighbouring chiefs

hastened to pay their respects to the king's son. Prince and followers

alike soon earned hatred, the former showing the incurable vices of his

character, and pulling the beards of the chieftains. After eight

disgraceful months he left the government to John de Courci, but

retained the title "Dominus Hiberniae." It was even intended to crown

him; and Urban III. sent a licence and a crown of peacock's feathers,

which was never placed on his head. Had Richard I. had children Ireland

might have become a separate kingdom.

Henry II. had granted Meath, about 800,000 acres, to Hugh de Lacy (d.

1186), reserving scarcely any prerogative to the crown, and making his

vassal almost independent. De Lacy sublet the land among kinsmen and

retainers, and to his grants the families of Nugent, Tyrell, Nangle,

Tuyt, Fleming and others owe their importance in Irish history. It is

not surprising that the Irish bordering on Meath should have thought De

Lacy the real king of Ireland.

King John.

During his brother Richard I.'s reign, John's viceroy was William

Marshal, earl of Pembroke, who married Strongbow's daughter, and thus

succeeded to his claims in Leinster. John's reputation was no better in

Ireland than in England. He thwarted or encouraged the Anglo-Normans as

best suited him, but on the whole they increased their possessions. In

1210 John, now king, visited Ireland again, and being joined by Cathal

Crovderg O'Connor, king of Connaught, marched from Waterford by Dublin

to Carrickfergus without encountering any serious resistance from Hugh

de Lacy (second son of the Hugh de Lacy mentioned above), who had been

made earl of Ulster in 1205. John did not venture farther west than

Trim, but most of the Anglo-Norman lords swore fealty to him, and he

divided the partially obedient districts into twelve counties--Dublin

(with Wicklow), Meath (with Westmeath), Louth, Carlow, Kilkenny,

Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Kerry and Tipperary. John's

resignation of his kingdom to the pope in 1213 included Ireland, and

thus for the second time was the papal claim to Ireland formally

recorded.

Henry III. (1216-1272).

During Henry III.'s long reign the Anglo-Norman power increased, but

underwent great modifications. Richard Marshal, grandson of Strongbow,

and to a great extent heir of his power, was foully murdered by his own

feudatories--men of his own race; and the colony never quite recovered

this blow. On the other hand, the De Burghs, partly by alliance with the

Irish, partly by sheer hard fighting, made good their claims to the

lordship of Connaught, and the western O'Connors henceforth play a very

subordinate part in Irish history. Tallage was first imposed on the

colony in the first year of this reign, but yielded little, and tithes

were not much better paid.

Objections to Irish clergy.

Separation of the two races.

On the 14th of January 1217 the king wrote from Oxford to his

justiciary, Geoffrey de Marisco, directing that no Irishman should be

elected or preferred in any cathedral in Ireland, "since by that means

our land might be disturbed, which is to be deprecated." This order was

annulled in 1224 by Honorius III., who declared it "destitute of all

colour of right and honesty." The pope's efforts failed, for in the 14th

century several Cistercian abbeys excluded Irishmen, and as late as 1436

the monks of Abingdon complained bitterly that an Irish abbot had been

imposed on them by lay violence. Parliament was not more liberal, for

the statute of Kilkenny, passed in 1366, ordained that "no Irishman be

admitted into any cathedral or collegiate church, nor to any benefice

among the English of the land," and also "that no religious house

situated among the English shall henceforth receive an Irishman to their

profession." This was confirmed by the English parliament in 1416, and

an Irish act of Richard III. enabled the archbishop of Dublin to collate

Irish clerks for two years, an exception proving the rule. Many Irish

monasteries admitted no Englishmen, and at least one attempt was made,

in 1250, to apply the same rule to cathedrals. The races remained nearly

separate, the Irish simply staying outside the feudal system. If an

Englishman slew an Irishman (except one of the five regal and

privileged bloods) he was not to be tried for murder, for Irish law

admitted composition (_eric_) for murder. In Magna Charta there is a

proviso that foreign merchants shall be treated as English merchants are

treated in the country whence the travellers came. Yet some enlightened

men strove to fuse the two nations together, and the native Irish, or

that section which bordered on the settlements and suffered great

oppression, offered 8000 marks to Edward I. for the privilege of living

under English law. The justiciary supported their petition, but the

prelates and nobles refused to consent.

Edward I. (1272-1307).

There is a vague tradition that Edward I. visited Ireland about 1256,

when his father ordained that the prince's seal should have regal

authority in that country. A vast number of documents remain to prove

that he did not neglect Irish business. Yet this great king cannot be

credited with any specially enlightened views as to Ireland. Hearing

with anger of enormities committed in his name, he summoned the viceroy,

Robert de Ufford (d. 1298), to explain, who coolly said that he thought

it expedient to wink at one knave cutting off another, "whereat the king

smiled and bade him return into Ireland." The colonists were strong

enough to send large forces to the king in his Scottish wars, but as

there was no corresponding immigration this really weakened the English,

whose best hopes lay in agriculture and the arts of peace, while the

Celtic race waxed proportionally numerous. Outwardly all seemed fair.

The De Burghs were supreme in Connaught, and English families occupied

eastern Ulster. The fertile southern and central lands were dominated by

strong castles. But Tyrone and Tyrconnel, and the mountains everywhere,

sheltered the Celtic race, which, having reached its lowest point under

Edward I., began to recover under his son.

Edward II. (1307-1327).

In 1315, the year after Bannockburn, Edward Bruce landed near Larne with

6000 men, including some of the best knights in Scotland. Supported by

O'Neill and other chiefs, and for a time assisted by his famous brother,

Bruce gained many victories. There was no general effort of the natives

in their favour; perhaps the Irish thought one Norman no better than

another, and their total incapacity for national organization forbade

the idea of a native sovereign. The family quarrels of the O'Connors at

this time, and their alliances with the Burkes, or De Burghs, and the

Berminghams, may be traced in great detail in the annalists--the general

result being fatal to the royal tribe of Connaught, which is said to

have lost 10,000 warriors in the battle of Templetogher. In other places

the English were less successful, the Butlers being beaten by the

O'Carrolls in 1318, and Richard de Clare falling about the same time in

the decisive battle of Dysert O'Dea. The O'Briens re-established their

sway in Thomond and the illustrious name of Clare disappears from Irish

history. Edward Bruce fell in battle near Dundalk, and most of his army

recrossed the channel, leaving behind a reputation for cruelty and

rapacity. The colonists were victorious, but their organization was

undermined, and the authority of the crown, which had never been able to

keep the peace, grew rapidly weaker. Within twenty years after the great

victory of Dundalk, the quarrels of the barons allowed the Irish to

recover much of the land they had lost.

Edward III. (1327-1377).

John de Bermingham, earl of Louth, the conqueror of Bruce, was murdered

in 1329 by the Gernons, Cusacks, Everards and other English of that

county, who disliked his firm government. They were never brought to

justice. Talbot of Malahide and two hundred of Bermingham's relations

and adherents were massacred at the same time. In 1333, William de

Burgh, the young earl of Ulster, was murdered by the Mandevilles and

others; in this case signal vengeance was taken, but the feudal dominion

never recovered the blow, and on the north-east coast the English laws

and language were soon confined to Drogheda and Dundalk. The earl left

one daughter, Elizabeth, who was of course a royal ward. She married

Lionel, duke of Clarence, and from her springs the royal line of

England from Edward IV., as well as James V. of Scotland and his

descendants.

The two chief men among the De Burghs were loth to hold their lands of a

little absentee girl. Having no grounds for opposing the royal title to

the wardship of the heiress, they abjured English law and became Irish

chieftains. As such they were obeyed, for the king's arm was short in

Ireland. The one appropriated Mayo as the Lower (Oughter) M'William, and

the earldom of Mayo perpetuates the memory of the event. The other as

the Upper (Eighter) M'William took Galway, and from him the earls of

Clanricarde afterwards sprung.

Edward III. being busy with foreign wars had little time to spare for

Ireland, and the native chiefs everywhere seized their opportunity.

Perhaps the most remarkable of these aggressive chiefs was Lysaght

O'More, who reconquered Leix. Clyn the Franciscan annalist, whose

Latinity is so far above the medieval level as almost to recall Tacitus,

sums up Lysaght's career epigrammatically: "He was a slave, he became a

master; he was a subject, he became a prince (de servo dominus, de

subjecto princeps effectus)." The two great earldoms whose contests form

a large part of the history of the south of Ireland were created by

Edward III. James Butler, eldest son of Edmund, earl of Carrick, became

earl of Ormonde and palatine of Tipperary in 1328. Next year Maurice

Fitzgerald was made earl of Desmond, and from his three brethren

descended the historic houses of the White Knight, the knight of Glin,

and the knight of Kerry. The earldom of Kildare dates from 1316. In this

reign too was passed the statute of Kilkenny (q.v.), a confession by the

crown that obedient subjects were the minority. The enactments against

Irish dress and customs, and against marriage and fostering proved a

dead letter.

Richard II. (1377-1399).

In two expeditions to Ireland Richard II. at first overcame all

opposition, but neither had any permanent effect. Art MacMurrough, the

great hero of the Leinster Celts, practically had the best of the

contest. The king in his despatches divided the population into Irish

enemies, Irish rebels and English subjects. As he found them so he left

them, lingering in Dublin long enough to lose his own crown. But for

MacMurrough and his allies the house of Lancaster might never have

reigned. No English king again visited Ireland until James II., declared

by his English subjects to have abdicated, and by the more outspoken

Scots to have forfeited the crown, appealed to the loyalty or piety of

the Catholic Irish.

Henry IV. (1399-1413).

Henry IV. had a bad title, and his necessities were conducive to the

growth of the English constitution, but fatal to the Anglo-Irish. His

son Thomas, duke of Clarence, was viceroy in 1401, but did very little.

"Your son," wrote the Irish council to Henry, "is so destitute of money

that he has not a penny in the world, nor can borrow a single penny,

because all his jewels and his plate that he can spare, and those which

he must of necessity keep, are pledged to lie in pawn." The nobles waged

private war unrestrained, and the game of playing off one chieftain

against another was carried on with varying success. The provisions of

the statute of Kilkenny against trading with the Irish failed, for

markets cannot exist without buyers.

Henry V. (1413-1422).

Henry VI. (1422-1461).

