IREL 
endeavoured to avail himfelf of circumftanCes to conclude 
an advantageous treaty. A conference was accordingly 
held between this warrior and the duke of Gloucester, 
each attended by his guard. An eye-witnefs describes 
the Irifh chieftain as tall of ftature, formed for agility and 
ftren'ofh, of an afpeft fierce and fevere, mounted on a 
fwift°and ft-eady horfe without faddle, and darting rapidly 
from a mountain between two woods, adjacent to the fea. 
At his command his train halted at due diftance, while 
their leader, catting from him the fpear which he held in 
his right hand, advanced to meet the Englifh lord. The 
interview terminated, however, without any accommoda¬ 
tion; and Richard continued his march to Dublin, where, 
after patfing fix weeks without intelligence from England, 
on account of tempeftuous and contrary winds, he received 
the difagreeable news of a general infurreftion of his lub- 
jefts for his depofition, and the elevation of the duke of 
Rancafter to the throne. 
I-Ienry IV. was too fully employed in the eftablifhment 
of his new authority, and his fon in foreign conquefts, to 
pay much attention to the affairs of Ireland. In the re¬ 
cords of this ifland, nothing worthy of notice occurs for 
a confiderable time, except the weaknefs of the councils, 
and the inadequacy of the meafures, adopted for its govern¬ 
ment. The Irifh, though declared to be enemies excluded 
from the benefit of Englifh laws, were,in 1410, forbidden to 
emigrate without fpecial licences under the great feal, left 
hands fliould be wanted for agriculture and other purpofes. 
This reftridfive ftatute appears but little confiftent with 
the circumffances of the colony at this period, about which 
commenced the regular payment of annual tributes to 
Irifh chieftains, to purcliafe their uncertain protedlion or 
abftinence from hoftility. Thefe were long continued 
under the denomination of black rent. Truly miferable 
■was the fituation of thofe colonifts who ftiil retained the 
Englifli name and laws ; regarded on one hand by the 
Irifh as intruding foreigners, and on the other by the 
Englifli as a degenerate race, and equally barbarous with 
the natives. This prejudice was confiderably ftrength- 
ened by the condudt of Irifh vagrants, who reforted in 
fuch numbers to England, in order to gain a wretched fub- 
fiftence by various modes of knavery, that,in the beginning 
of Henry the Fifth’s reign, a law was enacted for their 
expuWion from South Britain. The provifions of this law 
were abfurdly extended to all perfons of Irifh birth, with¬ 
out exception of anceftry or charafter. 
The fadfions which under Henry VI. began to diftraft 
England, foon extended their baneful influence to this 
ifland, where two heads of the family which fet itfelf up in 
oppofition to the reigning houfe, fuccefiively held the office 
of chief governor. With this office, together with ex- 
tenfive privileges, Richard duke of York was inverted on 
the fudden death of his father at Trim. Among the 
petty hoftilities of Irifh clans which occurred during his 
government, may be noticed an incurfion made into Kil¬ 
dare by O’Connor of Ophally. Being furpriled and de¬ 
feated by Edward Fitz-Euftace the lord-deputy, he was 
reduced in his flight to fuch an alternative, that either 
himfelf or his fon mull fall into the hands of the enemy. 
A generous conteft between the father and foil, each ex¬ 
horting the other to efcape, terminated in the taking of 
the father, whofe offence however was judged fo incon- 
fiderable, that he was fet at liberty. 
The moft formidable oppofition which this deputy en¬ 
countered was from O’Nial and ills confederates of Ulfter, 
who not only maintained hoftilities on land, but equipped 
a fleet of barks, which took fome Englifh veffels on their 
paflage from Dublin. Their forces, commanded by a fon 
of O’Nial, were however at length totally defeated by Fitz- 
Euftace at Ardglafs, after an obftinate conflift, in which 
their general was taken, and five or fix hundred of his 
followers were flain. By this lofs, the O’Nials, the ancient 
claimants of the Irifh monarchy, and confequently the moft 
inveterate enemies to the Englifh, were prevented for feme 
time from giving any ferious annoyance, to the colony. 
