peace in every county should set down and appoint what men and armour every man should bear according to his estate.

6

By the death of Lionel, duke of Clarence, (1368,) the earldom of Ulster passed with Philippa, the heiress, to Edmund Mortimer, earl of March, descended from the gentle Mortimer' of queen Isabella, and restored in blood. He was appointed lord lieutenant; died in Ireland, (1382,) and the government was given to his son Roger. The Plantagenet birth of Philippa made her children heirs to the throne; but the Mortimers, though kings de jure, are never reckoned among our sovereigns, and their rights were first recognised in the line of York, which borrowed its diadem from them. Roger Mortimer was acknowledged, by parliamentary authority, (1385,) heir next after Richard II.; but, as we shall see, he lost his life before the Lancastrian revolution.

Richard II., in the folly of his favouritism, (1385,) created Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, marquis of Dublin, and granted to him the entire and perfect sovereignty of Ireland for life (integre et perfecte, sicut nos ea tenuimus.) The favourite never visited his sovereignty.

The war was still carried on against the Irish. Occasional battles or skirmishes mark the restless state of the country, and to Clarence had been granted, by clergy and laity, two years' profits' towards the maintenance of the war here.' An earl of Desmond had been killed by the O'Connors and O'Briens in 1370. And now, to promote the conquest, the first law on the statute-book was directed against absentees, who were taxed in two-thirds of their profits for two years to maintain troops (super conquestu illius terræ per duos annos); five hundred men at arms, at twelve pence per diem, and a thousand archers at sixpence. The statute was enforced even against the duke of Norfolk. Pro

voked by German taunts, Richard II. determined to act vigorously: he levied four thousand men at arms, and thirty thousand archers, with which noble following he landed (2nd October, 1394) at Waterford. With such a force something might have been done, but Richard returned to England without earning a better character for prudence or energy: though he had spent a huge mass of treasure in transporting his army from beyond sea, yet he did not increase his revenue by a single pound, nor enlarge the English borders by the breadth of an acre, nor extend by one foot the jurisdiction of his courts of justice. The whole of the Irish chiefs readily took the oaths of fidelity, and entered into indentures, still preserved; among them especially O'Neill, 'prince of the Irish in Ulster,' as he terms himself. Richard had a humour to knight them: after some demur, and some instruction under a master of ceremonies, they submitted to the honour, and four of them, in unaccustomed robes of state, sat with the king at his banquetting table.

When Richard quitted his Hibernian dominions, (1395,) he left Roger Mortimer, earl of March and Ulster, lord of Wigmore, Trim, Clare, and Connaught, a second time as his lieutenant. It was an extraordinary event, when the heir of the English throne was killed (1398) in a casual affray with the O'Byrnes of Wicklow.

The king, to avenge this disgrace, came over a second time, and again landed at Waterford (1st June, 1399). His expedition against the Mac-Morogh of Leinster afforded no grounds for congratulation. The MacMorogh defied him, refused battle, hung about his flanks, and almost starved his army. At a conference with the earl of Gloucester, the Irish chief refused to come in upon the terms offered, and Richard, who had retired for provisions to Dublin, swore by St. Edward to secure him alive or dead. But at this moment, news arrived of the insurrection of Bolingbroke, and Richard

II., after three weeks' delay, returned to England to lose his crown and life.

The reigns of the three Lancastrian kings contain no events of much importance in Ireland. Royal blood being come into possession of the earldom of Ulster, and the regal supremacy over the nobles having been established by Edward III., dukes and princes of the Plantagenet race occasionally visit Ireland as lieutenants; but no enterprises of moment are undertaken. The Geraldines and Butlers became the most important personages, for the owners of the Leinster estates lived mostly in England. These families were continually at war with each other; for example, in a fight between the earls of Ormond and Desmond, in the reign of Henry VI., almost all the townsmen of Kilkenny were slain. The head of the Butlers, the earl of Ormond, often, however, bore the office of chief magistrate in the kingdom. The Pale was still confined to four counties, and the septs appear to have had the upper hand in their dealings with the English. MacMorogh held the Wicklow mountains, though he was at last taken, and, as a prisoner of importance, committed to the Tower of London. The scenes of action in strife with the Irish were all near the metropolis : as at Bray, at Callan in Kilkenny, at Ley. Even stipends, or tributes or salaries, were charged upon the several counties as payable to the chiefs: thus, the O'Connor received sixty pounds from Meath, twenty from Kildare, &c. O'Neill, forty pounds from Uriel, &c.

The family of the Bourkes, or De Burghs, affords an instructive example of the process of degeneration. When the heirs male of the earldom failed, two principal branches of the Bourkes, seated in Connaught, adopted the Irish language, dress, and manners: they even changed their names to Mac-William, and all this as matter of policy, with a view to possess themselves of portions of the inheritance of Elizabeth, the heiress, gone to England, and married to Lionel, duke of Cla

rence. In this they drew after them the rest of the province even Bermingham, lord Athunree, called himself Mac-Toris; and others adopted the names of Mac-Jerdan, Mac. Costelo, &c. The last De Burgh who enjoyed the earldom was murdered at Knockfergus, leaving his daughter a twelvemonth old: with her the countess fled to England, and the little heiress was esteemed a match worthy of the blood royal.

CHAPTER IV.

FROM THE WARS OF THE ROSES TO ELIZABETH.

DURING the Wars of the Roses, and those subsequent insurrections which arose from pretenders, the history of Ireland is less Irish than at other periods: the events belong more to English history, though they occurred within the limits of Ireland. The Wars of the Roses broke out with the battle of St. Alban's in 1455: and the key to subsequent transactions lies simply in the fact, that the Geraldines espoused the cause of York, while the Butlers embraced that of Lancaster. James Butler, earl of Ormond, shared the misfortunes of his friends at Mortimer's Cross, near Ludlow (1461), and lost his life in the bloody action which ruined them at Towton (1461). While matters were yet in suspense, Richard, duke of York, de jure king, obtained the government of Ireland upon terms of his own dictation (1459) :1, that he should be lieutenant for ten years; 2, that to support the charges of government, he should receive all the king's revenues there, both fixed and casual, without account; 3, that he should be further supplied with treasure out of England, four thousand marks for the first year, and two thousand for all succeeding; 4, that he might let to farm all the king's lands, and place and displace officers at his pleasure; 5, that he should levy and wage what number of men he thought fit; 6, that he might make a deputy, and return at pleasure. These terms sufficiently show that Ireland and the Irish were subordinate objects: he did not live to reap much benefit from the country, for he was killed next year at Wakefield (1460): yet he found a refuge here after his loss of the battle of Ludlow (1459), and strengthened his ranks with his friends,