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triguing English, who still pursued the Machiavellian policy of dividing and conquering, again sent for their Connaught allies, the De Burghs, O'Kellys, and O'Maddens, and succeeded in expelling Donogh and Brien. These monotonous feuds and barbarous dissensions always fomented by the AngloNorman invaders, were diversified by a more interesting event in the history of Thomond, occasioned by the arrival of a new invader.

In 1315 Edward Bruce invaded Ireland. He defeated Richard Earl of Ulster and Feidlim O'Connor, who marched against him with 8000 men: the walls of Athenry are said to have been built by the spoils of the battle.1 In the following year Bruce besieged Limerick, burned the suburbs, and in the same year, (1316) he made the city the rendezvous of his army. Tradition points to the place in which it is said he resided during his occupation of Limerick. Donough, grandson of Brian Roe O'Brien, was one of the first princes to join Bruce, by whom he was conducted to Cashel, Nenagh, and Castle Connel.

The chieftains of Thomond, however, who sided with the English, had made formidable preparations to receive him, and having given command of the army to Murtagh, King of Thomond, compelled the Scottish invader to retreat just as he was on the point of crossing the Shannon.2

1318, Battle of Dysert O'Dea. Richard Lord Clare, with four knights and eighty men were slain by MacCarthy and O'Brien. Lord Clare was interred among the Friars in St. Francis's Abbey, Limerick. The name of De Clare now disappears from Irish history; but not from the locality of Bunratty where the great castle was built, because we find to this day certain members of the Studdert family bearing the name of De Clare.

Returning to the Civil History of Limerick, in 1331, Maurice FitzThomas, Earl of Desmond, was apprehended in the city on Assumption Day, by Sir Anthony Lucy, the Lord President, and sent to the Castle of Dublin. In the next year some followers of Desmond, who had been confined in the King's Castle, rose on the Constable, killed him, and seized the Castle into their own hands. Bamberry the Mayor, headed the citizens, and showed such courage, presence and resolution, that they soon recovered the Castle, repaying the hostages in a manner so hostile that they put them to the sword without exception, irrespectively of rank or quality.

The salmon and eel fisheries in those disturbed and anxious times, were not lost sight of; on the contrary they continually occupied the attention of the authorities; and the records of the time show clearly the valuable estimation they were held in as well by the citizens as by the Government.3

A Parliament held at Kilkenny in 1340, having granted a subsidy to the King, Ralph Kelly, Archbishop of Cashel, opposed the levying of it within his province. In this proceeding he was supported by the Bishops of Limerick,

I Hardiman's History of Galway.

2 The invasion of Ireland by Edward Bruce is so interesting an event, independently of its connection with the History of Limerick, that the reader will consult with advantage a sketch of his progress in Ireland, by Dr. M'Dermott, from Hollyshed, Campion, Cox, Leland, Moore, Lodge's Peerage and other sources.

3 Pipe Roll, 12th and 13th Edward, 1318-'19.-Thomas Crop and Alexander Barrett, Provosts of Limerick, render an account of £36 13s. 4d. of the farm for the same city; this roll mentions £65, which they delivered to the Bishop of Limerick for recompense of the fishery there for Easter term, in the 12th year of the reign of king Edward, son of king Edward, and for the six years preceding, viz. by the year £10. Robert de Saint Edmund's account (£120) of the issues of the weir at Limerick, is set out as well as other accounts of the issues of the weirs.

Emly, and Lismore; and at an assembly held at Tipperary, they decreed that all beneficed clergymen, contributing to the said subsidy, should lose their benefices, and that the laity who were their tenants, should be excommunicated, and their children to the third generation held incapable of holding any church living within that province. In execution of this decree the Archbishop and his suffragan Bishops were charged with having gone to Clonmel, and in their pontifical robes, in the public streets, excommunicated all those who granted or ordained the said subsidy, or who were concerned in levying the same, and for this offence an information was exhibited against them, the King's damages being laid at one thousand pounds. The Archbishop pleaded that neither he nor his suffragans had granted subsidy in the said Parliament-that by Magna Charta the Church was to remain free, and all were to be excommunicated who should infringe the liberties granted thereby. He confessed that he had excommunicated all who were enemies to the King's peace, who should infringe the said statute, or levy any subsidy without the King's consent-but he denied having excommunicated any person on account of the said subsidy. They were, however, found guilty, but we are not informed that any punishment was inflicted on them.

