The Two Nations of Medieval Ireland

Page 3 of 6

• 1. English and Irish
• 2. Kingship of Ireland
• 3. The Remonstrance
• 4. Exclusion of justice
• 5. Conclusion
• 6. Find out more
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The Remonstrance

Edward I's ambitions also lie behind the so-called 'Remonstrance of the Irish Princes' to Pope John XXII in 1317. This was drawn up during the occupation of eastern Ulster by Edward Bruce, the brother of King Robert I. It was partly a response to the English crown's use of armies, money and supplies from Ireland in its wars against Scotland. Edward Bruce had assumed the title 'King of Ireland' with the support of Domnall Ó Néill and other northern chiefs. The aim of the document, which may have been composed by Gaelic clergy at Armagh, was to justify the actions of Bruce's Irish backers and to persuade the Pope to transfer Ireland from Edward II to Edward Bruce.

Like the Caithréim, it shows the gap between aspirations and political realities. It purported to come from the Irish in general, under the leadership of Ó Néill. Harnessing the kingship tradition, it presented Domnall as rightful heir to an age-old Irish monarchy, which he was prepared to hand over to Bruce. In fact Irish support for the Scots was mostly limited to the north, and contemporary annals continued to stress the claims of other dynasties to national leadership. However, the Remonstrance has a fresh dimension. Much of the text is devoted to illustrating in detail the wickedness of the rule of the English king, his ministers and, above all, 'the English barons born in Ireland'. It protests about the usurpation of church lands, the dispossession of the Irish, the sweeping aside of Irish law, and the closure of the royal courts to those of Irish blood. Irish identity had acquired a new layer, created out of a sense of foreign oppression and drawing upon specific contemporary resentments.

'The image of a Gaelic people, whose destiny it was to live under a king of Ireland, endured.'

The colonial society, which the Remonstrance painted in such black colours, also had its tensions and paradoxes. The settlers paraded their English identity despite the spread of the Gaelic language and other signs of acculturation, especially among those outside the heavily settled areas. Nor did they always share the priorities of the metropolis, or feel at ease with officials sent from England. Yet, there is no doubt that their Englishness was central to their self-perception, however un-English they might appear to those who were sent over to govern them.

The English identity which the settlers voiced with growing stridency in the fourteenth century had older roots. The initial incursions into Ireland had been by marcher knights and other freelances from south Wales hired by Diarmait MacMurchadha, the King of Leinster. However, the rapid intervention of Henry II ensured that from 1171, the main beneficiaries of the conquests were men associated with the royal court and military household, some of whom retained estates in England and Wales. However unruly they might be in the Irish regions, they held their lands from the crown and saw themselves as the king's subjects. Royal power was sufficient to prevent the conquests from developing into an unregulated scramble and to ensure that Ireland remained politically tied to England.

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Published: 2001-05-01