A Popular History of Ireland: from the EarliestPeriod to the Emancipation of the Catholics

by Thomas D'Arcy McGee

In Two Volumes

Volume I

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 

Ireland, lifting herself from the dust, drying her tears, and proudly demanding her legitimate place among thenations of the earth, is a spectacle to cause immenseprogress in political philosophy. 

Behold a nation whose fame had spread over all the earthere the flag of England had come into existence. For 500years her life has been apparently extinguished. Thefiercest whirlwind of oppression that ever in the wrathof God was poured upon the children of disobedience hadswept over her. She was an object of scorn and contemptto her subjugator. Only at times were there any signs oflife--an occasional meteor flash that told of her oldenspirit--of her deathless race. Degraded and apathetic asthis nation of Helots was, it is not strange that politicalphilosophy, at all times too Sadducean in its principles, should ask, with a sneer, "Could these dry bones live?"The fulness of time has come, and with one gallant sunwardbound the "old land" comes forth into the political dayto teach these lessons, that Right must always conquerMight in the end--that by a compensating principle inthe nature of things, Repression creates slowly, butcertainly, a force for its overthrow. 

Had it been possible to kill the Irish Nation, it hadlong since ceased to exist. But the transmitted qualitiesof her glorious children, who were giants in intellect, virtue, and arms for 1500 years before Alfred the Saxonsent the youth of his country to Ireland in search ofknowledge with which to civilize his people, --the legends, songs, and dim traditions of this glorious era, and theirrepressible piety, sparkling wit, and dauntless courageof her people, have at last brought her forth like. Lazarus from the tomb. True, the garb of the prison orthe cerements of the grave may be hanging upon her, but "loose her and let her go" is the wise policy ofthose in whose hands are her present destinies. 

A nation with such a strange history must have some greatwork yet to do in the world. Except the Jews, no peoplehas so suffered without dying. 

The History of Ireland is the most interesting of records, and the least known. The Publishers of this edition ofD'Arcy McGee's excellent and impartial work take advantageof the awakening interest in Irish literature to presentto the public a book of _high-class history_, ascheap as _largely circulating romance_. A sale aslarge as that of a popular romance is, therefore, necessaryto pay the speculation. That sale the Publishers expect. Indeed, as truth is often stranger than fiction, so Irishhistory is more romantic than romance. How Queen Scotaunfurled the Sacred Banner. How Brian and Malachy contendedfor empire. How the "Pirate of the North" scourged theIrish coast. The glories of Tara and the piety of Columba. The cowardice of James and the courage of Sarsfield. HowDathi, the fearless, sounded the Irish war-cry in farAlpine passes, and how the Geraldine forayed Leinster. The deeds of O'Neil and O'Donnell. The march of Cromwell, the destroying angel. Ireland's sun sinking in dim eclipse. The dark night of woe in Erin for a hundred years. '83--'98--'48--'68. Ireland's sun rising in glory. Surelythe Youth of Ireland will find in their country's recordsromance enough!

The English and Scotch are well read in the histories oftheir country. The Irish are, unfortunately, not so; andyet, what is English or Scottish history to compare withIrish? Ireland was a land of saints and scholars whenBritons were painted savages. Wise and noble laws, basedupon the spirit of Christianity, were administered inErin, and valuable books were written ere the Britonswere as far advanced in civilization as the BlackfeetIndians. In morals and intellect, in Christianity andcivilization, in arms, art, and science, Ireland shonelike a star among the nations when darkness enshroudedthe world. And she nobly sustained civilization andreligion by her missionaries and scholars. The librariesand archives of Europe contain the records of their pietyand learning. Indeed the echoes have scarcely yet ceasedto sound upon our ears, of the mighty march of her armedchildren over the war-fields of Europe, during thatterrible time when England's cruel law, intended todestroy the spirit of a martial race, precipitated anarmed torrent of nearly 500, 000 of the flower of theIrish youth into foreign service. Irish steel glitteredin the front rank of the most desperate conflicts, andmore than once the ranks of England went down before "theExiles, " in just punishment for her terrible penal codewhich excluded the Irish soldier from his country'sservice. 

It was the Author's wish to educate his countrymen intheir national records. If by issuing a cheap editionthe present Publishers carry out to any extent that wish, it will be to them a source of satisfaction. 

It is impossible to conclude this Preface without anexpression of regret at the dark and terrible fate whichovertook the high-minded, patriotic, and distinguishedIrishman, Thomas D'Arcy McGee. He was a man who lovedhis country well; and when the contemptible squabblesand paltry dissensions of the present have passed away, his name will be a hallowed memory, like that of Emmetor Fitzgerald, to inspire men with high, ideals ofpatriotism and devotion. 

CAMERON & FERGUSON. 

[Note: From 1857 until his death, McGee was active inCanadian politics. A gifted speaker and strong supporterof Confederation, he is regarded as one of Canada'sfathers of Confederation. On April 7, 1868, afterattending a late-night session in the House of Commons, he was shot and killed as he returned to his roominghouse on Sparks Street in Ottawa. It is generally believedthat McGee was the victim of a Fenian plot. PatrickJames Whelan was convicted and hanged for the crime, however the evidence implicating him was later seen tobe suspect. ]

CONTENTS--VOL. I. 

BOOK I. 

CHAPTER I. --The First Inhabitants

CHAPTER II. --The First Ages

CHAPTER III. --Christianity Preached at Tara--The Result

CHAPTER IV. --The Constitution, and how the Kings kept it

CHAPTER V. --Reign of Hugh II. --The Irish Colony in Scotland obtains its Independence

CHAPTER VI. --Kings of the Seventh Century

CHAPTER VII. --Kings of the Eighth Century

CHAPTER VIII. --What the Irish Schools and Saints did in the Three First Christian Centuries

BOOK II. 

CHAPTER I. --The Danish Invasion

CHAPTER II. --Kings of the Ninth Century (Continued)-- Nial III. --Malachy I. --Hugh VII

CHAPTER III. --Reign of Flan "of the Shannon" (A. D. 879 to 916)

CHAPTER IV. --Kings of the Tenth Century--Nial IV. -- Donogh II. --Congal III. --Donald IV

CHAPTER V. --Reign of Malachy II. And Rivalry of Brian

CHAPTER VI. --Brian, Ard-Righ--Battle of Clontarf

CHAPTER VII. --Effects of the Rivalry of Brian and Malachy on the Ancient Constitution

CHAPTER VIII. --Latter Days of the Northmen in Ireland

BOOK III. 

CHAPTER I. --The Fortunes of the Family of Brian

CHAPTER II. --The Contest between the North and South-- Rise of the Family of O'Conor

CHAPTER III. --Thorlogh More O'Conor--Murkertach of Aileach--Accession of Roderick O'Conor

CHAPTER IV. --State of Religion and Learning among the Irish previous to the Anglo-Norman Invasion

CHAPTER V. --Social Condition of the Irish previous to the Norman Invasion

CHAPTER VI. --Foreign Relations of the Irish previous to the Anglo-Norman Invasion

BOOK IV. 

CHAPTER I. --Dermid McMurrogh's Negotiations and Success-- The First Expedition of the Normans into Ireland

CHAPTER II. --The Arms, Armour and Tactics of the Normans and Irish

CHAPTER III. --The First Campaign of Earl Richard--Siege of Dublin--Death of King Dermid McMurrogh

CHAPTER IV. --Second Campaign of Earl Richard--Henry II. In Ireland

CHAPTER V. --From the Return of Henry II. To England till the Death of Earl Richard and his principal Companions

CHAPTER VI. --The Last Years of the Ard-Righ, Roderick O'Conor

CHAPTER VII. --Assassination of Hugh de Lacy--John "Lackland" in Ireland--Various Expeditions of John de Courcy--Death of Conor Moinmoy, and Rise of Cathal, "the Red-Handed" O'Conor--Close of the Career of De Courcy and De Burgh

CHAPTER VIII. --Events of the Thirteenth Century--The Normans in Connaught

CHAPTER IX. --Events of the Thirteenth Century--The Normans in Munster and Leinster

CHAPTER X. --Events of the Thirteenth Century--The Normans in Meath and Ulster

CHAPTER XI. --Retrospect of the Norman Period in Ireland--A Glance at the Military Tactics of the Times--No Conquest of the Country in the Thirteenth Century

CHAPTER XII. --State of Society and Learning in Ireland during the Norman Period

BOOK V. 

CHAPTER I. --The Rise of "the Red Earl"--Relations of Ireland and Scotland

CHAPTER II. --The Northern Irish enter into Alliance with King Robert Bruce--Arrival and First Campaign of Edward Bruce

CHAPTER III. --Bruce's Second Campaign and Coronation at Dundalk--The Rising in Connaught--Battle of Athenry--Robert Bruce in Ireland

CHAPTER IV. --Battle of Faughard and Death of King Edward Bruce--Consequences of his Invasion-- Extinction of the Earldom of Ulster--Irish Opinion of Edward Bruce

BOOK VI. 

CHAPTER I. --Civil War in England--Its Effects on the Anglo-Irish--The Knights of St. John-- General Desire of the Anglo-Irish to Naturalize themselves among the Native Population--A Policy of Non-Intercourse between the Races Resolved on in England

CHAPTER II. --Lionel, Duke of Clarence, Lord Lieutenant-- The Penal Code of Race--"The Statute of Kilkenny, " and some of its Consequences

CHAPTER III. --Art McMurrogh, Lord of Leinster--First Expedition of Richard II. Of England to Ireland

CHAPTER IV. --Subsequent Proceedings of Richard II. -- Lieutenancy and Death of the Earl of March-- Second Expedition of Richard against Art McMurrogh--Change of Dynasty in England

CHAPTER V. --Parties within "the Pale"--Battles of Kilmainham and Killucan--Sir John Talbot's Lord Lieutenancy

CHAPTER VI. --Acts of the Native Princes--Subdivision of Tribes and Territories--Anglo-Irish Towns under Native Protection--Attempt of Thaddeus O'Brien, Prince of Thomond, to Restore the Monarchy--Relations of the Races in the Fifteenth Century

CHAPTER VII. --Continued Division and Decline of "the English Interest"--Richard, Duke of York, Lord Lieutenant--Civil War again in England-- Execution of the Earl of Desmond-- Ascendancy of the Kildare Geraldines

CHAPTER VIII. --The Age and Rule of Gerald, Eighth Earl of Kildare--The Tide begins to turn for the English Interest--The Yorkist Pretenders, Simnel and Warbeck--Poyning's Parliament-- Battles of Knockdoe and Monabraher

CHAPTER IX. --State of Irish and Anglo--Irish Society during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries

CHAPTER X. --State of Religion and Learning during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries

BOOK VII. 

CHAPTER I. --Irish Policy of Henry the Eighth during the Lifetime of Cardinal Wolsey

CHAPTER II. --The Insurrection of Silken Thomas--The Geraldine League--Administration of Lord Leonard Gray

CHAPTER III. --Sir Anthony St. Leger, Lord Deputy-- Negotiations of the Irish Chiefs with James the Fifth of Scotland--First Attempts to Introduce the Protestant Reformation-- Opposition of the Clergy--Parliament of 1541--The Protectors of the Clergy Excluded--State of the Country--The Crowns United-Henry the Eighth Proclaimed at London and Dublin

CHAPTER IV. --Adhesion of O'Neil, O'Donnell, and O'Brien-- A new Anglo-Irish Peerage--New Relations of Lord and Tenant--Bishops appointed by the Crown--Retrospect

BOOK VIII. 

CHAPTER I. --Events of the Reign of Edward Sixth

CHAPTER II. --Events of the Reign of Philip and Mary

CHAPTER III. --Accession of Queen Elizabeth--Parliament of 1560--The Act of Uniformity--Career and Death of John O'Neil "the Proud"

HISTORY OF IRELAND

BOOK I. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE FIRST INHABITANTS. 

Ireland is situated in the North Atlantic, between thedegrees fifty-one and a half and fifty-five and a halfNorth, and five and a quarter and ten and a third Westlongitude from Greenwich. It is the last land usuallyseen by ships leaving the Old World, and the first bythose who arrive there from the Northern ports of America. In size it is less than half as large as Britain, and inshape it may be compared to one of those shields whichwe see in coats-of-arms, the four Provinces--Ulster, Connaught, Leinster, and Munster--representing the fourquarters of the shield. 

Around the borders of the country, generally near thecoast, several ranges of hills and mountains rear theircrests, every Province having one or more such groups. The West and South have, however, the largest and highestof these hills, from the sides of all which descendnumerous rivers, flowing in various directions to thesea. Other rivers issue out of large lakes formed in thevalleys, such as the Galway river which drains LoughCorrib, and the Bann which carries off the surplus watersof Lough Neagh (_Nay_). In a few districts wherethe fall for water is insufficient, marshes and swampswere long ago formed, of which the principal one occupiesnearly 240, 000 acres in the very heart of the country. It is called "the Bog of Alien, " and, though quite uselessfor farming purposes, still serves to supply the surroundingdistrict with fuel, nearly as well as coal mines do inother countries. 

In former times, Ireland was as well wooded as watered, though hardly a tree of the primitive forest now remains. One of the earliest names applied to it was "the woodedIsland, " and the export of timber and staves, as well asof the furs of wild animals, continued, until the beginningof the seventeenth century, to be a thriving branch oftrade. But in a succession of civil and religious wars, the axe and the torch have done their work of destruction, so that the age of most of the wood now standing doesnot date above two or three generations back. 

Who were the first inhabitants of this Island, it isimpossible to say, but we know it was inhabited at a veryearly period of the world's lifetime--probably as earlyas the time when Solomon the Wise, sat in Jerusalem onthe throne of his father David. As we should not altogetherreject, though neither are we bound to believe, the wildand uncertain traditions of which we have neitherdocumentary nor monumental evidence, we will glance overrapidly what the old Bards and Story-tellers have handeddown to us concerning Ireland before it became Christian. 

The _first_ story they tell is, that about three hundredyears after the Universal Deluge, Partholan, of the stockof Japhet, sailed down the Mediterranean, "leaving Spainon the right hand, " and holding bravely on his course, reached the shores of the wooded western Island. ThisPartholan, they tell us, was a double parricide, havingkilled his father and mother before leaving his nativecountry, for which horrible crimes, as the Bards verymorally conclude, his posterity were fated never topossess the land. After a long interval, and when theywere greatly increased in numbers, they were cut off tothe last man, by a dreadful pestilence. 

The story of the _second_ immigration is almost as vagueas that of the first. The leader this tune is calledNemedh, and his route is described as leading from theshores of the Black Sea, across what is now Russia inEurope, to the Baltic Sea, and from the Baltic to Ireland. He is said to have built two royal forts, and to have"cleared twelve plains of wood" while in Ireland. Heand his posterity were constantly at war, with a terriblerace of Formorians, or Sea Kings, descendants of Ham, who had fled from northern Africa to the western islandsfor refuge from their enemies, the sons of Shem. At lengththe Formorians prevailed, and the children of the secondimmigration were either slain or driven into exile, fromwhich some of their posterity returned long afterwards, and again disputed the country, under two differentdenominations. 

The _Firbolgs_ or Belgae are the _third_ immigration. They were victorious under their chiefs, the five sonsof Dela, and divided the island into five portions. Butthey lived in days when the earth--the known parts of itat least--was being eagerly scrambled for by the overflowinghosts of Asia, and they were not long left in undisputedpossession of so tempting a prize. Another expedition, claiming descent from the common ancestor, Nemedh, arrivedto contest their supremacy. These last--the _fourth_immigration--are depicted to us as accomplished soothsayersand necromancers who came out of Greece. They could quellstorms; cure diseases; work in metals; foretell futureevents; forge magical weapons; and raise the dead tolife; they are called the _Tuatha de Danans_, and bytheir supernatural power, as well as by virtue of "theLia Fail, " or fabled "stone of destiny, " they subduedtheir Belgic kinsmen, and exercised sovereignty overthem, till they in turn were displaced by the Gaelic, or_fifth_ immigration. 

This fifth and final colony called themselves alternately, or at different periods of their history, _Gael_, fromone of their remote ancestors; _Milesians_, from theimmediate projector of their emigration; or _Scoti_, fromScota, the mother of Milesius. They came from Spainunder the leadership of the sons of Milesius, whom theyhad lost during their temporary sojourn in that country. In vain the skilful _Tuatha_ surrounded themselves andtheir coveted island with magic-made tempest and terrors;in vain they reduced it in size so as to be almostinvisible from sea; Amergin, one of the sons of Milesius, was a Druid skilled in all the arts of the east, and ledby his wise counsels, his brothers countermined themagicians, and beat them at their own weapons. ThisAmergin was, according to universal usage in ancienttimes, at once Poet, Priest, and Prophet; yet when hiswarlike brethren divided the island between them, theyleft the Poet out of reckoning. He was finally drownedin the waters of the river Avoca, which is probably thereason why that river has been so suggestive of melodyand song ever since. 

Such are the stories told of the _five_ successive hordesof adventurers who first attempted to colonize our woodedIsland. Whatever moiety of truth may be mixed up withso many fictions, two things are certain, that long beforethe time when our Lord and Saviour came upon earth, thecoasts and harbours of Erin were known to the merchantsof the Mediterranean, and that from the first to thefifth Christian century, the warriors of the wooded Islemade inroads on the Roman power in Britain and even inGaul. Agricola, the Roman governor of Britain in thereign of Domitian--the first century--retained an Irishchieftain about his person, and we are told by hisbiographer that an invasion of Ireland was talked of atRome. But it never took place; the Roman eagles, althoughsupreme for four centuries in Britain, never crossed theIrish Sea; and we are thus deprived of those Latin helpsto our early history, which are so valuable in the firstperiod of the histories of every western country, withwhich the Romans had anything to do. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE FIRST AGES. 

Since we have no Roman accounts of the form of governmentor state of society in ancient Erin, we must only dependon the Bards and Story-tellers, so far as their statementsare credible and agree with each other. On certain mainpoints they do agree, and these are the points which itseems reasonable for us to take on their authority. 

As even brothers born of the same mother, coming suddenlyinto possession of a prize, will struggle to see who canget the largest share, so we find in those first ages aconstant succession of armed struggles for power. Thepetty Princes who divided the Island between them werecalled _Righ_, a word which answers to the Latin _Rex_and French _Roi_; and the chief king or monarch was called_Ard-Righ_, or High-King. The eldest nephew, or son ofthe king, was the usual heir of power, and was calledthe _Tanist_, or successor; although any of the familyof the Prince, his brothers, cousins, or other kinsmen, might be chosen _Tanist_, by election of the people overwhom he was to rule. One certain cause of exclusion waspersonal deformity; for if a Prince was born lame or ahunchback, or if he lost a limb by accident, he wasdeclared unfit to govern. Even after succession, anyserious accident entailed deposition, though we find thenames of several Princes who managed to evade or escapethis singular penalty. It will be observed besides ofthe _Tanist_, that the habit of appointing him seems tohave been less a law than a custom; that it was notuniversal in all the Provinces; that in some tribes thesuccession alternated between a double line of Princes;and that sometimes when the reigning Prince obtained thenomination of a _Tanist_, to please himself, the choicewas set aside by the public voice of the clansmen. Thesuccessor to the Ard-Righ, or Monarch, instead of beingsimply called _Tanist_, had the more sounding title of_Roydamna_, or King-successor. 

The chief offices about the Kings, in the first ages, were all filled by the Druids, or Pagan Priests; the_Brehons_, or Judges, were usually Druids, as were alsothe _Bards_, the historians of their patrons. Then camethe Physicians; the Chiefs who paid tribute or receivedannual gifts from the Sovereigns, or Princes; the royalstewards; and the military leaders or Champions, who, like the knights of the middle ages, held their landsand their rank at court, by the tenure of the sword. Likethe feudal _Dukes_ of Prance, and _Barons_ of England, these military nobles often proved too powerful for theirnominal patrons, and made them experience all theuncertainty of reciprocal dependence. The Champions playan important part in all the early legends. Whereverthere is trouble you are sure to find them. Their mostcelebrated divisions were the warriors of the _RedBranch_--that is to say, the Militia of Ulster; the_Fiann_, or Militia of Leinster, sometimes the royalguard of Tara, at others in exile and disgrace; the_Clan-Degaid_ of Munster, and the _Fiann_ of Connaught. The last force was largely recruited from the Belgic racewho had been squeezed into that western province, bytheir Milesian conquerors, pretty much as Cromwellendeavoured to force the Milesian Irish into it, manyhundred years afterwards. Each of these bands had itsspecial heroes; its Godfreys and Orlandos celebrated insong; the most famous name in Ulster was Cuchullin: socalled from _cu_, a hound, or watch-dog, and _Ullin_, the ancient name of his province. He lived at the dawnof the Christian era. Of equal fame was Finn, the fatherof Ossian, and the Fingal of modern fiction, who flourishedin the latter half of the second century. Gall, son ofMorna, the hero of Connaught (one of the few distinguishedmen of Belgic origin whom we hear of through the Milesianbards), flourished a generation earlier than Finn, andmight fairly compete with him in celebrity, if he hadonly had an Ossian to sing his praises. 

The political boundaries of different tribes expanded orcontracted with their good or ill fortune in battle. Immigration often followed defeat, so that a clan, orits offshoot is found at one period on one part of themap and again on another. As _surnames_ were not generallyused either in Ireland or anywhere else, till after thetenth century, the great families are distinguishable atfirst, only by their tribe or clan names. Thus at thenorth we have the Hy-Nial race; in the south the Eugenianrace, so called from Nial and Eoghan, their mutualancestors. 

We have already compared the shape of Erin to a shield, in which the four Provinces represented the four quarters. Some shields have also _bosses_ or centre-pieces, andthe federal province of MEATH was the _boss_ of the oldIrish shield. The ancient Meath included both the presentcounties of that name, stretching south to the Liffey, and north to Armagh. It was the mensal demesne, or "boardof the king's table:" it was exempt from all taxes, exceptthose of the Ard-Righ, and its relations to the otherProvinces may be vaguely compared to those of the Districtof Columbia to the several States of the North AmericanUnion. ULSTER might then be defined by a line drawn fromSligo Harbour to the mouth of the Boyne, the line beingnotched here and there by the royal demesne of Meath;LEINSTER stretched south from Dublin triangle-wise toWaterford Harbour, but its inland line, towards the west, was never very well defined, and this led to constantborder wars with Munster; the remainder of the south tothe mouth of the Shannon composed MUNSTER; the presentcounty of Clare and all west of the Shannon north toSligo, and part of Cavan, going with CONNAUGHT. The chiefseats of power, in those several divisions, were TARA, for federal purposes; EMANIA, near Armagh, for Ulster;LEIGHLIN, for Leinster; CASHEL, for Munster; and CRUCHAIN, (now Rathcrogan, in Roscommon, ) for Connaught. 

How the common people lived within these external divisionsof power it is not so easy to describe. All historiestell us a great deal of kings, and battles, andconspiracies, but very little of the daily domestic lifeof the people. In this respect the history of Erin ismuch the same as the rest; but some leading facts we doknow. Their religion, in Pagan times, was what the modernscall _Druidism_, but what they called it themselves wenow know not. It was probably the same religion ancientlyprofessed by Tyre and Sidon, by Carthage and her coloniesin Spain; the same religion which the Romans have describedas existing in great part of Gaul, and by their accounts, we learn the awful fact, that it sanctioned, nay, demanded, human sacrifices. From the few traces of its doctrineswhich Christian zeal has permitted to survive in the oldIrish language, we see that _Belus_ or "Crom, " the godof fire, typified by the sun, was its chief divinity--thattwo great festivals were held in his honour on daysanswering to the first of May and last of October. Therewere also particular gods of poets, champions, artificersand mariners, just as among the Romans and Greeks. Sacredgroves were dedicated to these gods; Priests and Priestessesdevoted their lives to their service; the arms of thechampion, and the person of the king were charmed bythem; neither peace nor war was made without theirsanction; their own persons and their pupils were heldsacred; the high place at the king's right hand and thebest fruits of the earth and the waters were theirs. Oldage revered them, women worshipped them, warriors paidcourt to them, youth trembled before them, princes andchieftains regarded them as elder brethren. So numerouswere they in Erin, and so celebrated, that the altars ofBritain and western Gaul, left desolate by the Romanlegions, were often served by hierophants from Erin, which, even in those Pagan days, was known to all theDruidic countries as the "Sacred Island. " Besides theprinces, the warriors, and the Druids, (who were alsothe Physicians, Bards and Brehons of the first ages, )there were innumerable petty chiefs, all laying claim tonoble birth and blood. They may be said with the warriorsand priests to be the only freemen. The _Bruais_, orfarmers, though possessing certain legal rights, were aninferior caste; while of the Artisans, the smiths andarmorers only seem to have been of much consideration. The builders of those mysterious round towers, of whicha hundred ruins yet remain, may also have been a privilegedorder. But the mill and the loom were servile occupations, left altogether to slaves taken in battle, or purchasedin the market-places of Britain. The task of the herdsman, like that of the farm-labourer, seems to have devolvedon the bondsmen, while the _quern_ and the shuttle wereleft exclusively in the hands of the bondswomen. 

We need barely mention the names of the first Milesiankings, who were remarkable for something else than cuttingeach other's throats, in order to hasten on to the solidground of Christian tunes. The principal names are: Heberand Heremhon, the crowned sons of Milesians; they atfirst divided the Island fairly, but Heremhon soon becamejealous of his brother, slew him in battle, and establishedhis own supremacy. Irial the Prophet was King, and builtseven royal fortresses; Tiern'mass; in his reign the artsof dyeing in colours were introduced; and the distinguishingof classes by the number of colours they were permittedto wear, was decreed. Ollamh ("the Wise") establishedthe Convention of Tara, which assembled habitually everyninth year, but might be called oftener; it met aboutthe October festival in honour of Beleus or _Crom_; Eocaidinvented or introduced a new species of wicker boats, called _cassa_, and spent much of his time upon the sea;a solitary queen, named Macha, appears in the succession, from whom Armagh takes its name; except Mab, themythological Queen of Connaught, she is the sole femaleruler of Erin in the first ages; Owen or Eugene Mor ("theGreat") is remembered as the founder of the notablefamilies who rejoice in the common name of Eugenians;Leary, of whom the fable of Midas is told with variations;Angus, whom the after Princes of Alba (Scotland) claimedas their ancestor; Eocaid, the tenth of that name, inwhose reign are laid the scenes of the chief mythologicalstories of Erin--such as the story of Queen Mab--thestory of the Sons of Usna; the death of Cuchullin (acounterpart of the Persian tale of Roostam and Sohrab);the story of Fergus, son of the king; of Connor of Ulster;of the sons of Dari; and many more. We next meet withthe first king who led an expedition abroad against theRomans in Crimthan, surnamed _Neea-Naari_, or Nair'sHero, from the good genius who accompanied him on hisforay. A well-planned insurrection of the conqueredBelgae, cut off one of Crimthan's immediate successors, with all his chiefs and nobles, at a banquet given onthe Belgian-plain (Moybolgue, in Cavan); and arrestedfor a century thereafter Irish expeditions abroad. Arevolution and a restoration followed, in which Moran theJust Judge played the part of Monk to _his_ Charles II. , Tuathal surnamed "the Legitimate. " It was Tuathalwho imposed the special tax on Leinster, of which, weshall often hear--under the title of _Borooa_, or Tribute. "The Legitimate" was succeeded by his son, who introducedthe Roman _Lex Talionis_ ("an eye for an eye and a tooth, for a tooth") into the Brehon code; soon after, theEugenian families of the south, strong in numbers, andled by a second Owen More, again halved the Island withthe ruling race, the boundary this time being the _esker_, or ridge of land which can be easily traced from Dublinwest to Galway. Olild, a brave and able Prince, succeededin time to the southern half-kingdom, and planted hisown kindred deep and firm in its soil, though the unityof the monarchy was again restored under Cormac Ulla, or_Longbeard_. This Cormac, according to the legend, wasin secret a Christian, and was done to death by theenraged and alarmed Druids, after his abdication andretirement from the world (A. D. 266). He had reigned fullforty years, rivalling in wisdom, and excelling in justicethe best of his ancestors. Some of his maxims remain tous, and challenge comparison for truthfulness and foresightwith most uninspired writings. 

Cormac's successors during the same century are of littlemark, but in the next the expeditions against the Romanoutposts were renewed with greater energy and on anincreasing scale. Another Crimthan eclipsed the fame ofhis ancestor and namesake; Nial, called "of the Hostages, "was slain on a second or third expedition into Gaul (A. D. 405), while Dathy, nephew and successor to Nial, wasstruck dead by lightning in the passage of the Alps (A. D. 428). It was in one of Nial's Gallic expeditions thatthe illustrious captive was brought into Erin, for whomProvidence had reserved the glory of its conversion tothe Christian faith--an event which gives a unity and apurpose to the history of that Nation, which must alwaysconstitute its chief attraction to the Christian reader. 

CHAPTER III. 

CHRISTIANITY PREACHED AT TARA--THE RESULT. 

The conversion of a Pagan people to Christianity mustalways be a primary fact in their history. It is notmerely for the error it abolishes or the positive truthit establishes that a national change of faith ishistorically important, but for the complete revolutionit works in every public and private relation. The changesocially could not be greater if we were to see someirresistible apostle of Paganism ariving from abroad inChristian Ireland, who would abolish the churches, convents, and Christian schools; decry and bring intoutter disuse the decalogue, the Scriptures and theSacraments; efface all trace of the existing belief inOne God and Three Persons, whether in private or publicworship, in contracts, or in courts of law; and insteadof these, re-establish all over the country, in highplaces and in every place, the gloomy groves of theDruids, making gods of the sun and moon, the naturalelements, and man's own passions, restoring human sacrificesas a sacred duty, and practically excluding from thecommunity of their fellows, all who presumed to questionthe divine origin of such a religion. The preaching ofPatrick effected a revolution to the full as complete assuch a counter-revolution in favour of Paganism couldpossibly be, and to this thorough revolution we mustdevote at least one chapter before going farther. 

The best accounts agree that Patrick was a native ofGaul, then subject to Rome; that he was carried captiveinto Erin on one of King Nial's returning expeditions;that he became a slave, as all captives of the sword did, in those iron times; that he fell to the lot of oneMilcho, a chief of Dalriada, whose flocks he tended forseven years, as a shepherd, on the mountain called Slemish, in the present county of Antrim. The date of Nial's death, and the consequent return of his last expedition, is setdown in all our annals at the year 405; as Patrick wassixteen years of age when he reached Ireland, he musthave been born about the year 390; and as he died in theyear 493, he would thus have reached the extraordinary, but not impossible age of 103 years. Whatever the exactnumber of his years, it is certain that his mission inIreland commenced in the year 432, and was prolonged tillhis death, sixty-one years afterwards. Such an unprecedentedlength of life, not less than the unprecedented power, both popular and political, which he early attained, enabled him to establish the Irish Church, during hisown time, on a basis so broad and deep, that neitherlapse of ages, nor heathen rage, nor earthly temptations, nor all the arts of Hell, have been able to upheave itsfirm foundations. But we must not imagine that the powersof darkness abandoned the field without a struggle, orthat the victory of the cross was achieved without asingular combination of courage, prudence, anddetermination--God aiding above all. 

If the year of his captivity was 405 or 406, and that ofhis escape or manumission seven years later (412 or 413), twenty years would intervene between his departure outof the land of his bondage, and his return to it clothedwith the character and authority of a Christian Bishop. This interval, longer or shorter, he spent in qualifyinghimself for Holy Orders or discharging priestly dutiesat Tours, at Lerins, and finally at Rome. But always bynight and day he was haunted by the thought of the Pagannation in which he had spent his long years of servitude, whose language he had acquired, and the character ofwhose people he so thoroughly understood. These naturalretrospections were heightened and deepened by supernaturalrevelations of the will of Providence towards the Irish, and himself as their apostle. At one time, an angelpresented him, in his sleep, a scroll bearing thesuperscription, "the voice of the Irish;" at another, heseemed to hear in a dream all the unborn children of thenation crying to him for help and holy baptism. When, therefore, Pope Celestine commissioned him for thisenterprise, "to the ends of the earth, " he found him notonly ready but anxious to undertake it. 

When the new Preacher arrived in the Irish Sea, in 432, he and his companions were driven off the coast of Wicklowby a mob, who assailed them with showers of stones. Running down the coast to Antrim, with which he waspersonally familiar, he made some stay at Saul, in Down, where he made few converts, and celebrated Mass in abarn; proceeding northward he found himself rejected withscorn by his old master, Milcho, of Slemish. No doubt itappeared an unpardonable audacity in the eyes of theproud Pagan, that his former slave should attempt toteach him how to reform his life and order his affairs. Returning again southward, led on, as we must believe, by the Spirit of God, he determined to strike a blowagainst Paganism at its most vital point. Having learnedthat the monarch, Leary (_Laeghaire_), was to celebratehis birthday with suitable rejoicings at Tara, on a daywhich happened to fall on the eve of Easter, he resolvedto proceed to Tara on that occasion, and to confront theDruids in the midst of all the princes and magnates ofthe Island. With this view he returned on his formercourse, and landed from his frail barque at the mouth ofthe Boyne. Taking leave of the boatmen, he desired themto wait for him a certain number of days, when, if theydid not hear from him, they might conclude him dead, andprovide for their own safety. So saying he set out, accompanied by the few disciples he had made, or broughtfrom abroad, to traverse on foot the great plain whichstretches from the mouth of the Boyne to Tara. If thosesailors were Christians, as is most likely, we can conceivewith what anxiety they must have awaited tidings of anattempt so hazardous and so eventful. 

The Christian proceeded on his way, and the first nightof his journey lodged with a hospitable chief, whosefamily he converted and baptized, especially marking outa fine child named Beanen, called by him Benignus, fromhis sweet disposition; who was destined to be one of hismost efficient coadjutors, and finally his successor inthe Primatial see of Armagh. It was about the second orthird day when, travelling probably by the northern road, poetically called "the Slope of the Chariots, " theChristian adventurers came in sight of the roofs of Tara. Halting on a neighbouring eminence they surveyed thecitadel of Ancient Error, like soldiers about to assaultan enemy's stronghold. The aspect of the royal hill musthave been highly imposing. The building towards the northwas the Banquet Hall, then thronged with the celebrantsof the King's birth-day, measuring from north to south360 feet in length by 40 feet wide. South of this hallwas the King's Rath, or residence, enclosing an area of280 yards in diameter, and including several detachedbuildings, such as the house of Cormac, and the house ofthe hostages. Southward still stood the new rath of thereigning king, and yet farther south, the rath of QueenMab, probably uninhabited even then. The intervals betweenthe buildings were at some points planted, for we knowthat magnificent trees shaded the well of Finn, and thewell of Newnaw, from which all the raths were suppliedwith water. Imposing at any time, Tara must have lookedits best at the moment Patrick first beheld it, being inthe pleasant season of spring, and decorated in honourof the anniversary of the reigning sovereign. 

One of the religious ceremonies employed by the Druidsto heighten the solemnity of the occasion, was to orderall the fires of Tara and Meath to be quenched, in orderto rekindle them instantaneously from a sacred firededicated to the honour of their god. But Patrick, eitherdesignedly or innocently, anticipated this strikingceremony, and lit his own fire, where he had encamped, in view of the royal residence. A flight of fiery arrows, shot into the Banqueting Hall, would not have excitedmore horror and tumult among the company there assembled, than did the sight of that unlicensed blaze in thedistance. Orders were issued to drag the offender againstthe laws and the gods of the Island before them, and thepunishment in store for him was already decreed in everyheart. The Preacher, followed by his trembling disciples, ascended "the Slope of the Chariots, " surrounded bymenacing minions of the Pagan law, and regarded withindignation by astonished spectators. As he came herecited Latin Prayers to the Blessed Trinity, beseechingtheir protection and direction in this trying hour. Contrary to courteous custom no one at first rose tooffer him a seat. At last a chieftain, touched withmysterious admiration for the stranger, did him thatkindness. Then it was demanded of him, why he had daredto violate the laws of the country, and to defy itsancient gods. On this text the Christian Missionary spoke. The place of audience was in the open air, on thateminence, the home of so many kings, which commands oneof the most agreeable prospects in any landscape. Theeye of the inspired orator, pleading the cause of allthe souls that hereafter, till the end of time, mightinhabit the land, could discern within the spring-dayhorizon, the course of the Blackwater and the Boyne beforethey blend into one; the hills of Cavan to the far north;with the royal hill of Tailtean in the foreground; thewooded heights of Slane and Skreen, and the four ancientroads, which led away towards the four subject Provinces, like the reins of empire laid loosely on their necks. Since the first Apostle of the Gentiles had confrontedthe subtle Paganism of Athens, on the hill of Mars, noneof those who walked in his steps ever stood out in moreglorious relief than Patrick, surrounded by Pagan Princes, and a Pagan Priesthood, on the hill of Tara. 

The defence of the fire he had kindled, unlicensed, soonextended into wider issues. Who were the gods againstwhom he had offended? Were they true gods or false? Theyhad their priests: could they maintain the divinity ofsuch gods, by argument, or by miracle? For his God, he, though unworthy, was ready to answer, yea, right readyto die. His God had become man, and had died for man. His name alone was sufficient to heal all diseases; toraise the very dead to life. Such, we learn from theold biographers, was the line of Patrick's argument. Thissermon ushered in a controversy. The king's guests, whohad come to feast and rejoice, remained to listen and tomeditate. With the impetuosity of the national character--with all its passion for debate--they rushed into thisnew conflict, some on one side, some on the other. Thedaughters of the king and many others--the Arch-Druidhimself--became convinced and were baptized. Themissionaries obtained powerful protectors, and the kingassigned to Patrick the pleasant fort of Trim, as apresent residence. From that convenient distance, hecould readily return at any moment, to converse with theking's guests and the members of his household. 

The Druidical superstition never recovered the blow itreceived that day at Tara. The conversion of the Arch-Druidand the Princesses, was, of itself, their knell of doom. Yet they held their ground during the remainder of thisreign--twenty-five years longer (A. D. 458). The kinghimself never became a Christian, though he toleratedthe missionaries, and deferred more and more every yearto the Christian party. He sanctioned an expurgated codeof the laws, prepared under the direction of Patrick, from which every positive element of Paganism was rigidlyexcluded. He saw, unopposed, the chief idol of his race, overthrown on "the Plain of Prostration, " at Sletty. Yetwithal he never consented to be baptized; and only twoyears before his decease, we find him swearing to atreaty, in the old Pagan form--"by the Sun, and the Wind, and all the Elements. " The party of the Druids at firstsought to stay the progress of Christianity by violence, and even attempted, more than once, to assassinate Patrick. Finding these means ineffectual they tried ridicule andsatire. In this they were for some time seconded by theBards, men warmly attached to their goddess of song andtheir lives of self-indulgence. All in vain. The day ofthe idols was fast verging into everlasting night inErin. Patrick and his disciples were advancing fromconquest to conquest. Armagh and Cashel came in the wakeof Tara, and Cruachan was soon to follow. Driven fromthe high places, the obdurate Priests of Bel took refugein the depths of the forest and in the islands of thesea, wherein the Christian anchorites of the next agewere to replace them. The social revolution proceeded, but all that was tolerable in the old state of things, Patrick carefully engrafted with the new. He allowed muchfor the habits and traditions of the people, and so madethe transition as easy, from darkness into the light, asNature makes the transition from night to morning. Heseven times visited in person every mission in the kingdom, performing the six first "circuits" on foot, but theseventh, on account of his extreme age, he was borne ina chariot. The pious munificence of the successors ofLeary, had surrounded him with a household of princelyproportions. Twenty-four persons, mostly ecclesiastics, were chosen for this purpose: a bell-ringer, a psalmist, a cook, a brewer, a chamberlain, three smiths, threeartificers, and three embroiderers are reckoned of thenumber. These last must be considered as employed infurnishing the interior of the new churches. A scribe, a shepherd to guard his flocks, and a charioteer are alsomentioned, and their proper names given. How differentthis following from the little boat's crew, he had leftwaiting tidings from Tara, in such painful apprehension, at the mouth of the Boyne, in 432. Apostolic zeal, andunrelaxed discipline had wrought these wonders, duringa lifetime prolonged far beyond the ordinary age of man. 

The fifth century was drawing to a close, and the daysof Patrick were numbered. Pharamond and the Franks hadsway on the Netherlands; Hengist and the Saxons on SouthBritain; Clovis had led his countrymen across the Rhineinto Gaul; the Vandals had established themselves inSpain and North Africa; the Ostrogoths were supreme inItaly. The empire of barbarism had succeeded to the empireof Polytheism; dense darkness covered the semi-Christiancountries of the old Roman empire, but happily daylightstill lingered in the West. Patrick, in good season, had done his work. And as sometimes, God seems to bringround His ends, contrary to the natural order of things, so the spiritual sun of Europe was now destined to risein the West, and return on its light-bearing errandtowards the East, dispelling La its path, Saxon, Frankish, and German darkness, until at length it reflected backon Rome herself, the light derived from Rome. 

On the 17th of March, in the year of our Lord 493, Patrickbreathed his last in the monastery of Saul, erected onthe site of that barn where he had first said Mass. Hewas buried with national honours in the Church of Armagh, to which he had given the Primacy over all the churchesof Ireland; and such was the concourse of mourners, andthe number of Masses offered for his eternal repose, thatfrom the day of his death till the close of the year, the sun is poetically said never to have set--so brilliantand so continual was the glare of tapers and torches. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE CONSTITUTION, AND HOW THE KINGS KEPT IT. 

We have fortunately still existing the main provisionsof that constitution which was prepared under the auspicesof Saint Patrick, and which, though not immediately, norsimultaneously, was in the end accepted by all Erin asits supreme law. It is contained in a volume called "theBook of Rights, " and in its printed form (the Dublinbilingual edition of 1847), fills some 250 octavo pages. This book may be said to contain the original institutesof Erin under her Celtic Kings: "the Brehon laws, " (whichhave likewise been published), bear the same relation to"the Book of Rights, " as the Statutes at large of England, or the United States, bear to the English Constitutionin the one case, or to the collective Federal and StateConstitutions in the other. Let us endeavour to comprehendwhat this ancient Irish Constitution was like, and howthe Kings received it, at first. 

There were, as we saw in the first chapter, beside theexisting four Provinces, whose names are familiar toevery one, a fifth principality of Meath. Each of theProvinces was subdivided into chieftainries, of whichthere were at least double or treble as many as thereare now counties. The connection between the chief andhis Prince, or the Prince and his monarch, was not ofthe nature of feudal obedience; for the fee-simple ofthe soil was never supposed to be vested in the sovereign, nor was the King considered to be the fountain of allhonour. The Irish system blended the aristocratic anddemocratic elements more largely than the monarchical. Everything proceeded by election, but all the candidatesshould be of noble blood. The Chiefs, Princes, andMonarchs, so selected, were bound together by certaincustoms and tributes, originally invented by the geniusof the Druids, and afterwards adopted and enforced bythe authority of the Bishops. The tributes were paid inkind, and consisted of cattle, horses, foreign-bornslaves, hounds, oxen, scarlet mantles, coats of mail, chess-boards and chess-men, drinking cups, and otherportable articles of value. The quantity in every casedue from a King to his subordinate, or from a subordinateto his King--for the gifts and grants were oftenreciprocal--is precisely stated in every instance. Besidesthese rights, this constitution defines the "prerogatives"of the five Kings on their journeys through each other'sterritory, their accession to power, or when present inthe General Assemblies of the Kingdom. It contains, besides, a very numerous array of "prohibitions"--actswhich neither the Ard-Righ nor any other Potentate maylawfully do. Most of these have reference to old localPagan ceremonies in which the Kings once bore a leadingpart, but which were now strictly prohibited; others areof inter-Provincial significance, and others, again, arerules of personal conduct. Among the prohibitions of themonarch the first is, that the sun must never rise onhim in his bed at Tara; among his prerogatives he wasentitled to banquet on the first of August, on the fishof the Boyne, fruit from the Isle of Man, cresses fromthe Brosna river, venison from Naas, and to drink thewater of the well of Talla: in other words, he was entitledto eat on that day, of the produce, whether of earth orwater, of the remotest bounds, as well as of the veryheart of his mensal domain. The King of Leinster was"prohibited" from upholding the Pagan ceremonies withinhis province, or to encamp for more than a week in certaindistricts; but he was "privileged" to feast on the fruitsof Almain, to drink the ale of Cullen, and to presideover the games of Carman, (Wexford. ) His colleague ofMunster was "prohibited" from encamping a whole week atKillarney or on the Suir, and from mustering a martialhost on the Leinster border at Gowran; he was "privileged"to pass the six weeks of Lent at Cashel (in free quarters), to use fire and force in compelling tribute from northLeinster; and to obtain a supply of cattle from Connaught, at the time "of the singing of the cuckoo. " The ConnaughtKing had five other singular "prohibitions" imposed onhim--evidently with reference to some old Pagan rites--andhis "prerogatives" were hostages from Galway, the monopolyof the chase in Mayo, free quarters in Murrisk, in thesame neighbourhood, and to marshal his border-host atAthlone to confer with the tribes of Meath. The rulerof Ulster was also forbidden to indulge in suchsuperstitious practices as observing omens of birds, ordrinking of a certain fountain "between two darknesses;"his prerogatives were presiding at the games of Cooley, "with the assembly of the fleet;" the right of musteringhis border army in the plains of Louth; free quarters inArmagh for three nights for his troops before settingout on an expedition; and to confine his hostages inDunseverick, a strong fortress near the Giant's Causeway. Such were the principal checks imposed upon the individualcaprice of Monarchs and Princes; the plain inference fromall which is, that under the Constitution of Patrick, aPrince who clung to any remnant of ancient Paganism, might lawfully be refused those rents and dues whichalone supported his dignity. In other words, disguisedas it may be to us under ancient forms, "the Book ofRights" establishes Christianity as the law of the land. All national usages and customs, not conflicting withthis supreme law, were recognized and sanctioned by it. The internal revenues in each particular Province weremodelled upon the same general principle, with onememorable exception--the special tribute which Leinsterpaid to Munster--and which was the cause of more bloodshedthan all other sources of domestic quarrel combined. Theorigin of this tax is surrounded with fable, but itappears to have arisen out of the reaction which tookplace, when Tuathal, "the Legitimate, " was restored tothe throne of his ancestors, after the successful revoltof the Belgic bondsmen. Leinster seems to have clunglongest to the Belgic revolution, and to have submittedonly after repeated defeats. Tuathal, therefore, imposedon that Province this heavy and degrading tax, compellingits Princes not only to render him and his successorsimmense herds of cattle, but also 150 male and femaleslaves, to do the menial offices about the palace ofTara. With a refinement of policy, as far-seeing as itwas cruel, the proceeds of the tax were to be dividedone-third to Ulster, one-third to Connaught, and theremainder between the Queen of the Monarch and the rulerof Munster. In this way all the other Provinces becameinterested in enforcing this invidious and oppressiveenactment upon Leinster which, of course, was withheldwhenever it could be refused with the smallest probabilityof success. Its resistance, and enforcement, especiallyby the kings of Munster, will be found a constant causeof civil war, even in Christian times. 

The sceptre of Ireland, from her conversion to the timeof Brian, was almost solely in the hands of the northernHy-Nial, the same family as the O'Neills. All the kingsof the sixth and seventh centuries were of that line. Inthe eighth century (from 709 to 742), the southernannalists style Cathal, King of Munster, Ard-Righ; inthe ninth century (840 to 847), they give the same hightitle to Felim, King of Munster; and in the eleventhcentury Brian possessed that dignity for the twelve lastyears of his life, (1002 to 1014). With these exceptions, the northern Hy-Nial, and their co-relatives of Meath, called the southern Hy-Nial, seem to have retained thesceptre exclusively in their own hands, during the fivefirst Christian centuries. Yet on every occasion, theancient forms of election, (or procuring the adhesion ofthe Princes), had to be gone through. Perfect unanimity, however, was not required; a majority equal to two-thirdsseems to have sufficed. If the candidate had the Northin his favour, and one Province of the South, he wasconsidered entitled to take possession of Tara; if hewere a Southern, he should be seconded either by Connaughtor Ulster, before he could lawfully possess himself ofthe supreme power. The benediction of the Archbishop ofArmagh, seems to have been necessary to confirm the choiceof the Provincials. The monarchs, like the petty kings, were crowned or "made" on the summit of some lofty moundprepared for that purpose; an hereditary officer, appointedto that duty, presented him with a white wand perfectlystraight, as an emblem of the purity and uprightnesswhich should guide all his decisions, and, clothed withhis royal robes, the new ruler descended among his people, and solemnly swore to protect their rights and to administerequal justice to all. This was the civil ceremony; thesolemn blessing took place in a church, and is supposedto be the oldest form of coronation service observedanywhere in Christendom. 

A ceremonial, not without dignity, regulated the gradationsof honour, in the General Assemblies of Erin. The timeof meeting was the great Pagan Feast of Samhain, the 1stof November. A feast of three days opened and closed theAssembly, and during its sittings, crimes of violencecommitted on those in attendance were punished withinstant death. The monarch himself had no power to pardonany violator of this established law. The _Chiefs_ ofterritories sat, each in an appointed seat, under hisown shield; the seats being arranged by order of theOllamh, or Recorder, whose duty it was to preserve themuster-roll, containing the names of all the livingnobles. The _Champions_, or leaders of military bands, occupied a secondary position, each sitting' under hisown shield. Females and spectators of an inferior rankwere excluded; the Christian clergy naturally steppedinto the empty places of the Druids, and were placedimmediately next the monarch. 

We shall now briefly notice the principal acts of thefirst Christian kings, during the century immediatelysucceeding St. Patrick's death. Of OLLIOL, who succeededLeary, we cannot say with certainty that he was a Christian. His successor, LEWY, son of Leary, we are expressly toldwas killed by lightning (A. D. 496), for "having violatedthe law of Patrick"--that is, probably, for havingpractised some of those Pagan rites forbidden to themonarchs by the revised constitution. His successor, MURKERTACH, son of Ere, was a professed Christian, thougha bad one, since he died by the vengeance of a concubinenamed Sheen, (that is, _storm_, ) whom he had once putaway at the instance of his spiritual adviser, but whomhe had not the courage--though brave as a lion in battle--tokeep away (A. D. 527). TUATHAL, "the Rough, " succeededand reigned for seven years, when he was assassinated bythe tutor of DERMID, son of Kerbel, a rival whom he haddriven into exile. DERMID immediately seized on the throne(A. D. 534), and for twenty eventful years bore sway overall Erin. He appears to have had quite as much of theold leaven of Paganism in his composition--at least inhis youth and prime--as either Lewy or Leary. He keptDruids about his person, despised "the right of sanctuary"claimed by the Christian clergy, and observed, with allthe ancient superstitious ceremonial, the national gamesat Tailteen. In his reign, the most remarkable event wasthe public curse pronounced on Tara, by a Saint whosesanctuary the reckless monarch had violated, in dragginga prisoner from the very horns of the altar, and puttinghim to death. For this offence--the crowning act of aseries of aggressions on the immunities claimed by theclergy--the Saint, whose name was Ruadan, and the siteof whose sanctuary is still known as Temple-Ruadan inTipperary, proceeded to Tara, accompanied by his clergy, and, walking round the royal rath, solemnly excommunicatedthe monarch, and anathematized the place. The far-reachingconsequences of this awful exercise of spiritual powerare traceable for a thousand years through Irish history. No king after Dermid resided permanently upon the hillof Tara. Other royal houses there were in Meath--atTailteen, at the hill of Usna, and on the margin of thebeautiful Lough Ennell, near the present Castlepollard, and at one or other of these, after monarchs held occasionalcourt; but those of the northern race made their habitualhome in their own patrimony near Armagh, or on thecelebrated hill of Aileach. The date of the maledictionwhich left Tara desolate is the year of our Lord, 554. The end of this self-willed semi-Pagan (Dermid) was inunison with his life; he was slain in battle by BlackHugh, Prince of Ulster, two years after the desolationof Tara. 

Four kings, all fierce competitors for the succession, reigned and fell, within ten years of the death of Dermid, and then we come to the really interesting and importantreign of Hugh the Second, which lasted twenty-seven years(A. D. 566 to 593), and was marked by the establishmentof the Independence of the Scoto-Irish Colony in NorthBritain, and by other noteworthy events. But thesetwenty-seven years deserve a chapter to themselves. 

CHAPTER V. 

REIGN OF HUGH II. --THE IRISH COLONY IN SCOTLAND OBTAINSITS INDEPENDENCE. 

Twenty-seven years is a long reign, and the years ofKing-Hugh II. Were marked with striking events. Onereligious and one political occurrence, however, threwall others into the shade--the conversion of the Highlandsand Islands of Scotland (then called Alba or Albyn bythe Gael, and Caledonia by the Latins), and the formalrecognition, after an exciting controversy, of theindependence of the Milesian colony in Scotland. Theseevents follow each other in the order of time, and standpartly in the relation of cause and effect. 

The first authentic Irish immigration into Scotland seemsto have taken place about the year of our Lord 258. Thepioneers crossed over from Antrim to Argyle, where thestrait is less than twenty-five miles wide. Otheradventurers followed at intervals, but it is a fact tobe deplored, that no passages in our own, and in allother histories, have been so carelessly kept as therecords of emigration. The movements of rude masses ofmen, the first founders of states and cities, are generallylost in obscurity, or misrepresented by patriotic zeal. Several successive settlements of the Irish in Caledoniacan be faintly traced from the middle of the third tillthe beginning of the sixth century. About the year 503, they had succeeded in establishing a flourishingprincipality among the cliffs and glens of Argyle. Thelimits of their first territory cannot be exactly laiddown; but it soon spread north into Rosshire, and eastinto the present county of Perth. It was a land of stormyfriths and fissured headlands, of deep defiles and snowysummits. "'Tis a far cry to Lough Awe, " is still a lowlandproverb, and Lough Awe was in the very heart of that oldIrish settlement. 

The earliest emigrants to Argyle were Pagans, while thelatter were Christians, and were accompanied by priests, and a bishop, Kieran, the son of the carpenter, whom, from his youthful piety and holy life, as well as fromthe occupation followed by his father, is sometimesfancifully compared to our Lord and Saviour himself. Parishes in Cantyre, in Islay, and in Carrick, still bearthe name of St. Kieran as patron. But no systematicattempt--none at least of historic memory--was made toconvert the remoter Gael and the other races then inhabitingAlba--the Picts, Britons, and Scandinavians, until theyear of our era, 565, Columba or COLUMBKILL, a Bishop ofthe royal race of Nial, undertook that task, on a scalecommensurate with its magnitude. This celebrated man hasalways ranked with Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget asthe most glorious triad of the Irish Calendar. He was, at the time he left Ireland, in the prime of life--his44th year. Twelve companions, the apostolic number, accompanied him on his voyage. For thirty-four years hewas the legislator and captain of Christianity in thosenorthern regions. The King of the Picts received baptismat his hands; the Kings of the Scottish colony, hiskinsmen, received the crown from him on their accession. The islet of I. , or Iona, as presented to him by one ofthese princes. Here he and his companions built withtheir own hands their parent-house, and from this Hebrideanrock in after times was shaped the destinies, spiritualand temporal, of many tribes and kingdoms. 

The growth of Iona was as the growth of the grain ofmustard seed mentioned in the Gospel, even during thelife of its founder. Formed by his teaching and example, there went out from it apostles to Iceland, to the Orkneys, to Northumbria, to Man, and to South Britain. A hundredmonasteries in Ireland looked to that exiled saint astheir patriarch. His rule of monastic life, adopted eitherfrom the far East, from the recluses of the Thebaid, orfrom his great contemporary, Saint Benedict, was soughtfor by Chiefs, Bards, and converted Druids. Clients, seeking direction from his wisdom, or protection throughhis power, were constantly arriving and departing fromhis sacred isle. His days were divided between manuallabour and the study and transcribing of the SacredScriptures. He and his disciples, says the VenerableBede, in whose age Iona still flourished, "neither thoughtof nor loved anything in _this_ world. " Some writers haverepresented Columbkill's _Culdees_, (which in Englishmeans simply "Servants of God, ") as a married clergy; sofar is this from the truth, that we now know, no womanwas allowed to land on the island, nor even a cow to bekept there, for, said the holy Bishop, "wherever thereis a cow there will be a woman, and wherever there is awoman there will be mischief. "

In the reign of King Hugh, three domestic questions aroseof great importance; one was the refusal of the Princeof Ossory to pay tribute to the Monarch; the other, theproposed extinction of the Bardic Order, and the third, the attempt to tax the Argyle Colony. The question betweenOssory and Tara, we may pass over as of obsolete interest, but the other two deserve fuller mention:

The Bards--who were the Editors, Professors, Registrarsand Record-keepers--the makers and masters of publicopinion in those days, had reached in this reign a numberexceeding 1, 200 in Meath and Ulster alone. They claimedall the old privileges of free quarters on their travelsand freeholdings at home, which were freely granted totheir order when it was in its infancy. Those chieftainswho refused them anything, however extravagant, theylampooned and libelled, exciting their own people andother princes against them. Such was their audacity, thatsome of them are said to have demanded from King Hughthe royal brooch, one of the most highly prized heirloomsof the reigning family. Twice in the early part of thisreign they had been driven from the royal residence, andobliged to take refuge in the little principality ofUlidia (or Down); the third time the monarch had swornto expel them utterly from the kingdom. In Columbkill, however, they were destined to find a most powerfulmediator, both from his general sympathy with the Order, being himself no mean poet, and from the fact that thethen Arch-Poet, or chief of the order, Dallan Forgaill, was one of his own pupils. 

To settle this vexed question of the Bards, as well asto obtain the sanction of the estates to the taxation ofArgyle, King Hugh called a General Assembly in the year590. The place of meeting was no longer the interdictedTara, but for the monarch's convenience a site farthernorth was chosen--the hill of Drom-Keth, in the presentcounty of Deny. Here came in rival state and splendourthe Princes of the four Provinces, and other principalchieftains. The dignitaries of the Church also attended, and an occasional Druid was perhaps to be seen in thetrain of some unconverted Prince. The pretensions of themother-country to impose a tax upon her Colony, weresustained by the profound learning and venerable name ofSt. Colman, Bishop of Dromore, one of the first men ofhis Order. 

When Columbkill "heard of the calling together of thatGeneral Assembly, " and of the questions to be theredecided, he resolved to attend, notwithstanding the sternvow of his earlier life, never to look on Irish soilagain. Under a scruple of this kind, he is said to haveremained blindfold, from Ms arrival in Ms fatherland, till his return to Iona. He was accompanied by an imposingtrain of attendants; by Aidan, Prince of Argyle, so deeplyinterested in the issue, and a suite of over one hundredpersons, twenty of them Abbots or Bishops. Columbkillspoke for his companions; for already, as in Bede's time, the Abbots of Iona exercised over all the clergy northof the Humber, but still more directly north of the Tweed, a species of supremacy similar to that which the successorsof St. Benedict and St. Bernard exercised, in turn, overPrelates and Princes on the European Continent. 

When the Assembly was opened the holy Bishop of Dromorestated the arguments in favour of Colonial taxation withlearning and effect. Hugh himself impeached the Bardsfor their licentious and lawless lives. Columbkill defendedboth interests, and, by combining both, probablystrengthened the friends of each. It is certain that hecarried the Assembly with him, both against the monarchand those of the resident clergy, who had selected Colmanas their spokesman. The Bardic Order was spared. Thedoctors, or master-singers among them, were prohibitedfrom wandering from place to place; they were assignedresidence with the chiefs and princes; their loselattendants were turned over to honest pursuits, and thusa great danger was averted, and one of the most essentialof the Celtic institutions being reformed and regulated, was preserved. Scotland and Ireland have good reason tobe grateful to the founder of Iona, for the interpositionthat preserved to us the music, which is now admitted tobe one of the most precious inheritances of both countries. 

The proposed taxation Columbkill strenuously andsuccessfully resisted. Up to this time, the colonistshad been bound only to furnish a contingent force, byland and sea, when the King of Ireland went to war, andto make them an annual present called "chief-rent. "

From the Book of Rights we learn that (at least at thetime the existing transcript was made) the ScottishPrinces paid out of Alba, seven shields, seven steeds, seven bondswomen, seven bondsmen, and seven hounds allof the same breed. But the "chief-rent, " or "eric forkindly blood, " did not suffice in the year 590 to satisfyKing Hugh. The colony had grown great, and, like somemodern monarchs, he proposed to make it pay for itssuccess. Columbkill, though a native of Ireland, and aprince of its reigning house, was by choice a residentof Caledonia, and he stood true to his adopted country. The Irish King refused to continue the connection on theold conditions, and declared his intention to visit Albahimself to enforce the tribute due; Columbkill, risingin the Assembly, declared the Albanians "for ever freefrom the yoke, " and this, adds an old historian, "turnedout to be the fact. " From the whole controversy we mayconclude that Scotland never paid political tribute toIreland; that their relation was that rather of allies, than of sovereign and vassal; that it resembled more thehomage Carthage paid to Tyre, and Syracuse to Corinth, than any modern form of colonial dependence; that afederal connection existed by which, in time of war, theScots of Argyle, and those of Hibernia, were mutuallybound to aid, assist, and defend each other. And thisnatural and only connection, founded in the blood of bothnations, sanctioned by their early saints, confirmed byfrequent intermarriage, by a common language and literature, and by hostility to common enemies, the Saxons, Danes, and Normans, grew into a political bond of unusualstrength, and was cherished with affection by both nations, long ages after the magnates assembled at Drom-Keth haddisappeared in the tombs of their fathers. 

The only unsettled question which remained after theAssembly at Drom-Keth related to the Prince of Ossory. Five years afterwards (A. D. 595), King Hugh fell in anattempt to collect the special tribute from all Leinster, of which we have already heard something, and shall, byand by, hear more. He was an able and energetic ruler, and we may be sure "did not let the sun rise on him inhis bed at Tara, " or anywhere else. In his time greatinternal changes were taking place in the state of society. The ecclesiastical order had become more powerful thanany other in the state. The Bardic Order, thrice proscribed, were finally subjected to the laws, over which they hadat one time insolently domineered. Ireland's only colony--unless we except the immature settlement in the Isleof Man, under Cormac Longbeard--was declared independentof the parent country, through the moral influence ofits illustrious Apostle, whose name many of its kingsand nobles were of old proud to bear--_Mal-Colm_, meaning"servant of Columb, " or Columbkill. But the memory ofthe sainted statesman who decreed the separation of thetwo populations, so far as claims to taxation could bepreferred, preserved, for ages, the better and far moreprofitable alliance, of an ancient friendship, unbrokenby a single national quarrel during a thousand years. 

A few words more on the death and character of thiscelebrated man, whom we are now to part with at the closeof the sixth, as we parted from Patrick at the close ofthe fifth century. His day of departure came in 596. Death found him at the ripe age of almost fourscore, _stylus_ in hand, toiling cheerfully over the vellumpage. It was the last night of the week when thepresentiment of his end came strongly upon him. "Thisday, " he said to his disciple and successor, Dermid, "iscalled the day of rest, and such it will be for me, forit will finish my labours. " Laying down the manuscript, he added, "let Baithen finish the rest. " Just afterMatins, on the Sunday morning, he peacefully passed awayfrom the midst of his brethren. 

Of his tenderness, as well as energy of character, tradition, and his biographers have recorded many instances. Among others, his habit of ascending an eminence everyevening at sunset, to look over towards the coast of hisnative land. The spot is called by the islanders to thisday, "the place of the back turned upon Ireland. " Thefishermen of the Hebrides long believed they could seetheir saint flitting over the waves after every new storm, counting the islands to see if any of them had foundered. It must have been a loveable character of which suchtales could be told and cherished from generation togeneration. 

Both Education and Nature had well fitted Columbkill tothe great task of adding another realm to the empire ofChristendom. His princely birth gave him power over hisown proud kindred; his golden eloquence and glowingverse--the fragments of which still move and delight theGaelic scholar--gave him fame and weight in the Christianschools which had suddenly sprung up in every glen andisland. As prince, he stood on equal terms with princes;as poet, he was affiliated to that all-powerful BardicOrder, before whose awful anger kings trembled, andwarriors succumbed in superstitious dread. A spotlesssoul, a disciplined body, an indomitable energy, anindustry that never wearied, a courage that never blanched, a sweetness and courtesy that won all hearts, a tendernessfor others that contrasted strongly with his rigourtowards himself--these were the secrets of the successof this eminent missionary--these were the miracles bywhich he accomplished the conversion of so many barbaroustribes and Pagan Princes. 

CHAPTER VI. 

KINGS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY. 

THE five years of the sixth century, which remained afterthe death of Hugh II. , were filled by Hugh III. , son ofDermid, the semi-Pagan. Hugh IV. Succeeded (A. D. 599)and reigned for several years; two other kings, of smallaccount, reigned seven years; Donald II. (A. D. 624)reigned sixteen years; Connall and Kellach, brothers, (A. D. 640) reigned jointly sixteen years; they weresucceeded (A. D. 656) by Dermid and Blathmac, brothers, who reigned jointly seven years; Shanasagh, son of theformer, reigned six years; Kenfala, four; Finnacta, "thehospitable, " twenty years, and Loingsech (A. D. 693) eightyears. 

Throughout this century the power of the Church wasconstantly on the increase, and is visible in manyimportant changes. The last armed struggle of Druidism, and the only invasion of Ireland by the Anglo-Saxons, are also events of the civil history of the seventhcentury. 

The reign, of Donald II. Is notable for the passing awayof most of those saintly men, the second generation ofIrish abbots and bishops; for the foundation of thecelebrated school of Lismore on the Munster Blackwater;and the battle of Moira, in the present county of Down. Of the school and the saints we shall speak hereafter;the battle deserves more immediate mention. 

The cause of the battle was the pretension of the pettyPrince of Ulidia, which comprised little more than thepresent county of Down, to be recognised as Prince ofall Ulster. Now the Hy-Nial family, not only had longgiven monarchs to all Ireland, but had also the lion'sshare of their own Province, and King Donald as theirhead could not permit their ascendency to be disputed. The ancestors of the present pretender, Congal, surnamed"the squint-eyed, " had twice received and cherished thelicentious Bards when under the ban of Tara, and hispopularity with that still powerful order was one propof his ambition. It is pretty clear also that the lastrally of Druidism against Christianity took place behindhis banner, on the plain of Moira. It was the year 637, and preparations had long gone on on both sides for afinal trial of strength. Congal had recruited numerousbands of Saxons, Britons, Picts and Argyle Scots, whopoured into the Larbours of Down for months, and weremarshalled on the banks of the Lagan, to sustain hiscause. The Poets of succeeding ages have dwelt much indetail on the occurrences of this memorable day. It waswhat might strictly be called a pitched battle, time andplace being fixed by mutual agreement. King Donald wasaccompanied by his Bard, who described to him, as theycame in sight, the several standards of Congal's host, and who served under them. Conspicuous above all, theancient banner of the Red Branch Knights-"a yellow lionwrought on green satin"--floated over Congal's host. Onthe other side the monarch commanded in person, accompaniedby his kinsmen, the sons of Hugh III. The red hand ofTirowen, the cross of Tirconnell, the eagle and lion ofInnishowen, the axes of Fanad, were in his ranks, rangedclosely round his own standard. The cause of theConstitution and the Church prevailed, and Druidismmourned its last hope extinguished on the plains of Moira, in the death of Congal, and the defeat of his vast army. King Donald returned in triumph to celebrate his victoryat Emania and to receive the benediction of the Churchat Armagh. 

The sons of Hugh III. , Dermid and Blathmac, zealous andpious Christian princes, survived the field of Moira andother days of danger, and finally attained the supremepower--A. D. 656. Like the two kings of Sparta theyreigned jointly, dividing between them the labours andcares of State. In their reign, that terrible scourge, called in Irish, "the yellow plague, " after ravaginggreat part of Britain, broke out with undiminishedvirulence in Erin (A. D. 664). To heighten the awful senseof inevitable doom, an eclipse of the sun occurredconcurrently with the appearance of the pestilence onthe first Sunday in May. It was the season when theancient sun-god had been accustomed to receive his annualoblations, and we can well believe that those whose heartsstill trembled at the name of Bel, must have connectedthe eclipse and the plague with the revolution in thenational worship, and the overthrow of the ancient godson that "plain of prostration, " where they had so longreceived the homage of an entire people. Among the victimsof this fearful visitation--which, like the modern cholera, swept through all ranks and classes of society, andreturned in the same track for several successiveseasons--were very many of those venerated men, the thirdand fourth generation of the Abbots and Bishops. TheMunster King, and many of the chieftain class shared thecommon lot. Lastly, the royal brothers fell themselvesvictims to the epidemic, which so sadly signalizes theirreign. 

The only conflicts that occurred on Irish soil with aPictish or an Anglo-Saxon force--if we except those whoformed a contingent of Congal's army at Moira--occurredin the time of the hospitable Finnacta. The Pictish force, with their leaders, were totally defeated at Rathmore, in Antrim (A. D. 680), but the Anglo-Saxon expedition(A. D. 684) seems not to have been either expected orguarded against. As leading to the mention of otherinteresting events, we must set this inroad clearlybefore the reader. 

The Saxons had now been for four centuries in Britain, the older inhabitants of which--Celts like the Gauls andIrish--they had cruelly harassed, just as the MilesianIrish oppressed their Belgic predecessors, and as theNormans, in turn, will be found oppressing both Celt andSaxon in England and Ireland. Britain had been dividedby the Saxon leaders into eight separate kingdoms, thepeople and princes of several of which were converted toChristianity in the fifth, sixth, and seventh century, though some of them did not receive the Gospel beforethe beginning of the eighth. The Saxons of Kent and theSouthern Kingdoms generally were converted by missionariesfrom France or Rome, or native preachers of the first orsecond Christian generation; those of Northumbria recogniseas their Apostles St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert, two Fathersfrom Iona. The Kingdom of Northumbria, as the nameimplies, embraced nearly all the country from the Humberto the Pictish border. York was its capital, and theseat of its ecclesiastical primacy, where, at the timewe speak of, the illustrious Wilfrid was maintaining, with a wilful and unscrupulous king, a struggle not unlikethat which Becket maintained with Henry II. This Prince, Egfrid by name, was constantly engaged in wars with hisSaxon cotemporaries, or the Picts and Scots. In the summerof 683 he sent an expedition under the command of Beort, one of his earls, to ravage the coast of Leinster. Beortlanded probably in the Boyne, and swept over the richplain of Meath with fire and sword, burning churches, driving off herds and flocks, and slaughtering the clergyand the husbandmen. The piety of an after age saw in theretribution which overtook Egfrid the following year, when he was slain by the Picts and Scots, the judgmentof Heaven, avenging the unprovoked wrongs of the Irish. His Scottish conquerors, returning good for evil, carriedhis body to Iona, where it was interred with all duehonour. 

Iona was now in the zenith of its glory. The barren rock, about three miles in length, was covered with monasticbuildings, and its cemetery was already adorned with thetombs of saints and kings. Five successors of Columbkillslept in peace around their holy Founder, and a sixth, equal in learning and sanctity to any who preceded him, received the remains of King Egfrid from the hands ofhis conquerors. This was Abbot Adamnan, to whom Irelandand Scotland are equally indebted for his admirablewritings, and who might almost dispute with Bede himself, the title of Father of British History. Adamnan regardedthe fate of Egfrid, we may be sure, in the light of ajudgment on him for his misdeeds, as Bede and BritishChristians very generally did. He learned, too, thatthere were in Northumbria several Christian captives, carried off in Beort's expedition and probably sold intoslavery. Now every missionary that ever went out fromIona, had taught that to reduce Christians to slaverywas wholly inconsistent with a belief in the doctrinesof the Gospel. St. Aidan, the Apostle of Northumbria, had refused the late Egfrid's father absolution, on oneoccasion, until he solemnly promised to restore theirfreedom to certain captives of this description. In thesame spirit Adamnan voluntarily undertook a journey toYork, where Aldfrid (a Prince educated in Ireland, andwhose "Itinerary" of Ireland we still have) now reigned. The Abbot of Iona succeeded in his humane mission, andcrossing over to his native land, he restored sixty ofthe captives to their homes and kindred. While theliberated exiles rejoiced on the plain of Meath, the tentof the Abbot of Iona was pitched on the rath of Tara--afact which would seem to indicate that already, in littlemore than a century since the interdict had fallen onit, the edifices which made so fine a show in the daysof Patrick were ruined and uninhabitable. Either at Tara, or some other of the royal residences, Adamnan on thisvisit procured the passing of a law, (A. D. 684, ) forbiddingwomen to accompany an army to battle, or to engagepersonally in the conflict. The mild maternal genius ofChristianity is faithfully exhibited in such a law, whichconsummates the glory of the worthy successor of Columbkill. It is curious here to observe that it was not untilanother hundred years had past--not till the beginningof the ninth century--that the clergy were "exempt" frommilitary service. So slow and patient is the process bywhich Christianity infuses itself into the social lifeof a converted people!

The long reign of FINNACTA, the hospitable, who may, forhis many other virtues, be called also the pious, wasrendered farther remarkable in the annals of the countryby the formal abandonment of the special tax, so longlevied upon, and so long and desperately resisted by, the men of Leinster. The all-powerful intercessor in thiscase was Saint Moling, of the royal house of Leinster, and Bishop of Fernamore (now Ferns). In the early partof his reign Finnacta seems not to have been disposed tocollect this invidious tax by force; but, yielding toother motives, he afterwards took a different view ofhis duty, and marched into Leinster to compel its payment. Here the holy Prelate of Ferns met him, and related aVision in which he had been instructed to demand theabolition of the impost. The abolition, he contended, should not be simply a suspension, but final and forever. The tribute was, at this period, enormous; 15, 000head of cattle annually. The decision must have been madeabout the time that Abbot Adamnan was in Ireland, (A. D. 684, ) and that illustrious personage is said to have beenopposed to the abolition. Abolished it was, and thoughits re-enactment was often attempted, the authority ofSaint Moling's solemn settlement, prevented it from beingre-enforced for any length of time, except as a politicalor military infliction. 

Finnacta fell in battle in the 20th year of his long andglorious reign; and is commemorated as a saint in theIrish calendar. St. Moling survived him three years, andSt. Adamnan, so intimately connected with his reign, tenyears. The latter revisited Ireland in 697, under theshort reign of Loingsech, and concerned himself chieflyin endeavouring to induce his countrymen to adopt theRoman rule, as to the tonsure, and the celebration ofEaster. On this occasion there was an important Synod ofthe Clergy, under the presidency of Flan, Archbishop ofArmagh, held at Tara. Nothing could be more natural thansuch an assembly in such a place, at such a period. Inevery recorded instance the power of the clergy had beenomnipotent in politics for above a century. St. Patrickhad expurgated the old constitution; St. Ruadan's cursedrove the kings from Tara; St. Columbkill had establishedthe independence of Alba, and preserved the Bardic Order;St. Moling had abolished the Leinster tribute. If theirpower was irresistible in the sixth and especially inthe seventh centuries, we must do these celebrated Abbotsand Bishops the justice to remember that it was alwaysexercised against the oppression of the weak by thestrong, to mitigate the horrors of war, to uphold theright of sanctuary (the _Habeus Corpus_ of that rudeage), and for the maintenance and spread of soundChristian principles. 

CHAPTER VII. 

KINGS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 

The kings of the eighth century are Congal II. (surnamedKenmare), who reigned seven years; Feargal, who reignedten years; Forgartah, Kenneth, Flaherty, respectivelyone, four, and seven years; Hugh V. (surnamed Allan), nine years; Donald III. , who reigned (A. D. 739-759) twentyyears; Nial II. (surnamed Nial of the Showers), sevenyears; and Donogh I. , who reigned thirty-one years, A. D. 766-797. The obituaries of these kings show that we havefallen on a comparatively peaceful age, since of theentire nine, but three perished in battle. One retiredto Armagh and one to Iona, where both departed in themonastic habit; the others died either of sickness orold age. 

Yet the peaceful character of this century is butcomparative, for in the first quarter (A. D. 722), we havethe terrible battle of Almain, between Leinster and theMonarch, in which 30, 000 men were stated to have engaged, and 7, 000 to have fallen. The Monarch who had doublethe number of the Leinster Prince, was routed and slain, _apropos_ of which we have a Bardic tale told, whichalmost transports one to the far East, the simple livesand awful privileges of the Hindoo Brahmins. It seemsthat some of King FEARGAL's army, in foraging for theirfellows, drove off the only cow of a hermit, who livedin seclusion near a solitary little chapel called Killin. The enraged recluse, at the very moment the armies wereabout to engage, appeared between them, regardless ofpersonal danger, denouncing ruin and death to the monarch'sforces. And in this case, as in others, to be found inevery history, the prophecy, no doubt, helped to produceits own fulfilment. The malediction of men dedicated tothe service of God, has often routed hosts as gallant aswere marshalled on the field of Almain. 

FEARGAL'S two immediate successors met a similar fate--death in the field of battle--after very brief reigns, of which we have no great events to record. 

FLAHERTY, the next who succeeded, after a vigorous reignof seven years, withdrew from the splendid cares of acrown, and passed the long remainder of his life--thirtyyears--in the habit of a monk at Armagh. The heavy burthenwhich he had cheerfully laid down, was taken up by aPrince, who combined the twofold character of poet andhero. HUGH V. (surnamed Allan), the son of FEARGAL, ofwhom we have just spoken, was the very opposite of hisfather, in his veneration for the privileges of holypersons and places. His first military achievement wasundertaken in vindication of the rights of those who wereunable by arms to vindicate their own. Hugh Roin, Princeof the troublesome little principality of Ulidia (Down), though well stricken in years and old enough to knowbetter, in one of his excursions had forcibly compelledthe clergy of the country through which he passed to givehim free quarters, contrary to the law everywhere existing. Congus, the Primate, jealous of the exemptions of hisorder, complained of this sacrilege in a poetic messageaddressed to Hugh Allan, who, as a Christian and a Prince, was bound to espouse his quarrels. He marched into theterritory of the offender, defeated him in battle, cutoff his head on the threshold of the Church of Faughard, and marched back again, his host chanting a war songcomposed by their leader. 

In this reign died Saint Gerald of Mayo, an Anglo-SaxonBishop, and apparently the head of a colony of hiscountrymen, from whom that district is ever since called"Mayo of the Saxons. " The name, however, being a generalone for strangers from Britain about that period, justas Dane became for foreigners from the Baltic in the nextcentury, is supposed to be incorrectly applied: the colonybeing, it is said, really from Wales, of old Britishstock, who had migrated rather than live under the yokeof their victorious Anglo-Saxon Kings. The descendantsof these Welshmen are still to be traced, though intimatelyintermingled with the original Belgic and later Milesiansettlers in Mayo, Sligo, and Galway--thus giving a peculiarcharacter to that section of the country, easilydistinguishable from all the rest. 

Although Hugh Allan did not imitate his father's conducttowards ecclesiastics, he felt bound by all-ruling customto avenge his father's death. In all ancient countriesthe kinsmen of a murdered man were both by law and customthe avengers of his blood. The members of the Greek_phratry_, of the Roman _fatria_, or _gens_, of theGermanic and Anglo-Saxon _guild_, and of the mediaevalsworn _commune_, were all solemnly bound to avenge theblood of any of their brethren, unlawfully slain. So thatthe repulsive repetition of reprisals, which so disguststhe modern reader in our old annals, is by no means aphenomenon peculiar to the Irish state of society. Itwas in the middle age and in early times common to allEurope, to Britain and Germany, as well as to Greece andRome. It was, doubtless, under a sense of duty of thissort that Hugh V. Led into Leinster a large army (A. D. 733), and the day of Ath-Senaid fully atoned for the dayof Almain. Nine thousand of the men of Leinster were lefton the field, including most of their chiefs; the victoriousmonarch losing a son, and other near kinsmen. Four yearslater, he himself fell in an obscure contest near Kells, in the plain of Meath. Some of his quartrains have comedown to us, and they breathe a spirit at once religiousand heroic--such as must have greatly endeared the Princewho possessed it to his companions in arms. We are notsurprised, therefore, to find his reign a favourite epochwith subsequent Bards and Storytellers. 

The long and prosperous reign of Donald III. Succeeded(A. D. 739 to 759). He is almost the only one of thisseries of Kings of whom it can be said that he commandedin no notable battle. The annals of his reign are chieflyfilled with ordinary accidents, and the obits of thelearned. But its literary and religious record aboundswith bright names and great achievements, as we shallfind when we come to consider the educational and missionaryfruits of Christianity in the eighth century. While ona pilgrimage to Durrow, a famous Columbian foundation inMeath, and present King's County, Donald III. Departedthis life, and in Durrow, by his own desire, his bodywas interred. 

Nial II. (surnamed of the Showers), son to FEARGAL andbrother of the warrior-Bard, Hugh V. , was next investedwith the white wand of sovereignty. He was a prince lesswarlike and more pious than his elder brother. The_soubriquet_ attached to his name is accounted for by aBardic tale, which represents him as another Moses, atwhose prayer food fell from heaven in time of famine. Whatever "showers" fell or wonders were wrought in hisreign, it is certain that after enjoying the kingly officefor seven years, Nial resigned, and retired to Iona, there to pass the remainder of his days in penance andmeditation. Eight years he led the life of a monk inthat sacred Isle, where his grave is one of those of "thethree Irish Kings, " still pointed out in the cemetery ofthe Kings. He is but one among several Princes, hiscotemporaries, who had made the same election. We learnin this same century, that Cellach, son of the King ofConnaught, died in Holy Orders, and that Bec, Prince ofUlidia, and Ardgall, son of a later King of Connaught, had taken the "crostaff" of the pilgrim, either for Ionaor Armagh, or some more distant shrine. Pilgrimages toRome and to Jerusalem seem to have been begun even beforethis time, as we may infer from St. Adamnan's work onthe situation of the Holy Places, of which Bede givesan abstract. 

The reign of Donogh I. Is the longest and the last amongthe Kings of the eighth century (A. D. 776 to 797). TheKings of Ireland had now not only abandoned Tara, butone by one, the other royal residences in Meath as theirusual place of abode. As a consequence a local sovereigntysprung up in the family of O'Melaghlin, a minor branchof the ruling race. This house developing its power sounexpectedly, and almost always certain to have thenational forces under the command of a Patron Prince attheir back, were soon involved in quarrels about boundaries, both with Leinster and Munster. King Donogh, at the outsetof his reign, led his forces into both principalities, and without battle received their hostages. Givinghostages--generally the sons of the chiefs--was the usualform of ratifying any treaty. Generally also, the Bishopof the district, or its most distinguished ecclesiastic, was called in as witness of the terms, and both partieswere solemnly sworn on the relics of Saints--the Gospelsof the Monasteries or Cathedrals--or the croziers oftheir venerated founders. The breach of such a treatywas considered "a violation of the relics of the saint, "whose name had been invoked, and awful penalties wereexpected to follow so heinous a crime. The hostages werethen carried to the residence of the King, to whom theywere entrusted, and while the peace lasted, enjoyed aparole freedom, and every consideration due to theirrank. If of tender age they were educated with the samecare as the children of the household. But when war brokeout their situation was always precarious, and sometimesdangerous. In a few instances they had even been put todeath, but this was considered a violation of all thelaws both of hospitality and chivalry; usually they wereremoved to some strong secluded fort, and carefullyguarded as pledges to be employed, according to thechances and changes of the war. That Donogh preferrednegotiation to war, we may infer by his course towardsLeinster and Munster, in the beginning of his reign, andhis "kingly parlee" at a later period (A. D. 783) withFIACHNA, of Ulidia, son of that over-exacting Hugh Roin, whose head was taken from his shoulders at the Churchdoor of Faughard. This "kingly parlee" was held on anisland off the Methian shore, called afterwards "King'sIsland. " But little good came of it. Both parties stillheld their own views, so that the satirical poets askedwhat was the use of the island, when one party "wouldnot come upon the land, nor the other upon the sea?"However, we needs must agree with King Donogh, that waris the last resort, and is only to be tried when allother means have failed. 

Twice during this reign the whole island was strickenwith panic, by extraordinary signs in the heavens, ofhuge serpents coiling themselves through the stars, offiery bolts flying like shuttles from one side of thehorizon to the other, or shooting downward directly tothe earth. These atmospheric wonders were accompanied bythunder and lightning so loud and so prolonged that menhid themselves for fear in the caverns of the earth. Thefairs and markets were deserted by buyers and sellers;the fields were abandoned by the farmers; steeples wererent by lightning, and fell to the ground; the shingledroofs of churches caught fire and burned whole buildings. Shocks of earthquake were also felt, and round towersand cyclopean masonry were strewn in fragments upon theground. These visitations first occurred in the secondyear of Donogh, and returned again in 783. When, in thenext decade, the first Danish descent was made on thecoast of Ulster (A. D. 794), these signs and wonders weresuperstitiously supposed to have been the precursors ofthat far more terrible and more protracted visitation. 

The Danes at first attracted little notice, but in thelast year of Donogh (A. D. 797) they returned in greaterforce, and swept rapidly along the coast of Meath; itwas reserved for his successors of the following centuriesto face the full brunt of this new national danger. 

But before encountering the fierce nations of the north, and the stormy period they occupy, let us cast back aloving glance over the world-famous schools and scholarsof the last two centuries. Hitherto we have only spokenof certain saints, in connection with high affairs ofstate. We must now follow them to the college and thecloister, we must consider them as founders at home, andas missionaries abroad; otherwise how could we estimateall that is at stake for Erin and for Christendom, inthe approaching combat with the devotees of Odin, --thedeadly enemies of all Christian institutions?

CHAPTER VIII. 

WHAT THE IRISH SCHOOLS AND SAINTS DID IN THE THREE FIRSTCHRISTIAN CENTURIES. 

We have now arrived at the close of the third century, from the death of Saint Patrick, and find ourselves onthe eve of a protracted struggle with the heathen warriorsof Scandinavia; it is time, therefore, to look back onthe interval we have passed, and see what changes havebeen wrought in the land, since its kings, instead ofwaiting to be attacked at home, had made the surroundingsea "foam with the oars" of their outgoing expeditions. 

The most obvious change in the condition of the countryis traceable in its constitution and laws, into everypart of which, as was its wont from the beginning, thespirit of Christianity sought patiently to infuse itself. We have already spoken of the expurgation of theconstitution, which prohibited the observance of Paganrites to the kings, and imposed on them instead, certainsocial obligations. This was a first change suggested bySaint Patrick, and executed mainly by his disciple, SaintBenignus. We have seen the legislative success whichattended the measures of Columbkill, Moling, and Adamnan;in other reforms of minor importance the paramountinfluence of the clerical order may be easily traced. 

But it is in their relation as teachers of human anddivine science that the Irish Saints exercised theirgreatest power, not only over their own countrymen, butover a considerable part of Europe. The intellectualleadership of western Europe--the glorious ambition ofthe greatest nations--has been in turn obtained by Italy, Prance, Britain and Germany. From the middle of the sixthto the middle of the eighth century, it will hardly bedisputed that that leadership devolved on Ireland. Allthe circumstances of the sixth century helped to conferit upon the newly converted western isle; the number ofher schools, and the wisdom, energy, and zeal of hermasters, retained for her the proud distinction for twohundred years. And when it passed away from her grasp, she might still console herself with the grateful reflectionthat the power she had founded and exercised, was dividedamong British and continental schools, which her own_alumni_ had largely contributed to form and establish. In the northern Province, the schools most frequentedwere those of Armagh, and of Bangor, on Belfast lough;in Meath, the school of Clonard, and that of Clomnacnoise, (near Athlone); in Leinster, the school of Taghmon(_Ta-mun_), and Beg-Erin, the former near the banks ofthe Slaney, the latter in Wexford harbour; in Munster, the school of Lismore on the Blackwater, and of Mungret(now Limerick), on the Shannon; in Connaught, the schoolof "Mayo of the Saxons, " and the schools of the Isles ofArran. These seats of learning were almost all erectedon the banks of rivers, in situations easy of access, tothe native or foreign student; a circumstance which provedmost disastrous to them when the sea kings of the northbegan to find their way to the shores of the island. Theyderived their maintenance--not from taxing their pupils--but in the first instance from public endowments. Theywere essentially free schools; not only free as to thelessons given, but the venerable Bede tells us theysupplied free bed and board and books to those who resortedto them from abroad. The Prince and the Clansmen of everyprincipality in which a school was situated, endowed itwith a certain share--often an ample one--of the commonland of the clan. Exclusive rights of fishery, andexclusive mill-privileges seem also to have been granted. As to timber for building purposes and for fuel, it wasto be had for carrying and cutting. The right of quarrywent with the soil, wherever building stone was found. In addition to these means of sustenance, a portion ofthe collegiate clergy appeared to have discharged missionaryduty, and received offerings of the produce of the land. We hear of periodical _quests_ or collections made forthe sustenance of these institutions, wherein the learnedLectors and Doctors, no doubt, pleaded their claims topopular favour, with irresistible eloquence. Individuals, anxious to promote the spread of religion and of science, endowed particular institutions out of their personalmeans; Princes, Bishops, and pious ladies, contributedto enlarge the bounds and increase the income of theirfavourite foundations, until a generous emulation seemsto have seized on all the great families as well as onthe different Provinces, as to which could boast the mostlargely attended schools, and the greatest number ofdistinguished scholars. The love of the _alma mater_--that college patriotism which is so sure a sign of thenoble-minded scholar--never received more strikingillustration than among the graduates of those schools. Columbkill, in his new home among the Hebrides, invokesblessings on blessings, on "the angels" with whom it wasonce his happiness to walk in Arran, and Columbanus, beyond the Alps, remembers with pride the school ofBangor--the very name of which inspires him with poeticrapture. 

The buildings, in which so many scholars were housed andtaught, must have been extensive. Some of the schools wehave mentioned were, when most flourishing, frequentedby one, two, three, and even, at some periods, as manyas seven thousand scholars. Such a population was alonesufficient to form a large village; and if we add therequisite number of teachers and attendants, we will havean addition of at least one-third to the total. Thebuildings seem to have been separately of no great size, but were formed into streets, and even into somethinglike wards. Armagh was divided into three parts--_trian-more_ (or the town proper), _trian-Patrick_, theCathedral close, and _trian-Sassenagh_, the Latin quarter, the home of the foreign students. A tall sculpturedCross, dedicated to some favourite saint, stood at thebounds of these several wards, reminding the anxiousstudent to invoke their spiritual intercession as hepassed by. Early hours and vigilant night watches hadto be exercised to prevent conflagrations in suchvillage-seminaries, built almost wholly of wood, androofed with reeds or shingles. A Cathedral, or an AbbeyChurch, a round tower, or a cell of some of the asceticmasters, would probably be the only stone structure withinthe limits. To the students, the evening star gave thesignal for retirement, and the morning sun for awaking. When, at the sound of the early bell, two or three thousandof them poured into the silent streets and made theirway towards the lighted Church, to join in the serviceof matins, mingling, as they went or returned, the tonguesof the Gael, the Cimbri, the Pict, the Saxon, and theFrank, or hailing and answering each other in the universallanguage of the Roman Church, the angels in Heaven musthave loved to contemplate the union of so much perseverancewith so much piety. 

The lives of the masters, not less than their lessons, were studied and observed by their pupils. At that time, as we gather from every authority, they were models ofsimplicity. One Bishop is found, erecting with his ownhands, the _cashel_ or stone enclosure which surroundedhis cell; another is labouring in the field, and giveshis blessing to his visitors, standing between the stiltsof the plough. Most ecclesiastics work occasionally eitherin wood, in bronze, in leather, or as scribes. Thedecorations of the Church, if not the entire structure, was the work of those who served at the altar. Thetabernacle, the rood-screen, the ornamental font; thevellum on which the Psalms and Gospels were written; theornamented case which contained the precious volume, wereoften of their making. The music which made the vale ofBangor resound as if inhabited by angels, was theircomposition; the hymns that accompanied it were theirown. "It is a poor Church that has no music, " is one ofthe oldest Irish proverbs; and the _Antiphonarium_ ofBangor, as well as that of Armagh, remains to show thatsuch a want was not left unsupplied in the early Church. 

All the contemporary schools were not of the same gradenor of equal reputation. We constantly find a scholar, after passing years in one place, transferring himselfto another, and sometimes to a third and a fourth. Somemasters were, perhaps, more distinguished in human Science;others in Divinity. Columbkill studied in two or threedifferent schools, and _visited_ others, perhaps asdisputant or lecturer--a common custom in later years. Nor should we associate the idea of under-age with thestudents of whom we speak. Many of them, whether asteachers or learners, or combining both characterstogether, reached middle life before they ventured asinstructors upon the world. Forty years is no uncommonage for the graduate of those days, when as yet thediscovery was unmade, that all-sufficient wisdom comeswith the first trace of down upon the chin of youth. 

