lities, with his inflexible _English_
Barons.

_Edward_ the First, a great and warlike Prince, was, throughout his whole
Reign, engaged in the Reduction of the _Welch_ and _Scots_, and so intent
thereon, that he could turn his Thoughts to no other Object.

_Edward_ the Second, indeed, sent _Gaveston_ hither, more to screen him
from the implacable Resentments of the stubborn _English_ Nobility, than
to render any good Offices to the Inhabitants of this Country; who,
indiscriminately, (_Strongbownians_ as well as _Irish_) felt the Severity
of that insolent Favourite's Measures.

_Richard_ the Second visited this Kingdom in Person, with the good
Intentions of establishing Peace, Order, and Harmony, in a valuable but
long neglected Estate: Yet his own adverse Fate, conspiring with that of
this Land, called him back, before he could carry his favourable
Resolutions into Execution, to defend his _English_ Dominions from the
hostile Attacks of _Henry_, Earl of _Hereford_, who, with the Duke of
_Norfolk_, Son to _John_ of _Gaunt_, had some Years before been banished
by _Richard_, to prevent a personal Combat: This King, worthy more
propitious Stars, long agitated and afflicted by the Turbulence and
irreconcilable Obstinacy of his _British_ Subjects, perished at last under
the impious Hands of Sir _Pierce_ of _Exton_, who, at the Head of eight
barbarous armed Assassins, rushed into his Chamber, and murdered him.

The Reign of _Henry_ the Fourth was short, tumultuous, and bloody; Deluges
of noble Blood having been shed by the bare Hands of the common
Executioner, to confirm a Throne acquired by abominable Crimes, and
Violence! And no sooner had these dreadful Storms begun to abate, than
_Henry_ was forced to depart from a Scene he had more adorned, (for he
was, without Question, a great and valiant Man) had not his Ambition
blindly hurried him beyond the Bounds of Justice and Nature.

_Henry_ the Fifth, his Son and Successor, and truly Inheritor of his
Ambition and warlike Genius, imagining himself aggrieved by the _Salique
Law_, which excluded his Great Great-Grandmother, _Isabel_, from the
Monarchy of _France_, turned his elevated Thoughts intirely to the
Conquest of that Kingdom: Wherein, by his own vast Merit in martial
Affairs, and the Co-operation of the Queen of _France_, (Consort of
_Charles_ the Sixth, then frantick,) and that of the Duke of _Burgundy_, a
great and powerful Prince, he so far succeeded, as, after his