Fiontir 101 - a History of the New World

Lui's Code of Laws

Lui's Code of Laws

Perhaps Lui II's greatest reform was his creation of a code of laws for the Kingdom of Munster. Before the time of Lui II, Munster had many separate systems of laws which often conflicted. In the Duchies of Thomond and Old Desmond, the old Gaelic (Brehon) laws still prevailed. In the Earldom of Cork, and in the Free Cities, Norman law had taken its place. The Duchy of New Desmond, had the most complicated system of all. In New Desmond, Lui I had created a system which mixed Gaelic and Norman law, where the Norman feudal system was introduced to govern the nobility, while the punishment of crimes and other matters dealing with the lower classes were carried out under Brehon law. The mixture of different legal systems had led to a number of disputes in situations where it wasn't clear which law should apply.

Thus one of the first matters that Lui II put before his Great Council was the creation of a Code of Laws which would apply throughout the Kingdom of Munster. Lui knew that either a wholly Norman or wholly Gaelic system would be rejected by a good part of his council, so he worked on trying to create a compromise based upon the mixed system that had been in use in New Desmond. However, unlike the system in New Desmond, Lui demanded that the new Code of Laws be explicit in every detail and rely on custom and precedent as little as possible.

After years of negotiation and debate, the Munster Code of Laws was finally approved by the Great Council in 1432. The most major effect it had on the upper classes was the full imposition of the feudal system throughout Munster. Land would no longer be held by clans, and clan chiefs would no longer be chosen by Tanistry. Instead, under the feudal system, all land belonged to the King and the land controlled by the other nobles simply became fiefs. However, unlike the English feudal system, the King alone did not have the power to attain the lands and titles of the upper nobility. The Duchies of Thomond, Old Desmond, and the Earldom of Cork could only be attained with consent of the Great Council.

In instituting the feudal system, succession by male preference primogeniture was established. While succession by primogeniture had been used to choose the next King of Munster since the time of Lui I, clans O'Brien and Mac Carthy had still been electing the sons or brothers of their clan heads as Tanists. However, under the new Code of Laws, all nobility of the Kingdom of Munster would be succeeded by their eldest son, or, if they had no sons their eldest daughter. Unlike many other European Kingdoms of the time, it was established in Munster that daughters could inherit in the case that a noble had no sons. Moreover, a woman inheriting her father's lands and titles would hold them in her own right: if she married, the lands and titles would remain hers and would not pass to her husband.

While Lui's Code of Laws imposed succession by male preference primogeniture on the nobility, members of the middle classes were free to choose their own successors. While most tradespeople passed their business on to their sons, there were also a number of businesses which passed from master to apprentice or from mother to daughter. There were some even more complicated succession traditions which arose. For example, the Limerick Fish Merchant's guild began the tradition of always choosing a Mac Snorri woman as First Lady, although these women were required by the guild not to marry or bear children, thus the post of First Lady often passed from aunt to neice.

In addition to succession and property law, Lui II's code covered many other aspects of law including criminal law and a sort of constitution which outlined the powers of the King and those of the Council. However, most other aspects of the legal code more or less maintained the status quo. Crimes were still punished according to traditional Brehon law, and the powers of the Great Council had already been determined when the Council was reformed in 1423. In the end it was the introduction of the feudal system and the establishment of a formal system of succession which proved to be the most important of Lui II's innovations, as the traditional power of the clans was finally broken, and the way was paved for further modernization under the leadership of King and Council.
 
The Great War of Ireland

The Great War of Ireland

The most devastating war to hit Ireland in the 15th century became known as the Great War of Ireland, not because it was the greatest war in Irish history, but because its other names (such as “the Scottish Invasion”) proved too controvesial. The war began with a cooling of relations between Ulster and Munster following Lui II's rise to power in Munster. For years, the two Kingdoms had already been growing apart, as Ulster was a traditionalist, rural, Gaelic state, while Munster was becoming increasingly urbanized, cosmopolitan, tolerant, and modernizing. However, until Lui II's reign, the two Kingdoms had seen themselves in natural alliance against the Hiberno-Norman lords and their English King. This all changed with a decision by Lui II to support the English.

