History of Ireland. Preparatory Material. Engels 1870

Chronology of Ireland

First Published: in German in Marx-Engels Archives Vol. X, Russ. ed., Moscow, 1948;
Source: Marx and Engels on Ireland;
Transcribed: by Andy Blunden.

Chronology of Ireland was compiled by Engels mainly according to the book by Thomas Moore, outstanding Irish poet and historian, The History of Ireland, vols. I-IV, Paris, 1835-46. Engels admired this book for wealth of facts, literary merits and the author’s deep sympathy with the oppressed people. Apart from the “Chronology,” Engels used also other passages from the book. Scientifically Moore’s The History of Ireland did not excel other works on Irish history written in the first half of the 19th century, and reflected many of the shortcomings of Irish romantic historiography of that period. This largely explains Engels’s wish to make the information he drew from it fuller and more precise by turning to other sources, references to which crop up frequently in the “Chronology of Ireland.” Engels, however, did not have the opportunity at that time to make all the necessary corrections to Moore’s dating of events. Yet, the general line of Ireland’s historical development in his work, and his appraisals of events and people are extremely valuable and have been corroborated by later historical research. “Chronology of Ireland” ends, as does Moore’s book, with 1646, the climax of the 1641-52 Irish uprising. Engels traced the subsequent course of this uprising in his excerpts from other books.

Notes for Chronology

224. The Anglo-Saxon King AtheIstan defeated the Danes of Northumberland, and the Normans and Irish who came to their assistance, in the battle of Brurianburh (Central England) in 937.

225. In the “Chronology of Ireland” Engels refers to this important landmark in Ireland’s history only in general outline; a detailed description of the beginning of the conquest of Ireland by the English is given in his other excerpts and notes. The Anglo-Norman barons from South Wales were the organisers of the first aggressive campaigns. The most influential among them, Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke (nicknamed Strongbow), consented to return the crown to Dermot, the King of Leinster, who had been banished from Ireland, on condition that the latter would give him his daughter in marriage and appoint him his successor. In May 1169, troops under the Anglo-Norman barons Fitzstephen and Prendergast landed on the south-eastern coast of Ireland. The next spring, troops under Maurice Fitzgerald and Raymond Le Gros invaded Ireland, and in August of the same year Pembroke himself captured Dublin. More and more feudal adventurers landed in Ireland in later years in search of booty. In October 1171, King Henry II invaded Ireland at the head of an army. Henry not only wanted to subjugate Ireland, but also to make the Anglo-Norman barons amenable to his wishes and foil their intention of creating a kingdom of their own. Henry forced the barons and the Irish chiefs to recognise him as the “supreme ruler” of Ireland, and placed his garrisons in the strong points of Wexford, Waterford and Dublin. He left Ireland in April 1172, leaving a Governor behind (Hugh de Lacy was the first).

In the fierce battles against the Anglo-Norman invaders, the Irish clans suffered defeat because of the lack of unity among their leaders and the enemy’s superiority in arms and tactics. The establishment of the Anglo-Norman colony in Ireland marked the beginning of the age-long struggle between conquerors and local population.

226. Magna Carta Libertatum (the Great Charter of Liberties) — a deed the insurgent barons of England, supported by the knights and townspeople, forced King John Lackland to sign on June 15, 1215. Magna Carta introduced certain limitations to the royal prerogative primarily in the interests of the big feudal lords, and made the latter’s privileges secure. Some concessions were also granted to the knights and townspeople.

227. Geraldines — Anglo-Irish aristocratic family descending from the first conquerors of Ireland, the Anglo-Norman nobles from South Wales. In Ireland the Geraldines became related with the clan chiefs, thereby acquiring considerable connections and influence. At the same time they participated in the wars of conquest against the indigenous Irish. From the beginning of the 14th century, two branches of the Geraldine family — the Earls of Desmond and the Earls of Kildare — played a particularly prominent role. Both were descendants of Maurice Fitzgerald, the leader of one of the first armies of the Anglo-Norman barons to invade Ireland in 1169-71.

