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diff --git a/6632-h/6632-h.htm b/6632-h/6632-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..31e6193 --- /dev/null +++ b/6632-h/6632-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14627 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>A Popular History of Ireland Volume 1, by Thomas D'Arcy McGee</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 175%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} +h3 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Popular History of Ireland Volume 1, by Thomas D'Arcy McGee + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: A Popular History of Ireland Volume 1 + +Author: Thomas D'Arcy McGee + +Release Date: January 6, 2003 [EBook #6632] +Last updated: June 26, 2019 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A POPULAR HISTORY OF IRELAND *** + + + + +This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan with help from +Charles Aldarondo and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>A Popular<br/> +History of Ireland:</h1> +<h5>from the</h5> +<h3>Earliest Period</h3> +<h5>to the</h5> +<h3>Emancipation of the Catholics </h3> + +<h2>by Thomas D'Arcy McGee</h2> + +<h5>In Two Volumes</h5> + +<hr /> + +<h3>Volume I</h3> + +<h3>PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.</h3> + +<p> +Ireland, lifting herself from the dust, drying her tears, and proudly demanding +her legitimate place among the nations of the earth, is a spectacle to cause +immense progress in political philosophy. +</p> + +<p> +Behold a nation whose fame had spread over all the earth ere the flag of +England had come into existence. For 500 years her life has been apparently +extinguished. The fiercest whirlwind of oppression that ever in the wrath of +God was poured upon the children of disobedience had swept over her. She was an +object of scorn and contempt to her subjugator. Only at times were there any +signs of life—an occasional meteor flash that told of her olden +spirit—of her deathless race. Degraded and apathetic as this nation of +Helots was, it is not strange that political philosophy, 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 sunward bound the +"old land" comes forth into the political day to teach these lessons, that +Right must always conquer Might in the end—that by a compensating +principle in the nature of things, Repression creates slowly, but certainly, a +force for its overthrow. +</p> + +<p> +Had it been possible to kill the Irish Nation, it had long since ceased to +exist. But the transmitted qualities of her glorious children, who were giants +in intellect, virtue, and arms for 1500 years before Alfred the Saxon sent the +youth of his country to Ireland in search of knowledge with which to civilize +his people,—the legends, songs, and dim traditions of this glorious era, +and the irrepressible piety, sparkling wit, and dauntless courage of her +people, have at last brought her forth like. Lazarus from the tomb. True, the +garb of the prison or the cerements of the grave may be hanging upon her, but +"loose her and let her go" is the wise policy of those in whose hands are her +present destinies. +</p> + +<p> +A nation with such a strange history must have some great work yet to do in the +world. Except the Jews, no people has so suffered without dying. +</p> + +<p> +The History of Ireland is the most interesting of records, and the least known. +The Publishers of this edition of D'Arcy McGee's excellent and impartial work +take advantage of the awakening interest in Irish literature to present to the +public a book of <i>high-class history</i>, as cheap as <i>largely circulating +romance</i>. A sale as large as that of a popular romance is, therefore, +necessary to pay the speculation. That sale the Publishers expect. Indeed, as +truth is often stranger than fiction, so Irish history is more romantic than +romance. How Queen Scota unfurled the Sacred Banner. How Brian and Malachy +contended for empire. How the "Pirate of the North" scourged the Irish coast. +The glories of Tara and the piety of Columba. The cowardice of James and the +courage of Sarsfield. How Dathi, the fearless, sounded the Irish war-cry in far +Alpine 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. Surely the +Youth of Ireland will find in their country's records romance enough! +</p> + +<p> +The English and Scotch are well read in the histories of their country. The +Irish are, unfortunately, not so; and yet, what is English or Scottish history +to compare with Irish? Ireland was a land of saints and scholars when Britons +were painted savages. Wise and noble laws, based upon the spirit of +Christianity, were administered in Erin, and valuable books were written ere +the Britons were as far advanced in civilization as the Blackfeet Indians. In +morals and intellect, in Christianity and civilization, in arms, art, and +science, Ireland shone like a star among the nations when darkness enshrouded +the world. And she nobly sustained civilization and religion by her +missionaries and scholars. The libraries and archives of Europe contain the +records of their piety and learning. Indeed the echoes have scarcely yet ceased +to sound upon our ears, of the mighty march of her armed children over the +war-fields of Europe, during that terrible time when England's cruel law, +intended to destroy the spirit of a martial race, precipitated an armed torrent +of nearly 500,000 of the flower of the Irish youth into foreign service. Irish +steel glittered in the front rank of the most desperate conflicts, and more +than once the ranks of England went down before "the Exiles," in just +punishment for her terrible penal code which excluded the Irish soldier from +his country's service. +</p> + +<p> +It was the Author's wish to educate his countrymen in their national records. +If by issuing a cheap edition the present Publishers carry out to any extent +that wish, it will be to them a source of satisfaction. +</p> + +<p> +It is impossible to conclude this Preface without an expression of regret at +the dark and terrible fate which overtook the high-minded, patriotic, and +distinguished Irishman, Thomas D'Arcy McGee. He was a man who loved his country +well; and when the contemptible squabbles and paltry dissensions of the present +have passed away, his name will be a hallowed memory, like that of Emmet or +Fitzgerald, to inspire men with high, ideals of patriotism and devotion. +</p> + +<p> +CAMERON & FERGUSON. +</p> + +<p> +[Note: From 1857 until his death, McGee was active in Canadian politics. A +gifted speaker and strong supporter of Confederation, he is regarded as one of +Canada's fathers of Confederation. On April 7, 1868, after attending a +late-night session in the House of Commons, he was shot and killed as he +returned to his rooming house on Sparks Street in Ottawa. It is generally +believed that McGee was the victim of a Fenian plot. Patrick James Whelan was +convicted and hanged for the crime, however the evidence implicating him was +later seen to be suspect.] +</p> + +<h3>CONTENTS—VOL. I.</h3> + +<table summary=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#part01"><b>BOOK I.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I.—The First Inhabitants</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II.—The First Ages</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III.—Christianity Preached at Tara—The Result</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV.—The Constitution, and how the Kings kept it</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V.—Reign of Hugh II.—The Irish Colony in Scotland obtains +its Independence</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI.—Kings of the Seventh Century</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII.—Kings of the Eighth Century</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII.—What the Irish Schools and Saints did in the Three First +Christian Centuries</a><br/><br/></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#part02"><b>BOOK II.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER I.—The Danish Invasion</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER II.—Kings of the Ninth Century (Continued)—Nial +III.—Malachy I.—Hugh VII</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER III.—Reign of Flan "of the Shannon" (A.D. 879 to 916)</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER IV.—Kings of the Tenth Century—Nial IV.—Donogh +II.—Congal III.—Donald IV</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap13">CHAPTER V.—Reign of Malachy II. and Rivalry of Brian</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap14">CHAPTER VI.—Brian, Ard-Righ—Battle of Clontarf</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap15">CHAPTER VII.—Effects of the Rivalry of Brian and Malachy on the Ancient +Constitution</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap16">CHAPTER VIII.—Latter Days of the Northmen in Ireland</a><br/><br/></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#part03"><b>BOOK III.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap17">CHAPTER I.—The Fortunes of the Family of Brian</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap18">CHAPTER II.—The Contest between the North and South—Rise of the +Family of O'Conor</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap19">CHAPTER III.—Thorlogh More O'Conor—Murkertach of +Aileach—Accession of Roderick O'Conor</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap20">CHAPTER IV.—State of Religion and Learning among the Irish previous to +the Anglo-Norman Invasion</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap21">CHAPTER V.—Social Condition of the Irish previous to the Norman Invasion</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap22">CHAPTER VI.—Foreign Relations of the Irish previous to the Anglo-Norman +Invasion</a><br/><br/></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#part04"><b>BOOK IV.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap23">CHAPTER I.—Dermid McMurrogh's Negotiations and Success—The First +Expedition of the Normans into Ireland</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap24">CHAPTER II.—The Arms, Armour and Tactics of the Normans and Irish</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap25">CHAPTER III.—The First Campaign of Earl Richard—Siege of +Dublin—Death of King Dermid McMurrogh</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap26">CHAPTER IV.—Second Campaign of Earl Richard—Henry II. in Ireland</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap27">CHAPTER V.—From the Return of Henry II. to England till the Death of Earl +Richard and his principal Companions</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap28">CHAPTER VI.—The Last Years of the Ard-Righ, Roderick O'Conor</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap29">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</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap30">CHAPTER VIII.—Events of the Thirteenth Century—The Normans in +Connaught</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap31">CHAPTER IX.—Events of the Thirteenth Century—The Normans in Munster +and Leinster</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap32">CHAPTER X.—Events of the Thirteenth Century—The Normans in Meath +and Ulster</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap33">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</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap34">CHAPTER XII.—State of Society and Learning in Ireland during the Norman +Period</a><br/><br/></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#part05"><b>BOOK V.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap35">CHAPTER I.—The Rise of "the Red Earl"—Relations of Ireland and +Scotland</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap36">CHAPTER II.—The Northern Irish enter into Alliance with King Robert +Bruce—Arrival and First Campaign of Edward Bruce</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap37">CHAPTER III.—Bruce's Second Campaign and Coronation at Dundalk—The +Rising in Connaught—Battle of Athenry—Robert Bruce in Ireland</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap38">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</a><br/><br/></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#part06"><b>BOOK VI.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap39">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</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap40">CHAPTER II.—Lionel, Duke of Clarence, Lord Lieutenant—The Penal +Code of Race—"The Statute of Kilkenny," and some of its Consequences</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap41">CHAPTER III.—Art McMurrogh, Lord of Leinster—First Expedition of +Richard II. of England to Ireland</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap42">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</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap43">CHAPTER V.—Parties within "the Pale"—Battles of Kilmainham and +Killucan—Sir John Talbot's Lord Lieutenancy</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap44">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</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap45">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</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap46">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</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap47">CHAPTER IX.—State of Irish and Anglo—Irish Society during the +Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap48">CHAPTER X.—State of Religion and Learning during the Fourteenth and +Fifteenth Centuries</a><br/><br/></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#part07"><b>BOOK VII.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap49">CHAPTER I.—Irish Policy of Henry the Eighth during the Lifetime of +Cardinal Wolsey</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap50">CHAPTER II.—The Insurrection of Silken Thomas—The Geraldine +League—Administration of Lord Leonard Gray</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap51">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</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap52">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</a><br/><br/></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#part08"><b>BOOK VIII.</b></a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap53">CHAPTER I.—Events of the Reign of Edward Sixth</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap54">CHAPTER II.—Events of the Reign of Philip and Mary</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap55">CHAPTER III.—Accession of Queen Elizabeth—Parliament of +1560—The Act of Uniformity—Career and Death of John O'Neil "the +Proud"</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3>HISTORY OF IRELAND</h3> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="part01"></a>BOOK I.</h3> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap01"></a>CHAPTER I.<br/> +THE FIRST INHABITANTS.</h3> + +<p> +Ireland is situated in the North Atlantic, between the degrees fifty-one and a +half and fifty-five and a half North, and five and a quarter and ten and a +third West longitude from Greenwich. It is the last land usually seen by ships +leaving the Old World, and the first by those who arrive there from the +Northern ports of America. In size it is less than half as large as Britain, +and in shape it may be compared to one of those shields which we see in +coats-of-arms, the four Provinces—Ulster, Connaught, Leinster, and +Munster—representing the four quarters of the shield. +</p> + +<p> +Around the borders of the country, generally near the coast, several ranges of +hills and mountains rear their crests, every Province having one or more such +groups. The West and South have, however, the largest and highest of these +hills, from the sides of all which descend numerous rivers, flowing in various +directions to the sea. Other rivers issue out of large lakes formed in the +valleys, such as the Galway river which drains Lough Corrib, and the Bann which +carries off the surplus waters of Lough Neagh (<i>Nay</i>). In a few districts +where the fall for water is insufficient, marshes and swamps were long ago +formed, of which the principal one occupies nearly 240,000 acres in the very +heart of the country. It is called "the Bog of Allen," and, though quite +useless for farming purposes, still serves to supply the surrounding district +with fuel, nearly as well as coal mines do in other countries. +</p> + +<p> +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 wooded Island," and the export of timber and staves, as well as of the +furs of wild animals, continued, until the beginning of the seventeenth +century, to be a thriving branch of trade. 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 does not date above two or three +generations back. +</p> + +<p> +Who were the first inhabitants of this Island, it is impossible to say, but we +know it was inhabited at a very early period of the world's +lifetime—probably as early as the time when Solomon the Wise, sat in +Jerusalem on the throne of his father David. As we should not altogether +reject, though neither are we bound to believe, the wild and uncertain +traditions of which we have neither documentary nor monumental evidence, we +will glance over rapidly what the old Bards and Story-tellers have handed down +to us concerning Ireland before it became Christian. +</p> + +<p> +The <i>first</i> story they tell is, that about three hundred years after the +Universal Deluge, Partholan, of the stock of Japhet, sailed down the +Mediterranean, "leaving Spain on the right hand," and holding bravely on his +course, reached the shores of the wooded western Island. This Partholan, they +tell us, was a double parricide, having killed his father and mother before +leaving his native country, for which horrible crimes, as the Bards very +morally conclude, his posterity were fated never to possess the land. After a +long interval, and when they were greatly increased in numbers, they were cut +off to the last man, by a dreadful pestilence. +</p> + +<p> +The story of the <i>second</i> immigration is almost as vague as that of the +first. The leader this time is called Nemedh, and his route is described as +leading from the shores of the Black Sea, across what is now Russia in Europe, +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. He +and his posterity were constantly at war, with a terrible race of Formorians, +or Sea Kings, descendants of Ham, who had fled from northern Africa to the +western islands for refuge from their enemies, the sons of Shem. At length the +Formorians prevailed, and the children of the second immigration were either +slain or driven into exile, from which some of their posterity returned long +afterwards, and again disputed the country, under two different denominations. +</p> + +<p> +The <i>Firbolgs</i> or Belgae are the <i>third</i> immigration. They were +victorious under their chiefs, the five sons of Dela, and divided the island +into five portions. But they lived in days when the earth—the known parts +of it at least—was being eagerly scrambled for by the overflowing hosts +of Asia, and they were not long left in undisputed possession of so tempting a +prize. Another expedition, claiming descent from the common ancestor, Nemedh, +arrived to contest their supremacy. These last—the <i>fourth</i> +immigration—are depicted to us as accomplished soothsayers and +necromancers who came out of Greece. They could quell storms; cure diseases; +work in metals; foretell future events; forge magical weapons; and raise the +dead to life; they are called the <i>Tuatha de Danans</i>, and by their +supernatural power, as well as by virtue of "the Lia Fail," or fabled "stone of +destiny," they subdued their Belgic kinsmen, and exercised sovereignty over +them, till they in turn were displaced by the Gaelic, or <i>fifth</i> +immigration. +</p> + +<p> +This fifth and final colony called themselves alternately, or at different +periods of their history, <i>Gael</i>, from one of their remote ancestors; +<i>Milesians</i>, from the immediate projector of their emigration; or +<i>Scoti</i>, from Scota, the mother of Milesius. They came from Spain under +the leadership of the sons of Milesius, whom they had lost during their +temporary sojourn in that country. In vain the skilful <i>Tuatha</i> surrounded +themselves and their coveted island with magic-made tempest and terrors; in +vain they reduced it in size so as to be almost invisible from sea; Amergin, +one of the sons of Milesius, was a Druid skilled in all the arts of the east, +and led by his wise counsels, his brothers countermined the magicians, and beat +them at their own weapons. This Amergin was, according to universal usage in +ancient times, at once Poet, Priest, and Prophet; yet when his warlike brethren +divided the island between them, they left the Poet out of reckoning. He was +finally drowned in the waters of the river Avoca, which is probably the reason +why that river has been so suggestive of melody and song ever since. +</p> + +<p> +Such are the stories told of the <i>five</i> successive hordes of adventurers +who first attempted to colonize our wooded Island. Whatever moiety of truth may +be mixed up with so many fictions, two things are certain, that long before the +time when our Lord and Saviour came upon earth, the coasts and harbours of Erin +were known to the merchants of the Mediterranean, and that from the first to +the fifth Christian century, the warriors of the wooded Isle made inroads on +the Roman power in Britain and even in Gaul. Agricola, the Roman governor of +Britain in the reign of Domitian—the first century—retained an +Irish chieftain about his person, and we are told by his biographer that an +invasion of Ireland was talked of at Rome. But it never took place; the Roman +eagles, although supreme for four centuries in Britain, never crossed the Irish +Sea; and we are thus deprived of those Latin helps to our early history, which +are so valuable in the first period of the histories of every western country, +with which the Romans had anything to do. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap02"></a>CHAPTER II.<br/> +THE FIRST AGES.</h3> + +<p> +Since we have no Roman accounts of the form of government or state of society +in ancient Erin, we must only depend on the Bards and Story-tellers, so far as +their statements are credible and agree with each other. On certain main points +they do agree, and these are the points which it seems reasonable for us to +take on their authority. +</p> + +<p> +As even brothers born of the same mother, coming suddenly into possession of a +prize, will struggle to see who can get the largest share, so we find in those +first ages a constant succession of armed struggles for power. The petty +Princes who divided the Island between them were called <i>Righ</i>, a word +which answers to the Latin <i>Rex</i> and French <i>Roi</i>; and the chief king +or monarch was called <i>Ard-Righ</i>, or High-King. The eldest nephew, or son +of the king, was the usual heir of power, and was called the <i>Tanist</i>, or +successor; although any of the family of the Prince, his brothers, cousins, or +other kinsmen, might be chosen <i>Tanist</i>, by election of the people over +whom he was to rule. One certain cause of exclusion was personal deformity; for +if a Prince was born lame or a hunchback, or if he lost a limb by accident, he +was declared unfit to govern. Even after succession, any serious accident +entailed deposition, though we find the names of several Princes who managed to +evade or escape this singular penalty. It will be observed besides of the +<i>Tanist</i>, that the habit of appointing him seems to have been less a law +than a custom; that it was not universal in all the Provinces; that in some +tribes the succession alternated between a double line of Princes; and that +sometimes when the reigning Prince obtained the nomination of a <i>Tanist</i>, +to please himself, the choice was set aside by the public voice of the +clansmen. The successor to the Ard-Righ, or Monarch, instead of being simply +called <i>Tanist</i>, had the more sounding title of <i>Roydamna</i>, or +King-successor. +</p> + +<p> +The chief offices about the Kings, in the first ages, were all filled by the +Druids, or Pagan Priests; the <i>Brehons</i>, or Judges, were usually Druids, +as were also the <i>Bards</i>, the historians of their patrons. Then came the +Physicians; the Chiefs who paid tribute or received annual gifts from the +Sovereigns, or Princes; the royal stewards; and the military leaders or +Champions, who, like the knights of the middle ages, held their lands and their +rank at court, by the tenure of the sword. Like the feudal <i>Dukes</i> of +France, and <i>Barons</i> of England, these military nobles often proved too +powerful for their nominal patrons, and made them experience all the +uncertainty of reciprocal dependence. The Champions play an important part in +all the early legends. Wherever there is trouble you are sure to find them. +Their most celebrated divisions were the warriors of the <i>Red +Branch</i>—that is to say, the Militia of Ulster; the <i>Fiann</i>, or +Militia of Leinster, sometimes the royal guard of Tara, at others in exile and +disgrace; the <i>Clan-Degaid</i> of Munster, and the <i>Fiann</i> of Connaught. +The last force was largely recruited from the Belgic race who had been squeezed +into that western province, by their Milesian conquerors, pretty much as +Cromwell endeavoured to force the Milesian Irish into it, many hundred years +afterwards. Each of these bands had its special heroes; its Godfreys and +Orlandos celebrated in song; the most famous name in Ulster was Cuchullin: so +called from <i>cu</i>, a hound, or watch-dog, and <i>Ullin</i>, the ancient +name of his province. He lived at the dawn of the Christian era. Of equal fame +was Finn, the father of Ossian, and the Fingal of modern fiction, who +flourished in the latter half of the second century. Gall, son of Morna, the +hero of Connaught (one of the few distinguished men of Belgic origin whom we +hear of through the Milesian bards), flourished a generation earlier than Finn, +and might fairly compete with him in celebrity, if he had only had an Ossian to +sing his praises. +</p> + +<p> +The political boundaries of different tribes expanded or contracted with their +good or ill fortune in battle. Immigration often followed defeat, so that a +clan, or its offshoot is found at one period on one part of the map and again +on another. As <i>surnames</i> were not generally used either in Ireland or +anywhere else, till after the tenth century, the great families are +distinguishable at first, only by their tribe or clan names. Thus at the north +we have the Hy-Nial race; in the south the Eugenian race, so called from Nial +and Eoghan, their mutual ancestors. +</p> + +<p> +We have already compared the shape of Erin to a shield, in which the four +Provinces represented the four quarters. Some shields have also <i>bosses</i> +or centre-pieces, and the federal province of MEATH was the <i>boss</i> of the +old Irish shield. The ancient Meath included both the present counties of that +name, stretching south to the Liffey, and north to Armagh. It was the mensal +demesne, or "board of the king's table:" it was exempt from all taxes, except +those of the Ard-Righ, and its relations to the other Provinces may be vaguely +compared to those of the District of Columbia to the several States of the +North American Union. ULSTER might then be defined by a line drawn from Sligo +Harbour to the mouth of the Boyne, the line being notched here and there by the +royal demesne of Meath; LEINSTER stretched south from Dublin triangle-wise to +Waterford Harbour, but its inland line, towards the west, was never very well +defined, and this led to constant border wars with Munster; the remainder of +the south to the mouth of the Shannon composed MUNSTER; the present county of +Clare and all west of the Shannon north to Sligo, and part of Cavan, going with +CONNAUGHT. The chief seats 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. +</p> + +<p> +How the common people lived within these external divisions of power it is not +so easy to describe. All histories tell us a great deal of kings, and battles, +and conspiracies, but very little of the daily domestic life of the people. In +this respect the history of Erin is much the same as the rest; but some leading +facts we do know. Their religion, in Pagan times, was what the moderns call +<i>Druidism</i>, but what they called it themselves we now know not. It was +probably the same religion anciently professed by Tyre and Sidon, by Carthage +and her colonies in Spain; the same religion which the Romans have described as +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 +doctrines which Christian zeal has permitted to survive in the old Irish +language, we see that <i>Belus</i> or "Crom," the god of fire, typified by the +sun, was its chief divinity—that two great festivals were held in his +honour on days answering to the first of May and last of October. There were +also particular gods of poets, champions, artificers and mariners, just as +among the Romans and Greeks. Sacred groves were dedicated to these gods; +Priests and Priestesses devoted their lives to their service; the arms of the +champion, and the person of the king were charmed by them; neither peace nor +war was made without their sanction; their own persons and their pupils were +held sacred; the high place at the king's right hand and the best fruits of the +earth and the waters were theirs. Old age revered them, women worshipped them, +warriors paid court to them, youth trembled before them, princes and chieftains +regarded them as elder brethren. So numerous were they in Erin, and so +celebrated, that the altars of Britain and western Gaul, left desolate by the +Roman legions, were often served by hierophants from Erin, which, even in those +Pagan days, was known to all the Druidic countries as the "Sacred Island." +Besides the princes, the warriors, and the Druids, (who were also the +Physicians, Bards and Brehons of the first ages,) there were innumerable petty +chiefs, all laying claim to noble birth and blood. They may be said with the +warriors and priests to be the only freemen. The <i>Bruais</i>, or farmers, +though possessing certain legal rights, were an inferior caste; while of the +Artisans, the smiths and armorers only seem to have been of much consideration. +The builders of those mysterious round towers, of which a hundred ruins yet +remain, may also have been a privileged order. But the mill and the loom were +servile occupations, left altogether to slaves taken in battle, or purchased in +the market-places of Britain. The task of the herdsman, like that of the +farm-labourer, seems to have devolved on the bondsmen, while the <i>quern</i> +and the shuttle were left exclusively in the hands of the bondswomen. +</p> + +<p> +We need barely mention the names of the first Milesian kings, who were +remarkable for something else than cutting each other's throats, in order to +hasten on to the solid ground of Christian tunes. The principal names are: +Heber and Heremhon, the crowned sons of Milesians; they at first divided the +Island fairly, but Heremhon soon became jealous of his brother, slew him in +battle, and established his own supremacy. Irial the Prophet was King, and +built seven royal fortresses; Tiern'mass; in his reign the arts of dyeing in +colours were introduced; and the distinguishing of classes by the number of +colours they were permitted to wear, was decreed. Ollamh ("the Wise") +established the Convention of Tara, which assembled habitually every ninth +year, but might be called oftener; it met about the October festival in honour +of Beleus or <i>Crom</i>; Eocaid invented or introduced a new species of wicker +boats, called <i>cassa</i>, 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, the mythological Queen of Connaught, she is the sole female ruler +of Erin in the first ages; Owen or Eugene Mor ("the Great") is remembered as +the founder of the notable families 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) claimed as their ancestor; Eocaid, +the tenth of that name, in whose reign are laid the scenes of the chief +mythological stories of Erin—such as the story of Queen Mab—the +story of the Sons of Usna; the death of Cuchullin (a counterpart 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 with the first king +who led an expedition abroad against the Romans in Crimthan, surnamed +<i>Neea-Naari</i>, or Nair's Hero, from the good genius who accompanied him on +his foray. A well-planned insurrection of the conquered Belgae, cut off one of +Crimthan's immediate successors, with all his chiefs and nobles, at a banquet +given on the Belgian-plain (Moybolgue, in Cavan); and arrested for a century +thereafter Irish expeditions abroad. A revolution and a restoration followed, +in which Moran the Just Judge played the part of Monk to <i>his</i> Charles +II., Tuathal surnamed "the Legitimate." It was Tuathal who imposed the special +tax on Leinster, of which, we shall often hear—under the title of +<i>Borooa</i>, or Tribute. "The Legitimate" was succeeded by his son, who +introduced the Roman <i>Lex Talionis</i> ("an eye for an eye and a tooth for a +tooth") into the Brehon code; soon after, the Eugenian families of the south, +strong in numbers, and led by a second Owen More, again halved the Island with +the ruling race, the boundary this time being the <i>esker</i>, or ridge of +land which can be easily traced from Dublin west to Galway. Olild, a brave and +able Prince, succeeded in time to the southern half-kingdom, and planted his +own kindred deep and firm in its soil, though the unity of the monarchy was +again restored under Cormac Ulla, or <i>Longbeard</i>. This Cormac, according +to the legend, was in secret a Christian, and was done to death by the enraged +and alarmed Druids, after his abdication and retirement from the world (A.D. +266). He had reigned full forty years, rivalling in wisdom, and excelling in +justice the best of his ancestors. Some of his maxims remain to us, and +challenge comparison for truthfulness and foresight with most uninspired +writings. +</p> + +<p> +Cormac's successors during the same century are of little mark, but in the next +the expeditions against the Roman outposts were renewed with greater energy and +on an increasing scale. Another Crimthan eclipsed the fame of his 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, was +struck dead by lightning in the passage of the Alps (A.D. 428). It was in one +of Nial's Gallic expeditions that the illustrious captive was brought into +Erin, for whom Providence had reserved the glory of its conversion to the +Christian faith—an event which gives a unity and a purpose to the history +of that Nation, which must always constitute its chief attraction to the +Christian reader. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap03"></a>CHAPTER III.<br/> +CHRISTIANITY PREACHED AT TARA—THE RESULT.</h3> + +<p> +The conversion of a Pagan people to Christianity must always be a primary fact +in their history. It is not merely for the error it abolishes or the positive +truth it establishes that a national change of faith is historically important, +but for the complete revolution it works in every public and private relation. +The change socially could not be greater if we were to see some irresistible +apostle of Paganism ariving from abroad in Christian Ireland, who would abolish +the churches, convents, and Christian schools; decry and bring into utter +disuse the decalogue, the Scriptures and the Sacraments; efface all trace of +the existing belief in One God and Three Persons, whether in private or public +worship, in contracts, or in courts of law; and instead of these, re-establish +all over the country, in high places and in every place, the gloomy groves of +the Druids, making gods of the sun and moon, the natural elements, and man's +own passions, restoring human sacrifices as a sacred duty, and practically +excluding from the community of their fellows, all who presumed to question the +divine origin of such a religion. The preaching of Patrick effected a +revolution to the full as complete as such a counter-revolution in favour of +Paganism could possibly be, and to this thorough revolution we must devote at +least one chapter before going farther. +</p> + +<p> +The best accounts agree that Patrick was a native of Gaul, then subject to +Rome; that he was carried captive into 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 one Milcho, a chief of Dalriada, whose +flocks he tended for seven 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 set down in all our annals at the +year 405; as Patrick was sixteen years of age when he reached Ireland, he must +have been born about the year 390; and as he died in the year 493, he would +thus have reached the extraordinary, but not impossible age of 103 years. +Whatever the exact number of his years, it is certain that his mission in +Ireland commenced in the year 432, and was prolonged till his death, sixty-one +years afterwards. Such an unprecedented length of life, not less than the +unprecedented power, both popular and political, which he early attained, +enabled him to establish the Irish Church, during his own time, on a basis so +broad and deep, that neither lapse of ages, nor heathen rage, nor earthly +temptations, nor all the arts of Hell, have been able to upheave its firm +foundations. But we must not imagine that the powers of darkness abandoned the +field without a struggle, or that the victory of the cross was achieved without +a singular combination of courage, prudence, and determination—God aiding +above all. +</p> + +<p> +If the year of his captivity was 405 or 406, and that of his escape or +manumission seven years later (412 or 413), twenty years would intervene +between his departure out of the land of his bondage, and his return to it +clothed with the character and authority of a Christian Bishop. This interval, +longer or shorter, he spent in qualifying himself for Holy Orders or +discharging priestly duties at Tours, at Lerins, and finally at Rome. But +always by night and day he was haunted by the thought of the Pagan nation in +which he had spent his long years of servitude, whose language he had acquired, +and the character of whose people he so thoroughly understood. These natural +retrospections were heightened and deepened by supernatural revelations of the +will of Providence towards the Irish, and himself as their apostle. At one +time, an angel presented him, in his sleep, a scroll bearing the +superscription, "the voice of the Irish;" at another, he seemed to hear in a +dream all the unborn children of the nation crying to him for help and holy +baptism. When, therefore, Pope Celestine commissioned him for this enterprise, +"to the ends of the earth," he found him not only ready but anxious to +undertake it. +</p> + +<p> +When the new Preacher arrived in the Irish Sea, in 432, he and his companions +were driven off the coast of Wicklow by a mob, who assailed them with showers +of stones. Running down the coast to Antrim, with which he was personally +familiar, he made some stay at Saul, in Down, where he made few converts, and +celebrated Mass in a barn; proceeding northward he found himself rejected with +scorn by his old master, Milcho, of Slemish. No doubt it appeared an +unpardonable audacity in the eyes of the proud Pagan, that his former slave +should attempt to teach 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 blow against Paganism at its most vital point. Having +learned that the monarch, Leary (<i>Laeghaire</i>), was to celebrate his +birthday with suitable rejoicings at Tara, on a day which happened to fall on +the eve of Easter, he resolved to proceed to Tara on that occasion, and to +confront the Druids in the midst of all the princes and magnates of the Island. +With this view he returned on his former course, and landed from his frail +barque at the mouth of the Boyne. Taking leave of the boatmen, he desired them +to wait for him a certain number of days, when, if they did not hear from him, +they might conclude him dead, and provide for their own safety. So saying he +set out, accompanied by the few disciples he had made, or brought from abroad, +to traverse on foot the great plain which stretches from the mouth of the Boyne +to Tara. If those sailors were Christians, as is most likely, we can conceive +with what anxiety they must have awaited tidings of an attempt so hazardous and +so eventful. +</p> + +<p> +The Christian proceeded on his way, and the first night of his journey lodged +with a hospitable chief, whose family he converted and baptized, especially +marking out a fine child named Beanen, called by him Benignus, from his sweet +disposition; who was destined to be one of his most efficient coadjutors, and +finally his successor in the Primatial see of Armagh. It was about the second +or third day when, travelling probably by the northern road, poetically called +"the Slope of the Chariots," the Christian adventurers came in sight of the +roofs of Tara. Halting on a neighbouring eminence they surveyed the citadel of +Ancient Error, like soldiers about to assault an enemy's stronghold. The aspect +of the royal hill must have been highly imposing. The building towards the +north was the Banquet Hall, then thronged with the celebrants of the King's +birth-day, measuring from north to south 360 feet in length by 40 feet wide. +South of this hall was the King's Rath, or residence, enclosing an area of 280 +yards in diameter, and including several detached buildings, such as the house +of Cormac, and the house of the hostages. Southward still stood the new rath of +the reigning king, and yet farther south, the rath of Queen Mab, probably +uninhabited even then. The intervals between the buildings were at some points +planted, for we know that magnificent trees shaded the well of Finn, and the +well of Newnaw, from which all the raths were supplied with water. Imposing at +any time, Tara must have looked its best at the moment Patrick first beheld it, +being in the pleasant season of spring, and decorated in honour of the +anniversary of the reigning sovereign. +</p> + +<p> +One of the religious ceremonies employed by the Druids to heighten the +solemnity of the occasion, was to order all the fires of Tara and Meath to be +quenched, in order to rekindle them instantaneously from a sacred fire +dedicated to the honour of their god. But Patrick, either designedly or +innocently, anticipated this striking ceremony, 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 excited more horror and tumult among +the company there assembled, than did the sight of that unlicensed blaze in the +distance. Orders were issued to drag the offender against the laws and the gods +of the Island before them, and the punishment in store for him was already +decreed in every heart. The Preacher, followed by his trembling disciples, +ascended "the Slope of the Chariots," surrounded by menacing minions of the +Pagan law, and regarded with indignation by astonished spectators. As he came +he recited Latin Prayers to the Blessed Trinity, beseeching their protection +and direction in this trying hour. Contrary to courteous custom no one at first +rose to offer him a seat. At last a chieftain, touched with mysterious +admiration for the stranger, did him that kindness. Then it was demanded of +him, why he had dared to violate the laws of the country, and to defy its +ancient gods. On this text the Christian Missionary spoke. The place of +audience was in the open air, on that eminence, the home of so many kings, +which commands one of the most agreeable prospects in any landscape. The eye of +the inspired orator, pleading the cause of all the souls that hereafter, till +the end of time, might inhabit the land, could discern within the spring-day +horizon, the course of the Blackwater and the Boyne before they blend into one; +the hills of Cavan to the far north; with the royal hill of Tailtean in the +foreground; the wooded heights of Slane and Skreen, and the four ancient roads, +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 +confronted the subtle Paganism of Athens, on the hill of Mars, none of those +who walked in his steps ever stood out in more glorious relief than Patrick, +surrounded by Pagan Princes, and a Pagan Priesthood, on the hill of Tara. +</p> + +<p> +The defence of the fire he had kindled, unlicensed, soon extended into wider +issues. Who were the gods against whom he had offended? Were they true gods or +false? They had their priests: could they maintain the divinity of such gods, +by argument, or by miracle? For his God, he, though unworthy, was ready to +answer, yea, right ready to die. His God had become man, and had died for man. +His name alone was sufficient to heal all diseases; to raise the very dead to +life. Such, we learn from the old biographers, was the line of Patrick's +argument. This sermon ushered in a controversy. The king's guests, who had come +to feast and rejoice, remained to listen and to meditate. With the impetuosity +of the national character—with all its passion for debate—they +rushed into this new conflict, some on one side, some on the other. The +daughters of the king and many others—the Arch-Druid himself—became +convinced and were baptized. The missionaries obtained powerful protectors, and +the king assigned to Patrick the pleasant fort of Trim, as a present residence. +From that convenient distance, he could readily return at any moment, to +converse with the king's guests and the members of his household. +</p> + +<p> +The Druidical superstition never recovered the blow it received that day at +Tara. The conversion of the Arch-Druid and the Princesses, was, of itself, +their knell of doom. Yet they held their ground during the remainder of this +reign—twenty-five years longer (A.D. 458). The king himself never became +a Christian, though he tolerated the missionaries, and deferred more and more +every year to the Christian party. He sanctioned an expurgated code of the +laws, prepared under the direction of Patrick, from which every positive +element of Paganism was rigidly excluded. He saw, unopposed, the chief idol of +his race, overthrown on "the Plain of Prostration," at Sletty. Yet withal he +never consented to be baptized; and only two years before his decease, we find +him swearing to a treaty, in the old Pagan form—"by the Sun, and the +Wind, and all the Elements." The party of the Druids at first sought to stay +the progress of Christianity by violence, and even attempted, more than once, +to assassinate Patrick. Finding these means ineffectual they tried ridicule and +satire. In this they were for some time seconded by the Bards, men warmly +attached to their goddess of song and their lives of self-indulgence. All in +vain. The day of the idols was fast verging into everlasting night in Erin. +Patrick and his disciples were advancing from conquest to conquest. Armagh and +Cashel came in the wake of Tara, and Cruachan was soon to follow. Driven from +the high places, the obdurate Priests of Bel took refuge in the depths of the +forest and in the islands of the sea, wherein the Christian anchorites of the +next age were 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 much for the habits and traditions of the people, and so made +the transition as easy, from darkness into the light, as Nature makes the +transition from night to morning. He seven times visited in person every +mission in the kingdom, performing the six first "circuits" on foot, but the +seventh, on account of his extreme age, he was borne in a chariot. The pious +munificence of the successors of Leary, had surrounded him with a household of +princely proportions. Twenty-four persons, mostly ecclesiastics, were chosen +for this purpose: a bell-ringer, a psalmist, a cook, a brewer, a chamberlain, +three smiths, three artificers, and three embroiderers are reckoned of the +number. These last must be considered as employed in furnishing the interior of +the new churches. A scribe, a shepherd to guard his flocks, and a charioteer +are also mentioned, and their proper names given. How different this following +from the little boat's crew, he had left waiting tidings from Tara, in such +painful apprehension, at the mouth of the Boyne, in 432. Apostolic zeal, and +unrelaxed discipline had wrought these wonders, during a lifetime prolonged far +beyond the ordinary age of man. +</p> + +<p> +The fifth century was drawing to a close, and the days of Patrick were +numbered. Pharamond and the Franks had sway on the Netherlands; Hengist and the +Saxons on South Britain; Clovis had led his countrymen across the Rhine into +Gaul; the Vandals had established themselves in Spain and North Africa; the +Ostrogoths were supreme in Italy. The empire of barbarism had succeeded to the +empire of Polytheism; dense darkness covered the semi-Christian countries of +the old Roman empire, but happily daylight still lingered in the West. Patrick, +in good season, had done his work. And as sometimes, God seems to bring round +His ends, contrary to the natural order of things, so the spiritual sun of +Europe was now destined to rise in the West, and return on its light-bearing +errand towards the East, dispelling in its path, Saxon, Frankish, and German +darkness, until at length it reflected back on Rome herself, the light derived +from Rome. +</p> + +<p> +On the 17th of March, in the year of our Lord 493, Patrick breathed his last in +the monastery of Saul, erected on the site of that barn where he had first said +Mass. He was buried with national honours in the Church of Armagh, to which he +had given the Primacy over all the churches of Ireland; and such was the +concourse of mourners, and the number of Masses offered for his eternal repose, +that from the day of his death till the close of the year, the sun is +poetically said never to have set—so brilliant and so continual was the +glare of tapers and torches. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap04"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br/> +THE CONSTITUTION, AND HOW THE KINGS KEPT IT.</h3> + +<p> +We have fortunately still existing the main provisions of that constitution +which was prepared under the auspices of Saint Patrick, and which, though not +immediately, nor simultaneously, was in the end accepted by all Erin as its +supreme law. It is contained in a volume called "the Book of Rights," and in +its printed form (the Dublin bilingual edition of 1847), fills some 250 octavo +pages. This book may be said to contain the original institutes of Erin under +her Celtic Kings: "the Brehon laws," (which have 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 Constitution in the one case, or to +the collective Federal and State Constitutions in the other. Let us endeavour +to comprehend what this ancient Irish Constitution was like, and how the Kings +received it, at first. +</p> + +<p> +There were, as we saw in the first chapter, beside the existing four Provinces, +whose names are familiar to every one, a fifth principality of Meath. Each of +the Provinces was subdivided into chieftainries, of which there were at least +double or treble as many as there are now counties. The connection between the +chief and his Prince, or the Prince and his monarch, was not of the nature of +feudal obedience; for the fee-simple of the soil was never supposed to be +vested in the sovereign, nor was the King considered to be the fountain of all +honour. The Irish system blended the aristocratic and democratic elements more +largely than the monarchical. Everything proceeded by election, but all the +candidates should be of noble blood. The Chiefs, Princes, and Monarchs, so +selected, were bound together by certain customs and tributes, originally +invented by the genius of the Druids, and afterwards adopted and enforced by +the authority of the Bishops. The tributes were paid in kind, and consisted of +cattle, horses, foreign-born slaves, hounds, oxen, scarlet mantles, coats of +mail, chess-boards and chess-men, drinking cups, and other portable articles of +value. The quantity in every case due from a King to his subordinate, or from a +subordinate to his King—for the gifts and grants were often +reciprocal—is precisely stated in every instance. Besides these rights, +this constitution defines the "prerogatives" of the five Kings on their +journeys through each other's territory, their accession to power, or when +present in the General Assemblies of the Kingdom. It contains, besides, a very +numerous array of "prohibitions"—acts which neither the Ard-Righ nor any +other Potentate may lawfully do. Most of these have reference to old local +Pagan ceremonies in which the Kings once bore a leading part, but which were +now strictly prohibited; others are of inter-Provincial significance, and +others, again, are rules of personal conduct. Among the prohibitions of the +monarch the first is, that the sun must never rise on him in his bed at Tara; +among his prerogatives he was entitled to banquet on the first of August, on +the fish of the Boyne, fruit from the Isle of Man, cresses from the Brosna +river, venison from Naas, and to drink the water of the well of Talla: in other +words, he was entitled to eat on that day, of the produce, whether of earth or +water, of the remotest bounds, as well as of the very heart of his mensal +domain. The King of Leinster was "prohibited" from upholding the Pagan +ceremonies within his province, or to encamp for more than a week in certain +districts; but he was "privileged" to feast on the fruits of Almain, to drink +the ale of Cullen, and to preside over the games of Carman, (Wexford.) His +colleague of Munster was "prohibited" from encamping a whole week at Killarney +or on the Suir, and from mustering a martial host 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 north Leinster; and +to obtain a supply of cattle from Connaught, at the time "of the singing of the +cuckoo." The Connaught King had five other singular "prohibitions" imposed on +him—evidently with reference to some old Pagan rites—and his +"prerogatives" were hostages from Galway, the monopoly of the chase in Mayo, +free quarters in Murrisk, in the same neighbourhood, and to marshal his +border-host at Athlone to confer with the tribes of Meath. The ruler of Ulster +was also forbidden to indulge in such superstitious practices as observing +omens of birds, or drinking 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 mustering his border army in the plains of Louth; free +quarters in Armagh for three nights for his troops before setting out on an +expedition; and to confine his hostages in Dunseverick, a strong fortress near +the Giant's Causeway. Such were the principal checks imposed upon the +individual caprice of Monarchs and Princes; the plain inference from all which +is, that under the Constitution of Patrick, a Prince who clung to any remnant +of ancient Paganism, might lawfully be refused those rents and dues which alone +supported his dignity. In other words, disguised as it may be to us under +ancient forms, "the Book of Rights" establishes Christianity as the law of the +land. All national usages and customs, not conflicting with this supreme law, +were recognized and sanctioned by it. The internal revenues in each particular +Province were modelled upon the same general principle, with one memorable +exception—the special tribute which Leinster paid to Munster—and +which was the cause of more bloodshed than all other sources of domestic +quarrel combined. The origin of this tax is surrounded with fable, but it +appears to have arisen out of the reaction which took place, when Tuathal, "the +Legitimate," was restored to the throne of his ancestors, after the successful +revolt of the Belgic bondsmen. Leinster seems to have clung longest to the +Belgic revolution, and to have submitted only after repeated defeats. Tuathal, +therefore, imposed on that Province this heavy and degrading tax, compelling +its Princes not only to render him and his successors immense herds of cattle, +but also 150 male and female slaves, to do the menial offices about the palace +of Tara. With a refinement of policy, as far-seeing as it was cruel, the +proceeds of the tax were to be divided one-third to Ulster, one-third to +Connaught, and the remainder between the Queen of the Monarch and the ruler of +Munster. In this way all the other Provinces became interested in enforcing +this invidious and oppressive enactment upon Leinster which, of course, was +withheld whenever it could be refused with the smallest probability of success. +Its resistance, and enforcement, especially by the kings of Munster, will be +found a constant cause of civil war, even in Christian times. +</p> + +<p> +The sceptre of Ireland, from her conversion to the time of Brian, was almost +solely in the hands of the northern Hy-Nial, the same family as the O'Neills. +All the kings of the sixth and seventh centuries were of that line. In the +eighth century (from 709 to 742), the southern annalists style Cathal, King of +Munster, Ard-Righ; in the ninth century (840 to 847), they give the same high +title to Felim, King of Munster; and in the eleventh century Brian possessed +that dignity for the twelve last years 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 the sceptre exclusively in their own +hands, during the five first Christian centuries. Yet on every occasion, the +ancient forms of election, (or procuring the adhesion of the Princes), had to +be gone through. Perfect unanimity, however, was not required; a majority equal +to two-thirds seems to have sufficed. If the candidate had the North in his +favour, and one Province of the South, he was considered entitled to take +possession of Tara; if he were a Southern, he should be seconded either by +Connaught or Ulster, before he could lawfully possess himself of the supreme +power. The benediction of the Archbishop of Armagh, seems to have been +necessary to confirm the choice of the Provincials. The monarchs, like the +petty kings, were crowned or "made" on the summit of some lofty mound prepared +for that purpose; an hereditary officer, appointed to that duty, presented him +with a white wand perfectly straight, as an emblem of the purity and +uprightness which should guide all his decisions, and, clothed with his royal +robes, the new ruler descended among his people, and solemnly swore to protect +their rights and to administer equal justice to all. This was the civil +ceremony; the solemn blessing took place in a church, and is supposed to be the +oldest form of coronation service observed anywhere in Christendom. +</p> + +<p> +A ceremonial, not without dignity, regulated the gradations of honour, in the +General Assemblies of Erin. The time of meeting was the great Pagan Feast of +Samhain, the 1st of November. A feast of three days opened and closed the +Assembly, and during its sittings, crimes of violence committed on those in +attendance were punished with instant death. The monarch himself had no power +to pardon any violator of this established law. The <i>Chiefs</i> of +territories sat, each in an appointed seat, under his own shield; the seats +being arranged by order of the Ollamh, or Recorder, whose duty it was to +preserve the muster-roll, containing the names of all the living nobles. The +<i>Champions</i>, or leaders of military bands, occupied a secondary position, +each sitting under his own shield. Females and spectators of an inferior rank +were excluded; the Christian clergy naturally stepped into the empty places of +the Druids, and were placed immediately next the monarch. +</p> + +<p> +We shall now briefly notice the principal acts of the first Christian kings, +during the century immediately succeeding St. Patrick's death. Of OLLIOL, who +succeeded Leary, we cannot say with certainty that he was a Christian. His +successor, LEWY, son of Leary, we are expressly told was killed by lightning +(A.D. 496), for "having violated the law of Patrick"—that is, probably, +for having practised some of those Pagan rites forbidden to the monarchs by the +revised constitution. His successor, MURKERTACH, son of Ere, was a professed +Christian, though a bad one, since he died by the vengeance of a concubine +named Sheen, (that is, <i>storm</i>,) whom he had once put away at the instance +of his spiritual adviser, but whom he had not the courage—though brave as +a lion in battle—to keep away (A.D. 527). TUATHAL, "the Rough," succeeded +and reigned for seven years, when he was assassinated by the tutor of DERMID, +son of Kerbel, a rival whom he had driven into exile. DERMID immediately seized +on the throne (A.D. 534), and for twenty eventful years bore sway over all +Erin. He appears to have had quite as much of the old leaven of Paganism in his +composition—at least in his youth and prime—as either Lewy or +Leary. He kept Druids about his person, despised "the right of sanctuary" +claimed by the Christian clergy, and observed, with all the ancient +superstitious ceremonial, the national games at Tailteen. In his reign, the +most remarkable event was the public curse pronounced on Tara, by a Saint whose +sanctuary the reckless monarch had violated, in dragging a prisoner from the +very horns of the altar, and putting him to death. For this offence—the +crowning act of a series of aggressions on the immunities claimed by the +clergy—the Saint, whose name was Ruadan, and the site of whose sanctuary +is still known as Temple-Ruadan in Tipperary, proceeded to Tara, accompanied by +his clergy, and, walking round the royal rath, solemnly excommunicated the +monarch, and anathematized the place. The far-reaching consequences of this +awful exercise of spiritual power are traceable for a thousand years through +Irish history. No king after Dermid resided permanently upon the hill of Tara. +Other royal houses there were in Meath—at Tailteen, at the hill of Usna, +and on the margin of the beautiful Lough Ennell, near the present +Castlepollard, and at one or other of these, after monarchs held occasional +court; but those of the northern race made their habitual home in their own +patrimony near Armagh, or on the celebrated hill of Aileach. The date of the +malediction which left Tara desolate is the year of our Lord, 554. The end of +this self-willed semi-Pagan (Dermid) was in unison with his life; he was slain +in battle by Black Hugh, Prince of Ulster, two years after the desolation of +Tara. +</p> + +<p> +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 important reign of Hugh the Second, which lasted twenty-seven years (A.D. +566 to 593), and was marked by the establishment of the Independence of the +Scoto-Irish Colony in North Britain, and by other noteworthy events. But these +twenty-seven years deserve a chapter to themselves. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap05"></a>CHAPTER V.<br/> +REIGN OF HUGH II.—THE IRISH COLONY IN SCOTLAND OBTAINS ITS +INDEPENDENCE.</h3> + +<p> +Twenty-seven years is a long reign, and the years of King-Hugh II. were marked +with striking events. One religious and one political occurrence, however, +threw all others into the shade—the conversion of the Highlands and +Islands of Scotland (then called Alba or Albyn by the Gael, and Caledonia by +the Latins), and the formal recognition, after an exciting controversy, of the +independence of the Milesian colony in Scotland. These events follow each other +in the order of time, and stand partly in the relation of cause and effect. +</p> + +<p> +The first authentic Irish immigration into Scotland seems to have taken place +about the year of our Lord 258. The pioneers crossed over from Antrim to +Argyle, where the strait is less than twenty-five miles wide. Other adventurers +followed at intervals, but it is a fact to be deplored, that no passages in our +own, and in all other histories, have been so carelessly kept as the records of +emigration. The movements of rude masses of men, the first founders of states +and cities, are generally lost in obscurity, or misrepresented by patriotic +zeal. Several successive settlements of the Irish in Caledonia can be faintly +traced from the middle of the third till the beginning of the sixth century. +About the year 503, they had succeeded in establishing a flourishing +principality among the cliffs and glens of Argyle. The limits of their first +territory cannot be exactly laid down; but it soon spread north into Rosshire, +and east into the present county of Perth. It was a land of stormy friths and +fissured headlands, of deep defiles and snowy summits. "'Tis a far cry to Lough +Awe," is still a lowland proverb, and Lough Awe was in the very heart of that +old Irish settlement. +</p> + +<p> +The earliest emigrants to Argyle were Pagans, while the latter 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 from the +occupation followed by his father, is sometimes fancifully compared to our Lord +and Saviour himself. Parishes in Cantyre, in Islay, and in Carrick, still bear +the name of St. Kieran as patron. But no systematic attempt—none at least +of historic memory—was made to convert the remoter Gael and the other +races then inhabiting Alba—the Picts, Britons, and Scandinavians, until +the year of our era, 565, Columba or COLUMBKILL, a Bishop of the royal race of +Nial, undertook that task, on a scale commensurate with its magnitude. This +celebrated man has always ranked with Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget as the +most glorious triad of the Irish Calendar. He was, at the time he left Ireland, +in the prime of life—his 44th year. Twelve companions, the apostolic +number, accompanied him on his voyage. For thirty-four years he was the +legislator and captain of Christianity in those northern regions. The King of +the Picts received baptism at his hands; the Kings of the Scottish colony, his +kinsmen, received the crown from him on their accession. The islet of I., or +Iona, as presented to him by one of these princes. Here he and his companions +built with their own hands their parent-house, and from this Hebridean rock in +after times was shaped the destinies, spiritual and temporal, of many tribes +and kingdoms. +</p> + +<p> +The growth of Iona was as the growth of the grain of mustard seed mentioned in +the Gospel, even during the life 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 hundred monasteries in Ireland +looked to that exiled saint as their patriarch. His rule of monastic life, +adopted either from the far East, from the recluses of the Thebaid, or from his +great contemporary, Saint Benedict, was sought for by Chiefs, Bards, and +converted Druids. Clients, seeking direction from his wisdom, or protection +through his power, were constantly arriving and departing from his sacred isle. +His days were divided between manual labour and the study and transcribing of +the Sacred Scriptures. He and his disciples, says the Venerable Bede, in whose +age Iona still flourished, "neither thought of nor loved anything in +<i>this</i> world." Some writers have represented Columbkill's <i>Culdees</i>, +(which in English means simply "Servants of God,") as a married clergy; so far +is this from the truth, that we now know, no woman was allowed to land on the +island, nor even a cow to be kept there, for, said the holy Bishop, "wherever +there is a cow there will be a woman, and wherever there is a woman there will +be mischief." +</p> + +<p> +In the reign of King Hugh, three domestic questions arose of great importance; +one was the refusal of the Prince of Ossory to pay tribute to the Monarch; the +other, the proposed extinction of the Bardic Order, and the third, the attempt +to tax the Argyle Colony. The question between Ossory and Tara, we may pass +over as of obsolete interest, but the other two deserve fuller mention: +</p> + +<p> +The Bards—who were the Editors, Professors, Registrars and +Record-keepers—the makers and masters of public opinion in those days, +had reached in this reign a number exceeding 1,200 in Meath and Ulster alone. +They claimed all the old privileges of free quarters on their travels and +freeholdings at home, which were freely granted to their order when it was in +its infancy. Those chieftains who refused them anything, however extravagant, +they lampooned and libelled, exciting their own people and other princes +against them. Such was their audacity, that some of them are said to have +demanded from King Hugh the royal brooch, one of the most highly prized +heirlooms of the reigning family. Twice in the early part of this reign they +had been driven from the royal residence, and obliged to take refuge in the +little principality of Ulidia (or Down); the third time the monarch had sworn +to expel them utterly from the kingdom. In Columbkill, however, they were +destined to find a most powerful mediator, both from his general sympathy with +the Order, being himself no mean poet, and from the fact that the then +Arch-Poet, or chief of the order, Dallan Forgaill, was one of his own pupils. +</p> + +<p> +To settle this vexed question of the Bards, as well as to obtain the sanction +of the estates to the taxation of Argyle, King Hugh called a General Assembly +in the year 590. The place of meeting was no longer the interdicted Tara, but +for the monarch's convenience a site farther north was chosen—the hill of +Drom-Keth, in the present county of Derry. Here came in rival state and +splendour the Princes of the four Provinces, and other principal chieftains. +The dignitaries of the Church also attended, and an occasional Druid was +perhaps to be seen in the train of some unconverted Prince. The pretensions of +the mother-country to impose a tax upon her Colony, were sustained by the +profound learning and venerable name of St. Colman, Bishop of Dromore, one of +the first men of his Order. +</p> + +<p> +When Columbkill "heard of the calling together of that General Assembly," and +of the questions to be there decided, he resolved to attend, notwithstanding +the stern vow of his earlier life, never to look on Irish soil again. Under a +scruple of this kind, he is said to have remained blindfold, from his arrival +in his fatherland, till his return to Iona. He was accompanied by an imposing +train of attendants; by Aidan, Prince of Argyle, so deeply interested in the +issue, and a suite of over one hundred persons, twenty of them Abbots or +Bishops. Columbkill spoke for his companions; for already, as in Bede's time, +the Abbots of Iona exercised over all the clergy north of the Humber, but still +more directly north of the Tweed, a species of supremacy similar to that which +the successors of St. Benedict and St. Bernard exercised, in turn, over +Prelates and Princes on the European Continent. +</p> + +<p> +When the Assembly was opened the holy Bishop of Dromore stated the arguments in +favour of Colonial taxation with learning and effect. Hugh himself impeached +the Bards for their licentious and lawless lives. Columbkill defended both +interests, and, by combining both, probably strengthened the friends of each. +It is certain that he carried the Assembly with him, both against the monarch +and those of the resident clergy, who had selected Colman as their spokesman. +The Bardic Order was spared. The doctors, or master-singers among them, were +prohibited from wandering from place to place; they were assigned residence +with the chiefs and princes; their losel attendants were turned over to honest +pursuits, and thus a great danger was averted, and one of the most essential of +the Celtic institutions being reformed and regulated, was preserved. Scotland +and Ireland have good reason to be grateful to the founder of Iona, for the +interposition that preserved to us the music, which is now admitted to be one +of the most precious inheritances of both countries. +</p> + +<p> +The proposed taxation Columbkill strenuously and successfully resisted. Up to +this time, the colonists had been bound only to furnish a contingent force, by +land and sea, when the King of Ireland went to war, and to make them an annual +present called "chief-rent." +</p> + +<p> +From the Book of Rights we learn that (at least at the time the existing +transcript was made) the Scottish Princes paid out of Alba, seven shields, +seven steeds, seven bondswomen, seven bondsmen, and seven hounds all of the +same breed. But the "chief-rent," or "eric for kindly blood," did not suffice +in the year 590 to satisfy King Hugh. The colony had grown great, and, like +some modern monarchs, he proposed to make it pay for its success. Columbkill, +though a native of Ireland, and a prince of its reigning house, was by choice a +resident of Caledonia, and he stood true to his adopted country. The Irish King +refused to continue the connection on the old conditions, and declared his +intention to visit Alba himself to enforce the tribute due; Columbkill, rising +in the Assembly, declared the Albanians "for ever free from the yoke," and +this, adds an old historian, "turned out to be the fact." From the whole +controversy we may conclude that Scotland never paid political tribute to +Ireland; that their relation was that rather of allies, than of sovereign and +vassal; that it resembled more the homage Carthage paid to Tyre, and Syracuse +to Corinth, than any modern form of colonial dependence; that a federal +connection existed by which, in time of war, the Scots of Argyle, and those of +Hibernia, were mutually bound to aid, assist, and defend each other. And this +natural and only connection, founded in the blood of both nations, sanctioned +by their early saints, confirmed by frequent intermarriage, by a common +language and literature, and by hostility to common enemies, the Saxons, Danes, +and Normans, grew into a political bond of unusual strength, and was cherished +with affection by both nations, long ages after the magnates assembled at +Drom-Keth had disappeared in the tombs of their fathers. +</p> + +<p> +The only unsettled question which remained after the Assembly at Drom-Keth +related to the Prince of Ossory. Five years afterwards (A.D. 595), King Hugh +fell in an attempt to collect the special tribute from all Leinster, of which +we have already heard something, and shall, by and by, hear more. He was an +able and energetic ruler, and we may be sure "did not let the sun rise on him +in his bed at Tara," or anywhere else. In his time great internal changes were +taking place in the state of society. The ecclesiastical order had become more +powerful than any other in the state. The Bardic Order, thrice proscribed, were +finally subjected to the laws, over which they had at one time insolently +domineered. Ireland's only colony—unless we except the immature +settlement in the Isle of Man, under Cormac Longbeard—was declared +independent of the parent country, through the moral influence of its +illustrious Apostle, whose name many of its kings and nobles were of old proud +to bear—<i>Mal-Colm</i>, meaning "servant of Columb," or Columbkill. But +the memory of the sainted statesman who decreed the separation of the two +populations, so far as claims to taxation could be preferred, preserved, for +ages, the better and far more profitable alliance, of an ancient friendship, +unbroken by a single national quarrel during a thousand years. +</p> + +<p> +A few words more on the death and character of this celebrated man, whom we are +now to part with at the close of the sixth, as we parted from Patrick at the +close of the fifth century. His day of departure came in 596. Death found him +at the ripe age of almost fourscore, <i>stylus</i> in hand, toiling cheerfully +over the vellum page. It was the last night of the week when the presentiment +of his end came strongly upon him. "This day," he said to his disciple and +successor, Dermid, "is called the day of rest, and such it will be for me, for +it will finish my labours." Laying down the manuscript, he added, "let Baithen +finish the rest." Just after Matins, on the Sunday morning, he peacefully +passed away from the midst of his brethren. +</p> + +<p> +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 every evening at sunset, to look over towards the coast of his +native land. The spot is called by the islanders to this day, "the place of the +back turned upon Ireland." The fishermen of the Hebrides long believed they +could see their 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 such tales could be told and cherished from generation to +generation. +</p> + +<p> +Both Education and Nature had well fitted Columbkill to the great task of +adding another realm to the empire of Christendom. His princely birth gave him +power over his own proud kindred; his golden eloquence and glowing +verse—the fragments of which still move and delight the Gaelic +scholar—gave him fame and weight in the Christian schools which had +suddenly sprung up in every glen and island. As prince, he stood on equal terms +with princes; as poet, he was affiliated to that all-powerful Bardic Order, +before whose awful anger kings trembled, and warriors succumbed in +superstitious dread. A spotless soul, a disciplined body, an indomitable +energy, an industry that never wearied, a courage that never blanched, a +sweetness and courtesy that won all hearts, a tenderness for others that +contrasted strongly with his rigour towards himself—these were the +secrets of the success of this eminent missionary—these were the miracles +by which he accomplished the conversion of so many barbarous tribes and Pagan +Princes. