ons, all at the same time in
deadly struggle with O'Neills, O'Connells, and O'Briens, who would
never cease to fight for the territory which had been torn from them;
and yet each and all of these ready in a desperate crisis to combine
for the preservation of Ireland. In this chaos the territorial barons
were the framework of the structure. The grants bestowed by Henry II.
had created, in fact, a group of small principalities. These were
called Palatinates, and the power of the Lords Palatine was almost
without limit. Each was a king in his own little {207} kingdom--could
make war upon his neighbors, and recruit his army from his own vassals.
It was the Geraldines who played the most historic part among these
Palatines, the houses of Kildare and Desmond both being branches of
this famous Norman family, which was always in high favor with the
English sovereign, and always at war with the rival house of Ormond,
the next most powerful Anglo-Norman family, descended from Thomas a
Becket. These barons, or "Lords of the Pale," were, of course,
supposed to be the intermediaries for the King's authority. But the
Geraldines seem to have found plenty of time to build up their own
fortunes, and as peace with their neighbors was sometimes more
conducive to that pursuit, alliances with native chiefs and marriages
with their daughters had in time made of them pretty good Irishmen.

But our main purpose is not to follow the fortunes of these picturesque
and romantic robbers who considered all Ireland their legitimate prey,
but rather those of the hapless native population, dispossessed of
their homes, hiding in forests and morasses, and whom it was the policy
of the English {208} Government to efface in their own country. These
pages will tell of many efforts to compel loyalty, but not one effort
to _win_ the loyalty of the Irish people is recorded in history! No
race in the world is more susceptible to kindness and more easily
reached by personal influences, and there are none of whom a passionate
loyalty is more characteristic. What might have been the effect of a
policy of kindness instead of exasperation, we can only guess. But we
can all see plainly enough the disastrous results which have come from
pouring vitriol upon open wounds, and from treating a nation as if they
were not only intruders but outlaws in their own land.

Listen to the Statutes of Kilkenny, passed by an obedient Parliament at
a time when Edward III.