228. Engels is referring to his excerpts from Thomas Moore’s The History of Ireland. Regarding the 1295 Acts of Parliament, they say the following: In 1295 Irish Parliament. Acts:

“1) ... a new division of the kingdom into counties ...
"2) ... all such marchers as neglected to maintain their necessary wards should forfeit their lands....
"3) ... all absentees should assign [thus, already so early!], out of their Irish revenues, a competent portion for that purpose [for the maintenance of a military force.]
"4) ... no lord should wage war but by licence of the chief governor, or by special mandate of the king. ...
"5) ... an effort was made at this time to limit the number of their retainers, by forbidding every person, of whatever degree, to harbour more of such followers than he could himself maintain; and for all exactions and violences committed by these idle men ... their lords were to be made answerable.”

Engels’s remark (in italics) notes a feature typical of later times: the English owners of Irish estates did not reside in Ireland.

229. In 1286, following the death of the Scottish King Alexander III, King Edward I of England laid claim to the Scottish crown and succeeded in annexing Scotland. In 1297, an uprising flared up against English rule, and in 1306 it developed into a full-scale war of independence. The revolt was headed by Robert Bruce, a remarkable soldier. In 1314, the army of Edward II was defeated and Scotland once again became an independent kingdom.

230. On July 24, 1314, the Scots led by Robert Bruce defeated the far bigger English army at Bannockburn, thereby liberating Scotland from English rule.

231. In 1367, the Parliament of the English colony in Kilkenny adopted the famous Statute of Kilkenny — a code of prohibitions designed to protect the colonists from the spread among them of Irish customs and habits. The adoption of the Statute was prompted by the desire of the English authorities to intensify their policy of conquest in Ireland and to legalise the inequality of the Irish population in the vanquished part of the island, as well as to counteract the separatist tendencies of the Anglo-Irish nobility, whose strength lay in their ties with the Irish clan chiefs. The racialist, colonialist Statute demanded that the Irish be treated as enemies and their laws (the laws of the Brehons, the keepers and commentators of ancient Irish law) as the customs of an inferior race. In the excerpts from Thomas Moore’s The History of Ireland Engels interprets the content of this Statute as follows (Engels’s own remarks are italicised): “The Statute of Kilkenny, 1367, directed against Irelandisation. Intermarriages with the natives, or any connection with them in the way of fostering or gossipred (see E. >Spencer, [A View of the State of Ireland)) should be considered and punished as high treason: — that any man of English race, assuming an Irish name, or using the Irish language, apparel, or customs, should forfeit all his lands and tenements: — that to adopt or submit to the Brehon law was treason ... that the English should not permit the Irish to pasture or graze upon their lands, nor admit them to any ecclesiastical benefices or religious houses... (Where were the Irish of the Pale to pasture their stock? At that time it was their main occupation!).”

232. Bonaght — a duty which the supreme and local kings, and also major clan chiefs in Ireland, levied on the smaller vassal chiefs for the maintenance of the troops. After the English conquest it was often paid to the English crown and its representatives in Ireland.

233. Coynye, livery-taxes in kind the rank-and-file members of Irish clans paid to their chiefs in the form of food and equipment for the troops.

234. A reference to the participation of Irish troops in the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, which lasted, with interruptions, from 1337 to 1453. At the end of the 14th century only a few strongholds in France remained in English hands, but in 1415 King Henry V launched a new invasion, beating the French knights at Agincourt and capturing the entire north-western part of the country. In the course of a stubborn struggle, attended by a great upsurge of patriotic feeling (,loan of Arc), the French halted the advance of the English and gradually drove them from their land.

235. At Wakefield, the army of Richard, Duke of York, claimant to the English crown, was beaten on December 27, 1460, by the supporters of the ruling house of Lancaster. The battle was one of the episodes in the Wars of the Roses (1455-85), caused by the struggle for the English throne between the houses of York and Lancaster. The war was so called after the white and red roses, that were the emblems of the Yorkist and Lancastrian parties respectively. The war was attended by the destruction of the feudal nobility and ended in the accession of the new, Tudor dynasty.

236. Degenerate English — the name given to members of the Anglo-Irish families, who had long since settled in Ireland, become related to the clan elite, and assimilated many Irish customs.

