d a tolerably
just opinion of the political state of the country. He mentions in a
letter from Dublin, that the people might be divided into three
classes--the "wild Irish, or enemies," the Irish rebels, and the English
subjects; and he had just discernment enough to see that the "rebels had
been made such by wrongs, and by want of close attention to their
grievances," though he had not the judgment or the justice to apply the
necessary remedy. His next exploit was to persuade the principal Irish
kings to receive knighthood in the English fashion. They submitted with
the worst possible grace, having again and again repeated that they had
already received the honour according to the custom of their own
country. The dealings of the Anglo-Norman knights, with whom they
already had intercourse, were not likely to have inspired them with very
sublime ideas of the dignity. They might, indeed, have been chevaliers
_sans peur_, but the latter part of the flattering appellation could not
be applied.

The customs of the Irish nobles were again made a subject of ridicule,
as they had been during the visit of Prince John; though one should have
supposed that an increased knowledge of the world should have led to a
wiser policy, if not to an avoidance of that ignorant criticism, which
at once denounces everything foreign as inferior.[360] Richard returned
to England in 1395, after nine months of vain display. He appointed
Roger Mortimer his Viceroy. Scarcely had the King and his fleet sailed
from the Irish shores, when the real nature of the proffered allegiance
of seventy-two kings and chieftains became apparent. The O'Byrnes rose
up in Wicklow, and were defeated by the Viceroy and the Earl of Ormonde;
the MacCarthys rose up in Munster, and balanced affairs by gaining a
victory over the English. The Earl of Kildare was captured by Calvagh
O'Connor, of Offaly, in 1398; and, in the same year, the O'Briens and
O'Tooles avenged their late defeat, by a great victory, at Kenlis, in
Ossory.

In 1399 King Richard paid another visit to Ireland. His exactions and
oppressions had made him very unpopular in England, and it is probable
that this expedition was planned to divert the minds of his subjects. If
this was his object, it failed signally; for the unfortunate monarch was
deposed by Parliament the same year, and was obliged to perform the act
of abdication with the best grace he could. His unhappy end belongs to
English history. Richar