Creaght

And those 4 garrisons issuing forth, at such convenient times as they shall have intelligence or espial upon the enemy, will so drive him from one side to another, and tennis him amongst them, that he shall finde no where safe to keepe his creete [a creaght or nomadic herd of cattle] in, nor hide himself, but flying from the fire shall fall into the water, and out of one danger into another, that in short space his creete, which is his chiefe sustenence, shall be wasted with preying, or killed with driving, or starved for want of pasture in the woods.

Eight essays are: the evolution of cattle and cattle farming systems: the genetic evidence; the early medieval farm; the Cistercian grange: a medieval farming system; manor centres, settlement and agricultural systems in medieval Ireland, 1250-1350; the origins of the creaght: farming system or social unit?; the changing structure of Irish agriculture in the seventeenth century; Collon, Co.

Regardless of cause, pastoralism offered proof to England of Irish national inferiority, while the creaght and tanistry traditions of cattle-raiding and "elective succession from among eligible males" (15) respectively, and preference for the brehon legal system over English inheritance and legal practices, further enshrined these judgments.