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap06"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br/> +KINGS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY.</h3> + +<p> +THE five years of the sixth century, which remained after the death of Hugh +II., were filled by Hugh III., son of Dermid, the semi-Pagan. Hugh IV. +succeeded (A.D. 599) and reigned for several years; two other kings, of small +account, reigned seven years; Donald II. (A.D. 624) reigned sixteen years; +Connall and Kellach, brothers, (A.D. 640) reigned jointly sixteen years; they +were succeeded (A.D. 656) by Dermid and Blathmac, brothers, who reigned jointly +seven years; Shanasagh, son of the former, reigned six years; Kenfala, four; +Finnacta, "the hospitable," twenty years, and Loingsech (A.D. 693) eight years. +</p> + +<p> +Throughout this century the power of the Church was constantly on the increase, +and is visible in many important 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 seventh century. +</p> + +<p> +The reign, of Donald II. is notable for the passing away of most of those +saintly men, the second generation of Irish abbots and bishops; for the +foundation of the celebrated 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. +</p> + +<p> +The cause of the battle was the pretension of the petty Prince of Ulidia, which +comprised little more than the present county of Down, to be recognised as +Prince of all Ulster. Now the Hy-Nial family, not only had long given monarchs +to all Ireland, but had also the lion's share of their own Province, and King +Donald as their head could not permit their ascendency to be disputed. The +ancestors of the present pretender, Congal, surnamed "the squint-eyed," had +twice received and cherished the licentious Bards when under the ban of Tara, +and his popularity with that still powerful order was one prop of his ambition. +It is pretty clear also that the last rally of Druidism against Christianity +took place behind his banner, on the plain of Moira. It was the year 637, and +preparations had long gone on on both sides for a final trial of strength. +Congal had recruited numerous bands of Saxons, Britons, Picts and Argyle Scots, +who poured into the harbours of Down for months, and were marshalled on the +banks of the Lagan, to sustain his cause. The Poets of succeeding ages have +dwelt much in detail on the occurrences of this memorable day. It was what +might strictly be called a pitched battle, time and place being fixed by mutual +agreement. King Donald was accompanied by his Bard, who described to him, as +they came in sight, the several standards of Congal's host, and who served +under them. Conspicuous above all, the ancient banner of the Red Branch +Knights-"a yellow lion wrought on green satin"—floated over Congal's +host. On the other side the monarch commanded in person, accompanied by his +kinsmen, the sons of Hugh III. The red hand of Tirowen, the cross of +Tirconnell, the eagle and lion of Innishowen, the axes of Fanad, were in his +ranks, ranged closely round his own standard. The cause of the Constitution and +the Church prevailed, and Druidism mourned 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 victory at Emania and to receive +the benediction of the Church at Armagh. +</p> + +<p> +The sons of Hugh III., Dermid and Blathmac, zealous and pious Christian +princes, survived the field of Moira and other days of danger, and finally +attained the supreme power—A.D. 656. Like the two kings of Sparta they +reigned jointly, dividing between them the labours and cares of State. In their +reign, that terrible scourge, called in Irish, "the yellow plague," after +ravaging great part of Britain, broke out with undiminished virulence in Erin +(A.D. 664). To heighten the awful sense of inevitable doom, an eclipse of the +sun occurred concurrently with the appearance of the pestilence on the first +Sunday in May. It was the season when the ancient sun-god had been accustomed +to receive his annual oblations, and we can well believe that those whose +hearts still trembled at the name of Bel, must have connected the eclipse and +the plague with the revolution in the national worship, and the overthrow of +the ancient gods on that "plain of prostration," where they had so long +received the homage of an entire people. Among the victims of this fearful +visitation—which, like the modern cholera, swept through all ranks and +classes of society, and returned in the same track for several successive +seasons—were very many of those venerated men, the third and fourth +generation of the Abbots and Bishops. The Munster King, and many of the +chieftain class shared the common lot. Lastly, the royal brothers fell +themselves victims to the epidemic, which so sadly signalizes their reign. +</p> + +<p> +The only conflicts that occurred on Irish soil with a Pictish or an Anglo-Saxon +force—if we except those who formed a contingent of Congal's army at +Moira—occurred in 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 or guarded against. As leading to the mention of other interesting +events, we must set this inroad clearly before the reader. +</p> + +<p> +The Saxons had now been for four centuries in Britain, the older inhabitants of +which—Celts like the Gauls and Irish—they had cruelly harassed, +just as the Milesian Irish oppressed their Belgic predecessors, and as the +Normans, in turn, will be found oppressing both Celt and Saxon in England and +Ireland. Britain had been divided by the Saxon leaders into eight separate +kingdoms, the people and princes of several of which were converted to +Christianity in the fifth, sixth, and seventh century, though some of them did +not receive the Gospel before the beginning of the eighth. The Saxons of Kent +and the Southern Kingdoms generally were converted by missionaries from France +or Rome, or native preachers of the first or second Christian generation; those +of Northumbria recognise as their Apostles St. Aidan and St. Cuthbert, two +Fathers from Iona. The Kingdom of Northumbria, as the name implies, embraced +nearly all the country from the Humber to the Pictish border. York was its +capital, and the seat of its ecclesiastical primacy, where, at the time we +speak of, the illustrious Wilfrid was maintaining, with a wilful and +unscrupulous king, a struggle not unlike that which Becket maintained with +Henry II. This Prince, Egfrid by name, was constantly engaged in wars with his +Saxon cotemporaries, or the Picts and Scots. In the summer of 683 he sent an +expedition under the command of Beort, one of his earls, to ravage the coast of +Leinster. Beort landed probably in the Boyne, and swept over the rich plain of +Meath with fire and sword, burning churches, driving off herds and flocks, and +slaughtering the clergy and the husbandmen. The piety of an after age saw in +the retribution which overtook Egfrid the following year, when he was slain by +the Picts and Scots, the judgment of Heaven, avenging the unprovoked wrongs of +the Irish. His Scottish conquerors, returning good for evil, carried his body +to Iona, where it was interred with all due honour. +</p> + +<p> +Iona was now in the zenith of its glory. The barren rock, about three miles in +length, was covered with monastic buildings, and its cemetery was already +adorned with the tombs of saints and kings. Five successors of Columbkill slept +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 of +his conquerors. This was Abbot Adamnan, to whom Ireland and Scotland are +equally indebted for his admirable writings, and who might almost dispute with +Bede himself, the title of Father of British History. Adamnan regarded the fate +of Egfrid, we may be sure, in the light of a judgment on him for his misdeeds, +as Bede and British Christians very generally did. He learned, too, that there +were in Northumbria several Christian captives, carried off in Beort's +expedition and probably sold into slavery. Now every missionary that ever went +out from Iona, had taught that to reduce Christians to slavery was wholly +inconsistent with a belief in the doctrines of the Gospel. St. Aidan, the +Apostle of Northumbria, had refused the late Egfrid's father absolution, on one +occasion, until he solemnly promised to restore their freedom to certain +captives of this description. In the same spirit Adamnan voluntarily undertook +a journey to York, where Aldfrid (a Prince educated in Ireland, and whose +"Itinerary" of Ireland we still have) now reigned. The Abbot of Iona succeeded +in his humane mission, and crossing over to his native land, he restored sixty +of the captives to their homes and kindred. While the liberated exiles rejoiced +on the plain of Meath, the tent of the Abbot of Iona was pitched on the rath of +Tara—a fact which would seem to indicate that already, in little more +than a century since the interdict had fallen on it, the edifices which made so +fine a show in the days of Patrick were ruined and uninhabitable. Either at +Tara, or some other of the royal residences, Adamnan on this visit procured the +passing of a law, (A.D. 684,) forbidding women to accompany an army to battle, +or to engage personally in the conflict. The mild maternal genius of +Christianity is faithfully exhibited in such a law, which consummates the glory +of the worthy successor of Columbkill. It is curious here to observe that it +was not until another hundred years had past—not till the beginning of +the ninth century—that the clergy were "exempt" from military service. So +slow and patient is the process by which Christianity infuses itself into the +social life of a converted people! +</p> + +<p> +The long reign of FINNACTA, the hospitable, who may, for his many other +virtues, be called also the pious, was rendered farther remarkable in the +annals of the country by the formal abandonment of the special tax, so long +levied upon, and so long and desperately resisted by, the men of Leinster. The +all-powerful intercessor in this case was Saint Moling, of the royal house of +Leinster, and Bishop of Fernamore (now Ferns). In the early part of his reign +Finnacta seems not to have been disposed to collect this invidious tax by +force; but, yielding to other motives, he afterwards took a different view of +his duty, and marched into Leinster to compel its payment. Here the holy +Prelate of Ferns met him, and related a Vision in which he had been instructed +to demand the abolition of the impost. The abolition, he contended, should not +be simply a suspension, but final and for ever. The tribute was, at this +period, enormous; 15,000 head of cattle annually. The decision must have been +made about the time that Abbot Adamnan was in Ireland, (A.D. 684,) and that +illustrious personage is said to have been opposed to the abolition. Abolished +it was, and though its re-enactment was often attempted, the authority of Saint +Moling's solemn settlement, prevented it from being re-enforced for any length +of time, except as a political or military infliction. +</p> + +<p> +Finnacta fell in battle in the 20th year of his long and glorious reign; and is +commemorated as a saint in the Irish calendar. St. Moling survived him three +years, and St. Adamnan, so intimately connected with his reign, ten years. The +latter revisited Ireland in 697, under the short reign of Loingsech, and +concerned himself chiefly in endeavouring to induce his countrymen to adopt the +Roman rule, as to the tonsure, and the celebration of Easter. On this occasion +there was an important Synod of the Clergy, under the presidency of Flan, +Archbishop of Armagh, held at Tara. Nothing could be more natural than such an +assembly in such a place, at such a period. In every recorded instance the +power of the clergy had been omnipotent in politics for above a century. St. +Patrick had expurgated the old constitution; St. Ruadan's curse drove the kings +from Tara; St. Columbkill had established the independence of Alba, and +preserved the Bardic Order; St. Moling had abolished the Leinster tribute. If +their power was irresistible in the sixth and especially in the seventh +centuries, we must do these celebrated Abbots and Bishops the justice to +remember that it was always exercised against the oppression of the weak by the +strong, to mitigate the horrors of war, to uphold the right of sanctuary (the +<i>Habeus Corpus</i> of that rude age), and for the maintenance and spread of +sound Christian principles. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap07"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br/> +KINGS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY.</h3> + +<p> +The kings of the eighth century are Congal II. (surnamed Kenmare), who reigned +seven years; Feargal, who reigned ten years; Forgartah, Kenneth, Flaherty, +respectively one, four, and seven years; Hugh V. (surnamed Allan), nine years; +Donald III., who reigned (A.D. 739-759) twenty years; Nial II. (surnamed Nial +of the Showers), seven years; and Donogh I., who reigned thirty-one years, A.D. +766-797. The obituaries of these kings show that we have fallen on a +comparatively peaceful age, since of the entire nine, but three perished in +battle. One retired to Armagh and one to Iona, where both departed in the +monastic habit; the others died either of sickness or old age. +</p> + +<p> +Yet the peaceful character of this century is but comparative, for in the first +quarter (A.D. 722), we have the terrible battle of Almain, between Leinster and +the Monarch, in which 30,000 men were stated to have engaged, and 7,000 to have +fallen. The Monarch who had double the number of the Leinster Prince, was +routed and slain, <i>apropos</i> of which we have a Bardic tale told, which +almost transports one to the far East, the simple lives and awful privileges of +the Hindoo Brahmins. It seems that some of King FEARGAL's army, in foraging for +their fellows, drove off the only cow of a hermit, who lived in seclusion near +a solitary little chapel called Killin. The enraged recluse, at the very moment +the armies were about to engage, appeared between them, regardless of personal +danger, denouncing ruin and death to the monarch's forces. And in this case, as +in others, to be found in every history, the prophecy, no doubt, helped to +produce its own fulfilment. The malediction of men dedicated to the service of +God, has often routed hosts as gallant as were marshalled on the field of +Almain. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +FLAHERTY, the next who succeeded, after a vigorous reign of seven years, +withdrew from the splendid cares of a crown, and passed the long remainder of +his life—thirty years—in the habit of a monk at Armagh. The heavy +burthen which he had cheerfully laid down, was taken up by a Prince, who +combined the twofold character of poet and hero. HUGH V. (surnamed Allan), the +son of FEARGAL, of whom we have just spoken, was the very opposite of his +father, in his veneration for the privileges of holy persons and places. His +first military achievement was undertaken in vindication of the rights of those +who were unable by arms to vindicate their own. Hugh Roin, Prince of the +troublesome little principality of Ulidia (Down), though well stricken in years +and old enough to know better, in one of his excursions had forcibly compelled +the clergy of the country through which he passed to give him free quarters, +contrary to the law everywhere existing. Congus, the Primate, jealous of the +exemptions of his order, complained of this sacrilege in a poetic message +addressed to Hugh Allan, who, as a Christian and a Prince, was bound to espouse +his quarrels. He marched into the territory of the offender, defeated him in +battle, cut off his head on the threshold of the Church of Faughard, and +marched back again, his host chanting a war song composed by their leader. +</p> + +<p> +In this reign died Saint Gerald of Mayo, an Anglo-Saxon Bishop, and apparently +the head of a colony of his countrymen, from whom that district is ever since +called "Mayo of the Saxons." The name, however, being a general one for +strangers from Britain about that period, just as Dane became for foreigners +from the Baltic in the next century, is supposed to be incorrectly applied: the +colony being, it is said, really from Wales, of old British stock, who had +migrated rather than live under the yoke of their victorious Anglo-Saxon Kings. +The descendants of these Welshmen are still to be traced, though intimately +intermingled with the original Belgic and later Milesian settlers in Mayo, +Sligo, and Galway—thus giving a peculiar character to that section of the +country, easily distinguishable from all the rest. +</p> + +<p> +Although Hugh Allan did not imitate his father's conduct towards ecclesiastics, +he felt bound by all-ruling custom to avenge his father's death. In all ancient +countries the kinsmen of a murdered man were both by law and custom the +avengers of his blood. The members of the Greek <i>phratry</i>, of the Roman +<i>fatria</i>, or <i>gens</i>, of the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon <i>guild</i>, +and of the mediaeval sworn <i>commune</i>, were all solemnly bound to avenge +the blood of any of their brethren, unlawfully slain. So that the repulsive +repetition of reprisals, which so disgusts the modern reader in our old annals, +is by no means a phenomenon peculiar to the Irish state of society. It was in +the middle age and in early times common to all Europe, to Britain and Germany, +as well as to Greece and Rome. It was, doubtless, under a sense of duty of this +sort that Hugh V. led into Leinster a large army (A.D. 733), and the day of +Ath-Senaid fully atoned for the day of Almain. Nine thousand of the men of +Leinster were left on the field, including most of their chiefs; the victorious +monarch losing a son, and other near kinsmen. Four years later, he himself fell +in an obscure contest near Kells, in the plain of Meath. Some of his quartrains +have come down to us, and they breathe a spirit at once religious and +heroic—such as must have greatly endeared the Prince who possessed it to +his companions in arms. We are not surprised, therefore, to find his reign a +favourite epoch with subsequent Bards and Storytellers. +</p> + +<p> +The long and prosperous reign of Donald III. succeeded (A.D. 739 to 759). He is +almost the only one of this series of Kings of whom it can be said that he +commanded in no notable battle. The annals of his reign are chiefly filled with +ordinary accidents, and the obits of the learned. But its literary and +religious record abounds with bright names and great achievements, as we shall +find when we come to consider the educational and missionary fruits of +Christianity in the eighth century. While on a pilgrimage to Durrow, a famous +Columbian foundation in Meath, and present King's County, Donald III. departed +this life, and in Durrow, by his own desire, his body was interred. +</p> + +<p> +Nial II. (surnamed of the Showers), son to FEARGAL and brother of the +warrior-Bard, Hugh V., was next invested with the white wand of sovereignty. He +was a prince less warlike and more pious than his elder brother. The +<i>soubriquet</i> attached to his name is accounted for by a Bardic tale, which +represents him as another Moses, at whose prayer food fell from heaven in time +of famine. Whatever "showers" fell or wonders were wrought in his reign, it is +certain that after enjoying the kingly office for seven years, Nial resigned, +and retired to Iona, there to pass the remainder of his days in penance and +meditation. Eight years he led the life of a monk in that sacred Isle, where +his grave is one of those of "the three Irish Kings," still pointed out in the +cemetery of the Kings. He is but one among several Princes, his cotemporaries, +who had made the same election. We learn in this same century, that Cellach, +son of the King of Connaught, died in Holy Orders, and that Bec, Prince of +Ulidia, and Ardgall, son of a later King of Connaught, had taken the "crostaff" +of the pilgrim, either for Iona or Armagh, or some more distant shrine. +Pilgrimages to Rome and to Jerusalem seem to have been begun even before this +time, as we may infer from St. Adamnan's work on the situation of the Holy +Places, of which Bede gives an abstract. +</p> + +<p> +The reign of Donogh I. is the longest and the last among the Kings of the +eighth century (A.D. 776 to 797). The Kings of Ireland had now not only +abandoned Tara, but one by one, the other royal residences in Meath as their +usual place of abode. As a consequence a local sovereignty sprung up in the +family of O'Melaghlin, a minor branch of the ruling race. This house developing +its power so unexpectedly, and almost always certain to have the national +forces under the command of a Patron Prince at their back, were soon involved +in quarrels about boundaries, both with Leinster and Munster. King Donogh, at +the outset of his reign, led his forces into both principalities, and without +battle received their hostages. Giving hostages—generally the sons of the +chiefs—was the usual form of ratifying any treaty. Generally also, the +Bishop of the district, or its most distinguished ecclesiastic, was called in +as witness of the terms, and both parties were solemnly sworn on the relics of +Saints—the Gospels of the Monasteries or Cathedrals—or the croziers +of their venerated founders. The breach of such a treaty was considered "a +violation of the relics of the saint," whose name had been invoked, and awful +penalties were expected to follow so heinous a crime. The hostages were then +carried to the residence of the King, to whom they were entrusted, and while +the peace lasted, enjoyed a parole freedom, and every consideration due to +their rank. If of tender age they were educated with the same care as the +children of the household. But when war broke out their situation was always +precarious, and sometimes dangerous. In a few instances they had even been put +to death, but this was considered a violation of all the laws both of +hospitality and chivalry; usually they were removed to some strong secluded +fort, and carefully guarded as pledges to be employed, according to the chances +and changes of the war. That Donogh preferred negotiation to war, we may infer +by his course towards Leinster and Munster, in the beginning of his reign, and +his "kingly parlee" at a later period (A.D. 783) with FIACHNA, of Ulidia, son +of that over-exacting Hugh Roin, whose head was taken from his shoulders at the +Church door of Faughard. This "kingly parlee" was held on an island off the +Methian shore, called afterwards "King's Island." But little good came of it. +Both parties still held their own views, so that the satirical poets asked what +was the use of the island, when one party "would not come upon the land, nor +the other upon the sea?" However, we needs must agree with King Donogh, that +war is the last resort, and is only to be tried when all other means have +failed. +</p> + +<p> +Twice during this reign the whole island was stricken with panic, by +extraordinary signs in the heavens, of huge serpents coiling themselves through +the stars, of fiery bolts flying like shuttles from one side of the horizon to +the other, or shooting downward directly to the earth. These atmospheric +wonders were accompanied by thunder and lightning so loud and so prolonged that +men hid themselves for fear in the caverns of the earth. The fairs and markets +were deserted by buyers and sellers; the fields were abandoned by the farmers; +steeples were rent by lightning, and fell to the ground; the shingled roofs of +churches caught fire and burned whole buildings. Shocks of earthquake were also +felt, and round towers and cyclopean masonry were strewn in fragments upon the +ground. These visitations first occurred in the second year of Donogh, and +returned again in 783. When, in the next decade, the first Danish descent was +made on the coast of Ulster (A.D. 794), these signs and wonders were +superstitiously supposed to have been the precursors of that far more terrible +and more protracted visitation. +</p> + +<p> +The Danes at first attracted little notice, but in the last year of Donogh +(A.D. 797) they returned in greater force, and swept rapidly along the coast of +Meath; it was reserved for his successors of the following centuries to face +the full brunt of this new national danger. +</p> + +<p> +But before encountering the fierce nations of the north, and the stormy period +they occupy, let us cast back a loving glance over the world-famous schools and +scholars of the last two centuries. Hitherto we have only spoken of certain +saints, in connection with high affairs of state. We must now follow them to +the college and the cloister, we must consider them as founders at home, and as +missionaries abroad; otherwise how could we estimate all that is at stake for +Erin and for Christendom, in the approaching combat with the devotees of +Odin,—the deadly enemies of all Christian institutions? +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap08"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br/> +WHAT THE IRISH SCHOOLS AND SAINTS DID IN THE THREE FIRST CHRISTIAN +CENTURIES.</h3> + +<p> +We have now arrived at the close of the third century, from the death of Saint +Patrick, and find ourselves on the eve of a protracted struggle with the +heathen warriors of Scandinavia; it is time, therefore, to look back on the +interval we have passed, and see what changes have been wrought in the land, +since its kings, instead of waiting to be attacked at home, had made the +surrounding sea "foam with the oars" of their outgoing expeditions. +</p> + +<p> +The most obvious change in the condition of the country is traceable in its +constitution and laws, into every part of which, as was its wont from the +beginning, the spirit of Christianity sought patiently to infuse itself. We +have already spoken of the expurgation of the constitution, which prohibited +the observance of Pagan rites to the kings, and imposed on them instead, +certain social obligations. This was a first change suggested by Saint Patrick, +and executed mainly by his disciple, Saint Benignus. We have seen the +legislative success which attended the measures of Columbkill, Moling, and +Adamnan; in other reforms of minor importance the paramount influence of the +clerical order may be easily traced. +</p> + +<p> +But it is in their relation as teachers of human and divine science that the +Irish Saints exercised their greatest power, not only over their own +countrymen, but over a considerable part of Europe. The intellectual leadership +of western Europe—the glorious ambition of the greatest nations—has +been in turn obtained by Italy, France, Britain and Germany. From the middle of +the sixth to the middle of the eighth century, it will hardly be disputed that +that leadership devolved on Ireland. All the circumstances of the sixth century +helped to confer it upon the newly converted western isle; the number of her +schools, and the wisdom, energy, and zeal of her masters, retained for her the +proud distinction for two hundred years. And when it passed away from her +grasp, she might still console herself with the grateful reflection that the +power she had founded and exercised, was divided among British and continental +schools, which her own <i>alumni</i> had largely contributed to form and +establish. In the northern Province, the schools most frequented were 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 +(<i>Ta-mun</i>), and Beg-Erin, the former near the banks of the 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 school of +"Mayo of the Saxons," and the schools of the Isles of Arran. These seats of +learning were almost all erected on the banks of rivers, in situations easy of +access, to the native or foreign student; a circumstance which proved most +disastrous to them when the sea kings of the north began to find their way to +the shores of the island. They derived their maintenance—not from taxing +their pupils—but in the first instance from public endowments. They were +essentially free schools; not only free as to the lessons given, but the +venerable Bede tells us they supplied free bed and board and books to those who +resorted to them from abroad. The Prince and the Clansmen of every principality +in which a school was situated, endowed it with a certain share—often an +ample one—of the common land of the clan. Exclusive rights of fishery, +and exclusive mill-privileges seem also to have been granted. As to timber for +building purposes and for fuel, it was to be had for carrying and cutting. The +right of quarry went with the soil, wherever building stone was found. In +addition to these means of sustenance, a portion of the collegiate clergy +appeared to have discharged missionary duty, and received offerings of the +produce of the land. We hear of periodical <i>quests</i> or collections made +for the sustenance of these institutions, wherein the learned Lectors and +Doctors, no doubt, pleaded their claims to popular favour, with irresistible +eloquence. Individuals, anxious to promote the spread of religion and of +science, endowed particular institutions out of their personal means; Princes, +Bishops, and pious ladies, contributed to enlarge the bounds and increase the +income of their favourite foundations, until a generous emulation seems to have +seized on all the great families as well as on the different Provinces, as to +which could boast the most largely attended schools, and the greatest number of +distinguished scholars. The love of the <i>alma mater</i>—that college +patriotism which is so sure a sign of the noble-minded scholar—never +received more striking illustration than among the graduates of those schools. +Columbkill, in his new home among the Hebrides, invokes blessings on blessings, +on "the angels" with whom it was once his happiness to walk in Arran, and +Columbanus, beyond the Alps, remembers with pride the school of +Bangor—the very name of which inspires him with poetic rapture. +</p> + +<p> +The buildings, in which so many scholars were housed and taught, must have been +extensive. Some of the schools we have mentioned were, when most flourishing, +frequented by one, two, three, and even, at some periods, as many as seven +thousand scholars. Such a population was alone sufficient to form a large +village; and if we add the requisite number of teachers and attendants, we will +have an addition of at least one-third to the total. The buildings seem to have +been separately of no great size, but were formed into streets, and even into +something like wards. Armagh was divided into three +parts—<i>trian-more</i> (or the town proper), <i>trian-Patrick</i>, the +Cathedral close, and <i>trian-Sassenagh</i>, the Latin quarter, the home of the +foreign students. A tall sculptured Cross, dedicated to some favourite saint, +stood at the bounds of these several wards, reminding the anxious student to +invoke their spiritual intercession as he passed by. Early hours and vigilant +night watches had to be exercised to prevent conflagrations in such +village-seminaries, built almost wholly of wood, and roofed with reeds or +shingles. A Cathedral, or an Abbey Church, a round tower, or a cell of some of +the ascetic masters, would probably be the only stone structure within the +limits. To the students, the evening star gave the signal for retirement, and +the morning sun for awaking. When, at the sound of the early bell, two or three +thousand of them poured into the silent streets and made their way towards the +lighted Church, to join in the service of matins, mingling, as they went or +returned, the tongues of the Gael, the Cimbri, the Pict, the Saxon, and the +Frank, or hailing and answering each other in the universal language of the +Roman Church, the angels in Heaven must have loved to contemplate the union of +so much perseverance with so much piety. +</p> + +<p> +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 of simplicity. One Bishop is found, erecting with his own hands, +the <i>cashel</i> or stone enclosure which surrounded his cell; another is +labouring in the field, and gives his blessing to his visitors, standing +between the stilts of the plough. Most ecclesiastics work occasionally either +in wood, in bronze, in leather, or as scribes. The decorations of the Church, +if not the entire structure, was the work of those who served at the altar. The +tabernacle, the rood-screen, the ornamental font; the vellum on which the +Psalms and Gospels were written; the ornamented case which contained the +precious volume, were often of their making. The music which made the vale of +Bangor resound as if inhabited by angels, was their composition; the hymns that +accompanied it were their own. "It is a poor Church that has no music," is one +of the oldest Irish proverbs; and the <i>Antiphonarium</i> of Bangor, as well +as that of Armagh, remains to show that such a want was not left unsupplied in +the early Church. +</p> + +<p> +All the contemporary schools were not of the same grade nor of equal +reputation. We constantly find a scholar, after passing years in one place, +transferring himself to another, and sometimes to a third and a fourth. Some +masters were, perhaps, more distinguished in human Science; others in Divinity. +Columbkill studied in two or three different schools, and <i>visited</i> +others, perhaps as disputant or lecturer—a common custom in later years. +Nor should we associate the idea of under-age with the students of whom we +speak. Many of them, whether as teachers or learners, or combining both +characters together, reached middle life before they ventured as instructors +upon the world. Forty years is no uncommon age for the graduate of those days, +when as yet the discovery was unmade, that all-sufficient wisdom comes with the +first trace of down upon the chin of youth. +</p> + +<p> +The range of studies seems to have included the greater part of the collegiate +course of our own times. The language of the country, and the language of the +Roman Church; 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 have been a favourite author with the Irish Church; +the defective Physics of the period; Mathematics, Music, and Poetical +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 +best parchment was equal to so much beaten gold, and a perfect MS. was worth a +king's ransom, we may better estimate the difficulties in the way of the +scholar of the seventh century. Knowing these facts, we can very well credit +that part of the story of St. Columbkill's banishment into Argyle, which turns +on what might be called a copyright dispute, in which the monarch took the side +of St. Finian of Clonard, (whose original MSS. his pupil seems to have copied +without permission,) and the Clan-Conal stood up, of course, for their kinsman. +This dispute is even 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 which overstocked the Bardic Order, becomes again visible in +its Christian schools; and if we could form anything like an approximate census +of the population, anterior to the northern invasions, we would find that the +proportion of ecclesiastics was greater than has existed either before or since +in any Christian country. The vast designs of missionary zeal drew off large +bodies of those who had entered Holy Orders; still the numbers engaged as +teachers in the great schools, as well as of those who passed their lives in +solitude and contemplation, must have been out of all modern proportion to the +lay inhabitants of the Island. +</p> + +<p> +The most eminent Irish Saints of the fifth century were St. Ibar, St. Benignus +and St. Kieran, of Ossory; in the sixth, St. Bendan, of Clonfert; St. Brendan, +of Birr; St. Maccartin, of Clogher; St. Finian, of Moville; St. Finbar, St. +Cannice, St. Finian, of Clonard; and St. Jarlath, of Tuam; in the seventh +century, St. Fursey, St. Laserian, Bishop of Leighlin; St. Kieran, Abbot of +Clonmacnoise; 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. Finian, Abbot; St. Gall, Apostle of Switzerland; +St. Fridolin, "the Traveller;" St. Columbanus, Apostle of Burgundy and +Lombardy; St. Killian, Apostle of Franconia; St. Columbkill, Apostle of the +Picts; St. Cormac, called "the Navigator;" St. Cuthbert; and St. Aidan, Apostle +of Northumbria. In the eighth century the most illustrious names are St. +Cataldus, Bishop of Tarentum; St. Adamnan, Abbot of Iona; St. Rumold, Apostle +of Brabant; Clement and Albinus, "the Wisdom-seekers;" and St. Feargal or +Virgilius, Bishop of Saltzburgh. Of holy women in the same ages, we have some +account of St. Samthan, in the eighth century; of St. Bees, St. Dympna and St. +Syra, in the seventh century, and of St. Monina, St. Ita of Desies, and St. +Bride, or Bridget, of Kildare, in the sixth. The number of conventual +institutions for women established in those ages, is less easily ascertained +than the number of monastic houses for men; but we may suppose them to have +borne some proportion to each other, and to have even counted by hundreds. The +veneration in which St. Bridget was held during her life, led many of her +countrywomen to embrace the religious state, and no less than fourteen +<i>Saints</i>, her namesakes, are recorded. It was the custom of those days to +call all holy persons who died in the odour of sanctity, <i>Saints</i>, hence +national or provincial tradition venerates very many names, which the reader +may look for in vain, in the Roman calendar. +</p> + +<p> +The intellectual labours of the Irish schools, besides the task of teaching +such immense numbers of men of all nations on their own soil, and the +missionary conquests to which I have barely alluded, were diversified by +controversies, partly scientific and partly theological—such as the +"Easter Controversy," the "Tonsure Controversy," and that maintained by +"Feargal the Geometer," as to the existence of the Antipodes. +</p> + +<p> +The discussion, as to the proper time of observing Easter, which had occupied +the doctors of the Council of Nice in the fourth century, was raised in Ireland +and in Britain early in the sixth, and complete uniformity was not established +till far on in the eighth. It occupied the thoughts of several generations of +the chief men of the Irish Church, and some of their arguments still +fortunately survive, to attest their learning and tolerance, as well as their +zeal. St. Patrick had introduced in the fifth century the computation of time +then observed in Gaul, and to this custom many of the Irish doctors rigidly +adhered, long after the rest of Christendom had agreed to adopt the Alexandrian +computation. Great names were found on both sides of the controversy: +Columbanus, Finian, and Aidan, for adhering exactly to the rule of St. 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 same Province +maintained opposite opinions with equal ardour and mutual charity. It was a +question of discipline, not a matter of faith; but it involved a still greater +question, whether national churches were to plead the inviolability of their +local usages, even on points of discipline, against the sense and decision of +the Universal Church. +</p> + +<p> +In the year of our Lord 630, the Synod of Leighlin was held, under the shelter +of the ridge of Leinster, and the presidency of St. Laserian. Both parties at +length agreed to send deputies to Rome, as "children to their mother," to learn +her decision. Three years later, that decision was made known, and the midland +and southern dioceses at once adopted it. The northern churches, however, still +held out, under the lead of Armagh and the influence of Iona, nor was it till a +century later that this scandal of celebrating Easter on two different days in +the same church was entirely removed. In justification of the Roman rule, St. +Cummian, about the middle of the seventh century, wrote his famous epistle to +Segenius, Abbot of Iona, of the ability and learning of which all modern +writers from Archbishop Usher to Thomas Moore, speak in terms of the highest +praise. It is one of the few remaining documents of that controversy. A less +vital question of discipline arose about the tonsure. The Irish shaved the head +in a semicircle from temple to temple, while the Latin usage was to shave the +crown, leaving an external circle of hair to typify the crown of thorns. At the +conference of Whitby (A.D. 664) this was one of the subjects of discussion +between the clergy of Iona, and those who followed the Roman method—but +it never assumed the importance of the Easter controversy. +</p> + +<p> +In the following century an Irish Missionary, Virgilius, of Saltzburgh, (called +by his countrymen "Feargal, the Geometer,") was maintaining in Germany against +no less an adversary than St. Boniface, the sphericity of the earth and the +existence of antipodes. His opponents endeavoured to represent him, or really +believed him to hold, that there were other men, on our earth, for whom the +Redeemer had not died; on this ground they appealed to Pope Zachary against +him; but so little effect had this gross distortion of his true doctrine at +Rome, when explanations were given, that Feargal was soon afterwards raised to +the See of Saltzburgh, and subsequently canonized by Pope Gregory IX. In the +ninth century we find an Irish geographer and astronomer of something like +European reputation in Dicuil and Dungal, whose treatises and epistles have +been given to the press. Like their compatriot, Columbanus, these accomplished +men had passed their youth and early manhood in their own country, and to its +schools are to be transferred the compliments paid to their acquirements by +such competent judges as Muratori, Latronne, and Alexander von Humboldt. The +origin of the scholastic philosophy—which pervaded Europe for nearly ten +centuries—has been traced by the learned Mosheim to the same insular +source. Whatever may now be thought of the defects or shortcomings of that +system, it certainly was not unfavourable either to wisdom or eloquence, since +among its professors may be reckoned the names of St. Thomas and St. Bernard. +</p> + +<p> +We must turn away our eyes from the contemplation of those days in which were +achieved for Ireland the title of the land of saints and doctors. Another era +opens before us, and we can already discern the long ships of the north, their +monstrous beaks turned towards the holy Isle, their sides hung with glittering +shields and their benches thronged with fair-haired warriors, chanting as they +advance the fierce war songs of their race. Instead of the monk's familiar +voice on the river banks we are to hear the shouts of strange warriors from a +far-off country; and for matin hymn and vesper song, we are to be beset through +a long and stormy period, with sounds of strife and terror, and deadly +conflict. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="part02"></a>BOOK II.</h3> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap09"></a>CHAPTER I.<br/> +THE DANISH INVASION.</h3> + +<p> +Hugh VI., surnamed Ornie, succeeded to the throne vacant by the death of Donogh +I. (A.D. 797), and reigned twenty-two years; Conor II. succeeded (A.D. 819), +and reigned fourteen years; Nial III. (called from the place of his death Nial +of Callan), reigned thirteen years; Malachy I. succeeded (A.D. 845), and +reigned fifteen years; Hugh VII. succeeded and reigned sixteen years (dying +A.D. 877); Flan (surnamed Flan of the Shannon) succeeded at the latter date, +and reigned for thirty-eight years, far into the tenth century. Of these six +kings, whose reigns average twenty years each, we may remark that not one died +by violence, if we except perhaps Nial of Callan, drowned in the river of that +name in a generous effort to save the life of one of his own servants. Though +no former princes had ever encountered dangers equal to these—yet in no +previous century was the person of the ruler so religiously respected. If this +was evident in one or two instances only, it would be idle to lay much stress +upon it; but when we find the same truth holding good of several successive +reigns, it is not too much to attribute it to that wide diffusion of Christian +morals, which we have pointed out as the characteristic of the two preceding +centuries. The kings of this age owed their best protection to the purer ethics +which overflowed from Armagh and Bangor and Lismore; and if we find hereafter +the regicide habits of former times partially revived, it will only be after +the new Paganism—the Paganism of interminable anti-Christian +invasions—had recovered the land, and extinguished the beacon lights of +the three first Christian centuries. +</p> + +<p> +The enemy, who were now to assault the religious and civil institutions of the +Irish, must be admitted to possess many great military qualities. They +certainly exhibit, in the very highest degree, the first of all military +virtues—unconquerable courage. Let us say cheerfully, that history does +not present in all its volumes a braver race of men than the Scandinavians of +the ninth century. In most respects they closely resembled the Gothic tribes, +who, whether starting into historic life on the Euxine or the Danube, or +faintly heard of by the Latins from the far off Baltic, filled with constant +alarm the Roman statesmen of the fourth century; nor can the invasions of what +we may call the maritime Goths be better introduced to the reader than by a +rapid sketch of the previous triumphs of their kindred tribes over the Roman +Empire. +</p> + +<p> +It was in the year of our Lord 378 that these long-dreaded barbarians defeated +the Emperor Valens in the plain of Adrianople, and as early as +404—twenty-six years after their first victory in Eastern +Europe—they had taken and burned great Rome herself. Again and +again—in 410, in 455, and in 472—they captured and plundered the +Imperial City. In the same century they had established themselves in Burgundy, +in Spain, and in Northern Africa; in the next, another branch of the Gothic +stock twice took Rome; and yet another founded the Lombard Kingdom in Northern +Italy. With these Goths thus for a time masters of the Roman Empire, whose +genius and temper has entered so deeply into all subsequent civilization, war +was considered the only pursuit worthy of men. According to their ideas of +human freedom, that sacred principle was supposed to exist only in force and by +force; they had not the faintest conception, and at first received with +unbounded scorn the Christian doctrine of the unity of the human race, the +privileges and duties annexed to Christian baptism, and the sublime ideal of +the Christian republic. But they were very far from being so cruel or so +faithless as their enemies represented them; they were even better than they +cared to represent themselves. And they had amongst them men of the highest +capacity and energy, well worthy to be the founders of new nations. Alaric, +Attila, and Genseric, were fierce and unmerciful it is true; but their acts are +not all written in blood; they had their better moments and higher purposes in +the intervals of battle; and the genius for civil government of the Gothic race +was in the very beginning demonstrated by such rulers as Theodoric in Italy and +Clovis in Gaul. The rear guard of this irresistible barbaric invasion was now +about to break in upon Europe by a new route; instead of the long land marches +by which they had formerly concentrated from the distant Baltic and from the +tributaries of the Danube, on the capital of the Roman empire; instead of the +tedious expeditions striking across the Continent, hewing their paths through +dense forests, arrested by rapid rivers and difficult mountains, the last +northern invaders of Europe had sufficiently advanced in the arts of +shipbuilding and navigation to strike boldly into the open sea and commence +their new conquests among the Christian islands of the West. The defenders of +Roman power and Christian civilization in the fifth and sixth centuries, were +arrayed against a warlike but pastoral people encumbered with their women and +children; the defenders of the same civilization, in the British Islands in the +ninth and tenth centuries, were contending with kindred tribes, who had +substituted maritime arts and habits for the pastoral arts and habits of the +companions of Attila and Theodoric. The Gothic invasion of Roman territory in +the earlier period was, with the single exception of the naval expeditions of +Genseric from his new African Kingdom, a continental war; and notwithstanding +the partiality of Genseric for his fleet, as an arm of offence and defence, his +companions and successors abandoned the ocean as an uncongenial element. The +only parallel for the new invasion, of which we are now to speak, is to be +found in the history and fortunes of the Saxons of the fifth century, first the +allies and afterwards the conquerors of part of Britain. But even their +descendants in England had not kept pace, either in the arts of navigation or +in thirst for adventure, with their distant relatives, who remained two +centuries later among the friths and rocks of Scandinavia. +</p> + +<p> +The first appearance of these invaders on the Irish and British coasts occurred +in 794. Their first descent on Ireland was at Rathlin island, which may be +called the outpost of Erin, towards the north; their second attempt (A.D. 797) +was at a point much more likely to arouse attention—at Skerries, off the +coast of Meath (now Dublin); in 803, and again in 806, they attacked and +plundered the holy Iona; but it was not until a dozen years later they became +really formidable. In 818 they landed at Howth; and the same year, and probably +the same party, sacked the sacred edifices in the estuary of the Slaney, by +them afterwards called Wexford; in 820 they plundered Cork, and in +824—most startling blow of all—they sacked and burned the schools +of Bangor. The same year they revisited Iona; and put to death many of its +inmates; destroyed Moville; received a severe check in Lecale, near Strangford +lough (one of their favourite stations). Another party fared better in a land +foray into Ossory, where they defeated those who endeavoured to arrest their +progress, and carried off a rich booty. In 830 and 831, their ravages were +equally felt in Leinster, in Meath, and in Ulster, and besides many prisoners +of princely rank, they plundered the primatial city of Armagh for the first +time, in the year 832. The names of their chief captains, at this period, are +carefully preserved by those who had so many reasons to remember them; and we +now begin to hear of the Ivars, Olafs, and Sitricks, strangely intermingled +with the Hughs, Nials, Connors, and Felims, who contended with them in battle +or in diplomacy. It was not till the middle of this century (A.D. 837) that +they undertook to fortify Dublin, Limerick, and some other harbours which they +had seized, to winter in Ireland, and declare their purpose to be the complete +conquest of the country. +</p> + +<p> +The earliest of these expeditions seem to have been annual visitations; and as +the northern winter sets in about October, and the Baltic is seldom navigable +before May, the summer was the season of their depredations. Awaiting the +breaking up of the ice, the intrepid adventurers assembled annually upon the +islands in the Cattegat or on the coast of Norway, awaiting the favourable +moment of departure. Here they beguiled their time between the heathen rites +they rendered to their gods, their wild bacchanal festivals, and the equipment +of their galleys. The largest ship built in Norway, and probably in the north, +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 120 vessels, which, if of average size for such long voyages, would +give a total force of some 6,000 men. As the whole population of Denmark, in +the reign of Canute who died in 1035, is estimated at 800,000 souls, we may +judge from their fleets how large a portion of the men were engaged in these +piratical pursuits. The ships on which they prided themselves so highly were +flat-bottomed craft, with little or no keel, the sides of wicker work, covered +with strong hides. They were impelled either by sails or oars as the changes of +the weather allowed; with favourable winds they often made the voyage in three +days. As if to favour their designs, the north and north-west blast blows for a +hundred days of the year over the sea they had to traverse. When land was made, +in some safe estuary, their galleys were drawn up on shore, a convenient +distance beyond highwater mark, where they formed a rude camp, watch-fires were +lighted, sentinels set, and the fearless adventurers slept as soundly as if +under their own roofs, in their own country. Their revels after victory, or on +returning to their homes, were as boisterous as their lives. In food they +looked more to quantity than quality, and one of their most determined +prejudices against Christianity was that it did not sanction the eating of +horse flesh. An exhilarating beer, made from heath, or from the spruce tree, +was their principal beverage, and the recital of their own adventures, or the +national songs 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. +</p> + +<p> +The Pagan belief of this formidable race was in harmony with all their thoughts +and habits, and the exact opposite of Christianity. In the beginning of time, +according to their tradition, there was neither heaven nor earth, but only +universal chaos and a bottomless abyss, where dwelt Surtur in an element of +unquenchable fire. The generation of their gods proceeded amid the darkness and +void, from the union of heat and moisture, until Odin and the other children of +Asa-Thor, or the Earth, slew Ymer, or the Evil One, and created the material +universe out of his lifeless remains. These heroic conquerors also collected +the 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 the Gods; on the extreme shore of the ocean stood Utgard, the City of Nor +and his giants, and the wars of these two cities, of their gods and giants, +fill the first and most obscure ages of the Scandinavian legend. The human race +had as yet no existence until Odin created a man and woman, Ask and Embla, out +of two pieces of wood (ash and elm), thrown upon the beach by the waves of the +sea. +</p> + +<p> +Of all the gods of Asgard, Odin was the first in place and power; from his +throne he saw everything that happened on the earth; and lest anything should +escape his knowledge, two ravens, Spirit and Memory, sat on his shoulders, and +whispered in his ears whatever they had seen in their daily excursions round +the world. Night was a divinity and the father of Day, who travelled +alternately throughout space, with two celebrated steeds called Shining-mane +and 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 inferior rank to these, and answered to the lesser divinities of Greece +and Rome. Niord was the Neptune, and Frega, daughter of Niord, was the Venus of +the North. Heimdall, the watchman of Asgard, whose duty it was to prevent the +rebellious giants scaling by surprise the walls of the celestial city, dwelt +under the end of the rainbow; his vision was so perfect he could discern +objects 100 leagues distant, either by night or day, and his ear was so fine he +could hear the wool growing on the sheep, and the grass springing in the +meadows. +</p> + +<p> +The hall of Odin, which had 540 gates, was the abode of heroes who had fought +bravest in battle. Here they were fed with the lard of a wild boar, which +became whole every night, though devoured every day, and drank endless cups of +hydromel, drawn from the udder of an inexhaustible she-goat, and served out to +them by the Nymphs, who had counted the slain, in cups which were made of the +skulls of their enemies. When they were wearied of such enjoyments, the sprites +of the Brave exercised themselves in single combat, hacked each other to pieces +on the floor of Valhalla, resumed their former shape, and returned to their +lard and their hydromel. +</p> + +<p> +Believing firmly in this system—looking forward with undoubting faith to +such an eternity—the Scandinavians were zealous to serve their gods +according to their creed. Their rude hill altars gave way as they increased in +numbers and wealth, to spacious temples at Upsala, Ledra, Tronheim, and other +towns and ports. They had three great festivals, one at the beginning of +February, in honour of Thor, one in Spring, in honour of Odin, and one in +Summer, in honour of the fruitful daughter of Niord. The ordinary sacrifices +were animals and birds; but every ninth year there was a great festival at +Upsala, at which the 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 ill winds, length of life, and success in war, were +spiritual commodities bought and sold. Ninety-nine human victims were offered +at the great Upsala festival, and in all emergencies such sacrifices were +considered most acceptable to 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 been unbounded and irresistible. +</p> + +<p> +The active pursuits of such a population were necessarily maritime. In their +short summer, such crops as they planted ripened rapidly, but their chief +sustenance was animal food and the fish that abounded in their waters. The +artizans in highest repute among them were the shipwrights and smiths. The +hammer and anvil were held in the highest honour; and of this class, the +armorers held the first place. The kings of the North had no standing armies, +but their lieges were summoned to war by an arrow in Pagan times, and a cross +after their conversion. Their chief dependence was in infantry, which they +formed into wedge-like columns, and so, clashing their shields and singing +hymns to Odin, they advanced against their enemies. Different divisions were +differently armed; some with a short two-edged sword and a heavy battle-axe; +others with the sling, the javelin, and the bow. The shield was long and light, +commonly of wood and leather, but for the chiefs, ornamented with brass, with +silver, and even with gold. Locking the shields together formed a rampart which +it was not easy to break; in bad weather the concave shield seems to have +served the purpose of our umbrella; in sea-fights the vanquished often escaped +by swimming ashore on their shields. Armour many of them wore; the Berserkers, +or champions, were so called from always engaging, <i>bare</i> of defensive +armour. +</p> + +<p> +Such were the men, the arms, and the creed, against which the Irish of the +ninth age, after three centuries of exemption from foreign war, were called +upon to combat. A people, one-third of whose youth and manhood had embraced the +ecclesiastical state, and all whose tribes now professed the religion of peace, +mercy, and forgiveness, were called to wrestle with a race whose religion was +one of blood, and whose beatitude was to be in proportion to the slaughter they +made while on earth. The Northman hated Christianity as a rival religion, and +despised it as an effeminate one. He was the soldier of Odin, the elect of +Valhalla; and he felt that the offering most acceptable to his sanguinary gods +was the blood of those religionists who denied their existence and execrated +their revelation. The points of attack, therefore, were almost invariably the +great seats of learning and religion. There, too, was to be found the largest +bulk of the portable wealth of the country, in richly adorned altars, jewelled +chalices, and shrines of saints. The ecclesiastical map is the map of their +campaigns in Ireland. And it is to avenge or save these innumerable sacred +places—as countless as the Saints of the last three centuries—that +the Christian population have to rouse themselves year after year, hurrying to +a hundred points at the same time. To the better and nobler spirits the war +becomes a veritable crusade, and many of those slain in single-hearted defence +of their altars may well be accounted martyrs—but a war so protracted and +so devastating will be found, in the sequel, to foster and strengthen many of +the worst vices as well as some of the best virtues of our humanity. +</p> + +<p> +The early events are few and ill-known. During the reign of Hugh VI., who died +in 819, their hostile visits were few and far between; his successors, Conor +II. and Nial III., were destined to be less fortunate in this respect. During +the reign of Conor, Cork, Lismore, Dundalk, Bangor and Armagh, were all +surprised, plundered, and abandoned by "the Gentiles," as they are usually +called in Irish annals; and with the exception of two skirmishes in which they +were worsted on the coasts of Down and Wexford, they seem to have escaped with +impunity. At Bangor they shook the bones of the revered founder out of the +costly shrine before carrying it off; on their first visit to Kildare they +contented themselves with taking the gold and silver ornaments of the tomb of +St. Bridget, without desecrating the relics; their main attraction at Armagh +was the same, but there the relics seemed to have escaped. When, in 830, the +brotherhood of Iona apprehended their return, they carried into Ireland, for +greater safety, the relics of St. Columbkill. Hence it came that most of the +memorials of SS. Patrick, Bridget, and Columbkill, were afterwards united at +Downpatrick. +</p> + +<p> +While these deplorable sacrileges, too rapidly executed perhaps to be often +either prevented or punished, were taking place, Conor the King had on his hand +a war of succession, waged by the ablest of his contemporaries, Felim, King of +Munster, who continued during this and the subsequent reign to maintain a +species of rival monarchy in Munster. It seems clear enough that the +abandonment of Tara, as the seat of authority, greatly aggravated the internal +weakness of the Milesian constitution. While over-centralization is to be +dreaded as the worst tendency of imperial power, it is certain that the want of +a sufficient centralization has proved as fatal, on the other hand, to the +independence of many nations. And anarchical usages once admitted, we see from +the experience of the German Empire, and the Italian republics, how almost +impossible it is to apply a remedy. In the case before us, when the Irish Kings +abandoned the old mensal domain and betook themselves to their own patrimony, +it was inevitable that their influence and authority over the southern tribes +should diminish and disappear. Aileach, in the far North, could never be to +them what Tara had been. The charm of conservatism, the halo 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 their pretensions +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 Con of the Hundred Battles. +Felim, the son of Crimthan, the contemporary of Conor II. and Nial III., during +the whole term of their rule, was the resolute assertor of these pretensions, +and the Bards of his own Province do not hesitate to confer on him the high +title of <i>Ard-Righ</i>. As a punishment for adhering to the Hy-Nial dynasty, +or for some other offence, this Christian king, in rivalry with "the Gentiles," +plundered Kildare, Burrow, and Clonmacnoise—the latter perhaps for siding +with Connaught in the dispute as to whether the present county of Clare +belonged to Connaught or Munster. Twice he met in conference with the monarch +at Birr and at Cloncurry—at another time he swept the plain of Meath, and +held temporary court in the royal rath of Tara. With all his vices lie united +an extraordinary energy, and during his time, no Danish settlement was +established on the Southern rivers. Shortly before his decease (A.D. 846) he +resigned his crown and retired from the world, devoting the short remainder of +his days to penance and mortification. What we know of his ambition and ability +makes us regret that he ever appeared upon the scene, or that he had not been +born of that dominant family, who alone were accustomed to give kings to the +whole country. +</p> + +<p> +King Conor died (A.D. 833), and was succeeded by Nial III., surnamed Nial of +Callan. The military events of this last reign are so intimately bound up with +the more brilliant career of the next ruler—Melaghlin, or Malachy +I.—that we must reserve them for the introduction to the next chapter. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap10"></a>CHAPTER II.<br/> +KINGS OF THE NINTH CENTURY (CONTINUED)—NIAL III.—MALACHY +I.—HUGH VII.