The brilliant reign of Henry V. was a time of extreme misery to the

colony in Ireland. Half the English-speaking people fled to England,

where they were not welcome. The disastrous reign of the third

Lancastrian completed the discomfiture of the original colony in

Ireland. Quarrels between the Ormonde and Talbot parties paralysed the

government, and a "Pale" of 30 m. by 20 was all that remained. Even the

walled towns, Kilkenny, Ross, Wexford, Kinsale, Youghal, Clonmel,

Kilmallock, Thomastown, Fethard and Cashel, were almost starved out;

Waterford itself was half ruined and half deserted. Only one parliament

was held for thirty years, but taxation was not remitted on that

account. No viceroy even pretended to reside continuously. The north and

west were still worse off than the south. Some thoughtful men saw

clearly the danger of leaving Ireland to be seized by the first chance

comer, and the _Libel of English Policy_, written about 1436, contains a

long and interesting passage declaring England's interests in protecting

Ireland as "a boterasse and a poste" of her own power. Sir John Talbot,

immortalized by Shakespeare, was several times viceroy; he was almost

uniformly successful in the field, but feeble in council. He held a

parliament at Trim which made one law against men of English race

wearing moustaches, lest they should be mistaken for Irishmen, and

another obliging the sons of agricultural labourers to follow their

father's vocation under pain of fine and imprisonment. The earls of

Shrewsbury are still earls of Waterford, and retain the right to carry

the white staff as hereditary stewards, but the palatinate jurisdiction

over Wexford was taken away by Henry VIII. The Ulster annalists give a

very different estimate of the great Talbot from that of Shakespeare: "A

son of curses for his venom and a devil for his evils; and the learned

say of him that there came not from the time of Herod, by whom Christ

was crucified, any one so wicked in evil deeds" (O'Donovan's _Four

Masters_).

Richard of York in Ireland.

In 1449 Richard, duke of York, right heir by blood to the throne of

Edward III., was forced to yield the regency of France to his rival

Somerset, and to accept the Irish viceroyalty. He landed at Howth with

his wife Cicely Neville, and Margaret of Anjou hoped thus to get rid of

one who was too great for a subject. The Irish government was given to

him for ten years on unusually liberal terms. He ingratiated himself

with both races, taking care to avoid identification with any particular

family. At the baptism of his son George--"false, fleeting, perjured

Clarence"--who was born in Dublin Castle, Desmond and Ormonde stood

sponsors together. In legislation Richard fared no better than others.

The rebellion of Jack Cade, claiming to be a Mortimer and cousin to the

duke of York, took place at this time. This adventurer, at once

ludicrous and formidable, was a native of Ireland, and was thought to be

put forward by Richard to test the popularity of the Yorkist cause.

Returning suddenly to England in 1450, Richard left the government to

James, earl of Ormonde and Wiltshire, who later married Eleanor,

daughter of Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset, and was deeply engaged on

the Lancastrian side. This earl began the deadly feud with the house of

Kildare, which lasted for generations. After Blore Heath Richard was

attainted by the Lancastrian parliament, and returned to Dublin, where

the colonial parliament acknowledged him and assumed virtual

independence. A separate coinage was established, and the authority of

the English parliament was repudiated. William Overy, a bold squire of

Ormonde's, offered to arrest Richard as an attainted traitor, but was

seized, tried before the man whom he had come to take, and hanged, drawn

and quartered. The duke only maintained his separate kingdom about a

year. His party triumphed in England, but he himself fell at Wakefield.

Edward IV. (1461-1483).

Among the few prisoners taken on the bloody field of Towton was Ormonde,

whose head long adorned London Bridge. He and his brothers were

attainted in England and by the Yorkist parliament in Ireland, but the

importance of the family was hardly diminished by this. For the first

six years of Edward's reign the two Geraldine earls engrossed official

power. The influence of Queen Elizabeth Woodville, whom Desmond had

offended, then made itself felt. Tiptoft, earl of Worcester, became

deputy. He was an accomplished Oxonian, who made a speech at Rome in

such good Latin as to draw tears from the eyes of that great patron of

letters Pope Pius II. (Aeneas Sylvius). But his Latinity did not soften

his manners, and he was thought cruel even in that age. Desmond was

beheaded, ostensibly for using Irish exactions, really, as the partisans

of his family hold, to please Elizabeth. The remarkable lawlessness of

this reign was increased by the practice of coining. Several mints had

been established since Richard of York's time; the standards varied and

imitation was easy.

Richard III.

Henry VII. (1485-1509).

During Richard III.'s short reign the earl of Kildare, head of the Irish

Yorkists, was the strongest man in Ireland. He espoused the cause of

Lambert Simnel (1487), whom the Irish in general seem always to have

thought a true Plantagenet. The Italian primate, Octavian de Palatio,

knew better, and incurred the wrath of Kildare by refusing to officiate

at the impostor's coronation. The local magnates and several

distinguished visitors attended, and Lambert was shown to the people

borne aloft on "great D'Arcy of Platten's" shoulders. His enterprise

ended in the battle of Stoke, near Newark, where the flower of the

Anglo-Irish soldiery fell. "The Irish," says Bacon, "did not fail in

courage or fierceness, but, being almost naked men, only armed with

darts and skeins, it was rather an execution than a fight upon them."

Conspicuous among Henry VII.'s adherents in Ireland were the citizens of

Waterford, who, with the men of Clonmel, Callan, Fethard and the Butler

connexion generally, were prepared to take the field in his favour.

Waterford was equally conspicuous some years later in resisting Perkin

Warbeck, who besieged it unsuccessfully, and was chased by the citizens,

who fitted out a fleet at their own charge. The king conferred honour

and rewards on the loyal city, to which he gave the proud title of _urbs

intacta_. Other events of this reign were the parliament of Drogheda,

held by Sir Edward Poynings, which gave the control of Irish legislation

to the English council ("Poynings's Act"--the great bone of contention

in the later days of Flood and Grattan), and the battle of Knockdoe, in

which the earl of Kildare used the viceregal authority to avenge a

private quarrel.

Henry VIII. (1509-1547).

Occupied in pleasure or foreign enterprise, Henry VIII. at first paid

little attention to Ireland. The royal power was practically confined to

what in the previous century had become known as the "Pale," that is

Dublin, Louth, Kildare and a part of Meath, and within this narrow limit

the earls of Kildare were really more powerful than the crown.

Waterford, Drogheda, Dundalk, Cork, Limerick and Galway were not Irish,

but rather free cities than an integral part of the kingdom; and many

inland towns were in the same position. The house of Ormonde had created

a sort of small Pale about Kilkenny, and part of Wexford had been

colonized by men of English race. The Desmonds were Irish in all but

pride of blood. The Barretts, Condons, Courcies, Savages, Arundels,

Carews and others had disappeared or were merged in the Celtic mass.

Anglo-Norman nobles became chiefs of pseudo-tribes, which acknowledged

only the Brehon law, and paid dues and services in kind. These

pseudo-tribes were often called "nations," and a vast number of

exactions were practised by the chiefs. "Coyne and livery"--the right of

free-quarters for man and beast--arose among the Anglo-Normans, and

became more oppressive than any native custom. When Henry took to

business, he laid the foundation of reconquest. The house of Kildare,

which had actually besieged Dublin (1534), was overthrown, and the Pale

saved from a standing danger (see FITZGERALD). But the Pale scarcely

extended 20 m. from Dublin, a march of uncertain width intervening

between it and the Irish districts. Elsewhere, says an elaborate report,

all the English folk were of "Irish language and Irish condition,"

except in the cities and walled towns. Down and Louth paid black rent to

O'Neill, Meath and Kildare to O'Connor, Wexford to the Kavanaghs,

Kilkenny and Tipperary to O'Carroll, Limerick to the O'Briens, and Cork

to the MacCarthies. MacMurrough Kavanagh, in Irish eyes the

representative of King Dermod, received an annual pension from the

exchequer. Henry set steadily to work to reassert the royal title. He

assumed the style of king of Ireland, so as to get rid of the notion

that he held the island of the pope. The Irish chiefs acknowledged his

authority and his ecclesiastical supremacy, abjuring at the same time

that of the Holy See. The lands of the earl of Shrewsbury and other

absentees, who had performed no duties, were resumed; and both Celtic

and feudal nobles were encouraged to come to court. Here begins the long

line of official deputies, often men of moderate birth and fortune.

Butler and Geraldine, O'Neill and O'Donnell, continued to spill each

other's blood, but the feudal and tribal systems were alike doomed. In

the names of these Tudor deputies and other officers we see the origin

of many great Irish families--Skeffington, Brabazon, St Leger,

Fitzwilliam, Wingfield, Bellingham, Carew, Bingham, Loftus and others.

Nor were the Celts overlooked. O'Neill and O'Brien went to London to be

invested as earls of Tyrone and Thomond respectively. O'Donnell, whose

descendants became earls of Tyrconnel, went to court and was well

received. The pseudo-chief MacWilliam became earl of Clanricarde, and

others reached lower steps in the peerage, or were knighted by the

king's own hand. All were encouraged to look to the crown for redress of

grievances, and thus the old order slowly gave place to the new.

The Irish Church.

The moment when Protestantism and Ultramontanism are about to begin

their still unfinished struggle is a fit time to notice the chief points

in medieval Irish church history. Less than two years before Strongbow's

arrival Pope Eugenius had established an ecclesiastical constitution in

Ireland depending on Rome, but the annexation was very imperfectly

carried out, and the hope of fully asserting the Petrine claims was a

main cause of Adrian's gift to Henry II. Hitherto the Scandinavian

section of the church in Ireland had been most decidedly inclined to

receive the hierarchical and diocesan as distinguished from the monastic

and quasi-tribal system. The bishops or abbots of Dublin derived their

succession from Canterbury from 1038 to 1162, and the bishops of

Waterford and Limerick also sought consecration there. But both Celt and

Northman acknowledged the polity of Eugenius, and it was chiefly in the

matters of tithe, Peter's pence, canonical degrees and the observance of

festivals that Rome had still victories to gain. Between churchmen of

Irish and English race there was bitter rivalry; but the theory that the

ancient Celtic church remained independent, and as it were Protestant,

while the English colony submitted to the Vatican, is a mere

controversial figment. The crown was weak and papal aggression made

rapid progress. It was in the Irish church, about the middle of the 13th

century, that the system of giving jurisdiction to the bishops "in

temporalibus" was adopted by Innocent IV. The vigour of Edward I.

obtained a renunciation in particular cases, but the practice continued

unabated. The system of provisions was soon introduced at the expense of

free election, and was acknowledged by the statute of Kilkenny. In the

more remote districts it must have been almost a matter of necessity.

Many Irish parishes grew out of primitive monasteries, but other early

settlements remained monastic, and were compelled by the popes to adopt

the rule of authorized orders, generally that of the Augustinian canons.

