494 



entry in the Rental Book which avows in express and formal terms 

 this consideration. But I think it equally clear that this and no other 

 was the consideration of the Mac Rannall agreement. 



I shall briefly recall the purport of that agreement as contained in 

 my former Paper on the subject. 



The Mac Rannalls, represented by four members of the sept, agree, 

 for themselves and the heads of clan Melaghlin Mac Rannall, to pay 

 yearly, at All Hallo wstide, to the Earl of Kildare, a shilling per quarter 

 for the land in which Mac Rannall and O'Ruark have a portion; and the 

 Earl on his part engages, " in consideration [po cinn] thereof to de- 

 fend and assist them" — not, be it observed, against any common enemy, 

 nor even against any enemy in general or in particular, but — [aip 50c a 

 6n t>a m-bmit> pa cumactmib an lapld] "against every one who is 

 under the power of the Earl" — that is, against the Earl's own followers, 

 dependants, and friends. 



I do not see how this can possibly be understood otherwise than as 

 a guarantee against molestation or arbitrary exactions upon the part of 

 the EarVs own people. And especially when I contrast this form of 

 words with other Irish deeds, which merely contain a guarantee of 

 protection in the enjoyments of rights, or the enforcement of lawful rents 

 (a specimen of which, as between O'Brien, the Earl of Thomond, and 

 Conmara Mac Sioda Mac Owen, in which the Earl promises to befriend 

 Conmara and to protect and defend him in his rights [a camboc agup 

 a copnom na coip ] will be found in Hardiman's Irish Deeds, p. 32), 

 I cannot imagine a more explicit form of words in which, on the one 

 hand, to impose, and on the other to accept, the obligation of a money 

 tribute, as the price of immunity from such molestation on the part of 

 the Earl or his followers. Nor could the Celtic chief O'Neill — when, as 

 we learn from a letter of Lord James Butler,* written about the same 

 period, he was " calling for his black rente on Myth and Uriell" — or 

 " MacMurrough in Kilkenny and Wexford," for the "new 0' Carroll in 

 Tipperary," have possibly devised an instrument more fitted to embody 

 their demand, or a title whereupon to found a more unanswerable claim. 



I have already said, nevertheless, that the Rental Book actually 

 contains a record of the payment of the very Mac Rannall tribute cove- 

 nanted for in this instrument, and that at a date long subsequent to the 

 death of the ninth Earl. I shall read this entry, which has a most im- 

 portant bearing on the present question : 



" Moynterolya M c agranaylls Countre. 



" Itm on evye cartron whereof O'Roryke and Magranayll raceways 

 (receives) Rent, xijd. yerlye. 



" Cono r M'Key captene of M'Keys contri w th in Moyntyr Olys hathe 

 gywyn (given) Gerod Erlle of Kyldare % his Eyrsse (heirs) for e9 

 yn evy cartron yerly w th in the aforesayd M'Keyys land xijd. wyche is 

 xxxij cartrons, % the same payable at Mychalmas. Wryttyn the xv of 



* State Papers of Henry VIII., vol. ill., p. 34. 



