1278. speaks the wise policy and laudable feelings of that prince towards Ireland.

Answer of

Edward to

the Irish petition.

"Edward by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitain, to our truly and well-beloved Robert de Ufford, Justiciary of Ireland, greeting:"

"The improvement of the state and peace of our land of Ireland, signified to us by your letter, gives us exceeding joy and pleasure. We entirely commend your diligence in this matter, hoping (by the Divine assistance) that the things there begun so happily by you, shall, as far as in you lieth, be still further prosecuted with the greater vigor and success."

“And whereas the community of Ireland hath made a tender to us of 8000 marks, on condition that we grant to them the laws of England to be used in the aforesaid land, we will you to know, that inasmuch as the laws used by the Irish are hateful to God and repugnant to all justice, and having held diligent conference and full deliberation with our council on this matter, it seems sufficiently expedient to us and to our council, to grant to them the English laws; provided always, that the general consent of our people, or at least of the prelates and nobles of that land wellaffected to us shall uniformly concur in this behalf."

"We therefore command you, that having entered into treaty with these Irish people, and examined diligently into the wills of our commons, prelates, and nobles well-affected to us in this behalf, and having agreed between you and them on the highest fine of

money, that you can obtain on this account, to be 1278 paid to us, you do with the consent of all, or at least of the greater and sounder part aforesaid, make such a composition with the said people, in the premises, as you shall judge in your diligence to be most expedient for our honor and interest. Provided however, that these people shall hold in readiness a body of good and stout footmen, amounting to such a number as you shall agree upon with them for one turn only, to repair to us when we shall think fit to demand them."

of the king

ed by his

These politic and benevolent intentions of Edward The views were thwarted by his servants, who, to forward their counteract own rapacious views of extortion and oppression, pre- ministers. vented a convention of the King's barons and other subjects in Ireland. Edward was assured, that compliance with his commands was under the existing circumstances absolutely impossible. To this source may be traced the rise of the aristocratic ascendancy kept up in Ireland, against the immediate wishes and interest of the crown, by the corrupt practice of it's servants. This baneful precedent has been followed through centuries of disastrous government over that country. Edward was deceived and injured by his servants, in whom he fully confided. But the cry of oppression was not silenced; the application of the Irish was renewed, and the King repeatedly solicited to accept them as free and faithful subjects. These reiterated addresses to the throne could not have been altogether suppressed from the King's knowledge: for two years after he again summoned the lords spiritual and tem

VOL. I.

1280.

Fatal oppo

sition to the

the Irish.

poral, and the whole body of English subjects in the land of Ireland, to assemble and deliberate on these petitions. The advice of evil counsellors appears, however, to have influenced the declaration he made to his Irish subjects. He no longer avowed the intent of judging personally of their grievances; but stil promised them redress upon such representations, as should be made to him, through his officers and council, which was one of the chief grievances against which they remonstrated. Thus did the King, speaking from the genuine impulse of his mind (motu proprio) strongly mark his displeasure at his servants' reluctance to take an affair of such moment into immediate deliberation. Yet official ascendancy was too powerful. The King's interest was sacrificed to the corrupt views of his ministers, and the wise and benevolent mandates of the Sovereign were so effectually contravened and defeated, that during the course of his reign several individuals of the Irish race were necessitated to sue for particular charters of denization on their intermarriages with the English. This would have been futile and absurd, had the servants of the crown carried into effect the benevolent intentions of the sovereign.

Such determined opposition to the wishes of the Irish people and the welfare of their sovereign, could not but irritate the spirits of the Irish, give new edge to their resentments, and sow the seeds of irreconcileable hatred between them and their oppressors *. This

* "As long as they (the Irish) were out of the protection of the aw," says Sir John Davies, "so as every Englishman might oppress, spoil, and kill them without controulment, how was it possible they should be other than outlaws and enemies to the crown of

fatal policy of refusing the just and reasonable requests of the Irish was instantly followed by its necessary effect. It drove them into insurrection, which diminished the number of the king's subjects, exhausted his treasure, impoverished the country, increased the hatred of the English name, and forwarded no other views, than those of the rapacious and corrupt ministers, who reaped their own harvest from the country's ruin.

This blind infatuation of the English government in their conduct towards Ireland is wholly unaccountable; for although they had not full possession of one-third of the island, they cantonized the whole country amongst ten English families, who called themselves owners and lords of all. Nothing was left to be granted to or enjoyed by the natives: nor is there a record for the space of 300 years and upwards after the invasion, of any grant of land to an Irish lord, except one from the crown to the King of Thomond of his land, during the minority of Henry III. and the treaty with the King of Connaught. These English grantees became a new set of petty sovereigns, who, according to Sir John Davies, could not endure any kings in Ireland but themselves: nay, hardly that the crown of England itself should have any juris

England? If the king would not admit them to the condition of subjects, how could they learn to acknowledge and obey him as their sovereign?" and, "in a word, if the English would neither in peace govern them by the law, nor in war root them out by the sword, must they not needs be pricks in their eyes, and thorns in their sides, till the world's end?" Day Disc.

1282.

par

1282. diction over them. They exercised all manner of royal power and authority, within their petty sovereignties more arbitrarily, than any English monarch had done over the kingdom*. No wonder then, that they should oppose and resist every attempt of the English cabinet to admit the Irish into a full ticipation of their laws and constitution. As by such grants of whole provinces and petty kingdoms, these few English lords assumed the propriety of all the lands comprized in them, it became impracticable for Government to give legal titles to the natives. The conquest of the whole country thus became impossible otherwise, than by the utter extirpation of the native race of Irish, which the Government was in fact unable, and from interested motives, probably unwilling to effect. The Irish, who inhabited the lands, that were fully conquered and reduced, were in the condition of slaves and villeins, and thereby rendered more profit to their lords, than if they had been free subjects of the king; and as these oppressive and rapacious roytelets flattered themselves with the pleasing prospect of realizing their several grants to their full nominal extent, they looked eagerly to this profitable extension of vassalage and slavery, which would not take place, if those out of the pale were once received into the King's protection, and made liege men and free subjects. Thus early

The complaints of the abuses of these English settlers were emphatically compressed into this strong expression; ipsis Hybernis Hyberniores.