DEATH OF EDWARD BRUCE.

287

Dublin to encounter this force was commanded by lord John Bermingiam. Its numbers are variously stated, but they were probably much arger than that of Bruce's effective men. The memorable battle which ensued, and which resulted in the death of the gallant Bruce and the >verthrow of his army, was fought at Faughard, on the 14th of October. John Maupas, an Anglo-Irish knight, convinced that the fate of the lay depended on the life of Bruce, rushed into the thick of the enemy; and engaging with Edward Bruce, slew him; his own body, covered with wounds, being afterwards found lying on that of the Scottish chief.* This feat determined the victory at the very outset; and Bermingham, causing the body of Bruce to be cut in pieces, sent the head, or, as some

carried it himself, to Edward II., and other portions to be exhibited in different parts of the country. How unlike the chivalrous courtesy exhibited by king Robert Bruce to his conquered enemies at Bannockburn! Scottish historians say the body of Gib Harper was mistaken for that of Edward Bruce, and that the remains of the latter are interred in Faughard churchyard, where the peasantry point out his grave; but the other story is more probable; and Bermingham, as a reward for Bruce's head, obtained the earldom of Louth and the manor of Ardee. From the terms in which the death of Bruce is recorded by the Irish annalists, it is evident that their sympathies were not with him. They erroneously attribute to the Scottish invasion the famine and its consequences, although these calamities were at the time universal; and the old Scottish chroniclers throw, on their part, so much blame on the Irish as to show that national prejudices and selfish views existed on both sides.†

Bruce's invasion failed in its object, and the gleam of hope which had shone forth for a while rendered the darkness that followed more disheartening; but the Irish were far from being subdued. They

The circumstance is differently related by Lodge, who says, "Sir John Bermingham encamping about half a mile from the enemy, Roger de Maupas, a burgess of Dundalk, disguised himself in a fool's dress, and in that character entering their camp, killed Bruce by striking out his brains with a plummet of lead; he was instantly cut to pieces and his body found stretched over that of Bruce, but for this service his heir was rewarded with 40 marcs a year."—Archdall's Lodge, vol. iii. p. 33.

†The Four Masters record the death of Bruce in the following terms:-" Edward Bruce, the destroyer of the people of Ireland in general, both English and Irish, was slain by the English through dint of battle and bravery, at Dundalk, where also MacRory, lord of the Inse-Gall (Hebrides), MacDonnell, lord of Argyle, and many others of the chiefs of Scotland were slain; and no achievement had been performed in Ireland for a long time before from which greater benefit had accrued to the country than from this; for during the three years and a-half that this Edward spent in it a universal famine prevailed to such a degree that men were wont to devour one another."

seemed, on the contrary, to have acquired a confidence in their own strength, which they had not before. Feuds prevailed among conflicting sections of the English, as well as of the Irish. The former suffered some serious defeats in Breffny, Ely O'Carroll, Offaly, and Thomond. In Connaught, after many vicissitudes and great waste of human life, Turlough O'Conor, of the race of Cathal Crovderg, succeeded, in 1324, in establishing his right as king. Richard de Burgo, the famous red earl, died in 1326. In England, the wretched Edward II., after a long war with his rebellious barons-who in the end were leagued with his profligate queen and her paramour, Roger Mortimer— was finally most cruelly murdered, in 1327.

It was a period when men's minds were unsettled, and their manners demoralized; and for the first time heresy appears to have made some inroads in Ireland. One Adam Duff, a Leinster-man, was, in 1327, convicted of professing certain blasphemous and anti-christian doctrines, and being handed over to the civil tribunal, was sentenced to be burned on Hogges'-green, now College-green, in Dublin. About the same time, some persons taught heretical opinions in the diocese of Ossory, where they gained over the seneschal of Kilkenny, and other official persons; but their doctrines did not spread among the people, and soon disappeared.*

* Great commotion was excited among the Anglo-Irish in 1325, by the prosecution of a reapectable woman, named Alice Kyteler, for witchcraft, in Kilkenny. She had married four husbands, and the last of these, with some of her children by former husbands, were her chief accusers. She had accumulated enormous wealth, all of which was conferred on her favorite son, Robert Outlawe; and by the aid of powerful friends, among whom were some of the civil authorities, she managed to escape to England. One of her accomplices, named Petronilla, of Meath, who confessed her participation in several acts of foul and impious superstition, was, in compliance with the ideas of the age, burnt as a sorceress. See Grace's Annals; also a Cotemporary Narrative, edited for the Camden Society, by Thomas Wright, 1843.