</h3> + +<p> +When, in the year 833, Nial III. received the usual homage and hostages, which +ratified his title of <i>Ard-Righ</i>, the northern invasion had clearly become +the greatest danger that ever yet had threatened the institutions of Erin. +Attacks at first predatory and provincial had so encouraged the Gentile leaders +of the second generation that they began to concert measures and combine plans +for conquest and colonization. To the Vikings of Norway the 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 of swine—their +favourite food—whose pleasant meadows were well stored with beeves and +oxen, whose winter was often as mild as their northern summer, and whose waters +were as fruitful in fish as their own Lofoden friths; to these men, this was a +prize worth fighting for; and for it they fought long and desperately. +</p> + +<p> +King Nial inherited a disputed sovereignty from his predecessor, and the +Southern annalists say he did homage to Felim of Munster, while those of the +North—and with them the majority of historians—reject this +statement as exaggerated and untrue. He certainly experienced continual +difficulty in maintaining his supremacy, not only from the Prince of Cashel, +but from lords of lesser grade—like those of Ossory and Ulidia; so that +we may say, while he had the title of King of Ireland, he was, in fact, King of +no more than Leath-Con, or the Northern half. The central Province, Meath, long +deserted by the monarchs, had run wild into independence, and was parcelled out +between two or three chiefs, descendants of the same common ancestor as the +kings, but distinguished from them by the tribe-name of "the <i>Southern</i> +Hy-Nial." Of these heads of new houses, by far the ablest and most famous was +Melaghlin, who dwelt near Mullingar, and lorded it over western Meath; a name +with which we shall become better acquainted presently. It does not clearly +appear that Melaghlin was one of those who actively resisted the prerogatives +of this monarch, though others of the Southern Hy-Nial did at first reject his +authority, and were severely punished for their insubordination, the year after +his assumption of power. +</p> + +<p> +In the fourth year of Nial III. (A.D. 837), arrived the great Norwegian fleet +of 120 sail, whose commanders first attempted, on a combined plan, the conquest +of Erin. Sixty of the ships entered the Boyne; the other sixty the Liffey. This +formidable force, according to all Irish accounts, was soon after united under +one leader, who is known in our Annals as <i>Turgeis</i> or <i>Turgesius</i>, +but of whom no trace can be found, under that name, in the chronicles of the +Northmen. Every effort to identify him in the records of his native land has +hitherto failed—so that we are forced to conclude that he must have been +one of those wandering sea-kings, whose fame was won abroad, and whose story, +ending in defeat, yet entailing no dynastic consequences on his native land, +possessed no national interest for the authors of the old Norse Sagas. To do +all the Scandinavian chroniclers justice, in cases which come directly under +their notice, they acknowledge defeat as frankly as they claim victory proudly. +Equal praise may be given to the Irish annalists in recording the same events, +whether at first or second-hand. In relation to the campaigns and sway of +Turgesius, the difficulty we experience in separating what is true from what is +exaggerated or false, is not created for us by the annalists, but by the bards +and story-tellers, some of whose inventions, adopted by <i>Cambrensis</i>, have +been too readily received by subsequent writers. For all the acts of national +importance with which his name can be intelligibly associated, we prefer to +follow in this as in other cases, the same sober historians who condense the +events of years and generations into the shortest space and the most matter of +fact expression. +</p> + +<p> +If we were to receive the chronology while rejecting the embellishments of the +Bards, Turgesius must have first come to Ireland with one of the expeditions of +the year 820, since they speak of him as having been "the scourge of the +country for seventeen years," before he assumed the command of the forces +landed from the fleet of 837. Nor is it unreasonable to suppose that an +accurate knowledge of the country, acquired by years of previous warfare with +its inhabitants, may have been one of the grounds upon which the chief command +was conferred on Turgesius. This knowledge was soon put to account; Dublin was +taken possession of, and a strong fort, according to the Scandinavian method, +was erected on the hill where now stands the Castle. This fort and the harbour +beneath it were to be the <i>rendezvous</i> and arsenal for all future +operations against Leinster, and the foundation of foreign power then laid, +continued in foreign hands, with two or three brief intervals, until +transferred to the Anglo-Norman chivalry, three centuries and a half later. +Similar lodgment was made at Waterford, and a third was attempted at Limerick, +but at this period without success; the Danish fort at the latter point is not +thought older than the year 855. But Turgesius—if, indeed, the +independent acts of cotemporary and even rival chiefs be not too often +attributed to him—was not content with fortifying the estuaries of some +principal rivers; he established inland centres of operation, of which the +cardinal one was on Lough Ree, the expansion of the Shannon, north of Athlone; +another was at a point called Lyndwachill, on Lough Neagh. On both these waters +were stationed fleets of boats, constructed for that service, and communicating +with the forts on shore. On the eastern border of Lough Ree, in the midst of +its meadows, stood Clonmacnoise, rich with the offerings and endowments of +successive generations. Here, three centuries before, in the heart of the +desert, St. Kieran had erected with his own hands a rude sylvan cell, where, +according to the allegory of tradition, "the first monks who joined him," were +the fox, the wolf, and the bear; but time had wrought wonders on that hallowed +ground, and a group of churches—at one time, as many as ten in +number—were gathered within two or three acres, round its famous schools, +and presiding Cathedral. Here it was Turgesius made his usual home, and from +the high altar of the Cathedral his unbelieving Queen was accustomed to issue +her imperious mandates in his absence. Here, for nearly seven years, this +conqueror and his consort exercised their far-spread and terrible power. +According to the custom of their own country—a custom attributed to Odin +as its author—they exacted from every inhabitant subject to their +sway—a piece of money annually, the forfeit for the non-payment of which +was the loss of the nose, hence called "nose-money." Their other exactions were +a union of their own northern imposts, with those levied by the chiefs whose +authority they had superseded, but whose prerogatives they asserted for +themselves. Free quarters for their soldiery, and a system of inspection +extending to every private relation of life, were the natural expedients of a +tyranny so odious. On the ecclesiastical order especially their yoke bore with +peculiar weight, since, although avowed Pagans, they permitted no religious +house to stand, unless under an Abbot, or at least an <i>Erenach</i> (or +Treasurer) of their approval. Such is the complete scheme of oppression +presented to us, that it can only be likened to a monstrous spider-web spread +from the centre of the Island over its fairest 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 triumphant despot, or his colleagues. In the +meanwhile King Nial seems to have struggled resolutely with the difficulties of +his lot, and in every interval of insubordination to have struck boldly at the +common enemy. But the tide of success for the first few years after 837 ran +strongly against him. The joint hosts from the Liffey and the Boyne swept the +rich plains of Meath, and in an engagement at Invernabark (the present Bray) +gave such a complete defeat to the southern Hy-Nial clans as prevented them +making head again in the field, until some summers were past 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 must have succeeded. +The shores of all the inland lakes were favourite sites for Raths and Churches, +and the beautiful country around Lough Erne shared the fiery ordeal which +blazed on Lough Ree and Lough Neagh. In 839 the men of Connaught also suffered +a defeat equal to that experienced by those of Meath in the previous campaign; +but more unfortunate than the Methians, they lost their leader and other chiefs +on the field. In 840, Ferns and Cork were given to the flames, and the fort at +Lyndwachill, or Magheralin, poured out its ravages in every direction over 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 of Clogher and +the Lord of Galtrim are mentioned by name. Their equally active colleagues of +Dublin and Waterford took captive, Hugh, Abbot of Clonenagh, and Foranan, +Archbishop of Armagh, who had fled southwards with many of the relics of the +Metropolitan Church, escaping from one danger only to fall into another a +little farther off. These prisoners were carried into Munster, where Abbot Hugh +suffered martyrdom at their hands, but the Archbishop, after being carried to +their fleet at Limerick, seems to have been rescued or ransomed, as we find him +dying in peace at Armagh in the next reign. The martyrs of these melancholy +times were very numerous, but the exact particulars being so often unrecorded +it is impossible to present the reader with an intelligible account of their +persons and sufferings. When the Anglo-Normans taunted the Irish that their +Church had no martyrs to boast of, they must have forgotten the exploits of +their Norse kinsmen about the middle of this century. +</p> + +<p> +But the hour of retribution was fast coming round, and the native tribes, +unbound, divided, confused, and long unused to foreign war, were fast +recovering their old martial experience, and something like a politic sense of +the folly of their border feuds. Nothing perhaps so much tended to arouse and +combine them together as the capture of the successor of Saint Patrick, with +all his relics, and his imprisonment among a Pagan host, in Irish waters. +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 seems to have been in this memorable year, 843, defending as well as +he might his ancestral province—Ulster—against the ravagers of +Lough Neagh, and still another party whose ships flocked into Lough Swilly. In +the ancient plain of Moynith, watered by the little river Finn, (the present +barony of Raphoe,) he encountered the enemy, and according to the Annals, "a +countless number fell"—victory being with Nial. In the same year, or the +next, Turgesius was captured by Melaghlin, Lord of Westmeath, apparently by +stratagem, and put to death by the rather novel process of drowning. The Bardic +tale told to <i>Cambrensis</i>, or parodied by him from an old Greek legend, of +the death by which Turgesius died, is of no historical authority. According to +this tale, the tyrant of Lough Ree conceived a passion for the fair daughter of +Melaghlin, and demanded her of her father, who, fearing to refuse, affected to +grant the infamous request, but despatched in her stead, to the place of +assignation, twelve beardless youths, habited as maidens, to represent his +daughter and her attendants; by these maskers the Norwegian and his boon +companions were assassinated, after they had drank to excess and laid aside +their arms and armour. For all this superstructure of romance there is neither +ground-work nor license in the facts themselves, beyond this, that Turgesius +was evidently captured by some clever stratagem. We hear of no battle in Meath +or elsewhere against him immediately preceding the event; nor, is it likely +that a secondary Prince, as Melaghlin then was, could have hazarded an +engagement with the powerful master of Lough Ree. If the local traditions of +Westmeath may be trusted, where <i>Cambrensis</i> is rejected, the Norwegian +and Irish principals in the tragedy of Lough Owel were on visiting terms just +before the denouement, and many curious particulars of their peaceful but +suspicious intercourse used to be related by the modern story-tellers around +Castle-pollard. The anecdote of the rookery, of which Melaghlin complained, and +the remedy for which his visitor suggested to be "to cut down the trees and the +rooks would fly," has a suspicious look of the "tall poppies" of the Roman and +Grecian legend; two things only do we know for certain about the matter: +<i>firstly</i>, that Turgesius was taken and drowned in Lough Owel in the year +843 or 844; and <i>secondly</i>, that this catastrophe was brought about by the +agency and order of his neighbour, Melaghlin. +</p> + +<p> +The victory of Moynith and the death of Turgesius were followed by some local +successes against other fleets and garrisons of the enemy. Those of Lough Ree +seem to have abandoned their fort, and fought their way (gaining in their +retreat the only military advantage of that year) towards Sligo, where some of +their vessels had collected to bear them away. Their colleagues of Dublin, +undeterred by recent reverses, made their annual foray southward into Ossory, +in 844, and immediately we find King Nial moving up from the north to the same +scene of action. In that district he met his death in an effort to save the +life of a <i>gilla</i>, or common servant. The river of Callan being greatly +swollen, the <i>gilla</i>, in attempting to find a ford, was swept away in its +turbid torrent. The King entreated some one to go to his rescue, but as no one +obeyed he generously plunged in himself and sacrificed his own life in +endeavouring to preserve one of his humblest followers. He was in the 55th year +of his age and the 13th of his reign, and in some traits of character reminded +men of his grandfather, the devout Nial "of the Showers." The Bards have +celebrated the justice of his judgments, the goodness of his heart, and the +comeliness of his "brunette-bright face." He left a son of age to succeed him, +(and who ultimately did become <i>Ard-Righ</i>,) yet the present popularity of +Melaghlin of Meath triumphed over every other interest, and he was raised to +the monarchy—the first of his family who had yet attained that honour. +Hugh, the son of Nial, sank for a time into the rank of a Provincial Prince, +before the ascendant star of the captor of Turgesius, and is usually spoken of +during this reign as "Hugh of Aileach." He is found towards its close, as if +impatient of the succession, employing the arms of the common enemy to ravage +the ancient mensal land of the kings of Erin, and otherwise harassing the last +days of his successful rival. +</p> + +<p> +Melaghlin, or Malachy I. (sometimes called "of the Shannon," from his patrimony +along that river), brought back again the sovereignty to the centre, and in +happier days might have become the second founder of Tara. But it was plain +enough then, and it is tolerably so still, that this was not to be an age of +restoration. The kings of Ireland after this time, says the quaint old +translator of the Annals of Clonmacnoise, "had little good of it," down to the +days of King Brian. It was, in fact, a perpetual struggle for +self-preservation—the first duty of all governments, as well as the first +law of all nature. The powerful action of the Gentile forces, upon an +originally ill-centralized and recently much abused Constitution, seemed to +render it possible that every new Ard-Righ would prove the last. Under the +pressure of such a deluge all ancient institutions were shaken to their +foundations; and the venerable authority of Religion itself, like a Hermit in a +mountain torrent, was contending for the hope of escape or existence. We must +not, therefore, amid the din of the conflicts through which we are to pass, +condemn without stint or qualification those Princes who were occasionally +driven—as some of them <i>were</i> driven—to that last resort, the +employment of foreign mercenaries (and those mercenaries often +anti-Christians,) to preserve some show of native government and kingly +authority. Grant that in some of them the use of such allies and agents cannot +be justified on any plea or pretext of state necessity; where base ends or +unpatriotic motives are clear or credible, such treason to country cannot be +too heartily condemned; but it is indeed far from certain that such were the +motives in <i>all</i> cases, or that such ought to be our conclusion in any, in +the absence of sufficient evidence to that effect. +</p> + +<p> +Though the Gentile power had experienced towards the close of the last reign +such severe reverses, yet it was not in the nature of the men of Norway to +abandon a prize which was once so nearly being their own. The fugitives who +escaped, as well as those who remained within the strong ramparts of Waterford +and Dublin, urged the fitting out of new expeditions, to avenge their +slaughtered countrymen and prosecute the conquest. But defeat still followed on +defeat; in the first year of Malachy, they lost 1,200 men in a disastrous +action near Castle Dermot, with Olcobar the Prince-bishop of Cashel; and in the +same or the next season they were defeated with the loss of 700 men, by +Malachy, at Fore, in Meath. In the third year of Malachy, however, a new +northern expedition arrived in 140 vessels, which, according to the average +capacity of the long-ships of that age, must have carried with them from 7,000 +to 10,000 men. Fortunately for the assailed, this fleet was composed of what +they called <i>Black</i>-Gentiles, or Danes, as distinguished from their +predecessors, the <i>Fair</i>-Gentiles, or Norwegians. A quarrel arose between +the adventurers of the two nations as to the possession of the few remaining +fortresses, especially of Dublin; and an engagement was fought along the +Liffey, which "lasted for three days;" the Danes finally prevailed, driving the +Norwegians from their stronghold, and cutting them off from their ships. The +new Northern leaders are named Anlaf, or Olaf, Sitrick (Sigurd?) and Ivar; the +first of the Danish Earls, who established themselves at Dublin, Waterford and +Limerick respectively. Though the immediate result of the arrival of the great +fleet of 847 relieved for the moment the worst apprehensions of the invaded, +and enabled them to rally their means of defence, yet as Denmark had more than +double the population of Norway, it brought them into direct collision with a +more formidable power than that from which they had been so lately delivered. +The tactics of both nations were the same. No sooner had they established +themselves on the ruins of their predecessors in Dublin, than the Danish forces +entered East-Meath, under the guidance of Kenneth, a local lord, and overran +the ancient mensal, from the sea to the Shannon. One of their first exploits +was burning alive 260 prisoners in the tower of Treoit, in the island of Lough +Gower, near Dunshaughlin. The next year, his allies having withdrawn from the +neighbourhood, Kenneth was taken by King Malachy's men, and the traitor himself +drowned in a sack, in the little river Nanny, which divides the two baronies of +Duleek. This death-penalty by drowning seems to have been one of the useful +hints which the Irish picked up from their invaders. +</p> + +<p> +During the remainder of this reign the Gentile war resumed much of its old +local and guerrilla character, the Provincial chiefs, and the Ard-Righ, +occasionally employing bands of one nation of the invaders to combat the other, +and even to suppress their native rivals. The only pitched battle of which we +hear is that of "the Two Plains" (near Coolestown, King's County), in the +second last year of Malachy (A.D. 859), in which his usual good fortune +attended the king. The greater part of his reign was occupied, as always must +be the case with the founder of a 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 Eugenian race. With the same object he held +a conference with all the chiefs of Ulster, Hugh of Aileach only being absent, +at Armagh, in the fourth year of his reign, and a General <i>Feis</i>, or +Assembly of all the Orders of Ireland, at Rathugh, in West-Meath, in his +thirteenth year (A.D. 857). He found, notwithstanding his victories and his +early popularity, that there are always those ready to turn from the setting to +the rising sun, and towards the end of his reign he was obliged to defend his +camp, near Armagh, by force, from a night assault of the discontented Prince of +Aileach; who also ravaged his patrimony, almost at the moment he lay on his +death-bed. Malachy I. departed this life on the 13th day of November, (A.D. +860), having reigned sixteen years. "Mournful is the news to the Gael!" +exclaims the elegiac Bard! "Red wine is spilled into the valley! Erin's monarch +has died!" And the lament contrasts his stately form as "he rode the white +stallion," with the striking reverse when, "his only horse this day"—that +is the bier on which his body was borne to the churchyard—"is drawn +behind two oxen." +</p> + +<p> +The restless Prince of Aileach now succeeded as Hugh VII., and possessed the +perilous honour he so much coveted for sixteen years, the same span that had +been allotted to his predecessor. The beginning of this reign was remarkable +for the novel design of the Danes, who marched out in great force, and set +themselves busily to breaking open the 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 to have been present, while their +gold-hunters broke into in succession the mound-covered cave of the wife of +Goban, at Drogheda, the cave of "the Shepherd of Elcmar," at Dowth, the cave of +the field of Aldai, at New Grange, and the similar cave at Knowth. What they +found in these huge cairns of the old <i>Tuatha</i> is not related; but Roman +coins of Valentinian and Theodosius, and torques and armlets of gold, have been +discovered by accident within their precincts, and an enlightened modern +curiosity has not explored them in vain, in the higher interests of history and +science. +</p> + +<p> +In the first two years of his reign, Hugh VII. was occupied in securing the +hostages of his suffragans; in the third he swept the remaining Danish and +Norwegian garrisons out of Ulster, and defeated a newly arrived force on the +borders of Lough Foyle; the next the Danish Earls went on a foray into +Scotland, and no exploit is to be recorded; in his sixth year, Hugh, with 1,000 +chosen men of his own tribe and the aid of the Sil-Murray (O'Conor's) of +Connaught, attacked and defeated a force of 5,000 Danes with their Leinster +allies, near Dublin at a place supposed to be identical with Killaderry. Earl +Olaf lost his son, and Erin her <i>Roydamna</i>, or heir-apparent, on this +field, which was much celebrated by the Bards of Ulster and of Connaught. +Amongst those who fell was Flan, son of Conaing, chief of the district which +included the plundered cemeteries, fighting on the side of the plunderers. The +mother of Flan was one of those who composed quatrains on the event of the +battle, and her lines are a natural and affecting alternation from joy to +grief—joy for the triumph of her brother and her country, and grief for +the loss of her self-willed, warlike son. Olaf, the Danish leader, avenged in +the next campaign the loss of his son, by a successful descent on Armagh, once +again rising from its ruins. He put to the sword 1,000 persons, and left the +primatial city lifeless, charred, and desolate. In the next ensuing year the +monarch chastised the Leinster allies of the Danes, traversing their territory +with fire and sword from Dublin to the border town of Gowran. This seems to +have been the last of his notable exploits in arms. He died on the 20th of +November, 876, and is lamented by the Bards as "a generous, wise, staid man." +These praises belong—if at all deserved—to his old age. +</p> + +<p> +Flan, son of Malachy I. (and surnamed like his father "of the Shannon"), +succeeded in the year 877, of the Annals of the Four Masters, or more +accurately the year 879 of our common era. He enjoyed the very unusual reign of +thirty-eight years. Some of the domestic events of his time are of so +unprecedented a character, and the period embraced is so considerable, that we +must devote to it a separate chapter. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap11"></a>CHAPTER III.<br/> +REIGN OF FLAN "OF THE SHANNON" (A.D. 879 TO 916).</h3> + +<p> +Midway in the reign we are called upon to contemplate, falls the centenary of +the first invasion of Ireland by the Northmen. Let us admit that the scenes of +that century are stirring and stimulating; two gallant races of men, in all +points strongly contrasted, contend for the most part in the open field, for +the possession of a beautiful and fertile island. Let us admit that the +Milesian-Irish, themselves invaders and conquerors of an older date, may have +had no right to declare the era of colonization closed for their country, while +its best harbours were without ships, and leagues of its best land were without +inhabitants; yet what gives to the contest its lofty and fearful interest, is, +that the foreigners who come so far and fight so bravely for the prize, are a +Pagan people, drunk with the evil spirit of one of the most anti-Christian +forms of human error. And what is still 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 unfaltering courage their beloved +country, are yet descending more and more to the moral level of their +assailants, without the apology of their Paganism. Degenerate civilisation may +be a worse element for truth to work in than original barbarism; and, +therefore, as we enter on the second century of this struggle, we begin to fear +for the Christian Irish, <i>not</i> from the arms or the valour, but from the +contact and example of the unbelievers. This, it is necessary to premise, +before presenting to the reader a succession of Bishops who lead armies to +battle, of Abbots whose voice is still for war, of treacherous tactics and +savage punishments; of the almost total disruption of the last links of that +federal bond, which, "though light as air were strong as iron," before the +charm of inviolability had been taken away from the ancient constitution. +</p> + +<p> +We begin to discern in this reign that royal marriages have much to do with war +and politics. Hugh, the late king, left a widow, named Maelmara ("follower of +Mary"), daughter to Kenneth M'Alpine, King of the Caledonian Scots: this lady +Flan married. The mother of Flan was the daughter of Dungal, Prince of Ossory, +so that to the cotemporary lords of that borderland the monarch stood in the +relation of cousin. A compact seems to have been entered into in the past +reign, that the <i>Roydamna</i>, or successor, should be chosen alternately +from the Northern and Southern Hy-Nial; and, subsequently, when Nial, son of +his predecessor, assumed that onerous rank, Flan gave him his daughter Gormley, +celebrated for her beauty, her talents, and her heartlessness, in marriage. +From these several family ties, uniting him so closely with Ossory, with the +Scots, and with his successor, much of the wars and politics of Flan Siona's +reign take their cast and complexion. A still more fruitful source of new +complications was the co-equal power, acquired through a long series of +aggressions, by the kings of Cashel. Their rivalry with the monarchy, from the +beginning of the eighth till the end of the tenth century, was a constant cause +of intrigues, coalitions, and wars, reminding us of the constant rivalry of +Athens with Sparta, of Genoa with Venice. This kingship of Cashel, according to +the Munster law of succession, "the will of Olild," ought to have alternated +regularly between the descendants of his sons, Eugene More and Cormac +Cas—the Eugenians and Dalcassians. But the families of the former kindred +were for many centuries the more powerful of the two, and frequently set at +nought the testamentary law of their common ancestor, leaving the tribe of Cas +but the border-land of Thomond, from which they had sometimes to pay tribute to +Cruachan, and at others to Cashel. In the ninth century the competition among +the Eugenian houses—of which too many were of too nearly equal +strength—seems to have suggested a new expedient, with the view of +permanently setting aside the will of Olild. This was, to confer the kingship +when vacant, on whoever happened to be Bishop of Emly or of Cashel, or on some +other leading ecclesiastical dignitary, always provided that he was of Eugenian +descent; a qualification easily to be met with, since the great sees and +abbacies were now filled, for the most part, by the sons of the neighbouring +chiefs. In this way we find Cenfalad, Felim, and Olcobar, in this century, +styled Prince-Bishops or Prince-Abbots. The principal domestic difficulty of +Flan Siona's reign followed from the elevation of Cormac, son of Cuillenan, +from the see of Emly to the throne of Cashel. +</p> + +<p> +Cormac, a scholar, and, as became his calling, a man of peace, was thus, by +virtue of his accession, the representative of the old quarrel between his +predecessors and the dominant race of kings. All Munster asserted that it was +never the intention of their common ancestors to subject the southern half of +Erin to the sway of the north; that Eber and Owen More had resisted such +pretensions when advanced by Eremhon and Conn of the Hundred Battles; that the +<i>esker</i> from Dublin to Galway was the true division, and that, even +admitting the title of the Hy-Nial king as Ard-Righ, all the tribes south of +the <i>esker</i>, whether in Leinster or Connaught, still owed tribute by +ancient right to Cashel. Their antiquaries had their own version in of "the +Book of Rights," which countenanced these claims to co-equal dominion, and +their Bards drew inspiration from the same high pretensions. Party spirit ran +so high that tales and prophecies were invented to show how St. Patrick had +laid his curse on Tara, and promised dominion to Cashel and to Dublin in its +stead. All Leinster, except the lordship of Ossory—identical with the +present diocese of the same name-was held by the <i>Brehons</i> of Cashel to be +tributary to their king; and this <i>Borooa</i> or tribute, abandoned by the +monarchs at the intercession of Saint Moling, was claimed for the Munster +rulers as an inseparable adjunct of their southern kingdom. +</p> + +<p> +The first act of Flan Siona, on his accession, was to dash into Munster, +demanding hostages at the point of the sword, and sweeping over both Thomond +and Desmond with irresistible force, from Clare to Cork. With equal promptitude +he marched through every territory of Ulster, securing, by the pledges of their +heirs and <i>Tanists</i>, the chiefs of the elder tribes of the Hy-Nial. So +effectually did he consider his power established over the provinces, that he +is said to have boasted to one of his hostages, that he would, with no other +attendants than his own servants, play a game of chess on Thurles Green, +without fear of interruption. Carrying out this foolish 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 runs the tale, +which, whether true or fictitious, is not without its moral. Flan experienced +greater difficulty with the tribes of Connaught, nor was it till the thirteenth +year of his reign (892) that Cathal, their Prince, "came into his house," in +Meath, "under the protection of the clergy" of Clonmacnoise, and made peace +with him. A brief interval of repose seems to have been vouchsafed to this +Prince, in the last years of the century; but a storm was gathering over +Cashel, and the high pretensions of the Eugenian line were again to be put to +the hazard of battle. +</p> + +<p> +Cormac, the Prince-Bishop, began his rule over Munster in the year 900 of our +common era, and passed some years in peace, after his accession. If we believe +his panegyrists, the land over which he bore sway, "was filled with divine +grace and worldly prosperity," and with order so unbroken, "that the cattle +needed no cowherd, and the flocks no shepherd, so long as he was king." Himself +an antiquary and a lover of learning, it seems but natural that "many books +were written, and many schools opened," by his liberality. During this enviable +interval, councillors of less pacific mood than their studious master were not +wanting to stimulate his sense of kingly duty, by urging him to assert the +claim of Munster to the tribute of the southern half of Erin. As an antiquary +himself, Cormac must have been bred up in undoubting belief in the justice of +that claim, and must have given judgment in favour of its antiquity and +validity, before his accession. These <i>dicta</i> of his own were now quoted +with emphasis, and he was besought to enforce, by all the means within his +reach, the learned judgments he himself had delivered. The most active advocate +of a recourse to arms was Flaherty, Abbot of Scattery, in the Shannon, himself +an Eugenian, and the kinsman of Cormac. After many objections, the peaceful +Prince-Bishop allowed himself to be persuaded, and in the year 907 he took up +his line of march, "in the fortnight of the harvest," from Cashel toward +Gowran, at the head of all the armament of Munster. Lorcan, son of Lactna, and +grandfather of Brian, commanded the Dalcassians, under Cormac; and Oliol, lord +of Desies, and the warlike Abbot of Scattery, led on the other divisions. The +monarch marched southward to meet his assailants, with his own proper troops, +and the contingents of Connaught under Cathel, Prince of that Province, and +those of Leinster under the lead of Kerball, their king. Both armies met at +Ballaghmoon, in the southern corner of Kildare, not far from the present town +of Carlow, and both fought with most heroic bravery. The Munster forces were +utterly defeated; the Lords of Desies, of Fermoy, of Kinalmeaky, and of Kerry, +the Abbots of Cork and Kennity, and Cormac himself, with 6,000 men, fell on the +ensanguined field. The losses of the victors are not specified, but the 6,000, +we may hope, included the total of the slain on both sides. Flan at once +improved the opportunity of victory by advancing into Ossory, and establishing +his cousin Dermid, son of Kerball, over that territory. This Dermid, who +appears to have been banished by Munster intrigues, had long resided with his +royal cousin, previous to the battle, from which he was probably the only one +that derived any solid advantage. As to the Abbot Flaherty, the instigator of +this ill-fated expedition, he escaped from the conquerors, and, safe in his +island sanctuary, gave himself up for a while to penitential rigours. The +worldly spirit, however, was not dead in his breast, and after the decease of +Cormac's next successor, he emerged from his cell, and was elevated to the +kingship of Cashel. +</p> + +<p> +In the earlier and middle years of this long reign, the invasions from the +Baltic had diminished both in force and in frequency. This is to be accounted +for from the fact, that during its entire length it was contemporaneous with +the reign of Harold, "the Fair-haired" King of Norway, the scourge of the +sea-kings. This more fortunate Charles XII., born in 853, died at the age of +81, after sixty years of almost unbroken successes, over all his Danish, +Swedish, and insular enemies. It is easy to comprehend, by reference to his +exploits upon the Baltic, the absence of the usual northern force from the +Irish waters, during his lifetime, and that of his cotemporary, Flan of the +Shannon. Yet the race of the sea-kings was not extinguished by the fair-haired +Harold's victories over them, at home. Several of them permanently abandoned +their native coasts never to return, and recruited their colonies, already so +numerous, in the Orkneys, Scotland, England, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. In +885, Flan was repulsed in an attack on Dublin, in which repulse the Abbots of +Kildare and Kildalkey were slain; in the year 890, Aileach was surprised and +plundered by Danes, for the first time, and Armagh shared its fate; in 887, +888, and 891, three minor victories were gained over separate hordes, in Mayo, +at Waterford, and in Ulidia (Down). In 897, Dublin was taken for the first time +in sixty years, its chiefs put to death, while its garrison fled in their ships +beyond sea. But in the first quarter of the tenth century, better fortune +begins to attend the Danish cause. A new generation enters on the scene, who +dread no more the long arm of the age-stricken Harold, nor respect the treaties +which bound their predecessors in Britain to the great Alfred. In 912, +Waterford received from sea a strong reinforcement, and about the same date, or +still earlier, Dublin, from which they had been expelled in 897, was again in +their possession. In 913, and for several subsequent years, the southern +garrisons continued their ravages in Munster, where the warlike Abbot of +Scattery found a more suitable object for the employment of his valour than +that which brought him, with the studious Cormac, to the fatal field of +Ballaghmoon. +</p> + +<p> +The closing days of Flan of the Shannon were embittered and darkened by the +unnatural rebellion of his sons, Connor and Donogh, and his successor, Nial, +surnamed <i>Black-Knee</i> (<i>Glundubh</i>), the husband of his daughter, +Gormley. These children were by his second marriage with Gormley, daughter of +that son of Conaing, whose name has already appeared in connection with the +plundered sepulchres upon the Boyne. At the age of three score and upwards Flan +is frequently obliged to protect by recourse to arms his mensal lands in +Meath—their favourite point of attack—or to defend some faithful +adherent whom these unnatural Princes sought to oppress. The daughter of Flan, +thus wedded to a husband in arms against her father, seems to have been as +little dutiful as his sons. We have elegiac stanzas by her on the death of two +of her husbands and of one of her sons, but none on the death of her father: +although this form of tribute to the departed, by those skilled in such +compositions, seems to have been as usual as the ordinary prayers for the dead. +</p> + +<p> +At length, in the 37th year of his reign, and the 68th of his age, King Flan +was at the end of his sorrows. As became the prevailing character of his life, +he died peacefully, 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," as well as his "pleasant and hospitable" private habits. Like +all the kings of his race he seems to have been brave enough: but he was no +lover of war for war's-sake, and the only great engagement in his long reign +was brought 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 year after the battle of Ballaghmoon (908); for which age, it was +the largest and finest stone Church in Ireland. His charity and chivalry both +revolted at the cruel excesses of war, and when the head of Cormac of Cashel +was presented to him after his victory, he rebuked those who rejoiced over his +rival's fall, kissed reverently the lips of the dead, and ordered the relics to +be delivered, as Cormac had himself willed it, to the Church of Castledermot, +for Christian burial. These traits of character, not less than his family +afflictions, and the generally peaceful tenor of his long life, have endeared +to many the memory of Flan of the Shannon. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap12"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br/> +KINGS OF THE TENTH CENTURY; NIAL IV.; DONOGH II.; CONGAL III.; DONALD IV.</h3> + +<p> +Nial IV. (surnamed <i>Black-Knee</i>) succeeded his father-in-law, Flan of the +Shannon (A.D. 916), and in the third year of his reign fell in an assault on +Dublin; Donogh II., son of Flan Siona, reigned for twenty-five years; Congal +III. succeeded, and was slain in an ambush by the Dublin Danes, in the twelfth +year of his reign (A.D. 956); Donald IV., in the twenty-fourth year of his +reign, died at Armagh, (A.D. 979); which four reigns bring us to the period of +the accession of Malachy II. as <i>Ard-Righ</i>, and the entrance of Brian +Boru, on the national stage, as King of Cashel, and competitor for the +monarchy. +</p> + +<p> +The reign of Nial <i>Black-Knee</i> was too brief to be memorable for any other +event than his heroic death in battle. The Danes having recovered Dublin, and +strengthened its defences, Nial, it is stated, was incited by his confessor, +the Abbot of Bangor, to attempt their re-expulsion. Accordingly, in October, +919, he marched towards Dublin, with a numerous host; Conor, son of the late +king and <i>Roydamna</i>; the lords of Ulidia (Down), Oriel (Louth), Breagh +(East-Meath), and other chiefs, with their clans accompanying him. Sitrick and +Ivar, sons of the first Danish leaders in Ireland, marched out to meet them, +and near Rathfarnham, on the Dodder, a battle was fought, in which the Irish +were utterly defeated and their monarch slain. This Nial left a son named +Murkertach, who, according to the compact entered into between the Northern and +Southern Hy-Nial, became the <i>Roydamna</i> of the next reign, and the most +successful leader against the Danes, since the time of Malachy I. He was the +step-son of the poetic Lady Gormley, whose lot it was to have been married in +succession to the King of Munster, the King of Leinster, and the Monarch. Her +first husband was Cormac, son of Cuilenan, before he entered holy orders; her +second, Kerball of Leinster, and her third, Nial <i>Black-Knee</i>. She was an +accomplished poetess, besides being the daughter, wife, and mother of king's, +yet after the death of Nial she "begged from door to door," and no one had pity +on her fallen state. By what vices she had thus 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-son successor, we +learn from the annals, which record her penance and death, under the date of +948. +</p> + +<p> +The defeat sustained near Rathfarnham, by the late king, was amply avenged in +the first year of the new <i>Ard-Righ</i> (A.D. 920), when the Dublin Danes, +having marched out, taken and burned Kells, in Meath, were on their return +through the plain of Breagh, attacked and routed with unprecedented slaughter. +"There fell of the nobles of the Norsemen here," say the old Annalists, "as +many as fell of the nobles and plebeians of the Irish, at Ath-Cliath" (Dublin). +The Northern Hydra, however, was not left headless. Godfrey, grandson of Ivar, +and Tomar, son of Algi, took command at Dublin, and Limerick, infusing new life +into the remnant of their race. The youthful son of the late king, soon after +at the head of a strong force (A.D. 921), compelled Godfrey to retreat from +Ulster, 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 defender of +Troy. Murkertach first appears in our annals at the year 921, and disappears in +the thick of the battle in 938. His whole career covers seventeen years; his +position throughout was subordinate and expectant—for King Donogh +outlived his heir: but there are few names in any age of the history of his +country more worthy of historical honour than his. While Donogh was king in +name, Murkertach was king in fact; on him devolved the burden of every +negotiation, and the brunt of every battle. Unlike his ancestor, Hugh of +Aileach, in his opposition to Donogh's ancestor, Malachy I., he never attempts +to counteract the king, or to harass him in his patrimony. He rather does what +is right and needful himself, leaving Donogh to claim the credit, if he be so +minded. True, a coolness and a quarrel arises between them, and even "a +challenge of battle" is exchanged, but better councils prevail, peace is +restored, and the king and the <i>Roydamna</i> march as one man against the +common enemy. It has been said of another but not wholly dissimilar form of +government, that Crown-Princes are always in opposition; if this saying holds +good of father and son, as occupant and expectant of a throne, how much more +likely is it to be true of a successor and a principal, chosen from different +dynasties, with a view to combine, or at worst to balance, conflicting +hereditary interests? In the conduct of Murkertach, we admire, in turn, his +many shining personal qualities, which even tasteless panegyric cannot hide, +and the prudence, self-denial, patience, and preservance with which he awaits +his day of power. Unhappily, for one every way so worthy of it, that day never +arrived! +</p> + +<p> +At no former period,—not even at the height of the tyranny of +Turgesius,—was a capable Prince more needed in Erin. The new generation +of Northmen were again upon all the estuaries and inland waters of the Island. +In the years 923-4 and 5, their light armed vessels swarmed on Lough Erne, +Lough Ree, and other lakes, spreading flame and terror on every side. +Clonmacnoise and Kildare, slowly recovering from former pillage, were again +left empty and in ruins. Murkertach, the base of whose early operations was his +own patrimony in Ulster, attacked near Newry a Northern division under the +command of the son of Godfrey (A.D. 926), and left 800 dead on the field. The +escape of the remnant was only secured by Godfrey marching rapidly to their +relief and covering the retreat. His son lay with the dead. In the years 933, +at Slieve Behma, in his own Province, Murkertach won a third victory; and in +936, taking political advantage of the result of the great English battle of +Brunanburgh, which had so seriously diminished the Danish strength, the +Roydamna, in company with the King, assaulted Dublin, expelled its garrison, +levelled its fortress, and left the dwellings of the Northmen in ashes. From +Dublin they proceeded southward, through Leinster and Munster, and after taking +hostages of every tribe, Donogh returned to his Methian home and Murkertach to +Aileach. While resting in his own fort (A.D. 939), he was surprised by a party +of Danes, and carried off to their ships, but, says the old translator of the +Annals of Clonmacnoise, "he made a good escape from them, as it was God's +will." The following season he redoubled his efforts against the enemy. +Attacking them on their own element, he ravaged their settlements on the +Scottish coasts and among the isles of Insi-Gall (the Hebrides), returned laden +with spoils, and hailed with acclamations as the liberator of his people. +</p> + +<p> +Of the same age with Murkertach, the reigning Prince at Cashel was Kellachan, +one of the heroes of the latter Bards and Story-tellers of the South. The +romantic tales of his capture by the Danes, and captivity in their fleet at +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 war and at peace with the foreigners of Cork and Limerick, and did not +hesitate more than once to employ their arms for the maintenance of his own +supremacy; but his only authentic captivity was, as a hostage, in the hands of +Murkertach. While the latter was absent, on his expedition to Insi-Gall, +Kellachan fell upon the Deisi and Ossorians, and inflicted severe chastisement +upon them-alleging, as his provocation, that they had given hostages to +Murkertach, and acknowledged him as <i>Roydamna</i> of all Erin, in contempt of +the co-equal rights of Cashel. When Murkertach returned from his Scotch +expedition, and heard what had occurred, and on what pretext Kellachan had +acted, he assembled at Aileach all the branches of the Northern Hy-Nial, for +whom this was cause, indeed. Out of these he selected 1000 chosen men, whom he +provided, among other equipments, with those "leathern coats," which lent a +<i>soubriquet</i> to his name; and with these "ten hundred heroes," he set +out—strong in his popularity and his alliances—to make a circuit of +the entire island (A.D. 940). He departed from Aileach, says his Bard, whose +Itinerary we have, "keeping his left hand to the sea;" Dublin, once more +rebuilt, acknowledged his title, and Sitrick, one of its lords, went with him +as hostage for Earl Blacair and his countrymen; Leinster surrendered him +Lorcan, its King; Kellachan, of Cashel, overawed by his superior fortune, +advised his own people not to resist by force, and consented to become himself +the hostage for all Munster. In Connaught, Conor, (from whom the O'Conors take +their family name), son of the Prince, came voluntarily to his camp, and was +received with open arms. Kellachan alone was submitted to the indignity of +wearing a fetter. With these distinguished hostages, Murkertach and his +leather-cloaked "ten hundred" returned to Aileach, where, for five months, they +spent a season of unbounded rejoicing. In the following year, the +<i>Roydamna</i> transferred the hostages to King Donogh, as his +<i>suzerain</i>, thus setting the 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, when the Danes of Dublin, reinforced from abroad, after his "Circuit," +renewed their old plundering practices. They marched north, at the close of +winter, under Earl Blacair, their destination evidently being Armagh. +Murkertach, with some troops hastily collected, disputed their passage at the +ford of Ardee. An engagement ensued on Saturday, the 4th of March, 943, in +which the noble <i>Roydamna</i> fell. King Donogh, to whose reign his vigorous +spirit has given its main historical importance, survived him but a +twelvemonth; the Monarch died in the bed of repose; his destined successor in +the thick of battle. +</p> + +<p> +The death of the brave and beloved Murkertach filled all Erin with grief and +rage, and as King Donogh was too old to avenge his destined successor, that +duty devolved on Congal, the new <i>Roydamna</i>. In the year after the fatal +action 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 off captive; +the greater part of the garrison were put to the sword; but a portion escaped +in their vessels to their fortress on Dalkey, an island in the bay of Dublin. +This was the third time within a century that Dublin had been rid of its +foreign yoke, and yet as the Gaelic-Irish would not themselves dwell in +fortified towns, the site remained open and unoccupied, to be rebuilt as often +as it 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 it with sufficient hostages, he showed that he could not only +avenge the death, but imitate the glorious life of him whose place he held. Two +considerable victories in his third and fourth years increased his fame, and +rejoiced the hearts of his countrymen: the first was won at Slane, aided by the +Lord of Breffni (O'Ruarc), and by Olaf the Crooked, a northern chief. The +second was fought at Dublin (947), in which Blacair, the victor at Ardee, and +1,600 of his men were slain. Thus was the death of Murkertach finally avenged. +</p> + +<p> +It is very remarkable that the first conversions to Christianity among the +Danes of Dublin should have taken place immediately after these successive +defeats—in 948. Nor, although quite willing to impute the best and most +disinterested motives to these first neophytes, can we shut our eyes to the +fact that no change of life, such as we might reasonably look for, accompanied +their change of religion. Godfrid, son of Sitrick, and successor of Blacair, +who professed himself a Christian in 948, plundered and destroyed the churches +of East-Meath in 949, burnt 150 persons in the oratory of Drumree, and carried +off as captives 3,000 persons. If the tree is to be judged by its fruits, this +first year's growth of the new faith is rather alarming. It compels us to +disbelieve the sincerity of Godfrid, at least, and the fighting men who wrought +these outrages and sacrileges. It forces us to rank them with the incorrigible +heathens who boasted that they had twenty times received the Sacrament of +Baptism, and valued it for the twenty white robes which had been presented to +them on those occasions. Still, we must endeavour hereafter, when we can, to +distinguish Christian from Pagan Danes, and those of Irish birth, sons of the +first comers, from the foreign-born kinsmen of their ancestors. Between these +two classes there grew a gulf of feeling and experience, which a common +language and common dangers only partially bridged over. Not seldom the +interests and inclinations of the Irish-born Dane, especially if a true +Christian, were at open variance with the interests and designs of the new +arrivals from Denmark, and it is generally, if not invariably, with the former, +that the Leinster and other Irish Princes enter into coalitions for common +political purposes. The remainder of the reign of Congal is one vigorous +battle. The Lord of Breffni, who had fought beside him on the hill of Slane, +advanced his claim to be recognised <i>Roydamna</i>, and this being denied, +broke out into rebellion and harassed his patrimony. Donald, son of Murkertach, +and grandson of Nial, (the first who took the name of <i>Uai-Nial</i>, or +O'Neill), disputed these pretensions of the Lord of Breffni; carried his boats +overland from Aileach to Lough Erne in Fermanagh, and Lough Oughter in Cavan; +attacked the lake-islands, where the treasure and hostages of Breffni were +kept, and carried them off to his own fortress. The warlike and indefatigable +king was in the field summer and winter enforcing his authority on Munster and +Connaught, and battling with the foreign garrisons between times. No former +Ard-Righ had a severer struggle with the insubordinate elements which beset him +from first to last. His end was sudden, but not inglorious. In returning from +the chariot-races at the Curragh of Kildare, he was surprised and slain in an +ambuscade laid for him by Godfrid at a place on the banks of the Liffey called +Tyraris or Teeraris house. By his side, fighting bravely, fell the lords of +Teffia and Ferrard, two of his nephews, and others of his personal attendants +and companions. The Dublin Danes had in their turn a day of rejoicing and of +revenge for the defeats they had suffered at Congal's hands. +</p> + +<p> +This reign is not only notable for the imputed first conversion of the Danes to +Christianity, but also for the general adoption of family names. Hitherto, we +have been enabled to distinguish clansmen only by tribe-names formed by +prefixing <i>Hy</i>, <i>Kinnel</i>, <i>Sil</i>, <i>Muintir</i>, <i>Dal</i>, or +some synonymous term, meaning race, kindred, sept, district, or part, to the +proper name of a remote common ancestor, as Hy-Nial, Kinnel-Connel, Sil-Murray, +Muintir-Eolais, Dal-g Cais, and Dal-Riada. But the great tribes now begin to +break into families, and we are hereafter to know particular houses, by +distinct hereditary surnames, as O'Neill, O'Conor, MacMurrough, and McCarthy. +Yet, the whole body of relatives are often spoken of by the old tribal title, +which, unless exceptions are named, is supposed to embrace all the descendants +of the old connection to whom it was once common. At first this alternate use +of tribe and family names may confuse the reader—for it <i>is</i> rather +puzzling to find a MacLoughlin with the same paternal ancestor as an O'Neill, +and a McMahon of Thomond as an O'Brien, but the difficulty disappears with use +and familiarity, and though the number and variety of newly-coined names cannot +be at once committed to memory, the story itself gains in distinctness by the +change. +</p> + +<p> +In the year 955, Donald O'Neill, son of the brave and beloved Murkertach, was +recognised as Ard-Righ, by the required number of Provinces, without recourse +to coercion. But it was <i>not</i> to be expected that any Ard-Righ should, at +this period of his country's fortunes, reign long in peace. War was then the +business of the King; the first art he had to learn, and the first to practise. +Warfare in Ireland had not been a stationary science since the arrival of the +Norwegians and their successors, the Danes. Something they may have acquired +from the natives, and in turn the natives were not slow to copy whatever seemed +most effective in their tactics. Donald IV. was the first to imitate their +habit of employing armed boats on the inland lakes. He even improved on their +example, by carrying these boats with him overland, and launching them wherever +he needed their co-operation; as we have already seen him do in his expedition +against Breffni, while <i>Roydamna</i>, and as we find him doing again, in the +seventh year of his reign, when he carried his boats overland from Armagh to +West-Meath in order to employ them on Loch Ennell, near Mullingar. He was at +this time engaged in making his first royal visitation of the Provinces, upon +which he spent two months in Leinster, with all his forces, coerced the Munster +chiefs by fire and sword into obedience, and severely punished the +insubordination of Fergal O'Ruarc, King of Connaught. His fleet upon Loch +Ennell, and his severities generally while in their patrimony, so exasperated +the powerful families of the Southern Hy-Nial (the elder of which was now known +as O'Melaghlin), that on the first opportunity they leagued with the Dublin +Danes, under their leader, Olaf "the Crooked" (A.D. 966), and drove King Donald +out of Leinster and Meath, pursuing him across Slieve-Fuaid, almost to the +walls of Aileach. But the brave tribes of Tyrconnell and Tyrowen rallied to his +support, and he pressed south upon the insurgents of Meath and Dublin; +West-Meath he rapidly overran, and "planted a garrison in every cantred from +the Shannon to Kells," In the campaigns which now succeeded each other, without +truce or pause, for nearly a dozen years, the Leinster people generally +sympathised with and assisted those of West-Meath, and Olaf, of Dublin, who +recruited his ranks by the junction of the Lagmans, a warlike tribe, from +Insi-Gall (the Hebrides). Ossory, on the other hand, acted with the monarch, +and the son of its Tanist (A.D. 974) was slain before Dublin, by Olaf and his +Leinster allies, with 2,600 men, of Ossory and Ulster. The campaign of 978 was +still more eventful: the Leinster men quarrelled with their Danish allies, who +had taken their king captive, and in an engagement at Belan, near Athy, +defeated their forces, with the loss of the heir of Leinster, the lords of +Kinsellagh, Lea and Morett, and other chiefs. King Donald had no better fortune +at Killmoon, in Meath, the same season, where he was utterly routed by the same +force, with the loss of Ardgal, heir of Ulidia, and Kenneth, lord of +Tyrconnell. But for the victories gained about the same period in Munster, by +Mahon and Brian, the sons of Kennedy, over the Danes of Limerick, of which we +shall speak more fully hereafter, the balance of victory would have strongly +inclined towards the Northmen at this stage of the contest. +</p> + +<p> +A leader, second in fame and in services only to Brian, was now putting forth +his energies against the common enemy, in Meath. This was Melaghlin, better +known afterwards as Malachy II., son of Donald, son of King Donogh, and, +therefore, great-grandson to his namesake, Malachy I. He had lately attained to +the command of his tribe—and he resolved to earn the honours which were +in store for him, as successor to the sovereignty. In the year 979, the Danes +of Dublin and the Isles marched in unusual strength into Meath, under the +command of Rannall, son of Olaf the Crooked, and Connail, "the Orator of +Ath-Cliath," (Dublin). Malachy, with his allies, gave them battle near Tara, +and achieved a complete victory. Earl Rannall and the Orator were left dead on +the field, with, it is reported, 5,000 of the foreigners. On the Irish side +fell the heir of Leinster, the lord of Morgallion and his son; the lords of +Fertullagh and Cremorne, and a host of their followers. The engagement, in true +Homeric spirit, had been suspended on three successive nights, and renewed +three successive days. It was a genuine pitched battle—a trial of main +strength, each party being equally confident of victory. The results were most +important, and most gratifying to the national pride. Malachy, accompanied by +his friend, the lord of Ulidia (Down), moved rapidly on Dublin, which, in its +panic, yielded to all his demands. The King of Leinster and 2,000 other +prisoners were given up to him without ransom. The Danish Earls solemnly +renounced all claims to tribute or fine from any of the dwellers without their +own walls. Malachy remained in the city three days, dismantled its fortresses, +and carried off its hostages and treasure. The unfortunate Olaf the Crooked +fled beyond seas, and died at Iona, in exile, and a Christian. In the same +year, and in the midst of universal rejoicing, Donald IV. died peacefully and +piously at Armagh, in the 24th year of his reign. He was succeeded by Malachy, +who was his sister's son, and in whom all the promise of the lamented +Murkertach seemed to revive. +</p> + +<p> +The story of Malachy II. is so interwoven with the still-more illustrious +career of Brian <i>Borooa</i>, that it will 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 the Northmen of this age hold +to the Irish from that which existed formerly. A century and a half had now +elapsed since their first settlement in the seaports, especially of the eastern +and southern Provinces. More than one generation of their descendants had been +born on the banks of the Liffey, the Shannon, and the Suir. Many of them had +married into Irish families, had learned the language of the country, and +embraced its religion. When Limerick was taken by Brian, Ivar, its Danish lord, +fled for sanctuary to Scattery Island, and when Dublin was taken by Malachy +II., Olaf the Crooked fled to Iona. Inter-marriages with the highest Gaelic +families became frequent, after their conversion to Christianity. The mother of +Malachy, after his father's death, had married Olaf of Dublin, by whom she had +a son, named <i>Gluniarran (Iron-Knee</i>, from his armour), who was thus +half-brother to the King. It is natural enough to find him the ally of Malachy, +a few years later, against Ivar of Waterford; and curious enough to find Ivar's +son called Gilla-Patrick—servant of Patrick. Kellachan of Cashel had +married a Danish, and Sitrick "of the Silken beard," an Irish lady. That all +the Northmen were not, even in Ireland, converted in one generation, is +evident. Those of Insi-Gall were still, perhaps, Pagans; those of the Orkneys +and of Denmark, who came to the battle of Clontarf in the beginning of the next +century, chose to fight on Good Friday under the advice of their heathen +Oracles. The first half of the eleventh century, the age of Saint Olaf and of +Canute, is the era of the establishment of Christianity among the +Scandinavians, and hence the necessity for distinguishing between those who +came to Ireland, direct from the Baltic, from those who, born in Ireland and +bred up in the Christian faith, had as much to apprehend from such an invasion, +as the Celts themselves. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap13"></a>CHAPTER V.<br/> +REIGN OF MALACHY II. AND RIVALRY OF BRIAN.</h3> + +<p> +Melaghlin, or Malachy II., fifth in direct descent from Malachy I. (the founder +of the Southern Hy-Nial dynasty), was in his thirtieth year when (A.D. 980) he +succeeded to the monarchy. He had just achieved the mighty victory of Tara when +the death of his predecessor opened his way to the throne; and seldom did more +brilliant dawn usher in a more eventful day than that which Fate held in store +for this victor-king. None of his predecessors, not even his ancestor and +namesake, had ever been able to use the high language of his "noble +Proclamation," when he announced on his accession—"Let all the Irish who +are suffering servitude in the land of the stranger return home to their +respective houses and enjoy themselves in gladness and in peace." In obedience +to this edict, and the power to enforce it established by the victory at Tara, +2,000 captives, including the King of Leinster and the Prince of Aileach, were +returned to their homes. +</p> + +<p> +The hardest task of every Ard-Righ of this and the previous century had been to +circumscribe the ambition of the kings of Cashel within Provincial bounds. +Whoever ascended the southern throne—whether the warlike Felim or the +learned Cormac—we have seen the same policy adopted by them all. The +descendants of Heber had tired of the long ascendancy of the race of Heremon, +and the desertion of Tara, by making that ascendancy still more strikingly +Provincial, had increased their antipathy. It was a struggle for supremacy +between north and south; a contest of two geographical parties; an effort to +efface the real or fancied dependency of one-half the island on the will of the +other. The Southern Hy-Nial dynasty, springing up as 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 possible to have done so, had he not had to +contend with a rival, his equal in battle and superior in council, in the +person of Brian, the son of Kennedy, of Kincorra. +</p> + +<p> +The rise to sovereign rank of the house of Kincorra (the O'Briens), is one of +the most striking episodes of the tenth century. Descending, like most of the +leading families of the South, from Olild, the Clan Dalgais had long been +excluded from the throne of Cashel, by successive coalitions of their elder +brethren, the Eugenians. Lactna and Lorcan, the grandfather and father of +Kennedy, intrepid and able men, had strengthened their tribe by wise and +vigorous measures, so that the former was able to claim the succession, +apparently with success. Kennedy had himself been a claimant for the same +honour, the alternate provision 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, the aged mother of Kellachan addressed his rival in +a quatrain, beginning— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Kennedi Cas revere the law!" +</p> + +<p> +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 five out of twelve sons, with whom he had been blessed. Most of the +others had fallen in Danish battles—three in the same campaign (943), and +probably in the same field. There appear in after scenes, Mahon, who became +King of Cashel; Echtierna, who was chief of Thomond, under Mahon; Marcan, an +ecclesiastic, and Brian, born in 941, the Benjamin of the household. Mahon +proved himself, as Prince and Captain, every way worthy of his inheritance. He +advanced from victory to victory over his enemies, foreign and domestic. In 960 +he claimed the throne of Munster, which claim he enforced by royal visitation +five years later. In the latter year, he rescued Clonmacnoise from the Danes, +and in 968 defeated the same enemy, with a loss of several thousand men at +Sulchoid. This great blow he followed up by the sack of Limerick, from which +"he bore 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 as a brother and prince, but as a tutor in arms. Fortune had +accompanied him in all his undertakings. He had expelled his most intractable +rival—Molloy, son of Bran, lord of Desmond; his rule was acknowledged by +the Northmen of Dublin and Cork, who opened their fortresses to him, and served +under his banner; he carried "all the hostages of Munster to his house," which +had never before worn so triumphant an aspect. But family greatness begets +family pride, and pride begets envy and hatred. The Eugenian families who now +found themselves overshadowed by the brilliant career of the sons of Kennedy, +conspired against the life of Mahon, who, from his too confiding nature, 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 the house of +Donovan, an Eugenian chief, whose rath was at Bruree, on the river Maigue. The +safety of each person was guaranteed by the Bishop of Cork, the mediator on the +occasion. Mahon proceeded unsuspiciously to the conference, where he was +suddenly seized by order of his treacherous host, and carried into the +neighbouring mountains of Knocinreorin. Here a small force, placed for the +purpose by the conspirators, had orders promptly to despatch their victim. But +the foul deed was not done unwitnessed. Two priests of the Bishop of Cork +followed the Prince, who, when arrested, snatched up "the Gospel of St. Barry," +on which Molloy was to have sworn his fealty. As the swords of the assassins +were aimed at his heart, he held up the Gospel for a protection, and his blood +spouting out, stained the Sacred Scriptures. The priests, taking up the +blood-stained volume, fled to their Bishop, spreading the horrid story as they +went. The venerable successor of St. Barry "wept bitterly, and uttered a +prophecy concerning the future fate of the murderers;" a prophecy which was +very speedily fulfilled. +</p> + +<p> +This was in the year 976, three or four years before the battle of Tara and the +accession of Malachy. When the news of his noble-hearted brother's murder was +brought to Brian, at Kinkora, he was seized with the most violent grief. His +favourite harp was taken down, and he sang the death-song of Mahon, recounting +all the glorious actions of his life. His anger flashed out through his tears, +as he wildly chanted +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Â Â Â "My heart shall burst within my breast,<br/> +Â Â Â Â Unless I avenge this great king;<br/> +Â Â Â Â They shall forfeit life for this foul deed<br/> +Â Â Â Â Or I must perish by a violent death."<br/> +</p> + +<p> +But the climax of his lament was, that Mahon "had not fallen in battle behind +the shelter of his shield, rather than trust in the treacherous words of +Donovan." Brian was now in his thirty-fifth year, was married, and had several +children. Morrogh, his eldest, was able to bear arms, and shared in his ardour +and ambition. "His first effort," says an old Chronicle, "was directed against +Donovan's allies, the Danes of Limerick, and he slew Ivar their king, and two +of his sons." These conspirators, foreseeing their fate, had retired into the +holy isle of Scattery, but Brian slew them between "the horns of the altar." +For this violation of the sanctuary, considering his provocation, he was little +blamed. He next turned his rage against Donovan, who had called to his aid the +Danish townsmen of Desmond. "Brian," says the Annalist of Innisfallen, "gave +them battle where Auliffe and his Danes, and Donovan and his Irish forces, were +all cut off." After that battle, Brian sent a challenge to Molloy, of Desmond, +according to the custom of that age, to meet him in arms near Macroom, where +the usual coalition, Danes and Irish, were against him. He completely routed +the enemy, and his son Morrogh, then but a lad, "killed the murderer of his +uncle Mahon with his own hand." Molloy was buried on the north side of the +mountain where Mahon was murdered and interred; on Mahon the southward sun +shone full and fair; but on the grave of his assassin, the black shadow of the +northern sky rested always. Such was 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, and until Malachy had won the battle +of Tara, was justly considered the first Irish captain of his age. +</p> + +<p> +Malachy, in the first year of his reign, having received the hostages of the +Danes of Dublin, having liberated the Irish prisoners and secured the unity of +his own territory, had his attention drawn, naturally enough, towards Brian's +movements. Whether Brian had refused him homage, or that his revival of the old +claim to the half-kingdom was his offence, or from whatever immediate cause, +Malachy marched southwards, enforcing homage as he went. Entering Thomond he +plundered the Dalcassians, and marching to the mound at Adair, where, under an +old oak, the kings of Thomond had long been inaugurated, he caused it to be +"dug from the earth with its roots," and cut into pieces. This act of Malachy's +certainly bespeaks an embittered and aggressive spirit, and the provocation +must, indeed, have been grievous to palliate so barbarous an action. But we are +not informed what the provocation was. At the time Brian was in Ossory +enforcing his tribute; the next year we find him seizing the person of +Gilla-Patrick, Lord of Ossory, and soon after he burst into Meath, avenging +with fire and sword the wanton destruction of his ancestral oak. +</p> + +<p> +Thus were these two powerful Princes openly embroiled with each other. We have +no desire to dwell on all the details of their struggle, which continued for +fully twenty years. About the year 987, Brian was practically king of half +Ireland, and having the power, (though not the title,) he did not suffer any +part of it to lie waste. His activity was incapable of exhaustion; in Ossory, +in Leinster, in Connaught, his voice and his arm were felt everywhere. But a +divided authority was of necessity so favourable to invasion, that the Danish +power began to loom up to its old proportions. Sitrick, "with the silken +beard," one of the ablest of Danish leaders, was then at Dublin, and his +occasional incursions were so formidable, that they produced (what probably +nothing else could have done) an alliance between Brian and Malachy, which +lasted for three years, and was productive of the best consequences. Thus, in +997, they imposed their yoke on Dublin, taking "hostages and jewels" from the +foreigners. Reinforcements arriving from the North, the indomitable Danes +proceeded to plunder Leinster, but were routed by Brian and Malachy at +Glen-Mama, in Wicklow, with the loss of 6,000 men and all their chief captains. +Immediately after this victory the two kings, according to the Annals, "entered +into Dublin, and the fort thereof, and there remained seven nights, and at +their departure took all the gold, silver, hangings, and other precious things +that were there with them, burnt the town, broke down the fort, and banished +Sitrick from thence" (A.D. 999). +</p> + +<p> +The next three years of Brian's life are the most complex in his career. After +resting a night in Meath, with Malachy, 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 a week, and presented ten ounces of gold, +at the Cathedral altar. The Archbishop Marian received him with the distinction +due to so eminent a guest, and a record of his visit, in which he is styled +"Imperator of the Irish," was entered in the book of St. Patrick. He, however, +got no hostages in the North, but on his march southward, he learned that the +Danes had returned to Dublin, were rebuilding the City and Fort, and were ready +to offer submission and hostages to him, while refusing both to Malachy. Here +Brian's eagerness for supremacy misled him. He accepted the hostages, joined +the foreign forces to his own, and even gave his daughter in marriage to +Sitrick of "the silken beard." Immediately he broke with Malachy, and with his +new allies and son-in-law, marched into Meath in hostile array. Malachy, +however, stood to his defence; attacked and defeated Brian's advance guard of +Danish horse, and the latter, unwilling apparently to push matters to +extremities, retired as he came, without "battle, or hostage, or spoil of any +kind." +</p> + +<p> +But his design of securing the monarchy was not for an instant abandoned, and, +by combined diplomacy and force, he effected his end. His whole career would +have been incomplete without that last and highest conquest over every rival. +Patiently but surely he had gathered influence and authority, by arms, by +gifts, by connections on all sides. He had propitiated the chief families of +Connaught by his first marriage with More, daughter of O'Heyne, and his second +marriage with Duvchalvay, daughter of O'Conor. He had obtained one of the +daughters of Godwin, the powerful Earl of Kent, for his second son; had given a +daughter to the Prince of Scots, and another to the Danish King of Dublin. +</p> + +<p> +Malachy, in diplomatic skill, in foresight, and in tenacity of purpose, was +greatly inferior to Brian, though in personal gallantry and other princely +qualities, every way his equal. He was of a hospitable, out-spoken, enjoying +disposition, as we gather from many characteristic anecdotes. He is spoken of +as "being generally computed the best horseman in those parts of Europe;" and +as one who "delighted to ride a horse that was never broken, handled, or +ridden, until the age of seven years." From an ancient story, which represents +him as giving his revenues for a year to one of the Court Poets and then +fighting him with a "headless staff" to compel the Poet to return them, it +would appear that his good humour and profusion were equal to his horsemanship. +Finding Brian's influence still on the increase west of the Shannon, Malachy, +in the year of our Lord 1000, threw two bridges across the Shannon, one at +Athlone, the other at the present Lanesborough. This he did with the consent +and assistance of O'Conor, but the issue was as usual—he made the +bridges, and Brian profited by them. While Malachy was at Athlone +superintending the work, Brian arrived with a great force recruited from all +quarters (except Ulster), including Danish men-in-armour. At Athlone was held +the conference so memorable in our annals, in which Brian gave his rival the +alternative of a pitched battle, within a stated time, or abdication. According +to the Southern Annalists, first a month, and afterwards a year, were allowed +the Monarch to make his choice. At the expiration of the time Brian marched +into Meath, and encamped at Tara, where Malachy, having vainly endeavoured to +secure the alliance of the Northern Hy-Nial in the interval, came and submitted +to Brian without safeguard or surety. The unmade monarch was accompanied by a +guard "of twelve score horsemen," and on his arrival, proceeded straight to the +tent of his successor. Here the rivals contended in courtesy, as they had often +done in arms, and when they separated, Brian, as Lord Paramount, presented +Malachy as many horses as he had horsemen in his train when he came to visit +him. This event happened in the year 1001, when Brian was in his 60th and +Malachy in his 53rd year. There were present at the Assembly all the princes +and chiefs of the Irish, except the Prince of Aileach, and the Lords of Oriel, +Ulidia, Tyrowen and Tyrconnell, who were equally unwilling to assist Malachy or +to acknowledge Brian. What is still more remarkable is, the presence in this +national assembly of the Danish Lords of Dublin, Carmen (Wexford), Waterford +and Cork, whom Brian, at this time, was trying hard to conciliate by gifts and +alliances. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap14"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br/> +BRIAN, ARD-RIGH—BATTLE OF CLONTARF.</h3> + +<p> +By the deposition of Malachy II., and the transfer of supreme power to the +long-excluded line of Heber, Brian completed the revolution which Time had +wrought in the ancient Celtic constitution. He threw open the sovereignty to +every great family as a prize to be won by policy or force, and no longer an +inheritance to be determined by usage and law. The consequences were what might +have been expected. After his death the O'Conors of the west competed with both +O'Neills and O'Briens for supremacy, and a chronic civil war prepared the path +for Strongbow and the Normans. The term "Kings with Opposition" is applied to +nearly all who reigned between Brian's time and Roderick O'Conor's, meaning, +thereby, kings who were unable to secure general obedience to their +administration of affairs. +</p> + +<p> +During the remainder of his life, Brian wielded with accustomed vigour the +supreme power. The Hy-Nials were, of course, his chief difficulty. In the year +1002, we find him at Ballysadare, in Sligo, challenging their obedience; in +1004, we find him at Armagh "offering twenty ounces of gold on Patrick's +altar," staying a week there and receiving hostages; in 1005, he marched +through Connaught, crossed the river Erne at Ballyshannon, proceeded through +Tyrconnell and Tyrowen, crossed the Bann into Antrim, and returned through Down +and Dundalk, "about Lammas," to Tara. In this and the two succeeding years, by +taking similar "circuits," he subdued Ulster, without any pitched battle, and +caused his authority to be feared and obeyed nearly as much at the Giant's +Causeway as at the bridge of Athlone. In his own house of Kinkora, Brian +entertained at Christmas 3,000 guests, including the Danish Lords of Dublin and +Man, the fugitive Earl of Kent, 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 the shadow, of independence, kept his unfrequented +court in West-Meath, amusing himself with wine and chess and the taming of +unmanageable horses, in which last pursuit, after his abdication, we hear of +his breaking a limb. To support the hospitalities of Kinkora, the tributes of +every province were rendered in kind at his gate, on the first day of November. +Connaught sent 800 cows and 800 hogs; Ulster alone 500 cows, and as many hogs, +and "sixty loads of iron;" Leinster 300 bullocks, 300 hogs, and 300 loads of +iron; Ossory, Desmond, and the smaller territories, in proportion; the Danes of +Dublin 150 pipes of wine, and the 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. +</p> + +<p> +The lyric Poets, in their nature courtiers and given to enjoyment, flocked, of +course, to this bountiful palace. The harp was seldom silent night or day, the +strains of panegyric were as prodigal and incessant as the falling of the +Shannon over Killaloe. Among these eulogiums none is better known than that +beautiful allegory of the poet McLaig, who sung that "a young lady of great +beauty, adorned with jewels and costly dress, might perform unmolested a +journey on foot through the Island, carrying a straight wand, on the top of +which might be a ring of great value." The name of Brian was thus celebrated as +in itself a sufficient protection of life, chastity, and property, in every +corner of the Island. Not only the Poets, but the more exact and simple +Annalists applaud Brian's administration of the laws, and his personal virtues. +He laboured hard to restore the Christian civilization, so much defaced by two +centuries of Pagan warfare. To facilitate the execution of the laws he enacted +the general use of surnames, obliging the clans to take the name of a common +ancestor, with the addition of "Mac," or "O"—words which signify "of," or +"son of," a forefather. Thus, the Northern Hy-Nials divided into O'Neils, +O'Donnells, McLaughlins, &c.; the Sil-Murray took the name of O'Conor, and +Brian's own posterity became known as O'Briens. To justice he added +munificence, and of this the Churches and Schools of the entire Island were the +recipients. Many a desolate shrine he adorned, many a bleak chancel he hung +with lamps, many a long silent tower had its bells restored. Monasteries were +rebuilt, and the praise of God was kept up perpetually by a devoted +brotherhood. Roads and bridges were repaired and several strong stone +fortresses were erected, to command the passes of lakes and rivers. The +vulnerable points along the Shannon, and the Suir, and the lakes, as far north +as the Foyle, were secured by forts of clay and stone. Thirteen "royal houses" +in Munster alone are said to have been by him restored to their original uses. +What increases our respect for the wisdom and energy thus displayed, is the +fact, that the author of so many improvements, enjoyed but five short years of +peace, after his accession to the Monarchy. His administrative genius must have +been great when, after a long life of warfare, he could apply himself to so +many works of internal improvement and external defence. +</p> + +<p> +In the five years of peace just spoken of (from 1005 to 1010), Brian lost by +death his second wife, a son called Donald, 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 and heir, Morrogh, was left, and +Morrogh had, at this time, several children. Other sons and daughters were also +left him, by each of his wives, so that there was every prospect that the +posterity for whom he had so long sought the sovereignty of Ireland, would +continue to possess it for countless generations. But God disposes of what man +only proposes! +</p> + +<p> +The Northmen had never yet abandoned any soil on which they had once set foot, +and the policy of conciliation which the veteran King adopted in his old age, +was not likely to disarm men of their stamp. Every intelligence of the +achievements of their race in other realms stimulated them to new exertions and +shamed them out of peaceful submission. Rollo and his successors had, within +Brian's lifetime, 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 and shame alike appealed to their warlike compatriots not +to allow the fertile Hibernia to slip from their grasp, and the great age of +its long-dreaded king seemed to promise them an easier victory than heretofore +was possible. In 1012 we find Brian at Lough Foyle repelling a new Danish +invasion, and giving "freedom to Patrick's Churches;" the same year, an army +under Morrogh and another under Malachy was similarly engaged in Leinster and +Meath; the former carrying his arms to Kilmainham, on the south side of Dublin, +the other to Howth, on the north; in this year also "the Gentiles," or Pagan +Northmen, made a descent on Cork, and burned the city, but were driven off by +the neighbouring chiefs. +</p> + +<p> +The great event, however, of the long war which had now been waged for full two +hundred years between the men of Erin and the men of Scandinavia was +approaching. What may fairly be called the last field day of Christianity and +Paganism on Irish soil, was near at hand. A taunt thrown out over a game of +chess, at Kinkora, is said to have hastened this memorable day. Maelmurra, +Prince of Leinster, playing or advising on the game, made, or recommended, a +false move, upon which Morrogh, son of Brian, 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, highly incensed by this +allusion—all the more severe for its bitter truth—arose, ordered +his horse, and rode away in haste. Brian, when he heard it, despatched a +messenger after the indignant guest, begging him to return, but Maelmurra was +not to be pacified, and refused. We next hear of him as concerting with certain +Danish agents, always open to such negotiations, those measures which led to +the great invasion of the year 1014, in which the whole Scanian race, from +Anglesea and Man, north to Norway, bore an active share. +</p> + +<p> +These agents passing over to England and Man, among the Scottish isles, and +even to the Baltic, followed up the design of an invasion on a gigantic scale. +Suibne, Earl of Man, entered warmly into the conspiracy, and sent the "war +arrow" through all those "out-islands" which obeyed him as Lord. A yet more +formidable potentate, Sigurd, of the Orkneys, next joined the league. He was +the fourteenth Earl of Orkney of Norse origin, and his power was, at this +period, a balance to that of his nearest neighbour, the King of Scots. He had +ruled since the year 996, not only over the Orkneys, Shetland, and Northern +Hebrides, but the coasts of Caithness and Sutherland, and even Ross and Moray +rendered him homage and tribute. Eight years before the battle of Clontarf, +Malcolm II., of Scotland, had been feign to purchase his alliance, by giving +him his daughter in marriage, and the Kings of Denmark and Norway treated with +him on equal terms. The hundred inhabited isles which lie between Yell and +Man,—isles which after their conversion contained "three hundred churches +and chapels"—sent in their contingents, to swell the following of the +renowned Earl Sigurd. As his fleet bore southward from Kirkwall it swept the +subject coast of Scotland, and gathered from every lough its galleys and its +fighting men. The rendezvous was the Isle of Man, where Suibne had placed his +own forces under the command of Brodar or Broderick, a famous leader against +the Britons of Wales and Cornwall. In conjunction with Sigurd, the Manxmen +sailed over to Ireland, where they were joined, in the Liffey, by Carl +Canuteson, Prince of Denmark, at the head of 1400 champions clad in armour. +Sitrick of Dublin stood, or affected to stand, neutral in these preparations, +but Maelmurra of Leinster had mustered all the forces he could command for such +an expedition. He was himself the head of the powerful family of O'Byrne, and +was followed in his alliances by others of the descendants of Cahir More. +O'Nolan and O'More, with a truer sense of duty, fought on the patriotic side. +</p> + +<p> +Brian had not been ignorant of the exertions which were made during the summer +and winter of the year 1013, to combine an overwhelming force against him. In +his exertions to meet force with force, it is gratifying to every believer in +human excellence to find him actively supported by the Prince whom he had so +recently deposed. Malachy, during the summer of 1013, had, indeed, lost two +sons in skirmishes with Sitrick and Maelmurra, and had, therefore, his own +personal wrongs to avenge; but he cordially co-operated with Brian before those +occurrences, and now loyally seconded all his movements. The Lords of the +southern half-kingdom—the Lords of Desies, Fermoy, Inchiquin, +Corca-Baskin, Kinalmeaky, Kerry, and the Lords of Hy-Many and Hy-Fiachra, in +Connaught, hastened to his standard. O'More and O'Nolan of 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 Northern Hy-Nial +took part in the battle—they had submitted to Brian, but they never +cordially supported him. +</p> + +<p> +Clontarf, the lawn or meadow of bulls, stretches along the crescent-shaped +north strand of Dublin harbour, from the ancient salmon-weir at Ballyboght +bridge, towards the promontory of Howth. Both horns of the crescent were held +by the enemy, and communicated with his ships: the inland point terminating in +the roofs of Dublin, and the seaward marked by the lion-like head of Howth. The +meadow land between sloped gently upward and inward from the beach, and for the +myriad duels which formed the ancient battle, no field could present less +positive vantage-ground to combatants on either side. The invading force had +possession of both wings, so that Brian's army, which had first encamped at +Kilmainham, must have crossed the Liffey higher up, and marched round by the +present Drumcondra in order to reach the appointed field. The day seems to have +been decided on by formal challenge, for we are told Brian did not wish to +fight in the last week of Lent, but a Pagan oracle having assured victory to +Brodar, one of the northern leaders, if he engaged on a Friday, the invaders +insisted on being led to battle on that day. And it so happened that, of all +Fridays in the year, it fell on the Friday before Easter: that awful +anniversary when the altars of the Church are veiled throughout Christendom, +and the dark stone is rolled to the door of the mystic sepulchre. +</p> + +<p> +The forces on both sides could not have fallen short of twenty thousand men. +Under Carl Canuteson fought "the ten hundred in armour," as they are called in +the Irish annals, or "the fourteen hundred," as they are called in northern +chronicles; under Brodar, the Manxmen and the Danes of Anglesea and Wales; +under Sigurd, the men of Orkney 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 command of Malachy, those of Meath; under the Lord of +Hy-Many, the men of Connaught; and the Stewart of Marr had also his command. +The engagement was to commence with the morning, so that, as soon as it was +day, Brian, Crucifix in hand, harangued his army. "On this day Christ died for +<i>you</i>!" was the spirit-stirring appeal of the venerable Christian King. At +the entreaty of his friends, after this review, he retired to his tent, which +stood at some distance, and was guarded by three of his aids. Here, he +alternately prostrated himself before the Crucifix, or looked out from the tent +door upon the dreadful scene that lay beyond. The sun rose to the zenith and +took his way towards the west, but still the roar of the battle did not abate. +Sometimes as their right hands swelled with the sword-hilts, well-known +warriors might be seen falling back to bathe them, in a neighbouring spring, +and then rushing again into the melee. The line of the engagement extended from +the salmon-weir towards Howth, not less than a couple of miles, so that it was +impossible to take in at a glance the probabilities of victory. Once during the +heat of the day one of his servants said to Brian, "A vast multitude are moving +towards us." "What sort of people are they?" inquired Brian. "They are +green-naked people." said the attendant. "Oh!" replied the king, "they are the +Danes in armour!" The utmost fury was displayed on all sides. Sigurd, Earl of +Orkney, fell by Thurlogh, grandson of Brian; and Anrud, one of the captains of +the men in armour, by the hand of his father, Morrogh; but both father and son +perished in the dreadful conflict; Maelmurra of Leinster, with his lords, fell +on one side, and Conaing, nephew of Brian, O'Kelly, O'Heyne, and the Stewart of +Marr, on the other. Hardly a nobly-born man escaped, or sought to escape. The +ten hundred in armour, and three thousand others of the enemy, with about an +equal number of the men of Ireland, lay dead upon the field. One division of +the enemy were, towards sunset, retreating to their ships, when Brodar, the +Viking, perceiving the tent of Brian, standing apart, without a guard, and the +aged king on his knees before the Crucifix, rushed in, cut him down with a +single blow, and then continued his flight. But he was overtaken by the guard, +and despatched by the most cruel death they could devise. Thus, on the field of +battle, in the act of prayer, on the day of our Lord's Crucifixion, fell the +Christian King in the cause of native land and Holy Cross. Many elegies have +been dedicated to his memory, and not the least noble of these strains belong +to his enemies. In death as in life he was still Brian "of the tributes." +</p> + +<p> +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, in Meath, and conducted the body to Armagh, where, with his son and +nephew and the Lord of Desies, he was solemnly interred "in a new tomb." The +fame of the event went out through all nations. The chronicles of Wales, of +Scotland, and of Man; the annals of Ademar and Marianus; the Sagas of Denmark +and the Isles all record the event. In "the Orcades" of Thormodus Torfaeus, a +wail over the defeat of the Islesmen is heard, which they call +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Orkney's woe and Randver's bane." +</p> + +<p> +The Norse settlers in Caithness saw terrific visions of Valhalla "the day after +the battle." In the NIALA SAGA a Norwegian prince is introduced as asking after +his men, and the answer is, "they were all killed." Malcolm of Scotland +rejoiced in the defeat and death of his dangerous and implacable neighbour. +"Brian's battle," as it is called in the Sagas, was, in short, such a defeat as +prevented any general northern combination for the subsequent invasion of +Ireland. Not that the country was entirely free from their attacks till the end +of the eleventh 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 indomitable people. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap15"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br/> +EFFECTS OF THE RIVALRY OF BRIAN AND MALACHY ON THE ANCIENT +CONSTITUTION.</h3> + +<p> +If a great battle is to be accounted lost or won, as it affects principles +rather than reputations, then Brian lost at Clontarf. The leading ideas of his +long and political life were, evidently, centralization and an hereditary +monarchy. To beat back foreign invasion, to conciliate and to enlist the +Irish-born Danes under his standard, were preliminary steps. For Morrogh, his +first-born, and for Morrogh's descendants, he hoped to found an hereditary +kinship after the type universally copied throughout Christendom. He was not +ignorant of what Alfred had done for England, Harold for Norway, Charlemagne +for France, and Otho for Germany; and it was inseparable from his imperial +genius to desire to reign in his posterity, long after his own brief term of +sway should be for ever ended. A new centre of royal authority should be +established on the banks of the great middle river of the island—itself +the best bond of union, as it was the best highway of intercourse; the Dalgais +dynasty should there flourish for ages, and the descendants of Brian of the +Tributes, through after centuries, eclipse the glory of the descendants of Nial +of the Hostages. It is idle enough to call the projector of such a change an +usurper and a revolutionist. Usurper he clearly was not, since he was elevated +to power by the action of the old legitimate electoral principle; revolutionist +he was not, because his design was defeated at Clontarf, in the death of his +eldest son and grandson. Not often have three generations of Princes of the +same family been cut off on the same field; yet at Clontarf it so happened. +Hence, when Brian fell, and his heir with him, and his heir's heir, the +projected Dalgais dynasty, like the Royal Oak at Adair, was cut down and its +very roots destroyed. For a new dynasty to be left suddenly without +indisputable heirs is ruinous to its pretensions and partizans. And in this the +event of the battle proved destructive to the Celtic Constitution. Not from the +Anglo-Norman invasion, but from the day of Clontarf we may date the ruin of the +old electoral monarchy. The spell of ancient authority was effectually broken +and a new one was to be established. Time, which was indispensable, was not +given. No Prince of the blood of Brian succeeded immediately to himself. On +Clontarf Morrogh, and Morrogh's heir fell, in the same day and hour. The other +sons of Brian had no direct title to the succession, and, naturally enough, the +deposed Malachy resumed the rank of monarch, without the consent of Munster, +but <i>with</i> the approval of all the Princes, who had witnessed with +ill-concealed envy the sudden ascendancy of the sons of Kennedy. While McLaig +was lamenting for Brian, by the cascade of Killaloe, the Laureat of Tara, in an +elegy over a lord of Breffni, was singing— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Joyful are the race of Conn after Brian's<br/> +Fall, in the battle of Clontarf."<br/> +</p> + +<p> +A new dynasty is rarely the work of one able man. Designed by genius, it must +be built up by a succession of politic Princes, before it becomes an essential +part of the framework of the State. So all history teaches—and Irish +history, after the death of Brian, very clearly illustrates that truth. Equally +true is it that when a nation breaks up of itself, or from external forces, and +is not soon consolidated by a conqueror, the most natural result is the +aggrandizement of a few great families. Thus it was in Rome when Julius was +assassinated, and in Italy, when the empire of the west fell to pieces of its +own weight. The kindred of the late sovereign will be sure to have a party, the +chief innovators will have a party, and there is likely to grow up a third or +moderate party. So it fell out in Ireland. The Hy-Nials of the north, deprived +of the succession, rallied about the Princes of Aileach as their head. Meath, +left crownless, gave room to the ambition of the sons of Malachy, who, under +the name of O'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 +forcibly reduced that borderland. The Eugenians of Desmond withdrew in disgust +from the banner of Donogh O'Brien, because he had openly proclaimed his +hostility to the alternate succession, and left his surviving clansmen an easy +prey to the enraged Ossorians. Leinster soon afterwards passed from the house +of O'Byrne to that of McMurrogh. The O'Briens maintained their dominant +interest in the south; as, after many local struggles, the O'Conors did in the +west. For a hundred and fifty years, after the death of Malachy II., the +history of Ireland is mainly the history of these five families, O'Neils, +O'Melaghlins, McMurroghs, O'Briens and O'Conors. And for ages after the Normans +enter on the scene, the same provincialized spirit, the same family ambitions, +feuds, hates, and coalitions, with some exceptional passages, characterize the +whole history. Not that there will be found any want of heroism, or piety, or +self-sacrifice, or of any virtue or faculty, necessary to constitute a state, +save and except the <i>power of combination</i>, alone. Thus, judged by what +came after him, and what was happening in the world abroad, Brian's design to +re-centralize the island, seems the highest dictate of political wisdom, in the +condition to which 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 will be made hereafter—held the sovereignty after +Brian's death, until the year 1023, when he died an edifying death in one of +the islands of Lough Ennel, near the present Mullingar. He is called, in the +annals of Clonmacnoise, "the last king of Ireland, of Irish blood, that had the +crown." An ancient quatrain, quoted by Geoffrey Keating, is thus literally +translated: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"After the happy Melaghlin<br/> +Son of Donald, son of Donogh,<br/> +Each noble king ruled his own tribe<br/> +But Erin owned no sovereign Lord."<br/> +</p> + +<p> +The annals of the eleventh and twelfth centuries curiously illustrate the +workings of this "anarchical constitution"—to employ a phrase first +applied to the Germanic Confederation. "After Malachy's death," says the quaint +old Annalist of Clonmacnoise, "this kingdom was without a king 20 years, during +which time the realm was governed by two learned men; the one called Con +O'Lochan, a well learned temporal man, and chief poet of Ireland; the other +Corcran Claireach, a devout and holy man that was anchorite of all Ireland, +whose most abiding was at Lismore. The land was governed like a free state, and +not like a monarchy by them." Nothing can show the headlessness of the Irish +Constitution in the eleventh century clearer than this interregnum. No one +Prince could rally strength enough to be elected, so that two Arbitrators, an +illustrious Poet and a holy Priest, were appointed to take cognizance of +national causes. The associating together of a Priest and a layman, a +southerner and a northerner, is conclusive proof that the bond of Celtic unity, +frittered away during the Danish period, was never afterwards entirely +restored. Con O'Lochan having 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, out of which a new organizer arose among the tribes of +Leinster. This was Dermid, son of Donogh, who died (A.D. 1005), when Dermid +must have been a mere infant, as he does not figure in the annals till the year +1032, and the acts of young Princes are seldom overlooked in Gaelic Chronicles. +He was the first McMurrogh who became King of Leinster, that royalty having +been in the O'Byrne family, until the son of Maelmurra, of Clontarf, was +deposed by O'Neil in 1035, and retired to a monastery in Cologne, where he died +in 1052. In 1036 or 1037 Dermid captured Dublin and Waterford, married the +grand-daughter of Brian, and by '41 was strong enough to assume the rank of +ruler of the southern half-kingdom. This dignity he held with a strong and +warlike hand thirty years, when he fell in battle, at Ova, in Meath. He must +have been at that time full threescore years and ten. He is described by the +elegiac Bards as of "ruddy complexion," "with teeth laughing in danger," and +possessing all the virtues of a warrior-king; "whose death," adds the +lamentation, "brought scarcity of peace" with it, so that "there will not be +peace," "there will not be armistice," between Meath and Leinster. It may well +be imagined that every new resort to the two-third test, in the election of +Ard-Righ, should bring "scarcity of peace" to Ireland. We can easily understand +the ferment of hope, fear, intrigue, and passion, which such an occasion caused +among the great rival families. What canvassing there was in Kinkora and +Cashel, at Cruachan and Aileach, and at Fernamore! What piecing and patching of +interests, what libels on opposing candidates, what exultation in the +successful, what discontent in the defeated camp! +</p> + +<p> +The successful candidate for the southern half-kingdom after Dermid's death was +Thorlogh, grandson of Brian, and foster-son of the late ruler. In his reign, +which lasted thirty-three years, the political fortunes of his house revived. +He died in peace at Kinkora (A.D. 1087), and the war of succession again broke +out. The rival candidates at this period were Murrogh O'Brien, son of the late +king, whose ambition was to complete the design of Brian, and Donald, Prince of +Aileach, the leader of the Northern Hy-Nials. Two abler men seldom divided a +country by their equal ambition. Both are entered in the annals as "Kings of +Ireland," but it is hard to discover that, during all the years of their +contest, either of them submitted to the other. To chronicle all the incidents +of the struggle would take too much space here; and, as was to be expected, a +third party profited most by it; the West came in, in the person of O'Conor, to +lord it over both North and South, and to add another element to the dynastic +confusion. +</p> + +<p> +This brief abstract of our civil affairs after the death of Brian, presents us +with the extraordinary spectacle of a country without a constitution working +out the problem of its stormy destiny in despite of all internal and external +dangers. Everything now depended on individual genius and energy; nothing on +system, usage, or prescription. Each leading family and each province became, +in turn, the head of the State. The supreme title seems to have been fatal for +a generation to the family that obtained it, for in no case is there a lineal +descent of the crown. The prince of Aileach or Kinkora naturally preferred his +permanent patrimony to an uncertain tenure of Tara; an office not attached to a +locality became, of course, little more than an arbitrary title. Hence, the +titular King of Ireland might for one lifetime reign by the Shannon, in the +next by the Bann, in a third, by Lough Corrib. The supremacy, thus came to be +considered a merely personal appurtenance, was carried about in the old King's +tent, or on the young King's crupper, deteriorating and decaying by every +transposition it underwent. Herein, we have the origin of Irish disunion with +all its consequences, good, bad, and indifferent. +</p> + +<p> +Are we to blame Brian for this train of events against which he would have +provided a sharp remedy in the hereditary principle? Or, on the other hand, are +we to condemn Malachy, the possessor of legitimate power, if he saw in that +remedy only the ambition of an aspiring family already grown too great? Theirs +was in fact the universal struggle of reform and conservatism; the reformer and +the heirs of his work were cut off on Clontarf; the abuses of the elective +principle continued unrestrained by ancient salutary usage and prejudice, and +the land remained a tempting prey to such Adventurers, foreign or native, as +dare undertake to mould power out of its chaotic materials. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap16"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br/> +LATTER DAYS OF THE NORTHMEN IN IRELAND.</h3> + +<p> +Though Ireland dates the decay of Scandinavian power from Good Friday, 1014, +yet the North did not wholly cease to send forth its warriors, nor were the +shores of the Western Island less tempting to them than before. The second year +after the battle of Clontarf, Canute founded his Danish dynasty in England, +which existed in no little splendour during thirty-seven years. The Saxon line +was restored by Edward "the Confessor;" in the forty-third year of the century, +only to be extinguished for ever by the Norman conquest twenty-three years +later. Scotland, during the same years was more than once subject to invasion +from the same ancient enemy. Malcolm II., and the brave usurper Macbeth, fought +several engagements with the northern leaders, and generally with brilliant +success. By a remarkable coincidence, the Scottish chronicles also date the +decadence of Danish power on their coasts from 1014, though several engagements +were fought in Scotland after that year. +</p> + +<p> +Malachy II. had promptly followed up the victory of Clontarf by the capture of +Dublin, the destruction of its fort, and the exemplary chastisement of the +tribes of Leinster, who had joined Maelmurra as allies of the Danes. Sitrick +himself seems to have eluded the suspicions and vengeance of the conquerors by +a temporary exile, as we find in the succession of the Dublin Vikings, "one +Hyman, an usurper," entered as ruling "part of a year while Sitrick was in +banishment." His family interest, however, was strong among the native Princes, +and whatever his secret sympathies may have been, he had taken no active part +against them in the battle of Clontarf. By his mother, the Lady Gormley of +Offally, he was a half O'Conor; by marriage he was son-in-law of Brian, and +uterine brother of Malachy. After his return to Dublin, when, in 1018, Brian, +son of Maelmurra, fell prisoner into his hands, as if to clear himself of any +lingering suspicion of an understanding with that family, he caused his eyes to +be put out—a cruel but customary punishment in that age. This act +procured for him the deadly enmity of the warlike mountaineers of Wicklow, who, +in the year 1022, gave him a severe defeat at Delgany. Even this he outlived, +and died seven years later, the acknowledged lord of his town and fortress, +forty years after his first accession to that title. He was succeeded by his +son, grandson, and great-grandson during the remaining half century. +</p> + +<p> +The kingdom of Leinster, in consequence of the defeat of Maelmurra, the +incapacity of Brian, and the destruction of other claimants of the same family, +passed to the family of McMurrogh, another branch of the same ancestry. Dermid, +the first and most distinguished King of Leinster of this house, took Waterford +(A.D. 1037), and so reduced its strength, that we find its hosts no longer +formidable in the field. Those of Limerick continued their homage to the house +of Kinkora, while the descendants of Sitrick recognised Dermid of Leinster as +their sovereign. In short, all the Dano-Irish from thenceforward began to knit +themselves kindly to the soil, to obey the neighbouring Princes, to march with +them to battle, and to pursue the peaceful calling of merchants, upon sea. The +only peculiarly <i>Danish</i> 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 Cork from the men of Desmond, when they were driven +with severe loss to their ships. Their few subsequent expeditions were led +abroad, into the Hebrides, the Isle of Man, or Wales, where they generally +figure as auxiliaries or mercenaries in the service of local Princes. They +appear in Irish battles only as contingents to the native armies—led by +their own leaders and recognized as a separate, but subordinate force. In the +year 1073, the Dublin Danes did homage to the monarch Thorlogh, and from 1095, +until his death (A.D. 1119), they recognized no other lord but Murkertach More +O'Brien; this king, at their own request, had also nominated one of his family +as Lord of the Danes and Welsh of the Isle of Man. +</p> + +<p> +The wealth of these Irish-Danes, before and after the time of Brian, may be +estimated by the annual tribute which Limerick paid to that Prince—a pipe +of red wine for every day in the year. In the year 1029, Olaf, son of Sitrick, +of Dublin, being taken prisoner by O'Regan, the Lord of East-Meath, paid for +his ransom—"twelve hundred cows, seven score British horses, three score +ounces of gold!" sixty ounces of white silver as his "fetter-ounce;" the sword +of Carlus, besides the usual legal fees, for recording these profitable +formalities. +</p> + +<p> +Being now Christians, they also began to found and endow churches, with the +same liberality with which their Pagan fathers had once enriched the temples of +Upsala and Trondheim. The oldest religious foundations in the seaports they +possessed owe their origin to them; but even as Christians, they did not lose +sight of their nationality. They contended for, and obtained Dano-Irish +Bishops, men of their own race, speaking their own speech, to preside over the +sees of Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick. When the Irish Synods or Primates +asserted over them any supervision which they were unwilling to +admit—except in the case of St. Malachy—they usually invoked the +protection of the See of Canterbury, which, after the Norman conquest of +England, became by far the most powerful Archbishopric in either island. +</p> + +<p> +In the third quarter of this century there arose in the Isle of Man a fortunate +leader, who may almost be called the last of the sea kings. This was Godard +<i>Crovan</i> (the white-handed), son of an Icelandic Prince, and one of the +followers of Harald Harfagar and Earl Tosti, in their invasion of Northumbria +(A.D. 1066). Returning from the defeat of his chiefs, Godard saw and seized +upon Man as the centre of future expeditions of his own, in the course of which +he subdued the Hebrides, divided them with the gallant Somerled (ancestor of +the MacDonalds of the Isles), and established his son Lagman (afterwards put to +death by King Magnus <i>Barefoot</i>) as his viceroy in the Orkneys and +Shetlands. The weakened condition of the Danish settlement at Dublin attracted +his ambition, and where he entered as a mediator he remained as a master. In +the succession of the Dublin Vikings he is assigned a reign of ten years, and +his whole course of conquest seems to have occupied some twenty years (A.D. +1077 to 1098). At length the star of this Viking of the Irish sea paled before +the mightier name of a King of Norway, whose more brilliant ambition had a +still shorter span. The story of this <i>Magnus</i> (called, it is said, from +his adoption of the Scottish kilt, Magnus <i>Barefoot</i>) forms the eleventh +Saga in "the Chronicles of the Kings of Norway." He began to reign in the year +1093, and soon after undertook an expedition to the south, "with many fine men, +and good shipping." Taking the Orkneys on his way, he sent their Earls +prisoners to Norway, and placed his own son, Sigurd, in their stead. He overran +the Hebrides, 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 own bones were buried. The Isles of Man and Anglesea, and the +coast of Wales, shared the same fate, and thence he retraced his course to +Scotland, where, borne in his galley across the Isthmus of Cantyre, to fulfil +an old prophecy, he claimed possession of the land on both sides of Loch Awe. +It was while he wintered in the Southern Hebrides, according to the Saga, that +he contracted his son Sigurd with the daughter of Murkertach O'Brien, called by +the Northmen "Biadmynia." In summer he sailed homeward, and did not return +southward till the ninth year of his reign (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 the finest men who could be got +in Norway. All the powerful men 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, and many other great men." On the +intelligence of this fleet having 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 one year," and Murkertach "gave his daughter +to Sigurd, with many jewels and gifts." That winter Magnus spent with +Murkertach at Kinkora, and "towards spring both kings went 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 accustomed to make. The +circuit, as usual, was performed in about six weeks, after which the Irish +monarch returned home, and Magnus went on board his fleet at Dublin, to return +to Norway. According to the Norse account he landed again on the coast of +Ulidia (Down), where he expected "cattle for ship-provision," which Murkertach +had promised to send him, but the Irish version would seem to imply that he +went on shore to seize the cattle perforce. It certainly seems incredible that +Murkertach should send cattle to the shore of Strangford Lough, from the +pastures of Thomond, when they might be more easily driven to Dublin, or the +mouth of the Boyne. "The cattle had not made their appearance on the eve of +Bartholomew's Mass" (August 23rd, A.D. 1103), says the Saga, so "when the sun +rose in the sky, King Magnus himself went on shore with the greater part of his +men. King Magnus," continues the scald, "had a helmet on his head; a red +shield, in which was inlaid a gilded lion; and was girt with the sword +Legbiter, of which the hilt was of ivory, and the hand grip wound about with +gold thread; and the sword was extremely sharp. In his hand he had a short +spear, and a red silk short cloak over his coat, on which both before and +behind was embroidered a lion, in yellow silk; and all men acknowledged that +they had never seen a brisker, statelier man." A dust cloud was seen far +inland, and the Northmen fell into order of battle. It proved, however, by +their own account to be the messengers with the promised supply of cattle; but, +after they came up, and while returning to the shore, they were violently +assailed on all sides by the men of Down. The battle is described, with true +Homeric vigour, by Sturleson. "The Irish," he says, "shot boldly; and although +they fell in crowds, there came always two in place of one." Magnus, with most +of his nobles, were slain on the spot, but Vidkunner Johnsson escaped to the +shipping, "with the King's banner and the sword Legbiter." And the Saga of +Magnus Barefoot concludes thus: "Now when King Sigurd heard that his father had +fallen, he set off immediately, leaving the Irish King's daughter behind, and +proceeded in autumn, with the whole fleet directly to Norway." The annalists of +Ulster barely record the fact, that "Magnus, King of Lochlan and the Isles, was +slain by the Ulidians, with a slaughter of his people about him, while on a +predatory excursion." They place the event in the year 1104. +</p> + +<p> +Our account with the Northmen may here be closed. Borne along by the living +current of events, we leave them behind, high up on the remoter channels of the +stream. Their terrible ravens shall flit across our prospect no more. They have +taken wing to their native north, where they may croak yet a little while over +the cold and crumbling altars of Odin and Asa Thor. The bright light of the +Gospel has penetrated even to those last haunts of Paganism, and the fierce but +not ungenerous race, with which we have been so long familiar, begin to change +their natures under its benign influence. +</p> + +<p> +Although both the scalds and chroniclers of the North frequently refer to +Ireland as a favourite theatre of their heroes, we derive little light from +those of their works which have yet been made public. All connection between +the two races had long ceased, before the first scholars of the North began to +investigate the earlier annals of their own country, and then they were content +with a very vague and general knowledge of the western Island, for which their +ancestors had so fiercely contended throughout so many generations. The oldest +maps, known in Scandinavia, exhibit a mere outline of the Irish coast, with a +few points in the interior; fiords, with Norse names, are shown, answering to +Loughs Foyle, Swilly, Larne, Strang_ford_, and Carling_ford_; the Provincial +lines of Ulster and of Connaught are rudely traced; and the situation of +Enniskillen, Tara, Dublin, Glendaloch, Water_ford_, Limer_ick_, and Swer_wick_, +accurately laid down. It is thought that all those places ending in <i>wick</i> +or <i>ford</i>, on the Irish map, are of Scandinavian origin; as well as the +names of the islets, Skerries, Lambey, and Saltees. Many noble families, as the +Plunkets, McIvers, Archbolds, Harolds, Stacks, Skiddies, Cruises, and +McAuliffes, are derived from the same origin. +</p> + +<p> +During the contest we have endeavoured to describe, three hundred and ten years +had passed since the warriors of Lochlin 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 the enemy, "powerful on sea," +first burst upon the shield-shaped Isle of Saints. At the close of the eighth +century we cast back a grateful retrospect on the Christian ages of Ireland. +Can we do so now, at the close of the eleventh? Alas! far from it. Bravely and +in the main successfully as the Irish have borne themselves, they come out of +that cruel, treacherous, interminable war with many rents and stains in that +vesture of innocence in which we saw them arrayed at the close of their third +Christian century. Odin has not conquered, but all the worst vices of +warfare—its violence, its impiety, discontent, self-indulgence, and +contempt for the sweet paths of peace and mild counsels of religion—these +must and did remain, long after Dane and Norwegian have for ever disappeared! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="part03"></a>BOOK III.<br/> +WAR OF SUCCESSION.</h3> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap17"></a>CHAPTER I.<br/> +THE FORTUNES OF THE FAMILY OF BRIAN.</h3> + +<p> +The last scene of the Irish monarchy, before it entered on the anarchical +period, was not destitute of an appropriate grandeur. It was the death-bed +scene of the second Malachy, the rival, ally, and successor of the great Brian. +After the eventful day of Clontarf he resumed the monarchy, without opposition, +and for eight years he continued in its undisturbed enjoyment. The fruitful +land of Meath again gave forth its abundance, unscourged by the spoiler, and +beside its lakes and streams the hospitable Ard-Righ had erected, or restored, +three hundred fortified houses, where, as his poets sung, shelter was freely +given to guests from the king of the elements. His own favourite residence was +at Dunnasciath ("the fort of shields"), in the north-west angle of Lough Ennel, +in the present parish of Dysart. In the eighth year after Clontarf—the +summer of 1022—the Dublin Danes once again ventured on a foray into +East-Meath, and the aged monarch marched to meet them. At Athboy he encountered +the enemy, and drove them, routed and broken, out of the ancient mensal land of +the Irish kings. +</p> + +<p> +Thirty days after that victory he was called on to confront the conqueror of +all men, even Death. He had reached the age of seventy-three, and he prepared +to meet his last hour with the zeal and humility of a true Christian. To +Dunnasciath repaired Amalgaid, Archbishop of Armagh, the Abbots of Clonmacnoise +and of Durrow, with a numerous train of the clergy. For greater solitude, the +dying king was conveyed into an island of the lake opposite his fort—then +called Inis-Cro, now Cormorant Island—and there, "after intense penance," +on the fourth of the Nones of September precisely, died Malachy, son of Donald, +son of Donogh, in the fond language of the bards, "the pillar 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This," says the old Translator of the Clonmacnoise Annals, "was the last king +of Ireland of Irish blood, that had the crown; yet there were seven kings after +without crown, before the coming in of the English." Of these seven subsequent +kings we are to write under the general title of "the War of Succession." They +are called Ard-Righ <i>go Fresabra</i>, that is, kings opposed, or +unrecognised, by certain tribes, or Provinces. For it was essential to the +completion of the title, as we have before seen, that when the claimant was of +Ulster, he should have Connaught and Munster, or Leinster and Munster, in his +obedience: in other words, he should be able to command the allegiance of +two-thirds of his suffragans. If of Munster, he should be equally potent in the +other Provinces, in order to rank among the recognised kings of Erin. Whether +some of the seven kings subsequent to Malachy II., who assumed the title, were +not fairly entitled to it, we do not presume to say; it is our simpler task to +narrate the incidents of that brilliant war of succession, which occupies +almost all the interval between the Danish and Anglo-Norman invasions. The +chaunt of the funeral Mass of Malachy was hardly heard upon Lough Ennel, when +Donogh O'Brien despatched his agents, claiming the crown from the Provincial +Princes. He was the eldest son of Brian by his second marriage, and his mother +was an O'Conor, an additional source of strength to him, in the western +Province. It had fallen to the lot of Donogh, and his elder brother, Teigue or +Thaddeus, to conduct the remnant of the Dalcassians from Clontarf to their +home. Marching through Ossory, by the great southern road, they were attacked +in their enfeebled state 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 way desperately towards Cashel, leaving 150 men dead in +one of their skirmishes. Of all who had left the Shannon side to combat with +the enemy, but 850 men lived to return to their homes. +</p> + +<p> +No sooner had they reached Kinkora, than a fierce dispute arose, between the +friends of Teigue and Donogh, as to which should reign over Munster. A battle +ensued, with doubtful result, but by the intercession of the Clergy this +unnatural feud was healed, and the brothers reigned conjointly for nine years +afterwards, until Teigue fell in an engagement in Ely (Queen's County), as was +charged and believed, by the machinations of his colleague and brother. +Thorlogh, son of Teigue, was the foster-son, and at this time the guest or +hostage of Dermid of Leinster, the founder of the McMurrogh family, which had +now risen into the rank justly forfeited by the traitor Maelmurra. When he +reached man's age he married the daughter of Dermid, and we shall soon hear of +him again asserting in Munster the pretensions of the eldest surviving branch +of the O'Brien family. +</p> + +<p> +The death of his brother and of Malachy within the same year, proved favourable +to the ambition of Donogh O'Brien. All Munster submitted to his sway; Connaught +was among the first to recognise his title as Ard-Righ. Ossory and Leinster, +though unwillingly, gave in their adhesion. But Meath refused to recognise him, +and placed its government in commission, in the hands of Con O'Lochan, the +arch-poet, and Corcran, the priest, already more than once mentioned. The +country, north of Meath, obeyed Flaherty O'Neil, of Aileach, whose ambition, as +well as that of all his house, was to restore the northern supremacy, which had +continued unbroken, from the fourth to the ninth century. This Flaherty was a +vigorous, able, and pious Prince, who held stoutly on to the northern +half-kingdom. In the year 1030 he made the frequent but adventurous pilgrimage +to Rome, from which he is called, in the pedigree of his house, <i>an +Trostain</i>, or the cross-bearer. +</p> + +<p> +The greatest obstacle, however, to the complete ascendency of Donogh, arose in +the person of his nephew, now advanced to manhood. Thorlogh O'Brien possessed +much of the courage and 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 he pursued his vengeance with a skill and constancy worthy of +<i>Hamlet</i>. At the time of his father's death, he was a mere lad—in +his fourteenth year. But, as he grew older, he accompanied his foster-father in +all his expeditions, and rapidly acquired a soldier's fame. By marriage 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 +as he made in exile, his success against his uncle is little to be wondered at. +Leinster and Ossory, which had temporarily submitted to Donogh's claim, soon +found good pretexts for refusing him tribute, and a border war, marked by all +the usual atrocities, raged for several successive 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 this occasion, Dermid, of +Leinster, bestowed the city on his son Morrogh (grandfather of Strongbow's +ally), to whom the remnant of its inhabitants, as well as their kinsmen in Man, +submitted for the time with what grace they could. +</p> + +<p> +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, a league was formed, which overcame all opposition. In the year 1058, +Donogh received a severe defeat at the base of the Galtees; and although he +went into the house of O'Conor the same year, and humbly submitted to him, it +only postponed his day of reckoning. Three years after O'Conor took Kinkora, +and Dermid, of Leinster, burned Limerick, and took hostages as far southward as +Saint Brendan's hill (Tralee). The next year Donogh O'Brien, then fully +fourscore years of age, weary of life and of the world, took the cross-staff, +and departed on a pilgrimage to Rome, where he died soon after, in the +monastery of St. Stephen. It is said by some writers that Donogh brought with +him to Rome and presented to the Pope, Alexander II., the crown of his +father—and from this tradition many theories and controversies have +sprung. It is not unlikely that a deposed monarch should have carried into +exile whatever portable wealth he still retained, nor that he should have +presented his crown to the Sovereign Pontiff before finally quitting the world. +But as to conferring with the crown, the sovereignty of which it was once an +emblem, neither reason nor religion obliges us to believe any such hypothesis. +</p> + +<p> +Dermid of Leinster, upon the banishment of Donogh, son of Brian (A.D. 1063), +became actual ruler of the southern half-kingdom and nominal Ard-Righ, "with +opposition." The two-fold antagonism to this Prince, came, as might be expected +from Conor, son of Malachy, the head of the southern Hy-Nial dynasty, and from +the chiefs of the elder dynasty of the North. Thorlogh O'Brien, now King of +Cashel, loyally repaid, by his devoted adherence, the deep debt he owed in his +struggles and his early youth to Dermid. There are few instances in our Annals +of a more devoted friendship than existed between these brave and able Princes +through all the changes of half a century. No one act seems to have broken the +life-long intimacy of Dermid and Thorlogh; no cloud ever came between them; no +mistrust, no distrust. Rare and precious felicity of human experience! How many +myriads of men have sighed out their souls in vain desire for that best +blessing which Heaven can bestow, a true, unchanging, unsuspecting friend! +</p> + +<p> +To return: Conor O'Melaghlin could not see, without deep-seated discontent, a +Prince of Leinster assume the rank which his father and several of his +ancestors had held. A border strife between Meath and Leinster arose not unlike +that which had been waged a few years before for the deposition of Donogh, +between Leinster and Ossory on the one part, and Munster on the other. Various +were the encounters, whose obscure details are seldom preserved to us. But the +good fortune of Dermid prevailed in all, until, in the year 1070, he lost +Morrogh, his heir, by a 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 against the same enemy, Dermid himself fell, with the +lord of Forth, and a great host of Dublin Danes and Leinster men. The triumph +of the son of Malachy, and the sorrow and anger of Leinster, were equally +great. The bards have sung the praise of Dermid in strains which history +accepts: they praise his ruddy aspect and laughing teeth; they remember how he +upheld the standard of war, and none dared contend with him in battle; they +denounce vengeance on Meath as soon as his death-feast is over—a +vengeance too truly pursued. +</p> + +<p> +As a picture of the manners and habits of thought in those tunes, the fate of +Conor, son of Melaghlin, and its connection with the last illness and death of +Thorlogh O'Brien, are worthy of mention. Conor was treacherously slain, the +year after the battle of Ova, in a parley with his own nephew, though the +parley was held under the protection of the <i>Bachall-Isa</i>, or Staff, of +Christ, the most revered relic of the Irish Church. After his death, his body +was buried in the great Church of Clonmacnoise, in his own patrimony. But +Thorlogh O'Brien perhaps, from his friendship for Dermid, carried off his head, +as the head of an enemy, to Kinkora. When it was placed in his presence in his +palace, a mouse ran out from the dead man's head, and under the king's mantle, +which occasioned him such a fright that he grew suddenly sick, his hair fell +off, and his life was despaired of. It was on Good Friday that the buried head +was carried away, and on Easter Sunday, it was tremblingly restored again, with +two rings of gold as a peace offering to the Church. Thus were God and Saint +Kieran vindicated. Thorlogh O'Brien slowly regained his strength, though +Keating, and the authors he followed, think he was never the same man again, +after the fright he received from the head of Conor O'Melaghlin. He died +peaceably and full of penitence, at Kinkora, on the eve of the Ides of July, +A.D. 1086, after severe physical suffering. He was in the 77th year of his age, +the 32nd of his rule over Munster, and the 13th—since the death of Dermid +of Leinster—in his actual sovereignty of the southern half, and nominal +rule of the whole kingdom. He was succeeded by his son Murkertach, or Murtogh, +afterwards called <i>More</i>, or the great. +</p> + +<p> +We have thus traced to the third generation the political fortunes of the +family of Brian, which includes so much of the history of those times. That +family had become, and was long destined to remain, the first in rank and +influence in the southern half-kingdom. But internal discord in a great house, +as in a great state, is fatal to the peaceable transmission of power. That +"acknowledged right of birth" to which a famous historian attributes "the +peaceful successions" of modern Europe, was too little respected in those ages, +in many countries of Christendom—and had no settled prescription in its +favour among the Irish. Primogeniture and the whole scheme of feudal dependence +seems to have been an essential preparative for modern civilization: but as +Ireland had escaped the legions of Rome, so she existed without the circle of +feudal organization. When that system did at length appear upon her soil it was +embodied in an invading host, and patriot zeal could discern nothing good, +nothing imitable in the laws and customs of an enemy, whose armed presence in +the land was an insult to its inhabitants. Thus did our Island twice lose the +discipline which elsewhere laid the foundation of great states: once in the +Roman, and again in the Feudal era. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap18"></a>CHAPTER II.<br/> +THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE NORTH AND SOUTH—RISE OF THE FAMILY OF +O'CONOR.</h3> + +<p> +Four years before the death of Thorlogh O'Brien, a Prince destined to be the +life-long rival of his great son, had succeeded to the kingship of the northern +tribes. This was Donald, son of Ardgall, Prince of Aileach, sometimes called +"O" and sometimes "Mac" Laughlin. Donald had reached the mature age of forty +when he succeeded in the course of nature to his father, Ardgall, and was +admitted the first man of the North, not only in station but for personal +graces and accomplishments; for wisdom, wealth, liberality, and love of +military adventure. +</p> + +<p> +Murkertach, or Murtogh O'Brien, was of nearly the same age as his rival, and +his equal, if not superior in talents, both for peace and war. During the last +years of his father's reign and illness, he had been the real ruler of the +south, and had enforced the claims of Cashel on all the tribes of Leath Mogha, +from Dublin to Galway. In the year 1094, by mutual compact, brought about +through the intercession of the Archbishop of Armagh and the great body of the +clergy, north and south—and still more perhaps by the pestilence and +famine which raged at intervals during the last years of the eleventh +century—this ancient division of the midland <i>asker</i>, running east +and west, was solemnly restored by consent of both parties, and Leath Mogha and +Leath Conn became for the moment independent territories. So thoroughly did the +Church enter into the arrangement, that, at the Synod of Rath-Brazil, held a +few years later, the seats of the twelve Bishops of the southern half were +grouped round the Archbishop of Cashel, while the twelve of the northern half +were ranged round the Archbishop of Armagh. The Bishops of Meath, the ancient +mensal of the monarchy, seem to have occupied a middle station between the +benches of the north and south. +</p> + +<p> +Notwithstanding the solemn compact of 1094, Murtogh did not long cease to claim +the title, nor to seek the hostages of all Ireland. As soon as the fearful +visitations with which the century had closed were passed over, he resumed his +warlike forays, and found Donald of Aileach nothing loath to try again the +issue of arms. Each prince, however, seems to have been more anxious to coerce +or interest the secondary chiefs in his own behalf than to meet his rival in +the old-style pitched battle. Murtogh's annual march was usually along the +Shannon, into Leitrim, thence north by Sligo, and across the Erne and Finn into +Donegal and Derry. Donald's annual excursion led commonly along the Bann, into +Dalriada and Ulidia, Whence by way of Newry, across the Boyne, into Meath, and +from West-Meath into Munster. In one of these forays, at the very opening of +the twelfth century, Donald surprised Kinkora in the absence of its lord, razed +the fort and levelled the buildings to the earth. But the next season the +southern king paid him back in kind, when he attacked and demolished Aileach, +and caused each of his soldiers to carry off a stone of the ruin in his +knapsack. "I never heard of the billeting of grit stones," exclaims a bard of +those days, "though I have heard of the billeting of soldiers: but now we see +the stones of Aileach billeted on the horses of the King of the West!" +</p> + +<p> +Such circuits of the Irish kings, especially in days of opposition, were +repeated with much regularity. They seem to have set out commonly in +May—or soon after the festival of Easter—and when the tour of the +island was made, they occupied about six weeks in duration. The precise number +of men who took part in these visitations is nowhere stated, but in critical +times no prince, claiming the perilous honour of <i>Ard-Righ</i>, would be +likely to march with less than from five to ten thousand men. The movements of +such a multitude must have been attended with many oppressions and +inconveniences; their encampment for even a week in any territory must have +been a serious burthen to the resident inhabitants, whether hostile or +hospitable. Yet this was one inevitable consequence of the breaking up of the +federal centre at Tara. In earlier days, the <i>Ard-Righ</i>, 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 <i>Feis</i>, or to the festivals of Baaltine and Samhain. Now that +there was no Tara to go to, the monarch, or would-be monarch, found it +indispensable to show himself often, and to exercise his authority in person, +among every considerable tribe in the island. To do justice to Murtogh O'Brien, +he does not appear to have sought occasions of employing force when on these +expeditions, but rather to have acted the part of an armed negotiator. On his +return from the demolition of Aileach (A.D. 1101), among other acts of +munificence, he, in an assembly of the clergy of Leath Mogha, made a solemn +gift of the city of Cashel, free of all rents and dues, to the Archbishop and +the Clergy, for ever. His munificence to churches, and his patronage of holy +men, were eminent traits in this Prince's character. And the clergy of that age +were eminently worthy of the favours of such Princes. Their interposition +frequently brought about a truce between the northern and southern kings. In +the year 1103, the hostages of both were placed in custody with Donald, +Archbishop of Armagh, to guarantee a twelvemonth's peace. But the next season +the contest was renewed. Murtogh besieged Armagh for a week, which Donald of +Aileach successfully defended, until the siege was abandoned. In a subsequent +battle the northern force defeated one division of Murtogh's allies in Iveagh, +under the Prince of Leinster, who fell on the field, with the lords of Idrone, +Ossory, Desies, Kerry, and the Dublin Danes. Murtogh himself, with another +division of his troops, was on an incursion into Antrim when he heard of this +defeat. The northern visitors carried off among other spoils the royal tent and +standard, a trophy which gave new bitterness on the one side, and new +confidence on the other. Donald, the good Archbishop, the following year (A.D. +1105) proceeded to Dublin, where Murtogh was, or was soon expected, to renew +the previous peace between North and South, but he fell suddenly ill soon after +his arrival, and caused himself to be carried homewards in haste. 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 12th day of +August. Kellach, latinized Celsus, his saintly successor, was promoted to the +Primacy, and solemnly consecrated on Saint Adamnan's day following—the +23rd of September, 1105. +</p> + +<p> +Archbishop Celsus, whose accession was equally well received in Munster as in +Ulster, followed in the footsteps of his pious predecessor, in taking a decided +part with neither Leath Mogha nor Leath Conn. When, in the year 1110, both +parties marched to Slieve-Fuaid, with a view to a challenge of battle, Celsus +interposed between them the <i>Bachall-Isa</i>—and a solemn truce +followed; again, three years later, when they confronted each other in Iveagh, +in Down, similar success attended a similar interposition. Three years later +Murtogh O'Brien was seized with so severe an illness, that he became like to a +living skeleton, and though he recovered sufficiently to resume the exercise of +authority he never regained his full health. He died in a spiritual retreat, at +Lismore, on the 4th of the Ides of March, A.D. 1119, and was buried at +Killaloe. His great rival, Donald of Leath Conn, did not long survive him: he +died at Derry, also in a religious house, on the 5th of the Ides of February, +A.D. 1121. +</p> + +<p> +While these two able men were thus for more than a quarter of a century +struggling for the supremacy, a third power was gradually strengthening itself +west of the Shannon, destined to profit by the contest, more than either of the +principals. This was the family of O'Conor, of Roscommon, who derived their +pedigree from the same stock as the O'Neils, and their name from Conor, an +ancestor, who ruled over Connaught, towards the end of the ninth century. Two +or three of their line before Conor had possessed the same rank and title, but +it was by no means regarded as an adjunct of the house of Rathcrogan, before +the time at which we have arrived. Their co-relatives, sometimes their rivals, +but oftener their allies, were the O'Ruarcs of Breffny, McDermots of Moylurg, +the O'Flahertys of <i>Iar</i> or West Connaught, the O'Shaughnessys, O'Heynes, +and O'Dowdas. The great neighbouring family of O'Kelly had sprung from a +different branch of the far-spreading Gaelic tree. At the opening of the +twelfth century, Thorlogh More O'Conor, son of Ruari of the Yellow Hound, son +of Hugh of the Broken Spear, was the recognised head of his race, both for +valour and discretion. By some historians he is called the half-brother of +Murtogh O'Brien, and it is certain that he was the faithful ally of that +powerful prince. In the early stages of the recent contest between North and +South, Donald of Aileach had presented 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, by a decided policy, escaped +being ground to powder, as corn is ground between the mill-stones. But the +nephew and successor of Murtogh was not prepared to reciprocate to Connaught +the support it had rendered to Munster, but rather looked for its continuance +to himself. Conor O'Brien, who became King of Munster in 1120, resisted all his +life the pretensions of any house but his own to the southern half-kingdom, and +against a less powerful or less politic antagonist, his energy and capacity +would have been certain to prevail. The posterity of Malachy in Meath, as well +as the Princes of Aileach, were equally hostile to the designs of the new +aspirant. One line had given three, another seven, another twenty kings to +Erin—but who had ever heard of an <i>Ard-Righ</i> coming out of +Connaught? 'Twas so they reasoned in those days of fierce family pride, and so +they acted. Yet Thorlogh, son of Ruari, son of Hugh, proved himself in the +fifteen years' war, previous to his accession (1021 to 1136), more than a match +for all his enemies. He had been chief of his tribe since the year 1106, and +from the first had begun to lay his far forecasting plans for the sovereignty. +He had espoused the cause of the house of O'Brien, and had profited by that +alliance. Nor were all his thoughts given to war. He had bridged the river Suca +at Ballinasloe, and the Shannon at Athlone and Shannon harbour, and the same +year these works were finished (1120 or '21) he celebrated the ancient games at +Tailtean, in assertion of his claim to the monarchy. His main difficulty was +the stubborn pride of Munster, and the valour and enterprise of Conor O'Brien, +surnamed Conor "of the fortresses." Of the years following his assertion of his +title, few passed without war between those Provinces. In 1121 and 1127, +Thorlogh triumphed in the south, took hostages from Lismore to Tralee, and +returned home exultingly; a few years later the tide turned, and Conor O'Brien +was equally victorious against him, in the heart of his own country. Thorlogh +played off in the south the ancient jealousy of the Eugenian houses against the +Dalcassians, and thus weakened both, to his own advantage. In the year 1126 he +took Dublin and raised his son to the lordship, as Dermid of Leinster, and +Thorlogh O'Brien had done formerly: marching southward he encamped in Ormond, +from Lammas to St. Bridget's day, and overran Munster with his troops in all +directions, taking Cork, Cashel, Ardfinnan, and Tralee. Celsus, the holy +Primate of Armagh, deploring the evils of this protracted year, left his +peaceful city, 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 hierarchy performed, perhaps, their highest part—that of +peacemakers and preachers of good will to men. When in 1132 and '33 the tide +had temporarily turned against Thorlogh, and Conor O'Brien had united Munster, +Leinster, and Meath, against him, the Archbishop of Tuam performed effectually +the office of mediator, preserving not only his own Province, but the whole +country from the most sanguinary consequences. In the year 1130, the holy +Celsus had rested from his labours, and Malachy, the illustrious friend of St. +Bernard, was nominated as his successor. At the time he was absent in Munster, +as the Vicar of the aged Primate, engaged in a mission of peace, when the +crozier and the dying message of his predecessor were delivered to him. He +returned to Armagh, where he found that Maurice, son of Donald, had been +intruded as Archbishop in the <i>interim</i>, to this city peace, order, and +unity, were not even partially restored, until two years later—A.D., +1132. +</p> + +<p> +The reign of Thorlogh O'Conor over Leath Mogha, or as Ard-Righ "with +opposition," is dated by the best authorities from the year 1136. He was then +in his forty-eighth year, and had been chief of his tribe from the early age of +eighteen. He afterwards reigned for twenty years, and as those years, and the +early career of his son Roderick are full of instruction, in reference to the +events which follow, we must relate them somewhat in detail. We again beg the +reader to observe the consequences of the destruction of the federal bond among +the Irish; how every province has found an ambitious dynasty of its own, which +each contends shall be supreme; how the ambition of the great families grows +insatiable as the ancient rights and customs decay; how the law of Patrick +enacted in the fifth century is no longer quoted or regarded; how the law of +the strong hand alone decides the quarrel of these proud, unyielding Princes. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap19"></a>CHAPTER III.<br/> +THORLOGH MORE O'CONOR—MURKERTACH OF AILEACH—ACCESSION OF +RODERICK O'CONOR.