AND. 299 
When the dukeof York, after his firft unfuccefsful ap¬ 
peal to arms, to enforce his claim to the Englifli crown, 
was obliged to ftek an afyium in Ireland, he was there re¬ 
ceived with the utmoft cordiality, particularly by the earls 
of Defmond and Kildare, the latter of whom had acted as 
deputy during his abfence ; and, for the fecurity of him¬ 
felf and his followers, fuch aids were parted by the Irifh 
parliament, as almoft amounted to a declaration of inde¬ 
pendence of the Englifli authority. The duke, by his en¬ 
gaging deportment, had rendered himfelf fo great a fa¬ 
vourite with the Englifli in Ireland, that, on his return to 
try the iffue of another conteft, fuch was their eagernefs 
to follow his ftandard, that fome fettlements, efpecially 
thofe of Meath, were aimoft exhaufted of men. The par¬ 
ticulars of this conteft have already been given in their 
proper place. See the article England, vol. vi. p. 617, 
& feq. 
The Englifli of Ireland, by taking part in the civil war 
between the families of York and Lancafter, not only 
thinned the colony of its warriors, but diftrafted the mafs 
of its people. The caufe of the former was efpoufed by 
the houfes of Defmond and Kildare, and that of the latter 
by the houfe of Ormond. Oil the acceffion of Edward 
IV. to the throne in 1461, the earl of Ormond was exe¬ 
cuted, and bills of attainder parted by the Irifh parlia¬ 
ment againft his kinfmen and adherents. Thefe, under 
his brother and heir fir John Butler, affemblecl in Munfter 
to oppofe fir Rowland Fitz-Euftace, deputy to the duke 
of Clarence, the king’s brother, who had been appointed 
lord-lieutenant. Romantically accepting a challenge to 
a pitched battle from the young earl of Defmond who had 
joined the lord-deputy, they were defeated by fuperior 
numbers, and obliged to take refuge in remote caitles, 
leaving their lands in the poffeffion of their enemies. The 
conqueror, on account of his fervices, was appointed de¬ 
puty in 1463 ; but having, it is faid, incurred the dif- 
pleafure of the queen, was fuperfeded in 1467 by John 
Tiptoft earl of Worcefter. In a parliament held by this 
nobleman at Drogheda, an aft of attainder was parted 
againlt the earls of Defmond and Kildare, for a breach of 
the dormant ftatutes, againft fofterage and other connec¬ 
tions and intercourfe with the Irifh. Kildare was impri- 
foned ; and Defmond, who might have defended himfelf 
by arms, in the confcioufnefs either of his innocence or 
his importance, waited on the deputy to juftify his con- 
duff; but to the utter amazement of his dependents was 
inftantly beheaded. Kildare, having efcaped to England,, 
was not only pardoned, but fome time afterwards appointed 
lord-deputy in the place of Tiptoft. 
During Kildare’s adminiftration, the diftraftions of 
the Pale were renewed by the reviving fpirits of the But¬ 
lers. John, the head of that family, having, as we have 
feen, proved unfuccefsful in the field, efcaped to England, 
where by his polifhed manners and addrefs he fo ingrati¬ 
ated himfelf with the king, as to procure the appointment 
of a new deputy, and the repeal of the aft of attainder 
by the Irifh parliament. The houfe of Kildare after fome 
time regained its afcendancy, and Gerald, the young earl,, 
was nominated deputy ; but the king immediately after¬ 
wards fent out Henry lord Grey as governor. Gerald 
abfolutely rerufed to refign his authority, alleging that 
Grey’s commiffion was informal, and held parliaments in 
oppofition to thofe convened by the new deputy. Being 
fummoned to England fo account for his conduft, either 
his reprefentations were deemed fo fatisfaftory or his in¬ 
fluence fo powerful, that he was confirmed in the office, 
which he continued to hold during the remaining years 
of Edward IV. the fliort reign of his lucceffor, and a 
confiderable part of that of Henry VII. He defended the 
pale, and.afted as mediator in the contefts of Irifh chief- 
~ tains, among whom his influence was greatly augmented 
by the marriage of his filter to Con O’Nial of Tyr-Owen, 
the greateft of the Iiilh lords. 
Though Kildare was weak enough to become a parti- 
fan of the wretched importer Simnd, of whofe rebellion 
a a 
