nd
fostering--preferring the Brehon laws to statute law, whether enacted at
Westminster or by the Parliaments of the Pale--destroyed all traces of
the rule which the English wished to impose upon the province of Ulster.
Many of the English settlers--Hugh de Lacy, John Lord Bissett, Sir Hugh
Bissett, and others--openly took part with Bruce.

"The eastern shores of Ulster, Spenser informs us, previous to Bruce's
arrival, bounded a well-inhabited and prosperous English district,
having therein the good towns of Knockfergus, Belfast, Armagh, and
Carlingford; but in process of time became 'outbounds and abandoned
places in the English Pale.' According to the metrical history of
Barbour, Edward Bruce was by no means disposed to continue a subject,
while his brother reigned King; and, though Robert conferred his
hereditary Earldom of Carrick upon him, it by no means satisfied his
ambitious projects:--

"'The Erle of Carrick, Schyr Eduward,
That stouter was than a libbard,
And had na will to be in pess,
Thoucht that Scotland to litill was
Till his brother and hym alsua,
Therefor to purpose he gav ta
That he of Irland wold be king.'

"Shortly after his landing at Carrickfergus he proceeded towards the
Pale. Dundalk, then the principal garrison within the Pale, had all the
Englishry of the country assembled in force to defend it, when the Scots
proceeded to the attack, 'with banners all displayit.' The English sent
out a reconnoitering party, who brought back the cheering news, the
Scots would be but 'half a dinner' to them. This dinner, however, was
never eaten. The town was stormed with such vigour that the streets
flowed with the blood of the defenders; and such as could escape fled
with the utmost precipitancy, leaving their foes profusion of victuals
and great abundance of wine. This assault took place 29th June, 1315. It
was upon this success the Scots crowned Edward Bruce King of Ireland, on
the hill of Knocknamelan, near Dundalk, in the same simple national
manner in which his brother had been inaugurated at Scone.

"The new monarch, however, was not disposed to rest inactive, and his
troops had many skirmishes with Richard de Burgh, called the Red Earl of
Ulster, who drove them as far as Coleraine. There they were in great
distress; and they would have suffered much from hunger and want, had
not a famous pirate, Thomas of Down, or Thomas Don, sailed up the Bann
and set them free. De Bur