Predicaments of Settlers : Abandonement and Perpetual Norman Feuds

The settlers had suffered most from the effects of the invasion, and of the evils which had accompanied it.   They had all the weakness of a foreign element which needed externalhelp to enable it to develop. And this external help, as already noted  had for some time been missing.

The Bruces had been fought by the Normans in Ireland, and not by the Crown of England. Even less help were the settlers to get during the period that followed, for Edward III was entirely occupied by his warfare with the King of -France.

Their nominal over-lords in many cases were now ” absentees ” —great English lords to whom had passed the inheritance of the early ” grants.”

 Their followers were left without their protection, and in turn abandoned the lands.Nor did the lords who remained give much protection to the bulk of the settlers. Left to themselves, they engaged in frequent feuds with each other. In 1328 the Earl of

Desmond carried on war against Le Poer and the De Burghs because Le Poer had called him a ” rhymer.” In Munster the Barrys and the Condons were at war about the same time. In 1329, Bermingham, the victor of Faughart, who had been created Earl of Louth, was killed with 200 of his followers near Ardee by a party of his own race.

In 1330 so bitter was the rivalry between the Earl of Ulster and the newly created Earl of Desmond, even while they were in the field against the O’Briens, that the Lord Justice placed both under arrest.