Brown, formerly a London friar, whom the king appointed archbishop of Dublin in place of the murdered Archbishop Allen. Brown now-1535-went to work with great energy; but he was vehemently opposed by Cromer archbishop of Armagh; and he made no impression on the Anglo-Irish of the Pale, who showed not the least disposition to go with him. Finding all his efforts fail, a parliament was convened by his advice in Dublin, which passed an act making the king supreme spiritual head of the church. An oath of supremacy was to be taken by all government officers,

A.D. 1536 head of the church;

i.e. an oath that the king was spiritual and anyone who was bound to take it and refused was adjudged guilty of treason. Appeals to the Pope in matters connected with the church were forbidden: the king would henceforward settle all these. The monasteries all through Ireland, except a few in some remote districts, were suppressed; and their property was either kept for the king or given to laymen: about four hundred altogether were broken up, and the great body of the inmates were turned out on the world without any provision.

The deputy, Lord Grey, now set to work with great energy to restore quietness; for the Geraldine League was still kept up, and the disturbances caused by the rebellion continued. After a great deal of fighting he reduced most of the chiefs; and though he failed to bring Desmond and O'Brien to submission, he so weakened the League that it never came to anything.

Hitherto the English kings, from the time of John, had borne the title of "Lord of Ireland": it was now resolved to confer on Henry the title of "King of Ireland." With this object a parliament was

assembled in Dublin on June 12th; and in order to lend greater importance to its decisions, a number of the leading Irish chiefs were induced to attend. This parliament accordingly is remarkable as being the first

ever attended by native chiefs. Among A.D. 1541 them were also many Anglo-Irish chiefs who had seldom or never before been in parliament. For the king had instructed his deputy, Sir Anthony Sentleger, to treat with them all in a kindly and generous spirit; and as they were by this time heartily weary of strife, they showed a general disposition to meet the king's offers of reconciliation and peace. The act conferring the title of King of Ireland on Henry and his successors was passed through both houses rapidly, and without opposition. The Irish, and many of the Anglo-Irish lords, did not understand one word of English; and they were much pleased when the earl of Ormond translated into Irish for them the speeches of the Lord Chancellor and the speaker. There was general rejoicing, and titles were conferred on many of the chiefs. Conn O'Neill was made earl of Tyrone, and his (reputed) son Matthew was made baron of Dungannon, with the right to succeed as earl of Tyrone. O'Brien was made earl of Thomond; Mac William Burke was created earl of Clanrickard; and many other chiefs all over the country had minor titles.

With the career of Henry VIII. in England we have no concern here; for this book is an Irish, not an English history. Putting out of sight the question of supremacy and the suppression of the Irish monasteries, Henry's treatment of Ireland was on the whole considerate and conciliatory, though with an occasional outburst of cruelty. He persistently refused to expel

or exterminate the native Irish people to make room for new colonies, though often urged to do so by his mischievous Irish officials. The result was that the end of his reign found the chiefs submissive and contented, the country at peace, and the English power in Ireland stronger than ever it had been before. Well would it have been, both for England and Ireland, if a similar line of conduct had been followed in the succeeding reigns. Then our history would have been very different, and the tragic story that follows would never have to be told.

CHAPTER XXX.

NEW CAUSES OF STRIFE.

F there had been no influences from the outside to stir up discord after the time of Henry VIII., it is pretty certain that the Irish people of all classes, with their own parliament, would have settled down in peace, prosperity, and contentment under the rule of the kings of England; and there now appeared every prospect that this state of

things would come to pass. But there were

causes of strife in store for Ireland that no one at the time ever dreamed of; so that the condition of the country, instead of improving, became gradually much worse than ever it had been, even during the evil times we have been treating of. our regular narrative, it will be

Р

Before resuming

better to state

the circumstances that brought about this state of things.

After the death of Henry VIII., the government in course of time entered on the task of forcing the Irish people to become Protestant; and they also began to plant the country with colonies from England and Scotland, for whom the native inhabitants were to be expelled. These two projects were either directly or indirectly the causes of nearly all the dreadful wars that desolated this unhappy country during the next century and a half: for the Irish people resisted both. One project—the Plantations-partially succeeded: the other the religious one-failed.

But there were other circumstances that tended to bring on disturbance, though of less importance than the two above-mentioned. It will be recollected that an Irish chief had a tract of land for life, which, after his death went, by the Law of Tanistry, to his successor (p. 43). But now when a chief who had got an English title from the king died, his eldest son or his next heir succeeded to title and land, according to English law; but according to the Irish custom, he whom the tribe elected succeeded to the chiefship and to the mensal land. Thus when this titled chief died, English and Irish law were, in a double sense, opposed to each other, and there was generally a contest, both for the headship and for the land, in which the government supported the heir, and the tribe the new chief elected by them. This was the origin of many very serious disturbances.

Another fruitful source of bitter heartburnings was the continual and most unwise harshness of the government, by which they turned both natives and colonists against them. To such an extent was this carried-so odious did the authorities make themselves-without

the least necessity, that any invader, no matter from what quarter, would have been welcomed and aided, by both native Irish and Anglo-Irish.

A disquieting agency less serious than any of the preceding, but still a decided cause of disturbance, was the settled policy of the Tudors to anglicise the Irish people; to make them, as it were, English in everything. To accomplish this the government employed all the means at their disposal, and employed them in vain. Acts of parliament were passed commanding the natives to drop their Irish language and learn English-a thing impossible for a whole people—to take English names instead of their own, and to ride (with saddle), dress, and live after the English fashion. The legislators undertook to regulate how the hair was to be worn and how the beard was to be clipped; and for women, the colour of their dresses, the number of yards of material they were to use, the sort of hats they were to wear, and many other such like silly provisions. These laws, as might be expected, were hardly ever obeyed, so that they generally came to nothing: for the people went on speaking Irish, shaving, riding without saddle, and dressing just the same as before. But like all such laws, they were very exasperating, for they put it in the power of any ill-conditioned person to insult and harass his Irish neighbours; and they were among the causes that rendered the Irish government of that time so universally hated in Ireland.

The death of Henry VIII. removed all check to the Reformation, which was now pushed forward vigorously in England. In 1551, the fifth year of Edward's reign, the chief Protestant doctrines and forms of worship were proclaimed in Ireland by Sir Anthony Sentleger, while George Brown archbishop of Dublin exerted himself to