Richard Bagwell - Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 1 (of 3)

In narrating the events of Henry II.’s reign, I have generally followed Giraldus Cambrensis, checking him by references to Hoveden and Regan. The Expugnatio may be considered a fanciful book in some ways. But if we eliminate everything supernatural, and make some allowance for the writer’s prejudices, I see no reason to question his good faith. Of the native Irish he knew little, but the invaders were his neighbours, friends, and relations. Fitz-Stephen and the other descendants of Nesta may be unduly praised, Fitz-Adelm perhaps unduly blamed; but, after all, this is no more than may be said against most historians of their own times. Giraldus was undoubtedly an observer of first-rate power.

The quotations are from Gilbert’s Historic and Municipal Documents of Ireland , pp. xxviii. and xxx.

Hardiman’s History of Galway contains as much as most readers will care to know about that town. The following distich makes it possible to remember the tribes: —

Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Browne, Deane, Darcy, Lynch, Joyce, Kirwan, Martin, Morris, Skerrett, French.

To which Ffont or Faunt must be added

The quarrels of Waterford with the O’Driscolls are given in the Calendar of Carew MSS. , Miscellaneous vol. p. 470. Smith refers to a MS. in Trinity College.

Besides those in the Statute Book many Irish Acts of Edward IV.’s reign may be studied in Hardiman’s Statute of Kilkenny .

Stubbs’s Const. Hist. , chap. xv.; Lynch’s Feudal Dignities , chaps. iii. and xi.

Sweetman’s Calendar of Documents , 1289; Lynch, supra .

The record is printed from the Black Book of Christ Church, in the Miscellany of the Irish Archæological Society.

Lynch, ut supra .

Lynch, ut supra ; Lodge’s Register ; Hardiman’s Statute of Kilkenny .

The names of those summoned to the Parliament of 1311 are printed by Lynch, chap. ii.; the names of those who attended in 1560 are in Tracts Relating to Ireland , vol. ii., Appendix II.

Cotton’s Fasti ; Alemand’s Histoire Monastique ; Lynch, chaps. iii. and vii.

Irish Statutes , 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.

See the list of chief governors in Harris’s Ware; Borlase’s Reduction of Ireland ; Lodge’s Patentee Officers ; and Gilbert’s Viceroys .