Richard the Second in Ireland

Edward the Third made two attempts during his busy reign, to restore the fast-waning power of the English crown in Ireland. He tried to curb the influence and ambition of the great barons, sometimes by throwing them into prison and taking away their estates, and sometimes by according them favors. The Earl of Desmond was kept for more than a year a prisoner in Dublin castle, and a part of his land was taken from him. Desmond resisted the king's designs, and gathered about him so formidable an array of lords and bishops, that Edward, for the while, gave up his efforts in Ireland. Later, however, the English king made a second attempt to restore his sway in Ireland. He filled all the Irish offices with courtiers and favorites whom he sent from London, and declared that no man of Irish birth should hold any office or any military, command in the country. He called the English in Ireland "rebels," and the native Irish "enemies." He then sent one of his sons, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, over to Ireland as viceroy.

Clarence carried matters with a high hand. He showed little respect either to the English or the Irish. He treated one and all with stern severity. He summoned an Irish parliament to meet him at Kilkenny (1367), and caused it to pass a very stringent law. This law much resembled that which had been passed by Edward the First. It forbade, under heavy penalties, marriages between the English colonists and the native Irish. It prohibited the English from acting as foster-parents or as sponsors to Irish children. It declared that every Englishman who wore the Irish dress, or used the Irish language, or adopted Irish customs, should be compelled to give up his lands. It shut Irishmen out of the priesthood and the English monasteries. It proscribed the Irish bards, and forbade the English to receive the bards in their households. By its provisions, Englishmen who wore a long mustache, or rode horseback without saddles after the Irish fashion, were to be severely punished. So, likewise, Englishmen who submitted to the ancient Irish, or Brehon, laws, were condemned to pay heavy fines.

But this harsh law was never carried fully into effect. The king's officers in Ireland were not strong enough to enforce its execution. Edward himself was busy with his wars in France; and at the end of his reign, the native Irish had confined the limits of English occupation within even narrower bounds than before. Richard the Second, who succeeded the third Edward on the English throne, was young and full of ambition. He craved dominion and military fame. Finding that the power of the crown in Ireland was at its lowest ebb, he resolved to make a vigorous effort to increase it. He landed at Waterford at the head of a formidable army, comprising no less than thirty thousand archers and four thousand men-at-arms. This was a very large military force for those days; and it is no wonder that Richard's arrival, with such an array, struck awe into the hearts of even the stoutest Irish chiefs. Richard's purpose was to subdue the native Irish, and to win the allegiance of the English colonists.

The arrival of the fleet at Waterford, the royal galley being conspicuous in its midst with its bright banners and gilded pennons, filled the people with wonder, mingled with terror. With Richard came an imposing array of great English princes and nobles. The king's uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, Roger Mortimer, Earl of March (heir to the throne), lord Thomas Percy, the earls of Nottingham and Rutland, with their brilliant retinues, swelled the royal train. Richard repaired to Waterford cathedral, where mass was performed with stately pomp; and for a week the town witnessed a series of gay and costly festivities. The king sent presents to the neighboring churches, and welcomed the English lords who lived in the country roundabout. Then, with standards flying, he took up his march through Kilkenny towards Dublin. As he advanced, the English lords, and some of the Irish chiefs, joined his army and proceeded with him to the capital.

Richard entered Dublin, whither he summoned the Irish princes and chiefs to come and do him homage. The summons was promptly obeyed, even by the unconquered chiefs of the north. O'Neil, still the most powerful of the Ulster chiefs, O'Brien and O'Connor from the west, and McMurrough of Leinster, attended the royal court, with nearly a hundred others. Richard feasted and flattered them, and in return they swore fealty to his crown. At the same time, he granted an amnesty to the English who had acted as if they were independent of his crown, and made an energetic effort to put the government of Ireland upon a sounder basis. It seemed as if Ireland had at last come completely under the power of the English king. In the midst of his task, however, Richard was compelled to return to London, where the Lollards (followers of Wycliffe, the religious reformer) were creating trouble. He left Ireland, fully persuaded that he had secured his sway over the country. He appointed his cousin, Roger Mortimer, who was also his chosen heir, to act as viceroy.

No sooner was Richard's back turned, however, than the Irish chiefs discarded their allegiance. McMurrough, who was deeply enraged against the English, and was perhaps the most intrepid Irish warrior of his day, broke into open revolt. He defeated Richard's soldiers at Kells, and seized several strongholds. In the course of the conflict, Roger Mortimer himself was killed. Richard heard the news of McMurrough's rising with anger and alarm. He quickly assembled another great army and a fleet, and once more landed in Ireland (1399). McMurrough was not strong enough to meet the king's forces face to face; so he plunged into the forests and bogs, and engaged in an irregular guerilla warfare. In his knowledge of the country, he had a great advantage over the king and his well-trained soldiers. McMurrough's sallies persistently worried and wearied the royal troops, who could nowhere find the Irish, so as to fight them in the open. Hunger added to the distress of the royal troops, and it was with great difficulty that Richard managed to lead his disheartened and diminished force to Dublin. So reduced by hunger were his men, that they "rushed into the sea, as eagerly as they would into their straw."