To understand Lui's position with regards to the English, it is important to understand that, until the beginning of the Five Kingdoms period in 1451, all Irish Kings, while excercising de facto independence, were still de jure vassals of England. In the 1390s, during a lull in the Hundred Years' War, Richard II had come to Ireland with an army superior to that of any of the Irish Kings. The Kings of Ulster and Munster alike had sworn fealty to Richard to avoid the fate of the Gaelic chiefs that had stood against Richard. However, within a year of Richard's departure, the Irish Kings had returned to their practice of de facto independence.

However, with Lui II's trying to implement the feudal system through his code of laws, it became apparent that Lui couldn't expect the Munster nobles to obey their feudal obligations to him if he himself didn't obey his own feudal obligations to England. Thus, in the early 1430s soldiers from Munster were sent to aid the English in their war in France. It was this move that enraged the O'Neills in Ulster and led to the great Irish War.

Having lost an ally in Munster, the O'Neills instead chose to ally themselves with the Kingdom of Scotland. King Robert of Scotland, always looking for a way to decrease the power of England, agreed to send an army to aid the O'Neills and to recognize the O'Neills as High Kings of Ireland if the O'Neills could successfully drive out all Irish lords who supported England.

Thus in 1438, a Scottish army landed in Dundalk and joined the Ulster army in a seige of Dublin, which fell before the end of the campaign season. The Norman lords sent a request for military aid to London, but were met with a reply that no troops could be spared until peace had been made with France. Munster was also asked for support, but Lui II replied that he could do nothing without the support of the Council (who were unwilling to take sides at this time). Thus the Normans were left with no choice but to sign a truce with the O'Neills, temporarily giving up Dublin in the hopes that English reinforcements could arrive soon.

But Hugh O'Neill were not willing to settle for Dublin. He had been crowned High King with Scottish support, but most of the island was unwilling to bow down to him. Thus he decided that he must conquer the rest of Eire by force. Connacht, the weakest of the Gaelic states, was the next to be attacked. In 1441 the Ulster/Scottish army invaded Connacht, demanding that the O'Connors submit themselves to High King O'Neill. The Connacht army was no match for even the Ulster army alone, and soon Roscommon itself was under seige. However, while the Council of Munster was unwilling to go to war to support the Normans, they were much more willing to defend Connacht. Thus, in 1442 the Army of Munster was mobilized, and sent North to retake Connacht.

Thus for many years the Great War of Irland was fought between Munster and Connacht on one side and Ulster and part of the Scottish army on the other. The two armies spent years taking a retaking Roscommon, causing much distruction and loss of life. Ulster began to lose ground when the Normans re-entered the war in 1444, but the decisive moment came with Henry VI of England's decision to send troops to Ireland. Henry decided to lead the campaign in Ireland himself, and landed in Wexford with his army in the summer of 1446.

1447 was the year of great victories by England and Munster. Dublin fell to the English in June, and soon the O'Neills had been pushed back to Dundalk. The Battle of Kells in August 1447 was one of the most famous of the Irish War. The English had taken control of the Abbey in July, and King Henry himself was visiting the Abbey when the O'Neills launched a surprise attack. The English were beseiged inside the Abbey until Munster troops, led by King Lui himself, arrived to lift the seige. It turned out that the Ulster force which had attacked the Abbey had been in the process of retreating from Connacht, and had been pursued by Lui, and finally defeated outside the gates of Kells.

King Henry always remembered that it was the army of Munster that had saved him. The Battle of Kells was the first time that Henry VI and Lui II had met as adults (when Lui II had travelled to London to pay homage to Henry V, Henry VI had still been a child), and they grew to like each other soon after. Henry would always remember that it had been Lui that had defeated the O'Neills at Kells, and Lui would become one of Henry's key supporters in the Wars of the Crown that would follow.

By the end of 1448, Ulster had finally been defeated. Once it was clear that this was a war that they couldn't win, the Scots gave up on Ulster and sought peace with England. Without Scottish support, the Ulster army was no match for the English and Munster armies, and they soon fell. The O'Neills were stripped of their land, and Henry named Donal Mac Dougal, Lui's younger brother, King of Ulster. While the Norman Lords resented Henry's decision not to appoint one of them, Henry knew that a Gael would have an easier time governing Ulster than a Norman.