That order became much the most numerous in Ireland, having not less

than three hundred houses. Of other sedentary orders the Cistercians

were the most important, and the mendicants were very numerous. Both

Celtic chiefs and Norman nobles founded convents after Henry II. 's

time, but the latter being wealthier were most distinguished in this

way. Religious houses were useful as abodes of peace in a turbulent

country, and the lands attached were better cultivated than those of lay

proprietors. Attempts to found a university at Dublin (1311) or Drogheda

(1465) failed for want of funds. The work of education was partially

done by the great abbeys, boys of good family being brought up by the

Cistercians of Dublin and Jerpoint, and by the Augustinians of Dublin,

Kells and Connel, and girls by the canonesses of Gracedieu. A strong

effort was made to save these six houses, but Henry VIII. would not hear

of it, and there was no Irish Wolsey partially to supply the king's

omissions.

Ample evidence exists that the Irish church was full of abuses before

the movement under Henry VIII. We have detailed accounts of three

sees--Clonmacnoise, Enaghdune and Ardagh. Ross, also in a wild district,

was in rather better case. But even in Dublin strange things happened;

thus the archiepiscopal crozier was in pawn for eighty years from 1449.

The morals of the clergy were no better than in other countries, and we

have evidence of many scandalous irregularities. But perhaps the most

severe condemnation is that of the report to Henry VIII. in 1515. "There

is," says the document, "no archbishop, ne bishop, abbot, ne prior,

parson, ne vicar, ne any other person of the church, high or low, great

or small, English or Irish, that useth to preach the word of God, saving

the poor friars beggars ... the church of this land use not to learn any

other science, but the law of canon, for covetise of lucre transitory."

Where his hand reached Henry had little difficulty in suppressing the

monasteries or taking their lands, which Irish chiefs swallowed as

greedily as men of English blood. But the friars, though pretty

generally turned out of doors, were themselves beyond Henry's power, and

continued to preach everywhere among the people. Their devotion and

energy may be freely admitted; but the mendicant orders, especially the

Carmelites, were not uniformly distinguished for morality. Monasticism

was momentarily suppressed under Oliver Cromwell, but the Restoration

brought the monks back to their old haunts. The Jesuits, placed by Paul

III. under the protection of Conn O'Neill, "prince of the Irish of

Ulster," came to Ireland towards the end of Henry's reign, and helped to

keep alive the Roman tradition. Anglicanism was regarded as a symbol of

conquest and intrusion. The _Four Masters_ thus describes the

Reformation: "A heresy and new error arising in England, through pride,

vain glory, avarice, and lust, and through many strange sciences, so

that the men of England went into opposition to the pope and to Rome."

The destruction of relics and images and the establishment of a

schismatic hierarchy is thus recorded: "Though great was the persecution

of the Roman emperors against the church, scarcely had there ever come

so great a persecution from Rome as this."

Edward VI. (1547-1553).

The able opportunist Sir Anthony St Leger, who was accused by one party

of opposing the Reformation and by the other of lampooning the

Sacrament, continued to rule during the early days of Edward VI. To him

succeeded Sir Edward Bellingham, a Puritan soldier whose hand was heavy

on all who disobeyed the king. He bridled Connaught by a castle at

Athlone, and Munster by a garrison at Leighlin Bridge. The O'Mores and

O'Connors were brought low, and forts erected where Maryborough and

Philipstown now stand. Both chiefs and nobles were forced to respect the

king's representative, but Bellingham was not wont to flatter those in

power, and his administration found little favour in England. Sir

Francis Bryan, Henry VIII.'s favourite, succeeded him, and on his death

St Leger was again appointed. Neither St Leger nor his successor Sir

James Croft could do anything with Ulster, where the papal primate

Wauchop, a Scot by birth, stirred up rebellion among the natives and

among the Hebridean invaders. But little was done under Edward VI. to

advance the power of the crown, and that little was done by Bellingham.

The Reformation.

The English government long hesitated about the official establishment

of Protestantism, and the royal order to that effect was withheld until

1551. Copies of the new liturgy were sent over, and St Leger had the

communion service translated into Latin, for the use of priests and

others who could read, but not in English. The popular feeling was

strong against innovation, as Edward Staples, bishop of Meath, found to

his cost. The opinions of Staples, like those of Cranmer, advanced

gradually until at last he went to Dublin and preached boldly against

the mass. He saw men shrink from him on all sides. "My lord," said a

beneficed priest, whom he had himself promoted, and who wept as he

spoke, "before ye went last to Dublin ye were the best beloved man in

your diocese that ever came in it, now ye are the worst beloved.... Ye

have preached against the sacrament of the altar and the saints, and

will make us worse than Jews.... The country folk would eat you.... Ye

have more curses than ye have hairs of your head, and I advise you for

Christ's sake not to preach at Navan." Staples answered that preaching

was his duty, and that he would not fail; but he feared for his life. On

the same prelate fell the task of conducting a public controversy with

the archbishop of Armagh, George Dowdall, which of course ended in the

conversion of neither. Dowdall fled; his see was treated as vacant, and

Cranmer cast about him for a Protestant to fill St Patrick's chair. His

first nominee, Dr Richard Turner, resolutely declined the honour,

declaring that he would be unintelligible to the people; and Cranmer

could only answer that English was spoken in Ireland, though he did

indeed doubt whether it was spoken in the diocese of Armagh. John Bale,

a man of great learning and ability, became bishop of Ossory. There is

no reason to doubt his sincerity, but he was coarse and

intemperate--Froude roundly calls him a foul-mouthed ruffian--without

the wisdom of the serpent or the harmlessness of the dove. His choice

rhetoric stigmatized the dean of St Patrick's as ass-headed, a blockhead

who cared only for his kitchen and his belly.

Mary (1553-1558).

The Reformation having made no real progress, Mary found it easy to

recover the old ways. Dowdall was restored; Staples and others were

deprived. Bale fled for bare life, and his see was treated as vacant.

Yet the queen found it impossible to restore the monastic lands, though

she showed some disposition to scrutinize the titles of grantees. She

was Tudor enough to declare her intention of maintaining the old

prerogatives of the crown against the Holy See, and assumed the royal

title without papal sanction. Paul IV. was fain to curb his fiery

temper, and to confer graciously what he could not withhold. English

Protestants fled to Ireland to escape the Marian persecution; but had

the reign continued a little longer, Dublin would probably have been no

safe place of refuge.

Mary scarcely varied the civil policy of her brother's ministers. Gerald

of Kildare, who had been restored to his estates by Edward VI., was

created earl of Kildare. The plan of settling Leix and Offaly by

dividing the country between colonists and natives holding by English

tenure failed, owing to the unconquerable love of the people for their

own customs. But resistance gradually grew fainter, and we hear little

of the O'Connors after this. The O'Mores, reduced almost to brigandage,

gave trouble till the end of Elizabeth's reign, and a member of the clan

was chief contriver of the rebellion of 1641. Maryborough and

Philipstown, King's county and Queen's county, commemorate Mary's

marriage.

Elizabeth (1558-1603).

Anne Boleyn's daughter succeeded quietly, and Sir Henry Sidney was sworn

lord-justice with the full Catholic ritual. When Thomas Radclyffe, earl

of Sussex, superseded him as lord-lieutenant, the litany was chanted in

English, both cathedrals having been painted, and scripture texts

substituted for "pictures and popish fancies." At the beginning of 1560

a parliament was held which restored the ecclesiastical legislation of

Henry and Edward. In two important points the Irish Church was made more

dependent on the state than in England: _conges d'elire_ were abolished

and heretics made amenable to royal commissioners or to parliament

without reference to any synod or convocation. According to a

contemporary list, this parliament consisted of 3 archbishops, 17

bishops, 23 temporal peers, and members returned by 10 counties and 28

cities and boroughs. Some of the Irish bishops took the oath of

supremacy, some were deprived. In other cases Elizabeth connived at what

she could not prevent, and hardly pretended to enforce uniformity except

in the Pale and in the large towns.

Rebellion of Shane O'Neill.

Ulster demanded the immediate attention of Elizabeth. Her father had

conferred the earldom of Tyrone on Conn Bacach O'Neill, with remainder

to his supposed son Matthew, created baron of Dungannon, the offspring

of a smith's wife at Dundalk, who in her husband's lifetime brought the

child to Conn as his own. When the chief's legitimate son Shane grew up

he declined to be bound by this arrangement, which the king may have

made in partial ignorance of the facts. "Being a gentleman," he said,

"my father never refusid no child that any woman namyd to be his." When

Tyrone died, Matthew's son, Brian O'Neill, baron of Dungannon, claimed

his earldom under the patent. Shane being chosen O'Neill by his tribe

claimed to be chief by election, and earl as Conn's lawful son. Thus

the English government was committed to the cause of one who was at best

an adulterine bastard, while Shane appeared as champion of hereditary

right (See O'NEILL). Shane maintained a contest which had begun under

Mary until 1567, with great ability and a total absence of morality, in

which Sussex had no advantage over him. The lord-lieutenant twice tried

to have Shane murdered; once he proposed to break his safe-conduct; and

he held out hopes of his sister's hand as a snare. Shane was induced to

visit London, where the government detained him for some time. On his

return to Ireland, Sussex was outmatched both in war and diplomacy; the

loyal chiefs were crushed one by one; and the English suffered checks of

which the moral effect was ruinous. Shane diplomatically acknowledged

Elizabeth as his sovereign, and sometimes played the part of a loyal

subject, wreaking his private vengeance under colour of expelling the

Scots from Ulster. At last, in 1566, the queen placed the sword of state

in Sidney's strong grasp. Shane was driven helplessly from point to

point, and perished miserably at the hands of the MacDonnells, whom he

had so often oppressed and insulted.

First Desmond Rebellion, 1574.

Peace was soon broken by disturbances in the south. The earl of Desmond

having shown rebellious tendencies was detained for six years in London.

Treated leniently, but grievously pressed for money, he tried to escape,

and, the attempt being judged treasonable, he was persuaded to surrender

his estates--to receive them back or not at the queen's discretion.

Seizing the opportunity, English adventurers proposed to plant a

military colony in the western half of Munster, holding the coast from

the Shannon to Cork harbour. Some who held obsolete title-deeds were

encouraged to go to work at once by the example of Sir Peter Carew, who

had established his claims in Carlow. Carew's title had been in abeyance

for a century and a half, yet most of the Kavanaghs attorned to him.

