Above: King of England (Edward III)

The English Government quickly realised its weakness in the establishment of these almost sovereign princes, and attempted spasmodically to correct its mistake.   But its efforts to curb  the power of the nobles were lacking in  both strength andconsistency.  

The chiefs and lords, in fact, enjoyed their freedom from control. During all this period they ruled Ireland unchecked by any central Government, and they did not desire to be
therwise.

Lords and chiefs, great and small, Irish and Norman, overned their clans or followers and fought their rivals without any preference. To a few of the great Norman lords, of course, the office of  theLord Deputy with the control of the Dublin officials was an asset which they were always ambitious to secure.

But, apart from its value as a personal chattel, they paid little respect to the position, and a Lord Deputy broke the laws against fosterage and Irish alliances and ” coyne and livery ” and private wars as easily as if he were not the King’s representative. 

A new English family now comes into Irish history—that of the Talbots. In 1414 Sir John Talbot, afterwards Lord Furnival and Earl of Shrewsbury, came to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant for six years, and on two other occasions (1423 and 1446-9) he occupied the same position.

He was a famous soldier, and won great distinction in the French wars, but in Ireland his achievements were not remarkable. He got his brother, Richard Talbot, appointed as Archbishop of Dublin, and made him Lord Deputy. But the Earl of Ormonde, the chief supporter in Ireland of the House of Lancaster, resented the appointment, and a bitter hostility developed between the two.

Constant quarrels took place, and for thirty years those two principal supporters of the Crown thwarted, opposed, and intrigued against each other. During that period (1419-49), Richard Talbot was Deputy four times, and Ormonde was five times Lord Lieutenant, Lord Justice, or Deputy; but the activities of both were mostly absorbed in their personal struggle for power.