CHAPTER XIII. A.D. 1345-1384. HUGH, SON OF TURLOUGH O'CONOR. (1345-1356.) URLOUGH O'CONOR having been killed as above related, his 'son Hugh was inaugurated in his place. As might naturally be expected, his authority was questioned from the commencement. His father had met his death in an expedition against the "Clann Murtough;" and the head of that clan, Hugh, the son of Hugh Breifnach O'Conor, had been proclaimed king a few years before, by several of the Connaught chieftains; and to him, as the lawful king, many still looked up. Complications also arose through the insubordinate conduct of the O'Conor Sligo sept. Roderic O'Conor, the leading man of that sept, who was the son of Cathal, and grandson of Donnell O'Conor, had various contentions with O'Rourke and O'Donnell. In 1346 O'Donnell pursued and defeated him near Colooney, and shortly after M'Dermot destroyed his castle of Ballymote. In 1350 Hugh, the son of Hugh Breifnach, and head of the "Clann Murtough," was killed by O'Rourke; and thus the chief competitor against Hugh, the son of Turlough, was removed; but no sooner was he freed from this adversary than another more formidable one appeared in the person of his first cousin, Hugh, the son of Felim. This Hugh, as we have before seen, had previously been nominated as Tanist, or successor to Hugh Breifnach; and on the death of the latter, his claim to the sovereignty was renewed, and supported by M'William Burke, and several of the chieftains and the people of the Tuathas.1 'The Tuathas, see note, p. 100 U In 1351 Hugh, the son of Turlough, gained the superiority, and defeated his cousin, Hugh, and banished him from the country, after which he assumed the government, " despite of all the English and Irish opposed to him." Meanwhile the Clann Murtough were not inactive. In 1352 Cathal, the brother of their late chief, Hugh, attacked O'Rourke in revenge for the murder of his brother, and slew him, and numbers of the gallowglasses of M'Sweeny, who supported him; and in 1353 Hugh O'Conor himself was again deposed, and kept prisoner by M'Brennan. He shortly after regained his liberty and authority, which he retained until 1356, when he was slain by O'Kelly, for carrying off his wife. In the previous year the great enemy of his family, Edward M'William Burke, was slain by the people of Galway. According to the Irish Synchronisms, this Hugh was married to Margaret, daughter of Walter de Burgh; she died in 1365.1 HUGH, SON OF FELIM, 1356-1368. The condition of Ireland at this time was most deplorable. According to Leland, "a perpetual state of war oppressed and wasted the country. A want of concert and union among the Irish prevented them from demolishing the whole fabric of English power, by one general and decisive assault. On the other hand, the divisions and jealousies of the English race, and the neglect of those who, despising the country whence they drew their revenues, absented themselves in England, left the enemy to harass those whom they could not subdue, and obliged the subject to maintain a number of idle guards, no less vexatious and oppressive than their invaders." The death of Hugh, the son of Turlough, resulted in new divisions and dissensions in Connaught. His first cousin, Hugh, the son of Felim, immediately claimed the sovereignty, and was duly inaugurated; but two other leaders of the O'Conors appear to have exercised equal, if not superior, power to the nominal ruler, namely, the two Cathals, one the head of the Clann Murtough, and the other the head of the O'Conor Sligo branch. In 1357 these two leaders, who had previously been at war with each other, entered into a treaty of peace; and in 1359, Cathal Oge (or the younger), the head of the Sligo sept, levied war on his own account; marched against O'Donnell ; and, according to the Annals of Ulster, subjugated Tirconnell. In the same 'Irish Synchronisms, Ashburnham MS. collection, p. 97. * Leland, Vol. I., Ch. v., p. 315, A.D. 1356. year he erected a stone bridge across the river at Ballisodare, and subsequently marched his forces into Tyrawley, and attacked the Welshmen who were settled there; thus exercising independent and sovereign authority in Connaught. The year 1360 was memorable for the arrival in Ireland of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III., who came in the capacity of governor, accompanied by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William de Burgh, Earl of Ulster. In right of his wife this royal duke became Earl of Ulster-a title subsequently held by the royal family of England. His advent to Ireland was the occasion of a determined effort to crush out the native Irish. This naturally led to reprisals; and in 1362 the two rival O'Conors, Hugh and Cathal Oge, joined together, marched an army into Meath, attacked the English, and then proceeded as far as Kilkenny, which they partially burned, with its fourteen churches, and having inflicted great damage on the English, returned safely home. Shortly after their return Cathal Oge O'Conor died of the plague in Sligo, and a few years later the other Cathal was killed in Fermanagh, leaving Hugh, after another conflict with the Clann Murtough O'Conors, the undisputed head of the Irish in Connaught. Meanwhile the Duke of Clarence was not neglectful of the mission which he had undertaken. In 1367 he summoned a Parliament, which met in Kilkenny, when the famous statutes, known as the Statutes of Kilkenny, were passed. The primary object of these statutes was to prevent the English settlers in Ireland from adopting any of the Irish customs or habits, or intermarrying, or holding any communications of business with the natives. The preamble of this statute recites, not without reason, but yet in too general and indiscriminate a way, that the English of the realm of Ireland, before the arrival of the Duke of Clarence, had become "mere Irish in their language, names, apparel, and manner of living"-had rejected the English laws and submitted to those of the Irish, with whom they had united by