red with the feelings and views of his
contemporaries; and shows that in legislation he took the lead (p. 241)
of his parliament in preferring mild and moderate to violent and
sanguinary measures.

The Commons pray that the penalty of absenteeism after the
proclamation should be loss of life or limb, and forfeiture of goods;
the King consents only to imprisonment, instead of death and
mutilation. "The Commons," (such are the words of the record,) "for
the quiet and peace of the realm of England, and for the increase and
welfare of the land of Ireland, pray that it may be ordained in the
present parliament, that all Irishmen, and all Irish begging clerks,
called Chaumber Deakyns [chamberdeacons], be voided the realm between
Michaelmas and All Saints, on pain of loss of life and limb; except
such as are graduates in the schools, and serjeants and students of
law, and such as have inheritance in England, and 'professed
religious;' and that all the Irish who have benefices and office in
Ireland live on their benefices and offices, on pain of losing the
profits of their benefices and offices,--for the protection of the
land of Ireland." The King grants the prayer, but modifies the
severity of the penalty proposed by the Commons, limiting the
punishment to the loss of goods, and imprisonment during the royal
pleasure; and excepting merchants born in Ireland of good fame, and
their apprentices, now being in England, and those to whom the King
may grant a dispensation.

It was in the year following these proceedings that Henry received
succours from Ireland, just before he laid siege to Rouen. The (p. 242)
Pell Rolls state that they were two hundred horse and three hundred
foot, under the command of the Prior of Kilmaynham,[183] transported
by Bristol vessels from Waterford to France. Others, doubtless, might
have joined him also from the same quarter; but it seems very probable
that Hall, or those whom he followed, exaggerated this statement, and
substituted the Lord of Kylmaine for the Prior of Kilmaynham, when
they tell us "that a band of one thousand six hundred native Irish,
armed with their own weapons of war, in mail, with darts and skaynes,
under the Lord of Kylmaine, were with Henry V. at the siege of Rouen,
and kept the way from the forest of Lyons; and so did their devoir
that none were more praised, nor did more damage to their enemies."
Still the account given of these wild Irish, by Monstrelet, would see