REIGN of Edward I.-Social State of Ireland.-English Treachery.-Irish Chieftains set at Variance. The Irish are refused the Benefit of English Law.-Feuds between the Cusacks and the Barretts.-Death of Boy O'Neill.-The Burkes and the Geraldines.-Quarrel between FitzGerald and De Vesci.-Possessions obtained by Force or Fraud.-Why the Celt was not Loyal.— The Governors and the Governed.-Royal Cities and their Charters.-Dublin Castle, its Officers, Law Courts.-A Law Court in the Fourteenth Century.-Irish Soldiers help the English King.A Murder for which Justice is refused.-Exactions of the Nobles.-Invasion of Bruce.-Remonstrance to the Pope.-The Scotch Armies withdrawn from Ireland.

TWO CENTURIES OF ANGLO-NORMAN GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND.

L

"Oh! why are you thus to the foreigner pandered,

Did you not bravely rally round your Emerald standard

The chiefs of your house?"

D. F. MACCARTHY.

T was now [1271] nearly a century since the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. In history, according to Froude, it was a contrast to the age which preceded it. He says: "The century which followed the Conquest was comparatively humane and rational." There is only one little objection to this assertion. History, according to fact, all goes to prove that it is simply and utterly false. But having made this bold assertion he is afflicted by a faint misgiving. We cannot suppose that any sane man can deny that if the Irish chiefs quarrelled with each other and had bloody feuds, the Anglo-Normans excelled them.

And so the historian of fancy is obliged to find some way of accounting for this fact. A century of peace, and how peaceful it was we have already seen,and then the Norman nobles "deteriorated" in consequence of their intermarriages with the savage Irish whom they had civilized.

How the Irish came to be savage when their gentle conquerors had civilised them, remains one of these contradictory assertions which it would require a writer with the special qualifications of this historian to explain.

544

FROUDE'S APOLOGY FOR ENGLISH OUTRAGES IN IRELAND.

And this is how he apologises for the undeniable outrages of the "born rulers of men

'A conquering race can retain its peculiar characteristics, unaffected by the local influences and tendencies of the people by which it is surrounded, as long only as it preserves the most intimate relations with its kindred elsewhere. Unless strengthened by a continuous stream of importation, the pure blood of the conquerors decline. They recruit themselves by intermarriages with the natives. They form alliances and friendships; they find the work of government more easy by humouring the customs and imitating the manners which they see round them; and when human beings are thrown together, especially if there is no difference of religion to keep them apart, it is at once inevitable that kindly associations shall rise between, and the character of both will tend to assume a colouring in which the points of agreement will be more visible than the points of difference. Were the English in India cut off by any sudden convulsion from their native country, they would still probably, if they so wished, be able to maintain their sovereignity, but it would be at the expense of becoming themselves orientalised. Were there nothing else to produce a change, their children would inevitably catch a tone from their servants and nurses. Native wives and mistresses would work alterations in the blood; and, in spite of Christianity, six or seven generations would find them half transmuted into an Asiatic type. The Normans in England, though many of them retained their estates in France, and went and came, and French continued for centuries the language of the court, and for a time it seemed as if England might become a mere apanage of the Plantagenets' continental dominions, yet in each generation approached closer to the Saxons, till at length the distinction disappeared. Their Irish kindred, filtered many of them first through Wales, and in the process already partially Celticised, were exposed to trials infinitely more severe, Those to whom Ireland was distasteful refused to make their homes there, and forsook it not to return. Those who remained were left for the most part to themselves. The Irish Sea, thrice the breadth of the Straits of Dover, cut them off from their old connections. Surrounded by swarms of enemies, they had to stand by such strength as they could rally to them on the spot, and made the most of such of the Irish as they could persuade into loyalty.

"The metamorphosis of the feudal baron into the Celtic chief was not completed without efforts from the nobler part of the English settlers to arrest the downward progress. By the statute of Kilkenny in 1367 it was made treason for an Englishman of birth or blood to accept or govern by the laws of the Brehons. Intermarriage with the Irish, or fostering with the Irish, was made treason. Those who had chosen to adopt Irish manners, Irish names or language, were threatened with forfeiture. Private war between the great families had become as frequent and as scandalous as before the Conquest. Swords were forbidden to be drawn without orders from the Lord Deputy; and wardens for the peace were named for every county to see the law obeyed.