Falling foul of Ormonde's brothers, seizing their property and using

great cruelty and violence, Sir Peter drove the Butlers, the only one

among the great families really loyal, into rebellion. Ormonde, who was

in London, could alone restore peace; all his disputes with Desmond were

at once settled in his favour, and he was even allowed to resume the

exaction of coyne and livery, the abolition of which had been the

darling wish of statesmen. The Butlers returned to their allegiance, but

continued to oppose Carew, and great atrocities were committed on both

sides. Sir Peter had great but undefined claims in Munster also, and the

people there took warning. His imitators in Cork were swept away. Sidney

first, and after him Humphrey Gilbert, could only circumscribe the

rebellion. The presidency of Munster, an office the creation of which

had long been contemplated, was then conferred on Sir John Perrot, who

drove James "Fitzmaurice" Fitzgerald into the mountains, reduced castles

everywhere, and destroyed a Scottish contingent which had come from

Ulster to help the rebels. Fitzmaurice came in and knelt in the mud at

the president's feet, confessing his sins; but he remained the real

victor. The colonizing scheme was dropped, and the first presidency of

Munster left the Desmonds and their allies in possession. Similar plans

were tried unsuccessfully in Ulster, first by a son of Sir Thomas Smith,

afterwards by Walter Devereux, earl of Essex, a knight-errant rather

than a statesman, who was guilty of many bloody deeds. He treacherously

captured Sir Brian O'Neill and massacred his followers. The Scots in

Rathlin were slaughtered wholesale. Essex struggled on for more than

three years, seeing his friends gradually drop away, and dying ruined

and unsuccessful.

Towards the end of 1575 Sidney was again persuaded to become viceroy.

The Irish recognized his great qualities, and he went everywhere without

interruption. Henceforth presidencies became permanent institutions. Sir

William Drury in Munster hanged four hundred persons in one year, Sir

Nicholas Malby in reducing the Connaught Burkes spared neither young nor

old, and burned all corn and houses. The Desmonds determined on a great

effort. A holy war was declared. Fitzmaurice landed in Kerry with a few

followers, and accompanied by the famous Nicholas Sanders, who was

armed with a legate's commission and a banner blessed by the pope.

Fitzmaurice fell soon after in a skirmish near Castleconnell, but

Sanders and Desmond's brothers still kept the field. When it was too

late to act with effect, Desmond himself, a vain man, neither frankly

loyal nor a bold rebel, took the field. He surprised Youghal, then an

English town, by night, sacked it, and murdered the people. Roused at

last, Elizabeth sent over Ormonde as general of Munster, and after long

delay gave him the means of conducting a campaign. It was as much a war

of Butlers against Geraldines as of loyal subjects against rebels, and

Ormonde did his work only too well. Lord Baltinglass raised a hopeless

subsidiary revolt in Wicklow (1580), which was signalized by a crushing

defeat of the lord deputy, Lord Grey de Wilton (Arthegal) in Glenmalure.

A force of Italians and Spaniards landing at Smerwick in Kerry, Grey

hurried thither, and the foreigners, who had no commission, surrendered

at discretion, and were put to the sword. Neither Grey nor the Spanish

ambassador seems to have seen anything extraordinary in thus disposing

of inconvenient prisoners. Spenser and Raleigh were present. Sanders

perished obscurely in 1581, and in 1583 Desmond himself was hunted down

and killed in the Kerry mountains. More than 500,000 Irish acres were

forfeited to the crown. The horrors of this war it is impossible to

exaggerate. The _Four Masters_ says that the lowing of a cow or the

voice of a ploughman could scarcely be heard from Cashel to the farthest

point of Kerry; Ormonde, who, with all his severity, was honourably

distinguished by good faith, claimed to have killed 5000 men in a few

months. Spenser, an eye-witness, says famine slew far more than the

sword. The survivors were unable to walk, but crawled out of the woods

and glens. "They looked like anatomies of death; they did eat the dead

carrion and one another soon after, insomuch as the very carcasses they

spared not to scrape out of their graves; ... to a plot of watercresses

or shamrocks they flocked as to a feast."

In 1584 Sir John Perrot, the ablest man available after Sidney's

retirement, became lord-deputy. Sir John Norris, famed in the Netherland

wars, was president of Munster, and so impressed the Irish that they

averred him to be in league with the devil. Perrot held a parliament in

1585 in which the number of members was considerably increased. He made

a strenuous effort to found a university in Dublin, and proposed to

endow it with the revenues of St Patrick's, reasonably arguing that one

cathedral was enough for any city. Here he was opposed by Adam Loftus,

archbishop of Dublin and chancellor, who had expressed his anxiety for a

college, but had no idea of endowing it at his own expense. The

colonization of the Munster forfeitures was undertaken at this time. It

failed chiefly from the grants to individuals who neglected to plant

English farmers, and were often absentees themselves. Raleigh obtained

42,000 acres. The quit rents reserved to the crown were less than one

penny per acre. Racked with the stone, hated by the official clique,

thwarted on all sides, Perrot was goaded into using words capable of a

treasonable interpretation. Archbishop Loftus pursued him to the end. He

died in the Tower of London under sentence for treason, and we may

charitably hope that Elizabeth would have pardoned him. In his will,

written after sentence, he emphatically repudiates any treasonable

intention--"I deny my Lord God if ever I proposed the same."

Last Desmond Rebellion.

In 1584 Hugh O'Neill, if O'Neill he was (being second son of Matthew,

mentioned above), became chief of part of Tyrone; in 1587 he obtained

the coveted earldom, and in 1593 was the admitted head of the whole

tribe. A quarrel with the government was inevitable, and, Hugh Roe

O'Donnell having joined him, Ulster was united against the crown. In

1598 James Fitzthomas Fitzgerald assumed the title of Desmond, to which

he had some claims by blood, and which he pretended to hold as Tyrone's

gift. Tyrone had received a crown of peacock's feathers from the pope,

who was regarded by many as king of Ireland. The title of _Sugan_ or

straw-rope earl has been generally given to the Desmond pretender. Both

ends of the island were soon in a blaze, and the _Four Masters_ says

that in seventeen days there was not one son of a Saxon left alive in

the Desmond territories. Edmund Spenser lost his all, escaping only to

die of misery in a London garret. Tyrone more than held his own in the

north, completely defeated Sir Henry Bagnal in the battle of the Yellow

Ford (1598), invaded Munster, and ravaged the lands of Lord Barrymore,

who had remained true to his allegiance. Tyrone's ally, Hugh Roe

O'Donnell, overthrew the president of Connaught, Sir Conyers Clifford.

"The Irish of Connaught," says the _Four Masters_, "were not pleased at

Clifford's death; ... he had never told them a falsehood." Robert

Devereux, earl of Essex, came over in 1599 with a great army, but did

nothing of moment, was outgeneralled and outwitted by Tyrone, and threw

up his command to enter on the mad and criminal career which led to the

scaffold. In 1600 Sir George Carew became president of Munster, and, as

always happened when the crown was well served, the rebellion was

quickly put down. Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy (afterwards earl of

Devonshire), who succeeded Essex, joined Carew, and a Spanish force

which landed at Kinsale surrendered. The destruction of their crops

starved the people into submission, and the contest was only less

terrible than the first Desmond war because it was much shorter. In

Ulster Mountjoy was assisted by Sir Henry Docwra, who founded the second

settlement at Derry, the first under Edward Randolph having been

abandoned. Hugh O'Donnell sought help in Spain, where he died. Tyrone

submitted at last, craving pardon on his knees, renouncing his Celtic

chiefry, and abjuring all foreign powers; but still retaining his

earldom, and power almost too great for a subject. Scarcely was the

compact signed when he heard of the great queen's death. He burst into

tears, not of grief, but of vexation at not having held out for better

terms.

Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland.

Religious policy.

In reviewing the Irish government of Elizabeth we shall find much to

blame, a want of truth in her dealings and of steadiness in her policy.

Violent efforts of coercion were succeeded by fits of clemency, of

parsimony or of apathy. Yet it is fair to remember that she was

surrounded by enemies, that her best energies were expended in the

death-struggle with Spain, and that she was rarely able to give

undivided attention to the Irish problem. After all she conquered

Ireland, which her predecessors had failed to do, though many of them

were as crooked in action and less upright in intention. Considering the

times, Elizabeth cannot be called a persecutor. "Do not," she said to

the elder Essex, "seek too hastily to bring people that have been

trained in another religion from that in which they have been brought

up." Elizabeth saw that the Irish could only be reached through their

own language. But for that harvest the labourers were necessarily few.

The fate of Bishop Daly of Kildare, who preached in Irish, and who

thrice had his house burned over his head, was not likely to encourage

missionaries. In all wild parts divine service was neglected, and

wandering friars or subtle Jesuits, supported by every patriotic or

religious feeling of the people, kept Ireland faithful to Rome. Against

her many shortcomings we must set the queen's foundation of the

university of Dublin, which has been the most successful English

institution in Ireland, and which has continually borne the fairest

fruit.

James I. (1603-1625).

Great things were expected of James I. He was Mary Stuart's son, and

there was a curious antiquarian notion afloat that, because the Irish

were the original "Scoti," a Scottish king would sympathize with

Ireland. Corporate towns set up the mass, and Mountjoy, who could argue

as well as fight, had to teach them a sharp lesson. Finding Ireland

conquered and in no condition to rise again, James established circuits

and a complete system of shires. Sir John Davies was sent over as

solicitor-general. His famous book (_Discoverie of the State of

Ireland_) in which he glorifies his own and the king's exploits gives

far too much credit to the latter and far too little to his great

predecessor.

Plantation of Ulster.

Two legal decisions swept away the customs of tanistry and of Irish

gavelkind, and the English land system was violently substituted. The

earl of Tyrone was harassed by sheriffs and other officers, and the

government, learning that he was engaged in an insurrectionary design,

prepared to seize him. The information was probably false, but Tyrone

was growing old and perhaps despaired of making good his defence. By

leaving Ireland he played into his enemies' hands. Rory O'Donnell,

created earl of Tyrconnel, accompanied him. Cuconnaught Maguire had

already gone. The "flight of the earls," as it is called, completed the

ruin of the Celtic cause. Reasons or pretexts for declaring forfeitures

against O'Cahan were easily found. O'Dogherty, chief of Inishowen, and

foreman of the grand jury which found a bill for treason against the

earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel, was insulted by Sir George Paulet, the

governor of Derry. O'Dogherty rose, Derry was sacked, and Paulet

murdered. O'Dogherty having been killed and O'Hanlon and others being

implicated, the whole of northern Ulster was at the disposal of the

government. Tyrone, Donegal, Armagh, Cavan, Fermanagh and Derry were

parcelled out among English and Scottish colonists, portions being

reserved to the natives. The site of Derry was granted to the citizens

of London, who fortified and armed it, and Londonderry became the chief

bulwark of the colonists in two great wars. Whatever may have been its

morality, in a political point of view the plantation of Ulster was

successful. The northern province, which so severely taxed the energies

of Elizabeth, has since been the most prosperous and loyal part of

Ireland. But the conquered people remained side by side with the

settlers; and Sir George Carew, who reported on the plantation in 1611,

clearly foresaw that they would rebel again. Those natives who retained

land were often oppressed by their stronger neighbours, and sometimes

actually swindled out of their property. It is probable that in the

neglect of the grantees to give proper leases to their tenants arose the

Ulster tenant-right custom which attracted so much notice in more modern

times.

