|
Sufferings of Ulster
Colonists - Death of the Red Earl of Ulster - Succeeded by the Brown Earl
- The O'Neills of Clanaboy - Amalgamation of "Englishry" and "Irishry" -
Ulster lost to the English - Murder of the Brown Earl of Ulster - Sir
Ralph Ufford, Lord Justice - Lionel, Duke of Clarence, Earl of Ulster and
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
No portion of Ireland
suffered more during the invasion of Edward Bruce than did Ulster, for it
was chiefly over the northern province that the war raged, and in
consequence Ulster presented a pitiable spectacle in 1318. The district
was wasted, churches, castles, and cottages were burned, crops ruined, and
famine stalked through the land. "There reigned scarcity of victuals . . .
insomuch that men did commonly eat one another for want of sustenance.
..."
In all this turmoil and
misery the English colonists were the greatest sufferers, for while the
mote castles were left standing some protection was afforded them; but
when these were razed, and the Earl of Ulster was defeated, they had to
protect themselves as best they could although fighting against great
odds. The condition of these people was pitiable; their farms were
devastated, their homesteads a mass of ruins, their servants killed or
pressed into the service of the Scots, and such live stock as they
possessed slaughtered for food for the enemy. Many were utterly ruined by
the Scottish raid. Many suffered from the military requisitions of their
own lords, who had adopted the Irish practice, for the support of their
troops, of "coyne and livery", or free quartering of the soldiery for food
and fodder. Many, gathering together all the raid had left to them, fled
from the country. Those who remained sank into the condition of the Irish
around them, and the desolated and derelict lands were reoccupied by the
native septs. The Red Earl of Ulster, whose proud boast it had been that
he could unaided protect his possessions, was no longer able to take sword
or lance on behalf of his people. He had, during Robert Bruce's march on
Dublin, suffered a great indignity at the hands of the Mayor of Dublin,
Robert of Nottingham, who, knowing that the Red Earl's daughter was
married to the Bruce, suspected De Burgh of being in sympathy with his
son-in-law, and, wishing to render him harmless, he laid violent hands on
the Earl and cast him into prison. This indignity preyed on the proud
spirit of the hitherto autocratic Earl, and he retired to a monastery, in
which, in 1326, he ended his days. He was succeeded by his grandson,
William, whose father, John de Burgh, had died in 1313. William de Burgh,
to distinguish him from his grandfather, was known as the Brown Earl.
Whatever semblance of law
and order the Red Earl may have maintained in Ulster was speedily
dispelled during the sway of Edward Bruce, and totally disappeared with
his death and the departure of his followers to Scotland. Donald O'Neill,
if he was disappointed at the result of Bruce's invasion, quickly
perceived that he could himself benefit by the unprotected state of the
country. The representatives of the Crown, he clearly saw, were powerless
to oppose him, for the forces at their command " were weakly supplied and
ill-governed, . . . weakly supplied with men and money, and governed with
the worst discipline that ever was seen among men of war." Swallowing his
chagrin at Bruce's defeat, he made active preparations to clear the
English out of Ulster. But O'Neill reckoned without taking into
consideration the tactics of the O'Donnells. These hereditary enemies of
the O'Neills had also cast longing eyes on the fair lands in Ulster,
which, by a little exertion, might be theirs, and thus the rival septs,
being both desirous to secure the same object, fell upon each other, and
endless wars ensued.
But, fight as they might
amongst themselves and with each other, the O'Neills and O'Donnells kept
their hearts fixed on the acquisition of Ulster, and little by little the
chiefs of Tirowen and Tirconnell made their way eastwards, driving out and
exterminating all who opposed them. The O'Neills of Clanaboy, descendants
of Hugh Boy O'Neill, crossed into Antrim and expelled the English from the
" barony of Fuscard, now called the Route", and pursued them beyond the
borders, destroying as they went their
mote-castles and dwellings, making it impossible for them to return.