A charter was granted in aid of building a bridge at Limerick, and the election of a city coroner took place. In the year after the city returned its first members to Parliament; and absenteeism2 was prohibited; whilst the fisheries still filled the public mind with proceedings connected with them.

Pipe Roll, 2nd and 3rd Edward III., 1328-29.-Robert Long and William de Rupe, Bailiffs, render account of the farm of the city of Limerick, and several sums and £95 delivered to the Bishop of Limerick in recompense of the fishery of the city of Limerick.

Pipe Roll, 2nd and 3rd Edward III., 1328-29.-Account of the issues of the weir. Commission to the Mayor of Limerick, dated 13th June, Edward III., 1331, Ireland commission of weirs." Know that we of our special grace have granted to our trusty the Mayor, &c.. Commonalty of the city of Limerick, in Ireland, our weirs, to the said city belonging; to hold from the day of making these presents, to the end of the five years next following, paying to our Exchequer as much as those who heretofore held those weirs," &c. &c.

Pipe Roll, 10th to 12th Edward III., 1337-1339.-City of Limerick: John Daniel and Thomas Ricolt, Bailiffs, render an account of the fee farm of the city, and a sum of £25 which to the same is allowed, in recompense of the fishery of the city of Limerick, which was of the Bishop of Limerick, &c. &c. Robert de Saint Edmund's account is set out, and the account of Mayor and Bailiffs' arrears of farm, of weirs, of water of Shynyn.

Pipe Roll, 17th Edward III., 1343 '44.-City of Limerick William Western and Richard Walsh, Bailiffs for the same, render an account of the fee farm, £30 recompense to the Bishop of the fishery of Limerick; account of the issues of the weirs.

In 1343, there was a grant to John de Balstot of the king's weirs at Limerick. Hugh de Burgh, treasurer, caused the weirs to be extended, and that extent to be delivered to the exchequer.

Calendary of the Patent and close Rolls of Chancery-67.

2 We give the following as a curious instance of the wills of this period. 1361, 36th Edward III., 12th of August, Edmund Wyndebald, citizen of Limerick, gave to his son Paul Wyndebald, and in defect to him of legitimate male issue, to William Long, and in defect of legitimate male issue to William Long, to Peter de Rupe (Roche), and in defect to Peter de Rupe of legitimate male issue, to Robert de Rupe, and in defect of him of such issue, to the heirs in a direct line of the said Edmund, for ever, all the messuages, lands and tenements, and returns to them belonging in the city and suburbs of Limerick, as also all the lands and tenements of Donnouyer and Carrigbethelagh, with their appurtenances in the county of Limerick. Witness the Mayor U. B., and Bailywes J. W., T. T., above named, Eustacius Delece, Thomas Kildare, Gilbert Fitzthomas. Compared at Drogheda the 12th of May by Nicholas Stanihurst, Notary of the Diocese of Derry, (Arthur MSS.)

Nicholas Bakekar, Mayor; John Wigmore and John Troy, Bailiffs :-Arthur MSS.

CHAPTER VIII.

ANNALS OF THOMOND.-GRANTS, &c.

Mahon

WE resume the Annals of Thomond, already given in summary. Maonmaighe O'Brien, the eldest son of Murtogh, the usurping king of Thomond, who according to the Four Masters, deposed his uncle Dermod in 1363, is gratefully remembered by nationalists for having compelled the English of North Munster to pay the Dubchios or black rent. Twelve years of this prince's reign were spent in feuds, chiefly excited by the intrigues of the English. He was succeeded by his brother Torlogh, surnamed Mael or the Bald. The new king was dethroned and banished from Thomond by his nephew, Brian Catha an Aonaigh, and took refuge in the county Waterford with Garrett, Earl of Desmond, who, leading an army to reinstate him in his dominions, was met and totally defeated by Brian. This battle was fought on the banks of the Maig, now Monaster Nenagh, in the county Limerick, near the celebrated Monastery founded in 1131 by Turlogh O'Brien. On this occasion the Earl of Desmond, John Fitz Nicholas, and Sir Thomas Fitzjohn, with many other nobles, were taken by O'Brien and Macnamara of Thomond, in the Abbey. It was from this battle, in which Brian Catha obtained a great victory, that he received the surname of Aonach, from the fair green on which it was fought. The Four Masters state that on this occasion "Limerick was burned by the Thomonians and the Claincuilen (the MacNamaras), upon which the inhabitants capitulated with O'Brien. Sioda Cam (Macnamara,) son of the daughter of O'Dwyer (of Kilnemanagh) assumed the Wardenship of the town; but the English who were in it acted treacherously towards him and killed him." The same authority states that Brien O'Brien, lord of Thomond, was banished by Turlough, son of Murtogh O'Brien and the Clanrickardes; from which it appears that Turlogh Mael was set up again by the English. In this feud the Macnamaras followed opposite parties. The death of Turlogh Mael in the English Pale is recorded by the Four Masters as having taken place in 1398, which was the year in which his patron Garrett or Gerald also died. James, the successor of this Earl, obtained a grant of the territory east of the Blackwater from Henry V. in 1413, in which year also he granted to the descendants of Torlogh O'Brien a part of the lands about the Comeragh Mountains, where their posterity are still known as the Waterford O'Briens.1

