A little Parliament held Sessions in Dublin, or in some other part of the Pale, or in one of the southern cities. There was a Commons’ House, in which sat representatives of the counties and boroughs of the Pale, and occasionally some representative of places more remote.

Also there were two clerical proctors from each diocese under the English influence. The House of Lords was poorly attended ; sometimes scarcely a dozen temporal peers were present at a session.All, of course, were nobles of English blood.

The bishops and abbots, the “lords spiritual,” too, came from the dioceses within or near the Pale and from Anglo-Irish monasteries.

The period may, therefore, be roughly described as one of ” unchecked feudalism.” Ireland was a country with no central Government, each territory ruled by its own petty lord or chief. All were Irish, but they were also feudal.

In most cases there was not even the control of a superior great lord. Desmond, Ormonde and Kildare might, to some extent, act as petty Kings ; O’Neill and O’Donnell, O’Brien and Mac Carthy might control their own immediate sub-chiefs ; but the general tendency was in favour of purely local independence.

 As the lords had thrown off the dominion of the King, so the clans had lost much of the old tradition of acknowledged supremacy. The Kings of Aileach, of Tara, of Laighin, and of Caiseal still succeed one another, but their power is only nominal.

Above : Empire Of Charlemagne Map

Some knowledge of the feudal system is necessary in order to understand the new relations which were created between Henry and the Irish, when on the one hand the chiefs acknowledged the supremacy of the King, and on the other hand he professed to give away large tracts of Irish land to his followers. The ” submissions ” as well as the ” grants ” were looked upon by both parties from different points of view, and their meaning was interpreted in different ways by the Irish, whose ideas were those of the clan system, and by the Normans, who were governed by the feudal system. Two different conceptions of social and political life were brought into conflict.