ACHIEVEMENTS OF LORD FURNIVAL.

317

of his father this year; but although he made his first essay in arms in Ireland, having been knighted when a boy by Richard II., in a camp in Wexford, he does not appear to have ever taken much interest in Irish affairs. The English overthrew the Irish in a battle at Kilkea in Kildare; but in the following year they were defeated in Meath by Murrough O'Conor, lord of Offaly, when the baron of Skreen and many of the English gentry were killed, and the sum of 1,400 marks exacted as a ransom for the son of the baron of Slane, who was made prisoner. Sir John Stanley, who was now sent over as lord deputy, rendered himself odious by his cruelties and exactions; and the Irish annals say that he was "rhymed to death" by the poet Niall O'Higgin of Usnagh, whom he plundered in a foray, and who then lampooned him so severely that he only survived five weeks!* He is accused of having enriched himself by extortion and oppression, and of having incurred enormous debts, which his executors refused to liquidate; and it was said that he "gave neither money nor protection to clergy, laity, or men of science, but subjected them to cold, hardship, and famine."

A.D. 1415-Sir John Talbot of Hallamshire, who was called lord Furnival, in right of his wife, and was subsequently rewarded for his services with the title of earl of Shrewsbury, was sent to Ireland as lord justice at the close of 1414, and entered on the duties of his office with determined energy. Setting out on a martial circuit of the borders of the Pale, he first invaded the territory of Leix, took two of O'More's castles, and laid waste the whole of his lands in so merciless a way, that that chief was obliged to sue for peace, and to deliver up his son as a hostage. The hardest of his terms was, that O'More should fight under the English standard against his brother chieftains, as he was compelled to do immediately after against MacMahon of Oriel, who was likewise subdued and compelled to yield to similar terms; so that it was said lord Furnival "obliged one Irish enemy to serve upon the other." These successes, achieved in the space of a few months, gained for him the approbation of the inhabitants of the Pale; but as it was necessary to revive the exaction of coyn and livery to support the soldiery, the advantages were more than counterbalanced by the losses.†

This was the second "poetie miracle" performed by this Niall O'Higgin by means of his satire and imprecations, the former being "the discomfiture of the Clann-Conway the night they plundered Niall at Cladann." In the case mentioned above, one of the Anglo-Irish, Henry Dalton, took up the bard's cause, and plundered "James Tuite and the king's people," giving the O'Higgins out of the prey a cow for every one that had been taken from them, and then escorting them to Connaught.

†The oppressive nature of coyn and livery is thus explained in the preamble to the statute (not printed) of 10 Hen. VII., c. 4 :-" That of long there hath been used and exacted by the lords and

A.D. 1416.-No sooner had this formidable deputy departed to attend his royal master in France, where he became the most distinguished of the English commanders, than the Irish again rose and made ample reprisals. O'Conor Faly took large spoils from the Pale's men; and the invincible king of Leinster overran the English settlements in Wexford, killing or taking prisoners in one day 340 men. The next day the English sued for peace and delivered hostages to him. This was the last exploit of Art MacMurrough Kavanagh. That Irish prince, the most illustrious of the ancient royal line to which he belonged, died in 1417. Our native annals say "he nobly defended his own province against the invaders from his sixteenth to his sixtieth year." He was distinguished for his hospitality, and his patronage of learning as well as for his chivalry, and was a munificent benefactor of churches and religious houses. He is supposed to have been poisoned along with his chief brehon, O'Doran, by a drink administered to him by a woman at New Ross the week after Christmas, and was succeeded by his son Donough, who was worthy of his father's military fame. Two years after this Donough was made prisoner by Richard Talbot, then lord deputy, and sent to London, where he was confined in the Tower.

A.D. 1421.-Murrough O'Conor, lord of Offaly, whom we have seen so often victorious over the English, died this year, having assumed the habit of a grey friar a month before his death in the monastery of Killeigh, near Geashill. The same year the earl of Ormond, then lord deputy, defeated O'More in "the red bog of Athy," the historian, Campion, relating on this occasion the prodigy which Ware refers to a former one, namely, that the sun stood still to accommodate the victorious English! Thus war was carried on with inveterate animosity on both sides; but unfortunately it was not confined to the hostile races of Celt and Saxon, for during the whole of this time our annals teem with accounts of internecine quarrels among the Irish chiefs themselves in almost every part of the country."

gentlemen of this land, many and divers damnable customs and usages, which being called coyn and livery and pay-that is, horse meat and man's meat for the finding of their horsemen and footmen, and over that, 4d. or 6d. daily to every of them, to be had and paid of the poor earth-tillers and tenants, without anything doing or paying therefor. Besides, many murders, robberies, rapes, and other manifold oppressions by the said horsemen and footmen daily and nightly committed and done, which have been the principal causes of the desolation and destruction of the said land, so as the most part of the English freeholders and tenants be departed out of the land."-Grace's Annais, p. 147, note; Davis' Discovery, pp. 143, 144; alsc, Printed Statutes, 10 Hen. VII., cc. xviii. and xix. The exactions of the Irish chiefs were remodelled after the English invasion, and soon became totally different from those set down in the Book of Rights.-See O'Donovan's Introduction to the Book of Rights, p. xviii.

