allied with some of the native septs he attacked others. Even the
towns outside the Pale fared little better than the remoter districts;
there was actually a civil war between Cork and Limerick. The state of
affairs in Celtic Ireland during the brief period from 1500 to 1534
as stated in the annals (which, however, only deal with a part of the
country, hardly referring to what took place in Leinster or Munster)
has been summed up by Dr. Richey in the following words:--

"Battles, plunderings, etc., exclusive of those in which the
English Government was engaged, 116; Irish gentlemen of
family killed in battle, 102; murdered, 168--many of them with
circumstances of great atrocity; and during this period, on
the other hand, there is no allusion to the enactment of any
law, the judicial decision of any controversy, the founding of
any town, monastery or church; and all this is recorded by
the annalist without the slightest expression of regret or
astonishment, as if such were the ordinary course of life in a
Christian country."

At length, in 1534, matters came to a head; the Lord Deputy broke out
into open rebellion. We can learn from the State papers of the period
what the condition of Ireland then was. The Pale--now but the remnant
of a fraction--was constantly invaded and ravished by wild tribes,
and was itself becoming Ersefied; for the poorer English settlers had
either fled back to England, joined the Celtic tribes in despair, as
their only way of escaping from the harshness of the English lords, or
been crushed out of existence; and, as had already happened elsewhere,
their place had been taken by Irish retainers. Then in the rest of the
country there were some ninety chiefs, of whom about sixty represented
ancient septs and the remainder degenerate Normans, all claiming