It was the hopelessness of
their outlook that induced the English, as a last resort, to adopt Irish
names as well as Irish habits and customs. The Crown was powerless to help
them, for the war on the Continent now occupied Edward's whole attention
and also helped to drain Ireland of soldiers, who fought well on the
fields of France though in the service of the King of England. The great
Earl of Ulster was dead, and his grandson did not possess a tithe of his
ability or power. The English colonists had therefore to rely on their own
resources, which, as we have seen, left them the choice of being
annihilated or of sinking their pride and nationality and becoming to all
intents and purposes Irish in language, dress, and customs. Thus it was
that even the great English lords, with the exception of Ormonde and
Kildare, took Irish names. The De Burghs became McWilliam Eighter and
McWilliam Oughter, or the Nether and the Further Burkes; FitzMaurice of
Lixnaw became McMorice; FitzUrse of Louth, MacMahon ; and even De
Bermingham, the conqueror of Edward Bruce, in spite of that famous
victory, adopted the Irish name of MacYoris.
With the adoption of Irish
names there sprang up a seminational feeling which temporarily united the
English and Irish in a bond of self-defence. Seeing that England could no
longer help them, they shook off all allegiance to England, and forgot
they were English or Irish, as the case may be, and became one people,
known only as "the King's enemies". They established kingdoms and
principalities for themselves, recognizing no higher authority, and lived
a lawless, turbulent life, becoming in time a greater menace to England
than "the mere Irish" had ever been. These independent chieftains of
native or Norman descent occupied and held sway over territories which
have been described as "some regions as big as a shire, some more, some
less, unto a little; some as big as half a shire, and some a little less;
where reigneth more than sixty chief captains, whereof some calleth
themselves kings, some kings' peers, in their language, some princes, some
dukes, some archdukes, that liveth only by the sword, and hath imperial
jurisdiction within his room, and obeyeth to no other person, English or
Irish, except only to such persons as may subdue him by the sword".
As the Anglo-Irish
gradually ceased to recognize the power or authority of the English, so in
their turn the representatives of the Crown in Dublin slowly confined the
operations of English laws to the English settlements. The purely Irish
and Anglo-Irish districts were left outside the law. In fact, the law did
not recognize them. No Irishman could plead in the English courts unless
he belonged to one of the "five obedient shires", which came to be known
as the English Pale, or was connected with one of "the five bloods", the
O'Neills, O'Briens, O'Conors, O'Melaghlins, and McMurroughs, who enjoyed
by royal grant the privilege of being the king's freemen. Being thus
outside the law the Irish were not protected by the law, and to kill an
Irishman was not murder. Outside the Pale "the King's writ no longer ran".
Under these conditions the
northern province, which had never really been subdued, was a perfect
pandemonium, wherein O'Donnells, O'Neills, O'Reillys, and O'Kanes strove
ceaselessly for supremacy. William de Burgh, brother of the Red Earl, died
in 1324. He had assumed the name of Burke and adopted Irish customs, spoke
the Irish language, and, though a grandson of the Norman Hugh de Lacy, was
as quick in quarrel and as pugnacious as the most bellicose of Irish
chiefs could possibly be. William's son, Walter Burke, inherited a double
portion of his father's spirit, and aspired to the kingship of Connaught.
As the reigning king, Turlogh O'Conor, naturally objected, Walter made war
on him (1330); but Turlogh, with the assistance of Burke's nephew, the
Earl of Ulster, defeated him. He then turned his attention to other parts
of Connaught, but renewed the war on Turlogh later, and became such a
firebrand that the Earl of Ulster, finding his own authority threatened,
had him imprisoned at Greencastle (1331), near the mouth of Lough Foyle,
and starved to death. This unkinsmanlike action was followed by the murder
of the Earl two years later. Walter Burke's sister felt so keenly on the
subject of her brother's death that she determined that her nephew, the
Earl, should suffer for the deed, and urged her husband, Robert de
Mandeville of Ulster, to take revenge. This he did, aided by his servants,
in a treacherous manner, by attacking the Earl from behind and splitting
open his skull. The murderers were caught and put to death.
