Note 498 — Chapter XVIII · ON THE CONSTITUTION OF IRELAND

Leland, ii. 822 et post; Davis, 199, 229, 236; Holingshed's Chronicles of Ireland, p. 4. Finglas, a baron of the exchequer in the reign of Henry VIII., in his Breviate of Ireland, from which Davis has taken great part of his materials, says expressly, that, by the disobedience of the Geraldines and Butlers, and their Irish connections, "the whole land is now of Irish rule, except the little English pale, within the counties of Dublin and Meath, and Uriel [Louth], which pass not thirty or forty miles in compass." The English were also expelled from Munster, except the walled towns. The king had no profit out of Ulster, but the manor of Carlingford, nor any in Connaught. This treatise, written about 1530, is printed in Harris's Hibernica. The proofs that, in this age, the English law and government were confined to the four shires, are abundant. It is even mentioned in a statute, 13 H. 8, c. 2.