fuch acts were paffed by the Irish parliament as almoft declared the colony independent of the Englih crown. Nor were these laws permitted to lie dormant whenever they were infringed. An agent of the earl of Ormond, who attempted, in virtue of the king's writ, to arrest fome perfons, declared rebels by the authority of the reigning party in England, was feized and executed, as a violator of a ftatute, by which thofe perfons were pronounced guilty of high treafon, who under pretence of fuch writs, or any other authority, should moleft ftrangers received under the laws of hospitality in Ireland, The CHAP. XII. York. Edward, earl of Marche, afterwards better Death of known by the title of king Edward the fourth, eldest 1460. fon of the duke of York, had followed his father into Ireland, whence he fhortly departed to join an army raised by the Yorkifts for a fresh attempt. fuccefs of this army at Northampton, where the Lancaftrians were defeated, induced the duke to return to England; and fuch eagerness was difplayed by the English of Ireland to follow his ftandard, that some settlements, particularly thofe of Meath, were almost exhausted of men. The battle of Wakefield in Yorkshire, fatal to the duke, who with only five thousand men, moftly from Ireland, was furrounded by twenty thoufand, and flain on the field of action, with most of his followers, might have proved fatal to the English colony in Ireland, if the Irish lords had availed themfelves fully of its defenceless condition; but when they had fe parately XII. CHAP. parately attacked the fettlements, they feparately agreed to articles of pacification on the regular payment of tribute. O Nial in Ulfter, O'Brien and Mac-Arthy in north and fouth Munster, and other chiefs, received their annual revenues from the colonists, and afforded their protection. CHAP. CHA P. XIII. Factions on the acceffion of Edward the fourth-Defcat XIII. Edward the THE English of Ireland, by taking part in the CHAP. war of the rofes, not only thinned the colony of its wariors, but alfo diftracted the mafs of its peo- fourth. ple by the Yorkist and Lancaftrian factions, to the Factions. former of which adhered the Geraldines, to the latter the Butlers or Houfe of Ormond. In the triumph of the Yorkifts, on the acceffion of Edward the fourth to the throne in 1461, the earl of Ormond was executed, and bills of attainder paffed against his kinsmen and adherents by the Irish parliament. Sir John Butler, brother and heir of the 1462 deceased earl, collected in Munster a body of troops to oppofe Sir Rowland Fitzeuftace, the deputy of George, duke of Clarence, the king's brother who had been appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland for VOL. I. P life. XIII. CHAP. life. To the deputy this war might have been difficult, perhaps difaftrous, if the young earl of Defmond had not armed in his favour with all his force. Even thus the Butlers were for fome time victorious. making a prifoner of Gerald, a brother of the earl, penetrating into Leinfter, and feizing the town of Wexford; but, romantically accepting the challenge of Defmond to a pitched battle, they were defeated by fuperior numbers, and obliged to take refuge in remote caftles, leaving their lands, with Kilkenny and other towns, in the hands of their enemies. Fall of Def mond. 1 Thomas, the victorious earl of Defmond, nominated lord deputy, on account of his fervices, in 1463, met a fad reverfe in Meath, into which he had marched against the fept of Melaghlin and its Irish confederates. His forces were totally routed and himfelf made prifoner, but liberated by young O'Connor of Ophally, through affection of goffi. pred, whofe father had before been taken and dif miffed. The English Pale feemed in danger of annihilation, when the Irish dynafts were foothed by new ceffions and tributes, particularly O'Brien of Thomond, to whom, with an acquifition of lands, was a tribute fecured of fixty marks annually by the citizens of Limerick. Tarnifhed in reputation and diminished in importance, the earl was affailed by the reprefentations of his enemies at the English court, but continued to hold his place in their defiance, till the tide of court-favour became adverse by the marriage of the king with Elizabeth Widvoolle. He is faid to have incurred the queen's refentment by offenfive XIII. offenfive words; but whatever was the caufe, he CHAP. was fuperfeded in his government by the appointment of John Tiptoft, earl of Worcester, in 1467, who seemed most unfavourably prepoffeffed against him. In a parliament held at Drogheda, an act of attainder was paffed against the earls of Desmond and Kildare, for a breach of ftatutes enacted against fofterage and other connexions and intercourfe with the Irish, statutes moftly dormant or fo very little obferved, as to be fit only for engines of oppreffion in the hands of a ruling party. Kildare was imprisoned; and Defmond, who might have defended himself by arms against the power of the deputy, waited on him in perfon to juftify his conduct; fo ftrong was his reliance on either his innocence or importance; but, to the utter amazement of his dependants, he was inftantly beheaded. Kildare, escaping by fome means into England, 1468. pleaded fo powerfully his caufe with the king, that he was not only pardoned, but fome time after appointed lord-deputy in place of Tiptoft, who, after his return to the English court, was, in a fhort-lived triumph of the Lancaftrian party, condemned by an 1470. act of attainder and beheaded. of the Pale. 1474 The low condition of the colony appears from the Weakness measures concerted for the Pale's defence in the administration of this baron. By an act of parliament was inftituted a fraternity of arms, confifting of thirteen principal perfons in the counties of Dublin, Meath, Kildare, and Argial or Louth, in which refided the mafs of English fubjects. These were empowered P 2 |