The range of studies seems to have included the greaterpart of the collegiate course of our own times. Thelanguage of the country, and the language of the RomanChurch; the languages of Scripture--Greek and Hebrew;the logic of Aristotle, the writings of the Fathers, especially of Pope Gregory the Great--who appears to havebeen a favourite author with the Irish Church; thedefective Physics of the period; Mathematics, Music, andPoetical composition went to complete the largest course. When we remember that all the books were manuscripts;that even paper had not yet been invented; that the bestparchment was equal to so much beaten gold, and a perfectMS. Was worth a king's ransom, we may better estimatethe difficulties in the way of the scholar of the seventhcentury. Knowing these facts, we can very well creditthat part of the story of St. Columbkill's banishmentinto Argyle, which turns on what might be called acopyright dispute, in which the monarch took the side ofSt. Finian of Clonard, (whose original MSS. His pupilseems to have copied without permission, ) and the Clan-Conalstood up, of course, for their kinsman. This dispute iseven said to have led to the affair of Culdrum, in Sligo, which is sometimes mentioned as "the battle of the book. "The same tendency of the national character whichoverstocked the Bardic Order, becomes again visible inits Christian schools; and if we could form anything likean approximate census of the population, anterior to thenorthern invasions, we would find that the proportion ofecclesiastics was greater than has existed either beforeor since in any Christian country. The vast designs ofmissionary zeal drew off large bodies of those who hadentered Holy Orders; still the numbers engaged as teachersin the great schools, as well as of those who passedtheir lives in solitude and contemplation, must have beenout of all modern proportion to the lay inhabitants ofthe Island. 

The most eminent Irish Saints of the fifth century wereSt. Ibar, St. Benignus and St. Kieran, of Ossory; inthe sixth, St. Bendan, of Clonfert; St. Brendan, ofBirr; St. Maccartin, of Clogher; St. Finian, of Moville;St. Finbar, St. Cannice, St. Finian, of Clonard; andSt. Jarlath, of Tuam; in the seventh century, St. Fursey, St. Laserian, Bishop of Leighlin; St. Kieran, Abbot ofClonmacnoise; St. Comgall, Abbot of Bangor; St. Carthage, Abbot of Lismore; St. Colman, Bishop of Dromore; St. Moling, Bishop of Ferns; St. Colman Ela, Abbot; St. Cummian, "the White;" St. Fintan, Abbot; St. Gall, Apostle ofSwitzerland; St. Fridolin, "the Traveller;" St. Columbanus, Apostle of Burgundy and Lombardy; St. Killian, Apostleof Franconia; St. Columbkill, Apostle of the Picts;St. Cormac, called "the Navigator;" St. Cuthbert; andSt. Aidan, Apostle of Northumbria. In the eighth centurythe most illustrious names are St. Cataldus, Bishop ofTarentum; St. Adamnan, Abbot of Iona; St. Rumold, Apostleof Brabant; Clement and Albinus, "the Wisdom-seekers;"and St. Feargal or Virgilius, Bishop of Saltzburgh. Ofholy women in the same ages, we have some account ofSt. Samthan, in the eighth century; of St. Bees, St. Dympna and St. Syra, in the seventh century, and ofSt. Monina, St. Ita of Desies, and St. Bride, or Bridget, of Kildare, in the sixth. The number of conventualinstitutions for women established in those ages, is lesseasily ascertained than the number of monastic housesfor men; but we may suppose them to have borne someproportion to each other, and to have even counted byhundreds. The veneration in which St. Bridget was heldduring her life, led many of her countrywomen to embracethe religious state, and no less than fourteen _Saints_, her namesakes, are recorded. It was the custom of thosedays to call all holy persons who died in the odour ofsanctity, _Saints_, hence national or provincial traditionvenerates very many names, which the reader may look forin vain, in the Roman calendar. 

The intellectual labours of the Irish schools, besidesthe task of teaching such immense numbers of men of allnations on their own soil, and the missionary conqueststo which I have barely alluded, were diversified bycontroversies, partly scientific and partly theological--such as the "Easter Controversy, " the "TonsureControversy, " and that maintained by "Feargal the Geometer, "as to the existence of the Antipodes. 

The discussion, as to the proper time of observing Easter, which had occupied the doctors of the Council of Nice inthe fourth century, was raised in Ireland and in Britainearly in the sixth, and complete uniformity was notestablished till far on in the eighth. It occupied thethoughts of several generations of the chief men of theIrish Church, and some of their arguments still fortunatelysurvive, to attest their learning and tolerance, as wellas their zeal. St. Patrick had introduced in the fifthcentury the computation of time then observed in Gaul, and to this custom many of the Irish doctors rigidlyadhered, long after the rest of Christendom had agreedto adopt the Alexandrian computation. Great names werefound on both sides of the controversy: Columbanus, Fintan, and Aidan, for adhering exactly to the rule ofSt. Patrick; Cummian, the White, Laserian and Adamnan, in favour of strict agreement with Rome and the East. Monks of the same Monastery and Bishops of the sameProvince maintained opposite opinions with equal ardourand mutual charity. It was a question of discipline, nota matter of faith; but it involved a still greaterquestion, whether national churches were to plead theinviolability of their local usages, even on points ofdiscipline, against the sense and decision of the UniversalChurch. 

In the year of our Lord 630, the Synod of Leighlin washeld, under the shelter of the ridge of Leinster, andthe presidency of St. Laserian. Both parties at lengthagreed to send deputies to Rome, as "children to theirmother, " to learn her decision. Three years later, thatdecision was made known, and the midland and southerndioceses at once adopted it. The northern churches, however, still held out, under the lead of Armagh andthe influence of Iona, nor was it till a century laterthat this scandal of celebrating Easter on two differentdays in the same church was entirely removed. Injustification of the Roman rule, St. Cummian, about themiddle of the seventh century, wrote his famous epistleto Segenius, Abbot of Iona, of the ability and learningof which all modern writers from Archbishop Usher toThomas Moore, speak in terms of the highest praise. Itis one of the few remaining documents of that controversy. A less vital question of discipline arose about thetonsure. The Irish shaved the head in a semicircle fromtemple to temple, while the Latin usage was to shave thecrown, leaving an external circle of hair to typify thecrown of thorns. At the conference of Whitby (A. D. 664)this was one of the subjects of discussion between theclergy of Iona, and those who followed the Roman method--butit never assumed the importance of the Easter controversy. 

In the following century an Irish Missionary, Virgilius, of Saltzburgh, (called by his countrymen "Feargal, theGeometer, ") was maintaining in Germany against no lessan adversary than St. Boniface, the sphericity of theearth and the existence of antipodes. His opponentsendeavoured to represent him, or really believed him tohold, that there were other men, on our earth, for whomthe Redeemer had not died; on this ground they appealedto Pope Zachary against him; but so little effect hadthis gross distortion of his true doctrine at Rome, whenexplanations were given, that Feargal was soon afterwardsraised to the See of Saltzburgh, and subsequently canonizedby Pope Gregory IX. In the ninth century we find an Irishgeographer and astronomer of something like Europeanreputation in Dicuil and Dungal, whose treatises andepistles have been given to the press. Like theircompatriot, Columbanus, these accomplished men had passedtheir youth and early manhood in their own country, andto its schools are to be transferred the compliments paidto their acquirements by such competent judges as Muratori, Latronne, and Alexander von Humboldt. The origin of thescholastic philosophy--which pervaded Europe for nearlyten centuries--has been traced by the learned Mosheim tothe same insular source. Whatever may now be thought ofthe defects or shortcomings of that system, it certainlywas not unfavourable either to wisdom or eloquence, sinceamong its professors may be reckoned the names of St. Thomas and St. Bernard. 

We must turn away our eyes from the contemplation ofthose days in which were achieved for Ireland the titleof the land of saints and doctors. Another era opensbefore us, and we can already discern the long ships ofthe north, their monstrous beaks turned towards the holyIsle, their sides hung with glittering shields and theirbenches thronged with fair-haired warriors, chanting asthey advance the fierce war songs of their race. Insteadof the monk's familiar voice on the river banks we areto hear the shouts of strange warriors from a far-offcountry; and for matin hymn and vesper song, we are tobe beset through a long and stormy period, with soundsof strife and terror, and deadly conflict. 

BOOK II. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE DANISH INVASION. 

Hugh VI. , surnamed Ornie, succeeded to the throne vacantby the death of Donogh I. (A. D. 797), and reigned twenty-twoyears; Conor II. Succeeded (A. D. 819), and reigned fourteenyears; Nial III. (called from the place of his death Nialof Callan), reigned thirteen years; Malachy I. Succeeded(A. D. 845), and reigned fifteen years; Hugh VII. Succeededand reigned sixteen years (dying A. D. 877); Flan (surnamedFlan of the Shannon) succeeded at the latter date, andreigned for thirty-eight years, far into the tenth century. Of these six kings, whose reigns average twenty yearseach, we may remark that not one died by violence, if weexcept perhaps Nial of Callan, drowned in the river ofthat name in a generous effort to save the life of oneof his own servants. Though no former princes had everencountered dangers equal to these--yet in no previouscentury was the person of the ruler so religiouslyrespected. If this was evident in one or two instancesonly, it would be idle to lay much stress upon it; butwhen we find the same truth holding good of severalsuccessive reigns, it is not too much to attribute it tothat wide diffusion of Christian morals, which we havepointed out as the characteristic of the two precedingcenturies. The kings of this age owed their best protectionto the purer ethics which overflowed from Armagh andBangor and Lismore; and if we find hereafter the regicidehabits of former times partially revived, it will onlybe after the new Paganism--the Paganism of interminableanti-Christian invasions--had recovered the land, andextinguished the beacon lights of the three first Christiancenturies. 

The enemy, who were now to assault the religious andcivil institutions of the Irish, must be admitted topossess many great military qualities. They certainlyexhibit, in the very highest degree, the first of allmilitary virtues--unconquerable courage. Let us saycheerfully, that history does not present in all itsvolumes a braver race of men than the Scandinavians ofthe ninth century. In most respects they closely resembledthe Gothic tribes, who, whether starting into historiclife on the Euxine or the Danube, or faintly heard of bythe Latins from the far off Baltic, filled with constantalarm the Roman statesmen of the fourth century; nor canthe invasions of what we may call the maritime Goths bebetter introduced to the reader than by a rapid sketchof the previous triumphs of their kindred tribes overthe Roman Empire. 

It was in the year of our Lord 378 that these long-dreadedbarbarians defeated the Emperor Valens in the plain ofAdrianople, and as early as 404--twenty-six years aftertheir first victory in Eastern Europe--they had takenand burned great Rome herself. Again and again--in 410, in 455, and in 472--they captured and plundered theImperial City. In the same century they had establishedthemselves in Burgundy, in Spain, and in Northern Africa;in the next, another branch of the Gothic stock twicetook Rome; and yet another founded the Lombard Kingdomin Northern Italy. With these Goths thus for a timemasters of the Roman Empire, whose genius and temper hasentered so deeply into all subsequent civilization, warwas considered the only pursuit worthy of men. Accordingto their ideas of human freedom, that sacred principlewas supposed to exist only in force and by force; theyhad not the faintest conception, and at first receivedwith unbounded scorn the Christian doctrine of the unityof the human race, the privileges and duties annexed toChristian baptism, and the sublime ideal of the Christianrepublic. But they were very far from being so cruel orso faithless as their enemies represented them; they wereeven better than they cared to represent themselves. Andthey had amongst them men of the highest capacity andenergy, well worthy to be the founders of new nations. Alaric, Attila, and Genseric, were fierce and unmercifulit is true; but their acts are not all written in blood;they had their better moments and higher purposes in theintervals of battle; and the genius for civil governmentof the Gothic race was in the very beginning demonstratedby such rulers as Theodoric in Italy and Clovis in Gaul. The rear guard of this irresistible barbaric invasionwas now about to break in upon Europe by a new route;instead of the long land marches by which they had formerlyconcentrated from the distant Baltic and from thetributaries of the Danube, on the capital of the Romanempire; instead of the tedious expeditions striking acrossthe Continent, hewing their paths through dense forests, arrested by rapid rivers and difficult mountains, thelast northern invaders of Europe had sufficiently advancedin the arts of shipbuilding and navigation to strikeboldly into the open sea and commence their new conquestsamong the Christian islands of the West. The defendersof Roman power and Christian civilization in the fifthand sixth centuries, were arrayed against a warlike butpastoral people encumbered with their women and children;the defenders of the same civilization, in the BritishIslands in the ninth and tenth centuries, were contendingwith kindred tribes, who had substituted maritime artsand habits for the pastoral arts and habits of thecompanions of Attila and Theodoric. The Gothic invasionof Roman territory in the earlier period was, with thesingle exception of the naval expeditions of Gensericfrom his new African Kingdom, a continental war; andnotwithstanding the partiality of Genseric for his fleet, as an arm of offence and defence, his companions andsuccessors abandoned the ocean as an uncongenial element. The only parallel for the new invasion, of which we arenow to speak, is to be found in the history and fortunesof the Saxons of the fifth century, first the allies andafterwards the conquerors of part of Britain. But eventheir descendants in England had not kept pace, eitherin the arts of navigation or in thirst for adventure, with their distant relatives, who remained two centurieslater among the friths and rocks of Scandinavia. 

The first appearance of these invaders on the Irish andBritish coasts occurred in 794. Their first descent onIreland was at Rathlin island, which may be called theoutpost of Erin, towards the north; their second attempt(A. D. 797) was at a point much more likely to arouseattention--at Skerries, off the coast of Meath (nowDublin); in 803, and again in 806, they attacked andplundered the holy Iona; but it was not until a dozenyears later they became really formidable. In 818 theylanded at Howth; and the same year, and probably the sameparty, sacked the sacred edifices in the estuary of theSlaney, by them afterwards called Wexford; in 820 theyplundered Cork, and in 824--most startling blow ofall--they sacked and burned the schools of Bangor. Thesame year they revisited Iona; and put to death many ofits inmates; destroyed Moville; received a severe checkin Lecale, near Strangford lough (one of their favouritestations). Another party fared better in a land forayinto Ossory, where they defeated those who endeavouredto arrest their progress, and carried off a rich booty. In 830 and 831, their ravages were equally felt inLeinster, in Meath, and in Ulster, and besides manyprisoners of princely rank, they plundered the primatialcity of Armagh for the first time, in the year 832. Thenames of their chief captains, at this period, arecarefully preserved by those who had so many reasons toremember them; and we now begin to hear of the Ivars, Olafs, and Sitricks, strangely intermingled with theHughs, Nials, Connors, and Felims, who contended withthem in battle or in diplomacy. It was not till the middleof this century (A. D. 837) that they undertook to fortifyDublin, Limerick, and some other harbours which they hadseized, to winter in Ireland, and declare their purposeto be the complete conquest of the country. 

The earliest of these expeditions seem to have been annualvisitations; and as the northern winter sets in aboutOctober, and the Baltic is seldom navigable before May, the summer was the season of their depredations. Awaitingthe breaking up of the ice, the intrepid adventurersassembled annually upon the islands in the Cattegat oron the coast of Norway, awaiting the favourable momentof departure. Here they beguiled their time between theheathen rites they rendered to their gods, their wildbacchanal festivals, and the equipment of their galleys. The largest ship built in Norway, and probably in thenorth, before the eleventh century, had 34 banks of oars. The largest class of vessel carried from 100 to 120 men. The great fleet which invaded Ireland in 837 counted 120vessels, which, if of average size for such long voyages, would give a total force of some 6, 000 men. As the wholepopulation of Denmark, in the reign of Canute who diedin 1035, is estimated at 800, 000 souls, we may judge fromtheir fleets how large a portion of the men were engagedin these piratical pursuits. The ships on which theyprided themselves so highly were flat-bottomed craft, with little or no keel, the sides of wicker work, coveredwith strong hides. They were impelled either by sails oroars as the changes of the weather allowed; with favourablewinds they often made the voyage in three days. As if tofavour their designs, the north and north-west blastblows for a hundred days of the year over the sea theyhad to traverse. When land was made, in some safe estuary, their galleys were drawn up on shore, a convenient distancebeyond highwater mark, where they formed a rude camp, watch-fires were lighted, sentinels set, and the fearlessadventurers slept as soundly as if under their own roofs, in their own country. Their revels after victory, or onreturning to their homes, were as boisterous as theirlives. In food they looked more to quantity than quality, and one of their most determined prejudices againstChristianity was that it did not sanction the eating ofhorse flesh. An exhilarating beer, made from heath, orfrom the spruce tree, was their principal beverage, andthe recital of their own adventures, or the nationalsongs of the Scalds, were their most cherished amusement. Many of the Vikings were themselves Scalds, and excelled, as might be expected, in the composition of war songs. 

The Pagan belief of this formidable race was in harmonywith all their thoughts and habits, and the exact oppositeof Christianity. In the beginning of time, according totheir tradition, there was neither heaven nor earth, butonly universal chaos and a bottomless abyss, where dweltSurtur in an element of unquenchable fire. The generationof their gods proceeded amid the darkness and void, fromthe union of heat and moisture, until Odin and the otherchildren of Asa-Thor, or the Earth, slew Ymer, or theEvil One, and created the material universe out of hislifeless remains. These heroic conquerors also collectedthe sparks of eternal fire flying about in the abyss, and fixed them as stars in the firmament. In addition, they erected in the far East, Asgard, the City of theGods; on the extreme shore of the ocean stood Utgard, the City of Nor and his giants, and the wars of thesetwo cities, of their gods and giants, fill the first andmost obscure ages of the Scandinavian legend. The humanrace had as yet no existence until Odin created a manand woman, Ask and Embla, out of two pieces of wood (ashand elm), thrown upon the beach by the waves of the sea. 

Of all the gods of Asgard, Odin was the first in placeand power; from his throne he saw everything that happenedon the earth; and lest anything should escape his knowledge, two ravens, Spirit and Memory, sat on his shoulders, andwhispered in his ears whatever they had seen in theirdaily excursions round the world. Night was a divinityand the father of Day, who travelled alternately throughoutspace, with two celebrated steeds called Shining-maneand Frost-mane. Friga was the daughter and wife of Odin;the mother of Thor, the Mars, and of the beautiful Balder, the Apollo, of Asgard. The other gods were of inferiorrank to these, and answered to the lesser divinities ofGreece and Rome. Niord was the Neptune, and Frega, daughterof Niord, was the Venus of the North. Heimdall, thewatchman of Asgard, whose duty it was to prevent therebellious giants scaling by surprise the walls of thecelestial city, dwelt under the end of the rainbow; hisvision was so perfect he could discern objects 100 leaguesdistant, either by night or day, and his ear was so finehe could hear the wool growing on the sheep, and thegrass springing in the meadows. 

The hall of Odin, which had 540 gates, was the abode ofheroes who had fought bravest in battle. Here they werefed with the lard of a wild boar, which became wholeevery night, though devoured every day, and drank endlesscups of hydromel, drawn from the udder of an inexhaustibleshe-goat, and served out to them by the Nymphs, who hadcounted the slain, in cups which were made of the skullsof their enemies. When they were wearied of suchenjoyments, the sprites of the Brave exercised themselvesin single combat, hacked each other to pieces on thefloor of Valhalla, resumed their former shape, and returnedto their lard and their hydromel. 

Believing firmly in this system--looking forward withundoubting faith to such an eternity--the Scandinavianswere zealous to serve their gods according to their creed. Their rude hill altars gave way as they increased innumbers and wealth, to spacious temples at Upsala, Ledra, Tronheim, and other towns and ports. They had three greatfestivals, one at the beginning of February, in honourof Thor, one in Spring, in honour of Odin, and one inSummer, in honour of the fruitful daughter of Niord. Theordinary sacrifices were animals and birds; but everyninth year there was a great festival at Upsala, at whichthe kings and nobles were obliged to appear in person, and to make valuable offerings. Wizards and sorcerers, male and female, haunted the temples, and good and illwinds, length of life, and success in war, were spiritualcommodities bought and sold. Ninety-nine human victimswere offered at the great Upsala festival, and in allemergencies such sacrifices were considered most acceptableto the gods. Captives and slaves were at first selected;but, in many cases, princes did not spare their subjects, nor fathers their own children. The power of a Priesthood, who could always enforce such a system, must have beenunbounded and irresistible. 

The active pursuits of such a population were necessarilymaritime. In their short summer, such crops as theyplanted ripened rapidly, but their chief sustenance wasanimal food and the fish that abounded in their waters. The artizans in highest repute among them were theshipwrights and smiths. The hammer and anvil were heldin the highest honour; and of this class, the armorersheld the first place. The kings of the North had nostanding armies, but their lieges were summoned to warby an arrow in Pagan times, and a cross after theirconversion. Their chief dependence was in infantry, which they formed into wedge-like columns, and so, clashingtheir shields and singing hymns to Odin, they advancedagainst their enemies. Different divisions were differentlyarmed; some with a short two-edged sword and a heavybattle-axe; others with the sling, the javelin, and thebow. The shield was long and light, commonly of wood andleather, but for the chiefs, ornamented with brass, withsilver, and even with gold. Locking the shields togetherformed a rampart which it was not easy to break; in badweather the concave shield seems to have served thepurpose of our umbrella; in sea-fights the vanquishedoften escaped by swimming ashore on their shields. Armourmany of them wore; the Berserkers, or champions, were socalled from always engaging, _bare_ of defensive armour. 

Such were the men, the arms, and the creed, against whichthe Irish of the ninth age, after three centuries ofexemption from foreign war, were called upon to combat. A people, one-third of whose youth and manhood had embracedthe ecclesiastical state, and all whose tribes nowprofessed the religion of peace, mercy, and forgiveness, were called to wrestle with a race whose religion wasone of blood, and whose beatitude was to be in proportionto the slaughter they made while on earth. The Northmanhated Christianity as a rival religion, and despised itas an effeminate one. He was the soldier of Odin, theelect of Valhalla; and he felt that the offering mostacceptable to his sanguinary gods was the blood of thosereligionists who denied their existence and execratedtheir revelation. The points of attack, therefore, werealmost invariably the great seats of learning and religion. There, too, was to be found the largest bulk of theportable wealth of the country, in richly adorned altars, jewelled chalices, and shrines of saints. The ecclesiasticalmap is the map of their campaigns in Ireland. And it isto avenge or save these innumerable sacred places--ascountless as the Saints of the last three centuries--thatthe Christian population have to rouse themselves yearafter year, hurrying to a hundred points at the sametime. To the better and nobler spirits the war becomesa veritable crusade, and many of those slain insingle-hearted defence of their altars may well beaccounted martyrs--but a war so protracted and sodevastating will be found, in the sequel, to foster andstrengthen many of the worst vices as well as some ofthe best virtues of our humanity. 

The early events are few and ill-known. During the reignof Hugh VI. , who died in 819, their hostile visits were fewand far between; his successors, Conor II. And Nial III. , were destined to be less fortunate in this respect. Duringthe reign of Conor, Cork, Lismore, Dundalk, Bangor andArmagh, were all surprised, plundered, and abandoned by"the Gentiles, " as they are usually called in Irishannals; and with the exception of two skirmishes in whichthey were worsted on the coasts of Down and Wexford, theyseem to have escaped with impunity. At Bangor they shookthe bones of the revered founder out of the costly shrinebefore carrying it off; on their first visit to Kildarethey contented themselves with taking the gold and silverornaments of the tomb of St. Bridget, without desecratingthe relics; their main attraction at Armagh was the same, but there the relics seemed to have escaped. When, in830, the brotherhood of Iona apprehended their return, they carried into Ireland, for greater safety, the relicsof St. Columbkill. Hence it came that most of the memorialsof SS. Patrick, Bridget, and Columbkill, were afterwardsunited at Downpatrick. 

While these deplorable sacrileges, too rapidly executedperhaps to be often either prevented or punished, weretaking place, Conor the King had on his hand a war ofsuccession, waged by the ablest of his contemporaries, Felim, King of Munster, who continued during this andthe subsequent reign to maintain a species of rivalmonarchy in Munster. It seems clear enough that theabandonment of Tara, as the seat of authority, greatlyaggravated the internal weakness of the Milesianconstitution. While over-centralization is to be dreadedas the worst tendency of imperial power, it is certainthat the want of a sufficient centralization has provedas fatal, on the other hand, to the independence of manynations. And anarchical usages once admitted, we see fromthe experience of the German Empire, and the Italianrepublics, how almost impossible it is to apply a remedy. In the case before us, when the Irish Kings abandonedthe old mensal domain and betook themselves to their ownpatrimony, it was inevitable that their influence andauthority over the southern tribes should diminish anddisappear. Aileach, in the far North, could never be tothem what Tara had been. The charm of conservatism, thehalo of ancient glory, could not be transferred. Whenever, therefore, ambitious and able Princes arose in the South, they found the border tribes rife for backing theirpretensions against the Northern dynasty. The Bards, too, plied their craft, reviving the memory of former times, when Heber the Fair divided Erin equally with Heremon, and when Eugene More divided it a second time with Conof the Hundred Battles. Felim, the son of Crimthan, thecontemporary of Conor II. And Nial III. , during the wholeterm of their rule, was the resolute assertor of thesepretensions, and the Bards of his own Province do nothesitate to confer on him the high title of _Ard-Righ_. As a punishment for adhering to the Hy-Nial dynasty, orfor some other offence, this Christian king, in rivalrywith "the Gentiles, " plundered Kildare, Burrow, andClonmacnoise--the latter perhaps for siding with Connaughtin the dispute as to whether the present county of Clarebelonged to Connaught or Munster. Twice he met in conferencewith the monarch at Birr and at Cloncurry--at anothertime he swept the plain of Meath, and held temporarycourt in the royal rath of Tara. With all his vices lieunited an extraordinary energy, and during his time, noDanish settlement was established on the Southern rivers. Shortly before his decease (A. D. 846) he resigned hiscrown and retired from the world, devoting the shortremainder of his days to penance and mortification. Whatwe know of his ambition and ability makes us regret thathe ever appeared upon the scene, or that he had not beenborn of that dominant family, who alone were accustomedto give kings to the whole country. 

King Conor died (A. D. 833), and was succeeded by Nial III. , surnamed Nial of Callan. The military events of this lastreign are so intimately bound up with the more brilliantcareer of the next ruler--Melaghlin, or Malachy I. --thatwe must reserve them for the introduction to the nextchapter. 

CHAPTER II. 

KINGS OF THE NINTH CENTURY (CONTINUED)--NIAL III. --MALACHY I. --HUGH VII. 

When, in the year 833, Nial III. Received the usual homageand hostages, which ratified his title of _Ard-Righ_, the northern invasion had clearly become the greatestdanger that ever yet had threatened the institutions ofErin. Attacks at first predatory and provincial had soencouraged the Gentile leaders of the second generationthat they began to concert measures and combine plansfor conquest and colonization. To the Vikings of Norwaythe fertile Island with which they were now so familiar, whose woods were bent with the autumnal load of acorns, mast, and nuts, and filled with numerous herds ofswine--their favourite food--whose pleasant meadows werewell stored with beeves and oxen, whose winter was oftenas mild as their northern summer, and whose waters wereas fruitful in fish as their own Lofoden friths; to thesemen, this was a prize worth fighting for; and for it theyfought long and desperately. 

King Nial inherited a disputed sovereignty from hispredecessor, and the Southern annalists say he did homageto Felim of Munster, while those of the North--and withthem the majority of historians--reject this statementas exaggerated and untrue. He certainly experiencedcontinual difficulty in maintaining his supremacy, notonly from the Prince of Cashel, but from lords of lessergrade--like those of Ossory and Ulidia; so that we maysay, while he had the title of King of Ireland, he was, in fact, King of no more than Leath-Con, or the Northernhalf. The central Province, Meath, long deserted by themonarchs, had run wild into independence, and was parcelledout between two or three chiefs, descendants of the samecommon ancestor as the kings, but distinguished from themby the tribe-name of "the _Southern_ Hy-Nial. " Of theseheads of new houses, by far the ablest and most famouswas Melaghlin, who dwelt near Mullingar, and lorded itover western Meath; a name with which we shall becomebetter acquainted presently. It does not clearly appearthat Melaghlin was one of those who actively resistedthe prerogatives of this monarch, though others of theSouthern Hy-Nial did at first reject his authority, andwere severely punished for their insubordination, theyear after his assumption of power. 

In the fourth year of Nial III. (A. D. 837), arrived thegreat Norwegian fleet of 120 sail, whose commanders firstattempted, on a combined plan, the conquest of Erin. Sixty of the ships entered the Boyne; the other sixtythe Liffey. This formidable force, according to all Irishaccounts, was soon after united under one leader, who isknown in our Annals as _Turgeis_ or _Turgesius_, but ofwhom no trace can be found, under that name, in thechronicles of the Northmen. Every effort to identify himin the records of his native land has hitherto failed--sothat we are forced to conclude that he must have beenone of those wandering sea-kings, whose fame was wonabroad, and whose story, ending in defeat, yet entailingno dynastic consequences on his native land, possessedno national interest for the authors of the old NorseSagas. To do all the Scandinavian chroniclers justice, in cases which come directly under their notice, theyacknowledge defeat as frankly as they claim victoryproudly. Equal praise may be given to the Irish annalistsin recording the same events, whether at first orsecond-hand. In relation to the campaigns and sway ofTurgesius, the difficulty we experience in separatingwhat is true from what is exaggerated or false, is notcreated for us by the annalists, but by the bards andstory-tellers, some of whose inventions, adopted by_Cambrensis_, have been too readily received by subsequentwriters. For all the acts of national importance withwhich his name can be intelligibly associated, we preferto follow in this as in other cases, the same soberhistorians who condense the events of years and generationsinto the shortest space and the most matter of factexpression. 

If we were to receive the chronology while rejecting theembellishments of the Bards, Turgesius must have firstcome to Ireland with one of the expeditions of the year820, since they speak of him as having been "the scourgeof the country for seventeen years, " before he assumedthe command of the forces landed from the fleet of 837. Nor is it unreasonable to suppose that an accurateknowledge of the country, acquired by years of previouswarfare with its inhabitants, may have been one of thegrounds upon which the chief command was conferred onTurgesius. This knowledge was soon put to account; Dublinwas taken possession of, and a strong fort, according tothe Scandinavian method, was erected on the hill wherenow stands the Castle. This fort and the harbour beneathit were to be the _rendezvous_ and arsenal for all futureoperations against Leinster, and the foundation of foreignpower then laid, continued in foreign hands, with two orthree brief intervals, until transferred to the Anglo-Normanchivalry, three centuries and a half later. Similarlodgment was made at Waterford, and a third was attemptedat Limerick, but at this period without success; theDanish fort at the latter point is not thought older thanthe year 855. But Turgesius--if, indeed, the independentacts of cotemporary and even rival chiefs be not toooften attributed to him--was not content with fortifyingthe estuaries of some principal rivers; he establishedinland centres of operation, of which the cardinal onewas on Lough Ree, the expansion of the Shannon, north ofAthlone; another was at a point called Lyndwachill, onLough Neagh. On both these waters were stationed fleetsof boats, constructed for that service, and communicatingwith the forts on shore. On the eastern border of LoughRee, in the midst of its meadows, stood Clonmacnoise, rich with the offerings and endowments of successivegenerations. Here, three centuries before, in the heartof the desert, St. Kieran had erected with his own handsa rude sylvan cell, where, according to the allegory oftradition, "the first monks who joined him, " were thefox, the wolf, and the bear; but time had wrought wonderson that hallowed ground, and a group of churches--at onetime, as many as ten in number--were gathered within twoor three acres, round its famous schools, and presidingCathedral. Here it was Turgesius made his usual home, and from the high altar of the Cathedral his unbelievingQueen was accustomed to issue her imperious mandates inhis absence. Here, for nearly seven years, this conquerorand his consort exercised their far-spread and terriblepower. According to the custom of their own country--acustom attributed to Odin as its author--they exactedfrom every inhabitant subject to their sway--a piece ofmoney annually, the forfeit for the non-payment of whichwas the loss of the nose, hence called "nose-money. "Their other exactions were a union of their own northernimposts, with those levied by the chiefs whose authoritythey had superseded, but whose prerogatives they assertedfor themselves. Free quarters for their soldiery, anda system of inspection extending to every private relationof life, were the natural expedients of a tyranny soodious. On the ecclesiastical order especially their yokebore with peculiar weight, since, although avowed Pagans, they permitted no religious house to stand, unless underan Abbot, or at least an _Erenach_ (or Treasurer) oftheir approval. Such is the complete scheme of oppressionpresented to us, that it can only be likened to a monstrousspider-web spread from the centre of the Island over itsfairest and most populous districts. Glendalough, Ferns, Castle-Dermid, and Kildare in the east; Lismore, Cork, Clonfert, in the southern country; Dundalk, Bangor, Derry, and Armagh in the north; all groaned under this triumphantdespot, or his colleagues. In the meanwhile King Nialseems to have struggled resolutely with the difficultiesof his lot, and in every interval of insubordination tohave struck boldly at the common enemy. But the tide ofsuccess for the first few years after 837 ran stronglyagainst him. The joint hosts from the Liffey and theBoyne swept the rich plains of Meath, and in an engagementat Invernabark (the present Bray) gave such a completedefeat to the southern Hy-Nial clans as prevented themmaking head again in the field, until some summers werepast and gone. In this campaign Saxolve, who is called"the chief of the foreigners, " was slain; and to him, therefore, if to any commander-in-chief, Turgesius musthave succeeded. The shores of all the inland lakes werefavourite sites for Raths and Churches, and the beautifulcountry around Lough Erne shared the fiery ordeal whichblazed on Lough Ree and Lough Neagh. In 839 the men ofConnaught also suffered a defeat equal to that experiencedby those of Meath in the previous campaign; but moreunfortunate than the Methians, they lost their leaderand other chiefs on the field. In 840, Ferns and Corkwere given to the flames, and the fort at Lyndwachill, or Magheralin, poured out its ravages in every directionover the adjacent country, sweeping off flocks, herds, and prisoners, laymen and ecclesiastics, to their ships. The northern depredators counted among their captives"several Bishops and learned men, " of whom the Abbot ofClogher and the Lord of Galtrim are mentioned by name. Their equally active colleagues of Dublin and Waterfordtook captive, Hugh, Abbot of Clonenagh, and Foranan, Archbishop of Armagh, who had fled southwards with manyof the relics of the Metropolitan Church, escaping fromone danger only to fall into another a little fartheroff. These prisoners were carried into Munster, whereAbbot Hugh suffered martyrdom at their hands, but theArchbishop, after being carried to their fleet at Limerick, seems to have been rescued or ransomed, as we find himdying in peace at Armagh in the next reign. The martyrsof these melancholy times were very numerous, but theexact particulars being so often unrecorded it is impossibleto present the reader with an intelligible account oftheir persons and sufferings. When the Anglo-Normanstaunted the Irish that their Church had no martyrs toboast of, they must have forgotten the exploits of theirNorse kinsmen about the middle of this century. 

But the hour of retribution was fast coming round, andthe native tribes, unbound, divided, confused, and longunused to foreign war, were fast recovering their oldmartial experience, and something like a politic senseof the folly of their border feuds. Nothing perhaps somuch tended to arouse and combine them together as thecapture of the successor of Saint Patrick, with all hisrelics, and his imprisonment among a Pagan host, in Irishwaters. National humiliation could not much farther go, and as we read we pause, prepared for either alternative--mute submission or a brave uprising. King Nial seemsto have been in this memorable year, 843, defending aswell as he might his ancestral province--Ulster--againstthe ravagers of Lough Neagh, and still another partywhose ships flocked into Lough Swilly. In the ancientplain of Moynith, watered by the little river Finn, (thepresent barony of Raphoe, ) he encountered the enemy, andaccording to the Annals, "a countless number fell"--victorybeing with Nial. In the same year, or the next, Turgesiuswas captured by Melaghlin, Lord of Westmeath, apparentlyby stratagem, and put to death by the rather novel processof drowning. The Bardic tale told to _Cambrensis_, orparodied by him from an old Greek legend, of the deathby which Turgesius died, is of no historical authority. According to this tale, the tyrant of Lough Ree conceiveda passion for the fair daughter of Melaghlin, and demandedher of her father, who, fearing to refuse, affected togrant the infamous request, but despatched in her stead, to the place of assignation, twelve beardless youths, habited as maidens, to represent his daughter and herattendants; by these maskers the Norwegian and his booncompanions were assassinated, after they had drank toexcess and laid aside their arms and armour. For all thissuperstructure of romance there is neither ground-worknor license in the facts themselves, beyond this, thatTurgesius was evidently captured by some clever stratagem. We hear of no battle in Meath or elsewhere against himimmediately preceding the event; nor, is it likely thata secondary Prince, as Melaghlin then was, could havehazarded an engagement with the powerful master of LoughRee. If the local traditions of Westmeath may be trusted, where _Cambrensis_ is rejected, the Norwegian and Irishprincipals in the tragedy of Lough Owel were on visitingterms just before the denouement, and many curiousparticulars of their peaceful but suspicious intercourseused to be related by the modern story-tellers aroundCastle-pollard. The anecdote of the rookery, of whichMelaghlin complained, and the remedy for which his visitorsuggested to be "to cut down the trees and the rookswould fly, " has a suspicious look of the "tall poppies"of the Roman and Grecian legend; two things only do weknow for certain about the matter: _firstly_, thatTurgesius was taken and drowned in Lough Owel in the year843 or 844; and _secondly_, that this catastrophe wasbrought about by the agency and order of his neighbour, Melaghlin. 

The victory of Moynith and the death of Turgesius werefollowed by some local successes against other fleetsand garrisons of the enemy. Those of Lough Ree seem tohave abandoned their fort, and fought their way (gainingin their retreat the only military advantage of thatyear) towards Sligo, where some of their vessels hadcollected to bear them away. Their colleagues of Dublin, undeterred by recent reverses, made their annual foraysouthward into Ossory, in 844, and immediately we findKing Nial moving up from the north to the same scene ofaction. In that district he met his death in an effortto save the life of a _gilla_, or common servant. Theriver of Callan being greatly swollen, the _gilla_, inattempting to find a ford, was swept away in its turbidtorrent. The King entreated some one to go to his rescue, but as no one obeyed he generously plunged in himselfand sacrificed his own life in endeavouring to preserveone of his humblest followers. He was in the 55th yearof his age and the 13th of his reign, and in some traitsof character reminded men of his grandfather, the devoutNial "of the Showers. " The Bards have celebrated thejustice of his judgments, the goodness of his heart, andthe comeliness of his "brunette-bright face. " He left ason of age to succeed him, (and who ultimately did become_Ard-Righ_, ) yet the present popularity of Melaghlin ofMeath triumphed over every other interest, and he wasraised to the monarchy--the first of his family who hadyet attained that honour. Hugh, the son of Nial, sankfor a time into the rank of a Provincial Prince, beforethe ascendant star of the captor of Turgesius, and isusually spoken of during this reign as "Hugh of Aileach. "He is found towards its close, as if impatient of thesuccession, employing the arms of the common enemy toravage the ancient mensal land of the kings of Erin, andotherwise harassing the last days of his successful rival. 

Melaghlin, or Malachy I. (sometimes called "of theShannon, " from his patrimony along that river), broughtback again the sovereignty to the centre, and in happierdays might have become the second founder of Tara. Butit was plain enough then, and it is tolerably so still, that this was not to be an age of restoration. The kingsof Ireland after this time, says the quaint old translatorof the Annals of Clonmacnoise, "had little good of it, "down to the days of King Brian. It was, in fact, aperpetual struggle for self-preservation--the first dutyof all governments, as well as the first law of allnature. The powerful action of the Gentile forces, uponan originally ill-centralized and recently much abusedConstitution, seemed to render it possible that everynew Ard-Righ would prove the last. Under the pressureof such a deluge all ancient institutions were shaken totheir foundations; and the venerable authority of Religionitself, like a Hermit in a mountain torrent, was contendingfor the hope of escape or existence. We must not, therefore, amid the din of the conflicts through which we are topass, condemn without stint or qualification those Princeswho were occasionally driven--as some of them _were_driven--to that last resort, the employment of foreignmercenaries (and those mercenaries often anti-Christians, )to preserve some show of native government and kinglyauthority. Grant that in some of them the use of suchallies and agents cannot be justified on any plea orpretext of state necessity; where base ends or unpatrioticmotives are clear or credible, such treason to countrycannot be too heartily condemned; but it is indeed farfrom certain that such were the motives in _all_ cases, or that such ought to be our conclusion in any, in theabsence of sufficient evidence to that effect. 

Though the Gentile power had experienced towards theclose of the last reign such severe reverses, yet it wasnot in the nature of the men of Norway to abandon a prizewhich was once so nearly being their own. The fugitiveswho escaped, as well as those who remained within thestrong ramparts of Waterford and Dublin, urged the fittingout of new expeditions, to avenge their slaughteredcountrymen and prosecute the conquest. But defeat stillfollowed on defeat; in the first year of Malachy, theylost 1, 200 men in a disastrous action near Castle Dermot, with Olcobar the Prince-bishop of Cashel; and in the sameor the next season they were defeated with the loss of700 men, by Malachy, at Forc, in Meath. In the third yearof Malachy, however, a new northern expedition arrivedin 140 vessels, which, according to the average capacityof the long-ships of that age, must have carried withthem from 7, 000 to 10, 000 men. Fortunately for theassailed, this fleet was composed of what they called_Black_-Gentiles, or Danes, as distinguished from theirpredecessors, the _Fair_-Gentiles, or Norwegians. Aquarrel arose between the adventurers of the two nationsas to the possession of the few remaining fortresses, especially of Dublin; and an engagement was fought alongthe Liffey, which "lasted for three days;" the Danesfinally prevailed, driving the Norwegians from theirstronghold, and cutting them off from their ships. Thenew Northern leaders are named Anlaf, or Olaf, Sitrick(Sigurd?) and Ivar; the first of the Danish Earls, whoestablished themselves at Dublin, Waterford and Limerickrespectively. Though the immediate result of the arrivalof the great fleet of 847 relieved for the moment theworst apprehensions of the invaded, and enabled them torally their means of defence, yet as Denmark had morethan double the population of Norway, it brought theminto direct collision with a more formidable power thanthat from which they had been so lately delivered. Thetactics of both nations were the same. No sooner had theyestablished themselves on the ruins of their predecessorsin Dublin, than the Danish forces entered East-Meath, under the guidance of Kenneth, a local lord, and overranthe ancient mensal, from the sea to the Shannon. One oftheir first exploits was burning alive 260 prisoners inthe tower of Treoit, in the island of Lough Gower, nearDunshaughlin. The next year, his allies having withdrawnfrom the neighbourhood, Kenneth was taken by King Malachy'smen, and the traitor himself drowned in a sack, in thelittle river Nanny, which divides the two baronies ofDuleek. This death-penalty by drowning seems to have beenone of the useful hints which the Irish picked up fromtheir invaders. 

During the remainder of this reign the Gentile war resumedmuch of its old local and guerrilla character, theProvincial chiefs, and the Ard-Righ, occasionally employingbands of one nation of the invaders to combat the other, and even to suppress their native rivals. The only pitchedbattle of which we hear is that of "the Two Plains" (nearCoolestown, King's County), in the second last year ofMalachy (A. D. 859), in which his usual good fortuneattended the king. The greater part of his reign wasoccupied, as always must be the case with the founder ofa new line, in coercing into obedience his former peers. On this business he made two expeditions into Munster, and took hostages from all the tribes of the Eugenianrace. With the same object he held a conference with allthe chiefs of Ulster, Hugh of Aileach only being absent, at Armagh, in the fourth year of his reign, and a General_Feis_, or Assembly of all the Orders of Ireland, atRathugh, in West-Meath, in his thirteenth year (A. D. 857). He found, notwithstanding his victories and hisearly popularity, that there are always those ready toturn from the setting to the rising sun, and towards theend of his reign he was obliged to defend his camp, nearArmagh, by force, from a night assault of the discontentedPrince of Aileach; who also ravaged his patrimony, almostat the moment he lay on his death-bed. Malachy I. Departedthis life on the 13th day of November, (A. D. 860), havingreigned sixteen years. "Mournful is the news to the Gael!"exclaims the elegiac Bard! "Red wine is spilled into thevalley! Erin's monarch has died!" And the lament contrastshis stately form as "he rode the white stallion, " withthe striking reverse when, "his only horse this day"--thatis the bier on which his body was borne to thechurchyard--"is drawn behind two oxen. "

The restless Prince of Aileach now succeeded as Hugh VII. , and possessed the perilous honour he so much coveted forsixteen years, the same span that had been allotted tohis predecessor. The beginning of this reign was remarkablefor the novel design of the Danes, who marched out ingreat force, and set themselves busily to breaking openthe ancient mounds in the cemetery of the Pagan kings, beside the Boyne, in hope of finding buried treasure. The three Earls, Olaf, Sitrick, and Ivar, are said tohave been present, while their gold-hunters broke intoin succession the mound-covered cave of the wife of Goban, at Drogheda, the cave of "the Shepherd of Elcmar, " atDowth, the cave of the field of Aldai, at New Grange, and the similar cave at Knowth. What they found in thesehuge cairns of the old _Tuatha_ is not related; but Romancoins of Valentinian and Theodosius, and torques andarmlets of gold, have been discovered by accident withintheir precincts, and an enlightened modern curiosity hasnot explored them in vain, in the higher interests ofhistory and science. 

In the first two years of his reign, Hugh VII. Was occupiedin securing the hostages of his suffragans; in the thirdhe swept the remaining Danish and Norwegian garrisonsout of Ulster, and defeated a newly arrived force on theborders of Lough Foyle; the next the Danish Earls wenton a foray into Scotland, and no exploit is to be recorded;in his sixth year, Hugh, with 1, 000 chosen men of hisown tribe and the aid of the Sil-Murray (O'Conor's) ofConnaught, attacked and defeated a force of 5, 000 Daneswith their Leinster allies, near Dublin at a place supposedto be identical with Killaderry. Earl Olaf lost his son, and Erin her _Roydamna_, or heir-apparent, on this field, which was much celebrated by the Bards of Ulster and ofConnaught. Amongst those who fell was Flan, son of Conaing, chief of the district which included the plunderedcemeteries, fighting on the side of the plunderers. Themother of Flan was one of those who composed quatrainson the event of the battle, and her lines are a naturaland affecting alternation from joy to grief--joy for thetriumph of her brother and her country, and grief forthe loss of her self-willed, warlike son. Olaf, the Danishleader, avenged in the next campaign the loss of his son, by a successful descent on Armagh, once again rising fromits ruins. He put to the sword 1, 000 persons, and leftthe primatial city lifeless, charred, and desolate. Inthe next ensuing year the monarch chastised the Leinsterallies of the Danes, traversing their territory with fireand sword from Dublin to the border town of Gowran. Thisseems to have been the last of his notable exploits inarms. He died on the 20th of November, 876, and islamented by the Bards as "a generous, wise, staid man. "These praises belong--if at all deserved--to his old age. 

Flan, son of Malachy I. (and surnamed like his father"of the Shannon"), succeeded in the year 877, of theAnnals of the Four Masters, or more accurately the year879 of our common era. He enjoyed the very unusual reignof thirty-eight years. Some of the domestic events ofhis time are of so unprecedented a character, and theperiod embraced is so considerable, that we must devoteto it a separate chapter. 

CHAPTER III. 

REIGN OF FLAN "OF THE SHANNON" (A. D. 879 TO 916). 

Midway in the reign we are called upon to contemplate, falls the centenary of the first invasion of Ireland bythe Northmen. Let us admit that the scenes of thatcentury are stirring and stimulating; two gallant racesof men, in all points strongly contrasted, contend forthe most part in the open field, for the possession ofa beautiful and fertile island. Let us admit that theMilesian-Irish, themselves invaders and conquerors of anolder date, may have had no right to declare the era ofcolonization closed for their country, while its bestharbours were without ships, and leagues of its best landwere without inhabitants; yet what gives to the contestits lofty and fearful interest, is, that the foreignerswho come so far and fight so bravely for the prize, area Pagan people, drunk with the evil spirit of one of themost anti-Christian forms of human error. And what isstill worse, and still more to be lamented, it is becoming, after the experience of a century, plainer and plainer, that the Christian natives, while defending with unfalteringcourage their beloved country, are yet descending moreand more to the moral level of their assailants, withoutthe apology of their Paganism. Degenerate civilisationmay be a worse element for truth to work in than originalbarbarism; and, therefore, as we enter on the secondcentury of this struggle, we begin to fear for theChristian Irish, _not_ from the arms or the valour, butfrom the contact and example of the unbelievers. This, it is necessary to premise, before presenting to thereader a succession of Bishops who lead armies to battle, of Abbots whose voice is still for war, of treacheroustactics and savage punishments; of the almost totaldisruption of the last links of that federal bond, which, "though light as air were strong as iron, " before thecharm of inviolability had been taken away from theancient constitution. 

We begin to discern in this reign that royal marriageshave much to do with war and politics. Hugh, the lateking, left a widow, named Maelmara ("follower of Mary"), daughter to Kenneth M'Alpine, King of the CaledonianScots: this lady Flan married. The mother of Flan wasthe daughter of Dungal, Prince of Ossory, so that to thecotemporary lords of that borderland the monarch stoodin the relation of cousin. A compact seems to have beenentered into in the past reign, that the _Roydamna_, orsuccessor, should be chosen alternately from the Northernand Southern Hy-Nial; and, subsequently, when Nial, sonof his predecessor, assumed that onerous rank, Flan gavehim his daughter Gormley, celebrated for her beauty, hertalents, and her heartlessness, in marriage. From theseseveral family ties, uniting him so closely with Ossory, with the Scots, and with his successor, much of the warsand politics of Flan Siona's reign take their cast andcomplexion. A still more fruitful source of newcomplications was the co-equal power, acquired througha long series of aggressions, by the kings of Cashel. Their rivalry with the monarchy, from the beginning ofthe eighth till the end of the tenth century, was aconstant cause of intrigues, coalitions, and wars, reminding us of the constant rivalry of Athens withSparta, of Genoa with Venice. This kingship of Cashel, according to the Munster law of succession, "the will ofOlild, " ought to have alternated regularly between thedescendants of his sons, Eugene More and Cormac Cas--theEugenians and Dalcassians. But the families of the formerkindred were for many centuries the more powerful of thetwo, and frequently set at nought the testamentary lawof their common ancestor, leaving the tribe of Cas butthe border-land of Thomond, from which they had sometimesto pay tribute to Cruachan, and at others to Cashel. Inthe ninth century the competition among the Eugenianhouses--of which too many were of too nearly equalstrength--seems to have suggested a new expedient, withthe view of permanently setting aside the will of Olild. This was, to confer the kingship when vacant, on whoeverhappened to be Bishop of Emly or of Cashel, or on someother leading ecclesiastical dignitary, always providedthat he was of Eugenian descent; a qualification easilyto be met with, since the great sees and abbacies werenow filled, for the most part, by the sons of theneighbouring chiefs. In this way we find Cenfalad, Felim, and Olcobar, in this century, styled Prince-Bishops orPrince-Abbots. The principal domestic difficulty of FlanSiona's reign followed from the elevation of Cormac, sonof Cuillenan, from the see of Emly to the throne of Cashel. 

Cormac, a scholar, and, as became his calling, a man ofpeace, was thus, by virtue of his accession, therepresentative of the old quarrel between his predecessorsand the dominant race of kings. All Munster asserted thatit was never the intention of their common ancestors tosubject the southern half of Erin to the sway of thenorth; that Eber and Owen More had resisted such pretensionswhen advanced by Eremhon and Conn of the Hundred Battles;that the _esker_ from Dublin to Galway was the truedivision, and that, even admitting the title of theHy-Nial king as Ard-Righ, all the tribes south of the_esker_, whether in Leinster or Connaught, still owedtribute by ancient right to Cashel. Their antiquarieshad their own version in of "the Book of Rights, " whichcountenanced these claims to co-equal dominion, and theirBards drew inspiration from the same high pretensions. Party spirit ran so high that tales and prophecies wereinvented to show how St. Patrick had laid his curse onTara, and promised dominion to Cashel and to Dublin inits stead. All Leinster, except the lordship of Ossory--identical with the present diocese of the same name-washeld by the _Brehons_ of Cashel to be tributary to theirking; and this _Borooa_ or tribute, abandoned by themonarchs at the intercession of Saint Moling, was claimedfor the Munster rulers as an inseparable adjunct of theirsouthern kingdom. 

The first act of Flan Siona, on his accession, was todash into Munster, demanding hostages at the point ofthe sword, and sweeping over both Thomond and Desmondwith irresistible force, from Clare to Cork. With equalpromptitude he marched through every territory of Ulster, securing, by the pledges of their heirs and _Tanists_, the chiefs of the elder tribes of the Hy-Nial. Soeffectually did he consider his power established overthe provinces, that he is said to have boasted to one ofhis hostages, that he would, with no other attendantsthan his own servants, play a game of chess on ThurlesGreen, without fear of interruption. Carrying out thisfoolish wager, he accordingly went to his game at Thurles, and was very properly taken prisoner for his temerity, and made to pay a smart ransom to his captors. So runsthe tale, which, whether true or fictitious, is notwithout its moral. Flan experienced greater difficultywith the tribes of Connaught, nor was it till the thirteenthyear of his reign (892) that Cathal, their Prince, "cameinto his house, " in Meath, "under the protection of theclergy" of Clonmacnoise, and made peace with him. A briefinterval of repose seems to have been vouchsafed to thisPrince, in the last years of the century; but a stormwas gathering over Cashel, and the high pretensions ofthe Eugenian line were again to be put to the hazard ofbattle. 

Cormac, the Prince-Bishop, began his rule over Munsterin the year 900 of our common era, and passed some yearsin peace, after his accession. If we believe hispanegyrists, the land over which he bore sway, "was filledwith divine grace and worldly prosperity, " and with orderso unbroken, "that the cattle needed no cowherd, and theflocks no shepherd, so long as he was king. " Himself anantiquary and a lover of learning, it seems but naturalthat "many books were written, and many schools opened, "by his liberality. During this enviable interval, councillors of less pacific mood than their studiousmaster were not wanting to stimulate his sense of kinglyduty, by urging him to assert the claim of Munster tothe tribute of the southern half of Erin. As an antiquaryhimself, Cormac must have been bred up in undoubtingbelief in the justice of that claim, and must have givenjudgment in favour of its antiquity and validity, beforehis accession. These _dicta_ of his own were now quotedwith emphasis, and he was besought to enforce, by allthe means within his reach, the learned judgments hehimself had delivered. The most active advocate of arecourse to arms was Flaherty, Abbot of Scattery, in theShannon, himself an Eugenian, and the kinsman of Cormac. After many objections, the peaceful Prince-Bishop allowedhimself to be persuaded, and in the year 907 he took uphis line of march, "in the fortnight of the harvest, "from Cashel toward Gowran, at the head of all the armamentof Munster. Lorcan, son of Lactna, and grandfather ofBrian, commanded the Dalcassians, under Cormac; and Oliol, lord of Desies, and the warlike Abbot of Scattery, ledon the other divisions. The monarch marched southward tomeet his assailants, with his own proper troops, and thecontingents of Connaught under Cathel, Prince of thatProvince, and those of Leinster under the lead of Kerball, their king. Both armies met at Ballaghmoon, in the southerncorner of Kildare, not far from the present town ofCarlow, and both fought with most heroic bravery. TheMunster forces were utterly defeated; the Lords of Desies, of Fermoy, of Kinalmeaky, and of Kerry, the Abbots ofCork and Kennity, and Cormac himself, with 6, 000 men, fell on the ensanguined field. The losses of the victorsare not specified, but the 6, 000, we may hope, includedthe total of the slain on both sides. Flan at once improvedthe opportunity of victory by advancing into Ossory, andestablishing his cousin Dermid, son of Kerball, over thatterritory. This Dermid, who appears to have been banishedby Munster intrigues, had long resided with his royalcousin, previous to the battle, from which he was probablythe only one that derived any solid advantage. As to theAbbot Flaherty, the instigator of this ill-fated expedition, he escaped from the conquerors, and, safe in his islandsanctuary, gave himself up for a while to penitentialrigours. The worldly spirit, however, was not dead inhis breast, and after the decease of Cormac's nextsuccessor, he emerged from his cell, and was elevated tothe kingship of Cashel. 

In the earlier and middle years of this long reign, theinvasions from the Baltic had diminished both in forceand in frequency. This is to be accounted for from thefact, that during its entire length it was contemporaneouswith the reign of Harold, "the Fair-haired" King ofNorway, the scourge of the sea-kings. This more fortunateCharles XII. , born in 853, died at the age of 81, aftersixty years of almost unbroken successes, over all hisDanish, Swedish, and insular enemies. It is easy tocomprehend, by reference to his exploits upon the Baltic, the absence of the usual northern force from the Irishwaters, during his lifetime, and that of his cotemporary, Flan of the Shannon. Yet the race of the sea-kings wasnot extinguished by the fair-haired Harold's victoriesover them, at home. Several of them permanently abandonedtheir native coasts never to return, and recruited theircolonies, already so numerous, in the Orkneys, Scotland, England, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. In 885, Flan wasrepulsed in an attack on Dublin, in which repulse theAbbots of Kildare and Kildalkey were slain; in the year890, Aileach was surprised and plundered by Danes, forthe first time, and Armagh shared its fate; in 887, 888, and 891, three minor victories were gained over separatehordes, in Mayo, at Waterford, and in Ulidia (Down). In897, Dublin was taken for the first time in sixty years, its chiefs put to death, while its garrison fled in theirships beyond sea. But in the first quarter of the tenthcentury, better fortune begins to attend the Danish cause. A new generation enters on the scene, who dread no morethe long arm of the age-stricken Harold, nor respect thetreaties which bound their predecessors in Britain tothe great Alfred. In 912, Waterford received from sea astrong reinforcement, and about the same date, or stillearlier, Dublin, from which they had been expelled in897, was again in their possession. In 913, and forseveral subsequent years, the southern garrisons continuedtheir ravages in Munster, where the warlike Abbot ofScattery found a more suitable object for the employmentof his valour than that which brought him, with thestudious Cormac, to the fatal field of Ballaghmoon. 

The closing days of Flan of the Shannon were embitteredand darkened by the unnatural rebellion of his sons, Connor and Donogh, and his successor, Nial, surnamed_Black-Knee_ (_Glundubh_), the husband of his daughter, Gormley. These children were by his second marriage withGormley, daughter of that son of Conaing, whose name hasalready appeared in connection with the plundered sepulchresupon the Boyne. At the age of three score and upwardsFlan is frequently obliged to protect by recourse to armshis mensal lands in Meath-their favourite point ofattack-or to defend some faithful adherent whom theseunnatural Princes sought to oppress. The daughter ofFlan, thus wedded to a husband in arms against her father, seems to have been as little dutiful as his sons. We haveelegiac stanzas by her on the death of two of her husbandsand of one of her sons, but none on the death of herfather: although this form of tribute to the departed, by those skilled in such compositions, seems to have beenas usual as the ordinary prayers for the dead. 

At length, in the 37th year of his reign, and the 68thof his age, King Flan was at the end of his sorrows. Asbecame the prevailing character of his life, he diedpeacefully, in a religious house at Kyneigh, in Kildare, on the 8th of June, in the year 916, of the common era. The Bards praise his "fine shape" and "august mien, " aswell as his "pleasant and hospitable" private habits. Like all the kings of his race he seems to have beenbrave enough: but he was no lover of war for war's-sake, and the only great engagement in his long reign wasbrought on by enemies who left him no option but to fight. His munificence rebuilt the Cathedral of Clonmacnoise, with the co-operation of Colman, the Abbot, the yearafter the battle of Ballaghmoon (908); for which age, itwas the largest and finest stone Church in Ireland. Hischarity and chivalry both revolted at the cruel excessesof war, and when the head of Cormac of Cashel was presentedto him after his victory, he rebuked those who rejoicedover his rival's fall, kissed reverently the lips of thedead, and ordered the relics to be delivered, as Cormachad himself willed it, to the Church of Castledermot, for Christian burial. These traits of character, not lessthan his family afflictions, and the generally peacefultenor of his long life, have endeared to many the memoryof Flan of the Shannon. 

CHAPTER IV. 

KINGS OF THE TENTH CENTURY; NIAL IV. ; DONOGH II. ;CONGAL III. ; DONALD IV. 

Nial IV. (surnamed _Black-Knee_) succeeded hisfather-in-law, Flan of the Shannon (A. D. 916), and inthe third year of his reign fell in an assault on Dublin;Donogh II. , son of Flan Siona, reigned for twenty-fiveyears; Congal III. Succeeded, and was slain in an ambushby the Dublin Danes, in the twelfth year of his reign(A. D. 956); Donald IV. , in the twenty-fourth year of hisreign, died at Armagh, (A. D. 979); which four reignsbring us to the period of the accession of Malachy II. As _Ard-Righ_, and the entrance of Brian Boru, on thenational stage, as King of Cashel, and competitor forthe monarchy. 

The reign of Nial _Black-Knee_ was too brief to bememorable for any other event than his heroic death inbattle. The Danes having recovered Dublin, and strengthenedits defences, Nial, it is stated, was incited by hisconfessor, the Abbot of Bangor, to attempt theirre-expulsion. Accordingly, in October, 919, he marchedtowards Dublin, with a numerous host; Conor, son of thelate king and _Roydamna_; the lords of Ulidia (Down), Oriel (Louth), Breagh (East-Meath), and other chiefs, with their clans accompanying him. Sitrick and Ivar, sonsof the first Danish leaders in Ireland, marched out tomeet them, and near Rathfarnham, on the Dodder, a battlewas fought, in which the Irish were utterly defeated andtheir monarch slain. This Nial left a son named Murkertach, who, according to the compact entered into between theNorthern and Southern Hy-Nial, became the _Roydamna_ ofthe next reign, and the most successful leader againstthe Danes, since the time of Malachy I. He was the step-sonof the poetic Lady Gormley, whose lot it was to have beenmarried in succession to the King of Munster, the Kingof Leinster, and the Monarch. Her first husband wasCormac, son of Cuilenan, before he entered holy orders;her second, Kerball of Leinster, and her third, Nial_Black-Knee_. She was an accomplished poetess, besidesbeing the daughter, wife, and mother of king's, yet afterthe death of Nial she "begged from door to door, " and noone had pity on her fallen state. By what vices she hadthus estranged from her every kinsman, and every dependent, we are left to imagine; but that such was her misfortune, at the time her brother was monarch, and her step-sonsuccessor, we learn from the annals, which record herpenance and death, under the date of 948. 

The defeat sustained near Rathfarnham, by the late king, was amply avenged in the first year of the new _Ard-Righ_(A. D. 920), when the Dublin Danes, having marched out, taken and burned Kells, in Meath, were on their returnthrough the plain of Breagh, attacked and routed withunprecedented slaughter. "There fell of the nobles ofthe Norsemen here, " say the old Annalists, "as many asfell of the nobles and plebeians of the Irish, atAth-Cliath" (Dublin). The Northern Hydra, however, wasnot left headless. Godfrey, grandson of Ivar, and Tomar, son of Algi, took command at Dublin, and Limerick, infusingnew life into the remnant of their race. The youthfulson of the late king, soon after at the head of a strongforce (A. D. 921), compelled Godfrey to retreat fromUlster, to his ships, and to return by sea to Dublin. This was Murkertach, fondly called by the elegiac Bards, "the Hector of the West, " and for his heroic achievements, not undeserving to be named after the gallant defenderof Troy. Murkertach first appears in our annals at theyear 921, and disappears in the thick of the battle in938. His whole career covers seventeen years; his positionthroughout was subordinate and expectant--for King Donoghoutlived his heir: but there are few names in any age ofthe history of his country more worthy of historicalhonour than his. While Donogh was king in name, Murkertachwas king in fact; on him devolved the burden of everynegotiation, and the brunt of every battle. Unlike hisancestor, Hugh of Aileach, in his opposition to Donogh'sancestor, Malachy I. , he never attempts to counteractthe king, or to harass him in his patrimony. He ratherdoes what is right and needful himself, leaving Donoghto claim the credit, if he be so minded. True, a coolnessand a quarrel arises between them, and even "a challengeof battle" is exchanged, but better councils prevail, peace is restored, and the king and the _Roydamna_ marchas one man against the common enemy. It has been said ofanother but not wholly dissimilar form of government, that Crown-Princes are always in opposition; if thissaying holds good of father and son, as occupant andexpectant of a throne, how much more likely is it to betrue of a successor and a principal, chosen from differentdynasties, with a view to combine, or at worst to balance, conflicting hereditary interests? In the conduct ofMurkertach, we admire, in turn, his many shining personalqualities, which even tasteless panegyric cannot hide, and the prudence, self-denial, patience, and preservancewith which he awaits his day of power. Unhappily, forone every way so worthy of it, that day never arrived!

At no former period, --not even at the height of thetyranny of Turgesius, --was a capable Prince more neededin Erin. The new generation of Northmen were again uponall the estuaries and inland waters of the Island. Inthe years 923-4 and 5, their light armed vessels swarmedon Lough Erne, Lough Ree, and other lakes, spreadingflame and terror on every side. Clonmacnoise and Kildare, slowly recovering from former pillage, were again leftempty and in ruins. Murkertach, the base of whose earlyoperations was his own patrimony in Ulster, attacked nearNewry a Northern division under the command of the sonof Godfrey (A. D. 926), and left 800 dead on the field. The escape of the remnant was only secured by Godfreymarching rapidly to their relief and covering the retreat. His son lay with the dead. In the years 933, at SlieveBehma, in his own Province, Murkertach won a third victory;and in 936, taking political advantage of the result ofthe great English battle of Brunanburgh, which had soseriously diminished the Danish strength, the Roydamna, in company with the King, assaulted Dublin, expelled itsgarrison, levelled its fortress, and left the dwellingsof the Northmen in ashes. From Dublin they proceededsouthward, through Leinster and Munster, and after takinghostages of every tribe, Donogh returned to his Methianhome and Murkertach to Aileach. While resting in his ownfort (A. D. 939), he was surprised by a party of Danes, and carried off to their ships, but, says the old translatorof the Annals of Clonmacnoise, "he made a good escapefrom them, as it was God's will. " The following seasonhe redoubled his efforts against the enemy. Attackingthem on their own element, he ravaged their settlementson the Scottish coasts and among the isles of Insi-Gall(the Hebrides), returned laden with spoils, and hailedwith acclamations as the liberator of his people. 

Of the same age with Murkertach, the reigning Prince atCashel was Kellachan, one of the heroes of the latterBards and Story-tellers of the South. The romantic talesof his capture by the Danes, and captivity in their fleetat Dundalk, of the love which Sitrick's wife bore him, and of his gallant rescue by the Dalcassians and Eugenians, have no historical sanction. He was often both at warand at peace with the foreigners of Cork and Limerick, and did not hesitate more than once to employ their armsfor the maintenance of his own supremacy; but his onlyauthentic captivity was, as a hostage, in the hands ofMurkertach. While the latter was absent, on his expeditionto Insi-Gall, Kellachan fell upon the Deisi and Ossorians, and inflicted severe chastisement upon them-alleging, ashis provocation, that they had given hostages to Murkertach, and acknowledged him as _Roydamna_ of all Erin, in contemptof the co-equal rights of Cashel. When Murkertach returnedfrom his Scotch expedition, and heard what had occurred, and on what pretext Kellachan had acted, he assembled atAileach all the branches of the Northern Hy-Nial, forwhom this was cause, indeed. Out of these he selected1000 chosen men, whom he provided, among other equipments, with those "leathern coats, " which lent a _soubriquet_to his name; and with these "ten hundred heroes, " he setout--strong in his popularity and his alliances--to makea circuit of the entire island (A. D. 940). He departedfrom Aileach, says his Bard, whose Itinerary we have, "keeping his left hand to the sea;" Dublin, once morerebuilt, acknowledged his title, and Sitrick, one of itslords, went with him as hostage for Earl Blacair and hiscountrymen; Leinster surrendered him Lorcan, its King;Kellachan, of Cashel, overawed by his superior fortune, advised his own people not to resist by force, andconsented to become himself the hostage for all Munster. In Connaught, Conor, (from whom the O'Conors take theirfamily name), son of the Prince, came voluntarily to hiscamp, and was received with open arms. Kellachan alonewas submitted to the indignity of wearing a fetter. Withthese distinguished hostages, Murkertach and hisleather-cloaked "ten hundred" returned to Aileach, where, for five months, they spent a season of unbounded rejoicing. In the following year, the _Roydamna_ transferred thehostages to King Donogh, as his _suzerain_, thus settingthe highest example of obedience from the highest place. He might now look abroad over all the tribes of Erin, and feel himself without a rival among his countrymen. He stood at the very summit of his good fortune, whenthe Danes of Dublin, reinforced from abroad, after his"Circuit, " renewed their old plundering practices. Theymarched north, at the close of winter, under Earl Blacair, their destination evidently being Armagh. Murkertach, with some troops hastily collected, disputed their passageat the ford of Ardee. An engagement ensued on Saturday, the 4th of March, 943, in which the noble _Roydamna_fell. King Donogh, to whose reign his vigorous spirithas given its main historical importance, survived himbut a twelvemonth; the Monarch died in the bed of repose;his destined successor in the thick of battle. 

The death of the brave and beloved Murkertach filled allErin with grief and rage, and as King Donogh was too oldto avenge his destined successor, that duty devolved onCongal, the new _Roydamna_. In the year after the fatalaction at Ardee, Congal, with Brann, King of Leinster, and Kellach, heir of Leinster, assaulted and took Dublin, and wreaked a terrible revenge for the nation's loss. The "women, children, and plebeians, " were carried offcaptive; the greater part of the garrison were put tothe sword; but a portion escaped in their vessels totheir fortress on Dalkey, an island in the bay of Dublin. This was the third time within a century that Dublin hadbeen rid of its foreign yoke, and yet as the Gaelic-Irishwould not themselves dwell in fortified towns, the siteremained open and unoccupied, to be rebuilt as often asit might be retaken. The gallant Congal, the same year, succeeded on the death of Donogh to the sovereignty, and, so soon as he had secured his seat, and surrounded itwith sufficient hostages, he showed that he could notonly avenge the death, but imitate the glorious life ofhim whose place he held. Two considerable victories inhis third and fourth years increased his fame, and rejoicedthe hearts of his countrymen: the first was won at Slane, aided by the Lord of Breffni (O'Ruarc), and by Olaf theCrooked, a northern chief. The second was fought at Dublin(947), in which Blacair, the victor at Ardee, and 1, 600of his men were slain. Thus was the death of Murkertachfinally avenged. 

It is very remarkable that the first conversions toChristianity among the Danes of Dublin should have takenplace immediately after these successive defeats--in 948. Nor, although quite willing to impute the best and mostdisinterested motives to these first neophytes, can weshut our eyes to the fact that no change of life, suchas we might reasonably look for, accompanied their changeof religion. Godfrid, son of Sitrick, and successor ofBlacair, who professed himself a Christian in 948, plundered and destroyed the churches of East-Meath in949, burnt 150 persons in the oratory of Drumree, andcarried off as captives 3, 000 persons. If the tree is tobe judged by its fruits, this first year's growth of thenew faith is rather alarming. It compels us to disbelievethe sincerity of Godfrid, at least, and the fighting menwho wrought these outrages and sacrileges. It forces usto rank them with the incorrigible heathens who boastedthat they had twenty times received the Sacrament ofBaptism, and valued it for the twenty white robes whichhad been presented to them on those occasions. Still, wemust endeavour hereafter, when we can, to distinguishChristian from Pagan Danes, and those of Irish birth, sons of the first comers, from the foreign-born kinsmenof their ancestors. Between these two classes there grewa gulf of feeling and experience, which a common languageand common dangers only partially bridged over. Not seldomthe interests and inclinations of the Irish-born Dane, especially if a true Christian, were at open variancewith the interests and designs of the new arrivals fromDenmark, and it is generally, if not invariably, withthe former, that the Leinster and other Irish Princesenter into coalitions for common political purposes. The remainder of the reign of Congal is one vigorousbattle. The Lord of Breffni, who had fought beside himon the hill of Slane, advanced his claim to be recognised_Roydamna_, and this being denied, broke out into rebellionand harassed his patrimony. Donald, son of Murkertach, and grandson of Nial, (the first who took the name of_Uai-Nial_, or O'Neill), disputed these pretensions ofthe Lord of Breffni; carried his boats overland fromAileach to Lough Erne in Fermanagh, and Lough Oughter inCavan; attacked the lake-islands, where the treasure andhostages of Breffni were kept, and carried them off tohis own fortress. The warlike and indefatigable king wasin the field summer and winter enforcing his authorityon Munster and Connaught, and battling with the foreigngarrisons between times. No former Ard-Righ had a severerstruggle with the insubordinate elements which beset himfrom first to last. His end was sudden, but not inglorious. In returning from the chariot-races at the Curragh ofKildare, he was surprised and slain in an ambuscade laidfor him by Godfrid at a place on the banks of the Liffeycalled Tyraris or Teeraris house. By his side, fightingbravely, fell the lords of Teffia and Ferrard, two ofhis nephews, and others of his personal attendants andcompanions. The Dublin Danes had in their turn a day ofrejoicing and of revenge for the defeats they had sufferedat Congal's hands. 

This reign is not only notable for the imputed firstconversion of the Danes to Christianity, but also forthe general adoption of family names. Hitherto, we havebeen enabled to distinguish clansmen only by tribe-namesformed by prefixing _Hy_, _Kinnel_, _Sil_, _Muintir_, _Dal_, or some synonymous term, meaning race, kindred, sept, district, or part, to the proper name of a remotecommon ancestor, as Hy-Nial, Kinnel-Connel, Sil-Murray, Muintir-Eolais, Dal-g Cais, and Dal-Riada. But the greattribes now begin to break into families, and we arehereafter to know particular houses, by distinct hereditarysurnames, as O'Neill, O'Conor, MacMurrough, and McCarthy. Yet, the whole body of relatives are often spoken of bythe old tribal title, which, unless exceptions are named, is supposed to embrace all the descendants of the oldconnection to whom it was once common. At first thisalternate use of tribe and family names may confuse thereader--for it _is_ rather puzzling to find a MacLoughlinwith the same paternal ancestor as an O'Neill, and aMcMahon of Thomond as an O'Brien, but the difficultydisappears with use and familiarity, and though the numberand variety of newly-coined names cannot be at oncecommitted to memory, the story itself gains in distinctnessby the change. 

In the year 955, Donald O'Neill, son of the brave andbeloved Murkertach, was recognised as Ard-Righ, by therequired number of Provinces, without recourse to coercion. But it was _not_ to be expected that any Ard-Righ should, at this period of his country's fortunes, reign long inpeace. War was then the business of the King; the firstart he had to learn, and the first to practise. Warfarein Ireland had not been a stationary science since thearrival of the Norwegians and their successors, the Danes. Something they may have acquired from the natives, andin turn the natives were not slow to copy whatever seemedmost effective in their tactics. Donald IV. Was thefirst to imitate their habit of employing armed boats onthe inland lakes. He even improved on their example, bycarrying these boats with him overland, and launchingthem wherever he needed their co-operation; as we havealready seen him do in his expedition against Breffni, while _Roydamna_, and as we find him doing again, in theseventh year of his reign, when he carried his boatsoverland from Armagh to West-Meath in order to employthem on Loch Ennell, near Mullingar. He was at this timeengaged in making his first royal visitation of theProvinces, upon which he spent two months in Leinster, with all his forces, coerced the Munster chiefs by fireand sword into obedience, and severely punished theinsubordination of Fergal O'Ruarc, King of Connaught. His fleet upon Loch Ennell, and his severities generallywhile in their patrimony, so exasperated the powerfulfamilies of the Southern Hy-Nial (the elder of which wasnow known as O'Melaghlin), that on the first opportunitythey leagued with the Dublin Danes, under their leader, Olaf "the Crooked" (A. D. 966), and drove King Donald outof Leinster and Meath, pursuing him across Slieve-Fuaid, almost to the walls of Aileach. But the brave tribes ofTyrconnell and Tyrowen rallied to his support, and hepressed south upon the insurgents of Meath and Dublin;West-Meath he rapidly overran, and "planted a garrisonin every cantred from the Shannon to Kells, " In thecampaigns which now succeeded each other, without truceor pause, for nearly a dozen years, the Leinster peoplegenerally sympathised with and assisted those of West-Meath, and Olaf, of Dublin, who recruited his ranks by thejunction of the Lagmans, a warlike tribe, from Insi-Gall(the Hebrides). Ossory, on the other hand, acted withthe monarch, and the son of its Tanist (A. D. 974) wasslain before Dublin, by Olaf and his Leinster allies, with 2, 600 men, of Ossory and Ulster. The campaign of978 was still more eventful: the Leinster men quarrelledwith their Danish allies, who had taken their king captive, and in an engagement at Belan, near Athy, defeated theirforces, with the loss of the heir of Leinster, the lordsof Kinsellagh, Lea and Morett, and other chiefs. KingDonald had no better fortune at Killmoon, in Meath, thesame season, where he was utterly routed by the sameforce, with the loss of Ardgal, heir of Ulidia, andKenneth, lord of Tyrconnell. But for the victories gainedabout the same period in Munster, by Mahon and Brian, the sons of Kennedy, over the Danes of Limerick, of whichwe shall speak more fully hereafter, the balance ofvictory would have strongly inclined towards the Northmenat this stage of the contest. 

A leader, second in fame and in services only to Brian, was now putting forth his energies against the commonenemy, in Meath. This was Melaghlin, better known afterwardsas Malachy II. , son of Donald, son of King Donogh, and, therefore, great-grandson to his namesake, Malachy I. Hehad lately attained to the command of his tribe--and heresolved to earn the honours which were in store for him, as successor to the sovereignty. In the year 979, theDanes of Dublin and the Isles marched in unusual strengthinto Meath, under the command of Rannall, son of Olafthe Crooked, and Connail, "the Orator of Ath-Cliath, "(Dublin). Malachy, with his allies, gave them battle nearTara, and achieved a complete victory. Earl Rannall andthe Orator were left dead on the field, with, it isreported, 5, 000 of the foreigners. On the Irish side fellthe heir of Leinster, the lord of Morgallion and his son;the lords of Fertullagh and Cremorne, and a host of theirfollowers. The engagement, in true Homeric spirit, hadbeen suspended on three successive nights, and renewedthree successive days. It was a genuine pitched battle--atrial of main strength, each party being equally confidentof victory. The results were most important, and mostgratifying to the national pride. Malachy, accompaniedby his friend, the lord of Ulidia (Down), moved rapidlyon Dublin, which, in its panic, yielded to all his demands. The King of Leinster and 2, 000 other prisoners were givenup to him without ransom. The Danish Earls solemnlyrenounced all claims to tribute or fine from any of thedwellers without their own walls. Malachy remained inthe city three days, dismantled its fortresses, andcarried off its hostages and treasure. The unfortunateOlaf the Crooked fled beyond seas, and died at Iona, inexile, and a Christian. In the same year, and in themidst of universal rejoicing, Donald IV. Died peacefullyand piously at Armagh, in the 24th year of his reign. Hewas succeeded by Malachy, who was his sister's son, andin whom all the promise of the lamented Murkertach seemedto revive. 

The story of Malachy II. Is so interwoven with thestill-more illustrious career of Brian _Borooa_, that itwill not lose in interest by being presented in detail. But before entering on the rivalry of these great men, we must again remark on the altered position which theNorthmen of this age hold to the Irish from that whichexisted formerly. A century and a half had now elapsedsince their first settlement in the seaports, especiallyof the eastern and southern Provinces. More than onegeneration of their descendants had been born on thebanks of the Liffey, the Shannon, and the Suir. Many ofthem had married into Irish families, had learned thelanguage of the country, and embraced its religion. WhenLimerick was taken by Brian, Ivar, its Danish lord, fledfor sanctuary to Scattery Island, and when Dublin wastaken by Malachy II. , Olaf the Crooked fled to Iona. Inter-marriages with the highest Gaelic families becamefrequent, after their conversion to Christianity. Themother of Malachy, after his father's death, had marriedOlaf of Dublin, by whom she had a son, named _Gluniarran(Iron-Knee_, from his armour), who was thus half-brotherto the King. It is natural enough to find him the allyof Malachy, a few years later, against Ivar of Waterford;and curious enough to find Ivar's son calledGilla-Patrick--servant of Patrick. Kellachan of Cashelhad married a Danish, and Sitrick "of the Silken beard, "an Irish lady. That all the Northmen were not, even inIreland, converted in one generation, is evident. Thoseof Insi-Gall were still, perhaps, Pagans; those of theOrkneys and of Denmark, who came to the battle of Clontarfin the beginning of the next century, chose to fight onGood Friday under the advice of their heathen Oracles. The first half of the eleventh century, the age of SaintOlaf and of Canute, is the era of the establishment ofChristianity among the Scandinavians, and hence thenecessity for distinguishing between those who came toIreland, direct from the Baltic, from those who, born inIreland and bred up in the Christian faith, had as muchto apprehend from such an invasion, as the Celts themselves. 

CHAPTER V. 

REIGN OF MALACHY II. AND RIVALRY OF BRIAN. 

Melaghlin, or Malachy II. , fifth in direct descent fromMalachy I. (the founder of the Southern Hy-Nial dynasty), was in his thirtieth year when (A. D. 980) he succeededto the monarchy. He had just achieved the mighty victoryof Tara when the death of his predecessor opened his wayto the throne; and seldom did more brilliant dawn usherin a more eventful day than that which Fate held in storefor this victor-king. None of his predecessors, not evenhis ancestor and namesake, had ever been able to use thehigh language of his "noble Proclamation, " when heannounced on his accession--"Let all the Irish who aresuffering servitude in the land of the stranger returnhome to their respective houses and enjoy themselves ingladness and in peace. " In obedience to this edict, andthe power to enforce it established by the victory atTara, 2, 000 captives, including the King of Leinster andthe Prince of Aileach, were returned to their homes. 

The hardest task of every Ard-Righ of this and the previouscentury had been to circumscribe the ambition of thekings of Cashel within Provincial bounds. Whoever ascendedthe southern throne--whether the warlike Felim or thelearned Cormac--we have seen the same policy adopted bythem all. The descendants of Heber had tired of the longascendancy of the race of Heremon, and the desertion ofTara, by making that ascendancy still more strikinglyProvincial, had increased their antipathy. It was astruggle for supremacy between north and south; a contestof two geographical parties; an effort to efface the realor fancied dependency of one-half the island on the willof the other. The Southern Hy-Nial dynasty, springing upas a third power upon the Methian bank of the Shannon, and balancing itself between the contending parties, might perhaps have given a new centre to the whole system;Malachy II. Was in the most favourable position possibleto have done so, had he not had to contend with a rival, his equal in battle and superior in council, in the personof Brian, the son of Kennedy, of Kincorra. 

The rise to sovereign rank of the house of Kincorra (theO'Briens), is one of the most striking episodes of thetenth century. Descending, like most of the leadingfamilies of the South, from Olild, the Clan Dalgais hadlong been excluded from the throne of Cashel, by successivecoalitions of their elder brethren, the Eugenians. Lactnaand Lorcan, the grandfather and father of Kennedy, intrepidand able men, had strengthened their tribe by wise andvigorous measures, so that the former was able to claimthe succession, apparently with success. Kennedy hadhimself been a claimant for the same honour, the alternateprovision in the will of Olild, against Kellachan Cashel(A. D. 940-2), but at the Convention held at Glanworth, on the river Funcheon, for the selection of king, theaged mother of Kellachan addressed his rival in a quatrain, beginning--

 "Kennedi Cas revere the law!"

which induced him to abandon his pretensions. This Prince, usually spoken of by the Bards as "the chaste Kennedy, "died in the year 950, leaving behind him four or fiveout of twelve sons, with whom he had been blessed. Mostof the others had fallen in Danish battles--three in thesame campaign (943), and probably in the same field. There appear in after scenes, Mahon, who became King ofCashel; Echtierna, who was chief of Thomond, under Mahon;Marcan, an ecclesiastic, and Brian, born in 941, theBenjamin of the household. Mahon proved himself, as Princeand Captain, every way worthy of his inheritance. Headvanced from victory to victory over his enemies, foreignand domestic. In 960 he claimed the throne of Munster, which claim he enforced by royal visitation five yearslater. In the latter year, he rescued Clonmacnoise fromthe Danes, and in 968 defeated the same enemy, with aloss of several thousand men at Sulchoid. This great blowhe followed up by the sack of Limerick, from which "hebore off a large quantity of gold, and silver, and jewels. "In these, and all his expeditions, from a very early age, he was attended by Brian, to whom he acted not only asa brother and prince, but as a tutor in arms. Fortunehad accompanied him in all his undertakings. He hadexpelled his most intractable rival--Molloy, son ofBran, lord of Desmond; his rule was acknowledged by theNorthmen of Dublin and Cork, who opened their fortressesto him, and served under his banner; he carried "all thehostages of Munster to his house, " which had never beforeworn so triumphant an aspect. But family greatness begetsfamily pride, and pride begets envy and hatred. TheEugenian families who now found themselves overshadowedby the brilliant career of the sons of Kennedy, conspiredagainst the life of Mahon, who, from his too confidingnature, fell easily into their trap. Molloy, son of Bran, by the advice of Ivar, the Danish lord of Limerick, proposed to meet Mahon in friendly conference at thehouse of Donovan, an Eugenian chief, whose rath was atBruree, on the river Maigue. The safety of each personwas guaranteed by the Bishop of Cork, the mediator onthe occasion. Mahon proceeded unsuspiciously to theconference, where he was suddenly seized by order of histreacherous host, and carried into the neighbouringmountains of Knocinreorin. Here a small force, placedfor the purpose by the conspirators, had orders promptlyto despatch their victim. But the foul deed was not doneunwitnessed. Two priests of the Bishop of Cork followedthe Prince, who, when arrested, snatched up "the Gospelof St. Barry, " on which Molloy was to have sworn hisfealty. As the swords of the assassins were aimed at hisheart, he held up the Gospel for a protection, and hisblood spouting out, stained the Sacred Scriptures. Thepriests, taking up the blood-stained volume, fled totheir Bishop, spreading the horrid story as they went. The venerable successor of St. Barry "wept bitterly, anduttered a prophecy concerning the future fate of themurderers;" a prophecy which was very speedily fulfilled. 

This was in the year 976, three or four years before thebattle of Tara and the accession of Malachy. When thenews of his noble-hearted brother's murder was broughtto Brian, at Kinkora, he was seized with the most violentgrief. His favourite harp was taken down, and he sangthe death-song of Mahon, recounting all the gloriousactions of his life. His anger flashed out through histears, as he wildly chanted

 "My heart shall burst within my breast, Unless I avenge this great king; They shall forfeit life for this foul deed Or I must perish by a violent death. "

But the climax of his lament was, that Mahon "had notfallen in battle behind the shelter of his shield, ratherthan trust in the treacherous words of Donovan. " Brianwas now in his thirty-fifth year, was married, and hadseveral children. Morrogh, his eldest, was able to beararms, and shared in his ardour and ambition. "His firsteffort, " says an old Chronicle, "was directed againstDonovan's allies, the Danes of Limerick, and he slew Ivartheir king, and two of his sons. " These conspirators, foreseeing their fate, had retired into the holy isle ofScattery, but Brian slew them between "the horns of thealtar. " For this violation of the sanctuary, consideringhis provocation, he was little blamed. He next turnedhis rage against Donovan, who had called to his aid theDanish townsmen of Desmond. "Brian, " says the Annalistof Innisfallen, "gave them battle where Auliffe and hisDanes, and Donovan and his Irish forces, were all cutoff. " After that battle, Brian sent a challenge to Molloy, of Desmond, according to the custom of that age, to meethim in arms near Macroom, where the usual coalition, Danes and Irish, were against him. He completely routedthe enemy, and his son Morrogh, then but a lad, "killedthe murderer of his uncle Mahon with his own hand. " Molloywas buried on the north side of the mountain where Mahonwas murdered and interred; on Mahon the southward sunshone full and fair; but on the grave of his assassin, the black shadow of the northern sky rested always. Suchwas the tradition which all Munster piously believed. After this victory over Molloy, son of Bran (A. D. 978), Brian was universally acknowledged King of Munster, anduntil Malachy had won the battle of Tara, was justlyconsidered the first Irish captain of his age. 

Malachy, in the first year of his reign, having receivedthe hostages of the Danes of Dublin, having liberatedthe Irish prisoners and secured the unity of his ownterritory, had his attention drawn, naturally enough, towards Brian's movements. Whether Brian had refusedhim homage, or that his revival of the old claim to thehalf-kingdom was his offence, or from whatever immediatecause, Malachy marched southwards, enforcing homage ashe went. Entering Thomond he plundered the Dalcassians, and marching to the mound at Adair, where, under an oldoak, the kings of Thomond had long been inaugurated, hecaused it to be "dug from the earth with its roots, " andcut into pieces. This act of Malachy's certainly bespeaksan embittered and aggressive spirit, and the provocationmust, indeed, have been grievous to palliate so barbarousan action. But we are not informed what the provocationwas. At the time Brian was in Ossory enforcing his tribute;the next year we find him seizing the person ofGilla-Patrick, Lord of Ossory, and soon after he burstinto Meath, avenging with fire and sword the wantondestruction of his ancestral oak. 

Thus were these two powerful Princes openly embroiledwith each other. We have no desire to dwell on all thedetails of their struggle, which continued for fullytwenty years. About the year 987, Brian was practicallyking of half Ireland, and having the power, (though notthe title, ) he did not suffer any part of it to lie waste. His activity was incapable of exhaustion; in Ossory, inLeinster, in Connaught, his voice and his arm were felteverywhere. But a divided authority was of necessity sofavourable to invasion, that the Danish power began toloom up to its old proportions. Sitrick, "with the silkenbeard, " one of the ablest of Danish leaders, was then atDublin, and his occasional incursions were so formidable, that they produced (what probably nothing else could havedone) an alliance between Brian and Malachy, which lastedfor three years, and was productive of the bestconsequences. Thus, in 997, they imposed their yoke onDublin, taking "hostages and jewels" from the foreigners. Reinforcements arriving from the North, the indomitableDanes proceeded to plunder Leinster, but were routed byBrian and Malachy at Glen-Mama, in Wicklow, with the lossof 6, 000 men and all their chief captains. Immediatelyafter this victory the two kings, according to the Annals, "entered into Dublin, and the fort thereof, and thereremained seven nights, and at their departure took allthe gold, silver, hangings, and other precious thingsthat were there with them, burnt the town, broke downthe fort, and banished Sitrick from thence" (A. D. 999). 

The next three years of Brian's life are the most complexin his career. After resting a night in Meath, withMalachy, he proceeded with his forces towards Armagh, nominally on a pilgrimage, but really, as it would seem, to extend his party. He remained in the sacred city aweek, and presented ten ounces of gold, at the Cathedralaltar. The Archbishop Marian received him with thedistinction due to so eminent a guest, and a record ofhis visit, in which he is styled "Imperator of the Irish, "was entered in the book of St. Patrick. He, however, gotno hostages in the North, but on his march southward, helearned that the Danes had returned to Dublin, wererebuilding the City and Fort, and were ready to offersubmission and hostages to him, while refusing both toMalachy. Here Brian's eagerness for supremacy misled him. He accepted the hostages, joined the foreign forces tohis own, and even gave his daughter in marriage to Sitrickof "the silken beard. " Immediately he broke with Malachy, and with his new allies and son-in-law, marched intoMeath in hostile array. Malachy, however, stood to hisdefence; attacked and defeated Brian's advance guard ofDanish horse, and the latter, unwilling apparently topush matters to extremities, retired as he came, without"battle, or hostage, or spoil of any kind. "

But his design of securing the monarchy was not for aninstant abandoned, and, by combined diplomacy and force, he effected his end. His whole career would have beenincomplete without that last and highest conquest overevery rival. Patiently but surely he had gatheredinfluence and authority, by arms, by gifts, by connectionson all sides. He had propitiated the chief families ofConnaught by his first marriage with More, daughter ofO'Heyne, and his second marriage with Duvchalvay, daughterof O'Conor. He had obtained one of the daughters ofGodwin, the powerful Earl of Kent, for his second son;had given a daughter to the Prince of Scots, and anotherto the Danish King of Dublin. 