237. In the 15th century the power of the English colony in Ireland was at a low ebb. The English feudal lords were exhausted by the Hundred Years’ War, and later owing to their feuds in the Wars of the Roses, the settlers in Ireland had great difficulty in withstanding the onslaught of the Irish clan chiefs. In order to get the latter to refrain from raids into the Pale they paid them an annual tribute, which became known as the “Black Rent.”

238. The Reformation begun in England under King Henry VIII (Act o f Supremacy, which declared the King the head of the Church in place of the Pope, and other Acts) was completed under Elizabeth I (the adoption, in 1571, of the “39 articles” of the Anglican Church — a variety of Protestantism). The introduction of the Reformation to Catholic Ireland was a means of subjecting her to the English absolute monarchy and expropriating her population in favour of the English colonists on the pretext of struggle against Catholicism.

239. A reference to County Laoighis (Leix) in Central Ireland, which, in 1557, following the confiscation by the Tudors of the lands of local tribal communities (the clans), was renamed Queen’s County in honour of Mary Tudor, the English Queen. The neighbouring Offaley County, the population of which had also fallen victim to the expropriation policy of the English colonial authorities, was renamed King’s County in honour of Mary’s husband, Philip II of Spain.

240. In view of the advance of the Reformation in England and the anti-Catholic policy of the government of Elizabeth I, Pope Pius V issued a special bull in February 1570, excommunicating Elizabeth and releasing her subjects from their oath of allegiance. Other acts of the Papal Curia against Elizabeth followed, and in 1576 she was deprived of her right to the Irish crown.

241. A reference to the restitution by James I of the Act of Uniformity passed in 1559 during the reign of Elizabeth I. The Act confirmed the principles of the Anglican Reformation and decreed that worship was to be conducted according to a Book of Common Prayer sanctioned by the sovereign, as the head of the Church of England.

242. Tanistry — a system regulating the inheritance of chieftainship of the Celtic clans and septs (tribes) in Ireland. Like many other Irish customs, it was a relic of the tribal system. According to this custom, the successor of the clan chief, the tanist, was appointed during the lifetime of the chief from a definite family in the clan, whose members were considered the “eldest and worthiest.”

Gavelkind — a term borrowed from the common law of the inhabitants of Kent and applied by English jurists to the Irish rules regulating the passing of the lands of a deceased member of the clan or sept into other hands. Ever since the time when tribal relations prevailed, land was regarded by the indigenous Irish not as private property but as a temporary tenure. Thus, after the death of its owner it did not pass to his descendants but was distributed among all free male kinsmen, including his sons out of wedlock. Although the lands of the chiefs and members of the clan elite were by that time no longer parcelled out after their death, they were not regarded as their private property and were not inherited by the family but passed to new ownership in accordance with the described tanistry principle.

243. Engels is referring to his excerpts from the book: G. Smith, Irish History and Irish Character, Oxford, London, 1861. The excerpts have never yet been published.

244. The third volume of this publication, comprising the conclusion of the collection Senchus Mor (The Great Book of Old), appeared in 1873, after Engels had written the passage in this book. Senchus Mor is one of the most detailed written records of the laws of the Brehons, the guardians of and commentators on laws and customs in Celtic Ireland.

245. The name given at that time to landowners among the colonists, and also to land speculators.

246. A reference to Engels’s work, published in 1948 in Russian in the Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. X, under the heading “Excerpts on the History of Ireland in the 17th and 18th Centuries.” These excerpts are based on material contained in the book: Matthew O'Conor, The History of the Irish Catholics from the Settlement in 1691 with a View of the State of Ireland from the Invasion by Henry II to the Revolution, Dublin, 1813. Engels supplemented this material with facts from many other works.

In particular, the reference is to the following passage (Engels’s own remark is italicised): After the confiscation carried out in Ulster, the estates of the native Irish, in other parts of the kingdom, were invaded on the score of defective titles. “The confusion of the civil wars, and the uncertainty and fluctuation of Brehon tenures rendered them an easy prey to the rapacity of the administration; 66,000 acres between Dublin and Waterford, the properties of the Cavanaghs, Nolans, Byrnes, and O’tooles were by inquisitions of office found to be the King’s, and although a considerable portion of these escheated lands was regranted to the natives, yet the establishment of an English Protestant colony on 16,500 acres gave new vigour to old animosities, and inflamed the old proprietors with implacable hatred to the spoilers” (p. 22). This happened apparently in 1612 or 1613.

