Canterbury, to place the crown upon his head. In this accession were sown the seeds of those disastrous feuds of the houses of York and Lancaster, which afterwards spread their baneful consequences even to Ireland. This king was, however, too constantly engaged in domestic troubles and insurrections, even to attempt any measures beneficial or important to that country.

:

2. Ireland at this time appeared of such insignificance to the monarch, that the English parliament in the first year of his reign granted him* a subsidy for three years, and one disme and one fifteenth towards the provision for Ireland, amongst other objects of state necessity. So ill were the affairs of this country administered, that in less than two years four chief governors were successively appointed, who seemed to vie with each other in their address to increase the discontents and turbulency of the kingdom. The archbishops of Armagh and Dublin were deputed by the Irish parliament to lay before the king the national grievances." They were graciously received, and probably occasioned the extraordinary appointment of the king's son, Thomas, duke of Lancaster, to the government for twenty-one years.

3. The arrival of his royal highness in Ireland for the time gave weight to the government. Some of the native chieftans were subdued: some few made or repeated their external submission to the Lord-lieutenant. Ulster was for a time freed from the Scotch marauders, who, from the commencement of this reign, had harassed that province in separate detachments. In this year (3 H. IV.) a parliament was holden at Dublin, and an ordinance issued for enforcing the statute against Irish absentees, soon after which the duke of Lancaster returned to England on account of the troubles laid against his father; "so that," according to Sir J. Davies, "the seed of reformation took no root at all."

4. In the fifth of this king's reign, under the earl of Ormond, chief justice, another parliament was convened at Dublin, wherein the statutes of Kilkenny and of Dublin and the charter of Ireland were confirmed. Several other parliaments were assembled in this reign, at some of which tallages were granted, and inany wholesome ordinances enacted, though they were not observed. The king's wishes appear to trave exceeded his power to improve the internal state of the country. During his reign, which only lasted thirteen

Cot. Rec. 1, H. IV. p. 390.

It

years, his son, the duke of Lancaster, was twice more appointed Lord-lieutenant for twelve and for seven years. appears from the Irish annals, that the holding of parliament was offensive to the native Irish; for it is particularly remarked, that, during a parliament convened on the 14th of Hen. IV. "the Irish fell to burning in divers places, as they had often done in parliament times; wherefore a tallage was demanded, but not granted."

5. The terms on which the duke of Lancaster accepted his third and last appointment were singular. Besides the provision made for his attendants and their pay, he was allowed at the king's charge to transport a family or two out of every parish in England to inhabit Ireland. Had this provision been acted upon, an influx of above 20,000 indigent individuals might have been thrown upon a distressed country, which, from the long continuance of war and famine, was little able to support its own population. This appears to have been the first idea of plantations in Ireland, afterwards so fatally mischievous to that country. He was also enabled to grant benefices and appoint his own deputy. It was further provided, that all the demesnes of the crown should be resumed and the acts of absentees executed. Some historians relate that the duke of Lancaster was wounded under the walls of Dublin; but they all agree that he returned to England within three months after his last appointment. Nothing important to Ireland happened during the remainder of this reign. Sir J. Davies indeed has remarked, that "after this the state of England had no leisure to think of a general reformation in the realm till the civil dissentions of England were appeased, and the peace of that kingdom settled be Henry VII."

CHAPTER X.

1413.-HENRY V.

1. HENRY V. of Monmouth succeeded his father without opposition from any quarter. The nobility swore allegiance to him before his coronation. The settled doctrine of the hereditary right to the crown appears then to have been, that it devolved by operation of law upon the heir of the person who died last seised. This young prince, then only in the twenty-fourth year of his age, had during his father's life formed an intimacy with several young gentlemen of amiable accomplishments, though rather dissolute habits, who flattered and seduced him into some of the irregularities incidental to youth. One of the first acts, however, after his accession to the throne, was to forbid any one of his favourite companions to approach within ten miles of his royal presence; so determined was he to act without partiality or favour for the welfare and prosperity of his people.

