the archbishop of Dublin attended the congress of Runnymede on the king's side with a few lords who still adhered to him, and was allowed place immediately after the archbishop of Canterbury. In the preamble of the great charter he is mentioned as one of those prelates and barons, by whose counsel it is alleged to have been granted. From this time to his demise at Newark in 1216, this unfortunate monarch was too much engrossed with the domestic troubles and civil war in England to attend to the government of Ireland.

CHAPTER IV.

1216.-HENRY III.

1. AFTER the unexpected death of king John, his infant son Henry, of the age of ten years, was crowned king at Gloucester. The earl of Pembroke, who at the time of John's death was earl marshal of England, being by his office at the head of the army, became during the convulsed state of civil war the head of the whole government, which necessarily then was under martial law. Such were the fidelity and ability of that nobleman in the administration of public affairs in those arduous times, that in order to enlarge his powers, and invest him with legal authority to act in all civil concerns of state, to which the jurisdiction of earl marshal did not extend, he was, in a general council of the ba rons at Bristol, in November, 1216, solemnly elected protector of the kingdom. At this council. Pembroke advised and procured the renovation and ratification of the great charter of English liberties, signed by king John at Kunnymede.

2. Actuated by the like spirit of securing and transmitting to posterity this valuable summary of civil freedom, the Irish barons availed themselves of the general spirit of the times, and transmitted in the same year a list of grievances, particularly of the encroachments upon their rights suffered in the late reign. They supplicated the young monarch (or rather the earl of Pembroke, who had lived amongst them)

to take them under his protection, and to secure their privileges. Pembroke, well knowing their situation, was convinced that no answer so satisfactory to their complaints could be procured as a duplicate of this charter, wherein their rights, privileges, and immunities, were placed upon the very same foundation with those of the English. By this charter, which is still extant in the city of Dublin, all the civil and political institutions of England were equally secured to Ireland, as a free and independent nation.

3. In the next year, Pembroke, with a view to tranquil. lize the minds of the king's Irish subjects, procured for them another renovation and ratification of the great charter, which begins in the following words: "The king to the archbishops, abbots, earls, barons, knights, and free tenants, and to all his faithful subjects in Ireland. In proof of our approbation of your fidelity to our father, which he has experienced, and which we are likely to experience, we will in consequence of your distinguished fidelity, that you and your heirs enjoy for ever out of our favour, and as a gift to your kingdom, the liberties granted you by our father and ourselves.'

4. During the beginning of this reign, Ireland enjoyed more than usual tranquillity, owing to the influence of Lord Pembroke, who acted as regent to the kingdom of England, and who was particularly connected with Ireland by the large possessions which he held in the province of Leinster, from his intermarriage with Eva, earl Strongbow's daughter. But unfortunately for Ireland, Pembroke died in the year 1219, when Hugh de Lacy, aided by O'Nial of Tyr Owen, made incursions into his estates in Meath. This brought over to Ireland William the young earl, who immediately commenced hostilities with De Lacy, which occasioned the levastation of Meath, and several adjoining districts. Whilst Pembroke, the protector, lived, the loyalty of the nobles was encouraged by the hopes of his favour, and their turbulence awed by his vigilance and abilities. But on the death of this great and virtuous noblenian, disorder among the native Irish recommenced, and continued through the whole of this and the four ensuing reigns.

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5. After the death of Pembroke the protector, the archbishop of Dublin was directed to assume the government of Ireland, which he administered till about the year 1224; and he was succeeded by William, the young earl of Pembroke, who governed the country for two years,

6. Hubert de Burgo, justiciary of England, being then made deputy of Ireland, appointed as his substitute his kinsman Richard de Burgo, during whose administration an order was transmitted from England, commanding him at a certain day and place to summon the archbishops, hishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, knights, freeholders, and sheriffs, and in their presence to cause to be read publicly the charter of king John, and that in obedience to it they should swear to observe the English laws and customs in Ireland, and that in behalf of the king he should command the laws and customs contained in the said charter to be firmly observed in the several counties of Ireland, of which public proclamation should be made in each of them respectively, that none might presume to disobey his majesty's command. This was an admission to the English laws and liberties in their full extent, of all such Irishmen as renounced their ancient form of polity, and consented to hold their lands by English tenure.