marriage. alliances, to the ruin of the general weal. It was therefore enacted, that marriage, nurture of infants, and gossipred with the Irish, should be considered and punished as high treason. Again, it was provided by the Act, "If any man of English race shall use an Irish name, the Irish language, or the Irish apparel, or any mode or custom of the Irish," he shall forfeit his lands and tenements until he hath given security in the Court of Chancery to conform in every particular to the English manners; or if he have no lands, that he shall be imprisoned until the like security be given. The Brehon law was pronounced to be "a pernicious custom and innovation" lately introduced among the English subjects. It was therefore ordained that in all their controversies they should be governed by the common law of England, and that whoever should submit to the Irish jurisdiction was to be adjudged guilty of high treason. As the English had been accustomed to make war and peace with the bordering enemy at their pleasure, they were now expressly prohibited from levying war upon the Irish without special license from the State. It was also made highly penal to the English to "permit their Irish neighbours to graze their lands, to present them to ecclesiastical benefices, or to receive them into monasteries or religious houses, to entertain their bards, who perverted their imaginations by romantic tales, or their news-tellers, who seduced them by false reports." It was made felony to impose or cess any forces upon the English subject against his will; and as the royal liberties and franchises were become sanctuaries for malefactors, express power was given to the king's sheriffs to enter into all franchises, and there to apprehend traitors and felons. Lastly, because the great lords, when they levied forces for the public service, acted with partiality, and laid unequal burdens on the people, it was ordained that four wardens of the peace in every county should adjudge what men and armour every lord or tenant should provide. This statute was promulgated with great solemnity. The Parliament at which it was passed was attended by the prelates of Dublin, Cashel, Tuam, Lismore, Waterford, Killaloe, Ossory, Leighlin, and Cloyne; and the spiritual lords, the better to enforce obedience, denounced an excommunication on those who should presume to violate it in any instance.1 It will be seen that these enactments mainly, if not exclusively, referred to the government of the English in Ireland, and that the native Irish were referred to only as creatures to be avoided and shunned; but this was not the light in which they regarded this legislation. The Irish, apprehending that the real object of a law, enacted and promulgated with so much pomp and appearance of authority, was to root them out of the land, naturally combined together for safety; and some of the more powerful chieftains resolved on immediate hostilities. O'Conor of Connaught, and O'Brien of Thomond, for the moment laying aside their private feuds, united against the common. foe; and the Earl of Desmond, who marched against them with a considerable army, was defeated and slain near Limerick. No notice is taken of this engagement in the Irish Annals, and any advantage arising out of it was lost by the old curse of the country-family feuds and dissensions. 'Leland, A.D. 1367. 'Leland states that this engagement took place near the monastery of Mayo. Leland, Vol. I., P. 324. Hugh O'Conor died shortly after, his death being thus recorded in the Annals:-" Hugh, the son of Felim, King of Connaught, the foremost among the Irish for valour and prowess against the English and his other enemies, died, after penance, in Roscommon, having reigned twelve years." RODERIC, SON OF TURLOUGH, 1368–1384. Upon the death of Hugh, the sovereignty again reverted to the descendants of his uncle, Turlough; and his first cousin, Roderic, who was brother to his predecessor, Hugh, was selected as ruler. Instead of carrying on the war against the English, and following up the advantages gained by the defeat of the Earl of Desmond, the Connaught chieftains appear to have been again engaged in attacking each other. One of Roderic's first acts was to seize, by treachery, his kinsman, Teige O'Conor, the son of Manus, and to deliver him. to his enemy, Donnell O'Conor, who slew him in his castle at Sligo. In 1375 the castle of Roscommon was surrendered to Roderic by his cousin, Turlough Roe, the son of his predecessor, Hugh, in exchange for the castle of Ballintober; and in 1381 Roderic took possession of Ballintober, driving out Turlough Roe and his adherents. In 1375 he defeated the O'Kellys, who, with the assistance of the English, had attacked him; and again, in 1377, he was successful against the allied forces of O'Kelly and Burke, in an engagement near Roscommon, in which the principal chiefs of the O'Kellys and Burkes were killed. Subsequently, O'Conor and M'Dermot, who had been united on this occasion, fell out, and another war ensued, which resulted in the spoliation of Moylurg, and the destruction of its crops and dwellings, after which peace was made with M'Dermot, who received compensation from Roderic O'Conor for the damage that had been done to his territory. In 1381 Roderic's wife died; she was named Sabia, and was daughter of Ulick Burke. In the following year a conspiracy was entered into by some of the chieftains of Connaught to depose him, and to set up in his place one of the grandsons of Felim. Roderic, becoming aware of this conspiracy in time, had the chief conspirators, O'Hanly, O'Beirne, and M'Kearney, arrested, and threw them into prison. In 1383 a great plague broke out in Ireland, and multitudes died of it; and in 1384 it seized Roderic O'Conor, who died of it on the eve of St. Catherine's festival, having been King of Connaught for sixteen years and three months." Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 1368. * The Irish bard, O'Mulconry, in his catalogue of kings, thus refers to Roderic:- |