Carthy More, as he sat with the judge on the bench. As
MacCarthy was Irish, the crime was suffered to pass without further
notice.

In 1341 Edward took sweeping measures for a general reform of the
Anglo-Norman lords, or, more probably, he hoped, by threats of such
measures, to obtain subsidies for his continental wars. The colonists,
however, were in possession, and rather too powerful to brook such
interference. Sir John Morris was sent over to carry the royal plans
into execution; but though he took prompt and efficient measures, the
affair turned out a complete failure. The lords refused to attend his
Parliament, and summoned one of their own, in which they threw the blame
of maladministration on the English officials sent over from time to
time to manage Irish affairs. They also protested strongly against the
new arrangement, which proposed that all the offices then held in
Ireland should be filled by Englishmen having no personal interest
whatever in Ireland. The certainty that they would have a personal
interest in it the very moment there was a chance of bettering their
fortunes thereby, appears to have been quite overlooked. The settlers,
therefore were allowed to continue their career as before, and felt all
the secure for their effectual resistance of the royal interference.

In 1334 Sir Ralph Ufford, who had married Maud Plantagenet, the widow of
the Earl of Ulster, was appointed Justiciary of Ireland. He commenced
with a high hand, and endeavoured especially to humble the Desmonds. The
Earl refused to attend the Parliament, and assembled one of his own at
Callan; but the new Viceroy marched into Leinster with an armed force,
seized his lands, farmed them out for the benefit of the crown, got
possession of the strongholds of Castleisland and Inniskisty in Kerry,
and hanged Sir Eustace Poer, Sir William Grant, and Sir John Cottrell,
who commanded these places, on the charge of illegal exactions of coigne
and livery.[355] The Viceroy also contrived to get the Earl of Kildare
into his power; and it is probable that his harsh measures would have
involved England in an open war with her colony and its English
settlers, had not his sudden death put an end to his summary exercise of
justice.

It is said that his wife, Maud, who could scarcely forget the murder of
her first husband, urged him on to many of these violent acts; and it
was remarked, that though she had maintained a queenly state on her
first arrival