The Viceregal lodge, Dublin
When Sir John Moriz, D'Arcy's deputy, called a Parliament together at Dublin to consider the state of the country and to promulgate new Edwardian ordinances, the Earl of Desmond and other leaders of the English by blood declined to attend. In their opinion Sir Jean d'Arcy and his deputy were 'needy adventurers'—a description they applied to them in a petition sent direct to Edward III. Desmond was a clever man, who openly advocated peace and secretly prepared for war. His diplomacy, however, gained a surer victory than all his legions were capable of accomplishing, for in the petition already referred to he asked politely why his Majesty did not receive larger revenues from Ireland. This caused Edward to realize some of the disadvantages of conferring the viceroyalty upon impecunious warriors, and he promptly surrendered to the petitioners, removing Moriz, and appointing Sir Raoul d'Ufford, who became viceroy in the early part of 1344.
D'Ufford was wealthy enough to be trusted with the government of Ireland, and Edward owed him something for his services in the French and Flemish wars. It is more than likely, however, that he was indebted for his viceroyalty to the fact that his wife was Maud Plantagenet, widow of the murdered Earl of Ulster and also of Edward's son. D'Ufford's commission authorized him to grant pardon to rebels on their swearing allegiance to the king, and, furthermore, it enjoined him to search for Irish mines of gold, silver, lead, and tin. D'Ufford's appointment evoked no enthusiasm and some fear. The English colony knew the temper of Maud Plantagenet, a proud, revengeful, and ambitious woman, and greatly as they feared D'Ufford's reputation for severity, they realized that, urged on by his wife, he might be guilty of excesses exceeding those which had won for him the fear of his enemies in France.
The entrance of the viceregal pair into Dublin in July, 1345, foreshadowed the kingly state they maintained throughout their brief reign. They resided in the Priory of the Knights Hospitallers of Kilmainham, and Maud Plantagenet, Countess of Ulster, put into practice the lessons she had learnt at the English court. She exacted homage from her friends, maintained ladies-in-waiting, held courts of her own, and, in fact, was Queen of Ireland. Letters were sent to Edward describing the conduct of his ambitious representatives, and the king's jealousy and fears were aroused. Action on his part, however, was forestalled by the death of D'Ufford, who expired from a malignant disease on Palm Sunday, 1346. Clergy and laity combined to celebrate the tyrant's death, and thanksgiving services were held throughout the English colony. D'Ufford and his wife occupied the viceroyalty for less than twelve months, but in that brief space of time they committed many acts of oppression, torturing, robbing, despoiling, and executing enemies and even friends to gratify a lust for gain and exhibit to the world their vanity of power. Most of D'Ufford's tyrannies were ascribed by the populace to the evil counsels of his wife, and when he was no more they sought out the widow with the intention of laying violent hands upon her. Tyrants have no friends when they fall from power, and Maud Plantagenet suffered the usual indignities of a changeable fate, though she managed to escape from Ireland and carry her husband's body to England. She passed the remainder of her life in retirement.
Since his dismissal Sir John Moriz had laboured to obtain his restoration, and he succeeded in this three days before D'Ufford's death. Meanwhile the council in Ireland had elected Roger, son of Sir Jean d'Arcy, who, however, gave way to Moriz when the latter arrived.
The profits of the post
The new viceroy had been charged by the king to secure supplies of money for him from out of Ireland. Indeed, the appointment was based on a sort of co-partnership, the king insisting upon a large percentage of the profits of the post. Moriz knew that conciliation was the only means of obtaining the money, and he began by releasing the Earl of Kildare from imprisonment in Dublin Castle, and showing similar clemency to other distinguished prisoners. The policy of Walter de Bermingham (1348-49), John, Lord Carew (1349), and Sir Thomas de Rokeby (1349-55), was in direct contrast. They favoured war where Moriz had tried peace, and with the usual result. The native Irish had by now the protection and assistance of the leading Anglo-Irish families, who were influenced by the Irish blood in their veins, and took common cause against the viceroy and his battalions. In almost every encounter the English were defeated, and, finally, Dublin itself was threatened. In alarm the English colony began to make hasty preparations for flight to England. They sold what they could and abandoned the rest, and it seemed as though the English in Ireland would cease to exist when an order came from England declaring that any English colonist deserting Ireland would be put to death. Compelled to remain, they continued their miserable existence, threatened with murder by their foes, and in continual danger of robbery by the very men appointed to protect them. Dublin at this period was in a wretched condition. There had been no attempt to build a city, and in reality the place was a fort whereby England maintained its footing in Ireland. In the country the native chiefs and the Anglo-Irish noblemen ruled, administering justice in their crude fashion, and in some cases issuing their own coinage. The Viceroy of Ireland was in reality Viceroy of Dublin, and not always even that.
The next Lord-Deputy was Maurice, first Earl of Desmond, an Anglo-Irishman. He died in 1356, a year after his appointment, and Sir Thomas de Rokeby, who succeeded him, succumbed the same year. A return to the old condition of things was marked by the appointment of Baron Almaric de St. Amaud, who was created Lord of Gormanstown, but the baron did not care for Ireland, and he went back to England, leaving Maurice, fourth Earl of Kildare, to act as his deputy. He gave way to James le Botiller, second Earl of Ormonde, who was a great-grandson of Edward I. The appointment won the allegiance of Ormonde to the throne of England, and when, two years later—1361—Prince Lionel, third son of Edward III., was appointed viceroy and sent to Ireland with a large army, Ormonde promptly became one of his Generals. In 1347, when the Prince was ten, he had been married to Elizabeth, daughter of the murdered Earl of Ulster and Maud Plantagenet, the girl being sixteen. The object was to secure for the Royal Family the immense estates and vast wealth of the late Earl of Ulster, and when in 1361 Prince Lionel and his wife travelled with their army to Ireland, a considerable part of the expenditure was borne by his wife's estate. Remembering the hostility of the Irish against his wife's mother, Lionel issued a proclamation forbidding the natives to approach his camp.