ter to recall him to England, that he might have his assistance
in his French wars.

His departure was a general signal for "the enemy" to enact reprisals.
O'Connor despoiled the Pale, and the invincible Art MacMurrough
performed his last military exploit at Wexford (A.D. 1416), where he
took 340 prisoners in one day. He died the following year, and Ireland
lost one of the bravest and best of her sons. The Annals describe him as
"a man who had defended his own province, against the English and Irish,
from his sixteenth to his sixtieth year; a man full of hospitality,
knowledge, and chivalry." It is said that he was poisoned by a woman at
New Ross, but no motive is mentioned for the crime. His son, Donough,
who has an equal reputation for valour, was made prisoner two years
after by the Lord Deputy, and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
O'Connor of Offaly, another chieftain who had also distinguished himself
against the English, died about this time. He had entered the Franciscan
Monastery of Killeigh a month before his death.

The Irish of English descent were made to feel their position painfully
at the close of this reign, and this might have led the new settlers to
reflect, if capable of reflection, that their descendants would soon
find themselves in a similar condition. The commons presented a petition
complaining of the extortions and injustices practised by the Deputies,
some of whom had left enormous debts unpaid. They also represented the
injustice of excluding Irish law students from the Inns of Court in
London. A few years previous (A.D. 1417), the settlers had presented a
petition to Parliament, praying that no Irishman should be admitted to
any office or benefice in the Church, and that no bishop should be
permitted to bring an Irish servant with him when he came to attend
Parliament or Council. This petition was granted; and soon after an
attempt was made to prosecute the Archbishop of Cashel, who had presumed
to disregard some of its enactments.

Henry VI. succeeded to the English throne while still a mere infant,
and, as usual, the "Irish question" was found to be one of the greatest
difficulties of the new administration. The O'Neills had been carrying
on a domestic feud in Ulster; but they had just united to attack the
English, when Edward Mortimer, Earl of March, assumed the government of
Ireland (A.D. 1425). He died of the plague the following year; but his
successor in office, Lord Furnival, cont