who had before absented themselves, submitted to 1331. the King's mercy, and solemnly received the royal pardon. dinances English for the re In the same year Edward, by advice of his council Several orin a parliament of England, passed several important made in the and interesting ordinances for the reformation of the parliament state, prosperity, and tranquillity of Ireland, and trans-gulation of mitted them to his chief officers there*. He likewise issued a writ to his chief justice to follow the law of England in the recovering of wardships in lieu of the Irish customs. Ireland. to excom the lawless The Irish of Leinster having also in this year com- Papal bull mitted great outrages and sacrileges, the Pope sent his municate bull to the archbishop of Dublin, commanding him to Irish. excommunicate them; which the Irish contemning, invaded the county of Wexford. The King was advised by the parliament then sitting, to go over to Ireland in person with an army to suppress the rebels, for which end he issued commissions to raise footmen and men at arms to attend him, and to provide victuals and ships to transport them. These, with the advice of the same parliament, he soon recalled; and in lieu thereof issued a commission to the Prior of the hospital of St. John's of Jerusalem in Ireand, to treat with the captains of those rebels, and gran them safe conducts for that purpose, and to receive and * Parl. 5. Ed. 3d. Pars. No. 25. apud Prynne, Animad. 267, on which he remarks," an excellent ordinance to preserve the peace of Ireland, with little expense to the King, if duly exer cuted." 1333. Murder of the Earl of Vister revenged. Convention of Kilken ny. them to his grace and peace upon such terms, as he should think most expedicnt, and upon fresh promises of future obedience and allegiance. In the year 1333, John, Lord Darcy, lord chief justice of Ireland, assembled a parliament at Dublin, where, by advice of all the states of the land, he marched with an army to Carickfergus, to avenge the murder of William Burke, Earl of Ulster, some time before treacherously slain, which he effected. Nothing more appears to have been done in this parliament. In the fifteenth year of this King's reign, he was improvidently advised to revoke all the that had grants, been made by himself or his father, which revocation occasioned discontent throughout the country. Before this time, say the annals *, "there never was known so notable and manifest a division in Ireland between those, that were English by birth and English in blood." The country was in such a state, that, as Prynne expresses himself, "it was upon the point of being lost for ever out of the kings of England's hands." Whereupon Sir John Morris, the chief governor summoned the parliament to meet at Dublin in the month of October. But the mayors of the King's cities, and the better sort of the nobility and gentry of the land had, without the privity, advice, or consent of the lord justice or any of the King's officers, announced a more general parliament, to be holden at Kilkenny, in the month of November, for the benefit of the King and the country. It was not con * P. 188. Vide Pry. Anim. 271. sequently attended by any of the King's servants. This meeting of so respectable a representation of the country, though self-delegated, and legally therefore no more, than a convention, shows not only the weakness of the King's government, which did not attempt to interrupt it, but also its corruption from the resolutions and ordinances unanimously passed by the members composing the meeting, of whom Desmond was the chief. 1341. of the con Kilkenny. They agreed and ordained, that solemn ambassadors Ordinances should be sent with all speed to the King of England, vention of to protest against his ministers' unequal and unjust government of Ireland; and to intimate, that thenceforth they neither could nor would endure the realm of Ireland to be ruled by his ministers, as it had wont to be; and particularly they complained of them, in the following questions: "Imprimis, How a land full of warres could be governed by him, that was unskilful in warre? Secondly, How a minister or officer of the King should in a short time grow to so much wealth? Thirdly, How it came to pass, that the King was never the richer for Ireland?" writs. It appears from the records in the Tower, that Remedial the King was not inattentive to the complaints of his Irish subjects: for several writs (sixteen in number) were issued this year, wherein the King recited not only a general, but some particular revocations of lands, grants, and gifts, and allowances of accounts and monies received in Ireland (some few excepted which he ratified), and also commanded strict inquiries to be made and sent to him of the numbers, 1342. fees, deportment, abuses, usurpations, sufficiency and insufficiency of his officers there, especially of his treasurer of the exchequer, removing some of them, and providing against abuses and extravagancies in his exchequer and treasury for the future. Petition of and gentry * The next year a special and memorable petition the nobility was transmitted to the King from all the prelates, to the King. earls, barons, and commons of Ireland, by the Prior of the hospital of St. John's of Jerusalem, and Thomas Wogan, their special messengers from the parliament at Kilkenny, touching the redress of several misdemeanors and grievances occasioned by his officers there, to the prejudice of the King and people, with the respective answers of his council, afterwards ratified by the King, and ordered to be thenceforth observed in Ireland t. Ordinances This King was anxious not only to improve the gofor the wel- vernment, but also to give independent consequence to this kingdom. Therefore, in the twenty-ninth fare and in dependence of the kingdom. * Close Rol. 16 Ed. III. † In the patent rolls of this same year, there are several patents appointing a new baron and chancellor of the exchequer at Dublin, a new deputy lord chief justice, and a new chancellor of Ireland: the others having been removed, probably for the misdemeanors contained in the petitions referred to; and some castles were likewise committed to the custody of others, upon the same account And in the Parliamentary Rolls of 18 Edw. 3. there are patents appointing a new chief justice of Ireland, and a new judge; and one containing a special pardon to the archbishop of Dublin, late treasurer of Ireland, for sundry false writs and acquittances, which he had put into his treasurer's account, in deceit of the King. year of his reign, he made an ordinance for the easier 1355. restoring of lands seised into his hands, and reforming of errors in judgments given in the courts of Ireland, by the Irish, and not by the English parliament only, as formerly. Two years after, he made several wholesome ordinances "for the better government of the church and state in Ireland, the maintenance of the good laws and statutes of England there established, (especially the statutes against the invasions, abuses of rebels, brokers, purveyors, champerty, clerks of the markets, the great charter, and statute of Winchester,) the suppression of robberies, burning of houses, depredations, and other abuses by kernes and others; and the manifold extortions, and oppressions of the subjects by the King's officers, as well great as small, especially of the exchequer and court of wards *." purposes granted and For giving effect to these ordinances †, and recon- For like ciling the minds of his Irish subjects, the King about pardons the same time issued a commission for one year to his perpetual chief justice in Ireland, "by the advice of his chan- established. cellor and treasurer, to receive all persons, as well Eng * These ordinances are to be seen in the Tower, in the Statute Rolls of that year. These ordinances were so grateful, useful, and necessary for the good government. ease, safety, and preservation of the King's loyal subjects in Ireland, that they were ratified, exemplified, and sent into Ireland to be observed in the seventeenth year of King Richard the Second. The exemplification of them may be seen in Rilye's Pl. Par. Appendix, p. 592 to 601. vicarages |