Malachy, in diplomatic skill, in foresight, and in tenacityof purpose, was greatly inferior to Brian, though inpersonal gallantry and other princely qualities, everyway his equal. He was of a hospitable, out-spoken, enjoying disposition, as we gather from many characteristicanecdotes. He is spoken of as "being generally computedthe best horseman in those parts of Europe;" and as onewho "delighted to ride a horse that was never broken, handled, or ridden, until the age of seven years. " Froman ancient story, which represents him as giving hisrevenues for a year to one of the Court Poets and thenfighting him with a "headless staff" to compel the Poetto return them, it would appear that his good humour andprofusion were equal to his horsemanship. Finding Brian'sinfluence still on the increase west of the Shannon, Malachy, in the year of our Lord 1000, threw two bridgesacross the Shannon, one at Athlone, the other at thepresent Lanesborough. This he did with the consent andassistance of O'Conor, but the issue was as usual--hemade the bridges, and Brian profited by them. WhileMalachy was at Athlone superintending the work, Brianarrived with a great force recruited from all quarters(except Ulster), including Danish men-in-armour. AtAthlone was held the conference so memorable in ourannals, in which Brian gave his rival the alternative ofa pitched battle, within a stated time, or abdication. According to the Southern Annalists, first a month, andafterwards a year, were allowed the Monarch to make hischoice. At the expiration of the time Brian marched intoMeath, and encamped at Tara, where Malachy, having vainlyendeavoured to secure the alliance of the Northern Hy-Nialin the interval, came and submitted to Brian withoutsafeguard or surety. The unmade monarch was accompaniedby a guard "of twelve score horsemen, " and on his arrival, proceeded straight to the tent of his successor. Herethe rivals contended in courtesy, as they had often donein arms, and when they separated, Brian, as Lord Paramount, presented Malachy as many horses as he had horsemen inhis train when he came to visit him. This event happenedin the year 1001, when Brian was in his 60th and Malachyin his 53rd year. There were present at the Assembly allthe princes and chiefs of the Irish, except the Princeof Aileach, and the Lords of Oriel, Ulidia, Tyrowen andTyrconnell, who were equally unwilling to assist Malachyor to acknowledge Brian. What is still more remarkableis, the presence in this national assembly of the DanishLords of Dublin, Carmen (Wexford), Waterford and Cork, whom Brian, at this time, was trying hard to conciliateby gifts and alliances. 

CHAPTER VI. 

BRIAN, ARD-RIGH--BATTLE OF CLONTARF. 

By the deposition of Malachy II. , and the transfer ofsupreme power to the long-excluded line of Heber, Briancompleted the revolution which Time had wrought in theancient Celtic constitution. He threw open the sovereigntyto every great family as a prize to be won by policy orforce, and no longer an inheritance to be determined byusage and law. The consequences were what might have beenexpected. After his death the O'Conors of the west competedwith both O'Neills and O'Briens for supremacy, and a chroniccivil war prepared the path for Strongbow and the Normans. The term "Kings with Opposition" is applied to nearly allwho reigned between Brian's time and Roderick O'Conor's, meaning, thereby, kings who were unable to secure generalobedience to their administration of affairs. 

During the remainder of his life, Brian wielded withaccustomed vigour the supreme power. The Hy-Nials were, of course, his chief difficulty. In the year 1002, wefind him at Ballysadare, in Sligo, challenging theirobedience; in 1004, we find him at Armagh "offering twentyounces of gold on Patrick's altar, " staying a week thereand receiving hostages; in 1005, he marched throughConnaught, crossed the river Erne at Ballyshannon, proceeded through Tyrconnell and Tyrowen, crossed theBann into Antrim, and returned through Down and Dundalk, "about Lammas, " to Tara. In this and the two succeedingyears, by taking similar "circuits, " he subdued Ulster, without any pitched battle, and caused his authority tobe feared and obeyed nearly as much at the Giant's Causewayas at the bridge of Athlone. In his own house of Kinkora, Brian entertained at Christmas 3, 000 guests, includingthe Danish Lords of Dublin and Man, the fugitive Earl ofKent, the young King of Scots, certain Welsh Princes, and those of Munster, Ulster, Leinster and Connaught, beside his hostages. At the same time Malachy, with theshadow, of independence, kept his unfrequented court inWest-Meath, amusing himself with wine and chess and thetaming of unmanageable horses, in which last pursuit, after his abdication, we hear of his breaking a limb. Tosupport the hospitalities of Kinkora, the tributes ofevery province were rendered in kind at his gate, on thefirst day of November. Connaught sent 800 cows and 800hogs; Ulster alone 500 cows, and as many hogs, and "sixtyloads of iron;" Leinster 300 bullocks, 300 hogs, and 300loads of iron; Ossory, Desmond, and the smaller territories, in proportion; the Danes of Dublin 150 pipes of wine, andthe Danes of Limerick 365 of red wine. The Dalcassians, his own people, were exempt from all tribute and taxation--while the rest of Ireland was thus catering for Kinkora. 

The lyric Poets, in then nature courtiers and given toenjoyment, flocked, of course, to this bountiful palace. The harp was seldom silent night or day, the strains ofpanegyric were as prodigal and incessant as the fallingof the Shannon over Killaloe. Among these eulogiums noneis better known than that beautiful allegory of the poetMcLaig, who sung that "a young lady of great beauty, adorned with jewels and costly dress, might performunmolested a journey on foot through the Island, carryinga straight wand, on the top of which might be a ring ofgreat value. " The name of Brian was thus celebrated asin itself a sufficient protection of life, chastity, andproperty, in every corner of the Island. Not only thePoets, but the more exact and simple Annalists applaudBrian's administration of the laws, and his personalvirtues. He laboured hard to restore the Christiancivilization, so much defaced by two centuries of Paganwarfare. To facilitate the execution of the laws heenacted the general use of surnames, obliging the clansto take the name of a common ancestor, with the additionof "Mac, " or "O"--words which signify "of, " or "son of, "a forefather. Thus, the Northern Hy-Nials divided intoO'Neils, O'Donnells, McLaughlins, &c. ; the Sil-Murraytook the name of O'Conor, and Brian's own posterity becameknown as O'Briens. To justice he added munificence, andof this the Churches and Schools of the entire Islandwere the recipients. Many a desolate shrine he adorned, many a bleak chancel he hung with lamps, many a longsilent tower had its bells restored. Monasteries wererebuilt, and the praise of God was kept up perpetuallyby a devoted brotherhood. Roads and bridges were repairedand several strong stone fortresses were erected, tocommand the passes of lakes and rivers. The vulnerablepoints along the Shannon, and the Suir, and the lakes, as far north as the Foyle, were secured by forts of clayand stone. Thirteen "royal houses" in Munster alone aresaid to have been by him restored to their original uses. What increases our respect for the wisdom and energy thusdisplayed, is the fact, that the author of so manyimprovements, enjoyed but five short years of peace, after his accession to the Monarchy. His administrativegenius must have been great when, after a long life ofwarfare, he could apply himself to so many works ofinternal improvement and external defence. 

In the five years of peace just spoken of (from 1005 to1010), Brian lost by death his second wife, a son calledDonald, and his brother Marcan, called in the annals"head of the clergy of Munster;" Hugh, the son of Mahon, also died about the same period. His favourite son andheir, Morrogh, was left, and Morrogh had, at this time, several children. Other sons and daughters were also lefthim, by each of his wives, so that there was every prospectthat the posterity for whom he had so long sought thesovereignty of Ireland, would continue to possess it forcountless generations. But God disposes of what man onlyproposes!

The Northmen had never yet abandoned any soil on whichthey had once set foot, and the policy of conciliationwhich the veteran King adopted in his old age, was notlikely to disarm men of their stamp. Every intelligenceof the achievements of their race in other realms stimulatedthem to new exertions and shamed them out of peacefulsubmission. Rollo and his successors had, within Brian'slifetime, founded in France the great dukedom of Normandy;while Sweyn had swept irresistibly over England and Wales, and prepared the way for a Danish dynasty. Pride andshame alike appealed to their warlike compatriots not toallow the fertile Hibernia to slip from their grasp, andthe great age of its long-dreaded king seemed to promisethem an easier victory than heretofore was possible. In1012 we find Brian at Lough Foyle repelling a new Danishinvasion, and giving "freedom to Patrick's Churches;"the same year, an army under Morrogh and another underMalachy was similarly engaged in Leinster and Meath; theformer carrying his arms to Kilmainham, on the south sideof Dublin, the other to Howth, on the north; in this yearalso "the Gentiles, " or Pagan Northmen, made a descenton Cork, and burned the city, but were driven off by theneighbouring chiefs. 

The great event, however, of the long war which had nowbeen waged for full two hundred years between the men ofErin and the men of Scandinavia was approaching. Whatmay fairly be called the last field day of Christianityand Paganism on Irish soil, was near at hand. A tauntthrown out over a game of chess, at Kinkora, is said tohave hastened this memorable day. Maelmurra, Prince ofLeinster, playing or advising on the game, made, orrecommended, a false move, upon which Morrogh, son ofBrian, observed, it was no wonder his friends, the Danes, (to whom he owed his elevation, ) were beaten at Glen-Mama, if he gave them advice like that. Maelmurra, highlyincensed by this allusion--all the more severe for itsbitter truth--arose, ordered his horse, and rode away inhaste. Brian, when he heard it, despatched a messengerafter the indignant guest, begging him to return, butMaelmurra was not to be pacified, and refused. We nexthear of him as concerting with certain Danish agents, always open to such negotiations, those measures whichled to the great invasion of the year 1014, in which thewhole Scanian race, from Anglesea and Man, north toNorway, bore an active share. 

These agents passing over to England and Man, among theScottish isles, and even to the Baltic, followed up thedesign of an invasion on a gigantic scale. Suibne, Earlof Man, entered warmly into the conspiracy, and sent the"war arrow" through all those "out-islands" which obeyedhim as Lord. A yet more formidable potentate, Sigurd, ofthe Orkneys, next joined the league. He was the fourteenthEarl of Orkney of Norse origin, and his power was, atthis period, a balance to that of his nearest neighbour, the King of Scots. He had ruled since the year 996, notonly over the Orkneys, Shetland, and Northern Hebrides, but the coasts of Caithness and Sutherland, and even Rossand Moray rendered him homage and tribute. Eight yearsbefore the battle of Clontarf, Malcolm II. , of Scotland, had been feign to purchase his alliance, by giving himhis daughter in marriage, and the Kings of Denmark andNorway treated with him on equal terms. The hundredinhabited isles which lie between Yell and Man, --isleswhich after their conversion contained "three hundredchurches and chapels"--sent in their contingents, toswell the following of the renowned Earl Sigurd. As hisfleet bore southward from Kirkwall it swept the subjectcoast of Scotland, and gathered from every lough itsgalleys and its fighting men. The rendezvous was the Isleof Man, where Suibne had placed his own forces under thecommand of Brodar or Broderick, a famous leader againstthe Britons of Wales and Cornwall. In conjunction withSigurd, the Manxmen sailed over to Ireland, where theywere joined, in the Liffey, by Carl Canuteson, Prince ofDenmark, at the head of 1400 champions clad in armour. Sitrick of Dublin stood, or affected to stand, neutralin these preparations, but Maelmurra of Leinster hadmustered all the forces he could command for such anexpedition. He was himself the head of the powerful familyof O'Byrne, and was followed in his alliances by othersof the descendants of Cahir More. O'Nolan and O'More, with a truer sense of duty, fought on the patriotic side. 

Brian had not been ignorant of the exertions which weremade during the summer and winter of the year 1013, tocombine an overwhelming force against him. In hisexertions to meet force with force, it is gratifying toevery believer in human excellence to find him activelysupported by the Prince whom he had so recently deposed. Malachy, during the summer of 1013, had, indeed, losttwo sons in skirmishes with Sitrick and Maelmurra, andhad, therefore, his own personal wrongs to avenge; buthe cordially co-operated with Brian before thoseoccurrences, and now loyally seconded all his movements. The Lords of the southern half-kingdom--the Lords ofDesies, Fermoy, Inchiquin, Corca-Baskin, Kinalmeaky, Kerry, and the Lords of Hy-Many and Hy-Fiachra, inConnaught, hastened to his standard. O'More and O'Nolanof Leinster, and Donald, Steward of Marr, in Scotland, were the other chieftains who joined him before Clontarf, besides those of his own kindred. None of the NorthernHy-Nial took part in the battle--they had submitted toBrian, but they never cordially supported him. 

Clontarf, the lawn or meadow of bulls, stretches alongthe crescent-shaped north strand of Dublin harbour, fromthe ancient salmon-weir at Ballyboght bridge, towardsthe promontory of Howth. Both horns of the crescent wereheld by the enemy, and communicated with his ships: theinland point terminating in the roofs of Dublin, and theseaward marked by the lion-like head of Howth. The meadowland between sloped gently upward and inward from thebeach, and for the myriad duels which formed the ancientbattle, no field could present less positive vantage-groundto combatants on either side. The invading force hadpossession of both wings, so that Brian's army, whichhad first encamped at Kilmainham, must have crossed theLiffey higher up, and marched round by the presentDrumcondra in order to reach the appointed field. Theday seems to have been decided on by formal challenge, for we are told Brian did not wish to fight in the lastweek of Lent, but a Pagan oracle having assured victoryto Brodar, one of the northern leaders, if he engaged ona Friday, the invaders insisted on being led to battleon that day. And it so happened that, of all Fridays inthe year, it fell on the Friday before Easter: that awfulanniversary when the altars of the Church are veiledthroughout Christendom, and the dark stone is rolled tothe door of the mystic sepulchre. 

The forces on both sides could not have fallen short oftwenty thousand men. Under Carl Canuteson fought "theten hundred in armour, " as they are called in the Irishannals, or "the fourteen hundred, " as they are called innorthern chronicles; under Brodar, the Manxmen and theDanes of Anglesea and Wales; under Sigurd, the men ofOrkney and its dependencies; under Maelmurra, of Leinster, his own tribe, and their kinsmen of Offally and Cullen--the modern Kildare and Wicklow; under Brian's son, Morrogh, were the tribes of Munster; under the commandof Malachy, those of Meath; under the Lord of Hy-Many, the men of Connaught; and the Stewart of Marr had alsohis command. The engagement was to commence with themorning, so that, as soon as it was day, Brian, Crucifixin hand, harangued his army. "On this day Christ diedfor _you_!" was the spirit-stirring appeal of the venerableChristian King. At the entreaty of his friends, afterthis review, he retired to his tent, which stood at somedistance, and was guarded by three of his aids. Here, healternately prostrated himself before the Crucifix, orlooked out from the tent door upon the dreadful scenethat lay beyond. The sun rose to the zenith and took hisway towards the west, but still the roar of the battledid not abate. Sometimes as their right hands swelledwith the sword-hilts, well-known warriors might be seenfalling back to bathe them, in a neighbouring spring, and then rushing again into the melee. The line of theengagement extended from the salmon-weir towards Howth, not less than a couple of miles, so that it was impossibleto take in at a glance the probabilities of victory. Onceduring the heat of the day one of his servants said toBrian, "A vast multitude are moving towards us. " "Whatsort of people are they?" inquired Brian. "They aregreen-naked people. " said the attendant. "Oh!" repliedthe king, "they are the Danes in armour!" The utmost furywas displayed on all sides. Sigurd, Earl of Orkney, fellby Thurlogh, grandson of Brian; and Anrud, one of thecaptains of the men in armour, by the hand of his father, Morrogh; but both father and son perished in the dreadfulconflict; Maelmurra of Leinster, with his lords, fell onone side, and Conaing, nephew of Brian, O'Kelly, O'Heyne, and the Stewart of Marr, on the other. Hardly a nobly-bornman escaped, or sought to escape. The ten hundred inarmour, and three thousand others of the enemy, withabout an equal number of the men of Ireland, lay deadupon the field. One division of the enemy were, towardssunset, retreating to their ships, when Brodar, theViking, perceiving the tent of Brian, standing apart, without a guard, and the aged king on his knees beforethe Crucifix, rushed in, cut him down with a single blow, and then continued his flight. But he was overtaken bythe guard, and despatched by the most cruel death theycould devise. Thus, on the field of battle, in the actof prayer, on the day of our Lord's Crucifixion, fellthe Christian King in the cause of native land and HolyCross. Many elegies have been dedicated to his memory, and not the least noble of these strains belong to hisenemies. In death as in life he was still Brian "of thetributes. "

The deceased hero took his place at once in history, national and foreign. On hearing of his death, Maelmurra, Archbishop of Armagh, came with his clergy to Swords, inMeath, and conducted the body to Armagh, where, with hisson and nephew and the Lord of Desies, he was solemnlyinterred "in a new tomb. " The fame of the event went outthrough all nations. The chronicles of Wales, of Scotland, and of Man; the annals of Ademar and Marianus; the Sagasof Denmark and the Isles all record the event. In "theOrcades" of Thormodus Torfaeus, a wail over the defeatof the Islesmen is heard, which they call

 "Orkney's woe and Randver's bane. "

The Norse settlers in Caithness saw terrific visions ofValhalla "the day after the battle. " In the NIALA SAGAa Norwegian prince is introduced as asking after his men, and the answer is, "they were all killed. " Malcolm ofScotland rejoiced in the defeat and death of his dangerousand implacable neighbour. "Brian's battle, " as it iscalled in the Sagas, was, in short, such a defeat asprevented any general northern combination for thesubsequent invasion of Ireland. Not that the country wasentirely free from their attacks till the end of theeleventh century, but from the day of Clontarf forward, the long cherished Northern idea of a conquest of Ireland, seems to have been gloomily abandoned by that indomitablepeople. 

CHAPTER VII. 

EFFECTS OF THE RIVALRY OF BRIAN AND MALACHY ON THEANCIENT CONSTITUTION. 

If a great battle is to be accounted lost or won, as itaffects principles rather than reputations, then Brianlost at Clontarf. The leading ideas of his long andpolitical life were, evidently, centralization and anhereditary monarchy. To beat back foreign invasion, toconciliate and to enlist the Irish-born Danes under hisstandard, were preliminary steps. For Morrogh, hisfirst-born, and for Morrogh's descendants, he hoped tofound an hereditary kinship after the type universallycopied throughout Christendom. He was not ignorant ofwhat Alfred had done for England, Harold for Norway, Charlemagne for France, and Otho for Germany; and it wasinseparable from his imperial genius to desire to reignin his posterity, long after his own brief term of swayshould be for ever ended. A new centre of royal authorityshould be established on the banks of the great middleriver of the island--itself the best bond of union, asit was the best highway of intercourse; the Dalgaisdynasty should there flourish for ages, and the descendantsof Brian of the Tributes, through after centuries, eclipsethe glory of the descendants of Nial of the Hostages. Itis idle enough to call the projector of such a change anusurper and a revolutionist. Usurper he clearly was not, since he was elevated to power by the action of the oldlegitimate electoral principle; revolutionist he was not, because his design was defeated at Clontarf, in the deathof his eldest son and grandson. Not often have threegenerations of Princes of the same family been cut offon the same field; yet at Clontarf it so happened. Hence, when Brian fell, and his heir with him, and his heir'sheir, the projected Dalgais dynasty, like the Royal Oakat Adair, was cut down and its very roots destroyed. Fora new dynasty to be left suddenly without indisputableheirs is ruinous to its pretensions and partizans. Andin this the event of the battle proved destructive tothe Celtic Constitution. Not from the Anglo-Normaninvasion, but from the day of Clontarf we may date theruin of the old electoral monarchy. The spell of ancientauthority was effectually broken and a new one was to beestablished. Time, which was indispensable, was not given. No Prince of the blood of Brian succeeded immediately tohimself. On Clontarf Morrogh, and Morrogh's heir fell, in the same day and hour. The other sons of Brian had nodirect title to the succession, and, naturally enough, the deposed Malachy resumed the rank of monarch, withoutthe consent of Munster, but _with_ the approval of allthe Princes, who had witnessed with ill-concealed envythe sudden ascendancy of the sons of Kennedy. While McLaigwas lamenting for Brian, by the cascade of Killaloe, theLaureat of Tara, in an elegy over a lord of Breffni, wassinging--

 "Joyful are the race of Conn after Brian's Fall, in the battle of Clontarf. "

A new dynasty is rarely the work of one able man. Designedby genius, it must be built up by a succession of politicPrinces, before it becomes an essential part of theframework of the State. So all history teaches--and Irishhistory, after the death of Brian, very clearly illustratesthat truth. Equally true is it that when a nation breaksup of itself, or from external forces, and is not soonconsolidated by a conqueror, the most natural result isthe aggrandizement of a few great families. Thus it wasin Rome when Julius was assassinated, and in Italy, whenthe empire of the west fell to pieces of its own weight. The kindred of the late sovereign will be sure to havea party, the chief innovators will have a party, andthere is likely to grow up a third or moderate party. Soit fell out in Ireland. The Hy-Nials of the north, deprivedof the succession, rallied about the Princes of Aileachas their head. Meath, left crownless, gave room to theambition of the sons of Malachy, who, under the name ofO'Melaghlin, took provincial rank. Ossory, like Issachar, long groaning beneath the burdens of Tara and of Cashel, cruelly revenged on the Dalgais, returning from Clontarf, the subjection to which Mahon and Brian had forciblyreduced that borderland. The Eugenians of Desmond withdrewin disgust from the banner of Donogh O'Brien, because hehad openly proclaimed his hostility to the alternatesuccession, and left his surviving clansmen an easy preyto the enraged Ossorians. Leinster soon afterwards passedfrom the house of O'Byrne to that of McMurrogh. TheO'Briens maintained their dominant interest in the south;as, after many local struggles, the O'Conors did in thewest. For a hundred and fifty years, after the death ofMalachy II. , the history of Ireland is mainly the historyof these five families, O'Neils, O'Melaghlins, McMurroghs, O'Briens and O'Conors. And for ages after the Normansenter on the scene, the same provincialized spirit, thesame family ambitions, feuds, hates, and coalitions, withsome exceptional passages, characterize the whole history. Not that there will be found any want of heroism, orpiety, or self-sacrifice, or of any virtue or faculty, necessary to constitute a state, save and except the_power of combination_, alone. Thus, judged by what cameafter him, and what was happening in the world abroad, Brian's design to re-centralize the island, seems thehighest dictate of political wisdom, in the condition towhich the Norwegian and Danish wars had reduced it, previous to his elevation to the monarchy. Malachy II. --of the events of whose second reign some mention willbe made hereafter--held the sovereignty after Brian'sdeath, until the year 1023, when he died an edifyingdeath in one of the islands of Lough Ennel, near thepresent Mullingar. He is called, in the annals ofClonmacnoise, "the last king of Ireland, of Irish blood, that had the crown. " An ancient quatrain, quoted byGeoffrey Keating, is thus literally translated:

 "After the happy Melaghlin Son of Donald, son of Donogh, Each noble king ruled his own tribe But Erin owned no sovereign Lord. "

The annals of the eleventh and twelfth centuries curiouslyillustrate the workings of this "anarchicalconstitution"--to employ a phrase first applied to theGermanic Confederation. "After Malachy's death, " saysthe quaint old Annalist of Clonmacnoise, "this kingdomwas without a king 20 years, during which time the realmwas governed by two learned men; the one called ConO'Lochan, a well learned temporal man, and chief poet ofIreland; the other Corcran Claireach, a devout and holyman that was anchorite of all Ireland, whose most abidingwas at Lismore. The land was governed like a free state, and not like a monarchy by them. " Nothing can show theheadlessness of the Irish Constitution in the eleventhcentury clearer than this interregnum. No one Princecould rally strength enough to be elected, so that twoArbitrators, an illustrious Poet and a holy Priest, wereappointed to take cognizance of national causes. Theassociating together of a Priest and a layman, a southernerand a northerner, is conclusive proof that the bond ofCeltic unity, frittered away during the Danish period, was never afterwards entirely restored. Con O'Lochanhaving been killed in Teffia, after a short jurisdiction, the holy Corcran exercised his singular jurisdiction, until his decease, which happened at Lismore, (A. D. 1040. ) His death produced a new paroxysm of anarchy, outof which a new organizer arose among the tribes ofLeinster. This was Dermid, son of Donogh, who died (A. D. 1005), when Dermid must have been a mere infant, as hedoes not figure in the annals till the year 1032, andthe acts of young Princes are seldom overlooked in GaelicChronicles. He was the first McMurrogh who became Kingof Leinster, that royalty having been in the O'Byrnefamily, until the son of Maelmurra, of Clontarf, wasdeposed by O'Neil in 1035, and retired to a monastery inCologne, where he died in 1052. In 1036 or 1037 Dermidcaptured Dublin and Waterford, married the grand-daughterof Brian, and by '41 was strong enough to assume the rankof ruler of the southern half-kingdom. This dignity heheld with a strong and warlike hand thirty years, whenhe fell in battle, at Ova, in Meath. He must have beenat that time full threescore years and ten. He is describedby the elegiac Bards as of "ruddy complexion, " "withteeth laughing in danger, " and possessing all the virtuesof a warrior-king; "whose death, " adds the lamentation, "brought scarcity of peace" with it, so that "there willnot be peace, " "there will not be armistice, " betweenMeath and Leinster. It may well be imagined that everynew resort to the two-third test, in the election ofArd-Righ, should bring "scarcity of peace" to Ireland. We can easily understand the ferment of hope, fear, intrigue, and passion, which such an occasion causedamong the great rival families. What canvassing therewas in Kinkora and Cashel, at Cruachan and Aileach, andat Fernamore! What piecing and patching of interests, what libels on opposing candidates, what exultation inthe successful, what discontent in the defeated camp!

The successful candidate for the southern half-kingdomafter Dermid's death was Thorlogh, grandson of Brian, and foster-son of the late ruler. In his reign, whichlasted thirty-three years, the political fortunes of hishouse revived. He died in peace at Kinkora (A. D. 1087), and the war of succession again broke out. The rivalcandidates at this period were Murrogh O'Brien, son ofthe late king, whose ambition was to complete the designof Brian, and Donald, Prince of Aileach, the leader ofthe Northern Hy-Nials. Two abler men seldom divided acountry by their equal ambition. Both are entered in theannals as "Kings of Ireland, " but it is hard to discoverthat, during all the years of their contest, either ofthem submitted to the other. To chronicle all the incidentsof the struggle would take too much space here; and, aswas to be expected, a third party profited most by it;the West came in, in the person of O'Conor, to lord itover both North and South, and to add another element tothe dynastic confusion. 

This brief abstract of our civil affairs after the deathof Brian, presents us with the extraordinary spectacleof a country without a constitution working out theproblem of its stormy destiny in despite of all internaland external dangers. Everything now depended on individualgenius and energy; nothing on system, usage, orprescription. Each leading family and each provincebecame, in turn, the head of the State. The supreme titleseems to have been fatal for a generation to the familythat obtained it, for in no case is there a lineal descentof the crown. The prince of Aileach or Kinkora naturallypreferred his permanent patrimony to an uncertain tenureof Tara; an office not attached to a locality became, ofcourse, little more than an arbitrary title. Hence, thetitular King of Ireland might for one lifetime reign bythe Shannon, in the next by the Bann, in a third, byLough Corrib. The supremacy, thus came to be considereda merely personal appurtenance, was carried about in theold King's tent, or on the young King's crupper, deteriorating and decaying by every transposition itunderwent. Herein, we have the origin of Irish disunionwith all its consequences, good, bad, and indifferent. 

Are we to blame Brian for this train of events againstwhich he would have provided a sharp remedy in thehereditary principle? Or, on the other hand, are we tocondemn Malachy, the possessor of legitimate power, ifhe saw in that remedy only the ambition of an aspiringfamily already grown too great? Theirs was in fact theuniversal struggle of reform and conservatism; the reformerand the heirs of his work were cut off on Clontarf; theabuses of the elective principle continued unrestrainedby ancient salutary usage and prejudice, and the landremained a tempting prey to such Adventurers, foreign ornative, as dare undertake to mould power out of itschaotic materials. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

LATTER DAYS OF THE NORTHMEN IN IRELAND. 

Though Ireland dates the decay of Scandinavian power fromGood Friday, 1014, yet the North did not wholly cease tosend forth its warriors, nor were the shores of theWestern Island less tempting to them than before. Thesecond year after the battle of Clontarf, Canute foundedhis Danish dynasty in England, which existed in no littlesplendour during thirty-seven years. The Saxon line wasrestored by Edward "the Confessor;" in the forty-thirdyear of the century, only to be extinguished for ever bythe Norman conquest twenty-three years later. Scotland, during the same years was more than once subject toinvasion from the same ancient enemy. Malcolm II. , andthe brave usurper Macbeth, fought several engagementswith the northern leaders, and generally with brilliantsuccess. By a remarkable coincidence, the Scottishchronicles also date the decadence of Danish power ontheir coasts from 1014, though several engagements werefought in Scotland after that year. 

Malachy II. Had promptly followed up the victory ofClontarf by the capture of Dublin, the destruction ofits fort, and the exemplary chastisement of the tribesof Leinster, who had joined Maelmurra as allies of theDanes. Sitrick himself seems to have eluded the suspicionsand vengeance of the conquerors by a temporary exile, aswe find in the succession of the Dublin Vikings, "oneHyman, an usurper, " entered as ruling "part of a yearwhile Sitrick was in banishment. " His family interest, however, was strong among the native Princes, and whateverhis secret sympathies may have been, he had taken noactive part against them in the battle of Clontarf. Byhis mother, the Lady Gormley of Offally, he was a halfO'Conor; by marriage he was son-in-law of Brian, anduterine brother of Malachy. After his return to Dublin, when, in 1018, Brian, son of Maelmurra, fell prisonerinto his hands, as if to clear himself of any lingeringsuspicion of an understanding with that family, he causedhis eyes to be put out--a cruel but customary punishmentin that age. This act procured for him the deadly enmityof the warlike mountaineers of Wicklow, who, in the year1022, gave him a severe defeat at Delgany. Even this heoutlived, and died seven years later, the acknowledgedlord of his town and fortress, forty years after hisfirst accession to that title. He was succeeded by hisson, grandson, and great-grandson during the remaininghalf century. 

The kingdom of Leinster, in consequence of the defeat ofMaelmurra, the incapacity of Brian, and the destructionof other claimants of the same family, passed to thefamily of McMurrogh, another branch of the same ancestry. Dermid, the first and most distinguished King of Leinsterof this house, took Waterford (A. D. 1037), and so reducedits strength, that we find its hosts no longer formidablein the field. Those of Limerick continued their homageto the house of Kinkora, while the descendants of Sitrickrecognised Dermid of Leinster as their sovereign. Inshort, all the Dano-Irish from thenceforward began toknit themselves kindly to the soil, to obey the neighbouringPrinces, to march with them to battle, and to pursue thepeaceful calling of merchants, upon sea. The only peculiarly_Danish_ undertaking we hear of again, in our Annals, was the attempt of a united fleet, equipped by Dublin, Wexford, and Waterford, in the year 1088, to retake Corkfrom the men of Desmond, when they were driven with severeloss to their ships. Their few subsequent expeditionswere led abroad, into the Hebrides, the Isle of Man, orWales, where they generally figure as auxiliaries ormercenaries in the service of local Princes. They appearin Irish battles only as contingents to the nativearmies--led by their own leaders and recognized as aseparate, but subordinate force. In the year 1073, theDublin Danes did homage to the monarch Thorlogh, and from1095, until his death (A. D. 1119), they recognized noother lord but Murkertach More O'Brien; this king, attheir own request, had also nominated one of his familyas Lord of the Danes and Welsh of the Isle of Man. 

The wealth of these Irish-Danes, before and after thetime of Brian, may be estimated by the annual tributewhich Limerick paid to that Prince--a pipe of red winefor every day in the year. In the year 1029, Olaf, sonof Sitrick, of Dublin, being taken prisoner by O'Regan, the Lord of East-Meath, paid for his ransom--"twelvehundred cows, seven score British horses, three scoreounces of gold!" sixty ounces of white silver as his"fetter-ounce;" the sword of Carlus, besides the usuallegal fees, for recording these profitable formalities. 

Being now Christians, they also began to found and endowchurches, with the same liberality with which their Paganfathers had once enriched the temples of Upsala andTrondheim. The oldest religious foundations in theseaports they possessed owe their origin to them; buteven as Christians, they did not lose sight of theirnationality. They contended for, and obtained Dano-IrishBishops, men of their own race, speaking their own speech, to preside over the sees of Dublin, Waterford, andLimerick. When the Irish Synods or Primates asserted overthem any supervision which they were unwilling toadmit--except in the case of St. Malachy--they usuallyinvoked the protection of the See of Canterbury, which, after the Norman conquest of England, became by far themost powerful Archbishopric in either island. 

In the third quarter of this century there arose in theIsle of Man a fortunate leader, who may almost be calledthe last of the sea kings. This was Godard _Crovan_ (thewhite-handed), son of an Icelandic Prince, and one ofthe followers of Harald Harfagar and Earl Tosti, in theirinvasion of Northumbria (A. D. 1066). Returning from thedefeat of his chiefs, Godard saw and seized upon Man asthe centre of future expeditions of his own, in the courseof which he subdued the Hebrides, divided them with thegallant Somerled (ancestor of the MacDonalds of theIsles), and established his son Lagman (afterwards putto death by King Magnus _Barefoot_) as his viceroy inthe Orkneys and Shetlands. The weakened condition of theDanish settlement at Dublin attracted his ambition, andwhere he entered as a mediator he remained as a master. In the succession of the Dublin Vikings he is assigneda reign of ten years, and his whole course of conquestseems to have occupied some twenty years (A. D. 1077 to1098). At length the star of this Viking of the Irishsea paled before the mightier name of a King of Norway, whose more brilliant ambition had a still shorter span. The story of this _Magnus_ (called, it is said, from hisadoption of the Scottish kilt, Magnus _Barefoot_) formsthe eleventh Saga in "the Chronicles of the Kings ofNorway. " He began to reign in the year 1093, and soonafter undertook an expedition to the south, "with manyfine men, and good shipping. " Taking the Orkneys on hisway, he sent their Earls prisoners to Norway, and placedhis own son, Sigurd, in their stead. He overran theHebrides, putting Lagman, son of Godard Crovan, to death. He spared only "the holy Island, " as Iona was now called, even by the Northmen, and there, in after years, his ownbones were buried. The Isles of Man and Anglesea, andthe coast of Wales, shared the same fate, and thence heretraced his course to Scotland, where, borne in hisgalley across the Isthmus of Cantyre, to fulfil an oldprophecy, he claimed possession of the land on both sidesof Loch Awe. It was while he wintered in the SouthernHebrides, according to the Saga, that he contracted hisson Sigurd with the daughter of Murkertach O'Brien, calledby the Northmen "Biadmynia. " In summer he sailed homeward, and did not return southward till the ninth year of hisreign (A. D. 1102), when his son, Sigurd, had come of age, and bore the title of "King of the Orkneys and Hebrides. ""He sailed into the west sea, " says the Saga, "with thefinest men who could be got in Norway. All the powerfulmen of the country followed him, such as Sigurd Hranesson, and his brother Ulf, Vidkunner Johnsson, Dag Eliffsson, Sorker of Sogn, Eyvind Olboge, the king's marshal, andmany other great men. " On the intelligence of this fleethaving arrived in Irish waters, according to the annals, Murkertach and his allies marched in force to Dublin, where, however, Magnus "made peace with them for oneyear, " and Murkertach "gave his daughter to Sigurd, withmany jewels and gifts. " That winter Magnus spent withMurkertach at Kinkora, and "towards spring both kingswent westward with their army all the way to Ulster. "This was one of those annual visitations which kings, whose authority was not yet established, were accustomedto make. The circuit, as usual, was performed in aboutsix weeks, after which the Irish monarch returned home, and Magnus went on board his fleet at Dublin, to returnto Norway. According to the Norse account he landed againon the coast of Ulidia (Down), where he expected "cattlefor ship-provision, " which Murkertach had promised tosend him, but the Irish version would seem to imply thathe went on shore to seize the cattle perforce. It certainlyseems incredible that Murkertach should send cattle tothe shore of Strangford Lough, from the pastures ofThomond, when they might be more easily driven to Dublin, or the mouth of the Boyne. "The cattle had not made theirappearance on the eve of Bartholomew's Mass" (August23rd, A. D. 1103), says the Saga, so "when the sun rosein the sky, King Magnus himself went on shore with thegreater part of his men. King Magnus, " continues thescald, "had a helmet on his head; a red shield, in whichwas inlaid a gilded lion; and was girt with the swordLegbiter, of which the hilt was of ivory, and the handgrip wound about with gold thread; and the sword wasextremely sharp. In his hand he had a short spear, anda red silk short cloak over his coat, on which both beforeand behind was embroidered a lion, in yellow silk; andall men acknowledged that they had never seen a brisker, statelier man. " A dust cloud was seen far inland, andthe Northmen fell into order of battle. It proved, however, by their own account to be the messengers with the promisedsupply of cattle; but, after they came up, and whilereturning to the shore, they were violently assailed onall sides by the men of Down. The battle is described, with true Homeric vigour, by Sturleson. "The Irish, " hesays, "shot boldly; and although they fell in crowds, there came always two in place of one. " Magnus, with mostof his nobles, were slain on the spot, but VidkunnerJohnsson escaped to the shipping, "with the King's bannerand the sword Legbiter. " And the Saga of Magnus Barefootconcludes thus: "Now when King Sigurd heard that hisfather had fallen, he set off immediately, leaving theIrish King's daughter behind, and proceeded in autumn, with the whole fleet directly to Norway. " The annalistsof Ulster barely record the fact, that "Magnus, King ofLochlan and the Isles, was slain by the Ulidians, witha slaughter of his people about him, while on a predatoryexcursion. " They place the event in the year 1104. 

Our account with the Northmen may here be closed. Bornealong by the living current of events, we leave thembehind, high up on the remoter channels of the stream. Their terrible ravens shall flit across our prospect nomore. They have taken wing to their native north, wherethey may croak yet a little while over the cold andcrumbling altars of Odin and Asa Thor. The bright lightof the Gospel has penetrated even to those last hauntsof Paganism, and the fierce but not ungenerous race, withwhich we have been so long familiar, begin to changetheir natures under its benign influence. 

Although both the scalds and chroniclers of the Northfrequently refer to Ireland as a favourite theatre oftheir heroes, we derive little light from those of theirworks which have yet been made public. All connectionbetween the two races had long ceased, before the firstscholars of the North began to investigate the earlierannals of their own country, and then they were contentwith a very vague and general knowledge of the westernIsland, for which their ancestors had so, fiercelycontended throughout so many generations. The oldestmaps, known in Scandinavia, exhibit a mere outline ofthe Irish coast, with a few points in the interior;fiords, with Norse names, are shown, answering to LoughsFoyle, Swilly, Larne, Strang_ford_, and Carling_ford_;the Provincial lines of Ulster and of Connaught are rudelytraced; and the situation of Enniskillen, Tara, Dublin, Glendaloch, Water_ford_, Limer_ick_, and Swer_wick_, accurately laid down. It is thought that all those placesending in _wick_ or _ford_, on the Irish map, are ofScandinavian origin; as well as the names of the islets, Skerries, Lambey, and Saltees. Many noble families, asthe Plunkets, McIvers, Archbolds, Harolds, Stacks, Skiddies, Cruises, and McAuliffes, are derived from thesame origin. 

During the contest we have endeavoured to describe, threehundred and ten years had passed since the warriors ofLochlin first landed on the shores of Erin. Ten generations, according to the measured span of adult life, were born, and trained to arms and marshalled in battle, since theenemy, "powerful on sea, " first burst upon the shield-shapedIsle of Saints. At the close of the eighth century wecast back a grateful retrospect on the Christian ages ofIreland. Can we do so now, at the close of the eleventh?Alas! far from it. Bravely and in the main successfullyas the Irish have borne themselves, they come out of thatcruel, treacherous, interminable war with many rents andstains in that vesture of innocence in which we saw themarrayed at the close of their third Christian century. Odin has not conquered, but all the worst vices ofwarfare--its violence, its impiety, discontent, self-indulgence, and contempt for the sweet paths ofpeace and mild counsels of religion--these must and didremain, long after Dane and Norwegian have for everdisappeared!

BOOK III. 

WAR OF SUCCESSION. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE FORTUNES OF THE FAMILY OF BRIAN. 

The last scene of the Irish monarchy, before it enteredon the anarchical period, was not destitute of anappropriate grandeur. It was the death-bed scene of thesecond Malachy, the rival, ally, and successor of thegreat Brian. After the eventful day of Clontarf he resumedthe monarchy, without opposition, and for eight years hecontinued in its undisturbed enjoyment. The fruitfulland of Meath again gave forth its abundance, unscourgedby the spoiler, and beside its lakes and streams thehospitable Ard-Righ had erected, or restored, threehundred fortified houses, where, as his poets sung, shelter was freely given to guests from the king of theelements. His own favourite residence was at Dunnasciath("the fort of shields"), in the north-west angle of LoughEnnel, in the present parish of Dysart. In the eighthyear after Clontarf--the summer of 1022--the Dublin Danesonce again ventured on a foray into East-Meath, and theaged monarch marched to meet them. At Athboy he encounteredthe enemy, and drove them, routed and broken, out of theancient mensal land of the Irish kings. 

Thirty days after that victory he was called on to confrontthe conqueror of all men, even Death. He had reached theage of seventy-three, and he prepared to meet his lasthour with the zeal and humility of a true Christian. ToDunnasciath repaired Amalgaid, Archbishop of Armagh, theAbbots of Clonmacnoise and of Durrow, with a numeroustrain of the clergy. For greater solitude, the dying kingwas conveyed into an island of the lake opposite hisfort--then called Inis-Cro, now Cormorant Island--andthere, "after intense penance, " on the fourth of theNones of September precisely, died Malachy, son of Donald, son of Donogh, in the fond language of the bards, "thepillar of the dignity and nobility of the western world:"and "the seniors of all Ireland sung masses, hymns, psalms, and canticles for the welfare of his soul. "

"This, " says the old Translator of the ClonmacnoiseAnnals, "was the last king of Ireland of Irish blood, that had the crown; yet there were seven kings afterwithout crown, before the coming in of the English. " Ofthese seven subsequent kings we are to write under thegeneral title of "the War of Succession. " They are calledArd-Righ _go Fresabra_, that is, kings opposed, orunrecognised, by certain tribes, or Provinces. For itwas essential to the completion of the title, as we havebefore seen, that when the claimant was of Ulster, heshould have Connaught and Munster, or Leinster and Munster, in his obedience: in other words, he should be able tocommand the allegiance of two-thirds of his suffragans. If of Munster, he should be equally potent in the otherProvinces, in order to rank among the recognised kingsof Erin. Whether some of the seven kings subsequent toMalachy II. , who assumed the title, were not fairlyentitled to it, we do not presume to say; it is oursimpler task to narrate the incidents of that brilliantwar of succession, which occupies almost all the intervalbetween the Danish and Anglo-Norman invasions. The chauntof the funeral Mass of Malachy was hardly heard uponLough Ennel, when Donogh O'Brien despatched his agents, claiming the crown from the Provincial Princes. He wasthe eldest son of Brian by his second marriage, and hismother was an O'Conor, an additional source of strengthto him, in the western Province. It had fallen to thelot of Donogh, and his elder brother, Teigue or Thaddeus, to conduct the remnant of the Dalcassians from Clontarfto their home. Marching through Ossory, by the greatsouthern road, they were attacked in their enfeebledstate by the lord of that brave little border territory, on whom Brian's hand had fallen with heavy displeasure. Wounded as many of them were, they fought their waydesperately towards Cashel, leaving 150 men dead in oneof their skirmishes. Of all who had left the Shannon sideto combat with the enemy, but 850 men lived to return totheir homes. 

No sooner had they reached Kinkora, than a fierce disputearose, between the friends of Teigue and Donogh, as towhich should reign over Munster. A battle ensued, withdoubtful result, but by the intercession of the Clergythis unnatural feud was healed, and the brothers reignedconjointly for nine years afterwards, until Teigue fellin an engagement in Ely (Queen's County), as was chargedand believed, by the machinations of his colleague andbrother. Thorlogh, son of Teigue, was the foster-son, and at this time the guest or hostage of Dermid ofLeinster, the founder of the McMurrogh family, which hadnow risen into the rank justly forfeited by the traitorMaelmurra. When he reached man's age he married thedaughter of Dermid, and we shall soon hear of him againasserting in Munster the pretensions of the eldestsurviving branch of the O'Brien family. 

The death of his brother and of Malachy within the sameyear, proved favourable to the ambition of Donogh O'Brien. All Munster submitted to his sway; Connaught was amongthe first to recognise his title as Ard-Righ. Ossory andLeinster, though unwillingly, gave in their adhesion. But Meath refused to recognise him, and placed itsgovernment in commission, in the hands of Con O'Lochan, the arch-poet, and Corcran, the priest, already more thanonce mentioned. The country, north of Meath, obeyedFlaherty O'Neil, of Aileach, whose ambition, as well asthat of all his house, was to restore the northernsupremacy, which had continued unbroken, from the fourthto the ninth century. This Flaherty was a vigorous, able, and pious Prince, who held stoutly on to the northernhalf-kingdom. In the year 1030 he made the frequent butadventurous pilgrimage to Rome, from which he is called, in the pedigree of his house, _an Trostain_, or thecross-bearer. 

The greatest obstacle, however, to the complete ascendencyof Donogh, arose in the person of his nephew, now advancedto manhood. Thorlogh O'Brien possessed much of the courageand ability of his grandfather, and he had at his side, a faithful and powerful ally in his foster-father, Dermid, of Leinster. Rightly or wrongly, on proof or on suspicion, he regarded his uncle as his father's murderer, and hepursued his vengeance with a skill and constancy worthyof _Hamlet_. At the time of his father's death, he wasa mere lad--in his fourteenth year. But, as he grewolder, he accompanied his foster-father in all hisexpeditions, and rapidly acquired a soldier's fame. Bymarriage with Dervorgoil, daughter of the Lord of Ossory, he strengthened his influence at the most necessary point;and what, with so good a cause and such fast friends ashe made in exile, his success against his uncle is littleto be wondered at. Leinster and Ossory, which hadtemporarily submitted to Donogh's claim, soon found goodpretexts for refusing him tribute, and a border war, marked by all the usual atrocities, raged for severalsuccessive seasons. The contest, is relieved, however, of its purely civil character, by the capture of Waterford, still Danish, in 1037, and of Dublin, in 1051. On thisoccasion, Dermid, of Leinster, bestowed the city on hisson Morrogh (grandfather of Strongbow's ally), to whomthe remnant of its inhabitants, as well as their kinsmenin Man, submitted for the time with what grace they could. 

The position of Donogh O'Brien became yearly weaker. His rival had youth, energy, and fortune on his side. The Prince of Connaught finally joined him, and thus, aleague was formed, which overcame all opposition. In theyear 1058, Donogh received a severe defeat at the baseof the Galtees; and although he went into the house ofO'Conor the same year, and humbly submitted to him, itonly postponed his day of reckoning. Three years afterO'Conor took Kinkora, and Dermid, of Leinster, burnedLimerick, and took hostages as far southward as SaintBrendan's hill (Tralee). The next year Donogh O'Brien, then fully fourscore years of age, weary of life and ofthe world, took the cross-staff, and departed on apilgrimage to Rome, where he died soon after, in themonastery of St. Stephen. It is said by some writers thatDonogh brought with him to Rome and presented to thePope, Alexander II. , the crown of his father--and fromthis tradition many theories and controversies havesprung. It is not unlikely that a deposed monarch shouldhave carried into exile whatever portable wealth he stillretained, nor that he should have presented his crown tothe Sovereign Pontiff before finally quitting the world. But as to conferring with the crown, the sovereignty ofwhich it was once an emblem, neither reason nor religionobliges us to believe any such hypothesis. 

Dermid of Leinster, upon the banishment of Donogh, sonof Brian (A. D. 1063), became actual ruler of the southernhalf-kingdom and nominal Ard-Righ, "with opposition. "The two-fold antagonism to this Prince, came, as mightbe expected from Conor, son of Malachy, the head of thesouthern Hy-Nial dynasty, and from the chiefs of theelder dynasty of the North. Thorlogh O'Brien, now Kingof Cashel, loyally repaid, by his devoted adherence, thedeep debt he owed in his struggles and his early youthto Dermid. There are few instances in our Annals of amore devoted friendship than existed between these braveand able Princes through all the changes of half a century. No one act seems to have broken the life-long intimacyof Dermid and Thorlogh; no cloud ever came between them;no mistrust, no distrust. Rare and precious felicity ofhuman experience! How many myriads of men have sighedout their souls in vain desire for that best blessingwhich Heaven can bestow, a true, unchanging, unsuspectingfriend!

To return: Conor O'Melaghlin could not see, withoutdeep-seated discontent, a Prince of Leinster assume therank which his father and several of his ancestors hadheld. A border strife between Meath and Leinster arosenot unlike that which had been waged a few years beforefor the deposition of Donogh, between Leinster and Ossoryon the one part, and Munster on the other. Various werethe encounters, whose obscure details are seldom preservedto us. But the good fortune of Dermid prevailed in all, until, in the year 1070, he lost Morrogh, his heir, bya natural death at Dublin, and Gluniarn, another son, fell in battle with the men of Meath. Two years later, in the battle of Ova, in the same territory, and againstthe same enemy, Dermid himself fell, with the lord ofForth, and a great host of Dublin Danes and Leinster men. The triumph of the son of Malachy, and the sorrow andanger of Leinster, were equally great. The bards havesung the praise of Dermid in strains which history accepts:they praise his ruddy aspect and laughing teeth; theyremember how he upheld the standard of war, and nonedared contend with him in battle; they denounce vengeanceon Meath as soon as his death-feast is over--a vengeancetoo truly pursued. 

As a picture of the manners and habits of thought inthose tunes, the fate of Conor, son of Melaghlin, andits connection with the last illness and death of ThorloghO'Brien, are worthy of mention. Conor was treacherouslyslain, the year after the battle of Ova, in a parley withhis own nephew, though the parley was held under theprotection of the _Bachall-Isa_, or Staff, of Christ, the most revered relic of the Irish Church. After hisdeath, his body was buried in the great Church ofClonmacnoise, in his own patrimony. But Thorlogh O'Brienperhaps, from his friendship for Dermid, carried off hishead, as the head of an enemy, to Kinkora. When it wasplaced in his presence in his palace, a mouse ran outfrom the dead man's head, and under the king's mantle, which occasioned him such a fright that he grew suddenlysick, his hair fell off, and his life was despaired of. It was on Good Friday that the buried head was carriedaway, and on Easter Sunday, it was tremblingly restoredagain, with two rings of gold as a peace offering to theChurch. Thus were God and Saint Kieran vindicated. Thorlogh O'Brien slowly regained his strength, thoughKeating, and the authors he followed, think he was neverthe same man again, after the fright he received fromthe head of Conor O'Melaghlin. He died peaceably and fullof penitence, at Kinkora, on the eve of the Ides of July, A. D. 1086, after severe physical suffering. He was inthe 77th year of his age, the 32nd of his rule overMunster, and the 13th--since the death of Dermid ofLeinster--in his actual sovereignty of the southern half, and nominal rule of the whole kingdom. He was succeededby his son Murkertach, or Murtogh, afterwards called_More_, or the great. 

We have thus traced to the third generation the politicalfortunes of the family of Brian, which includes so muchof the history of those times. That family had become, and was long destined to remain, the first in rank andinfluence in the southern half-kingdom. But internaldiscord in a great house, as in a great state, is fatalto the peaceable transmission of power. That "acknowledgedright of birth" to which a famous historian attributes"the peaceful successions" of modern Europe, was toolittle respected in those ages, in many countries ofChristendom--and had no settled prescription in its favouramong the Irish. Primogeniture and the whole scheme offeudal dependence seems to have been an essentialpreparative for modern civilization: but as Ireland hadescaped the legions of Rome, so she existed without thecircle of feudal organization. When that system did atlength appear upon her soil it was embodied in an invadinghost, and patriot zeal could discern nothing good, nothingimitable in the laws and customs of an enemy, whose armedpresence in the land was an insult to its inhabitants. Thus did our Island twice lose the discipline whichelsewhere laid the foundation of great states: once inthe Roman, and again in the Feudal era. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE NORTH AND SOUTH--RISE OF THEFAMILY OF O'CONOR. 

Four years before the death of Thorlogh O'Brien, a Princedestined to be the life-long rival of his great son, hadsucceeded to the kingship of the northern tribes. Thiswas Donald, son of Ardgall, Prince of Aileach, sometimescalled "O" and sometimes "Mac" Laughlin. Donald hadreached the mature age of forty when he succeeded in thecourse of nature to his father, Ardgall, and was admittedthe first man of the North, not only in station but forpersonal graces and accomplishments; for wisdom, wealth, liberality, and love of military adventure. 

Murkertach, or Murtogh O'Brien, was of nearly the sameage as his rival, and his equal, if not superior intalents, both for peace and war. During the last yearsof his father's reign and illness, he had been the realruler of the south, and had enforced the claims of Cashelon all the tribes of Leath Mogha, from Dublin to Galway. In the year 1094, by mutual compact, brought about throughthe intercession of the Archbishop of Armagh and thegreat body of the clergy, north and south--and still moreperhaps by the pestilence and famine which raged atintervals during the last years of the eleventh century--this ancient division of the midland _asker_, runningeast and west, was solemnly restored by consent of bothparties, and Leath Mogha and Leath Conn became for themoment independent territories. So thoroughly did theChurch enter into the arrangement, that, at the Synod ofRath-Brazil, held a few years later, the seats of thetwelve Bishops of the southern half were grouped roundthe Archbishop of Cashel, while the twelve of the northernhalf were ranged round the Archbishop of Armagh. TheBishops of Meath, the ancient mensal of the monarchy, seem to have occupied a middle station between the benchesof the north and south. 

Notwithstanding the solemn compact of 1094, Murtogh didnot long cease to claim the title, nor to seek the hostagesof all Ireland. As soon as the fearful visitations withwhich the century had closed were passed over, he resumedhis warlike forays, and found Donald of Aileach nothingloath to try again the issue of arms. Each prince, however, seems to have been more anxious to coerce or interestthe secondary chiefs in his own behalf than to meet hisrival in the old-style pitched battle. Murtogh's annualmarch was usually along the Shannon, into Leitrim, thencenorth by Sligo, and across the Erne and Finn into Donegaland Derry. Donald's annual excursion led commonly alongthe Bann, into Dalriada and Ulidia, Whence by way ofNewry, across the Boyne, into Meath, and from West-Meathinto Munster. In one of these forays, at the very openingof the twelfth century, Donald surprised Kinkora in theabsence of its lord, razed the fort and levelled thebuildings to the earth. But the next season the southernking paid him back in kind, when he attacked and demolishedAileach, and caused each of his soldiers to carry off astone of the ruin in his knapsack. "I never heard ofthe billeting of grit stones, " exclaims a bard of thosedays, "though I have heard of the billeting of soldiers:but now we see the stones of Aileach billeted on thehorses of the King of the West!"

Such circuits of the Irish kings, especially in days ofopposition, were repeated with much regularity. They seemto have set out commonly in May--or soon after the festivalof Easter--and when the tour of the island was made, theyoccupied about six weeks in duration. The precise numberof men who took part in these visitations is nowherestated, but in critical times no prince, claiming theperilous honour of _Ard-Righ_, would be likely to marchwith less than from five to ten thousand men. Themovements of such a multitude must have been attendedwith many oppressions and inconveniences; their encampmentfor even a week in any territory must have been a seriousburthen to the resident inhabitants, whether hostile orhospitable. Yet this was one inevitable consequence ofthe breaking up of the federal centre at Tara. In earlierdays, the _Ard-Righ_, on his election, or in an emergency, made an armed procession through the island. Ordinarily, however, his suffragans visited him, and not he them;all Ireland went up to Tara to the _Feis_, or to thefestivals of Baaltine and Samhain. Now that there was noTara to go to, the monarch, or would-be monarch, foundit indispensable to show himself often, and to exercisehis authority in person, among every considerable tribein the island. To do justice to Murtogh O'Brien, he doesnot appear to have sought occasions of employing forcewhen on these expeditions, but rather to have acted thepart of an armed negotiator. On his return from thedemolition of Aileach (A. D. 1101), among other acts ofmunificence, he, in an assembly of the clergy of LeathMogha, made a solemn gift of the city of Cashel, free ofall rents and dues, to the Archbishop and the Clergy, for ever. His munificence to churches, and his patronageof holy men, were eminent traits in this Prince's character. And the clergy of that age were eminently worthy of thefavours of such Princes. Their interposition frequentlybrought about a truce between the northern and southernkings. In the year 1103, the hostages of both were placedin custody with Donald, Archbishop of Armagh, to guaranteea twelvemonth's peace. But the next season the contestwas renewed. Murtogh besieged Armagh for a week, whichDonald of Aileach successfully defended, until the siegewas abandoned. In a subsequent battle the northern forcedefeated one division of Murtogh's allies in Iveagh, under the Prince of Leinster, who fell on the field, withthe lords of Idrone, Ossory, Desies, Kerry, and the DublinDanes. Murtogh himself, with another division of histroops, was on an incursion into Antrim when he heard ofthis defeat. The northern visitors carried off amongother spoils the royal tent and standard, a trophy whichgave new bitterness on the one side, and new confidenceon the other. Donald, the good Archbishop, the followingyear (A. D. 1105) proceeded to Dublin, where Murtogh was, or was soon expected, to renew the previous peace betweenNorth and South, but he fell suddenly ill soon after hisarrival, and caused himself to be carried homewards inhaste. At a church by the wayside, not far from Dublin, he was anointed and received the viaticum. He survived, however, to reach Armagh, where he expired on the 12thday of August. Kellach, latinized Celsus, his saintlysuccessor, was promoted to the Primacy, and solemnlyconsecrated on Saint Adamnan's day following--the 23rdof September, 1105. 

Archbishop Celsus, whose accession was equally wellreceived in Munster as in Ulster, followed in the footstepsof his pious predecessor, in taking a decided part withneither Leath Mogha nor Leath Conn. When, in the year1110, both parties marched to Slieve-Fuaid, with a viewto a challenge of battle, Celsus interposed between themthe _Bachall-Isa_--and a solemn truce followed; again, three years later, when they confronted each other inIveagh, in Down, similar success attended a similarinterposition. Three years later Murtogh O'Brien wasseized with so severe an illness, that he became like toa living skeleton, and though he recovered sufficientlyto resume the exercise of authority he never regainedhis full health. He died in a spiritual retreat, atLismore, on the 4th of the Ides of March, A. D. 1119, andwas buried at Killaloe. His great rival, Donald of LeathConn, did not long survive him: he died at Derry, alsoin a religious house, on the 5th of the Ides of February, A. D. 1121. 

While these two able men were thus for more than a quarterof a century struggling for the supremacy, a third powerwas gradually strengthening itself west of the Shannon, destined to profit by the contest, more than either ofthe principals. This was the family of O'Conor, ofRoscommon, who derived their pedigree from the same stockas the O'Neils, and their name from Conor, an ancestor, who ruled over Connaught, towards the end of the ninthcentury. Two or three of their line before Conor hadpossessed the same rank and title, but it was by no meansregarded as an adjunct of the house of Rathcrogan, beforethe time at which we have arrived. Their co-relatives, sometimes their rivals, but oftener their allies, werethe O'Ruarcs of Breffny, McDermots of Moylurg, theO'Flahertys of _Iar_ or West Connaught, the O'Shaughnessys, O'Heynes, and O'Dowdas. The great neighbouring familyof O'Kelly had sprung from a different branch of thefar-spreading Gaelic tree. At the opening of the twelfthcentury, Thorlogh More O'Conor, son of Ruari of the YellowHound, son of Hugh of the Broken Spear, was the recognisedhead of his race, both for valour and discretion. Bysome historians he is called the half-brother of MurtoghO'Brien, and it is certain that he was the faithful allyof that powerful prince. In the early stages of the recentcontest between North and South, Donald of Aileach hadpresented himself at Rathcrogan, the residence of O'Conor, who entertained him for a fortnight, and gave him hostages;but Connaught finally sided with Munster, and thus, bya decided policy, escaped being ground to powder, as cornis ground between the mill-stones. But the nephew andsuccessor of Murtogh was not prepared to reciprocate toConnaught the support it had rendered to Munster, butrather looked for its continuance to himself. ConorO'Brien, who became King of Munster in 1120, resistedall his life the pretensions of any house but his own tothe southern half-kingdom, and against a less powerfulor less politic antagonist, his energy and capacity wouldhave been certain to prevail. The posterity of Malachyin Meath, as well as the Princes of Aileach, were equallyhostile to the designs of the new aspirant. One line hadgiven three, another seven, another twenty kings toErin--but who had ever heard of an _Ard-Righ_ coming outof Connaught? 'Twas so they reasoned in those days offierce family pride, and so they acted. Yet Thorlogh, son of Ruari, son of Hugh, proved himself in the fifteenyears' war, previous to his accession (1021 to 1136), more than a match for all his enemies. He had been chiefof his tribe since the year 1106, and from the first hadbegun to lay his far forecasting plans for the sovereignty. He had espoused the cause of the house of O'Brien, andhad profited by that alliance. Nor were all his thoughtsgiven to war. He had bridged the river Suca at Ballinasloe, and the Shannon at Athlone and Shannon harbour, and thesame year these works were finished (1120 or '21) hecelebrated the ancient games at Tailtean, in assertionof his claim to the monarchy. His main difficulty wasthe stubborn pride of Munster, and the valour and enterpriseof Conor O'Brien, surnamed Conor "of the fortresses. " Ofthe years following his assertion of his title, few passedwithout war between those Provinces. In 1121 and 1127, Thorlogh triumphed in the south, took hostages fromLismore to Tralee, and returned home exultingly; a fewyears later the tide turned, and Conor O'Brien was equallyvictorious against him, in the heart of his own country. Thorlogh played off in the south the ancient jealousy ofthe Eugenian houses against the Dalcassians, and thusweakened both, to his own advantage. In the year 1126 hetook Dublin and raised his son to the lordship, as Dermidof Leinster, and Thorlogh O'Brien had done formerly:marching southward he encamped in Ormond, from Lammas toSt. Bridget's day, and overran Munster with his troopsin all directions, taking Cork, Cashel, Ardfinnan, andTralee. Celsus, the holy Primate of Armagh, deploringthe evils of this protracted year, left his peacefulcity, and spent thirteen months in the south and west, endeavouring to reconcile, and bind over to the peace, the contending kings. In these days the Irish hierarchyperformed, perhaps, their highest part--that of peacemakersand preachers of good will to men. When in 1132 and '33the tide had temporarily turned against Thorlogh, andConor O'Brien had united Munster, Leinster, and Meath, against him, the Archbishop of Tuam performed effectuallythe office of mediator, preserving not only his ownProvince, but the whole country from the most sanguinaryconsequences. In the year 1130, the holy Celsus hadrested from his labours, and Malachy, the illustriousfriend of St. Bernard, was nominated as his successor. At the time he was absent in Munster, as the Vicar ofthe aged Primate, engaged in a mission of peace, whenthe crozier and the dying message of his predecessor weredelivered to him. He returned to Armagh, where he foundthat Maurice, son of Donald, had been intruded as Archbishopin the _interim_, to this city peace, order, and unity, were not even partially restored, until two yearslater--A. D. , 1132. 

The reign of Thorlogh O'Conor over Leath Mogha, or asArd-Righ "with opposition, " is dated by the best authoritiesfrom the year 1136. He was then in his forty-eighth year, and had been chief of his tribe from the early age ofeighteen. He afterwards reigned for twenty years, andas those years, and the early career of his son Roderickare full of instruction, in reference to the events whichfollow, we must relate them somewhat in detail. We againbeg the reader to observe the consequences of thedestruction of the federal bond among the Irish; howevery province has found an ambitious dynasty of its own, which each contends shall be supreme; how the ambitionof the great families grows insatiable as the ancientrights and customs decay; how the law of Patrick enactedin the fifth century is no longer quoted or regarded;how the law of the strong hand alone decides the quarrelof these proud, unyielding Princes. 

CHAPTER III. 

THORLOGH MORE O'CONOR--MURKERTACH OF AILEACH--ACCESSIONOF RODERICK O'CONOR. 

The successful ambition of Thorlogh O'Conor had thusadded, as we have seen in the last chapter, a fifthdynasty to the number of competitors for the sovereignty. And if great energy and various talents could aloneentitle a chief to rule over his country, this Princewell merited the obedience of his cotemporaries. He isthe first of the latter kings who maintained a regularfleet at sea; at one time we find these Connaught galleysdoing service on the coast of Cork, at another co-operatingwith his land forces, in the harbour of Derry. The yearof his greatest power was the fifteenth of his reign(A. D. 1151), when his most signal success was obtainedover his most formidable antagonists. Thorlogh O'Brien, King of Munster, successor to Conor of the fortresses, had on foot, in that year, an army of three battalions(or _caths_), each battalion consisting of 3, 000 men, with which force he overawed some, and compelled othersof the southern chiefs to withdraw their homage from hiswestern namesake. The latter, uniting to his own theforces of Meath, and those of Leinster, recently reconciledto his supremacy, marched southward, and, encamping atGlanmire, received the adhesion of such Eugenian familiesas still struggled with desperation against the ascendencyof the O'Briens. With these forces he encountered, atMoanmore, the army of the south, and defeated them, withthe enormous loss of 7, 000 men--a slaughter unparalleledthroughout the war of succession. Every leading house inNorth Munster mourned the loss of either its chief orits tanist; some great families lost three, five, orseven brothers on that sanguinary day. The household ofKinkora was left without an heir, and many a near kinsman'sseat was vacant in its hospitable hall. The O'Brienhimself was banished into Ulster, where, from Murkertach, Prince of Aileach, he received the hospitality due tohis rank and his misfortunes, not without an ulteriorpolitic view on the part of the Ulster Prince. In thisbattle of Moanmore, Dermid McMurrogh, King of Leinster, of whom we shall hear hereafter, fought gallantly on theside of the victor. In the same year--but whether beforeor after the Munster campaign is uncertain--an Ulsterforce having marched into Sligo, Thorlogh met them nearthe Curlew mountains, and made peace with their king. Astill more important interview took place the next yearin the plain, or _Moy_, between the rivers Erne andDrowse, near the present Ballyshannon. On the _Bachall-Isa_and the relics of Columbkill, Thorlogh and Murkertachmade a solemn peace, which is thought to have includedthe recognition of O'Conor's supremacy. A third meetingwas had during the summer in Meath, where were present, beside the Ard-Righ, the Prince of Aileach, Dermid ofLeinster, and other chiefs and nobles. At this conferencethey divided Meath into east and west, between two branchesof the family of Melaghlin. Part of Longford and SouthLeitrim were taken from Tiernan O'Ruarc, lord of Breffni, and an angle of Meath, including Athboy and the hill ofWard, was given him instead. Earlier in the same year, King Thorlogh had divided Munster into three parts, givingDesmond to MacCarthy, Ormond to Thaddeus O'Brien, whohad fought under him at Moanmore, and leaving the remainderto the O'Brien, who had only two short years beforecompeted with him for the sovereignty. By these subdivisionsthe politic monarch expected to weaken to a great degreethe power of the rival families of Meath and Munster. It was an arbitrary policy which could originate only onthe field of battle, and could be enforced only by thesanction of victory. Thorlogh O'Brien, once King of allMunster, refused to accept a mere third, and carryingaway his jewels and valuables, including the drinkinghorn of the great Brian, he threw himself again on theprotection of Murkertach of Aileach. The elder branchof the family of O'Melaghlin were equally indisposed toaccept half of Meath, where they had claimed the wholefrom the Shannon to the sea. To complicate still morethis tangled web, Dermid, King of Leinster, about thesame time (A. D. 1153), eloped with Dervorgoil, wife ofO'Ruarc of Breffni, and daughter of O'Melaghlin, who bothappealed to the monarch for vengeance on the ravager. Upto this date Dermid had acted as a steadfast ally ofO'Conor, but when compelled by the presence of a powerfulforce on his borders to restore the captive, or partnerof his guilt, he conceived an enmity for the aged king, which he extended, with increased virulence, to his sonand successor. 

What degree of personal criminality to attach to thiselopement it is hard to say. The cavalier in the casewas on the wintry side of fifty, while the lady hadreached the mature age of forty-four. Such examples havebeen, where the passions of youth, surviving the periodmost subject to their influence, have broken out withrenewed frenzy on the confines of old age. Whether theflight of Dermid and Dervorgoil arose from a mere criminalpassion, is not laid down with certainty in the oldAnnals, though national and local tradition stronglypoint to that conclusion. The Four Masters indeed statethat after the restoration of the lady she "returned toO'Ruarc, " another point wanting confirmation. We knowthat she soon afterwards retired to the shelter ofMellifont Abbey, where she ended her days towards theclose of the century, in penitence and alms-deeds. 

Murtogh of Aileach now became master of the situation. Thorlogh was old and could not last long; Dermid ofLeinster was for ever estranged from him; the new arbitrarydivisions, though made with the general consent, satisfiedno one. With a powerful force he marched southward, restored to the elder branch of the O'Melaghlins thewhole of Meath, defeated Thaddeus O'Brien, obliteratedOrmond from the map, restored the old bounds of Thomondand Desmond, and placed his guest, the banished O'Brien, on the throne of Cashel. A hostile force, under RoderickO'Conor, was routed, and retreated to their own territory. The next year (A. D. 1154) was signalized by a fiercenaval engagement between the galleys of King Thorloghand those of Murtogh, on the coast of Innishowen. Thelatter, recruited by vessels hired from the Gael andGalls of Cantire, the Arran Isles, and Man, were underthe command of MacScellig; the Connaught fleet was ledby O'Malley and O'Dowda. The engagement, which lastedfrom the morning till the evening, ended in the repulseof the Connaught fleet, and the death of O'Dowda. Theoccurrence is remarkable as the first general sea-fightbetween vessels in the service of native Princes, and asreminding us forcibly of the lessons acquired by theIrish during the Danish period. 

During the two years of life--which remained to KingThorlogh O'Conor, he had the affliction of seeing thefabric of power, which had taken him nearly half a centuryto construct, abridged at many points, by his more vigorousnorthern rival. Murtogh gave law to territories farsouth of the ancient _esker_. He took hostages from theDanes of Dublin, and interposed in the affairs of Munster. In the year 1156, the closing incidents which signalizedthe life of Thorlogh More, was a new peace which he madebetween the people of Breffni, Meath, and Connaught, andthe reception of hostages from his old opponent, therestored O'Brien. While this new light of prosperity wasshining on his house, he passed away from this life, onthe 13th of the Kalends of June, in the 68th year of hisage, and the 50th of his government. By his last will hebequeathed to the clergy numerous legacies, which arethus enumerated by Geoffrey Keating: "namely, four hundredand forty ounces of gold, and forty marks of silver; andall the other valuable treasures he possessed, both cupsand precious stones, both steeds and cattle and robes, chess-boards, bows, quivers, arrows, equipments, weapons, armour, and utensils. " He was interred beside the highaltar of the Cathedral of Clonmacnoise, to which he hadbeen in life and in death a munificent benefactor. 

The Prince of Aileach now assumed the title of Monarch, and after some short-lived opposition from RoderickO'Conor, his sovereignty was universally acknowledged. From the year 1161 until his death, he might fairly becalled Ard-Righ, without opposition, since the hostagesof all Ireland were in those last five years in his hands. These hostages were retained at the chief seat of powerof the northern dynasty, the fortress of Aileach, whichcrowns a hill nearly a thousand feet high, at the headof Lough Swilly. To this stronghold the ancestor ofMurtogh had removed early in the Danish period, from themore exposed and more ancient Emania, beside Armagh. Onthat hill-summit the ruins of Aileach may still be traced, with its inner wall twelve feet thick, and its threeconcentric ramparts, the first enclosing one acre, thesecond four, and the last five acres. By what remains wecan still judge of the strength of the stronghold whichwatched over the waters of Lough Swilly like a sentinelon an outpost. No Prince of the Northern Hy-Nial hadfor two centuries entered Aileach in such triumph or withso many nobles in his train, as did Murtogh in the year1161, But whether the supreme power wrought a change forthe worse in his early character, or that the lords ofUlster had begun to consider the line of Conn as equalsrather than sovereigns, he was soon involved in quarrelswith his own Provincial suffragans which ended in hisdefeat and death. Most other kings of whom we have readfound their difficulties in rival dynasties and provincialprejudices; but this ruler, when most freely acknowledgedabroad, was disobeyed and defeated at home. Having takenprisoner the lord of Ulidia (Down), with whom he hadpreviously made a solemn peace, he ordered his eyes tobe put out, and three of his principal relatives to beexecuted. This and other arbitrary acts so roused thelords of Leath Conn, that they formed a league againsthim, at the head of which stood Donogh O'Carroll, lordof Oriel, the next neighbour to the cruelly ill-treatedchief of Ulidia. In the year 1166, this chief, withcertain tribes of Tyrone and North Leitrim, to the numberof three battalions (9, 000 men), attacked the patrimonyof the monarch--that last menace and disgrace to an Irishking. Murtogh with his usual valour, but not his usualfortune, encountered them in the district of the Fews, with an Inferior force, chiefly his own tribesmen. Eventhese deserted him on the eve of the battle, so that hewas easily surprised and slain, only thirteen men fallingin the affray. This action, of course, is unworthy thename of a battle, but resulting in the death of themonarch, it became of high political importance. 

Roderick O'Conor, son of Thorlogh More, was at this periodin the tenth year of his reign over Connaught, and thefiftieth year of his age. Rathcrogan, the chief seat ofhis jurisdiction, had just attained to the summit of itsglory. The site of this now almost forgotten palace istraceable in the parish of Elphin, within three miles ofthe modern village of Tulsk. Many objects contributed toits interest and importance in Milesian times. There werethe _Naasteaghna_, or place of assembly of the clans ofConnaught, "the Sacred Cave, " which in the Druidic erawas supposed to be the residence of a god, and the _Religna Righ_-the venerable cemetery of the Pagan kings ofthe West, where still the red pillar stone stood overthe grave of Dathy, and many another ancient tomb couldbe as clearly distinguished. The relative importance ofRathcrogan we may estimate by the more detailed descriptionsof the extent and income of its rivals--Kinkora andAileach. In an age when Roscommon alone contained 470fortified _duns_, over all which the royal rath presided;when half the tributes of the island were counted at itsgate, it must have been the frequent _rendezvous_ ofarmies, the home of many guests, the busy focus ofintrigue, and the very elysium of bards, story-tellers, and mendicants. In an after generation, Cathal, thered-handed O'Conor, from some motive of policy or pleasure, transferred the seat of government to the newly-foundedBallintober: in the lifetime of Thorlogh More, and thefirst years of Roderick, when the fortunes of the O'Conorswere at their full, Rathcrogan was the co-equal in strengthand in splendour of Aileach and Kinkora. 

Advancing directly from this family seat, on the firsttidings of Murtogh's death, Roderick presented himselfbefore the walls of Dublin, which opened its gates, accepted his stipend of four thousand head of cattle, and placed hostages for its fidelity in his hands. Henext marched rapidly to Drogheda, with an auxiliary forceof Dublin Danes, and there O'Carroll, lord of Oriel(Louth), came into his camp, and rendered him homage. Retracing his steps he entered Leinster, with an augmentedforce, and demanded hostages from Dermid McMurrogh. Thirteen years had passed since his father had taken uparms to avenge the rape of Dervorgoil, and had earnedthe deadly hatred of the abductor. That hatred, in theinterim, had suffered no decrease, and sooner than submitto Roderick, the ravager burned his own city of Ferns tothe ground, and retreated into his fastnesses. Roderickproceeded southward, obtained the adhesion of Ossory andMunster; confirming Desmond to McCarthy, and Thomond toO'Brien. Returning to Leinster, he found that TiernanO'Ruarc had entered the province, at the head of anauxiliary army, and Dermid, thus surrounded, deserted bymost of his own followers, outwitted and overmatched, was feign to seek safety in flight beyond seas (A. D. 1168). A solemn sentence of banishment was publiclypronounced against him by the assembled Princes, andMorrogh, his cousin, commonly called Morrogh _na Gael_, or "of the Irish, " to distinguish him from Dermid _naGall_, or "of the Stranger, " was inaugurated in his stead. From Morrogh _na Gael_ they took seventeen hostages, andso Roderick returned rejoicing to Rathcrogan, and O'Ruarcto Breffni, each vainly imagining that he had heard thelast of the dissolute and detested King of Leinster. 

CHAPTER IV. 

STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING AMONG THE IRISH, PREVIOUSTO THE ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION. 

At the end of the eighth century, before entering on theNorwegian and Danish wars, we cast a backward glance onthe Christian ages over which we had passed; and nowagain we have arrived at the close of an era, when arapid retrospect of the religious and social conditionof the country requires to be taken. 

The disorganization of the ancient Celtic constitutionhas already been sufficiently described. The rise of thegreat families, and their struggles for supremacy, havealso been briefly sketched. The substitution of the clanfor the race, of pedigree for patriotism, has beenexhibited to the reader. We have now to turn to the innerlife of the people, and to ascertain what substitutesthey found in their religious and social condition, forthe absence of a fixed constitutional system, and thestrength and stability which such a system confers. 

The followers of Odin, though they made no proselytes totheir horrid creed among the children of St. Patrick, succeeded in inflicting many fatal wounds on the IrishChurch. The schools, monasteries, and nunneries, situatedon harbours or rivers, or within a convenient march ofthe coast, were their first objects of attack; teachersand pupils were dispersed, or, if taken, put to death, or, escaping, were driven to resort to arms in self-defence. Bishops could no longer reside in their sees, nor anchoritesin their cells, unless they invited martyrdom; a factwhich may, perhaps, in some degree account for the largenumber of Irish ecclesiastics, many of them in episcopalorders, who are found, in the ninth century, in Gaul aridGermany, at Rheims, Mentz, Ratisbon, Fulda, Cologne, andother places, already Christian. But it was not in thebanishment of masters, the destruction of libraries andschool buildings, the worst consequences of the Gentilewar were felt. Their ferocity provoked retaliation inkind, and effaced, first among the military class, andgradually from among all others, that growing gentlenessof manners and clemency of temper, which we can trace insuch princes as Nial of the Showers and Nial of Callan. "A change in the national spirit is the greatest of allrevolutions;" and this change the Danish and Norwegianwars had wrought, in two centuries, among the Irish. 

The number of Bishops in the early Irish Church wasgreatly in excess of the number of modern dioceses. Fromthe eighth to the twelfth century we hear frequently of_Episcopi Vagantes_, or itinerant, and _Episcopi Vacantes_, or unbeneficed Bishops; the Provincial Synods of Englandand Gaul frequently had to complain of the influx of suchBishops into their country. At the Synod held near theHill of Usny, in the year 1111, fifty Bishops attended, and at the Synod of Rath-Brazil, seven years later, according to Keating, but twenty-five were present. Tothis period, then, when Celsus was Primate and Legate ofthe Holy See, we may attribute the first attemptedreduction of the Episcopal body to something like itsmodern number; but so far was this salutary restrictionfrom being universally observed that, at the Synod ofKells (A. D. 1152), the hierarchy had again risen tothirty-four, exclusive of the four Archbishops. Threehundred priests, and three thousand ecclesiastics aregiven as the number present at the first-mentioned Synod. 

The religious orders, probably represented by the aboveproportion of three thousand ecclesiastics to threehundred [secular] priests had also undergone a remarkablerevolution. The rule of all the early Irish monasteriesand convents was framed upon an original constitution, which St. Patrick had obtained in France from St. Martinof Tours, who in turn had copied after the monachism ofEgypt and the East. It is called by ecclesiastical writersthe Columban rule, and was more rigid in some particularsthan the rule of St. Benedict, by which it was afterwardssupplanted. Amongst other restrictions it prohibited theadmission of all unprofessed persons within the precinctsof the monastery--a law as regards females incorporatedin the Benedictine constitution; and it strictly enjoinedsilence on the professed--a discipline revived by thebrethren of La Trappe. The primary difference betweenthe two orders lay perhaps in this, that the Benedictinemade study and the cultivation of the intellect subordinateto manual labour and implicit obedience, while the ColumbanOrder attached more importance to the acquisition ofknowledge and missionary enterprise. Not that this wastheir invariable, but only their peculiar characteristic:a deep-seated love of seclusion and meditation often, intermingled with this fearless and experimental zeal. It was not to be expected in a century like the ninth, especially when the Benedictine Order was overspreadingthe West, that its milder spirit should not act upon thespirit of the Columban rule. It was, in effect, moresocial, and less scientific, more a wisdom to be actedthan to be taught. Armed with the syllogism, the Columbitesissued out of their remote island, carrying their stronglymarked personality into every controversy and everycorrespondence. In Germany and Gaul, their system blazedup in Virgilius, in Erigena, and Macarius, and thendisappeared in the calmer, slower, but safer march ofthe Benedictine discipline. By a reform of the sameancient order, its last hold on native soil was loosenedwhen, under the auspices of St. Malachy, the Cistercianrule was introduced into Ireland the very year of hisfirst visit to Clairvaux (A. D. 1139). St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, was the first to adopt that rule, and the greatmonastery of Mellifont, placed under the charge of thebrother of the Primate, sprung up in Meath, three yearslater. The Abbeys of Bective, Boyle, Baltinglass, andMonasternenagh, date from the year of Malachy's secondjourney to Rome, and death at Clairvaux--A. D. 1148. Before the end of the century, the rule was establishedat Fermoy, Holycross, and Odorney; at Athlone and Knockmoy;at Newry and Assaroe, and in almost every tribe-land ofMeath and Leinster. It is usually but erroneously supposedthat the Cistercian rule came in with the Normans; foralthough many houses owed their foundation to that race, the order itself had been naturalized in Ireland ageneration before the first landing of the formidableallies of Dermid on the coast of Wexford. The ancientnative order had apparently fulfilled its mission, andlong rudely lopped and shaken by civil commotions andPagan war, it was prepared to give place to a new andmore vigorous organization of kindred holiness and energy. 

As the horrors of war disturbed continually the clergyfrom their sacred calling, and led many of them, evenAbbots and Bishops, to take up arms, so the yoke ofreligion gradually loosened and dropped from the necksof the people. The awe of the eighth century for a Priestor Bishop had already disappeared in the tenth, whenChristian hands were found to decapitate Cormac of Cashel, and offer his head as a trophy to the Ard-Righ. In thetwelfth century the Archbishop and Bishops of Connaught, bound to the Synod of Trim, were fallen upon by the Kernof Carbre the Swift, before they could cross the Shannon, their people beaten and dispersed and two of them killed. In the time of Thorlogh More O'Conor, a similar outragewas offered by Tiernan O'Ruarc to the Archbishop ofArmagh, and one of his ecclesiastics was killed in theassault. Not only for the persons of ministers of religionhad the ancient awe and reverence disappeared, but evenfor the sacred precincts of the Sanctuary. In the secondcentury of the war with the Northmen we begin to hear ofchurches and cloisters plundered by native chiefs, whoyet called themselves Christians, though in every suchinstance our annalists are careful to record the vengeanceof Heaven following swift on sacrilege. Clonmacnoise, Kildare, and Lismore, were more than once rifled of theirwealth by impious hands, and given over to desolationand burning by so-called Christian nobles and soldiers!It is some mitigation of the dreadful record thus presentedto be informed--as we often are--especially in the annalsof the twelfth century, that the treasures so pillagedwere not the shrines of saints nor the sacred ornamentsof the altar, but the temporal wealth of temporalproprietors, laid up in churches as places of greatestsecurity. 

The estates of the Church were, in most instances, farmedby laymen, called _Erenachs_, who, in the relaxation ofall discipline, seem to have gradually appropriated thelands to themselves, leaving to the Clergy and Bishopsonly periodical dues and the actual enclosure of theChurch. This office of Erenach was hereditary, and musthave presented many strong temptations to its occupants. It is indeed certain that the Irish Church was originallyfounded on the broadest voluntaryism, and that such wasthe spirit of all its most illustrious fathers. "Contentwith food and raiment, " says an ancient Canon attributedto St. Patrick, "reject the gifts of the wicked beside, seeing that the lamb takes only that with which it isfed. " Such, to the letter, was the maxim which guidedthe conduct of Colman and his brethren, of whom Bedemakes such honourable mention, in the third century afterthe preaching of St. Patrick. But the munificence oftribes and Princes was not to be restrained, and toobviate any violation of the revered canons of the apostle, laymen, as treasurers and stewards over the endowmentsof the Church, were early appointed. As those possessionsincreased, the desire of family aggrandizement provedtoo much for the Erenachs not only of Armagh, but of mostother sees, and left the clergy as practically dependenton free-will offerings, as if their Cathedrals or Conventshad never been endowed with an acre, a mill, a ferry, ora fishery. The free offerings were, however, alwaysgenerous, and sometimes munificent. When Celsus, on hiselevation to the Primacy, made a tour of the southernhalf-kingdom, he received "seven cows and seven sheep, and half an ounce of silver from every cantred [hundred]in Munster. " The bequests were also a fruitful source ofrevenue to the principal foundations; of the munificenceof the monarchs we may form some opinion by what has beenalready recorded of the gifts left to churches by ThorloghMore O'Conor. 

The power of the clerical order, in these ages of Paganwarfare, had very far declined from what it was, whenAdamnan caused the law to be enacted to prevent womengoing to battle, when Moling obtained the abolition ofthe Leinster tribute, and Columbkill the recognition ofScottish independence. Truces made in the presence ofthe highest dignitaries, and sworn to on the most sacredrelics, were frequently violated, and often with impunity. Neither excommunication nor public penance were latterlyinflicted as an atonement for such perjury: a fine oroffering to the Church was the easy and only mulct onthe offender. When we see the safeguard of the Bishop ofCork so flagrantly disregarded by the assassins of Mahon, son of Kennedy, and the solemn peace of the year 1094 soreadily broken by two such men as the Princes of theNorth and the South, we need no other proofs of thedecadence of the spiritual authority in that age of Irishhistory. 

And the morals of private life tell the same sad tale. The facility with which the marriage tie was contractedand dissolved is the strongest evidence of this degeneracy. The worst examples were set in the highest stations, forit is no uncommon incident, from the ninth centurydownwards, to find our Princes with more than one wifeliving, and the repudiated wife married again to a personof equal or superior rank. We have the authority of SaintAnselm and Saint Bernard, for the existence of gravescandal and irregularities of life among the clergy, andwe can well believe that it needed a generation of Bishops, with all the authority and all the courage of SaintCelsus, Saint Malachy, and Saint Lawrence, to rescue fromruin a Priesthood and a people, so far fallen from thebright example of their ancestors. That the reactiontowards a better life had strongly set in, under theirguidance, we may infer from the horror with which, inthe third quarter of the twelfth century, the elopementof Dermid and Dervorgoil was regarded by both Princesand People. A hundred years earlier, that event wouldhave been hardly noticed in the general disregard of themarriage tie, but the frequent Synods, and the holy livesof the reforming Bishops, had already revived the zealthat precedes and ensures reformation. 

Primate Malachy died at Clairvaulx, in the arms of SaintBernard, in the year 1148, after having been fourteenyears Archbishop of Armagh and ten years Bishop of Downand Conor. His episcopal life, therefore, embraced thehistory of that remarkable second quarter of the century, in which the religious reaction fought its first battlesagainst the worst abuses. The attention of Saint Bernard, whose eyes nothing escaped, from Jerusalem to the farthestwest, was drawn ten years before to the Isle of Saints, now, in truth, become an Isle of Sinners. The death ofhis friend, the Irish Primate, under his own roof, gavehim a fitting occasion for raising his accusing voice--avoice that thrilled the Alps and filled the Vatican--againstthe fearful degeneracy of that once fruitful mother ofholy men and women. The attention of Rome was thoroughlyaroused, and immediately after the appearance of the Lifeof Saint Malachy, Pope Eugenius III. --himself a monk ofClairvaulx--despatched Cardinal Papiron, with legantinepowers, to correct abuses, and establish a stricterdiscipline. After a tour of great part of the Island, the Legate, with whom was associated Gilla-Criost, orChristianus, Bishop of Lismore, called the great Synodof Kells, early in the year after his arrival (March, 1152), at which simony, usury, concubinage, and otherabuses, were formally condemned, and tithes were firstdecreed to be paid to the secular clergy. Two newArchbishoprics, Dublin and Tuam, were added to Armaghand Cashel, though not without decided opposition fromthe Primates both of Leath Mogha and Leath Conn, backedby those stern conservatives of every national usage, the Abbots of the Columban Order. The _pallium_, or Romancape, was, by this Legate, presented to each of theArchbishops, and a closer conformity with the Roman ritualwas enacted. The four ecclesiastical Provinces thuscreated were in outline nearly identical with the fourmodern Provinces. Armagh was declared the metropolitanover all; Dublin, which had been a mere Danish borough-see, gained most in rank and influence by the new arrangement, as Glendalough, Ferns, Ossory, Kildare and Leighlin, weredeclared subject to its presidency. 

We must always bear in mind the picture drawn of theIrish Church by the inspired orator of Clairvaulx, whenjudging of the conduct of Pope Adrian IV. , who, in theyear 1155--the second of his Pontificate--granted to KingHenry II. Of England, then newly crowned, his Bullauthorising the invasion of Ireland. The authenticity ofthat Bull is now universally admitted; and both itspreamble and conditions show how strictly it was framedin accordance with St. Bernard's accusation. It setsforth that for the eradication of vice, the implantingof virtue, and the spread of the true faith, the HolyFather solemnly sanctions the projected invasion; and itattaches as a condition, the payment of Peter's pence, for every house in Ireland. The bearer of the Bull, Johnof Salisbury, carried back from Rome a gold ring, setwith an emerald stone, as a token of Adrian's friendship, or it may be, his subinfeudation of Henry. As a title, however powerless in modern times such a Bull might prove, it was a formidable weapon of invasion with a Catholicpeople, in the twelfth century. We have mainly referredto it here, however, as an illustration of how entirelySt. Bernard's impeachment of the Irish Church and nationwas believed at Rome, even after the salutary decrees ofthe Synod of Kells had been promulgated. 

The restoration of religion, which was making such rapidprogress previous to the Norman invasion, was accompaniedby a relative revival of learning. The dark ages ofIreland are not those of the rest of Europe--they extendfrom the middle of the ninth century to the age of Brianand Malachy II. This darkness came from the North, andcleared away rapidly after the eventful day of Clontarf. The first and most natural direction which the revivaltook was historical investigation, and the compositionof Annals. Of these invaluable records, the two of highestreputation are those of Tigernach (Tiernan) O'Broin, brought down to the year of his own death, A. D. 1088, and the chronicle of Marianus Scotus, who died at Mentz, A. D. 1086. Tiernan was abbot of Clonmacnoise, and Marianis thought to have been a monk of that monastery, as hespeaks of a superior called Tigernach, under whom he hadlived in Ireland. Both these learned men quote accuratelythe works of foreign writers; both give the dates ofeclipses, in connection with historical events for severalcenturies before their own time; both show a familiaritywith Greek and Latin authors. _Marianus_ is the firstwriter by whom the name _Scotia Minor_ was given to theGaelic settlement in Caledonia, and his chronicle was anauthority mainly relied on in the disputed Scottishsuccession in the time of Edward I. Of England. With_Tigernach_, he may be considered the founder of theschool of Irish Annalists, which flourished in the shelterof the great monasteries, such as Innisfallen, Boyle andMultifernan; and culminated in the great compilation madeby "the Four Masters" in the Abbey of Donegal. 

Of the Gaelic metrical chroniclers, Flann of the Monastery, and Gilla-Coeman; of the Bards McLiag and McCoisse; ofthe learned professors and lectors of Lismore andArmagh--now restored for a season to studious days andpeaceful nights, we must be content with the mention oftheir names. Of Lismore, after its restoration, an oldBritish writer has left us this pleasant and happy picture. "It is, " he says, "a famous and holy city, half of whichis an asylum, into which no woman dares enter; but it isfull of cells and monasteries; and religious men in greatabundance abide there. "

Such was the promise of better days, which cheered thehopes of the Pastors of the Irish, when the twelfthcentury had entered on its third quarter. The pious oldGaelic proverb, which says, "on the Cross the face ofChrist was looking westwards--, " was again on the lipsand in the hearts of men, and though much remained to bedone, much had been already done, and done underdifficulties greater than any that remained to conquer. 

CHAPTER V. 

SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE IRISH PREVIOUS TO THE NORMANINVASION. 

The total population of Ireland, when the Normans firstentered it, can only be approximated by conjecture. Supposing the whole force with which Roderick and hisallies invested the Normans in Dublin, to be, as statedby a cotemporary writer, some 50, 000 men, and that thatforce included one-fourth of all the men of the militaryage in the country; and further, supposing the men ofmilitary age to bear the proportion of one-fifth to thewhole number of inhabitants, this would give a totalpopulation of about one million. Even this conjecture isto be taken with great diffidence and distrust, but, forthe sake of clearness, it is set down as a possible Irishcensus, towards the close of the twelfth century. 

