Ireland under the Tudors Part 6

[34] In narrating the events of Henry II.'s reign, I have generally followed Giraldus Cambrensis, checking him by references to Hoveden and Regan. The _Expugnatio_ may be considered a fanciful book in some ways.

But if we eliminate everything supernatural, and make some allowance for the writer's prejudices, I see no reason to question his good faith. Of the native Irish he knew little, but the invaders were his neighbours, friends, and relations. Fitz-Stephen and the other descendants of Nesta may be unduly praised, Fitz-Adelm perhaps unduly blamed; but, after all, this is no more than may be said against most historians of their own times. Giraldus was undoubtedly an observer of first-rate power.

CHAPTER IV.

FROM JOHN'S VISIT IN 1210 TILL THE INVASION BY THE BRUCES IN 1315.

[Sidenote: John acts as lord of Ireland under his father and brother.]

Richard I. did not interfere with his brother's jurisdiction over Ireland, and this may be the reason why the records of the colony during his reign are so scanty. The invaders, though they fought a good deal among themselves, continued to extend their power, and gained a firm footing in Connaught. Some years before the death of Henry II., Roderic's sons had invited the Anglo-Normans into his kingdom, and in 1183 the last monarch of Ireland retired to the abbey of Cong, where he died in 1198.

His brother Cathal Crovdearg, or Charles of the Red Hand, about whom many marvellous stories are told, ultimately made himself supreme; but not without the help of William Fitz-Adelm, who lost no opportunity of advancing the claim given him by Henry's thoroughly unjustifiable grant.

Fitz-Adelm, who had made himself master of Limerick, at first opposed Cathal Crovdearg, but joined him in 1201 and enabled him to triumph over all compet.i.tors. The accession of John to the crown of England put an end to the separate lordship of Ireland, but his successors, until the time of Henry VIII., continued to call themselves only lords of Ireland. If Berengaria had had children, it is possible, and even probable, that Ireland would have pa.s.sed to John's issue as a separate, or at the most a tributary kingdom. The early years of John's reign were much disturbed by a violent feud between the De Lacies and De Courcy. The King favoured the former party, and in 1205 created the younger Hugo Earl of Ulster and Viceroy. He proved an oppressive governor, over-taxing the King's subjects to provide means for his foreign enterprises. The southern colonists, in alliance with some of the natives, defeated the Viceroy near Thurles, and the King began to fear that he had given too much power to one family; for Walter de Lacy continued to rule Meath, while his brother was all-powerful in the north and east. A royal army was accordingly levied, and John prepared to revisit the lordship where he had so signally failed twenty-five years before.

[Sidenote: King John visits Ireland.]

The excommunicated King sailed from Milford Haven with a motley army of mercenaries, under command of Fair Rosamond's son, William Long-sword, and landed on June 20, 1210, at the same place as his father had done.

Among his train were John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich, whom Innocent III.

had refused to make Archbishop of Canterbury, and John de Courcy, who had been captured and given up by the De Lacies, and who had suffered a rigorous imprisonment, but was now again in favour with the King. John did not let the gra.s.s grow under his feet. On the eighth day after his arrival he was at Dublin, having travelled by Ross, Thomastown, Kilkenny, and Naas. The first effect of his presence was to separate the two De Lacies, and the Lord of Meath sent him the following message:--'Walter salutes the King as his liege lord, of whom he holds all he possesses; and prays the King to relax his ire, and suffer Walter to approach his presence; Walter will not plead against the King, but places all his castles and lands in the hands of the King as his lord, to retain or restore as he pleases.' The messenger added that Walter had lost much by his brother Hugo, and that he left him to the King's pleasure. It is possible that this was said in consequence of an arrangement between the two brothers. John was not pacified, and prepared to invade both Meath and Ulster. Trim was reached by July 2, and Kells by the 4th, and the Kings of Connaught and Th.o.m.ond were summoned to take part in the expedition to Ulster. Cathal Crovdearg and Donough O'Brien both obeyed the King's order, and the royal army proceeded by Dundalk, Carlingford, and Downpatrick to Carrickfergus. The latter place was taken and garrisoned. Hugo de Lacy had already fled into Scotland. The King stayed eight or nine days at Carrickfergus, where he was visited by Hugh O'Neill, who does not appear to have made any real submission, and then marched by Holywood, Downpatrick, Banbridge, and Carlingford to Drogheda.