The sole issue of the Brown
Earl of Ulster's marriage was an infant daughter, and as the Earl held his
lands by the sword her pretensions were ignored by two brothers, members
of a collateral branch of the De Burghs or Burkes; although by the
provisions of feudal tenure the King of England had the right to possess
and manage the late Earl's lands during the minority of his child. These
Connaught Burkes renounced their allegiance to the English King, and with
the assent of their tenants and the support of their Celtic neighbours
proceeded to partition the estates between them, the elder seizing Galway,
while the younger took possession of Mayo. In Ulster the O'Neills crossed
the Bann and seized Clandeboy, and by degrees the entire province, like
that of Connaught, passed wholly into the hands of the Irish; and it could
be said of the northern province, as was said at this time of the western,
when asked to furnish supplies to England, that no money could be got, as
the whole province had fallen into Irish hands.
The Crown now recognized
the seriousness of the situation, and took steps to strengthen its
authority. The policy now pursued was to weaken the great lords and to
play them off one against another, as the great lords themselves had,
heretofore, played off the Irish chieftains. It was also decided to
prevent, as far as possible, any more English becoming naturalized
Irishmen, with all the consequences which followed such a change. With
these ends in view, Sir Ralph Ufford was appointed Lord Justice in 1344.
Sir Ralph had married the widow of the murdered Earl of Ulster, and had no
cause to love the Irish. The Earl of Desmond, having convened a great
gathering at Kilkenny, of "prelates, earls, barons, and community of
Ireland" to protest against the King's injustice in proposing to resume
all royal grants in lieu of certain alleged arrears of debt due to the
Crown, the Lord Justice seized his estates, getting possession of the
castles of Castle-island and Iniskisty in Kerry, and executed Sir Eustace
de la Poer, Sir William Grant, and Sir John Cottrell, Desmond's principal
followers. Ten years later we find Desmond appointed Lord Justice.
It now became a ruling
principle to fill high offices of State with imported English, to the
exclusion of the native Anglo-Irish; a proclamation in 1356 announced that
no one born in Ireland should henceforth hold a command in any of the
King's towns or castles. The Anglo-Irish had no part or lot in the
government of their own country, and the nominees of the English Court
absorbed every place of honour or emolument.
With the view of still
further advancing these principles, Edward, in 1361, sent over his third
son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, to fill the office of Lord-Lieutenant,
granting him at the same time unlimited powers. Furthermore, for the
better government of Ireland, all absentee landowners, already amounting
to no less than sixty-three, were summoned to Westminster and ordered to
provide an army to accompany the newly appointed Viceroy to Ireland.
The Duke of Clarence had
married the only daughter and heiress of the Brown Earl of Ulster, and
thus became himself, through his wife, titular Earl of Ulster, and the
nominal lord of an enormous tract of country stretching from the Bay of
Galway nearly up to the coast of Donegal. Most of this land had, however,
been seized, as we have seen, by the Burkes. Ulster had been so completely
lost that the new Earl of Ulster did not even refer to the province as
part of the country which he was to govern, in fact the King himself had
declared that Ireland was almost lost.
Lionel landed at Dublin in
1361 with an army of 1500 men. One of his objects in coming was to recover
his wife's estates in Ulster, but though his army was large and well
equipped, and the whole revenue of the country had been placed at his
disposal, he was able to effect but little, and captured only some places
of minor importance along the east coast of the province. The Burkes
frequently fought amongst themselves, but they were ever united against
Lionel, and he remained unable to recover the lands which by right
belonged to the Duchess of Clarence; a striking example of how the
Anglo-Irish of Ulster were strong enough to bid defiance to even the son
of the King of England. |
