Catalogue description THE KING'S TITLE to IRELAND.

"Of the King's title to the land of Ireland after the Chronicles. [This document probably belongs to an earlier date than that to which it is now assigned.]"

"Title 1st.--First, at the beginning of the Irishmen into the land they were dwelling in one side of Spain, called Boscoo, of the which Boscoo Boyan is the chief city, and Boscoo a member of it. And at the Irishmen's coming into Ireland, King Burgomyn, son to the noble King Bellyng, [Or Belkyng?] and King of Britayne, which now is called England, was Lord of Boyan, as our King now is; and therefore they should be his men, and Ireland his land.

"2nd Title.--The second title is this. At the same time that the Irishmen came out of Boscoo in sixty ----, [Blank in MS.] they met with King Burgomyne upon the sea at the Isle of Orcades, at his coming from Denmark with great victory. Then their captains Hyberus and Herimon went to this, and told him the cause of their coming, and prayed him with great instance that he would grant them that they might inhabit some land in the west. At the last the King, by advice of his council, granted them Ireland to inhabit, and assigned them guides for the sea thitherward. And therefore they should be our King's men.

"3rd Title.--The third title is as I have before declared, that Dermott, Prince of Leynester, in Normandy became a liege man to King Henry II., conqueror of Ireland, and married his eldest daughter Even at Waterford to Richard FitzGylbart, Earl of Strangwile, in Wales, and granted him the reversion of Leynester, with Even his daughter. After that, the Earl granted to King Henry Dublin, with two cantreds next to Dublin, and all the haven towns of Leynester, to have that other part in peace and the King's good lordship. And therefore MacMoroughe hath less right to have land in Leynester of all other Irish captains; and our Kings in special have good right to Leynester. It is to wit that a cantred in French and in Irish is a portion of ground that may contain an hundred villages. In England such a cantred is called an hundred or a wepentall. A wepentall is as much to say as a taking of weapon; for in old time in England, at the first coming of a new lord into an hundred, the tenants of the same hundred should deliver to their lord their weapons as for homage.

"4th Title.--The fourth title of right that our King hath to Ireland is that sithence in the year of our Lord God 1167, the foresaid King Henry landed at Waterford, and there came to him Dermott, King of Cork, and of his own proper will became liege tributary for him and for his kingdom; and upon this he made his sermont or oath, and gave his hostages to the King. Then the King rode to Casshell, and there came to him Donold, King of Limerick, and became his liege man, as did the King of Cork. Then came to him Donewald, King of Ossarie, and Mac Shaughlins, Kings of Ofaly, and all the princes of the south of Ireland, and became liege men as aforesaid. Then went King Henry to Dublin, and there came O'Caruell, King of Uryell, O'Royrke, King of Methe Moythe, (as to say of East Methe or West Methe,) and Rothoricke, King of all Irishry of the land and of Connaught, with all their princes and men of valew of the land, except the people of Ulster, and became liege men and subjects tributaries by great oaths for them and their kingdoms and lordships to the foresaid King Henry, and that by their own good will, as it seemeth well. For the Chronicles maketh no mention of chivalry nor war done by the King all the time that he was in Ireland.

"5th Title.--The fifth title is this. The Pope Adrian for as much as Ireland is an isle, and it and all other Christian isles appertaineth to the right of St. Peter and the church of Rome, he granted the lordship of Ireland to the foresaid King Henry to increase therein the Christian faith and holiness, and to set the people of the land in governance of good laws and virtues, vices to eschew. This gift and grant of the Pope Adrian, Pope Alexander his successor confirmed. This title of right openly appeareth by the same Pope's bulls, the copies of which been rife enough. Sithence came Vyvyen, a legate from the Pope, into Ireland, and assembled at Dublin all the clergy of the land at a council, at the which council this legate declared and confirmed to the clergy the King's right to be good to Ireland, and commanded and also denounced all the people of Ireland on the pain of cursing, that no man should depart foolishly from the legiance and the faith of the King of England.

"6th Title.--The sixth title is that there assembled at Ardmaugh the clergy of all the land at the time of the conquest upon the coming of Englishmen. By the same council it was decreed that through the sin of the people of Ireland, by sentence of God, the mischief of the conquest them befell.

"The 7th Title is for at the first coming and being of King Richard II., in Ireland at the city of Dublin and other places of the land, there came to him with their own good will O'Nele, captain of the Irishmen of Ulster, O'Brene of Tomond, O'Conoughore of Connoght, Arthur McMorgho, captain of the Irishmen of Leinster, and all other captains of Irishmen of Ireland, and became liege men to the said King Richard, and to him did liege homage. And for the more certain surety they bound them in great sums by divers instruments to pay to the Pope's chan[cellor?] truly to keep and hold the legiance in the form aforesaid. Therefore from the beginning to the end good is our King's right to the lordship of Ireland, and therefore hold they them still for shame that thereof the contrary will say.

Copy.

Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, ed. J. S. Brewer & W. Bullen (6 vols., 1867-73), vol. I, document 156.