" befalling their lord, if further delay should be permitted.
The King, however, was not in a position to tax his English subjects;
and we find the prince himself writing to his royal father on the same
matter, at the close of the year 1402. He mentions also that he had
entertained the knights and squires with such cheer as could be procured
under the circumstances, and adds: "I, by the advice of my Council, rode
against the Irish, your enemies, and did my utmost to harass them."[362]
Probably, had he shared the cheer with "the Irish his enemies," or even
showed them some little kindness, he would not have been long placed in
so unpleasant a position for want of supplies.

John Duke, the then Mayor of Dublin, obtained the privilege of having
the sword borne before the chief magistrate of that city, as a reward
for his services in routing the O'Byrnes of Wicklow. About the same time
John Dowdall, Sheriff of Louth, was murdered in Dublin, by Sir
Bartholomew Vernon and three other English gentlemen, who were outlawed
for this and other crimes, but soon after received the royal pardon. In
1404 the English were defeated in Leix. In 1405 Art MacMurrough
committed depredations at Wexford and elsewhere, and in 1406 the
settlers suffered a severe reverse in Meath.

Sir Stephen Scroope had been appointed Deputy for the royal Viceroy, and
he led an army against MacMurrough, who was defeated after a gallant
resistance. Teigue O'Carroll was killed in another engagement soon
after. This prince was celebrated for learning, and is styled in the
Annals[363] "general patron of the literati of Ireland." A few years
before his death he made a pilgrimage to Rome, and was honorably
received on his return by Richard II., at Westminster. In 1412 the
O'Neills desolated Ulster with their feuds, and about the same time the
English merchants of Dublin and Drogheda armed to defend themselves
against the Scotch merchants, who had committed several acts of piracy.
Henry V. succeeded his father in 1413, and appointed Sir John Stanley
Lord Deputy. He signalized himself by his exactions and cruelties, and,
according to the Irish account, was "rhymed to death" by the poet Niall
O'Higgin, of Usnagh, whom he had plundered in a foray. Sir John Talbot
was the next Governor. He inaugurated his career by such martial
exploits against the enemy, as to win golden opinions from the
inhabitants of "the Pale." Probably the news of his success induced his
royal mas