* A sinall body of Irish troops, under the command of Thomas Butler, prior of Kilmainham,

STATE OF RELIGION, ETC

319

A petition was presented to parliament in 1417, praying that as Ireland was divided into two nations, the English subjects and the Irish enemies, no Irishman should be presented to any office or benefice in the church; and that no bishop, who was of the Irish nation, should, under pain of forfeiting his temporalities, collate any Irish cleric to a benefice; moreover, that he should not be allowed to bring any Irish servant with him when he came to attend parliament or council. The prayer of this atrocious petition was granted; and soon after we find an attempt made to carry out the principle in a prosecution against Richard O'Hedian, archbishop of Cashel, who was distinguished for his zeal and bounty in promoting religion and fostering its establishments, but who was now impeached for showing favor to Irishmen; for giving no benefice to English ecclesiastics; for advising other bishops to follow his example, and for some other trumpery charges; but the matter does not appear to have been followed up. It is plain, that the only real cause of accusation against this prelate was the display of some kindness and generosity towards his persecuted countrymen.

About the close of this reign, the Irish commons presented a petition to the king, complaining of several monstrous grievances and abuses on the part of his officers in Ireland. Among them were the cruelty, oppression, and extortion practised by several of the lord deputies, some of whom, like Sir John Stanley, and lord Furnival, incurred enormous debts which they left unpaid. They complained also of the hostility shown to the Anglo-Irish in England, however loyal they might be as subjects, hostility which was carried so far as to exclude Irish law students from the Inns of Court in London, and to cause a variety of obstructions and annoyances to Irish students attending the English schools, although the statutes concerning absentees contained an express exception in favor of studious persons. Thus were even those of English descent made to feel daily more and more painfully the alien and unkind sentiments with which everything pertaining to Ireland was regarded in England.

Many entries meet us in our searches through the Irish annals, which show that even in the dreary period that we have been just exploring, men were not always occupied with war and rapine. The magnificent Franciscan monastery of Quin, in Clare, was founded by Sheeda Cam MacNamara in 1402; and in 1420, James, earl of Desmond,

attended king Henry V. in one of his French wars, and gained great eclat by their wild impetusity and heroism in battle.

erected the abbey of the same order at Eas Gephtine or Askeaton, where the noble ruins, washed by the tide of the Deel, still remind us of days when religion exulted in its pomp as well as in its fervor. Several of the Irish chiefs gave edifying evidence of repentance in their deaths; and some of them assumed the religious habit, as Turlough, son of Niall Gary O'Donnell, lord of Tirconnell, who died in the monastery of Assaroe in 1422, causing his son, another Niall Garv, to be inaugurated in the chieftainship. Gilla-na-neev O'Heerin, the author of a valuable Irish topographical poem, often quoted by our antiquaries, died in 1420, and the obituaries of some other persons, distinguished for historical knowledge, are mentioned under that and the following year, as David O'Duigennan, Farrell O'Daly, ollav of Corcomroe, and Gillareagh O'Clery of Tirconnell.

REIGNS OF HENRY VI., EDWARD IV., EDWARD V., AND RICHARD III. tate of Ireland on the Accession of Henry VI.-Liberation of Donough Mac Murrough. Incursions of Owen O'Neill.-His inauguration.-Famine.-The "Summer of slight acquaintance."-Distressing State of Discord.-Domestic War in England at this Period.-Dissensions in the Pale.-Complaints against the Earl of Ormond.-Proceedings of Lord Furnival.-Pestilence.-Devotedness of the Clergy.-The Duke of York in Ireland.-His Popularity.-Confesses his Inability to Subdue the Irish-His subsequent Fortunes and Death in England.-Irish Pilgrimages to Rome and St. James of Compostella.-Munificence of Margaret of Offaly-Her Banquets to the Learned.-The Butlers and Geraldines take opposite sides in the English Wars.-Popular Government of the Earl of Desmond.-He is unjustly Executed.-Wretched Condition of the English Pale.-Fatal Feuds and Indifference of the Irish, and Cotemporary Disorders in England.-Atrocious Laws against the Irish.

COTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS AND EVENTS.

Popes: Eugenius IV., Calixtus III., Pius II., Paul III., Sixtus IV., Innocent VIII.-Kings of France: Charles VII., Louis XI., Charles VIII.-Kings of Scotland: the First, Second, and Third James.

Joan of Arc Burned by the English as a Sorceress, 1434.-Constantinople taken by the Turks, 1453.-Printing Invented by Guttenberg, 1440, and introduced into England by Caxton, 1471.-St. Thomas á Kempis died, 1471.

(A.D. 1422 TO 1485.)

ENRY VI. was proclaimed king of England while yet an infant, not quite nine months old; and those who governed during his minority found the English colony in Ireland in a very precarious state at the time they entered on their duties. In 1423, Donnell O'Neill, chief of Tyrone; his old competitor for the chieftaincy, Owen, son of Niall Oge O'Neill; Niall O'Donnell, chief of Tirconnell, and several other princes of Ulster, laid aside their feuds for the moment in order to make a combined inroad on the English of that province. They marched first to Dundalk, thence to the town of Louth, and subsequently into Meath, where Richard Talbot, archbishop of Dublin, who then filled the office of lord deputy,