493 



Thomas, the Eighth Earl ; while the very entry of the Mac Eannall 

 tribute itself, as we shall see, is dated several years after the restoration 

 of the family to its honours ; and the tribute of Patrick O'Hee of the 

 Toreboy, in the O'Birnes' Country, in consideration of which it is sti- 

 pulated that the Earl shall "defend him of all injuries and wrongs to his 

 power," is dated as late as 1564,* nearly thirty years after the death 

 of the Ninth Earl Gerald. f 



Secondly, it is equally plain that the " Duties" were by no means 

 voluntary gifts or offerings, but were rigorously exacted. In some of 

 the entries a clause of distress is expressly recorded. In all receivers 

 are named — some, judging by the names, of English race, but the larger 

 proportion Irish, and for the most part different for the different Irish 

 territories. In some cases payment is acknowledged and attested by 

 witnesses. In others, arrears are recited, and a composition in money 

 or in kind is substituted in discharge of these arrears. In one word, it is 

 hard to imagine a single indication of a perfectly strict and rigidly 

 adjusted system of enforcement of these arrears, which will be found 

 wanting in this simple, but thoroughly practical and business-like record 

 of the " Estate office" of a great Anglo-Irish proprietor of the sixteenth 

 century. 



Thirdly, I think it plain that the theory according to which the 

 "Duties upon Irishmen," as recorded in the Eental Book, consisted in a 

 system of interchanges of gifts as between an Irish chief and the mem- 

 bers of his sept, or of offensive and defensive alliances between the Earl 

 and the Irish chiefs, to be made mutually available against their common 

 or special enemies, is entirely unsupported by the terms of the Rental 

 Book in recording these "Duties." In saying this, I by no means question 

 the existence and even frequency of such alliances and such interchanges 

 of friendly offices between the Geraldines of both houses and the Irish 

 clans. To doubt this, would be to forget the well-known hereditary 

 character of their race. But I am no less clearly convinced that, while 

 such alliances undoubtedly existed, these "Duties upon Irishmen/' and 

 still more evidently the detailed Mac Eannall Covenant, represent an en- 

 tirely different class of engagements. There is not a single allusion, from 

 the first entry to the last, to any gift on the part of the Earl, of which 

 these tributes might be the counterpart ; nor is there a word in the record 

 of any of the payments which can be regarded as pointing to an alliance 

 offensive or defensive, or to any other treaty, as on equal terms, between 

 the parties. In all, the Earl is plainly the superior and the imponent ; 

 whatever we may be disposed to think as to the nature and extent of 

 his authority over the parties to the covenant. 



On the other hand, however, it will be argued that neither is there 

 anything in this Eental to support the construction which I put upon 

 the Mac Eannall Agreement — namely, that it was a covenant to pay 

 " black mail " to the Earl for protection against the aggression and exac- 

 tions of his own followers. And I freely confess that there is not a single 



* Page 134. 



f Page 122. 