From Drogheda he again entered Meath, visited Duleek and Kells, and seems to have penetrated as far west as Granard. He was in Dublin by August 18, and back to England before the end of the month, having spent sixty-six days in Ireland. On his return from Ulster he had summoned Cathal Crovdearg a second time, bidding him bring his son 'to receive a charter for the third part of Connaught.' Over-persuaded by his wife, Cathal went to the King alone. John's object may have been to make a hostage of the boy, and he seized instead MacDermot of Moylurg, O'Hara of Sligo, and two other men of importance in Connaught. Carrying these chiefs with him to England, the King left the government of Ireland to Bishop de Grey, who signalised his advent to power by building a castle and bridge at Athlone. William de Braose, who had enormous estates in Ireland, was driven into exile by John, who starved his wife and son to death, and gave his castle of Carrigogunnel on the Shannon to Donough O'Brien.

[Sidenote: The Anglo-Normans flock to the King. He erects twelve shires.]

The Anglo-Norman barons of Ireland flocked to Dublin while John was there, and swore to obey the laws of England. The King divided their country into twelve counties: Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Uriel or Louth, Carlow, Kilkenny, and Wexford in Leinster; and Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary in Munster. Every knight's fee was bound to supply a well-armed horseman, and inferior tenants were bound to provide foot-soldiers. The Viceroy was to give a notice of forty days when the feudal array was to muster at Dublin, and serve against the King's enemies for forty days in each year. Ulster and Connaught were not shired, but were afterwards sometimes regarded as counties. Perhaps the n.o.bles of these provinces were supposed to be constantly employed against the Irish. The native chiefs were considered as tributary subjects, but not as tenants. In 1215 John ordered the Archbishop of Dublin to buy enough scarlet cloth to make robes for the Kings of Ireland; and it is clear that they were expected to serve, though the exact measure of the aid rendered may have been left to themselves.

[Sidenote: Leinster is divided after Earl Richard's death.]

When Strongbow died without a son the princ.i.p.ality of Leinster fell to his eldest daughter Isabel, who became a ward of the Crown. In 1189 the minor was given in marriage to William Earl Marshal, who thus became Earl of Pembroke and Strigul, and lord of a territory in Ireland, corresponding nearly to the counties of Wexford, Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny, and part of the Queen's County. He built a castle and incorporated a town at Kilkenny, and died in 1219, transmitting his honours and great power to his son William. The younger William was Viceroy in 1224, and depressed the De Lacies, allying himself generally with Cathal Crovdearg O'Connor. He died in 1231, leaving all to his brother Richard, who made good his position, although Henry III.'s foreign advisers plotted his destruction. Strongbow's grandson was killed in 1234 by the feudatories who were bound to defend him, and the colony never recovered the blow.

[Sidenote: The De Burgos in Connaught.]

Fitz-Adelm's son, Richard de Burgo, generally called MacWilliam by the Irish, married Una, Cathal Crovdearg's grand-daughter, and procured from Henry III. a grant of all Connaught, except five cantreds reserved for the support of the post at Athlone. From the first the position of the Anglo-Normans in Connaught differed from their position in other parts of Ireland. They were there rather as allies of the native chiefs than as conquerors, and the easy lapse of their descendants into Irish habits is the less to be wondered at. Richard de Burgo obtained a confirmation of his grant in 1226, through the favour of his kinsman, the great justiciar, Hubert, and he soon afterwards made himself master of Galway, which he fortified strongly, and made the chief place of Connaught. After his time the O'Connors never regained possession of it, and the importance of the royal tribe steadily diminished during the whole of the thirteenth century. Richard de Burgo's eldest son Walter married Maud, daughter and heiress of the younger Hugo de Lacy, who died in 1243, and he thus became Earl of Ulster as well as Lord of Connaught. His son Richard, commonly called the Red Earl, advanced the power of the Anglo-Norman state to the furthest point which it ever attained.

[Sidenote: Poverty of the colony under Henry III.]

Constant war is not favourable to the production of wealth, and it seems probable that no very considerable progress was made in the arts of peace. Tallage was first imposed on Ireland in 1217, in the name of Henry III., but it seems to have yielded little, and a generation later there was equal difficulty in collecting a t.i.the for the Pope. Innocent IV.

ordered that a sum should be so raised for the liberation of the Holy Land, and very stringent letters were sent to Ireland in 1254; but collector Lawrence Sumercote declared that the difficulties were insuperable. The Irish, he explained, never saved anything, but lived riotously and gave liberally to all, and he professed that he would 'rather be imprisoned than crucified any longer in Ireland for the business of the Cross.' The plan of drawing upon Ireland for English or Continental wars was, however, largely practised during the reign of Henry III., and it tended to sap the strength of the colony. Ready money might be scarce, but there were men, and they could be ill-spared from the work of defending their lands against a native race who were ever on the watch to take advantage of their absence or neglect.