</h3> + +<p> +The successful ambition of Thorlogh O'Conor had thus added, as we have seen in +the last chapter, a fifth dynasty to the number of competitors for the +sovereignty. And if great energy and various talents could alone entitle a +chief to rule over his country, this Prince well merited the obedience of his +cotemporaries. He is the first of the latter kings who maintained a regular +fleet at sea; at one time we find these Connaught galleys doing service on the +coast of Cork, at another co-operating with his land forces, in the harbour of +Derry. The year of his greatest power was the fifteenth of his reign (A.D. +1151), when his most signal success was obtained over 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 +<i>caths</i>), each battalion consisting of 3,000 men, with which force he +overawed some, and compelled others of the southern chiefs to withdraw their +homage from his western namesake. The latter, uniting to his own the forces of +Meath, and those of Leinster, recently reconciled to his supremacy, marched +southward, and, encamping at Glanmire, received the adhesion of such Eugenian +families as still struggled with desperation against the ascendency of the +O'Briens. With these forces he encountered, at Moanmore, the army of the south, +and defeated them, with the enormous loss of 7,000 men—a slaughter +unparalleled throughout the war of succession. Every leading house in North +Munster mourned the loss of either its chief or its tanist; some great families +lost three, five, or seven brothers on that sanguinary day. The household of +Kinkora was left without an heir, and many a near kinsman's seat was vacant in +its hospitable hall. The O'Brien himself was banished into Ulster, where, from +Murkertach, Prince of Aileach, he received the hospitality due to his rank and +his misfortunes, not without an ulterior politic view on the part of the Ulster +Prince. In this battle of Moanmore, Dermid McMurrogh, King of Leinster, of whom +we shall hear hereafter, fought gallantly on the side of the victor. In the +same year—but whether before or after the Munster campaign is +uncertain—an Ulster force having marched into Sligo, Thorlogh met them +near the Curlew mountains, and made peace with their king. A still more +important interview took place the next year in the plain, or <i>Moy</i>, +between the rivers Erne and Drowse, near the present Ballyshannon. On the +<i>Bachall-Isa</i> and the relics of Columbkill, Thorlogh and Murkertach made a +solemn peace, which is thought to have included the recognition of O'Conor's +supremacy. A third meeting was had during the summer in Meath, where were +present, beside the Ard-Righ, the Prince of Aileach, Dermid of Leinster, and +other chiefs and nobles. At this conference they divided Meath into east and +west, between two branches of the family of Melaghlin. Part of Longford and +South Leitrim were taken from Tiernan O'Ruarc, lord of Breffni, and an angle of +Meath, including Athboy and the hill of Ward, was given him instead. Earlier in +the same year, King Thorlogh had divided Munster into three parts, giving +Desmond to MacCarthy, Ormond to Thaddeus O'Brien, who had fought under him at +Moanmore, and leaving the remainder to the O'Brien, who had only two short +years before competed with him for the sovereignty. By these subdivisions the +politic monarch expected to weaken to a great degree the power of the rival +families of Meath and Munster. It was an arbitrary policy which could originate +only on the field of battle, and could be enforced only by the sanction of +victory. Thorlogh O'Brien, once King of all Munster, refused to accept a mere +third, and carrying away his jewels and valuables, including the drinking horn +of the great Brian, he threw himself again on the protection of Murkertach of +Aileach. The elder branch of the family of O'Melaghlin were equally indisposed +to accept half of Meath, where they had claimed the whole from the Shannon to +the sea. To complicate still more this tangled web, Dermid, King of Leinster, +about the same time (A.D. 1153), eloped with Dervorgoil, wife of O'Ruarc of +Breffni, and daughter of O'Melaghlin, who both appealed to the monarch for +vengeance on the ravager. Up to this date Dermid had acted as a steadfast ally +of O'Conor, but when compelled by the presence of a powerful force on his +borders to restore the captive, or partner of his guilt, he conceived an enmity +for the aged king, which he extended, with increased virulence, to his son and +successor. +</p> + +<p> +What degree of personal criminality to attach to this elopement it is hard to +say. The cavalier in the case was on the wintry side of fifty, while the lady +had reached the mature age of forty-four. Such examples have been, where the +passions of youth, surviving the period most subject to their influence, have +broken out with renewed frenzy on the confines of old age. Whether the flight +of Dermid and Dervorgoil arose from a mere criminal passion, is not laid down +with certainty in the old Annals, though national and local tradition strongly +point to that conclusion. The Four Masters indeed state that after the +restoration of the lady she "returned to O'Ruarc," another point wanting +confirmation. We know that she soon afterwards retired to the shelter of +Mellifont Abbey, where she ended her days towards the close of the century, in +penitence and alms-deeds. +</p> + +<p> +Murtogh of Aileach now became master of the situation. Thorlogh was old and +could not last long; Dermid of Leinster was for ever estranged from him; the +new arbitrary divisions, though made with the general consent, satisfied no +one. With a powerful force he marched southward, restored to the elder branch +of the O'Melaghlins the whole of Meath, defeated Thaddeus O'Brien, obliterated +Ormond from the map, restored the old bounds of Thomond and Desmond, and placed +his guest, the banished O'Brien, on the throne of Cashel. A hostile force, +under Roderick O'Conor, was routed, and retreated to their own territory. The +next year (A.D. 1154) was signalized by a fierce naval engagement between the +galleys of King Thorlogh and those of Murtogh, on the coast of Innishowen. The +latter, recruited by vessels hired from the Gael and Galls of Cantire, the +Arran Isles, and Man, were under the command of MacScellig; the Connaught fleet +was led by O'Malley and O'Dowda. The engagement, which lasted from the morning +till the evening, ended in the repulse of the Connaught fleet, and the death of +O'Dowda. The occurrence is remarkable as the first general sea-fight between +vessels in the service of native Princes, and as reminding us forcibly of the +lessons acquired by the Irish during the Danish period. +</p> + +<p> +During the two years of life—which remained to King Thorlogh O'Conor, he +had the affliction of seeing the fabric of power, which had taken him nearly +half a century to construct, abridged at many points, by his more vigorous +northern rival. Murtogh gave law to territories far south of the ancient +<i>esker</i>. He took hostages from the Danes of Dublin, and interposed in the +affairs of Munster. In the year 1156, the closing incidents which signalized +the life of Thorlogh More, was a new peace which he made between the people of +Breffni, Meath, and Connaught, and the reception of hostages from his old +opponent, the restored O'Brien. While this new light of prosperity was shining +on his house, he passed away from this life, on the 13th of the Kalends of +June, in the 68th year of his age, and the 50th of his government. By his last +will he bequeathed to the clergy numerous legacies, which are thus enumerated +by Geoffrey Keating: "namely, four hundred and forty ounces of gold, and forty +marks of silver; and all the other valuable treasures he possessed, both cups +and precious stones, both steeds and cattle and robes, chess-boards, bows, +quivers, arrows, equipments, weapons, armour, and utensils." He was interred +beside the high altar of the Cathedral of Clonmacnoise, to which he had been in +life and in death a munificent benefactor. +</p> + +<p> +The Prince of Aileach now assumed the title of Monarch, and after some +short-lived opposition from Roderick O'Conor, his sovereignty was universally +acknowledged. From the year 1161 until his death, he might fairly be called +Ard-Righ, without opposition, since the hostages of all Ireland were in those +last five years in his hands. These hostages were retained at the chief seat of +power of the northern dynasty, the fortress of Aileach, which crowns a hill +nearly a thousand feet high, at the head of Lough Swilly. To this stronghold +the ancestor of Murtogh had removed early in the Danish period, from the more +exposed and more ancient Emania, beside Armagh. On that hill-summit the ruins +of Aileach may still be traced, with its inner wall twelve feet thick, and its +three concentric ramparts, the first enclosing one acre, the second four, and +the last five acres. By what remains we can still judge of the strength of the +stronghold which watched over the waters of Lough Swilly like a sentinel on an +outpost. No Prince of the Northern Hy-Nial had for two centuries entered +Aileach in such triumph or with so many nobles in his train, as did Murtogh in +the year 1161, But whether the supreme power wrought a change for the worse in +his early character, or that the lords of Ulster had begun to consider the line +of Conn as equals rather than sovereigns, he was soon involved in quarrels with +his own Provincial suffragans which ended in his defeat and death. Most other +kings of whom we have read found their difficulties in rival dynasties and +provincial prejudices; but this ruler, when most freely acknowledged abroad, +was disobeyed and defeated at home. Having taken prisoner the lord of Ulidia +(Down), with whom he had previously made a solemn peace, he ordered his eyes to +be put out, and three of his principal relatives to be executed. This and other +arbitrary acts so roused the lords of Leath Conn, that they formed a league +against him, at the head of which stood Donogh O'Carroll, lord of Oriel, the +next neighbour to the cruelly ill-treated chief of Ulidia. In the year 1166, +this chief, with certain tribes of Tyrone and North Leitrim, to the number of +three battalions (9,000 men), attacked the patrimony of the monarch—that +last menace and disgrace to an Irish king. Murtogh with his usual valour, but +not his usual fortune, encountered them in the district of the Fews, with an +Inferior force, chiefly his own tribesmen. Even these deserted him on the eve +of the battle, so that he was easily surprised and slain, only thirteen men +falling in the affray. This action, of course, is unworthy the name of a +battle, but resulting in the death of the monarch, it became of high political +importance. +</p> + +<p> +Roderick O'Conor, son of Thorlogh More, was at this period in the tenth year of +his reign over Connaught, and the fiftieth year of his age. Rathcrogan, the +chief seat of his jurisdiction, had just attained to the summit of its glory. +The site of this now almost forgotten palace is traceable in the parish of +Elphin, within three miles of the modern village of Tulsk. Many objects +contributed to its interest and importance in Milesian times. There were the +<i>Naasteaghna</i>, or place of assembly of the clans of Connaught, "the Sacred +Cave," which in the Druidic era was supposed to be the residence of a god, and +the <i>Relig na Righ</i>—the venerable cemetery of the Pagan kings of the +West, where still the red pillar stone stood over the grave of Dathy, and many +another ancient tomb could be as clearly distinguished. The relative importance +of Rathcrogan we may estimate by the more detailed descriptions of the extent +and income of its rivals—Kinkora and Aileach. In an age when Roscommon +alone contained 470 fortified <i>duns</i>, over all which the royal rath +presided; when half the tributes of the island were counted at its gate, it +must have been the frequent <i>rendezvous</i> of armies, the home of many +guests, the busy focus of intrigue, and the very elysium of bards, +story-tellers, and mendicants. In an after generation, Cathal, the red-handed +O'Conor, from some motive of policy or pleasure, transferred the seat of +government to the newly-founded Ballintober: in the lifetime of Thorlogh More, +and the first years of Roderick, when the fortunes of the O'Conors were at +their full, Rathcrogan was the co-equal in strength and in splendour of Aileach +and Kinkora. +</p> + +<p> +Advancing directly from this family seat, on the first tidings of Murtogh's +death, Roderick presented himself before 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. He next marched rapidly to Drogheda, +with an auxiliary force of 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 augmented force, and demanded hostages from Dermid +McMurrogh. Thirteen years had passed since his father had taken up arms to +avenge the rape of Dervorgoil, and had earned the deadly hatred of the +abductor. That hatred, in the interim, had suffered no decrease, and sooner +than submit to Roderick, the ravager burned his own city of Ferns to the +ground, and retreated into his fastnesses. Roderick proceeded southward, +obtained the adhesion of Ossory and Munster; confirming Desmond to McCarthy, +and Thomond to O'Brien. Returning to Leinster, he found that Tiernan O'Ruarc +had entered the province, at the head of an auxiliary army, and Dermid, thus +surrounded, deserted by most 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 publicly pronounced against him by the assembled Princes, and +Morrogh, his cousin, commonly called Morrogh <i>na Gael</i>, or "of the Irish," +to distinguish him from Dermid <i>na Gall</i>, or "of the Stranger," was +inaugurated in his stead. From Morrogh <i>na Gael</i> they took seventeen +hostages, and so Roderick returned rejoicing to Rathcrogan, and O'Ruarc to +Breffni, each vainly imagining that he had heard the last of the dissolute and +detested King of Leinster. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap20"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br/> +STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING AMONG THE IRISH, PREVIOUS TO THE +ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION.</h3> + +<p> +At the end of the eighth century, before entering on the Norwegian and Danish +wars, we cast a backward glance on the Christian ages over which we had passed; +and now again we have arrived at the close of an era, when a rapid retrospect +of the religious and social condition of the country requires to be taken. +</p> + +<p> +The disorganization of the ancient Celtic constitution has already been +sufficiently described. The rise of the great families, and their struggles for +supremacy, have also been briefly sketched. The substitution of the clan for +the race, of pedigree for patriotism, has been exhibited to the reader. We have +now to turn to the inner life of the people, and to ascertain what substitutes +they found in their religious and social condition, for the absence of a fixed +constitutional system, and the strength and stability which such a system +confers. +</p> + +<p> +The followers of Odin, though they made no proselytes to their horrid creed +among the children of St. Patrick, succeeded in inflicting many fatal wounds on +the Irish Church. The schools, monasteries, and nunneries, situated on harbours +or rivers, or within a convenient march of the coast, were their first objects +of attack; teachers and 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 anchorites in their cells, unless they invited +martyrdom; a fact which may, perhaps, in some degree account for the large +number of Irish ecclesiastics, many of them in episcopal orders, who are found, +in the ninth century, in Gaul and Germany, at Rheims, Mentz, Ratisbon, Fulda, +Cologne, and other places, already Christian. But it was not in the banishment +of masters, the destruction of libraries and school buildings, the worst +consequences of the Gentile war were felt. Their ferocity provoked retaliation +in kind, and effaced, first among the military class, and gradually from among +all others, that growing gentleness of manners and clemency of temper, which we +can trace in such princes as Nial of the Showers and Nial of Callan. "A change +in the national spirit is the greatest of all revolutions;" and this change the +Danish and Norwegian wars had wrought, in two centuries, among the Irish. +</p> + +<p> +The number of Bishops in the early Irish Church was greatly in excess of the +number of modern dioceses. From the eighth to the twelfth century we hear +frequently of <i>Episcopi Vagantes</i>, or itinerant, and <i>Episcopi +Vacantes</i>, or unbeneficed Bishops; the Provincial Synods of England and Gaul +frequently had to complain of the influx of such Bishops into their country. At +the Synod held near the Hill 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. To this period, then, when Celsus was Primate and +Legate of the Holy See, we may attribute the first attempted reduction of the +Episcopal body to something like its modern number; but so far was this +salutary restriction from being universally observed that, at the Synod of +Kells (A.D. 1152), the hierarchy had again risen to thirty-four, exclusive of +the four Archbishops. Three hundred priests, and three thousand ecclesiastics +are given as the number present at the first-mentioned Synod. +</p> + +<p> +The religious orders, probably represented by the above proportion of three +thousand ecclesiastics to three hundred [secular] priests had also undergone a +remarkable revolution. The rule of all the early Irish monasteries and convents +was framed upon an original constitution, which St. Patrick had obtained in +France from St. Martin of Tours, who in turn had copied after the monachism of +Egypt and the East. It is called by ecclesiastical writers the Columban rule, +and was more rigid in some particulars than the rule of St. Benedict, by which +it was afterwards supplanted. Amongst other restrictions it prohibited the +admission of all unprofessed persons within the precincts of the +monastery—a law as regards females incorporated in the Benedictine +constitution; and it strictly enjoined silence on the professed—a +discipline revived by the brethren of La Trappe. The primary difference between +the two orders lay perhaps in this, that the Benedictine made study and the +cultivation of the intellect subordinate to manual labour and implicit +obedience, while the Columban Order attached more importance to the acquisition +of knowledge and missionary enterprise. Not that this was their 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 overspreading the West, that its milder spirit should not act upon +the spirit of the Columban rule. It was, in effect, more social, and less +scientific, more a wisdom to be acted than to be taught. Armed with the +syllogism, the Columbites issued out of their remote island, carrying their +strongly marked personality into every controversy and every correspondence. In +Germany and Gaul, their system blazed up in Virgilius, in Erigena, and +Macarius, and then disappeared in the calmer, slower, but safer march of the +Benedictine discipline. By a reform of the same ancient order, its last hold on +native soil was loosened when, under the auspices of St. Malachy, the +Cistercian rule was introduced into Ireland the very year of his first visit to +Clairvaux (A.D. 1139). St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, was the first to adopt that +rule, and the great monastery of Mellifont, placed under the charge of the +brother of the Primate, sprung up in Meath, three years later. The Abbeys of +Bective, Boyle, Baltinglass, and Monasternenagh, date from the year of +Malachy's second journey to Rome, and death at Clairvaux—A.D. 1148. +Before the end of the century, the rule was established at Fermoy, Holycross, +and Odorney; at Athlone and Knockmoy; at Newry and Assaroe, and in almost every +tribe-land of Meath and Leinster. It is usually but erroneously supposed that +the Cistercian rule came in with the Normans; for although many houses owed +their foundation to that race, the order itself had been naturalized in Ireland +a generation before the first landing of the formidable allies of Dermid on the +coast of Wexford. The ancient native order had apparently fulfilled its +mission, and long rudely lopped and shaken by civil commotions and Pagan war, +it was prepared to give place to a new and more vigorous organization of +kindred holiness and energy. +</p> + +<p> +As the horrors of war disturbed continually the clergy from their sacred +calling, and led many of them, even Abbots and Bishops, to take up arms, so the +yoke of religion gradually loosened and dropped from the necks of the people. +The awe of the eighth century for a Priest or Bishop had already disappeared in +the tenth, when Christian hands were found to decapitate Cormac of Cashel, and +offer his head as a trophy to the Ard-Righ. In the twelfth century the +Archbishop and Bishops of Connaught, bound to the Synod of Trim, were fallen +upon by the Kern of 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 outrage was offered by Tiernan O'Ruarc to the +Archbishop of Armagh, and one of his ecclesiastics was killed in the assault. +Not only for the persons of ministers of religion had the ancient awe and +reverence disappeared, but even for the sacred precincts of the Sanctuary. In +the second century of the war with the Northmen we begin to hear of churches +and cloisters plundered by native chiefs, who yet called themselves Christians, +though in every such instance our annalists are careful to record the vengeance +of Heaven following swift on sacrilege. Clonmacnoise, Kildare, and Lismore, +were more than once rifled of their wealth by impious hands, and given over to +desolation and burning by so-called Christian nobles and soldiers! It is some +mitigation of the dreadful record thus presented to be informed—as we +often are—especially in the annals of the twelfth century, that the +treasures so pillaged were not the shrines of saints nor the sacred ornaments +of the altar, but the temporal wealth of temporal proprietors, laid up in +churches as places of greatest security. +</p> + +<p> +The estates of the Church were, in most instances, farmed by laymen, called +<i>Erenachs</i>, who, in the relaxation of all discipline, seem to have +gradually appropriated the lands to themselves, leaving to the Clergy and +Bishops only periodical dues and the actual enclosure of the Church. This +office of Erenach was hereditary, and must have presented many strong +temptations to its occupants. It is indeed certain that the Irish Church was +originally founded on the broadest voluntaryism, and that such was the spirit +of all its most illustrious fathers. "Content with food and raiment," says an +ancient Canon attributed to St. Patrick, "reject the gifts of the wicked +beside, seeing that the lamb takes only that with which it is fed." Such, to +the letter, was the maxim which guided the conduct of Colman and his brethren, +of whom Bede makes such honourable mention, in the third century after the +preaching of St. Patrick. But the munificence of tribes and Princes was not to +be restrained, and to obviate any violation of the revered canons of the +apostle, laymen, as treasurers and stewards over the endowments of the Church, +were early appointed. As those possessions increased, the desire of family +aggrandizement proved too much for the Erenachs not only of Armagh, but of most +other sees, and left the clergy as practically dependent on free-will +offerings, as if their Cathedrals or Convents had never been endowed with an +acre, a mill, a ferry, or a fishery. The free offerings were, however, always +generous, and sometimes munificent. When Celsus, on his elevation to the +Primacy, made a tour of the southern half-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 of revenue to the principal +foundations; of the munificence of the monarchs we may form some opinion by +what has been already recorded of the gifts left to churches by Thorlogh More +O'Conor. +</p> + +<p> +The power of the clerical order, in these ages of Pagan warfare, had very far +declined from what it was, when Adamnan caused the law to be enacted to prevent +women going to battle, when Moling obtained the abolition of the Leinster +tribute, and Columbkill the recognition of Scottish independence. Truces made +in the presence of the highest dignitaries, and sworn to on the most sacred +relics, were frequently violated, and often with impunity. Neither +excommunication nor public penance were latterly inflicted as an atonement for +such perjury: a fine or offering to the Church was the easy and only mulct on +the offender. When we see the safeguard of the Bishop of Cork so flagrantly +disregarded by the assassins of Mahon, son of Kennedy, and the solemn peace of +the year 1094 so readily broken by two such men as the Princes of the North and +the South, we need no other proofs of the decadence of the spiritual authority +in that age of Irish history. +</p> + +<p> +And the morals of private life tell the same sad tale. The facility with which +the marriage tie was contracted and dissolved is the strongest evidence of this +degeneracy. The worst examples were set in the highest stations, for it is no +uncommon incident, from the ninth century downwards, to find our Princes with +more than one wife living, and the repudiated wife married again to a person of +equal or superior rank. We have the authority of Saint Anselm and Saint +Bernard, for the existence of grave scandal and irregularities of life among +the clergy, and we can well believe that it needed a generation of Bishops, +with all the authority and all the courage of Saint Celsus, Saint Malachy, and +Saint Lawrence, to rescue from ruin a Priesthood and a people, so far fallen +from the bright example of their ancestors. That the reaction towards a better +life had strongly set in, under their guidance, we may infer from the horror +with which, in the third quarter of the twelfth century, the elopement of +Dermid and Dervorgoil was regarded by both Princes and People. A hundred years +earlier, that event would have been hardly noticed in the general disregard of +the marriage tie, but the frequent Synods, and the holy lives of the reforming +Bishops, had already revived the zeal that precedes and ensures reformation. +</p> + +<p> +Primate Malachy died at Clairvaulx, in the arms of Saint Bernard, in the year +1148, after having been fourteen years Archbishop of Armagh and ten years +Bishop of Down and Conor. His episcopal life, therefore, embraced the history +of that remarkable second quarter of the century, in which the religious +reaction fought its first battles against the worst abuses. The attention of +Saint Bernard, whose eyes nothing escaped, from Jerusalem to the farthest west, +was drawn ten years before to the Isle of Saints, now, in truth, become an Isle +of Sinners. The death of his friend, the Irish Primate, under his own roof, +gave him a fitting occasion for raising his accusing voice—a voice that +thrilled the Alps and filled the Vatican—against the fearful degeneracy +of that once fruitful mother of holy men and women. The attention of Rome was +thoroughly aroused, and immediately after the appearance of the Life of Saint +Malachy, Pope Eugenius III.—himself a monk of Clairvaulx—despatched +Cardinal Papiron, with legantine powers, to correct abuses, and establish a +stricter discipline. After a tour of great part of the Island, the Legate, with +whom was associated Gilla-Criost, or Christianus, Bishop of Lismore, called the +great Synod of Kells, early in the year after his arrival (March, 1152), at +which simony, usury, concubinage, and other abuses, were formally condemned, +and tithes were first decreed to be paid to the secular clergy. Two new +Archbishoprics, Dublin and Tuam, were added to Armagh and Cashel, though not +without decided opposition from the Primates both of Leath Mogha and Leath +Conn, backed by those stern conservatives of every national usage, the Abbots +of the Columban Order. The <i>pallium</i>, or Roman cape, was, by this Legate, +presented to each of the Archbishops, and a closer conformity with the Roman +ritual was enacted. The four ecclesiastical Provinces thus created were in +outline nearly identical with the four modern Provinces. Armagh was declared +the metropolitan over 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, were declared subject to its presidency. +</p> + +<p> +We must always bear in mind the picture drawn of the Irish Church by the +inspired orator of Clairvaulx, when judging of the conduct of Pope Adrian IV., +who, in the year 1155—the second of his Pontificate—granted to King +Henry II. of England, then newly crowned, his Bull authorising the invasion of +Ireland. The authenticity of that Bull is now universally admitted; and both +its preamble and conditions show how strictly it was framed in accordance with +St. Bernard's accusation. It sets forth that for the eradication of vice, the +implanting of virtue, and the spread of the true faith, the Holy Father +solemnly sanctions the projected invasion; and it attaches as a condition, the +payment of Peter's pence, for every house in Ireland. The bearer of the Bull, +John of Salisbury, carried back from Rome a gold ring, set with 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 Catholic people, in the twelfth +century. We have mainly referred to it here, however, as an illustration of how +entirely St. Bernard's impeachment of the Irish Church and nation was believed +at Rome, even after the salutary decrees of the Synod of Kells had been +promulgated. +</p> + +<p> +The restoration of religion, which was making such rapid progress previous to +the Norman invasion, was accompanied by a relative revival of learning. The +dark ages of Ireland are not those of the rest of Europe—they extend from +the middle of the ninth century to the age of Brian and Malachy II. This +darkness came from the North, and cleared away rapidly after the eventful day +of Clontarf. The first and most natural direction which the revival took was +historical investigation, and the composition of Annals. Of these invaluable +records, the two of highest reputation 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 Marian is thought to have been a monk of that monastery, +as he speaks of a superior called Tigernach, under whom he had lived in +Ireland. Both these learned men quote accurately the works of foreign writers; +both give the dates of eclipses, in connection with historical events for +several centuries before their own time; both show a familiarity with Greek and +Latin authors. <i>Marianus</i> is the first writer by whom the name <i>Scotia +Minor</i> was given to the Gaelic settlement in Caledonia, and his chronicle +was an authority mainly relied on in the disputed Scottish succession in the +time of Edward I. of England. With <i>Tigernach</i>, he may be considered the +founder of the school of Irish Annalists, which flourished in the shelter of +the great monasteries, such as Innisfallen, Boyle and Multifernan; and +culminated in the great compilation made by "the Four Masters" in the Abbey of +Donegal. +</p> + +<p> +Of the Gaelic metrical chroniclers, Flann of the Monastery, and Gilla-Coeman; +of the Bards McLiag and McCoisse; of the learned professors and lectors of +Lismore and Armagh—now restored for a season to studious days and +peaceful nights, we must be content with the mention of their names. Of +Lismore, after its restoration, an old British writer has left us this pleasant +and happy picture. "It is," he says, "a famous and holy city, half of which is +an asylum, into which no woman dares enter; but it is full of cells and +monasteries; and religious men in great abundance abide there." +</p> + +<p> +Such was the promise of better days, which cheered the hopes of the Pastors of +the Irish, when the twelfth century had entered on its third quarter. The pious +old Gaelic proverb, which says, "on the Cross the face of Christ was looking +westwards—," was again on the lips and in the hearts of men, and though +much remained to be done, much had been already done, and done under +difficulties greater than any that remained to conquer. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap21"></a>CHAPTER V.<br/> +SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE IRISH PREVIOUS TO THE NORMAN INVASION.</h3> + +<p> +The total population of Ireland, when the Normans first entered it, can only be +approximated by conjecture. Supposing the whole force with which Roderick and +his allies invested the Normans in Dublin, to be, as stated by a cotemporary +writer, some 50,000 men, and that that force included one-fourth of all the men +of the military age in the country; and further, supposing the men of military +age to bear the proportion of one-fifth to the whole number of inhabitants, +this would give a total population of about one million. Even this conjecture +is to be taken with great diffidence and distrust, but, for the sake of +clearness, it is set down as a possible Irish census, towards the close of the +twelfth century. +</p> + +<p> +This population was divided into two great classes, the <i>Saer-Clanna</i>, or +free tribes, chiefly, if not exclusively, of Milesian race; and the +<i>Daer-Clanna</i>, or unfree tribes, consisting of the descendants of the +subjugated older races, or of clans once free, reduced to servitude by the +sword, or of the posterity of foreign mercenary soldiers. Of the free clans, +the most illustrious were those of whose Princes we have traced the +record—the descendants of Nial in Ulster and Meath, of Cathaeir More in +Leinster, of Oliold in Munster, and of Eochaid in Connaught. An arbitrary +division once limited the free clans to six in the southern half-kingdom, and +six in the north; and the unfree also to six. But Geoffrey Keating, whose love +of truth was quite as strong as his credulity in ancient legends—and that +is saying much—disclaimed that classification, and collected his +genealogies from principal heads—branching out into three families of +tribes, descended from Eber Finn, one from Ir, and four from Eremhon, sons of +Milesians of Spain; and ninth tribe sprung from Ith, granduncle to the 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 were Magennis, O'Farrall, +and O'Conor (of Kerry); the posterity of 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 were the +O'Driscolls, O'Learys, Coffeys, and Clancys. Out of the greater tribes many +subdivisions arose from time to time, when new names were coined for some +intermediate ancestor; but the farther enumeration of these may be conveniently +dispensed with. +</p> + +<p> +The <i>Daer-Clanna</i>, or unfree tribes, have left no history. Under the +despotism of the Milesian kings, it was high treason to record the actions of +the conquered race; so that the Irish Belgae fared as badly in this respect, at +the hands of the Milesian historians, as the latter fared in after times from +the chroniclers of the Normans. We only know that such tribes were, and that +their numbers and physical force more than once excited the apprehension of the +children of the conquerors. What proportion they bore to the <i>Saer-Clanna</i> +we have no positive data to determine. A fourth, a fifth, or a sixth, they may +have been; but one thing is certain, the jealous policy of the superior race +never permitted them to reascend the plane of equality, from which they had +been hurled, at the very commencement of the Milesian ascendency. +</p> + +<p> +In addition to the enslaved by conquest and the enslaved by crime, there were +also the enslaved by purchase. From the earliest period, slave dealers from +Ireland had frequented Bristol, the great British slave market, to purchase +human beings. Christian morality, though it may have mitigated the horrors of +this odious traffic, did not at once lead to its abolition. In vain Saint +Wulfstan preached against it in the South, as Saint Aidan had done long before +him in the North of England. Files of fair-haired Saxon slaves, of both sexes, +yoked together with ropes, continued to be shipped at Bristol, and bondmen and +bondwomen continued to be articles of value—exchanged between the Prince +and his subordinates, as stipend or tribute. The King of Cashel alone gave to +the chief of the Eugenians, as part of his annual stipend, ten bondmen and ten +women; to the lord of Bruree, seven pages and seven bondwomen; to the lord of +Deisi, eight slaves of each sex, and seven female slaves to the lord of Kerry; +among the items which make up the tribute from Ossory 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 down as due in the Book of +Rights, would require the transfer of several hundreds of slaves yearly, from +one set of masters to another. Cruelties and outrages must have been +inseparable from the system, and we can hardly wonder at the sweeping decree by +which the Synod of Armagh (A.D. 1171) declared all the English slaves in +Ireland free to return to their homes, and anathematized the whole inhuman +traffic. The fathers of that council looked upon the Norman invasion as a +punishment from Heaven on the slave trade; for they believed in their purity of +heart, that power <i>is</i> transferred from one nation to another, because of +injustices, oppressions, and divers deceits. +</p> + +<p> +The purchased slaves and unfree tribes tilled the soil, and practised the +mechanic arts. Agriculture seems first to have been lifted into respectability +by the Cistercian Monks, while spinning, weaving, and almost every mechanic +calling, if we except the scribe, the armorer, and the bell-founder, continued +down to very recent tunes to be held in contempt among the Gael. A brave man is +mentioned as having been a "weaving woman's son," with much the same emphasis +as Jeptha is spoken of as the son of an Harlot. Mechanic wares were disposed of +at those stated gatherings, which combined popular games, chariot races for the +nobles, and markets for the merchants. A Bard of the tenth or eleventh century, +in a desperate effort to vary the usual high-flown descriptions of the country, +calls it "Erin of the hundred fair greens,"—a very graphic, if not a very +poetic illustration. +</p> + +<p> +The administration of justice was an hereditary trust, committed to certain +judicial families, who held their lands, as the Monks did, by virtue of their +profession. When the posterity of the Brehon, or Judge failed, it was permitted +to adopt from the class of students, a male representative, in whom the +judicial authority was perpetuated: the families of O'Gnive and O'Clery in the +North, of O'Daly in Meath, O'Doran in Leinster, McEgan in Munster, Mulconry or +Conroy in Connaught, were the most distinguished Brehon houses. Some +peculiarities of the Brehon law, relating to civil succession and sovereignty, +such as the institution of Tanistry, and the system of stipends and tributes, +have been already explained; parricide and murder were in latter ages punished +with death; homicide and rape by <i>eric</i> or fine. There were, besides, the +laws of gavelkind or division of property among the members of the clan; laws +relating to boundaries; sumptuary laws regulating the dress of the various +castes into which society was divided; laws relating to the planting of trees, +the trespass of cattle, and billeting of troops. These laws were either written +in detail, or consisted of certain acknowledged ancient maxims of which the +Brehon made the application in each particular case, answering to what we call +"Judge-made law." Of such ancient tracts as composed the Celtic code, an +immense number have, fortunately survived, even to this late day, and we may +shortly expect a complete digest of all that are now known to exist, in a +printed and imperishable form, from the hands of native scholars, every way +competent to the task. +</p> + +<p> +The commerce of the country, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, was largely +in the hands of the Christian Hiberno-Danes, of the eastern and southern coast. +By them the slave trade with Bristol was mostly maintained, and the Irish oak, +with which William Rufus roofed Westminster Abbey, was probably rafted by them +in the Thames. The English and Welsh coasts, at least, were familiar to their +pilots, and they combined, as was usual in that age, the military with the +mercantile character. In 1142, and again in 1165, a troop of Dublin Danes +fought under Norman banners against the brave Britons of Cambria, and in the +camps of their allies, sung the praises of the fertile island of the west. The +hundred fairs of Erin—after their conversion and submission to native +authority—afforded them convenient markets for disposing of the +commodities they imported from abroad. +</p> + +<p> +The Gaelic mind, long distracted by the din of war from the purifying and +satisfying influences of a Christian life, naturally fell back upon the +abandoned, half-forgotten superstitions of the Pagan period. Preceding every +fresh calamity, we hear of signs and wonders, of migratory lakes disappearing +in a night, of birds and wolves speaking with human voices, of showers of blood +falling in the fields, of a whale with golden teeth stranded at Carlingford, of +cloud ships, with their crews, seen plainly sailing in the sky. One of the +marvels of this class is thus gravely entered in our Annals, under the year +1054—"A steeple of fire was seen in the air over Rossdala, on the Sunday +of the festival of St. George, for the space of five hours; innumerable black +birds passed into and out of it, and one large bird in the middle of them; and +the little birds went under his wings when they went into the steeple. They +came out and raised up a greyhound that was in the middle of the town aloft in +the air, and let it drop down again, so that it died immediately; and they took +up three cloaks and two shirts, and let them drop down in the same manner. The +wood on which these birds perched fell under them; and the oak tree on which +they perched shook with its roots in the earth." In many other superstitions of +the same age we see the latent moral sentiment, as well as the over-excited +imagination of the people. Such is the story of the stolen jewels of +Clonmacnoise, providentially recovered in the year 1130. The thief in vain +endeavoured to escape out of the country, from Cork, Lismore, and Waterford, +"but no ship into which he entered found a wind to sail, while all the other +ships did." And the conscience stricken thief declared, in his dying +confession, that he used to see Saint Kieran "stopping with his crozier, every +ship into which he entered." It was also an amiable popular illusion that +abundant harvests followed the making of peace, the enacting of salutary laws, +and the accession of a King who loved justice; and careful entry is made in our +chronicles of every evidence of this character. +</p> + +<p> +The literature of the masses of the people was pretty equally composed of the +legends of the Saints and the older Ossianic legend, so much misunderstood and +distorted by modern criticism. The legends of the former class were chiefly +wonders wrought by the favourite Saints of the district or the island, +embellished with many quaint fancies and tagged out with remnants of old Pagan +superstition. St. Columbkill and St. Kieran were, most commonly, the heroes of +those tales, which, perhaps, were never intended by their authors to be +seriously believed. Such was the story of the great founder of Iona having +transformed the lady and her maid, who insulted him on his way to Drom-Keth, +into two herons, who are doomed to hover about the neighbouring ford till the +day of doom; and such that other story of "the three first monks" who joined +St. Kieran in the desert, being a fox, a badger, and a bear, all endowed with +speech, and all acting a part in the legend true to their own instincts. Of +higher poetic merit is the legend of the voyage of St. Brendan over the great +sea, and how the birds which sung vespers for him in the groves of the Promised +Land were inhabited by human souls, as yet in a state of probation waiting for +their release! +</p> + +<p> +In the Ossianic legend we have the common stock of Oriental ideas—the +metamorphosis of guilty wives and haughty concubines into dogs and birds; the +speaking beasts and fishes; 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 which there never was but one, yet that one +perpetually reproduced itself; the spirits of the wood, and the spirits +inhabiting springs and streams; the fairy horse; the sacred trees; the starry +influences. Monstrous and gigantic human shapes, like the Jinns of the Arabian +tales, occasionally enter into the plot, and play a midnight part, malignant to +the hopes of good men. At their approach the earth is troubled, the moon is +overcast, gusts of storm are shaken out from the folds of their garments, the +watch dogs and the war dogs cower down, in camp and rath, and whine piteously, +as if in pain. +</p> + +<p> +The variety of grace, and peculiarities of organization, with which, if not the +original, certainly the Christianized Irish imagination, endowed and equipped +the personages of the fairy world, were of almost Grecian delicacy. There is no +personage who rises to the sublime height of Zeus, or the incomparable union of +beauty and wisdom in Pallas Athene: what forms Bel, or Crom, or Bride, the +queen of Celtic song, may have worn to the pre-Christian ages we know not, nor +can know; but the minor creations of Grecian fancy, with which they peopled +their groves and fountains, are true kindred of the brain, to the innocent, +intelligent, and generally gentle inhabitants of the Gaelic Fairyland. The +<i>Sidhe</i>, a tender, tutelary spirit, attached herself to heroes, +accompanied them in battle, shrouded them with invisibility, dressed their +wounds with more than mortal skill, and watched over them with more than mortal +love; the <i>Banshee</i>, a sad, Cassandra-like spirit, shrieked her weird +warning in advance of death, but with a prejudice eminently Milesian, watched +only over those of pure blood, whether their fortunes abode in hovel or hall. +The more modern and grotesque personages of the Fairy world are sufficiently +known to render description unnecessary. +</p> + +<p> +Two habitual sources of social enjoyment and occupation with the Irish of those +days were music and chess. The harp was the favourite instrument, but the horn +or trumpet, and the pibroch or bagpipe, were also in common use. Not only +professional performers, but men and women of all ranks, from the humblest to +the highest, prided themselves on some knowledge of instrumental music. It +seems to have formed part of the education of every order, and to have been +cherished alike in the palace, the shieling, and the cloister. "It is a poor +church that has no music," is a Gaelic proverb, as old, perhaps, as the +establishment of Christianity in the land; and no house was considered +furnished without at least one harp. Students from other countries, as we learn +from <i>Giraldus</i>, came to Ireland for their musical education in the +twelfth century, just as our artists now visit Germany and Italy with the same +object in view. +</p> + +<p> +The frequent mention of the game of chess, in ages long before those at which +we have arrived, shows how usual was that most intellectual amusement. The +chess board was called in Irish <i>fithcheall</i>, and is described in the +Glossary of Cormac, of Cashel, composed towards the close of the ninth century, +as quadrangular, having straight spots of black and white. Some of them were +inlaid 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 the +ancient men is now known to exist, though frequent mention is made of "the +brigade or family of chessmen," in many old manuscripts. Kings of bone, seated +in sculptured chairs, about two inches in height, have been found, and +specimens of them engraved in recent antiquarian publications. +</p> + +<p> +It only remains to notice, very briefly, the means of locomotion which bound +and brought together this singular state of society. Five great roads, +radiating from Tara, as a centre, are mentioned in our earliest record; the +road <i>Dala</i> leading to Ossory, and so on into Munster; the road +<i>Assail</i>, extending western through Mullingar towards the Shannon; the +road <i>Cullin</i>, extending towards Dublin and Bray; the exact route of the +northern road, <i>Midhluachra</i>, is undetermined; <i>Slighe Mor</i>, the +great western road, followed the course of the <i>esker</i>, or hill-range, +from Tara to Galway. Many cross-roads are also known as in common use from the +sixth century downwards. Of these, the Four Masters mention, at various dates, +not less than forty, under their different local names, previous to the Norman +invasion. These roads were kept in repair, according to laws enacted for that +purpose, and were traversed by the chiefs and ecclesiastics in <i>carbads</i>, +or chariots; a main road was called a <i>slighe</i> (<i>sleigh</i>), because it +was made for the free passage of two chariots—"i.e. the chariot of a King +and the chariot of a Bishop." Persons of that rank were driven by an +<i>ara</i>, or charioteer, and, no doubt, made a very imposing figure. The +roads were legally to be repaired at three seasons, namely, for the +accommodation of those going to the national games, at fair-time, and in time +of war. Weeds and brushwood were to be removed, and water to be drained off; +items of road-work which do not give us a very high idea of the comfort or +finish of those ancient highways. +</p> + +<p> +Such, faintly seen from afar, and roughly sketched, was domestic life and +society among our ancestors, previous to the Anglo-Norman invasion, in the +reign of King Roderick O'Conor. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap22"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br/> +FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE IRISH PREVIOUS TO THE ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION.</h3> + +<p> +The relations of the Irish with other nations, notwithstanding the injurious +effects of their War of Succession on national unity and reputation, present +several points of interest. After the defeat of Magnus Barefoot, we may drop +the Baltic countries out of the map of the relations of Ireland. Commencing, +therefore, at the north of the neighbouring island—which, in its +entirety, they sometimes called <i>Inismore</i>—the most intimate and +friendly intercourse was always upheld with the kingdom of Scotland. Bound +together by early ecclesiastical and bardic ties, confronting together for so +many generations a common enemy, those two countries were destined never to +know an international quarrel. About the middle of the ninth century (A.D. +843), when the Scoto-Irish in Caledonia had completely subdued the Picts and +other ancient tribes, the first national dynasty was founded by Kenneth +McAlpine. The constitution given by this Prince to the whole country seems to +have been a close copy of the Irish—it embraced the laws of Tanistry and +succession, and the whole Brehon code, as administered in the parent state. The +line of Kenneth may be said to close with Donald Bane, brother of Malcolm III., +who died in 1094, and not only his dynasty but his system ended with that +century. Edgar, Alexander I., and David I., all sons of Malcolm III., were +educated in England among the victorious Normans, and in the first third of the +twelfth century, devoted themselves with the inauspicious aid of Norman allies, +to the introduction of Saxon settlers and the feudal system, first into the +lowlands, and subsequently into Moray-shire. This innovation on their ancient +system, and confiscation of their lands, was stoutly resisted by the Scottish +Gael. In Somerled, lord of the Isles, and ancestor of the Macdonalds, they +found a powerful leader, and Somerled found Irish allies always ready to assist +him, in a cause which appealed to all their national prejudices. In the year +1134, he led a strong force of Irish and Islesmen to the assistance of the +Gaelic insurgents, but was defeated and slain, near Renfrew, by the royal +troops, under the command of the Steward of Scotland. During the reigns of +William the Lion, Alexander II., and Alexander III., the war of systems raged +with all its fierceness, and in nearly all the great encounters Irish +auxiliaries, as was to be expected, were found on the side of the Gaelic race +and Gaelic rights. Nor did this contest ever wholly cease in Scotland, until +the last hopes of the Stuart line were extinguished on the fatal field of +Culloden, where Irish captains formed the battle, and Irish blood flowed +freely, intermingled with the kindred blood of Highlanders and Islesmen. +</p> + +<p> +The adoption of Norman usages, laws, and tactics, by the Scottish dynasties of +the twelfth and succeeding centuries, did not permanently affect the national +relations of Ireland and Scotland. It was otherwise with regard to England. We +have every reason to believe—we have the indirect testimony of every +writer from Bede to Malmsbury—that the intercourse between the Irish and +Saxons, after the first hostility engendered by the cruel treatment of the +Britons had worn away, became of the most friendly character. The "Irish" who +fought at Brunanburgh against Saxon freedom were evidently the natural allies +of the Northmen, the Dano-Irish of Dublin, and the southern seaports. The +commerce of intelligence between the islands was long maintained; the royalty +of Saxon England had more than once, in times of domestic revolution, found a +safe and desired retreat in the western island. The fair Elgiva and the gallant +Harold had crossed the western waves in their hour of need. The fame of Edward +the Confessor took such deep hold on the Irish mind that, three centuries after +his death, his banner was unfurled and the royal leopards laid aside to +facilitate the march of an English King, through the fastnesses of Leinster. +The Irish, therefore, were not likely to look upon the establishment of a +Norman dynasty, in lieu of the old Saxon line, as a matter of indifference. +They felt that the Norman was but a Dane disguised in armour. It was true he +carried the cross upon his banner, and claimed the benediction of the successor +of St. Peter; true also he spoke the speech of France, and claimed a French +paternity; but the lust for dominion, the iron self-will, the wily devices of +strategy, bespoke the Norman of the twelfth, the lineal descendant of the Dane +of the tenth century. When, therefore, tidings reached Ireland of the battle of +Hastings and the death of Harold, both the apprehensions and the sympathies of +the country were deeply excited. Intelligence of the coronation of William the +Conqueror quickly followed, and emphatically announced to the Irish the +presence of new neighbours, new dangers, and new duties. +</p> + +<p> +The spirit with which our ancestors acted towards the defeated Saxons, whatever +we may think of its wisdom, was, at least, respectable for decision and +boldness. Godwin, Edmund, and Magnus, sons of Harold, had little difficulty in +raising in Ireland a numerous force to co-operate with the Earls Edwin and +Morcar, who still upheld the Saxon banner. With this force, wafted over in +sixty-six vessels, they entered the Avon, and besieged Bristol, then the second +commercial city of the kingdom. But Bristol held out, and the Saxon Earls had +fallen back into Northumberland, so the sons of Harold ran down the coast, and +tried their luck in Somersetshire with a better prospect. Devonshire and +Dorsetshire favoured their cause; 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 defeated and slain. Doubling the Land's End, the victorious +force entered the Tamar, and overran South Devon. The united garrisons of +London, Winchester, and Salisbury, were sent against them, under the command of +the martial Bishop of Coutances; while a second force advanced along the Tamar, +under Brian, heir of the Earl of Brittany, who routed them with a loss of 2,000 +men, English, Welsh, and Irish. The sons of Harold retreated to their vessels +with all their booty, and returned again into Ireland, where they vanish from +history. Such, in the vale of Tamar, was the first collision of the Irish and +Normans, and as the race of Rollo never forgot an enemy, nor forewent a +revenge, we may well believe that, even thus early, the invasion of Ireland was +decided upon. Meredith Hanmer relates in his Chronicle that William Rufus, +standing on a high rock, and looking towards Ireland said: "I will bring hither +my ships, and pass over and conquer that land;" and on these words of the son +of the Conqueror being repeated to Murkertach O'Brien, he replied: "Hath the +King in his great threatening said <i>if it please God?</i>" and when answered +"No;" "Then," said the Irish monarch, "I fear him not, since he putteth his +trust in man and not in God." +</p> + +<p> +Ireland, however, was destined to be reached through Wales, and along that +mountain coast we early find Norman castles and Norman ships. It was the +special ambition of William Rufus to add the principality to the conquests of +his father, and the active sympathy of the Welsh with the Saxons on their +inland border gave him pretexts enough. A bitter feud between North and South +Wales hastened an invasion, in which Robert Fitz-Aymon and his companions +played, by anticipation, the parts of Strongbow and Fitz-Stephen, in the +invasion of Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +The struggle, commenced under them, was protracted through the reign of Rufus, +who led an army in person (A.D. 1095) against the Welsh, but with little gain +and less glory. As an after thought he adopted the device of his father, +(followed, too, in Ireland by Henry II.,) of partitioning the country among the +most enterprising nobles, gravely accepting their homage in advance of +possession, and authorizing them to maintain troops at their own charges, for +making good his grant of what never belonged to him. Robert Fitz-Aymon did +homage for Glamorgan, Bernard Newmarch for Brecknock, Roger de Montgomery for +Cardigan, and Gilbert de Clare for Pembroke: the best portions of North Wales +were partitioned between the Mortimers, Latimers, De Lacys, Fitz-Alans, and +Montgomerys. Rhys, Prince of Cambria, with many of his nobles, fell in battle +defending bravely his native hills; but Griffith, son of Rhys, escaped into +Ireland, from which he returned some twenty years later, and recovered by 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 the sea, were planted upon the Welsh marches, from which they soon swarmed +into all the Cambrian glens and glades. The industry and economy of this new +people, in peaceful times, seemed almost inconsistent with their stubborn +bravery in battle; but they demonstrated to the Welsh, and afterwards to the +Irish, that they could handle the halbert as well as throw the shuttle; that +men of trade may on occasion prove themselves capable men of war. +</p> + +<p> +The Norman Kings of England were not insensible to the fact that the Cymric +element in Wales, the Saxon element in England, and the Gaelic element in +Scotland, were all more agreeable to the Irish than the race of Rollo and +William. They were not ignorant that Ireland was a refuge for their victims and +a recruiting ground for their enemies. They knew, furthermore, that most of the +strong points 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, weakened by a long war of succession; groaning under +the ambition of five competitors for the sovereignty; and suffering in +reputation abroad under the invectives of Saint Bernard, and the displeasure of +Rome. More tempting materials for intrigue, or fairer opportunities of +aggrandizement, nowhere presented themselves, and it was less want of will than +of leisure from other and nearer contests, which deferred this new invasion for +a century after the battle of Hastings. +</p> + +<p> +While that century was passing over their heads, an occasional intercourse, not +without its pleasing incidents, was maintained between the races. In the first +year of the 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 the Constable of Windsor, and ancestor of the Geraldines. +Murkertach, according to Malmsbury, maintained a close correspondence with +Henry I., for whose advice he professed great deference. He was accused of +aiding the rebellion of the Montgomerys against that Prince; and if at one time +he did so, seems to have abandoned their alliance, when threatened with +reprisals on the Irish engaged in peaceful commerce with England. The argument +used on this occasion seems to be embodied in the question of +Malmsbury—and has since become familiar—"What would Ireland do," +says the old historian, "if the merchandize of England were not carried to her +shores?" +</p> + +<p> +The estimation in which the Irish Princes were held in the century preceding +the invasion, at the Norman Court, may be seen in the style of Lanfranc and +Anselm, when addressing the former King Thorlogh, and the latter King +Murkertach O'Brien. The first generation of the conquerors had passed away +before the second of these epistles was written. In the first, the address +runs—"Lanfrancus, a sinner, and the unworthy Bishop of the Holy Church of +Dover, to the illustrious Terdelvacus, King of Ireland, blessing," &c., +&c.; and the epistle of Anselm is addressed—"To Muriardachus, by the +grace of God, glorious King of Ireland, Anselm, servant of the Church of +Canterbury, greeting health and salvation," &c., &c. This was the tone +of the highest ecclesiastics in England towards the ruler of Ireland, in the +reigns of William I. and Henry I., and equally obsequious were the replies of +the Irish Princes. +</p> + +<p> +After the death of Henry I., nineteen years of civil war and anarchy diverted +the Anglo-Normans from all other objects. In the year 1154, however, Henry of +Anjou succeeded to the throne, on which he was destined to act so important a +part. He was born in Anjou in the year 1133, and married at eighteen the +divorced wife of the King of France. Uniting her vast dominions to his own +patrimony, he became the lord of a larger part of France than was possessed by +the titular king. In his twenty-first year he began to reign in England, and in +his thirty-fifth he received the fugitive Dermid of Leinster, in some camp or +castle of Aquitaine, and took that outlaw, by his own act, under his +protection. The centenary of the victory of Hastings had just gone by, and it +needed only this additional agent to induce him to put into execution a plan +which he must have formed in the first months of his reign, since the Bull he +had procured from Pope Adrian, bears the date of that year—1154. The +return from exile, and martyrdom of Beckett, disarranged and delayed the +projects of the English King; nor was he able to lead an expedition into +Ireland until four years after his reception of the Leinster fugitive in +France. +</p> + +<p> +Throughout the rest of Christendom—if we except Rome—the name of +Ireland was comparatively little known. The commerce of Dublin, Limerick, and +Galway, especially in the article of wine, which was already largely imported, +may have made those ports and their merchants somewhat known on the coasts of +France and Spain. But we have no statistics of Irish commerce at that early +period. Along the Rhine and even upon the Danube, the Irish missionary and the +Irish schoolmaster were still sometimes found. The chronicle of Ratisbon +records with gratitude the munificence of Conor O'Brien, King of Munster, whom +it considers the founder of the Abbey of St. Peter in that city. The records of +the same Abbey credit its liberal founder with having sent large presents to +the Emperor Lothaire, in aid of the second crusade for the recovery of the Holy +Land. Some Irish adventurers joined in the general European hosting to the +plains of Palestine, but though neither numerous nor distinguished enough to +occupy the page of history, their <i>glibs</i> and <i>cooluns</i> did not +escape the studious eye of him who sang Jerusalem Delivered and Regained. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="part04"></a>BOOK IV.<br/> +THE NORMANS IN IRELAND.</h3> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap23"></a>CHAPTER I.<br/> +DERMID McMURROGH'S NEGOTIATIONS AND SUCCESS—THE FIRST EXPEDITION OF THE +NORMANS INTO IRELAND.</h3> + +<p> +The result of Dermid McMurrogh's interview with Henry II., in Aquitaine, was a +royal letter, addressed to all his subjects, authorizing such of them as would, +to enlist in the service of the Irish Prince. Armed alone with this, the +expelled adulterer, chafing for restoration and revenge, retraced his course to +England. He was at this time some years beyond three score, but the snows of +age had no effect in cooling his impetuous blood; his stature is described as +almost gigantic; his voice loud and harsh; his features stern and terrible. His +cruel and criminal character we already know. Yet it is but just here to recall +that much of the horror and odium which has accumulated on his memory is +posthumous and retrospective. Some of his cotemporaries were no better in their +private lives than he was; but then they had no part in bringing in the +Normans. Talents both for peace and war he certainly had, and there was still a +feeling of attachment, or at least of regret, cherished towards him among the +people of his patrimony. +</p> + +<p> +Dermid proceeded at once to seek the help he so sorely needed, upon the marches +of Chester, in the city of Bristol, and at the court of the Prince of North +Wales. At Bristol he caused King Henry's letter to be publicly read, and each +reading was accompanied by ample promises of land and recompense to those +disposed to join in the expedition—but all in vain. From Bristol he +proceeded to make the usual pilgrimage to the shrine of St. David, the Apostle +of Wales, and then he visited the Court of Griffith ap Rhys, Prince of North +Wales, whose family ties formed a true Welsh triad among the Normans, the +Irish, and the Welsh. He was the nephew of the celebrated Nest or Nesta, the +Helen of the Welsh, whose blood flowed in the veins of almost all the first +Norman adventurers in Ireland, and whose story is too intimately interwoven +with the origin of many of the highest names of the Norman-Irish to be left +untold. +</p> + +<p> +She was, in her day, the loveliest woman of Cambria, and perhaps of Britain, +but the fabled mantle of Tregau, which, according to her own mythology, will +fit none but the chaste, had not rested on the white shoulders of Nesta, the +daughter of Rhys ap Tudor. Her girlish beauty had attracted the notice of Henry +I., to whom she bore Robert Fitz-Roy and Henry Fitz-Henry, the former the +famous Earl of Gloucester, and the latter the father of two 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 a banquet given by his father at the Castle of Aberteivi, came by +night to Pembroke, surprised the Castle, and carried 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 a second time, Stephen, constable of Cardigan, by +whom she had Robert Fitzstephen, and probably other children. One of her +daughters, Angharad, married David de Barri, the father of Giraldus and Robert +de Barri; another, named after herself, married Bernard of Newmarch, and became +the father of the Fitz-Bernard, who accompanied Henry II. In the second and +third generations this fruitful Cambrian vine, grafted on the Norman stock, had +branched out into the 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 +of 1169 and 1170 were joint-stock undertakings with most of the adventurers; +Cambria, not England, sent them forth; it was a family compact; they were +brothers in blood as well as in arms, those comely and unscrupulous sons, +nephews, and grand-sons of Nesta! +</p> + +<p> +When the Leinster King reached the residence of Griffith ap Rhys, near St. +David's, he found that for some personal or political cause he held in prison +his near kinsman, Robert, son of Stephen, who had the reputation of being a +brave and capable knight. Dermid obtained the release of Robert, on condition +of his embarking in the Irish enterprise, and he found in him an active +recruiting agent, alike among Welsh, Flemings, and Normans. Through him 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 +along with these knights, his kinsmen, and whom the Irish annalists consider +the most important person of the first expedition—their pillar of +battle—also resolved to accompany them, with such forces as he could +enlist. +</p> + +<p> +But a still more important ally waited to treat with Dermid, on his return to +Bristol. This was Richard de Clare, called variously from his castles or his +county, Earl of Strigul and Chepstow, or Earl of Pembroke. From the strength of +his arms he was nicknamed Strongbow, and in our Annals he is usually called +Earl Richard, by which title 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 Duke than the reigning Prince. For nearly +forty years under Henry I. and during the stormy reign of King Stephen, he had +been Governor of Pembroke, and like all the great Barons played his game +chiefly to his own advantage. His castle at Chepstow was one of the strongest +in the west, and the power he bequeathed to his able and ambitious son excited +the apprehensions of the astute and suspicious Henry II. Fourteen years of this +King's reign had passed away, and Earl Richard had received no great +employments, no new grants of land, no personal favours from his Sovereign. He +was now a widower, past middle age, condemned to a life of inaction such as no +true Norman could long endure. Arrived at Bristol, he read the letter of Henry, +and heard from Dermid the story of his expulsion and the grounds on which he +vested his hopes of restoration. A consultation ensued, at which it is probable +the sons of Nesta assisted, as it was there agreed that the town of Wexford, +with two cantreds of land adjoining it, should be 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 adventurers of knightly +rank, and Earl Richard was to marry the King's daughter and succeed him in the +sovereignty of Leinster. +</p> + +<p> +Having by such lavish promises enlisted this powerful Earl and those +adventurous knights, Dermid resolved to pass over in person with such followers +as were already equipped, 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 his banishment; by their account he came back, +accompanied by a fleet of strangers whom they called Flemings, and who were +probably hired soldiers of that race, then easily to be met with in Wales. The +Welsh Prince already mentioned seems to have accompanied him personally, as he +fell by his side in a skirmish the following year. Whatever this force may have +amounted to, they landed at Glascarrig point, and wintered—probably spent +the Christmas—at Ferns. The more generally received account of Dermid's +landing alone, and disguised, and secretly preparing his plans, under shelter +of the Austin Friary at Ferns, must be rejected, if we are still to follow +those trite but trustworthy guides, whom we have so many reasons to confide in. +The details differ in many very important particulars from those usually +received, as we shall endeavour to make clear in a few words. +</p> + +<p> +Not only do they bring Dermid over with a fleet of Flemings, of whom the +natives made "small account," but dating that event before the expiration of +the year 1167, at least sixteen months must have elapsed between the return of +the outlaw and the arrival of the Normans. By allowing two years instead of one +for the duration of his banishment, the apparent difficulty as to time would be +obviated, for his return and Fitzstephen's arrival would follow upon each other +in the spring and winter of the same year. The difficulty, however, is more +apparent than real. A year sufficed for the journey to Aquitaine and the Welsh +negotiations. Another year seems to have been devoted with equal art and +success to resuscitating a native Leinster party favourable to his restoration. +For it is evident from our Annals that when Dermid showed himself to the people +after his return, it was simply to claim his +patrimony—Hy-Kinsellagh—and not to dispute the Kingdom of Leinster +with the actual ruler, <i>Murrogh na Gael</i>. By this pretended moderation and +humility, he disarmed hostility and lulled suspicion asleep. Roderick and +O'Ruarc did indeed muster a host against him, and some of their cavalry and +Kernes skirmished with the troops in his service at Kellistown, in Carlow, when +six were killed on one side and twenty-five on the other, including the Welsh +Prince already mentioned; afterwards Dermid emerged from his fastnesses, and +entering the camp of O'Conor, gave him seven hostages for the ten cantreds of +his patrimony; and to O'Ruarc he gave "one hundred ounces of gold for his +<i>eineach</i>"—that is, as damages for his criminal conversation with +Devorgoil. During the remainder of the year 1168, Dermid was left to enjoy +unmolested the moderate territory which he claimed, while King Roderick was +engaged in enforcing his claims on the North and South, founding lectorships at +Armagh, and partitioning Meath between his inseparable colleague, O'Ruarc, and +himself. He celebrated, in the midst of an immense multitude, the ancient +national games at Tailtin, he held an assembly at Tara, and distributed +magnificent gifts to his suffragans. Roderick might have spent the festival of +Christmas, 1168, or of Easter, 1169, in the full assurance that his power was +firmly established, and that a long succession of peaceful days were about to +dawn upon Erin. But he was destined to be soon and sadly undeceived. +</p> + +<p> +In the month of May, a little fleet of Welsh vessels, filled with armed men, +approached the Irish shore, and Robert Fitzstephen ran into a creek of the bay +of Bannow, called by the adventurers, from the names of two of their ships, +Bag-and-Bun. Fitzstephen had with him thirty knights, sixty esquires, and three +hundred footmen. The next day he was joined by Maurice de Prendergast, a Welsh +gentleman, with ten knights and sixty archers. After landing they reconnoitred +cautiously, but saw neither ally nor enemy—the immediate coast seemed +entirely deserted. Their messenger despatched to Dermid, then probably at +Ferns, in the northern extremity of the county, must have been absent several +anxious days, when, much to their relief, he returned with Donald, the son of +Dermid, at the head of 500 horsemen. Uniting their troops, Donald and +Fitzstephen set out for Wexford, about a day's march distant, and the principal +town in that angle of the island which points towards Wales. The tradition of +the neighbourhood says they were assailed upon the way by a party of the native +population, who were defeated and dispersed. Within ten days or a fortnight of +their landing, they were drawn up within sight of the walls of Wexford, where +they were joined by Dermid, who obviously did not come unattended to such a +meeting. What additional force he may have brought up is nowhere indicated; +that he was not without followers or mercenaries, we know from the mention of +the Flemings in his service, and the action of Kellistown in the previous year. +The force that had marched from Bannow consisted, as we have seen, of 500 Irish +horse under his son Donald, surnamed <i>Kavanagh</i>; 30 knights, 60 esquires, +and 300 men-at-arms under Fitzstephen; 10 knights and 60 archers under +Prendergast; in all, nobles or servitors, not exceeding 1,000 men. The town, a +place of considerable strength, could muster 2,000 men capable of bearing arms, +nor is it discreditable to its Dano-Irish artizans and seamen that they could +boast no captain equal to Fitzstephen or Donald Kavanagh. What a town multitude +could do they did. They burned down an exposed suburb, closed their gates, and +manned their walls. The first assault was repulsed with some loss on the part +of the assailants, and the night past in expectation of a similar conflict on +the morrow. In the early morning the townsmen could discern that the Holy +Sacrifice of the Mass was being offered in the camp of their besiegers as a +preparative for the dangers of the day. Within the walls, however, the clergy +exercised all their influence to spare the effusion of blood, and to bring +about an accommodation. Two Bishops who were in the town especially advised a +surrender 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 and privileges, hitherto existing, being respected. The cantreds +immediately adjoining the town on the north and east were conferred on +Fitzstephen according to the treaty made at Bristol, and he at once commenced +the erection of a fortress on the rock of Carrig, at the narrowest pass on the +river Slaney. Strongbow's uncle, Herve, was endowed with two other cantreds, to +the south of the town, now known as the baronies of Forth and Bargey, where the +descendants of the Welsh and Flemish settlers then planted are still to be +found in the industrious and sturdy population, known as Flemings, Furlongs, +Waddings, Prendergasts, Barrys, and Walshes. Side by side with them now dwell +in peace the Kavanaghs, Murphys, Conors, and Breens, whose ancestors so long +and so fiercely disputed the intrusion of these strangers amongst them. +</p> + +<p> +With some increase of force derived from the defenders of Wexford, Dermid, at +the head of 3000 men, including all the Normans, marched into the adjoining +territory of Ossory, to chastise its chief, Donogh Fitzpatrick, one of his old +enemies. This campaign appears to have consumed the greater part of the summer +of the year, and ended with the submission of Ossory, after a brave but +unskilful resistance. The tidings of what was done at Wexford and in Ossory +had, however, roused the apprehension of the monarch Roderick, who appointed a +day for a national muster "of the Irish" at the Hill of Tara. Thither repaired +accordingly the monarch himself, the lords of Meath, Oriel, Ulidia, Breffni, +and the chiefs of the farther 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 Ulster chiefs returned to their homes, leaving +Roderick to pursue, with the aid of Meath and Breffni only, the footsteps of +McMurrogh. The latter had fallen back upon Ferns, and had, under the skilful +directions of Fitzstephen, strengthened the naturally difficult approaches to +that ancient capital, by digging artificial pits, by felling trees, and other +devices of Norman strategy. The season, too, must have been drawing nearly to a +close, and the same amiable desire to prevent the shedding of Christian blood, +which characterized all the clergy of this age, again subserved the unworthy +purposes of the traitor and invader. Roderick, after a vain endeavour to detach +Fitzstephen from Dermid and to induce him to quit the country, agreed to a +treaty with the Leinster King, by which the latter acknowledged his supremacy +as monarch, under the ancient conditions, for the fulfilment of which he +surrendered to him his son Conor as hostage. By a secret and separate agreement +Dermid bound himself to admit no more of the Normans into his service—an +engagement which he kept as he did all others, whether of a public or a private +nature. After the usual exchange of stipends and tributes, Roderick returned to +his home in the west; and thus, with the treaty of Ferns, ended the +comparatively unimportant but significant campaign of the year 1169. