November and kept Christmas at Woodstock (Walsingham, i. 294).
On 16 March 1361 Edward issued a writ to the chancellor of Ireland speaking of the increasing weakness of his faithful subjects in that country, and declaring his intention of tending over his son Lionel, earl of Ulster in right of his wife, with a large army (Fœdera, iii. 610). Ever since the murder of William de Burgh [q. v.], earl of Ulster, in 1332, the English settlement in Ireland had grown continually weaker. The De Burghs refused to acknowledge the earl's daughter, Elizabeth, who was brought up as the king's ward and was now Lionel's wife; they assumed Irish names and became 'more Irish than the Irish themselves,' and their example was followed by many other houses of Anglo-Norman descent. Further causes of weakness were the heavy drain of soldiers for the king's ware, the constant quarrels between the colonists, and the corrupt state of the administration. Holders of public offices in Ireland were simply engaged in a race for wealth, and as Edward's wars rendered him unable to pay them regularly, they obtained money as they could. Although the king's visit, proposed in 1331, never took place, he made several attempts to check the decay of the colony. In 1338 he ordered that all justices should be Englishmen by birth (ib, ii. 1019), and in 1341 that all officers settled in Ireland should be removed unless they held estates in England (ib, p. 1171). In 1341, however, in order to raise money and to crush the power of the rebellious party, the English by blood, he declared a resumption of crown grants. The opposition of Desmond compelled the abandonment of the measure, and the attempt embittered the relations between the two parties (Bagwell, Ireland under the Tudors, i. 70-9). Edward endeavoured to provide for the defence of the colony by checking absenteeism (Fœdera, iii. 153, 253), and in 1357 issued an ordinance for the better government of the country, which confirmed the institution of annual parliaments introduced in the last reign. In 1361 he decreed that no 'mere Irish' should hold any secular office or ecclesiastical benefice within the country subject to the crown; and a wider attempt to separate the two races and put a stop to the adoption of Irish customs by the English colonists was made by the statute of Kilkenny in 1367 [see under Lionel, Duke of Clarence]. The English districts were now formally distinguished from the Irish. Edward's legislation, however, failed to strengthen the power of the crown in Ireland, and the English colony decayed during his reign. This year was marked by a second visitation of the plague, which lasted from August till the following May. As peace was now made with France, the king on 16 Feb. restored the possessions of the alien priories. In spite of the peace France was desolated by the free companies commanded by Sir Hugh Calveley [q. v.] and other Englishmen, and largely composed of the king's subjects, and at John's request Edward ordered his officers to check their disorders (Fœdera, iii. 630, 085). Early in 1362 knights from Spain, Cyprus, and Armenia visited the king, requesting his help against Mahometan invaders, and in May he entertained them with jousts at Smithfield. He now seems to have neglected his kingly duties, and his licentiousness and indolence were made the subjects of popular satire (Political Songs, i. 182 sq.) On 19 July he created Gascony and Aquitaine into a principality, which he conferred on the Prince of Wales (ib, p. 607), to be held by liege homage, and in his charter of grant declared that he might hereafter erect these dominions into a kingdom, and reserved the right of such erection, a power which was universally held to belong only to the emperor or the pope. This year the king began to keep the jubilee year of his age; he pardoned many prisoners and outlaws, and created his sons, Lionel and John, Dukes of Clarence and Lancaster, a title which he had introduced into England, and which had as yet been conferred only on the Prince of Wales and Henry of Lancaster, lately deceased. These creations point to the influence of French usage; the king evidently intended that this new title should be reserved for members of his family, to whom he wished to give a position somewhat similar to that of the 'princes of the lilies.' As the great fiefs of France, such as Normandy and Anjou, had been made apanages for the king's sons, so Edward was carrying out a scheme of policy which invested the members of the royal house with some of the richest fiefs of the English crown. The Prince of Wales, who was also Earl of Chester and Duke of Cornwall, married the heiress of the Earl of Kent. The wife of Lionel brought him, in addition to the earldom of Ulster, a portion of the inheritance of the Earls of Gloucester and Hereford; and John, who had received the earldom of Richmond from his father held four other earldoms in right of his wife, the daughter of Henry, duke of Lancaster, By thus concentrating the great fiefs in his own family Edward hoped to strengthen the crown against the nobles (on this subject see Const. Hist. ii. 416). In the parliament of October the king was granted a subsidy for three years. The custom of making grants