[Sidenote: Edward I. had not time to attend to Ireland personally.]

A vast number of doc.u.ments remain to show that Edward I. took great pains about Ireland. Phelim O'Connor, who died in 1265, may be regarded as the last King of Connaught. His son Hugh did indeed a.s.sume the t.i.tle, and, according to the annalists, 'executed his royal depredations on the men of Offaly, where he committed many burnings and killings;' but his kingship does not appear to have been officially recognised, and the De Burgos were the true rulers. The Red Earl was supreme in the northern half of Ireland; but O'Neill was recognised as King of Tyrone, while his claim to be head of all the Irish in Ireland was denied. O'Cahan was also sometimes given the t.i.tle of king. O'Donnell was treated with less respect, and a price was set upon his head, which appears to have been actually brought to Dublin in 1283. In 1281 Hugh Boy O'Neill, whom the annalists call 'royal heir of all Erin, head of the hospitality and valour of the Gael,' sided with the English against Donnell Oge O'Donnell, who is called 'King of the north, the best Gael for hospitality and dignity; the general guardian of the west of Europe, and the knitting-needle of the arch sovereignty, and the rivetting hammer of every good law, and the top-nut of the Gael in valour.' A battle was fought near Dungannon, and O'Donnell, who had under him the O'Rourkes and MacMahons, and 'nearly the majority of the Irish of Connaught and Ulster,' was defeated and slain. Two years later Hugh Boy was killed by the MacMahons. The story of this contest is a good ill.u.s.tration of the hopeless incapacity of the natives for anything like a national combination. If Edward I. had been able to attend to Ireland personally, it is at least probable that he would have conquered the country as completely as Wales.

[Sidenote: Frequency of quarrels among the colonists.]

In 1275, Edward granted the whole of Th.o.m.ond to Thomas de Clare, who took advantage of the dissensions among the O'Briens, and built the strong castle of Bunratty to dominate the district. The conquest of Th.o.m.ond was, however, never completed, or nearly completed, nor did the De Clares succeed in establishing themselves like the De Burgos. They might have done so had they not come so late into the field, and their failure was certainly not owing to any exceptional power of combination shown by the Irish. It was rather due to quarrels among the colonists, whose strength was being constantly sapped by taking part in Edward's Scotch wars, and who were not recruited by any considerable immigration. In 1245, the male line of the Earl Marshal was finally extinguished, and the inheritance of Strongbow fell to five sisters, the great grand-daughters of Dermod MacMurrough. Matilda, the eldest, obtained Carlow and carried the hereditary office of Earl Marshal to her husband, Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk. Joan, the second, received Wexford. Isabella, the third, had Kilkenny, which her descendants sold to the Ormonde family. Sibilla, the fourth, had Kildare for her share. Eva, the youngest sister, married William De Braose; and through her daughter, who was married to Roger Mortimer, became ancestress of most of the royal houses of Europe. As the five daughters of William Earl Marshal were all married, and had all children, the history of Leinster becomes very confusing. Had it remained in one strong hand the Irish would hardly have recovered their ground.

But, as Giraldus points out, the 'four great pillars of the conquest, Fitz-Stephen, Hervey, Raymond, and John de Courcy, by the hidden but never unjust judgment of G.o.d, were not blessed with any legitimate offspring.' A similar fatality attended many others, including Earl Richard, to whom, and not to Fitz-Stephen, common fame, more true in this case than contemporary history, has attributed the real leadership among the Anglo-Norman invaders of Ireland.

[Sidenote: Edward I. weakens the colony by drawing men and supplies from it.]

In his great campaign of 1296 Edward had much help from Ireland. The Earl of Ulster was among those who led contingents to Scotland, and the names of Power, Butler, Fitzthomas, Wogan, Rocheford, Purcell, Cantoke, and Barry appear among the leaders. The whole force from Ireland consisted of 310 men-at-arms, 266 hobelers or hors.e.m.e.n with unarmoured horses, and 2,576 foot, including many archers and cross-bowmen. All who went received pardons, but some refused or neglected to obey the royal summons. In 1298 Edward drew provisions from Ireland. His requisition included 8,000 quarters of wheat, chiefly fine flour in casks; 10,000 quarters of oats; much bran, bacon, salt beef, and salt fish; and 10,000 casks of wine. If so much wine could not be got in Ireland, then the Viceroy was to agree with some merchant to bring it from Gascony as quick as possible. Edward used Ireland as a base for operations, or as a recruiting ground, but he never had time to give it much of his personal care. First Wales, then Gascony, then Palestine, then Scotland engrossed his vast energies; but Ireland was left to herself. Without the means to keep order themselves, Viceroys found it necessary to preserve the colony by stirring up dissensions among the Irish. The justiciar, Robert d'Ufford, was sent for by Edward and charged with this evil policy. He answered, that to save the King's coffers, and to keep the peace, he thought it expedient to wink at one knave cutting off another. 'Whereat,'

says an old author, 'the King smiled, and bade him return to Ireland.'

