384 Proceedings of the Boj/al Irish Academy. 



were of the Gheraidini, on which statement a certain merchant, Xicola 

 de Liica de Feo, introduced him to two of these nobles. What authority 

 Maurice had for making a statement so much to his own interest we do not 

 know ; he cited an unknown " Eed Eook of the City of Emerlic " (Limerick), 

 unnamed by others. At most, till some more convincing evidence is 

 produced, it must be put with such thirteenth- to sixteenth-century genealogies 

 as the Stuart descent from Banquo, the Berkeley dascent from the King of 

 Denmark, or the ilacXamara and MacMahon descents from the Mortimers 

 and FitzUi-ses. It was rife in the following eentuiy in the reign of 

 HeniyVIII.' 



G.i.sco>fY. — In 1223 the merchants of Gascony were not permitted to stay 

 in Dublin. The " Annals of InisfaUen " have an entry important as bearing 

 on the Gascon trade in Corcalaidhe, the Coreala of the portolans. In 1234 

 Amlaibh o hEidersceoil (O'DriscoU), named " Grascunagh," the Gascon, feU in 

 battle with the Normans at Tralee. His descendants, eaUed the Clann an 

 Gaseunaigh, stated he got his name from being given as a pledge for the value 

 of a cargo of wine brought by a Gascon ship to Corcalaidh. He returned 

 to Gascony and learned wine culture and other matters, being eventually 

 redeemed and elected chief of the O'Drixjcolls. The Cork Gascoynes are 

 reputed to be his descendants. In 1260 Morgan the Welshman and Isolde 

 his wife had a lawsuit against Garfye the Gascon for rent in Limerick city. 

 Domingun le Fraimceys, a Gascon wine merchant, is named as in Dublin and 

 trading with Galway in 1281. This may help to account for the unimportance 

 of Galway to the early map-makers if the city got its wine from Dublin, 

 Limerick, or Aran. Fortesius de Besondon and Peter Troyles, other Gascons, 

 transferred certain sums owing to them to William Eici and the Lucca 

 merchants, 1282. Menard Morond, Arnold de Ambiadores, Domaion le Gascon, 

 William Seleiys, Arnold de EomajTi, and Eehran appear in various Irish docu- 

 ments between 1278 and 1299. In 1293 the Irish seafaring men complained 

 about the Gascon merchants, who, as they alleged, manipulated and removed 

 cargoes from the wine-vessels at various ports. Again, in 1296, the rules laid 

 down for ships coming to Gascony with supplies from Ireland compelled 

 the masters to swear to keep the open sea, not approaching the coasts of 

 either Prance or Brittany. Dublin, Limerick, Waterford, Eoss, and Drogheda 

 exported corn to Gascony in 1296. Lastly, I may note that certain Dublin 

 Gascons sent white wine to Toughal in 1358.2 



J^See Journal Eoy. Soc. Antt. Ir., vol. xIt, consec. ( vol. iv, ser. 4, 1877), p. 246. 



= Gascons.— See, for O'DriscoU, " lliseellanv Celtic Soc." rrotea laidhel, d. 15. Generallv, 

 Cal. Doc. Ir., under dates. Pat. E. 21, Ed. I, m. 13, Pipe EoUs, notaWy sxiv, Ed. I (38 Eep., 

 pp. 32-34). Wheat and oats are sent to Plommothe and Bayon in Gascony. Lape Tynnache, who 

 diedm 1296, organized the impost. ' 



