Roger de Mortimer was in 1319 induced to forsake the attractions of the queen's court for the rigours of Dublin Castle, but in 1320 he was back again in London, leaving Thomas Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, to rule in his stead. Kildare was succeeded by Jean de Bermingham, Earl of Louth, in 1321; while in the same year Sir Ralph de Gorges and Sir Jean d'Arcy occupied in turn the viceroyalty. D'Arcy lasted until 1326. It is worthy of note that in 1320 a university was opened in Dublin, but it was never more than a seminary for ecclesiastics.
CHAPTER II
The year 1326 is memorable in English annals because of the deposition of Edward II. The Viceroy of Ireland, Thomas, second Earl of Kildare, was appointed that year, the warrant stating that he represented Edward III., then a boy of fourteen. The deposed monarch immediately looked to Ireland for support, and to Dublin he came, having heard that the English colony refused to acknowledge the authority of the Earl of Kildare. He was misinformed, however, and he lost his throne without being able to strike a blow for it.
Prior Utlagh and witchcraft
The Earl of Kildare gave way in 1328 to a remarkable ecclesiastic, Prior Roger Utlagh, Chancellor and Prior of the Knights Hospitallers of Kilmainham. He ruled as an autocrat, outwardly acknowledging Edward's sovereignty, but in reality a combination of layman and priest, who feared neither God nor man. When King Robert Bruce visited Ireland, and invited the Prior to a conference, he was ordered to leave the country, and he had to obey. Fellow-ecclesiastics plotted against him, but he was more than their match. When the Bishop of Ossory openly accused the viceroy of favouring heretics, Roger Utlagh made it the occasion of a great public demonstration of his virtuous qualities. The charge was based on a rumour that the viceroy had shown kindness to a man imprisoned in Dublin Castle because he was the patron of a supposed witch's son. The position was serious enough, and the viceroy, therefore, issued proclamations for three successive days, calling upon his enemies to appear and prefer a charge against him. No one came forward, as was only to be expected, the viceroy possessing arbitrary punitive powers, and Utlagh thereupon nominated six commissioners in Dublin Castle and examined witnesses provided by himself. The complacent commissioners formally declared Prior Utlagh's character to be spotless, and in return for this testimonial the worthy ecclesiastic presided over a banquet in the Castle. Thus were his enemies confounded.
The Prior retired for William de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, who was styled Lieutenant, or locum tenens. De Burgh's reign was brief, and in 1332, within a year of his appointment, he was replaced by Sir Jean d'Arcy, an ex-viceroy. The Earl of Ulster was murdered in 1333, an act of revenge inspired by an aunt whose husband the earl had starved to death in one of his castles. The crime had its effect on English history, as the Countess of Ulster fled to England with her only child, Elizabeth, who married a son of Edward III. and became an ancestor of Edward IV. Sir Jean d'Arcy was merely viceroy in name, the deputy, Sir Thomas de Burgh, ruling in Dublin Castle until 1337, when Sir John de Cherlton, who had been appointed in place of the deputy—dismissed for irregularities—occupied the post for a year. His successor was his brother, the Bishop of Hereford, who also became Chancellor. Like most ecclesiastics of the time, the Bishop of Hereford was a very zealous politician, drawing a sharp line between his spiritual and his temporal powers. He seized the cattle of the native Irish in large quantities, frequently despoiling the whole countryside of every head of live stock, and this so delighted the valorous Edward III. that he wrote a long letter of commendation to his faithful representative, and ordered the treasurer at Dublin Castle to pay the viceroy's salary before that of any other official. The year 1340 witnessed the retirement of the cattle-stealing Bishop, the reappointment and death of Prior Utlagh, and the conferring for life of the viceroyalty upon Sir Jean d'Arcy, who had covered himself with glory in the numerous wars of Edward III. D'Arcy did not, of course, come to Ireland. The appointment was in reality the king's way of rewarding his faithful warrior, and, therefore, D'Arcy was content to share in the spoils and gains of his deputy, Sir John Moriz.
Rise of the Anglo-Irish
By now, however, a new factor entered into the protracted struggle for the possession of the rich lands of Ireland. During the centuries of English occupation several great Anglo-Irish families had arisen, and, fattening upon their spoils, gradually came to occupy positions more powerful than the representatives of the king. The heads of the Desmonds, the Geraldines, the De Burghs, and others, resented the intrusion of English warriors sent to Dublin to refill their treasure chests. They wished to rule Ireland, and declined to bow the knee to impecunious adventurers invested with royal powers by the King of England. Slowly yet surely these powerful chieftains ranged themselves on one side until hostilities in Ireland were not between the English and the natives, but between the English by birth and the English by blood, jealousy and greed of gain forming the motive.