[Sidenote: Disorders after the death of Edward I.]

John's imperfect part.i.tion of Ireland into shires was still more imperfectly carried out. At the death of Edward I. four out of his grandfather's twelve counties--namely, Meath, Wexford, Carlow, and Kilkenny--were liberties or exempt jurisdictions in the hands of what Davies calls 'absolute palatines,' claiming and exercising almost every attribute of sovereignty. The Fitzgeralds had acquired similar authority over a portion of Desmond, and the De Clares over a portion of Th.o.m.ond.

Connaught and Ulster were under the De Burghs, in so far as they had been reduced at all, and Roscommon was a royal castle and the head of a separate county. At Randon on Lough Ree was another royal castle, and these were almost the only strongholds of the Crown in Connaught; for Galway was quite subject to the De Burghs. Within their palatinate jurisdictions, the great n.o.bles made barons and knights, appointed sheriffs, and executed justice. The King's writ only ran in the Church lands, and was executed by a separate sheriff. So complete was the distinction, that in the mediaeval parliaments knights were separately returned for the counties and for the 'crosses,' as the ecclesiastical jurisdictions were called. The inherent weakness of such a polity was probably aggravated by the suppression of the Templars, who always kept a strong armed force. In 1308 Edward II. called for an account of their lands and revenues, and the barons of the exchequer answered that they could make no proper inquisition. 'On account,' they wrote, 'of the long distances, and of the feuds between certain of the magnates of Ireland, we do not dare to visit the places named, and jurors of the country cannot come to us for the same reason.'

[Sidenote: Reasons why the colony declined. The Bruces invade Ireland.]

Dissensions among the barons, caused by the weakness and absence of the Crown, were one great cause of the decline of the colony. Another was the policy of Edward I., which left him little time to attend to Ireland, and tempted him constantly to draw supplies of men from thence. A third was the battle of Bannockburn, which allowed victorious Scotland to compete with England for the dominion of the neighbouring island; and the Irish themselves were not slow to adopt the principle that England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity. In 1315 Edward Bruce landed near Larne with 6,000 men, including some of the best knights in Scotland. Having been joined by O'Neill and the chiefs depending on him, Bruce twice defeated the Red Earl of Ulster, occupied the strongholds of Down and Antrim, and wintered in Westmeath. In the spring he overthrew the Viceroy, Sir Edmund Butler, at Ardscull, for the Earl of Ulster disdained to serve under the King's representative, and the English armies were therefore beaten in detail. Bruce gained another battle at Kells, wasted all northern Leinster, and then returned to Carrickfergus, where he was joined by King Robert with reinforcements. The Scots went almost where they liked, and Robert Bruce is said to have heard ma.s.s at Limerick on Palm Sunday, 1317.

They did not cross the Shannon, and seem not to have gone further south than Cashel. Dublin was not attacked, though the invaders came as near as Castleknock. On Easter Thursday, 1317, Roger Mortimer landed at Youghal with 15,000 men and full viceregal powers, and the Bruces retired before him into Ulster. They had devastated the country, and lost many men from the famine which they themselves had caused.

[Sidenote: The Bruces fail to conquer Ireland.]

The Bruces were descended from Strongbow and from Dermod MacMurrough, and Robert's wife was descended from Roderic O'Connor. The true principles of hereditary succession were not fully accepted, and they might pretend some right to interfere in Ireland. They had been invited by the De Lacies of Meath, who for want of male heirs saw their territory divided between De Verdon and De Mortimer. In the first flush of his victorious advance from the south, Roger Mortimer called the De Lacies before him.

They refused to appear, and were proclaimed traitors, but continued to adhere to Edward Bruce's fortunes. The invader, after his brother's departure, remained for more than a year at Carrickfergus, in hopes of being able to take the offensive again, and still retaining the t.i.tle of King, which he had a.s.sumed after his first successes. He had been so often victorious in battle that he despised the colonists, and, against the advice of his Irish allies, resolved to fight once more without waiting for reinforcements from Scotland. John de Bermingham, at the head of an army which greatly outnumbered the Scots, forced an engagement between Faughard and Dundalk, and Bruce and most of his officers were killed. The remnant of his army, with Walter and Hugo de Lacy, managed to escape to Scotland. The sovereignty of the English Crown in Ireland was never again seriously disputed; but the feudal organisation was shattered by Bruce's invasion, which did nothing to compose the differences already existing among the colonists. John de Bermingham received a grant of Louth with the t.i.tle of earl, but his great services were soon forgotten, and eleven years after the battle of Dundalk he was murdered by the English of his own earldom.

