 They indulge in incest, for example in marrying – or rather debauching – the wives of their dead brothers".Even earlier than this Archbishop Anselm accused the Irish of "wife swapping", "exchanging their wives as freely as other men exchange their horses".One will find these views echoed centuries later in the words of Sir Henry Sidney, twice Lord Deputy of Ireland during the reign of Elizabeth I, and in those of Edmund Tremayne, his secretary.