What’s in a name:
Coyne.
“Coyne”, (Coinneamh; a billeted person) or
sometimes “Coyne and Livery”, was a general term
which covered the exactions which a great lord,
like McCarthy, imposed on his followers.
These exactions included various charges
each with its own name, and each requiring the
under chieftain to maintain and subsidise the
life style of his over lord.
The principal requirement was the cost of
billeting the lord’s armies.
The custom and practice varied up and down the
Country, and generally we find that the purely
Gaelic areas, like the kingdoms of the O’Neills
in the North, were more moderate in their
exactions.
The worst were areas under the great
Earls such as the FitzGeralds of Desmond.
But everywhere the chieftains and freeholders
groaned under the weight of these
exactions.
In some instances we hear of a freeholder
being given the offer of giving up three
quarters of his
land in exchange for total relief from
the exactions.
We also hear sometimes of that same
freeholder, a few years later, being charged the
exactions as before, but now on his reduced
piece of land.
An example of this sort of sharp practice
was our own over-lords, the McCarthys of
Muskerry, who had brought this to a fine art.
One element of Coyne had a more specific
definition.
This was the term “Bonnacht” (buannacht;
billeting tax) which was used to define the
additional costs of supporting Gallowglass when
these were introduced into
A “battle” of gallowglass was in theory 100 men
under the command of a constable.
They were all professional soldiers who
had to be paid.
They also had to be housed and fed.
And horses provided for them which also
had to be looked after.
It was a considerable cost to the
overlord, and eventually this cost was passed on
to the chieftains and freeholders.