made acts of attainder one
day, and reversed them almost on the next. Neither life nor property was
safe. Men armed themselves first in self-defence, and then in
lawlessness; and a thoughtful mind might trace to the evil state of
morals, caused by a long period of desolating domestic warfare, that
fatal indifference to religion which must have permeated the people,
before they could have departed as a nation from the faith of their
fathers, at the mere suggestion of a profligate monarch. The English
power in Ireland was reduced at this time to the lowest degree of
weakness. This power had never been other than nominal beyond the Pale;
within its precincts it was on the whole all-powerful. But now a few
archers and spearmen were its only defence; and had the Irish combined
under a competent leader, there can be little doubt that the result
would have been fatal to the colony. It would appear as if Henry VII.
hoped to propitiate the Yorkists in Ireland, as he allowed the Earl of
Kildare to hold the office of Lord Deputy; his brother, Thomas
FitzGerald, that of Chancellor; and his father-in-law, FitzEustace, that
of Lord Treasurer. After a short time, however, he restored the Earl of
Ormonde to the family honours and estates, and thus a Lancastrian
influence was secured. The most important events of this reign, as far
as Ireland is concerned, are the plots of Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, and
the enactments of Poyning's Parliament. A contemporary Irish chronicler
says: "The son of a Welshman, by whom the battle of Bosworth field was
fought, was made King; and there lived not of the royal blood, at that
time, but one youth, who came the next year (1486) in exile to
Ireland."[371]

The native Irish appear not to have had the least doubt that Simnel was
what he represented himself to be. The Anglo-Irish nobles were nearly
all devoted to the House of York; but it is impossible now to determine
whether they were really deceived, or if they only made the youth a
pretext for rebellion. His appearance is admitted by all parties to have
been in his favour; but the King asserted that the real Earl of Warwick
was then confined in the Tower, and paraded him through London[372] as
soon as the pseudo-noble was crowned in Ireland. Margaret, Dowager
Duchess of Burgundy, was the great promoter of the scheme. She
despatched Martin Swart, a famous soldier, of noble birth, to Ireland,
with 2,000 men. The expedition was fitted out at her own exp