In 1614, “A commission issued to inquire into titles in the King’s and Queen’s counties, in Westmeath, Longford, and Leitrim, the counties of the O'Mulley’s, O'Carroll’s, M'Coughlan’s, O'Doyne’s M'Geoghegan’s, and O'Mallachlin’s, 385,000 acres were in those districts found in the King, and planted as Ulster had been” (p. 24)

247. Freehold — a category of small landownership which had come down from medieval England. The freeholder paid the lord a comparatively small rent in cash and was allowed to dispose of his land as he saw fit.

248. Engels is referring to the following place in his notes from O'Conor’s book (the latter having borrowed the facts from Th. Carte, A History of the Life of James, Duke of Ormonde, vols. I-III, London, 1736):

“The incident with Phelim Bearn and his sons Brian and Turloug is illustrative. They owned the place of Ranelagh in County Wicklow according to a grant by Elizabeth (after the death of old Feag Bearn it had been regranted to Phelim) and James had issued orders on two occasions, one after another, that their rights should be accordingly respected. Nevertheless, Sir Richard Graham used counterfeited documents and invoked his connections in Dublin to seize part of the land belonging to Phelim, while Sir James Fitzpearce Fitzgerald tried to seize Brian’s share for himself in like manner but did not succeed. At long last the case was submitted to a commission in England where Sir William Parsons, who had formerly in his capacity of judge in Dublin said that the contested land belonged to Phelim and not to any dummy freeholders of Graham, now asserted that the opposite was true. Since things still did not go smoothly enough, Graham and Parsons (who had by that time also become interested) declared that the land belonged to the crown. This put the matter in a new light. Lord Esmond gave evidence in their favour. A commission headed by Sir William Parsons was immediately appointed to investigate the matter. Although the King had ordered that the case should be heard in the last instance also by the English Council, Sir William Parsons succeeded in gaining possession of Phelim’s land. He did not succeed, however, in seizing Brian’s land. After all attempts had failed, Parsons, Esmond and others succeeded in having the two brothers, Brian and Turloug, gaoled in Dublin Prison on grounds of false evidence given by criminals and other persons who were forced to perjury by torture. The main accusation was that they had concealed several runaway Irish rebels. From 1625 to 1628 there were unceasing attempts to have them convicted by resorting to false evidence and by reshuffling, lie composition of the jury, until, finally, Sir Franc s Ennesli later Lord of Mountnorris, and others came to their defence and a commission was appointed to investigate the charge. In December 1628, the commission found them not guilty and liberated them. However, the larger part of their possessions, notably Carrick Manor in Ranelagh, had by that time, by a grant of August 4, been handed over to Sir William Parsons, and they did not get it back!

“All the above has been taken from Th. Carte (Life of Duke of Ormonde, Vol. I).”

249. People who refused to conform to the established religion. In Ireland the name was applied to Roman Catholics, who were opposed to the Anglican Church.

250. In 1639, the war between England and Scotland ensued from an uprising of the Scots following the attempts by Charles I and his counsellors to extend absolutist ways to Scotland and introduce the Anglican prayer book to which the Scottish Calvinists, or Presbyterians, objected. After a series of Scottish victories Charles was obliged to conclude a peace treaty in the autumn of 1639 in Berwick. Meanwhile, however, he made secret preparations for revenge. In desperate need of money for his military schemes, Charles called a Parliament (the Short Parliament) in the spring of 1640, dissolving it almost immediately, upon its refusal to grant war subsidies. Thereupon he called a new Parliament — known as the Long Parliament. The King’s conflict with that body eventually led to civil war — the English bourgeois revolution. Early in 1641, the Long Parliament declared the need for the establishment of lasting peace and closer union with Scotland.