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap24"></a>CHAPTER II.<br/> +THE ARMS, ARMOUR AND TACTICS OF THE NORMANS AND IRISH.</h3> + +<p> +This would seem to be the proper place to point out the peculiarities in arms, +equipment, and tactics, which gave the first Normans those military advantages +over the Irish and Dano-Irish, which they had hitherto maintained over the +Saxons, Welsh and Scots. In instituting such a comparison, we do not intend to +confine it strictly to the age of Strongbow and Dermid; the description will +extend to the entire period from the arrival of Fitzstephen to the death of +Richard, Earl of Ulster—from 1169 to 1333—a period of five or six +generations, which we propose to treat of in the present book. After this +Earl's decease, the Normans and Irish approximated more closely in all their +customs, and no longer presented those marked contrasts which existed in their +earlier intercourse and conflicts with each other. The armour of the first +adventurers, both for man and horse, excited the wonder, the sarcasms, and the +fears of the Irish. No such equipments had yet been seen in that country, nor +indeed in any other, where the Normans were still strangers. As the Knights +advanced on horseback, in their metal coating, they looked more like iron +cylinders filled with flesh and blood, than like lithe and limber human +combatants. The man-at-arms, whether Knight or Squire, was almost invariably +mounted; his war-horse was usually led, while he rode a hackney, to spare the +<i>destrier</i>. The body armour was a hauberk of netted iron or steel, to +which were joined a hood, sleeves, breeches, hose and sabatons, or shoes, of +the same material. Under the hauberk was worn a quilted gambeson of silk or +cotton, reaching to the 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 their arms. The shields of the thirteenth century were +of triangular 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 +the favours of their mistresses; and victors the crests of champions they had +overthrown. The ordinary weapons of these cavaliers were sword, lance, and +knife; the demi-launce, or light horsemen, were similarly armed; and a force of +this class, common in the Irish wars, was composed of mounted cross-bow men, +and called from the swift, light <i>hobbies</i> they rode, Hobiler-Archers. +Besides many improvements in arms and manual exercise, the Normans perfected +the old Roman machines and engines used in sieges. The scorpion was a huge +cross-bow, the catapults showered stones to a great distance; the ballista +discharged flights of darts and arrows. There were many other varieties of +stone-throwing machinery; "the war-wolf" was long the chief of projectile +machines, as the ram was of manual forces. The power of a battering-ram of the +largest size, worked by a thousand men, has been proven to be equal to a +point-blank shot from a thirty-six pounder. There were moveable towers of all +sizes and of many names: "the sow" was a variety which continued in use in +England and Ireland till the middle of the seventeenth century. The divisions +of the cavalry were: first, the <i>Constable's</i> command, some twenty-five +men; next, the <i>Banneret</i> was entitled to unfurl his own colours with +consent of the Marshal, and might unite under his pennon one or more +constabularies; the <i>Knight</i> led into the field all his retainers who held +of him by feudal tenure, and sometimes the retainers of his squires, wards, or +valets, and kinsmen. The laws of chivalry were fast shaping themselves into a +code complete and coherent in all its parts, when these iron-clad, inventive +and invincible masters of the art of war first entered on the invasion of +Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +The body of their followers in this enterprise, consisting of Flemish, Welsh, +and Cornish archers, may be best described by the arms they carried. The +irresistible cross-bow was their main reliance. Its shot was so deadly that the +Lateran Council, in 1139, strictly forbade its employment among Christian +enemies. It combined with its stock, or bed, wheel, and trigger, almost all the +force of the modern musket, and discharged square pieces of iron, leaden balls, +or, in scarcity of ammunition, flint stones. The common cross-bow would kill, +point blank, at forty or fifty yards distance, and the best improved at fully +one hundred yards. The manufacture of these weapons must have been profitable, +since their cost was equal, in the relative value of money, to that of the +rifle, in our times. In the reign of Edward II. each cross-bow, purchased for +the garrison of Sherborne Castle, cost 3 shillings and 8 pence; and every +hundred of <i>quarrels</i>—the ammunition just mentioned—1 shilling +and 6 pence. Iron, steel, and wood, were the materials used in the manufacture +of this weapon. +</p> + +<p> +The long-bow had been introduced into England by the Normans, who are said to +have been more indebted to that arm than any other, for their victory at +Hastings. To encourage the use of the long-bow many statutes were passed, and +so late as the time of the Stuarts, royal commissions were issued for the +promotion of this national exercise. Under the early statutes no archer was +permitted to practise at any standing mark at less than "eleven score yards +distant;" no archer under twenty-four years of age was allowed to shoot twice +from the same stand-point; parents and masters were subject to a fine of 6 +shillings and 8 pence if they allowed their youth, under the age of seventeen, +"to be without a bow and two arrows for one month together;" the walled towns +were required to set up their butts, to keep them in repair, and to turn out +for target-practice on holidays, and at other convenient times. Aliens residing +in England were forbidden the use of this weapon—a jealous precaution +showing the great importance attached to its possession. The usual length of +the bow—which was made of yew, witch-hazel, ash, or elm—was about +six feet; and the arrow, about half that length. Arrows were made of ash, +feathered with part of a goose's wing, and barbed with iron or steel. In the +reign of Edward III., a painted bow cost 1 shilling and 6 pence, a white bow, 1 +shilling; a sheaf of steel-tipped arrows (24 to the sheaf), 1 shilling and 2 +pence, and a sheaf of <i>non accerata</i> (the blunt sort), 1 shilling. The +range of the long-bow, at its highest perfection, was, as we have seen, "eleven +score yards," more than double that of the ordinary cross-bow. The common sort +of both these weapons carried about the same distance—nearly 100 yards. +</p> + +<p> +The natural genius of the Normans for war had been sharpened and perfected by +their campaigns in France and England, but more especially in the first and +second Crusades. All that was to be learned of military science in other +countries—all that Italian skill, Greek subtlety, or Saracen invention +could teach, they knew and combined into one system. Their feudal discipline, +moreover, in which the youth who entered the service of a veteran as page, rose +in time to the rank of esquire and bachelor-at-arms, and finally won his spurs +on some well-contested field, was eminently favourable to the training and +proficiency of military talents. Not less remarkable was the skill they +displayed in seizing on the strong and commanding points of communication +within the country, as we see at this day, from the sites of their old Castles, +many of which must have been, before the invention of gunpowder, all but +impregnable. +</p> + +<p> +The art of war, if art it could in their case be called, was in a much less +forward stage among the Irish in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries than +amongst the Normans. Of the science of fortification they perhaps knew no more +than they had learned in their long struggle with the Danes and Norwegians. To +render roads impassable, to strengthen their islands by stockades, to hold the +naturally difficult passes which connect one province or one district with +another—these seem to have been their chief ideas of the aid that valour +may derive from artificial appliances. The fortresses of which we hear so +frequently, during and after the Danish period, and which are erroneously +called <i>Danes'-forts</i>, were more numerous than formidable to such enemies +as the Normans. Some of these earth-and-stone-works are older than the Milesian +invasion, and of Cyclopean style and strength. Those of the Milesians are +generally of larger size, contain much more earth, and the internal chambers +are of less massive masonry. They are almost invariably of circular form, and +the largest remaining specimens are the Giant's Ring, near Belfast; the fort at +Netterville, which measures 300 paces in circumference round the top of the +embankment; the Black Rath, on the Boyne, which measures 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 size varied from +fifteen to twenty feet; this embankment was usually surrounded by a fosse; +within the embankment there was a platform, depressed so as to leave a circular +parapet above its level. Many of these military raths have been found to +contain subterranean chambers and circular winding passages, supposed to be +used as granaries and armories. They are accounted capable of containing +garrisons of from 200 to 500 men; but many of the fortresses mentioned from age +to age in our annals were mere private residences, enclosing within their outer +and inner walls space enough for the immediate retainers and domestics of the +chief. Although coats of mail are mentioned in manuscripts long anterior to the +Norman invasion, the Irish soldiers seem seldom or never to have been +completely clothed in armour. Like the northern <i>Berserkers</i>, they prided +themselves in fighting, if not naked, in their orange coloured shirts, dyed +with saffron. The helmet and 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, the sword, and the sharp, short-handled battle-axe, were their +favourite manual weapons. Their power with the battle-axe was prodigious; +<i>Giraldus</i> says they sometimes lopped off a horseman's leg at a single +blow, his body falling over on the other side. Their bridle-bits and spurs were +of bronze, as were generally their spear heads and short swords. Of siege +implements, beyond the torch and the scaling-ladder, they seem to have had no +knowledge, and to have desired none. The Dano-Irish alone were accustomed to +fortify and defend their towns, on the general principles, which then composed +the sum of what was known in Christendom of military engineering. Quick to +acquire in almost every department of the art, the native Irish continued till +the last obstinately insensible to the absolute necessity of learning how +modern fortifications are constructed, defended, and captured; a national +infatuation, of which we find melancholy evidence in every recurring native +insurrection. +</p> + +<p> +The two divisions of the Irish infantry were the <i>galloglass</i>, or heavily +armed foot soldier, called <i>gall</i>, either as a mercenary, or from having +been equipped after the Norman method, and the <i>kerne</i>, or light infantry. +The horsemen were men of the free tribes, who followed their chief on terms +almost of equality, and who, except his immediate retainers, equipped and +foraged for themselves. The highest unit of this force was a <i>Cath</i>, or +battalion of 3,000 men; but the subdivision of command and the laws which +established and maintained discipline have yet to be recovered and explained. +The old Spanish "right of insurrection" seems to have been recognized in every +chief of a free tribe, and no Hidalgo of old Spain, for real or fancied slight, +was ever more ready to turn his horse's head homeward than were those +refractory lords, with whom Roderick O'Conor and his successors, in the front +of the national battle, had to contend or to co-operate. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap25"></a>CHAPTER III.<br/> +THE FIRST CAMPAIGN OF EARL RICHARD—SIEGE OF DUBLIN—DEATH OF KING +DERMID McMURROGH.</h3> + +<p> +The campaigns of 1168 and 1169 had ended prosperously for Dermid in the treaty +of Ferns. By that treaty he had bound himself to bring no more Normans into the +country, and to send those already in his service back to their homes. But in +the course of the same autumn or winter, in which this agreement was solemnly +entered into, he welcomed the arrival at Wexford—of Maurice +Fitzgerald—son of the fair Nesta by her first husband—and +immediately employed this fresh force, consisting of 10 knights, 30 esquires, +and 100 footmen, upon a hosting which harried the open country about Dublin, +and induced the alarmed inhabitants to send hostages into his camp, bearing +proffers of allegiance and amity. As yet he did not feel in force sufficient to +attack the city, for, if he had been, his long cherished vengeance against its +inhabitants would not have been postponed till another season. +</p> + +<p> +In the meantime he had written most urgent letters to Earl Richard to hasten +his arrival, according to the terms agreed upon at Bristol. That astute and +ambitious nobleman had been as impatiently biding his time as Dermid had been +his coming. Knowing the jealous sovereign under whom he served, he had gone +over to France to obtain Henry's sanction to the Irish enterprise, but had been +answered by the monarch, in oracular phrases, which might mean anything or +nothing. Determined, however, to interpret these doubtful words in his own +sense, he despatched his vanguard early in the spring of the year 1170, under +the command of his uncle Herve and a company of 10 knights and 70 archers, +under Raymond, son of William, lord of Carew, elder brother of Maurice +Fitzgerald, and grandson of Nesta. In the beginning of May, Raymond, nicknamed +<i>le gros</i>, or the Fat, entered Waterford harbour, and landed eight miles +below the city, under the rock of Dundonolf, on the east, or Wexford side. Here +they rapidly threw up a camp to protect themselves against attack, and to hold +the landing place for the convenience of the future expedition. A tumultuous +body of natives, amounting, according to the Norman account, to 3,000 men, were +soon seen 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 now rushed towards the little fortress, entirely unprepared for +the long and deadly range of the Welsh and Flemish crossbows. Thrown into +confusion by the unexpected discharge, in which every shot from behind the +ramparts of 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 other side of the river, leaving 500 prisoners, including 70 +chief citizens of Waterford behind them. These were all inhumanly massacred, +according to <i>Giraldus</i>, the eulogist of all the Geraldines, by the order +of Herve, contrary to the entreaties of Raymond. Their legs were first +violently broken, and they were then hurled down the rocks into the tide. Five +hundred men could not well be so captured and put to death by less than an +equal number of hands, and we may, therefore, safely set down that number as +holding the camp of Dundonolf during the summer months of the year. +</p> + +<p> +Earl Richard had not completed his arrangements until the month of +August—so that his uncle and lieutenant had to hold the post they had +seized for fully three months, awaiting his arrival in the deepest anxiety. At +last, leaving his castle in Pembroke, he marched with his force through North +Wales, by way of St. David's to Milford Haven—"and still as he went he +took up all the best chosen and picked men he could get." At Milford, just as +he was about to embark, he received an order from King Henry forbidding the +expedition. Wholly disregarding this missive he hastened on board with 200 +knights and 1,200 infantry in his company, and on the eve of St. Bartholomew's +Day (August 23rd), landed safely under the earthwork of Dundonolf, where he was +joyfully received by Raymond at the head of 40 knights, and a corresponding +number of men-at-arms. The next day the whole force, under the Earl, "who had +all things in readiness" for such an enterprise, proceeded to lay siege to +Waterford. Malachy O'Phelan, the brave lord of Desies, forgetting all ancient +enmity against his Danish neighbours, had joined the townsmen to assist in the +defence. Twice the besieged beat back the assailants, until Raymond perceiving +at an angle of the wall the wooden props upon which a house rested, ordered +them to be cut away, on which the house fell to the ground, and a breach was +effected. The men-at-arms then burst in, slaughtering the inhabitants without +mercy. In the tower, long known as Reginald's, or the ring tower, O'Phelan and +Reginald, the Dano-Irish chief, held out until the arrival of King Dermid, +whose intercession procured them such terms as led to their surrender. Then, +amid the ruins of the burning city, and the muttered malediction of its +surviving inhabitants, the ill-omened marriage of Eva McMurrogh with Richard de +Clare was gaily celebrated, and the compact entered into at Bristol three years +before was perfected. +</p> + +<p> +The marriage revelry was hardly over when tidings came from Dublin that Asculph +MacTorcall, its Danish lord, had, either by the refusal of the annual tribute, +or in some other manner, declared his independence of Dermid, and invoked the +aid of the monarch Roderick, in defence of that city. Other messengers brought +news that Roderick had assumed the protection of Dublin, and was already +encamped at the head of a large army at Clondalkin, with a view of intercepting +the march of the invaders from the south. The whole Leinster and Norman force, +with the exception of a troop of archers left to garrison Waterford, were now +put in motion for the siege of the chief city of the Hibernicized descendants +of the Northmen. Informed of Roderick's position, which covered Dublin on the +south and west, Dermid and Richard followed boldly the mountain paths and +difficult roads which led by the secluded city of Glendalough, and thence along +the coast road from Bray towards the mouth of the Liffey, until they arrived +unexpectedly within the lines of Roderick, to the amazement and terror of the +townsmen. +</p> + +<p> +The force which now, under the command-in-chief of Dermid, sat down to the +siege of Dublin, was far from being contemptible. For a year past he had been +recognized in Leinster as fully as any of his predecessors, and had so +strengthened his military position as to propose nothing short of the conquest +of the whole country. His choice of a line of march sufficiently shows how +thoroughly he had overcome the former hostility of the stubborn mountaineers of +Wicklow. The exact numbers which he encamped before the gates of Dublin are +nowhere given, but on the march from Waterford, the vanguard, led by Milo de +Cogan, consisted of 700 Normans and "an Irish battalion," which, taken +literally, would mean 3,000 men, under Donald <i>Kavanagh</i>; Raymond the Fat +followed "with 800 British;" Dermid led on "the chief part of the Irish" +(number not given), in person; Richard commanded the rear-guard, "300 British +and 1,000 Irish soldiers." Altogether, it is not exorbitant to conjecture that +the Leinster Prince led to the siege of Dublin an army of about 10,000 native +troops, 1,500 Welsh and Flemish archers, and 250 knights. Except the handful +who remained with Fitzstephen to defend his fort at Carrick, on the Slaney, and +the archers left in Waterford, the entire Norman force in Ireland, at this +time, were united in the siege. Of the foreign knights many were eminent for +courage and capacity, both in peace and war. The most distinguished among them +were Maurice Fitzgerald, the common ancestor of the Geraldines of Desmond and +Kildare; Raymond the Fat, ancestor of the Graces of Ossory; the two +Fitz-Henries, grandsons of Henry I., and the fair Nesta; Walter de Riddlesford, +first Baron of Bray; Robert de 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 de Prendergast. Other founders of Norman-Irish houses, as +the 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. +</p> + +<p> +The townsmen of Dublin had every reason, from their knowledge of Dermid's cruel +character, to expect the worst at his hands and those of his allies. The +warning of Waterford was before them, but besides this they had a special cause +of apprehension, Dermid's father having been murdered in their midst, and his +body ignominiously interred with the carcase of a dog. Roderick having failed +to intercept him, the citizens, either to gain time or really desiring to +arrive at an accommodation, entered into negotiations. Their ambassador for +this purpose was Lorcan, or Lawrence O'Toole, the first Archbishop of the city, +and its first prelate of Milesian origin. This illustrious man, canonized both +by sanctity and patriotism, was then in the thirty-ninth year of his age, and +the ninth of his episcopate. His father was lord of Imayle and chief of his +clan; his sister had been wife of Dermid and mother of Eva, the prize-bride of +Earl Richard. He himself had been a hostage with Dermid in his youth, and +afterwards Abbot of Glendalough, the most celebrated monastic city of Leinster. +He stood, therefore, to the besieged, being their chief pastor, in the relation +of a father; to Dermid, and strangely enough to Strongbow also, as +brother-in-law and uncle by marriage. A fitter ambassador could not be found. +</p> + +<p> +Maurice Regan, the "<i>Latiner</i>," or Secretary of Dermid, had advanced to +the walls, and summoned the city to surrender, and deliver up "30 pledges" to +his master, their lawful Prince. Asculph, son of Torcall, was in favour of the +surrender, but the citizens could not agree among themselves as to hostages. No +one was willing to trust himself to the notoriously untrustworthy Dermid. The +Archbishop was then sent out on the part of the citizens to arrange the terms +in detail. He was received with all reverence in the camp, but while he was +deliberating with the commanders without, and the townsmen were anxiously +awaiting his return, Milo de Cogan and Raymond the Fat, seizing the +opportunity, broke into the city at the head of their companies, and began to +put the inhabitants ruthlessly to the sword. They were soon followed by the +whole force eager for massacre and pillage. The Archbishop hastened back to +endeavour to stay the havoc which was being made of his people. He threw +himself before the infuriated Irish and Normans, he threatened, he denounced, +he bared his own breast to the swords of the assassins. All to little purpose; +the blood fury 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 and the Hebrides in search of succour and revenge. Roderick, +unprepared to besiege the enemy who had thus outmarched and outwitted him at +that season of the year—it could not be earlier than October—broke +up his encampment at Clondalkin, and retired to Connaught. Earl Richard having +appointed de Cogan his governor of Dublin, followed on the rear of the +retreating <i>Ard-Righ</i>, at the instigation of McMurrogh, burning and +plundering the churches of Kells, Clonard and Slane, and carrying off the +hostages of East-Meath. +</p> + +<p> +Though Dermid seemed to have forgotten altogether the conditions of the treaty +of Ferns, yet not so Roderick. When he reached Athlone he caused Conor, son of +Dermid, and the son of Donald <i>Kavanagh</i>, and the son of Dermid's +fosterer, who had been given him as hostages for the fulfilment of that treaty, +so grossly violated in every particular, to be beheaded. Dermid indulged in +impotent vows of vengeance against Roderick, when he heard of these executions +which his own perjuries had provoked; he swore that nothing short of the +conquest of Connaught in the following spring would satisfy his revenge, and he +sent the Ard-Righ his defiance to that purport. Two other events of military +consequence marked the close of the year 1170. The foreign garrison of +Waterford was surprised and captured by Cormac McCarthy, Prince of Desmond, and +Henry II. having prohibited all intercourse between his lieges and his +disobedient subject, Earl Richard, the latter had despatched Raymond the Fat, +with the most humble submission of himself and his new possessions 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 proud +and envious Irish lords into one united phalanx, and Roderick, preparing for +the new year's campaign, the winter of 1170-'71, came, and waned, and went. +</p> + +<p> +One occurrence of the succeeding spring may most appropriately be dismissed +here—the death of the wretched and odious McMurrogh. This event happened, +according to <i>Giraldus</i>, in the kalends of May. The Irish Annals surround +his death-bed with all the horrors appropriate to such a scene. He became, they +say, "putrid while living," through the miracles of St. Columbcille and St. +Finian, whose churches he had plundered; "and he died at Fernamore, without +making a will, without penance, without the body of Christ, without unction, as +his evil deeds deserved." We have no desire to meditate over the memory of such +a man. He, far more than his predecessor, whatever that predecessor's crimes +might have been, deserved to have been buried with a dog. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap26"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br/> +SECOND CAMPAIGN OF EARL RICHARD—HENRY II. IN IRELAND.</h3> + +<p> +The campaign of the year 1171 languished from a variety of causes. At the very +outset, the invaders lost their chief patron, who had been so useful to them. +During the siege of Dublin, in the previous autumn, the townsmen of Wexford, +who were in revolt, had, by stratagem, induced Robert Fitzstephen to surrender +his fort at Carrick, and had 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 the proclamation of Henry, knew hardly +whether to consider himself outlaw, subject, or independent sovereign. +</p> + +<p> +Raymond the Fat had returned from his embassy to King Henry, with no +comfortable tidings. He had been kept day after day waiting the pleasure of the +King, and returned with sentences as dubious in his mouth, as those on which +Earl Richard had originally acted. It was evidently not the policy of Henry to +abandon the enterprise already so well begun, but neither was it his interest +or desire that any subject should reap the benefit, or erect an independent +power, upon his mere permission to embark in the service of McMurrogh. Herve, +the Earl's uncle, had been despatched as ambassador in Raymond's place, but +with no better success. At length, Richard himself, by the advice of all his +counsellors, repaired to England, and waited on Henry at Newenham, in +Gloucestershire. At first he was ignominiously refused an audience, but after +repeated solicitations he was permitted to renew his homage. He then yielded in +due form the city of Dublin, and whatever other conquests he claimed, and +consented to hold his lands in Leinster, as chief tenant from the crown: in +return for which he was graciously forgiven the success that had attended his +adventure, and permitted to accompany the King's expedition, in the ensuing +autumn. +</p> + +<p> +Before Strongbow's departure for England three unsuccessful attempts had been +made for the expulsion of the Norman garrison from Dublin. They were +unfortunately not undertaken in concert, but rather in succession. The first +was an attempt at surprising the city by Asculph MacTorcall, probably relying +on the active aid of the inhabitants of his own race. He had but "a small +force," chiefly from the isles of Insi-Gall and the Orkneys. The Orcadians were +under the command of a warrior called John the Furious or Mad, the last of +those wild Berserkers of the North, whose valour was regarded in Pagan days as +a species of divine frenzy. This redoubted champion, after a momentary success, +was repulsed by Milo and Richard de Cogan, and finally fell by the hand of +Walter de Riddlesford. Asculph was taken prisoner, and, avowing boldly his +intention never to desist from attempting to recover the place, was put to +death. The second attack has been often described as a regular investment by +Roderick O'Conor, at the head of all the forces of the Island, which was only +broken up in the ninth week of its duration, by a desperate sally on the part +of the famished garrison. Many details and episodes, proper to so long a +beleaguerment, are given by <i>Giraldus</i>, and reproduced by his copyists. We +find, however, little warrant for these passages in our native annals, any more +than for the antithetical speeches which the same partial historian places in +the mouths of his heroes. The Four Masters limit the time to "the course of a +fortnight." Roderick, according to their account, was accompanied by the lords +of Breffni and Oriel only; frequent skirmishes and conflicts took place; an +excursion was made against the Leinster Allies of the Normans, "to cut down and +burn the corn of the Saxons." The surprise by night of the monarch's camp is +also duly recorded; and that the enemy carried off "the provisions, armour, and +horses of Roderick." By which sally, according to <i>Giraldus</i>, Dublin +having obtained provisions enough for a year, Earl Richard marched to Wexford, +"taking the higher way by Idrone," with the hope to deliver Fitzstephen. But +the Wexford men having burned their suburbs, and sent their goods and families +into the stockaded island, sent him word that at the first attack they would +put Fitzstephen and his companions to death. The Earl, therefore, held +sorrowfully on his way to Waterford, where, leaving a stronger force than the +first garrison, to which he had entrusted it, he sailed for England to make his +peace with King Henry. The third attempt on Dublin was made by the lord of +Breffni during the Earl's absence, and when the garrison were much reduced; it +was equally unsuccessful with those already recorded. De Cogan displayed his +usual courage, and the lord of Breffni lost a son and some of his best men in +the assault. +</p> + +<p> +It was upon the marches of Wales that the Earl found King Henry busily engaged +in making preparations for his own voyage into Ireland. He had levied on the +landholders throughout his dominions an escutage or commutation for personal +service, and the Pipe roll, which contains his disbursements for the year, has +led an habitually cautious writer to infer "that the force raised for the +expedition was much more numerous than has been represented by historians." +During the muster of his forces he visited Pembroke, and made a progress +through North Wales, severely censuring those who had enlisted under Strongbow, +and placing garrisons of his own men in their castles. At Saint David's he made +the usual offering on the shrine of the Saint and received the hospitalities of +the Bishop. All things being in readiness, he sailed from Milford Haven, with a +fleet of 400 transports, having on board many of the Norman nobility, 500 +knights, and an army usually estimated at 4,000 men at arms. On the 18th of +October, 1171, he landed safely at Crook, in the county of Waterford, being +unable, according to an old local tradition, to sail up the river from adverse +winds. As one headland of that harbour is called <i>Hook</i>, and the other +<i>Crook</i>, the old adage, "by hook or by crook," is thought to have arisen +on this occasion. +</p> + +<p> +In Henry's train, beside Earl Richard, there came over Hugh de Lacy, some time +Constable of Chester; William, son of Aldelm, ancestor of the Clanrickardes; +Theobald Walter, ancestor of the Butlers; Robert le Poer, ancestor of the +Powers; Humphrey de Bohun, Robert Fitz-Barnard, Hugh de Gundeville, Philip de +Hastings, Philip de Braos, and many other cavaliers whose names were renowned +throughout France and England. As the imposing host formed on the sea side, a +white hare, according to an English chronicler, leapt from a neighbouring +hedge, and was immediately caught and presented to the King as an omen of +victory. Prophecies, pagan and Christian—quatrains fathered on Saint +Moling and triads attributed to Merlin—were freely showered in his path. +But the true omen of his success he might read for himself, in a constitution +which had lost its force, in laws which had ceased to be sacred, and in a +chieftain race, brave indeed as mortal men could be, but envious, arrogant, +revengeful, and insubordinate. For their criminal indulgence of these +demoniacal passions a terrible chastisement was about to fall on them, and not +only on them, but also, alas! on their poor people. +</p> + +<p> +The whole time passed by Henry II. in Ireland was from the 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 of consequences. Winter, the season of +diplomacy, was seldom more industriously or expertly employed. The townsmen of +Wexford, aware of his arrival as soon as it had taken place, hastened to make +their submission and to deliver up to him their prisoner, Robert Fitzstephen, +the first of the invaders. Henry, affecting the same displeasure towards +Fitzstephen he did for all those who had anticipated his own expedition, +ordered him to be fettered and imprisoned in Reginald's tower. At Waterford he +also received the friendly overtures of the lords of Desies and Ossory, and +probably some form of feudal submission was undergone by those chiefs. Cormac, +Prince of Desmond, followed their example, and soon afterwards Donald O'Brien +of Thomond met him on the banks of the Suir, not far from Cashel, made his +peace, and agreed to receive a Norman garrison in his Hiberno-Danish city of +Limerick. Having appointed commanders over these and other southern garrisons, +Henry proceeded to Dublin, where a spacious cage-work palace, on a lawn without +the city, was prepared for winter quarters. Here he continued those +negotiations with the Irish chiefs, which we are told were so generally +successful. Amongst others whose adhesion he received, mention is made of the +lord of Breffni, the most faithful follower the Monarch Roderick could count. +The chiefs of the Northern Hy-Nial remained deaf to all his overtures, and +though Fitz-Aldelm and de Lacy, the commissioners despatched to treat with +Roderick, are said to have procured from the deserted <i>Ard-Righ</i> an act of +submission, it is incredible that a document of such consequence should have +been allowed to perish. Indeed, most of the confident assertions about +submissions to Henry are to be taken with great caution; it is quite certain he +himself, though he lived nearly twenty years after his Irish expedition, never +assumed any Irish title whatever. It is equally true that his successor, +Richard I., never assumed any such title, as an incident of the English crown. +And although Henry in the year 1185 created his youngest son, John +<i>Lackland</i>, "lord of Ireland," it was precisely in the same spirit and +with as much ground of title as he had for creating Hugh de Lacy, Lord of +Meath, or John de Courcy, Earl of Ulster. Of this question of title we shall +speak more fully hereafter, for we do not recognize any English sovereign as +<i>King</i> of Ireland, previous to the year 1541; but it ought surely to be +conclusive evidence, that neither had Henry claimed the crown, nor had the +Irish chiefs acknowledged him as their <i>Ard-Righ</i>, that in the two +authentic documents from his hand which we possess, he neither signs himself +<i>Rex</i> nor <i>Dominus Hibernioe</i>. These documents are the Charter of +Dublin, and the Concession of Glendalough, and their authenticity has never +been disputed. +</p> + +<p> +After spending a right merry Christmas with Norman and Milesian guests in +abundance at Dublin, Henry proceeded to that work of religious reformation, +under plea of which he had obtained the Bill of Pope Adrian, seventeen years +before, declaring such an expedition undertaken with such motives, lawful and +praiseworthy. Early in the new year, by his desire, a synod was held at Cashel, +where many salutary decrees were enacted. These related to the proper +solemnization of marriage; the catechising of children before the doors of +churches; the administration of baptism in baptismal or parish churches; the +abolition of <i>Erenachs</i> or lay Trustees of church property, and the +imposition of tithes, both of corn and cattle. By most English writers this +synod is treated as a National Council, and inferences are thence drawn of +Henry's admitted power over the clergy of the nation. There is, however, no +evidence that the Bishops of Ulster or Connaught were present at Cashel, but +strong negative testimony to the contrary. We read under the date of the same +year in the Four Masters, that a synod of the clergy and laity of Ireland was +convened at Tuam by Roderick O'Conor and the Archbishop Catholicus O'Duffy. It +is hardly possible that this meeting could be in continuation or in concord +with the assembly convoked at the instance of Henry. +</p> + +<p> +Following quickly upon the Cashel Synod, Henry held a "Curia Regis" or Great +Court at Lismore, in which he created the offices of Marshal, Constable, and +Seneschal for Ireland. Earl Richard was created the first Lord Marshal; 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 or +Seneschal. Such other order as could be taken for the preservation of the +places already captured, was not neglected. The surplus population of Bristol +obtained a charter of Dublin to be held of Henry and his heirs, "with all the +same liberties and free customs which they enjoyed at Bristol." Wexford was +committed to the charge of Fitz-Aldelm, Waterford to de Bohun, and Dublin to de +Lacy. Castles were ordered to be erected in the towns and at other points, and +the politic king, having caused all those who remained behind to renew their +homage in the most solemn form, sailed on Easter Monday from Wexford Haven, and +on the same day, landed at Port-Finan in Wales. Here he assumed the Pilgrim's +staff, and proceeded humbly on foot to St. David's, preparatory to meeting the +Papal Commissioners appointed to inquire into Beckett's murder. +</p> + +<p> +It is quite apparent that had Henry landed in Ireland at any other period of +his life except in the year of the martyrdom of the renowned Archbishop of +Canterbury, while the wrath of Rome was yet hanging poised in the air, ready to +be hurled against him, he would not have left the work he undertook but half +begun. The nett result of his expedition, of his great fleet, mighty army, and +sagacious counsels, was the infusion of a vast number of new adventurers (most +of them of higher rank and better fortunes 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 own at Waterford, Wexford, and +Dublin, there seems to have been little gained in a military sense. The decrees +of the Synod of Cashel would, no doubt, stand him in good stead with the Papal +legates as evidences of his desire to enforce strict discipline, even on lands +beyond those over which he actually ruled. But, after all, harassed as he was +with apprehensions of the future, perhaps no other Prince could have done more +in a single winter in a strange country than Henry II. did for his seven +months' sojourn in Ireland. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap27"></a>CHAPTER V.<br/> +FROM THE RETURN OF HENRY II. TO ENGLAND TILL THE DEATH OF EARL RICHARD AND +HIS PRINCIPAL COMPANIONS.</h3> + +<p> +The Ard-Righ Roderick, during the period of Henry the Second's stay in Ireland, +had continued west of the Shannon. Unsupported by his suffragans, many of whom +made peace with the invader, he attempted no military operation, nor had Henry +time sufficient to follow him into his strongholds. It was reserved for this +ill-fated, and, we cannot but think, harshly judged monarch, to outlive the +first generation of the invaders of his country, and to close a reign which +promised so brightly at the beginning, in the midst of a distracted, war-spent +people, having preserved through all vicissitudes the title of sovereign, but +little else that was of value to himself or others. +</p> + +<p> +Among the guests who partook of the Christmas cheer of King Henry at Dublin, we +find mention of Tiernan O'Ruarc, the lord of Breffni and East-Meath. For the +Methian addition to his possessions, Tiernan was indebted to his early alliance +with Roderick, and the success of their joint arms. Anciently the east of Meath +had been divided between the four families called "the four tribes of Tara," +whose names are now anglicized O'Hart, O'Kelly, O'Connelly, and O'Regan. +Whether to balance the power of the great West-Meath family of O'Melaghlin, or +because these minor tribes were unable to defend themselves successfully, +Roderick, like his father, had partitioned Meath, and given the seaward side a +new master in the person of O'Ruarc. The investiture of Hugh de Lacy by King +Henry with the seignory of the same district, led to a tragedy, the first of +its kind in our annals, but destined to be the prototype of an almost +indefinite series, in which the gainers were sometimes natives, but much +oftener Normans. +</p> + +<p> +O'Ruarc gave de Lacy an appointment at the hill of Ward, near Athboy, in the +year 1173, in order to adjust their conflicting claims upon East-Meath. Both +parties naturally guarded against surprise, by having in readiness a troop of +armed retainers. The principals met apart on the summit of the hill, amid the +circumvallations of its ancient fort; a single unarmed interpreter only was +present. An altercation having arisen, between them, O'Ruarc lost his temper, +and raised the battle-axe, which all our warriors carried in those days, as the +gentlemen of the last century did their swords; this was the signal for both +troops of guards to march towards the spot. De Lacy, in attempting to fly, had +been twice felled to the earth, when his followers, under Maurice Fitzgerald +and Griffith, his nephew, came to his rescue, and assailed the chief of +Breffni. It was now Tiernan's turn to attempt escaping, but as he mounted his +horse the spear of Griffith brought him to the earth mortally wounded, and his +followers fled. His head was carried in triumph to Dublin, where it was spiked +over the northern gate, and his body was gibbeted on the northern wall, with +the feet uppermost. Thus, a spectacle of intense pity to the Irish, did these +severed members of one of their most famous nobles remain exposed on that side +of the stronghold of the stranger which looks towards the pleasant plains of +Meath and the verdant uplands of Cavan. +</p> + +<p> +The administration of de Lacy was now interrupted by a summons to join his +royal master, sore beset by his own sons in Normandy. The Kings of France and +Scotland were in alliance with those unnatural Princes, and their mother, Queen +Eleanor, might he called the author of their rebellion. As all the force that +could be spared from Ireland was needed for the preservation of Normandy, de +Lacy hastened to obey the royal summons, and Earl Richard, by virtue of his +rank of Marshal, took for the moment the command in chief. Henry, however, who +never cordially forgave that adventurer, first required his presence in France, +and when alarmed by ill news from Ireland, he sent him back to defend the +conquests already made, he associated with him in the supreme +command—though not apparently in the civil administration—the +gallant Raymond <i>le gros</i>. And it was full time for the best head and the +bravest sword among the first invaders to return to their work—a task not +to be so easily achieved as many confident persons then believed, and as many +ill-informed writers have since described it. +</p> + +<p> +During the early rule of de Lacy, Earl Richard had established himself at +Ferns, assuming, to such of the Irish as adhered to him, the demeanour of a +king. After Dermid's death, he styled himself, in utter disregard of Irish law, +"Prince of Leinster," in virtue of his wife. He proceeded to create feudal +dignitaries, placing at their head, as Constable of Leinster, Robert de Quincy, +to whom he gave his daughter, by his first wife, in marriage. At this point the +male representatives of King Dermid came to open rupture with the Earl. Donald +<i>Kavanagh</i>, surnamed "the Handsome," and by the Normans usually spoken of +as "Prince" Donald, could scarcely be expected to submit to an arrangement, so +opposed to all ancient custom, and to his own interests. He had borne a leading +part in the restoration of his father, but surely not to this end—the +exclusion of the male succession. He had been one of King Henry's guests during +the Christmas holidays of the year 1172, and had rendered him some sort of +homage, as Prince of Leinster. Henry, ever ready to raise up rivals to +Strongbow, seems to have received him into favour, until Eva, the Earl's wife, +proved, both in Ireland and England, that Donald and his brother Enna, were +born out of wedlock, and that there was no direct male heir of Dermid left, +after the execution of Conor, the hostage put to death by King Roderick. To +English notions this might have been conclusive against Donald's title, but to +the Irish, among whom the electoral principle was the source of all +chieftainry, it was not so. A large proportion of the patriotic +Leinstermen—what might be called the native party—adhered to Donald +<i>Kavanagh</i>, utterly rejecting the title derived through the lady Eva. +</p> + +<p> +Such conflicting interests could only be settled by a resort to force, and the +bloody feud began by the Earl executing at Ferns one of Donald's sons, held by +him as a hostage. In an expedition against O'Dempsey, who also refused to +acknowledge his title, the Earl lost, in the campaign of 1173, his son-in-law, +de Quincy, several other knights, and the "banner of Leinster." The following +year we read in the Anglo-Irish Annals of Leinster, that King Donald's men, +being moved against the Earl's men, made a great slaughter of English. Nor was +this the worst defeat he suffered in the same year—1174. Marching into +Munster he was encountered in a pitched battle at Thurles by the troops of the +monarch Roderick, under command of his son, Conor, surnamed <i>Moinmoy</i>, and +by the troops of Thomond, under Donald More O'Brien. With Strongbow were all +who could be spared of the garrison of Dublin, including a strong detachment of +Danish origin. Four knights and seven hundred (or, according to other accounts, +seventeen hundred) men of the Normans were left dead on the field. Strongbow +retreated with the remnant of his force to Waterford, but the news of the +defeat having reached that city before him, the townspeople ran to arms and put +his garrison of two hundred men to the sword. After encamping for a month on an +island without the city, and hearing that Kilkenny Castle was taken and razed +by O'Brien, he was feign to return to Dublin as best he could. +</p> + +<p> +His fortunes at the close of this campaign, were at their lowest ebb. The loss +of de Quincy and the defeat of Thurles had sorely shaken his military +reputation. His jealousy of that powerful family connexion, the Geraldines, had +driven Maurice Fitzgerald and Raymond the Fat to retire 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 his uncle Herve, +demanding to be led by the more popular and youthful Raymond. To add to his +embarrassments, Henry summoned 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 his lieutenant, he returned to resume the work of +conquest. To conciliate the Geraldines, he at last consented to give his sister +Basilia in marriage to the brilliant captain, on whose sword so much depended. +At the same time Alina, the widow of de Quincy, was married to the second son +of Fitzgerald, and Nesta Fitzgerald was united to 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's edge by Donald O'Brien +after the battle of Thurles, was recaptured and fortified anew; Waterford was +more strongly garrisoned than ever; Donald <i>Kavanagh</i> was taken off, +apparently by treachery (A.D. 1175), and all seemed to promise the enjoyment of +uninterrupted power to the Earl. But his end was already come. An ulcer in his +foot brought on a long and loathsome illness, which terminated in his death, in +the month of May, 1176, or 1177. He was buried in Christ Church, Dublin, which +he had contributed to enlarge, and was temporarily succeeded in the government +of 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, Earl of Pembroke, who afterwards claimed the proprietary of Leinster, +by virtue of this marriage. Lady Isabel left again five daughters, who were the +ancestresses of the Mortimers, Braces, and other historic families of England +and Scotland. And so the blood of Earl Richard and his Irish Princess descended +for many generations to enrich other houses and ennoble other names than his +own. +</p> + +<p> +Strongbow is described by <i>Giraldus</i>, whose personal sketches, of the +leading invaders form the most valuable part of his book, as less a statesman +than a soldier, and more a soldier than a general. His complexion was freckled, +his neck slender, his voice feminine and shrill, and his temper equable and +uniform. His career in Ireland was limited to seven years in point of time, and +his resources were never equal to the task he undertook. Had they been so, or +had he not been so jealously counteracted by his suzerain, he might have +founded a new Norman dynasty on as solid a basis as William, or as Rollo +himself had done. +</p> + +<p> +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, of which he had privately been informed by a message from his +wife, Raymond left Limerick in the hands of Donald More O'Brien, exacting, we +are told, a solemn oath from the Prince of Thomond to protect the city, which +the latter broke before the Norman garrisons were out of sight of its walls. +This story, like many others of the same age, rests on the uncertain authority +of the vain, impetuous and passionate <i>Giraldus</i>. Whether the loss of +Limerick discredited him with the king, or the ancient jealousy of the first +adventurers prevailed in the royal councils, Henry, on hearing of Strongbow's +death, at once despatched as Lord Justice, William Fitz-Aldelm de Burgo, first +cousin to Hubert de Burgo, Chief Justiciary of England, and, like Fitz-Aldelm, +descended from Arlotta, mother of William the Conqueror, by Harlowen de Burgo, +her first husband. From him have descended the noble family of de Burgo, or +Burke, so conspicuous in the after annals of our island. In the train of the +new Justiciary came John de Courcy, another name destined to become historical, +but before relating his achievements, we must conclude the narrative so far as +regards the first set of adventurers. +</p> + +<p> +Maurice Fitzgerald, the common ancestor of the Earls of Desmond and Kildare, +the Knights of Glyn, of Kerry, and of all the Irish Geraldines, died at Wexford +in the year 1177. Raymond the Fat, superseded by Fitz-Aldelm, and looked on +coldly by the King, retired to his lands in the same county, and appears only +once more in arms—in the year 1182—in aid of his uncle, Robert +Fitzstephen. This premier invader had been entrusted by the new ruler with the +command of the garrison of Cork, as Milo de Cogan had been with that of +Waterford, and both had been invested with equal halves of the principality of +Desmond. De Cogan, Ralph, son of Fitzstephen, and other knights had been cut +off by surprise, at the house of one McTire, near Lismore, in 1182, and all +Desmond was up in arms for the expulsion of the foreign garrisons. Raymond +sailed from Wexford to the aid of his uncle, and succeeded in relieving the +city from the sea. But Fitzstephen, afflicted with grief for the death of his +son, and worn down with many anxieties, suffered the still greater loss of his +reason. From thenceforth, we hear no more of either uncle or nephew, and we may +therefore account this the last year of Robert Fitzstephen, Milo de Cogan, and +Raymond <i>le gros</i>. Herve de Montmorency, the ancient rival of Raymond, 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 +brother Geoffrey, who subsequently became Justiciary of the Normans in Ireland, +the successful rival of the Marshals, and founder of the Irish title of +Mountmorres. The posterity of Raymond survived in the noble family of Grace, +Barons of Courtstown, in Ossory. It is not, therefore, strictly true, what +Geoffrey Keating and the authors he followed have asserted—that the first +Normans were punished by the loss of posterity for the crimes and outrages they +had committed, in their various expeditions. +</p> + +<p> +Let us be just even to these spoilers of our race. They were fair specimens of +the prevailing type of Norman character. Indomitable bravery was not their only +virtue. In patience, in policy, and in rising superior to all obstacles and +reverses, no group of conquerors ever surpassed Strongbow and his companions. +Ties of blood and brotherhood in arms were strong between them, and whatever +unfair advantages they allowed themselves to take of their enemy, they were in +general constant and devoted in their friendships towards each other. Rivalries +and intrigues were not unknown among them, but generous self-denial, and +chivalrous self-reliance were equally as common. If it had been the lot of our +ancestors to be effectually conquered, they could hardly have yielded to nobler +foes. But as they proved themselves able to resist successfully the prowess of +this hitherto invincible race, their honour is augmented in proportion to the +energy and genius, both for government and war, brought to bear against them. +</p> + +<p> +Neither should we overstate the charge of impiety. If the invaders broke down +and burned churches in the heat of battle, they built better and costlier +temples out of the fruits of victory. Christ Church, Dublin, Dunbrody Abbey, 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 lusted after land, +unlike the Dane, he created, he enriched, he improved, wherever he conquered. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap28"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br/> +THE LAST YEARS OF THE ARD-RIGH, RODERICK O'CONOR.</h3> + +<p> +The victory of Thurles, in the year 1174, was the next important military +event, as we have seen, after the raising of the second siege of Dublin, in the +first campaign of Earl Richard. It seems irreconcilable, with the consequences +of that victory, that Ambassadors from Roderick should be found at the Court of +Henry II. before the close of the following year: but events personal to both +sovereigns will sufficiently explain the apparent anomaly. +</p> + +<p> +The campaign of 1174, so unfavourable to Henry's subjects in Ireland, had been +most fortunate for his arms in Normandy. His rebellious sons, after severe +defeats, submitted, and did him homage; the King of France had gladly accepted +his terms of peace; the King of Scotland, while in duress, had rendered him +fealty as his liege man; and Queen Eleanor, having fallen into his power, was a +prisoner for life. Tried by a similar unnatural conspiracy in his own family, +Roderick O'Conor had been less fortunate in coercing them into obedience. His +eldest son, Murray, claimed, according to ancient custom, that his father +should resign in his favour the patrimonial Province, contenting himself with +the higher rank of King of Ireland. But Roderick well understood that in his +days, with a new and most formidable enemy established in the old Danish +strongholds, with the Constitution torn to shreds by the war of succession, his +only real power was over his patrimony; he refused, therefore, the unreasonable +request, and thus converted some of his own children into enemies. Nor were +there wanting Princes, themselves fathers, who abetted this household treason, +as the Kings of France and Scotland had done among the sons of Henry II. Soon +after the battle of Thurles, the recovery of Limerick, and the taking of +Kilkenny, Donald More O'Brien, lending himself to this odious intrigue, was +overpowered and deposed by Roderick, but the year next succeeding having made +submission he was restored by 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, that Roderick despatched to the Court +of Windsor Catholicus, Archbishop of Tuam, Concors, Abbot of St. Brendan's, and +Laurence, Archbishop of Dublin, whose is styled in these proceedings, +"Chancellor of the Irish King," to negotiate an alliance with Henry, which +would leave him free to combat against his domestic enemies. An extraordinary +treaty, agreed upon at Windsor, about the feast of Michaelmas, 1175, recognized +Roderick's sovereignty over Ireland, the cantreds and cities actually possessed +by the subjects of Henry excepted; it subinfeudated his authority to that of +Henry, after the manner lately adopted towards William, King of Scotland; the +payment of a merchantable hide of every tenth hide of cattle was agreed upon as +an annual tribute, while the minor chiefs were to acknowledge their dependence +by annual presents of hawks and hounds. This treaty, which proceeded on the +wild assumption that the feudal system was of force among the free clans of +Erin, was probably the basis of Henry's grant of the Lordship of Ireland to his +son, John <i>Lackland</i>, a few years later; it was solemnly approved by a +special Council, or Parliament, and signed by the representatives of both +parties. +</p> + +<p> +Among the signers we find the name of the Archbishop of Dublin, who, while in +England, narrowly escaped martyrdom from the hands of a maniac, while +celebrating Mass at the tomb of St. Thomas. Four years afterwards, this +celebrated ecclesiastic attended at Rome, with Catholicus of Tuam, and the +Prelates of Lismore, Limerick, Waterford, and Killaloe, the third general +council of Lateran, where they were received with all honour by Pope Alexander +III. From Rome he returned with legantine powers which he used with great +energy during the year 1180. In the autumn of that year, he was entrusted with +the delivery to Henry II. of the son of Roderick O'Conor, as a pledge for the +fulfilment of the treaty of Windsor, and with other diplomatic functions. On +reaching England, he found the king had gone to France, and following him +thither, he was seized with illness as he approached the Monastery of Eu, and +with a prophetic foretaste of death, he exclaimed as he came in sight of the +towers of the Convent, "Here shall I make my resting-place." The Abbot Osbert +and the monks of the Order of St. Victor received him tenderly, and watched his +couch for the few days he yet lingered. Anxious to fulfil his mission, he +despatched David, tutor of the son of Roderick, with messages to Henry, and +awaited his return with anxiety. David brought him a satisfactory response from +the English King, and the last anxiety only remained. In death, as in life, his +thoughts were with his country. "Ah, foolish and insensible 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 last will, he +answered, with apostolic simplicity—"God knows, out of all my revenues, I +have not a single coin to bequeath." And thus on the 11th day of November, +1180, in the 48th year of his age, under the shelter of a Norman roof, +surrounded by Norman mourners, the Gaelic statesman-saint departed out of this +life, bequeathing—one more canonized memory to Ireland and to Rome. +</p> + +<p> +The prospects of his native land were, at that moment, of a cast which might +well disturb the death-bed of the sainted Laurence. Fitz-Aldelm, advanced to +the command at Dublin in 1177, had shown no great capacity for following up the +conquest. But there was one among his followers who, unaffected by his sluggish +example, and undeterred by his jealous interference, resolved to push the +outposts of his race into the heart of Ulster. This was 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 purpose to be +the invasion of Ulster, he found many spirits as discontented with +Fitz-Aldelm's inaction as himself ready to follow his banner. His inseparable +brother-in-arms, Sir Almaric of St. Laurence, his relative, Jourdain de Courcy, +Sir Robert de la Poer, Sir Geoffrey and Walter de Marisco, and other Knights to +the number of twenty, and five hundred men at arms, marched with him out of +Dublin. 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 of that title still possessed by his posterity. On the fifth day, +they came by surprise upon the famous ecclesiastical city of Downpatrick, one +of the first objects of their adventure. An ancient prophecy had foretold that +the place would be taken by a chief with birds upon his shield, the bearings of +de Courcy, mounted on a white horse, which de Courcy happened to ride. Thus the +terrors of superstition were added to the terrors of surprise, and the town +being entirely open, the Normans had only to dash into the midst of its +inhabitants. But the free clansmen of Ulidia, though surprised, were not +intimidated. Under their lord Rory, son of Dunlevy, they rallied to expel the +invader. Cardinal Vivian, the Papal Legate, who had just arrived from Man and +Scotland, on the neighbouring coast, proffered his mediation, and besought de +Courcy to withdraw from Down. His advice was peremptorily rejected, and then he +exhorted the Ulidians to fight bravely for their rights. Five several battles +are enumerated as being fought, in this and the following year, between de +Courcy and the men of Down, Louth, and Antrim, sometimes with success, at +others without it, always with heavy loss and obstinate resistance. +</p> + +<p> +The barony of Lecale, in which Downpatrick stands, is almost a peninsula, and +the barony of the Ardes on the opposite shore of Strangford Lough is nearly +insulated by Belfast Lough, the Channel, and the tides of Strangford. With the +active co-operation from the sea of Godred, King of Man, (whose daughter Africa +he had married), de Courcy's hold on that coast became an exceedingly strong +one. A ditch and a few towers would as effectually enclose Lecale and the Ardes +from any landward attack, as if they were a couple of well-walled cities. +Hence, long after "the Pale" ceased to extend beyond the Boyne, and while the +mountain passes from Meath into Ulster were all in native hands, these two +baronies continued to be succoured and strengthened by sea, and retained as +English possessions. Reinforced from Dublin and from Man after their first +success, de Courcy's companions stuck to their castle-building about the shores +of Strangford Lough, while he himself made incursions into the interior, by +land or by sea, fighting a brisk succession of engagements at Newry, in Antrim, +at Coleraine, and on the eastern shore of Lough Foyle. +</p> + +<p> +At the time these operations were going forward in Ulster, Milo de Cogan +quitted Dublin on a somewhat similar expedition. We have already said that +Murray, eldest son of Roderick, had claimed, according to ancient usage, the +O'Conor patrimony, his father being Ard-Righ; and had his claim refused. He now +entered into a secret engagement with de Cogan, whose force is stated by +<i>Giraldus</i> at 500 men-at-arms, and by the Irish annalists as "a great +army." With the smaller force he left Dublin, but marching through Meath, was +joined at Trim by men from the garrisons de Lacy had planted in East-Meath. So +accompanied, de Cogan advanced on Roscommon, where he was received by the son +of Roderick during the absence of the Ard-Righ on a visitation among the glens +of Connemara. After three days spent in Roscommon, these allies marched across +the plain of Connaught, directed their course on Tuam, burning as they went +Elphin, Roskeen, and many other churches. The western clansmen everywhere fell +back before them, driving off their herds and destroying whatever they could +not remove. At Tuam they found themselves in the midst of a solitude without +food or forage, with an eager enemy swarming from the west and the south to +surround them. They at once decided to retreat, and no time was to be lost, as +the Kern were already at their heels. From Tuam to Athleague, and from +Athleague to their castles in East-Meath, fled the remnant of de Cogan's +inglorious expedition. Murray O'Conor being taken prisoner by his own kinsmen, +his eyes were plucked out as the punishment of his treason, and Conor Moinmoy, +the joint-victor with Donald O'Brien over Strongbow at Thurles, became the +<i>Roydamna</i> or successor of his father. +</p> + +<p> +But fresh dissensions soon broke out between the sons and grandsons of +Roderick, and the sons of his brother Thurlogh, in one of whose deadly +conflicts sixteen Princes of the Sil-Murray fell. Both sides looked beyond +Connaught for help; one drew friends from the northern O'Neills, another relied +on the aid of O'Brien. Conor Moinmoy, in the year 1186, according to most Irish +accounts, banished his father into Munster, but at the intercession of the +Sil-Murray, his own clan allowed him again to return, and assigned him a single +cantred of land for his subsistence. From this date we may count the unhappy +Roderick's retirement from the world. +</p> + +<p> +Near the junction of Lough Corrib with Lough Mask, on the boundary line between +Mayo and Galway, stands the ruins of the once populous monastery and village of +Cong. The first Christian kings of Connaught had founded the monastery, or +enabled St. Fechin to do so by their generous donations. The father of Roderick +had enriched its shrine by the gift of a particle of the true Cross, reverently +enshrined in a reliquary, the workmanship of which still excites the admiration +of the antiquaries. Here Roderick retired in the 70th year of his age, and for +twelve years thereafter—until the 29th day of November, 1198, here he +wept and prayed, and withered away. Dead to the world, as the world to him, the +opening of a new grave in the royal corner at Clonmacnoise was the last +incident connected with his name, which reminded Connaught that it had lost its +once prosperous Prince, and Ireland, that she had seen her last Ard-Righ, +according to the ancient Milesian Constitution. Powerful Princes of his own and +other houses the land was destined to know for many generations, before its +sovereignty was merged in that of England, but none fully entitled to claim the +high-sounding, but often fallacious title, of Monarch of all Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +The public character of Roderick O'Conor has been hardly dealt with by most +modern writers. He was not, like his father, like Murkertach O'Brien, Malachy +II., Brian, Murkertach of the leathern cloaks, or Malachy I., eminent as a +lawgiver, a soldier, or a popular leader. He does not appear to have inspired +love, or awe, or reverence, into those of his own household and patrimony, not +to speak of his distant cotemporaries. He was probably a man of secondary +qualities, engulfed in a crisis of the first importance. But that he is fairly +chargeable with the success of the invaders—or that there was any very +overwhelming success to be charged up to the time of his enforced retirement +from the world—we have failed to discover. From Dermid's return until his +retreat to Cong, seventeen years had passed away. Seventeen campaigns, more or +less energetic and systematic, the Normans had fought. Munster was still in +1185—when John Lackland made his memorable exit and entrance on the +scene—almost wholly in the hands of the ancient clans. Connaught was as +yet without a single Norman garrison. Hugh de Lacy returning to the government +of Dublin, in 1179, on Fitz-Aldelm's recall, was more than half +<i>Hibernicized</i> by marriage with one of Roderick's daughters, and the +Norman tide stood still in Meath. Several strong fortresses were indeed erected +in Desmond and Leinster, by John Lackland and by de Courcy, in his newly won +northern territory. Ardfinan, Lismore, Leighlin, Carlow, Castledermot, Leix, +Delvin, Kilkay, Maynooth and Trim, were fortified; but considering who the +Anglo-Normans were, and what they had done elsewhere, even these very +considerable successes may be correctly accounted for without overcharging the +memory of Roderick with folly and incapacity. That he was personally brave has +not been questioned. That he was politic—or at least capable of +conceiving the politic views of such a statesman as St. Laurence O'Toole, we +may infer from the rank of Chancellor which he conferred, and the other +negotiations which he entrusted to that great man. That he maintained his +self-respect as a sovereign, both in abstaining from visiting Henry II. under +pretence of hospitality at Dublin, and throughout all his difficult diplomacy +with the Normans, we are free to conclude. With the Normans for foes—with +a decayed and obsolete national constitution to patch up—with nominal +subordinates more powerful than himself—with rebellion staring him in the +face out of the eyes of his own children—Roderick O'Conor had no ordinary +part to play in history. The fierce family pride of our fathers and the vices +of their political system are to be deplored and avoided; let us not make the +last of their national kings the scape-goat for all his cotemporaries and all +his predecessors. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap29"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br/> +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.</h3> + +<p> +Hugh de Lacy, restored to the supreme authority on the recall of Fitz-Aldelm in +1179, began to conceive hopes, as Strongbow had done, of carving out for +himself a new kingdom. After the assassination of O'Ruarc already related, he +assumed without further parley the titles of Lord of Meath and Breffni. To +these titles, he added that of Oriel or Louth, but his real strength lay in +Meath, where his power was enhanced by a politic second marriage with Rose, +daughter of O'Conor. Among the Irish he now began to be known as King of the +foreigners, and some such assumption of royal authority caused his recall for a +few months in the year 1180, and his substitution by de Courcy and Philip de +Broasa, in 1184. But his great qualities caused his restoration a third time to +the rank of Justiciary for Henry, or Deputy for John, whose title of "Lord of +Ireland" was bestowed by his father, at a Parliament held at Oxford, in 1177. +</p> + +<p> +This founder of the Irish de Lacys is described by <i>Giraldus</i>, who knew +him personally, as a man of Gallic sobriety, ambitious, avaricious, and +lustful, of small stature, and deformed shape, with repulsive features, and +dark, deep-set eyes. By the Irish of the midland districts he was bitterly +detested as a sacrilegious spoiler of their churches and monasteries, and the +most powerful among their invaders. The murder of O'Ruarc, whose title of +Breffni he had usurped, was attributed to a deep-laid design; he certainly +shared the odium with the advantage that ensued from it. Nor was his own end +unlike that of his rival. Among other sites for castles, he had chosen the +foundations of the ancient and much venerated monastery of Durrow, planted by +Columbcille, seven centuries before, in the midst of the fertile region watered +by the Brosna. This act of profanity was fated to be his last, for, while +personally superintending the work, O'Meyey, a young man of good birth, and +foster-brother to a neighbouring chief of Teffia, known as <i>Sionnach</i>, or +"the Fox," struck off his head with a single blow of his axe and escaped into +the neighbouring forest of Kilclare during the confusion which ensued. De Lacy +left issue—two sons, Hugh and Walter, by his first wife, and a third, +William <i>Gorm</i>, by his second—of whom, and of their posterity, we +shall have many occasions to make mention. +</p> + +<p> +In one of the intervals of de Lacy's disfavour, Prince John, surnamed +<i>Sans-terre</i>, or "lack-land," was sent over by his father to strengthen +the English interest in Ireland. He arrived in Waterford, accompanied by a +fleet of sixty ships, on the last of March, 1185, and remained in the country +till the following November. If anything could excuse the levity, folly and +misconduct of the Prince on this expedition, it would be his youth;—he +was then only eighteen. But Henry had taken every precaution to ensure success +to his favourite son. He was preceded into Ireland by Archbishop Cuming, the +English successor of St. Laurence; the learned Glanville was his legal adviser; +John de Courcy was his lieutenant, and the eloquent, but passionate and partial +<i>Giraldus Cambrensis</i>, his chaplain and tutor. He had, however, other +companions more congenial to his age and temper, young noblemen as froward and +as extravagant as himself; yet, as he surpassed them all in birth and rank, so +he did in wickedness and cruelty of disposition. For age he had no reverence, +for virtue no esteem, neither truth towards man, nor decency towards woman. On +his arrival at Waterford, the new Archbishop of Dublin, John de Courcy, and the +principal Norman nobles, hastened to receive him. With them came also certain +Leinster chiefs, desiring to live at peace with the new Galls. When, according +to the custom of the country, the chiefs advanced to give John the kiss of +peace, their venerable age was made a mockery by the young Prince, who met +their proffered salutations by plucking at their beards. This appears to have +been as deadly 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 the native nobles began to discover that a royal army +encumbered, rather than led by such a Prince, was not likely to prove itself +invincible. In an idle parade from the Suir to the Liffey, from the Liffey to +the Boyne, and in issuing orders for the erection of castles, (some of which +are still correctly and others erroneously called King John's Castles,) the +campaign months of the year were wasted by the King of England's son. One of +these castles, to which most importance was attached, Ardfinan on the Suir, was +no sooner built than taken by Donald More O'Brien, on midsummer day, when four +knights and its other defenders were slain. Another was rising at Lismore, on +the Blackwater, under the guardianship of Robert Barry, one of the brood of +Nesta, when it was attacked and Barry slain. Other knights and castellans were +equally unfortunate; Raymond Fitz-Hugh fell at Leighlin, another Raymond in +Idrone, and Roger le Poer in 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 parlee by them of Cork." The +Clan-Colman, or O'Melaghlins, had risen in West-Meath to reclaim their own, +when Henry, not an hour too soon, recalled his reckless son, and entrusted, for +the last time, the command to Hugh de Lacy, whose fate has been already +related. +</p> + +<p> +In the fluctuations of the power of the invaders after the 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 of +the Ards of Down. Not only in prowess, but also in piety, he was the model of +all the knighthood of his time. We are told that he always carried about his +person a copy of 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 be discovered by the Bishop of Down in a dream, +he caused them to be translated to the altar-side with all suitable reverence. +Yet all his devotions and pilgrimages did not prevent him from pushing on the +work of conquest whenever occasion offered. His plantation in Down had time to +take root from the unexpected death of Donald, Prince of Aileach, in an +encounter with the garrison of one of the new castles, near Newry. (A.D. 1188.) +The same year he took up the enterprise against Connaught, in which Milo de +Cogan had so signally failed, and from which even de Lacy had, for reasons of +his own, refrained. The feuds of the O'Conor family were again the pretext and +the ground of hope with the invaders, but Donald More O'Brien, victorious on +the Suir and the Shannon, carried his strong succours to Conor <i>Moinmoy</i> +on the banks of the Suca, near the present Ballinasloe, and both powers +combined marched against de Courcy. Unprepared for this junction, the Norman +retreated towards Sligo, and had reached Ballysadare, when Flaherty, Lord of +Tyrconnell (Donegal), came against them from the opposite point, and thus +placed between two fires, they were forced to fly through the rugged passes of +the Curlieu mountains, skirmishing as they went. The only incidents which +signalized this campaign on their side was the burning of Ballysadare and the +plunder of Armagh; to the Irish it was creditable for the combinations it +occasioned. It is cheering in the annals of those desultory wars to find a +national advantage gained by the joint action of a Munster, a Connaught, and an +Ulster force. +</p> + +<p> +The promise of national unity held out by the alliance of O'Brien and O'Conor, +in the years 1188-'89, had been followed up by the adhesion of the lords of +Breffni, Ulidia, or Down, the chiefs of the Clan-Colman, and McCarthy, Prince +of Desmond. But the assassination of Conor Moinmoy, by the partizans of his +cousins, extinguished the hopes of the country, and the peace of his own +province. The old family feuds broke out with new fury. In vain the aged +Roderick emerged from his convent, and sought with feeble hand to curb the +fiery passions of his tribe; in vain the Archbishops of Armagh and of Tuam +interposed their spiritual authority, A series of fratricidal contests, for +which history has no memory and no heart, were fought out between the warring +branches of the family during the last ten years of the century, until by +virtue of the strong-arm, Cathal <i>Crovdearg</i>, son of Turlogh More, and +younger brother of Roderick, assumed the sovereignty of Connaught about the +year 1200. +</p> + +<p> +In the twelve years which intervened between the death of <i>Moinmoy</i> and +the establishment of the power of Cathal <i>Crovdearg</i> O'Conor, the Normans +had repeated opportunities for intervention in the affairs of Connaught. +William de Burgh, a powerful Baron of the family of Fitz-Aldelm, the former +Lord Justice, sided with the opponents of Cathal, while de Courcy, and +subsequently the younger de Lacy, fought on his side. Once at least these +restless Barons changed allies, and fought as desperately against their former +candidate for the succession as they had before fought for him. In one of these +engagements, the date assigned to which is the year 1190, Sir Armoric St. +Laurence, founder of the Howth family, at the head of a numerous division, is +said to have been cut off with all his troop. But the fortune of war frequently +shifted during the contest. In the year 1199, Cathal <i>Crovdearg</i>, with his +allies de Lacy and de Courcy, was utterly defeated at Kilmacduagh, in the +present county of Galway, and were it not that the rival O'Conor was sorely +defeated, and trodden to death in the route which ensued, three years later, +Connaught might never have known the vigorous administration of her +"red-handed" hero. +</p> + +<p> +The early career of this able and now triumphant Prince, as preserved to us by +history and tradition, is full of romantic incidents. He is said to have been +born out of wedlock, and that his mother, while pregnant of him, was subject to +all the cruel persecutions and magical torments the jealous wife of his father +could invent. No sooner was he born than he became an object of hatred to the +Queen, so that mother and child, after being concealed for three years in the +sanctuaries of Connaught, had to fly for their lives into Leinster. In this +exile, though early informed of his origin, he was brought up among the +labourers in the field, and was actually engaged, sickle in hand, cutting the +harvest, when a travelling <i>Bollscaire</i>, or newsman from the west, related +the events which 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 the rye" was long a proverbial expression for any sudden +change of purpose or of condition. Fortune seems to have favoured him in most +of his undertakings. In a storm upon Lough Ree, when a whole fleet foundered +and its warrior crew perished, he was one of seven who were saved. Though in +some of his early battles unsuccessful, he always recovered his ground, kept up +his alliances, and returned to the contest. After the death of the celebrated +Donald More O'Brien (A.D. 1194), he may certainly be considered the first +soldier and first diplomatist among the Irish. Nor was his lot cast on more +favoured days, nor was he pitted against less able men than those with whom the +brave King of Munster—the stoutest defender of his fatherland—had +so honourably striven. Fortunate it was for the renown of the Gael, that as one +star of the race set over Thomond, another of equal brilliancy rose to guide +them in the west. +</p> + +<p> +With the end of the century, the career of Cathal's allies, de Courcy and de +Burgh, may be almost said to have ended. The obituary of the latter bears the +date of 1204. He had obtained large grants from King John of lands in +Connaught—if he could conquer them—which his vigorous descendants, +the Burkes of Clanrickarde, did their best to accomplish. De Courcy, warring +with the sons of de Lacy, and seeking refuge among the clansmen of Tyrone, +disappears from the stage of Irish affairs. He is said to have passed on to +England, and ended his days in prison, a victim to the caprice or jealousy of +King John. Many tales are told of his matchless intrepidity. His indirect +descendants, the Barons of Kinsale, claim the right to wear their hats before +the King in consequence of one of these legends, which represents him as the +champion Knight of England, taken from, a dungeon to uphold her honour against +a French challenger. Other tales as ill authenticated are founded on his +career, which, however, in its literal truth, is unexcelled 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 daughter Maud brought it in the year 1264 to Walter de Burgh, lord +of Connaught, from whose fourth female descendant it passed in 1354, by her +marriage with Lionel, Duke of Clarence, into the royal family of England. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap30"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br/> +EVENTS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY—THE NORMANS IN CONNAUGHT.</h3> + +<p> +Ireland, during the first three quarters of the thirteenth century, produced +fewer important events, and fewer great men, than in the thirty last years of +the century preceding. From the side of England, she was subjected to no +imminent danger in all that interval. The reign of John ending in 1216, and +that of Henry III. extending till 1271, were fully occupied with the +insurrections of the Barons, with French, Scotch, and Welsh wars, family feuds, +the rise and fall of royal favourites, and all those other incidents which +naturally, befall in a state of society where the King is weak, the aristocracy +strong and insolent, and the commons disunited and despised. During this period +the fusion of Norman, Saxon, and Briton went slowly on, and the next age saw +for the first time a population which could be properly called English. "Do you +take me for an Englishman?" was the last expression of Norman arrogance in the +reign of King John; but the close of the reign of Henry III., through the +action of commercial and political causes, saw a very different state of +feeling growing up between the descendants of the races which contended for +mastery under Harold and William. The strongly marked Norman characteristics +lingered in Ireland half a century later, for it is usually the case that +traits of caste survive longest in colonies and remote provinces. In Richard de +Burgo, commonly called the Red Earl of Ulster, all the genius and the vices of +the race of Rollo blazed out over Ireland for the last time, and with terrible +effect. +</p> + +<p> +During the first three quarters of the century, our history, like that of +England, is the history of a few great houses; nation there is, strictly +speaking, none. It will be necessary, therefore, to group together the acts of +two or three generations of men of the same name, as the only method of finding +our way through the shifting scenes of this stormy period. +</p> + +<p> +The power of the great Connaught family of O'Conor, so terribly shaken by the +fratricidal wars and unnatural alliances of the sons and grandsons of Roderick, +was in great part restored by the ability and energy of Cathal +<i>Crovdearg</i>. In his early struggles for power he was greatly assisted by +the anarchy which reigned among the English nobles. Mayler Fitz-Henry, the last +of Strongbow's companions, who rose to such eminence, being Justiciary in the +first six years of the century, was aided by O'Conor to besiege William de +Burgo in Limerick, and to cripple the power of the de Lacys in Meath. In the +year 1207, John Gray, Bishop of Norwich, was sent over, as more likely to be +impartial than any ruler personally interested in the old quarrels, but during +his first term of office, the interdict with which Innocent III. had smitten +England, hung like an Egyptian darkness over the Anglo-Norman power in Ireland. +The native Irish, however, were exempt from its enervating effects, and Cathal +O'Conor, by the time King John came over in person—in the year +1210—to endeavour to retrieve the English interest, had warred down all +his enemies, and was of power sufficient to treat with the English sovereign as +independently as Roderick had done with Henry II. thirty-five years before. He +personally conferred with John at Dublin, as the O'Neil and other native +Princes did; he procured from the English King the condemnation of John de +Burgo, who had maintained his father's claims on a portion of Connaught, and he +was formally recognised, according to the approved forms of Norman diplomacy, +as seized of the whole of Connaught, in his own right. +</p> + +<p> +The visit of King John, which lasted from the 20th of June till the 25th of +August, was mainly directed to the reduction of those intractable Anglo-Irish +Barons whom Fitz-Henry and Gray had proved themselves unable to cope with. Of +these the de Lacys of Meath were the most obnoxious. They not only assumed an +independent state, but had sheltered de Braos, Lord of Brecknock, one of the +recusant Barons of Wales, and refused to surrender him on the royal summons. To +assert his authority, and to strike terror into the nobles of other +possessions, John crossed the channel with a prodigious fleet—in the +Irish annals said to consist of 700 sail. He landed at Crook, reached Dublin, +and prepared at once to subdue the Lacys. With his own army, and the +co-operation of Cathal O'Conor, he drove out Walter de Lacy, Lord of Meath, who +fled to his brother, Hugh de Lacy, since de Courcy's disgrace, Earl of Ulster. +From Meath into Louth John pursued the brothers, crossing the lough at +Carlingford with his ships, which must have coasted in his company. From +Carlingford they retreated, and he pursued to Carrickfergus, and from that +fortress, unable to resist a royal fleet and navy, they fled into Man or +Scotland, and thence escaped in disguise into France. With their guest de +Braos, they wrought as gardeners in the grounds of the Abbey of Saint Taurin +Evreux, until the Abbot, having discovered by their manners the key to their +real rank, negotiated successfully with John for their restoration to their +estates. Walter agreed to pay a fine of 2,500 marks for his lordship in Meath, +and Hugh 4,000 marks for his possessions in Ulster. Of de Braos we have no +particulars; his high-spirited wife and children were thought to have been +starved to death by order of the unforgiving tyrant in one of his castles. The +de Lacys, on their restoration, were accompanied to Ireland by a nephew of the +Abbot of St. Taurin, on whom they conferred an estate and the honour of +knighthood. +</p> + +<p> +The only other acts of John's sojourn in Ireland was his treaty with O'Conor, +already mentioned, and the mapping out, on paper, of the intended counties of +Oriel (or Louth), Meath, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Katherlough (or Carlow), +Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary, as the only districts +in which those he claimed as his subjects had any possessions. He again +installed the Bishop of Norwich as his justiciary or lieutenant, who, three +years, later, was succeeded by Henry de Londres, the next Archbishop of Dublin, +and he again (A.D. 1215), by Geoffrey de Marisco, the last of John's deputies. +In the year 1216, Henry III., an infant ten years of age, succeeded to the +English throne, and the next dozen years the history of the two islands is +slightly connected, except by the fortunes of the family of de Burgh, whose +head, Hubert de Burgh, the Chief Justiciary, from the accession of the new +King, until the first third of the century had closed, was in reality the +Sovereign of England. Among his other titles he held that of Lord of Connaught, +which he conveyed to his relative, Richard de Burgo, the son or grandson of +William Fitz-Aldelm de Burgo, about the year 1225. And this brings us to relate +how the house of Clanrickarde rose upon the flank of the house of O'Conor, and +after holding an almost equal front for two generations, finally overshadowed +its more ancient rival. +</p> + +<p> +While Cathal <i>Crovdearg</i> lived, the O'Conor's held their own, and rather +more than their own, by policy or arms. Not only did his own power suffer no +diminution, but he more than once assisted the Dalgais and the Eugenians to +expel their invaders from North and South Munster, and to uphold their ancient +rights and laws. During the last years of John's reign that King and his Barons +were mutually too busy to set aside the arrangement entered into in 1210. In +the first years of Henry it was also left undisturbed by the English court. In +1221 we read that the de Lacys, remembering, no doubt, the part he had played +in their expulsion, endeavoured to fortify Athleague against him, but the +veteran King, crossing the 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 year 1213 we read in the Annals of "an awful and +heavy shower which fell over Connaught," and was held to presage the death of +its heroic King. Feeling his hour had come, this Prince, to whom are justly +attributed the rare union of virtues, ardour of mind, chastity of body, +meekness in prosperity, fortitude under defeat, prudence in civil business, +undaunted bravery in battle, and a piety of life beyond all his +cotemporaries—feeling the near approach of death, retired to the Abbey of +Knockmoy, which he had founded and endowed, and there expired in the Franciscan +habit, at an age which must have bordered on fourscore. He was succeeded by his +son, Hugh O'Conor, "the hostages of Connaught being in his house" at the time +of his illustrious father's death. +</p> + +<p> +No sooner was Cathal <i>Crovdearg</i> deceased than Hubert de Burgo procured +the grants of the whole Province, reserving only five cantreds about Athlone +for a royal garrison to be made to Richard de Burgo, his nephew. Richard had +married Hodierna, granddaughter to Cathal, and thus, like all the Normans, +though totally against the Irish custom, claimed a part of Connaught in right +of his wife. But in the sons of Cathal he found his equal both in policy and +arms, and with the fall of his uncle at the English court (about the year +1233), Feidlim O'Conor, the successor of Hugh, taking advantage of the event, +made interest at the Court of Henry III. sufficient to have his overgrown +neighbour stripped of some of his strongholds by royal order. The King was so +impressed with O'Conor's representations that he wrote peremptorily to Maurice +Fitzgerald, second Lord Offally, then his deputy, "to root out that barren tree +planted in Offally by Hubert de Burgh, in the madness of his power, and not to +suffer it 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 was somewhat tardy, Fitzgerald was soon after dismissed on +that account. +</p> + +<p> +Richard de Burgo died in attendance on King Henry in France (A.D. 1243), and +was succeeded by his son, Walter de Burgo, who continued, with varying +fortunes, the contest for Connaught with Feidlim, until the death of the +latter, in the Black Abbey of Roscommon, in the year 1265. Hugh O'Conor, the +son and successor of Feidlim, continued the intrepid guardian of his house and +province during the nine years he survived his father. In the year 1254, by +marriage with the daughter of de Lacy, Earl of Ulster, that title had passed +into the family of de Burgh, bringing with it, for the time, much substantial, +though distant, strength. It was considered only a secondary title, and as the +eldest son of the first de Lacy remained Lord of Meath, while the younger took +de Courcy's forfeited title of Ulster, so, in the next generation, did the sons +of this Walter de Burgh, until death and time reunited both titles in the same +person. Walter de Burgh died in the year 1271, in the Castle of Galway; his +great rival, Feidlim O'Conor, in 1274, was buried in the Abbey of Boyle. The +former is styled King of the English of Connaught by the Irish Annalists, who +also speak of Feidlim as "the most triumphant and the most feared (by the +invaders) of any King that had been in Connaught before his time." The relative +position of the Irish and English in that Province, towards the end of this +century, may be judged by the fact, that of the Anglo-Normans summoned by +Edward I. to join him in Scotland in 1299, but two, Richard de Burgo and Piers +de Bermingham, Baron of Athenry, had then possessions in Connaught. There were +Norman Castles at Athlone, at Athenry, at Galway, and perhaps at other points; +but the natives still swayed supreme over the plains of Rathcrogan, the plains +of Boyle, the forests and lakes of Roscommon, and the whole of <i>Iar</i>, or +West Connaught, from Lough Corrib to the ocean, with the very important +exception of the castle and port of Galway. A mightier de Burgo than any that +had yet appeared was to see in his house, in the year 1286, "the hostages of +all Connaught;" but his life and death form a distinct epoch in our story and +must be treated separately. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap31"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br/> +EVENTS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY—THE NORMANS IN MUNSTER AND +LEINSTER.</h3> + +<p> +We have already told the tragic fate of the two adventurers—Fitzstephen +and de Cogan—between whom the whole of Desmond was first partitioned by +Henry II. But there were not wanting other claimants, either by original grant +from the crown, by intermarriage with Irish, or Norman-Irish heiresses, or +new-comers, favourites of John or of Henry III., or of their Ministers, +enriched at the expense of the native population. Thomas, third son of Maurice +Fitzgerald, claimed partly through his uncle Fitzstephen, and partly through +his marriage with the daughter of another early adventurer, Sir William Morrie, +whose vast estates on which his descendants were afterwards known as Earls of +Desmond, the White Knight, the Knight of Glyn, and the Knight of Kerry. Robert +de Carew and Patrick de Courcy claimed as heirs general to de Cogan. The de +Mariscoes, de Barris, and le Poers, were not extinct; 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 that which was waged in Connaught between +the O'Conors and de Burghs was consequently going on in Munster at the same +time, between the old inhabitants and the new claimants, of all the three +classes just indicated. +</p> + +<p> +The principality of Desmond, containing angles of Waterford and Tipperary, with +all Cork and Kerry, seemed at the beginning of the thirteenth century in +greatest danger of conquest. The O'Callaghans, Lords of Cinel-Aedha, in the +south of Cork, were driven into the mountains of Duhallow, where they rallied +and held their ground for four centuries; the O'Sullivans, originally settled +along the Suir, about Clonmel, were forced towards the mountain seacoast of +Cork and Kerry, where they acquired new vigour in the less fertile soil of +Beare and Bantry. The native families of the Desies, from their proximity to +the port of Waterford, were harassed and overrun, and the ports of Dungarvan, +Youghal, and Cork, being also taken and garrisoned by the founder of the +earldom of Desmond, easy entrance and egress by sea could always be obtained +for his allies, auxiliaries, and supplies. It was when these dangers were +darkening and menacing on every side that the family of McCarthy, under a +succession of able and vigorous chiefs, proved themselves worthy of the +headship of the Eugenian race. Cormac McCarthy, who had expelled the first +garrison from Waterford, ere he fell in a parley before Cork, had defeated the +first enterprises of Fitzstephen and de Cogan; he left a worthy son in Donald +na Curra, who, uniting his own co-relations, and acting in conjunction with +O'Brien and O'Conor, retarded by his many exploits the progress of the invasion +in Munster. He recovered Cork and razed King John's castle at Knockgraffon on +the Suir. He left two surviving sons, of whom the eldest, Donald <i>Gott</i>, +or the Stammerer, took the title of <i>More</i>, or Great, and his posterity +remained princes of Desmond, until that title merged in the earldom of Glencare +(A.D. 1565); the other, Cormac, after taking his brother prisoner compelled him +to acknowledge him as lord of the four baronies of Carbury. From this Cormac +the family of McCarthy Reagh descended, and to them the O'Driscolls, +O'Donovans, O'Mahonys, and other Eugenian houses became tributary. The chief +residence of McCarthy Reagh was long fixed at Dunmanway; his castles were also +at Baltimore, Castlehaven, Lough-Fyne, and in Inis-Sherkin and Clear Island. +The power of McCarthy More extended at its greatest reach from Tralee in Kerry +to Lismore in Waterford. In the year 1229, Dermid McCarthy had peaceable +possession of Cork, and founded the Franciscan Monastery there. Such was his +power, that, according to Hamner and his authorities, the Geraldines "dare not +for twelve years put plough into the ground in Desmond." At last, another +generation rose, and fierce family feuds broke out between the branches of the +family. The Lord of Carbury now was Fineen, or Florence, the most celebrated +man of his name, and one whose power naturally encroached upon the possession +of the elder house. John, son of Thomas Fitzgerald of Desmond, seized the +occasion to make good the enormous pretension of his family. In the expedition +which he undertook for this purpose, in the year 1260, he was joined by the +Justiciary, William Dene, by Walter de Burgo, Earl of Ulster, by Walter de +Riddlesford, Baron of Bray, by Donnel Roe, a chief of the hostile house of +McCarthy. The Lord of Carbury united under his standard the chief Eugenian +families, not only of the Coast, but even of McCarthy More's principality, and +the battle was fought with great ferocity at Callan-Glen, near Kenmare, in +Kerry. There the Anglo-Normans received the most complete defeat they had yet +experienced on Irish ground. John Fitz-Thomas, his son Maurice, eight barons, +fifteen knights, and "countless numbers of common soldiers were slain." The +Monastery of Tralee received the dead body of its founder and his son, while +Florence McCarthy, following up his blow, captured and broke down in swift +succession all the English castles in his neighbourhood, including those of +Macroom, Dunnamark, Dunloe, and Killorglin. In besieging one of these castles, +called Ringrone, the victorious chief, in the full tide of conquest, was cut +off, and his brother, called the <i>Atheleireach</i> (or suspended priest), +succeeded to his possessions. The death of the victor arrested the panic of the +defeat, but Munster saw another generation before her invaders had shaken off +the depression of the battle of Callan-glen. +</p> + +<p> +Before the English interest had received this severe blow in the south, a +series of events had transpired in Leinster, going to show that its aspiring +barons had been seized with the madness which precedes destruction. William, +Earl Marshal and Protector of England during the minority of Henry III., had +married Isabella, the daughter of Strongbow and granddaughter of Dermid, +through whom he assumed the title of Lord of Leinster. He procured the office +of Earl Marshal of Ireland—originally conferred on the first de +Lacy—for his own nephew, and thus converted the de Lacys into mortal +enemies. His son and successor Richard, having made himself obnoxious, soon +after his accession to that title, to the young King, or to Hubert de Burgh, +was outlawed, and letters were despatched to the Justiciary, Fitzgerald, to de +Burgo, de Lacy, and other Anglo-Irish lords, if he landed in Ireland, to seize +his person, alive or dead, and send it to England. Strong in his estates and +alliances, the young Earl came; while his enemies employed the wily Geoffrey de +Mountmorres to entrap him into a conference, in order to his destruction. The +meeting was appointed for the first day of April, 1234, and while the outlawed +Earl was conversing with those who had invited him, an affray began among their +servants by design, he himself was mortally wounded and carried to one of +Fitzgerald's castles, where he died. He was succeeded in his Irish honours by +three of his brothers, who all died without heirs 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 such portions +of them in actual possession—were divided. They married respectively the +Earls of Norfolk, Suffolk, Gloucester, Ferrers, and Braos, or Brace, Lord of +Brecknock, in whose families, for another century or more, the secondary titles +were Catherlogh, Kildare, Wexford, Kilkenny, and Leix,—those five +districts being supposed, most absurdly, to have come into the Marshal family, +from the daughter of Strongbow. The false knights and dishonoured nobles +concerned in the murder of Richard Marshal were disappointed of the prey which +had been promised them—the partition of his estates. And such was the +horror which the deed excited in England, that it hastened the fall of Hubert +de Burgh, though Maurice Fitzgerald, of Offally—ancestor of the Kildare +family—having cleared himself of all complicity in it by oath—was +continued as 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 de Mountmorres, who held the office till 1247. During +the next twenty-five years, about half as many Justices were placed and +displaced, according to the whim of the successive favourites at the English +Court. In 1252, Prince Edward, afterwards Edward I., was appointed with the +title of Lord Lieutenant, but never came over. Nor is there in the series of +rulers we have numbered, with, perhaps, two exceptions, any who have rendered +their names memorable by great exploits, or lasting legislation. So little +inherent power had the incumbents of the highest office—unless when, they +employed their own proper forces in their sovereign's name—that we read +without surprise, how the bold mountaineers of Wicklow, at the opening of the +century (A.D. 1209) slaughtered the Bristolians of Dublin, engaged at their +archery in Cullenswood, and at the close of it, how "one of the Kavanaghs, of +the blood of McMurrogh, living at Leinster," "displayed his standards within +sight of the city." Yet this is commonly spoken of as a country overrun by a +few score Norman Knights, in a couple of campaigns! +</p> + +<p> +The maintenance of the conquest was in these years less the work of the King's +Justices than of the great houses. Of these, two principally profited, by the +untimely felling of that great tree which overshadowed all others in Leinster, +the Marshals. The descendants of the eldest son of Maurice Fitzgerald clung to +their Leinster possessions, while their equally vigorous cousins pushed their +fortunes in Desmond. Maurice, grandson of Maurice, and second Baron of Offally, +from the year 1229 to the year 1246, was three times Lord Justice. "He was a +valiant Knight, a very pleasant man, and inferior to none in the kingdom," by +Matthew Paris's account. He introduced the Franciscan and Dominican orders into +Ireland, built many castles, churches, and abbeys at Youghal, at Sligo, at +Armagh, at Maynooth, and in other places. In the year 1257, he was wounded in +single combat by O'Donnell, Lord of Tyrconnell, near Sligo, and died soon after +in the Franciscan habit in Youghal. He left his successor so powerful, that in +the year 1264, there being a feud between the Geraldines and de Burghs, he +seized the Lord Justice and the whole de Burgh party at a conference at +Castledermot, and carried them to his own castles of Lea and Dunamase as +prisoners. In 1272, on the accidental death of the Lord Justice Audley, by a +fall from his horse, "the council" elected this the third Baron of Offally in +his stead. +</p> + +<p> +The family of Butler were of slower growth, but of equal tenacity with the +Geraldines. They first seem to have attached themselves to the Marshals, for +whom they were indebted for their first holding in Kilkenny. At the Conference +of Castledermot, Theobald Butler, the fourth in descent from the founder of the +house, was numbered among the adherents of de Burgh, but a few years later we +find him the ally of the Geraldines in the invasion of Thomond. In the year +1247, the title of Lord of Carrick had been conferred on him, which in 1315 was +converted into Earl of Carrick, and this again into that of Ormond. The Butlers +of this house, when they had attained their growth of power, became the +hereditary rivals of the Kildare Geraldines, whose earldom dates from 1316, as +that of Ormond does from 1328, and Desmond from 1329. +</p> + +<p> +The name of Maurice, the third Baron of Offally, and uncle of John, the first +Earl of Kildare, draws our attention naturally to the last enterprise of his +life—the attempt to establish his son-in-law, Thomas de Clare, in +possession of Thomond. The de Clares, Earls of Gloucester, pretended a grant +from Henry II. of the whole of Thomond, as their title to invade that +principality; but their real grant was bestowed by Edward I., in the year 1275. +The state of the renowned patrimony of Brian had 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 of Birr, Kinnetty, Ballyroane +and Lothra, in Leix, and razing them to the ground. But these castles were +reconstructed in 1213, when the feuds between the rival O'Briens—Murtogh +and Donogh Cairbre—had paralyzed the defence force of Thomond. It was, +doubtless, in the true divide-and-conquer spirit, that Henry the Third's +advisers confirmed to Donogh the lordship of Thomond in 1220, leaving to his +elder brother the comparatively barren title of King of Munster. Both brothers, +by alternately working on their hopes and fears, were thus for many years kept +in a state of dependence on the foreigner. One gleam of patriotic virtue +illumines the annals of the house of O'Brien, during the first forty years of +the century—when, in the year 1225, Donogh Cairbre assisted Felim O'Conor +to resist 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 by the example of his cotemporaries, made successful war against the +invaders of his Province, more especially in the year 1257, and the next year; +attended with O'Conor the meeting at Beleek, on the Erne, where Brian O'Neil +was acknowledged, by both the Munster and the Connaught Prince, as +<i>Ard-Righ</i>. The untimely end of this attempt at national union will be +hereafter related; meantime, we proceed to mention that, in 1260, the Lord of +Thomond defeated the Geraldines and their Welsh auxiliaries, at Kilbarran, in +Clare. He was succeeded the following season by his son, Brian Roe, in whose +time Thomas de Clare again put to the test of battle his pretensions to the +lordship of Thomond. +</p> + +<p> +It was in the year 1277, that, supported by his father-in-law, the Kildare +Fitzgerald, de Clare marched into 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 himself credulously in the hands of +his invaders, was cruelly drawn to pieces between two horses. All Thomond rose +in arms, under Donogh, son of Brian, to revenge this infamous murder. Near +Ennis the Normans met a terrible defeat, from which de Clare and Fitzgerald +fled for safety into the neighbouring Church of Quin. But Donogh O'Brien burned +the Church over their heads, and forced them to surrender at discretion. +Strange to say they were held to ransom, on conditions, we may suppose, +sufficiently hard. Other days of blood were yet to decide the claims of the +family of de Clare. In 1287, Turlogh, then the O'Brien, defeated an invasion +similar to the last, in which Thomas de Clare was slain, together with Patrick +Fitzmaurice of Kerry, Richard Taafe, Richard Deriter, Nicholas Teeling, and +other knights, and Gerald, the fourth Baron of Offally, brother-in-law to de +Clare, was mortally wounded. After another interval, Gilbert de Clare, son of +Thomas, renewed the contest, which he bequeathed to his brother Richard. This +Richard, whose name figures more than his brother's in the events of his time, +made a last effort, in the year 1318, to make good the claims of his family. On +the 5th of May, in that year, he fell in battle against McCarthy and O'Brien, +and there fell with him Sir Thomas de 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 of Gloucester, which, at its first +settling in Munster, flourished as bravely as the Geraldines themselves, became +extinct in the land. +</p> + +<p> +Such were the varying fortunes of the two races in Leinster and Munster, and +such the men who rose and fell. We must now turn to the contest as maintained +at the same period in Meath and Ulster. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap32"></a>CHAPTER X.<br/> +EVENTS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY—THE NORMANS IN MEATH AND +ULSTER.</h3> + +<p> +We may estimate the power of the de Lacy family in the second generation, from +the fact that their expulsion required a royal army and navy, commanded by the +King in person, to come from England. Although pardoned by John, the brothers +took care never to place themselves in that cowardly tyrant's power, and they +observed the same precaution on the accession of his son, until well assured +that he did not share the antipathy of his father. After their restoration the +Lacys had no rivals among the Norman-Irish except the Marshal family, and +though both houses in half a century became extinct, not so those they had +planted or patronized, or who claimed from them collaterally. In Meath the +Tuites, Cusacks, Flemings, Daltons, Petits, Husseys, Nangles, Tyrrells, +Nugents, Verdons, and Gennevilles, struck deep into the soil. The co-heiresses, +Margaret and Matilda de Lacy, married Lord Theobald de Verdon and Sir Geoffrey +de Genneville, between whom the estate of their father was divided; both these +ladies dying without male issue, the lordship was, in 1286, claimed by Richard +de Burgo, Earl of Ulster, whose mother was their cousin-germain. But we are +anticipating time. +</p> + +<p> +No portion of the island, if we except, perhaps, Wexford and the shores of +Strangford Lough, was so thoroughly castellated as the ancient Meath from the +sea to the Shannon. Trim, Kells and Durrow were the strongest holds; there were +keeps or castles at Ardbraccan, Slane, Rathwyre, Navan, Skreen, Santry, +Clontarf, and Castleknock—for even these places, almost within sight of +Dublin, were included in de Lacy's original grant. None of these fortresses +could have been more than a few miles distant from the next, and once within +their thick-ribbed walls, the Norman, Saxon, Cambrian, or Danish serf or tenant +might laugh at the Milesian arrows and battle-axes without. With these +fortresses, and their own half-Irish origin and policy, the de Lacys, father +and son, held Meath for two generations in general subjection. But the +banishment of the brothers in 1210, and the death of Walter of Meath, presented +the family of O'Melaghlin and the whole of the Methian tribes with +opportunities of insurrection not to be 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, and Smerhie, killing knights and +wardens, and enriching themselves with booty; that the whole English of Ireland +turned out <i>en masse</i> to the rescue of their brethren in Meath; that the +castles of Birr, Durrow, and Kinnetty were strengthened against Art, and a new +one erected at Clonmacnoise. After ten years of exile, the banished de Lacys +returned, and by alliance with O'Neil, no less than their own prowess, +recovered all their former influence. Cormac, son of Art, left a son and +successor also named Art, who, we read at the year 1264, gave the English of +Meath a great defeat upon the Brosna, where he that was not slain was drowned. +Following the blow, he burned their villages and broke the castles of the +stranger throughout Devlin, Calry, and Brawny, and replaced in power 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 at Shannon +harbour, driving his men into the river, where many of them perished. At his +death (A.D. 1283) he is eulogized for having destroyed seven-and-twenty English +castles in his lifetime. From these exploits he was called Art <i>na +Caislean</i>, a remarkable distinction, when we remember that the Irish were, +up to this time, wholly unskilled in besieging such strongholds as the Norman +engineers knew so well how to construct. His only rival in Meath in such +meritorious works of destruction was Conor, son of Donnell, and O'Melaghlin of +East-Meath, or <i>Bregia</i>, whose death is recorded at the year 1277, "as one +of the three men in Ireland" whom the midland English most feared. +</p> + +<p> +From the ancient mensal the transition is easy to the north. The border-land of +Breffni, whose chief was the first of the native nobles that perished by Norman +perfidy, was at the beginning of the century swayed by Ulgarg O'Rourke. Of +Ulgarg we know little, save that in the year 1231 he "died on his way to the +river Jordan"—a not uncommon pilgrimage with the Irish of those days. +Nial, son of Congal, succeeded, and about the middle of the century we find +Breffni divided into two lordships, from the mountain of Slieve-an-eiran +eastward, or Cavan, being given to Art, son of Cathal, and from the mountain +westward, or Leitrim, to Donnell, son of Conor, son of Tiernan, de Lacy's +victim. This subdivision conduced neither to the strengthening of its defenders +nor to the satisfaction of O'Conor, under whose auspices it was made. Family +feuds and household treasons were its natural results for two or three +generations; in the midst of these broils two neighbouring families rose into +greater importance, the O'Reillys in Cavan and the Maguires in Fermanagh. +Still, strong in their lake and mountain region, the tribes of Breffni were +comparatively unmolested by foreign enemies, while the stress of the northern +battle fell upon the men of Tyrconnell and Tyrone, of Oriel and of the coast +country, from Carlingford to the Causeway. +</p> + +<p> +The borders of Tyrconnell and Tyrone, like every other tribe-land, were +frequently enlarged or contracted, according to the vigour or weakness of their +chiefs or neighbours. In the age of which we now speak, Tyrconnell extended +from the Erne to the Foyle, and Tyrone from the Foyle to Lough Neagh, with the +exception of the extreme north of Berry and Antrim, which belonged to the +O'Kanes. It was not till the fourteenth century that the O'Neils spread their +power east of Lough Neagh, over those baronies of Antrim long known as north +and south <i>Clan-Hugh-Buidhe</i>, (Clandeboy.) North Antrim was still known as +Dalriada, and South Antrim and Down, as Ulidia. Oriel, which has been usually +spoken of in this history as Louth, included angles of Monaghan and Armagh, and +was anciently the most extensive lordship in Ulster. The chieftain families of +Tyrconnell were the O'Donnells; of Tyrone, the O'Neils and McLaughlins; of +Dalriada, O'Kanes, O'Haras, and O'Shields; of Ulidia, the Magennis of Iveagh +and the Donlevys of Down; of Oriel, the McMahons and O'Hanlons. Among these +populous tribes the invaders dealt some of their fiercest blows, both by land +and sea, in the thirteenth century. But the north was fortunate in its chiefs; +they may fairly contest the laurel with the O'Conors, O'Briens and McCarthys of +the west and south. +</p> + +<p> +In the first third of the century, Hugh O'Neil, who succeeded to the lordship +of Tyrone in 1198, and died in 1230, was cotemporary with Donnell More +O'Donnell, who, succeeding to the lordship of Tyrconnell in 1208, died in 1241, +after an equally long and almost equally distinguished career. Melaghlin +O'Donnell succeeded Donnell More from '41 to '47, Godfrey from '48 to '57, and +Donnell Oge from 1257 to 1281, when he was slain in battle. Hugh O'Neil was +succeeded in Tyrone by Donnell McLaughlin, of the rival branch of the same +stock, who in 1241 was subdued by O'Donnell, and the ascendancy of the 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's death, and ruled till the year 1283, when he was slain in battle, as +was his next successor, Brian, in the year 1295. These names and dates are +worthy to be borne in mind, because on these two great houses mainly devolved +the brunt of battle in their own province. +</p> + +<p> +These northern chiefs had two frontiers to guard or to assail: the +north-eastern, extending from the glens of Antrim to the hills of Mourne, and +the southern stretching from sea to sea, from Newry to Sligo. This country was +very assailable by sea; to those whose castles commanded its harbours and +rivers, the fleets of Bristol, Chester, Man, and Dublin could always carry +supplies and reinforcements. By the interior line one road threaded the Mourne +mountains, and deflected towards Armagh, while another, winding through west +Breffni, led from Sligo into Donegal by the cataract of Assaroe,—the +present Ballyshannon. Along these ancient lines of communication, by fords, in +mountain passes, and near the landing places for ships, the struggle for the +possession of that end of the Island went on, at intervals, whenever large +bodies of men could be spared from garrisons and from districts already +occupied. +</p> + +<p> +In the year 1210, we find that there was an English Castle at Cael-uisge, now +Castle-Caldwell, on Lough Erne, and that it was broke down and its defenders +slain by Hugh O'Neil and Donald More O'Donnell acting together. After this +event we have no trace of a foreign force in the interior of Ulster for several +years. Hugh O'Neil, who died in 1230, is praised by the Bards for "never having +given hostages, pledges, or tributes to English or Irish," which seems a +compliment well founded. During several years following that date the war was +chiefly centred in Connaught, and the fighting men of the north who took part +in it were acting as allies to the O'Conors. Donald More 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, an army under +Maurice Fitzgerald, then Lord Justice, crossed the Erne in two divisions, one +above and the other at Ballyshannon. Melaghlin O'Donnell was defending the +passage of the river when he was taken unexpectedly in the rear by those who +had crossed higher up, and thus was defeated and slain. Fitzgerald then ravaged +Tyrconnell, set up a rival chief O'Canavan, and rebuilt the Castle at +Cael-uisge, near Beleek. Ten years afterwards Godfrey O'Donnell, the successor +of Melaghlin, avenged the defeat at Ballyshannon, in the sanguinary battle of +Credran, near Sligo, where engaging Fitzgerald in single combat, he gave him +his death-stroke. From wounds received at Credran, Godfrey himself, after +lingering twelve months in great suffering, died. But his bodily afflictions +did not prevent him discharging all the duties of a great Captain; he razed a +second time the English Castle on Lough Erne, and stoutly protected his own +borders against the pretensions of O'Neil, being carried on his bier in the +front of the battle of Lough Swilly in 1258. +</p> + +<p> +It was while Tyrconnell was under the rule of this heroic soldier that the +unfortunate feud arose between the O'Neils and O'Donnells. Both families, +sprung from a common ancestor, of equal antiquity and equal pride, neither +would yield a first place to the other. "Pay me my tribute," was O'Neil's +demand; "I owe you no tribute, and if I did—-" was O'Donnell's reply. The +O'Neil at this time—Brian—aspiring to restore the Irish sovereignty +in his own person, was compelled to begin the work of exercising authority over +his next neighbour. More than one border battle was the consequence, not only +with Godfrey, but with Donnell Oge, his successor. In the year 1258, Brian was +formally recognized by O'Conor and O'Brien as chief of the kingdom, in the +conference of Cael-uisge, and two years later, at the battle of Down, gallantly +laid down his life, in defence of the kingdom he claimed to govern. In this +most important battle no O'Donnell is found fighting with King Brian, though +immediately afterwards we find Donnell Oge of Tyrconnell endeavouring to +subjugate Tyrone, and active afterwards in the aid of his cousins, the +grandsons of Cathal Crovdearg, in Connaught. +</p> + +<p> +The Norman commander in this battle was Stephen de Longespay, then Lord +Justice, Earl of Salisbury in England, and Count de Rosman in France. His +marriage with the widow of Hugh de Lacy and daughter of de Riddlesford +connected him closely with Irish affairs, and in the battle of Down he seems to +have had all the Anglo-Irish chivalry, "in gold and iron," at his back. With +King Brian O'Neil fell, on that crimson day, the chiefs of the O'Hanlons, +O'Kanes, McLaughlins, O'Gormlys, McCanns, and other families who followed his +banner. The men of Connaught 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 among the slain. In Hugh <i>Bwee</i> O'Neil the +only hope of the house of Tyrone seemed now to rest; and his energy and courage +were all taxed to the uttermost to retain the place of his family in the +Province, beating back rapacious neighbours on the one hand, and guarding +against foreign enemies on the other. For twelve years, Hugh <i>Bwee</i> +defended his lordship against all aggressors. In 1283, he fell at the hands of +the insurgent chiefs of Oriel and Breffni, and a fierce contest for the +succession arose between his son Brian and Donald, son of King Brian who fell +at Down. A contest of twelve years saw Donald successful over his rival (A.D. +1295), and his rule extended from that period until 1325, when he died at +Leary's lake, in the present diocese of Clogher. +</p> + +<p> +It was this latter Donnell or Donald O'Neil, who, towards the end of his reign, +addressed to Pope John XXII. (elected to the pontificate in 1316) that powerful +indictment against the Anglo-Normans, which has ever since remained one of the +cardinal texts of our history. It was evidently written after the unsuccessful +attempt, in which Donald was himself a main actor, to establish Edward Bruce on +the throne of Ireland. That period we have not yet reached, but the merciless +character of the warfare waged against the natives of the country could hardly +have been aggravated by Bruce's defeat. "They oblige us by open force," says +the Ulster Prince, "to give up to them our houses and our lands, and to seek +shelter like wild beasts upon the mountains, in woods, marshes, and caves. Even +there we are not secure against their fury; they even envy us those dreary and +terrible abodes; they are incessant and unremitting in their pursuit after us, +endeavouring to chase us from among them; they lay claim to every place in +which they can discover us with unwarranted audacity and injustice; they allege +that the whole kingdom belongs to them of right, and that an Irishman has no +longer a right to remain in his own country." +</p> + +<p> +After specifying in detail the proofs of these and other general charges, the +eloquent Prince concludes by uttering the memorable vow that the Irish "will +not cease to fight against and among their invaders until the day when they +themselves, for want of power, shall have ceased to do us harm, and that a +Supreme Judge shall have taken just vengeance on their crimes, which we firmly +hope will sooner or later come to pass." +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap33"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br/> +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.</h3> + +<p> +Though the victorious and protracted career of Richard de Burgh, the "Red Earl" +of Ulster, might, without overstraining, be included in the Norman period, yet, +as introductory to the memorable advent and election of King Edward Bruce, we +must leave it for the succeeding book. Having brought down the narrative, as +regards all the provinces, to the end of the first century, from the invasion, +we must now cast a backward glance on the events of that hundred years before +passing into the presence of other times and new combinations. +</p> + +<p> +"There were," says <i>Giraldus Cambriensis</i>, "three sundry sorts of +servitors which served in the realm of Ireland, Normans, Englishmen, and the +Cambrians, which were the first conquerors of the land: the first were in most +credit and estimation, the second next, but the last were not accounted or +regarded of." "The Normans," adds the author, "were very fine in their apparel, +and delicate in their diets; they could not feed but upon dainties, neither +could their meat digest without wine at each meal; yet would they not serve in +the marches or any remote place against the enemy, neither would they lie in +garrison to keep any remote castle or fort, but, would be still about their +lord's side to serve and guard his person; they would be where they might be +full and have plenty; 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 an historian; of one who felt and spoke for those, his own +kinsmen many of them, who, he complains, although the first to enter on the +conquest, were yet held in contempt and disdain, "and only new-comers called to +council." +</p> + +<p> +The Normans were certainly the captains in every campaign from Robert +Fitzstephen to Stephen de Longespay. They made the war, and they maintained it. +In the rank and file, and even among the knighthood, men of pure Welsh, +English, and Flemish and Danish blood, may be singled out, but each host was +marshalled by Norman skill, and every defeat was borne with Norman fortitude. +It may seem strange, then, that these greatest masters of the art of war, as +waged in the middle ages, invincible in England, France, Italy, and the East, +should, after a hundred years, be no nearer to the conquest of Ireland than +they were at the end of the tenth year. +</p> + +<p> +The main causes of the fluctuations of the war were, no doubt, the divided +military command, and the frequent change of their civil authorities. They had +never marched or colonized before without their Duke or King at their head, and +in their midst. One supreme chief was necessary to keep to any common purpose +the minds of so many proud, intractable nobles. The feuds of the de Lacys with +the Marshals, of the Geraldines with the de Burghs, broke out periodically +during the thirteenth century, and were naturally seized upon, by the Irish as +opportunities for attacking either or both. The secondary nobles and all the +adventurers understood their danger and its cause, when they petitioned Henry +II. and Henry III. so often and so urgently as they did, that a member of the +royal family might reside permanently in Ireland, to exercise the supreme +authority, military and civil. +</p> + +<p> +The civil administration of the colonists passing into different hands every +three or four years, suffered from the absence of permanent authority. The law +of the marches was, of necessity, the law of the strong hand, and no other. But +<i>Cambrensis</i>, whose personal prejudices are not involved in this fact, +describes the walled towns as filled with litigation in his time. "There was," +he says, "such <i>lawing</i> and vexation, that the veteran was more troubled +in <i>lawing</i> within the town than he was in peril at large with the enemy." +This being the case, we must take with great caution the bold assertions so +often made of the zeal with which the natives petitioned the Henrys and Edwards +that the law of England might be extended to them. Certain Celts whose lands +lay within or upon the marches, others who compounded with their Norman +invaders, a chief or prince, hard pressed by domestic enemies, may have wished +to be in a position to quote Norman law against Norman spoilers, but the +popular petitions which went to England, beseeching the extension of its laws +to Ireland, went only from the townsmen of Dublin, and the new settlers in +Leinster or Meath, harassed and impoverished by the arbitrary jurisdiction of +manorial courts, from which they had no appeal. The great mass of the Irish +remained as warmly attached to their Brehon code down to the seventeenth +century as they were before the invasion of Norman or Dane. It may sound +barbarous to our ears that, according to that code, murder should be compounded +by an <i>eric</i>, or fine; that putting out the eyes should be the usual +punishment of treason; that maiming should be judiciously inflicted for sundry +offences; and that the land of a whole clan should be equally shared between +the free members of that clan. We are not yet in a position to form an +intelligent opinion upon the primitive jurisprudence of our ancestors, but the +system itself could not have been very vicious which nourished in the governed +such a thirst for justice, that, according to one of their earliest English law +reformers, they were anxious for its execution, even against themselves. +</p> + +<p> +The distinction made in the courts of the adventurers against natives of the +soil, even when long domiciled within their borders, was of itself a sufficient +cause of war between the races. In the eloquent letter of the O'Neil to Pope +John XXII.—written about the year 1318—we read, that no man of +Irish origin could sue in an English court; that no Irishman, within the +marches, could make a legal will; that his property was appropriated by his +English neighbours; and that the murder of an Irishman was not even a felony +punishable by fine. This latter charge would appear incredible, if we had not +the record of more than one case where the homicide justified his act by the +plea that his victim was a mere native, and where the plea was held good and +sufficient. +</p> + +<p> +A very vivid picture of Hiberno-Norman town-life in those days is presented to +us in an old poem, on the "Entrenchment of the Town of Ross," in the year 1265. +We have there the various trades and crafts-mariners, coat-makers, fullers, +cloth-dyers and sellers, butchers, cordwainers, tanners, hucksters, smiths, +masons, carpenters, arranged by 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 bachelor +vied with each other in warlike haste. In time of peace the stranger was always +welcome in the streets; he was free to buy and sell without toll or tax, and to +admire the fair dames who walked the quiet ramparts, clad in mantles of green, +or russet, or scarlet. Such is the poetic picture of the town of Ross in the +thirteenth century; the poem itself is written in Norman-French, though +evidently intended for popular use, and the author is called "Friar Michael of +Kildare." It is pretty evident from this instance, which is not singular, that +a century after the first invasion, the French language was still the speech of +part, if not the majority, of these Hiberno-Norman townsmen. +</p> + +<p> +So walls, and laws, and language arose, a triple barrier between the races. +That common religion which might be expected to form a strong bond between them +had itself to adopt a twofold organization. Distinctions of nationality were +carried into the Sanctuary and into the Cloister. The historian +<i>Giraldus</i>, in preaching at Dublin against the alleged vices of the native +Clergy, sounded the first note of a long and bitter controversy. He was +promptly answered from the same pulpit on the next occasion by Albin O'Mulloy, +the patriot Abbot of Baltinglass. In one of the early Courts or Parliaments of +the Adventurers, they decreed that no Monastery in those districts of which +they had possession, should admit any but natives of England, as +novices,—a rule which, according to O'Neil's letter, was faithfully acted +upon by English Dominicans, Franciscans, Benedictines, and regular canons. Some +of the great Cistercian houses on the marches, in which the native religious +predominated, adopted a retaliatory rule, for which they were severely censured +by the general Chapter of their Order. But the length to which this feud was +carried may be imagined by the sweeping charge O'Neil brings against "Brother +Symon, a relative of the Bishop of Coventry," and other religious of his +nation, who openly maintained, he says, that the killing of a mere Irishman was +no murder. +</p> + +<p> +When this was the feeling on one side, or was believed to be the feeling, we +cannot wonder that the war should have been renewed as regularly as the +seasons. No sooner was the husbandman in the field than the knight was upon the +road. Some peculiarities of the wars of those days gleam out at intervals +through the methodic indifference to detail of the old annals, and reveal to us +curious conditions of society. In the Irish country, where castle-building was +but slowly introduced, we see, for example, that the usual storage for +provisions, in time of war, was in churches and churchyards. Thus de Burgh, in +his expedition to Mayo, in 1236, "left neither rick nor basket of corn in the +large churchyard of Mayo, or in the yard of the Church of Saint Michael the +Archangel, and carried away eighty baskets out of the churches themselves." +When we read, therefore, as we frequently do, of both Irish and Normans +plundering churches in the land of their enemies, we are not to suppose the +plunder of the sanctuary. Popularly this seizing the supplies of an enemy on +consecrated ground was considered next to sacrilege; and well it was for the +fugitives in the sanctuary in those iron times that it should be so considered. +Yet not the less is it necessary for us to distinguish a high-handed military +measure from actual sacrilege, for which there can be no apology, and hardly +any earthly atonement. +</p> + +<p> +In their first campaigns the Irish had one great advantage over the Normans in +their familiarity with the country. This helped them to their first victories. +But when the invaders were able to set up rival houses against each other, and +to secure the co-operation of natives, the advantage was soon equalized. Great +importance was attached to the intelligence and good faith of the guides, who +accompanied every army, and were personally consulted by the leaders in +determining their march. A country so thickly studded with the ancient forest, +and so netted with rivers (then of much greater volume than since they have +been stripped of their guardian woods), afforded constant occasion for the +display of minute local knowledge. To miss a pass or to find a ford might +determine a campaign, almost as much as the skill of the chief, or the courage +of the battalion. +</p> + +<p> +The Irish depended for their knowledge of the English towns and castles on +their daring <i>spies</i>, who continually risked their necks in acquiring for +their clansmen such needful information. This perilous duty, when undertaken by +a native for the benefit of his country, was justly accounted highly +honourable. Proud poets, educated in all the mysteries of their art, and even +men of chieftain rank, did not hesitate to assume disguises and act the patriot +spy. One of the most celebrated spies of this century 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 his day. "He was in the +habit of going about to reconnoitre their market towns," say the Annalists, "in +various disguises." An old quatrain gives us a list of some of the parts he +played when in the towns of his enemies— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"He is a carpenter, he is a turner.<br/> +My nursling is a bookman.<br/> +He is selling wine and hides<br/> +Where he sees a gathering."<br/> +</p> + +<p> +An able captain, as well as an intrepid spy, he met his fate in acting out his +favourite part, "which," adds our justice-loving Four Masters, "was a +retaliation due to the English, for, up to that time, he had killed, burned, +and destroyed many of them." +</p> + +<p> +Of the equipments and tactics of the belligerents we get from our Annals but +scanty details. The Norman battalion, according to the usage of that people, +led by the marshal of the field, charged, after the archers had delivered their +fire. But these wars had bred a new mounted force, called hobiler-archers, who +were found so effective that they were adopted into all the armies of Europe. +Although the 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 archers of Breffni, and we may probably interpret as referring to the +same weapon, Felim O'Conor's order to his men, in his combat with the sons of +Roderick at Drumraitte (1237), "not to shoot but to come to a close fight." It +is possible, however, that this order may have reference to the old Irish +weapon, the javelin or dart. The pike, the battle-axe, the sword, and skein, or +dagger, both parties had in common, though their construction was different. +The favourite tactique, on both sides, seems to have been the old military +expedient of outflanking an enemy, and attacking him simultaneously in front +and rear. Thus, in the year 1225, in one of the combats of the O'Conors, when +the son of Cathal <i>Crovdearg</i> endeavoured to surround Turlogh O'Conor, the +latter ordered his recruits to the van, and Donn Oge Magheraty, with some +Tyronian and other soldiers to cover the rear, "by which means they escaped +without the loss of a man." The flank movement by which the Lord Justice +Fitzgerald carried the passage of the Erne (A.D. 1247) against O'Donnell, +according to the Annalists, was suggested to Fitzgerald by Cormac, the grandson +of Roderick O'Conor. By that period in their intercourse the Normans and Irish +had fought so often together that their stock of tactical knowledge must have +been, from experience, very much common property. In the eyes of the Irish +chiefs and chroniclers, the foreign soldiers who served with them were but +hired mercenaries. They were sometimes repaid by the plunder of the country +attacked, but usually they received fixed wages for the length of time they +entered. "Hostages for the payment of wages" are frequently referred to, as +given by native nobles to these foreign auxiliaries. The chief expedient for +subsisting an army was driving before them herds and flocks; free quarters for +men and horses were supplied by the tenants of allied chiefs within their +territory, and for the rest, the simple outfit was probably not very unlike +that of the Scottish borderers described by Froissart, who cooked the cattle +they captured in their skins, carrying a broad plate of metal and a little bag +of oatmeal trussed up behind the saddle. +</p> + +<p> +One inveterate habit clung to the ancient race, even until long after the times +of which we now speak—their unconquerable prejudice against defensive +armour. Gilbride McNamee, the laureate to King Brian O'Neil, gives due +prominence to this fact in his poem on the death of his patron in the battle of +Down (A.D. 1260). Thus sings the northern bard— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Â Â Â "The foreigners from London,<br/> +Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The hosts from Port-Largy *<br/> +Â Â Â Â Came in a bright green body,<br/> +Â Â Â Â Â Â Â In gold and iron armour.