[Sidenote: Horrible cruelties of the Bruces.]

English and Irish are agreed as to the cruelty and ferocity of the Bruces. Clyn the Franciscan records, in terse and vigorous Latin, that 'Robert Bruce, who bore himself as King of the Scots, crossed Ireland from Ulster, where he landed, almost to Limerick, burning, killing, plundering, and spoiling towns, castles, and even churches, both going and returning.' Clyn was an English partisan, but the same cannot be said of the Lough Ce annalists, who record that 'Edward Bruce, the destroyer of all Erin in general, both foreigners and Gaels, was slain by the foreigners of Erin, through the power of battle and bravery at Dundalk; and MacRory, King of the Hebrides, and MacDonnell, King of Argyll, together with the men of Scotland, were slain there along with him; and no better deed for the men of all Erin was performed since the beginning of the world, since the Formorian race was expelled from Erin, than this deed; for theft, and famine, and destruction of men occurred throughout Erin during his time for the s.p.a.ce of three years and a half; and people used to eat one another, without doubt, throughout Erin.'

[Sidenote: The Irish fail to give the Bruces effectual support.]

There can, however, be no doubt that Edward Bruce came to Ireland on the invitation of the Irish. Donnell O'Neill, claiming to be the true heir to the chief kingship, and the other chiefs, in the famous remonstrance which they addressed to John XXII., informed that Pope that they felt helpless for want of a leader, but were determined no longer to submit like women to Anglo-Norman oppression, and that they had therefore invited over 'the brother of the most ill.u.s.trious Lord Robert, by the grace of G.o.d King of the Scots, and a descendant of the most n.o.ble of their own ancestors,' and that they had by letters patent const.i.tuted him king and lord. The blood of Roderic O'Connor and of Eva evidently went for something, but the chiefs also believed that Edward Bruce was 'a person of piety and prudence, of a chaste and modest disposition, of great sobriety, and altogether orderly and una.s.suming in his demeanour.'

Scottish historians are not entirely of the same opinion. It is indeed probable that Bruce had no other idea than to carve out a kingdom with his sword, like a genuine Norman as he was. He had the memory of Earl Richard, of Fitz-Stephen, and of De Courcy to guide him; and if a more modern instance was required, there could be none better than that of his brother Robert.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IRELAND ABOUT 1300.]

CHAPTER V.

FROM THE INVASION OF THE BRUCES TO THE YEAR 1346.

[Sidenote: The Irish never united. The O'Connors are almost destroyed by the De Burgos.]

The Irish invited Bruce, but they made no regular or general effort in his favour. Their total incapacity for anything like national organisation had forbidden the idea of a native sovereign, and perhaps the majority of them thought one Norman baron no better than another. The year 1316, in which Bruce landed, witnessed the almost total destruction of the O'Connors, the tribe which had last held the chief kingship. Their relationship with the De Burgos, Berminghams, and other Anglo-Normans may be traced in great detail in the annalists. Felim O'Connor, whom the Connaught historiographers call undisputed heir presumptive to the sovereignty of Erin, formed one of those great confederacies which occur so frequently in Irish history, and which so seldom had any results. The O'Kellys, MacDermods, O'Maddens, O'Dowds, O'Haras, O'Kearneys, O'Farrells, MacMahons, and many others were represented; and the Anglo-Normans, who also mustered in great force, were commanded by the Red Earl's brother, Sir William de Burgo, and by Richard Bermingham, fourth baron of Athenry, at the gate of which town the decisive struggle took place. The Irish were defeated with the loss of something like 10,000 men. Felim O'Connor fell, and his tribe never recovered its position in Connaught. In late times we have O'Connor Don and O'Connor Roe in Roscommon, O'Connor Sligo, O'Connor Kerry near the mouth of the Shannon, and O'Connor Faly in what is now the King's County, but the De Burgos became supreme in Connaught.

[Sidenote: The Irish recover ground under Edward II. and his successors.]

In other parts of Ireland the Celts were more successful. In 1317 or 1318 the O'Carrolls gained a victory over Sir Edmund Butler, but Clyn places his loss at about two hundred only. More important was the battle of Disert O'Dea, in which Richard de Clare was defeated and slain. This fight destroyed the pretensions of the De Clares, and the O'Briens remained supreme in Th.o.m.ond as long as such supremacies lasted anywhere.