This population was divided into two great classes, the_Saer-Clanna_, or free tribes, chiefly, if not exclusively, of Milesian race; and the _Daer-Clanna_, or unfree tribes, consisting of the descendants of the subjugated olderraces, or of clans once free, reduced to servitude bythe sword, or of the posterity of foreign mercenarysoldiers. Of the free clans, the most illustrious werethose of whose Princes we have traced the record--thedescendants of Nial in Ulster and Meath, of Cathaeir Morein Leinster, of Oliold in Munster, and of Eochaid inConnaught. An arbitrary division once limited the freeclans to six in the southern half-kingdom, and six inthe north; and the unfree also to six. But GeoffreyKeating, whose love of truth was quite as strong as hiscredulity in ancient legends--and that is sayingmuch--disclaimed that classification, and collected hisgenealogies from principal heads--branching out intothree families of tribes, descended from Eber Finn, onefrom Ir, and four from Eremhon, sons of Milesians ofSpain; and ninth tribe sprung from Ith, granduncle tothe sons of Milesius. The principal Eberian families'names were McCarthy, O'Sullivan, O'Mahony, O'Donovan, O'Brien, O'Dea, O'Quin, McMahon (of Clare), McNamara, O'Carroll (of Ely), and O'Gara; the Irian families wereMagennis, O'Farrall, and O'Conor (of Kerry); the posterityof Eremhon branched out into the O'Neils, O'Donnells, O'Dohertys, O'Gallahers, O'Boyles, McGeoghegans, O'Conors(of Connaught), O'Flahertys, O'Heynes, O'Shaughnessys, O'Clerys, O'Dowdas, McDonalds (of Antrim), O'Kellys, Maguires, Kavanaghs, Fitzpatricks, O'Dwyers, and O'Conors(of Offally). The chief families of Ithian origin werethe O'Driscolls, O'Learys, Coffeys, and Clancys. Out ofthe greater tribes many subdivisions arose from time totime, when new names were coined for some intermediateancestor; but the farther enumeration of these may beconveniently dispensed with. 

The _Daer-Clanna_, or unfree tribes, have left no history. Under the despotism of the Milesian kings, it was hightreason to record the actions of the conquered race; sothat the Irish Belgae fared as badly in this respect, atthe hands of the Milesian historians, as the latter faredin after times from the chroniclers of the Normans. Weonly know that such tribes were, and that their numbersand physical force more than once excited the apprehensionof the children of the conquerors. What proportion theybore to the _Saer-Clanna_ we have no positive data todetermine. A fourth, a fifth, or a sixth, they may havebeen; but one thing is certain, the jealous policy ofthe superior race never permitted them to reascend theplane of equality, from which they had been hurled, atthe very commencement of the Milesian ascendency. 

In addition to the enslaved by conquest and the enslavedby crime, there were also the enslaved by purchase. Fromthe earliest period, slave dealers from Ireland hadfrequented Bristol, the great British slave market, topurchase human beings. Christian morality, though it mayhave mitigated the horrors of this odious traffic, didnot at once lead to its abolition. In vain Saint Wulfstanpreached against it in the South, as Saint Aidan had donelong before him in the North of England. Files offair-haired Saxon slaves, of both sexes, yoked togetherwith ropes, continued to be shipped at Bristol, andbondmen and bondwomen continued to be articles ofvalue--exchanged between the Prince and his subordinates, as stipend or tribute. The King of Cashel alone gave tothe chief of the Eugenians, as part of his annual stipend, ten bondmen and ten women; to the lord of Bruree, sevenpages and seven bondwomen; to the lord of Deisi, eightslaves of each sex, and seven female slaves to the lordof Kerry; among the items which make up the tribute fromOssory to Cashel are ten bondmen and ten grown women;and from the Deisi, eight bondmen and eight "brown-haired"women. The annual exchanges of this description, set downas due in the Book of Rights, would require the transferof several hundreds of slaves yearly, from one set ofmasters to another. Cruelties and outrages must have beeninseparable from the system, and we can hardly wonder atthe sweeping decree by which the Synod of Armagh (A. D. 1171) declared all the English slaves in Ireland free toreturn to their homes, and anathematized the whole inhumantraffic. The fathers of that council looked upon theNorman invasion as a punishment from Heaven on the slavetrade; for they believed in their purity of heart, thatpower _is_ transferred from one nation to another, becauseof injustices, oppressions, and divers deceits. 

The purchased slaves and unfree tribes tilled the soil, and practised the mechanic arts. Agriculture seems firstto have been lifted into respectability by the CistercianMonks, while spinning, weaving, and almost every mechaniccalling, if we except the scribe, the armorer, and thebell-founder, continued down to very recent tunes to beheld in contempt among the Gael. A brave man is mentionedas having been a "weaving woman's son, " with much thesame emphasis as Jeptha is spoken of as the son of anHarlot. Mechanic wares were disposed of at those statedgatherings, which combined popular games, chariot racesfor the nobles, and markets for the merchants. A Bard ofthe tenth or eleventh century, in a desperate effort tovary the usual high-flown descriptions of the country, calls it "Erin of the hundred fair greens, "--a verygraphic, if not a very poetic illustration. 

The administration of justice was an hereditary trust, committed to certain judicial families, who held theirlands, as the Monks did, by virtue of their profession. When the posterity of the Brehon, or Judge failed, itwas permitted to adopt from the class of students, a malerepresentative, in whom the judicial authority wasperpetuated: the families of O'Gnive and O'Clery in theNorth, of O'Daly in Meath, O'Doran in Leinster, McEganin Munster, Mulconry or Conroy in Connaught, were themost distinguished Brehon houses. Some peculiarities ofthe Brehon law, relating to civil succession andsovereignty, such as the institution of Tanistry, andthe system of stipends and tributes, have been alreadyexplained; parricide and murder were in latter agespunished with death; homicide and rape by _eric_ or fine. There were, besides, the laws of gavelkind or divisionof property among the members of the clan; laws relatingto boundaries; sumptuary laws regulating the dress ofthe various castes into which society was divided; lawsrelating to the planting of trees, the trespass of cattle, and billeting of troops. These laws were either writtenin detail, or consisted of certain acknowledged ancientmaxims of which the Brehon made the application in eachparticular case, answering to what we call "Judge-madelaw. " Of such ancient tracts as composed the Celtic code, an immense number have, fortunately survived, even tothis late day, and we may shortly expect a complete digestof all that are now known to exist, in a printed andimperishable form, from the hands of native scholars, every way competent to the task. 

The commerce of the country, in the eleventh and twelfthcenturies, was largely in the hands of the ChristianHiberno-Danes, of the eastern and southern coast. By themthe slave trade with Bristol was mostly maintained, andthe Irish oak, with which William Rufus roofed WestminsterAbbey, was probably rafted by them in the Thames. TheEnglish and Welsh coasts, at least, were familiar totheir pilots, and they combined, as was usual in thatage, the military with the mercantile character. In 1142, and again in 1165, a troop of Dublin Danes fought underNorman banners against the brave Britons of Cambria, andin the camps of their allies, sung the praises of thefertile island of the west. The hundred fairs of Erin--after their conversion and submission to native authority--afforded them convenient markets for disposing of thecommodities they imported from abroad. 

The Gaelic mind, long distracted by the din of war fromthe purifying and satisfying influences of a Christianlife, naturally fell back upon the abandoned, half-forgottensuperstitions of the Pagan period. Preceding every freshcalamity, we hear of signs and wonders, of migratorylakes disappearing in a night, of birds and wolves speakingwith human voices, of showers of blood falling in thefields, of a whale with golden teeth stranded atCarlingford, of cloud ships, with their crews, seenplainly sailing in the sky. One of the marvels of thisclass is thus gravely entered in our Annals, under theyear 1054--"A steeple of fire was seen in the air overRossdala, on the Sunday of the festival of St. George, for the space of five hours; innumerable black birdspassed into and out of it, and one large bird in themiddle of them; and the little birds went under his wingswhen they went into the steeple. They came out and raisedup a greyhound that was in the middle of the town aloftin the air, and let it drop down again, so that it diedimmediately; and they took up three cloaks and two shirts, and let them drop down in the same manner. The wood onwhich these birds perched fell under them; and the oaktree on which they perched shook with its roots in theearth. " In many other superstitions of the same age wesee the latent moral sentiment, as well as the over-excitedimagination of the people. Such is the story of the stolenjewels of Clonmacnoise, providentially recovered in theyear 1130. The thief in vain endeavoured to escape outof the country, from Cork, Lismore, and Waterford, "butno ship into which he entered found a wind to sail, whileall the other ships did. " And the conscience strickenthief declared, in his dying confession, that he used tosee Saint Kieran "stopping with his crozier, every shipinto which he entered. " It was also an amiable popularillusion that abundant harvests followed the making ofpeace, the enacting of salutary laws, and the accessionof a King who loved justice; and careful entry is madein our chronicles of every evidence of this character. 

The literature of the masses of the people was prettyequally composed of the legends of the Saints and theolder Ossianic legend, so much misunderstood and distortedby modern criticism. The legends of the former classwere chiefly wonders wrought by the favourite Saints ofthe district or the island, embellished with many quaintfancies and tagged out with remnants of old Pagansuperstition. St. Columbkill and St. Kieran were, mostcommonly, the heroes of those tales, which, perhaps, werenever intended by their authors to be seriously believed. Such was the story of the great founder of Iona havingtransformed the lady and her maid, who insulted him onhis way to Drom-Keth, into two herons, who are doomed tohover about the neighbouring ford till the day of doom;and such that other story of "the three first monks" whojoined St. Kieran in the desert, being a fox, a badger, and a bear, all endowed with speech, and all acting apart in the legend true to their own instincts. Of higherpoetic merit is the legend of the voyage of St. Brendanover the great sea, and how the birds which sung vespersfor him in the groves of the Promised Land were inhabitedby human souls, as yet in a state of probation waitingfor their release!

In the Ossianic legend we have the common stock of Orientalideas--the metamorphosis of guilty wives and haughtyconcubines into dogs and birds; the speaking beasts andfishes; the enchanted swans, originally daughters of Lir;the boar of Ben Bulben, by which the champion, Diarmid, was slain; the Phoenix in the stork of Inniskea, of whichthere never was but one, yet that one perpetually reproduceditself; the spirits of the wood, and the spirits inhabitingsprings and streams; the fairy horse; the sacred trees;the starry influences. Monstrous and gigantic humanshapes, like the Jinns of the Arabian tales, occasionallyenter into the plot, and play a midnight part, malignantto the hopes of good men. At their approach the earth istroubled, the moon is overcast, gusts of storm are shakenout from the folds of their garments, the watch dogs andthe war dogs cower down, in camp and rath, and whinepiteously, as if in pain. 

The variety of grace, and peculiarities of organization, with which, if not the original, certainly the ChristianizedIrish imagination, endowed and equipped the personagesof the fairy world, were of almost Grecian delicacy. There is no personage who rises to the sublime height ofZeus, or the incomparable union of beauty and wisdom inPallas Athene: what forms Bel, or Crom, or Bride, thequeen of Celtic song, may have worn to the pre-Christianages we know not, nor can know; but the minor creationsof Grecian fancy, with which they peopled their grovesand fountains, are true kindred of the brain, to theinnocent, intelligent, and generally gentle inhabitantsof the Gaelic Fairyland. The _Sidhe_, a tender, tutelaryspirit, attached herself to heroes, accompanied them inbattle, shrouded them with invisibility, dressed theirwounds with more than mortal skill, and watched over themwith more than mortal love; the _Banshee_, a sad, Cassandra-like spirit, shrieked her weird warning inadvance of death, but with a prejudice eminently Milesian, watched only over those of pure blood, whether theirfortunes abode in hovel or hall. The more modern andgrotesque personages of the Fairy world are sufficientlyknown to render description unnecessary. 

Two habitual sources of social enjoyment and occupationwith the Irish of those days were music and chess. Theharp was the favourite instrument, but the horn or trumpet, and the pibroch or bagpipe, were also in common use. Notonly professional performers, but men and women of allranks, from the humblest to the highest, prided themselveson some knowledge of instrumental music. It seems to haveformed part of the education of every order, and to havebeen cherished alike in the palace, the shieling, andthe cloister. "It is a poor church that has no music, "is a Gaelic proverb, as old, perhaps, as the establishmentof Christianity in the land; and no house was consideredfurnished without at least one harp. Students from othercountries, as we learn from _Giraldus_, came to Irelandfor their musical education in the twelfth century, justas our artists now visit Germany and Italy with the sameobject in view. 

The frequent mention of the game of chess, in ages longbefore those at which we have arrived, shows how usualwas that most intellectual amusement. The chess boardwas called in Irish _fithcheall_, and is described inthe Glossary of Cormac, of Cashel, composed towards theclose of the ninth century, as quadrangular, havingstraight spots of black and white. Some of them wereinlaid with gold and silver, and adorned with gems. Mention is made in a tale of the twelfth century of a"man-bag of woven brass wire. " No entire set of theancient men is now known to exist, though frequent mentionis made of "the brigade or family of chessmen, " in manyold manuscripts. Kings of bone, seated in sculpturedchairs, about two inches in height, have been found, andspecimens of them engraved in recent antiquarianpublications. 

It only remains to notice, very briefly, the means oflocomotion which bound and brought together this singularstate of society. Five great roads, radiating from Tara, as a centre, are mentioned in our earliest record; theroad _Dala_ leading to Ossory, and so on into Munster;the road _Assail_, extending western through Mullingartowards the Shannon; the road _Cullin_, extending towardsDublin and Bray; the exact route of the northern road, _Midhluachra_, is undetermined; _Slighe Mor_, the greatwestern road, followed the course of the _esker_, orhill-range, from Tara to Galway. Many cross-roads arealso known as in common use from the sixth centurydownwards. Of these, the Four Masters mention, at variousdates, not less than forty, under their different localnames, previous to the Norman invasion. These roads werekept in repair, according to laws enacted for that purpose, and were traversed by the chiefs and ecclesiastics in_carbads_, or chariots; a main road was called a _slighe_(_sleigh_), because it was made for the free passage oftwo chariots--"i. E. The chariot of a King and the chariotof a Bishop. " Persons of that rank were driven by an_ara_, or charioteer, and, no doubt, made a very imposingfigure. The roads were legally to be repaired at threeseasons, namely, for the accommodation of those going tothe national games, at fair-time, and in time of war. Weeds and brushwood were to be removed, and water to bedrained off; items of road-work which do not give us avery high idea of the comfort or finish of those ancienthighways. 

Such, faintly seen from afar, and roughly sketched, wasdomestic life and society among our ancestors, previousto the Anglo-Norman invasion, in the reign of King RoderickO'Conor. 

CHAPTER VI. 

FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE IRISH PREVIOUS TO THE ANGLO-NORMANINVASION. 

The relations of the Irish with other nations, notwithstanding the injurious effects of their War ofSuccession on national unity and reputation, presentseveral points of interest. After the defeat of MagnusBarefoot, we may drop the Baltic countries out of themap of the relations of Ireland. Commencing, therefore, at the north of the neighbouring island--which, in itsentirety, they sometimes called _Inismore_--the mostintimate and friendly intercourse was always upheld withthe kingdom of Scotland. Bound together by earlyecclesiastical and bardic ties, confronting together forso many generations a common enemy, those two countrieswere destined never to know an international quarrel. About the middle of the ninth century (A. D. 843), whenthe Scoto-Irish in Caledonia had completely subdued thePicts and other ancient tribes, the first national dynastywas founded by Kenneth McAlpine. The constitution givenby this Prince to the whole country seems to have beena close copy of the Irish--it embraced the laws of Tanistryand succession, and the whole Brehon code, as administeredin the parent state. The line of Kenneth may be said toclose with Donald Bane, brother of Malcolm III. , who diedin 1094, and not only his dynasty but his system endedwith that century. Edgar, Alexander I. , and David I. , all sons of Malcolm III. , were educated in England amongthe victorious Normans, and in the first third of thetwelfth century, devoted themselves with the inauspiciousaid of Norman allies, to the introduction of Saxon settlersand the feudal system, first into the lowlands, andsubsequently into Moray-shire. This innovation on theirancient system, and confiscation of their lands, wasstoutly resisted by the Scottish Gael. In Somerled, lordof the Isles, and ancestor of the Macdonalds, they founda powerful leader, and Somerled found Irish allies alwaysready to assist him, in a cause which appealed to alltheir national prejudices. In the year 1134, he led astrong force of Irish and Islesmen to the assistance ofthe Gaelic insurgents, but was defeated and slain, nearRenfrew, by the royal troops, under the command of theSteward of Scotland. During the reigns of William theLion, Alexander II. , and Alexander III. , the war ofsystems raged with all its fierceness, and in nearly allthe great encounters Irish auxiliaries, as was to beexpected, were found on the side of the Gaelic race andGaelic rights. Nor did this contest ever wholly cease inScotland, until the last hopes of the Stuart line wereextinguished on the fatal field of Culloden, where Irishcaptains formed the battle, and Irish blood flowed freely, intermingled with the kindred blood of Highlanders andIslesmen. 

The adoption of Norman usages, laws, and tactics, by theScottish dynasties of the twelfth and succeeding centuries, did not permanently affect the national relations ofIreland and Scotland. It was otherwise with regard toEngland. We have every reason to believe--we have theindirect testimony of every writer from Bede to Malmsbury--that the intercourse between the Irish and Saxons, after the first hostility engendered by the cruel treatmentof the Britons had worn away, became of the most friendlycharacter. The "Irish" who fought at Brunanburgh againstSaxon freedom were evidently the natural allies of theNorthmen, the Dano-Irish of Dublin, and the southernseaports. The commerce of intelligence between the islandswas long maintained; the royalty of Saxon England hadmore than once, in times of domestic revolution, founda safe and desired retreat in the western island. Thefair Elgiva and the gallant Harold had crossed the westernwaves in their hour of need. The fame of Edward theConfessor took such deep hold on the Irish mind that, three centuries after his death, his banner was unfurledand the royal leopards laid aside to facilitate the marchof an English King, through the fastnesses of Leinster. The Irish, therefore, were not likely to look upon theestablishment of a Norman dynasty, in lieu of the oldSaxon line, as a matter of indifference. They felt thatthe Norman was but a Dane disguised in armour. It wastrue he carried the cross upon his banner, and claimedthe benediction of the successor of St. Peter; true alsohe spoke the speech of France, and claimed a Frenchpaternity; but the lust for dominion, the iron self-will, the wily devices of strategy, bespoke the Norman of thetwelfth, the lineal descendant of the Dane of the tenthcentury. When, therefore, tidings reached Ireland of thebattle of Hastings and the death of Harold, both theapprehensions and the sympathies of the country weredeeply excited. Intelligence of the coronation of Williamthe Conqueror quickly followed, and emphatically announcedto the Irish the presence of new neighbours, new dangers, and new duties. 

The spirit with which our ancestors acted towards thedefeated Saxons, whatever we may think of its wisdom, was, at least, respectable for decision and boldness. Godwin, Edmund, and Magnus, sons of Harold, had littledifficulty in raising in Ireland a numerous force toco-operate with the Earls Edwin and Morcar, who stillupheld the Saxon banner. With this force, wafted over insixty-six vessels, they entered the Avon, and besiegedBristol, then the second commercial city of the kingdom. But Bristol held out, and the Saxon Earls had fallen backinto Northumberland, so the sons of Harold ran down thecoast, and tried their luck in Somersetshire with a betterprospect. Devonshire and Dorsetshire favoured theircause; the old Britons of Cornwall swelled their ranks, and the rising spread like flame over the west. Eadnoth, a renegade Saxon, formerly Harold's Master of Horse, despatched by William against Harold's sons, was defeatedand slain. Doubling the Land's End, the victorious forceentered the Tamar, and overran South Devon. The unitedgarrisons of London, Winchester, and Salisbury, were sentagainst them, under the command of the martial Bishop ofCoutances; while a second force advanced along the Tamar, under Brian, heir of the Earl of Brittany, who routedthem with a loss of 2, 000 men, English, Welsh, and Irish. The sons of Harold retreated to their vessels with alltheir booty, and returned again into Ireland, where theyvanish from history. Such, in the vale of Tamar, was thefirst collision of the Irish and Normans, and as the raceof Rolla never forgot an enemy, nor forewent a revenge, we may well believe that, even thus early, the invasionof Ireland was decided upon. Meredith Hanmer relates inhis Chronicle that William Rufus, standing on a highrock, and looking towards Ireland said: "I will bringhither my ships, and pass over and conquer that land;"and on these words of the son of the Conqueror beingrepeated to Murkertach O'Brien, he replied: "Hath theKing in his great threatening said _if it please God?_"and when answered "No;" "Then, " said the Irish monarch, "I fear him not, since he putteth his trust in man andnot in God. "

Ireland, however, was destined to be reached throughWales, and along that mountain coast we early find Normancastles and Norman ships. It was the special ambition ofWilliam Rufus to add the principality to the conquestsof his father, and the active sympathy of the Welsh withthe Saxons on their inland border gave him pretextsenough. A bitter feud between North and South Waleshastened an invasion, in which Robert Fitz-Aymon and hiscompanions played, by anticipation, the parts of Strongbowand Fitz-Stephen, in the invasion of Ireland. 

The struggle, commenced under them, was protracted throughthe reign of Rufus, who led an army in person (A. D. 1095) against the Welsh, but with little gain and lessglory. As an after thought he adopted the device of hisfather, (followed, too, in Ireland by Henry II. , ) ofpartitioning the country among the most enterprisingnobles, gravely accepting their homage in advance ofpossession, and authorizing them to maintain troops attheir own charges, for making good his grant of whatnever belonged to him. Robert Fitz-Aymon did homage forGlamorgan, Bernard Newmarch for Brecknock, Roger deMontgomery for Cardigan, and Gilbert de Clare for Pembroke:the best portions of North Wales were partitioned betweenthe Mortimers, Latimers, De Lacys, Fitz-Alans, andMontgomerys. Rhys, Prince of Cambria, with many of hisnobles, fell in battle defending bravely his native hills;but Griffith, son of Rhys, escaped into Ireland, fromwhich he returned some twenty years later, and recoveredby arms and policy a large share of his ancestral dominions. In the reign of Henry I. (A. D. 1110), a host of Flemings, driven from their own country by an inundation of thesea, were planted upon the Welsh marches, from which theysoon swarmed into all the Cambrian glens and glades. Theindustry and economy of this new people, in peacefultimes, seemed almost inconsistent with their stubbornbravery in battle; but they demonstrated to the Welsh, and afterwards to the Irish, that they could handle thehalbert as well as throw the shuttle; that men of trademay on occasion prove themselves capable men of war. 

The Norman Kings of England were not insensible to thefact that the Cymric element in Wales, the Saxon elementin England, and the Gaelic element in Scotland, were allmore agreeable to the Irish than the race of Rollo andWilliam. They were not ignorant that Ireland was a refugefor their victims and a recruiting ground for theirenemies. They knew, furthermore, that most of the strongpoints on the Irish coast, from the Shannon to the Liffey, were possessed by Christian Northmen kindred to themselves. They knew that the land was divided within itself, weakenedby a long war of succession; groaning under the ambitionof five competitors for the sovereignty; and sufferingin reputation abroad under the invectives of Saint Bernard, and the displeasure of Rome. More tempting materials forintrigue, or fairer opportunities of aggrandizement, nowhere presented themselves, and it was less want ofwill than of leisure from other and nearer contests, which deferred this new invasion for a century after thebattle of Hastings. 

While that century was passing over their heads, anoccasional intercourse, not without its pleasing incidents, was maintained between the races. In the first year ofthe twelfth, Arnulph de Montgomery, Earl of Chester, obtained a daughter of Murkertach O'Brien in marriage;the proxy on the occasion being Gerald, son of theConstable of Windsor, and ancestor of the Geraldines. Murkertach, according to Malmsbury, maintained a closecorrespondence with Henry I. , for whose advice he professedgreat deference. He was accused of aiding the rebellionof the Montgomerys against that Prince; and if at onetime he did so, seems to have abandoned their alliance, when threatened with reprisals on the Irish engaged inpeaceful commerce with England. The argument used on thisoccasion seems to be embodied in the question ofMalmsbury--and has since become familiar--"What wouldIreland do, " says the old historian, "if the merchandizeof England were not carried to her shores?"

The estimation in which the Irish Princes were held inthe century preceding the invasion, at the Norman Court, may be seen in the style of Lanfranc and Anselm, whenaddressing the former King Thorlogh, and the latter KingMurkertach O'Brien. The first generation of the conquerorshad passed away before the second of these epistles waswritten. In the first, the address runs--"Lanfrancus, asinner, and the unworthy Bishop of the Holy Church ofDover, to the illustrious Terdelvacus, King of Ireland, blessing, " &c. , &c. ; and the epistle of Anselm isaddressed--"To Muriardachus, by the grace of God, gloriousKing of Ireland, Anselm, servant of the Church ofCanterbury, greeting health and salvation, " &c. , &c. Thiswas the tone of the highest ecclesiastics in Englandtowards the ruler of Ireland, in the reigns of William I. And Henry I. , and equally obsequious were the replies ofthe Irish Princes. 

After the death of Henry I. , nineteen years of civil warand anarchy diverted the Anglo-Normans from all otherobjects. In the year 1154, however, Henry of Anjousucceeded to the throne, on which he was destined to actso important a part. He was born in Anjou in the year1133, and married at eighteen the divorced wife of theKing of France. Uniting her vast dominions to his ownpatrimony, he became the lord of a larger part of Francethan was possessed by the titular king. In his twenty-firstyear he began to reign in England, and in his thirty-fifthhe received the fugitive Dermid of Leinster, in some campor castle of Aquitaine, and took that outlaw, by his ownact, under his protection. The centenary of the victoryof Hastings had just gone by, and it needed only thisadditional agent to induce him to put into execution aplan which he must have formed in the first months ofhis reign, since the Bull he had procured from PopeAdrian, bears the date of that year--1154. The returnfrom exile, and martyrdom of Beckett, disarranged anddelayed the projects of the English King; nor was he ableto lead an expedition into Ireland until four years afterhis reception of the Leinster fugitive in France. 

Throughout the rest of Christendom--if we except Rome--the name of Ireland was comparatively little known. Thecommerce of Dublin, Limerick, and Galway, especially inthe article of wine, which was already largely imported, may have made those ports and their merchants somewhatknown on the coasts of France and Spain. But we have nostatistics of Irish commerce at that early period. Alongthe Rhine and even upon the Danube, the Irish missionaryand the Irish schoolmaster were still sometimes found. The chronicle of Ratisbon records with gratitude themunificence of Conor O'Brien, King of Munster, whom itconsiders the founder of the Abbey of St. Peter in thatcity. The records of the same Abbey credit its liberalfounder with having sent large presents to the EmperorLothaire, in aid of the second crusade for the recoveryof the Holy Land. Some Irish adventurers joined in thegeneral European hosting to the plains of Palestine, butthough neither numerous nor distinguished enough to occupythe page of history, their _glibs_ and _cooluns_ did notescape the studious eye of him who sang Jerusalem Deliveredand Regained. 

BOOK IV. 

THE NORMANS IN IRELAND. 

CHAPTER I. 

DERMID McMURROGH'S NEGOTIATIONS AND SUCCESS--THE FIRSTEXPEDITION OF THE NORMANS INTO IRELAND. 

The result of Dermid McMurrogh's interview with Henry II. , in Aquitaine, was a royal letter, addressed to all hissubjects, authorizing such of them as would, to enlistin the service of the Irish Prince. Armed alone withthis, the expelled adulterer, chafing for restorationand revenge, retraced his course to England. He was atthis time some years beyond three score, but the snowsof age had no effect in cooling his impetuous blood; hisstature is described as almost gigantic; his voice loudand harsh; his features stern and terrible. His crueland criminal character we already know. Yet it is butjust here to recall that much of the horror and odiumwhich has accumulated on his memory is posthumous andretrospective. Some of his cotemporaries were no betterin their private lives than he was; but then they had nopart in bringing in the Normans. Talents both for peaceand war he certainly had, and there was still a feelingof attachment, or at least of regret, cherished towardshim among the people of his patrimony. 

Dermid proceeded at once to seek the help he so sorelyneeded, upon the marches of Chester, in the city ofBristol, and at the court of the Prince of North Wales. At Bristol he caused King Henry's letter to be publiclyread, and each reading was accompanied by ample promisesof land and recompense to those disposed to join in theexpedition--but all in vain. From Bristol he proceededto make the usual pilgrimage to the shrine of St. David, the Apostle of Wales, and then he visited the Court ofGriffith ap Rhys, Prince of North Wales, whose familyties formed a true Welsh triad among the Normans, theIrish, and the Welsh. He was the nephew of the celebratedNest or Nesta, the Helen of the Welsh, whose blood flowedin the veins of almost all the first Norman adventurersin Ireland, and whose story is too intimately interwovenwith the origin of many of the highest names of theNorman-Irish to be left untold. 

She was, in her day, the loveliest woman of Cambria, andperhaps of Britain, but the fabled mantle of Tregau, which, according to her own mythology, will fit none butthe chaste, had not rested on the white shoulders ofNesta, the daughter of Rhys ap Tudor. Her girlish beautyhad attracted the notice of Henry I. , to whom she boreRobert Fitz-Roy and Henry Fitz-Henry, the former thefamous Earl of Gloucester, and the latter the father oftwo of Strongbow's most noted companions. Afterwards, by consent of her royal paramour, she married Gerald, constable of Pembroke, by whom she had Maurice Fitzgerald, the common ancestor of the Kildare and Desmond Geraldines. While living with Gerald at Pembroke, Owen, son of Cadogan, Prince of Powis, hearing of her marvellous beauty at abanquet given by his father at the Castle of Aberteivi, came by night to Pembroke, surprised the Castle, andcarried off Nesta and her children into Powis. Gerald, however, had escaped, and by the aid of his father-in-law, Rhys, recovered his wife and rebuilt his castle (A. D. 1105). The lady survived this husband, and married asecond time, Stephen, constable of Cardigan, by whom shehad Robert Fitzstephen, and probably other children. Oneof her daughters, Angharad, married David de Barri, thefather of Giraldus and Robert de Barri; another, namedafter herself, married Bernard of Newmarch, and becamethe father of the Fitz-Bernard, who accompanied Henry II. In the second and third generations this fruitful Cambrianvine, grafted on the Norman stock, had branched out intothe great families of the Carews, Gerards, Fitzwilliams, and Fitzroys, of England and Wales, and the Geraldines, Graces, Fitz-Henries, and Fitz-Maurices, of Ireland. These names will show how entirely the expeditions of1169 and 1170 were joint-stock undertakings with most ofthe adventurers; Cambria, not England, sent them forth;it was a family compact; they were brothers in blood aswell as in arms, those comely and unscrupulous sons, nephews, and grand-sons of Nesta!

When the Leinster King reached the residence of Griffithap Rhys, near St. David's, he found that for some personalor political cause he held in prison his near kinsman, Robert, son of Stephen, who had the reputation of beinga brave and capable knight. Dermid obtained the releaseof Robert, on condition of his embarking in the Irishenterprise, and he found in him an active recruitingagent, alike among Welsh, Flemings, and Normans. Throughhim Maurice Fitzgerald, the de Barris, and Fitz-Henrys, and their dependents, were soon enlisted in the adventure. The son of Griffith ap Rhys, who may be mentioned alongwith these knights, his kinsmen, and whom the Irishannalists consider the most important person of the firstexpedition--their pillar of battle--also resolved toaccompany them, with such forces as he could enlist. 

But a still more important ally waited to treat withDermid, on his return to Bristol. This was Richard deClare, called variously from his castles or his county, Earl of Strigul and Chepstow, or Earl of Pembroke. Fromthe strength of his arms he was nicknamed Strongbow, andin our Annals he is usually called Earl Richard, by whichtitle we prefer hereafter to distinguish him. His father, Gilbert de Clare, was descended from Richard of Normandy, and stood no farther removed in degree from that Dukethan the reigning Prince. For nearly forty years underHenry I. And during the stormy reign of King Stephen, hehad been Governor of Pembroke, and like all the greatBarons played his game chiefly to his own advantage. Hiscastle at Chepstow was one of the strongest in the west, and the power he bequeathed to his able and ambitiousson excited the apprehensions of the astute and suspiciousHenry II. Fourteen years of this King's reign had passedaway, and Earl Richard had received no great employments, no new grants of land, no personal favours from hisSovereign. He was now a widower, past middle age, condemnedto a life of inaction such as no true Norman could longendure. Arrived at Bristol, he read the letter of Henry, and heard from Dermid the story of his expulsion and thegrounds on which he vested his hopes of restoration. Aconsultation ensued, at which it is probable the sons ofNesta assisted, as it was there agreed that the town ofWexford, with two cantreds of land adjoining it, shouldbe given to them. The pay of the archers and men-at-arms, and the duration of their service, were also determined. Large grants of land were guaranteed to all adventurersof knightly rank, and Earl Richard was to marry the King'sdaughter and succeed him in the sovereignty of Leinster. 

Having by such lavish promises enlisted this powerfulEarl and those adventurous knights, Dermid resolved topass over in person with such followers as were alreadyequipped, in order to rally the remnant of his adherents. The Irish Annals enter this return under the year 1167, within twelvemonths or thereabouts from the time of hisbanishment; by their account he came back, accompaniedby a fleet of strangers whom they called Flemings, andwho were probably hired soldiers of that race, then easilyto be met with in Wales. The Welsh Prince already mentionedseems to have accompanied him personally, as he fell byhis side in a skirmish the following year. Whatever thisforce may have amounted to, they landed at Glascarrigpoint, and wintered--probably spent the Christmas--atFerns. The more generally received account of Dermid'slanding alone, and disguised, and secretly preparing hisplans, under shelter of the Austin Friary at Ferns, mustbe rejected, if we are still to follow those trite buttrustworthy guides, whom we have so many reasons toconfide in. The details differ in many very importantparticulars from those usually received, as we shallendeavour to make clear in a few words. 

Not only do they bring Dermid over with a fleet ofFlemings, of whom the natives made "small account, " butdating that event before the expiration of the year 1167, at least sixteen months must have elapsed between thereturn of the outlaw and the arrival of the Normans. Byallowing two years instead of one for the duration ofhis banishment, the apparent difficulty as to time wouldbe obviated, for his return and Fitzstephen's arrivalwould follow upon each other in the spring and winter ofthe same year. The difficulty, however, is more apparentthan real. A year sufficed for the journey to Aquitaineand the Welsh negotiations. Another year seems to havebeen devoted with equal art and success to resuscitatinga native Leinster party favourable to his restoration. For it is evident from our Annals that when Dermid showedhimself to the people after his return, it was simply toclaim his patrimony--Hy-Kinsellagh--and not to disputethe Kingdom of Leinster with the actual ruler, _Murroghna Gael_. By this pretended moderation and humility, hedisarmed hostility and lulled suspicion asleep. Roderickand O'Ruarc did indeed muster a host against him, andsome of their cavalry and Kernes skirmished with thetroops in his service at Kellistown, in Carlow, when sixwere killed on one side and twenty-five on the other, including the Welsh Prince already mentioned; afterwardsDermid emerged from his fastnesses, and entering the campof O'Conor, gave him seven hostages for the ten cantredsof his patrimony; and to O'Ruarc he gave "one hundredounces of gold for his _eineach_"--that is, as damagesfor his criminal conversation with Devorgoil. During theremainder of the year 1168, Dermid was left to enjoyunmolested the moderate territory which he claimed, whileKing Roderick was engaged in enforcing his claims on theNorth and South, founding lectorships at Armagh, andpartitioning Meath between his inseparable colleague, O'Ruarc, and himself. He celebrated, in the midst of animmense multitude, the ancient national games at Tailtin, he held an assembly at Tara, and distributed magnificentgifts to his suffragans. Roderick might have spent thefestival of Christmas, 1168, or of Easter, 1169, in thefull assurance that his power was firmly established, and that a long succession of peaceful days were aboutto dawn upon Erin. But he was destined to be soon andsadly undeceived. 

In the month of May, a little fleet of Welsh vessels, filled with armed men, approached the Irish shore, andRobert Fitzstephen ran into a creek of the bay of Bannow, called by the adventurers, from the names of two of theirships, Bag-and-Bun. Fitzstephen had with him thirtyknights, sixty esquires, and three hundred footmen. Thenext day he was joined by Maurice de Prendergast, a Welshgentleman, with ten knights and sixty archers. Afterlanding they reconnoitred cautiously, but saw neitherally nor enemy--the immediate coast seemed entirelydeserted. Their messenger despatched to Dermid, thenprobably at Ferns, in the northern extremity of thecounty, must have been absent several anxious days, when, much to their relief, he returned with Donald, the sonof Dermid, at the head of 500 horsemen. Uniting theirtroops, Donald and Fitzstephen set out for Wexford, abouta day's march distant, and the principal town in thatangle of the island which points towards Wales. Thetradition of the neighbourhood says they were assailedupon the way by a party of the native population, whowere defeated and dispersed. Within ten days or afortnight of their landing, they were drawn up withinsight of the walls of Wexford, where they were joined byDermid, who obviously did not come unattended to such ameeting. What additional force he may have brought up isnowhere indicated; that he was not without followers ormercenaries, we know from the mention of the Flemings inhis service, and the action of Kellistown in the previousyear. The force that had marched from Bannow consisted, as we have seen, of 500 Irish horse under his son Donald, surnamed _Kavanagh_; 30 knights, 60 esquires, and 300men-at-arms under Fitzstephen; 10 knights and 60 archersunder Prendergast; in all, nobles or servitors, notexceeding 1, 000 men. The town, a place of considerablestrength, could muster 2, 000 men capable of bearing arms, nor is it discreditable to its Dano-Irish artizans andseamen that they could boast no captain equal to Fitzstephenor Donald Kavanagh. What a town multitude could do theydid. They burned down an exposed suburb, closed theirgates, and manned their walls. The first assault wasrepulsed with some loss on the part of the assailants, and the night past in expectation of a similar conflicton the morrow. In the early morning the townsmen coulddiscern that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was beingoffered in the camp of their besiegers as a preparativefor the dangers of the day. Within the walls, however, the clergy exercised all their influence to spare theeffusion of blood, and to bring about an accommodation. Two Bishops who were in the town especially advised asurrender on honourable terms, and their advice was taken. Four of the principal citizens were deputed to Dermid, and Wexford was yielded on condition of its rights andprivileges, hitherto existing, being respected. Thecantreds immediately adjoining the town on the north andeast were conferred on Fitzstephen according to the treatymade at Bristol, and he at once commenced the erectionof a fortress on the rock of Carrig, at the narrowestpass on the river Slaney. Strongbow's uncle, Herve, wasendowed with two other cantreds, to the south of thetown, now known as the baronies of Forth and Bargey, where the descendants of the Welsh and Flemish settlersthen planted are still to be found in the industriousand sturdy population, known as Flemings, Furlongs, Waddings, Prendergasts, Barrys, and Walshes. Side byside with them now dwell in peace the Kavanaghs, Murphys, Conors, and Breens, whose ancestors so long and so fiercelydisputed the intrusion of these strangers amongst them. 

With some increase of force derived from the defendersof Wexford, Dermid, at the head of 3000 men, includingall the Normans, marched into the adjoining territory ofOssory, to chastise its chief, Donogh Fitzpatrick, oneof his old enemies. This campaign appears to have consumedthe greater part of the summer of the year, and endedwith the submission of Ossory, after a brave but unskilfulresistance. The tidings of what was done at Wexford andin Ossory had, however, roused the apprehension of themonarch Roderick, who appointed a day for a nationalmuster "of the Irish" at the Hill of Tara. Thitherrepaired accordingly the monarch himself, the lords ofMeath, Oriel, Ulidia, Breffni, and the chiefs of thefarther north. With this host they proceeded to Dublin, which they found as yet in no immediate danger of attack;and whether on this pretext or some other, the Ulsterchiefs returned to their homes, leaving Roderick topursue, with the aid of Meath and Breffni only, thefootsteps of McMurrogh. The latter had fallen back uponFerns, and had, under the skilful directions of Fitzstephen, strengthened the naturally difficult approaches to thatancient capital, by digging artificial pits, by fellingtrees, and other devices of Norman strategy. The season, too, must have been drawing nearly to a close, and thesame amiable desire to prevent the shedding of Christianblood, which characterized all the clergy of this age, again subserved the unworthy purposes of the traitor andinvader. Roderick, after a vain endeavour to detachFitzstephen from Dermid and to induce him to quit thecountry, agreed to a treaty with the Leinster King, bywhich the latter acknowledged his supremacy as monarch, under the ancient conditions, for the fulfilment of whichhe surrendered to him his son Conor as hostage. By asecret and separate agreement Dermid bound himself toadmit no more of the Normans into his service--an engagementwhich he kept as he did all others, whether of a publicor a private nature. After the usual exchange of stipendsand tributes, Roderick returned to his home in the west;and thus, with the treaty of Ferns, ended the comparativelyunimportant but significant campaign of the year 1169. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE ARMS, ARMOUR AND TACTICS OF THE NORMANS AND IRISH. 

This would seem to be the proper place to point out thepeculiarities in arms, equipment, and tactics, which gavethe first Normans those military advantages over theIrish and Dano-Irish, which they had hitherto maintainedover the Saxons, Welsh and Scots. In instituting such acomparison, we do not intend to confine it strictly tothe age of Strongbow and Dermid; the description willextend to the entire period from the arrival of Fitzstephento the death of Richard, Earl of Ulster--from 1169 to1333--a period of five or six generations, which wepropose to treat of in the present book. After this Earl'sdecease, the Normans and Irish approximated more closelyin all their customs, and no longer presented those markedcontrasts which existed in their earlier intercourse andconflicts with each other. The armour of the firstadventurers, both for man and horse, excited the wonder, the sarcasms, and the fears of the Irish. No such equipmentshad yet been seen in that country, nor indeed in anyother, where the Normans were still strangers. As theKnights advanced on horseback, in their metal coating, they looked more like iron cylinders filled with fleshand blood, than like lithe and limber human combatants. The man-at-arms, whether Knight or Squire, was almostinvariably mounted; his war-horse was usually led, whilehe rode a hackney, to spare the _destrier_. The bodyarmour was a hauberk of netted iron or steel, to whichwere joined a hood, sleeves, breeches, hose and sabatons, or shoes, of the same material. Under the hauberk wasworn a quilted gambeson of silk or cotton, reaching tothe knees; over armour, except when actually engaged, all men of family wore costly coats of satin, velvet, cloth of gold or cloth of silver, emblazoned with theirarms. The shields of the thirteenth century were oftriangular form, pointed at the bottom; the helmet conical, with or without bars; the beaver, vizor and plate armour, were inventions of a later day. Earls, Dukes, and Princes, wore small crowns upon their helmets; lovers wore thefavours of their mistresses; and victors the crests ofchampions they had overthrown. The ordinary weapons ofthese cavaliers were sword, lance, and knife; thedemi-launce, or light horsemen, were similarly armed;and a force of this class, common in the Irish wars, wascomposed of mounted cross-bow men, and called from theswift, light _hobbies_ they rode, Hobiler-Archers. Besidesmany improvements in arms and manual exercise, the Normansperfected the old Roman machines and engines used insieges. The scorpion was a huge cross-bow, the catapultsshowered stones to a great distance; the ballista dischargedflights of darts and arrows. There were many othervarieties of stone-throwing machinery; "the war-wolf"was long the chief of projectile machines, as the ramwas of manual forces. The power of a battering-ram ofthe largest size, worked by a thousand men, has beenproven to be equal to a point-blank shot from a thirty-sixpounder. There were moveable towers of all sizes and ofmany names: "the sow" was a variety which continued inuse in England and Ireland till the middle of theseventeenth century. The divisions of the cavalry were:first, the _Constable's_ command, some twenty-five men;next, the _Banneret_ was entitled to unfurl his owncolours with consent of the Marshal, and might uniteunder his pennon one or more constabularies; the _Knight_led into the field all his retainers who held of him byfeudal tenure, and sometimes the retainers of his squires, wards, or valets, and kinsmen. The laws of chivalry werefast shaping themselves into a code complete and coherentin all its parts, when these iron-clad, inventive andinvincible masters of the art of war first entered onthe invasion of Ireland. 

The body of their followers in this enterprise, consistingof Flemish, Welsh, and Cornish archers, may be bestdescribed by the arms they carried. The irresistiblecross-bow was their main reliance. Its shot was so deadlythat the Lateran Council, in 1139, strictly forbade itsemployment among Christian enemies. It combined withits stock, or bed, wheel, and trigger, almost all theforce of the modern musket, and discharged square piecesof iron, leaden balls, or, in scarcity of ammunition, flint stones. The common cross-bow would kill, pointblank, at forty or fifty yards distance, and the bestimproved at fully one hundred yards. The manufacture ofthese weapons must have been profitable, since their costwas equal, in the relative value of money, to that ofthe rifle, in our times. In the reign of Edward II. Eachcross-bow, purchased for the garrison of Sherborne Castle, cost 3 shillings and 8 pence; and every hundred of_quarrels_--the ammunition just mentioned--1 shillingand 6 pence. Iron, steel, and wood, were the materialsused in the manufacture of this weapon. 

The long-bow had been introduced into England by theNormans, who are said to have been more indebted to thatarm than any other, for their victory at Hastings. Toencourage the use of the long-bow many statutes werepassed, and so late as the time of the Stuarts, royalcommissions were issued for the promotion of this nationalexercise. Under the early statutes no archer was permittedto practise at any standing mark at less than "elevenscore yards distant;" no archer under twenty-four yearsof age was allowed to shoot twice from the same stand-point;parents and masters were subject to a fine of 6 shillingsand 8 pence if they allowed their youth, under the ageof seventeen, "to be without a bow and two arrows forone month together;" the walled towns were required toset up their butts, to keep them in repair, and to turnout for target-practice on holidays, and at other convenienttimes. Aliens residing in England were forbidden theuse of this weapon--a jealous precaution showing thegreat importance attached to its possession. The usuallength of the bow--which was made of yew, witch-hazel, ash, or elm--was about six feet; and the arrow, abouthalf that length. Arrows were made of ash, feathered withpart of a goose's wing, and barbed with iron or steel. In the reign of Edward III. , a painted bow cost 1 shillingand 6 pence, a white bow, 1 shilling; a sheaf ofsteel-tipped arrows (24 to the sheaf), 1 shilling and 2pence, and a sheaf of _non accerata_ (the blunt sort), 1 shilling The range of the long-bow, at its highestperfection, was, as we have seen, "eleven score yards, "more than double that of the ordinary cross-bow. Thecommon sort of both these weapons carried about the samedistance--nearly 100 yards. 

The natural genius of the Normans for war had beensharpened and perfected by then: campaigns in France andEngland, but more especially in the first and secondCrusades. All that was to be learned of military sciencein other countries--all that Italian skill, Greek subtlety, or Saracen invention could teach, they knew and combinedinto one system. Their feudal discipline, moreover, inwhich the youth who entered the service of a veteran aspage, rose in time to the rank of esquire andbachelor-at-arms, and finally won his spurs on somewell-contested field, was eminently favourable to thetraining and proficiency of military talents. Not lessremarkable was the skill they displayed in seizing onthe strong and commanding points of communication withinthe country, as we see at this day, from the sites oftheir old Castles, many of which must have been, beforethe invention of gunpowder, all but impregnable. 

The art of war, if art it could in their case be called, was in a much less forward stage among the Irish in thetwelfth and thirteenth centuries than amongst the Normans. Of the science of fortification they perhaps knew no morethan they had learned in their long struggle with theDanes and Norwegians. To render roads impassable, tostrengthen their islands by stockades, to hold thenaturally difficult passes which connect one province orone district with another--these seem to have been theirchief ideas of the aid that valour may derive fromartificial appliances. The fortresses of which we hearso frequently, during and after the Danish period, andwhich are erroneously called _Danes'-forts_, were morenumerous than formidable to such enemies as the Normans. Some of these earth-and-stone-works are older than theMilesian invasion, and of Cyclopean style and strength. Those of the Milesians are generally of larger size, contain much more earth, and the internal chambers areof less massive masonry. They are almost invariably ofcircular form, and the largest remaining specimens arethe Giant's Ring, near Belfast; the fort at Netterville, which measures 300 paces in circumference round the topof the embankment; the Black Rath, on the Boyne, whichmeasures 321 paces round the outer wall of circumvallation;and the King's Rath, at Tara, upwards of 280 in length. The height of the outer embankment in forts of this sizevaried from fifteen to twenty feet; this embankment wasusually surrounded by a fosse; within the embankmentthere was a platform, depressed so as to leave a circularparapet above its level. Many of these military rathshave been found to contain subterranean chambers andcircular winding passages, supposed to be used as granariesand armories. They are accounted capable of containinggarrisons of from 200 to 500 men; but many of the fortressesmentioned from age to age in our annals were mere privateresidences, enclosing within their outer and inner wallsspace enough for the immediate retainers and domesticsof the chief. Although coats of mail are mentioned inmanuscripts long anterior to the Norman invasion, theIrish soldiers seem seldom or never to have been completelyclothed in armour. Like the northern _Berserkers_, theyprided themselves in fighting, if not naked, in theirorange coloured shirts, dyed with saffron. The helmetand the shield were the only defensive articles of dress;nor do they seem to have had trappings for their horses. Their favourite missile weapon was the dart or javelin, and in earlier ages the sling. The spear or lance, thesword, and the sharp, short-handled battle-axe, weretheir favourite manual weapons. Their power with thebattle-axe was prodigious; _Giraldus_ says they sometimeslopped off a horseman's leg at a single blow, his bodyfalling over on the other side. Their bridle-bits andspurs were of bronze, as were generally their spear headsand short swords. Of siege implements, beyond the torchand the scaling-ladder, they seem to have had no knowledge, and to have desired none. The Dano-Irish alone wereaccustomed to fortify and defend their towns, on thegeneral principles, which then composed the sum of whatwas known in Christendom of military engineering. Quickto acquire in almost every department of the art, thenative Irish continued till the last obstinately insensibleto the absolute necessity of learning how modernfortifications are constructed, defended, and captured;a national infatuation, of which we find melancholyevidence in every recurring native insurrection. 

The two divisions of the Irish infantry were the_galloglass_, or heavily armed foot soldier, called_gall_, either as a mercenary, or from having been equippedafter the Norman method, and the _kerne_, or lightinfantry. The horsemen were men of the free tribes, whofollowed their chief on terms almost of equality, andwho, except his immediate retainers, equipped and foragedfor themselves. The highest unit of this force was a_Cath_, or battalion of 3, 000 men; but the subdivisionof command and the laws which established and maintaineddiscipline have yet to be recovered and explained. Theold Spanish "right of insurrection" seems to have beenrecognized in every chief of a free tribe, and no Hidalgoof old Spain, for real or fancied slight, was ever moreready to turn his horse's head homeward than were thoserefractory lords, with whom Roderick O'Conor and hissuccessors, in the front of the national battle, had tocontend or to co-operate. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE FIRST CAMPAIGN OF EARL RICHARD--SIEGE OF DUBLIN--DEATHOF KING DERMID McMURROGH. 

The campaigns of 1168 and 1169 had ended prosperouslyfor Dermid in the treaty of Ferns. By that treaty he hadbound himself to bring no more Normans into the country, and to send those already in his service back to theirhomes. But in the course of the same autumn or winter, in which this agreement was solemnly entered into, hewelcomed the arrival at Wexford--of Maurice Fitzgerald--son of the fair Nesta by her first husband--andimmediately employed this fresh force, consisting of 10knights, 30 esquires, and 100 footmen, upon a hostingwhich harried the open country about Dublin, and inducedthe alarmed inhabitants to send hostages into his camp, bearing proffers of allegiance and amity. As yet he didnot feel in force sufficient to attack the city, for, ifhe had been, his long cherished vengeance against itsinhabitants would not have been postponed till anotherseason. 

In the meantime he had written most urgent letters toEarl Richard to hasten his arrival, according to theterms agreed upon at Bristol. That astute and ambitiousnobleman had been as impatiently biding his time as Dermidhad been his coming. Knowing the jealous sovereign underwhom he served, he had gone over to France to obtainHenry's sanction to the Irish enterprise, but had beenanswered by the monarch, in oracular phrases, which mightmean anything or nothing. Determined, however, to interpretthese doubtful words in his own sense, he despatched hisvanguard early in the spring of the year 1170, under thecommand of his uncle Herve and a company of 10 knightsand 70 archers, under Raymond, son of William, lord ofCarew, elder brother of Maurice Fitzgerald, and grandsonof Nesta. In the beginning of May, Raymond, nicknamed_le gros_, or the Fat, entered Waterford harbour, andlanded eight miles below the city, under the rock ofDundonolf, on the east, or Wexford side. Here they rapidlythrew up a camp to protect themselves against attack, and to hold the landing place for the convenience of thefuture expedition. A tumultuous body of natives, amounting, according to the Norman account, to 3, 000 men, were soonseen swarming across the Suir to attack the foreigners. They were men of Idrone and Desies, under their chiefs, O'Ryan and O'Phelan, and citizens of Waterford, who nowrushed towards the little fortress, entirely unpreparedfor the long and deadly range of the Welsh and Flemishcrossbows. Thrown into confusion by the unexpecteddischarge, in which every shot from behind the rampartsof turf brought down its man, they wavered and broke;Raymond and Herve then sallied out upon the fugitives, who were fain to escape, as many as could, to the otherside of the river, leaving 500 prisoners, including 70chief citizens of Waterford behind them. These were allinhumanly massacred, according to _Giraldus_, the eulogistof all the Geraldines, by the order of Herve, contraryto the entreaties of Raymond. Their legs were firstviolently broken, and they were then hurled down therocks into the tide. Five hundred men could not well beso captured and put to death by less than an equal numberof hands, and we may, therefore, safely set down thatnumber as holding the camp of Dundonolf during the summermonths of the year. 

Earl Richard had not completed his arrangements untilthe month of August--so that his uncle and lieutenanthad to hold the post they had seized for fully threemonths, awaiting his arrival in the deepest anxiety. Atlast, leaving his castle in Pembroke, he marched withhis force through North Wales, by way of St. David's toMilford Haven--"and still as he went he took up all thebest chosen and picked men he could get. " At Milford, just as he was about to embark, he received an order fromKing Henry forbidding the expedition. Wholly disregardingthis missive he hastened on board with 200 knights and1, 200 infantry in his company, and on the eve of St. Bartholomew's Day (August 23rd), landed safely under theearthwork of Dundonolf, where he was joyfully receivedby Raymond at the head of 40 knights, and a correspondingnumber of men-at-arms. The next day the whole force, under the Earl, "who had all things in readiness" forsuch an enterprise, proceeded to lay siege to Waterford. Malachy O'Phelan, the brave lord of Desies, forgettingall ancient enmity against his Danish neighbours, hadjoined the townsmen to assist in the defence. Twice thebesieged beat back the assailants, until Raymond perceivingat an angle of the wall the wooden props upon which ahouse rested, ordered them to be cut away, on which thehouse fell to the ground, and a breach was effected. Themen-at-arms then burst in, slaughtering the inhabitantswithout mercy. In the tower, long known as Reginald's, or the ring tower, O'Phelan and Reginald, the Dano-Irishchief, held out until the arrival of King Dermid, whoseintercession procured them such terms as led to theirsurrender. Then, amid the ruins of the burning city, andthe muttered malediction of its surviving inhabitants, the ill-omened marriage of Eva McMurrogh with Richard deClare was gaily celebrated, and the compact entered intoat Bristol three years before was perfected. 

The marriage revelry was hardly over when tidings camefrom Dublin that Asculph MacTorcall, its Danish lord, had, either by the refusal of the annual tribute, or insome other manner, declared his independence of Dermid, and invoked the aid of the monarch Roderick, in defenceof that city. Other messengers brought news that Roderickhad assumed the protection of Dublin, and was alreadyencamped at the head of a large army at Clondalkin, witha view of intercepting the march of the invaders fromthe south. The whole Leinster and Norman force, with theexception of a troop of archers left to garrison Waterford, were now put in motion for the siege of the chief cityof the Hibernicized descendants of the Northmen. Informedof Roderick's position, which covered Dublin on the southand west, Dermid and Richard followed boldly the mountainpaths and difficult roads which led by the secluded cityof Glendalough, and thence along the coast road from Braytowards the mouth of the Liffey, until they arrivedunexpectedly within the lines of Roderick, to the amazementand terror of the townsmen. 

The force which now, under the command-in-chief of Dermid, sat down to the siege of Dublin, was far from beingcontemptible. For a year past he had been recognized inLeinster as fully as any of his predecessors, and had sostrengthened his military position as to propose nothingshort of the conquest of the whole country. His choiceof a line of march sufficiently shows how thoroughly hehad overcome the former hostility of the stubbornmountaineers of Wicklow. The exact numbers which heencamped before the gates of Dublin are nowhere given, but on the march from Waterford, the vanguard, led byMilo de Cogan, consisted of 700 Normans and "an Irishbattalion, " which, taken literally, would mean 3, 000 men, under Donald _Kavanagh_; Raymond the Fat followed "with800 British;" Dermid led on "the chief part of the Irish"(number not given), in person; Richard commanded therear-guard, "300 British and 1, 000 Irish soldiers. "Altogether, it is not exorbitant to conjecture that theLeinster Prince led to the siege of Dublin an army ofabout 10, 000 native troops, 1, 500 Welsh and Flemisharchers, and 250 knights. Except the handful who remainedwith Fitzstephen to defend his fort at Carrick, on theSlaney, and the archers left in Waterford, the entireNorman force in Ireland, at this time, were united inthe siege. Of the foreign knights many were eminent forcourage and capacity, both in peace and war. The mostdistinguished among them were Maurice Fitzgerald, thecommon ancestor of the Geraldines of Desmond and Kildare;Raymond the Fat, ancestor of the Graces of Ossory; thetwo Fitz-Henries, grandsons of Henry I. , and the fairNesta; Walter de Riddlesford, first Baron of Bray; Robertde Quincy, son-in-law and standard-bearer to Earl Richard;Herve, uncle to the Earl, and Gilbert de Clare, his son;Milo de Cogan, the first who entered Dublin by assault, and its first Norman governor; the de Barries, and dePrendergast. Other founders of Norman-Irish houses, asthe de Lacies, de Courcies, le Poers, de Burgos, Butlers, Berminghams, came not over until the landing of Henry II. , or still later, with his son John. 

The townsmen of Dublin had every reason, from theirknowledge of Dermid's cruel character, to expect theworst at his hands and those of his allies. The warningof Waterford was before them, but besides this they hada special cause of apprehension, Dermid's father havingbeen murdered in their midst, and his body ignominiouslyinterred with the carcase of a dog. Roderick havingfailed to intercept him, the citizens, either to gaintime or really desiring to arrive at an accommodation, entered into negotiations. Their ambassador for thispurpose was Lorcan, or Lawrence O'Toole, the firstArchbishop of the city, and its first prelate of Milesianorigin. This illustrious man, canonized both by sanctityand patriotism, was then in the thirty-ninth year of hisage, and the ninth of his episcopate. His father waslord of Imayle and chief of his clan; his sister had beenwife of Dermid and mother of Eva, the prize-bride of EarlRichard. He himself had been a hostage with Dermid inhis youth, and afterwards Abbot of Glendalough, the mostcelebrated monastic city of Leinster. He stood, therefore, to the besieged, being their chief pastor, in the relationof a father; to Dermid, and strangely enough to Strongbowalso, as brother-in-law and uncle by marriage. A fitterambassador could not be found. 

Maurice Regan, the "_Latiner_, " or Secretary of Dermid, had advanced to the walls, and summoned the city tosurrender, and deliver up "30 pledges" to his master, their lawful Prince. Asculph, son of Torcall, was infavour of the surrender, but the citizens could not agreeamong themselves as to hostages. No one was willing totrust himself to the notoriously untrustworthy Dermid. The Archbishop was then sent out on the part of thecitizens to arrange the terms in detail. He was receivedwith all reverence in the camp, but while he wasdeliberating with the commanders without, and the townsmenwere anxiously awaiting his return, Milo de Cogan andRaymond the Fat, seizing the opportunity, broke into thecity at the head of their companies, and began to putthe inhabitants ruthlessly to the sword. They were soonfollowed by the whole force eager for massacre and pillage. The Archbishop hastened back to endeavour to stay thehavoc which was being made of his people. He threwhimself before the infuriated Irish and Normans, hethreatened, he denounced, he bared his own breast to theswords of the assassins. All to little purpose; the bloodfury exhausted itself before peace settled over the city. Its Danish chief, Asculph, with many of his followers, escaped to their ships, and fled to the Isle of Man andthe Hebrides in search of succour and revenge. Roderick, unprepared to besiege the enemy who had thus outmarchedand outwitted him at that season of the year--it couldnot be earlier than October--broke up his encampment atClondalkin, and retired to Connaught. Earl Richard havingappointed de Cogan his governor of Dublin, followed onthe rear of the retreating _Ard-Righ_, at the instigationof McMurrogh, burning and plundering the churches ofKells, Clonard and Slane, and carrying off the hostagesof East-Meath. 

Though Dermid seemed to have forgotten altogether theconditions of the treaty of Ferns, yet not so Roderick. When he reached Athlone he caused Conor, son of Dermid, and the son of Donald _Kavanagh_, and the son of Dermid'sfosterer, who had been given him as hostages for thefulfilment of that treaty, so grossly violated in everyparticular, to be beheaded. Dermid indulged in impotentvows of vengeance against Roderick, when he heard ofthese executions which his own perjuries had provoked;he swore that nothing short of the conquest of Connaughtin the following spring would satisfy his revenge, andhe sent the Ard-Righ his defiance to that purport. Twoother events of military consequence marked the close ofthe year 1170. The foreign garrison of Waterford wassurprised and captured by Cormac McCarthy, Prince ofDesmond, and Henry II. Having prohibited all intercoursebetween his lieges and his disobedient subject, EarlRichard, the latter had despatched Raymond the Fat, withthe most humble submission of himself and his newpossessions to his Majesty's decision. And so with Asculph, son of Torcall, recruiting in the isles of Insi-Gall, Lawrence, the Archbishop, endeavouring to unite the proudand envious Irish lords into one united phalanx, andRoderick, preparing for the new year's campaign, thewinter of 1170-'71, came, and waned, and went. 

One occurrence of the succeeding spring may mostappropriately be dismissed here--the death of the wretchedand odious McMurrogh. This event happened, according to_Giraldus_, in the kalends of May. The Irish Annalssurround his death-bed with all the horrors appropriateto such a scene. He became, they say, "putrid whileliving, " through the miracles of St. Columbcille and St. Finian, whose churches he had plundered; "and he died atFernamore, without making a will, without penance, withoutthe body of Christ, without unction, as his evil deedsdeserved. " We have no desire to meditate over the memoryof such a man. He, far more than his predecessor, whateverthat predecessor's crimes might have been, deserved tohave been buried with a dog. 

CHAPTER IV. 

SECOND CAMPAIGN OF EARL RICHARD--HENRY II. IN IRELAND. 

The campaign of the year 1171 languished from a varietyof causes. At the very outset, the invaders lost theirchief patron, who had been so useful to them. During thesiege of Dublin, in the previous autumn, the townsmen ofWexford, who were in revolt, had, by stratagem, inducedRobert Fitzstephen to surrender his fort at Carrick, andhad imprisoned him in one of the islands of their harbour. Waterford had been surprised and taken by Cormac McCarthy, Prince of Desmond, and Strongbow, alarmed by theproclamation of Henry, knew hardly whether to considerhimself outlaw, subject, or independent sovereign. 

Raymond the Fat had returned from his embassy to KingHenry, with no comfortable tidings. He had been kept dayafter day waiting the pleasure of the King, and returnedwith sentences as dubious in his mouth, as those on whichEarl Richard had originally acted. It was evidently notthe policy of Henry to abandon the enterprise already sowell begun, but neither was it his interest or desirethat any subject should reap the benefit, or erect anindependent power, upon his mere permission to embark inthe service of McMurrogh. Herve, the Earl's uncle, hadbeen despatched as ambassador in Raymond's place, butwith no better success. At length, Richard himself, bythe advice of all his counsellors, repaired to England, and waited on Henry at Newenham, in Gloucestershire. Atfirst he was ignominiously refused an audience, but afterrepeated solicitations he was permitted to renew hishomage. He then yielded in due form the city of Dublin, and whatever other conquests he claimed, and consentedto hold his lands in Leinster, as chief tenant from thecrown: in return for which he was graciously forgiventhe success that had attended his adventure, and permittedto accompany the King's expedition, in the ensuing autumn. 

Before Strongbow's departure for England three unsuccessfulattempts had been made for the expulsion of the Normangarrison from Dublin. They were unfortunately not undertakenin concert, but rather in succession. The first was anattempt at surprising the city by Asculph MacTorcall, probably relying on the active aid of the inhabitants ofhis own race. He had but "a small force, " chiefly fromthe isles of Insi-Gall and the Orkneys. The Orcadianswere under the command of a warrior called John theFurious or Mad, the last of those wild Berserkers of theNorth, whose valour was regarded in Pagan days as aspecies of divine frenzy. This redoubted champion, aftera momentary success, was repulsed by Milo and Richard deCogan, and finally fell by the hand of Walter deRiddlesford. Asculph was taken prisoner, and, avowingboldly his intention never to desist from attempting torecover the place, was put to death. The second attackhas been often described as a regular investment byRoderick O'Conor, at the head of all the forces of theIsland, which was only broken up in the ninth week ofits duration, by a desperate sally on the part of thefamished garrison. Many details and episodes, proper toso long a beleaguerment, are given by _Giraldus_, andreproduced by his copyists. We find, however, littlewarrant for these passages in our native annals, any morethan for the antithetical speeches which the same partialhistorian places in the mouths of his heroes. The FourMasters limit the time to "the course of a fortnight. "Roderick, according to their account, was accompanied bythe lords of Breffni and Oriel only; frequent skirmishesand conflicts took place; an excursion was made againstthe Leinster Allies of the Normans, "to cut down and burnthe corn of the Saxons. " The surprise by night of themonarch's camp is also duly recorded; and that the enemycarried off "the provisions, armour, and horses ofRoderick. " By which sally, according to _Giraldus_, Dublinhaving obtained provisions enough for a year, Earl Richardmarched to Wexford, "taking the higher way by Idrone, "with the hope to deliver Fitzstephen. But the Wexfordmen having burned their suburbs, and sent their goodsand families into the stockaded island, sent him wordthat at the first attack they would put Fitzstephen andhis companions to death. The Earl, therefore, heldsorrowfully on his way to Waterford, where, leaving astronger force than the first garrison, to which he hadentrusted it, he sailed for England to make his peacewith King Henry. The third attempt on Dublin was made bythe lord of Breffni during the Earl's absence, and whenthe garrison were much reduced; it was equally unsuccessfulwith those already recorded. De Cogan displayed his usualcourage, and the lord of Breffni lost a son and some ofhis best men in the assault. 

It was upon the marches of Wales that the Earl found KingHenry busily engaged in making preparations for his ownvoyage into Ireland. He had levied on the landholdersthroughout his dominions an escutage or commutation forpersonal service, and the Pipe roll, which contains hisdisbursements for the year, has led an habitually cautiouswriter to infer "that the force raised for the expeditionwas much more numerous than has been represented byhistorians. " During the muster of his forces he visitedPembroke, and made a progress through North Wales, severelycensuring those who had enlisted under Strongbow, andplacing garrisons of his own men in their castles. AtSaint David's he made the usual offering on the shrineof the Saint and received the hospitalities of the Bishop. All things being in readiness, he sailed from MilfordHaven, with a fleet of 400 transports, having on boardmany of the Norman nobility, 500 knights, and an armyusually estimated at 4, 000 men at arms. On the 18th ofOctober, 1171, he landed safely at Crook, in the countyof Waterford, being unable, according to an old localtradition, to sail up the river from adverse winds. Asone headland of that harbour is called _Hook_, and theother _Crook_, the old adage, "by hook or by crook, " isthought to have arisen on this occasion. 

In Henry's train, beside Earl Richard, there came overHugh de Lacy, some time Constable of Chester; William, son of Aldelm, ancestor of the Clanrickardes; TheobaldWalter, ancestor of the Butlers; Robert le Poer, ancestorof the Powers; Humphrey de Bohun, Robert Fitz-Barnard, Hugh de Gundeville, Philip de Hastings, Philip de Braos, and many other cavaliers whose names were renownedthroughout France and England. As the imposing host formedon the sea side, a white hare, according to an Englishchronicler, leapt from a neighbouring hedge, and wasimmediately caught and presented to the King as an omenof victory. Prophecies, pagan and Christian--quatrainsfathered on Saint Moling and triads attributed toMerlin--were freely showered in his path. But the trueomen of his success he might read for himself, in aconstitution which had lost its force, in laws which hadceased to be sacred, and in a chieftain race, brave indeedas mortal men could be, but envious, arrogant, revengeful, and insubordinate. For their criminal indulgence ofthese demoniacal passions a terrible chastisement wasabout to fall on them, and not only on them, but also, alas! on their poor people. 

The whole time passed by Henry II. In Ireland was fromthe 18th October, 1171, till the 17th of April following, just seven months. For the first politician of his age, with the command of such troops, and so much treasure, these seven months could not possibly be barren ofconsequences. Winter, the season of diplomacy, was seldommore industriously or expertly employed. The townsmen ofWexford, aware of his arrival as soon as it had takenplace, hastened to make their submission and to deliverup to him their prisoner, Robert Fitzstephen, the firstof the invaders. Henry, affecting the same displeasuretowards Fitzstephen he did for all those who had anticipatedhis own expedition, ordered him to be fettered andimprisoned in Reginald's tower. At Waterford he alsoreceived the friendly overtures of the lords of Desiesand Ossory, and probably some form of feudal submissionwas undergone by those chiefs. Cormac, Prince of Desmond, followed their example, and soon afterwards Donald O'Brienof Thomond met him on the banks of the Suir, not far fromCashel, made his peace, and agreed to receive a Normangarrison in his Hiberno-Danish city of Limerick. Havingappointed commanders over these and other southerngarrisons, Henry proceeded to Dublin, where a spaciouscage-work palace, on a lawn without the city, was preparedfor winter quarters. Here he continued those negotiationswith the Irish chiefs, which we are told were so generallysuccessful. Amongst others whose adhesion he received, mention is made of the lord of Breffni, the most faithfulfollower the Monarch Roderick could count. The chiefs ofthe Northern Hy-Nial remained deaf to all his overtures, and though Fitz-Aldelm and de Lacy, the commissionersdespatched to treat with Roderick, are said to haveprocured from the deserted _Ard-Righ_ an act of submission, it is incredible that a document of such consequenceshould have been allowed to perish. Indeed, most of theconfident assertions about submissions to Henry are tobe taken with great caution; it is quite certain hehimself, though he lived nearly twenty years after hisIrish expedition, never assumed any Irish title whatever. It is equally true that his successor, Richard I. , neverassumed any such title, as an incident of the Englishcrown. And although Henry in the year 1185 created hisyoungest son, John _Lackland_, "lord of Ireland, " it wasprecisely in the same spirit and with as much ground oftitle as he had for creating Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath, or John de Courcy, Earl of Ulster. Of this question oftitle we shall speak more fully hereafter, for we do notrecognize any English sovereign as _King_ of Ireland, previous to the year 1541; but it ought surely to beconclusive evidence, that neither had Henry claimed thecrown, nor had the Irish chiefs acknowledged him as their_Ard-Righ_, that in the two authentic documents from hishand which we possess, he neither signs himself _Rex_nor _Dominus Hibernioe_. These documents are the Charterof Dublin, and the Concession of Glendalough, and theirauthenticity has never been disputed. 

After spending a right merry Christmas with Norman andMilesian guests in abundance at Dublin, Henry proceededto that work of religious reformation, under plea ofwhich he had obtained the Bill of Pope Adrian, seventeenyears before, declaring such an expedition undertakenwith such motives, lawful and praiseworthy. Early in thenew year, by his desire, a synod was held at Cashel, where many salutary decrees were enacted. These relatedto the proper solemnization of marriage; the catechisingof children before the doors of churches; the administrationof baptism in baptismal or parish churches; the abolition of_Erenachs_ or lay Trustees of church property, and theimposition of tithes, both of corn and cattle. By mostEnglish writers this synod is treated as a NationalCouncil, and inferences are thence drawn of Henry'sadmitted power over the clergy of the nation. There is, however, no evidence that the Bishops of Ulster orConnaught were present at Cashel, but strong negativetestimony to the contrary. We read under the date of thesame year in the Four Masters, that a synod of the clergyand laity of Ireland was convened at Tuam by RoderickO'Conor and the Archbishop Catholicus O'Duffy. It ishardly possible that this meeting could be in continuationor in concord with the assembly convoked at the instanceof Henry. 

Following quickly upon the Cashel Synod, Henry held a"Curia Regis" or Great Court at Lismore, in which hecreated the offices of Marshal, Constable, and Seneschalfor Ireland. Earl Richard was created the first LordMarshal; de Lacy, the first Lord Constable. Theobald, ancestor of the Ormond family, was already chief Butler, and de Vernon was created the first high Steward orSeneschal. Such other order as could be taken for thepreservation of the places already captured, was notneglected. The surplus population of Bristol obtained acharter of Dublin to be held of Henry and his heirs, "with all the same liberties and free customs which theyenjoyed at Bristol. " Wexford was committed to the chargeof Fitz-Aldelm, Waterford to de Bohun, and Dublin to deLacy. Castles were ordered to be erected in the townsand at other points, and the politic king, having causedall those who remained behind to renew their homage inthe most solemn form, sailed on Easter Monday from WexfordHaven, and on the same day, landed at Port-Finan in Wales. Here he assumed the Pilgrim's staff, and proceeded humblyon foot to St. David's, preparatory to meeting the PapalCommissioners appointed to inquire into Beckett's murder. 

It is quite apparent that had Henry landed in Ireland atany other period of his life except in the year of themartyrdom of the renowned Archbishop of Canterbury, whilethe wrath of Rome was yet hanging poised in the air, ready to be hurled against him, he would not have leftthe work he undertook but half begun. The nett result ofhis expedition, of his great fleet, mighty army, andsagacious counsels, was the infusion of a vast number ofnew adventurers (most of them of higher rank and betterfortunes than their precursors), into the same old field. Except the garrisons admitted into Limerick and Cork, and the displacing of Strongbow's commandants by his ownat Waterford, Wexford, and Dublin, there seems to havebeen little gained in a military sense. The decrees ofthe Synod of Cashel would, no doubt, stand him in goodstead with the Papal legates as evidences of his desireto enforce strict discipline, even on lands beyond thoseover which he actually ruled. But, after all, harassedas he was with apprehensions of the future, perhaps noother Prince could have done more in a single winter ina strange country than Henry II. Did for his seven months'sojourn in Ireland. 

CHAPTER V. 

FROM THE RETURN OF HENRY II. TO ENGLAND TILL THE DEATHOF EARL RICHARD AND HIS PRINCIPAL COMPANIONS. 

The Ard-Righ Roderick, during the period of Henry theSecond's stay in Ireland, had continued west of theShannon. Unsupported by his suffragans, many of whommade peace with the invader, he attempted no militaryoperation, nor had Henry time sufficient to follow himinto his strongholds. It was reserved for this ill-fated, and, we cannot but think, harshly judged monarch, tooutlive the first generation of the invaders of hiscountry, and to close a reign which promised so brightlyat the beginning, in the midst of a distracted, war-spentpeople, having preserved through all vicissitudes thetitle of sovereign, but little else that was of value tohimself or others. 

Among the guests who partook of the Christmas cheer ofKing Henry at Dublin, we find mention of Tiernan O'Ruarc, the lord of Breffni and East-Meath. For the Methianaddition to his possessions, Tiernan was indebted to hisearly alliance with Roderick, and the success of theirjoint arms. Anciently the east of Meath had been dividedbetween the four families called "the four tribes ofTara, " whose names are now anglicized O'Hart, O'Kelly, O'Connelly, and O'Regan. Whether to balance the power ofthe great West-Meath family of O'Melaghlin, or becausethese minor tribes were unable to defend themselvessuccessfully, Roderick, like his father, had partitionedMeath, and given the seaward side a new master in theperson of O'Ruarc. The investiture of Hugh de Lacy byKing Henry with the seignory of the same district, ledto a tragedy, the first of its kind in our annals, butdestined to be the prototype of an almost indefiniteseries, in which the gainers were sometimes natives, butmuch oftener Normans. 

O'Ruarc gave de Lacy an appointment at the hill of Ward, near Athboy, in the year 1173, in order to adjust theirconflicting claims upon East-Meath. Both parties naturallyguarded against surprise, by having in readiness a troopof armed retainers. The principals met apart on thesummit of the hill, amid the circumvallations of itsancient fort; a single unarmed interpreter only waspresent. An altercation having arisen, between them, O'Ruarc lost his temper, and raised the battle-axe, whichall our warriors carried in those days, as the gentlemenof the last century did their swords; this was the signalfor both troops of guards to march towards the spot. DeLacy, in attempting to fly, had been twice felled to theearth, when his followers, under Maurice Fitzgerald andGriffith, his nephew, came to his rescue, and assailedthe chief of Breffni. It was now Tiernan's turn to attemptescaping, but as he mounted his horse the spear of Griffithbrought him to the earth mortally wounded, and hisfollowers fled. His head was carried in triumph to Dublin, where it was spiked over the northern gate, and his bodywas gibbeted on the northern wall, with the feet uppermost. Thus, a spectacle of intense pity to the Irish, did thesesevered members of one of their most famous nobles remainexposed on that side of the stronghold of the strangerwhich looks towards the pleasant plains of Meath and theverdant uplands of Cavan. 

The administration of de Lacy was now interrupted by asummons to join his royal master, sore beset by his ownsons in Normandy. The Kings of France and Scotland werein alliance with those unnatural Princes, and theirmother, Queen Eleanor, might he called the author oftheir rebellion. As all the force that could be sparedfrom Ireland was needed for the preservation of Normandy, de Lacy hastened to obey the royal summons, and EarlRichard, by virtue of his rank of Marshal, took for themoment the command in chief. Henry, however, who nevercordially forgave that adventurer, first required hispresence in France, and when alarmed by ill news fromIreland, he sent him back to defend the conquests alreadymade, he associated with him in the supreme command--thoughnot apparently in the civil administration--the gallantRaymond _le gros_. And it was full time for the best headand the bravest sword among the first invaders to returnto their work--a task not to be so easily achieved asmany confident persons then believed, and as manyill-informed writers have since described it. 

During the early rule of de Lacy, Earl Richard hadestablished himself at Ferns, assuming, to such of theIrish as adhered to him, the demeanour of a king. AfterDermid's death, he styled himself, in utter disregard ofIrish law, "Prince of Leinster, " in virtue of his wife. He proceeded to create feudal dignitaries, placing attheir head, as Constable of Leinster, Robert de Quincy, to whom he gave his daughter, by his first wife, inmarriage. At this point the male representatives of KingDermid came to open rupture with the Earl. Donald_Kavanagh_, surnamed "the Handsome, " and by the Normansusually spoken of as "Prince" Donald, could scarcely beexpected to submit to an arrangement, so opposed to allancient custom, and to his own interests. He had bornea leading part in the restoration of his father, butsurely not to this end--the exclusion of the malesuccession. He had been one of King Henry's guests duringthe Christmas holidays of the year 1172, and had renderedhim some sort of homage, as Prince of Leinster. Henry, ever ready to raise up rivals to Strongbow, seems to havereceived him into favour, until Eva, the Earl's wife, proved, both in Ireland and England, that Donald and hisbrother Enna, were born out of wedlock, and that therewas no direct male heir of Dermid left, after the executionof Conor, the hostage put to death by King Roderick. ToEnglish notions this might have been conclusive againstDonald's title, but to the Irish, among whom the electoralprinciple was the source of all chieftainry, it was notso. A large proportion of the patriotic Leinstermen--whatmight be called the native party--adhered to Donald_Kavanagh_, utterly rejecting the title derived throughthe lady Eva. 

Such conflicting interests could only be settled by aresort to force, and the bloody feud began by the Earlexecuting at Ferns one of Donald's sons, held by him asa hostage. In an expedition against O'Dempsey, who alsorefused to acknowledge his title, the Earl lost, in thecampaign of 1173, his son-in-law, de Quincy, severalother knights, and the "banner of Leinster. " The followingyear we read in the Anglo-Irish Annals of Leinster, thatKing Donald's men, being moved against the Earl's men, made a great slaughter of English. Nor was this the worstdefeat he suffered in the same year--1174. Marching intoMunster he was encountered in a pitched battle at Thurlesby the troops of the monarch Roderick, under command ofhis son, Conor, surnamed _Moinmoy_, and by the troops ofThomond, under Donald More O'Brien. With Strongbow wereall who could be spared of the garrison of Dublin, including a strong detachment of Danish origin. Fourknights and seven hundred (or, according to other accounts, seventeen hundred) men of the Normans were left dead onthe field. Strongbow retreated with the remnant of hisforce to Waterford, but the news of the defeat havingreached that city before him, the townspeople ran to armsand put his garrison of two hundred men to the sword. After encamping for a month on an island without thecity, and hearing that Kilkenny Castle was taken andrazed by O'Brien, he was feign to return to Dublin asbest he could. 

His fortunes at the close of this campaign, were at theirlowest ebb. The loss of de Quincy and the defeat ofThurles had sorely shaken his military reputation. Hisjealousy of that powerful family connexion, the Geraldines, had driven Maurice Fitzgerald and Raymond the Fat toretire in disgust into Wales. Donald Kavanagh, O'Dempsey, and the native party in Leinster, set him at defiance, and his own troops refused to obey the orders of hisuncle Herve, demanding to be led by the more popular andyouthful Raymond. To add to his embarrassments, Henrysummoned him to France in the very crisis of his troubles, and he dared not disobey that jealous and exacting master. He was, however, not long detained by the English King. Clothed with supreme authority, and with Raymond for hislieutenant, he returned to resume the work of conquest. To conciliate the Geraldines, he at last consented togive his sister Basilia in marriage to the brilliantcaptain, on whose sword so much depended. At the sametime Alina, the widow of de Quincy, was married to thesecond son of Fitzgerald, and Nesta Fitzgerald was unitedto Raymond's former rival, Herve. Thus, bound together, fortune returned in full tide to the adventurers. Limerick, which had been taken and burned to the water'sedge by Donald O'Brien after the battle of Thurles, wasrecaptured and fortified anew; Waterford was more stronglygarrisoned than ever; Donald _Kavanagh_ was taken off, apparently by treachery (A. D. 1175), and all seemed topromise the enjoyment of uninterrupted power to the Earl. But his end was already come. An ulcer in his foot broughton a long and loathsome illness, which terminated in hisdeath, in the month of May, 1176, or 1177. He was buriedin Christ Church, Dublin, which he had contributed toenlarge, and was temporarily succeeded in the governmentof the Normans by his lieutenant and brother-in-law, Raymond. By the Lady Eva he left one daughter, Isabel, married at the age of fourteen to William Marshall, Earlof Pembroke, who afterwards claimed the proprietary ofLeinster, by virtue of this marriage. Lady Isabel leftagain five daughters, who were the ancestresses of theMortimers, Braces, and other historic families of Englandand Scotland. And so the blood of Earl Richard and hisIrish Princess descended for many generations to enrichother houses and ennoble other names than his own. 

Strongbow is described by _Giraldus_, whose personalsketches, of the leading invaders form the most valuablepart of his book, as less a statesman than a soldier, and more a soldier than a general. His complexion wasfreckled, his neck slender, his voice feminine and shrill, and his temper equable and uniform. His career in Irelandwas limited to seven years in point of time, and hisresources were never equal to the task he undertook. Had they been so, or had he not been so jealouslycounteracted by his suzerain, he might have founded anew Norman dynasty on as solid a basis as William, or asRollo himself had done. 

Raymond and the Geraldines had now, for a brief moment, the supreme power, civil and military, in their own hands. In his haste to take advantage of the Earl's death, ofwhich he had privately been informed by a message fromhis wife, Raymond left Limerick in the hands of DonaldMore O'Brien, exacting, we are told, a solemn oath fromthe Prince of Thomond to protect the city, which thelatter broke before the Norman garrisons were out ofsight of its walls. This story, like many others of thesame age, rests on the uncertain authority of the vain, impetuous and passionate _Giraldus_. Whether the loss ofLimerick discredited him with the king, or the ancientjealousy of the first adventurers prevailed in the royalcouncils, Henry, on hearing of Strongbow's death, at oncedespatched as Lord Justice, William Fitz-Aldelm de Burgo, first cousin to Hubert de Burgo, Chief Justiciary ofEngland, and, like Fitz-Aldelm, descended from Arlotta, mother of William the Conqueror, by Harlowen de Burgo, her first husband. From him have descended the noblefamily of de Burgo, or Burke, so conspicuous in the afterannals of our island. In the train of the new Justiciarycame John de Courcy, another name destined to becomehistorical, but before relating his achievements, we mustconclude the narrative so far as regards the first setof adventurers. 

Maurice Fitzgerald, the common ancestor of the Earls ofDesmond and Kildare, the Knights of Glyn, of Kerry, andof all the Irish Geraldines, died at Wexford in the year1177. Raymond the Fat, superseded by Fitz-Aldelm, andlooked on coldly by the King, retired to his lands inthe same county, and appears only once more in arms--inthe year 1182--in aid of his uncle, Robert Fitzstephen. This premier invader had been entrusted by the new rulerwith the command of the garrison of Cork, as Milo deCogan had been with that of Waterford, and both had beeninvested with equal halves of the principality of Desmond. De Cogan, Ralph, son of Fitzstephen, and other knightshad been cut off by surprise, at the house of one McTire, near Lismore, in 1182, and all Desmond was up in armsfor the expulsion of the foreign garrisons. Raymond sailedfrom Wexford to the aid of his uncle, and succeeded inrelieving the city from the sea. But Fitzstephen, afflictedwith grief for the death of his son, and worn down withmany anxieties, suffered the still greater loss of hisreason. From thenceforth, we hear no more of either uncleor nephew, and we may therefore account this the lastyear of Robert Fitzstephen, Milo de Cogan, and Raymond_le gros_. Herve de Montmorency, the ancient rival ofRaymond, had three years earlier retired from the world, to become a brother in the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, at Canterbury. His Irish estates passed to his brotherGeoffrey, who subsequently became Justiciary of theNormans in Ireland, the successful rival of the Marshals, and founder of the Irish title of Mountmorres. Theposterity of Raymond survived in the noble family ofGrace, Barons of Courtstown, in Ossory. It is not, therefore, strictly true, what Geoffrey Keating and theauthors he followed have asserted--that the first Normanswere punished by the loss of posterity for the crimesand outrages they had committed, in their variousexpeditions. 

Let us be just even to these spoilers of our race. Theywere fair specimens of the prevailing type of Normancharacter. Indomitable bravery was not their only virtue. In patience, in policy, and in rising superior to allobstacles and reverses, no group of conquerors eversurpassed Strongbow and his companions. Ties of bloodand brotherhood in arms were strong between them, andwhatever unfair advantages they allowed themselves totake of their enemy, they were in general constant anddevoted in then--friendships towards each other. Rivalriesand intrigues were not unknown among them, but generousself-denial, and chivalrous self-reliance were equallyas common. If it had been the lot of our ancestors to beeffectually conquered, they could hardly have yielded tonobler foes. But as they proved themselves able to resistsuccessfully the prowess of this hitherto invinciblerace, their honour is augmented in proportion to theenergy and genius, both for government and war, broughtto bear against them. 

Neither should we overstate the charge of impiety. Ifthe invaders broke down and burned churches in the heatof battle, they built better and costlier temples out ofthe fruits of victory. Christ Church, Dublin, DunbrodyAbbey, on the estuary of Waterford, the Grey Friars'Abbey at Wexford, and other religious houses long stood, or still stand, to show that although the first Norman, like the first Dane, thirsted after spoil, and lustedafter land, unlike the Dane, he created, he enriched, heimproved, wherever he conquered. 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE LAST YEARS OF THE ARD-RIGH, RODERICK O'CONOR. 

The victory of Thurles, in the year 1174, was the nextimportant military event, as we have seen, after theraising of the second siege of Dublin, in the firstcampaign of Earl Richard. It seems irreconcilable, withthe consequences of that victory, that Ambassadors fromRoderick should be found at the Court of Henry II. Beforethe close of the following year: but events personal toboth sovereigns will sufficiently explain the apparentanomaly. 

The campaign of 1174, so unfavourable to Henry's subjectsin Ireland, had been most fortunate for his arms inNormandy. His rebellious sons, after severe defeats, submitted, and did him homage; the King of France hadgladly accepted his terms of peace; the King of Scotland, while in duress, had rendered him fealty as his liegeman; and Queen Eleanor, having fallen into his power, was a prisoner for life. Tried by a similar unnaturalconspiracy in his own family, Roderick O'Conor had beenless fortunate in coercing them into obedience. Hiseldest son, Murray, claimed, according to ancient custom, that his father should resign in his favour the patrimonialProvince, contenting himself with the higher rank of Kingof Ireland. But Roderick well understood that in hisdays, with a new and most formidable enemy establishedin the old Danish strongholds, with the Constitution tornto shreds by the war of succession, his only real powerwas over his patrimony; he refused, therefore, theunreasonable request, and thus converted some of his ownchildren into enemies. Nor were there wanting Princes, themselves fathers, who abetted this household treason, as the Kings of France and Scotland had done among thesons of Henry II. Soon after the battle of Thurles, therecovery of Limerick, and the taking of Kilkenny, DonaldMore O'Brien, lending himself to this odious intrigue, was overpowered and deposed by Roderick, but the yearnext succeeding having made submission he was restoredby the same hand which had cast him down. It was, therefore, while harassed by the open rebellion of his eldest son, and while Henry was rejoicing in his late success, thatRoderick despatched to the Court of Windsor Catholicus, Archbishop of Tuam, Concors, Abbot of St. Brendan's, andLaurence, Archbishop of Dublin, whose is styled in theseproceedings, "Chancellor of the Irish King, " to negotiatean alliance with Henry, which would leave him free tocombat against his domestic enemies. An extraordinarytreaty, agreed upon at Windsor, about the feast ofMichaelmas, 1175, recognized Roderick's sovereignty overIreland, the cantreds and cities actually possessed bythe subjects of Henry excepted; it subinfeudated hisauthority to that of Henry, after the manner latelyadopted towards William, King of Scotland; the paymentof a merchantable hide of every tenth hide of cattle wasagreed upon as an annual tribute, while the minor chiefswere to acknowledge their dependence by annual presentsof hawks and hounds. This treaty, which proceeded onthe wild assumption that the feudal system was of forceamong the free clans of Erin, was probably the basis ofHenry's grant of the Lordship of Ireland to his son, John_Lackland_, a few years later; it was solemnly approvedby a special Council, or Parliament, and signed by therepresentatives of both parties. 

Among the signers we find the name of the Archbishop ofDublin, who, while in England, narrowly escaped martyrdomfrom the hands of a maniac, while celebrating Mass atthe tomb of St. Thomas. Four years afterwards, thiscelebrated ecclesiastic attended at Rome, with Catholicusof Tuam, and the Prelates of Lismore, Limerick, Waterford, and Killaloe, the third general council of Lateran, wherethey were received with all honour by Pope Alexander III. From Rome he returned with legantine powers which he usedwith great energy during the year 1180. In the autumn ofthat year, he was entrusted with the delivery to Henry II. Of the son of Roderick O'Conor, as a pledge for thefulfilment of the treaty of Windsor, and with otherdiplomatic functions. On reaching England, he found theking had gone to France, and following him thither, hewas seized with illness as he approached the Monasteryof Eu, and with a prophetic foretaste of death, heexclaimed as he came in sight of the towers of the Convent, "Here shall I make my resting-place. " The Abbot Osbertand the monks of the Order of St. Victor received himtenderly, and watched his couch for the few days he yetlingered. Anxious to fulfil his mission, he despatchedDavid, tutor of the son of Roderick, with messages toHenry, and awaited his return with anxiety. David broughthim a satisfactory response from the English King, andthe last anxiety only remained. In death, as in life, his thoughts were with his country. "Ah, foolish andinsensible people!" he exclaimed in his latest hours, "what will become of you? Who will relieve your miseries?Who will heal you?" When recommended to make his lastwill, he answered, with apostolic simplicity--"God knows, out of all my revenues, I have not a single coin tobequeath. " And thus on the 11th day of November, 1180, in the 48th year of his age, under the shelter of a Normanroof, surrounded by Norman mourners, the Gaelicstatesman-saint departed out of this life, bequeathing--one more canonized memory to Ireland and to Rome. 