In the year 1394, Richard the Second, king of England, landed in Waterford. He is said to have been stimulated to undertake his new enterprise by a taunt uttered by the German Electors, from whom his ambassadors had in vain solicited the Imperial Crown of Germany; the Electors pronouncing him unworthy of that high dignity, as neither being able to keep the conquests

In 1367 the statutes of Kilkenny were passed prohibiting the use of the Irish language, costume and customs, the presentation of Irishmen to ecclesiastical benefices as well as their admission into religious houses. The practice of the Brehon Laws and the entertaining of bards and minstrels were by it declared penal. We have great pleasure in stating the curious fact, that by the returns of the late census, it appears that we have in this year, 1864, more people speaking Irish than existed at the passing of this atrocious measure. We notice, too, with very great satisfaction, that the study of the Irish language is increasing rapidly every year, even among the better informed classes of Irishmen.

in France, made by his ancestors, nor to repress the insolence of his own subjects, nor to reduce to obedience his rebellious vassals in Ireland.

The army which landed with Richard consisted of 4000 men at arms and 30,000 archers—a formidable army which soon obliged several of the native chieftains to make another enforced submission, which, however, amounted to a mere nominal allegiance intended to be broken at the earliest opportunity.1

In 1399 when Brian O'Brien, Lord of Thomond, died, occurred also the death of Torlogh, son of Morrogh na Raithnighe O'Brien, the representative of the line of Brian Roe. Brian was succeeded by his brother Conor.

In this prince's reign the Franciscan Abbey of Quin, in the county Clare, was completed by Sioda Cam Macconmara, prince of Glancuilen. June 11th, 1400, Gerald, the fifth Earl of Kildare, Patrick Fox and Walter Fitzgerald, were appointed Custodes Pacis et Supervisores Custodium pacis in comitatu Limericensi. Thomas Fitzgerald, son of the Earl of Kildare, was High Sheriff of Limerick county.3 On the 20th of January, 1414, Henry V. granted a charter to the citizens of Limerick, in which he confirmed the liberties already extended by his grandfather, King John, and granted "that no citizen of Limerick shall be impleaded outside the walls of the same city of any plea, except of pleas of outer tenements, which do not pertain to the Hundred of the aforesaid city. And that they may be quit of murder within the metes of the city, and that no citizen shall make duel in the same city of any appeal, which any one against him can make, but he shall purge himself by the oath of forty men of the same city, who shall be lawful. And that

The king remained a week in Waterford, gave splendid entertainments, and received the homage of such Anglo-Irish Lords as the Le Poers, the Graces and Butlers. He was a benefactor to the churches and confirmed the charter to the great Abbey of the Holy Cross which had been granted by king John. On this occasion he summoned to appear before him, by the Feast of the Purification, the Earl of Desmond, that celebrated Gerald "the Poet," who went to war with the Butlers for giving him the nickname of 'The Rhymer,' in whatever part of Ireland he should then be, to answer the charge of having usurped the manor, revenues and honor of Dungarvan.* He then formed the resolution of marching to Dublin under the consecrated banner of the canonized king Edward the Confessor, which bore, says Froissart, "a cross patence or on a field gules with four doves argent on the shield." The celebrated Art M'Murrogh had however full notice of his movements, and had made effectual arrangements for interrupting his progress. The notices, however of these transactions by native annalists are very slight; and for the details the reader should have recourse to Froissart, to a Norman metrical sketch of which Moore has availed himself, and to the original Rolls which contain the submission of the Irish kings, and which as yet remain to be translated.†