The Irish Parliament.

The parliamentary history of the English colony in Ireland corresponds

pretty closely to that of the mother country. First there are informal

meetings of eminent persons; then, in 1295, there is a parliament of

which some acts remain, and to which only knights of the shire were

summoned to represent the commons. Burgesses were added as early as

1310. The famous parliament of Kilkenny in 1366 was largely attended,

but the details of its composition are not known. That there was

substantial identity in the character of original and copy may be

inferred from the fact that the well-known tract called _Modus tenendi

parliamentum_ was exemplified under the Great Seal of Ireland in 6 Hen.

V. The most ancient Irish parliament remaining on record was held in

1374, twenty members in all being summoned to the House of Commons, from

the counties of Dublin, Louth, Kildare and Carlow, the liberties and

crosses of Meath, the city of Dublin, and the towns of Drogheda and

Dundalk. The liberties were those districts in which the great vassals

of the crown exercised palatinate jurisdiction, and the crosses were the

church lands, where alone the royal writ usually ran. Writs for another

parliament in the same year were addressed in addition to the counties

of Waterford, Cork and Limerick; the liberties and crosses of Ulster,

Wexford, Tipperary and Kerry; the cities of Waterford, Cork and

Limerick; and the towns of Youghal, Kinsale, Ross, Wexford and Kilkenny.

The counties of Clare and Longford, and the towns of Galway and Athenry,

were afterwards added, and the number of popular representatives does

not appear to have much exceeded sixty during the later middle ages. In

the House of Lords the temporal peers were largely outnumbered by the

bishops and mitred abbots. In the parliament which conferred the royal

title on Henry VIII. it was finally decided that the proctors of the

clergy had no voice or votes. Elizabeth's first parliament, held in

1559, was attended by 76 members of the Lower House, which increased to

122 in 1585. In 1613 James I. by a wholesale creation of new boroughs,

generally of the last insignificance, increased the House of Commons to

232, and thus secured an Anglican majority to carry out his policy. He

told those who remonstrated to mind their own business. "What is it to

you if I had created 40 noblemen and 400 boroughs? The more the merrier,

the fewer the better cheer." In 1639 the House of Commons had 274

members, a number which was further increased to 300 at the Revolution,

and so it remained until the Union.

Religious policy of James I.

Steeped in absolutist ideas, James was not likely to tolerate religious

dissent. He thought he could "mak what liked him law and gospel." A

proclamation for banishing Romish priests issued in 1605, and was

followed by an active and general persecution, which was so far from

succeeding that they continued to flock in from abroad, the lord-deputy

Arthur Chichester admitting that every house and hamlet was to them a

sanctuary. The most severe English statutes against the Roman Catholic

laity had never been re-enacted in Ireland, and, in the absence of law,

illegal means were taken to enforce uniformity. Privy seals addressed to

men of wealth and position commanded their attendance at church before

the deputy or the provincial president, on pain of unlimited fine and

imprisonment by the Irish Star Chamber. The Roman Catholic gentry and

lawyers, headed by Sir Patrick Barnewall, succeeded in proving the

flagrant illegality of these mandates, and the government had to yield.

On the whole Protestantism made little progress, though the number of

Protestant settlers increased. As late as 1622, when Sir Henry Cary,

Viscount Falkland, was installed as deputy, the illustrious James

Ussher, then bishop of Meath, preached from the text "he beareth not the

sword in vain," and descanted on the over-indulgence shown to recusants.

The primate, Christopher Hampton, in a letter which is a model of

Christian eloquence, mildly rebuked his eminent suffragan.

Charles I. (1625-1649).

Administration of Strafford.

The necessities of Charles I. induced his ministers to propose that a

great part of Connaught should be declared forfeited, owing to mere

technical flaws in title, and planted like Ulster. Such was the general

outcry that the scheme had to be given up; and, on receiving a large

grant from the Irish parliament, the king promised certain graces, of

which the chief were security for titles, free trade, and the

substitution of an oath of allegiance for that of supremacy. Having got

the money, Charles as usual broke his word; and in 1635 the lord-deputy

Strafford began a general system of extortion. The Connaught and Munster

landowners were shamelessly forced to pay large fines for the

confirmation of even recent titles. The money obtained by oppressing the

Irish nation was employed to create an army for the oppression of the

Scottish and English nations. The Roman Catholics were neither awed nor

conciliated. Twelve bishops, headed by the primate Ussher, solemnly

protested that "to tolerate popery is a grievous sin." The Ulster

Presbyterians were rigorously treated. Of the prelates employed by

Strafford in this persecution the ablest was John Bramhall (1594-1663)

of Derry, who not only oppressed the ministers but insulted them by

coarse language. The "black oath," which bound those who took it never

to oppose Charles in anything, was enforced on all ministers, and those

who refused it were driven from their manses and often stripped of their

goods.

Rebellion of 1641.

Strafford was recalled to expiate his career on the scaffold; the army

was disbanded; and the helm of the state remained in the hands of a

land-jobber and of a superannuated soldier. Disbanded troops are the

ready weapons of conspiracy, and the opportunity was not lost. The Roman

Catholic insurgents of 1641 just failed to seize Dublin, but quickly

became masters of nearly the whole country. That there was no definite

design of massacring the Protestants is likely, but it was intended to

drive them out of the country. Great numbers were killed, often in cold

blood and with circumstances of great barbarity. The English under Sir

Charles Coote and others retaliated. In 1642 a Scottish army under

General Robert Monro landed in Ulster, and formed a rallying point for

the colonists. Londonderry, Enniskillen, Coleraine, Carrickfergus and

some other places defied Sir Phelim O'Neill's tumultuary host. Trained

in foreign wars, Owen Roe O'Neill gradually formed a powerful army among

the Ulster Irish, and showed many of the qualities of a skilful general.

But like other O'Neills, he did little out of Ulster, and his great

victory over Monro at Benburb on the Blackwater (June 5, 1646) had no

lasting results. The English of the Pale were forced into rebellion, but

could never get on with the native Irish, who hated them only less than

the new colonists. Ormonde throughout maintained the position of a loyal

subject, and, as the king's representative, played a great but hopeless

part. The Celts cared nothing for the king except as a weapon against

the Protestants; the old Anglo-Irish Catholics cared much, but the

nearer Charles approached them the more completely he alienated the

Protestants. In 1645 Rinuccini reached Ireland as papal legate. He could

never co-operate with the Roman Catholic confederacy at Kilkenny, which

was under old English influence, and by throwing in his lot with the

Celts only widened the gulf between the two sections. The state of

parties at this period in Ireland has been graphically described by

Carlyle. "There are," he says, "Catholics of the Pale, demanding freedom

of religion, under my lord this and my lord that. There are Old-Irish

Catholics, under pope's nuncios, under Abba O'Teague of the

excommunications, and Owen Roe O'Neill, demanding not religious freedom

only, but what we now call 'repeal of the union,' and unable to agree

with Catholics of the English Pale. Then there are Ormonde Royalists, of

the Episcopalian and mixed creeds, strong for king without covenant;

Ulster and other Presbyterians strong for king _and_ covenant; lastly,

Michael Jones and the Commonwealth of England, who want neither king nor

covenant."

In all their negotiations with Ormonde and Glamorgan, Henrietta Maria

and the earl of Bristol, the pope and Rinuccini stood out for an

arrangement which would have destroyed the royal supremacy and

established Romanism in Ireland, leaving to the Anglicans bare

toleration, and to the Presbyterians not even that. Charles behaved with

his usual weakness. Ormonde was forced to surrender Dublin to the

Parliamentarians (July 1647), and the inextricable knot awaited

Cromwell's sword.

Cromwell.

Cromwell's campaign (1640-1650) showed how easily a good general with an

efficient army might conquer Ireland. Resistance in the field was soon

at an end; the starving-out policy of Carew and Mountjoy was employed

against the guerrillas, and the soldiers were furnished with scythes to

cut down the green corn. Bibles were also regularly served out to them.

Oliver's severe conduct at Drogheda and elsewhere is not morally

defensible, but such methods were common in the wars of the period, and

much may be urged in his favour. Strict discipline was maintained,

soldiers being hanged for stealing chickens; faith was always kept; and

short, sharp action was more merciful in the long run than a milder but

less effective policy. Cromwell's civil policy, to use Macaulay's words,

was "able, straightforward, and cruel." He thinned the disaffected

population by allowing foreign enlistment, and 40,000 are said to have

been thus got rid of. Already Irish Catholics of good family had learned

to offer their swords to foreign princes. In Spain, France and the

Empire they often rose to the distinction which they were denied at

home. About 9000 persons were sent to the West Indies, practically into

slavery. Thus, and by the long war, the population was reduced to some

850,000, of whom 150,000 were English and Scots. Then came the

transplantation beyond the Shannon. The Irish Catholic gentry were

removed bodily with their servants and such tenants as consented to

follow them, and with what remained of their cattle. They suffered

dreadful hardships. To exclude foreign influences, a belt of 1 m. was

reserved to soldiers on the coast from Sligo to the Shannon, but the

idea was not fully carried out. The derelict property in the other

provinces was divided between adventurers who had advanced money and

soldiers who had fought in Ireland. Many of the latter sold their claims

to officers or speculators, who were thus enabled to form estates. The

majority of Irish labourers stayed to work under the settlers, and the

country gradually became peaceful and prosperous. Some fighting

Catholics haunted woods and hills under the name of tories, afterwards

given in derision to a great party, and were hunted down with as little

compunction as the wolves to which they were compared. Measures of great

severity were taken against Roman Catholic priests; but it is said that

Cromwell had great numbers in his pay, and that they kept him well

informed. All classes of Protestants were tolerated, and Jeremy Taylor

preached unmolested. Commercial equality being given to Ireland, the

woollen trade at once revived, and a shipping interest sprang up. A

legislative union was also effected, and Irish members attended at

Westminster.