The prospects of his native land were, at that moment, of a cast which might well disturb the death-bed of thesainted Laurence. Fitz-Aldelm, advanced to the commandat Dublin in 1177, had shown no great capacity forfollowing up the conquest. But there was one among hisfollowers who, unaffected by his sluggish example, andundeterred by his jealous interference, resolved to pushthe outposts of his race into the heart of Ulster. Thiswas John de Courcy, Baron of Stoke Courcy, in Somersetshire, a cavalier of fabulous physical strength, romantic courage, and royal descent. When he declared his settled purposeto be the invasion of Ulster, he found many spirits asdiscontented with Fitz-Aldelm's inaction as himself readyto follow his banner. His inseparable brother-in-arms, Sir Almaric of St. Laurence, his relative, Jourdain deCourcy, Sir Robert de la Poer, Sir Geoffrey and Walterde Marisco, and other Knights to the number of twenty, and five hundred men at arms, marched with him out ofDublin. Hardly had they got beyond sight of the city, when they were attacked by a native force, near Howth, where Saint Laurence laid in victory the foundation ofthat title still possessed by his posterity. On thefifth day, they came by surprise upon the famousecclesiastical city of Downpatrick, one of the firstobjects of their adventure. An ancient prophecy hadforetold that the place would be taken by a chief withbirds upon his shield, the bearings of de Courcy, mountedon a white horse, which de Courcy happened to ride. Thusthe terrors of superstition were added to the terrors ofsurprise, and the town being entirely open, the Normanshad only to dash into the midst of its inhabitants. Butthe free clansmen of Ulidia, though surprised, were notintimidated. Under their lord Rory, son of Dunlevy, theyrallied to expel the invader. Cardinal Vivian, the PapalLegate, who had just arrived from Man and Scotland, onthe neighbouring coast, proffered his mediation, andbesought de Courcy to withdraw from Down. His advice wasperemptorily rejected, and then he exhorted the Ulidiansto fight bravely for their rights. Five several battlesare enumerated as being fought, in this and the followingyear, between de Courcy and the men of Down, Louth, andAntrim, sometimes with success, at others without it, always with heavy loss and obstinate resistance. 

The barony of Lecale, in which Downpatrick stands, isalmost a peninsula, and the barony of the Ardes on theopposite shore of Strangford Lough is nearly insulatedby Belfast Lough, the Channel, and the tides of Strangford. With the active co-operation from the sea of Godred, Kingof Man, (whose daughter Africa he had married), de Courcy'shold on that coast became an exceedingly strong one. Aditch and a few towers would as effectually enclose Lecaleand the Ardes from any landward attack, as if they werea couple of well-walled cities. Hence, long after "thePale" ceased to extend beyond the Boyne, and while themountain passes from Meath into Ulster were all in nativehands, these two baronies continued to be succoured andstrengthened by sea, and retained as English possessions. Reinforced from Dublin and from Man after their firstsuccess, de Courcy's companions stuck to theircastle-building about the shores of Strangford Lough, while he himself made incursions into the interior, byland or by sea, fighting a brisk succession of engagementsat Newry, in Antrim, at Coleraine, and on the easternshore of Lough Foyle. 

At the time these operations were going forward in Ulster, Milo de Cogan quitted Dublin on a somewhat similarexpedition. We have already said that Murray, eldestson of Roderick, had claimed, according to ancient usage, the O'Conor patrimony, his father being Ard-Righ; andhad his claim refused. He now entered into a secretengagement with de Cogan, whose force is stated by_Giraldus_ at 500 men-at-arms, and by the Irish annalistsas "a great army. " With the smaller force he left Dublin, but marching through Meath, was joined at Trim by menfrom the garrisons de Lacy had planted in East-Meath. Soaccompanied, de Cogan advanced on Roscommon, where hewas received by the son of Roderick during the absenceof the Ard-Righ on a visitation among the glens ofConnemara. After three days spent in Roscommon, theseallies marched across the plain of Connaught, directedtheir course on Tuam, burning as they went Elphin, Roskeen, and many other churches. The western clansmen everywherefell back before them, driving off their herds anddestroying whatever they could not remove. At Tuam theyfound themselves in the midst of a solitude without foodor forage, with an eager enemy swarming from the westand the south to surround them. They at once decided toretreat, and no time was to be lost, as the Kern werealready at their heels. From Tuam to Athleague, and fromAthleague to their castles in East-Meath, fled the remnantof de Cogan's inglorious expedition. Murray O'Conor beingtaken prisoner by his own kinsmen, his eyes were pluckedout as the punishment of his treason, and Conor Moinmoy, the joint-victor with Donald O'Brien over Strongbow atThurles, became the _Roydamna_ or successor of his father. 

But fresh dissensions soon broke out between the sonsand grandsons of Roderick, and the sons of his brotherThurlogh, in one of whose deadly conflicts sixteen Princesof the Sil-Murray fell. Both sides looked beyond Connaughtfor help; one drew friends from the northern O'Neills, another relied on the aid of O'Brien. Conor Moinmoy, inthe year 1186, according to most Irish accounts, banishedhis father into Munster, but at the intercession of theSil-Murray, his own clan allowed him again to return, and assigned him a single cantred of land for hissubsistence. From this date we may count the unhappyRoderick's retirement from the world. 

Near the junction of Lough Corrib with Lough Mask, onthe boundary line between Mayo and Galway, stands theruins of the once populous monastery and village of Cong. The first Christian kings of Connaught had founded themonastery, or enabled St. Fechin to do so by their generousdonations. The father of Roderick had enriched its shrineby the gift of a particle of the true Cross, reverentlyenshrined in a reliquary, the workmanship of which stillexcites the admiration of the antiquaries. Here Roderickretired in the 70th year of his age, and for twelve yearsthereafter--until the 29th day of November, 1198, herehe wept and prayed, and withered away. Dead to the world, as the world to him, the opening of a new grave in theroyal corner at Clonmacnoise was the last incidentconnected with his name, which reminded Connaught thatit had lost its once prosperous Prince, and Ireland, thatshe had seen her last Ard-Righ, according to the ancientMilesian Constitution. Powerful Princes of his own andother houses the land was destined to know for manygenerations, before its sovereignty was merged in thatof England, but none fully entitled to claim thehigh-sounding, but often fallacious title, of Monarch ofall Ireland. 

The public character of Roderick O'Conor has been hardlydealt with by most modern writers. He was not, like hisfather, like Murkertach O'Brien, Malachy II. , Brian, Murkertach of the leathern cloaks, or Malachy I. , eminentas a lawgiver, a soldier, or a popular leader. He doesnot appear to have inspired love, or awe, or reverence, into those of his own household and patrimony, not tospeak of his distant cotemporaries. He was probably aman of secondary qualities, engulfed in a crisis of thefirst importance. But that he is fairly chargeable withthe success of the invaders--or that there was any veryoverwhelming success to be charged up to the time of hisenforced retirement from the world--we have failed todiscover. From Dermid's return until his retreat to Cong, seventeen years had passed away. Seventeen campaigns, more or less energetic and systematic, the Normans hadfought. Munster was still in 1185--when John Lacklandmade his memorable exit and entrance on the scene--almostwholly in the hands of the ancient clans. Connaught wasas yet without a single Norman garrison. Hugh de Lacyreturning to the government of Dublin, in 1179, onFitz-Aldelm's recall, was more than half _Hibernicized_by marriage with one of Roderick's daughters, and theNorman tide stood still in Meath. Several strong fortresseswere indeed erected in Desmond and Leinster, by JohnLackland and by de Courcy, in his newly won northernterritory. Ardfinan, Lismore, Leighlin, Carlow, Castledermot, Leix, Delvin, Kilkay, Maynooth and Trim, were fortified; but considering who the Anglo-Normanswere, and what they had done elsewhere, even these veryconsiderable successes may be correctly accounted forwithout overcharging the memory of Roderick with follyand incapacity. That he was personally brave has notbeen questioned. That he was politic--or at least capableof conceiving the politic views of such a statesman asSt. Laurence O'Toole, we may infer from the rank ofChancellor which he conferred, and the other negotiationswhich he entrusted to that great man. That he maintainedhis self-respect as a sovereign, both in abstaining fromvisiting Henry II. Under pretence of hospitality atDublin, and throughout all his difficult diplomacy withthe Normans, we are free to conclude. With the Normansfor foes--with a decayed and obsolete national constitutionto patch up--with nominal subordinates more powerful thanhimself--with rebellion staring him in the face out ofthe eyes of his own children--Roderick O'Conor had noordinary part to play in history. The fierce familypride of our fathers and the vices of their politicalsystem are to be deplored and avoided; let us not makethe last of their national kings the scape-goat for allhis cotemporaries and all his predecessors. 

CHAPTER VII. 

ASSASSINATION OF HUGH DE LACY--JOHN "LACKLAND" INIRELAND--VARIOUS EXPEDITIONS OF JOHN DE COURCY--DEATH OFCONOR MOINMOY, AND RISE OF CATHAL, "THE RED-HANDED"O'CONOR--CLOSE OF THE CAREER OF DE COURCY AND DE BURGH. 

Hugh de Lacy, restored to the supreme authority on therecall of Fitz-Aldelm in 1179, began to conceive hopes, as Strongbow had done, of carving out for himself a newkingdom. After the assassination of O'Ruarc alreadyrelated, he assumed without further parley the titles ofLord of Meath and Breffni. To these titles, he addedthat of Oriel or Louth, but his real strength lay inMeath, where his power was enhanced by a politic secondmarriage with Rose, daughter of O'Conor. Among the Irishhe now began to be known as King of the foreigners, andsome such assumption of royal authority caused his recallfor a few months in the year 1180, and his substitutionby de Courcy and Philip de Broasa, in 1184. But his greatqualities caused his restoration a third time to the rankof Justiciary for Henry, or Deputy for John, whose titleof "Lord of Ireland" was bestowed by his father, at aParliament held at Oxford, in 1177. 

This founder of the Irish de Lacys is described by_Giraldus_, who knew him personally, as a man of Gallicsobriety, ambitious, avaricious, and lustful, of smallstature, and deformed shape, with repulsive features, and dark, deep-set eyes. By the Irish of the midlanddistricts he was bitterly detested as a sacrilegiousspoiler of their churches and monasteries, and the mostpowerful among their invaders. The murder of O'Ruarc, whose title of Breffni he had usurped, was attributed toa deep-laid design; he certainly shared the odium withthe advantage that ensued from it. Nor was his own endunlike that of his rival. Among other sites for castles, he had chosen the foundations of the ancient and muchvenerated monastery of Durrow, planted by Columbcille, seven centuries before, in the midst of the fertile regionwatered by the Brosna. This act of profanity was fatedto be his last, for, while personally superintending thework, O'Meyey, a young man of good birth, and foster-brotherto a neighbouring chief of Teffia, known as _Sionnach_, or "the Fox, " struck off his head with a single blow ofhis axe and escaped into the neighbouring forest ofKilclare during the confusion which ensued. De Lacy leftissue--two sons, Hugh and Walter, by his first wife, anda third, William _Gorm_, by his second--of whom, and oftheir posterity, we shall have many occasions to makemention. 

In one of the intervals of de Lacy's disfavour, PrinceJohn, surnamed _Sans-terre_, or "lack-land, " was sentover by his father to strengthen the English interest inIreland. He arrived in Waterford, accompanied by a fleetof sixty ships, on the last of March, 1185, and remainedin the country till the following November. If anythingcould excuse the levity, folly and misconduct of thePrince on this expedition, it would be his youth;--hewas then only eighteen. But Henry had taken every precautionto ensure success to his favourite son. He was precededinto Ireland by Archbishop Cuming, the English successorof St. Laurence; the learned Glanville was his legaladviser; John de Courcy was his lieutenant, and theeloquent, but passionate and partial _Giraldus Cambrensis_, his chaplain and tutor. He had, however, other companionsmore congenial to his age and temper, young noblemen asfroward and as extravagant as himself; yet, as he surpassedthem all in birth and rank, so he did in wickedness andcruelty of disposition. For age he had no reverence, forvirtue no esteem, neither truth towards man, nor decencytowards woman. On his arrival at Waterford, the newArchbishop of Dublin, John de Courcy, and the principalNorman nobles, hastened to receive him. With them camealso certain Leinster chiefs, desiring to live at peacewith the new Galls. When, according to the custom of thecountry, the chiefs advanced to give John the kiss ofpeace, their venerable age was made a mockery by theyoung Prince, who met their proffered salutations byplucking at their beards. This appears to have been asdeadly an insult to the Irish as it is to the Asiatics, and the deeply offended guests instantly quitted Waterford. Other follies and excesses rapidly transpired, and thenative nobles began to discover that a royal armyencumbered, rather than led by such a Prince, was notlikely to prove itself invincible. In an idle parade fromthe Suir to the Liffey, from the Liffey to the Boyne, and in issuing orders for the erection of castles, (someof which are still correctly and others erroneously calledKing John's Castles, ) the campaign months of the yearwere wasted by the King of England's son. One of thesecastles, to which most importance was attached, Ardfinanon the Suir, was no sooner built than taken by DonaldMore O'Brien, on midsummer day, when four knights andits other defenders were slain. Another was rising atLismore, on the Blackwater, under the guardianship ofRobert Barry, one of the brood of Nesta, when it wasattacked and Barry slain. Other knights and castellanswere equally unfortunate; Raymond Fitz-Hugh fell atLeighlin, another Raymond in Idrone, and Roger le Poerin Ossory. In Desmond, Cormac McCarthy besieged Theobald, ancestor of the Butlers in Cork, but this brave Prince--the worthy compeer of O'Brien--was cut off "in a parleeby them of Cork. " The Clan-Colman, or O'Melaghlins, hadrisen in West-Meath to reclaim their own, when Henry, not an hour too soon, recalled his reckless son, andentrusted, for the last time, the command to Hugh deLacy, whose fate has been already related. 

In the fluctuations of the power of the invaders afterthe death of de Lacy, and during the next reign in England, one steadfast name appears foremost among the adventurers--that of the gallant giant, de Courcy, the conqueror ofthe Ards of Down. Not only in prowess, but also in piety, he was the model of all the knighthood of his time. Weare told that he always carried about his person a copyof the prophecies attributed to Columbcille, and when, in the year 1186, the relics of the three great saints, whose dust sanctifies Downpatrick, were supposed to bediscovered by the Bishop of Down in a dream, he causedthem to be translated to the altar-side with all suitablereverence. Yet all his devotions and pilgrimages did notprevent him from pushing on the work of conquest wheneveroccasion offered. His plantation in Down had time to takeroot from the unexpected death of Donald, Prince ofAileach, in an encounter with the garrison of one of thenew castles, near Newry. (A. D. 1188. ) The same year hetook up the enterprise against Connaught, in which Milode Cogan had so signally failed, and from which even deLacy had, for reasons of his own, refrained. The feudsof the O'Conor family were again the pretext and theground of hope with the invaders, but Donald More O'Brien, victorious on the Suir and the Shannon, carried his strongsuccours to Conor _Moinmoy_ on the banks of the Suca, near the present Ballinasloe, and both powers combinedmarched against de Courcy. Unprepared for this junction, the Norman retreated towards Sligo, and had reachedBallysadare, when Flaherty, Lord of Tyrconnell (Donegal), came against them from the opposite point, and thus placedbetween two fires, they were forced to fly through therugged passes of the Curlieu mountains, skirmishing asthey went. The only incidents which signalized thiscampaign on their side was the burning of Ballysadareand the plunder of Armagh; to the Irish it was creditablefor the combinations it occasioned. It is cheering inthe annals of those desultory wars to find a nationaladvantage gained by the joint action of a Munster, aConnaught, and an Ulster force. 

The promise of national unity held out by the allianceof O'Brien and O'Conor, in the years 1188-'89, had beenfollowed up by the adhesion of the lords of Breffni, Ulidia, or Down, the chiefs of the Clan-Colman, andMcCarthy, Prince of Desmond. But the assassination ofConor Moinmoy, by the partizans of his cousins, extinguishedthe hopes of the country, and the peace of his ownprovince. The old family feuds broke out with new fury. In vain the aged Roderick emerged from his convent, andsought with feeble hand to curb the fiery passions ofhis tribe; in vain the Archbishops of Armagh and of Tuaminterposed their spiritual authority, A series offratricidal contests, for which history has no memoryand no heart, were fought out between the warring branchesof the family during the last ten years of the century, until by virtue of the strong-arm, Cathal _Crovdearg_, son of Turlogh More, and younger brother of Roderick, assumed the sovereignty of Connaught about the year 1200. 

In the twelve years which intervened between the deathof _Moinmoy_ and the establishment of the power of Cathal_Crovdearg_ O'Conor, the Normans had repeated opportunitiesfor intervention in the affairs of Connaught. William deBurgh, a powerful Baron of the family of Fitz-Aldelm, the former Lord Justice, sided with the opponents ofCathal, while de Courcy, and subsequently the younger deLacy, fought on his side. Once at least these restlessBarons changed allies, and fought as desperately againsttheir former candidate for the succession as they hadbefore fought for him. In one of these engagements, thedate assigned to which is the year 1190, Sir Armoric St. Laurence, founder of the Howth family, at the head of anumerous division, is said to have been cut off with allhis troop. But the fortune of war frequently shiftedduring the contest. In the year 1199, Cathal _Crovdearg_, with his allies de Lacy and de Courcy, was utterly defeatedat Kilmacduagh, in the present county of Galway, and wereit not that the rival O'Conor was sorely defeated, andtrodden to death in the route which ensued, three yearslater, Connaught might never have known the vigorousadministration of her "red-handed" hero. 

The early career of this able and now triumphant Prince, as preserved to us by history and tradition, is full ofromantic incidents. He is said to have been born out ofwedlock, and that his mother, while pregnant of him, wassubject to all the cruel persecutions and magical tormentsthe jealous wife of his father could invent. No soonerwas he born than he became an object of hatred to theQueen, so that mother and child, after being concealedfor three years in the sanctuaries of Connaught, had tofly for their lives into Leinster. In this exile, thoughearly informed of his origin, he was brought up amongthe labourers in the field, and was actually engaged, sickle in hand, cutting the harvest, when a travelling_Bollscaire_, or newsman from the west, related the eventswhich enabled him to return to his native province. "Farewell sickle, " he exclaimed, casting it from him--"now for the sword. " Hence "Cathal's farewell to therye" was long a proverbial expression for any suddenchange of purpose or of condition. Fortune seems to havefavoured him in most of his undertakings. In a storm uponLough Ree, when a whole fleet foundered and its warriorcrew perished, he was one of seven who were saved. Thoughin some of his early battles unsuccessful, he alwaysrecovered his ground, kept up his alliances, and returnedto the contest. After the death of the celebrated DonaldMore O'Brien (A. D. 1194), he may certainly be consideredthe first soldier and first diplomatist among the Irish. Nor was his lot cast on more favoured days, nor was hepitted against less able men than those with whom thebrave King of Munster--the stoutest defender of hisfatherland--had so honourably striven. Fortunate it wasfor the renown of the Gael, that as one star of the raceset over Thomond, another of equal brilliancy rose toguide them in the west. 

With the end of the century, the career of Cathal'sallies, de Courcy and de Burgh, may be almost said tohave ended. The obituary of the latter bears the dateof 1204. He had obtained large grants from King John oflands in Connaught--if he could conquer them--which hisvigorous descendants, the Burkes of Clanrickarde, didtheir best to accomplish. De Courcy, warring with thesons of de Lacy, and seeking refuge among the clansmenof Tyrone, disappears from the stage of Irish affairs. He is said to have passed on to England, and ended hisdays in prison, a victim to the caprice or jealousy ofKing John. Many tales are--told of his matchlessintrepidity. His indirect descendants, the Barons ofKinsale, claim the right to wear their hats before theKing in consequence of one of these legends, whichrepresents him as the champion Knight of England, takenfrom, a dungeon to uphold her honour against a Frenchchallenger. Other tales as ill authenticated are foundedon his career, which, however, in its literal truth, isunexcelled for hardihood and adventure, except, perhaps, by the cotemporaneous story of the lion-hearted Richard, whom he closely resembled. The title of Earl of Ulster, created for de Courcy in 1181, was transferred in 1205, by royal patent, to Walter de Lacy, whose only daughterMaud brought it in the year 1264 to Walter de Burgh, lordof Connaught, from whose fourth female descendant itpassed in 1354, by her marriage with Lionel, Duke ofClarence, into the royal family of England. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

EVENTS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY--THE NORMANS INCONNAUGHT. 

Ireland, during the first three quarters of the thirteenthcentury, produced fewer important events, and fewer greatmen, than in the thirty last years of the century preceding. From the side of England, she was subjected to no imminentdanger in all that interval. The reign of John ending in1216, and that of Henry III. Extending till 1271, werefully occupied with the insurrections of the Barons, withFrench, Scotch, and Welsh wars, family feuds, the riseand fall of royal favourites, and all those other incidentswhich naturally, befall in a state of society where theKing is weak, the aristocracy strong and insolent, andthe commons disunited and despised. During this periodthe fusion of Norman, Saxon, and Briton went slowly on, and the next age saw for the first time a populationwhich could be properly called English. "Do you take mefor an Englishman?" was the last expression of Normanarrogance in the reign of King John; but the close ofthe reign of Henry III. , through the action of commercialand political causes, saw a very different state offeeling growing up between the descendants of the raceswhich contended for mastery under Harold and William. The strongly marked Norman characteristics lingered inIreland half a century later, for it is usually the casethat traits of caste survive longest in colonies andremote provinces. In Richard de Burgo, commonly calledthe Red Earl of Ulster, all the genius and the vices ofthe race of Rollo blazed out over Ireland for the lasttime, and with terrible effect. 

During the first three quarters of the century, ourhistory, like that of England, is the history of a fewgreat houses; nation there is, strictly speaking, none. It will be necessary, therefore, to group together theacts of two or three generations of men of the same name, as the only method of finding our way through the shiftingscenes of this stormy period. 

The power of the great Connaught family of O'Conor, soterribly shaken by the fratricidal wars and unnaturalalliances of the sons and grandsons of Roderick, was ingreat part restored by the ability and energy of Cathal_Crovdearg_. In his early struggles for power he wasgreatly assisted by the anarchy which reigned among theEnglish nobles. Mayler Fitz-Henry, the last of Strongbow'scompanions, who rose to such eminence, being Justiciaryin the first six years of the century, was aided byO'Conor to besiege William de Burgo in Limerick, and tocripple the power of the de Lacys in Meath. In the year1207, John Gray, Bishop of Norwich, was sent over, asmore likely to be impartial than any ruler personallyinterested in the old quarrels, but during his first termof office, the interdict with which Innocent III. Hadsmitten England, hung like an Egyptian darkness over theAnglo-Norman power in Ireland. The native Irish, however, were exempt from its enervating effects, and CathalO'Conor, by the time King John came over in person--inthe year 1210--to endeavour to retrieve the Englishinterest, had warred down all his enemies, and was ofpower sufficient to treat with the English sovereign asindependently as Roderick had done with Henry II. Thirty-five years before. He personally conferred withJohn at Dublin, as the O'Neil and other native Princesdid; he procured from the English King the condemnationof John de Burgo, who had maintained his father's claimson a portion of Connaught, and he was formally recognised, according to the approved forms of Norman diplomacy, asseized of the whole of Connaught, in his own right. 

The visit of King John, which lasted from the 20th ofJune till the 25th of August, was mainly directed to thereduction of those intractable Anglo-Irish Barons whomFitz-Henry and Gray had proved themselves unable to copewith. Of these the de Lacys of Meath were the mostobnoxious. They not only assumed an independent state, but had sheltered de Braos, Lord of Brecknock, one ofthe recusant Barons of Wales, and refused to surrenderhim on the royal summons. To assert his authority, andto strike terror into the nobles of other possessions, John crossed the channel with a prodigious fleet--in theIrish annals said to consist of 700 sail. He landed atCrook, reached Dublin, and prepared at once to subduethe Lacys. With his own army, and the co-operation ofCathal O'Conor, he drove out Walter de Lacy, Lord ofMeath, who fled to his brother, Hugh de Lacy, since deCourcy's disgrace, Earl of Ulster. From Meath into LouthJohn pursued the brothers, crossing the lough at Carlingfordwith his ships, which must have coasted in his company. From Carlingford they retreated, and he pursued toCarrickfergus, and from that fortress, unable to resista royal fleet and navy, they fled into Man or Scotland, and thence escaped in disguise into France. With theirguest de Braos, they wrought as gardeners in the groundsof the Abbey of Saint Taurin Evreux, until the Abbot, having discovered by their manners the key to their realrank, negotiated successfully with John for theirrestoration to their estates. Walter agreed to pay afine of 2, 500 marks for his lordship in Meath, and Hugh4, 000 marks for his possessions in Ulster. Of de Braoswe have no particulars; his high-spirited wife and childrenwere thought to have been starved to death by order ofthe unforgiving tyrant in one of his castles. The deLacys, on their restoration, were accompanied to Irelandby a nephew of the Abbot of St. Taurin, on whom theyconferred an estate and the honour of knighthood. 

The only other acts of John's sojourn in Ireland was histreaty with O'Conor, already mentioned, and the mappingout, on paper, of the intended counties of Oriel (orLouth), Meath, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Katherlough(or Carlow), Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary, as the only districts in which those heclaimed as his subjects had any possessions. He againinstalled the Bishop of Norwich as his justiciary orlieutenant, who, three years, later, was succeeded byHenry de Londres, the next Archbishop of Dublin, and heagain (A. D. 1215), by Geoffrey de Marisco, the last ofJohn's deputies. In the year 1216, Henry III. , an infantten years of age, succeeded to the English throne, andthe next dozen years the history of the two islands isslightly connected, except by the fortunes of the familyof de Burgh, whose head, Hubert de Burgh, the ChiefJusticiary, from the accession of the new King, untilthe first third of the century had closed, was in realitythe Sovereign of England. Among his other titles he heldthat of Lord of Connaught, which he conveyed to hisrelative, Richard de Burgo, the son or grandson of WilliamFitz-Aldelm de Burgo, about the year 1225. And this bringsus to relate how the house of Clanrickarde rose upon theflank of the house of O'Conor, and after holding an almostequal front for two generations, finally overshadowedits more ancient rival. 

While Cathal _Crovdearg_ lived, the O'Conor's held theirown, and rather more than their own, by policy or arms. Not only did his own power suffer no diminution, but hemore than once assisted the Dalgais and the Eugenians toexpel their invaders from North and South Munster, andto uphold their ancient rights and laws. During the lastyears of John's reign that King and his Barons weremutually too busy to set aside the arrangement enteredinto in 1210. In the first years of Henry it was alsoleft undisturbed by the English court. In 1221 we readthat the de Lacys, remembering, no doubt, the part hehad played in their expulsion, endeavoured to fortifyAthleague against him, but the veteran King, crossingthe Shannon farther northward, took them in the rear, compelled them to make peace, and broke down their Castle. This was almost the last of his victories. In the year1213 we read in the Annals of "an awful and heavy showerwhich fell over Connaught, " and was held to presage thedeath of its heroic King. Feeling his hour had come, this Prince, to whom are justly attributed the rare unionof virtues, ardour of mind, chastity of body, meeknessin prosperity, fortitude under defeat, prudence in civilbusiness, undaunted bravery in battle, and a piety oflife beyond all his cotemporaries--feeling the nearapproach of death, retired to the Abbey of Knockmoy, which he had founded and endowed, and there expired inthe Franciscan habit, at an age which must have borderedon fourscore. He was succeeded by his son, Hugh O'Conor, "the hostages of Connaught being in his house" at thetime of his illustrious father's death. 

No sooner was Cathal _Crovdearg_ deceased than Hubert deBurgo procured the grants of the whole Province, reservingonly five cantreds about Athlone for a royal garrison tobe made to Richard de Burgo, his nephew. Richard hadmarried Hodierna, granddaughter to Cathal, and thus, likeall the Normans, though totally against the Irish custom, claimed a part of Connaught in right of his wife. But inthe sons of Cathal he found his equal both in policy andarms, and with the fall of his uncle at the English court(about the year 1233), Feidlim O'Conor, the successor ofHugh, taking advantage of the event, made interest atthe Court of Henry III. Sufficient to have his overgrownneighbour stripped of some of his strongholds by royalorder. The King was so impressed with O'Conor'srepresentations that he wrote peremptorily to MauriceFitzgerald, second Lord Offally, then his deputy, "toroot out that barren tree planted in Offally by Hubertde Burgh, in the madness of his power, and not to sufferit to shoot forth. " Five years later, Feidlim, in return, carried some of his force, in conjunction with the deputy, to Henry's aid in Wales, though, as their arrival wassomewhat tardy, Fitzgerald was soon after dismissed onthat account. 

Richard de Burgo died in attendance on King Henry inFrance (A. D. 1243), and was succeeded by his son, Walterde Burgo, who continued, with varying fortunes, thecontest for Connaught with Feidlim, until the death ofthe latter, in the Black Abbey of Roscommon, in the year1265. Hugh O'Conor, the son and successor of Feidlim, continued the intrepid guardian of his house and provinceduring the nine years he survived his father. In the year1254, by marriage with the daughter of de Lacy, Earl ofUlster, that title had passed into the family of de Burgh, bringing with it, for the time, much substantial, thoughdistant, strength. It was considered only a secondarytitle, and as the eldest son of the first de Lacy remainedLord of Meath, while the younger took de Courcy's forfeitedtitle of Ulster, so, in the next generation, did the sonsof this Walter de Burgh, until death and time reunitedboth titles in the same person. Walter de Burgh died inthe year 1271, in the Castle of Galway; his great rival, Feidlim O'Conor, in 1274, was buried in the Abbey ofBoyle. The former is styled King of the English ofConnaught by the Irish Annalists, who also speak ofFeidlim as "the most triumphant and the most feared (bythe invaders) of any King that had been in Connaughtbefore his time. " The relative position of the Irish andEnglish in that Province, towards the end of this century, may be judged by the fact, that of the Anglo-Normanssummoned by Edward I. To join him in Scotland in 1299, but two, Richard de Burgo and Piers de Bermingham, Baronof Athenry, had then possessions in Connaught. Therewere Norman Castles at Athlone, at Athenry, at Galway, and perhaps at other points; but the natives still swayedsupreme over the plains of Rathcrogan, the plains ofBoyle, the forests and lakes of Roscommon, and the wholeof _Iar_, or West Connaught, from Lough Corrib to theocean, with the very important exception of the castleand port of Galway. A mightier de Burgo than any thathad yet appeared was to see in his house, in the year1286, "the hostages of all Connaught;" but his life anddeath form a distinct epoch in our story and must betreated separately. 

CHAPTER IX. 

EVENTS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY--THE NORMANS IN MUNSTERAND LEINSTER. 

We have already told the tragic fate of the twoadventurers--Fitzstephen and de Cogan--between whom thewhole of Desmond was first partitioned by Henry II. Butthere were not wanting other claimants, either by originalgrant from the crown, by intermarriage with Irish, orNorman-Irish heiresses, or new-comers, favourites of Johnor of Henry III. , or of their Ministers, enriched at theexpense of the native population. Thomas, third son ofMaurice Fitzgerald, claimed partly through his uncleFitzstephen, and partly through his marriage with thedaughter of another early adventurer, Sir William Morrie, whose vast estates on which his descendants were afterwardsknown as Earls of Desmond, the White Knight, the Knightof Glyn, and the Knight of Kerry. Robert de Carew andPatrick de Courcy claimed as heirs general to de Cogan. The de Mariscoes, de Barris, and le Poers, were notextinct; and finally Edward I. , soon after his accession, granted the whole land of Thomond to Thomas de Clare, son of the Earl of Gloucester, and son-in-law of Maurice, third Baron of Offally. A contest very similar to thatwhich was waged in Connaught between the O'Conors and deBurghs was consequently going on in Munster at the sametime, between the old inhabitants and the new claimants, of all the three classes just indicated. 

The principality of Desmond, containing angles of Waterfordand Tipperary, with all Cork and Kerry, seemed at thebeginning of the thirteenth century in greatest dangerof conquest. The O'Callaghans, Lords of Cinel-Aedha, inthe south of Cork, were driven into the mountains ofDuhallow, where they rallied and held their ground forfour centuries; the O'Sullivans, originally settled alongthe Suir, about Clonmel, were forced towards the mountainseacoast of Cork and Kerry, where they acquired new vigourin the less fertile soil of Beare and Bantry. The nativefamilies of the Desies, from their proximity to the portof Waterford, were harassed and overrun, and the portsof Dungarvan, Youghal, and Cork, being also taken andgarrisoned by the founder of the earldom of Desmond, easyentrance and egress by sea could always be obtained forhis allies, auxiliaries, and supplies. It was when thesedangers were darkening and menacing on every side thatthe family of McCarthy, under a succession of able andvigorous chiefs, proved themselves worthy of the headshipof the Eugenian race. Cormac McCarthy, who had expelledthe first garrison from Waterford, ere he fell in a parleybefore Cork, had defeated the first enterprises ofFitzstephen and de Cogan; he left a worthy son in Donaldna Curra, who, uniting his own co-relations, and actingin conjunction with O'Brien and O'Conor, retarded by hismany exploits the progress of the invasion in Munster. He recovered Cork and razed King John's castle atKnockgraffon on the Suir. He left two surviving sons, ofwhom the eldest, Donald _Gott_, or the Stammerer, tookthe title of _More_, or Great, and his posterity remainedprinces of Desmond, until that title merged in the earldomof Glencare (A. D. 1565); the other, Cormac, after takinghis brother prisoner compelled him to acknowledge him aslord of the four baronies of Carbury. From this Cormacthe family of McCarthy Reagh descended, and to them theO'Driscolls, O'Donovans, O'Mahonys, and other Eugenianhouses became tributary. The chief residence of McCarthyReagh was long fixed at Dunmanway; his castles were alsoat Baltimore, Castlehaven, Lough-Fyne, and in Inis-Sherkinand Clear Island. The power of McCarthy More extended atits greatest reach from Tralee in Kerry to Lismore inWaterford. In the year 1229, Dermid McCarthy had peaceablepossession of Cork, and founded the Franciscan Monasterythere. Such was his power, that, according to Hamner andhis authorities, the Geraldines "dare not for twelveyears put plough into the ground in Desmond. " At last, another generation rose, and fierce family feuds brokeout between the branches of the family. The Lord ofCarbury now was Fineen, or Florence, the most celebratedman of his name, and one whose power naturally encroachedupon the possession of the elder house. John, son ofThomas Fitzgerald of Desmond, seized the occasion to makegood the enormous pretension of his family. In theexpedition which he undertook for this purpose, in theyear 1260, he was joined by the Justiciary, William Dene, by Walter de Burgo, Earl of Ulster, by Walter deRiddlesford, Baron of Bray, by Donnel Roe, a chief ofthe hostile house of McCarthy. The Lord of Carbury unitedunder his standard the chief Eugenian families, not onlyof the Coast, but even of McCarthy More's principality, and the battle was fought with great ferocity atCallan-Glen, near Kenmare, in Kerry. There the Anglo-Normansreceived the most complete defeat they had yet experiencedon Irish ground. John Fitz-Thomas, his son Maurice, eightbarons, fifteen knights, and "countless numbers of commonsoldiers were slain. " The Monastery of Tralee receivedthe dead body of its founder and his son, while FlorenceMcCarthy, following up his blow, captured and broke downin swift succession all the English castles in hisneighbourhood, including those of Macroom, Dunnamark, Dunloe, and Killorglin. In besieging one of these castles, called Ringrone, the victorious chief, in the full tideof conquest, was cut off, and his brother, called the_Atheleireach_ (or suspended priest), succeeded to hispossessions. The death of the victor arrested the panicof the defeat, but Munster saw another generation beforeher invaders had shaken off the depression of the battleof Callan-glen. 

Before the English interest had received this severe blowin the south, a series of events had transpired inLeinster, going to show that its aspiring barons had beenseized with the madness which precedes destruction. William, Earl Marshal and Protector of England duringthe minority of Henry III. , had married Isabella, thedaughter of Strongbow and granddaughter of Dermid, throughwhom he assumed the title of Lord of Leinster. He procuredthe office of Earl Marshal of Ireland--originally conferredon the first de Lacy--for his own nephew, and thusconverted the de Lacys into mortal enemies. His son andsuccessor Richard, having made himself obnoxious, soonafter his accession to that title, to the young King, orto Hubert de Burgh, was outlawed, and letters weredespatched to the Justiciary, Fitzgerald, to de Burgo, de Lacy, and other Anglo-Irish lords, if he landed inIreland, to seize his person, alive or dead, and send itto England. Strong in his estates and alliances, theyoung Earl came; while his enemies employed the wilyGeoffrey de Mountmorres to entrap him into a conference, in order to his destruction. The meeting was appointedfor the first day of April, 1234, and while the outlawedEarl was conversing with those who had invited him, anaffray began among their servants by design, he himselfwas mortally wounded and carried to one of Fitzgerald'scastles, where he died. He was succeeded in his Irishhonours by three of his brothers, who all died withoutheirs male. Anselme, the last Earl Marshal of his family, dying in 1245, left five co-heiresses, Maud, Joan, Isabel, Sybil, and Eva, between whom the Irish estates--or suchportions of them in actual possession--were divided. Theymarried respectively the Earls of Norfolk, Suffolk, Gloucester, Ferrers, and Braos, or Brace, Lord of Brecknock, in whose families, for another century or more, thesecondary titles were Catherlogh, Kildare, Wexford, Kilkenny, and Leix, --those five districts being supposed, most absurdly, to have come into the Marshal family, fromthe daughter of Strongbow. The false knights and dishonourednobles concerned in the murder of Richard Marshal weredisappointed of the prey which had been promised them--thepartition of his estates. And such was the horror whichthe deed excited in England, that it hastened the fallof Hubert de Burgh, though Maurice Fitzgerald, ofOffally--ancestor of the Kildare family--having clearedhimself of all complicity in it by oath--was continuedas Justiciary for ten years longer. In the year 1245, for his tardiness in joining the King's army in Wales, he was succeeded by the false-hearted Geoffrey deMountmorres, who held the office till 1247. During thenext twenty-five years, about half as many Justices wereplaced and displaced, according to the whim of thesuccessive favourites at the English Court. In 1252, Prince Edward, afterwards Edward I. , was appointed withthe title of Lord Lieutenant, but never came over. Noris there in the series of rulers we have numbered, with, perhaps, two exceptions, any who have rendered theirnames memorable by great exploits, or lasting legislation. So little inherent power had the incumbents of the highestoffice--unless when, they employed their own proper forcesin their sovereign's name--that we read without surprise, how the bold mountaineers of Wicklow, at the opening ofthe century (A. D. 1209) slaughtered the Bristolians ofDublin, engaged at their archery in Cullenswood, and atthe close of it, how "one of the Kavanaghs, of the bloodof McMurrogh, living at Leinster, " "displayed his standardswithin sight of the city. " Yet this is commonly spokenof as a country overrun by a few score Norman Knights, in a couple of campaigns!

The maintenance of the conquest was in these years lessthe work of the King's Justices than of the great houses. Of these, two principally profited, by the untimelyfelling of that great tree which overshadowed all othersin Leinster, the Marshals. The descendants of the eldestson of Maurice Fitzgerald clung to their Leinsterpossessions, while their equally vigorous cousins pushedtheir fortunes in Desmond. Maurice, grandson of Maurice, and second Baron of Offally, from the year 1229 to theyear 1246, was three times Lord Justice. "He was a valiantKnight, a very pleasant man, and inferior to none in thekingdom, " by Matthew Paris's account. He introduced theFranciscan and Dominican orders into Ireland, built manycastles, churches, and abbeys at Youghal, at Sligo, atArmagh, at Maynooth, and in other places. In the year1257, he was wounded in single combat by O'Donnell, Lordof Tyrconnell, near Sligo, and died soon after in theFranciscan habit in Youghal. He left his successor sopowerful, that in the year 1264, there being a feudbetween the Geraldines and de Burghs, he seized the LordJustice and the whole de Burgh party at a conference atCastledermot, and carried them to his own castles of Leaand Dunamase as prisoners. In 1272, on the accidentaldeath of the Lord Justice Audley, by a fall from hishorse, "the council" elected this the third Baron ofOffally in his stead. 

The family of Butler were of slower growth, but of equaltenacity with the Geraldines. They first seem to haveattached themselves to the Marshals, for whom they wereindebted for their first holding in Kilkenny. At theConference of Castledermot, Theobald Butler, the fourthin descent from the founder of the house, was numberedamong the adherents of de Burgh, but a few years laterwe find him the ally of the Geraldines in the invasionof Thomond. In the year 1247, the title of Lord of Carrickhad been conferred on him, which in 1315 was convertedinto Earl of Carrick, and this again into that of Ormond. The Butlers of this house, when they had attained theirgrowth of power, became the hereditary rivals of theKildare Geraldines, whose earldom dates from 1316, asthat of Ormond does from 1328, and Desmond from 1329. 

The name of Maurice, the third Baron of Offally, anduncle of John, the first Earl of Kildare, draws ourattention naturally to the last enterprise of his life--the attempt to establish his son-in-law, Thomas deClare, in possession of Thomond. The de Clares, Earls ofGloucester, pretended a grant from Henry II. Of the wholeof Thomond, as their title to invade that principality;but their real grant was bestowed by Edward I. , in theyear 1275. The state of the renowned patrimony of Brianhad long seemed to invite such an aggression. Murtogh, son of Donnell More, who succeeded his father in 1194, had early signalized himself by capturing the castles ofBirr, Kinnetty, Ballyroane and Lothra, in Leix, and razingthem to the ground. But these castles were reconstructedin 1213, when the feuds between the rival O'Briens--Murtoghand Donogh Cairbre--had paralyzed the defence force ofThomond. It was, doubtless, in the true divide-and-conquerspirit, that Henry the Third's advisers confirmed toDonogh the lordship of Thomond in 1220, leaving to hiselder brother the comparatively barren title of King ofMunster. Both brothers, by alternately working on theirhopes and fears, were thus for many years kept in a stateof dependence on the foreigner. One gleam of patrioticvirtue illumines the annals of the house of O'Brien, during the first forty years of the century--when, inthe year 1225, Donogh Cairbre assisted Felim O'Conor toresist the Anglo-Norman army, then pouring over Connaught, in the quarrel of de Burgh. Conor, the son of Donogh, who succeeded his father in the year 1242, animated bythe example of his cotemporaries, made successful waragainst the invaders of his Province, more especially inthe year 1257, and the next year; attended with O'Conorthe meeting at Beleek, on the Erne, where Brian O'Neilwas acknowledged, by both the Munster and the ConnaughtPrince, as _Ard-Righ_. The untimely end of this attemptat national union will be hereafter related; meantime, we proceed to mention that, in 1260, the Lord of Thomonddefeated the Geraldines and their Welsh auxiliaries, atKilbarran, in Clare. He was succeeded the following seasonby his son, Brian Roe, in whose time Thomas de Clareagain put to the test of battle his pretensions to thelordship of Thomond. 

It was in the year 1277, that, supported by hisfather-in-law, the Kildare Fitzgerald, de Clare marchedinto Munster, and sought an interview with the O'Brien. The relation of gossip, accounted sacred among the Irish, existed between them, but Brien Roe, having placed himselfcredulously in the hands of his invaders, was cruellydrawn to pieces between two horses. All Thomond rose inarms, under Donogh, son of Brian, to revenge this infamousmurder. Near Ennis the Normans met a terrible defeat, from which de Clare and Fitzgerald fled for safety intothe neighbouring Church of Quin. But Donogh O'Brien burnedthe Church over their heads, and forced them to surrenderat discretion. Strange to say they were held to ransom, on conditions, we may suppose, sufficiently hard. Otherdays of blood were yet to decide the claims of the familyof de Clare. In 1287, Turlogh, then the O'Brien, defeatedan invasion similar to the last, in which Thomas de Clarewas slain, together with Patrick Fitzmaurice of Kerry, Richard Taafe, Richard Deriter, Nicholas Teeling, andother knights, and Gerald, the fourth Baron of Offally, brother-in-law to de Clare, was mortally wounded. Afteranother interval, Gilbert de Clare, son of Thomas, renewedthe contest, which he bequeathed to his brother Richard. This Richard, whose name figures more than his brother'sin the events of his time, made a last effort, in theyear 1318, to make good the claims of his family. On the5th of May, in that year, he fell in battle againstMcCarthy and O'Brien, and there fell with him Sir Thomasde Naas, Sir Henry Capell, Sir James and Sir John Caunton, with four other knights, and a proportion of men-at-arms. From thenceforth that proud offshoot of the house ofGloucester, which, at its first settling in Munster, flourished as bravely as the Geraldines themselves, becameextinct in the land. 

Such were the varying fortunes of the two races in Leinsterand Munster, and such the men who rose and fell. We mustnow turn to the contest as maintained at the same periodin Meath and Ulster. 

CHAPTER X. 

EVENTS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY--THE NORMANS IN MEATHAND ULSTER. 

We may estimate the power of the de Lacy family in thesecond generation, from the fact that their expulsionrequired a royal army and navy, commanded by the King inperson, to come from England. Although pardoned by John, the brothers took care never to place themselves in thatcowardly tyrant's power, and they observed the sameprecaution on the accession of his son, until well assuredthat he did not share the antipathy of his father. Aftertheir restoration the Lacys had no rivals among theNorman-Irish except the Marshal family, and though bothhouses in half a century became extinct, not so thosethey had planted or patronized, or who claimed from themcollaterally. In Meath the Tuites, Cusacks, Flemings, Daltons, Petits, Husseys, Nangles, Tyrrells, Nugents, Verdons, and Gennevilles, struck deep into the soil. Theco-heiresses, Margaret and Matilda de Lacy, married LordTheobald de Verdon and Sir Geoffrey de Genneville, betweenwhom the estate of their father was divided; both theseladies dying without male issue, the lordship was, in1286, claimed by Richard de Burgo, Earl of Ulster, whosemother was their cousin-germain. But we are anticipatingtime. 

No portion of the island, if we except, perhaps, Wexfordand the shores of Strangford Lough, was so thoroughlycastellated as the ancient Meath from the sea to theShannon. Trim, Kells and Durrow were the strongest holds;there were keeps or castles at Ardbraccan, Slane, Rathwyre, Navan, Skreen, Santry, Clontarf, and Castleknock--foreven these places, almost within sight of Dublin, wereincluded in de Lacy's original grant. None of thesefortresses could have been more than a few miles distantfrom the next, and once within their thick-ribbed walls, the Norman, Saxon, Cambrian, or Danish serf or tenantmight laugh at the Milesian arrows and battle-axes without. With these fortresses, and their own half-Irish originand policy, the de Lacys, father and son, held Meath fortwo generations in general subjection. But the banishmentof the brothers in 1210, and the death of Walter of Meath, presented the family of O'Melaghlin and the whole of theMethian tribes with opportunities of insurrection not tobe neglected. We read, therefore, under the years 1211, '12 and '13, that Art O'Melaghlin and Cormac, his son, took the castles of Killclane, Ardinurcher, Athboy, andSmerhie, killing knights and wardens, and enrichingthemselves with booty; that the whole English of Irelandturned out _en masse_ to the rescue of their brethren inMeath; that the castles of Birr, Durrow, and Kinnettywere strengthened against Art, and a new one erected atClonmacnoise. After ten years of exile, the banished deLacys returned, and by alliance with O'Neil, no less thantheir own prowess, recovered all their former influence. Cormac, son of Art, left a son and successor also namedArt, who, we read at the year 1264, gave the English ofMeath a great defeat upon the Brosna, where he that wasnot slain was drowned. Following the blow, he burnedtheir villages and broke the castles of the strangerthroughout Devlin, Calry, and Brawny, and replaced inpower over them the McCoghlans, Magawleys, and O'Breens, from whom he took hostages according to ancient custom. Two years afterwards he repulsed Walter de Burgh atShannon harbour, driving his men into the river, wheremany of them perished. At his death (A. D. 1283) he iseulogized for having destroyed seven-and-twenty Englishcastles in his lifetime. From these exploits he was calledArt _na Caislean_, a remarkable distinction, when weremember that the Irish were, up to this time, whollyunskilled in besieging such strongholds as the Normanengineers knew so well how to construct. His only rivalin Meath in such meritorious works of destruction wasConor, son of Donnell, and O'Melaghlin of East-Meath, or_Bregia_, whose death is recorded at the year 1277, "asone of the three men in Ireland" whom the midland Englishmost feared. 

From the ancient mensal the transition is easy to thenorth. The border-land of Breffni, whose chief was thefirst of the native nobles that perished by Norman perfidy, was at the beginning of the century swayed by UlgargO'Rourke. Of Ulgarg we know little, save that in the year1231 he "died on his way to the river Jordan"--a notuncommon pilgrimage with the Irish of those days. Nial, son of Congal, succeeded, and about the middle of thecentury we find Breffni divided into two lordships, fromthe mountain of Slieve-an-eiran eastward, or Cavan, beinggiven to Art, son of Cathal, and from the mountainwestward, or Leitrim, to Donnell, son of Conor, son ofTiernan, de Lacy's victim. This subdivision conducedneither to the strengthening of its defenders nor to thesatisfaction of O'Conor, under whose auspices it wasmade. Family feuds and household treasons were its naturalresults for two or three generations; in the midst ofthese broils two neighbouring families rose into greaterimportance, the O'Reillys in Cavan and the Maguires inFermanagh. Still, strong in their lake and mountainregion, the tribes of Breffni were comparatively unmolestedby foreign enemies, while the stress of the northernbattle fell upon the men of Tyrconnell and Tyrone, ofOriel and of the coast country, from Carlingford to theCauseway. 

The borders of Tyrconnell and Tyrone, like every othertribe-land, were frequently enlarged or contracted, according to the vigour or weakness of their chiefs orneighbours. In the age of which we now speak, Tyrconnellextended from the Erne to the Foyle, and Tyrone from theFoyle to Lough Neagh, with the exception of the extremenorth of Berry and Antrim, which belonged to the O'Kanes. It was not till the fourteenth century that the O'Neilsspread their power east of Lough Neagh, over those baroniesof Antrim long known as north and south _Clan-Hugh-Buidhe_, (Clandeboy. ) North Antrim was still known as Dalriada, and South Antrim and Down, as Ulidia. Oriel, which hasbeen usually spoken of in this history as Louth, includedangles of Monaghan and Armagh, and was anciently the mostextensive lordship in Ulster. The chieftain families ofTyrconnell were the O'Donnells; of Tyrone, the O'Neilsand McLaughlins; of Dalriada, O'Kanes, O'Haras, andO'Shields; of Ulidia, the Magennis of Iveagh and theDonlevys of Down; of Oriel, the McMahons and O'Hanlons. Among these populous tribes the invaders dealt some oftheir fiercest blows, both by land and sea, in thethirteenth century. But the north was fortunate in itschiefs; they may fairly contest the laurel with theO'Conors, O'Briens and McCarthys of the west and south. 

In the first third of the century, Hugh O'Neil, whosucceeded to the lordship of Tyrone in 1198, and died in1230, was cotemporary with Donnell More O'Donnell, who, succeeding to the lordship of Tyrconnell in 1208, diedin 1241, after an equally long and almost equallydistinguished career. Melaghlin O'Donnell succeededDonnell More from '41 to '47, Godfrey from '48 to '57, and Donnell Oge from 1257 to 1281, when he was slain inbattle. Hugh O'Neil was succeeded in Tyrone by DonnellMcLaughlin, of the rival branch of the same stock, whoin 1241 was subdued by O'Donnell, and the ascendancy ofthe family of O'Neil established in the person of Brian, afterwards chosen King of Ireland, and slain at Down. Hugh Boy, or the Swarthy, was elected O'Neil on Brian'sdeath, and ruled till the year 1283, when he was slainin battle, as was his next successor, Brian, in the year1295. These names and dates are worthy to be borne inmind, because on these two-great houses mainly devolvedthe brunt of battle in their own province. 

These northern chiefs had two frontiers to guard or toassail: the north-eastern, extending from the glens ofAntrim to the hills of Mourne, and the southern stretchingfrom sea to sea, from Newry to Sligo. This country wasvery assailable by sea; to those whose castles commandedits harbours and rivers, the fleets of Bristol, Chester, Man, and Dublin could always carry supplies andreinforcements. By the interior line one road threadedthe Mourne mountains, and deflected towards Armagh, whileanother, winding through west Breffni, led from Sligointo Donegal by the cataract of Assaroe, --the presentBallyshannon. Along these ancient lines of communication, by fords, in mountain passes, and near the landing placesfor ships, the struggle for the possession of that endof the Island went on, at intervals, whenever large bodiesof men could be spared from garrisons and from districtsalready occupied. 

In the year 1210, we find that there was an English Castleat Cael-uisge, now Castle-Caldwell, on Lough Erne, andthat it was broke down and its defenders slain by HughO'Neil and Donald More O'Donnell acting together. Afterthis event we have no trace of a foreign force in theinterior of Ulster for several years. Hugh O'Neil, whodied in 1230, is praised by the Bards for "never havinggiven hostages, pledges, or tributes to English or Irish, "which seems a compliment well founded. During severalyears following that date the war was chiefly centred inConnaught, and the fighting men of the north who tookpart in it were acting as allies to the O'Conors. DonaldMore O'Donnell had married a daughter of Cathal Crovdearg, so that ties of blood, as well as neighbouring interests, united these two great families. In the year 1247, anarmy under Maurice Fitzgerald, then Lord Justice, crossedthe Erne in two divisions, one above and the other atBallyshannon. Melaghlin O'Donnell was defending thepassage of the river when he was taken unexpectedly inthe rear by those who had crossed higher up, and thuswas defeated and slain. Fitzgerald then ravaged Tyrconnell, set up a rival chief O'Canavan, and rebuilt the Castleat Cael-uisge, near Beleek. Ten years afterwards GodfreyO'Donnell, the successor of Melaghlin, avenged the defeatat Ballyshannon, in the sanguinary battle of Credran, near Sligo, where engaging Fitzgerald in single combat, he gave him his death-stroke. From wounds received atCredran, Godfrey himself, after lingering twelve monthsin great suffering, died. But his bodily afflictions didnot prevent him discharging all the duties of a greatCaptain; he razed a second time the English Castle onLough Erne, and stoutly protected his own borders againstthe pretensions of O'Neil, being carried on his bier inthe front of the battle of Lough Swilly in 1258. 

It was while Tyrconnell was under the rule of this heroicsoldier that the unfortunate feud arose between theO'Neils and O'Donnells. Both families, sprung from acommon ancestor, of equal antiquity and equal pride, neither would yield a first place to the other. "Pay memy tribute, " was O'Neil's demand; "I owe you no tribute, and if I did---" was O'Donnell's reply. The O'Neil atthis time--Brian--aspiring to restore the Irish sovereigntyin his own person, was compelled to begin the work ofexercising authority over his next neighbour. More thanone border battle was the consequence, not only withGodfrey, but with Donnell Oge, his successor. In the year1258, Brian was formally recognized by O'Conor and O'Brienas chief of the kingdom, in the conference of Cael-uisge, and two years later, at the battle of Down, gallantlylaid down his life, in defence of the kingdom he claimedto govern. In this most important battle no O'Donnell isfound fighting with King Brian, though immediatelyafterwards we find Donnell Oge of Tyrconnell endeavouringto subjugate Tyrone, and active afterwards in the aid ofhis cousins, the grandsons of Cathal Crovdearg, inConnaught. 

The Norman commander in this battle was Stephen deLongespay, then Lord Justice, Earl of Salisbury inEngland, and Count de Rosman in France. His marriage withthe widow of Hugh de Lacy and daughter of de Riddlesfordconnected him closely with Irish affairs, and in thebattle of Down he seems to have had all the Anglo-Irishchivalry, "in gold and iron, " at his back. With KingBrian O'Neil fell, on that crimson day, the chiefs ofthe O'Hanlons, O'Kanes, McLaughlins, O'Gormlys, McCanns, and other families who followed his banner. The men ofConnaught suffered hardly less than those of Ulster. McDermott, Lord of Moylurgh, Cathal O'Conor, O'Gara, McDonogh, O'Mulrony, O'Quinn, and other chiefs were amongthe slain. In Hugh _Bwee_ O'Neil the only hope of thehouse of Tyrone seemed now to rest; and his energy andcourage were all taxed to the uttermost to retain theplace of his family in the Province, beating back rapaciousneighbours on the one hand, and guarding against foreignenemies on the other. For twelve years, Hugh _Bwee_defended his lordship against all aggressors. In 1283, he fell at the hands of the insurgent chiefs of Orieland Breffni, and a fierce contest for the successionarose between his son Brian and Donald, son of King Brianwho fell at Down. A contest of twelve years saw Donaldsuccessful over his rival (A. D. 1295), and his ruleextended from that period until 1325, when he died atLeary's lake, in the present diocese of Clogher. 

It was this latter Donnell or Donald O'Neil, who, towardsthe end of his reign, addressed to Pope John XXII. (electedto the pontificate in 1316) that powerful indictmentagainst the Anglo-Normans, which has ever since remainedone of the cardinal texts of our history. It was evidentlywritten after the unsuccessful attempt, in which Donaldwas himself a main actor, to establish Edward Bruce onthe throne of Ireland. That period we have not yetreached, but the merciless character of the warfare wagedagainst the natives of the country could hardly have beenaggravated by Bruce's defeat. "They oblige us by openforce, " says the Ulster Prince, "to give up to them ourhouses and our lands, and to seek shelter like wild beastsupon the mountains, in woods, marshes, and caves. Eventhere we are not secure against their fury; they evenenvy us those dreary and terrible abodes; they areincessant and unremitting in their pursuit after us, endeavouring to chase us from among them; they lay claimto every place in which they can discover us withunwarranted audacity and injustice; they allege that thewhole kingdom belongs to them of right, and that anIrishman has no longer a right to remain in his owncountry. "

After specifying in detail the proofs of these and othergeneral charges, the eloquent Prince concludes by utteringthe memorable vow that the Irish "will not cease to fightagainst and among their invaders until the day when theythemselves, for want of power, shall have ceased to dous harm, and that a Supreme Judge shall have taken justvengeance on their crimes, which we firmly hope willsooner or later come to pass. "

CHAPTER XI. 

RETROSPECT OF THE NORMAN PERIOD IN IRELAND--A GLANCE ATTHE MILITARY TACTICS OF THE TIMES--NO CONQUEST OF THECOUNTRY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 

Though the victorious and protracted career of Richardde Burgh, the "Red Earl" of Ulster, might, withoutoverstraining, be included in the Norman period, yet, asintroductory to the memorable advent and election of KingEdward Bruce, we must leave it for the succeeding book. Having brought down the narrative, as regards all theprovinces, to the end of the first century, from theinvasion, we must now cast a backward glance on the eventsof that hundred years before passing into the presenceof other times and new combinations. 

"There were, " says _Giraldus Cambriensis_, "three sundrysorts of servitors which served in the realm of Ireland, Normans, Englishmen, and the Cambrians, which were thefirst conquerors of the land: the first were in mostcredit and estimation, the second next, but the last werenot accounted or regarded of. " "The Normans, " adds theauthor, "were very fine in their apparel, and delicatein their diets; they could not feed but upon dainties, neither could their meat digest without wine at eachmeal; yet would they not serve in the marches or anyremote place against the enemy, neither would they liein garrison to keep any remote castle or fort, but, wouldbe still about their lord's side to serve and guard hisperson; they would be where they might be full and haveplenty; they could talk and brag, swear, and stare, and, standing in their own reputation, disdain all others. "This is rather the language of a partizan than of anhistorian; of one who felt and spoke for those, his ownkinsmen many of them, who, he complains, although thefirst to enter on the conquest, were yet held in contemptand disdain, "and only new-comers called to council. "

The Normans were certainly the captains in every campaignfrom Robert Fitzstephen to Stephen de Longespay. Theymade the war, and they maintained it. In the rank andfile, and even among the knighthood, men of pure Welsh, English, and Flemish and Danish blood, may be singledout, but each host was marshalled by Norman skill, andevery defeat was borne with Norman fortitude. It may seemstrange, then, that these greatest masters of the art ofwar, as waged in the middle ages, invincible in England, France, Italy, and the East, should, after a hundredyears, be no nearer to the conquest of Ireland than theywere at the end of the tenth year. 

The main causes of the fluctuations of the war were, nodoubt, the divided military command, and the frequentchange of their civil authorities. They had never marchedor colonized before without their Duke or King at theirhead, and in their midst. One supreme chief was necessaryto keep to any common purpose the minds of so many proud, intractable nobles. The feuds of the de Lacys with theMarshals, of the Geraldines with the de Burghs, brokeout periodically during the thirteenth century, and werenaturally seized upon, by the Irish as opportunities forattacking either or both. The secondary nobles and allthe adventurers understood their danger and its cause, when they petitioned Henry II. And Henry III. So oftenand so urgently as they did, that a member of the royalfamily might reside permanently in Ireland, to exercisethe supreme authority, military and civil. 

The civil administration of the colonists passing intodifferent hands every three or four years, suffered fromthe absence of permanent authority. The law of the marcheswas, of necessity, the law of the strong hand, and noother. But _Cambrensis_, whose personal prejudices arenot involved in this fact, describes the walled towns asfilled with litigation in his time. "There was, " he says, "such _lawing_ and vexation, that the veteran was moretroubled in _lawing_ within the town than he was in perilat large with the enemy. " This being the case, we musttake with great caution the bold assertions so often madeof the zeal with which the natives petitioned the Henrysand Edwards that the law of England might be extended tothem. Certain Celts whose lands lay within or upon themarches, others who compounded with their Norman invaders, a chief or prince, hard pressed by domestic enemies, mayhave wished to be in a position to quote Norman lawagainst Norman spoilers, but the popular petitions whichwent to England, beseeching the extension of its laws toIreland, went only from the townsmen of Dublin, and thenew settlers in Leinster or Meath, harassed and impoverishedby the arbitrary jurisdiction of manorial courts, fromwhich they had no appeal. The great mass of the Irishremained as warmly attached to their Brehon code down tothe seventeenth century as they were before the invasionof Norman or Dane. It may sound barbarous to our earsthat, according to that code, murder should be compoundedby an _eric_, or fine; that putting out the eyes shouldbe the usual punishment of treason; that maiming shouldbe judiciously inflicted for sundry offences; and thatthe land of a whole clan should be equally shared betweenthe free members of that clan. We are not yet in a positionto form an intelligent opinion upon the primitivejurisprudence of our ancestors, but the system itselfcould not have been very vicious which nourished in thegoverned such a thirst for justice, that, according toone of their earliest English law reformers, they wereanxious for its execution, even against themselves. 

The distinction made in the courts of the adventurersagainst natives of the soil, even when long domiciledwithin their borders, was of itself a sufficient causeof war between the races. In the eloquent letter of theO'Neil to Pope John XXII. --written about the year 1318--weread, that no man of Irish origin could sue in an Englishcourt; that no Irishman, within the marches, could makea legal will; that his property was appropriated by hisEnglish neighbours; and that the murder of an Irishmanwas not even a felony punishable by fine. This lattercharge would appear incredible, if we had not the recordof more than one case where the homicide justified hisact by the plea that his victim was a mere native, andwhere the plea was held good and sufficient. 

A very vivid picture of Hiberno-Norman town-life in thosedays is presented to us in an old poem, on the "Entrenchmentof the Town of Ross, " in the year 1265. We have therethe various trades and crafts-mariners, coat-makers, fullers, cloth-dyers and sellers, butchers, cordwainers, tanners, hucksters, smiths, masons, carpenters, arrangedby guilds, and marching to the sound of flute and tabor, under banners bearing a fish and platter, a painted ship, and other "rare devices. " On the walls, when finished, cross-bows hung, with store of arrows ready to shoot;when the city horn sounded twice, burgess and bachelorvied with each other in warlike haste. In time of peacethe stranger was always welcome in the streets; he wasfree to buy and sell without toll or tax, and to admirethe fair dames who walked the quiet ramparts, clad inmantles of green, or russet, or scarlet. Such is thepoetic picture of the town of Ross in the thirteenthcentury; the poem itself is written in Norman-French, though evidently intended for popular use, and the authoris called "Friar Michael of Kildare. " It is pretty evidentfrom this instance, which is not singular, that a centuryafter the first invasion, the French language was stillthe speech of part, if not the majority, of theseHiberno-Norman townsmen. 

So walls, and laws, and language arose, a triple barrierbetween the races. That common religion which might beexpected to form a strong bond between them had itselfto adopt a twofold organization. Distinctions of nationalitywere carried into the Sanctuary and into the Cloister. The historian _Giraldus_, in preaching at Dublin againstthe alleged vices of the native Clergy, sounded the firstnote of a long and bitter controversy. He was promptlyanswered from the same pulpit on the next occasion byAlbin O'Mulloy, the patriot Abbot of Baltinglass. Inone of the early Courts or Parliaments of the Adventurers, they decreed that no Monastery in those districts ofwhich they had possession, should admit any but nativesof England, as novices, --a rule which, according toO'Neil's letter, was faithfully acted upon by EnglishDominicans, Franciscans, Benedictines, and regular canons. Some of the great Cistercian houses on the marches, inwhich the native religious predominated, adopted aretaliatory rule, for which they were severely censuredby the general Chapter of their Order. But the length towhich this feud was carried may be imagined by the sweepingcharge O'Neil brings against "Brother Symon, a relativeof the Bishop of Coventry, " and other religious of hisnation, who openly maintained, he says, that the killingof a mere Irishman was no murder. 

When this was the feeling on one side, or was believedto be the feeling, we cannot wonder that the war shouldhave been renewed as regularly as the seasons. No soonerwas the husbandman in the field than the knight was uponthe road. Some peculiarities of the wars of those daysgleam out at intervals through the methodic indifferenceto detail of the old annals, and reveal to us curiousconditions of society. In the Irish country, wherecastle-building was but slowly introduced, we see, forexample, that the usual storage for provisions, in timeof war, was in churches and churchyards. Thus de Burgh, in his expedition to Mayo, in 1236, "left neither ricknor basket of corn in the large churchyard of Mayo, orin the yard of the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel, and carried away eighty baskets out of the churchesthemselves. " When we read, therefore, as we frequentlydo, of both Irish and Normans plundering churches in theland of their enemies, we are not to suppose the plunderof the sanctuary. Popularly this seizing the supplies ofan enemy on consecrated ground was considered next tosacrilege; and well it was for the fugitives in thesanctuary in those iron times that it should be soconsidered. Yet not the less is it necessary for us todistinguish a high-handed military measure from actualsacrilege, for which there can be no apology, and hardlyany earthly atonement. 

In their first campaigns the Irish had one great advantageover the Normans in their familiarity with the country. This helped them to their first victories. But when theinvaders were able to set up rival houses against eachother, and to secure the co-operation of natives, theadvantage was soon equalized. Great importance was attachedto the intelligence and good faith of the guides, whoaccompanied every army, and were personally consulted bythe leaders in determining their march. A country sothickly studded with the ancient forest, and so nettedwith rivers (then of much greater volume than since theyhave been stripped of their guardian woods), affordedconstant occasion for the display of minute local knowledge. To miss a pass or to find a ford might determine acampaign, almost as much as the skill of the chief, orthe courage of the battalion. 

The Irish depended for their knowledge of the Englishtowns and castles on their daring _spies_, who continuallyrisked their necks in acquiring for their clansmen suchneedful information. This perilous duty, when undertakenby a native for the benefit of his country, was justlyaccounted highly honourable. Proud poets, educated inall the mysteries of their art, and even men of chieftainrank, did not hesitate to assume disguises and act thepatriot spy. One of the most celebrated spies of thiscentury was Donogh Fitzpatrick, son of the Lord of Ossory, who was slain by the English in 1250. He was said to be"one of the three men" most feared by the English in hisday. "He was in the habit of going about to reconnoitretheir market towns, " say the Annalists, "in variousdisguises. " An old quatrain gives us a list of some ofthe parts he played when in the towns of his enemies--

 "He is a carpenter, he is a turner. My nursling is a bookman. He is selling wine and hides Where he sees a gathering. "

An able captain, as well as an intrepid spy, he met hisfate in acting out his favourite part, "which, " adds ourjustice-loving Four Masters, "was a retaliation due tothe English, for, up to that time, he had killed, burned, and destroyed many of them. "

Of the equipments and tactics of the belligerents we getfrom our Annals but scanty details. The Norman battalion, according to the usage of that people, led by the marshalof the field, charged, after the archers had deliveredtheir fire. But these wars had bred a new mounted force, called hobiler-archers, who were found so effective thatthey were adopted into all the armies of Europe. Althoughthe bow was never a favourite weapon with the Irish, particular tribes seem to have been noted for its use. We hear in the campaigns of this century of the archersof Breffni, and we may probably interpret as referringto the same weapon, Felim O'Conor's order to his men, inhis combat with the sons of Roderick at Drumraitte (1237), "not to shoot but to come to a close fight. " It ispossible, however, that this order may have reference tothe old Irish weapon, the javelin or dart. The pike, thebattle-axe, the sword, and skein, or dagger, both partieshad in common, though their construction was different. The favourite tactique, on both sides, seems to have beenthe old military expedient of outflanking an enemy, andattacking him simultaneously in front and rear. Thus, inthe year 1225, in one of the combats of the O'Conors, when the son of Cathal _Crovdearg_ endeavoured to surroundTurlogh O'Conor, the latter ordered his recruits to thevan, and Donn Oge Magheraty, with some Tyronian and othersoldiers to cover the rear, "by which means they escapedwithout the loss of a man. " The flank movement by whichthe Lord Justice Fitzgerald carried the passage of theErne (A. D. 1247) against O'Donnell, according to theAnnalists, was suggested to Fitzgerald by Cormac, thegrandson of Roderick O'Conor. By that period in theirintercourse the Normans and Irish had fought so oftentogether that their stock of tactical knowledge must havebeen, from experience, very much common property. In theeyes of the Irish chiefs and chroniclers, the foreignsoldiers who served with them were but hired mercenaries. They were sometimes repaid by the plunder of the countryattacked, but usually they received fixed wages for thelength of time they entered. "Hostages for the paymentof wages" are frequently referred to, as given by nativenobles to these foreign auxiliaries. The chief expedientfor subsisting an army was driving before them herds andflocks; free quarters for men and horses were suppliedby the tenants of allied chiefs within their territory, and for the rest, the simple outfit was probably not veryunlike that of the Scottish borderers described byFroissart, who cooked the cattle they captured in theirskins, carrying a broad plate of metal and a little bagof oatmeal trussed up behind the saddle. 

One inveterate habit clung to the ancient race, evenuntil long after the times of which we now speak--theirunconquerable prejudice against defensive armour. GilbrideMcNamee, the laureate to King Brian O'Neil, gives dueprominence to this fact in his poem on the death of hispatron in the battle of Down (A. D. 1260). Thus sings thenorthern bard--

 "The foreigners from London, The hosts from Port-Largy * Came in a bright green body, In gold and iron armour. 

 "Unequal they engage in the battle, The foreigners and the Gael of Tara, _Fine linen shirts on the race of Conn_, And the strangers _one mass of iron_. "

 [Footnote: Port-Largy, Waterford. ]

With what courage they fought, these scorners of armour, their victories of Ennis, of Callanglen, and of Credran, as well as their defeats at the Erne and at Down, amplytestify. The first hundred years of war for native land, with their new foes, had passed over, and three-fourthsof the _Saer Clanna_ were still as free as they had everbeen. It was not reserved even for the Norman race--theconquest of Innisfail!

CHAPTER XII. 

STATE OF SOCIETY AND LEARNING IN IRELAND DURING THE NORMANPERIOD. 

We have already spoken of the character of the war wagedby and against the Normans on Irish soil, and as war wasthen almost every man's business, we may be supposed tohave described all that is known of the time in describingits wars. What we have to add of the other pursuits ofthe various orders of men into which society was divided, is neither very full nor very satisfactory. 

The rise, fall, and migrations of some of the clans havebeen already alluded to. In no age did more depend onthe personal character of the chief than then. When thedeath of the heroic Godfrey left the free clansmen ofTyrconnell without a lord to lead them to battle, or rulethem in peace, the Annalists represent them to us asmeeting in great perplexity, and engaged "in makingspeeches" as to what was to be done, when suddenly, totheir great relief, Donnell Oge, son of Donnell More, who had been fostered in Alba (Scotland), was seenapproaching them. Not more welcome was Tuathal, thewell-beloved, the restorer of the Milesian monarchy, after the revolt of the _Tuatha_. He was immediatelyelected chief, and the emissaries of O'Neil, who had beenwaiting for an answer to his demand of tribute, werebrought before him. He answered their proposition by aproverb expressed in the Gaelic of Alba, which says that"every man should possess his own country, " and Tyrconnellarmed to make good this maxim. 

The Bardic order still retained much of their ancientpower, and all their ancient pride. Of their most famousnames in this period we may mention Murray O'Daly ofLissadil, in Sligo, Donogh O'Daly of Finvarra, sometimescalled Abbot of Boyle, and Gilbride McNamee, laureate toKing Brian O'Neil. McNamee, in lamenting the death ofBrian, describes himself as defenceless, and a prey toevery spoiler, now that his royal protector is no more. He gave him, he tells us, for a poem on one occasion, besides gold and raiment, a gift of twenty cows. Onanother, when he presented him a poem, he gave in returntwenty horned cows, and a gift still more lasting, "theblessing of the King of Erin. " Other chiefs, who fell inthe same battle, and to one of whom, named AuliffeO'Gormley, he had often gone "on a visit of pleasure, "are lamented with equal warmth by the bard. The poeticAbbot of Boyle is himself lamented in the Annals as theOvid of Ireland, as "a poet who never had and never willhave an equal. " But the episode which best illustratesat once the address and the audacity of the bardic orderis the story of Murray O'Daly of Lissadil, and DonnellMore O'Donnell, Lord of Tyrconnell. 

In the year 1213, O'Donnell despatched Finn O'Brollaghan, his _Aes graidh_ or Steward, to collect his tribute inConnaught, and Finn, putting up at the house of O'Daly, near Drumcliff, and being a plebeian who knew no better, began to wrangle with the poet. The irritable master ofsong, seizing a sharp axe, slew the steward on the spot, and then to avoid O'Donnell's vengeance fled intoClanrickarde. Here he announced himself by a poem addressedto de Burgh, imploring his protection, setting forth theclaims of the Bardic order on all high-descended heroes, and contending that his fault was but venial, in killinga clown, who insulted him. O'Donnell pursued the fugitiveto Athenry, and de Burgh sent him away secretly intoThomond. Into Thomond, the Lord of Tyrconnell marched, but O'Brien sent off the Bard to Limerick. The enragedUlsterman appeared at the gates of Limerick, when O'Dalywas smuggled out of the town, and "passed from hand tohand, " until he reached Dublin. The following springO'Donnell appeared in force before Dublin, and demandedthe fugitive, who, as a last resort, had been sent forsafety into Scotland. From the place of his exile headdressed three deprecatory poems to the offended Lordof Tyrconnell, who finally allowed him to return toLissadil in peace, and even restored him to his friendship. 

The introduction of the new religious orders--Dominicans, Franciscans, and the order for the redemption of Captivesinto Ireland, in the first quarter of this centurygradually extinguished the old Columban and Brigintinehouses. In Leinster they made way most rapidly; but Ulsterclung with its ancient tenacity to the Columban rule. The Hierarchy of the northern half-kingdom still exerciseda protectorate, over Iona itself, for we read, in theyear 1203, how Kellagh, having erected a monastery inthe middle of Iona, in despite of the religious, thatthe Bishops of Derry and Raphoe, with the Abbots of Armaghand Derry and numbers of the Clergy of the North ofIreland, passed over to Iona, pulled down the unauthorizedmonastery, and assisted at the election of a new Abbot. This is almost the last important act of the Columbanorder in Ireland. By the close of the century, theDominicans had some thirty houses, and the Franciscansas many more, whether in the walled towns or the opencountry. These monasteries became the refuge of scholars, during the stormy period we have passed, and in otherdays full as troubled, which were to come. Moreover, asthe Irish student, like all others in that age, desiredto travel from school to school, these orders admittedhim to the ranks of widespread European brotherhoods, from whom he might always claim hospitality. Nor need wereject as anything incredible the high renown forscholarship and ability obtained in those times by suchmen as Thomas Palmeran of Naas, in the University ofParis; by Peter and Thomas Hibernicus in the Universityof Naples, in the age of Aquinas; by Malachy of Ireland, a Franciscan, Chaplain to King Edward II. Of England, and Professor at Oxford; by the Danish Dominican, Gotofridof Waterford; and above all, by John Scotus of Down, thesubtle doctor, the luminary of the Franciscan schools, of Paris and Cologne. The native schools of Ireland hadlost their early ascendancy, and are no longer traceablein our annals; but Irish scholarship, when arrested inits full development at home, transferred its efforts toforeign Universities, and there maintained the ancienthonour of the country among the studious "nations" ofChristendom. Among the "nations" involved in the collegeriots at Oxford, in the year 1274, we find mention ofthe Irish, from which fact it is evident there must havebeen a considerable number of natives of that country, then frequenting the University. 

The most distinguished native ecclesiastics of thiscentury were Matthew O'Heney, Archbishop of Cashel, originally a Cistercian monk, who died in retirement atHoly Cross in 1207; Albin O'Mulloy, the opponent of_Giraldus_, who died Bishop of Ferns in 1222; and ClarusMcMailin, Erenach of Trinity Island, Lough Key-if an_Erenach_ may be called an ecclesiastic. It was O'Heneymade the Norman who said the Irish Church had no martyrs, the celebrated answer, that now men had come into thecountry who knew so well how to make martyrs, that reproachwould soon be taken away. He is said to have written alife of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, and we know thathe had legantine powers at the opening of the century. The _Erenach_ of Lough Key, who flourished in its secondhalf, plays an important part in all the western feudsand campaigns; his guarantee often preserved peace andprotected the vanquished. Among the church-builders ofhis age, he stands conspicuous. The ordinary churcheswere indeed easily built, seldom exceeding 60 or 70 feetin length, and one half that width, and the materialstill most in use was, for the church proper, timber. The towers, cashels, or surrounding walls, and the cellsof the religious, as well as the great monasteries andcollegiate and cathedral churches, were of stone, andmany of them remain monuments of the skill and munificenceof their founders. 

Of the consequences of the abolition of slavery by theCouncil of Armagh, at the close of the twelfth century, we have no tangible evidence. It is probable that theslave trade, rather than domestic servitude, was abolishedby that decree. The cultivators of the soil were stilldivided into two orders--Biataghs and Brooees. "Theformer, " says O'Donovan, "who were comparatively few innumber, would appear to have held their lands free ofrent, but were obliged to entertain travellers, and thechief's soldiers when on their march in his direction;and the latter (the Brooees) would appear to have beensubject to a stipulated rent and service. " From "the Bookof Lecan, " a compilation of the fourteenth century, welearn that the Brooee was required to keep an hundredlabourers, and an hundred of each kind of domestic animals. Of the rights or wages of the labourers, we believe, there is no mention made. 

BOOK V. 

THE ERA OF KING EDWARD BRUCE. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE RISE OF "THE RED EARL"--RELATIONS OF IRELAND ANDSCOTLAND. 

During the half century which comprised the reigns ofEdward I. And II. In England (A. D. 1272 to 1327), Scotlandsaw the last of her first race of Kings, and the elevationof the family of Bruce, under whose brilliant star Irelandwas, for a season, drawn into the mid-current of Scottishpolitics. Before relating the incidents of that revolutionof short duration but long enduring consequences, we mustnote the rise to greatness of the one great Norman name, which in that era mainly represented the English interestand influence in Ireland. 

Richard de Burgh, called from his ruddy complexion "theRed Earl" of Ulster, nobly bred in the court of Henry III. Of England, had attained man's age about the period whenthe de Lacys, the Geraldines, de Clares, and other greatAnglo-Irish, families, either through the fortune of waror failure of issue, were deprived of most of theirnatural leaders. Uniting in his own person the blood ofthe O'Conors, de Lacys, and de Burghs, his authority wasgreat from the beginning in Meath and Connaught. In hisinroads on West-Meath he seems to have been abetted bythe junior branches of the de Lacys, who were with hishost in the year 1286, when he besieged Theobald de Verdonin Athlone, and advanced his banner as far eastward asthe strong town of Trim, upon the Boyne. Laying claim tothe possessions of the Lord of Meath, which touched theKildare Geraldines at so many points, he inevitably cameinto contact with that powerful family. In 1288, inalliance with Manus O'Conor, they compelled him to retreatfrom Roscommon into Clanrickarde, in Mayo. De Verdon, his competitor for West-Meath, naturally entered intoalliance with the Kildare Geraldine, and in the year1294, after many lesser conflicts, they took the Red Earland his brother William prisoners, and carried them infetters to the Castle of Lea, in Offally. This happenedon the 6th day of December; a Parliament assembled atKilkenny on the 12th of March following, ordered theirrelease; and a peace was made between these powerfulhouses. De Burgh gave his two sons as hostages toFitzgerald, and the latter surrendered the Castle ofSligo to de Burgh. From the period of this peace thepower of the last named nobleman outgrew anything thathad been known since the Invasion. In the year 1291, hebanished the O'Donnell out of his territory, and set upanother of his own choosing; he deposed one O'Neil andraised up another; he so straitened O'Conor in hispatrimony of Roscommon, that that Prince also enteredhis camp at Meelick, and gave him hostages. He was thusthe first and only man of his race who had ever had inhis hand the hostages both of Ulster and Connaught. Whenthe King of England sent writs into Ireland, he usuallyaddressed the Red Earl, before the Lord Justice or LordDeputy--a compliment which, in that ceremonious age, could not be otherwise than flattering to the pride ofde Burgh. Such was the order of summons, in which, inthe year 1296, he was required by Edward I. To attendhim into Scotland, which was then experiencing some ofthe worst consequences of a disputed succession. AsIreland's interest in this struggle becomes in the sequelsecond only to that of Scotland, we must make briefmention of its origin and progress. 

By the accidental death of Alexander III. , in 1286, theMcAlpine, or Scoto-Irish dynasty, was suddenly terminated. Alexander's only surviving child, Margaret, called fromher mother's country, "the Maid of Norway, " soon followedher father; and no less than eight competitors, allclaiming collateral descent from the former Kings, appearedat the head of as many factions to contest the succession. This number was, however, soon reduced to two men--JohnBaliol and Robert Bruce--the former the grandson of theeldest, the latter the son of the second daughter of KingDavid I. After many bickerings these powerful rivals wereinduced to refer their claims to the decision of Edward I. Of England, who, in a Great Court held at Berwick in theyear 1292, decided in favour of Baliol, not in thecharacter of an indifferent arbitrator, but as lordparamount of Scotland. As such, Baliol there and thenrendered him feudal homage, and became, in the languageof the age, "his man. " This sub-sovereignty could notbut be galling to the proud and warlike nobles of Scotland, and accordingly, finding Edward embroiled about his Frenchpossessions, three years after the decision, they causedBaliol to enter into an alliance, offensive and defensive, with Philip IV. Of France, against his English suzerain. The nearer danger compelled Edward to march with 40, 000men, which he had raised for the war in France, towardsthe Scottish border, whither he summoned the Earl ofUlster, the Geraldines, Butlers, de Verdons, de Genvilles, Berminghams, Poers, Purcells, de Cogans, de Barrys, deLacys, d'Exeters, and other minor nobles, to come to himin his camp early in March, 1296. The Norman-Irish obeyedthe call, but the pride of de Burgh would not permit himto embark in the train of the Lord Justice Wogan, whohad been also summoned; he sailed with his own forces ina separate fleet, having conferred the honour of knighthoodon thirty of his younger followers before embarking atDublin. Whether these forces arrived in time to take partin the bloody siege of Berwick, and the panic-route atDunbar, does not appear; they were in time, however, tosee the strongest places in Scotland yielded up, and JohnBaliol a prisoner on his way to the Tower of London. Theywere sumptuously entertained by the conqueror in theCastle of Roxburgh, and returned to their western homesdeeply impressed with the power of England, and thepuissance of her warrior-king. 

But the independence of Scotland was not to be troddenout in a single campaign. During Edward's absence inFrance, William Wallace and other guerilla chiefs arose, to whom were soon united certain patriot nobles andbishops. The English deputy de Warrane fought twounsuccessful campaigns against these leaders, until hisroyal master, having concluded peace with France, summonedhis Parliament to meet him at York, and his Norman-Irishlieges to join him in his northern camp, with all theirforces, on the 1st of March, 1299. In June the EnglishKing found himself at Roxburgh, at the head of 8, 000horse, and 80, 000 foot, "chiefly Irish and Welsh. " Withthis immense force he routed Wallace at Falkirk on the22nd of July, and reduced him to his original rank of aguerilla chief, wandering with his bands of partizansfrom one fastness to another. The Scottish cause gainedin Pope Boniface VII. A powerful advocate soon after, and the unsubdued districts continued to obey a Regencycomposed of the Bishop of St. Andrews, Robert Bruce, and John Comyn. These regents exercised their authorityin the name of Baliol, carried on negotiations with Franceand Rome, convoked a Parliament, and, among other militaryoperations, captured Stirling Castle. In the documentaryremains of this great controversy, it is curious to findEdward claiming the entire island of Britain in virtueof the legend of Brute the Trojan, and the Scots rejectingit with scorn, and displaying their true descent andorigin from Scota, the fabled first mother of the MilesianIrish. There is ample evidence that the claims of kindredwere at this period keenly felt by the Gael of Ireland, for the people of Scotland, and men of our race arementioned among the companions of Wallace and the alliesof Brace. But the Norman-Irish were naturally drawn tothe English banner, and when, in 1303, it was againdisplayed north of the Tweed, the usual noble names arefound among its followers. In 1307 Scotland lost her mostformidable foe, by the death of Edward, and at the sametime began to recognize her appointed deliverer in theperson of Robert Bruce. But we must return to "the RedEarl, " the central figure in our own annals during thishalf century. 

The new King, Edward II. , compelled by his English baronsto banish his minion, Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, hadcreated him his lieutenant of Ireland, endowed him witha grant of the royalties of the whole island, to theprejudice of the Earl and other noblemen. The sojourn ofthis brilliant parasite in Ireland lasted but a year--fromJune, 1308, till the June following. He displayed bothvigour and munificence, and acquired friends. But theRed Earl, sharing to the full the antipathy of the greatbarons of England, kept apart from his court, maintaineda rival state at Trim, as Commander-in-Chief, conferringknighthood, levying men, and imposing taxes at his owndiscretion. A challenge of battle is said to have passedbetween him and the Lieutenant, when the latter wasrecalled into England by the King, where he was threeyears later put to death by the barons, into whose handshe had fallen. Sir John Wogan and Sir Edmund Butlersucceeded him in the Irish administration; but the realpower long remained with Richard de Burgh. He was appointedplenipotentiary to treat with Robert Brace, on behalf ofthe King of England, "upon which occasion the Scottishdeputies waited on him in Ireland. " In the year 1302Brace had married his daughter, the Lady Ellen, while ofhis other daughters one was Countess of Desmond, andanother became Countess of Kildare in 1312. A thousandmarks--the same sum at which the town and castle of Sligowere then valued-was allowed by the Earl for the marriageportion of his last-mentioned daughter. His power andreputation, about the period of her marriage, were atthe full. He had long held the title of Commander of theIrish forces, "in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Gascony;"he had successfully resisted Gaveston in the meridian ofhis court favour; the father-in-law of a King, and ofEarls of almost royal power, lord paramount of half theisland-such a subject England had not seen on Irish groundsince the Invasion. This prodigious power he retained, not less by his energy than his munificence. He erectedcastles at Carlingford, at Sligo, on the upper Shannon, and on Lough Foyle. He was a generous patron of theCarmelite Order, for whom he built the Convent of Loughrea. He was famed as a princely entertainer, and before retiringfrom public affairs, characteristically closed his careerwith a magnificent banquet at Kilkenny, where the wholeParliament were his guests. Having reached an agebordering upon fourscore he retired to the Monastery ofAthassil, and there expired within sight of his familyvault, after half a century of such sway as was rarelyenjoyed in that age, even by Kings. But before thatpeaceful close he was destined to confront a storm thelike of which had not blown over Ireland during the longperiod since he first began to perform his part in theaffairs of that kingdom. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE NORTHERN IRISH ENTER INTO ALLIANCE WITH KING ROBERTBRUCE--ARRIVAL AND FIRST CAMPAIGN OF EDWARD BRUCE. 

No facts of the ages over which we have already passedare better authenticated than the identity of origin andfeeling which existed between the Celts of Erin and ofAlbyn. Nor was this sympathy of race diminished by theircommon dangers from a common enemy. On the eve of theNorman invasion we saw how heartily the Irish were withSomerled and the men of Moray in resisting the feudalpolity of the successors of Malcolm _Caen-More_. As thePlantagenet Princes in person led their forces againstScotland, the interest of the Irish, especially those ofthe North, increased, year by year, in the struggles ofthe Scots. Irish adherents followed the fortunes ofWallace to the close; and when Robert Bruce, after beingcrowned and seated in the chair of the McAlpin line, onthe summit of the hill of Scone, had to flee into exile, he naturally sought refuge where he knew he would findfriends. Accompanied by three of his brothers, severaladherents, and even by some of the females of his family, he steered, in the autumn of 1306, for the little islandof Rathlin--seven miles long by a mile wide--one pointof which is within three miles of the Antrim beach. Inits most populous modern day Rathlin contained not above1, 000 souls, and little wonder if its still smallerpopulation, five centuries ago, fled in terror at theapproach of Bruce. They were, however, soon disarmed oftheir fears, and agreed to supply the fugitive King dailywith provisions for 300 persons, the whole number whoaccompanied or followed him into exile. His faithfuladherents soon erected for him a castle, commanding oneof the few landing places on the island, the ruins ofwhich are still shown to strangers as "Bruce's Castle. "Here he passed in perfect safety the winter of 1306, while his emissaries were recruiting in Ulster, or passingto and fro, in the intervals of storm, among the westernislands. Without waiting for the spring to come roundagain, they issued from their retreat in differentdirections; one body of 700 Irish sailed under Thomasand Alexander, the King's brothers, for the Clyde, whileRobert and Edward took the more direct passage towardsthe coast of Argyle, and, after many adventures, foundthemselves strong enough to attack the foreign forces inPerth and Ayrshire. The opportune death of Edward ofEngland the same summer, and the civil strife bred byhis successor's inordinate favour towards Gaveston, enabled the Bruces gradually to root out the internalgarrisons of their enemies; but the party that had sailed, under the younger brothers, from Rathlin, were attackedand captured in Loch Ryan by McDowell, and the survivorsof the engagement, with Thomas and Alexander Bruce, werecarried prisoners to Carlisle and there put to death. 

The seven years' war of Scottish independence was drawnto a close by the decisive campaign of 1314. The secondEdward prepared an overwhelming force for this expedition, summoning, as usual, the Norman-Irish Earls, and invitingin different language his "beloved" cousins, the nativeIrish Chiefs, not only such as had entered into Englishalliances at any time, but also notorious allies of Bruce, like O'Neil, O'Donnell, and O'Kane. These writs weregenerally unheeded; we have no record of either Norman-Irishor native-Irish Chief having responded to Edward's summons, nor could nobles so summoned have been present withoutsome record remaining of the fact. On the contrary allthe wishes of the old Irish went with the Scots, and theNormans were more than suspected of leaning the same way. Twenty-one clans, Highlanders and Islemen, and manyUlstermen, fought on the side of Bruce, on the field ofBannockburn; the grant of "Kincardine-O'Neil, " made bythe victor-King to his Irish followers, remains a strikingevidence of their fidelity to his person, and theirsacrifices in his cause. The result of that glorious daywas, by the testimony of all historians, English as wellas Scottish, received with enthusiasm on the Irish sideof the channel. 

