“[T]he Irish were governed by what they called the Brehon law, so stiled from the Irish name of judges, who were denominated Brehons. But king John in the twelfth year of his reign went into Ireland, and carried over with him many able sages of the law; and there by his letters patent, in right of the dominion of conquest, is said to have ordained and established that Ireland should be governed by the laws of England …. But to this ordinance many of the Irish were averse to conform, and still stuck to their Brehon law: so that both Henry the third and Edward the first were obliged to renew the injunction …. And yet, even in the reign of queen Elizabeth, the wild natives still kept and preserved their Brehon law ….” 1 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 100–01 (1765).
brehon law
Brehon law (bree-h[schwa]n law). Hist. The ancient system of law in Ireland at the time of its conquest by Henry II. • This law was formally abolished in 1366. — Sometimes spelled Brehon Law.