Charles II. (1660-1685).

Charles II. was bound in honour to do something for such Irish Catholics

as were innocent of the massacres of 1641, and the claims were not

scrutinized too severely. It was found impossible to displace the

Cromwellians, but they were shorn of about one-third of their lands.

When the Caroline settlement was complete it was found that the great

rebellion had resulted in reducing the Catholic share of the fertile

parts of Ireland from two-thirds to one-third. Ormonde, whose wife had

been allowed by Cromwell's clemency to make him some remittances from

the wreck of his estate, was largely and deservedly rewarded. A revenue

of L30,000 was settled on the king, in consideration of which Ireland

was in 1663 excluded from the benefit of the Navigation Act, and her

nascent shipping interest ruined. In 1666 the importation of Irish

cattle and horses into England was forbidden, the value of the former at

once falling five-fold, of the latter twenty-fold. Dead meat, butter and

cheese were also excluded, yet peace brought a certain prosperity. The

woollen manufacture grew and flourished, and Macaulay is probably

warranted in saying that under Charles II. Ireland was a pleasanter

place of residence than it has been before or since. But it was pleasant

only for those who conformed to the state religion. Roman Catholicism

was tolerated, or rather connived at; but its professors were subject to

frequent alarms, and to great severities during the ascendancy of Titus

Oates. Bramhall became primate, and his hand was heavy against the

Ulster Presbyterians. Jeremy Taylor began a persecution which stopped

the influx of Scots into Ireland. Deprived of the means of teaching, the

Independents and other sectaries soon disappeared. In a military colony

women were scarce, and the "Ironsides" had married natives. Roman

Catholicism held its own. The Quakers became numerous during this reign,

and their peaceful industry was most useful. They venerate as their

founder William Edmundson (1627-1712), a Westmorland man who had borne

arms for the Parliament, and who settled in Antrim in 1652.

James II. (1685-1689).

The duke of Ormonde was lord-lieutenant at the death of Charles II. At

seventy-five his brain was as clear as ever, and James saw that he was

no fit tool for his purpose. "See, gentlemen," said the old chief,

lifting his glass at a military dinner-party, "they say at court I am

old and doting. But my hand is steady, nor doth my heart fail.... To the

king's health." Calculating on his loyal subservience, James appointed

his brother-in-law, Lord Clarendon, to succeed Ormonde. Monmouth's

enterprise made no stir, but gave an excuse for disarming the Protestant

militia. The tories at once emerged from their hiding-places, and

Clarendon found Ireland in a ferment. It was now the turn of the

Protestants to feel persecution. Richard Talbot, one of the few

survivors of Drogheda, governed the king's Irish policy, while the

lord-lieutenant was kept in the dark. Finally Talbot, created earl of

Tyrconnel, himself received the sword of state. Protestants were weeded

out of the army, Protestant officers in particular being superseded by

idle Catholics of gentle blood, where they could be found, and in any

case by Catholics. Bigotry rather than religion was Tyrconnel's ruling

passion, and he filled up offices with Catholics independently of

character. Sir Alexander Fitton, a man convicted of forgery, became

chancellor, and but three Protestant judges were left on the bench. The

outlawries growing out of the affairs of 1641 were reversed as quickly

as possible. Protestant corporations were dissolved by "quo warrantos";

but James was still Englishman enough to refuse an Irish parliament,

which might repeal Poyning's Act and the Act of Settlement.

William III.

At the close of 1688 James was a fugitive in France. By this time

Londonderry and Enniskillen had closed their gates, and the final

struggle had begun. In March 1689 James reached Ireland with some French

troops, and summoned a parliament which repealed the Act of Settlement.

The estates of absentees were vested in the crown, and, as only two

months law was given, this was nearly equivalent to confiscating the

property of all Protestants. Between 2000 and 3000 Protestants were

attainted by name, and moreover the act was not published. The appalling

list may be read in the _State of the Protestants_ by William King,

archbishop of Dublin, one of many divines converted by the logic of

events to believe in the lawfulness of resistance. Interesting details

may be gleaned from Edmundson's _Diary_. The dispossessed Protestants

escaped by sea or flocked into Ulster, where a gallant stand was made.

The glories of Londonderry and Enniskillen will live as long as the

English language. The Irish cause produced one great achievement--the

defence of Limerick, and one great leader--Patrick Sarsfield. The Roman

Catholic Celts aided by France were entirely beaten, the Protestant

colonists aided by England were entirely victorious at the battle of the

Boyne, on the 1st of July 1690; and at the battle of Aughrim on the 12th

of July 1691. Even the siege of Limerick showed the irreconcilable

divisions which had nullified the efforts of 1641. Hugh Baldearg

O'Donnell, last of Irish chiefs, sold his services to William for L500 a

year. But it was their king that condemned the Irish to hopeless

failure. He called them cowards, whereas the cowardice was really his

own, and he deserted them in their utmost need. They repaid him with the

opprobrious nickname of "Sheemas-a-Cacagh," or dirty James.

Irish rhetoric commonly styles Limerick "the city of the violated

treaty." The articles of capitulation (Oct. 3, 1691) may be read in

Thomas Leland's _History of Ireland_ (1773) or in F. P. Plowden's

_History of Ireland_ (1809); from the first their interpretation was

disputed. Hopes of religious liberty were held out, but were not

fulfilled. Lords Justices Porter and Coningsby promised to do their

utmost to obtain a parliamentary ratification, but the Irish parliament

would not be persuaded. There was a paragraph in the original draft

which would have protected the property of the great majority of Roman

Catholics, but this was left out in the articles actually signed.

William thought the omission accidental, but this is hardly possible. At

all events he ratified the treaty in the sense most favourable to the

Catholics, while the Irish parliament adhered to the letter of the

document. Perhaps no breach of faith was intended, but the sorrowful

fact remains that the modern settlement of Ireland has the appearance of

resting on a broken promise. More than 1,000,000 Irish acres were

forfeited, and, though some part returned to Catholic owners, the

Catholic interest in the land was further diminished. William III. was

the most liberally minded man in his dominions; but the necessities of

his position, such is the awful penalty of greatness, forced him into

intolerance against his will, and he promised to discourage the Irish

woollen trade. His manner of disposing of the Irish forfeitures was

inexcusable. The lands were resumed by the English parliament, less

perhaps from a sense of justice than from a desire to humiliate the

deliverer of England, and were resold to the highest bidder.

Nevertheless it became the fashion to reward nameless English services

at the expense of Ireland. Pensions and sinecures which would not bear

the light in England were charged on the Irish establishment, and even

bishoprics were given away on the same principle. The tremendous uproar

raised by Swift about Wood's halfpence was heightened by the fact that

Wood shared his profits with the duchess of Kendal, the mistress of

George I.

Penal laws.

From the first the victorious colonists determined to make another 1641

impossible, and the English government failed to moderate their

severity. In 1708 Swift declared that the Papists were politically as

inconsiderable as the women and children. In despair of effecting

anything at home, the young and strong enlisted in foreign armies, and

the almost incredible number of 450,000 are said to have emigrated for

this purpose between 1691 and 1745. This and the hatred felt towards

James II. prevented any rising in 1715 or 1745. The panic-stricken

severity of minorities is proverbial, but it is not to be forgotten that

the Irish Protestants had been turned out of house and home twice within

fifty years. The restrictions on Irish commerce provoked Locke's friend

William Molyneux (1656-1698) to write his famous plea for legislative

independence (1698). Much of the learning contained in it now seems

obsolete, but the question is less an antiquarian one than he supposed.

Later events have shown that a mother country must have supreme

authority, or must relax the tie with self-governing colonies merely

into a close alliance. In the case of Ireland the latter plan has always

been impossible. In 1703 the Irish parliament begged for a legislative

union, but as that would have involved at least partial free trade the

English monopolists prevented it. By Poynings's law (see above) England

had control of all Irish legislation, and was therefore an accomplice in

the penal laws. These provided that no Papist might teach a school or

any child but his own, or send children abroad, the burden of proof

lying on the accused, and the decision being left to magistrates without

a jury. Mixed marriages were forbidden between persons of property, and

the children might be forcibly brought up Protestants. A Catholic could

not be a guardian, and all wards in chancery were brought up

Protestants. The Protestant eldest son of a Catholic landed proprietor

might make his father tenant for life and secure his own inheritance.

Among Catholic children land went in compulsory gavelkind. Catholics

could not take longer leases than thirty-one years at two-thirds of a

rack rent; they were even required to conform within six months of an

inheritance accruing, on pain of being ousted by the next Protestant

heir. Priests from abroad were banished, and their return declared

treason. All priests were required to register and to remain in their

own parishes, and informers were to be rewarded at the expense of the

Catholic inhabitants. No Catholic was allowed arms, two justices being

empowered to search; and if he had a good horse any Protestant might

claim it on tendering L5.

These laws were of course systematically evaded. The property of Roman

Catholics was often preserved through Protestant trustees, and it is

understood that faith was generally kept. Yet the attrition if slow was

sure, and by the end of the century the proportion of land belonging to

Roman Catholics was probably not more than one-tenth of the whole. We

can see now that if the remaining Roman Catholic landlords had been

encouraged they would have done much to reconcile the masses to the

settlement. Individuals are seldom as bad as corporations, and the very

men who made the laws against priests practically shielded them. The

penal laws put a premium on hypocrisy, and many conformed only to

preserve their property or to enable them to take office. Proselytizing

schools, though supported by public grants, entirely failed.

Commercial restraints.

The restraints placed by English commercial jealousy on Irish trade

destroyed manufacturing industry in the south and west (see the section

_Economics_ above). Driven by the Caroline legislation against cattle

into breeding sheep, Irish graziers produced the best wool in Europe.

Forbidden to export it, or to work it up profitably at home, they took

to smuggling, for which the indented coast gave great facilities. The

enormous profits of the contraband trade with France enabled Ireland to

purchase English goods to an extent greater than her whole lawful

traffic. The moral effect was disastrous. The religious penal code it

was thought meritorious to evade; the commercial penal code was

ostentatiously defied; and both tended to make Ireland the least

law-abiding country in Europe. The account of the smugglers is the most

interesting and perhaps the most valuable part of J. A. Froude's work in

Ireland, and should be compared with the Irish and Scottish chapters of

Lecky's _History_.

Ulster prosperous.