A university was founded in Dublin, in 1320, by archbishop Bicknor, by the authority of a bull of pope Clement V., dated 1310; but the circumstances of the times and the want of funds prevented its success. Some vestiges of it still remained at the beginning of the sixteenth century; and the university which Elizabeth subsequently founded, and which was so amply endowed with the confiscated church lands, has been regarded by some people as a revival of that institution, The number of religious foundations diminishes rapidly as we advance. Among those traced to the reign of Edward II. are the Franciscan convents of Castle Lyons, in Cork, founded by John de Barry, in 1307; and of Bantry, founded by O'Sullivan, in 1320; the Augustinian convent of Adare, in Limerick, founded by John, earl of Kildare, 1315; that of Tullow, in Carlow, by Simon Lombard and Hugh Tallon, in 1312; and the Carmelite convent of Athboy, in Meath, by William de Londres, in 1317. The famous John Duns Scotus, a native of Down, in Ulster, died at Cologne in the year 1308, in the thirty-fourth year of his age. He was a Franciscan friar of extraordinary learning, and from the acuteness of his mind, was called in the schools the "Subtle Doctor." Jola Clyn, the author of a chronicle of great value in Irish history, also flourished about this time. He too, was a Franciscan friar, and was the first guardian of the convent of Carrick-on-Suir, founded ia

1336.

Position of the different Races.-Great Feuds of the Anglo-Irish.-Murder of Bermingham, Earl of Louth.-Creation of the Earls of Ormond and Desmond.-Counties Palatine.-Rigour of Sir Anthony Lucy. --Murder of the Earl of Ulster.-The Burkes of Connaught Abandon the English Language and Customs.-Sacrilegious Outrages.-Traces of Piety.-Wars in Connaught.-Crime and Punishment of Turlough O'Conor.-Proceedings in the Pale.-English by Birth and by Descent.-Ordinances against the AngloIrish Aristocracy.-Resistance of the latter.-Sir Ralph Ufford's Harshness and Death.-Change of Policy and its results.-The Black Death.-Administration of the Duke of Clarence.-His Animosity against the Irish.-The Statute of Kilkenny.-Effects of that Atrocious Law.-Exploits of Hugh O'Conor.- Crime Punished by the Irish Chieftains.-Victories of Niall O'Neill-Difficulties of the Government of the Pale.-Manly Conduct of the Bishops.-General Character of this Reign.

COTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS AND EVENTS.

Popes: Benedict XII., Clement VI., Innocent VI., Urban VI., Gregory XI.-Kings of France: Philip VI. of Valois, John II., Charles the Wise.-Kings of Scotland: David II., Edward Baliol, Robert Stuart.-Gunpowder invented, 1330.-Statute of Præmunire, 1344-Gold first coined in England, 1344.-Order of the Garter, 1349.-Wickliffe's tenets propagated, 1369.Petrarch died, 1374.

[FROM A.D. 1327 TO 1377.]

HE decay of the English power in Ireland, the narrowing of the English Pale, and the fusion of the older English settlers, or as they had begun to be called, the "degenerate English," with the native population, are marked characteristics of the period of our history which we have now reached. The authority of the crown had been declining throughout the two preceding reigns; during Bruce's invasion it was shaken to its foundation; but the alienation of the Anglo-Irish, arising from the impolitic distinction made by government between the English by birth and the English by descent; the identification, in some instances, of the latter with the native Irish, and the recovery of large portions of their original territories by several of the Irish chieftains, are all distinguishing

U

features of the era which commences with the reign of Edward III. The great Anglo-Irish families had become septs. They confederated with the Irish against their own countrymen, or the contrary, almost indifferently; but whether the administration of affairs was intrusted to them, or to the English by birth, it was invariably employed for purposes of personal aggrandizement or revenge; and the native population were still only recognised by the government as the "Irish enemy," a legitimate prey for all plunderers.