Whether any understanding had been come to between thenorthern Irish and Bruce, during his sojourn in Rathlin, or whether the victory of Bannockburn suggested thedesign, Edward Bruce, the gallant companion of all hisbrother's fortunes and misfortunes, was now invited toplace himself at the head of the men of Ulster, in a warfor Irish independence. He was a soldier of not inferiorfame to his brother for courage and fortitude, though hehad never exhibited the higher qualities of general andstatesman which crowned the glory of King Robert. Yet ashe had never held a separate command of consequence, hisrashness and obstinacy, though well known to his intimates, were lost sight of, at a distance, by those who gazedwith admiration on the brilliant achievements, in whichhe had certainly borne the second part. The chief moverin the negotiation by which this gallant soldier wasbrought to embark his fortunes in an Irish war, wasDonald, Prince of Ulster. This Prince, whose name is sofamiliar from his celebrated remonstrance addressed toPope John XXII. , was son of King Brian of the battle ofDown, who, half a century before, at the Conference ofCaeluisge, was formally chosen Ard-Righ, by the noblesof three Provinces. He had succeeded to the principality--not without a protracted struggle with the Red Earl--some twenty years before the date of the battle ofBannockburn. Endued with an intensely national spirit, he seems to have fully adopted the views of NicholasMcMaelisa, the Primate of Armagh, his early cotemporary. This Prelate--one of the most resolute opponents of theNorman conquest--had constantly refused to instal anyforeigner in a northern diocese. When the Chapter ofArdagh delayed their election, he nominated a suitableperson to the Holy See; when the See of Meath was distractedbetween two national parties he installed his nominee;when the Countess of Ulster caused Edward I. To issuehis writ for the installation of John, Bishop of Conor, he refused his acquiescence. He left nearly every Seein his Province, at the time of his decease (the year1303), under the administration of a native ecclesiastic;a dozen years before he had established a formal"association" among the Prelates at large, by which theybound themselves to resist the interference of the Kingsof England in the nomination of Bishops, and to be subjectonly to the sanction of the See of Rome. In the Provincesof Cashel and Tuam, in the fourteenth century, we do notoften find a foreign born Bishop; even in Leinster doubleelections and double delegations to Rome, show how deeplythe views of the patriotic Nicholas McMaelisa had seizedupon the clergy of the next age. It was Donald O'Neil'sdarling project to establish a unity of action againstthe common enemy among the chiefs, similar to that whichthe Primate had brought about among the Bishops. His ownpretensions to the sovereignty were greater than that ofany Prince of his age; his house had given more monarchsto the island than any other; his father had beenacknowledged by the requisite majority; his courage, patriotism, and talents, were admittedly equal to thetask. But he felt the utter impossibility of conciliatingthat fatal family pride, fed into extravagance by Bardsand Senachies, which we have so often pointed out as theworst consequence of the Celtic system. He saw chiefs, proud of their lineage and their name, submit to servea foreign Earl of Ulster, who refused homage to the nativePrince of Ulster; he saw the seedlings of a vice of whichwe have seen the fruit--that his countrymen would submitto a stranger rather than to one of themselves, and hereasoned, not unnaturally, that, by the hand of somefriendly stranger, they might be united and liberated. The attempt of Edward Bruce was a failure, and was followedby many disasters; but a more patriotic design, or onewith fairer omens of success, could not have entered themind or heart of a native Prince, after the event of thebattle at Bannockburn. Edward of England, havingintelligence of the negotiations on foot between theIrish and Scots, after his great defeat, summoned overto Windsor during the winter, de Burgh, Fitzgerald, deVerdon, and Edmund Butler, the Lord Deputy. After conferringwith them, and confirming Butler in his office, they weredespatched back in all haste to defend their country. Nor was there time to lose. Edward Bruce, with his usualimpetuosity, without waiting for his full armament, hadsailed from Ayr with 6, 000 men in 300 galleys, accompaniedby Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, Sir John Stuart, SirPhilip Moubray, Sir Fergus of Ardrossan, and otherdistinguished knights. He landed on the 25th day of May, 1315, in the Glendun river, near Glenarm, and was promptlyjoined by Donald O'Neil, and twelve other chiefs. Theirfirst advance was from the coast towards that angle ofLough Neagh, near which stands the town of Antrim. Here, at Rathmore, in the plain of Moylinny, they were attackedby the Mandevilles and Savages of the Ards of Down, whomthey defeated. From Antrim they continued their routeevidently towards Dublin, taking Dundalk and Ardee, aftera sharp resistance. At Ardee they were but 35 milesnorth of Dublin, easy of conquest, if they had beenprovided with siege trains--which it seemed they were not. 

While Bruce and O'Neil were coming up from the north, Hugh O'Donnell, lord of Tyrconnell, as if to provideoccupation for the Earl of Ulster, attacked and sackedthe castle and town of Sligo, and wasted the adjacentcountry. The Earl, on hearing of the landing of the Scots, had mustered his forces at Athlone, and compelled theunwilling attendance of Felim O'Conor, with his clansmen. From Athlone he directed his march towards Drogheda, where he arrived with "20 cohorts, " about the same timethat the Lord Deputy Butler came up with "30 cohorts. "Bruce, unprepared to meet so vast a force--taken togethersome 25, 000 or 30, 000 men--retreated slowly towards hispoint of debarkation. De Burgh, who, as Commander-in-Chief, took precedence in the field of the Lord Deputy, orderedthe latter to protect Meath and Leinster, while he pursuedthe enemy. Bruce, having despatched the Earl of Moray tohis brother, was now anxious to hold some northern positionwhere they could most easily join him. He led de Burgh, therefore, into the North of Antrim, thence across theBann at Coleraine, breaking down the bridge at that point. Here the armies encamped for some days, separated by theriver, the outposts occasionally indulging in a "shootingof arrows. " By negotiation, Bruce and O'Neil succeededin detaching O'Conor from de Burgh. Under the plea--whichreally had sufficient foundation--of suppressing aninsurrection headed by one of his rivals, O'Conor returnedto his own country. No sooner had he left than Bruceassumed the offensive, and it was now the Red Earl's turnto fall back. They retreated towards the castle of Conyre(probably Conor, near Ballymena, in Antrim), where anengagement was fought, in which de Burgh was defeated, his brother William, Sir John Mandeville, and severalother knights being taken prisoners. The Earl continuedhis retreat through Meath towards his own possession;Bruce followed, capturing in succession Granard, Fenagh, and Kells, celebrating his Christmas at Loughsweedy, inWest-Meath, in the midst of the most considerable chiefsof Ulster, Meath, and Connaught. It was probably at thisstage of his progress that he received the adhesion ofthe junior branches of the Lacys--the chief Norman familythat openly joined his standard. 

This termination of his first campaign on Irish soilmight be considered highly favourable to Bruce. More thanhalf the clans had risen, and others were certain tofollow their example; the clergy were almost wholly withhim; and his heroic brother had promised to lead an armyto his aid in the ensuing spring. 

CHAPTER III. 

BRUCE'S SECOND CAMPAIGN, AND CORONATION AT DUNDALK--THERISING IN CONNAUGHT--BATTLE OF ATHENRY-ROBERT BRUCE INIRELAND. 

From Loughsweedy, Bruce broke up his quarters, and marchedinto Kildare, encamping successively at Naas, Kildare, and Rathangan. Advancing in a southerly direction, hefound an immense, but disorderly Anglo-Irish host drawnout, at the moat of Ardscull, near Athy, to dispute hismarch. They were commanded by the Lord Justice Butler, the Baron of Offally, the Lord Arnold Poer, and othermagnates; but so divided were these proud Peers, inauthority and in feeling, that, after a severe skirmishwith Bruce's vanguard, in which some knights were killedon both sides, they retreated before the Hiberno-Scottisharmy, which continued its march unmolested, and tookpossession of Castledermot. 

Animated by these successes, won in their midst, theclans of Leinster began in succession to raise theirheads. The tribes of Wicklow, once possessors of thefertile plains to the east and west, rallied in themountain glens to which they had been driven, and commencedthat long guerilla war, which centuries only were toextinguish. The McMurroghs along the ridge of Leinster, and all their kindred upon the Barrow and the Slaney, mustered under a chief, against whom the Lord Justicewas compelled to march in person, later in the campaignof 1316. The Lord of Dunamase was equally sanguine, but800 men of the name of O'Moore, slain in one disastrousencounter, crippled for the time the military strengthof that great house. Having thus kindled the war, in thevery heart of Leinster, Bruce retraced his march throughMeath and Louth, and held at Dundalk that great assemblyin which he was solemnly elected King of Ireland. DonaldO'Neil, by letters patent, as son of Brian "of the battleof Down, " the last acknowledged native king, formallyresigned his right, in favour of Bruce, a proceeding whichhe defends in his celebrated letter to Pope John XXII. , where he speaks of the new sovereign as the illustriousEarl of Carrick, Edward de Bruce, a nobleman descendedfrom the same ancestors with themselves, whom they hadcalled to their aid, and freely chosen as their king andlord. The ceremony of inauguration seems to have beenperformed in the Gaelic fashion, on the hill ofKnocknemelan, within a mile of Dundalk, while the solemnconsecration took place in one of the churches of thetown. Surrounded by all the external marks of royalty, Bruce established his court in the castle of Northburgh(one of de Courcy's or de Verdon's fortresses), adjoiningDundalk, where he took cognizance of all pleas that werebrought before him. At that moment his prospects comparedfavourably with those of his illustrious brother a fewyears earlier. The Anglo-Irish were bitterly dividedagainst each other; while, according to their jointdeclaration of loyalty, signed before de Hothun, KingEdward's special agent, "all the Irish of Ireland, severalgreat lords, and many English people, " had given in theiradhesion to Bruce. In Ulster, except Carrickfergus, noplace of strength remained in the hands of any subjectof Edward of England. The arrival of supplies from Scotlandenabled Bruce to resume that siege in the autumn of 1316, and the castle, after a heroic defence by Sir Thomas deMandeville, was surrendered in mid-winter. Here, in themonth of February, 1317, the new King of Ireland had thegratification of welcoming his brother of Scotland, atthe head of a powerful auxiliary force, and here, accordingto Barbour's _Chronicle_, they feasted for three days, in mirth and jollity, before entering on the third campaignof this war. 

We have before mentioned that one of the first successesobtained by Bruce was through the withdrawal of FelimO'Conor from the Red Earl's alliance. The Prince thuswon over to what may be fairly called the national cause, had just then attained his majority, and his martialaccomplishments reflected honour on his fosterer, McDermottof Moylurg, while they filled with confidence the heartsof his own clansmen. After his secession from de Burghat Coleraine, he had spent a whole year in suppressingthe formidable rival who had risen to dispute his title. Several combats ensued between their respective adherents, but at length Roderick, the pretender, was defeated andslain, and Felim turned all his energies to co-operatewith Bruce, by driving the foreigner out of his ownprovince. Having secured the assistance of all the chieftribes of the west, and established the ancient supremacyof his house over Breffni, he first attacked the town ofBallylahen, in Mayo, the seat of the family of de Exeter, slew Slevin de Exeter, the lord de Cogan, and otherknights and barons, and plundered the town. At thebeginning of August in the same year, in pursuance ofhis plan, Felim mustered the most numerous force whichConnaught had sent forth, since the days of Cathal More. Under his leadership marched the Prince of Meath, thelords of Breffni, Leyny, Annally, Teffia, Hy-Many, andHy-Fiachra, with their men. The point of attack was thetown of Athenry, the chief fortified stronghold of thede Burghs and Berminghams in that region. Its importancedated from the reign of King John; it had been enrichedwith convents and strengthened by towers; it was besidesthe burial place of the two great Norman families justmentioned, and their descendants felt that before thewalls of Athenry their possessions were to be confirmedto them by their own valour, or lost for ever. A decisivebattle was fought on St. Laurence's day--the 10th ofAugust--in which the steel-clad Norman battalion oncemore triumphed over the linen-shirted clansmen of thewest. The field was contested with heroic obstinacy; noman gave way; none thought of asking or giving quarter. The standard bearer, the personal guard, and the Brehonof O'Conor fell around him. The lords of Hy-Many, Teffia, and Leyny, the heir of the house of Moylurg, with manyother chiefs, and, according to the usual computation, 8, 000 men were slain. Felim O'Conor himself, in thetwenty-third year of his age, and the very morning ofhis fame, fell with the rest, and his kindred, theSil-Murray, were left for a season an easy prey to Williamde Burgh and John de Bermingham, the joint commanders inthe battle. The spirit of exaggeration common in mostaccounts of killed and wounded, has described this dayas fatal to the name and race of O'Conor, who arerepresented as cut off to a man in the conflict; thedirect line which Felim represented was indeed leftwithout an immediate adult representative; but theoffshoots of that great house had spread too far andflourished too vigorously to be shorn away, even by soterrible a blow as that dealt at Athenry. The very nextyear we find chiefs of the name making some figure inthe wars of their own province, but it is observable thatwhat may be called the national party in Connaught forsome time after Athenry, looked to McDermott of Moylurgas their most powerful leader. 

The moral effect of the victory of Athenry was hardly tobe compensated for by the capture of Carrickfergus thenext winter. It inspired the Anglo-Irish with new courage. De Bermingham was created commander-in-chief. The citizensof Dublin burned their suburbs to strengthen their meansof defence. Suspecting the zeal of the Red Earl, sonearly connected with the Bruces by marriage, their Mayorproceeded to Saint Mary's abbey, where he lodged, arrestedand confined him to the castle. To that building theBermingham tower was added about this time, and thestrength of the whole must have been great when theskilful leaders, who had carried Stirling and Berwick, abandoned the siege of Dublin as hopeless. In Easterweek, 1317, Roger Mortimer, afterwards Earl of March, nearly allied to the English King on the one hand, andmaternally descended from the Marshals and McMurroghs onthe other, arrived at Youghal, as Lord Justice, releasedthe Earl of Ulster on reaching Dublin, and prepared todispute the progress of the Bruces towards the South. 

The royal brothers had determined, according to theirnational Bard, to take their way with all their host, from one cud of Ireland to the other. Their destinationwas Munster, which populous province had not yet ratifiedthe recent election. Ulster and Meath were with them;Connaught, by the battle of Athenry, was rendered incapableof any immediate effort, and therefore Edward Bruce, intrue Gaelic fashion, decided to proceed on his royalvisitation, and so secure the hostages of the southernhalf-kingdom. At the head of 20, 000 men, in two divisions, the brothers marched from Carrickfergus; meeting, withthe exception of a severe skirmish in a wood near Slane, with no other molestation till they approached the verywalls of Dublin. Finding the place stronger than theyexpected, or unwilling to waste time at that season ofthe year, the Hiberno-Scottish army, after occupyingCastleknock, turned up the valley of the Liffey, andencamped for four days by the pleasant waterfall ofLeixlip. From Leixlip to Naas they traversed the estatesof one of their active foes, the new made Earl of Kildare, and from Naas they directed their march to Callan inOssory, taking special pleasure, according to Anglo-IrishAnnals, in harrying the lands of another enemy, the LordButler, afterwards Earl of Ormond. From Callan theirroute lay to Cashel and Limerick, at each of which theyencamped two or three days without seeing the face of anenemy. But if they encountered no enemies in Minister, neither did they make many friends by their expedition. It seems that on further acquaintance rivalries andenmities sprung up between the two nations who composedthe army; that Edward Bruce, while styling himself Kingof Ireland, acted more like a vigorous conqueror exhaustinghis enemies, than a prudent Prince careful for his friendsand adherents. His army is accused, in terms of greatervehemence than are usually employed in our cautiouschronicles, of plundering churches and monasteries, andeven violating the tombs of the dead in search of buriedtreasure. The failure of the harvest, added to the effectof a threefold war, had so diminished the stock of foodthat numbers perished of famine, and this dark, indelibleremembrance was, by an arbitrary notion of cause andeffect, inseparably associated in the popular mind, bothEnglish and Irish, with the Scottish invasion. One factis clear, that the election of Dundalk was not popularin Munster, and that the chiefs of Thomond and Desmondwere uncommitted, if not hostile towards Bruce'ssovereignty. McCarthy and O'Brien seized the occasion, indeed, while he was campaigning in the North, to rootout the last representative of the family of de Clare, as we have already related, when tracing the fortunes ofthe Normans in Munster. But of the twelve reguli, orPrinces in Bruce's train, none are mentioned as havingcome from the Southern provinces. 

This visitation of Munster occupied the months of Februaryand March. In April, the Lord Justice Mortimer summoneda Parliament at Kilkenny, and there, also, the wholeAnglo-Irish forces, to the number of 30, 000 men, wereassembled. The Bruces on their return northward mighteasily have been intercepted, or the genius which triumphedat Bannockburn might have been as conspicuously signalizedon Irish ground. But the military authorities were waitingorders from the Parliament, and the Parliament were atissue with the new Justice, and so the opportunity waslost. Early in May, the Hiberno-Scottish army re-enteredUlster, by nearly the same route as they had taken goingsouthwards, and King Robert soon after returned intoScotland, promising faithfully to rejoin his brother, assoon as he disposed of his own pressing affairs. The Kingof England in the meantime, in consternation at the newsfrom Ireland, applied to the Pope, then at Avignon, toexercise his influence with the Clergy and Chiefs ofIreland, for the preservation of the English interest inthat country. It was in answer to the Papal rescripts soprocured that Donald O'Neil despatched his celebratedRemonstrance, which the Pontiff enclosed to Edward II. , with an urgent recommendation that the wrongs thereinrecited might be atoned for, and avoided in the future. 

CHAPTER IV. 

BATTLE OF FAUGHARD AND DEATH OF KING EDWARD BRUCE--CONSEQUENCES OF HIS INVASION--EXTINCTION OF THE EARLDOMOF ULSTER--IRISH OPINION OF EDWARD BRUCE. 

It is too commonly the fashion, as well with historiansas with others, to glorify the successful and censureseverely the unfortunate. No such feeling actuates usin speaking of the character of Edward Bruce, King ofIreland. That he was as gallant a knight as any in thatage of gallantry, we know; that he could confront thegloomiest aspect of adversity with cheerfulness, we alsoknow. But the united testimony, both of history andtradition, in his own country, so tenacious of itsanecdotical treasures, describes him as rash, headstrong, and intractable, beyond all the captains of his time. And in strict conformity with this character is theclosing scene of his Irish career. 

The harvest had again failed in 1317, and enforced amelancholy sort of truce between all the belligerents. The scarcity was not confined to Ireland, but had severelyafflicted England and Scotland, compelling their rulersto bestow a momentary attention on the then abject class, the tillers of the soil. But the summer of 1318 brightenedabove more prosperous fields, from which no sooner hadeach party snatched or purchased his share of the produce, than the war-note again resounded through all the fourProvinces. On the part of the Anglo-Irish, John deBermingham was confirmed as Commander-in-Chief, anddeparted from Dublin with, according to the chroniclesof the Pale, but 2, 000 chosen troops, while the Scottishbiographer of the Bruces gives him "20, 000 trapped horse. "The latter may certainly be considered an exaggeratedaccount, and the former must be equally incorrect. Judgedby the other armaments of that period, from the fact thatthe Normans of Meath, under Sir Miles de Verdon and SirRichard Tuit, were in his ranks, and that he then heldthe rank of Commander-in-Chief of all the English forcesin Ireland, it is incredible that de Bermingham shouldhave crossed the Boyne with less than eight or ten thousandmen. Whatever the number may have been, Bruce resolvedto risk the issue of battle contrary to the advice ofall his officers, and without awaiting the reinforcementshourly expected from Scotland, and which shortly afterthe engagement did arrive. The native chiefs of Ulster, whose counsel was also to avoid a pitched battle, seeingtheir opinions so lightly valued, are said to havewithdrawn from Dundalk. There remained with the iron-headedKing the Lords Moubray, de Soulis, and Stewart, with thethree brothers of the latter; MacRory, lord of the Isles, and McDonald, chief of his clan. The neighbourhood ofDundalk, the scene of his triumphs and coronation, wasto be the scene of this last act of Bruce's chivalrousand stormy career. 

On the 14th of October, 1318, at the hill of Faughard, within a couple of miles of Dundalk, the advance guardof the hostile armies came into the presence of eachother, and made ready for battle. Roland de Jorse, theforeign Archbishop of Armagh--who had not been able totake possession of his see, though appointed to it sevenyears before--accompanied the Anglo-Irish, and movingthrough their ranks, gave his benediction to their banners. But the impetuosity of Bruce gave little time forpreparation. At the head of the vanguard, without waitingfor the whole of his company to come up, he charged theenemy with impetuosity. The action became general, andthe skill of de Bermingham as a leader was againdemonstrated. An incident common to the warfare of thatage was, however, the immediate cause of the victory. Master John de Maupas, a burgher of Dundalk, believingthat the death of the Scottish leader would be the signalfor the retreat of his followers, disguised as a jesteror fool, sought him throughout the field. One of theroyal esquires, named Gilbert Harper, wearing the surcoatof his master, was mistaken for him, and slain; but thetrue leader was at length found by de Maupas, and struckdown with the blow of a leaden plummet or slung-shot. After the battle, when the field was searched for hisbody, it was found under that of de Maupas, who hadbravely yielded up life for life. The Hiberno-Scottishforces dispersed in dismay, and when King Robert ofScotland landed a day or two afterwards, he was met bythe fugitive men of Carrick, under their leader Thompson, who informed him of his brother's fate. He returned atonce into his own country, carrying off the few Scottishsurvivors. The head of the impetuous Edward was sent toLondon; but the body was interred in the churchyard ofFaughard, where, within living memory, a tall pillarstone was pointed out by every peasant of the neighbourhoodas marking the grave of "King Bruce. "

The fortunes of the principal actors, native and Norman, in the invasion of Edward Bruce, may be briefly recountedbefore closing this book of our history, John de Bermingham, created for his former victory Baron of Athenry, had nowthe Earldom of Louth conferred on him with a royal pension. He promptly followed up his blow at Faughard by expellingDonald O'Neil, the mainspring of the invasion, fromTyrone; but Donald, after a short sojourn among themountains of Fermanagh, returned during the winter andresumed his lordship, though he never wholly recoveredfrom the losses he had sustained. The new Earl of Louthcontinued to hold the rank of Commander-in-Chief inIreland, to which he added in 1322 that of Lord Justice. He was slain in 1329, with some 200 of his personaladherents, in an affair with the natives of his newearldom, at a place called Ballybeagan. He left by adaughter of the Earl of Ulster three daughters; the titlewas perpetuated in the family of his brothers. 

In 1319, the Earls of Kildare and Louth, and the LordArnold le Poer, were appointed a commission to inquireinto all treasons committed in Ireland during Bruce'sinvasion. Among other outlawries they decreed those ofthe three de Lacys, the chiefs of their name, in Meathand Ulster. That illustrious family, however, survivedeven this last confiscation, and their descendants, several centuries later, were large proprietors in themidland counties. 

Three years after the battle of Faughard, died Roland deJorse, Archbishop of Armagh, it was said, of vexationsarising out of Bruce's war, and other difficulties whichbeset him in taking possession of his see. Adam, Bishopof Ferns, was deprived of his revenues for taking partwith Bruce, and the Friars Minor of the Franciscan order, were severely censured in a Papal rescript for their zealon the same side. 

The great families of Fitzgerald and Butler obtainedtheir earldoms of Kildare, Desmond, and Ormond, out ofthis dangerous crisis, but the premier earldom of Ulsterdisappeared from our history soon afterwards. Richard, the Red Earl, having died in the Monastery of Athassil, in 1326, was succeeded by his son, William, who, sevenyears later, in consequence of a family feud, instigatedby one of his own female relatives, Gilla de Burgh, wifeof Walter de Mandeville, was murdered at the Fords, nearCarrickfergus, in the 21st year of his age. His wife, Maud, daughter of Henry Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, fled into England with her infant, afterwards married toLionel, Duke of Clarence, son of King Edward III. , whothus became personally interested in the system which heinitiated by the odious Statute of Kilkenny. But themisfortunes of the Red Earl's posterity did not end withthe murder of his immediate successor. Edmond, hissurviving son, five years subsequently, was seized byhis cousin, Edmond, the son of William, and drowned inLough Mask, with a stone about his neck. The posterityof William de Burgh then assumed the name of McWilliam, and renounced the laws, language, and allegiance ofEngland. Profiting by their dissensions, Turlogh O'Conor, towards the middle of the century, asserted supremacyover them, thus practising against the descendants thesame policy which the first de Burghs had successfullyemployed among the sons of Roderick. 

We must mention here a final consequence of Edward Bruce'sinvasion seldom referred to, --namely, the character ofthe treaty between Scotland and England, concluded andsigned at Edinburgh, on St. Patrick's Day, 1328. By thistreaty, after arranging an intermarriage between theroyal families, it was stipulated in the event of arebellion against Scotland, in Skye, Man, or the Islands, or against England, in Ireland, that the several Kingswould not abet or assist each other's rebel subjects. Remembering this article, we know not what to make ofthe entry in our own Annals, which states that RobertBruce landed at Carrickfergus in the same year, 1328, "and sent word to the Justiciary and Council, that hecame to make peace between Ireland and Scotland, and thathe would meet them at Green Castle; but that the latterfailing to meet him, he returned to Scotland. " This, however, we know: high hopes were entertained, and immensesacrifices were made, for Edward Bruce, but were made invain. His proverbial rashness in battle, with his totaldisregard of the opinion of the country into which hecame, alienated from him those who were at first disposedto receive him with enthusiasm. It may be an instructivelesson to such as look to foreign leaders and foreignforces for the means of national deliverance to read theterms in which the native Annalists record the defeatand death of Edward Bruce: "No achievement had beenperformed in Ireland, for a long time, " say the FourMasters, "from which greater benefit had accrued to thecountry than from this. " "There was not a better deeddone in Ireland since the banishment of the Formorians, "says the Annalist of Clonmacnoise! So detested may aforeign liberating chief become, who outrages the feelingsand usages of the people he pretends, or really means toemancipate!

BOOK VI. 

THE NATIVE, THE NATURALIZED, AND "THE ENGLISH INTEREST. "

CHAPTER I. 

CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND--ITS EFFECTS ON THE ANGLO-IRISH--THE KNIGHTS OF SAINT JOHN--GENERAL DESIRE OF THE ANGLO-IRISHTO NATURALIZE THEMSELVES AMONG THE NATIVE POPULATION--A POLICY OF NON-INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE RACES RESOLVED ONIN ENGLAND. 

The closing years of the reign of Edward II. Of Englandwere endangered by the same partiality for favouriteswhich, had disturbed its beginning. The de Spensers, father and son, played at this period the part whichGaveston had performed twenty years earlier. The Barons, who undertook to rid their country of this pamperedfamily, had, however, at their head Queen Isabella, sisterof the King of France, who had separated from her husbandunder a pretended fear of violence at his hands, but inreality to enjoy more freely her criminal intercoursewith her favourite, Mortimer. With the aid of French andFlemish mercenaries, they compelled the unhappy Edwardto fly from London to Bristol, whence he was pursued, captured, and after being confined for several months indifferent fortresses, was secretly murdered in the autumnof 1327, by thrusting a red hot iron into his bowels. His son, Edward, a lad of fifteen years of age, afterwardsthe celebrated Edward III. , was proclaimed King, thoughthe substantial power remained for some years longer withQueen Isabella, and her paramour, now elevated to therank of Earl of March. In the year 1330, however, theirguilty prosperity was brought to a sudden close; Mortimerwas seized by surprise, tried by his peers, and executedat Tyburn; Isabella was imprisoned for life, and theyoung King, at the age of eighteen, began in reality thatreign, which, through half a century's continuance, provedso glorious and advantageous for England. 

It will be apparent that during the last few years ofthe second, and under the minority of the third Edward, the Anglo-Irish Barons would be left to pursue undisturbedtheir own particular interests and enmities. The renewalof war with Scotland, on the death of King Robert Bruce, and the subsequent protracted wars with France, whichoccupied, with some intervals of truce, nearly thirtyyears of the third Edward's reign, left ample time forthe growth of abuses of every description among thedescendants of those who had invaded Ireland, under thepretext of its reformation, both in morals and government. The contribution of an auxiliary force to aid him in hisforeign wars was all the warlike King expected from hislords of Ireland, and at so cheap a price they were wellpleased to hold their possessions under his guarantee. At Halidon hill the Anglo-Irish, led by Sir John Darcy, distinguished themselves against the Scots in 1333; andat the siege of Calais, under the Earls of Kildare andDesmond, they acquired additional reputation in 1347. From this time forward it became a settled maxim ofEnglish policy to draft native troops out of Ireland forforeign service, and to send English soldiers into it intimes of emergency. 

In the very year when the tragedy of Edward the Second'sdeposition and death was enacted in England, a drama ofa lighter kind was performed among his new made earls inIreland. The Lord Arnold le Poer gave mortal offence toMaurice, first Earl of Desmond, by calling him "a Rhymer, "a term synonymous with poetaster. To make good hisreputation as a Bard, the Earl summoned his allies, theButlers and Berminghams, while le Poer obtained the aidof his maternal relatives, the de Burghs, and severaldesperate conflicts took place between them. The Earl ofKildare, then deputy, summoned both parties to meet himat Kilkenny, but le Poer and William de Burgh fled intoEngland, while the victors, instead of obeying the deputy'ssummons, enjoyed themselves in ravaging his estate. Thefollowing year (A. D. 1328), le Poer and de Burgh returnedfrom England, and were reconciled with Desmond and Ormondby the mediation of the new deputy, Roger Outlaw, Priorof the Knights of the Hospital at Kilmainham. In honourof this reconciliation de Burgh gave a banquet at thecastle, and Maurice of Desmond reciprocated by anotherthe next day, in St. Patrick's Church, though it wasthen, as the Anglo-Irish Annalist remarks, the penitentialseason of Lent. A work of peace and reconciliation, calculated to spare the effusion of Christian blood, mayhave been thought some justification for this irreverentuse of a consecrated edifice. 

The mention of the Lord Deputy, Sir Roger Outlaw, thesecond Prior of his order though not the last, who wieldedthe highest political power over the English settlements, naturally leads to the mention of the establishment inIreland, of the illustrious orders of the Temple and theHospital. The first foundation of the elder order isattributed to Strongbow, who erected for them a castleat Kilmainham, on the high ground to the south of theLiffey, about a mile distant from the Danish wall of oldDublin. Here, the Templars flourished, for nearly acentury and a half, until the process for their suppressionwas instituted under Edward II. , in 1308. Thirty membersof the order were imprisoned and examined in Dublin, before three Dominican inquisitors--Father Richard Balbyn, Minister of the Order of St. Dominick in Ireland, FathersPhilip de Slane and Hugh de St. Leger. The decisionarrived at was the same as in France and England; theorder was condemned and suppressed; and their Priory ofKilmainham, with sixteen benefices in the diocese ofDublin, and several others, in Ferns, Meath, and Dromore, passed to the succeeding order, in 1311. The statemaintained by the Priors of Kilmainham, in their capaciousresidence, often rivalled that of the Lords Justices. But though their rents were ample, they did not collectthem without service. Their house might justly be regardedas an advanced fortress on the south side of the city, constantly open to attacks from the mountain tribes ofWicklow. Although their vows were for the Holy Land, theywere ever ready to march at the call of the EnglishDeputies, and their banner, blazoned with the _AgnusDei_, waved over the bloodiest border frays of thefourteenth century. The Priors of Kilmainham sat as Baronsin the Parliaments of "the Pale, " and the office wasconsidered the first in ecclesiastical rank among theregular orders. 

During the second quarter of this century, an extraordinarychange became apparent in the manners and customs of thedescendants of the Normans, Flemings, and Cambrians, whose ancestors an hundred years earlier were strangersin the land. Instead of intermarrying exclusively amongthemselves, the prevailing fashion became to seek forIrish wives, and to bestow their daughters on Irishhusbands. Instead of clinging to the language of Normandyor England, they began to cultivate the native speech ofthe country. Instead of despising Irish law, every noblemanwas now anxious to have his Brehon, his Bard, and hisSenachie. The children of the Barons were given to befostered by Milesian mothers, and trained in the earlyexercises so minutely prescribed by Milesian education. Kildare, Ormond, and Desmond, adopted the old militaryusages of exacting "coyne and livery"--horse meat andman's meat--from their feudal tenants. The tie of Gossipred, one of the most fondly cherished by the native population, was multiplied between the two races, and under the wiseencouragement of a domestic dynasty might have become apowerful bond of social union. In Connaught and Munsterwhere the proportion of native to naturalized was largest, the change was completed almost in a generation, andcould never afterwards be wholly undone. In Ulster theEnglish element in the population towards the end of thiscentury was almost extinct, but in Meath and Leinster, and that portion of Munster immediately bordering onMeath and Leinster, the process of amalgamation requiredmore time than the policy of the Kings of England allowedit to obtain. 

The first step taken to counteract their tendency to_Hibernicize_ themselves, was to bestow additional honourson the great families. The baronry of Offally was enlargedinto the earldom of Kildare; the lordship of Carrick intothe earldom of Ormond; the title of Desmond was conferredon Maurice Fitz-Thomas Fitzgerald, and that of Louth onthe Baron de Bermingham. Nor were they empty honours;they were accompanied with something better. The "royalliberties" were formally conceded, in no less than ninegreat districts, to their several lords. Those of Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny, Kildare, and Leix, had been inheritedby the heirs of the Earl Marshal's five daughters; fourother counties Palatine were now added--Ulster, Meath, Ormond, and Desmond. "The absolute lords of thosepalatinates, " says Sir John Davis, "made barons andknights, exercised high justice within all theirterritories; erected courts for civil and criminal causes, and for their own revenues, in the same form in whichthe king's courts were established at Dublin; theyconstituted their own judges, seneschals, sheriffs, coroners, and escheators. " So that the king's writs didnot run in their counties, which took up more than twoparts of the English colony; but ran only in thechurch-lands lying within the same, which was thereforecalled THE CROSSE, wherein the Sheriff was nominated bythe King. By "high justice" is meant the power of lifeand death, which was hardly consistent with even asemblance of subjection. No wonder such absolute lordsshould be found little disposed to obey the summons ofdeputies, like Sir Ralph Ufford and Sir John Morris, menof merely knightly rank, whose equals they had the powerto create, by the touch of their swords. 

For a season their new honours quickened the dormantloyalty of the recipients. Desmond, at the head of 10, 000men, joined the lord deputy, Sir John Darcy, to suppressthe insurgent tribes of South Leinster; the Earls ofUlster and Ormond united their forces for an expeditioninto West-Meath against the brave McGeoghegans and theirallies; but even these services--so complicated werepublic and private motives in the breasts of the actors--did not allay the growing suspicion of what were commonlycalled "the old English, " in the minds of the EnglishKing and his council. Their resolution seems to have beenfixed to entrust no native of Ireland with the highestoffice in his own country; in accordance with whichdecision Sir Anthony Lucy was appointed, (1331;) Sir JohnDarcy, (1332-34; again in 1341;) and Sir Ralph Ufford, (1343-1346. ) During the incumbency of these Englishknights, whether acting as justiciaries or as deputies, the first systematic attempts were made to prevent, bothby the exercise of patronage or by penal legislation, the fusion of races, which was so universal a tendencyof that age. And although these attempts were discontinuedon the recommencement of war with France in 1345, theconviction of their utility had seized too strongly onthe tenacious will of Edward III. To be wholly abandoned. The peace of Bretigni in 1360 gave him leisure to turnagain his thoughts in that direction. The following yearhe sent over his third son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence andEarl of Ulster, (in right of his wife, ) who boldlyannounced his object to be the total separation, intohostile camps, of the two populations. 

This first attempt to enforce non-intercourse betweenthe natives and the naturalized deserves more particularmention. It appears to have begun in the time of SirAnthony Lucy, when the King's Council sent over certain"Articles of Reform, " in which it was threatened that ifthe native nobility were not more attentive in dischargingtheir duties to the King, his Majesty would resume intohis own hands all the grants made to them by his royalancestors or himself, as well as enforce payment of debtsdue to the Crown which had been formerly remitted. Fromsome motive, these articles were allowed, after beingmade public, to remain a dead letter, until theadministration of Darcy, Edward's confidential agent inmany important transactions, English and Irish. They wereproclaimed with additional emphasis by this deputy, whoconvoked a Parliament or Council, at Dublin, to enforcethem as law. The same year, 1342, a new ordinance camefrom England, prohibiting the public employment of menborn or married, or possessing estates in Ireland, anddeclaring that all offices of state should be filled inthat country by "fit Englishmen, having lands, tenements, and benefices in England. " To this sweeping proscriptionthe Anglo-Irish, as well townsmen as nobles, resolved tooffer every resistance, and by the convocation of theEarls of Desmond, Ormond, and Kildare, they agreed tomeet for that purpose at Kilkenny. Accordingly, what iscalled Darcy's Parliament, met at Dublin in October, while Desmond's rival assembly gathered at Kilkenny inNovember. The proceedings of the former, if it agreed toany, are unrecorded, but the latter despatched to theKing, by the hands of the Prior of Kilmainham, aRemonstrance couched in Norman-French, the court language, in which they reviewed the state of the country; deploredthe recovery of so large a portion of the former conquestby the old Irish; accused, in round terms, the successiveEnglish officials sent into the land, with a desiresuddenly to enrich themselves at the expense both ofsovereign and subject; pleaded boldly their own loyalservices, not only in Ireland, but in the French andScottish wars; and finally, claimed the protection ofthe Great Charter, that they might not be ousted of theirestates, without being called in judgment. Edward, sorelyin need of men and subsidies for another expedition toFrance, returned them a conciliatory answer, summoningthem to join him in arms, with their followers, at anearly day; and although a vigorous effort was made bySir Ralph Ufford to enforce the articles of 1331, andthe ordinance of 1341, by the capture of the Earls ofDesmond and Kildare, and by military execution on someof their followers, the policy of non-intercourse wastacitly abandoned for some years after the Remonstranceof Kilkenny. In 1353, under the lord deputy, Rokeby, anattempt was made to revive it, but it was quickly abandoned;and two years later, Maurice, Earl of Desmond, the leaderof the opposition, was appointed to the office of LordJustice for life! Unfortunately that high-spirited noblemandied the year of his appointment, before its effectscould begin to be felt. The only legal concession whichmarked his period was a royal writ constituting the"Parliament" of the Pale the court of last resort forappeals from the decisions of the King's courts in thatprovince. A recurrence to the former favourite policysignalized the year 1357, when a new set of ordinanceswere received from London, denouncing the penalties oftreason against all who intermarried, or had relationsof fosterage with the Irish; and proclaiming war uponall kernes and idle men found within the English districts. Still severer measures, in the same direction, were soonafterwards decided upon, by the English King and hiscouncil. 

Before relating the farther history of this penal codeas applied to race, we must recall the reader's attentionto the important date of the Kilkenny Remonstrance, 1342. From that year may be distinctly traced the growth oftwo parties among the subjects of the English Kings inIreland. At one time they are distinguished as "the oldEnglish" and "the new English, " at another, as "Englishby birth" and "English by blood. " The new English, freshfrom the Imperial island, seem to have usually conductedthemselves with a haughty sense of superiority; the oldEnglish, more than half _Hibernicized_, confronted thesestrangers with all the self-complacency of natives ofthe soil on which they stood. In their frequent visitsto the Imperial capital, the old English were made sensiblyto feel that their country was not there; and as oftenas they went, they returned with renewed ardour to theland of their possessions and their birth. Time, also, had thrown its reverent glory round the names of thefirst invaders, and to be descended from the companionsof Earl Richard, or the captains who accompanied KingJohn, was a source of family pride, second only to thatwhich the native princes cherished, in tracing up theirlineage to Milesius of Spain. There were many reasons, good, bad, and indifferent, for the descendants of theNorman adventurers adopting Celtic names, laws, andcustoms, but not the least potent, perhaps, was thefostering of family pride and family dependence, which, judged from our present stand-points, were two of theworst possible preparations for our national success inmodern times. 

CHAPTER II. 

LIONEL, DUKE OF CLARENCE, LORD LIEUTENANT--THE PENAL CODEOF RACE--"THE STATUTE OF KILKENNY, " AND SOME OF ITSCONSEQUENCES. 

While the grand experiment for the separation of thepopulation of Ireland into two hostile camps was beingmatured in England, the Earls of Kildare and Ormond were, for four or five years, alternately entrusted with thesupreme power. Fresh ordinances, in the spirit of thosedespatched to Darcy, in 1342, continued annually toarrive. One commanded all lieges of the English King, having grants upon the marches of the Irish enemy, toreside upon and defend them, under pain of revocation. By another entrusted to the Earl of Ormond for promulgation, "no mere Irishman" was to be made a Mayor or bailiff, orother officer of any town within the English districts;nor was any mere Irishman "thereafter, under any pretenceof kindred, or from any other cause, to be received intoholy orders, or advanced to any ecclesiastical benefice. "A modification of this last edict was made the succeedingyear, when a royal writ explained that exception wasintended to be made of such Irish clerks as had givenindividual proofs of their loyalty. 

Soon after the peace of Bretigni had been solemnly ratifiedat Calais, in 1360, by the Kings of France and England, and the latter had returned to London, it was reportedthat one of the Princes would be sent over to exercisethe supreme power at Dublin. As no member of the royalfamily had visited Ireland since the reign of John--thoughEdward I. , when Prince, had been appointed his father'slieutenant--this announcement naturally excited unusualexpectations. The Prince chosen was the King's third son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence; and every preparation was madeto give _eclat_ and effect to his administration. ThisPrince had married, a few years before, Elizabeth deBurgh, who brought him the titles of Earl of Ulster andLord of Connaught, with the claims which they covered. By a proclamation, issued in England, all who heldpossessions in Ireland were commanded to appear beforethe King, either by proxy or in person, to take measuresfor resisting the continued encroachments of the Irishenemy. Among the absentees compelled to contribute tothe expedition accompanying the Prince, are mentionedMaria, Countess of Norfolk, Agnes, Countess of Pembroke, Margery de Boos, Anna le Despenser, and other nobleladies, who, by a strange recurrence, represented in thisage the five co-heiresses of the first Earl Marshal, granddaughters of Eva McMurrogh. What exact force wasequipped from all these contributions is not mentioned;but the Prince arrived in Ireland with no more than 1, 500men, under the command of Ralph, Earl of Strafford, James, Earl of Ormond, Sir William Windsor, Sir John Carew, andother knights. He landed at Dublin on the 15th of September, 1361, and remained in office for three years. On landinghe issued a proclamation, prohibiting natives of thecountry, of all origins, from approaching his camp orcourt, and having made this hopeful beginning he marchedwith his troops into Munster, where he was defeated byO'Brien, and compelled to retreat. Yet by the flatteryof courtiers he was saluted as the conqueror of Clare, and took from the supposed fact, his title of _Clarence_. But no adulation could blind him to the real weakness ofhis position: he keenly felt the injurious consequencesof his proclamation, revoked it, and endeavoured to removethe impression he had made, by conferring knighthood onthe Prestons, Talbots, Cusacks, De la Hydes, and membersof other families, not immediately connected with thePalatine Earls. He removed the Exchequer from Dublin toCarlow, and expended 500 pounds--a large sum for thatage--in fortifying the town. The barrier of Leinster wasestablished at Carlow, from which it was removed, by anact of the English Parliament ten years afterwards; thetown and castle were retaken in 1397, by the celebratedArt McMurrogh, and long remained in the hands of hisposterity. 

In 1364, Duke Lionel went to England, leaving de Windsoras his deputy, but in 1365, and again in 1367, he twicereturned to his government. This latter year is memorableas the date of the second great stride towards theestablishment of a Penal Code of race, by the enactmentof the "Statute of Kilkenny. " This memorable Statute wasdrawn with elaborate care, being intended to serve asthe corner stone of all future legislation, and itsprovisions are deserving of enumeration. The Act setsout with this preamble: "Whereas, at the conquest of theland of Ireland, and for a long time after, the Englishof the said land used the English language, mode ofriding, and apparel, and were governed and ruled, boththey and their subjects, called Betaghese (villeins), according to English law, &c. , &c. , --but now many Englishof the said land, forsaking the English language, manners, mode of riding, laws, and usages, live, and governthemselves according to the manners, fashion, and languageof the Irish enemies, and also have made divers marriagesand alliances between themselves and the Irish enemiesaforesaid--it is therefore enacted, among other provisions, that all intermarriages, fosterings, gossipred, and buyingor selling with the 'enemie, ' shall be accountedtreason--that English names, fashions, and manners shallbe resumed under penalty of the confiscation of thedelinquent's lands--that March-law and Brehon-law areillegal, and that there shall be no law but Englishlaw--that the Irish shall not pasture their cattle onEnglish lands--that the English shall not entertain Irishrhymers, minstrels, or newsmen; and, moreover, that no'mere Irishmen' shall be admitted to any ecclesiasticalbenefice, or religious house, situated within the Englishdistricts. "

All the names of those who attended at this Parliamentof Kilkenny are not accessible to us; but that the Earlsof Kildare, Ormond, and Desmond, were of the number needhardly surprise us, alarmed as they all were by the latesuccesses of the native princes, and overawed by therecent prodigious victories of Edward III. At Cressy andPoictiers. What does at first seem incomprehensible isthat the Archbishop not only of Dublin, but of Casheland Tuam--in the heart of the Irish country--and theBishops of Leighlin, Ossory, Lismore, Cloyne, and Killala, should be parties to this statute. But on closer inspectionour surprise at their presence disappears. Most of theseprelates were at that day nominees of the English King, and many of them were English by birth. Some of themnever had possession of their sees, but dwelt within thenearest strong town, as pensioners on the bounty of theCrown, while the dioceses were administered by nativerivals, or tolerated vicars. Le Reve, Bishop of Lismore, was Chancellor to the Duke in 1367; Young, Bishop ofLeighlin, was Vice-Treasurer; the Bishop of Ossory, Johnof Tatendale, was an English Augustinian, whose appointmentwas disputed by Milo Sweetman, the native Bishop elect;the Bishop of Cloyne, John de Swasham, was a Carmeliteof Lyn, in the county of Norfolk, afterwards Bishop ofBangor, in Wales, where he distinguished himself in thecontroversy against Wycliffe; the Bishop of Killala weonly know by the name of Robert--at that time very unusualamong the Irish. The two native names are those of theArchbishops of Cashel and Tuam, Thomas O'Carrol and JohnO'Grady. The former was probably, and the latter certainly, a nominee of the Crown. We know that Dr. O'Grady died anexile from his see--if he ever was permitted to enterit--in the city of Limerick, four years after the sittingof the Parliament of Kilkenny. Shortly after the enactmentof this law, by which he is best remembered, the Duke ofClarence returned to England, leaving to Gerald, fourthEarl of Desmond, the task of carrying it into effect. Inthe remaining years of this reign the office of LordLieutenant was held by Sir William de Windsor, duringthe intervals of whose absence in England the Prior ofKilmainham, or the Earl of Kildare or of Ormond, dischargedthe duties with the title of Lord Deputy or Lord Justice. 

It is now time that we should turn to the native annalsof the country to show how the Irish princes had carriedon the contest during the eventful half century which thereign of Edward III. Occupies in the history of England. 

In the generation which elapsed from the death of theEarl of Ulster, or rather from the first avowal of thepolicy of proscription in 1342, the native tribes had onall sides and continuously gained on the descendants oftheir invaders. In Connaught, the McWilliams, McWattins, and McFeoriss retained part of their estates only bybecoming as Irish as the Irish. The lordships of Leynyand Corran, in Sligo and Mayo, were recovered by theheirs of their former chiefs, while the powerful familyof O'Conor Sligo converted that strong town into aformidable centre of operations. Rindown, Athlone, Roscommon, and Bunratty, all frontier posts fortifiedby the Normans, were in 1342, as we learn from theRemonstrance of Kilkenny, in the hands of the elder race. 

The war, in all the Provinces, was in many respects awar of posts. Towards the north Carrickfergus continuedthe outwork till captured by Neil O'Neil, when Downpatrickand Dundalk became the northern barriers. The lattertown, which seems to have been strengthened after Bruce'sdefeat, was repeatedly attacked by Neil O'Neil, and atlast entered into conditions, by which it procured hisprotection. At Downpatrick also, in the year 1375, hegained a signal victory over the English of the town andtheir allies, under Sir James Talbot of Malahide, andBurke of Camline, in which both these commanders wereslain. This O'Neil, called from his many successes Neil_More_, or the Great, dying in 1397, left the borders ofUlster more effectually cleared of foreign garrisons thanthey had been for a century and a half before. He enrichedthe churches of Armagh and Deny, and built a habitationfor students resorting to the primatial city, on the siteof the ancient palace of Emania, which had been desertedbefore the coming of St. Patrick. 

The northern and western chiefs seem in this age to havemade some improvements in military equipments, and tactics. _Cooey-na-gall_, a celebrated captain of the O'Kanes, isrepresented on his tomb at Dungiven as clad in completearmour--though that may be the fancy of the sculptor. Scottish gallowglasses--heavy-armed infantry, trainedin Bruce's campaigns, were permanently enlisted in theirservice. Of their leaders the most distinguished wereMcNeil _Cam_, or the Crooked, and McRory, in the serviceof O'Conor, and McDonnell, McSorley, and McSweeney, inthe service of O'Neil, O'Donnell, and O'Conor Sligo. Theleaders of these warlike bands are called the Constablesof Tyr-Owen, of North Connaught, or of Connaught, andare distinguished in all the warlike encounters in thenorth and west. 

The midland country--the counties now of Longford, West-Meath, Meath, Dublin, Kildare, King's and Queen's, were almost constantly in arms, during the latter halfof this century. The lords of Annally, Moy-Cashel, Carbry, Offally, Ely, and Leix, rivalled each other in enterpriseand endurance. In 1329, McGeoghegan of West-Meath defeatedand slew Lord Thomas Butler, with the loss of 120 men atMullingar; but the next year suffered an equal loss fromthe combined forces of the Earls of Ormond and Ulster;his neighbour, O'Farrell, contended with even betterfortune, especially towards the close of Edward's reign(1372), when in one successful foray he not only swepttheir garrisons out of Annally, but rendered importantassistance to the insurgent tribes of Meath. In Leinster, the house of O'Moore, under Lysaght their Chief, by awell concerted conspiracy, seized in one night (in 1327)no less than eight castles, and razed the fort of Dunamase, which they despaired of defending. In 1346, under ConalO'Moore, they destroyed the foreign strongholds of Leyand Kilmehedie; and though Conal was slain by the English, and Rory, one of their creatures, placed in his stead, the tribe put Rory to death as a traitor in 1354, andfor two centuries thereafter upheld their independence. Simultaneously, the O'Conors of Offally, and the O'Carrollsof Ely, adjoining and kindred tribes, so straightenedthe Earl of Kildare on the one hand, and the Earl ofOrmond on the other, that a cess of 40 pence on everycarucate (140 acres) of tilled land, and of 40 pence onchattels of the value of six pounds, was imposed on allthe English settlements, for the defence of Kildare, Carlow, and the marches generally. Out of the amountcollected in Carlow, a portion was paid to the Earl ofKildare, "for preventing the O'Moores from burning thetown of Killahan. " The same nobleman was commanded, byan order in Council, to strengthen his Castles of Rathmore, Kilkea, and Ballymore, under pain of forfeiture. Theseevents occurred in 1856, '7, and '8. 

In the south the same struggle for supremacy proceededwith much the same results. The Earl of Desmond, freshfrom his Justiceship in Dublin, and the penal legislationof Kilkenny, was, in 1370, defeated and slain near Adare, by Brian O'Brien, Prince of Thomond, with several knightsof his name, and "an indescribable number of others. "Limerick was next assailed, and capitulated to O'Brien, who created Sheedy McNamara, Warden of the City. TheEnglish burghers, however, after the retirement of O'Brien, rose, murdered the new Warden, and opened the gates toSir William de Windsor, the Lord Lieutenant, who hadhastened to their relief. Two years later the wholeAnglo-Irish force, under the fourth Earl of Kildare, was, summoned to Limerick, in order to defend it againstO'Brien. So desperate now became the contest, that Williamde Windsor only consented to return a second time as LordLieutenant in 1374, on condition that he was to actstrictly on the defensive, and to receive annually thesum of 11, 213 pounds 6 shillings 8 pence--a sum exceedingthe whole revenue which the English King derived fromIreland at that period; which, according to Sir JohnDavies, fell short of 11, 000 pounds. Although such wasthe critical state of the English interest, this lieutenantobtained from the fears of successive Parliaments annualsubsidies of 2, 000 pounds and 3, 000 pounds. The deputiesfrom Louth having voted against his demand, were throwninto prison; but a direct petition from the Anglo-Irishto the King brought an order to de Windsor not to enforcethe collection of these grants, and to remit in favourof the petitioners the scutage "on all those lands ofwhich the Irish enemy had deprived them. "

In the last year of Edward III. (1376), he summoned themagnates and the burghers of towns to send representativesto 'London to consult with him on the state of the Englishsettlements in Ireland. But those so addressed havingassembled together, drew up a protest, setting forth thatthe great Council of Ireland had never been accustomedto meet out of that kingdom, though, saving the rightsof their heirs and successors, they expressed theirwillingness to do so, for the King's convenience on thatoccasion. Richard Dene and William Stapolyn were firstsent over to England to exhibit the evils of the Irishadministration; the proposed general assembly ofrepresentatives seems to have dropped. The King orderedthe two delegates just mentioned to be paid ten poundsout of the Exchequer for their expenses. 

The series of events, however, which most clearly exhibitsthe decay of the English interest, transpired within thelimits of Leinster, almost within sight of Dublin. Ofthe actors in these events, the most distinguished forenergy, ability, and good fortune, was Art McMurrogh, whose exploits are entitled to a separate and detailedaccount. 

CHAPTER III. 

ART McMURROGH, LORD OF LEINSTER--FIRST EXPEDITION OFRICHARD II. , OF ENGLAND, TO IRELAND. 

Whether Donald Kavanagh McMurrogh, son of Dermid, wasborn out of wedlock, as the Lady Eva was made to depose, in order to create a claim of inheritance for herself assole heiress, this, at least, is certain, that hisdescendants continued to be looked upon by the kindredclans of Leinster as the natural lords of that principality. Towards the close of the thirteenth century, in the thirdor fourth generation, after the death of their immediateancestor, the Kavanaghs of Leighlin and Ballyloughlinbegin to act prominently in the affairs of their Province, and then--chief is styled both by Irish and English "theMcMurrogh. " In the era of King Edward Bruce, they weresufficiently formidable to call for an expedition of theLord Justice into their patrimony, by which they are saidto have been defeated. In the next age, in 1335, Maurice, "the McMurrogh, " was granted by the Anglo-Irish Parliamentor Council, the sum of 80 marks annually, for keepingopen certain roads and preserving the peace within itsjurisdiction. In 1358, Art, the successor of Maurice, and Donald Revagh, were proclaimed "rebels" in a Parliamentheld at Castledermot, by the Lord Deputy Sancto Amando, the said Art being further branded with deep ingratitudeto Edward III. , who had acknowledged him as "the Mac-Murch. "To carry on a war against him the whole English interestwas assessed with a special tax. Louth contributed 20pounds; Meath and Waterford, 2 shillings on every carucate(140 acres) of tilled land; Kilkenny the same sum, withthe addition of 6 pence in the pound on chattels. ThisArt captured the strong castles of Kilbelle, Galbarstown, Rathville, and although his career was not one of invariablesuccess, he bequeathed to his son, also called Art, in1375, an inheritance, extending over a large portion--perhaps one-half--of the territory ruled by his ancestorsbefore the invasion. 

Art McMurrogh, or Art Kavanagh, as he is more commonlycalled, was born in the year 1357, and from the age ofsixteen and upwards was distinguished by his hospitality, knowledge, and feats of arms. Like the great Brian, hewas a younger son, but the fortune of war removed one byone those who would otherwise have preceded him in thecaptaincy of his clan and connections. About the year1375--while he was still under age--he was electedsuccessor to his father, according to the Annalists, whorecord his death in 1417, "after being forty-two yearsin the government of Leinster. " Fortunately he attainedcommand at a period favourable to his genius and enterprise. His own and the adjoining tribes were aroused by tidingsof success from other Provinces, and the partial victoriesof their immediate predecessors, to entertain bolderschemes, and they only waited for a chief of distinguishedability to concentrate their efforts. This chief theyfound, where they naturally looked for him, among theold ruling family of the Province. Nor were the Englishsettlers ignorant of his promise. In the Parliament heldat Castledermot in 1377, they granted to him the customaryannual tribute paid to his house, the nature of whichcalls for a word of explanation. This tribute was granted, "as the late King had done to his ancestors;" it wasagain voted in a Parliament held in 1380, and continuedto be paid so late as the opening of the seventeenthcentury (A. D. 1603). Not only was a fixed sum paid outof the Exchequer for this purpose--inducing the nativechiefs to grant a right of way through their territories--but a direct tax was levied on the inhabitants ofEnglish origin for the same privilege. This tax, called"black mail, " or "black rent, " was sometimes differentlyregarded by those who paid and those who received it. The former looked on it as a stipend, the latter as atribute; but that it implied a formal acknowledgment ofthe local jurisdiction of the chief cannot be doubted. Two centuries after the time of which we speak, BaronFinglas, in his suggestions to King Henry VIII. Forextending his power in Ireland, recommends that "no blackrent be paid to any Irishman _for the four shires_"--ofthe Pale--"and any black rent they had afore this timebe paid to them for ever. " At that late period "theMcMurrogh" had still his 80 marks annually from theExchequer, and 40 pounds from the English settled inWexford; O'Carroll of Ely had 40 pounds from the Englishin Kilkenny, and O'Conor of Offally 20 pounds from thoseof Kildare, and 300 pounds from Meath. It was to meetthese and other annuities to more distant chiefs, thatWilliam of Windsor, in 1369, covenanted for a largerrevenue than the whole of the Anglo-Irish districts thenyielded, and which led him besides to stipulate that hewas to undertake no new expeditions, but to act entirelyon the defensive. We find a little later, that thenecessity of sustaining the Dublin authorities at anannual loss was one of the main motives which inducedRichard II. Of England to transport two royal armiesacross the channel, in 1394 and 1399. 

Art McMurrogh, the younger, not only extended the boundsof his own inheritance and imposed tribute on the Englishsettlers in adjoining districts, during the first yearsof his rule, but having married a noble lady of the"Pale, " Elizabeth, heiress to the barony of Norragh, inKildare, which included Naas and its neighbourhood, heclaimed her inheritance in full, though forfeited under"the statute of Kilkenny, " according to English notions. So necessary did it seem to the Deputy and Council ofthe day to conciliate their formidable neighbour, thatthey addressed a special representation to King Richard, setting forth the facts of the case, and adding thatMcMurrogh threatened, until this lady's estates wererestored and the arrears of tribute due to him fullydischarged, he should never cease from war, "but wouldjoin with the Earl of Desmond against the Earl of Ormond, and afterwards return with a great force out of Ministerto ravage the country. " This allusion most probably refersto James, second Earl of Ormond, who, from being thematernal grandson of Edward I. , was called the nobleEarl, and was considered in his day the peculiarrepresentative of the English interest. In the lastyears of Edward III. , and the first of his successor, hewas constable of the Castle of Dublin, with a fee of 18pounds 5 shillings per annum. In 1381--the probable dateof the address just quoted--he had a commission to treatwith certain rebels, in order to reform them and promotepeace. Three years later he died, and was buried in theCathedral of St. Canice, Kilkenny, the place of sepultureof his family. 

When, in the year 1389, Richard II. , having attained hismajority, demanded to reign alone, the condition of theEnglish interest was most critical. During the twelveyears of his minority the Anglo-Irish policy of theCouncil of Regency had shifted and changed, according tothe predominance of particular influences. The LordLieutenancy was conferred on the King's relatives, EdwardMortimer, Earl of March (1379), and continued to his son, Roger Mortimer, a minor (1381); in 1383, it was transferredto Philip de Courtenay, the King's cousin. The followingyear, de Courtenay having been arrested and fined formal-administration, Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, thespecial favourite of Richard, was created Marquis ofDublin and Duke of Ireland, with a grant of all the powersand authority exercised at any period in Ireland by thatKing or his predecessors. This extraordinary grant wassolemnly confirmed by the English Parliament, who, perhapswilling to get rid of the favourite at any cost, allottedthe sum of 30, 000 marks due from the King of France, witha guard of 500 men-at-arms and 1, 000 archers for de Vere'sexpedition. But that favoured nobleman never entered intopossession of the principality assigned him; he experiencedthe fate of the Gavestons and de Spencers of a formerreign; fleeing, for his life, from the Barons, he diedin exile in the Netherlands. The only real rulers of theAnglo-Irish in the years of the King's minority, orprevious to his first expedition in 1394, (if we exceptSir John Stanley's short terms of office in 1385 and1389, ) were the Earls of Ormond, second and third, Colton, Dean of Saint Patrick's, Petit, Bishop of Meath, andWhite, Prior of Kilmainham. For thirty years after thedeath of Edward III. , no Geraldine was entrusted withthe highest office, and no Anglo-Irish layman of anyother family but the Butlers. In 1393, Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, uncle to Richard, was appointed LordLieutenant, and was on the point of embarking, when aroyal order reached him announcing the determination ofthe King to take command of the forces in person. 

The immediate motives for Richard's expedition arevariously stated by different authors. That usuallyassigned by the English--a desire to divert his mind frombrooding over the loss of his wife, "the good Queen Anne, "seems wholly insufficient. He had announced his intentiona year before her death; he had called together, beforethe Queen fell ill, the Parliament at Westminster, whichreadily voted him "a tenth" of the revenues of all theirestates for the expedition. Anne's sickness was sudden, and her death took place in the last week of July. Richard's preparations at that date were far advancedtowards completion, and Sir Thomas Scroope had beenalready some months in Dublin to prepare for his reception. The reason assigned by Anglo-Irish writers is moreplausible: he had been a candidate for the Imperial Crownof Germany, and was tauntingly told by his competitorsto conquer Ireland before he entered the lists for thehighest political honour of that age. This rebuke, andthe ill-success of Ms arms against France and Scotland, probably made him desirous to achieve in a new field someshare of that military glory which was always so highlyprized by his family:

Some events which immediately preceded Richard's expeditionmay help us to understand the relative positions of thenatives and the naturalized to the English interest inthe districts through which he was to march. By this timethe banner of Art McMurrogh floated over all the castlesand raths, on the slope of the Ridge of Leinster, or thesteps of the Blackstair hills; while the forests alongthe Barrow and the Upper Slaney, as well as in the plainof Carlow and in the South-western angle of Wicklow (nowthe barony of Shillelagh), served still better his purposesof defensive warfare; So entirely was the range of countrythus vaguely defined under native sway that John Griffin, the English Bishop of Leighlin, and Chancellor of theExchequer, obtained a grant in 1389 of the town ofGulroestown, in the county of Dublin, "near the marchesof O'Toole, seeing he could not live within his own seefor the rebels. " In 1390, Peter Creagh, Bishop of Limerick, on his way to attend an Anglo-Irish Parliament, was takenprisoner in that region, and in consequence the usualfine was remitted in his favour. In 1392, James, thethird Earl of Ormond, gave McMurrogh a severe check atTiscoffin, near Shankill, where 600 of his clansmen wereleft dead among the hills. 

This defeat, however, was thrown into the shade by thecapture of New Boss, on the very eve of Richard's arrivalat Waterford. In a previous chapter we have describedthe fortifications erected round this important seaporttowards the end of the thirteenth century. Since thatperiod its progress had been steadily onward. In thereign of Edward III. The controversy which had longsubsisted between the merchants of Ross and those ofWaterford, concerning the trade monopolies claimed bythe latter, had been decided in favour of Ross. At thisperiod it could muster in its own defence 363 cross-bowmen, 1, 200 long-bowmen, 1, 200 pikemen, and 104 horsemen--aforce which would seem to place it second to Dublin inpoint of military strength. The capture of so importanta place by McMurrogh was a cheering omen to his followers. He razed the walls and towers, and carried off gold, silver, and hostages. 

On the 2nd of October, 1394, the royal fleet of Richardarrived from Milford Haven, at Waterford. To those whosaw Ireland for the first time, the rock of Dundonolf, famed for Raymond's camp, the abbey of Dunbrody, lookingcalmly down on the confluence of the three rivers, andthe half-Danish, half-Norman port before them, must havepresented scenes full of interest. To the townsmen thefleet was something wonderful. The endless successionof ships of all sizes and models, which had wafted over30, 000 archers and 4, 000 men-at-arms; the royal galleyleading on the fluttering pennons of so many great nobles, was a novel sight to that generation. Attendant on theKing were his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, the youngEarl of March, heir apparent, Thomas Mowbray, Earl ofNottingham, the Earl of Rutland, the Lord Thomas Percy, afterwards Earl of Westmoreland, and father of Hotspur, and Sir Thomas Moreley, heir to the last Lord Marshal ofthe "Pale. " Several dignitaries of the English Church, as well Bishops as Abbots, were also with the fleet. Immediately after landing, a _Te Deum_ was sung in theCathedral, where Earl Richard had wedded the PrincessEva, where Henry II. And John had offered up similarthanksgivings. 

Richard remained a week at Waterford; gave splendid_fetes_, and received some lords of the neighbouringcountry, Le Poers, Graces, and Butlers. He made gifts tochurches, and ratified the charter given by John to theabbey of Holy Cross in Munster. He issued a summons toGerald, Earl of Desmond, to appear before him by thefeast of the Purification "in whatever part of Irelandhe should then be, " to answer to the charge of havingusurped the manor, revenues, and honour of Dungarvan. Although it was then near the middle of October, he tookthe resolution of marching to Dublin, through the countryof McMurrogh, and knowing the memory of Edward theConfessor to be popular in Leinster, he furled the royalbanner, and hoisted that of the saintly Saxon king, whichbore "a cross patence, or, on a field gules, with fourdoves argent on the shield. " His own proper banner borelioncels and fleur-de-lis. His route was by Thomastownto Kilkenny, a city which had risen into importance withthe Butlers. Nearly half a century before, this familyhad brought artizans from Flanders, who established themanufacture of woollens, for which the town was everafter famous. Its military importance was early felt andlong maintained. At this city Richard was joined by SirWilliam de Wellesley, who claimed to be hereditarystandard-bearer for Ireland, and by other Anglo-Irishnobles. From thence he despatched his Earl Marshal into"Catherlough" to treat with McMurrogh. On the plain ofBallygorry, near Carlow, Art, with his uncle, Malachy, O'Moore, O'Nolan, O'Byrne, MacDavid, and other chiefs, met the Earl Marshal. The terms proposed were almostequivalent to extermination. They were, in effect, thatthe Leinster chieftains, under fines of enormous amount, payable into the Apostolic chamber, should, before thefirst Sunday of Lent, surrender to the English King "thefull possession of all their lands, tenements, castles, woods, and forts, which by them and all other of theKenseologhes, their companions, men, or adherents, latewere occupied within the province of Leinster. " And thecondition of this surrender was to be, that they shouldhave unmolested possession of any and all lands theycould conquer from the King's other Irish enemies elsewherein the kingdom. To these hard conditions some of theminor chiefs, overawed by the immense force broughtagainst them, would, it seems, have submitted, but Artsternly refused to treat, declaring that if he made termsat all, it should be with the King and not with the EarlMarshal; and that instead of yielding his own lands, hiswife's patrimony in Kildare should be restored. Thisbroke up the conference, and Mowbray returned discomfittedto Kilkenny. 

King Richard, full of indignation, put himself at thehead of his army and advanced against the Leinster clans. But his march was slow and painful: the season and theforest fought against him; he was unable to collect bythe way sufficient fodder for the horses or provisionsfor the men. McMurrogh swept off everything of the natureof food--took advantage of his knowledge of the countryto burst upon the enemy by night, to entrap them intoambuscades, to separate the cavalry from the foot, andby many other stratagems to thin their ranks and harassthe stragglers. At length Richard, despairing of dislodginghim from his fastnesses in Idrone, or fighting a way outof them, sent to him another deputation of "the Englishand Irish of Leinster, " inviting him to Dublin to apersonal interview. This proposal was accepted, and theEnglish king continued his way to Dublin, probably alongthe sea coast by Bray and the white strand, over Killineyand Dunleary. Soon after his arrival at Dublin, care wastaken to repair the highway which ran by the sea, towardsWicklow and Wexford. 

CHAPTER IV. 

SUBSEQUENT PROCEEDINGS OF RICHARD II. --LIEUTENANCY ANDDEATH OF THE EARL OF MARCH--SECOND EXPEDITION OF RICHARDAGAINST ART McMURROGH--CHANGE OF DYNASTY IN ENGLAND. 

At Dublin, Richard prepared to celebrate the festival ofChristmas, with all the splendour of which he was sofond. He had received letters from his council in Englandwarmly congratulating him on the results of his "noblevoyage" and his successes against "his rebel Make Murgh. "Several lords and chiefs were hospitably entertained byhim during the holidays--but the greater magnates didnot yet present themselves--unless we suppose them tohave continued his guests at Dublin, from Christmas tillEaster, which is hardly credible. 

The supplies which he had provided were soon devoured byso vast a following. His army, however, were paid theirwages weekly, and were well satisfied. But whatever theKing or his flatterers might pretend, the real object ofall the mighty preparations made was still in the distance, and fresh supplies were needed for the projected campaignof 1395. To raise the requisite funds, he determined tosend to England his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. Gloucester carried a letter to the regent, the Duke ofYork, countersigned "Lincolne, " and dated from Dublin, "Feb. 1, 1395. " The council, consisting of the Earls ofDerby, Arundel, de Ware, Salisbury, Northumberland, andothers, was convened, and they "readily voted a tenthoff the clergy, and a fifteenth off the laity, for theKing's supply. " This they sent with a document, signedby them all, exhorting him to a vigorous prosecution ofthe war, and the demolition of all forts belonging to"MacMourgh [or] le grand O'Nel. " They also addressed himanother letter, complimentary of his valour and discretionin all things. 

While awaiting supplies from England, Richard made aprogress as far northward as Drogheda, where he took uphis abode in the Dominican Convent of St. Mary Magdalen. On the eve of St. Patrick's Day, O'Neil, O'Donnell, O'Reilly, O'Hanlon, and MacMahon, visited and exchangedprofessions of friendship with him. It is said they made"submission" to him as their sovereign lord, but untilthe Indentures, which have been spoken of, but neverpublished, are exhibited, it will be impossible todetermine what, in their minds and in his, were the exactrelations subsisting between the native Irish princesand the King of England at that time. O'Neil, and otherlords of Ulster, accompanied him back to Dublin, wherethey found O'Brien, O'Conor, and McMurrogh, lately arrived. They were all lodged in a fair mansion, according to thenotion of Master Castide, Froissart's informant, and wereunder the care of the Earl of Ormond and Castide himself, both of whom spoke familiarly the Irish language. 

The glimpse we get through Norman spectacles of themanners and customs of these chieftains is eminentlyinstructive, both as regards the observers and theobserved. They would have, it seems, very much to thedisedification of the English esquire, "their minstrelsand principal servants sit at the same table and eat fromthe same dish. " The interpreters employed all theireloquence in vain to dissuade them from this lewd habit, which they perversely called "a praiseworthy custom, "till at last, to get rid of importunities, they consentedto have it ordered otherwise, during their stay as KingRichard's guests. 

On the 24th of March the Cathedral of Christ's Churchbeheld the four kings devoutly keeping the vigil preparatoryto knighthood. They had been induced to accept that honourfrom Richard's hand. They had apologized at first, sayingthey were all knighted at the age of seven. But theceremony, as performed in the rest of Christendom, wasrepresented to them as a great and religious custom, which made the simplest knight the equal of his sovereign, which added new lustre to the crowned head, and freshhonour to the victorious sword. On the Feast of theAnnunciation they went through the imposing ceremony, according to the custom obtaining among their entertainers. 

While the native Princes of the four Provinces were thuslodged together in one house, it was inevitable thatplans of co-operation for the future should be discussedbetween them. Soon after the Earl of Ormond, who knewtheir language, appeared before Richard as the accuserof McMurrogh, who was, on his statement, committed toclose confinement in the Castle. He was, however, soonafter set at liberty, though O'Moore, O'Byrne, and JohnO'Mullain were retained in custody, probably as hostages, for the fulfilment of the terms of his release. By thistime the expected supplies had arrived from England, andthe festival of Easter was happily passed. Before breakingup from his winter quarters Richard celebrated with greatpomp the festival of his namesake, St. Richard, Bishopof Chichester, and then summoned a parliament to meethim at Kilkenny on the 12th of the month. The acts ofthis parliament have not seen the light; an obscuritywhich they share in common with all the documents of thisPrince's progress in Ireland. The same remark was madethree centuries ago by the English chronicler, Grafton, who adds with much simplicity, that as Richard's voyageinto Ireland "was nothing profitable nor honourable tohim, therefore the writers think it scant worth thenoting. "

Early in May a deputation, at the head of which was thecelebrated William of Wyckham, arrived from England, invoking the personal presence of the King to quiet thedisturbances caused by the progress of Lollardism. Withthis invitation he decided at once to comply, but firsthe appointed the youthful Earl of March his lieutenantin Ireland, and confirmed the ordinance of Edward III. , empowering the chief governor in council to conveneparliament by writ, which writ should be of equal obligationwith the King's writ in England. He ordained that a fineof not less than fifty marks, and not more than onehundred, should be exacted of every representative of atown or shire, who, being elected as such, neglected orrefused to attend. He reformed the royal courts, andappointed Walter de Hankerford and William Sturmey, twoEnglishmen, "well learned in the law" as judges, whoseannual salaries were to be forty pounds each. Having madethese arrangements, he took an affectionate leave of hisheir and cousin, and sailed for England, whither he wasaccompanied by most of the great nobles who had passedover with him to the Irish wars. Little dreamt they ofthe fate which impended over many of their heads. Threeshort years and Gloucester would die by the assassin'shand, Arundel by the executioner's axe, and Mowbray, EarlMarshal, the ambassador at Ballygorry, would pine todeath in Italian banishment. Even a greater change thanany of these--a change of dynasty--was soon to come overEngland. 

The young Earl of March, now left in the supreme directionof affairs, so far as we know, had no better title togovern than that he was heir to the English throne, unlessit may have been considered an additional recommendationthat he was sixth in descent from the Lady Eva McMurrogh. To his English title, he added that of Earl of Ulsterand Lord of Connaught, derived from his mother, thedaughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and those of Lordof Trim and Clare, from other relations. The counsellorswith whom he was surrounded included the wisest statesmenand most experienced soldiers of "the Pale. " Among themwere Almaric, Baron Grace, who, contrary to the statuteof Kilkenny, had married an O'Meagher of Ikerrin, andwhose family had intermarried with the McMurroghs; thethird Earl of Ormond, an indomitable soldier, who hadacted as Lord Deputy, in former years of this reign;Cranley, Archbishop of Dublin, and Roche, the CistercianAbbot of St. Mary's, lately created Lord Treasurer ofIreland; Stephen Bray, Chief Justice; and Gerald, fifthEarl of Kildare. Among his advisers of English birth wereRoger Grey, his successor; the new Judges Hankerford andSturmey, and others of less pacific reputation. Withthe dignitaries of the Church, and the innumerable priorsand abbots, in and about Dublin, the court of theHeir-Presumptive must have been a crowded and imposingone for those times, and had its external prospects beenpeaceful, much ease and pleasure might have been enjoyedwithin its walls. 

In the three years of this administration, the strugglebetween the natives, the naturalized, and the Englishinterest knew no cessation in Leinster. Some form ofsubmission had been wrung from McMurrogh before hisrelease from Dublin Castle, in the spring of 1395, butthis engagement extorted under duress, from a guesttowards whom every rite of hospitality had been violated, he did not feel bound by after his enlargement. In thesame year an attempt was made to entrap him at a banquetgiven in one of the castles of the frontier, but warnedby his bard, he made good his escape "by the strength ofhis arm, and by bravery. " After this double violation ofwhat among his countrymen, even of the fiercest tribes, was always held sacred, the privileged character of aguest, he never again placed himself at the mercy ofprince or peer, but prosecuted the war with unfalteringdetermination. In 1396, his neighbour, the chief ofImayle, carried off from an engagement near Dublin, sixscore heads of the foreigners: and the next year--anexploit hardly second in its kind to the taking of Ross--the strong castle and town of Carlow were captured byMcMurrogh himself. In the campaign of 1398, on the 20thof July, was fought the eventful battle of Kenlis, orKells, on the banks of the stream called "the King'sriver, " in the barony of Kells, and county of Kilkenny. Here fell the Heir-Presumptive to the English crown, whose premature removal was one of the causes whichcontributed to the revolution in England, a year or twolater. The tidings of this event filled "the Pale" withconsternation, and thoroughly aroused the vindictivetemper of Richard. He at once despatched to Dublin hishalf-brother, Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, recentlycreated Duke of Surrey. To this duke he made a gift ofCarlow castle and town, to be held (if taken) by knights'service. He then, as much, perhaps, to give occupationto the minds of his people, as to prosecute his oldproject of subduing Ireland, began to make preparationsfor his second expedition thither. Death again delayedhim. John of Ghent, Duke of Lancaster, his uncle, andone of the most famous soldiers of the time, suddenlysickened, and died. As Henry, his son, was in banishment, the King, under pretence of appropriating his vast wealthto the service of the nation, seized it into his ownhands, and despite the warnings of his wisest counsellorsas to the disturbed state of the kingdom, again took uphis march for Milford Haven. 

A French knight, named Creton, had obtained leave witha brother-in-arms to accompany this expedition, and hasleft us a very vivid account of its progress. QuittingParis they reached London just as King Richard was about"to cross the sea on account of the injuries and grievancesthat his mortal enemies had committed against him inIreland, where they had put to death many of his faithfulfriends. " Wherefore they were further told, "he wouldtake no rest until he had avenged himself upon MacMore, who called himself most excellent King and Lord of greatIreland; where he had but little territory of any kind. "

They at once set out for Milford, where, "waiting forthe north wind, " they remained "ten whole days. " Herethey found King Richard with a great army, and acorresponding fleet. The clergy were taxed to supplyhorses, waggons, and money--the nobles, shires, and towns, their knights, men-at-arms, and archers-the seaports, from Whitehaven to Penzance, were obliged, by an orderin council, dated February 7th, to send vessels rated attwenty-five tons and upwards to Milford, by the octaveof Easter. King's letters were issued whenever the usualordinances failed, and even the press-gang was resortedto, to raise the required number of mariners. Minstrelsof all kinds crowded to the camp, enlivening it by theirstrains, and enriching themselves the while. The windcoming fair, the vessels "took in their lading of bread, wine, cows and calves, salt meat and plenty of water, "and the King taking leave of his ladies, they set sail. 

In two days they saw "the tower of Waterford. " Thecondition to which the people of this English strongholdhad been reduced by the war was pitiable in the extreme. Some were in rags, others girt with ropes, and theirdwellings seemed to the voyagers but huts and holes. Theyrushed into the tide up to their waists, for the speedyunloading of the ships, especially attending to thosethat bore the supplies of the army. Little did the proudcavaliers and well-fed yeomen, who then looked on, imagine, as they pitied the poor wretches of Waterford, that beforemany weeks were over, they would themselves be reducedto the like necessity--even to rushing into the sea tocontend for a morsel of food. 

Six days after his arrival, which was on the 1st of June, King Richard marched from Waterford "in close order toKilkenny. " He had now the advantage of long days and warmnights, which in his first expedition he had not. Hisforces were rather less than in 1394; some say twenty, some twenty-four thousand in all. The Earl of Rutland, with a reinforcement in one hundred ships, was to havefollowed him, but this unfaithful courtier did not greatlyhasten his preparations to overtake his master. With theKing were the Lord Steward of England, Sir Thomas Percy;the Duke of Exeter; De Spencer, Earl of Gloucester; theLord Henry of Lancaster, afterwards King Henry V. ; theson of the late Duke of Gloucester; the son of the Countessof Salisbury; the Bishop of Exeter and London; the Abbotof Westminster, and a gallant Welsh gentleman, afterwardsknown to fame as Owen Glendower. He dropped the subterfugeof bearing Edward the Confessor's banner, and advancedhis own standard, which bore leopards and flower de luces. In this order, "riding boldly, " they reached Kilkenny, where Richard remained a fortnight awaiting news of theEarl of Rutland from Waterford. No news, however, came. But while he waited, he received intelligence from Kildarewhich gratified his thirst for vengeance. Jenico d'Artois, a Gascon knight of great discretion and valour, who hadcome over the preceding year with the Duke of Surrey, marching towards Kilkenny, had encountered some bands ofthe Irish in Kildare (bound on a like errand to theirprince), whom he fought and put to flight, leaving twohundred of them dead upon the field. This Jenico, relishingIrish warfare more than most foreign soldiers of his age, continued long after to serve in Ireland--married one ofhis daughters to Preston, Baron of Naas, and another tothe first Lord Portlester. 

On the 23rd of June, "the very vigil of St. John, " asaint to whom the King was very much devoted, Richard, resolving to delay no longer, left Kilkenny, and marcheddirectly towards Catherlough. He sent a message in advanceto McMurrogh, "who would neither submit nor obey him inanyway; but affirmed that he was the rightful King ofIreland, and that he would never cease from war and thedefence of his country until his death; and said thatthe wish to deprive him of it by conquest was unlawful. "

Art McMurrogh, now some years beyond middle age, had withhim in arms "three thousand hardy men, " "who did notappear, " says our French knight, "to be much afraid ofthe English. " The cattle and corn, the women and thehelpless, he had removed into the interior of thefastnesses, while he himself awaited, in Idrone, theapproach of the enemy. 

This district, which lies north and south between therivers Slaney and Barrow, is of a diversified and brokensoil, watered with several small streams, and patchedwith tracts of morass and marsh. It was then half coveredwith wood, except in the neighbourhood of Old Leighlin, and a few other places where villages had grown up aroundthe castles, raths, and monasteries of earlier days. Onreaching the border of the forest, King Richard orderedall the habitations in sight to be set on fire; and then"two thousand five hundred of the well affected people, "or, as others say, prisoners, "began to hew a highwayinto the woods. "

When the first space was cleared, Richard, ever fond ofpageantry, ordered his standard to be planted on the newground, and pennons and banners arrayed on every side. Then he sent for the sons of the Dukes of Gloucester andLancaster, his cousins, and the son of the Countess ofSalisbury and other bachelors-in-arms, and there knightedthem with all due solemnity. To young Lancaster, he said, "My fair cousin, henceforth, be preux and valiant, foryou have some valiant blood to conquer. " The youth towhom he made this address was little more than a boy, but tall of his age, and very vigorous. He had been ahard student at Oxford, and was now as unbridled as acolt new loosed into a meadow. He was fond of music, andafterwards became illustrious as the Fifth Henry ofEnglish history. Who could have foreseen, when first heput on his spurs by the wood's side, in Catherlough, thathe would one day inherit the throne of England and makegood the pretensions of all his predecessors to the throneof France?

Richard's advance was slow and wearisome in the forestsof Idrone. His route was towards the eastern coast. McMurrogh retreated before him, harassing him dreadfully, carrying off everything fit for food for man or beast, surprising and slaying his foragers, and filling his campnightly with alarm and blood. The English archers gotoccasional shots at his men, "so that they did not allescape;" and they in turn often attacked the rear-guard, "and threw their darts with such force that they piercedhaubergeon and plates through and through. " The LeinsterKing would risk no open battle so long as he could thuscut off the enemy in detail. Many brave knights fell, many men-at-arms and archers; and a deep disrelish forthe service began to manifest itself in the English camp. 

A party of Wexford settlers, however, brought one day tohis camp Malachy McMurrogh, uncle to Art, a timid, treaty-making man. According to the custom of thatcentury--observed by the defenders of Stirling and theburgesses of Calais--he submitted with a _wythe_ abouthis neck, rendering up a naked sword. His retinue, bareheaded and barefoot, followed him into the presenceof Richard, who received them graciously. "Friends, "said he to them, "as to the evils and wrongs that youhave committed against me, I pardon you on condition thateach of you will swear to be faithful to me for the timeto come. " Of this circumstance he made the most, as ourguide goes on to tell in these words: "Then every onereadily complied with his demand; and took the oath. Whenthis was done he sent word to MacMore, who called himselfLord and King of Ireland, (_that country_, ) where he hasmany a wood but little cultivated land, that if he wouldcome straightways to him with a rope about _his_ neck, as his uncle had done, he would admit him to mercy, andelsewhere give him castles and lands in abundance. " Theanswer of King Art is thus reported: "MacMore told theKing's people he would do no such thing for all thetreasures of the sea or on this side, (the sea, ) butwould continue to fight and harass him. "

For eleven days longer Richard continued his route inthe direction of Dublin, McMurrogh and his allies fallingback towards the hills and glens of Wicklow. The Englishcould find nothing by the way but "a few green oats" forthe horses, which being exposed night and day, and sobadly fed, perished in great numbers. The general discontentnow made itself audible even to the ears of the King. For many days five or six men had but a "single loaf. "Even gentlemen, knights and squires, fasted in succession;and our chivalrous guide, for his part, "would have beenheartily glad to have been penniless at Poitiers orParis. " Daily deaths made the camp a scene of continuedmourning, and all the minstrels that had come across thesea to amuse their victor countrymen, like the poet whowent with Edward II. To Bannockburn to celebrate theconquest of the Scots, found their gay imaginings turnedto a sorrowful reverse. 

At last, however, they came in sight of the sea-coast, where vessels laden with provisions, sent from Dublin, were awaiting them. So eager were the famished men forfood, that "they rushed into the sea as eagerly as theywould into their straw. " All their money was poured intothe hands of the merchants; some of them even fought inthe water about a morsel of food, while in their thirstthey drank all the wine they could lay hands on. Ourguide saw full a thousand men drunk that day on "the wineof Ossey and Spain. " The scene of this extraordinaryincident is conjectured to have been at or near Arklow, where the beach is sandy and flat, such as it is not atany point of Wicklow north of that place. 

The morning after the arrival of these stores, KingRichard again set forward for Dublin, determining topenetrate Wicklow by the valleys that lead from theMeeting of the Waters to Bray. He had not proceeded faron his march, when a Franciscan friar reached his campas Ambassador from the Leinster King. This unnamedmessenger, whose cowl history cannot raise, expressedthe willingness of his lord to treat with the King, through some accredited agent--"some lord who might berelied upon"--"so that _their_ anger (Richard's and hisown), that had long been cruel, might now be extinguished. "The announcement spread "great joy" in the English camp. A halt was ordered, and a council called. After aconsultation, it was resolved that de Spencer, Earl ofGloucester, should be empowered to confer with Art. Thisnobleman, now but 26 years of age, had served in thecampaign of 1394. He was one of the most powerful peersof England, and had married Constance, daughter of theDuke of York, Richard's cousin. From his possessions inWales, he probably knew something of the Gaelic customsand speech. He was captain of the rearguard on thisexpedition, and now, with 200 lances, and 1, 000 archers, all of whom were chosen men, he set out for the conference. The French knight also went with him, as he himselfrelates in these words:

"Between two woods, at some distance from the sea, Ibeheld MacMore and a body of the Irish, more than I cannumber, descend the mountain. He had a horse, withouthousing or saddle, which was so fine and good, that ithad cost him, they said, four hundred cows; for there islittle money in the country, wherefore their usual trafficis only with cattle. In coming down, it galloped sohard, that, in my opinion, I never saw hare, deer, sheep, or any other animal, I declare to you for a certainty, run with such speed as it did. In his right hand he borea great long dart, which he cast with much skill. * * *His people drew up in front of the wood. These two(Gloucester and the King), like an out-post, met near alittle brook. There MacMore stopped. He was a fine largeman--wondrously active. To look at him, he seemed verystern and savage, and an able man. He and the Earl spakeof their doings, recounting the evil and injury thatMacMore had done towards the King at sundry times; andhow they all foreswore their fidelity when wrongfully, without judgment or law, they most mischievously put todeath the courteous Earl of March. Then they exchangedmuch discourse, but did not come to agreement; they tookshort leave, and hastily parted. Each took his way apart, and the Earl returned towards King Richard. "

This interview seems to have taken place in the lowervale of Ovoca, locally called Glen-Art, both from thedescription of the scenery, and the stage of his marchat which Richard halted. The two woods, the hills oneither hand, the summer-shrunken river, which, to oneaccustomed to the Seine and the Thames naturally lookedno bigger than a brook, form a picture, the original ofwhich can only be found in that locality. The nameitself, a name not to be found among the immediate chiefsof Wicklow, would seem to confirm this hypothesis. 

The Earl on his return declared, "he could find nothingin him, (Art, ) save only that he would ask for _pardon_, truly, upon condition of having _peace without reserve_, free from any molestation or imprisonment; otherwise, hewill never come to agreement as long as he lives; and, (he said, ) 'nothing venture, nothing have. ' This speech, "says the French knight, "was not agreeable to the King;it appeared to me that his face grew pale with anger; heswore in great wrath by St. Edward, that, no, never wouldhe depart from Ireland, till, alive or dead, he had himin his power. "

The King, notwithstanding, was most anxious to reachDublin. He at once broke up his camp, and marched onthrough Wicklow, "for all the shoutings of the enemie. "What other losses he met in those deep valleys our guidedeigns not to tell, but only that they arrived at lastin Dublin "more than 30, 000" strong, which includes, ofcourse, the forces of the Anglo-Irish lords that joinedthem on the way. There "the whole of their ills weresoon forgotten, and their sorrow removed. " The provostand sheriffs feasted them sumptuously, and they were allwell-housed and clad. After the dangers they had undergone, these attentions were doubly grateful to them. But forlong years the memory of this doleful march lived in therecollection of the English on both sides the Irish sea, and but once more for above a century did a hostile armyventure into the fastnesses of Idrone and Hy-Kinsellah. 

When Richard arrived in Dublin, still galled by the memoryof his disasters, he divided his force into three divisions, and sent them out in quest of McMurrogh, promising towhosoever should bring him to Dublin, alive or dead, "100marks, in pure gold. " "Every one took care to rememberthese words, " says Creton, "for it was a good hearing. "And Richard, moreover, declared that if they did notcapture him when the autumn came, and the trees wereleafless and dry, he would burn "all the woods great andsmall, " or find out that troublous rebel. The same dayhe sent out his three troops, the Earl of Rutland, hislaggard cousin, arrived at Dublin with 100 barges. Hisunaccountable delay he submissively apologized for, andwas readily pardoned. "Joy and delight" now reigned inDublin. The crown jewels shone at daily banquets, tournaments, and mysteries. Every day some new pastimewas invented, and thus six weeks passed, and August drewto an end. Richard's happiness would have been completehad any of his soldiers brought in McMurrogh's head: butfar other news was on the way to him. Though there wassuch merriment in Dublin, a long-continued storm sweptthe channel. When good weather returned, a barge arrivedfrom Chester, bearing Sir William Bagot, who broughtintelligence that Henry of Lancaster, the banished Duke, had landed at Ravenspur, and raised a formidableinsurrection amongst the people, winning over the Archbishopof Canterbury, the Duke of York, and other great nobles. Richard was struck with dismay. He at once sent the Earlof Salisbury into Wales to announce his return, and then, taking the evil counsel of Rutland, marched himself toWaterford, with most part of his force, and collectedthe remainder on the way. Eighteen days after the newsarrived he embarked for England, leaving Sir John Stanleyas Lord Lieutenant in Ireland. Before quitting Dublin, he confined the sons of the Dukes of Lancaster andGloucester, in the strong fortress of Trim, from whichthey were liberated to share the triumph of the successfulusurper, Henry IV. 

It is beyond our province to follow the after-fate ofthe monarch, whose Irish campaigns we have endeavouredto restore to their relative importance. His depositionand cruel death, in the prison of Pontefract, are familiarto readers of English history. The unsuccessfulinsurrections suppressed during his rival's reign, andthe glory won by the son of that rival, as Henry V. , seemto have established the house of Lancaster firmly on thethrone; but the long minority of Henry VI. --who inheritedthe royal dignity at nine months old--and the factionsamong the other members of that family, openedopportunities, too tempting to be resisted, to the rivaldynasty of York. During the first sixty years of thecentury on which we are next to enter, we shall find theEnglish interest in Ireland controlled by the house ofLancaster; in the succeeding twenty-five years thepartizans of the house of York are in the ascendant;until at length, after the victory of Bosworth field(A. D. 1485), the wars of the roses are terminated by thecoronation of the Earl of Richmond as Henry VII. , andhis politic marriage with the Princess Elizabeth-therepresentative of the Yorkist dynasty. It will be seenhow these rival houses had their respective factionsamong the Anglo-Irish; how these factions retarded twocenturies the establishment of English power in Ireland;how the native lords and chiefs took advantage of thedisunion among the foreigners to circumscribe more andmore the narrow limits of the Pale; and lastly, how theabsence of national unity alone preserved the power soreduced from utter extinction. In considering all thesefar extending consequences of the deposition of Richard II. , and the substitution of Henry of Lancaster in his stead, we must give due weight to his unsuccessful Irish warsas proximate causes of that revolution. The death of theHeir-Presumptive in the battle of Kells; the exactionsand ill-success of Richard in his wars; the seizure ofJohn of Ghent's estates and treasures; the absence ofthe sovereign at the critical moment: all these are causeswhich operated powerfully to that end. And of these allthat relate to Irish affairs were mainly brought aboutby the heroic constancy, in the face of enormous odds, the unwearied energy, and high military skill exhibitedby one man--Art McMurrogh. 

CHAPTER V. 

PARTIES WITHIN "THE PALE"--BATTLES OF KILMAINHAM ANDKILLUCAN-SIR JOHN TALBOT'S LORD LIEUTENANCY. 

One leading fact, which we have to follow in all itsconsequences through the whole of the fifteenth century, is the division of the English and of the Anglo-Irishinterest into two parties, Lancasterians and Yorkists. This division of the foreign power will be found to haveproduced a corresponding sense of security in the mindsof the native population, and thus deprived them of thatnext best thing to a united national action, the combiningeffects of a common external danger. 

The new party lines were not drawn immediately upon theEnglish revolution of 1399, but a very few years sufficedto infuse among settlers of English birth or descent thepartizan passions which distracted the minds of men intheir original country. The third Earl of Ormond, althoughhe had received so many favours from the late King andhis grandfather, yet by a common descent of five generationsfrom Edward I. , stood in relation of cousinship to theUsurper. On the arrival of the young Duke of Lancasteras Lord Lieutenant, in 1402, Ormond became one of hisfirst courtiers, and dying soon after, he chose the Dukeguardian to his heir, afterwards the fourth Earl. Thisheir, while yet a minor (1407), was elected or appointeddeputy to his guardian, the Lord Lieutenant; during almostthe whole of the short reign of Henry V. (1413-1421) heresided at the English Court, or accompanied the King inhis French campaigns, thus laying the foundations of thatinfluence which, six several times during the reign ofHenry VI. , procured his appointment to office as LordDeputy, Lord Justice, or Lord Lieutenant. At length, inthe mid-year of the century, his successor was createdEarl of Wiltshire, and entrusted with the important dutiesof one of the Commissioners for the fleet, and LordTreasurer of England; favours and employments whichsufficiently account for how the Ormond family becamethe leaders of the Lancaster party among the Anglo-Irish. 