Events took place in England which probably saved Ireland from a desolating war, and perhaps from complete conquest. Henry of Bolingbroke, Richard's cousin, landed on the English coast, with the avowed intent to depose Richard from the throne. Once more the king was obliged to quit Ireland in all haste; and soon the news came back, that Richard had been taken prisoner, that his crown had been taken from him, and that Bolingbroke was reigning in his place, as Henry the Fourth. Ireland was now left to herself for a long period. Henry the Fourth had as much as he could do to maintain himself upon the throne he had conquered. Henry the Fifth's short reign was almost wholly absorbed by the brilliant war he carried on with the French. The longer reign of his son, Henry the Sixth, was occupied by the bitter and bloody "Wars of the Roses." Again the English colonists were forced to protect themselves, unaided by the mother-country. The Pale, confined to Dublin, and small portions of outlying districts in Louth, Kildare, and Meath, was protected by fortifications. Little English colonies huddled, with fear and trembling, in seaside strong-holds like Waterford and Wexford. Even great nobles like the Earl of Desmond were unable to go far from their domains, lest the native Irish should fall upon them and destroy them.

Thus, during the fifteenth century, the position of the English in Ireland grew ever weaker. Towards its close, the garrison of Dublin and of the Pale had become reduced to less than two hundred regular soldiers, while the government had grown miserably poor. The colonists themselves were forced to combine in voluntary bands, in order to protect their families and homes from the attacks of the native Irish. Now and then, attempts would be made to enforce the law which Clarence had caused to be made at Kilkenny; and, in the reign of Henry the Sixth, even harsher laws than that of Kilkenny, directed against the native Irish, were proclaimed. One of these was, that an Englishman who killed an Irishman who was on the way to or from a pillaging expedition, should be not only acquitted, but paid for the deed. In addition to such laws, the English colonists were permitted to practice a custom which bore very grievously upon the Irish. This was the custom called "coyne and livery." It meant that English soldiers could be quartered free, at any time, in the households of the natives. Thus the peace of Irish homes could be disturbed suddenly by the intrusion of rude foreigners, who tyrannized over the families, occupied the best rooms, consumed the provisions, and stalled their horses in the barns.

Other severe laws, intended to oppress the native Irish and to separate them by as wide a gulf as possible from the English settlers, were passed in the time of Henry the Sixth. Every man who did not shave his upper lip at least once a fortnight, was to be heavily fined and imprisoned. It was declared a crime even to trade with the natives, and the natives who traded with the English were denounced as "enemies of the king." All the Irish, too, who dwelt within the Pale were forced to take English names, speak the English language, wear the English garb, and shave themselves as the English did. But these harsh laws could not always be enforced. The English had as much as they could do to maintain themselves in Ireland at all. So weak did their government become towards the close of the fifteenth century, that they were forced to pay sums of money to the Irish chiefs as a ransom for their safety. This was done, not only by the Pale, but by isolated strongholds like Waterford and Wexford.

The laws made by the English kings, however, brought about one result which they wished. The two races who lived side by side in Ireland became estranged and bitterly hostile to each other. When there was peace between them, it was merely an armed truce. The Irish did not hesitate to plunder the English, and seize upon their lands, whenever and wherever they could. The English, on the other hand, subjected the Irish who fell into their hands to ruthless cruelty. The two peoples would not even worship in the same churches, although their religion was the same. Each race had its own churches and monasteries. The English land-owners built chapels within their domain, in which English or French priests officiated. Whenever the Irish could do so in safety, they attended the ministrations of Irish priests. Yet, in spite of all the dissensions between the two races, we find both Anglo-Irish and native Irish taking part, side by side, in the Wars of the Roses in England. The Geraldines fought for the white rose, or the house of York, and the Ormonds sided with the red rose, or the house of Lancaster; while many other Irish chiefs were to be found, from time to time, among the contending hosts.

In the events which have been narrated in the last five chapters, may be traced the beginning of the condition of things which has made Ireland, for seven centuries, a land of unhappy memories, of almost constant miseries, and of deep and lasting discontent. When the English, by superior force of arms, planted themselves on Irish soil; when they seized upon the fruitful lands of the people; when they replaced the ancient Irish custom of land-holding, by the feudal system; when they substituted English law for the old Brehon law,—they laid the foundation of all the evils which have since befallen Ireland, and of all the tyranny, which, almost down to our own time, marked the English rule over the island. At the close of the fifteenth century, the English colonies seemed on the very verge of extinction. But, early in the sixteenth century, the power of the English crown was once more sternly put forth to subject all Ireland to its authority.