CHAP. half of the counties of Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Wexford, and Uriel called alfo Argial, comprehending XIII. Poynings. 1494. 1495. Louth; and even within these limits the common people had adopted the Irish habit and language; while the rest of the country was poffeffed by about fixty fepts of Irifh, and fome of degenerate English, dwelling independent of the royal dominion. To reform and fecure the Pale to the English crown, and thereby to lay a foundation for the recovery and extenfion of the English intereft in Ireland, Sir Edward Poynings, appointed lord deputy, came attended by a band of a thousand foldiers, and by a number of English gentlemen nominated to the offices of lord chancellor, lord treasurer, and judges in civil and criminal caufes.. Having undertaken a military expedition against a northern toparch named O'Hanlon, and difgufted by the evafive and haraffing modes of warfare practifed by the Irish, he feemed glad of an honourable excufe for returning to the fouth,, afforded by lord James, brother of Kildare, who had feized the caftle of Carlow in defiance of the king's authority. This fortrefs was furrendered on terms to the deputy, and Kildare, who had attended him in his march to the north, was on a variety of changes arrefted, and fome time after fent prifoner to England. But the legislative, not the military, exertions of Poynings have rendered his administration celebrated in Irish hiftory. a parliament convened at Drogheda, on the Monday after the feaft of Saint Andrew in the year fourteen hundred and ninety-five, feveral ftatutes were enacted of a permanent influence for the removal of abufes, In the the prevention of the encreafing degeneracy of the colonists, the fecurity of the royal prerogative, and the regulation of future parliaments. acts. XII. Among the many acts of this affembly I fhall Poynings briefly obferve that, to protect the fubjects from baronial and military oppreffion, the exaction of Coyne and livery was totally interdicted; in place thereof a tax was impofed, payable to the king for five years, of twenty-fix fhillings and eight pence on every fix score of acres of arable land belonging to any proprietors, lay or ecclefiaftical; and the barons were forbidden to retain other followers than their houfehold officers and menial fervants, except the marchers who were neceffarily allowed larger trains, but were obliged to certify the names and number of their attendants. The ftatutes of Kilkenny, which had been frequently revived, were with flight exceptions confirmed. The nomination of Sheriffs and other officers accountant was vefted in the lord-treafurer, who was alfo empowered to act as governor on a vacancy of the lorddeputy's administration by death or fudden surrendry. Several acts of preceding parliaments were annulled, particularly of that which had been held by Simnel. That places of ftrength fhould be committed to the charge of men only of English birth was a law of this affembly, and that the priory of Kilmainham fhould be held by no other than a man of that defcription. Two acts of Poynings' parliament are particularly noticed by English writers. By one of thefe the ftatutes enacted lately in England were extended in the fame force to Ireland; a law neither new nor extraordinary, XIII. CHAP. extraordinary, as the fame provifion had been before made in the feventh year of Edward the fourth. The other, which was called emphatically Poynings' law, and which made an effential change in the Irish confitution, provided that no parliament fhould thenceforth be held in Ireland but at fuch season as, that the caufes and confiderations on account of which it fhould be convened, and the laws which might be deemed proper to be enacted by it, fhould be previously certified to the king under the great feal of Ireland by the king's lieutenant and council. By this ac, extremely popular at first, because it gave the people a temporary relief from the exactions of rapacious governors, but unpopular in later times from a change of circumftances, no parliament could be held in Ireland without a formal certification of the governor and council of Ireland tranfmitted to the king and his council, and a formal remiffion of their approbation; and according to an explanation of it, made long after, in the reign of Mary, no bill, nor even heads of a bill, could be framed by the lords or commons of Ireland, but only by the Irish viceroy and privy council, who transmitted the bills to England to the king and privy council there, to be approved, altered, or rejected; while the Irish lords and commons had no further power, when a bill was remitted from England, altered or unaltered, than fimply to accept or to reject it. Attempt of Poynings, who had gained little honour by his military expedition into Ulfter, was in danger of being again fummoned to the field, for Warbeck, having ནོ having been obliged to leave the court of France on its pacification with that of England, landed in Munster, where he was joined by the earl of Def mond with his forces, and advancing to Waterford, fummoned that city to furrender. But the citizens, reinforced by the Butlers and other adherents of the Lancaftrian party, made fo vigorous a defence, that, finding his caufe defperate in this country, the unfortunate adventurer retired to Scotland. This repulfe was confidered as an effect of Poynings' adminiftration, who returned in triumph to his mafter, having broken for the present the power of the Geraldines, whofe chief, the earl of Kildare, remained in prifon as a criminal to abide his trial, CHAP XIII. VOL, I. CHAP. XIV. Revival of the colany. CHA P. XIV. Depreffion and revival of the colony-Trial of Kildare -His adminiftration-Feud of the Butlers-Battle of Knocktow Acceffion of Henry the eighthDeath of Kildare Administration of his fon Gerald-Intrigues of Ormond Government of Howard-Government of Ormond- -Embally of Mac-Gillapatrick-Second adminiftration of Earl Gerald-Distractions-Third administration of Ger rald-Rebellion of his fon Thomas-Repulfe of the rebels from Dublin-Arrival of fuccours-Hobblers, Kerns, and gallowglaffes-Conquest of MaynoothSurrendery and execution of lord Thomas-Efcape of lord Gerald Grey's adminiftration Battle of Bellahoe-Grey's execution-Submiffions-Their inefficacy-Extenfion of the Pale. CHAP. THE interference of the English of Ireland in the war of the Rofes, which brought the colony to its lowest ebb of weakness, was also perhaps the cause of a more early revival than might have otherwife been. its lot. Two invafions of England from the Pale, the one in favour of the duke of York's claim, the other in that of Simnel's, and the defperate, though fruitless, valour of the Irish troops, against numbers and arms far fuperior, excited a spirit of enquiry and speculation concerning Irish affairs; and the apprehenfion of another attempt from that quarter in favour of Warbeck drew the attention of Henry towards Ireland, which had been fo unwifely neglected by preceding monarchs. As from the Scottish invafion |