The rudeness or simplicity of the manners of these Irish chieftains is dwelt upon with great emphasis by Froissart the French chronicler of these royal festivities. They were with great difficulty induced to change their plain mantles for robes of silk, trimmed with squirrel skin or miniver, and their aversion to wear breeches was as deeply seated as that of some of the primitive Highlanders of Celtic Scotland. A very handsome house was set apart for the four kings and their attendants. The Earl of Runde, who spoke Irish fluently, and Castide who had learned it while a prisioner with Brian Costeret (see Foissart), were appointed as interpreters to wait upon them and translate between them and the English. They were so unsophisticated it appears in their manners as to desire that their minstrels and principal servants should sit at the same table and eat of the same dish, and it required all the pressing eloquence of the interpreters to dissuade them from what they called a praiseworthy custom. Having kept watch all the night before the Church, they were knighted on Lady Day, in the Cathedral of Dublin, after the usage of England and France, though they assured the king that they had already received the honor of knighthood when they were seven years old; and the ceremony was followed by a great banquet, at which the four Irish kings in robes of state sat with king Richard, at his table (Froissart). The presence of O'Connor and M'Murrough is, however, denied by some of the annalists.

2 Smyth's History of Cork, vol. ii. p. 29.

* Lynch's Feudal Dignities of Ireland.

† Dr. O'Donovan's Annals of the Four Masters.

3 Lodge's Peerage, vol. ii. p. 81.

+ Ibid.

no one shall take procurations within the walls by assize or by livery of the marshals against the will of the aforesaid citizens. And that the citizens shall be quit of toll, lastage, passage, pontage, and of all other customs throughout his whole land and power. And that none of those citizens shall be indicted of an amercement of money except according to the law of the Hundred, to wit, by the forfeiture of forty shillings, whereof he who shall happen to be in amercement shall be acquitted of one-half, and the other half he shall give in amercement, excepting three amercements, to wit, of the assize of bread, and ale, and of watchings, which now are of two shillings and sixpence, whereof one-half shall be forgiven, and the other half shall be rendered in amercement. And that the Hundred shall be held once only in a week. And that he shall be in no plea " for and cause by miskenning," and that they may justly have their lands, and tenures, and their pledges, and debts, throughout his whole land and power, whoever should have them. And that they may distrain their debtors by their goods in Limerick, and that of the lands and tenures to which within the city they shall be entitled, they shall be held according to the customs of the city, and of the debts which shall be accommodated, and of the pledges given in the same city, pleas thereof may be held according to the custom of the city, saving to him and his heirs the pleas touching the Crown."

This charter also ordered "that no foreign merchant shall buy within the same city of a foreigner, corn, hides, or wool, except of the citizens of the city. And that no foreigner shall have a tavern in the city, of wine, except in a ship; and this liberty reserved to the king, that from each ship the bailiff shall choose two casks of wine to the king's use, wheresoever they wish in the ship, namely, 'one before the mast, and the other behind the mast,' for forty shillings, viz. one for twenty shillings, and the other for twenty shillings, and no more thereof he shall take except at the will of the merchants. And that no foreigner shall sell cloth in the same city by retail, nor shall remain in the same city with his wares there to be sold except for forty days. And that no citizen of Limerick shall be attached or distrained for any debt, unless he be a debtor or surety; and that they may marry themselves, and their sons and daughters, and widows of the same city, without the license of their lords."

Henry VI. granted another charter in 1423 in which the following passage occurs :-" And that they (the citizens) may hold their market as they have been accustomed from of old to hold it; and also that no one who is an Irishman, by blood and nation (the term 'Irishman,' being understood and taken as it is accustomed to be taken and understood in our land of Ireland), shall be mayor, or exercise any office within our said city; nor shall any one within the aforesaid city take or maintain any child of Irish blood and nation, as is aforesaid, as an apprentice, under penalty of forfeiting his franchise in the aforesaid city."

In the following year, viz. 1424, the Charters of Limerick were confirmed (P. and C. Rolls.), and the Bishop was summoned to answer certain charges (ibid.) There is a record of the weirs also this year (Select Rolls.)

In the year 1426, Connor O'Brien died at an advanced age, and was succeeded by Teige na Glemore, his nephew, and son to O'Brian Catha an Aonaigh. Of Teighe na Glemore's sons-one, Brian Duff, was ancestor to the O'Briens of Carrigogunnel, and gave his name to Pobble Brien, in the county Limerick,-another, Donald, was Bishop of Limerick, according to

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