IRISH PEERAGE, ETC. IX. IRISH PEERAGE, &c. BEFORE THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. A list o£ tin! Irish Peerage before the sixteenth century (as far as it can be ascer- tained) is here subjoined, together with the Principal "HONOURS" and the most important of the " FEUDAL BARONIES." It comprises M those given in the "Lib. Hib.," as well as many Baronies (some of considerable position) therein omitted. Some remarks (taken partly from Sir William Betham's Palatine Honours in Ireland," Lynch's " Feudal Baronies." &e.) are prefixed. For more than lf>0 years before the English invasion in 1172. Ireland consisted of small federal kingdoms, such as (1) Leinster; (2) Ulster; (3) Connaught; (4)Thoinoud, or North Minister ; (fi) Desmond, or South Monster, Sc. Each was ruled over by a malfl descendant (the most worthy) of its former Kings, cj. the O'Neills of Ulster, the O'Connors of Connaught. the O'Briens of Thomond, &c, and such succession con- tinued (more or less) till the time of Hen. VIII. These petty Sovereigns (" Rajuli ") used to elect one of themselves as Sovereign Lord of Ireland, and as such "Sovereign Lord" it appears they considered Henry IT and his successors. Henry II was mice, as " Lord of Inland" in 1 1 S)l (not by his 1st s. Richard I, but) by his yst. s. John, who, in 1199, became King of England ; since which time the two kingdoms continued together till lo4!l and (again) 1688, at both which epochs Ireland remained loyal to the Hereditary King, though in both cases, after a few years bloody conflict, she was re-annexed to the English government. Ireland was divided in the time of Henry VI into many Palatine Honours, &c., of which ULSTER alone (being about one-sixth of the entire island) was a County Palatine, the Lord thereof (" cinetus gladio ") being an E.uu.. Of the other*, such as I, LEINSTER ; II, CONNAUGHT ; III, HEATH ; IV, CORK ; V, LIMERICK ; VI, KERRY ; &c, the grantees were simply Loans ; though in some cases they possessed as great, even if not greater, jurisdiction than the Earls of Ulster. The most important of these Lordships were distributed as under. I. LEIXSTIyR. The Kingdom of LEINSTER was in 1172 grunted to Richard fde Clare) Earl of Pembroke (" Strongbow "), who had m. Eva, da. of Dermot McMorough, Prince of Leinster. On his death, in 1177, it passed with lsabell, his da. and h., to her husband William {Marshall) Earl of Pembroke and Marshal of England, who had a confirmatory grant of the Lordship of Leinster in 1207. Their five sons snec. respectively, and on the death of the last, s.p. in 1245, the great Palatine Honour of Leinster was divided into fine Palatine Honours (each of which became a county, though not a County- Palatine), and were distributed among his live sisters aud coheirs as under, viz. :—