When William III. promised to depress the Irish woollen trade, he

promised to do all he could for Irish linen. England did not fulfil the

second promise; still the Ulster weavers were not crushed, and their

industry flourished. Some Huguenot refugees, headed by Louis Crommelin

(1652-1727), were established by William III. at Lisburn, and founded

the manufacturing prosperity of Ulster. Other Huguenots attempted other

industries, but commercial restraints brought them to nought. The

peculiar character of the flax business has prevented it from crossing

the mountains which bound the northern province. Wool was the natural

staple of the south.

Dissenters.

The Scottish Presbyterians who defended Londonderry were treated little

better than the Irish Catholics who besieged it--the sacramental test of

1704 being the work of the English council rather than of the Irish

parliament. In 1715 the Irish House of Commons resolved that any one who

should prosecute a Presbyterian for accepting a commission in the army

without taking the test was an enemy to the king and to the Protestant

interest. Acts of indemnity were regularly passed throughout the reign

of George II., and until 1780, when the Test Act was repealed. A bare

toleration had been granted in 1720. Various abuses, especially forced

labour on roads which were often private jobs, caused the Oakboy

Insurrection in 1764. Eight years later the Steelboys rose against the

exactions of absentee landlords, who often turned out Protestant yeomen

to get a higher rent from Roman Catholic cottiers. The dispossessed men

carried to America an undying hatred of England which had much to say to

the American revolution, and that again reacted on Ireland. Lawless

Protestant associations, called Peep o' Day Boys, terrorized the north

and were the progenitors of the Orangemen (1789). Out of the rival

"defenders" Ribbonism in part sprung, and the United Irishmen drew from

both sources (1791).

Poverty of the peasantry.

The Ulster peasants were never as badly off as those of the south and

west. Writers the most unlike each other--Swift and Hugh Boulter, George

Berkeley and George Stone, Arthur Young and Dr Thomas Campbell--all tell

the same tale. Towards the end of the 17th century Raleigh's fatal gift

had already become the food of the people. When Sir Stephen Rice

(1637-1715), chief baron of the Irish exchequer, went to London in 1688

to urge the Catholic claims on James II., the hostile populace escorted

him in mock state with potatoes stuck on poles. Had manufactures been

given fair play in Ireland, population might have preserved some

relation to capital. As it was, land became almost the only property,

and the necessity of producing wool for smuggling kept the country in

grass. The poor squatted where they could, receiving starvation wages,

and paying exorbitant rents for their cabins, partly with their own

labour. Unable to rise, the wretched people multiplied on their potato

plots with perfect recklessness. During the famine which began in the

winter of 1739 one-fifth of the population is supposed to have perished;

yet it is hardly noticed in literature, and seems not to have touched

the conscience of that English public which in 1755 subscribed L100,000

for the sufferers by the Lisbon earthquake. As might be expected where

men were allowed to smuggle and forbidden to work, redress was sought in

illegal combinations and secret societies. The dreaded name of Whiteboy

was first heard in 1761; and agrarian crime has never since been long

absent. Since the Union we have had the Threshers, the Terry Alts, the

Molly Maguires, the Rockites, and many others. Poverty has been the real

cause of all these disturbances, which were often aggravated by the

existence of factions profoundly indicative of barbarism. Communism,

cupidity, scoundrelism of all kinds have contributed to every

disturbance. The tendency shown to screen the worst criminals is

sometimes the result of sympathy, but more often of fear. The cruelties

which have generally accompanied Whiteboyism is common to servile

insurrections all over the world. No wonder if Irish landlords were

formerly tyrannical, for they were in the position of slave-owners. The

steady application of modern principles, by extending legal protection

to all, has altered the slavish character of the oppressed Irish. The

cruelty has not quite died out, but it is much rarer than formerly; and,

generally speaking, the worst agrarianism has of late years been seen in

the districts which retain most of the old features.

The medieval colony in Ireland was profoundly modified by the pressure

of the surrounding tribes. While partially adopting their laws and

customs, the descendants of the conquerors often spoke the language of

the natives, and in so doing nearly lost their own. The _Book of Howth_

and many documents composed in the Pale during the 16th century show

this clearly. Those who settled in Ireland after 1641 were in a very

different mood. They hated, feared and despised the Irish, and took

pride in preserving their pure English speech. Molyneux and Petty, who

founded the Royal Society of Dublin in 1683, were equally Englishmen,

though the former was born in Ireland. Swift and Berkeley did not

consider themselves Irishmen at all. Burke and Goldsmith, coming later,

though they might not call themselves Englishmen, were not less free

from provincialism. It would be hard to name four other men who, within

the same period, used Shakespeare's language with equal grace and force.

They were all educated at Trinity College, Dublin. The Sheridans were

men of Irish race, but with the religion they adopted the literary tone

of the dominant caste, which was small and exclusive, with the virtues

and the vices of an aristocracy. Systematic infringement of English

copyright was discreditable in itself, but sure evidence of an appetite

for reading. "The bookseller's property," says Gibbon of his first

volume, "was twice invaded by the pirates of Dublin." The oratory of the

day was of a high order, and incursions into the wide field of pamphlet

literature often repay the student. Handel was appreciated in Dublin at

a time when it was still the fashion to decry him in London. The public

buildings of the Irish capital have great architectural merit, and

private houses still preserve much evidence of a refined taste. Angelica

Kauffmann worked long in Ireland; James Barry and Sir Martin Archer Shee

were of Irish birth; and on the whole, considering the small number of

educated inhabitants, it must be admitted that the Ireland of Flood and

Grattan was intellectually fertile.

Struggle for independence.

The volunteers (see FLOOD, HENRY) extorted partial free trade (1779),

but manufacturing traditions had perished, and common experience shows

how hard these are to recover. The demand for union was succeeded by a

craving for independence. Poynings's law was repealed, and in 1782, in

Grattan's opinion, Ireland was at last a nation. The ensuing period of

eighteen years is the best known in Irish history. The quarrel and

reconciliation of Flood and Grattan (q.v.), the kindly patriotism of

Lord Charlemont, the eloquence, the devotion, the corruption, are

household words. (Details will be found in the biographical articles on

these and other men of the period.) In the parliament of 1784, out of

300 members 82 formed the regular opposition, of whom 30 were the

nominees of Whig potentates and 52 were really elected. The majority

contained 29 members considered independent, 44 who expected to be

bought, 44 placemen, 12 sitting for regular government boroughs, and 12

who were supposed to support the government on public grounds. The

remaining seats were proprietary, and were let to government for

valuable consideration. The House of Lords, composed largely of borough

mongers and controlled by political bishops, was even less independent.

Only Protestant freeholders had votes, which encouraged leases for

lives, about the worst kind of tenure, and the object of each proprietor

was to control as many votes as possible. The necessity of finding

Protestants checked subdivision for a time, but in 1793 the Roman

Catholics received the franchise, and it became usual to make leases in

common, so that each lessee should have a freehold interest of 40s. The

landlord indeed had little choice, for his importance depended on the

poll-book. Salaries, sinecures, even commissions in the army were

reserved for those who contributed to the return of some local magnate.

Dependence on the potato.

But no political cause swelled the population as much as the potato.

Introduced by Raleigh in 1610, the cultivation of this important tuber

developed with extraordinary rapidity. The Elizabethan wars were most

injurious to industry, for men will not sow unless they hope to reap,

and the very essence of military policy had been to deprive a

recalcitrant people of the means of living. The Mantuan peasant was

grieved at the notion of his harvest being gathered by barbarian

soldiers, and the Irishman could not be better pleased to see his

destroyed. There was no security for any one, and every one was tempted

to live from hand to mouth. The decade of anarchy which followed 1641

stimulated this tendency fearfully. The labour of one man could plant

potatoes enough to feed forty, and they could neither be destroyed nor

carried away easily. When Petty wrote, early in Charles II.'s reign,

this demoralizing esculent was already the national food. Potatoes

cannot be kept very long, but there was no attempt to keep them at all;

they were left in the ground, and dug as required. A frost which

penetrated deep caused the famine of 1739. Even with the modern system

of storing in pits the potato does not last through the summer, and the

"meal months"--June, July and August--always brought great hardship. The

danger increased as the growing population pressed ever harder upon the

available land. Between 1831 and 1842 there were six seasons of dearth,

approaching in some places to famine.

The population increased from 2,845,932 in 1785 to 5,356,594 in 1803.

They married and were given in marriage. Wise men foresaw the deluge,

but people who were already half-starved every summer did not think

their case could well be worse. In 1845 the population had swelled to

8,295,061, the greater part of whom depended on the potato only. There

was no margin, and when the "precarious exotic" failed an awful famine

was the result.

Great public and private efforts were made to meet the case, and relief

works were undertaken, on which, in March 1847, 734,000 persons,

representing a family aggregate of not less than 3,000,000, were

employed. It was found that labour and exposure were not good for

half-starved men. The jobbing was frightful, and is probably inseparable

from wholesale operations of this kind. The policy of the government was

accordingly changed, and the task of feeding a whole people was

undertaken. More than 3,000,000 rations, generally cooked, were at one

time distributed, but no exertions could altogether avert death in a

country where the usual machinery for carrying, distributing and

preparing food was almost entirely wanting. From 200,000 to 300,000

perished of starvation or of fever caused by insufficient food. An

exodus followed which, necessary as it was, caused dreadful hardship,

and among the Roman Catholic Irish in America Fenianism took its rise.

One good result of the famine was thoroughly to awaken Englishmen to

their duty towards Ireland. Since then, purse-strings have been even too

readily untied at the call of Irish distress.

Rebellion of 1798.

Great brutalities disgraced the rebellion of 1798, but the people had

suffered much and had French examples before them. The real originator

of the movement was Theobald Wolfe Tone (q.v.), whose proffered services

were rejected by Pitt, and who founded the United Irishmen. His Parisian

adventures detailed by himself are most interesting, and his tomb is

still the object of an annual pilgrimage. Tone was a Protestant, but he

had imbibed socialist ideas, and hated the priests whose influence

counteracted his own. In Wexford, where the insurrection went farthest,

the ablest leaders were priests, but they acted against the policy of

their church.

Union of Great Britain and Ireland.

Catholic Emancipation.

Repeal agitation.

