Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/855

* IRELAND. 739 IRELAND. year King Henry, with a formidable armament, visited Ireland, received homage from several minor native chiefs and from the principal Nor- man leaders, ami granted to the latter charters authorizing them, as his subjects, to take posses- sion of portions of the island, in virtue of the grant made to him by the Pope. The chief Anglo-Norman adventurers. Fitz Ciislebert, Do Cogan, De Lacy, Fitzgerald, Fitzstephen, Fitz- mauriee. and De Courcy. encountered formi<lable opposition before they succeeded in establishing themselves on the lands which they thus claimed. The government was intrusted to a viceroy, and the Norman legal system was introduced into such parts of the island as were reduced to obedience to England. The youthful Prince John was sent by King Henry into Ireland in 118.5; but the injudicious conduct of his council e.eited disturlianccs. and he was soon recalled to England. John made an expedition into Ire- land in 1210. to curb the refractory spirit of his liarons, who had become formidable through their alliance with the natives. During the thir- teenth century the principal Anglo-Norman ad- venturers succeeded in establishing themselves, with the feudal institutions of their nation, in some parts of Ireland, by the assistance or suppression of native clans. The Fitzgeralds. or Geraldines, acquired almost unbounded power in Kildare and East Munster. or Desmond; the Le Botillers, or Butlers, in Ormond, or West Jlun- ster; and the De Burghs, or Burkes, in Con- naught. After the battle of Bannockburn, in 1314, Edward Bruce invaded Ireland and attempted to overthrow the English power there. The Pope, at the instigation of England, e.xeommuni- cated Bruce with his Irish allies; but although his enterprise failed of success, the general result was a decline of the English dominion in Ire- land. The descendants of the most powerful set- tlers gradually became identified with the natives, whose language, habits, and laws they adopt- ed to so gieat an extent that the Anglo-Irish Parliament passed, in 136G, the 'Statute of Kil- kenny.' decreeing excommunication and hca penalties against all those who followed the cus- toms of, or allied themselves with, the native Irish. This statute, however, remained inopera- tive; and although Richard II., later in the four- teenth century, made expeditions into Ireland with large forces, he failed to effect any prac- tical result, and the power and influence of the natives increased so much at the time of the War of the Roses that the authority of the English Crown became limited to a few towns on the coast and the district termed the Pale (see Eng- 1.1S1I Pale), comprising a small circuit about Dublin and Drogheda. In the struggle between the hou.ses of York and Lancaster Ireland sup- ported the House of York. The participation of the Anglo-Norman nobility of the Pale in the War of the Roses greatly crip- pled the English interest. When he came to the throne, Henry VII. left Gerald, Earl of Kildare, Viceroy of Ireland, although the Earl belonged to the Y'orkist party. The assistance rendered by the Earl to the Yorkist pretenders fuially com- pelled the King, in 1404, to remove him and to sen<l over Edward PoTOings to restore order to the Pale. Poynings represented the purely English interest, as distinct from the Anglo-Niuinan inter- est, which up to that time had prevailed in Ireland. lie at once summoned the Parliament of Drogheda, which enacted most important legislation, providing for the defense of the Pale, reducing the power of the Anglo-Irish lords, and rendering the Parliament and judiciary of Ire- land dependent on the English Crown. The no- bility was forbidden to oppress the inferior baronage, to make exactions upon the tenantry, or to assemble their armed retainers; their in- lluence on the towns was diminished. The Stat- ute of Kilkenny, which compelled the English and Irish to live apart, and forbade Irish law and customs in the Pale, was confirmed. AH State oliices, including the judgeship.s, were filled b3- the King, instead of the viceroys, and the entire English law was to hold for the Pale. Most important of all was the so-called Poyn- ings Law, which made the Irish Parliament de- pendent upon the King. It provided that all proposed legislation should first be announced to the King and meet with his approval, after which the King should is.sue the license to hold Parliament. Henry VII. reestablished the Earl of Kildare, who was the most powerful of the Irish nobil- ity, as Viceroy, and under his rule the Pale grew and prospered. His family, the famous Geraldines, rebelled and were overthrown during the reign of Henry VIII. In 1.531 Henry Vlii. assembled a Parliament at Dublin which intro- duced the Reformation into Ireland. The King was declared head of the Church, which was separated from Rome, and the dissolution of the monasteries was begun. Somewhat later relics and images were destroyed and the dissolution was completed. The native chieftains were con- ciliated by a share of the spoils and received English titles, their lands being regranted under English tenure. It was Henry's policy thus to conciliate them and to leave the Irish under their own laws. An English commission held courts all over the island, but Irish right was respected and the countrj- remained peaceful. This result came about under the wise rule of Saint Leger, who was Viceroy during the latter part of the reign. In the Parliament of 1541, attended for the first time by native chieftains as well as the lords of the Pale, Henry's title of Lord of Ireland, which had been conferred by the Pope, was changed into that of King. The religious changes under Edward VI. and Mary had little etlect upon Ireland. Although Mary was herself a Catholic, she was the first to begin the colonization of Ireland by English settlers. The Irish people of Kings and Queens County were driven out and their lands given to English colonists. Elizabeth at first followed her father'.s policy of conciliating the Irish chieftains, but the rebellion of Shayne O'Neill, an Ulster chief, caused a radical change in her policy. An act was passed making all Ireland shireland, and the commissioners of justice were invested with military powers. So far from respecting Irish right, they ignored it altogether. The religious wars of Elizabeth were attended by rebellions of the Irish Catholics. The Earl of Desmond, a representative of the great House of Geraldine. which ruled over the greater part of Munster, was defeated after a long struggle. Hugh O'Neill, called by the English the Earl of Tyrone, annihilated an English army on the Blackwater. and baffled the Earl of Essex, whom Elizabeth had sent against him. A Spanish force