69

Reign of Edward II.

kingdom of England, and nominally over that of Ireland.

Edward II. succeeded his father, and the first act of his sovereignty with regard to Ireland was to make it a partaker of that fatal system which marked his whole life, and which led to his most deplorable end. Piers Gavaston, the favourite and minion of Edward, had rendered himself so odious to the English nobles, that they obtained. from the king the promise of his absolute and entire banishment, enforced by a conditional excommunication from the bishops in case he should infringe it. But Edward, instead of dismissing Gavaston to the continent, appointed him his vicegerent in Ireland, and accompanied him with a splendid retinue as far as Bristol. On his first arrival in Ireland he was extremely popular both with the English settlers and the native Irish; for besides his personal endowments, which were great, and besides his love of magnificence and splendour, which was equally great, he possessed a bold and adventurous spirit of enterprize, and by his activity and zeal he soon succeeded in quieting the tumults that prevailed. Having tranquillized Leinster and defeated O'Brien, he erected castles, and opened communications throughout the English territory. But he was too prosperous to be long without machinations against him. Richard, Earl of Ulster, no less affected by his successes than by his pomp and

Edward Bruce lands in Ireland.

69

splendour, endeavoured first to vie with him in the latter, and then to counteract the former by hostilities. Richard was at that time the most powerful chieftain in Ireland; but before their animosities could proceed to any open rupture Gavaston was recalled, and his rival was shortly after appointed plenipotentiary to conclude a treaty with Robert Bruce, the Scotch monarch, whose deputies attended upon the Earl of Ulster in Ireland.

The policy of concluding a treaty with the Scots upon terms much more advantageous than had ever been offered to the sister kingdom, and concluding it at the same time in Ireland, thus proclaiming to the people of that country the humiliation in which they stood with respect to the Scots, was fully verified by the result; for the hatred of the English still increasing, they invited the gallant Bruce, who had recently achieved the splendid victory at Bannockburn, to aid them in an attempt at regaining their liberties, and to avenge themselves on the common enemy. They even offered to receive a sovereign from Scotland; and Edward, the brother of Bruce, was named and accepted by the chieftains of Ulster, who were promised that he should soon be sent to their assistance with a formidable army. The intelligence was received with joy throughout the whole country, and in May, 1315, Edward Bruce landed about 6000 men in Ulster, to assert nis claim to his new kingdom. He no sooner raised his

70

Joined by the discontented Irish.

standard than hundreds of adherents daily flocked to it; the English settlers were massacred with every character of inhumanity, and their castles and dwelling-houses committed to the flames, In a very short time almost the whole of Ireland had declared in favour of the Scots. Sanguinary battles were fought; desolation and famine followed in their train; while Edward Bruce, the author of all this calamity, was crowned with great solemnity at Dundalk.

Meanwhile his brother Robert Bruce arrived in Ireland to assist him with a powerful army, but the dearth and famine that prevailed soon compelled him to return, leaving, however, a considerable part of his forces behind him, which were soon encreased by daily accessions of numbers from among the discontented Irish. In this deplorable state of public affairs, the English settlers, finding they had nothing to expect from their sovereign at home, resolved to assert their own rights, and to that end some of the principal English lords formed a vigorous and effective association among themselves. The king, though he either could not or would not give them more substantial aid, bestowed upon them the cheap one of his royal favour, and John Fitz-Thomas, Baron of Ophaly, was created Earl of Kildare, and Lord Edmund Butler received the title of Earl of Karrick.

When the English nobles found themselves strong enough for active operations they marched into Connaught, with the especial intention of sub

Bruce advances to the walls of Dublin. 71

duing Fedlim O'Connor, who had joined the Scotch invaders. His forces were collected near the town of Athunree, where both parties met, and where a bloody conflict ensued, which ter minated in favour of the English. This disaster, however, had little influence upon Bruce, who still continued his devastating career to the very walls of Dublin.

The situation of the English became daily worse and worse, and Edward II. at last had recourse to the spiritual power of the Pope in aid of his temporal dominions in Ireland; a refuge commonly resorted to in those ages when it was easier to shackle mens' minds than to enslave their bodies. Accordingly, in 1316, the court of Rome issued a solemn sentence of excommunication against all the enemies of the King of England, specially including those who were aiding and abetting the invasion of Ireland by the two Bruces, This interposition was anticipated, however, by the Irish, and they were prepared to meet it with a statement of their grievances, and of the various oppressions under which they groaned, as an extenuation, if not a complete justification, of their proceedings against the English. The following passages from their remonstrance may serve to exhibit some faint image of the evils which they endured: "And those kings were not Englishmen, nor of any other nation but our own, who with pious liberality bestowed ample endowments in land and many immunities on the Irish

72 The interference of the Pope obtained.

Church; though in modern times our churches are most wantonly plundered by the English, by whom they are almost entirely despoiled. And though these our kings so long and so strenuously defended against the kings and tyrants of different regions the inheritance given them by God, preserving their innate liberty at all times inviolate, yet Adrian IV. your predecessor, an Englishman, more even by affection and prejudice than by birth, blinded by that affection and the false suggestions of Henry II. King of England, under whom, and perhaps by whom, St. Thomas of Canterbury was murdered, gave the dominion of this our kingdom, by a certain form of words, to that same Henry II. whom he ought rather to have stript of his own on account of the above crime. Thus omitting all legal and juridical order, and alas! his national prejudices and predilections blindfolding the discernment of such a pontiff, without our being guilty of any crime, without any rational cause whatever, he gave us up to be mangled to pieces by the teeth of the most cruel and voracious of all monsters, &c."

When we remember the arrogance which was built upon papal infallibility, it may excite some surprize that this remonstrance sincere and affecting as it was, should have awakened any sympathy in the court of Rome. Its effect, however, was such that John XXII. who then held the papal sovereignty, transmitted a copy of it to the king, very wisely exhorting him to redress the grievances.