The inevitable union followed (1st January 1801). From this period the

history of Ireland naturally becomes intermingled with English politics

(see ENGLISH HISTORY), and much of the detail will also be found in the

biographical articles on prominent Irishmen and other politicians. Pitt

had some time before (1785) offered a commercial partnership, which had

been rejected on the ground that it involved the ultimate right of

England to tax Ireland. He was not less liberally inclined in religious

matters, but George III. stood in the way, and like William III. the

minister would not risk his imperial designs. Carried in great measure

by means as corrupt as those by which the constitution of '82 had been

worked, the union earned no gratitude. But it was a political necessity,

and Grattan never gave his countrymen worse advice than when he urged

them to "keep knocking at the union." The advice has, however, been

taken. Robert Emmet's insurrection (1803) was the first emphatic

protest. Then came the struggle for emancipation. It was proposed to

couple the boon with a veto on the appointment of Roman Catholic

bishops. It was the ghost of the old question of investitures. The

remnant of the Roman Catholic aristocracy would have granted it; even

Pius VII. was not invincibly opposed to it; but Daniel O'Connell took

the lead against it. Under his guidance the Catholic association became

a formidable body. At last the priests gained control of the elections;

the victor of Waterloo was obliged to confess that the king's government

could no longer be carried on, and Catholic emancipation had to be

granted in 1829. The tithe war followed, and this most oppressive of all

taxes was unfortunately commuted (1838) only in deference to clamour and

violence. The repeal agitation was unsuccessful, but let us not be

extreme to mark the faults of O'Connell's later years. He doubtless

believed in repeal at first; probably he ceased to believe in it, but he

was already deeply committed, and had abandoned a lucrative profession

for politics. With some help from Father Mathew he kept the monster

meetings in order, and his constant denunciations of lawless violence

distinguish him from his imitators. His trial took place in 1844. There

is a sympathetic sketch of O'Connell's career in Lecky's _Leaders of

Public Opinion in Ireland_ (1871); Sir Thomas Wyse's _Historical Sketch

of the late Catholic Association_ (1829) gives the best account of the

religious struggle, and much may be learned from W. J. Fitzpatrick's

_Life of Bishop Doyle_ (1880).

The national system of education introduced in 1833 was the real

recantation of intolerant opinions, but the economic state of Ireland

was fearful. The famine, emigration and the new poor law nearly got rid

of starvation, but the people never became frankly loyal, feeling that

they owed more to their own importunity and to their own misfortunes

than to the wisdom of their rulers. The literary efforts of young

Ireland eventuated in another rebellion (1848); a revolutionary wave

could not roll over Europe without touching the unlucky island. After

the failure of that outbreak there was peace until the close of the

American civil war released a number of adventurers trained to the use

of arms and filled with hatred to England.

Already in 1858 the discovery of the Phoenix conspiracy had shown that

the policy of John Mitchel (1815-1875) and his associates was not

forgotten. John O'Mahony, one of the men of '48, organized a formidable

secret society in America, which his historical studies led him to call

the Fenian brotherhood (see FENIANS).

The Fenian movement disclosed much discontent, and was attended by

criminal outrages in England. The disestablishment of the Irish Church,

the privileged position of which had long been condemned by public

opinion, was then decreed (1869) and the land question was next taken in

hand (1870). These reforms did not, however, put an end to Irish

agitation. The Home Rule party which demanded the restoration of a

separate Irish parliament, showed increased activity, and the general

election of 1874 gave it a strong representation at Westminster, where

one section of the party developed into the "obstructionists" (see the

articles on ISAAC BUTT and C. S. PARNELL).

Isaac Butt, who died in May 1879, led a parliamentary party of

fifty-four, but the Conservatives were strong enough to outvote them and

the Liberals together. His procedure was essentially lawyer-like, for he

respected the House of Commons and dreaded revolutionary violence. His

death left the field clear for younger and bolder men. William Shaw

succeeded him as chairman of the Irish party in Parliament; but after

the election of 1880, Parnell, who had the Land League at his back,

ousted him by 23 votes to 18.

The Land League.

The Land Law of 1860, known as Deasy's Act, had been based on the

principle that every tenancy rested on contract either expressed or

implied. The act of 1870, admitting the divergence between theory and

practice, protected the tenants' improvements and provided compensation

for disturbance within certain limits, but not where the ejectment was

for non-payment of rent. In good times this worked well enough, but

foreign competition began to tell, and 1879 was the worst of several bad

seasons. A succession of wet summers told against all farmers, and in

mountainous districts it was difficult to dry the turf on which the

people depended for fuel. A famine was feared, and in the west there was

much real distress. The Land League, of which Michael Davitt (q.v.) was

the founder, originated in Mayo in August, and at a meeting in Dublin in

October the organization was extended to all Ireland, with Parnell as

president. The country was thickly covered with branches before the end

of the year, and in December Parnell went to America to collect money.

He was absent just three months, visiting over sixty cities and towns;

and 200,000 dollars were subscribed. Parnell had to conciliate the

Clan-na-Gael and the Fenians generally, both in Ireland and America,

while abstaining from action which would make his parliamentary position

untenable. He did not deny that he would like an armed rebellion, but

acknowledged that it was an impossibility. Speaking at Cincinnati on the

23rd of February 1880, he declared that the first thing necessary was to

undermine English power by destroying the Irish landlords. Ireland might

thus become independent. "And let us not forget," he added, "that that

is the ultimate goal at which all we Irishmen aim. None of us, whether

we be in America or in Ireland, or wherever we may be, will be satisfied

until we have destroyed the last link which keeps Ireland bound to

England." At Galway in October of the same year he said that he "would

not have taken off his coat" to help the tenant farmers had he not known

that that was the way to legislative independence. Fenianism and

agrarianism, essentially different as they are, might be worked to the

same end.

Boycotting.

To meet the partial failure of the potatoes in Connaught and Donegal,

very large sums were subscribed and administered by two committees, one

under the duchess of Marlborough and the other under the lord mayor of

Dublin. When Lord Beaconsfield appealed to the country in March 1880, he

reminded the country in a letter to the viceroy, the duke of

Marlborough, that there was a party in Ireland "attempting to sever the

constitutional tie which unites it to Great Britain in that bond which

has favoured the power and prosperity of both," and that such an

agitation might in the end be "scarcely less disastrous than pestilence

and famine." But the general election did not turn mainly upon Ireland,

and the result gave Gladstone a majority of 50 over Conservatives and

Home Rulers combined. Earl Cowper became lord-lieutenant, with W. E.

Forster (q.v.) as chief secretary, and Parnell remained chairman of his

own party in parliament. The Compensation for Disturbance Bill, even

where the ejectment was for non-payment of rent, passed the House of

Commons, but the Lords threw it out, and this has often been represented

as the great cause of future trouble. Probably it made little real

difference, for the extreme party in Ireland were resolved to stop at

nothing. It is not easy to defend the principle that a landlord who has

already lost his rent should also have to pay the defaulter before

getting a new tenant or deriving a profit from the farm by working it

himself. Speaking at Ennis on the 19th of September, Parnell told the

people to punish a man for taking a farm from which another had been

evicted "by isolating him from his kind as if he was a leper of old."

The advice was at once taken and its scope largely extended. For

refusing to receive rents at figures fixed by the tenants, Captain

Boycott (1832-1897), Lord Erne's agent in Mayo, was severely

"boycotted," the name of the first victim being given to the new system.

His servants were forced to leave him, his crops were left unsaved, even

the post and telegraph were interfered with. The Ulster Orangemen

resolved to get in the crops, and to go in armed force sufficient for

the purpose. The government allowed 50 of them to go under the

protection of about 900 soldiers. The cost seemed great, but the work

was done and the law vindicated. In Cork William Bence-Jones (1812-1882)

was attacked. The men in the service of the steam-packet companies

refused to put his cattle on board, and they were eventually smuggled

across the Channel in small lots. Several associations were formed which

had more or less success against the League, and at last a direct attack

was made. Parnell with four other members of parliament and the chief

officers of the Land League were indicted for conspiracy in the Queen's

Bench. No means of intimidating the jurors was neglected, and in the

then state of public feeling a verdict was hardly to be expected. On the

25th of January 1881 the jury disagreed, and Parnell became stronger

than ever.

Then followed a reign of terror which lasted for years. No one was safe,

and private spite worked freely in the name of freedom. The system

originated by Parnell's Ennis speech became an all-devouring tyranny. In

the House of Commons, on the 24th of May 1882, Gladstone said that

boycotting required a sanction like every other creed, and that the

sanction which alone made it effective "is the murder which is not to be

denounced." The following description by a resident in Munster was

published in _The Times_ of the 5th of November 1885: "Boycotting means

that a peaceable subject of the queen is denied food and drink, and that

he is ruined in his business; that his cattle are unsaleable at fairs;

that the smith will not shoe his horse, nor the carpenter mend his cart;

that old friends pass him by on the other side, making the sign of the

cross; that his children are hooted at the village school; that he sits

apart like an outcast in his usual place of public worship: all for

doing nothing but what the law says he has a perfect right to do. I know

of a man who is afraid to visit his own son. A trader who is even

suspected of dealing with such a victim of tyranny may be ruined by the

mere imputation; his customers shun him from fear, and he is obliged to

get a character from some notorious leaguer. Membership of the National

League is, in many cases, as necessary a protection as ever was a

certificate of civism under Robespierre. The real Jacobins are few, but

the masses groan and submit." Medicine was refused by a shopkeeper even

for the sick child of a boycotted person. A clergyman was threatened for

visiting a parishioner who was under the ban of the League. Sometimes no

one could be found to dig a grave. The League interfered in every

relation of life, and the mere fact of not belonging to it was often

severely punished. "The people," says the report of the Cowper

Commission, "are more afraid of boycotting, which depends for its

success on the probability of outrage, than they are of the judgments of

the courts of justice. This unwritten law in some districts is supreme."

Coercion.

The session of parliament of 1881 was chiefly occupied with Ireland.

"With fatal and painful precision," Gladstone told the House of Commons

on the 28th of January, "the steps of crime dogged the steps of the Land

League," and the first thing was to restore the supremacy of the law. In

1871 there had been an agrarian war in Westmeath, and an act had been

passed authorizing the arrest of suspected persons and their detention

without trial. The ringleaders disappeared and the county became quiet

again. It was now proposed to do the same thing for the whole of

Ireland, the power of detention to continue until the 30th of September

1882. Parnell cared nothing for the dignity of the House of Commons. His

leading idea was that no concession could be got from England by fair

means, and he made himself as disagreeable as possible. Parliamentary

forms were used with great success to obstruct parliamentary action. The

"Coercion Bill" was introduced on the 24th of January 1881. There was a

sitting of 22 hours and another of 41 hours, and on the 2nd of February

the debate was closured by the Speaker on his own responsibility and

the bill read a first time. The Speaker's action was approved by the

House generally, but acrimonious debates were raised by Irish members.

Parnell and 35 of his colleagues were suspended, and the bill became law

on the 2nd of March, but not before great and permanent changes were

made in parliamentary procedure. An Arms Bill, which excited the same

sort of opposition, was also passed into law.

Land Act, 1881.