A Popular History of Ireland : from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics — CompleteMcGee, Thomas D'Arcy
History
A Popular History of Ireland : from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics — Complete
McGee, Thomas D'Arcy
Ireland -- History
We must mention here a final consequence of Edward Bruce's invasion
seldom referred to,—namely, the character of the treaty between
Scotland and England, concluded and signed at Edinburgh, on St.
Patrick's Day, 1328. By this treaty, after arranging an intermarriage
between the royal families, it was stipulated in the event of a
rebellion against Scotland, in Skye, Man, or the Islands, or against
England, in Ireland, that the several Kings would not abet or assist
each other's rebel subjects. Remembering this article, we know not what
to make of the entry in our own Annals, which states that Robert Bruce
landed at Carrickfergus in the same year, 1328, "and sent word to the
Justiciary and Council, that he came to make peace between Ireland and
Scotland, and that he would meet them at Green Castle; but that the
latter failing to meet him, he returned to Scotland." This, however, we
know: high hopes were entertained, and immense sacrifices were made,
for Edward Bruce, but were made in vain. His proverbial rashness in
battle, with his total disregard of the opinion of the country into
which he came, alienated from him those who were at first disposed to
receive him with enthusiasm. It may be an instructive lesson to such as
look to foreign leaders and foreign forces for the means of national
deliverance to read the terms in which the native Annalists record the
defeat and death of Edward Bruce: "No achievement had been performed in
Ireland, for a long time," say the Four Masters, "from which greater
benefit had accrued to the country than from this." "There was not a
better deed done in Ireland since the banishment of the Formorians,"
says the Annalist of Clonmacnoise! So detested may a foreign liberating
chief become, who outrages the feelings and usages of the people he
pretends, or really means to emancipate!
BOOK VI.
THE NATIVE, THE NATURALIZED, AND "THE ENGLISH INTEREST."
CHAPTER I.
CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND—ITS EFFECTS ON THE ANGLO-IRISH—THE KNIGHTS OF
SAINT JOHN—GENERAL DESIRE OF THE ANGLO-IRISH TO NATURALIZE THEMSELVES
AMONG THE NATIVE POPULATION—A POLICY OF NON-INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE
RACES RESOLVED ON IN ENGLAND.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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