The bestowal of the first place on another house tendedto estrange the Geraldines, who, with some reason, regardedthemselves as better entitled to such honours. Duringthe first official term of the Duke of Lancaster, nogreat feeling was exhibited, and on his departure in1405, the fifth Earl of Kildare was, for a year, entrustedwith the office of Deputy. On the return of the Duke, in August, 1408, the Earl rode out to meet him, but wassuddenly arrested with three other members of his family, and imprisoned in the Castle, His house in Dublin wasplundered by the servants of the Lord Lieutenant, andthe sum of 300 marks was exacted for his ransom. Suchinjustice and indignity, as well as the subsequent arrestof the sixth Earl, in 1418, "for having communicated withthe Prior of Kilmainham"--still more than their rivalrywith the Ormonds, drove the Kildare family into the ranksof the adherents of the Dukes of York. We shall see inthe sequel the important reacting influence of theseAnglo-Irish combinations upon the fortunes of the whiterose and the red. 

To signalize his accession and remove the reproach ofinaction which had been so often urged against hispredecessor, Henry IV, was no sooner seated on the thronethan he summoned the military tenants of the Crown tomeet him in arms upon the Tyne, for the invasion ofScotland. It seems probable that he summoned those ofIreland with the rest, as we find in that year (1400)that an Anglo-Irish fleet, proceeding northwards fromDublin, encountered a Scottish, fleet in Strangford Lough, where a fierce engagement was fought, both sides claimingthe victory. Three years later the Dubliners landed atSaint Ninians, and behaved valiantly, as their trainbands did the same summer against the mountain tribes ofWicklow. Notwithstanding the personal sojourn of theunfortunate Richard, and his lavish expenditure amongthem, these warlike burghers cordially supported the newdynasty. Some privileges of trade were judiciously extendedto them, and, in 1407, Henry granted to the Mayors ofthe city the privilege of having a gilded sword carriedbefore them, in the same manner as the Mayors of London. 

At the period when these politic favours were bestowedon the citizens of Dublin, Henry was contending with aformidable insurrection in Wales, under the leadershipof Owen Glendower, who had learned in the fastnesses ofIdrone, serving under King Richard, how brave men, thoughnot formed to war in the best schools, can defend theircountry against invasion. In the struggle which hemaintained so gallantly during this and the next reign, though the fleet of Dublin at first assisted his enemies, he was materially aided afterwards by the constantoccupation furnished them by the clans of Leinster. Theearly years of the Lancasterian dynasty were marked bya series of almost invariable defeats in the Leinstercounties. Art McMurrogh, whose activity defied the chillingeffects of age, poured his cohorts through Sculloge gap, on the garrisons of Wexford, taking in rapid possessionin one campaign (1406) the castles of Camolin, Ferns, and Enniscorthy. Returning northward he retook Castledermot, and inflicted chastisement on the warlike Abbot of Conal, near Naas, who shortly before attacked some Irish forceson the Curragh of Kildare, slaying two hundred men. Castledermot was retaken by the Lord Deputy Scrope thenext year, with the aid of the Earls of Ormond and Desmond, and the Prior of Kilmainham, at the head of his Knights. These allies were fresh from a Parliament in Dublin, where the Statute of Kilkenny had been, according tocustom, solemnly re-enacted as the only hope of theEnglish interest, and they naturally drew the sword inmaintenance of their palladium. Within six miles ofCallan, in "McMurrogh's country, " they encountered thatchieftain and his clansmen. In the early part of the daythe Irish are stated to have had the advantage, but someMethian captains coming up in the afternoon turned thetide in favour of the English. According to the chroniclesof the Pale, they won a second victory before nightfallat the town of Callan, over O'Carroll of Ely, who wasmarching to the aid of McMurrogh. But so confused andunsatisfactory are the accounts of this twofold engagementon the same day, in which the Deputy in person, and suchimportant persons as the Earls of Desmond, of Ormond, and the Prior of Kilmainham commanded, that we cannotreconcile it with probability. The Irish Annals simplyrecord the fact that a battle was gained at Callan overthe Irish of Munster, in which O'Carroll was slain. Othernative authorities add that 800 of his followers fellwith O'Carroll, but no mention whatever is made of thebattle with McMurrogh. The English accounts gravely add, that the evening sun stood still, while the Lord Deputyrode six miles, from the place of the first engagementto that of the second. This was the last campaign ofSir Stephen Scrope; he died soon after by the pestilencewhich swept over the island, sparing neither rich norpoor. 

The Duke of Lancaster resumed the Lieutenancy, arrestedthe Earl of Kildare as before related, convoked a Parliamentat Dublin, and with all the forces he could muster, determined on an expedition southwards. But McMurroghand the mountaineers of Wicklow now felt themselves strongenough to take the initiative. They crossed the plainwhich lies to the north of Dublin, and encamped atKilmainham, where Roderick when he besieged the city, and Brien before the battle of Clontarf, had pitchedtheir tents of old. The English and Anglo-Irish forces, under the eye of their Prince, marched out to dislodgethem, in four divisions. The first was led by the Dukein person; the second by the veteran knight, Jenicod'Artois, the third by Sir Edward Perrers, an Englishknight, and the fourth by Sir Thomas Butler, Prior ofthe Order of Saint John, afterwards created by Henry V. , for his distinguished service, Earl of Kilmain. WithMcMurrogh were O'Byrne, O'Nolan, and other chiefs, besideshis sons, nephews, and relatives. The numbers on eachside could hardly fall short of ten thousand men, andthe action may be fairly considered one of the mostdecisive of those times. The Duke was carried back woundedinto Dublin; the slopes of Inchicore and the valley ofthe Liffey were strewn with the dying and the dead; theriver at that point obtained from the Leinster Irish thename of _Athcroe_, or the ford of slaughter; the widowedcity was filled with lamentation and dismay. In a petitionaddressed to King Henry by the Council, apparently duringhis son's confinement from the effects of his wound, theythus describe the Lord Lieutenant's condition: "Hissoldiers have deserted him; the people of his householdare on the point of leaving him; and though they werewilling to remain, our lord is not able to keep themtogether; our said lord, your son, is so destitute ofmoney, that he hath not a penny in the world, nor a pennycan he get credit for. "

One consequence of this battle of Kilmainham was, thatwhile Art McMurrogh lived, no further attacks were madeupon his kindred or country. He died at Ross, on thefirst day of January, 1417, in the 60th year of his age. His Brehon, O'Doran, having also died suddenly on thesame day, it was supposed they were both poisoned by adrink prepared for them by a woman of the town. "He was, "say our impartial _Four Masters_, who seldom speak sowarmly of any Leinster Prince, "a man distinguished forhis hospitality, knowledge, and feats of arms; a man fullof prosperity and royalty; a founder of churches andmonasteries by his bounty and contributions, " and onewho had defended his Province from the age of sixteen tosixty. 

On his recovery from the effects of his wound, the Dukeof Lancaster returned finally to England, appointingPrior Butler his Deputy, who filled that office for fiveconsecutive years. Butler was an illegitimate son ofthe late Earl of Ormond, and naturally a Lancasterian:among the Irish he was called Thomas _Baccagh_, on accountof his lameness. He at once abandoned South Leinster asa field of operations, and directed all his efforts tomaintain the Pale in Kildare, Meath, and Louth. His chiefantagonist in this line of action was Murrogh or MauriceO'Conor, of Offally. This powerful chief had lost two orthree sons, but had gamed as many battles over formerdeputies. He was invariably aided by his connexions andneighbours, the MacGeoghegans of West-Heath. Conjointlythey captured the castles and plundered the towns oftheir enemies, holding their prisoners to ransom orcarrying off their flocks. In 1411 O'Conor held to ransomthe English Sheriff of Meath, and somewhat later defeatedPrior Butler in a pitched battle. His greatest victorywas the battle of Killucan, fought on the 10th day ofMay, 1414. In this engagement MacGeoghegan was, as usual, his comrade. All the power of the English Pale was arrayedagainst them. Sir Thomas Mereward, Baron of Screen, "anda great many officers and common soldiers were slain, "and among the prisoners were Christopher Fleming, son ofthe Baron of Slane, for whom a ransom of 1, 400 marks waspaid, and the ubiquitous Sir Jenico d'Artois, who, withsome others, paid "twelve hundred marks, beside a rewardand fine for intercession. " A Parliament which sat atDublin for thirteen weeks, in 1413, and a foray intoWicklow, complete the notable acts of Thomas _Baccagh's_viceroyalty. Soon after the accession of Henry V. (1413), he was summoned to accompany that warlike monarch intoFrance, and for a short interval the government wasexercised by Sir John Stanley, who died shortly afterhis arrival, and by the Archbishop of Dublin, asCommissioner. On the eve of St. Martin's Day, 1414, SirJohn Talbot, afterwards so celebrated as first Earl ofShrewsbury, landed at Dalkey, with the title of LordLieutenant. 

The appointment of this celebrated Captain, on the brinkof a war with France, was an admission of the desperatestrait to which the English interest had been reduced. And if the end could ever justify the means, Henry V. , from his point of view, might have defended on that groundthe appointment of this inexorable soldier. Adopting thesystem of Sir Thomas Butler, Talbot paid little or noattention to South Leinster, but aimed in the first placeto preserve to his sovereign, Louth and Meath. His mostsouthern point of operation, in his first Lieutenancy, was Leix, but his continuous efforts were directed againstthe O'Conors of Offally and the O'Hanlons and McMahonsof Oriel. For three succeeding years he made circuitsthrough these tribes, generally by the same route, westand north, plundering chiefs and churches, sparing "neithersaint nor sanctuary. " On his return to Dublin after theseforays, he exacted with a high hand whatever he wantedfor his household. When he returned to England, 1419, hecarried along with him, according to the chronicles ofthe Pale--"the curses of many, because he, being run muchin debt for victuals, and divers other things, would paylittle or nothing at all. " Among the natives he left astill worse reputation. The plunder of a bard was regardedby them as worse, if possible, than the spoliation of asanctuary. One of Talbot's immediate predecessors wasreputed to have died of the malediction of a bard ofWest-Meath, whose property he had appropriated; but asif to show his contempt of such superstition, Talbotsuffered no son of song to escape him. Their satires fellpowerless on his path. Not only did he enrich himself, by means lawful and unlawful, but he created interest, which, a few years afterwards, was able to checkmate theDesmonds and Ormonds. The see of Dublin falling vacantduring his administration, he procured the appointmentof his brother Richard as Archbishop, and left him, athis departure, in temporary possession of the office ofLord Deputy. Branches of his family were planted atMalahide, Belgarde, and Talbotstown, in Wicklow, therepresentatives of which survive till this day. 

One of this Lieutenant's most acceptable offices to theState was the result of stratagem rather than of arms. The celebrated Art McMurrogh was succeeded, in 1417, byhis son, Donogh, who seems to have inherited his valour, without his prudence. In 1419, in common with the O'Conorof Offally, his father's friend, he was entrapped intothe custody of Talbot. O'Conor, the night of his capture, escaped with his companions, and kept up the war untilhis death: McMurrogh was carried to London and confinedin the Tower. Here he languished for nine weary years. At length, in 1428, Talbot, having "got license to makethe best of him, " held him to ransom. The people of hisown province released him, "which was joyful news to theIrish. "

But neither the aggrandizement of new nor the depressionof old families effected any cardinal change in thedirection of events. We have traced for half a century, and are still farther to follow out, the naturalconsequences of the odious _Statute of Kilkenny_. Althoughevery successive Parliament of the Pale recited andre-enacted that statute, every year saw it dispensed inparticular cases, both as to trading, intermarriage, andfostering with the natives. Yet the virus of nationalproscription outlived all the experience of its futility. In 1417, an English petition was presented to the EnglishParliament, praying that the law, excluding Irishecclesiastics from Irish benefices, should be strictlyenforced; and the same year they prohibited the influxof fugitives from Ireland, while the Pale Parliamentpassed a corresponding act against allowing any one toemigrate without special license. At a Parliament heldat Dublin in 1421, O'Hedian, Archbishop of Cashel, wasimpeached by Gese, Bishop of Waterford, the main chargesbeing that he loved none of the English nation; that hepresented no Englishman to a living; and that he designedto make himself King of Minister. This zealous assemblyalso adopted a petition of grievances to the King, prayingthat as the Irish, who had done homage to King Richard, "had long since taken arms against the governmentnotwithstanding their recognizances payable in theApostolic chamber, his Highness the King would lay theirconduct before the Pope, and prevail on the Holy Fatherto publish _a crusade against them_, to follow up theintention of his predecessor's grant to Henry II. !"

In the temporal order, as we have seen, the policy ofhatred brought its own punishment. "The Pale, " which maybe said to date from the passing of the _Statute ofKilkenny_ (1367), was already abridged more than one-half. The Parliament of Kilkenny had defined it as embracing"Louth, Meath, Dublin, Kildare, Catherlough, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, and Tipperary, " each governed bySeneschals or Sheriffs. In 1422 Dunlavan and Ballymoreare mentioned as the chief keys of Dublin and Kildare--and in the succeeding reign Callan in Oriel is set downas the chief key of that part. Dikes to keep out theenemy were made from Tallaght to Tassagard, at Rathconnellin Meath, and at other places in Meath and Kildare. These narrower limits it long retained, and the usualphrase in all future legislation by which the assembliesof the Anglo-Irish define their jurisdiction is "the fourshires. " So completely was this enclosure isolated fromthe rest of the country that, in the reign at which wehave now arrived, both the Earls of Desmond and Ormondwere exempted from attending certain sittings of Parliament, and the Privy Council, on the ground that they could notdo so without marching through the enemy's country atgreat risk and inconvenience. It is true occasionalsuccesses attended the military enterprises of theAnglo-Irish, even in these days of their lowest fortunes. But they had chosen to adopt a narrow, bigoted, unsocialpolicy; a policy of exclusive dealing and perpetualestrangement from their neighbours dwelling on the samesoil, and they had their reward. Their borders werenarrowed upon them; they were penned up in one corner ofthe kingdom, out of which they could not venture a leaguewithout license and protection, from the free clansmenthey insincerely affected to despise. 

CHAPTER VI. 

ACTS OF THE NATIVE PRINCES--SUBDIVISION OF TRIBES ANDTERRITORIES--ANGLO-IRISH TOWNS UNDER NATIVEPROTECTION--ATTEMPT OF THADDEUS O'BRIEN, PRINCE OF THOMOND, TO RESTORE THE MONARCHY--RELATIONS OF THE RACES IN THEFIFTEENTH CENTURY. 

The history of "the Pale" being recounted down to theperiod of its complete isolation, we have now to passbeyond its entrenched and castellated limits, in orderto follow the course of events in other parts of thekingdom. 

While the highest courage was everywhere exhibited bychiefs and clansmen, no attempt was made to bring aboutanother National Confederacy, after the fall of EdwardBruce. One result of that striking _denouement_ of astormy career--in addition to those before mentioned--wasto give new life to the jealousy which had never whollysubsided, between the two primitive divisions of theIsland. Bruce, welcomed, sustained, and lamented by theNorthern Irish, was distrusted, avoided, and execratedby those of the South. There may have been exceptions, but this was the rule. The Bards and Newsmen of subsequenttimes, according to their Provincial bias, charged thefailure of Bruce upon the Eugenian race, or justifiedhis fate by aspersing his memory and his adherents ofthe race of Conn. This feeling of irritation, always mostdeep-seated when driven in by a consciousness ofmismanagement or of self-reproach, goes a great way toaccount for the fact, that more than one generation wasto pass away, before any closer union could be broughtabout between the Northern and Southern Milesian Irish. 

We cannot, therefore, in the period embraced in ourpresent book, treat the Provinces otherwise than asestranged communities, departing farther and farther fromthe ancient traditions of one central legislative counciland one supreme elective chief. Special, short-livedalliances between lords of different Provinces are indeedfrequent; but they were brought about mostly by ties ofrelationship or gossipred, and dissolved with thedisappearance of the immediate danger. The very idea ofnational unity, once so cherished by all the children of_Miledh Espaigne_, seems to have been as wholly lost asany of those secrets of ancient handiwork, over whichmodern ingenuity puzzles itself in vain. In the times towhich we have descended, it was every principality andevery lordship for itself. As was said of old in Rome, "Antony had his party, Octavius had his party, but theCommonwealth had none. "

Not alone was the greater unity wholly forgotten, but nosooner were the descendants of the Anglo-Normans driveninto their eastern enclosure, or thoroughly amalgamatedin language, laws and costume with themselves, than theties of particular clans began to loose their bindingforce, and the tendency to subdivide showed itself onevery opportunity. We have already, in the book of the"War of Succession, " described the subdivisions of Breffniand of Meath as measures of policy, taken by the O'ConorKings, to weaken their too powerful suffragans. But thatstep, which might have strengthened the hands of a nativedynasty, almost inevitably weakened the tribes themselvesin combating the attacks of a highly organized foreignpower. Of this the O'Conors themselves became afterwardsthe most striking example. For half a century followingthe Red Earl's death, they had gained steadily on theforeigners settled in Connaught. The terrible defeat ofAthenry was more than atoned for by both other victories. At length the descendants of the vanquished on that dayruled as proudly as ever did their ancestors in theirnative Province. The posterity of the victors were merelytolerated on its soil, or anxiously building up new housesin Meath and Louth. But in an evil hour, on the death oftheir last King (1384), the O'Conors agreed to settlethe conflicting claims of rival candidates for thesuccession by dividing the common inheritance. From thisdate downwards we have an O'Conor Don and an O'Conor Roein the Annals of that Province, each rallying a separateband of partizans; and according to the accidents of age, minority, alliance, or personal reputation, infringing, harassing, or domineering over the other. Powerful lordsthey long continued, but as Provincial Princes we meetthem no more. 

This fatal example--of which there had been a faintforeshadowing in the division of the McCarthys in thepreceding century--in the course of a generation or two, was copied by almost every great connection, north andsouth. The descendants of yellow Hugh O'Neil in Clandeboyclaimed exemption from the supremacy of the elder familyin Tyrone; the O'Farells, acknowledged two lords ofAnnally; the McDonoghs, two lords of Tirerril; there wasMcDermott of the Wood claiming independence of McDermottof the Rock; O'Brien of Ara asserted equality with O'Brienof Thomond; the nephews of Art McMurrogh contested thesuperiority of his sons; and thus slowly but surely themost powerful clans were hastening the day of their owndissolution. 

A consequence of these subdivisions was the necessitywhich arose for new and opposite alliances, among thosewho had formerly looked on themselves as members of onefamily, with common dangers and common enemies. The pivotof policy now rested on neighbourhood rather than onpedigree; a change in its first stages apparently unnaturaland deplorable, but in the long run not without itscompensating advantages. As an instance of these newnecessities, we may adduce the protection and succoursteadily extended by the O'Neils of Clandeboy, to theMcQuillans, Bissets, of the Antrim coast, and the McDonnellsof the Glens, against the frequent attacks of the O'Neilsof Tyrone. The latter laid claim to all Ulster, and longrefused to acknowledge these foreigners, though men ofkindred race and speech. Had it not been that the interestof Clandeboy pointed the other way, it is very doubtfulif either the Welsh or Scottish settlers by the bays ofAntrim could have made a successful stand against theoverruling power of the house of Dungannon. The samepolicy, adopted by native chiefs under similarcircumstances, protected the minor groups of settlers offoreign origin in the most remote districts--like theBarretts and other Welsh people of Tyrawley--long afterthe Deputies of the Kings of England had ceased to considerthem as fellow-subjects, or to be concerned for theirexistence. 

In like manner the detached towns, built by foreigners, of Welsh, Flemish, Saxon, or Scottish origin, were nowtaken "under the protection" of the neighbouring chief, or Prince, and paid to him or to his bailiff an annualtax for such protection. In this manner Wexford purchasedprotection of McMurrogh, Limerick from O'Brien, andDundalk from O'Neil. But the yoke was not always bornewith patience, nor did the bare relation of tax-gathererand tax-payer generate any very cordial feeling betweenthe parties. Emboldened by the arrival of a powerfulDeputy, or a considerable accession to the Colony, ortaking advantage of contested elections for the chieftaincyamong their protectors, these sturdy communities sometimessought by force to get rid of their native masters. Yetin no case at this period were such town risings ultimatelysuccessful. The appearance of a menacing force, and thethreat of the torch, soon brought the refractory burgessesto terms. On such an occasion (1444) Dundalk paid OwenO'Neil the sum of 60 marks and two tuns of wine to averthis indignation. On another, the townsmen of Limerickagreed about the same period to pay annually for ever toO'Brien the sum of 60 marks. Notwithstanding the precarioustenure of their existence, they all continued jealouslyto guard their exclusive privileges. In the oath of officetaken by the Mayor of Dublin (1388) he is sworn to guardthe city's franchises, so that no Irish rebel shallintrude upon the limits. Nicholas O'Grady, Abbot of aMonastery in Clare, is mentioned in 1485 as "the twelfthIrishman that ever possessed the freedom of the city ofLimerick" up to that time. A special bye-law, at a stilllater period, was necessary to admit Colonel WilliamO'Shaughnessy, of one of the first families in thatcounty, to the freedom of the Corporation of the town ofGalway. Exclusiveness on the one side, and arbitrarytaxation on the other, were ill means of ensuring theprosperity of these new trading communities; Freedom andPeace have ever been as essential to commerce as thewinds and waves are to navigation. 

The dissolution and reorganization of the greater clansnecessarily included the removal of old, and the formationof new boundaries, and these changes frequently led toborder battles between the contestants. The most strikingillustration of the struggles of this description, whichoccurs in our Annals in the fifteenth century, is thatwhich was waged for three generations between a branchof the O'Conors established at Sligo, calling themselves"lords of Lower Connaught, " and the O'Donnells of Donegal. The country about Sligo had anciently been subject tothe Donegal chiefs, but the new masters of Sligo, afterthe era of Edward Bruce, not only refused any longer topay tribute, but endeavoured by the strong hand to extendtheir sway to the banks of the Drowse and the Erne. Thepride not less than the power of the O'Donnells wasinterested in resisting this innovation, for, in themidst of the debateable land rose the famous mountain ofBen Gulban (now Benbulben), which bore the name of thefirst father of their tribe. The contest was, therefore, bequeathed from father to son, but the family of Sligo, under the lead of their vigorous chiefs, and with theadvantage of actual possession, prevailed in establishingthe exemption of their territory from the ancient tribute. The Drowse, which carries the surplus waters of thebeautiful Lough Melvin into the bay of Donegal, finallybecame the boundary between Lower Connaught and Tyrconnell. 

We have already alluded to the loss of the arts ofpolitical combination among the Irish in the Middle Ages. This loss was occasionally felt by the superior mindsboth in church and state. It was felt by Donald MoreO'Brien and those who went with him into the house ofConor Moinmoy O'Conor, in 1188; it was felt by the nobleswho, at Cael-uisge, elected Brian O'Neil in 1258; it wasfelt by the twelve reguli who, in 1315, invited EdwardBruce, "a man of kindred blood, " to rule over them; itwas imputed as a crime to Art McMurrogh in 1397, that hedesigned to claim the general sovereignty; and now inthis century, Thaddeus O'Brien, Prince of Thomond, withthe aid of the Irish of the southern half-kingdom, began(to use the phrase of the last Antiquary of Lecan) "workinghis way to Tara. " This Prince united all the tribes ofMunster in his favour, and needing, according to ancientusage, the suffrages of two other Provinces to ensurehis election, he crossed the Shannon in the summer of1466 at the head of the largest army which had followedany of his ancestors since the days of King Brian. Herenewed his protection to the town of Limerick, enteredinto an alliance with the Earl of Desmond--which allianceseems to have cost Desmond his head--received in his campthe hostages of Ormond and Ossory, and gave gifts to thelords of Leinster. Simultaneously, O'Conor of Offallyhad achieved a great success over the Palesmen, takingprisoner the Earl of Desmond, the Prior of Trim, theLords Barnwall, Plunkett, Nugent, and other Methianmagnates--a circumstance which also seems to have someconnection with the fate of Desmond and Plunkett, whowere the next year tried for treason and executed atDrogheda, by order of the Earl of Worcester, then Deputy. The usual Anglo-Irish tales, as to the causes of Desmond'slosing the favour of Edward IV. , seem very likeafter-inventions. It is much more natural to attributethat sudden change to some connection with the attemptof O'Brien the previous year--since this only makesintelligible the accusation against him of "_alliance_, fosterage, and alterage with the King's Irish enemies. "

From Leinster O'Brien recrossed the Shannon, and overranthe country of the Clan-William Burke. But the ancientjealousy of Leath-Conn would not permit its proud chiefsto render hostage or homage to a Munster Prince, of nohigher rank than themselves. Disappointed in his hopesof that union which could alone restore the monarchy inthe person of a native ruler, the descendant of Brianreturned to Kinkora, where he shortly afterwards fellill of fever and died. "It was commonly reported, " saysthe Antiquary of Lecan, "that the multitudes' enviouseyes and hearts shortened his days. "

The naturalized Norman noble spoke the language of theGael, and retained his Brehons and Bards like his Milesiancompeer. For generations the daughters of the elder racehad been the mothers of his house; and the milk of Irishfoster-mothers had nourished the infancy of its heirs. The Geraldines, the McWilliams, even the Butlers, amongtheir tenants and soldiers, were now as Irish as theIrish. Whether allies or enemies, rivals or as relatives, they stood as near to their neighbours of Celtic originas they did to the descendants of those who first landedat Bannow and at Waterford. The "Statute of Kilkenny"had proclaimed the eternal separation of the races, butup to this period it had failed, and the men of bothorigins were left free to develop whatever characteristicswere most natural to them. What we mean by being leftfree is, that there was no general or long-sustainedcombination of one race for the suppression of the otherfrom the period of Richard the Second's last reverses(A. D. 1399) till the period of the Reformation. NativeIrish life, therefore, throughout the whole of thefifteenth, and during the first half of the sixteenthcentury, was as free to shape and direct itself, to endsof its own choosing, as it had been at almost any formerperiod in our history. Private wars and hereditaryblood-feuds, next after the loss of national unity, werethe worst vices of the nation. Deeds of violence and actsof retaliation were as common as the succession of dayand night. Every free clansman carried his battle-axe tochurch and chase, to festival and fairgreen. The strongarm was prompt to obey the fiery impulse, and it must beadmitted in solemn sadness, that almost every page ofour records at this period is stained with human blood. But though crimes of violence are common, crimes oftreachery are rare. The memory of a McMahon, who betrayedand slew his guest, is execrated by the same stoicalscribes, who set down, without a single expression ofhorror, the open murder of chief after chief. Takingoff by poison, so common among their cotemporaries, seemsto have been altogether unknown, and the cruelties ofthe State Prisons of the Middle Ages undreamt of by ourfierce, impetuous, but not implacable ancestors. Thefacts which go to affix the imputation of cruelty onthose ages are, the frequent entries which we find ofdeposed chiefs, or conspicuous criminals, having theireyes put out, or being maimed in their members. By thesebarbarous punishments they lost caste, if not life; butthat indeed must have been a wretched remnant of existencewhich remained to the blinded lover, or the maimed warrior, or the crippled tiller of the soil. Of the social andreligious relations existing between the races, we shallhave occasion to speak more fully before closing thepresent book. 

CHAPTER VII. 

CONTINUED DIVISION AND DECLINE OF "THE ENGLISH INTEREST"--RICHARD, DUKE OF YORK, LORD LIEUTENANT--CIVIL WAR AGAININ ENGLAND--EXECUTION OF THE EARL OF DESMOND--ASCENDANCYOF THE KILDARE GERALDINES. 

We have already described the limits to which "the Pale"was circumscribed at the beginning of the fourteenthcentury. The fortunes of that inconsiderable settlementduring the following century hardly rise to the level ofhistorical importance, nor would the recital of them beat all readable but for the ultimate consequences whichensued from the preservation of those last remains offoreign power in the island. On that account, however, we have to consult the barren annals of "the Pale" throughthe intermediate period, that we may make clear theaccidents by which it was preserved from destruction, and enabled to play a part in after-times, undreamt ofand inconceivable, to those who tolerated its existencein the ages of which we speak. 

On the northern coasts of Ireland the co-operation ofthe friendly Scots with the native Irish had long beena source of anxiety to the Palesmen. In the year 1404, Dongan, Bishop of Derry, and Sir Jenico d'Artois, wereappointed Commissioners by Henry IV. , to conclude apermanent peace with McDonald, Lord of the Isles, but, notwithstanding that form was then gone through duringthe reigns of all the Lancasterian Kings, evidence ofthe Hiberno-Scotch alliance being still in existence, constantly recurs. In the year 1430 an address or petitionof the Dublin Council to the King sets forth "that theenemies and rebels, _aided by the Scots_, had conqueredor rendered tributary almost every part of the country, _except the county of Dublin_. " The presence of Henry V. In Ireland had been urgently solicited by his lieges inthat kingdom, but without effect. The hero of Agincourthaving set his heart upon the conquest of France, leftIreland to his lieutenants and their deputies. Nor couldhis attention be aroused to the English interest in thatcountry, even by the formal declaration of the Speakerof the English Parliament, that "the greater part of thelordship of Ireland" had been "conquered" by the natives. 

The comparatively new family of Talbot, sustained by theinfluence of the great Earl of Shrewsbury, now Seneschalof France, had risen to the highest pitch of influence. When on the accession of Henry VI. , Edward Mortimer, Earlof March, was appointed Lord Lieutenant, and Dantsey, Bishop of Meath, his deputy, Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, and Lord Chancellor, refused to acknowledge Dantsey'spretensions because his commission was given under theprivate seal of Lord Mortimer. Having effected his objectin this instance, the Archbishop directed his subsequentattacks against the House of Ormond, the chief favouritesof the King, or rather of the Council, in that reign. In1441, at a Dublin Parliament, messengers were appointedto convey certain articles to the King, the purport ofwhich was to prevent the Earl of Ormond from being madeLord Lieutenant, alleging against him many misdemeanoursin his former administration, and praying that some"mighty lord of England" might be named to that officeto execute the laws more effectually "than any Irishmanever did or ever will do. "

This attempt to destroy the influence of Ormond led toan alliance between that Earl and Sir James, afterwardsseventh Earl of Desmond. Sir James was son of Gerald, fourth Earl (distinguished as "the Rhymer, " or Magician), by the lady Eleanor Butler, daughter of the second Earlof Ormond. He stood, therefore, in the relation of cousinto the cotemporary head of the Butler family. When hisnephew Thomas openly violated the Statute of Kilkenny, by marrying the beautiful Catherine McCormac, the ambitiousand intriguing Sir James, anxious to enforce that statute, found a ready seconder in Ormond. Earl Thomas, forced toquit the country, died an exile at Rouen, in France, andSir James, after many intrigues and negotiations, obtainedthe title and estates. For once the necessities of Desmondand Ormond united these houses, but the money of theEnglish Archbishop of Dublin, backed by the influence ofhis illustrious brother, proved equal to them both. Inthe first twenty-five years of the reign of Henry VI. (1422-1447, ) Ormond was five times Lieutenant or Deputy, and Talbot five times Deputy, Lord Justice, or LordCommissioner. Their factious controversy culminated with"the articles" adopted in 1441, which altogether failedof the intended effect; Ormond was reappointed two yearsafterwards to his old office; nor was it till 1446, whenthe Earl of Shrewsbury was a third time sent over, thatthe Talbots had any substantial advantage over theirrivals. The recall of the Earl for service in France, and the death of the Archbishop two years later, thoughit deprived the party they had formed of a residentleader, did not lead to its dissolution. Bound togetherby common interests and dangers, their action may betraced in opposition to the Geraldines, through theremaining years of Henry VI. , and perhaps so late as theearlier years of Henry VII. (1485-1500). 

In the struggle of dynasties from which England sufferedso severely during the fifteenth century, the drama ofambition shifted its scenes from London and York to Calaisand Dublin. The appointment of Richard, Duke of York, as Lord Lieutenant, in 1449, presented him an opportunityof creating a Yorkist party among the nobles and peopleof "the Pale. " This able and ambitious Prince possessedin his hereditary estate resources equal to greatenterprises. He was in the first place the representativeof the third son of Edward III. ; on the death of hiscousin the Earl of March, in 1424, he became heir to thatproperty and title. He was Duke of York, Earl of March, and Earl of Rutland, in England; Earl of Ulster and Earlof Cork, Lord of Connaught, Clare, Meath, and Trim, inIreland. He had been, twice Regent of France, during theminority of Henry, where he upheld the cause of thePlantagenet King with signal ability. By the peaceconcluded at Tours, between England, France, and Burgundy, in 1444, he was enabled to return to England, where theKing had lately come of age, and begun to exhibit theweak though amiable disposition which led to his ruin. The events of the succeeding two or three years werecalculated to expose Henry to the odium of his subjectsand the machinations of his enemies. Town after town andprovince after province were lost in France; the RegentSomerset returned to experience the full force of thisunpopularity; the royal favourite, Suffolk, was banished, pursued, and murdered at sea; the King's uncles, CardinalBeaufort and the Duke of Gloucester, were removed bydeath--so that every sign and circumstance of the timewhispered encouragement to the ambitious Duke. When, therefore, the Irish lieutenancy was offered, in orderto separate him from his partizans, he at first refusedit; subsequently, however, he accepted, on conditionsdictated by himself, calculated to leave him wholly hisown master. These conditions, reduced to writing in theform of an Indenture between the King and the Duke, extended his lieutenancy to a period of ten years; allowedhim, besides the entire revenue of Ireland, an annualsubsidy from England; full power to let the King's land, to levy and maintain soldiers, to place or displace allofficers, to appoint a Deputy, and to return to Englandat his pleasure. On these terms the ex-Regent of Franceundertook the government of the English settlement inIreland. 

Arrived at Dublin, _the_ Duke (as in his day he was alwayscalled, ) employed himself rather to strengthen his partythan to extend the limits of his government. Soon afterhis arrival a son was born to him, and baptized withgreat pomp in the Castle. James, fifth Earl of Ormond, and Thomas, eighth Earl of Desmond, were invited to standas sponsors. In the line of policy indicated by thischoice, he steadily persevered during his whole connectionwith Ireland--which lasted till his death, in 1460. Alternately he named a Butler and a Geraldine as hisdeputy, and although he failed ultimately to win the Earlof Ormond from the traditional party of his family, hesecured the attachment of several of his kinsmen. Stirringevents in England, the year after his appointment, madeit necessary for him to return immediately. The unpopularityof the administration which had banished him had rapidlyaugmented. The French King had recovered the whole ofNormandy, for four centuries annexed to the English Crown. Nothing but Calais remained of all the Continentalpossessions which the Plantagenets had inherited, andwhich Henry V. Had done so much to strengthen and extend. Domestic abuses aggravated the discontent arising fromforeign defeats. The Bishop of Chichester, one of theministers, was set upon and slain by a mob at Portsmouth. Twenty thousand men of Kent, under the command of JackCade, an Anglo-Irishman, who had given himself out as ason of the last Earl of March, who died in the Irishgovernment twenty-five years before, marched upon London. They defeated a royal force at Sevenoaks, and the cityopened its gate at the summons of Cade. The Kentish mentook possession of Southwark, while their Irish leaderfor three days, entering the city every morning, compelledthe mayor and the judges to sit in the Guildhall, triedand sentenced Lord Say to death, who, with his son-in-law, Cromer, Sheriff of Kent, was accordingly executed. Everyevening, as he had promised the citizens, he retired withhis guards across the river, preserving the strictestorder among them. But the royalists were not idle, andwhen, on the fourth morning Cade attempted as usual toenter London proper, he found the bridge of Southwarkbarricaded and defended by a strong force under the LordScales. After six hours' hard fighting his raw levieswere repulsed, and many of them accepted a free pardontendered to them in the moment of defeat. Cade retiredwith the remainder on Deptford and Rochester, but graduallyabandoned by them, he was surprised, half famished in agarden at Heyfield, and put to death. His captor claimedand received the large reward of a thousand marks offeredfor his head. This was in the second week of July; onthe 1st of September, news was brought to London thatthe Duke of York had suddenly landed from Ireland. Hispartizans eagerly gathered round him at his castle ofFotheringay, but for five years longer, by the repeatedconcessions of the gentle-minded Henry, and theinterposition of powerful mediators, the actual war ofthe roses was postponed. 

It is beyond our province to follow the details of thatferocious struggle, which was waged almost incessantlyfrom 1455 till 1471--from the first battle of St. Albanstill the final battle at Tewksbury. We are interested init mainly as it connects the fortunes of the Anglo-IrishEarls with one or other of the dynasties; and theirfortunes again, with the benefit or disadvantage of theirallies and relatives among our native Princes. Of thetransactions in England, it may be sufficient to say thatthe Duke of York, after his victory at St. Albans in '55, was declared Lord Protector of the realm during Henry'simbecility; that the next year the King recovered andthe Protector's office was abolished; that in '57 bothparties stood at bay; in '58 an insecure peace was patchedup between them; in '59 they appealed to arms, the Yorkistsgained a victory at Bloreheath, but being defeated atLudiford, Duke Richard, with one of his sons, fled forsafety into Ireland. 

It was the month of November when the fugitive Dukearrived to resume the Lord Lieutenancy which he hadformerly exercised. Legally, his commission, for thosewho recognized the authority of King Henry, had expiredfour months before--as it bore date from July 5th, 1449;but it is evident the majority of the Anglo-Irish receivedhim as a Prince of their own election rather than as anordinary Viceroy. He held, soon after his arrival, aParliament at Dublin, which met by adjournment at Droghedathe following spring. The English Parliament havingdeclared him, his duchess, sons, and principal adherentstraitors, and writs to that effect having been sent over, the Irish Parliament passed a declaratory Act (1460)making the service of all such writs treason against_their_ authority--"it having been ever customary intheir land to receive and entertain strangers with duerespect and hospitality. " Under this law, an emissary ofthe Earl of Ormond, upon whom English writs against thefugitives were found, was executed as a traitor. Thisindependent Parliament confirmed the Duke in his office;made it high treason to imagine his death, and--takingadvantage of the favourable conjuncture of affairs--theyfurther declared that the inhabitants of Ireland couldonly be bound by laws made in Ireland; that no writs wereof force unless issued under the great seal of Ireland;that the realm had of ancient right its own Lord Constableand Earl Marshal, by whom alone trials for treason allegedto have been committed in Ireland could be conducted. Inthe same busy spring, the Earl of Warwick (so celebratedas "the Kingmaker" of English history) sailed from Calais, of which he was Constable, with the Channel-fleet, ofwhich he was also in command, and doubling the Land'sEnd of England, arrived at Dublin to concert measuresfor another rising in England. He found the Duke at Dublin"surrounded by his Earls and homagers, " and measures weresoon concerted between them. 

An appeal to the English nation was prepared at thisConference, charging upon Henry's advisers that they hadwritten to the French King to besiege Calais, and to theIrish Princes to expel the English settlers. The loyaltyof the fugitive lords, and their readiness to prove theirinnocence before their sovereign, were stoutly asserted. Emissaries were despatched in every direction; troopswere raised; Warwick soon after landed in Kent-alwaysstrongly pro-Yorkist-defeated the royalists at Northamptonin July, and the Duke reaching London in October, acompromise was agreed to, after much discussion, in whichHenry was to have the crown for life, while the Duke wasacknowledged as his successor, and created president ofhis council. 

We have frequently remarked in our history the recurrenceof conflicts between the north and south of the island. The same thing is distinctly traceable through the annalsof England down to a quite recent period. Whether differenceof race, or of admixture of race may not lie at thefoundation of such long-living enmities, we will not hereattempt to discuss; such, however, is the fact. QueenMargaret had fled northward after the defeat of Northamptontowards the Scottish border, from which she now returnedat the head of 20, 000 men. The Duke advanced rapidly tomeet her, and engaging with a far inferior force atWakefield, was slain in the field, or beheaded after thebattle. All now seemed lost to the Yorkist party, whenyoung Edward, son of Duke Richard, advancing from themarches of Wales at the head of an army equal in numbersto the royalists, won, in the month of February, 1461, the battles of Mortimers-cross and Barnet, and was crownedat Westminster in March, by the title of Edward IV. Thesanguinary battle of Towton, soon after his coronation, where 38, 000 dead were reckoned by the heralds, confirmedhis title and established his throne. Even the subsequenthostility of Warwick--though it compelled him once tosurrender himself a prisoner, and once to fly thecountry--did not finally transfer the sceptre to hisrival. Warwick was slain in the battle of Tewkesbury(1471), the Lancasterian Prince Edward was put to deathon the field, and his unhappy father was murdered inprison. Two years later, Henry, Earl of Richmond, grandsonof Catherine, Queen of Henry V. And Owen Ap Tudor, theonly remaining leader capable of rallying the beatenparty, was driven into exile in France, from which hereturned fourteen years afterwards to contest the crownwith Richard III. 

In these English wars, the only Irish nobleman whosustained the Lancasterian cause was James, fifth Earlof Ormond. He had been created by Henry, Earl of Wiltshire, during his father's lifetime, in the same year in whichhis father stood sponsor in Dublin for the son of theDuke. He succeeded to the Irish title and estates in1451: held a foremost rank in almost all the engagementsfrom the battle of Saint Albans to that of Towton, inwhich he was taken prisoner and executed by order ofEdward IV. His blood was declared attainted, and hisestates forfeited; but a few years later both the titleand property were restored to Sir John Butler, the sixthEarl. On the eve of the open rupture between the Roses, another name intimately associated with Ireland disappearedfrom the roll of the English nobility. The veteran Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, in the eightieth year of his age, accepted the command of the English forces in France, retook the city of Bordeaux, but fell in attack on theFrench camp at Chatillon, in the subsequent campaign-1453. His son, Lord Lisle, was slain at the same time, defendinghis father's body. Among other consequences which ensued, the Talbot interest in Ireland suffered from the loss ofso powerful a patron at the English court. We have onlyto add that at Wakefield, and in most of the otherengagements, there was a strong Anglo-Irish contingentin the Yorkist ranks, and a smaller one--chiefly tenantsof Ormond--on the opposite side. Many writers complainthat the House of York drained "the Pale" of its defenders, and thus still further diminished the resources of theEnglish interest in Ireland. 

In the last forty years of the fifteenth century, thehistory of "the Pale" is the biography of the family ofthe Geraldines. We must make some brief mention of theremarkable men to whom we refer. 

Thomas, eighth Earl of Desmond, for his services to theHouse of York, was appointed Lord Deputy in the firstyears of Edward IV. He had naturally made himself obnoxiousto the Ormond interest, but still more so to the Talbots, whose leader in civil contests was Sherwood, Bishop ofMeath--for some years, in despite of the Geraldines, LordChancellor. Between him and Desmond there existed thebitterest animosity. In 1464, nine of the Deputy's menwere slain in a broil in Fingall, by tenants or servantsof the Bishop. The next year each party repaired to Londonto vindicate himself and criminate his antagonist. TheBishop seems to have triumphed, for in 1466, John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, called in England, for his barbarityto Lancasterian prisoners, "the Butcher, " supersededDesmond. The movement of Thaddeus O'Brien, already related, the same year, gave Tiptoft grounds for accusing Desmond, Kildare, Sir Edward Plunkett, and others, of treason. Onthis charge he summoned them before him at Drogheda inthe following February. Kildare wisely fled to England, where he pleaded his innocence successfully with theKing. But Desmond and Plunkett, over-confident of theirown influence, repaired to Drogheda, were tried, condemned, and beheaded. Their execution took place on the 15th dayof February, 1467. It is instructive to add that Tiptoft, a few years later, underwent the fate in England, withoutexciting a particle of the sympathy felt for Desmond. 

Thomas, seventh Earl of Kildare, succeeded on his safereturn from England to more than the power of his laterelative. The office of Chancellor, after a sharpstruggle, was taken from Bishop Sherwood, and confirmedto him for life by an act of the twelfth, Edward III. Hehad been named Lord Justice after Tiptoft's recall, in1467, and four years later exchanged the title for thatof Lord Deputy to the young Duke of Clarence--the nominalLieutenant. In 1475, on some change of Court favour, thesupreme power was taken from him, and conferred on theold enemy of his House, the Bishop of Meath. Kildare diedtwo years later, having signalized his latter days byfounding an Anglo-Irish order of chivalry, called "theBrothers of St. George. " This order was to consist of 13persons of the highest rank within the Pale, 120 mountedarchers, and 40 horsemen, attended by 40 pages. Theofficers were to assemble annually in Dublin, on St. George's Day, to elect their Captain from their ownnumber. After having existed twenty years the Brotherhoodwas suppressed by the jealousy of Henry VII. , in 1494. 

Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare (called in the Irish AnnalsGeroit More, or "the Great"), succeeded his father in1477. He had the gratification of ousting Sherwood fromthe government the following year, and having it transferredto himself. For nearly forty years he continued thecentral figure among the Anglo-Irish, and as his familywere closely connected by marriage with the McCarthys, O'Carrolls of Ely, the O'Conors of Offally, O'Neils andO'Donnells, he exercised immense influence over theaffairs of all the Provinces. In his tune, moreover, theEnglish interest, under the auspices of an undisturbeddynasty, and a cautious, politic Prince (Henry VII. ), began by slow and almost imperceptible degrees to recoverthe unity and compactness it had lost ever since the RedEarl's death. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE AGE AND RULE OF GERALD, EIGHTH EARL OF KILDARE--THETIDE BEGINS TO TURN FOR THE ENGLISH INTEREST--THE YORKISTPRETENDERS, SIMNEL AND WARBECK--POYNING'S PARLIAMENT--BATTLES OF KNOCKDOE AND MONABRAHER. 

Perhaps no preface could better introduce to the readerthe singular events which marked the times of Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare, than a brief account of one ofhis principal partizans--Sir James Keating, Prior of theKnights of St. John. The family of Keating, of Norman-Irishorigin, were most numerous in the fifteenth century inKildare, from which they afterwards spread into Tipperaryand Limerick. Sir James Keating, "a mere Irishman, " becamePrior of Kilmainham about the year 1461, at which timeSir Robert Dowdal, deputy to the Lord Treasurer, complainedin Parliament, that being on a pilgrimage to one of theshrines of the Pale, he was assaulted near Cloniff, bythe Prior, with a drawn sword, and thereby put in dangerof his life. It was accordingly decreed that Keatingshould pay to the King a hundred pounds fine, and to SirRobert a hundred marks; but, from certain technical errorsin the proceedings, he successfully evaded both thesepenalties. When in the year 1478 the Lord Grey of Codnerwas sent over to supersede Kildare, he took the decidedstep of refusing to surrender to that nobleman the Castleof Dublin, of which he was Constable. Being threatenedwith an assault, he broke down the bridge and preparedhis defence, while his Mend, the Earl of Kildare, calleda Parliament at Naas, in opposition to Lord Grey's Assemblyat Dublin. In 1480, after two years of rival parties andviceroys, Lord Grey was feign to resign his office, andKildare was regularly appointed Deputy to Richard, Dukeof Gloucester, afterwards Richard III. Two years later, Keating was deprived of his rank by Peter d'Aubusson, Grand Master of Rhodes, who appointed Sir MarmadukeLumley, an English knight, in his stead. Sir Marmadukelanded soon after at Clontarf, where he was taken prisonerby Keating, and kept in close confinement until he hadsurrendered all the instruments of his election andconfirmation. He was then enlarged, and appointed to thecommandery of Kilseran, near Castlebellingham, in Louth. In the year 1488, Keating was one of those who took anactive part in favour of the pretender Lambert Simnel, and although his pardon had been sternly refused byHenry VII. , he retained possession of the Hospital until1491, when he was ejected by force, "and ended histurbulent life, " as we are told, "in the most abjectpoverty and disgrace. " All whom he had appointed to officewere removed; an Act of Parliament was passed, prohibitingthe reception of any "mere Irishman" into the Order forthe future, and enacting that whoever was recognized asPrior by the Grand Master should be of English birth, and one having such a connection with the Order there asmight strengthen the force and interest of the Kings ofEngland in Ireland. 

The fact most indicative of the spirit of the times is, that a man of Prior Keating's disposition could, forthirty years, have played such a daring part as we havedescribed in the city of Dublin. During the greater partof that period, he held the office of Constable of theCastle and Prior of Kilmainham, in defiance of EnglishDeputies and English Kings; than which no farther evidencemay be adduced to show how completely the English, interestwas extinguished, even within the walls of Dublin, duringthe reign of the last of the Plantagenet Princes, andthe first years of Henry VII. 

In 1485, Henry, Earl of Richmond, grandson of QueenCatherine and Owen ap Tudor, returned from his fourteenyears' exile in France, and, by the victory of Bosworth, took possession of the throne. The Earl of Kildare, undisputed Deputy during the last years of Edward IV. , had been continued by Richard, and was not removed byHenry VII. Though a staunch Yorkist, he showed no outwardopposition to the change of dynasty, for which he founda graceful apology soon afterwards. Being at Mass, inChrist's Church Cathedral, on the 2nd of February, 1486, he received intelligence of Henry's marriage with Elizabethof York, which he at once communicated to the Archbishopof Dublin, and ordered an additional Mass for the Kingand Queen. Yet, from the hour of that union of the housesof York and Lancaster, it needed no extraordinary wisdomto foresee that the exemption of the Anglo-Irish noblesfrom the supremacy of their nominal King must come to anend, and the freedom of the old Irish from any formidableexternal danger must also close. The union of the Roses, so full of the promise of peace for England, was to formthe date of a new era in her relations with Ireland. Thetide of English power was at that hour at its lowest ebb;it had left far in the interior the landmarks of itsfirst irresistible rush; it might be said, withoutexaggeration, that Gaelic children now gathered shellsand pebbles where that tide once rolled, charged withall its thunders; it was now about to turn; the firstmurmuring menace of new encroachments began to be heardunder Henry VII. ; as we listen they grow louder on theear; the waves advance with a steady, deliberate march, unlike the first impetuous onslaught of the Normans; theyadvance and do not recede, till they recover all theground they had abandoned. The era which we dated fromthe Red Earl's death, in 1333, has exhausted its resourcesof aggression and assimilation; a new era opens with thereign of Henry VII. --or more distinctly still, with thatof his successor, Henry VIII. We must close our accountwith the old era, before entering upon the new. 

The contest between the Earl of Kildare and Lord Greyfor the government (1478-1480) marks the lowest ebb ofthe English power. We have already related how PriorKeating shut the Castle gates on the English deputy, andthreatened to fire on his guard if he attempted to forcethem. Lord Portlester also, the Chancellor, andfather-in-law to Kildare, joined that Earl in his Parliamentat Naas with the great seal. Lord Grey, in his DublinAssembly, declared the great seal cancelled, and ordereda new one to be struck, but after a two years' contesthe was obliged to succumb to the greater influence ofthe Geraldines. Kildare was regularly acknowledged LordDeputy, under the King's privy seal. It was ordained thatthereafter there should be but one Parliament convokedduring the year; that but one subsidy should be demanded, annually, the sum "not to exceed a thousand marks. "Certain Acts of both Parliaments--Grey's andKildare's--were by compromise confirmed. Of these weretwo which do not seem to collate very well with eachother; one prohibiting the inhabitants of the Pale fromholding any intercourse whatsoever with the mere Irish;the other extending to Con O'Neil, Prince of Tyrone, andbrother-in-law of Kildare, the rights of a naturalizedsubject within the Pale. The former was probably LordGrey's; the latter was Lord Kildare's legislation. 

Although Henry VII. Had neither disturbed the Earl inhis governments, nor his brother, Lord Thomas, asChancellor, it was not to be expected that he could placeentire confidence in the leading Yorkist family amongthe Anglo-Irish. The restoration of the Ormond estates, in favour of Thomas, seventh Earl, was both politic andjust, and could hardly be objectionable to Kildare, whohad just married one of his daughters to Pierce Butler, nephew and heir to Thomas. The want of confidence betweenthe new King and his Deputy was first exhibited in 1486, when the Earl, being summoned to attend on his Majesty, called a Parliament at Trim, which voted him an address, representing that in the affairs about to be discussed, his presence was absolutely necessary. Henry affected toaccept the excuse as valid, but every arrival of Courtnews contained some fresh indication of his deep-seatedmistrust of the Lord Deputy, who, however, he dared notyet dismiss. 

The only surviving Yorkists who could put forwardpretensions to the throne were the Earl of Lincoln, Richard's declared heir, and the young Earl of Warwick, son of that Duke of Clarence who was born in Dublin Castlein 1449. Lincoln, with Lord Lovell and others of hisfriends, was in exile at the court of the dowager Duchessof Burgundy, sister to Edward IV. ; and the son ofClarence--a lad of fifteen years of age--was a prisonerin the Tower. In the year 1486, a report spread of theescape of this Prince, and soon afterwards Richard Symon, a Priest of Oxford, landed in Dublin with a youth of thesame age, of prepossessing appearance and address, whocould relate with the minutest detail the incidents ofhis previous imprisonment. He was at once recognized asthe son of Clarence by the Earl of Kildare and his party, and preparations were made for his coronation by thetitle of Edward VI. Henry, alarmed, produced from theTower the genuine Warwick, whom he publicly paradedthrough London, in order to prove that the pretender inDublin was an impostor. The Duchess of Burgundy, however, fitted out a fleet, containing 2, 000 veteran troops, under the command of Martin Swart, who, sailing up thechannel, reached Dublin without interruption. With thisfleet came the Earl of Lincoln, Lord Lovell, and theother English refugees, who all recognized the _protege_of Father Symon as the true Prince. Octavius, the ItalianArchbishop of Armagh, then residing at Dublin, the Bishopof Clogher, the Butlers, and the Baron of Howth, wereincredulous or hostile. The great majority of theAnglo-Irish lords, spiritual and temporal, favoured hiscause, and he was accordingly crowned in Christ ChurchCathedral, with a diadem taken from an image of our Lady, on the 24th of May, 1487; the Deputy, Chancellor, andTreasurer were present; the sermon was preached by Pain, Bishop of Meath. A Parliament was next convoked in hisname, in which the Butlers and citizens of Waterford wereproscribed as traitors. A herald from the latter city, who had spoken over boldly, was hanged by the Dublinersas a proof of their loyalty. The Council ordered a forceto be equipped for the service of his new Majesty inEngland, and Lord Thomas Fitzgerald resigned theChancellorship to take the command. This expedition--thelast which invaded England from the side of Ireland--sailed from Dublin about the first of June, and landingon the Lancashire shore, at the pile of Foudray, marchedto Ulverstone, where they were joined by Sir ThomasBroughton and other devoted Yorkists. From Ulverstonethe whole force, about 8, 000 strong, marched into Yorkshire, and from Yorkshire southwards into Nottingham. Henry, who had been engaged in making a progress through thesouthern counties, hastened to meet him, and both armiesmet at Stoke-upon-Trent, near Newark, on the 16th day ofJune, 1487. The battle was contested with the utmostobstinacy, but the English prevailed. The Earl of Lincoln, the Lords Thomas and Maurice Fitzgerald, Plunkett, sonof Lord Killeen, Martin Swart, and Sir Thomas Broughtonwere slain; Lord Lovell escaped, but was never heard ofafterwards; the pretended Edward VI. Was captured, andspared by Henry only to be made a scullion in his kitchen. Father Symon was cast into prison, where he died, afterhaving confessed that his _protege_ was Lambert Simnel, the son of a joiner at Oxford. 

Nothing shows the strength of the Kildare party, and theweakness of the English interest, more than that thedeputy and his partizans were still continued in office. They despatched a joint letter to the King, deprecatinghis anger, which he was prudent enough to conceal. Hesent over, the following spring, Sir Richard Edgecombe, Comptroller of his household, accompanied by a guard of500 men. Sir Richard first touched at Kinsale, where hereceived the homage of the Lords Barry and de Courcy; hethen sailed to Waterford, where he delivered to the Mayorroyal letters confirming the city in its privileges, andauthorizing its merchants to seize and distress those ofDublin, unless they made their submission. After leavingWaterford, he landed at Malahide, passing by Dublin, towhich he proceeded by land, accompanied with his guard. The Earl of Kildare was absent on a pilgrimage, fromwhich he did not return for several days. His firstinterviews with Edgecombe were cold and formal, butfinally on the 21st of July, after eight or ten days'disputation, the Earl and the other lords of his partydid homage to King Henry, in the great chamber of histown-house in Thomas Court, and thence proceeding to thechapel, took the oath of allegiance on the consecratedhost. With this submission Henry was fain to be content;Kildare, Portlester, and Plunkett were continued inoffice. The only one to whom the King's pardon waspersistently refused was Sir James Keating, Prior ofKilmainham. 

In the subsequent attempts of Perkin Warbeck (1492-1499), in the character of Richard, Duke of York, one of thePrinces murdered in the tower by Richard III. , theAnglo-Irish took a less active part. Warbeck landed atCork from Lisbon, and despatched letters to the Earls ofKildare and Desmond, to which they returned civil butevasive replies. At Cork he received an invitation fromthe King of France to visit that country, where he remainedtill the conclusion of peace between France and England. He then retired to Burgundy, where he was cordiallyreceived by the Duchess; after an unsuccessful descenton the coast of Kent, he took refuge in Scotland, wherehe married a lady closely allied to the crown. In 1497he again tried his fortune in the South of Ireland, wasjoined by Maurice, tenth Earl of Desmond, the Lord Barry, and the citizens of Cork. Having laid siege to Waterford, he was compelled to retire with loss, and Desmond havingmade his peace with Henry, Warbeck was forced again tofly into Scotland. In 1497 and '8, he made new attemptsto excite insurrection in his favour in the north ofEngland and in Cornwall. He was finally taken and putto death on the 16th of November, 1499. With him sufferedhis first and most faithful adherent, John Waters, whohad been Mayor of Cork at his first landing from Lisbon, in 1492, and who is ignorantly or designedly called byHenry's partizan "O'Water. " History has not yet positivelyestablished the fraudulency of this pretender. A lateeminently cautious writer, with all the evidence whichmodern research has accumulated, speaks of him as "oneof the most mysterious persons in English history;" andin mystery we must leave him. 

We have somewhat anticipated events, in other quarters, in order to dispose of both the Yorkist pretenders atthe same time. The situation of the Earls of Kildare inthis and the next reign, though full of grandeur, wasalso full of peril. Within the Pale they had one part toplay, without the Pale another. Within the Pale they heldone language, without it another. At Dublin they wereEnglish Earls, beyond the Boyne or the Barrow, they wereIrish chiefs. They had to tread their cautious, and notalways consistent way, through the endless complicationswhich must arise between two nations occupying the samesoil, with conflicting allegiance, language, laws, customs, and interests. While we frequently feel indignant atthe tone they take towards the "Irish enemy" in theirdespatches to London--the pretended enemies being at thatvery time their confidants and allies-on farther reflectionwe feel disposed to make some allowance on the score ofcircumstance and necessity, for a duplicity which, inthe end, brought about, as duplicity in public affairsever does, its own punishment. 

In Ulster as well as in Leinster, the ascendency of theEarl of Kildare over the native population was widespreadand long sustained. Con O'Neil, Lord of Tyrone, from 1483to 1491, and Turlogh, Con and Art, his sons and successors(from 1498 to 1548), maintained the most intimate relationswith this Earl and his successors. To the former he wasbrother-in-law, and to the latter, of course, uncle; toall he seems to have been strongly attached. Hugh RoeO'Donnell, Lord of Tyrconnell (1450-1505), and his sonand successor, Hugh Dhu O'Donnell, (1505-1530), were alsoclosely connected with Kildare both by friendship andintermarriage. In 1491, O'Neil and O'Donnell mutuallysubmitted their disputes to his decision, at his Castleof Maynooth, and though he found it impossible to reconcilethem at the moment, we find both of these houses cordiallyunited with him afterwards. In 1498, he took Dungannonand Omagh, "with great guns, " from the insurgents againstthe authority of his grandson, Turlogh O'Neil, and restoredthem to Turlogh; the next year he visited O'Donnell, andbrought his son Henry to be fostered among the kindlyIrish of Tyrconnell. In the year 1500 he also placedthe Castle of Kinnaird in the custody of Turlogh O'Neil. In Leinster, the Geraldine interest was still more entirelybound up with that of the native population. His son, Sir Oliver of Killeigh, married an O'Conor of Offally;the daughter of another son, Sir James of Leixlip, (sometimes called the Knight of the Valley) became thewife of the chief of Imayle. The Earl of Ormond, andUlick Burke of Clanrickarde, were also sons-in-law ofthe eighth Earl, but in both these cases the old familyfeuds survived in despite of the new family alliances. 

In the fourth year after his accession, Henry VII. , proceeding by slow degrees to undermine Kildare's enormouspower, summoned the chief Anglo-Irish nobles to his Courtat Greenwich, where he reproached them with their supportof Simnel, who, to their extreme confusion, he caused towait on them as butler, at dinner. A year or two afterwards, he removed Lord Portlester, from the Treasurership, whichhe conferred on Sir James Butler, the bastard of Ormond. Plunkett, the Chief-Justice, was promoted to theChancellorship, and Kildare himself was removed to makeway for Fitzsymons, Archbishop of Dublin. This, however, was but a government _ad interim_, for in the year 1494, a wholly English administration was appointed. Sir EdwardPoynings, with a picked force of 1, 000 men, was appointedLord Deputy; the Bishop of Bangor was appointed Chancellor, Sir Hugh Conway, an Englishman, was to be Treasurer; andthese officials were accompanied by an entirely new benchof judges, all English, whom they were instructed toinstal immediately on their arrival. Kildare had resistedthe first changes with vigour, and a bloody feud hadtaken place between his retainers and those of Sir Jamesof Ormond, on the green of Oxmantown--now Smithfield, inDublin. On the arrival of Poynings, however, he submittedwith the best possible grace, and accompanied that deputyto Drogheda, where he had summoned a Parliament to meethim. From Drogheda, they made an incursion into O'Hanlon'scountry (Orior in Armagh). On returning from Drogheda, Poynings, on a real or pretended discovery of a secretunderstanding between O'Hanlon and Kildare, arrested thelatter, in Dublin, and at once placed him on board abarque "kept waiting for that purpose, " and despatchedhim to England. On reaching London, he was imprisoned inthe Tower, for two years, during which time his party inIreland were left headless and dispirited. 

The government of Sir Edward Poynings, which lasted from1494 till Kildare's restoration, in August, 1496, is mostmemorable for the character of its legislation. Heassembled a Parliament at Drogheda, in November, 1495, at which were passed the statutes so celebrated in ourParliamentary history as the "10th Henry VII. " Thesestatutes were the first enacted in Ireland in which theEnglish language was employed. They confirmed the Provisionsof the Statute of Kilkenny, except that prohibiting theuse of the Irish language, which had now become so deeplyrooted, even within the Pale, as to make its immediateabolition impracticable. The hospitable law passed inthe time of Richard, Duke of York, against the arrest ofrefugees by virtue of writs issued in England, wasrepealed. The English acts, against provisors to Rome--ecclesiastics who applied for or accepted prefermentdirectly from Rome--were adopted. It was also enactedthat all offices should be held at the King's pleasure;that the Lords of Parliament should appear in their robesas the Lords did in England; that no one should presumeto make peace or war except with license of the Governor;that no great guns should be kept in the fortresses exceptby similar license; and that men of English _birth_ onlyshould be appointed Constables of the Castles of Dublin, Trim, Leixlip, Athlone, Wicklow, Greencastle, Carlingford, and Carrickfergus. But the most important measure of allwas one which provided that thereafter no legislationwhatever should be proceeded with in Ireland, unless thebills to be proposed were first submitted to the Kingand Council in England, and were returned, certifiedunder the great seal of the realm. This is what is usuallyand specially called in our Parliamentary history "Poyning'sAct, " and next to the Statute of Kilkenny, it may beconsidered the most important enactment ever passed atany Parliament of the English settlers. 

The liberation of the Earl of Kildare from the Tower, and his restoration as Deputy, seems to have been hastenedby the movements of Perkin Warbeck, and by the visit ofHugh Roe O'Donnell to James IV. , King of Scotland. O'Donnell had arrived at Ayr in the month of August, 1495, a few weeks after Warbeck had reached that court. He was received with great splendour and cordiality bythe accomplished Prince, then lately come of age, andfilled with projects natural to his youth and temperament. With O'Donnell, according to the Four Masters, he formeda league, by which they bound themselves "mutually toassist each other in all their exigencies. " The knowledgeof this alliance, and of Warbeck's favour at the ScottishCourt, no doubt decided Henry to avail himself, ifpossible, of the assistance of his most powerful Irishsubject. There was, moreover, another influence at work. The first countess had died soon after her husband'sarrest, and he now married, in England, Elizabeth St. John, cousin to the King. Fortified in his allegianceand court favour by this alliance, he returned in triumphto Dublin, where he was welcomed with enthusiasm. 

In his subsequent conduct as Lord Deputy, an office whichhe continued to hold till his death in 1513, this powerfulnobleman seems to have steadily upheld the Englishinterest, which was now in harmony with his own. Havingdriven off Warbeck in his last visit to Ireland (1497), he received extensive estates in England, as a rewardfor his zeal, and after the victory of Knock-doe (1505), he was installed by proxy at Windsor as Knight of theGarter. This long-continued reign--for such in truth itmay be called--left him without a rival in his latteryears. He marched to whatever end of the island he would, pulling down and setting up chiefs and castles; hisgarrisons were to be found from Belfast to Cork, andalong the valley of the Shannon, from Athleague toLimerick. 

The last event of national importance connected with thename of Geroit More arose out of the battle of KNOCK-DOE, ("battle-axe hill"), fought within seven or eight milesof Galway town, on the 19th of August, 1504. Few of thecardinal facts in our history have been more entirelymisapprehended and misrepresented than this. It is usuallydescribed as a pitched battle between English and Irish--the turning point in the war of races--and the secondfoundation of English power. The simple circumstancesare these: Ulick III. , Lord of Clanrickarde, had marriedand misused the lady Eustacia Fitzgerald, who seems tohave fled to her father, leaving her children behind. This led to an embittered family dispute, which wasexpanded into a public quarrel by the complaint of WilliamO'Kelly, whose Castles of Garbally, Monivea, and Gallagh, Burke had seized and demolished. In reinstating O'Kelly, Kildare found the opportunity which he sought to punishhis son-in-law, and both parties prepared for a trial ofstrength. It so happened that Clanrickarde's alliancesat that day were chiefly with O'Brien and the southernIrish, while Kildare's were with those of Ulster. Fromthese causes, what was at first a family quarrel, and atmost a local feud, swelled into the dimensions of anational contest between North and South--Leath-Moghdaand Leath-Conn. Under these terms, the native Annalistsaccurately describe the belligerents on either side. WithKildare were the Lords of Tyrconnell, Sligo, Moylurg, Breffni, Oriel, and Orior; O'Farrell, Bishop of Ardagh, the Tanist of Tyrowen, the heir of Iveagh, O'Kelly ofHy-Many, McWilliam of Mayo, the Barons of Slane, Delvin, Howth, Dunsany, Gormanstown, Trimblestown, and John Blake, Mayor of Dublin, with the city militia. With Clanrickardewere Turlogh O'Brien, son of the Lord of Thomond, McNamaraof Clare, O'Carroll of Ely, O'Brien of Ara, and O'Kennedyof Ormond. The battle was obstinate and bloody. Artilleryand musketry, first introduced from Germany some twentyyears before (1487), were freely used, and the ploughshareof the peasant has often turned up bullets, large andsmall, upon the hillside where the battle was fought. The most credible account sets down the number of theslain at 2, 000 men--the most exaggerated at 9, 000. Thevictory was with Kildare, who, after encamping on thefield for twenty-four hours, by the advice of O'Donnell, marched next day to Galway, where he found the childrenof Clanrickarde, whom he restored to their injured mother. Athenry opened its gates to receive the conquerors, andafter celebrating their victory in the stronghold of thevanquished, the Ulster chiefs returned to the North, andKildare to Dublin. 

Less known is the battle of Monabraher, which may beconsidered the offset of Knock-doe. It was fought in1510--the first year of Henry VIII. , who had justconfirmed Lord Kildare in the government. The youngerO'Donnell joined him in Munster, and after taking theCastles of Kanturk, Pallis, and Castelmaine, they marchedto Limerick, where the Earl of Desmond, the McCarthys ofboth branches, and "the Irish of Meath and Leinster, " inalliance with Kildare, joined them with their forces. The old allies, Turlogh O'Brien, Clanrickarde, and theMcNamaras, attacked them at the bridge of Portrush, nearCastleconnell, and drove them through Monabraher ("thefriar's bog"), with the loss of the Barons Barnwall andKent, and many of their forces; the survivors were feignto take refuge within the walls of Limerick. 

Three years later, Earl Gerald set out to besiege LeapCastle, in O'Moore's country; but it happened that as hewas watering his horse in the little river Greese, atKilkea, he was shot by one of the O'Moores: he wasimmediately carried to Athy, where shortly afterwards heexpired. If we except the first Hugh de Lacy and the RedEarl of Ulster, the Normans in Ireland had not produceda more illustrious man than Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare. He was, says Stainhurst, "of tall stature and goodlypresence; very liberal and merciful; of strict piety;mild in his government; passionate, but easily appeased. "And our justice-loving _Four Masters_ have described himas "a knight in valour, and princely and religious inhis words and judgments. "

CHAPTER IX. 

STATE OF IRISH AND ANGLO-IRISH SOCIETY DURING THEFOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 

The main peculiarities of social life among the Irishand Anglo-Irish during the fourteenth and fifteenthcenturies are still visible to us. Of the drudges of theearth, as in all other histories, we see or hear littleor nothing, but of those orders of men of whom the historicmuse takes count, such as bards, rulers, builders, andreligious, there is much information to be found scatteredup and down our annals, which, if properly put togetherand clearly interpreted, may afford us a tolerably clearview of the men and their times. 

The love of learning, always strong in this race of menand women, revived in full force with their exemptionfrom the immediate pressure of foreign invasion. Theperson of Bard and Brehon was still held inviolable; tothe malediction of the Bard of Usnagh was attributed thesudden death of the Deputy, Sir John Stanley; to themurder of the Brehon McEgan is traced all the misfortuneswhich befell the sons of Irial O'Farrell. To receive thepoet graciously, to seat him in the place of honour atthe feast, to listen to him with reverence, and to rewardhim munificently, were considered duties incumbent onthe princes of the land. And these duties, to do themjustice, they never neglected. One of the O'Neils isspecially praised for having given more gifts to poets, and having "a larger collection of poems" than any otherman of his age. In the struggle between O'Donnell andO'Conor for the northern corner of Sligo, we find mentionmade of books accidentally burned in "the house of themanuscripts, " in Lough Gill. Among the spoils carriedoff by O'Donnell, on another occasion, were two famousbooks--one of which, the Leahar Gear (Short Book), heafterwards paid back, as part of the ransom for therelease of his friend, O'Doherty. 

The Bards and Ollams, though more dependent on theirPrinces than we have seen them in their early palmy days, had yet ample hereditary estates in every principalityand lordship. If natural posterity failed, the incumbentwas free to adopt some capable person as his heir. Itwas in this way the family of O'Clery, originally ofTyrawley, came to settle in Tyrconnell, towards the endof the fourteenth century. At that time O'Sgingin, chiefOllam to O'Donnell, offered his daughter in marriage toCormac O'Clery, a young professor of both laws, in themonastery near Ballyshannon, on condition that the firstmale child born of the marriage should be brought up tohis own profession. This was readily agreed to, and fromthis auspicious marriage descended the famous family, which produced three of the Four Masters of Donegal. 

The virtue of hospitality was, of all others, that whichthe old Irish of every degree in rank and wealth mostcheerfully practised. In many cases it degenerated intoextravagance and prodigality. But in general it ispresented to us in so winning a garb that our objectionson the score of prudence vanish before it. When we readof the freeness of heart of Henry Avery O'Neil, whogranted all manner of things "that came into his hands, "to all manner of men, we pause and doubt whether such avirtue in such excess may not lean towards vice. But whenwe hear of a powerful lord, like William O'Kelly ofGalway, entertaining throughout the Christmas holydaysall the poets, musicians, and poor persons who choose toflock to him, or of the pious and splendid MargaretO'Carroll, receiving twice a year in Offally all theBards of Albyn and Erin, we cannot but envy the professorsof the gentle art their good fortune in having lived insuch times, and shared in such assemblies. As hospitalitywas the first of social virtues, so inhospitality wasthe worst of vices; the unpopularity of a churl descendedto his posterity through successive generations. 

The high estimation in which women were held among thetribes is evident from the particularity with which thehistorians record their obits and marriages. The maidenname of the wife was never wholly lost in that of herhusband, and if her family were of equal standing withhis before marriage, she generally retained her fullshare of authority afterwards. The Margaret O'Carrollalready mentioned, a descendant and progenitress ofillustrious women, rode privately to Trim, as we aretold, with some English prisoners, taken by her husband, O'Conor of Offally, and exchanged them for others ofequal worth lying in that fortress; and "this she did, "it is added, "without the knowledge of" her husband. Thislady was famed not only for her exceeding hospitalityand her extreme piety, but for other more unexpectedworks. Her name is remembered in connection with theerection of bridges and the making of highways, as wellas the building of churches, and the presentation ofmissals and mass-books. And the grace she thus acquiredlong brought blessings upon her posterity, among whomthere never were wanting able men and heroic women whilethey kept their place in the land. An equally celebratedbut less amiable woman was Margaret Fitzgerald, daughterof the eighth Earl of Kildare, and wife of Pierce, eighthEarl of Ormond. "She was, " says the Dublin Annalist, "alady of such port that all the estates of the realmcouched to her, so politique that nothing was thoughtsubstantially debated without her advice. " Her decisionof character is preserved in numerous traditions in andaround Kilkenny, where she lies buried. Of her is toldthe story that when exhorted on her death-bed to makerestitution of some ill-got lands, and being told thepenalty that awaited her if she died impenitent, sheanswered, "it was better one old woman should burn foreternity than that the Butlers should be curtailed oftheir estates. "

The fame of virtuous deeds, of generosity, of peace-making, of fidelity, was in that state of society as easilyattainable by women as by men. The Unas, Finolas, Sabias, Lasarinas, were as certain of immortality as the Hughs, Cathals, Donalds and Conors, their sons, brothers, orlovers. Perhaps it would be impossible to find any historyof those or of later ages in which women are treated upona more perfect equality with men, where their virtuesand talents entitled them to such consideration. 

The piety of the age, though it had lost something ofthe simplicity and fervour of older times, was stillconspicuous and edifying. Within the island, the pilgrimageof Saint Patrick's purgatory, the shrine of our Lady ofTrim, the virtues of the holy cross of Raphoe, the miracleswrought by the _Baculum Christi_, and other relics ofChrist Church, Dublin, were implicitly believed andpiously frequented. The long and dangerous journeys toRome and Jerusalem were frequently taken, but the favouriteforeign vow was to Compostella, in Spain. Chiefs, Ladies, and Bards, are almost annually mentioned as having sailedor returned from the city of St. James; generally thesepilgrims left in companies, and returned in the same way. The great Jubilee of 1450, so enthusiastically attendedfrom every corner of Christendom, drew vast multitudesfrom our island to Rome. By those who returned tidingswere first brought to Ireland of the capture ofConstantinople by the Turks. On receipt of thisintelligence, which sent a thrill through the heart ofEurope, Tregury, Archbishop of Dublin, proclaimed a fastof three days, and on each day walked in sackcloth, withhis clergy, through the streets of the city, to theCathedral. By many in that age the event was connectedwith the mystic utterances of the Apocalypse, and theoften-apprehended consummation of all Time. 

Although the Irish were then, as they still are, firmbelievers in supernatural influence working visibly amongmen, they do not appear to have ever been slaves to theterrible delusion of witchcraft. Among the Anglo-Irishwe find the first instance of that mania which appearsin our history, and we believe the only one, if we exceptthe Presbyterian witches Of Carrickfergus, in the earlypart of the eighteenth century. The scene of the ancientdelusion was Kilkenny, where Bishop Ledred accused theLady Alice Kettel, and William her son, of practisingblack magic, in the year 1327. Sir Roger Outlaw, Priorof Kilmainham, and stepson to Lady Alice, undertook toprotect her; but the fearful charge was extended to himalso, and he was compelled to enter on his defence. Thetribunal appointed to try the charge--one of the maingrounds on which the Templars had been suppressedtwenty-five years before--was composed of the Dean ofSt. Patrick's, the Prior of Christ Church, the Abbots ofSt. Mary's and St. Thomas's, Dublin, Mr. Elias Lawless, and Mr. Peter Willeby, lawyers. Outlaw was acquitted, and Ledred forced to fly for safety to England, of whichhe was a native. It is pleasant to remember that, althoughIrish credulity sometimes took shapes absurd and grotesqueenough, it never was perverted into diabolical channels, or directed to the barbarities of witch-finding. 

About the beginning of the fifteenth century we meet withthe first mention of the use of Usquebagh, or _AquaVitae_, in our Annals. Under the date of 1405 we readthat McRannal, or Reynolds, chief of Muntireolais, diedof a surfeit of it, about Christmas. A quaint Elizabethanwriter thus descants on the properties of that liquor, as he found them, by personal experience: "For the rawness(of the air) they (the Irish) have an excellent remedyby their _Aqua Vitae_, vulgarly called _Usquebagh_, whichbinds up the belly and drieth up moisture more than our_Aqua Vitae_, yet inflameth not so much. "

And as the opening of the century may be considerednotable for the first mention of _Usquebagh_, so itsclose is memorable for the first employment of fire-arms. In the year 1489, according to Anglo-Irish Annals, "sixhand guns or musquets were sent to the Earl of Kildareout of Germany, " which his guard bore while on sentry atThomas Court--his Dublin residence. But two years earlier(1487) we have positive mention of the employment of gunsat the siege of Castlecar, in Leitrim, by Hugh RoeO'Donnell. Great guns were freely used ten years laterin the taking of Dungannon and Omagh, and contributed, not a little to the victory of Knock-doe--in 1505. Aboutthe same time we begin to hear of their employment bysea in rather a curious connection. A certain FrenchKnight, returning from the pilgrimage of Lough Derg, visiting O'Donnell at Donegal, heard of the anxiety ofhis entertainer to take a certain Castle which stood bythe sea, in Sligo. This Knight promised to send him, onMs return to France, "a vessel carrying great guns, "which he accordingly did, and the Castle was in consequencetaken. Nevertheless the old Irish, according to theirhabit, took but slowly to this wonderful invention, thoughdestined to revolutionize the art to which they werenaturally predisposed--the art of war. 

The dwellings of the chiefs, and of the wealthy amongthe proprietors, near the marches, were chiefly situatedamid pallisaded islands, or on promontories naturallymoated by lakes. The houses, in those circumstances, were mostly of framework, though the Milesian nobles, inless exposed districts, had castles of stone, after theNorman fashion. The Castle "bawn" was usually enclosedby one or more strong walls, the inner sides of whichwere lined with barns, stables, and the houses of theretainers. Not unfrequently the thatched roofs of theseoutbuildings taking fire, compelled the castle to surrender. The Castle "green, " whether within or without the walls, was the usual scene of rural sports and athletic games, of which, at all periods, our ancestors were so fond. Ofthe interior economy of the Milesian rath, or dun, weknow less than of the Norman tower, where, before thehuge kitchen chimney, the heavy-laden spit was turned byhand, while the dining-hall was adorned with the glitterof the dresser, or by tapestry hangings;-the floors ofhall and chambers being strewn with rushes and odorousherbs. We have spoken of the zeal of the Milesian Chiefsin accumulating MSS. And in rewarding Bards and Scribes. We are enabled to form some idea of the mental resourcesof an Anglo-Irish nobleman of the fifteenth century, fromthe catalogue of the library remaining in Maynooth Castle, in the reign of Henry VIII. Of Latin books, there werethe works of several of the schoolmen, the dialogues ofSt. Gregory, Virgil, Juvenal, and Terence; the Holy Bible;Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy, and Saint Thomas'sSumma; of French works, Froissart, Mandeville, two FrenchBibles, a French Livy and Caesar, with the most popularromances; in English, there were the Polychronicon, Cambrensis, Lyttleton's Tenures, Sir Thomas More's bookon Pilgrimages, and several romances. Moreover, therewere copies of the Psalter of Cashel, a book of Irishchronicles, lives of St. Beraghan, St. Fiech and St. Finian, with various religious tracts, and romantic tales. This was, perhaps, the most extensive private collectionto be found within the Pale; we have every reason toinfer, that, at least in Irish and Latin works, theCastles of the older race--lovers of learning andentertainers of learned men--were not worse furnishedthan Maynooth. 

CHAPTER X. 

STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING DURING THE FOURTEENTHAND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 

Although the English and Irish professed the same religionduring these ages, yet in the appointment of Bishops, the administration of ecclesiastical property, and inall their views of the relation of the Church to theState, the two nations differed almost as widely as intheir laws, language, and customs. The Plantagenetprinces and their Parliaments had always exhibited ajealousy of the See of Rome, and statute upon, statutewas passed, from the reign of Henry II. To that of RichardII. , in order to diminish the power of the Supreme Pontiffsin nominating to English benefices. In the second Richard'sreign, so eventful for the English interest in Ireland, it had been enacted that any of the clergy procuringappointments directly from Rome, or exercising powers soconferred, should incur the penalty of a praemunire--thatis, the forfeiture of their lands and chattels, besidebeing liable to imprisonment during the King's pleasure. This statute was held to apply equally to Ireland, beingconfirmed by some of those petty conventions of "thePale, " which the Dublin Governors of the fourteenthcentury dignified with the name of Parliaments. 

The ancient Irish method of promotion to a vacant see, or abbacy, though modelled on the electoral principlewhich penetrated all Celtic usages, was undoubtedly opento the charge of favouring nepotism, down to the time ofSaint Malachy, the restorer of the Irish Church. Afterthat period, the Prelates elect were ever careful toobtain the sanction of the Holy See, before consecration. Such habitual submission to Rome was seldom found, exceptin cases of disputed election, to interfere with thechoice of the clergy, and the custom grew more and moreinto favour, as the English method of nomination by thecrown was attempted to be enforced, not only throughout"the Pale, " but, by means of English agents at Rome andAvignon, in the appointment to sees, within the provincesof Armagh, Cashel, and Tuam. The ancient usage of farmingthe church lands, under the charge of a lay steward, or_Erenach_, elected by the clan, and the division of allthe revenues into four parts--for the Bishop, the Vicarand his priests, for the poor, and for repairs of thesacred edifice, was equally opposed to the pretensionsof Princes, who looked on their Bishops as Barons, andChurch temporalities, like all other fiefs, as heldoriginally of the crown. Even if there had not been thosedifferences of origin, interest, and government whichnecessarily brought the two populations into collision, these distinct systems of ecclesiastical polity couldnot well have existed on the same soil without frequentlyclashing, one with the other. 

In our notice of the association promoted among theclergy, at the end of the thirteenth century, by thepatriotic McMaelisa, ("follower of Jesus"), and in ourown comments on the memorable letter of Prince DonaldO'Neil to Pope John XXII. , written in the year 1317 or'18, we have seen how wide and deep was the gulf thenexisting between the English and Irish churchmen. Inthe year 1324, an attempt to heal this unchristian breachwas made by Philip of Slane, the Dominican who presidedat the trial of the Knights Templars, who afterwardsbecame Bishop of Cork, and rose into high favour withthe Queen-Mother, Isabella. As her Ambassador, or in thename of King Edward III. , still a minor, he is reportedto have submitted to Pope John certain propositions forthe promotion of peace in the Irish Church, some of whichwere certainly well calculated to promote that end. Hesuggested that the smaller Bishoprics, yielding undersixty pounds per annum, should be united to more eminentsees, and that Irish Abbots and Priors should admitEnglish lay brothers to their houses, and EnglishSuperiors Irish brothers, in like manner. The thirdproposition, however, savours more of the politicianthan of the peacemaker; it was to bring under the bannof excommunication, with all its rigorous consequencesin that age, those "disturbers of the peace" who invadedthe authority of the English King in Ireland. As aconsequence of this mission, a Concordat for Irelandseems to have been concluded at Avignon, embracing thetwo first points, but omitting the third, which was, nodoubt, with the English Court, the main object of FriarPhilip's embassy. 

During the fourteenth century, and down to the electionof Martin V. (A. D. 1417), the Popes sat mainly at Avignon, in France. In the last forty years of that melancholyperiod, other Prelates sitting at Rome, or elsewhere inItaly, claimed the Apostolic primacy. It was in the midstof these troubles and trials of the Church that thepowerful Kings of England, who were also sovereigns ofa great part of France, contrived to extort from theembarrassed pontiffs concessions which, however gratifyingto royal pride, were abhorrent to the more Catholic spiritof the Irish people. A constant struggle was maintainedduring the entire period of the captivity of the Popesin France between Roman and English influence in Ireland. There were often two sets of Bishops elected in suchborder sees as Meath and Louth, which were districtsunder a divided influence. The Bishops of Limerick, Cork, and Waterford, liable to have their revenues cut off, and their personal liberty endangered by sea, were almostinvariably nominees of the English Court; those of theProvince of Dublin were necessarily so; but the prelatesof Ulster, of Connaught, and of Munster--the southernseaports excepted--were almost invariably nativeecclesiastics, elected in the old mode, by the assembledclergy, and receiving letters of confirmation direct fromAvignon or Italy. 

A few incidents in the history of the Church of Cashelwill better illustrate the character of the contestbetween the native episcopacy and the foreign power. Towards the end of the thirteenth century, ArchbishopMcCarwill maintained with great courage the independenceof his jurisdiction against Henry III. And Edward I. Having inducted certain Bishops into their sees withoutwaiting for the royal letters, he sustained a longlitigation in the Anglo-Irish courts, and was much harassedin his goods and person. Seizing from a usurer 400 pounds, he successfully resisted the feudal claim of Edward I. , as lord paramount, to pay over the money to the royalexchequer. Edward having undertaken to erect a prison--or fortress in disguise--in his episcopal city, thebold Prelate publicly excommunicated the Lord Justicewho undertook the work, the escheator who supplied thefunds, and all those engaged in its construction, nordid he desist from his opposition until the obnoxiousbuilding was demolished. Ralph O'Kelly, who filled thesame see from 1345 to 1361, exhibited an equally dauntlessspirit. An Anglo-Irish Parliament having levied a subsidyon all property, lay and ecclesiastical, within theirjurisdiction, to carry on the war of races before described, he not only opposed its collection within the Provinceof Cashel, but publicly excommunicated Epworth, Clerk ofthe Council, who had undertaken that task. For thisoffence an information was exhibited against him, layingthe King's damages at a thousand pounds; but he pleadedthe liberties of the Church, and successfully traversedthe indictment. Richard O'Hedian, Archbishop from 1406to 1440, was a Prelate of similar spirit to hispredecessors. At a Parliament held in Dublin in 1421, itwas formally alleged, among other enormities, that hemade very much of the Irish and loved none of the English;that he presented no Englishman to a benefice, and advisedother Prelates to do likewise; and that he made himselfKing of Munster--alluding, probably, to some revival atthis time of the old title of Prince-Bishop, which hadanciently belonged to the Prelates of Cashel. O'Hedianretained his authority, however, till his death, afterwhich the see remained twelve years vacant, thetemporalities being farmed by the Earl of Ormond. 

From this conflict of interests, frequently resulting indisputed possession and intrusive jurisdiction, religionmust have suffered much, at least in its discipline anddecorum. The English Archbishops of Dublin would notyield in public processions to the Irish Archbishops ofArmagh, nor permit the crozier of St. Patrick to be bornepublicly through their city; the English Bishop ofWaterford was the public accuser of the Irish Archbishopof Cashel, last mentioned, before a lay tribunal--theknights and burgesses of "the Pale. " The annual expeditionssent out from Dublin, to harass the nearest native clans, were seldom without a Bishop or Abbot, or Prior of theTemple or Hospital, in their midst. Scandals must haveensued; hatreds must have sprung up; prejudices, fatalto charity and unity, must have been engendered, both onthe one side and the other. The spirit of party carriedinto the Church can be cherished in the presence of theAltar and Cross only by doing violence to the teachingsof the Cross and the sanctity of the Altar. 

While such was the troubled state of the Church, asexemplified in its twofold hierarchy, the religious orderscontinued to spread, with amazing energy, among bothraces. The orders of Saint Francis and Saint Dominick, those twin giants of the thirteenth century, alreadyrivalled the mighty brotherhood which Saint Bernard hadconsecrated, and Saint Malachy had introduced into theIrish Church. It is observable that the Dominicans, atleast at first, were most favoured by the English andthe Anglo-Irish; while the Franciscans were more popularwith the native population. Exceptions may be found onboth sides: but as a general rule this distinction canbe traced in the strongholds of either order, and in thenames of their most conspicuous members, down to thatdark and trying hour when the tempest of "the Reformation"involved both in a common danger, and demonstrated theirequal heroism. As elsewhere in Christendom, the suddenaggrandizement of these mendicant institutes excitedjealousy and hostility among certain of the secular clergyand Bishops. This feeling was even stronger in Englandduring the reigns of Edward III. And Richard II. , when, according to the popular superstition, the Devil appearedat various places "in the form of a grey friar. " Thegreat champion of the secular clergy, in the controversywhich ensued, was Richard, son of Ralph, a native ofDundalk, the Erasmus of his age. Having graduated atOxford, where the Irish were then classed as one of "thefour nations" of students, Fitz-Ralph achieved distinctionafter distinction, till he rose to the rank of Chancellorof the University, in 1333. Fourteen years afterwardshe was consecrated, by provision of Pope Clement VI. , Archbishop of Armagh, and is by some writers styled"Cardinal of Armagh. " Inducted into the chief see of hisnative Province and country, he soon commenced thosesermons and writings against the mendicant orders whichrendered him so conspicuous in the Church history of thefourteenth century. Summoned to Avignon, in 1350, to beexamined on his doctrine, he maintained before theConsistory the following propositions: 1st, that our LordJesus Christ, as a man, was very poor, not that He lovedpoverty for itself; 2nd, that our Lord had never begged;3rd, that He never taught men to beg; 4th, that, on thecontrary, He taught men not to beg; 5th, that man cannot, with prudence and holiness, confine himself by vow to alife of constant mendicity; 6th, that minor brothers arenot obliged by their rule to beg; 7th, that the bull ofAlexander IV. , which condemns the Book of Masters, doesnot invalidate any of the aforesaid conclusions; 8th, that by those who, wishing to confess, exclude certainchurches, their parish one should be preferred to theoratories of monks; and 9th, that, for auricularconfession, the diocesan, bishop should be chosen inpreference to friars. 

In a "defence of Parish Priests, " and many other tracts, in several sermons, preached at London, Litchfield, Drogheda, Dundalk, and Armagh, he maintained the thesisuntil the year 1357, when the Superior of the Franciscansat Armagh, seconded by the influence of his own and theDominican order, caused him to be summoned a second timebefore the Pope. Fitz-Ralph promptly obeyed the summons, but before the cause could be finally decided he died atAvignon in 1361. His body was removed from thence toDundalk in 1370 by Stephen de Valle, Bishop of Meath. Miracles were said to have been wrought at his tomb; aprocess of inquiry into their validity was instituted byorder of Boniface IX. , but abandoned without any resultbeing arrived at. The bitter controversy between themendicant and other orders was revived towards the endof the century by Henry, a Cistercian monk of Baltinglass, who maintained opinions still more extreme than those ofFitz-Ralph; but he was compelled publicly and solemnlyto retract them before Commissioners appointed for thatpurpose in the year 1382. 

The range of mental culture in Europe during the fourteenthcentury included only the scholastic philosophy andtheology with the physics, taught in the schools of theSpanish Arabs. The fifteenth century saw the revival ofGreek literature in Italy, and the general restorationof classical learning. The former century is especiallybarren of original _belles lettres_ writings; but thenext succeeding ages produced Italian poetry, Frenchchronicles, Spanish ballads, and all that wonderfulefflorescence of popular literature, which, in our faradvanced cultivation, we still so much envy and admire. In the last days of Scholasticism, Irish intelligenceasserted its ancient equality with the best minds ofEurope; but in the new era of national literature, unlessthere are buried treasures yet to be dug out of theirGaelic tombs, the country fell altogether behind England, and even Scotland, not to speak of Italy or France. Archbishop Fitz-Ralph, John Scotus of Down, William ofDrogheda, Professor of both laws at Oxford, are respectablerepresentatives among the last and greatest group of theSchool-men. Another illustrious name remains to be addedto the roll of Irish Scholastics, that of Maurice O'Fihely, Archbishop of Tuam. He was a thorough Scotist in philosophy, which he taught at Padua, in discourses long afterwardsprinted at Venice. His Commentaries on _Scotus_, hisDictionary of the Sacred Scriptures, and other numerouswritings, go far to justify the compliments of hiscotemporaries, though the fond appellation of the "flowerof the earth" given him by some of them sounds extravagantand absurd. Soon after arriving from Rome to take possessionof his see he died at Tuam in 1513, in the fiftieth yearof his age--an early age to have won so colossal areputation. 