A.D. 1328.-A violent feud broke out at the commencement of this reign between Maurice FitzThomas, afterwards earl of Desmond, assisted by the Butlers and Berminghams, and Lord Arnold Poer, who was aided by the great family of the De Burgos. Poer called FitzGerald a rhymer," and thus the quarrel arose; the former was forced to fly to England; his lands, and those of his adherents, were laid waste, and torrents of blood flowed on both sides. Government became alarmed at the rebellious spirit manifested on the occasion, and issued orders for the defence of the principal towns; but the confederates allayed this disquiet by protesting that they only required vengeance on their enemies; and having submitted and sued for pardon, a council was held at Kilkenny by the justiciary, Roger Outlawe, prior of Kilmainham, to consider the case. The following year (1329) the justiciary effected a reconciliation between the parties, and although it was the season of Lent, the event was celebrated by grand banquets in Dublin, the Geraldines giving their feast in the church of St. Patrick.

A.D. 1329.—Another sanguinary fray among the Anglo-Irish took place this year; Bermingham, earl of Louth, with several of his relatives and followers, to the number in all of one hundred and sixty, or, as others say, two hundred Englishmen being slaughtered by their own countrymen, the Gernons, Savages, and others, at Balebragan, now Bragganstown, in the county of Louth.* About the same time Munster witnessed another scene of mutual carnage among the Anglo-Irish; the Barrys, Roches, and others slaying Lord Philip Bodnet, Hugh Condon, and about one hundred and forty of their followers. Meanwhile several Irish septs were up in arms. Lord Thomas Butler was, in 1328, defeated with considerable loss by Mageoghegan in Westmeath; and the young earl of Ulster, with his Irish auxiliaries, sustained a great defeat the same year from Brian Bane O'Brien in Thomond. Donnell MacMurrough, of the ancient royal stock of Leinster, led an army close

* Among the victims in this massacre, were Carroll, a famous harper, and, as Clyn adds, twenty other harpers, his pupils.

SEVERITY OF SIR ANTHONY LUCY.

291

to Dublin, but was defeated and made prisoner by Sir Henry Treherne. This officer spared the Irish chieftain's life for a sum of £200, an! Adam Nangle, another Englishman, afterwards assisted him with a rope to escape over the walls of Dublin Castle; but for this kindness Nangle lost his head.

James Butler, second earl of Carrick, was, in 1328, created earl of Ormond, and in 1330 Maurice FitzThomas FitzGerald was created earl of Desmond; Tipperary, in the former case, and Kerry in the latter, being erected into counties palatine. The lords palatine, of whom there were now eight or nine in Ireland, were endowed with a kind of royal power. They created barons and knights, erected courts for civil and criminal causes, appointed their own judges, sheriffs, and coroners, and like so many petty kings, were able to exercise a most oppressive tyranny over the population of their respective territories.

A.D. 1330.-The new earl of Desmond at first rendered good service to the government by his successes against some of the Irish septs in Leinster; but the old feuds between him and the earl of Ulster were soon revived, and were carried to such lengths, at a time when they were in the field against the O'Briens, that the lord justice found it necessary to make both earls prisoners, and to commit them to the custody of the marshal of Limerick.

A.D. 1331.—Sir Anthony Lucy, a Northumbrian baron, famous for his sternness of character, was now sent over as justiciary, to curb the arrogance and violence of the great Anglo-Irish lords. He summoned a parliament in Dublin, and adjourned it to Kilkenny, owing to the non-attendance of the barons. Again his summons was disregarded; and, in order to make an example of the most powerful, he seized the earl of Desmond in Limerick, and carried him a prisoner to Dublin. Several other lords were arrested in a similar manner, and among them Sir William Bermingham, who was confined with his son in the keep of Dublin Castle, called from him the Bermingham Tower, and was hanged in the course of the following year. This nobleman was popular on account of his bravery and gallant demeanour; and the feeling excited by the severity of his sentence was probably the cause of Lucy's recall, which followed soon after, when Sir John Darcy, a more moderate man, was appointed to succeed him.*

* At this time the country was suffering severely from famine, and a shoal of large fish, of the whale species, which entered Dublin bay on the evening of the 27th of June, 1331, and of which two hundred were killed by the lord justice and his servants, afforded the poor of the city a providential supply of food. The next year the dearth continued, and the people were attacked by an epidemic called the manses, supposed to have been influenza.