point. "Poynings' Law," passed by the Parliament assembled at Drogheda in
December, 1494, fixed Constitutional procedure for a very long time. Irish
Parliaments were to be summoned only with the approval of the King's
Council in England, and only after it had also approved the measures which
were to be submitted to them by the Irish Deputy and Council. In effect,
however, these legislative functions at this time were hardly more limited
than those of English Parliaments, which were summoned at the King's
pleasure, and only had what might be called "Government Bills" submitted to
them. The royal Council was practically in the position of a Cabinet
holding office as representing not the parliamentary majority but the
King's personal views. The Parliament might discuss and accept or reject,
but had not as yet acquired a practical initiative itself. At the same time
that this law was passed, a declaratory Act abolished the theory which had
grown up at an early stage of the conflict between the White and Red Roses,
of regarding Ireland as a country where a rebel in England was a free man:
a notion which had greatly facilitated the intrigues of both Lambert Simnel
and Perkin Warbeck on Irish soil. Further, besides some enactments for
checking feudal customs which tended to disorder, it was ordained that the
principal castles should always be under the command of Englishmen.
Poynings also endeavoured, by bestowing pensions (on terms) on some of the
principal chiefs outside the Pale--such as O'Neill in Ulster and O'Brien in
the west--to convert their position into one of semi-official
responsibility to the official Government. A basis for the maintenance of
law and order having thus been provided, the Irish difficulty was solved
for the time when "the man to rule all Ireland," benevolently disposed to a
King who had shown that he knew the right way to take him, was restored to
the office of Deputy.

[Sidenote: 1495 Survey of the situation]