251. A reference to the following passage Engels took from Matthew O'Conor’s book: “1641. February. The deputies submitted to the King a remonstrance of grievances. There were complaints about fines, imprisonments and punishments in various shapes of torment and dishonour, for not joining in the established worship; the execution of martial law in the midst of profound peace; proclamations and acts of state made paramount to acts of the legislature; infringements of proclamations punished by imprisonment, by mutilation of members, and by confiscations, the constitution of Parliament subverted by the disfranchisement of cities and boroughs at the will of the court, the subversion of titles, and insecurity of all property by state inquisitions, by persecution of juries’, etc.”

252. Engels is referring to the following passage in his notes from Matthew O'Conor’s book , which repudiates the slanderous inventions about “cruelty,” “treachery,” “conspiratorial tricks,” etc., of the Irish rebels and their Ulster leader — Phelim O'Neill (Engels’s own remarks are italicised):

“As regards the beating up of Protestants by Catholics, O'Conor maintains that the populous towns in the north remained in the hands of the English and thus served as refuges for the Protestant population of rural areas; many (Protestants) got safe to Derry, Enniskillen, Coleraine, and Carrickfergus, besides several thousands got safe to Dublin, 6,000 women and children were saved in Fermanagh, the Scots in Ulster did not come to harm, the capitulation of Bellyaghie was faithfully observed by the Catholics and generally at the commencement of the uprising no murders were committed (p. 33).

“Sir Phelim O'Neill was no coward; this can be seen from his constancy and fortitude in his last moments, his rejection of life and pardon, proffered to him on the terms of heaping dishonour and infamy on the grave of the late King’. (Carte, Ormonde, Vol. I,)

“The fact that at first (in October-December 1641) only the Irish who had been deprived of their possessions by James and ousted by the English settlers participated in the rebellion shows how badly it had been prepared.”

253. A reference to the following passage in Engels’s notes from Matthew O'Conor’s book: “To all intents and purposes the government drove the English of the Pale and the Anglo-Irish lords of Munster into the rebel army to have reasons for new confiscations. The Catholics of the Pale kept their faith to the King particularly zealously and with all their power resisted participation in the uprising but had to [join it]. The situation became particularly clear to them when the Irish Parliament which was to convene on November 9 and to confirm the ‘graces’ was suddenly, and contrary to the King’s orders, postponed by the Lords Justices a few days before the date set for its convocation (p. 39). The session of Parliament was to have lasted only one day and it had been decided to submit to the King a remonstrance proposing that he should allow (the Irish Parliament) to suppress the uprising by its own forces. Lord Dillon, a Protestant who was sent to England, was arrested there by the (Long) Parliament and the remonstrance was destroyed. The impudence of the Lords justices could be explained by the fact that the English Commons had voted £20,000, 4,000 foot, 2,000 horse for fully squashing the resistance in Ireland and the reinforcements were expected (Resolution of November 3, 1641).”

254. The roundheads — the name given to the supporters of Parliament during the English bourgeois revolution in the 17th century because of their puritan custom of cutting their hair close, while the cavaliers — supporters of the King — wore their hair long.

255. Name of the agreement signed on September 25, 1643, between the Long Parliament and the Scottish Presbyterians; it reaffirmed the rights of the Scottish Calvinist Church and the freedoms and privileges of the Parliaments of both kingdoms; the terms of the agreement extended also to Scottish settlers in Ireland.

256. Owen Roe O'Neill’s success at Benburb, which temporarily tipped the scale in the Irish Confederation in favour of radical elements who wanted to break not only with the Long Parliament but also with the King’s party, was a major victory of the Irish rebels. However, as a result of the incessant quarrels and the clashes of interests in the Confederate camp, the moderate Anglo-Irish aristocrats soon gained the upper hand and signed a new agreement with

Ormond, the commander of the Royalist forces. This enabled Cromwell and his followers (who had by now defeated the Royalist forces in England, proclaimed a republic and beheaded Charles I) to organise a punitive expedition to Ireland on the pretext of destroying a Royalist stronghold. The true aim of the expedition was the colonial subjugation of the country. On August 15, 1649, Cromwell’s army landed in Ireland and commenced the brutal suppression of the Irish rebellion, which was continued by Cromwell’s successors the Republican Generals Ireton and, later, Fleetwood. The last centres of resistance by the Irish, who had taken to guerilla warfare, were subdued in 1852.

History of Ireland