2. The mistaken policy of those days directed the energies of this young prince to the recovery and preservation of his continental possessions in France, which were crowned with the ever memorable victory of Agincourt, where ten thousand brave Englishmen, half famished, fatigued, reduced by disease, and surrounded, routed one hundred and forty thousand Frenchmen in the vigour of health, superabounding with provisions, and commanding every advantage of situation. These dazzling objects diverted the mind of the young monarch from the ungracious task of modelling a nascent and refractory people. The utmost advantages he could look to from Ireland were the auxiliary troops he might thence bring into the field to forward the progress of his arms in France. The Irish have ever been a martial people, conspicuously forward in engaging under any honourable banner, and supereminently distinguished for their prowess and fidelity to their engagments.* Whilst he was

*Happy for the British empire were its government duly impressed with the incalculable advantages of availing itself of the unchecked energies and martial spirit of this important part of its population.

O fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint
Anglicola.

laying seige to Harfleur, in Normandy, he was gratified with the arrival of a reinforcement of sixteen hundred Irishmen, well armed and disciplined, under the command of the martial prior of Kilmainham.

3. The incompetency of the English government at home drove the corrupt deputies in Ireland to revive the abominable system of coigne and livery, which had been declared treasonable by the statutes of Kilkenny. The renovation of this oppression drove the natives as well as several English chieftains into insurrection, which naturally increased the national calamities of devastation and bloodshed. In the relation in which these two nations then stood to each other an intercourse and exchange of inhabitants frequently took place. The seat of empire and its superior opulence and cultivation held out attractions to the Irish to flock to England in search of employment and promotion, whilst their own country, from the extinction of its monarchy and internal calamities, was daily dropping into indigence and insignificance. Ireland, on the other hand, as a new conquered country of great fertility and extent in proportion to its population, held out temptations to the adventurous and indigent families in England to answer the specious promises and allurements of colonization and plantations.

4. The English parliament, in the fourth year of this reign, from jealousy and prejudice at the influx of Irishmen into this country, passed an act imposing penalties on Irish prelates for collating Irishmen to benefices in England, or bringing Irishmen to parliament, lest they should discover the counsels of England to rebels. This unjust act, which seems almost inoperative upon the face of it,* was extended so far beyond its letter and spirit, that occasion was taken from it to expel indiscriminately all the Irish, without distinction of quality or birth, not even excepting the students of the inns of court, who were thus excluded from England and from the study of the very laws by which they were to be governed. Every measure was carried into execution, however extravagant, which suited the ministers on either side of the water, who appear to the attentive observer of

* If Irish prelates had not the advowsons in them, they could not collate to livings in England; and if they had, why should they not use their legal rights, which could not vest in them, unless they were subjects of the king.

Irish government almost uniformly from the invasion to have systematically had a thorough understanding with each other in the mal-administration of Irish affairs.

5. The misconduct of the chief governor raised so much irritation in Ireland, that it was found requisite to appoint a person commanding the affections of the natives and possessing the confidence of the English government. For this purpose, the earl of Ormond was created Lord-lieutenant, with the extraordinary powers of summoning councils, holding, adjourning, proroguing, and dissolving parliaments, pardoning treasons, murders, and felonies, and removing and appointing all officers of state (except the chancellor and treasurer). Immediately after the glorious triumph of Agincourt, the Irish had prepared a strong remonstrance of their grievances to be transmitted to the king; but the chancellor, Sir Laurence Merbury, feeling himself implicated in the objects of this remonstrance, and acting in concert with those who had created the necessity of it, refused to affix the great seal, without which he pretended it could not be submitted to his majesty. Thus for several years were continued the abuses of the Irish government with impunity by the manœuvres of the very delinquents who occasioned the grievances.

6. The first parliament holden under Ormond granted a subsidy of 1000 marks, and provided for the liquidation of the debts of former governors; but these acts were accompanied with a full representation of grievances. Merbury being absent, the person deputed to the custody of the seal had either too much honesty or too little power to refuse to affix it to their petition. The archbishop of Dublin and Sir Christopher Preston were instantly commissioned by the Irish parliament to present their remonstrance to the throne.* The petition sets forth the distresses of the king's subjects in Ireland, harassed by the perpetual incursions of the Irish enemy and the injustice and extortion of the king's minis ters. The king's personal appearance in Ireland is most earnestly intreated to save his people from destruction. The insolent opposition of Merbury to their first petition is com. plained of. Stanley and Furnival, two former governors,

*This petition does not appear to have been much attended to by the English government, for no other effect than the removal of Merbury from the seals can be fairly traced to this cause.