Page:Confiscation in Irish history.djvu/21

 questionable. Irregular marriages, illegal alienations had thrown doubt on the titles of many of the minor lords.

All over the island reigned confusion, which could only be put an end to by the intervention of the Government.

When Henry VIII. determined to do in Ireland what he had successfully done in Wales—namely, to unite settler and native in one commonwealth, the following was the state of landed property in the island. Two-thirds of the country was in the hands of the old Irish, who, in the eyes of the law, had no title to the lands they held. The other third was in the occupation of descendants of the settlers. West of the Shannon the De Burgos and all their following held their lands in defiance of the Crown. They had completely abandoned English law, and dealt with their lands after the Irish laws of tanistry and gavelkind. East of the Shannon the lesser proprietors of English descent as a whole held their lands by titles valid in Eng-