Beyond some meagre annals, compiled in monastic houses, and a few rhymed panegyrics, the muses of history and ofpoetry seem to have abandoned the island to the theologians, jurists, and men of science. The Bardic order was stillone of the recognized estates, and found patrons worthyof their harps in the lady Margaret O'Carroll of Offally, William O'Kelley of Galway, and Henry Avery O'Neil. Fullcollections of the original Irish poetry of the MiddleAges are yet to be made public, but it is scarcely possiblethat if any composition of eminent merit existed, we shouldnot have had editions and translations of it before now. 

BOOK VII. 

UNION OF THE CROWNS OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 

CHAPTER I. 

IRISH POLICY OF HENRY THE EIGHTH DURING THE LIFETIMEOF CARDINAL WOLSEY. 

Henry the Eighth of England succeeded his father on thethrone, early in the year 1509. He was in the eighteenthyear of his age, when he thus found himself master of awell-filled treasury and an united kingdom. Fortune, asif to complete his felicity, had furnished him from theoutset of his reign with a minister of unrivalled talentfor public business. This was Thomas Wolsey, successivelyroyal Chaplain, Almoner, Archbishop of York, Papal Legate, Lord Chancellor, and Lord Cardinal. From the fifth tothe twentieth year of King Henry, he was, in effect, sovereign in the state, and it is wonderful to find howmuch time he contrived to borrow from the momentousforeign affairs of that eventful age for the obscurerintrigues of Irish politics. 

Wolsey kept before his mind, more prominently than anyprevious English statesman, the design of making hisroyal master as absolute in Ireland as any King inChristendom. He determined to abolish every pretence tosovereignty but that of the King of England, and to thisend he resolved to circumscribe the power of the Anglo-IrishBarons, and to win over by "dulce ways" and "politicdrifts, " as he expressed it, the Milesian-Irish Chiefs. This policy, continued by all the Tudor sovereigns tillthe latter years of Elizabeth, so far as it distinguishedbetween the Barons and Chiefs always favoured the latter. The Kildares and Desmonds were hunted to the death, in thesame age, and by the same authority, which carefullyfostered every symptom of adhesion or attachment on thepart of the O'Neils and O'Briens. Neither were these lastloved or trusted for their own sakes, but the natural enemyfares better in all histories than the unnatural rebel. 

We must enumerate some of the more remarkable instancesof Wolsey's twofold policy of concession and intimidation. In the third and fourth years of Henry, Hugh O'Donnell, lord of Tyrconnell, passing through England, on a pilgrimageto Rome, was entertained with great honour at Windsorand Greenwich for four months each time. He returned toUlster deeply impressed with the magnificence of theyoung monarch and the resources of his kingdom. Duringthe remainder of his life he cherished a strong predilectionfor England; he dissuaded James IV. Of Scotland fromleading a liberating expedition to Ireland in 1513--previous to the ill-fated campaign which ended on Floddenfield, and he steadily resisted the influx of the Islesmeninto Down and Antrim. In 1521 we find him described bythe Lord Lieutenant, Surrey, as being of all the Irishchiefs the best disposed "to fall into English order. "He maintained a direct correspondence with Henry untilhis death, 1537, when the policy he had so materiallyassisted had progressed beyond the possibility of defeat. Simultaneously with O'Donnell's adhesion, the same viewsfound favour with the powerful chief of Tyrone. TheO'Neils were now divided into two great septs, those ofTyrone, whose seat was at Dungannon, and those of Clandeboy, whose strongholds studded the eastern shores of LoughNeagh. In the year 1480, Con O'Neil, lord of Tyrone, married his cousin-germain, Lady Alice Fitzgerald, daughterof the Earl of Kildare. This alliance tended to establishan intimacy between Maynooth and Dungannon, which subservedmany of the ends of Wolsey's policy. Turlogh, Art, andCon, sons of Lady Alice, and successively chiefs ofTyrone, adhered to the fortunes of the Kildare family, who were, however unwillingly, controlled by the superiorpower of Henry. The Clandeboy O'Neils, on the contrary, regarded this alliance as nothing short of apostasy, andpursued the exactly opposite course, repudiating Englishand cultivating Scottish alliances. Open ruptures andfrequent collisions took place between the estranged andexasperated kinsmen; in the sequel we will find how thelast surviving son of Lady Alice became in his old agethe first Earl of Tyrone, while the House of Clandeboytook up the title of "the O'Neil. " The example of theelder branch of this ancient royal race, and of the hardlyless illustrious family of Tyrconnell, exercised a potentinfluence on the other chieftains of Ulster. 

An elaborate report on "the State of Ireland, " with "aplan for its Reformation"--submitted to Henry in the year1515--gives us a tolerably clear view of the politicaland military condition of the several provinces. The onlyportions of the country in any sense subject to Englishlaw, were half the counties of Louth, Meath, Dublin, Kildare, and Wexford. The residents within these districtspaid "black rent" to the nearest native chiefs. Sheriffswere not permitted to execute writs, beyond the boundsthus described, and even within thirty miles of Dublin, March-law and Brehon-law were in full force. Ten nativemagnates are enumerated in Leinster as "chief captains"of their "nations"--not one of whom regarded the EnglishKing as his Sovereign. Twenty chiefs in Munster, fifteenin Connaught, and three in West-Meath, maintained theirancient state, administered their own laws, and recognizedno superiority, except in one another, as policy or customcompelled them. Thirty chief English captains, of whomeighteen resided in Munster, seven in Connaught, and theremainder in Meath, Down, and Antrim, are set down as"rebels" and followers of "the Irish order. " Of these, the principal in the midland counties were the Dillonsand Tyrrells, in the West the Burkes and Berminghams, inthe South the Powers, Barrys, Roches--the Earl of Desmondand his relatives. The enormous growth of these MunsterGeraldines, and their not less insatiable greed, producedmany strange complications in the politics of the South. Not content with the moiety of Kerry, Cork, and Waterford, they had planted their landless cadets along the Suirand the Shannon, in Ormond and Thomond. They narrowedthe dominions of the O'Briens on the one hand and theMcCarthys on the other. Concluding peace or war withtheir neighbours, as suited their own convenience, theysometimes condescended to accept further feudal privilegesfrom the Kings of England. To Maurice, tenth Earl, HenryVII. Had granted "all the customs, cockets, poundage, prize wines of Limerick, Cork, Kinsale, Baltimore andYoughal, with other privileges and advantages. " Yet EarlJames, in the next reign, did not hesitate to treat withFrancis of France and the Emperor of Germany, as anindependent Prince, long before the pretence of resistingthe Reformation could be alleged in his justification. What we have here to observe is, that this predominanceof the Munster Geraldines drove first one and then anotherbranch of the McCarthys, and O'Briens, into the meshesof Wolsey's policy. Cormac Oge, lord of Muskerry, andhis cousin, the lord of Carbery, defeated the eleventhEarl (James), at Moore Abbey, in 1521, with a loss of1, 500 foot and 500 or 600 horsemen. To strengthen himselfagainst the powerful adversary so deeply wounded, Cormacsought the protection of the Lord Lieutenant, the Earlof Surrey, and of Pierce Roe, the eighth Earl of Ormond, who had common wrongs to avenge. In this way McCarthybecame identified with the English interest, which hesteadily adhered to till his death--in 1536. Driven bythe same necessity to adopt the same expedient, MurroghO'Brien, lord of Thomond, a few years later visited Henryat London, where he resigned his principality, receivedback his lands, under a royal patent conveying them tohim as "Earl of Thomond, and Baron of Inchiquin. " Henrywas but too happy to have raised up such a counterpoiseto the power of Desmond, at his own door, while O'Brienwas equally anxious to secure foreign aid against suchintolerable encroachments. The policy worked effectually;it brought the succeeding Earl of Desmond to London, anhumble suitor for the King's mercy and favour, which wereafter some demur granted. 

The event, however, which most directly tended to theestablishment of an English royalty in Ireland, was thedepression of the family of Kildare in the beginning ofthis reign, and its all but extinction a few years later. Gerald, the ninth Earl of that title, succeeded his fatherin the office of Lord Deputy in the first years of Henry. He had been a ward at the court of the preceding King, and by both his first and second marriages was closelyconnected with the royal family. Yet he stood in the wayof the settled plans of Wolsey, before whom the highestheads in the realm trembled. His father, as if to securehim against the hereditary enmity of the Butlers, hadmarried his daughter Margaret to Pierce Roe, Earl ofOssory, afterwards eighth Earl of Ormond--the restorerof that house. This lady, however, entered heartily intothe antipathies of her husband's family, and being ofmasculine spirit, with an uncommon genius for publicaffairs, helped more than any Butler had ever done tohumble the overshadowing house of which she was born. The weight of Wolsey's influence was constantly exercisedin favour of Ormond, who had the skill to recommendhimself quite as effectually to Secretary Cromwell, afterthe Cardinal's disgrace and death. But the struggles ofthe house of Kildare were bold and desperate. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE INSURRECTION OF SILKEN THOMAS--THE GERALDINELEAGUE--ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LEONARD GRAY. 

The ninth and last _Catholic_ Earl of Kildare, in theninth year of Henry VIII. , had been summoned to Londonto answer two charges preferred against him by hispolitical enemies: "1st, That he had enriched himselfand his followers out of the crown lands and revenues. 2nd, That he had formed alliances and corresponded withdivers Irish enemies of the State. " Pending these chargesthe Earl of Surrey, the joint-victor with his father atFlodden field, was despatched to Dublin in his stead, with the title of Lord Lieutenant. 

Kildare, by the advice of Wolsey, was retained in a sortof honourable attendance on the person of the King fornearly four years. During this interval he accompaniedHenry to "the field of the cloth of Gold, " so celebratedin French and English chronicles. On his return to Dublin, in 1523, he found his enemy, the Earl of Ormond, in hisold office, but had the pleasure of supplanting him oneyear afterwards. In 1525, on the discovery of Desmond'scorrespondence with Francis of France, he was ordered tomarch into Munster and arrest that nobleman. But, thoughhe obeyed the royal order, Desmond successfully evadedhim, not, as was alleged, without his friendly connivance. The next year this evasion was made the ground of a freshimpeachment by the implacable Earl of Ormond; he wasagain summoned to London, and committed to the Tower. In 1530 he was liberated, and sent over with Sir WilliamSkeffington, whose authority to some extent he shared. The English Knight had the title of Deputy, but Kildarewas, in effect, Captain General, as the Red Earl hadformerly been. Skeffington was instructed to obey himin the field, while it was expected that the Earl, inreturn, would sustain his colleague in the Council. Ayear had not passed before they were declared enemies, and Skeffington was recalled to England, where he addedanother to the number of Kildare's enemies. After a shortterm of undisputed power, the latter found himself, in1533, for the third time, an inmate of the Tower. It isclear that the impetuous Earl, after his second escape, had not conducted himself as prudently as one so wellforewarned ought to have done. He played more openly thanever the twofold part of Irish Chief among the Irish, and English Baron within the Pale. His daughters weremarried to the native lords of Offally and Ely, and hefrequently took part as arbitrator in the affairs ofthose clans. The anti-Geraldine faction were not slow totorture these facts to suit themselves. They had beenstrengthened at Dublin by three English officials, Archbishop Allan, his relative John Allan, afterwardsMaster of the Rolls, and Robert Cowley, the Chief Solicitor, Lord Ormond's confidential agent. The reiteratedrepresentations of these personages induced the suspiciousand irascible King to order the Earl's attendance atLondon, authorizing him at the same time to appoint asubstitute, for whose conduct he would be answerable. Kildare nominated his son, Lord Thomas, though not yetof man's age; after giving him many sage advices, hesailed for England, no more to return. 

The English interest at that moment had apparently reachedthe lowest point. The O'Briens had bridged the Shannon, andenforced their ancient claims over Limerick. So defenceless, at certain periods, was Dublin itself that Edmond Oge O'Byrnesurprised the Castle by night, liberated the prisoners, andcarried off the stores. This daring achievement, unprecedentedeven in the records of the fearless mountaineers of Wicklow, was thrown in to aggravate the alleged offences of Kildare. He was accused, moreover, of having employed the King's greatguns and other munitions of war to strengthen his own Castlesof Maynooth and Ley--a charge more direct and explicit thanhad been alleged against him at any former period. 

While the Earl lay in London Tower, an expedient verycommon afterwards in our history-the forging of lettersand despatches-was resorted to by his enemies in Dublin, to drive the young Lord Thomas into some rash act whichmight prove fatal to his father and himself. Accordinglythe packets brought from Chester, in the spring of 1534, repeated reports, one confirming the other, of theexecution of the Earl in the Tower. Nor was there anythingvery improbable in such an occurrence. The cruel characterof Henry had, in these same spring months, been fullydeveloped in the execution of the reputed prophetess, Elizabeth Barton, and all her abettors. The most eminentlayman in England, Sir Thomas More, and the most illustriousecclesiastic, Bishop Fisher, had at the same time beenfound guilty of misprision of treason for having knownof the pretended prophecies of Elizabeth withoutcommunicating their knowledge to the King. That anAnglo-Irish Earl, even of the first rank, could hope tofare better at the hands of the tyrant than his agedtutor and his trusted Chancellor, was not to be expected. When, therefore, Lord Thomas Fitzgerald flung down thesword of State on the Council table, in the hall of St. Mary's Abbey, on the 11th day of June, 1534, and formallyrenounced his allegiance to King Henry as the murdererof his father, although he betrayed an impetuous andimpolitic temper, there was much in the events of thetimes to justify his belief in the rumours of his father'sexecution. 

This renunciation of allegiance was a declaration of openwar. The chapter thus opened in the memoirs of the LeinsterGeraldines closed at Tyburn on the 3rd of February, 1537. Within these three years, the policy of annexation washastened by several events--but by none more than thisunconcerted, unprepared, reckless revolt. The advice ofthe imprisoned Earl to his son had been "to play thegentlest part, " but youth and rash counsels overcame thesuggestions of age and experience. One great excessstained the cause of "Silken Thomas, " while it was butsix weeks old. Towards the end of July, Archbishop Allan, his father's deadly enemy, left his retreat in the Castle, and put to sea by night, hoping to escape into England. The vessel, whether by design or accident, ran ashore atClontarf, and the neighbourhood being overrun by theinsurgents, the Archbishop concealed himself at Artane. Here he was discovered, dragged from his bed, and murdered, if not in the actual presence, under the same roof withLord Thomas. King Henry's Bishops hurled against theassassins the greater excommunication, with all itspenalties; a terrific malediction, which was, perhaps, more than counterbalanced by the Papal Bull issued againstHenry and Anne Boleyn on the last day of August--theknowledge of which must have reached Ireland before theend of the year. This Bull cited Henry to appear withinninety days in person, or by attorney, at Rome, to answerfor his offences against the Apostolic See; failing which, he was declared excommunicated, his subjects were absolvedfrom their allegiance, and commanded to take up armsagainst their former sovereign. The ninety days expiredwith the month of November, 1534. 

Lord Thomas, as he acted without consultation with others, so he was followed but by few persons of influence. Hisbrothers-in-law, the chiefs of Ely and Offally, O'Mooreof Leix, two of his five uncles, his relatives, theDelahides, mustered their adherents, and rallied to hisstandard. He held the castles of Carlow, Maynooth, Athy, and other strongholds in Kildare. He beseiged Dublin, andcame to a composition with the citizens, by which theyagreed to allow him free ingress to assail the Castle, into which his enemies had withdrawn. He despatched agentsto the Emperor, Charles V. , and the Pope, but beforethose agents could well have returned--March, 1535--Maynooth had been assaulted and taken by Sir WilliamSkeffington--and the bands collected by the young lordhad melted away. Lord Leonard Gray, his maternal uncle, assumed the command for the King of England, instead ofSkeffington, disabled by sickness, and the abortiveinsurrection was extinguished in one campaign. Towardsthe end of August, 1535, the unfortunate Lord Thomassurrendered on the guarantee of Lord Leonard and LordButler; in the following year his five uncles--three ofwhom had never joined in the rising--were treacherouslyseized at a banquet given to them by Gray, and were all, with their nephew, executed at Tyburn, on the 3rd ofFebruary, 1537. The imprisoned Earl having died in theTower on the 12th of December, 1534, the sole survivorof this historic house was now a child of twelve yearsof age, whose life was sought with an avidity equal toHerod's, but who was protected with a fidelity whichdefeated every attempt to capture him. Alternately theguest of his aunts married to the chiefs of Offally andDonegal, the sympathy everywhere felt for him led to aconfederacy between the Northern and Southern Chiefs, which had long been wanting. A loose league was formed, including the O'Neils of both branches, O'Donnell, O'Brien, the Earl of Desmond, and the chiefs of Moylurg and Breffni. The lad, the object of so much natural and chivalrousaffection, was harboured for a time in Munster, thencetransported through Connaught into Donegal, and finally, after four years, in which he engaged more of the mindsof statesmen than any other individual under the rank ofroyalty, was safely landed in France. We shall meet himagain in another reign, under more fortunate auspices. 

Lord Leonard Gray continued in office as Deputy for nearlyfive years (1535-40). This interval was marked by severalsuccesses against detached clans and the parties to theGeraldine league, whom he was careful to attack only insuccession. In his second campaign, O'Brien's bridgewas carried and demolished, one O'Brien was set up againstanother, and one O'Conor against another; the next yearthe Castle of Dungannon was taken from O'Neil, and Dundrumfrom Magennis. In 1539, he defeated O'Neil and O'Donnell, at Bolahoe, on the borders of Farney, in Monaghan, witha loss of 400 men, and the spoils they had taken fromthe English of Navan and Ardee. The Mayors of Dublin andDrogheda were knighted on the field for the valour theyhad shown at the head of their train-bands. The sameyear, he made a successful incursion into the territoryof the Earl of Desmond, receiving the homage of many ofthe inferior lords, and exonerating them from the exactionsof those haughty Palatines. Recalled to England in 1540, he, too, in turn, fell a victim to the sanguinary spiritof King Henry, and perished on the scaffold. 

CHAPTER III. 

SIR ANTHONY ST. LEGER, LORD DEPUTY--NEGOTIATIONS OF THEIRISH CHIEFS WITH JAMES THE FIFTH OF SCOTLAND--FIRSTATTEMPTS TO INTRODUCE THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION--OPPOSITION OF THE CLERGY--PARLIAMENT OF 1541--THE PROCTORSOF THE CLERGY EXCLUDED--STATE OF THE COUNTRY--THE CROWNSUNITED--HENRY THE EIGHTH PROCLAIMED AT LONDON AND DUBLIN. 

Upon the disgrace of Lord Leonard Gray in 1540, SirAnthony St. Leger was appointed Deputy. He had previouslybeen employed as chief of the commission issued in 1537, to survey land subject to the King, to inquire into, confirm, or cancel titles, and abolish abuses which mighthave crept in among the Englishry, whether upon themarches or within the Pale. In this employment he had athis disposal a guard of 340 men, while the Deputy andCouncil were ordered to obey his mandates as if given bythe King in person. The commissioners were furtherempowered to reform the Courts of Law; to enter as King'sCounsel into both Houses of Parliament, there to urgethe adoption of measures upholding English laws andcustoms, establishing the King's supremacy, in spiritualsas in temporals, to provide for the defence of the marches, and the better collection of the revenues. In the threeyears which he spent at the head of this commission, St. Leger, an eminently able and politic person, made himselfintimately acquainted with Irish affairs; as a naturalconsequence of which knowledge he was entrusted, uponthe first vacancy, with their supreme directions. In thissituation he had to contend, not only with the complicationslong existing in the system itself, but with the formidabledisturbing influence exercised by the Court of Scotland, chiefly upon and by means of the Ulster Princes. 

Up to this period, the old political intimacy of Scotlandand Ireland had known no diminution. The Scots in Antrimcould reckon, soon after Henry's accession to the throne, 2, 000 fighting men. In 1513, in order to co-operate withthe warlike movement of O'Donnell, the Scottish fleet, under the Earl of Arran, in his famous flagship, "thegreat Michael, " captured Carrickfergus, putting itsAnglo-Irish garrison to the sword. In the same Scottishreign (that of James IV. ), one of the O'Donnells had amunificent grant of lands in Kirkcudbright, as otheradventurers from Ulster had from the same monarch, inGalloway and Kincardine. In 1523, while hostilities ragedbetween Scotland and England, the Irish Chiefs enteredinto treaty with Francis the First of France, who boundhimself to land in Ireland 15, 000 men, to expel theEnglish from "the Pale, " and to carry his arms acrossthe channel in the quarrel of Richard de la Pole, fatherof the famous Cardinal, and at this time a formidablepretender to the English throne. The imbecile conduct ofthe Scottish Regent, the Duke of Albany, destroyed thisenterprise, which, however, was but the forerunner, ifit was not the model, of several similar combinations. When the Earl of Bothwell took refuge at the EnglishCourt, in 1531, he suggested to Henry VIII. , among othermotives for renewing the war with James V. , that thelatter was in league "with the Emperor, the Danish King, and O'Donnell. " The following year, a Scottish force of4, 000 men, under John, son of Alexander McDonald, Lordof the Isles, served, by permission of their King, underthe banner of the Chieftain of Tyrconnell. An uninterruptedcorrespondence between the Ulster Chiefs and the ScottishCourt may be traced through this reign, forming a curiouschapter of Irish diplomacy. In 1535, we have a letterfrom O'Neil to James V. , from which it appears thatO'Neil's Secretary was then residing at the ScottishCourt; and as the crisis of the contest for the Crowndrew near, we find the messages and overtures from Ulstermultiplying in number and earnestness. In that criticalperiod, James V. Was between twenty and thirty years old, and his powerful minister, Cardinal Beaton, was actingby him the part that Wolsey had played by Henry at a likeage. The Cardinal, favouring the French and Irish alliances, had drawn a line of Scottish policy, in relation to boththose countries, precisely parallel to Wolsey's. Duringthe Geraldine insurrection, Henry was obliged to remonstratewith James on favours shown to his rebels of Ireland. This charge James' ministers, in their correspondence ofthe year 1535, strenuously denied, while admitting thatsome insignificant Islesmen, over whom he could exerciseno control, might have gone privily thither. In the springof 1540, Bryan Layton, one of the English agents at theScottish Court, communicated to Secretary Cromwell thatJames had fitted out a fleet of 15 ships, manned by 2, 000men, and armed with all the ordinance that he couldmuster; that his destination was Ireland, the Crown ofwhich had been offered to him, the previous Lent, by"eight gentlemen, " who brought him written tenders ofsubmission "from all the great men of Ireland, " withtheir seals attached; and, furthermore, that the Kinghad declared to Lord Maxwell his determination to winsuch a prize as "never King of Scotland had before, " orto lose his life in the attempt. It is remarkable thatin this same spring of 1540-while such was understood tobe the destination of the Scottish fleet-a congress ofthe Chiefs of all Ireland was appointed to be held atthe Abbey of Fore, in West-Meath. To prevent this meetingtaking place, the whole force of the Pale, with thejudges, clergy, townsmen and husbandmen, marched outunder the direction of the Lords of the Council (St. Leger not having yet arrived to replace Lord Gray), butfinding no such assembly as they had been led to expect, they made a predatory incursion into Roscommon, anddispersed some armed bands belonging to O'Conor. Thecommander in this expedition was the Marshal Sir WilliamBrereton, for the moment one of the Lords Justices. Hewas followed to the field by the last Prior of Kilmainham, Sir John Rawson, the Master of the Rolls, the Archbishopof Dublin, the Bishop of Meath, Mr. Justice Luttrell, and the Barons of the Exchequer-a strange medley of civiland military dignitaries. 

The prevention or postponement of the Congress at Foremust have exercised a decided influence on the expeditionof James V. His great armada having put to sea, aftercoasting among the out-islands, and putting into a northernEnglish port from stress of weather, returned home withoutachievement of any kind. Diplomatic intercourse wasshortly renewed between him and Henry, but, in thefollowing year, to the extreme displeasure of his royalkinsman, he assumed the much-prized title of "Defenderof the Faith. " Another rupture took place, when the Irishcard was played over again with the customary effect. Ina letter of July, 1541, introducing to the Irish Chiefsthe Jesuit Fathers, Salmeron, Broet, and Capata, whopassed through Scotland on their way to Ireland, Jamesstyles himself "Lord of Ireland"--another insult anddefiance to Henry, whose newly-acquired kingly style wasthen but a few weeks old. By way of retaliation, Henryordered the Archbishop of York to search the registersof that see for evidence of _his_ claim to the Crown ofScotland, and industriously cultivated the disaffectedparty amongst the Scottish nobility. At length thesebickerings broke out into open war, and the short, butfatal campaign of 1542, removed another rival for theEnglish King. The double defeat of Fala and of SolwayMoss, the treason of his nobles, and the failure of hishopes, broke the heart of the high-spirited James V. Hedied in December, 1542, in the 33rd year of his age, afew hours after learning the birth of his daughter, socelebrated as Mary, Queen of Scots. In his last momentshe pronounced the doom of the Stuart dynasty--"It camewith a lass, " he exclaimed, "and it will go with a lass, "And thus it happened that the image of Ireland, whichunfolds the first scene of the War of the Roses, whichis inseparable from the story of the two Bruces, andwhich occupies so much of the first and last years ofthe Tudor dynasty, stands mournfully by the deathbed ofthe last Stuart King who reigned in Scotland--the onlyPrince of his race that had ever written under his namethe title of "_Dominus Hiberniae_. "

The premature death of James was hardly more regrettedby his immediate subjects than by his Irish allies. Allexternal events now conspired to show the hopelessnessof resistance to the power of King Henry. From Scotland, destined to half a century of anarchy, no help could beexpected. Wales, another ancient ally of the Irish, hadbeen incorporated with England, in 1536, and was fastbecoming reconciled to the rule of a Prince, sprung froma Welsh ancestry. Francis of France and Charles V. , rivalsfor the leadership of the Continent, were too busy withtheir own projects to enter into any Irish alliance. The Geraldines had suffered terrible defeats; the familyof Kildare was without an adult representative; theO'Neils and O'Donnells had lost ground at Bellahoe, andwere dismayed by the unlooked-for death of the King ofScotland. The arguments, therefore, by which many of thechiefs might have justified themselves to their clans in1541, '2 and '3, for submitting to the inevitable lawsof necessity in rendering homage to Henry VIII. , wereneither few nor weak. Abroad there was no hope of analliance sufficient to counterbalance the immense resourcesof England; at home life-wasting private wars, the conflictof laws, of languages, and of titles to property, hadbecome unbearable. That fatal family pride, which wouldnot permit an O'Brien to obey an O'Neil, nor an O'Conorto follow either, rendered the establishment of a nativemonarchy--even if there had been no other obstacle--wholly impracticable. Among the clergy alone did thegrowing supremacy of Henry meet with any effectiveopposition. 

At its first presentation in Ireland, and during thewhole of Henry's lifetime, the "Reformation" wore theguise of schism, as distinguished from heresy. To denythe supremacy of the Pope and admit the supremacy of theKing were almost its sole tests of doctrine. All theancient teaching in relation to the Seven Sacraments, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Real Presence, Purgatory, and Prayers for the Dead, were scrupulouslyretained. Subsequently, the necessity of auricularconfession, the invocation of Saints, and the celibacyof the clergy came to be questioned, but they were notdogmatically assailed during this reign. The commonpeople, where English was understood, were slow in takingalarm at these masked innovations; in the Irish-speakingdistricts--three-fourths of the whole country--they wereonly heard of as rumours from afar, but the clergy, secular and regular, were not long left in doubt as towhere such steps must necessarily lead. 

From 1534, the year of his divorce, until 1541, the yearof his election, Henry attempted, by fits and starts, toassert his supremacy in Ireland. He appointed GeorgeBrowne, a strenuous advocate of the divorce, some timeProvincial of the order of St. Augustine in England, Archbishop of Dublin, vacant by the murder of ArchbishopAllan. On the 12th of March, 1535, Browne was consecratedby Cranmer, whose opinions, as well as those of SecretaryCromwell, he echoed through life. He may be consideredthe first agent employed to introduce the Reformationinto Ireland, and his zeal in that work seems to havebeen unwearied. He was destined, however, to find manyopponents, and but few converts. Not only the Primate ofArmagh, George Cromer, and almost all the episcopal order, resolutely resisted his measures, but the clergy andlaity of Dublin refused to accept his new forms of prayer, or to listen to his strange teaching. He inveighs in hiscorrespondence with Cromwell against Bassenet, Dean ofSt. Patrick's, Castele, Prior of Christ's Church, andgenerally against all the clergy. Of the twenty-eightsecular priests in Dublin, but three could be induced toact with him; the regular orders he found equallyintractable--more especially the Observantins, whose namehe endeavoured to change to Conventuals. "The spirituality, "as he calls them, refused to take the oaths of abjurationand supremacy; refused to strike the name of the Bishopof Rome from their primers and mass-books, and seducedthe rest into like contumacy. Finding persuasion of littleavail, he sometimes resorted to harsher measures. 

Dr. Sall, a grey friar of Waterford, was brought to Dublinand imprisoned for preaching the new doctrines in theSpring of 1538; Thaddeus Byrne, another friar, was putin the pillory, and was reported to have committed suicidein the Castle, on the 14th of July of the same year; SirHumfrey, parson of Saint Owens, and the suffragan Bishopof Meath, were "clapped in ward, " for publicly prayingfor the Pope's weal and the King's conversion; anotherBishop and friar were arrested and carried to Trim, forsimilar offences, but were liberated without trial, byLord Deputy Gray; a friar of Waterford, in 1539, by orderof the St. Leger Commission, was executed in the habitof his order, on a charge of "felony, " and so left hanging"as a mirror for all his brethren. " Yet, with all thisseverity, and all the temptations held out by the wealthof confiscated monasteries, none would abide the preachingof the new religion except the "Lord Butler, the Masterof the Rolls (Allan), Mr. Treasurer (Brabazon), and oneor two more of small reputation. "

The first test to which the firmness of the clergy hadbeen put was in the Parliament convoked at Dublin by LordDeputy Gray, in May, 1537. Anciently in such assembliestwo proctors of each diocese, within the Pale, had beenaccustomed to sit and vote in the Upper House asrepresenting their order, but the proposed tests ofsupremacy and abjuration were so boldly resisted by theproctors and spiritual peers on this occasion that theLord Deputy was compelled to prorogue the Parliamentwithout attaining its assent to those measures. Duringthe recess a question was raised by the Crown lawyers asto the competency of the proctors to vote, while admittingtheir right to be present as councillors and assistants;this question, on an appeal to England, was declared inthe negative, whereupon that learned body were excludedfrom all share in the future Irish legislation of thisreign. Hence, whoever else are answerable for the electionof 1541 the proctors of the clergy are not. 

Having thus reduced the clerical opposition in the UpperHouse, the work of monastic spoliation, covertly commencedtwo years before, under the pretence of reforming abuses, was more confidently resumed. In 1536, an act had beenpassed vesting the property of all religious houses inthe Crown; at which time the value of their moveableswas estimated at 100, 000 pounds and their yearly valueat 32, 000 pounds. In 1537, eight abbeys were suppressedduring the King's pleasure; in 1538, a commission issuedfor the suppression of monasteries; and in 1539, twenty-fourgreat Houses, whose Abbots and Priors had been lords ofParliament, were declared "surrendered" to the King, andtheir late superiors were granted pensions for life. How these "surrenders" were procured we may judge fromthe case of Manus, Abbot of St. Mary's, Thurles, who wascarried prisoner to Dublin, and suffered a long confinementfor refusing to yield up his trust according to thedesired formula. The work of confiscation was in thesefirst years confined to the walled towns in English hands, the district of the Pale, and such points of the Irishcountry as could be conveniently reached. The great orderof the Cistercians, established for more than fourcenturies at Mellifont, at Monastereven, at Bective, atJerpoint, at Tintern, and at Dunbrody, were the firstexpelled from their cloisters and gardens. The Canonsregular of St. Augustine at Trim, at Conal, at Athasseland at Kells, were next assailed by the degenerateAugustinian, who presided over the commission. The ordersof St. Victor, of Aroacia, of St. John of Jerusalem, wereextinguished wherever the arm of the Reformation couldreach. The mendicant orders, spread into every districtof the island, were not so easily erased from the soil;very many of the Dominican and Franciscan houses standingand flourishing far into the succeeding century. 

If the influence of the clergy counterbalanced the policyof the chiefs, the condition of the mass of thepopulation--more especially of the inhabitants of thePale and the marches--was such as to make them cherishthe expectation that any governmental change whatevershould be for the better. It was, under these circumstances, a far-reaching policy, which combined the causes and theremedy for social wrongs, with invectives against theold, and arguments in favour of the new religion. Inorder to understand what elements of discontent therewere to be wrought to such conclusions, it is enough togive the merest glance at the social state of the lowerclasses under English authority. The St. Leger Commissionrepresents the mixed population of the marches, and theEnglishry of "the Pale" as burthened by accumulatedexactions. Their lords quartered upon them at pleasuretheir horses, servants, and guests. They were chargedwith coin and livery--that is, horse-meat and man's-meat--when their lords travelled from place to place--withsummer-oats, with providing for their cosherings, orfeasts, at Christmas and Easter, with "black men andblack money, " for border defence, and with workmen andaxemen from every ploughland, to work in the ditches, orto hew passages for the soldiery through the woods. Everyaggravation of feudal wrong was inflicted on this harassedpopulation. When a le Poer or a Butler married a daughterhe exacted a sheep from every flock, and a cow from everyvillage. When one of his sons went to England, a specialtribute was levied on every village and ploughland tobear the young gentleman's travelling expenses. When theheads of any of the great houses hunted, their dogs wereto be supplied by the tenants "with bread and milk, orbutter. " In the towns tailors, masons, and carpenters, were taxed for coin and livery; "mustrons" were employedin building halls, castles, stables, and barns, at theexpense of the tenantry, for the sole use of the lord. The only effective law was an undigested jumble of theBrehon, the Civil, and the Common law; with the arbitraryordinances of the marches, known as "the Statutes ofKilcash"--so called from a border stronghold near thefoot of Slievenamon--a species of wild justice, resemblingtoo often that administered by Robin Hood, or Rob Roy. 

Many circumstances concurring to promote plans so longcherished by Henry, St. Leger summoned a Parliament forthe morrow after Trinity Sunday, being the 13th of themonth of June, 1541. The attendance on the day named wasnot so full as was expected, so the opening was deferredtill the following Thursday--being the feast of CorpusChristi. On that festival the Mass of the Holy Ghost wassolemnly celebrated in St. Patrick's Cathedral, in which"two thousand persons" had assembled. The Lords ofParliament rode in cavalcade to the Church doors, headedby the Deputy. There were seen side by side in thisprocession the Earls of Desmond and Ormond, the LordsBarry, Roche and Bermingham; thirteen Barons of "thePale, " and a long train of Knights; Donogh O'Brien, Tanistof Thomond, the O'Reilly, O'Moore and McWilliam; Charles, son of Art Kavanagh, lord of Leinster, and Fitzpatrick, lord of Ossory. Never before had so many Milesian chiefsand Norman barons been seen together, except on the fieldof battle; never before had Dublin beheld marshalled inher streets what could by any stretch of imagination beconsidered a national representation. For this singularity, not less than for the business it transacted, the Parliamentof 1541 will be held in lasting remembrance. 

In the sanctuary of St. Patrick's, two Archbishops andtwelve Bishops assisted at the solemn mass, and the wholeceremony was highly imposing. "The like thereof, " wroteSt. Leger to Henry, "has not been seen here these manyyears. " On the next day, Friday, the Commons elected SirThomas Cusack speaker, who, in "a right solemn proposition, "opened at the bar of the Lords' House the main businessof the session--the establishment of King Henry's supremacy. To this address Lord Chancellor Allen--"well and prudentlieanswered;" and the Commons withdrew to their own chamber. The substance of both speeches was "briefly and prudentlie"declared in the Irish language to the Gaelic Lords, bythe Earl of Ormond, "greatly to their contentation. " ThenSt. Leger proposed that Henry and his heirs should havethe title of King, and caused the "bill devised for thesame to be read. " This bill having been put to the Lords'House, both in Irish and English, passed its three readingsat the same sitting. In the Commons it was adopted withequal unanimity the next day, when the Lord Deputy mostjoyfully gave his consent. Thus on Saturday, June 19th, 1541, the royalty of Ireland was first formally transferredto an English dynasty. On that day the triumphantSt. Leger was enabled to write his royal master hiscongratulations on having added to his dignities "anotherimperial crown. " On Sunday bonfires were made in honourof the event, guns fired, and wine on stoop was set inthe streets. All prisoners, except those for capitaloffences, were liberated; _Te Deum_ was sung in St. Patrick's, and King Henry issued his proclamation, onreceipt of the intelligence, for a general pardon throughout_all_ his dominions. The new title was confirmed withgreat formality by the English Parliament in their sessionof 1542. Proclamation was formally made of it in London, on the 1st of July of that year, when it was moreoverdeclared that after that date all persons being lawfullyconvicted of opposing the new dignity should "be adjudgedhigh traitors"--"and suffer the pains of death. "

Thus was consummated the first political union of Irelandwith England. The strangely-constituted Assembly, whichhad given its sanction to the arrangement, in the languageof the Celt, the Norman, and the Saxon, continued insession till the end of July, when they were proroguedtill November. They enacted several statutes, in completionof the great change they had decreed; and while someprepared for a journey to the court of their new sovereign, others returned to their homes, to account as best theycould for the part they had played at Dublin. 

CHAPTER IV. 

ADHESION OF O'NEIL, O'DONNELL AND O'BRIEN--A NEWANGLO-IRISH PEERAGE--NEW RELATIONS OF LORD ANDTENANT--BISHOPS APPOINTED BY THE CROWN--RETROSPECT. 

The Act of Election could hardly be considered as theAct of the Irish nation, so long as several of the mostdistinguished chiefs withheld their concurrence. Withthese, therefore, Saint Leger entered into separatetreaties, by separate instruments, agreed upon, at variousdates, during the years 1542 and 1543. Manus O'Donnell, lord of Tyrconnell, gave in his adhesion in August, 1541, Con O'Neil, lord of Tyrowen, Murrogh O'Brien, lord ofThomond, Art O'Moore, lord of Leix, and Ulick Burke, lordof Clanrickarde, 1542 and 1543; but, during the reign ofHenry, no chief of the McCarthys, the O'Conors of Roscommonor of Offally, entered into any such engagement. Theelection, therefore, was far from unanimous, and HenryVIII. Would perhaps be classed by our ancient Senachiesamong the "Kings with opposition, " who figure so oftenin our Annals during the Middle Ages. 

Assuming, however, the title conferred upon him with nolittle complacency, Henry proceeded to exercise the firstprivilege of a sovereign, the creation of honours. MurroghO'Brien, chief of his name, became Earl of Thomond, andDonogh, his nephew, Baron of Ibrackan; Ulick McWilliamBurke became Earl of Clanrickarde and Baron of Dunkellin;Hugh O'Donnell was made Earl of Tyrconnell; Fitzpatrick, became Baron of Ossory, and Kavanagh, Baron of Ballyan;Con O'Neil was made Earl of Tyrone, having asked, andbeen refused, the higher title of Earl of Ulster. Theorder of Knighthood was conferred on several of theprincipal attendants, and to each of the new peers theKing granted a house in or near Dublin, for theiraccommodation, when attending the sittings of Parliament. 

The imposing ceremonial of the transformation of theseCeltic chiefs into English Earls has been very minutelydescribed by an eye-witness. One batch were made atGreenwich Palace, after High Mass on Sunday, the 1st ofJuly, 1543. The Queen's closet "was richly hanged withcloth of arras and well strawed with rushes, " for theirrobing room. The King received them under a canopy ofstate, surrounded by his Privy Council, the peers, spiritual and temporal, the Earl of Glencairn, Sir GeorgeDouglas, and the other Scottish Commissioners. The Earlsof Derby and Ormond led in the new Earl of Thomond, Viscount Lisle carrying before them the sword. TheChamberlain handed his letters patent to the Secretarywho read them down to the words _Cincturam gladii_, whenthe King girt the kneeling Earl, baldric-wise, with thesword, all the company standing. A similar ceremony wasgone through with the others, the King throwing a goldchain having a cross hanging to it round each of theirnecks. Then, preceded by the trumpeters blowing, and theofficers at arms, they entered the dining hall, where, after the second course, their titles were proclaimedaloud in Norman-French by Garter, King at Arms. Nor didHenry, who prided himself on his munificence, omit evenmore substantial tokens of his favour to the new Peers. Besides the town houses near Dublin, before mentioned, he granted to O'Brien all the abbeys and benefices ofThomond, bishoprics excepted; to McWilliam Burke, allthe parsonages and vicarages of Clanrickarde, withone-third of the first-fruits, the Abbey of _Via Nova_and 30 pounds a year compensation for the loss of thecustoms of Galway; to Donogh O'Brien, the Abbey ofEllenegrane, the moiety of the Abbey of Clare, and anannuity of 20 pounds a year. To the new lord of Ossoryhe granted the monasteries of Aghadoe and Aghmacarte, with the right of holding court lete and market, everyThursday, at his town of Aghadoe. For these and otherfavours the recipients had been instructed to petitionthe King, and drafts of such petitions had been drawn upin anticipation of their arrival in England, by someofficial hand. The petitions are quoted by most of ourlate historians as their own proper act, but it is quiteclear, though willing enough to present them and to acceptsuch gifts, they had never dictated them. 

In the creation of this Peerage Henry proclaimed, in themost practical manner possible, his determination toassimilate the laws and institutions of Ireland to thoseof England. And the new made Earls, forgetting theirancient relations to their clans--forgetting, as O'Brienhad answered St. Leger's first overtures three yearsbefore, "that though he was captain of his nation he wasstill but one man, " by suing out royal patents for theirlands, certainly consented to carry out the King's plans. The Brehon law was doomed from the date of the creationof the new Peers at Greenwich, for such a change entailedamong its first consequences a complete abrogation ofthe Gaelic relations of clansman and chief. 

By the Brehon law every member of a free clan was astruly a proprietor of the tribe-land as the chief himself. He could sell his share, or the interest in it, to anyother member of the tribe--the origin, perhaps, of whatis now called tenant-right; he could not, however, sellto a stranger without the consent of the tribe and thechief. The stranger coming in under such an arrangement, held by a special tenure, yet if he remained during thetime of three lords he became thereby naturalized. Ifthe unnaturalized tenant withdrew of his own will fromthe land he was obliged to leave all his improvementsbehind; but if he was ejected he was entitled to gettheir full value. Those who were immediate tenants ofthe chief, or of the church, were debarred this privilegeof tenant-right, and if unable to keep their holdingswere obliged to surrender them unreservedly to the churchor the chief. All the tribesmen, according to the extentof their possessions, were bound to maintain the chief'shousehold, and to sustain him, with men and means, inhis offensive and defensive wars. Such were, in brief, the land laws in force over three-fourths of the countryin the sixteenth century; laws which partook largely ofthe spirit of an ancient patriarchal justice, but which, in ages of movement, exchange, and enterprise, would havebeen found the reverse of favourable to individual freedomand national strength. There were not wanting, we may beassured, many minds to whom this truth was apparent soearly as the age of Henry VIII. And it may not beunreasonable to suppose that one of the advantages whichthe chief found in exchanging this patriarchal positionfor a feudal Earldom would be the greater degree ofindependence on the will of the tribe, which the newsystem conferred on him. With the mass of the clansmen, however, for the very same reason, the change was certainto be unpopular, if not odious. But a still more seriouschange--a change of religion--was evidently contemplatedby those Earls who accepted the property of the confiscatedreligious houses. The receiver of such estates could hardlypretend to belong to the ancient religion of the country. 

It is impossible to understand Irish history from thereign of Henry VIII. Till the fall of James II. --nearlytwo hundred years--without constantly keeping in mindthe dilemma of the chiefs and lords between the requirementsof the English Court on the one hand and of the nativeclans on the other. Expected to obey and to administerconflicting laws, to personate two characters, to speaktwo languages, to uphold the old, yet to patronize thenew order of things; distrusted at Court if they inclinedto the people, detested by the people if they leanedtowards the Court--a more difficult situation can hardlybe conceived. Their perilous circumstances brought fortha new species of Irish character in the Chieftain-Earlsof the Tudor and Stuart times. Not less given to war thantheir forefathers, they were now compelled to study thepolitician's part, even more than the soldier's. Broughtpersonally in contact with powerful Sovereigns, or pittedat home against the Sydneys, Mountjoys, Chichesters, andStraffords, the lessons of Bacon and Machiavelli foundapt scholars in the halls of Dunmanway and Dungannon. The multitude, in the meanwhile, saw only the broad factthat the Chief had bowed his neck to the hated Saxonyoke, and had promised, or would be by and by compelled, to introduce foreign garrisons, foreign judges, andforeign laws, amongst the sons of the Gael. Very earlythey perceived this; on the adhesion of O'Donnell to theAct of Election, a part of his clansmen, under the leadof his own son, rose up against his authority. A rivalMcWilliam was at once chosen to the new Earl ofClanrickarde, in the West. Con O'Neil, the first of hisrace who had accepted an English title, was imprisonedby his son, John the Proud, and died of grief during hisconfinement. O'Brien found, on his return from Greenwich, half his territory in revolt; and this was the generalexperience of all Henry's electors. Yet such was thepower of the new Sovereign that, we are told in ourAnnals, at the year 1547--the year of Henry's death--"no one dared give food or protection" to those fewpatriotic chiefs who still held obstinately out againstthe election of 1541. 

The creation of a new peerage coincided in point of timewith the first unconditional nomination of new Bishopsby the Crown. The Plantagenet Kings, in common with allfeudal Princes, had always claimed the right of investingBishops with their temporalities and legal dignities;while, at the same time, they recognized in the See ofRome the seat and centre of Apostolic authority. ButHenry, excommunicated and incorrigible, had procured fromthe Parliament of "the Pale, " three years before the Actof Election, the formal recognition of his spiritualsupremacy, under which he proceeded, as often as he hadan opportunity, to promote candidates for the episcopacyto vacant sees. Between 1537 and 1547, thirteen or fourteensuch vacancies having occurred, he nominated to thesuccession whenever the diocese was actually within hispower. In this way the Sees of Dublin, Kildare, Ferns, Ardagh, Emly, Tuam and Killaloe were filled up; whilethe vacancies which occurred about the same period inArmagh, Clogher, Clonmacnoise, Clonfert, Kilmore, andDown and Conor were supplied from Rome. Many of the latterwere allowed to take possession of their temporalities--so far as they were within English power--by taking anoath of allegiance, specially drawn for them. Others, when prevented from so doing by the penalties of_praemunire_, delegated their authority to Vicars General, who contrived to elude the provisions of the statute. Onthe other hand, several of the King's Bishops, excludedby popular hostility from the nominal sees, never residedupon them; some of them spent their lives in Dublin, andothers were entertained as suffragans by Bishops inEngland. 

In March, 1543, Primate Cromer, who had so resolutelyled the early opposition to Archbishop Browne, died, whereupon Pope Paul III. Appointed Robert Waucop, aScotsman (by some writers called _Venantius_), to theSee of Armagh. This remarkable man, though afflictedwith blindness from his youth upwards, was a doctor ofthe Sorbonne, and one of the most distinguished Prelatesof his age. He introduced the first Jesuit Fathers intoIreland, and to him is attributed the establishment ofthat intimate intercourse between the Ulster Princes andthe See of Rome, which characterized the latter half ofthe century. He assisted at the Council of Trent from1545 to 1547, was subsequently employed as Legate inGermany, and died abroad during the reign of Edward VI. Simultaneously with the appointment of Primate Waucop, Henry VIII. Had nominated to the same dignity GeorgeDowdal, a native of Louth, formerly Prior of the crutchedfriars at Ardee, in that county. Though Dowdal acceptedthe nomination, he did so without acknowledging the King'ssupremacy in spirituals. On the contrary he remainedattached to the Holy See, and held his claims in abeyance, during the lifetime of Waucop. On the death of the latter, he assumed his rank, but was obliged to fly into exile, during the reign of Edward. On the accession of Mary hewas recalled from his place of banishment in Brabant, and his first official act on returning home was toproclaim a Jubilee for the public restoration of theCatholic worship. 

The King's Bishops during the last years of Henry, andthe brief reign of Edward, were, besides Browne of Dublin, Edward Staples, Bishop of Meath, Matthew Saunders andRobert Travers, successively Bishops of Leighlin, WilliamMiagh and Thomas Lancaster, successively Bishops ofKildare, and John Bale, Bishop of Ossory--all Englishmen. The only native names, before the reign of Elizabeth, which we find associated in any sense with the"reformation, " are John Coyn, or Quin, Bishop of Limerick, and Dominick Tirrey, Bishop of Cork and Cloyne. Dr. Quinwas promoted to the See in 1522, and resigned his chargein the year 1551. He is called a "favourer" of the newdoctrines, but it is not stated how far he went in theirsupport. His successor, Dr. William Casey, was one ofthe six Bishops deprived by Queen Mary on her accessionto the throne. As Bishop Tirrey is not of thenumber--although he lived till the third year of Mary'sreign--we may conclude that he became reconciled to theHoly See. 

The native population became, before Henry's death, fullyaroused to the nature of the new doctrines, to which atfirst they had paid so little attention. The Commissionissued in 1539 to Archbishop Browne and others for thedestruction of images and relics, and the prevention ofpilgrimages, as well as the ordering of English prayersas a substitute for the Mass, brought home to all mindsthe sweeping character of the change. Our native Annalsrecord the breaking out of the English schism from theyear 1537, though its formal introduction into Irelandmay, perhaps, be more accurately dated from the issuingof the Ecclesiastical Commission of 1539. In their eyesit was the offspring of "pride, vain-glory, avarice, andlust, " and its first manifestations were well calculatedto make it for ever odious on Irish soil. "They destroyedthe religious orders, " exclaimed the Four Masters! "Theybroke down the monasteries, and sold their roofs andbells, from Aran of the Saints to the Iccian Sea!" "Theyburned the images, shrines, and relics of the Saints;they destroyed the Statue of our Lady of Trim, and theStaff of Jesus, which had been in the hand of St. Patrick!"Such were the works of that Commission as seen by theeyes of Catholics, natives of the soil. The Commissionersthemselves, however, gloried in their work, and pointedwith complacency to their success. The "innumerableimages" which adorned the churches were dashed to pieces;the ornaments of shrines and altars, when not secretedin time, were torn from their places, and beaten intoshapeless masses of metal. This harvest yielded in thefirst year nearly 3, 000 pounds, on an inventory, whereinwe find 1, 000 lbs. Weight of wax, manufactured intocandles and tapers, valued at 20 pounds. Such was thereturn made to the revenue; what share of the spoil wasappropriated by the agents employed may never be known. It would be absurd, however, to expect a scrupulous regardto honesty in men engaged in the work of sacrilege! Andthis work, it must be added, was carried on in the faceof the stipulation entered into with the Parliament of1541, that "the Church of Ireland shall be free, andenjoy all its accustomed privileges. "

The death of Henry, in January, 1547, found the Reformationin Ireland at the stage just described. But though allattempts to diffuse a general recognition of his spiritualpower had failed, his reign will ever be memorable asthe epoch of the union of the English and Irish Crowns. Before closing the present Book of our History, in whichwe have endeavoured to account for that great fact, andto trace the progress of the negotiations which led toits accomplishment, we must briefly review the relationsexisting between the Kings of England and the Irishnation, from Henry II. To Henry VIII. 

If we are to receive a statement of considerable antiquity, a memorable compromise effected at the Council of Constance, between the ambassadors of France and England, as to whoshould take precedence, turned mainly on this very point. The French monarchy was then at its lowest, the Englishat its highest pitch, for Charles VI. Was but a nominalsovereign of France, while the conqueror of Agincourtsat on the throne of England. Yet in the first assemblyof the Prelates and Princes of Europe, we are told thatthe ambassadors of France raised a question of the rightof the English envoys to be received as representing anation, seeing that they had been conquered not only bythe Romans, but by the Saxons. Their argument furtherwas, that, "as the Saxons were tributaries to the GermanEmpire, and never governed by native sovereigns, they[the English] should take place as a branch only of theGerman empire, and not as a free nation. For, " arguedthe French, "it is evident from Albertus Magnus andBartholomew Glanville, that the world is divided intothree parts, Europe, Asia, and Africa;--that Europe isdivided into four empires, the Roman, Constantinopolitan, the Irish, and the Spanish. " "The English advocates, " weare told, "admitting the force of these allegations, claimed their precedency and rank from Henry's beingmonarch of Ireland, and it was accordingly granted. "

If this often-told anecdote is of any historical value, it only shows the ignorance of the representatives ofFrance in yielding their pretensions on so poor a quibble. Neither Henry V. , nor any other English sovereign beforehim, had laid claim to the title of "Monarch of Ireland. "The indolence or ignorance of modern writers has ledthem, it is true, to adopt the whole series of thePlantagenet Kings as sovereigns of Ireland--to set up inhistory a dynasty which never existed for us; to leaveout of their accounts of a monarchical people all questionof their crown; and to pass over the election of 1541without adequate, or any inquiry. 

It is certain that neither Henry II. , nor Richard I. , ever used in any written instrument, or graven sign, thestyle of king, or even lord of Ireland; though in theParliament held at Oxford in the year 1185, Henry conferredon his youngest son, John _lack-land_, a title which hedid not himself possess, and John is thenceforth knownin English history as "Lord of Ireland. " This honour wasnot, however, of the exclusive nature of sovereignty, else John could hardly have borne it during the lifetimeof his father and brother. And although we read thatCardinal Octavian was sent into England by Pope UrbanIII. , authorized to consecrate John, _King_ of Ireland, no such consecration took place, nor was the lordshiplooked upon, at any period, as other than a creation ofthe royal power of England existing in Ireland, whichcould be recalled, transferred, or alienated, withoutdetriment to the prerogative of the King. 

Neither had this original view of the relations existingbetween England and Ireland undergone any change at thetime of the Council of Constance. Of this we have acurious illustration in the style employed by the QueenDowager of Henry V. , who, during the minority of her son, granted charters, as "Queen of England and France, andlady of Ireland. " The use of different crowns in thecoronations of all the Tudors subsequent to Henry VIII. Shows plainly how the recent origin of their secondarytitle was understood and acknowledged during the remainderof the sixteenth century. Nothing of the kind was practisedat the coronation of the Plantagenet Princes, nor werethe arms of Ireland quartered with those of Englandprevious to the period we have described--the memorableyear, 1541. 

BOOK VIII. 

THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION. 

CHAPTER I. 

EVENTS OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD SIXTH. 

On the last day of January, 1547, Edward, son of Henry, by Lady Jane Seymour, was crowned by the title of EdwardVI. He was then only nine years old, and was destinedto wear the crown but for six years and a few months. NoIrish Parliament was convened during his reign, but theReformation was pushed on with great vigour, at firstunder the patronage of the Protector, his uncle, andsubsequently of that uncle's rival, the Duke ofNorthumberland. Archbishop Cranmer suffered the zeal ofneither of these statesmen to flag for want of stimulus, and the Lord Deputy Saint Leger, judging from the causeof his disgrace in the next reign, approved himself awilling assistant in the work. 

The Irish Privy Council, which exercised all the powersof government during this short reign, was composedexclusively of partizans of the Reformation. BesidesArchbishop Browne and Staples, Bishop of Meath, itsmembers were the Chancellor, Read, and the Treasurer, Brabazon, both English, with the Judges Aylmer, Luttrel, Bath, Cusack, and Howth--all proselytes, at least inform, to the new opinions. The Earl of Ormond, withsixteen of his household, having been poisoned at abanquet in Ely House, London, in October before Henry'sdeath, the influence of that great house was wieldedduring the minority of his successor by Sir Francis Bryan, an English adventurer, who married the widowed countess. This lady being, moreover, daughter and heir general toJames, Earl of Desmond, brought Bryan powerful connectionsin the South, which he was not slow to turn to a politicaccount. His ambition aimed at nothing less than thesupreme authority, military and civil; but when at lengthhe attained the summit of his hopes, he only lived toenjoy them a few months. 

To enable the Deputy and Council to carry out the workthey had begun, an additional military force was felt tobe necessary, and Sir Edward Bellingham was sent over, soon after Edward's accession, with a detachment of sixhundred horse, four hundred foot, and the title of CaptainGeneral. This able officer, in conjunction with SirFrancis Bryan, who appears to have been everywhere, overran Offally, Leix, Ely and West-Meath, sending thechiefs of the two former districts as prisoners to London, and making advantageous terms with those of the latter. He was, however, supplanted in the third year of Edwardby Bryan, who held successively the rank of Marshal ofIreland and Lord Deputy. To the latter office he waschosen on an emergency, by the Council, in December, 1549, but died at Clonmel, on an expedition against theO'Carrolls, in the following February. His successes andthose of Bellingham hastened the reduction of Leix andOffally into shire ground in the following reign. 

The total military force at the disposal of Edward'scommanders was probably never less than 10, 000 effectivemen. By the aid of their abundant artillery, they wereenabled to take many strong places hitherto deemedimpregnable to assault. The mounted men and infantry, were, as yet, but partially armed with musquetons, orfirelocks--for the spear and the bow still found advocatesamong military men. The spearmen or lancers were chieflyrecruited on the marches of Northumberland from the hardyrace of border warriors; the mounted bowmen or hobilerswere generally natives of Chester or North Wales. Betweenthese new comers and the native Anglo-Irish troops manycontentions arose from time to time, but in the presenceof the common foe these bickerings were completelyforgotten. The townsmen of Waterford marched promptly ata call, under their standard of the three galleys, andthose of Dublin as cheerfully turned out under thewell-known banner, decorated with three flaming towers. 

The _personnel_ of the administration, in the six yearsof Edward, was continually undergoing change. Bellingham, who succeeded St. Leger, was supplanted by Bryan, onwhose death, St. Leger was reappointed. After anotheryear Sir James Croft was sent over to replace St. Leger, and continued to fill the office until the accession ofQueen Mary. But whoever rose or fell to the first rankin civil affairs, the Privy Council remained exclusivelyProtestant, and the work of innovation was not sufferedto languish. A manuscript account, attributed to AdamLoftus, Browne's successor, assigns the year 1549 as thedate when "the Mass was put down, " in Dublin, "and divineservice was celebrated in English. " Bishop Mant, thehistorian of the Established Church in Ireland, does notfind any account of such an alteration, nor does thestatement appear to him consistent with subsequent factsof this reign. We observe, also, that in 1550, ArthurMagennis, the Pope's Bishop of Dromore, was allowed bythe government to enter on possession of his temporalitiesafter taking an oath of allegiance, while King's Bishopswere appointed in that and the next two years to thevacant Sees of Kildare, Leighlin, Ossory, and Limerick. A vacancy having occurred in the See of Cashel, in 1551, it was unaccountably left vacant, as far as the Crownwas concerned, during the remainder of this reign, whilea similar vacancy in Armagh was filled, at least in name, by the appointment of Dr. Hugh Goodacre, chaplain to theBishop of Winchester, and a favourite preacher with thePrincess Elizabeth. This Prelate was consecrated, accordingto a new form, in Christ Church, Dublin, on 2nd ofFebruary, 1523, together with his countryman, John Bale, Bishop of Ossory. The officiating Prelates were Browne, Staples, and Lancaster of Kildare--all English. The IrishEstablishment, however, does not at all times rest itsargument for the validity of its episcopal Order uponthese consecrations. Most of their writers lay claim tothe Apostolic succession, through Adam Loftus, consecratedin England, according to the ancient rite, by Hugh Curwen, an Archbishop in communion with the See of Rome, at thetime of his elevation to the episcopacy. 

In February, 1551, Sir Anthony St. Leger received theKing's commands to cause the Scriptures translated intothe English tongue, and the Liturgy and Prayers of theChurch, also translated into English, to be read in allthe churches of Ireland. To render these instructionseffective, the Deputy summoned a convocation of theArchbishops, Bishops, and Clergy, to meet in Dublin onthe 1st of March, 1551. In this meeting--the first oftwo in which the defenders of the old and of the newreligion met face to face--the Catholic party was led bythe intrepid Dowdal, Archbishop of Armagh, and theReformers by Archbishop Browne. The Deputy, who, likemost laymen of that age, had a strong theological turn, also took an active part in the discussion. Finallydelivering the royal order to Browne, the latter acceptedit in a set form of words, without reservation; theAnglican Bishops of Meath, Kildare, and Leighlin, andCoyne, Bishop of Limerick, adhering to his act; PrimateDowdal, with the other Bishops, having previously retiredfrom the Conference. On Easter day following, the Englishservice was celebrated for the first tune in ChristChurch, Dublin, the Deputy, the Archbishop, and the Mayorof the city assisting. Browne preached from the text:"Open mine eyes that I may see the wonders of the law"--a sermon chiefly remarkable for its fierce invectiveagainst the new Order of Jesuits. 

Primate Dowdal retired from the Castle Conference toSaint Mary's Abbey, on the north side of the Liffey, where he continued while these things were taking placein the city proper. The new Lord Deputy, Sir JamesCrofts, on his arrival in May, addressed himself to thePrimate, to bring about, if possible, an accommodationbetween the Prelates. Fearing, as he said, an "order erelong to alter church matters, as well in offices as inceremonies, " the new Deputy urged another Conference, which was accordingly held at the Primate's lodgings, onthe 16th of June. At this meeting Browne does not seemto have been present, the argument on the side of theReformers being maintained by Staples. The points discussedwere chiefly the essential character of the Holy Sacrificeof the Mass, and the invocation of Saints. The toneobserved on both sides was full of high-bred courtesy. The letter of the Sacred Scriptures and the authority ofErasmus in Church History were chiefly relied upon byStaples; the common consent and usage of all Christendom, the primacy of Saint Peter, and the binding nature ofthe oath taken by Bishops at their consecration, werepointed out by the Primate. The disputants parted, withexpressions of deep regret that they could come to noagreement; but the Primacy was soon afterwards transferredto Dublin, by order of the Privy Council, and Dowdal fledfor refuge into Brabant. The Roman Catholic and theAnglican Episcopacy have never since met in oral controversyon Irish ground, though many of the second order of theclergy in both communions have, from time to time, beenpermitted by their superiors to engage in such discussions. 

Whatever obstacles they encountered within the Churchitself, the propagation of the new religion was notconfined to moral means, nor was the spirit of oppositionat all tunes restricted to mere argument. Bishop Balehaving begun at Kilkenny to pull down the revered imagesof the Saints, and to overturn the Market Cross, was setupon by the mob, five of his servants, or guard, wereslain, and himself narrowly escaped with his life bybarricading himself in his palace. The garrisons in theneighbourhood of the ancient seats of ecclesiasticalpower and munificence were authorized to plunder theirsanctuaries and storehouses. The garrison of Down sackedthe celebrated shrines and tomb of Patrick, Bridget, andColumbkill; the garrison of Carrickfergus ravaged RathlinIsland and attacked Derry, from which, however, they wererepulsed with severe loss by John the Proud. But the mostlamentable scene of spoliation, and that which excitedthe profoundest emotions of pity and anger in the publicmind, was the violation of the churches of St. Kieran--therenowned Clonmacnoise. This city of schools had cast itscross-crowned shade upon the gentle current of the UpperShannon for a thousand years. Danish fury, civil storm, and Norman hostility had passed over it, leaving tracesof their power in the midst of the evidences of itsrecuperation. The great Church to which pilgrims flockedfrom every tribe of Erin, on the 9th of September--St. Kieran's Day; the numerous chapels erected by the chiefsof all the neighbouring clans; the halls, hospitals, book-houses, nunneries, cemeteries, granaries-all stillstood, awaiting from Christian hands the last fatal blow. In the neighbouring town of Athlone--seven or eight milesdistant--the Treasurer, Brabazon, had lately erected astrong "Court" or Castle, from which, in the year 1552, the garrison sallied forth to attack "the place of thesons of the nobles, "--which is the meaning of the name. In executing this task they exhibited a fury surpassingthat of Turgesius and his Danes. The pictured glass wastorn from the window frames, and the revered images fromtheir niches; altars were overthrown; sacred vesselspolluted. "They left not, " say the Four Masters, "a bookor a gem, " nor anything to show what Clonmacnoise hadbeen, save the bare walls of the temples, the mightyshaft of the round tower, and the monuments in thecemeteries, with their inscriptions in Irish, in Hebrew, and in Latin. The Shannon re-echoed with their profanesongs and laughter, as laden with chalices and crucifixes, brandishing croziers, and flaunting vestments in the air, their barges returned to the walls of Athlone. 

In all the Gaelic speaking regions of Ireland, the newreligion now began to be known by those fruits which ithad so abundantly produced. Though the southern andmidland districts had not yet recovered from the exhaustionconsequent upon the suppression of the Geraldine leagueand the abortive insurrection of Silken Thomas, thenorthern tribes were still unbroken and undismayed. Theyhad deputed George Paris, a kinsman of the KildareFitzgeralds, as their agent to the French King, in thelatter days of Henry VIII. , and had received two ambassadorson his behalf at Donegal and Dungannon. These ambassadors, the Baron de Forquevaux, and the Sieur de Montluc, whosubsequently became Bishop of Valence, crossing over fromthe west of Scotland, entered into a league, offensiveand defensive, with "the princes" of Tyrconnell andTyrowen, by which the latter bound themselves to recognize, on certain conditions, "whoever was King of France asKing of Ireland likewise. " This alliance, though prolongedinto the reign of Edward, led to nothing definitive, andwe shall see in the next reign how the hopes then turnedtowards France were naturally transferred to Spain. 

The only native name which rises into historic importanceat this period is that of Shane, or John O'Neil, "theProud. " He was the legitimate son of that Con O'Neil whohad been girt with the Earl's baldric by the hands ofHenry VIII. His father had procured at the same time foran illegitimate son, Ferodach, or Mathew, of Dundalk, the title of Baron of Dungannon, with the reversion ofthe Earldom. When, however, John the Proud came of age, he centred upon himself the hopes of his clansmen, deposedhis father, subdued the Baron, and assumed the title ofO'Neil. In 1552 he defeated the efforts of Sir WilliamBrabazon to fortify Belfast, and delivered Derry fromits plunderers. From that time till his tragical death, in the ninth year of Queen Elizabeth, he stoodunquestionably the first man of his race, both in lineageand action. 

CHAPTER II. 

EVENTS OF THE REIGN OF PHILIP AND MARY. 

The death of Edward VI. And the accession of the ladyMary were known in Dublin by the middle of July, 1553, and soon spread all over the kingdom. On the 20th of thatmonth, the form of proclamation was received from London, in which the new Queen was forbidden to be styled "headof the church, " and this was quickly followed by anotherordinance, authorizing all who would to publicly attendMass, but not compelling thereto any who were unwilling. A curious legal difficulty existed in relation to Mary'stitle to the Crown of Ireland. By the Irish Statute, 38. Hen. VIII. , the Irish crown was entailed by name on theLady Elizabeth, and that act had not been repealed. Itwas, however, held to have been superseded by the EnglishStatute, 35. Hen. VIII. , which followed the election of1541, and declared the Crown of Ireland "united and knitto the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England. " Read inthe light of the latter statute, the Irish sovereigntymight be regarded a mere appurtenance of that of England, but Mary did not so consider it. At her coronation, aseparate crown was used for Ireland, nor did she feelassured of the validity of her claim to wear it till shehad obtained a formal dispensation to that effect fromthe Pope. 

The intelligence of the new Queen's accession, and thepublic restoration of the old religion, diffused a generaljoy throughout Ireland. Festivals and pageants were heldin the streets, and eloquent sermons poured from all thepulpits. Archbishop Dowdal was called from exile, andthe Primacy was restored to Armagh. Sir Anthony St. Leger, his ancient antagonist, had now conformed to the Courtfashion, and was sent over to direct the establishmentof that religion which he had been so many years engagedin pulling down. In 1554, Browne, Staples, Lancaster, and Travers, were formally deprived of their sees; Baleand Casey of Limerick fled beyond seas, without awaitingjudgment. Married clergymen were invariably silenced, and the children of Browne were declared by statuteillegitimate. 

What, however, gratified the public even more than theseretributions was the liberation of the aged Chief ofOffally from the Tower of London, at the earnestsupplication of his heroic daughter, Margaret, who foundher way to the Queen's presence to beg that boon; andthe simultaneous restoration of the Earldom of Kildare, in the person of that Gerald, who had been so young afugitive among the glens of Muskerry and Donegal, andhad since undergone so many continental adventures. WithO'Conor and young Gerald, the heirs of the houses ofOrmond and of Upper Ossory were also allowed to returnto their homes, to the great delight of the southern halfof the kingdom. The subsequent marriage of Mary withPhilip II. Of Spain gave an additional security to theIrish Catholics for the future freedom of their religion. 

Great as was the change in this respect, it is not to beinferred that the national relations of Ireland andEngland were materially affected by such a change ofsovereign. The maxims of conquest were not to be abandonedat the dictates of religion. The supreme power continuedto be entrusted only to Englishmen; while the sameParliament (3rd and 4th Philip and Mary) which abolishedthe title of head of the Church, and restored the Romanjurisdiction in matters spiritual, divided Leix andOffally, Glenmalier and Slewmargy, into shire ground, subject to English law, under the name of King's andQueen's County. The new forts of Maryborough andPhilipstown, as well as the county names, served to teachthe people of Leinster that the work of conquest couldbe as industriously prosecuted by Catholic as by Protestantrulers. Nor were these forts established and maintainedwithout many a struggle. St. Leger, and his still ablersuccessor, the Earl of Sussex, and the new Lord Treasurer, Sir Henry Sidney, were forced to lead many an expeditionto the relief of those garrisons, and the dispersion oftheir assailants. It was not in Irish human nature tosubmit to the constant pressure of a foreign power withoutseizing every possible opportunity for its expulsion. 

The new principle of primogeniture introduced at thecommutation of chieftainries into earldoms was productivein this reign of much commotion and bloodshed. The seniorsof the O'Briens resisted its establishment in Thomond, on the death of the first Earl; Calvagh O'Donnell tookarms against his father, to defeat its introduction intoTyrconnell; John the Proud, as we have seen in the reignof Edward, had been one of its earliest opponents inUlster. Being accused in the last year of Queen Mary ofprocuring the death of his illegitimate brother, theBaron of Dungannon, in order to remove him from his path, he was summoned to account for those circumstances beforeSir Henry Sidney, then acting as Lord Justice. His pleahas been preserved to us, and no doubt represents theprevailing opinion of the Gaelic-speaking populationtowards the new system. He answered, "that the surrenderwhich his father had made to Henry VIII. , and therestoration which Henry made to his father again were ofno force; inasmuch as his father had no right to thelands which he surrendered to the King, except duringhis own life; that he (John) himself was the O'Neil bythe law of Tanistry, and by popular election; and thathe assumed no superiority over the chieftains of theNorth except what belonged to his ancestors. " To theseviews he adhered to the last, accepting no English honours, though quite willing to live at peace with Englishsovereigns. When the title of Earl of Tyrone was revived, it was in favour of the son of the Baron, the celebratedHugh O'Neil, the ally of Spain, and the most formidableantagonist of Queen Elizabeth. 

In the Irish Parliament already referred to (3rd and 4thPhilip and Mary) an Act was passed declaring it a felonyto introduce armed Scotchmen into Ireland, or to intermarrywith them without a license under the great seal. Thisstatute was directed against those multitudes of Islesmenand Highlanders who annually crossed the narrow straitwhich separates Antrim from Argyle to harass the Englishgarrisons alongshore, or to enlist as auxiliaries inIrish quarrels. In 1556, under one of their principalleaders, James, son of Conal, they laid siege toCarrickfergus and occupied Lord Sussex some six weeks inthe glens of Antrim. Their leader finally entered intoconditions, the nature of which may be inferred from thefact that he received the honour of knighthood on theiracceptance. John O'Neil had usually in his service anumber of these mercenary troops, from among whom heselected sixty body-guards, the same number supplied byhis own clan. In his first attempt to subject Tyrconnellto his supremacy in 1557, his camp near Raphoe wassurprised at night by Calvagh O'Donnell, and his nativeand foreign guards were put to the sword, while he himselfbarely escaped by swimming the Mourne and the Finn. O'Donnell had frequently employed a similar force, inhis own defence; and we read of the Lord of Clanrickardedriving back a host of them engaged in the service ofhis rivals, from the banks of the Moy, in 1558. 

Although the memory of Queen Mary has been held up toexecration during three centuries as a bloody-minded andmalignant persecutor of all who differed from her inreligion, it is certain that in Ireland, where, ifanywhere, the Protestant. Minority might have beenextinguished by such severities as are imputed to her, no persecution for conscience' sake took place. MarriedBishops were deprived, and married priests were silenced, but beyond this no coercion was employed. It has beensaid there was not time to bring the machinery to bear;but surely if there was time to do so in England, withinthe space of five years, there was tune in Ireland also. The consoling truth--honourable to human nature and toChristian charity, is--that many families out of England, apprehending danger in their own country, sought andfound a refuge from their fears in the western island. The families of Agar, Ellis, and Harvey, are descendedfrom emigrants, who were accompanied from Cheshire by aclergyman of their own choice, whose ministrations theyfreely enjoyed during the remainder of this reign atDublin. The story about Dr. Cole having been despatchedto Ireland with a commission to punish heretics, and, losing it on the way, is unworthy of serious notice. Ifthere had been any such determination formed there wasample time to put it into execution between 1553 and 1558. 

CHAPTER III. 

ACCESSION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH--PARLIAMENT OF 1560--THE ACT OF UNIFORMITY--CAREER AND DEATH OFJOHN O'NEIL "THE PROUD. "

The daughter of Anna Boleyn was promptly proclaimed Queenthe same day on which Mary died--the 17th of November, 1558. Elizabeth was then in her 26th year, proud of herbeauty, and confident in her abilities. Her great capacityhad been cultivated by the best masters of the age, andthe best of all ages, early adversity. Her vices werehereditary in her blood, but her genius for governmentso far surpassed any of her immediate predecessors as tothrow her vices into the shade. During the forty-fouryears in which she wielded the English sceptre, many ofthe most stirring occurrences of our history took place;it could hardly have fallen out otherwise, under asovereign of so much vigour, having the command of suchimmense resources. 

On the news of Mary's death reaching Ireland, the LordDeputy Sussex returned to England, and Sir Henry Sidney, the Treasurer, was appointed his successor _ad interim_. As in England, so in Ireland, though for somewhat differentreasons, the first months of the new reign were markedby a conciliating and temporizing policy. Elizabeth, whohad not assumed the title of "Head of the Church, "continued to hear Mass for several months after heraccession. At her coronation she had a High Mass sung, accompanied, it is true, by a Calvinistic sermon. Beforeproceeding with the work of "reformation, " inauguratedby her father, and arrested by her sister, she proceededcautiously to establish herself, and her Irish deputyfollowed in the same careful line of conduct. Havingfirst made a menacing demonstration against John theProud, he entered into friendly correspondence with him, and finally ended the campaign by standing godfather toone of his children. This relation of gossip among theold Irish was no mere matter of ceremony, but involvedobligations lasting as life, and sacred as the ties ofkindred blood. By seeking such a sponsor, O'Neil placedhimself in Sidney's power, rather than Sidney in his, since the two men must have felt very differently boundby the connection into which they had entered. As anevidence of the Imperial policy of the moment, the incidentis instructive. 

Bound the personal history of this splendid, but by nomeans stainless Ulster Prince, the events of the firstnine years of Elizabeth's reign over Ireland naturallygroup themselves. Whether at her Majesty's council-board, or among the Scottish islands, or in hall or hut at home, the attention of all manner of men interested in Irelandwas fixed upon the movements of John the Proud. In tracinghis career, we therefore naturally gather all, or nearlyall, the threads of the national story, during the firstten years of Queen Mary's successor. 

In the second year of Elizabeth, Lord Deputy Sussex, whoreturned fully possessed of her Majesty's views, summonedthe Parliament to meet in Dublin on the 12th day ofJanuary, 1560. It is to be observed, however, that thoughthe union of the crowns was now of twenty years' standing, the writs were not issued to the nation at large, butonly to the ten counties of Dublin, Meath, Louth, West-Meath, Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, and Tipperary, with their boroughs. The publishedinstructions of Lord Sussex were "to make such statutes(concerning religion) as were made in England, _mutatismutandis_. " As a preparation for the legislature, St. Patrick's Cathedral and Christ Church were purified bypaint; the niches of the Saints were for the second timeemptied of their images; texts of Scripture were blazonedupon the walls, and the Litany was chanted in English. After these preparatory demonstrations, the Deputy openedthe new Parliament, which sat for one short but busymonth. The Acts of Mary's Parliament, re-establishingecclesiastical relations with Rome, were the first thingrepealed; then so much of the Act 33, Henry VIII. , asrelated to the succession, was revived; all ecclesiasticaljurisdiction was next declared vested in the Crown, andall "judges, justices, mayors, and temporal officers weredeclared bound to take tie oath of supremacy;" the penaltyattached to the refusal of the oath, by this statute, being "forfeiture of office and promotion during life. "Proceeding rapidly in the same direction, it was declaredthat commissioners in ecclesiastical causes should adjudgenothing as heresy which was not expressly so condemnedby the Canonical Scriptures, the received General Councils, or by Parliament. The penalty of _praemunire_ was declaredin force, and, to crown the work, the celebrated "Act ofUniformity" was passed. This was followed by other statutesfor the restoration of first fruits and twentieths, andfor the appointment of Bishops by the royal prerogative, or _conge d'elire_--elections by the chapter being declaredmere "shadows of election, and derogatory to theprerogative. " Such was, in brief, the legislation of thatfamous Parliament of ten counties--the often quotedstatutes of the "2nd of Elizabeth. " In the Act ofUniformity, the best known of all its statutes, therewas this curious saving clause inserted: that wheneverthe "priest or common minister" could not speak English, he might still continue "to celebrate the service in theLatin tongue. " Such other observances were to be had aswere prescribed by the 2nd Edward VI. , until her Majestyshould "publish further ceremonies or rites. " We have nohistory of the debates of this Parliament of a month, but there is ample reason to believe that some of thesestatutes were resisted throughout by a majority of theUpper House, still chiefly composed of Catholic Peers;that the clause saving the Latin ritual was inserted asa compromise with this opposition; that some of the otherActs were passed by stealth in the absence of many members, and that the Lord Deputy gave his solemn pledge thestatute of Uniformity should be enforced, if passed. Sosevere was the struggle, and so little satisfied wasSussex with his success, that he hastily dissolved theHouses and went over personally to England to representthe state of feeling he had encountered. Finally, it isremarkable that no other Parliament was called in Irelandtill nine years afterwards--a convincing proof of howunmanageable that body, even constituted as it was, hadshown itself to be in matters affecting religion. 

The non-invitation of the Irish chiefs to this Parliament, contrary to the precedent set in Mary's reign and in1541, the laws enacted, and the commotion they excitedin the minds of the clergy, were circumstances whichcould not fail to attract the attention of John O'Neil. Even if insensible to what transpired at Dublin, theindefatigable Sussex-one of the ablest of Elizabeth'sable Court-did not suffer him long to misunderstand hisrelations to the new Queen. He might be Sidney's gossip, but he was not the less Elizabeth's enemy. He had beenproclaimed "O'Neil" on the rath of Tullahoge, and hadreigned at Dungannon, adjudging life and death. It wasclear that two such jurisdictions as the Celtic and theNorman kingship could not stand long on the same soil, and the Ulster Prince soon perceived that he must establishhis authority, by arms, or perish with it. We must alsoread all Irish events of the time of Elizabeth by thelight of foreign politics; during the long reign of thatsovereign, England was never wholly free from fears ofinvasion, and many movements which now seem inexplicablewill be readily understood when we recollect that theytook place under the menaces of foreign powers. 

The O'Neils had anciently exercised a high-handedsuperiority over all Ulster, and John the Proud was notthe man to let his claim lie idle in any district of thatwide-spread Province. But authority which has falleninto decay must be asserted only at a propitious time, and with the utmost tact; and here it was that Elizabeth'sstatesmen found their most effective means of attackingO'Neil. O'Donnell, who was his father-in-law, was studiouslyconciliated; his second wife, a lady of the Argyle family, received costly presents from the Queen; O'Reilly wascreated Earl of Breffni, and encouraged to resist thesuperiority to which the house of Dungannon laid claim. The natural consequences followed; John the Proud sweptlike a storm over the fertile hills of Cavan, and compelledthe new-made Earl to deliver him tribute and hostages. O'Donnell, attended only by a few of his household, wasseized in a religious house upon Lough Swilly, andsubjected to every indignity which an insolent enemycould devise. His Countess, already alluded to, supposedto have been privy to this surprise of her husband, becamethe mistress of his captor and jailer, to whom she boreseveral children. What deepens the horror of this odiousdomestic tragedy is the fact that the wife of O'Neil, the daughter of O'Donnell, thus supplanted by her shamelessstepmother, under her own roof, died soon afterwards of"horror, loathing, grief, and deep anguish, " at thespectacle afforded by the private life of O'Neil, andthe severities inflicted upon her wretched father. Allthe patriotic designs, and all the shining abilities ofJohn the Proud, cannot abate a jot of our detestation ofsuch a private life; though slandered in other respectsas he was, by hostile pens, no evidence has been adducedto clear his memory of these indelible stains; nor afterbecoming acquainted with their existence can we followhis after career with that heartfelt sympathy with whichthe lives of purer patriots must always inspire us. 

The pledge given by Sussex, that the penal legislationof 1560 should lie a dead letter, was not long observed. In May of the year following its enactment, a commissionwas appointed to enforce the 2nd Elizabeth, in West-Meath;and in 1562 a similar commission was appointed for Meathand Armagh. By these commissioners Dr. William Walsh, Catholic Bishop of Meath, was arraigned and imprisonedfor preaching against the new liturgy; a Prelate whoafterwards died an exile in Spain. The primatial see wasfor the moment vacant, Archbishop Dowdal having died atLondon three months before Queen Mary-on the Feast ofthe Assumption, 1558. Terence, Dean of Armagh, who actedas administrator, convened a Synod of the English-speakingclergy of the Province in July, 1559, at Drogheda, butas this dignitary followed in the steps of his faithfulpredecessors, his deanery was conferred upon Dr. AdamLoftus, Chaplain of the Lord Lieutenant; two yearssubsequently the dignity of Archbishop of Armagh wasconferred upon the same person. Dr. Loftus, a native ofYorkshire, had found favour in the eyes of the Queen ata public exhibition at Cambridge University; he was but28 years old, according to Sir James Ware, when consecratedPrimate-but Dr. Mant thinks he must have attained atleast the canonical age of 30. During the whole of thisreign he continued to reside at Dublin, which see wasearly placed under his jurisdiction in lieu of theinaccessible Armagh. For forty years he continued one ofthe ruling spirits at Dublin, whether acting as LordChancellor, Lord Justice, Privy Councillor, or FirstProvost of Trinity College. He was a pluralist in Churchand State, insatiable of money and honours; if he didnot greatly assist in establishing his religion, he waseminently successful in enriching his family. 

Having subdued every hostile neighbour and openly assumedthe high prerogative of Prince of Ulster, John the Proudlooked around him for allies in the greater strugglewhich he foresaw could not be long postponed. CalvaghO'Donnell was yielded up on receiving a munificent ransom, but his infamous wife remained with her paramour. Anegotiation was set on foot with the chiefs of the Highlandand Island Scots, large numbers of whom entered intoO'Neil's service. Emissaries were despatched to the FrenchCourt, where they found a favourable reception, asElizabeth was known to be in league with the King ofNavarre and the Huguenot leaders against Francis II. Theunexpected death of the King at the close of 1560; thereturn of his youthful widow, Queen Mary, to Scotland;the vigorous regency of Catherine de Medicis during theminority of her second son; the ill-success of Elizabeth'sarms during the campaigns of 1561-2-3, followed by thehumiliating peace of April, 1564--these events are allto be borne in memory when considering the extraordinaryrelations which were maintained during the same years bythe proud Prince of Ulster, with the still prouder Queenof England. The apparently contradictory tactics pursuedby the Lord Deputy Sussex, between his return to Dublinin the spring of 1561, and his final recall in 1564, whenread by the light of events which transpired at Paris, London, and Edinburgh, become easily intelligible. Inthe spring of the first mentioned year, it was thoughtpossible to intimidate O'Neil, so Lord Sussex, with theEarl of Ormond as second in command, marched northwards, entered Armagh, and began to fortify the city, with aview to placing in it a powerful garrison. O'Neil, toremove the seat of hostilities, made an irruption intothe plain of Meath, and menaced Dublin. The utmostconsternation prevailed at his approach, and the Deputy, while continuing the fortification of Armagh, despatchedthe main body of his troops to press on the rear of theaggressor. By a rapid countermarch, O'Neil came up withthis force, laden with spoils, in Louth, and after anobstinate engagement routed them with immense loss. Onreceipt of this intelligence, Sussex promptly abandonedArmagh, and returned to Dublin, while O'Neil erected hisstandard, as far South as Drogheda, within twenty milesof the capital. So critical at this moment was the aspectof affairs, that all the energies of the English interestwere taxed to the utmost. In the autumn of the year, Sussex marched again from Dublin northward, having athis side the five powerful Earls of Kildare, Ormond, Desmond, Thomond, and Clanrickarde--whose mutual feudshad been healed or dissembled for the day. O'Neil prudentlyfell back before this powerful expedition, which foundits way to the shores of Lough Foyle, without bringinghim to an engagement, and without any military advantage. As the shortest way of getting rid of such an enemy, theLord Deputy, though one of the wisest and most justlycelebrated of Elizabeth's Counsellors, did not hesitateto communicate to his royal mistress the project of hiringan assassin, named Nele Gray, to take off the Prince ofUlster, but the plot, though carefully elaborated, miscarried. Foreign news, which probably reached himonly on reaching the Foyle, led to a sudden change oftactics on the part of Sussex, and the young LordKildare--O'Neil's cousin-germain, was employed to negotiatea peace with the enemy they had set out to demolish. 

This Lord Kildare was Gerald, the eleventh Earl, the samewhom we have spoken of as a fugitive lad, in the lastyears of Henry VIII. , and as restored to his estates andrank by Queen Mary. Although largely indebted to hisCatholicity for the protection he had received whileabroad from Francis I. , Charles V. , the Duke of Tuscanyand the Roman See--especially the Cardinals Pole andFarnese--and still more indebted to the late CatholicQueen for the restoration of his family honours, thisfinished courtier, now in the very midsummer of life, one of the handsomest and most accomplished persons ofhis time, did not hesitate to conform himself, at leastoutwardly, to the religion of the State. Shortly beforethe campaign of which we have spoken, he had been suspectedof treasonable designs, but had pleaded his causesuccessfully with the Queen in person. From Lough Foyle, accompanied by the Lord Slane, the Viscount Baltinglass, and a suitable guard, Lord Kildare set out for JohnO'Neil's camp, where a truce was concluded between theparties, Lord Sussex undertaking to withdraw his wardensfrom Armagh, and O'Neil engaging himself to live in peacewith her Majesty, and to serve "when necessary againsther enemies. " The cousins also agreed personally to visitthe English Court the following year, and accordingly inJanuary ensuing they went to England, from which theyreturned home in the latter end of May. 

The reception of John the Proud, at the Court of Elizabeth, was flattering in the extreme. The courtiers stared andsmiled at his bareheaded body-guard, with their crocus-dyedvests, short jackets, and shaggy cloaks. But thebroad-bladed battle-axe, and the sinewy arm which wieldedit, inspired admiration for all the uncouth costume. Thehaughty indifference with which the Prince of Ulstertreated every one about the Court, except the Queen, gavea keener edge to the satirical comments which were sofreely indulged in at the expense of his style of dress. The wits proclaimed him "O'Neil the Great, cousin toSaint Patrick, friend to the Queen of England, and enemyto all the world besides!" O'Neil was well pleased withhis reception by Elizabeth. When taxed upon his returnwith having made peace with her Majesty, he answered--"Yes, in her own bed-chamber. " There were, indeed, many pointsin common in both their characters. 

Her Majesty, by letters patent dated at Windsor, on the15th of January, 1563, recognized in John the Proud "thename and title of O'Neil, with the like authority, jurisdiction, and pre-eminence, as any of his ancestors. "And O'Neil, by articles, dated at Benburb, the 18th ofNovember of the same year, reciting the letters patentaforesaid, bound himself and his suffragans to behave as"the Queen's good and faithful subjects against allpersons whatever. " Thus, so far as an English alliancecould guarantee it, was the supremacy of this daringchief guaranteed in Ulster from the Boyne to the North Sea. 

In performing his part of the engagements thus enteredinto, O'Neil is placed in a less invidious light byEnglish writers than formerly. They now describe him asscrupulously faithful to his word; as charitable to thepoor, always carving and sending meat from his own tableto the beggar at the gate before eating himself. Of thesincerity with which he carried out the expulsion of theIslesmen and Highlanders from Ulster, the result affordedthe most conclusive evidence. It is true he had himselfinvited those bands into the Province to aid him againstthe very power with which he was now at peace, and, therefore, they might in their view allege duplicity anddesertion against him. Yet enlisted as they usually werebut for a single campaign, O'Neil expected them to departas readily as they had come. But in this expectation hewas disappointed. Their leaders, Angus, James, and SorleyMcDonald, refused to recognize the new relations whichhad arisen, and O'Neil was, therefore, compelled to resortto force. He defeated the Scottish troops at Glenfesk, near Ballycastle, in 1564, in an action wherein AngusMcDonald was slain, James died of his wounds, and Sorleywas carried prisoner to Benburb. An English auxiliaryforce, under Colonel Randolph, sent round by sea, underpretence of co-operating against the Scots, took possessionof Derry and began to fortify it. But their leader wasslain in a skirmish with a party of O'Neil's people whodisliked the fortress, and whether by accident or otherwisetheir magazine exploded, killing a great part of thegarrison and destroying their works. The remnant took totheir shipping and returned to Dublin. 

In the years 1565, '6 and '7, the internal dissensionsof both Scotland and France, and the perturbations inthe Netherlands giving full occupation to her foreignfoes, Elizabeth had an interval of leisure to attend tothis dangerous ally in Ulster. A second unsuccessfulattempt on his life, by an assassin named Smith, wastraced to the Lord Deputy, and a formal commission issuedby the Queen to investigate the case. The result we knowonly by the event; Sussex was recalled, and Sir HenrySidney substituted in his place! Death had lately madeway in Tyrconnell and Fermanagh for new chiefs, and theseleaders, more vigorous than their predecessors, wereresolved to shake off the recently imposed and sternlyexercised supremacy of Benburb. With these chiefs, Sidney, at the head of a veteran armament, cordially co-operated, and O'Neil's territory was now attacked simultaneouslyat three different points--in the year 1566. No considerablesuccess was, however, obtained over him till the followingyear, when, at the very opening of the campaign, thebrave O'Donnell arrested his march along the strand ofthe Lough Swilly, and the tide rising impetuously, as itdoes on that coast, on the rear of the men of Tyrone, struck them with terror, and completed their defeat. From 1, 500 to 3, 000 men perished by the sword or by thetide; John the Proud fled alone, along the river Swilly, and narrowly escaped by the fords of rivers and by solitaryways to his Castle on Lough Neagh. The Annalists ofDonegal, who were old enough to have conversed withsurvivors of the battle, say that his mind became derangedby this sudden fall from the summit of prosperity to thedepths of defeat. His next step would seem to establishthe fact, for he at once despatched Sorley McDonald, thesurvivor of the battle of Glenfesk, to recruit a newauxiliary force for him amongst the Islesmen, whom hehad so mortally offended. Then, abandoning his fortressupon the Blackwater, he set out with 50 guards, hissecretary, and his mistress, the wife of the late O'Donnell, to meet these expected allies whom he had so fiercelydriven off but two short years before. At Cushendun, onthe Antrim coast, they met with all apparent cordiality, but an English agent, Captain Piers, or Pierce, seizedan opportunity during the carouse which ensued to recallthe bitter memories of Glenfesk. A dispute and a quarrelensued; O'Neil fell covered with wounds, amid the exultingshouts of the avenging Islesmen. His gory head waspresented to Captain Piers, who hastened with it toDublin, where he received a reward of a thousand marksfor his success. High spiked upon the towers of theCastle, that proud head remained and rotted; the body, wrapped in a Kerns saffron shirt, was interred where hefell, a spot familiar to all the inhabitants of the Antrimglens as "the grave of Shane O'Neil. " And so may be said toclose the first decade of Elizabeth's reign over Ireland!

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