History Of Ireland

Irish Resurgence and the Emergence of the Geraldines,

ca. 1350–1534

Lands devastated by the Scots in 1315–18, when Edward Bruce’s forces, allied with Donal O’Neill (d. 1325), lord of the O’Neills, invaded the English colony, lay derelict for decades, and the effects, in combination with distress engendered by the north European famine that struck Ireland at the same time in 1315–17, lingered for many years after. The outstanding demographic tragedy of the 14th century, the Black Death,

which struck in 1348–49, stung as swiftly and sharply in Ireland as elsewhere—Dublin and Drogheda were reportedly depopulated within weeks—and panic swept the Anglo-Irish colony, where villages and towns were more numerous, the crowded conditions there proving more propitious in spreading bubonic plague than in rural Gaelic areas.

Residents fled, some even returning to England. And plague would return at recurring intervals, notably in 1384. Rory O’Connor (1368– 84), king of Connacht, became one among the most distinguished victims, his death initiating a debilitating feud between O’Connor factions. Plague and pestilence brought misery, and constant warfare added to the hardship, which could come at any time. Conflict never ceased, the

Irish battling not only each other but also the Anglo-Irish, leaving borderlands everywhere always insecure. The resurgence of Gaelic power and culture steadily proceeded, placing the English increasingly on the defensive.

By the mid 14th century conditions among the English in Ireland had reached crisis levels, and many in the colony feared their eventual extinction. They appealed to the Crown for help, and the government responded in two very different ways—through the dispatch of expeditions and the promulgation of laws. The Treaty of Bretigny (1360)

brought a lull in the fighting in the Hundred Years’ War, allowing greater resources to be devoted to Ireland. King Edward III dispatched his son, Lionel, prince and later duke of Clarence (1338–68), at the head of an expedition 1,500 strong, which arrived in September 1361. The prince spent five years in Ireland, and he joined his military

endeavors with legislative efforts. In his capacity as governor of Ireland, he summoned a parliament in 1366. The Statutes of Kilkenny, promulgated by the legislators on February 19, 1366, represented, at long last, the government’s recognition of the plight of the Anglo- Irish. The ordinances codified colonial legislation in forbidding the

English in Ireland to intermarry, wear Irish costume, speak the Irish language, use Irish brehon law in place of English common law, wage private wars or make private peace with Irish rebels, or sell weapons to the Irish in wartime or food and horses to them in peacetime. The statutes also recognized a formal division between Gaelic and Anglo-

Irish

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