While Henry tried to legitimize Donal Mac Dougal's Kingship by having him marry a daughter of Hugh O'Neill, his lack of understanding of the system of Tanistry that governed succession only increased discontent amongst the people of Ulster. Donal lacked much of Lui's talent for striking a balance between competing interests, and for many years Ulster was plagued by many revolts that were only put down with the help of the Munster army.
 
The Union of Ireland

The Union of Ireland

The Union of Ireland, the political framework which governed the Five Kingdoms period, was proposed, not be a native Irish King, but by Henry VI of England. Henry had been defeated in the Battle of Oxford in 1449, and was forced to flee to Ireland while the Duke of Clarence crowned himself King. Living in exile, Henry had become aware of the political situation in Ireland. While the Norman and Gaelic rulers of various pieces of Ireland were all nominally his vassals, they had been fighting amongst themselves for almost a hundred years. Henry hoped to be able to retake the English throne with Gaelic support, and to do so, needed the island to unite behind him. While the Norman Lords were likely to be willing to support Henry, convincing the Gaels to support a war in England required giving them something in return.

In the fall of 1451, Henry called a meeting of all Norman and Gaelic lords in Dublin (all members of the Great Council of Munster were invited: the middle-class city representatives as well as the nobles). While rebuilding the city that had been devastated by a decade of war, Henry had ordered the construction of a new, larger parliament building. It was in this building that the various representatives met.

In his speech to the representatives, Henry began by recalling the devastation of the war that had just ended. He called on all present to make sure that no such war happened in the future, and presented a proposal for how to guarantee a secure future for Ireland. He recalled the devastation of the Great War of Ireland, and played up the risk of an invasion by the Clarentist army from England. He explained how the Clarentist uprising had arise out of anti-Gaelic sentiment, and argued the Gaels and Normans alike would be better off with Lancastrian support.

He explained that while he had supporters and and army that had escaped with him from England, he did not have the resources to pay and feed his army alone. He admitted that he had no right to tax the Irish without their consent, but that if if the Irish were willing to support him, he would bequeath his army to Ireland: to defend the island against Scots and English. When he heard agreement from the assembled representatives, he began his proposal.

Ireland would be divided into five Kingdoms. The Kingdom of Meath, created from “the Pale” around Dublin (which had recently been recaptured from the O'Neills by Henry's army) would be ruled by Henry, and be inherited by his descendants. The Kingdom of Leinster, consisting of the territory controlled by the Normans, would be ruled from the Kilkenny, which had served as the de facto capital since the fall of Dublin. The Norman nobles would be allowed to elect their own King from amongst their own ranks. Henry also officially recognized the independence of the Kingdoms of Munster, Connacht, and Ulster, although a significant amount of territory that had been held by Ulster before the war was now transferred to Connacht and Leinster.

To prevent war between the Five Kingdoms, an Irish Parliament would be created to adjudicate disputes between the Kingdoms. While each Kingdom would have full sovereignty over their own internal affairs, border disputes and other conflicts would be decided by the Parliament. To back up its authority, the Army of the Union of Ireland would be created from the Lancastrian army with contributions of additional troops from each Kingdom. The Parliament would have the authority to tax the various Kingdoms to support the army. The Parliament and Army of the Union would be based out of Dublin, although each Kingdom also maintained its own army.

Thus, with the adoption of Henry's proposal, the first Parliament of the Union of Ireland began. While Henry is often credited with the creation of the Union of Ireland, many historians believe that the real mastermind behind the Union of Ireland was Lui II of Munster. Lui had visited Henry a number of times during his exile, and the two had spent many days engaged in private conversation. Henry was grateful to Lui for the rest of his life, and credited Lui with saving the House of Lancaster. If Lui was in fact the mastermind behind the Five Kingdoms, he never admitted to being responsible for it. Likely Lui was afraid that if he claimed the proposal as his own, the other Irish lords may have had more of a fear of being dominated by Munster.
 
Sorry it took a while for me to post here... I was away on vacation and generally neglecting my TL. Thus "Week 2" is now done and I can move on to "Week 3"
 
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