7. The reign of Henry III. was the longest, not the wisest of any of his predecessors. There was a native propensity in the character of that prince to give entire credit to the favourite of the day, who always possessed the ascendant over him. Such plea may excuse the man, not justify the king. He was as lavish of his favour, as of his treasure: prompt and fickle, both in love and hatred. It has been observed of him, that he never had a favourite, however great, whom he did not disgrace, nor an enemy whom he took not into favour. With this disposition his coffers were ever empty: his barons from that spirit of independence and turbulence, which they had shewn to his father, were ready on all occasions to thwart his disposition to extrava gance and despotism. They diffided in the king, and the king disliked them. This mutual diffidence broke out into that open warfare between them, which so much embittered the latter part of his reign. He was little' likely with these dispositions to turn his thoughts to Ireland, further than to render it subservient to his own pecuniary purposes, or accessary to the private intrigues of his favourites, who succeeded each other in very rapid succession, and uniformly represented to the susceptible mind of the king, whatever their private or sinister interests suggested. Hence the almost unceasing distraction of Ireland during his reign.

8. The demands of De Burgo, who claimed a reversionary grant of Connaught from Henry II. upon the death of the

reigning prince Cathal, the opposition of several of the Irish as well as English lords, the various claims and cross claims of the Geraldines, M'Carthys, O'Bryens, O'Nials, and the earl of Pembroke, all tended to weaken the English interest in that country, and rendered it consequently less valuable to the lucrative views of the impoverished and harassed Henry. Of all the barons who had expressed their dissatisfaction with Henry's conduct, none spoke more openly than Richard earl of Pembroke, who had succeeded to the title and estates of his elder brother William, in 1231. The king had marked him as an object of his vengeance, and numbers were not wanting about the court to second the vindictive wishes of their sovereign.

9. To avoid the consequence of Henry's resentment, Richard with a number of his friends fled to Wales, and thence to Ireland, where he possessed very considerable property and extensive influence. Before he had reached Ireland, Maurice Fitzgerald, then lord deputy, Richard de Burgo, Fitz Morris or de Morrisco, with other barons, had received orders from Henry to secure him on his arrival in that kingdom. To engage them the more effectually in this service, the lands of the earl marshal in Ireland were for his misconduct declared forfeited and granted to them and their heirs for ever. These ungenerous barons determined to execute the king's command by treachery. They spirited him up to take arins, helped him to obtain some successes, then pretended to treat with him on behalf of the king, and basely murdered him ou the plains of Kildare.

10. When this transaction was known in England, the people, with whom Pembroke was a favourite, and the discontented lords, who considered him as one of most active and powerful defenders of their just and common cause, were exceedingly provoked. The king, dreading the effect of the general indignation which it had excited in England, and the resentment of the Irish, especially of the inhabitants of Leinster, who were from other motives disposed to break out into open hostilities, put on the cloak of hypocrisy, pretended to be deeply affected by the death of Pembroke; denied that he had given the sanction of his authority to this act of the deputy of his accomplices; and vested Gilbert his next surviving brother with all the rights and possessions of his family. In 1229 Fitzgerald was appointed lord justice, and succeeded by Fitzmorris; but was next year restored to the government, which he held till 1245,

I when Henry substituted in his place his brother Sir John Fitzmorris.

11. In this disturbed state of Ireland, the king, who already had three different times granted the English laws and constitution to his Irish subjects, now sent over to them a fourth grant of the laws and liberties of England, with this specious preamble: "Because for the commno benefit of the land of Ireland, and the unity of the king's territories, the king, by the advice of his counsellors, hath provided, that all the laws and customs of the kingdom of England may be possessed by the kingdom of Ireland, and that it may hold and be governed by the same laws as king John, when last in Ireland, commanded; because it is the pleasure of the king, that the common laws of England shall be current in Ireland. In like manner, under the authority of the king's new seal, it is commanded to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, &c. that for the peace and tranquillity of the said land, they may permit themselves to be governed by the said laws, and that they may be observed throughout the land."

12. In the year twelve hundred and fifty-three, Henry having projected a marriage betwixt his son prince Edward and the infanta of Spain, made a grant of his kingdom, with certain exceptions, to him and his heirs for ever; but with a special proviso, that Ireland should always be connected with and dependant on the English crown. The general appointments under government were henceforth made in the name of Edward, and subject to his immediate authority: yet Henry jealous, lest his son should withdraw this kingdom from its allegiance to him as supreme liege lord, frequently interfered in the administration, and would not permit him to name the deputies the most agreeable to him; he even superseded some of his writs, and controlled him in particular acts of government, which had not the sanction of his own letters patent.

13. Henry being engaged in a war upon the continent, in defence of his territories in France, and pressed for the means to carry it on, his queen, as appears upon record, transmitted to Ireland the following requisition." To the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, burgesses, freemen, &c. entreating from them assistance of men and money against the king of Castile, who had invaded Gascony, the compliance with which would turn to their immortal honour." This, according to Mr. Mollyneux, proves the anti