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Â Â Â "Unequal they engage in the battle,<br/> +Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The foreigners and the Gael of Tara,<br/> +Â Â Â Â <i>Fine linen shirts on the race of Conn</i>,<br/> +Â Â Â Â Â Â Â And the strangers <i>one mass of iron</i>."<br/> +</p> + +<p> +[Footnote: Port-Largy, Waterford.] +</p> + +<p> +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, amply testify. The first hundred years of war for native land, with +their new foes, had passed over, and three-fourths of the <i>Saer Clanna</i> +were still as free as they had ever been. It was not reserved even for the +Norman race—the conquest of Innisfail! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap34"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br/> +STATE OF SOCIETY AND LEARNING IN IRELAND DURING THE NORMAN PERIOD.</h3> + +<p> +We have already spoken of the character of the war waged by and against the +Normans on Irish soil, and as war was then almost every man's business, we may +be supposed to have described all that is known of the time in describing its +wars. What we have to add of the other pursuits of the various orders of men +into which society was divided, is neither very full nor very satisfactory. +</p> + +<p> +The rise, fall, and migrations of some of the clans have been already alluded +to. In no age did more depend on the personal character of the chief than then. +When the death of the heroic Godfrey left the free clansmen of Tyrconnell +without a lord to lead them to battle, or rule them in peace, the Annalists +represent them to us as meeting in great perplexity, and engaged "in making +speeches" as to what was to be done, when suddenly, to their great relief, +Donnell Oge, son of Donnell More, who had been fostered in Alba (Scotland), was +seen approaching them. Not more welcome was Tuathal, the well-beloved, the +restorer of the Milesian monarchy, after the revolt of the <i>Tuatha</i>. He +was immediately elected chief, and the emissaries of O'Neil, who had been +waiting for an answer to his demand of tribute, were brought before him. He +answered their proposition by a proverb expressed in the Gaelic of Alba, which +says that "every man should possess his own country," and Tyrconnell armed to +make good this maxim. +</p> + +<p> +The Bardic order still retained much of their ancient power, and all their +ancient pride. Of their most famous names in this period we may mention Murray +O'Daly of Lissadil, in Sligo, Donogh O'Daly of Finvarra, sometimes called Abbot +of Boyle, and Gilbride McNamee, laureate to King Brian O'Neil. McNamee, in +lamenting the death of Brian, describes himself as defenceless, and a prey to +every 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. On another, when he presented him a poem, he gave in return twenty horned +cows, and a gift still more lasting, "the blessing of the King of Erin." Other +chiefs, who fell in the same battle, and to one of whom, named Auliffe +O'Gormley, he had often gone "on a visit of pleasure," are lamented with equal +warmth by the bard. The poetic Abbot of Boyle is himself lamented in the Annals +as the Ovid of Ireland, as "a poet who never had and never will have an equal." +But the episode which best illustrates at once the address and the audacity of +the bardic order is the story of Murray O'Daly of Lissadil, and Donnell More +O'Donnell, Lord of Tyrconnell. +</p> + +<p> +In the year 1213, O'Donnell despatched Finn O'Brollaghan, his <i>Aes graidh</i> +or Steward, to collect his tribute in Connaught, 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 of song, seizing a sharp axe, +slew the steward on the spot, and then to avoid O'Donnell's vengeance fled into +Clanrickarde. Here he announced himself by a poem addressed to de Burgh, +imploring his protection, setting forth the claims of the Bardic order on all +high-descended heroes, and contending that his fault was but venial, in killing +a clown, who insulted him. O'Donnell pursued the fugitive to Athenry, and de +Burgh sent him away secretly into Thomond. Into Thomond, the Lord of Tyrconnell +marched, but O'Brien sent off the Bard to Limerick. The enraged Ulsterman +appeared at the gates of Limerick, when O'Daly was smuggled out of the town, +and "passed from hand to hand," until he reached Dublin. The following spring +O'Donnell appeared in force before Dublin, and demanded the fugitive, who, as a +last resort, had been sent for safety into Scotland. From the place of his +exile he addressed three deprecatory poems to the offended Lord of Tyrconnell, +who finally allowed him to return to Lissadil in peace, and even restored him +to his friendship. +</p> + +<p> +The introduction of the new religious orders—Dominicans, Franciscans, and +the order for the redemption of Captives into Ireland, in the first quarter of +this century gradually extinguished the old Columban and Brigintine houses. In +Leinster they made way most rapidly; but Ulster clung with its ancient tenacity +to the Columban rule. The Hierarchy of the northern half-kingdom still +exercised a protectorate over Iona itself, for we read, in the year 1203, how +Kellagh, having erected a monastery in the middle of Iona, in despite of the +religious, that the Bishops of Derry and Raphoe, with the Abbots of Armagh and +Derry and numbers of the Clergy of the North of Ireland, passed over to Iona, +pulled down the unauthorized monastery, and assisted at the election of a new +Abbot. This is almost the last important act of the Columban order in Ireland. +By the close of the century, the Dominicans had some thirty houses, and the +Franciscans as many more, whether in the walled towns or the open country. +These monasteries became the refuge of scholars, during the stormy period we +have passed, and in other days full as troubled, which were to come. Moreover, +as the Irish student, like all others in that age, desired to travel from +school to school, these orders admitted him to the ranks of widespread European +brotherhoods, from whom he might always claim hospitality. Nor need we reject +as anything incredible the high renown for scholarship and ability obtained in +those times by such men as Thomas Palmeran of Naas, in the University of Paris; +by Peter and Thomas Hibernicus in the University of 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, Gotofrid of +Waterford; and above all, by John Scotus of Down, the subtle doctor, the +luminary of the Franciscan schools, of Paris and Cologne. The native schools of +Ireland had lost their early ascendancy, and are no longer traceable in our +annals; but Irish scholarship, when arrested in its full development at home, +transferred its efforts to foreign Universities, and there maintained the +ancient honour of the country among the studious "nations" of Christendom. +Among the "nations" involved in the college riots at Oxford, in the year 1274, +we find mention of the Irish, from which fact it is evident there must have +been a considerable number of natives of that country, then frequenting the +University. +</p> + +<p> +The most distinguished native ecclesiastics of this century were Matthew +O'Heney, Archbishop of Cashel, originally a Cistercian monk, who died in +retirement at Holy Cross in 1207; Albin O'Mulloy, the opponent of +<i>Giraldus</i>, who died Bishop of Ferns in 1222; and Clarus McMailin, Erenach +of Trinity Island, Lough Key—if an <i>Erenach</i> may be called an +ecclesiastic. It was O'Heney made the Norman who said the Irish Church had no +martyrs, the celebrated answer, that now men had come into the country who knew +so well how to make martyrs, that reproach would soon be taken away. He is said +to have written a life of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, and we know that he +had legantine powers at the opening of the century. The <i>Erenach</i> of Lough +Key, who flourished in its second half, plays an important part in all the +western feuds and campaigns; his guarantee often preserved peace and protected +the vanquished. Among the church-builders of his age, he stands conspicuous. +The ordinary churches were indeed easily built, seldom exceeding 60 or 70 feet +in length, and one half that width, and the material still most in use was, for +the church proper, timber. The towers, cashels, or surrounding walls, and the +cells of the religious, as well as the great monasteries and collegiate and +cathedral churches, were of stone, and many of them remain monuments of the +skill and munificence of their founders. +</p> + +<p> +Of the consequences of the abolition of slavery by the Council of Armagh, at +the close of the twelfth century, we have no tangible evidence. It is probable +that the slave trade, rather than domestic servitude, was abolished by that +decree. The cultivators of the soil were still divided into two +orders—Biataghs and Brooees. "The former," says O'Donovan, "who were +comparatively few in number, would appear to have held their lands free of +rent, but were obliged to entertain travellers, and the chief's soldiers when +on their march in his direction; and the latter (the Brooees) would appear to +have been subject to a stipulated rent and service." From "the Book of Lecan," +a compilation of the fourteenth century, we learn that the Brooee was required +to keep an hundred labourers, and an hundred of each kind of domestic animals. +Of the rights or wages of the labourers, we believe, there is no mention made. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="part05"></a>BOOK V.<br/> +THE ERA OF KING EDWARD BRUCE.</h3> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap35"></a>CHAPTER I.<br/> +THE RISE OF "THE RED EARL"—RELATIONS OF IRELAND AND SCOTLAND.</h3> + +<p> +During the half century which comprised the reigns of Edward I. and II. in +England (A.D. 1272 to 1327), Scotland saw the last of her first race of Kings, +and the elevation of the family of Bruce, under whose brilliant star Ireland +was, for a season, drawn into the mid-current of Scottish politics. Before +relating the incidents of that revolution of short duration but long enduring +consequences, we must note the rise to greatness of the one great Norman name, +which in that era mainly represented the English interest and influence in +Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Richard de Burgh, called from his ruddy complexion "the Red Earl" of Ulster, +nobly bred in the court of Henry III. of England, had attained man's age about +the period when the de Lacys, the Geraldines, de Clares, and other great +Anglo-Irish, families, either through the fortune of war or failure of issue, +were deprived of most of their natural leaders. Uniting in his own person the +blood of the O'Conors, de Lacys, and de Burghs, his authority was great from +the beginning in Meath and Connaught. In his inroads on West-Meath he seems to +have been abetted by the junior branches of the de Lacys, who were with his +host in the year 1286, when he besieged Theobald de Verdon in Athlone, and +advanced his banner as far eastward as the strong town of Trim, upon the Boyne. +Laying claim to the possessions of the Lord of Meath, which touched the Kildare +Geraldines at so many points, he inevitably came into contact with that +powerful family. In 1288, in alliance with Manus O'Conor, they compelled him to +retreat from Roscommon into Clanrickarde, in Mayo. De Verdon, his competitor +for West-Meath, naturally entered into alliance with the Kildare Geraldine, and +in the year 1294, after many lesser conflicts, they took the Red Earl and his +brother William prisoners, and carried them in fetters to the Castle of Lea, in +Offally. This happened on the 6th day of December; a Parliament assembled at +Kilkenny on the 12th of March following, ordered their release; and a peace was +made between these powerful houses. De Burgh gave his two sons as hostages to +Fitzgerald, and the latter surrendered the Castle of Sligo to de Burgh. From +the period of this peace the power of the last named nobleman outgrew anything +that had been known since the Invasion. In the year 1291, he banished the +O'Donnell out of his territory, and set up another of his own choosing; he +deposed one O'Neil and raised up another; he so straitened O'Conor in his +patrimony of Roscommon, that that Prince also entered his camp at Meelick, and +gave him hostages. He was thus the first and only man of his race who had ever +had in his hand the hostages both of Ulster and Connaught. When the King of +England sent writs into Ireland, he usually addressed the Red Earl, before the +Lord Justice or Lord Deputy—a compliment which, in that ceremonious age, +could not be otherwise than flattering to the pride of de Burgh. Such was the +order of summons, in which, in the year 1296, he was required by Edward I. to +attend him into Scotland, which was then experiencing some of the worst +consequences of a disputed succession. As Ireland's interest in this struggle +becomes in the sequel second only to that of Scotland, we must make brief +mention of its origin and progress. +</p> + +<p> +By the accidental death of Alexander III., in 1286, the McAlpine, or +Scoto-Irish dynasty, was suddenly terminated. Alexander's only surviving child, +Margaret, called from her mother's country, "the Maid of Norway," soon followed +her father; and no less than eight competitors, all claiming collateral descent +from the former Kings, appeared at the head of as many factions to contest the +succession. This number was, however, soon reduced to two men—John Baliol +and Robert Bruce—the former the grandson of the eldest, the latter the +son of the second daughter of King David I. After many bickerings these +powerful rivals were induced to refer their claims to the decision of Edward I. +of England, who, in a Great Court held at Berwick in the year 1292, decided in +favour of Baliol, not in the character of an indifferent arbitrator, but as +lord paramount of Scotland. As such, Baliol there and then rendered him feudal +homage, and became, in the language of the age, "his man." This sub-sovereignty +could not but be galling to the proud and warlike nobles of Scotland, and +accordingly, finding Edward embroiled about his French possessions, three years +after the decision, they caused Baliol 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 40,000 men, which he had raised for the +war in France, towards the Scottish border, whither he summoned the Earl of +Ulster, the Geraldines, Butlers, de Verdons, de Genvilles, Berminghams, Poers, +Purcells, de Cogans, de Barrys, de Lacys, d'Exeters, and other minor nobles, to +come to him in his camp early in March, 1296. The Norman-Irish obeyed the call, +but the pride of de Burgh would not permit him to embark in the train of the +Lord Justice Wogan, who had been also summoned; he sailed with his own forces +in a separate fleet, having conferred the honour of knighthood on thirty of his +younger followers before embarking at Dublin. Whether these forces arrived in +time to take part in the bloody siege of Berwick, and the panic-route at +Dunbar, does not appear; they were in time, however, to see the strongest +places in Scotland yielded up, and John Baliol a prisoner on his way to the +Tower of London. They were sumptuously entertained by the conqueror in the +Castle of Roxburgh, and returned to their western homes deeply impressed with +the power of England, and the puissance of her warrior-king. +</p> + +<p> +But the independence of Scotland was not to be trodden out in a single +campaign. During Edward's absence in France, William Wallace and other guerilla +chiefs arose, to whom were soon united certain patriot nobles and bishops. The +English deputy de Warrane fought two unsuccessful campaigns against these +leaders, until his royal master, having concluded peace with France, summoned +his Parliament to meet him at York, and his Norman-Irish lieges to join him in +his northern camp, with all their forces, on the 1st of March, 1299. In June +the English King found himself at Roxburgh, at the head of 8,000 horse, and +80,000 foot, "chiefly Irish and Welsh." With this immense force he routed +Wallace at Falkirk on the 22nd of July, and reduced him to his original rank of +a guerilla chief, wandering with his bands of partizans from one fastness to +another. The Scottish cause gained in Pope Boniface VII. a powerful advocate +soon after, and the unsubdued districts continued to obey a Regency composed of +the Bishop of St. Andrews, Robert Bruce, and John Comyn. These regents +exercised their authority in the name of Baliol, carried on negotiations with +France and Rome, convoked a Parliament, and, among other military operations, +captured Stirling Castle. In the documentary remains of this great controversy, +it is curious to find Edward claiming the entire island of Britain in virtue of +the legend of Brute the Trojan, and the Scots rejecting it with scorn, and +displaying their true descent and origin from Scota, the fabled first mother of +the Milesian Irish. There is ample evidence that the claims of kindred were at +this period keenly felt by the Gael of Ireland, for the people of Scotland, and +men of our race are mentioned among the companions of Wallace and the allies of +Bruce. But the Norman-Irish were naturally drawn to the English banner, and +when, in 1303, it was again displayed north of the Tweed, the usual noble names +are found among its followers. In 1307 Scotland lost her most formidable foe, +by the death of Edward, and at the same time began to recognize her appointed +deliverer in the person of Robert Bruce. But we must return to "the Red Earl," +the central figure in our own annals during this half century. +</p> + +<p> +The new King, Edward II., compelled by his English barons to banish his minion, +Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, had created him his lieutenant of Ireland, endowed +him with a grant of the royalties of the whole island, to the prejudice of the +Earl and other noblemen. The sojourn of this brilliant parasite in Ireland +lasted but a year—from June, 1308, till the June following. He displayed +both vigour and munificence, and acquired friends. But the Red Earl, sharing to +the full the antipathy of the great barons of England, kept apart from his +court, maintained a rival state at Trim, as Commander-in-Chief, conferring +knighthood, levying men, and imposing taxes at his own discretion. A challenge +of battle is said to have passed between him and the Lieutenant, when the +latter was recalled into England by the King, where he was three years later +put to death by the barons, into whose hands he had fallen. Sir John Wogan and +Sir Edmund Butler succeeded him in the Irish administration; but the real power +long remained with Richard de Burgh. He was appointed plenipotentiary to treat +with Robert Bruce, on behalf of the King of England, "upon which occasion the +Scottish deputies waited on him in Ireland." In the year 1302 Bruce had married +his daughter, the Lady Ellen, while of his other daughters one was Countess of +Desmond, and another became Countess of Kildare in 1312. A thousand +marks—the same sum at which the town and castle of Sligo were then +valued—was allowed by the Earl for the marriage portion of his +last-mentioned daughter. His power and reputation, about the period of her +marriage, were at the full. He had long held the title of Commander of the +Irish forces, "in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Gascony;" he had successfully +resisted Gaveston in the meridian of his court favour; the father-in-law of a +King, and of Earls of almost royal power, lord paramount of half the +island—such a subject England had not seen on Irish ground since the +Invasion. This prodigious power he retained, not less by his energy than his +munificence. He erected castles at Carlingford, at Sligo, on the upper Shannon, +and on Lough Foyle. He was a generous patron of the Carmelite Order, for whom +he built the Convent of Loughrea. He was famed as a princely entertainer, and +before retiring from public affairs, characteristically closed his career with +a magnificent banquet at Kilkenny, where the whole Parliament were his guests. +Having reached an age bordering upon fourscore he retired to the Monastery of +Athassil, and there expired within sight of his family vault, after half a +century of such sway as was rarely enjoyed in that age, even by Kings. But +before that peaceful close he was destined to confront a storm the like of +which had not blown over Ireland during the long period since he first began to +perform his part in the affairs of that kingdom. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap36"></a>CHAPTER II.<br/> +THE NORTHERN IRISH ENTER INTO ALLIANCE WITH KING ROBERT BRUCE—ARRIVAL +AND FIRST CAMPAIGN OF EDWARD BRUCE.</h3> + +<p> +No facts of the ages over which we have already passed are better authenticated +than the identity of origin and feeling which existed between the Celts of Erin +and of Albyn. Nor was this sympathy of race diminished by their common dangers +from a common enemy. On the eve of the Norman invasion we saw how heartily the +Irish were with Somerled and the men of Moray in resisting the feudal polity of +the successors of Malcolm <i>Caen-More</i>. As the Plantagenet Princes in +person led their forces against Scotland, the interest of the Irish, especially +those of the North, increased, year by year, in the struggles of the Scots. +Irish adherents followed the fortunes of Wallace to the close; and when Robert +Bruce, after being crowned and seated in the chair of the McAlpin line, on the +summit of the hill of Scone, had to flee into exile, he naturally sought refuge +where he knew he would find friends. Accompanied by three of his brothers, +several adherents, and even by some of the females of his family, he steered, +in the autumn of 1306, for the little island of Rathlin—seven miles long +by a mile wide—one point of which is within three miles of the Antrim +beach. In its most populous modern day Rathlin contained not above 1,000 souls, +and little wonder if its still smaller population, five centuries ago, fled in +terror at the approach of Bruce. They were, however, soon disarmed of their +fears, and agreed to supply the fugitive King daily with provisions for 300 +persons, the whole number who accompanied or followed him into exile. His +faithful adherents soon erected for him a castle, commanding one of the few +landing places on the island, the ruins of which 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 passing to and fro, in the +intervals of storm, among the western islands. Without waiting for the spring +to come round again, they issued from their retreat in different directions; +one body of 700 Irish sailed under Thomas and Alexander, the King's brothers, +for the Clyde, while Robert and Edward took the more direct passage towards the +coast of Argyle, and, after many adventures, found themselves strong enough to +attack the foreign forces in Perth and Ayrshire. The opportune death of Edward +of England the same summer, and the civil strife bred by his successor's +inordinate favour towards Gaveston, enabled the Bruces gradually to root out +the internal garrisons of their enemies; but the party that had sailed, under +the younger brothers, from Rathlin, were attacked and captured in Loch Ryan by +McDowell, and the survivors of the engagement, with Thomas and Alexander Bruce, +were carried prisoners to Carlisle and there put to death. +</p> + +<p> +The seven years' war of Scottish independence was drawn to a close by the +decisive campaign of 1314. The second Edward prepared an overwhelming force for +this expedition, summoning, as usual, the Norman-Irish Earls, and inviting in +different language his "beloved" cousins, the native Irish Chiefs, not only +such as had entered into English alliances at any time, but also notorious +allies of Bruce, like O'Neil, O'Donnell, and O'Kane. These writs were generally +unheeded; we have no record of either Norman-Irish or native-Irish Chief having +responded to Edward's summons, nor could nobles so summoned have been present +without some record remaining of the fact. On the contrary all the wishes of +the old Irish went with the Scots, and the Normans were more than suspected of +leaning the same way. Twenty-one clans, Highlanders and Islemen, and many +Ulstermen, fought on the side of Bruce, on the field of Bannockburn; the grant +of "Kincardine-O'Neil," made by the victor-King to his Irish followers, remains +a striking evidence of their fidelity to his person, and their sacrifices in +his cause. The result of that glorious day was, by the testimony of all +historians, English as well as Scottish, received with enthusiasm on the Irish +side of the channel. +</p> + +<p> +Whether any understanding had been come to between the northern Irish and +Bruce, during his sojourn in Rathlin, or whether the victory of Bannockburn +suggested the design, Edward Bruce, the gallant companion of all his brother's +fortunes and misfortunes, was now invited to place himself at the head of the +men of Ulster, in a war for Irish independence. He was a soldier of not +inferior fame to his brother for courage and fortitude, though he had never +exhibited the higher qualities of general and statesman which crowned the glory +of King Robert. Yet as he had never held a separate command of consequence, his +rashness and obstinacy, though well known to his intimates, were lost sight of, +at a distance, by those who gazed with admiration on the brilliant +achievements, in which he had certainly borne the second part. The chief mover +in the negotiation by which this gallant soldier was brought to embark his +fortunes in an Irish war, was Donald, Prince of Ulster. This Prince, whose name +is so familiar from his celebrated remonstrance addressed to Pope John XXII., +was son of King Brian of the battle of Down, who, half a century before, at the +Conference of Caeluisge, was formally chosen Ard-Righ, by the nobles of 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 of Bannockburn. Endued with an intensely national spirit, he seems to +have fully adopted the views of Nicholas McMaelisa, the Primate of Armagh, his +early cotemporary. This Prelate—one of the most resolute opponents of the +Norman conquest—had constantly refused to instal any foreigner in a +northern diocese. When the Chapter of Ardagh delayed their election, he +nominated a suitable person to the Holy See; when the See of Meath was +distracted between two national parties he installed his nominee; when the +Countess of Ulster caused Edward I. to issue his writ for the installation of +John, Bishop of Conor, he refused his acquiescence. He left nearly every See in +his Province, at the time of his decease (the year 1303), under the +administration of a native ecclesiastic; a dozen years before he had +established a formal "association" among the Prelates at large, by which they +bound themselves to resist the interference of the Kings of England in the +nomination of Bishops, and to be subject only to the sanction of the See of +Rome. In the Provinces of Cashel and Tuam, in the fourteenth century, we do not +often find a foreign born Bishop; even in Leinster double elections and double +delegations to Rome, show how deeply the views of the patriotic Nicholas +McMaelisa had seized upon the clergy of the next age. It was Donald O'Neil's +darling project to establish a unity of action against the common enemy among +the chiefs, similar to that which the Primate had brought about among the +Bishops. His own pretensions to the sovereignty were greater than that of any +Prince of his age; his house had given more monarchs to the island than any +other; his father had been acknowledged by the requisite majority; his courage, +patriotism, and talents, were admittedly equal to the task. But he felt the +utter impossibility of conciliating that fatal family pride, fed into +extravagance by Bards and Senachies, which we have so often pointed out as the +worst consequence of the Celtic system. He saw chiefs, proud of their lineage +and their name, submit to serve a foreign Earl of Ulster, who refused homage to +the native Prince of Ulster; he saw the seedlings of a vice of which we have +seen the fruit—that his countrymen would submit to a stranger rather than +to one of themselves, and he reasoned, not unnaturally, that, by the hand of +some friendly stranger, they might be united and liberated. The attempt of +Edward Bruce was a failure, and was followed by many disasters; but a more +patriotic design, or one with fairer omens of success, could not have entered +the mind or heart of a native Prince, after the event of the battle at +Bannockburn. Edward of England, having intelligence of the negotiations on foot +between the Irish and Scots, after his great defeat, summoned over to Windsor +during the winter, de Burgh, Fitzgerald, de Verdon, and Edmund Butler, the Lord +Deputy. After conferring with them, and confirming Butler in his office, they +were despatched back in all haste to defend their country. Nor was there time +to lose. Edward Bruce, with his usual impetuosity, without waiting for his full +armament, had sailed from Ayr with 6,000 men in 300 galleys, accompanied by +Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, Sir John Stuart, Sir Philip Moubray, Sir Fergus +of Ardrossan, and other distinguished knights. He landed on the 25th day of +May, 1315, in the Glendun river, near Glenarm, and was promptly joined by +Donald O'Neil, and twelve other chiefs. Their first advance was from the coast +towards that angle of Lough Neagh, near which stands the town of Antrim. Here, +at Rathmore, in the plain of Moylinny, they were attacked by the Mandevilles +and Savages of the Ards of Down, whom they defeated. From Antrim they continued +their route evidently towards Dublin, taking Dundalk and Ardee, after a sharp +resistance. At Ardee they were but 35 miles north of Dublin, easy of conquest, +if they had been provided with siege trains—which it seemed they were +not. +</p> + +<p> +While Bruce and O'Neil were coming up from the north, Hugh O'Donnell, lord of +Tyrconnell, as if to provide occupation for the Earl of Ulster, attacked and +sacked the castle and town of Sligo, and wasted the adjacent country. The Earl, +on hearing of the landing of the Scots, had mustered his forces at Athlone, and +compelled the unwilling 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 time that the Lord Deputy Butler came up with "30 +cohorts." Bruce, unprepared to meet so vast a force—taken together some +25,000 or 30,000 men—retreated slowly towards his point of debarkation. +De Burgh, who, as Commander-in-Chief, took precedence in the field of the Lord +Deputy, ordered the latter to protect Meath and Leinster, while he pursued the +enemy. Bruce, having despatched the Earl of Moray to his brother, was now +anxious to hold some northern position where they could most easily join him. +He led de Burgh, therefore, into the North of Antrim, thence across the Bann at +Coleraine, breaking down the bridge at that point. Here the armies encamped for +some days, separated by the river, the outposts occasionally indulging in a +"shooting of arrows." By negotiation, Bruce and O'Neil succeeded in detaching +O'Conor from de Burgh. Under the plea—which really had sufficient +foundation—of suppressing an insurrection headed by one of his rivals, +O'Conor returned to his own country. No sooner had he left than Bruce assumed +the offensive, and it was now the Red Earl's turn to fall back. They retreated +towards the castle of Conyre (probably Conor, near Ballymena, in Antrim), where +an engagement was fought, in which de Burgh was defeated, his brother William, +Sir John Mandeville, and several other knights being taken prisoners. The Earl +continued his retreat through Meath towards his own possession; Bruce followed, +capturing in succession Granard, Fenagh, and Kells, celebrating his Christmas +at Loughsweedy, in West-Meath, in the midst of the most considerable chiefs of +Ulster, Meath, and Connaught. It was probably at this stage of his progress +that he received the adhesion of the junior branches of the Lacys—the +chief Norman family that openly joined his standard. +</p> + +<p> +This termination of his first campaign on Irish soil might be considered highly +favourable to Bruce. More than half the clans had risen, and others were +certain to follow their example; the clergy were almost wholly with him; and +his heroic brother had promised to lead an army to his aid in the ensuing +spring. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap37"></a>CHAPTER III.<br/> +BRUCE'S SECOND CAMPAIGN, AND CORONATION AT DUNDALK—THE RISING IN +CONNAUGHT—BATTLE OF ATHENRY—ROBERT BRUCE IN IRELAND.</h3> + +<p> +From Loughsweedy, Bruce broke up his quarters, and marched into Kildare, +encamping successively at Naas, Kildare, and Rathangan. Advancing in a +southerly direction, he found an immense, but disorderly Anglo-Irish host drawn +out, at the moat of Ardscull, near Athy, to dispute his march. They were +commanded by the Lord Justice Butler, the Baron of Offally, the Lord Arnold +Poer, and other magnates; but so divided were these proud Peers, in authority +and in feeling, that, after a severe skirmish with Bruce's vanguard, in which +some knights were killed on both sides, they retreated before the +Hiberno-Scottish army, which continued its march unmolested, and took +possession of Castledermot. +</p> + +<p> +Animated by these successes, won in their midst, the clans of Leinster began in +succession to raise their heads. The tribes of Wicklow, once possessors of the +fertile plains to the east and west, rallied in the mountain glens to which +they had been driven, and commenced that long guerilla war, which centuries +only were to extinguish. 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 Justice was compelled to march in person, later in the campaign +of 1316. The Lord of Dunamase was equally sanguine, but 800 men of the name of +O'Moore, slain in one disastrous encounter, crippled for the time the military +strength of that great house. Having thus kindled the war, in the very heart of +Leinster, Bruce retraced his march through Meath and Louth, and held at Dundalk +that great assembly in which he was solemnly elected King of Ireland. Donald +O'Neil, by letters patent, as son of Brian "of the battle of Down," the last +acknowledged native king, formally resigned his right, in favour of Bruce, a +proceeding which he defends in his celebrated letter to Pope John XXII., where +he speaks of the new sovereign as the illustrious Earl of Carrick, Edward de +Bruce, a nobleman descended from the same ancestors with themselves, whom they +had called to their aid, and freely chosen as their king and lord. The ceremony +of inauguration seems to have been performed in the Gaelic fashion, on the hill +of Knocknemelan, within a mile of Dundalk, while the solemn consecration took +place in one of the churches of the town. 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), adjoining Dundalk, where he took +cognizance of all pleas that were brought before him. At that moment his +prospects compared favourably with those of his illustrious brother a few years +earlier. The Anglo-Irish were bitterly divided against each other; while, +according to their joint declaration of loyalty, signed before de Hothun, King +Edward's special agent, "all the Irish of Ireland, several great lords, and +many English people," had given in their adhesion to Bruce. In Ulster, except +Carrickfergus, no place of strength remained in the hands of any subject of +Edward of England. The arrival of supplies from Scotland enabled Bruce to +resume that siege in the autumn of 1316, and the castle, after a heroic defence +by Sir Thomas de Mandeville, was surrendered in mid-winter. Here, in the month +of February, 1317, the new King of Ireland had the gratification of welcoming +his brother of Scotland, at the head of a powerful auxiliary force, and here, +according to Barbour's <i>Chronicle</i>, they feasted for three days, in mirth +and jollity, before entering on the third campaign of this war. +</p> + +<p> +We have before mentioned that one of the first successes obtained by Bruce was +through the withdrawal of Felim O'Conor from the Red Earl's alliance. The +Prince thus won over to what may be fairly called the national cause, had just +then attained his majority, and his martial accomplishments reflected honour on +his fosterer, McDermott of Moylurg, while they filled with confidence the +hearts of his own clansmen. After his secession from de Burgh at Coleraine, he +had spent a whole year in suppressing the formidable rival who had risen to +dispute his title. Several combats ensued between their respective adherents, +but at length Roderick, the pretender, was defeated and slain, and Felim turned +all his energies to co-operate with Bruce, by driving the foreigner out of his +own province. Having secured the assistance of all the chief tribes of the +west, and established the ancient supremacy of his house over Breffni, he first +attacked the town of Ballylahen, in Mayo, the seat of the family of de Exeter, +slew Slevin de Exeter, the lord de Cogan, and other knights and barons, and +plundered the town. At the beginning of August in the same year, in pursuance +of his plan, Felim mustered the most numerous force which Connaught had sent +forth, since the days of Cathal More. Under his leadership marched the Prince +of Meath, the lords of Breffni, Leyny, Annally, Teffia, Hy-Many, and +Hy-Fiachra, with their men. The point of attack was the town of Athenry, the +chief fortified stronghold of the de Burghs and Berminghams in that region. Its +importance dated from the reign of King John; it had been enriched with +convents and strengthened by towers; it was besides the burial place of the two +great Norman families just mentioned, and their descendants felt that before +the walls of Athenry their possessions were to be confirmed to them by their +own valour, or lost for ever. A decisive battle was fought on St. Laurence's +day—the 10th of August—in which the steel-clad Norman battalion +once more triumphed over the linen-shirted clansmen of the west. The field was +contested with heroic obstinacy; no man gave way; none thought of asking or +giving quarter. The standard bearer, the personal guard, and the Brehon of +O'Conor fell around him. The lords of Hy-Many, Teffia, and Leyny, the heir of +the house of Moylurg, with many other chiefs, and, according to the usual +computation, 8,000 men were slain. Felim O'Conor himself, in the twenty-third +year of his age, and the very morning of his fame, fell with the rest, and his +kindred, the Sil-Murray, were left for a season an easy prey to William de +Burgh and John de Bermingham, the joint commanders in the battle. The spirit of +exaggeration common in most accounts of killed and wounded, has described this +day as fatal to the name and race of O'Conor, who are represented as cut off to +a man in the conflict; the direct line which Felim represented was indeed left +without an immediate adult representative; but the offshoots of that great +house had spread too far and flourished too vigorously to be shorn away, even +by so terrible a blow as that dealt at Athenry. The very next year we find +chiefs of the name making some figure in the wars of their own province, but it +is observable that what may be called the national party in Connaught for some +time after Athenry, looked to McDermott of Moylurg as their most powerful +leader. +</p> + +<p> +The moral effect of the victory of Athenry was hardly to be compensated for by +the capture of Carrickfergus the next winter. It inspired the Anglo-Irish with +new courage. De Bermingham was created commander-in-chief. The citizens of +Dublin burned their suburbs to strengthen their means of defence. Suspecting +the zeal of the Red Earl, so nearly connected with the Bruces by marriage, +their Mayor proceeded to Saint Mary's abbey, where he lodged, arrested and +confined him to the castle. To that building the Bermingham tower was added +about this time, and the strength of the whole must have been great when the +skilful leaders, who had carried Stirling and Berwick, abandoned the siege of +Dublin as hopeless. In Easter week, 1317, Roger Mortimer, afterwards Earl of +March, nearly allied to the English King on the one hand, and maternally +descended from the Marshals and McMurroghs on the other, arrived at Youghal, as +Lord Justice, released the Earl of Ulster on reaching Dublin, and prepared to +dispute the progress of the Bruces towards the South. +</p> + +<p> +The royal brothers had determined, according to their national Bard, to take +their way with all their host, from one end of Ireland to the other. Their +destination was Munster, which populous province had not yet ratified the +recent election. Ulster and Meath were with them; Connaught, by the battle of +Athenry, was rendered incapable of any immediate effort, and therefore Edward +Bruce, in true Gaelic fashion, decided to proceed on his royal visitation, and +so secure the hostages of the southern half-kingdom. At the head of 20,000 men, +in two divisions, the brothers marched from Carrickfergus; meeting, with the +exception of a severe skirmish in a wood near Slane, with no other molestation +till they approached the very walls of Dublin. Finding the place stronger than +they expected, or unwilling to waste time at that season of the year, the +Hiberno-Scottish army, after occupying Castleknock, turned up the valley of the +Liffey, and encamped for four days by the pleasant waterfall of Leixlip. From +Leixlip to Naas they traversed the estates of one of their active foes, the new +made Earl of Kildare, and from Naas they directed their march to Callan in +Ossory, taking special pleasure, according to Anglo-Irish Annals, in harrying +the lands of another enemy, the Lord Butler, afterwards Earl of Ormond. From +Callan their route lay to Cashel and Limerick, at each of which they encamped +two or three days without seeing the face of an enemy. But if they encountered +no enemies in Munster, neither did they make many friends by their expedition. +It seems that on further acquaintance rivalries and enmities sprung up between +the two nations who composed the army; that Edward Bruce, while styling himself +King of Ireland, acted more like a vigorous conqueror exhausting his enemies, +than a prudent Prince careful for his friends and adherents. His army is +accused, in terms of greater vehemence than are usually employed in our +cautious chronicles, of plundering churches and monasteries, and even violating +the tombs of the dead in search of buried treasure. The failure of the harvest, +added to the effect of a threefold war, had so diminished the stock of food +that numbers perished of famine, and this dark, indelible remembrance was, by +an arbitrary notion of cause and effect, inseparably associated in the popular +mind, both English and Irish, with the Scottish invasion. One fact is clear, +that the election of Dundalk was not popular in Munster, and that the chiefs of +Thomond and Desmond were uncommitted, if not hostile towards Bruce's +sovereignty. McCarthy and O'Brien seized the occasion, indeed, while he was +campaigning in the North, to root out the last representative of the family of +de Clare, as we have already related, when tracing the fortunes of the Normans +in Munster. But of the twelve reguli, or Princes in Bruce's train, none are +mentioned as having come from the Southern provinces. +</p> + +<p> +This visitation of Munster occupied the months of February and March. In April, +the Lord Justice Mortimer summoned a Parliament at Kilkenny, and there, also, +the whole Anglo-Irish forces, to the number of 30,000 men, were assembled. The +Bruces on their return northward might easily have been intercepted, or the +genius which triumphed at Bannockburn might have been as conspicuously +signalized on Irish ground. But the military authorities were waiting orders +from the Parliament, and the Parliament were at issue with the new Justice, and +so the opportunity was lost. Early in May, the Hiberno-Scottish army re-entered +Ulster, by nearly the same route as they had taken going southwards, and King +Robert soon after returned into Scotland, promising faithfully to rejoin his +brother, as soon as he disposed of his own pressing affairs. The King of +England in the meantime, in consternation at the news from Ireland, applied to +the Pope, then at Avignon, to exercise his influence with the Clergy and Chiefs +of Ireland, for the preservation of the English interest in that country. It +was in answer to the Papal rescripts so procured that Donald O'Neil despatched +his celebrated Remonstrance, which the Pontiff enclosed to Edward II., with an +urgent recommendation that the wrongs therein recited might be atoned for, and +avoided in the future. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap38"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br/> +BATTLE OF FAUGHARD AND DEATH OF KING EDWARD BRUCE—CONSEQUENCES OF +HIS INVASION—EXTINCTION OF THE EARLDOM OF ULSTER—IRISH OPINION OF +EDWARD BRUCE.</h3> + +<p> +It is too commonly the fashion, as well with historians as with others, to +glorify the successful and censure severely the unfortunate. No such feeling +actuates us in speaking of the character of Edward Bruce, King of Ireland. That +he was as gallant a knight as any in that age of gallantry, we know; that he +could confront the gloomiest aspect of adversity with cheerfulness, we also +know. But the united testimony, both of history and tradition, in his own +country, so tenacious of its anecdotical treasures, describes him as rash, +headstrong, and intractable, beyond all the captains of his time. And in strict +conformity with this character is the closing scene of his Irish career. +</p> + +<p> +The harvest had again failed in 1317, and enforced a melancholy sort of truce +between all the belligerents. The scarcity was not confined to Ireland, but had +severely afflicted England and Scotland, compelling their rulers to bestow a +momentary attention on the then abject class, the tillers of the soil. But the +summer of 1318 brightened above more prosperous fields, from which no sooner +had each party snatched or purchased his share of the produce, than the +war-note again resounded through all the four Provinces. On the part of the +Anglo-Irish, John de Bermingham was confirmed as Commander-in-Chief, and +departed from Dublin with, according to the chronicles of the Pale, but 2,000 +chosen troops, while the Scottish biographer of the Bruces gives him "20,000 +trapped horse." The latter may certainly be considered an exaggerated account, +and the former must be equally incorrect. Judged by the other armaments of that +period, from the fact that the Normans of Meath, under Sir Miles de Verdon and +Sir Richard Tuit, were in his ranks, and that he then held the rank of +Commander-in-Chief of all the English forces in Ireland, it is incredible that +de Bermingham should have crossed the Boyne with less than eight or ten +thousand men. Whatever the number may have been, Bruce resolved to risk the +issue of battle contrary to the advice of all his officers, and without +awaiting the reinforcements hourly expected from Scotland, and which shortly +after the engagement did arrive. The native chiefs of Ulster, whose counsel was +also to avoid a pitched battle, seeing their opinions so lightly valued, are +said to have withdrawn from Dundalk. There remained with the iron-headed King +the Lords Moubray, de Soulis, and Stewart, with the three brothers of the +latter; MacRory, lord of the Isles, and McDonald, chief of his clan. The +neighbourhood of Dundalk, the scene of his triumphs and coronation, was to be +the scene of this last act of Bruce's chivalrous and stormy career. +</p> + +<p> +On the 14th of October, 1318, at the hill of Faughard, within a couple of miles +of Dundalk, the advance guard of the hostile armies came into the presence of +each other, and made ready for battle. Roland de Jorse, the foreign Archbishop +of Armagh—who had not been able to take possession of his see, though +appointed to it seven years before—accompanied the Anglo-Irish, and +moving through their ranks, gave his benediction to their banners. But the +impetuosity of Bruce gave little time for preparation. At the head of the +vanguard, without waiting for the whole of his company to come up, he charged +the enemy with impetuosity. The action became general, and the skill of de +Bermingham as a leader was again demonstrated. An incident common to the +warfare of that age was, however, the immediate cause of the victory. Master +John de Maupas, a burgher of Dundalk, believing that the death of the Scottish +leader would be the signal for the retreat of his followers, disguised as a +jester or fool, sought him throughout the field. One of the royal esquires, +named Gilbert Harper, wearing the surcoat of his master, was mistaken for him, +and slain; but the true leader was at length found by de Maupas, and struck +down with the blow of a leaden plummet or slung-shot. After the battle, when +the field was searched for his body, it was found under that of de Maupas, who +had bravely yielded up life for life. The Hiberno-Scottish forces dispersed in +dismay, and when King Robert of Scotland landed a day or two afterwards, he was +met by the fugitive men of Carrick, under their leader Thompson, who informed +him of his brother's fate. He returned at once into his own country, carrying +off the few Scottish survivors. The head of the impetuous Edward was sent to +London; but the body was interred in the churchyard of Faughard, where, within +living memory, a tall pillar stone was pointed out by every peasant of the +neighbourhood as marking the grave of "King Bruce." +</p> + +<p> +The fortunes of the principal actors, native and Norman, in the invasion of +Edward Bruce, may be briefly recounted before closing this book of our history, +John de Bermingham, created for his former victory Baron of Athenry, had now +the Earldom of Louth conferred on him with a royal pension. He promptly +followed up his blow at Faughard by expelling Donald O'Neil, the mainspring of +the invasion, from Tyrone; but Donald, after a short sojourn among the +mountains of Fermanagh, returned during the winter and resumed his lordship, +though he never wholly recovered from the losses he had sustained. The new Earl +of Louth continued to hold the rank of Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, to which +he added in 1322 that of Lord Justice. He was slain in 1329, with some 200 of +his personal adherents, in an affair with the natives of his new earldom, at a +place called Ballybeagan. He left by a daughter of the Earl of Ulster three +daughters; the title was perpetuated in the family of his brothers. +</p> + +<p> +In 1319, the Earls of Kildare and Louth, and the Lord Arnold le Poer, were +appointed a commission to inquire into all treasons committed in Ireland during +Bruce's invasion. Among other outlawries they decreed those of the three de +Lacys, the chiefs of their name, in Meath and Ulster. That illustrious family, +however, survived even this last confiscation, and their descendants, several +centuries later, were large proprietors in the midland counties. +</p> + +<p> +Three years after the battle of Faughard, died Roland de Jorse, Archbishop of +Armagh, it was said, of vexations arising out of Bruce's war, and other +difficulties which beset him in taking possession of his see. Adam, Bishop of +Ferns, was deprived of his revenues for taking part with Bruce, and the Friars +Minor of the Franciscan order, were severely censured in a Papal rescript for +their zeal on the same side. +</p> + +<p> +The great families of Fitzgerald and Butler obtained their earldoms of Kildare, +Desmond, and Ormond, out of this dangerous crisis, but the premier earldom of +Ulster disappeared 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, seven years later, in consequence of a family feud, instigated by +one of his own female relatives, Gilla de Burgh, wife of Walter de Mandeville, +was murdered at the Fords, near Carrickfergus, 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 to Lionel, Duke of Clarence, son of King +Edward III., who thus became personally interested in the system which he +initiated by the odious Statute of Kilkenny. But the misfortunes of the Red +Earl's posterity did not end with the murder of his immediate successor. +Edmond, his surviving son, five years subsequently, was seized by his cousin, +Edmond, the son of William, and drowned in Lough Mask, with a stone about his +neck. The posterity of William de Burgh then assumed the name of McWilliam, and +renounced the laws, language, and allegiance of England. Profiting by their +dissensions, Turlogh O'Conor, towards the middle of the century, asserted +supremacy over them, thus practising against the descendants the same policy +which the first de Burghs had successfully employed among the sons of Roderick. +</p> + +<p> +We must mention here a final consequence of Edward Bruce's invasion seldom +referred to,—namely, the character of the treaty between Scotland and +England, concluded and signed at Edinburgh, on St. Patrick's Day, 1328. By this +treaty, after arranging an intermarriage between the royal families, it was +stipulated in the event of a rebellion against Scotland, in Skye, Man, or the +Islands, or against England, in Ireland, that the several Kings would not abet +or assist each other's rebel subjects. Remembering this article, we know not +what to make of the entry in our own Annals, which states that Robert Bruce +landed at Carrickfergus in the same year, 1328, "and sent word to the +Justiciary and Council, that he came to make peace between Ireland and +Scotland, and that he would meet them at Green Castle; but that the latter +failing to meet him, he returned to Scotland." This, however, we know: high +hopes were entertained, and immense sacrifices were made, for Edward Bruce, but +were made in vain. His proverbial rashness in battle, with his total disregard +of the opinion of the country into which he came, alienated from him those who +were at first disposed to receive him with enthusiasm. It may be an instructive +lesson to such as look to foreign leaders and foreign forces for the means of +national deliverance to read the terms in which the native Annalists record the +defeat and death of Edward Bruce: "No achievement had been performed in +Ireland, for a long time," say the Four Masters, "from which greater benefit +had accrued to the country than from this." "There was not a better deed done +in Ireland since the banishment of the Formorians," says the Annalist of +Clonmacnoise! So detested may a foreign liberating chief become, who outrages +the feelings and usages of the people he pretends, or really means to +emancipate! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="part06"></a>BOOK VI.<br/> +THE NATIVE, THE NATURALIZED, AND "THE ENGLISH INTEREST."</h3> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap39"></a>CHAPTER I.<br/> +CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND—ITS EFFECTS ON THE ANGLO-IRISH—THE +KNIGHTS OF SAINT 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.</h3> + +<p> +The closing years of the reign of Edward II. of England were endangered by the +same partiality for favourites which, had disturbed its beginning. The de +Spensers, father and son, played at this period the part which Gaveston had +performed twenty years earlier. The Barons, who undertook to rid their country +of this pampered family, had, however, at their head Queen Isabella, sister of +the King of France, who had separated from her husband under a pretended fear +of violence at his hands, but in reality to enjoy more freely her criminal +intercourse with her favourite, Mortimer. With the aid of French and Flemish +mercenaries, they compelled the unhappy Edward to fly from London to Bristol, +whence he was pursued, captured, and after being confined for several months in +different fortresses, was secretly murdered in the autumn of 1327, by thrusting +a red hot iron into his bowels. His son, Edward, a lad of fifteen years of age, +afterwards the celebrated Edward III., was proclaimed King, though the +substantial power remained for some years longer with Queen Isabella, and her +paramour, now elevated to the rank of Earl of March. In the year 1330, however, +their guilty prosperity was brought to a sudden close; Mortimer was seized by +surprise, tried by his peers, and executed at Tyburn; Isabella was imprisoned +for life, and the young King, at the age of eighteen, began in reality that +reign, which, through half a century's continuance, proved so glorious and +advantageous for England. +</p> + +<p> +It will be apparent that during the last few years of the second, and under the +minority of the third Edward, the Anglo-Irish Barons would be left to pursue +undisturbed their own particular interests and enmities. The renewal of war +with Scotland, on the death of King Robert Bruce, and the subsequent protracted +wars with France, which occupied, with some intervals of truce, nearly thirty +years of the third Edward's reign, left ample time for the growth of abuses of +every description among the descendants of those who had invaded Ireland, under +the pretext of its reformation, both in morals and government. The contribution +of an auxiliary force to aid him in his foreign wars was all the warlike King +expected from his lords of Ireland, and at so cheap a price they were well +pleased 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; and at the siege of Calais, under the Earls of Kildare and Desmond, +they acquired additional reputation in 1347. From this time forward it became a +settled maxim of English policy to draft native troops out of Ireland for +foreign service, and to send English soldiers into it in times of emergency. +</p> + +<p> +In the very year when the tragedy of Edward the Second's deposition and death +was enacted in England, a drama of a lighter kind was performed among his new +made earls in Ireland. The Lord Arnold le Poer gave mortal offence to Maurice, +first Earl of Desmond, by calling him "a Rhymer," a term synonymous with +poetaster. To make good his reputation as a Bard, the Earl summoned his allies, +the Butlers and Berminghams, while le Poer obtained the aid of his maternal +relatives, the de Burghs, and several desperate conflicts took place between +them. The Earl of Kildare, then deputy, summoned both parties to meet him at +Kilkenny, but le Poer and William de Burgh fled into England, while the +victors, instead of obeying the deputy's summons, enjoyed themselves in +ravaging his estate. The following year (A.D. 1328), le Poer and de Burgh +returned from England, and were reconciled with Desmond and Ormond by the +mediation of the new deputy, Roger Outlaw, Prior of the Knights of the Hospital +at Kilmainham. In honour of this reconciliation de Burgh gave a banquet at the +castle, and Maurice of Desmond reciprocated by another the next day, in St. +Patrick's Church, though it was then, as the Anglo-Irish Annalist remarks, the +penitential season of Lent. A work of peace and reconciliation, calculated to +spare the effusion of Christian blood, may have been thought some justification +for this irreverent use of a consecrated edifice. +</p> + +<p> +The mention of the Lord Deputy, Sir Roger Outlaw, the second Prior of his order +though not the last, who wielded the highest political power over the English +settlements, naturally leads to the mention of the establishment in Ireland, of +the illustrious orders of the Temple and the Hospital. The first foundation of +the elder order is attributed to Strongbow, who erected for them a castle at +Kilmainham, on the high ground to the south of the Liffey, about a mile distant +from the Danish wall of old Dublin. Here, the Templars flourished, for nearly a +century and a half, until the process for their suppression was instituted +under Edward II., in 1308. Thirty members of the order were imprisoned and +examined in Dublin, before three Dominican inquisitors—Father Richard +Balbyn, Minister of the Order of St. Dominick in Ireland, Fathers Philip de +Slane and Hugh de St. Leger. The decision arrived at was the same as in France +and England; the order was condemned and suppressed; and their Priory of +Kilmainham, with sixteen benefices in the diocese of Dublin, and several +others, in Ferns, Meath, and Dromore, passed to the succeeding order, in 1311. +The state maintained by the Priors of Kilmainham, in their capacious residence, +often rivalled that of the Lords Justices. But though their rents were ample, +they did not collect them without service. Their house might justly be regarded +as an advanced fortress on the south side of the city, constantly open to +attacks from the mountain tribes of Wicklow. Although their vows were for the +Holy Land, they were ever ready to march at the call of the English Deputies, +and their banner, blazoned with the <i>Agnus Dei</i>, waved over the bloodiest +border frays of the fourteenth century. The Priors of Kilmainham sat as Barons +in the Parliaments of "the Pale," and the office was considered the first in +ecclesiastical rank among the regular orders. +</p> + +<p> +During the second quarter of this century, an extraordinary change became +apparent in the manners and customs of the descendants of the Normans, +Flemings, and Cambrians, whose ancestors an hundred years earlier were +strangers in the land. Instead of intermarrying exclusively among themselves, +the prevailing fashion became to seek for Irish wives, and to bestow their +daughters on Irish husbands. Instead of clinging to the language of Normandy or +England, they began to cultivate the native speech of the country. Instead of +despising Irish law, every nobleman was now anxious to have his Brehon, his +Bard, and his Senachie. The children of the Barons were given to be fostered by +Milesian mothers, and trained in the early exercises so minutely prescribed by +Milesian education. Kildare, Ormond, and Desmond, adopted the old military +usages of exacting "coyne and livery"—horse meat and man'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 wise encouragement of a domestic dynasty might have become +a powerful bond of social union. In Connaught and Munster where the proportion +of native to naturalized was largest, the change was completed almost in a +generation, and could never afterwards be wholly undone. In Ulster the English +element in the population towards the end of this century was almost extinct, +but in Meath and Leinster, and that portion of Munster immediately bordering on +Meath and Leinster, the process of amalgamation required more time than the +policy of the Kings of England allowed it to obtain. +</p> + +<p> +The first step taken to counteract their tendency to <i>Hibernicize</i> +themselves, was to bestow additional honours on the great families. The baronry +of Offally was enlarged into the earldom of Kildare; the lordship of Carrick +into the earldom of Ormond; the title of Desmond was conferred on Maurice +Fitz-Thomas Fitzgerald, and that of Louth on the Baron de Bermingham. Nor were +they empty honours; they were accompanied with something better. The "royal +liberties" were formally conceded, in no less than nine great districts, to +their several lords. Those of Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny, Kildare, and Leix, had +been inherited by the heirs of the Earl Marshal's five daughters; four other +counties Palatine were now added—Ulster, Meath, Ormond, and Desmond. "The +absolute lords of those palatinates," says Sir John Davis, "made barons and +knights, exercised high justice within all their territories; erected courts +for civil and criminal causes, and for their own revenues, in the same form in +which the king's courts were established at Dublin; they constituted their own +judges, seneschals, sheriffs, coroners, and escheators." So that the king's +writs did not run in their counties, which took up more than two parts of the +English colony; but ran only in the church-lands lying within the same, which +was therefore called THE CROSSE, wherein the Sheriff was nominated by the King. +By "high justice" is meant the power of life and death, which was hardly +consistent with even a semblance of subjection. No wonder such absolute lords +should be found little disposed to obey the summons of deputies, like Sir Ralph +Ufford and Sir John Morris, men of merely knightly rank, whose equals they had +the power to create, by the touch of their swords. +</p> + +<p> +For a season their new honours quickened the dormant loyalty of the recipients. +Desmond, at the head of 10,000 men, joined the lord deputy, Sir John Darcy, to +suppress the insurgent tribes of South Leinster; the Earls of Ulster and Ormond +united their forces for an expedition into West-Meath against the brave +McGeoghegans and their allies; but even these services—so complicated +were public and private motives in the breasts of the actors—did not +allay the growing suspicion of what were commonly called "the old English," in +the minds of the English King and his council. Their resolution seems to have +been fixed to entrust no native of Ireland with the highest office in his own +country; in accordance with which decision Sir Anthony Lucy was appointed, +(1331;) Sir John Darcy, (1332-34; again in 1341;) and Sir Ralph Ufford, +(1343-1346.) During the incumbency of these English knights, whether acting as +justiciaries or as deputies, the first systematic attempts were made to +prevent, both by the exercise of patronage or by penal legislation, the fusion +of races, which was so universal a tendency of that age. And although these +attempts were discontinued on the recommencement of war with France in 1345, +the conviction of their utility had seized too strongly on the tenacious will +of Edward III. to be wholly abandoned. The peace of Bretigni in 1360 gave him +leisure to turn again his thoughts in that direction. The following year he +sent over his third son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence and Earl of Ulster, (in right +of his wife,) who boldly announced his object to be the total separation, into +hostile camps, of the two populations. +</p> + +<p> +This first attempt to enforce non-intercourse between the natives and the +naturalized deserves more particular mention. It appears to have begun in the +time of Sir Anthony Lucy, when the King's Council sent over certain "Articles +of Reform," in which it was threatened that if the native nobility were not +more attentive in discharging their duties to the King, his Majesty would +resume into his own hands all the grants made to them by his royal ancestors or +himself, as well as enforce payment of debts due to the Crown which had been +formerly remitted. From some motive, these articles were allowed, after being +made public, to remain a dead letter, until the administration of Darcy, +Edward's confidential agent in many important transactions, English and Irish. +They were proclaimed with additional emphasis by this deputy, who convoked a +Parliament or Council, at Dublin, to enforce them as law. The same year, 1342, +a new ordinance came from England, prohibiting the public employment of men +born or married, or possessing estates in Ireland, and declaring that all +offices of state should be filled in that country by "fit Englishmen, having +lands, tenements, and benefices in England." To this sweeping proscription the +Anglo-Irish, as well townsmen as nobles, resolved to offer every resistance, +and by the convocation of the Earls of Desmond, Ormond, and Kildare, they +agreed to meet for that purpose at Kilkenny. Accordingly, what is called +Darcy's Parliament, met at Dublin in October, while Desmond's rival assembly +gathered at Kilkenny in November. The proceedings of the former, if it agreed +to any, are unrecorded, but the latter despatched to the King, by the hands of +the Prior of Kilmainham, a Remonstrance couched in Norman-French, the court +language, in which they reviewed the state of the country; deplored the +recovery of so large a portion of the former conquest by the old Irish; +accused, in round terms, the successive English officials sent into the land, +with a desire suddenly to enrich themselves at the expense both of sovereign +and subject; pleaded boldly their own loyal services, not only in Ireland, but +in the French and Scottish wars; and finally, claimed the protection of the +Great Charter, that they might not be ousted of their estates, without being +called in judgment. Edward, sorely in need of men and subsidies for another +expedition to France, returned them a conciliatory answer, summoning them to +join him in arms, with their followers, at an early day; and although a +vigorous effort was made by Sir Ralph Ufford to enforce the articles of 1331, +and the ordinance of 1341, by the capture of the Earls of Desmond and Kildare, +and by military execution on some of their followers, the policy of +non-intercourse was tacitly abandoned for some years after the Remonstrance of +Kilkenny. In 1353, under the lord deputy, Rokeby, an attempt was made to revive +it, but it was quickly abandoned; and two years later, Maurice, Earl of +Desmond, the leader of the opposition, was appointed to the office of Lord +Justice for life! Unfortunately that high-spirited nobleman died the year of +his appointment, before its effects could begin to be felt. The only legal +concession which marked his period was a royal writ constituting the +"Parliament" of the Pale the court of last resort for appeals from the +decisions of the King's courts in that province. A recurrence to the former +favourite policy signalized the year 1357, when a new set of ordinances were +received from London, denouncing the penalties of treason against all who +intermarried, or had relations of fosterage with the Irish; and proclaiming war +upon all kernes and idle men found within the English districts. Still severer +measures, in the same direction, were soon afterwards decided upon, by the +English King and his council. +</p> + +<p> +Before relating the farther history of this penal code as applied to race, we +must recall the reader's attention to the important date of the Kilkenny +Remonstrance, 1342. From that year may be distinctly traced the growth of two +parties among the subjects of the English Kings in Ireland. At one time they +are distinguished as "the old English" and "the new English," at another, as +"English by birth" and "English by blood." The new English, fresh from the +Imperial island, seem to have usually conducted themselves with a haughty sense +of superiority; the old English, more than half <i>Hibernicized</i>, confronted +these strangers with all the self-complacency of natives of the soil on which +they stood. In their frequent visits to the Imperial capital, the old English +were made sensibly to feel that their country was not there; and as often as +they went, they returned with renewed ardour to the land of their possessions +and their birth. Time, also, had thrown its reverent glory round the names of +the first invaders, and to be descended from the companions of Earl Richard, or +the captains who accompanied King John, was a source of family pride, second +only to that which the native princes cherished, in tracing up their lineage to +Milesius of Spain. There were many reasons, good, bad, and indifferent, for the +descendants of the Norman adventurers adopting Celtic names, laws, and customs, +but not the least potent, perhaps, was the fostering of family pride and family +dependence, which, judged from our present stand-points, were two of the worst +possible preparations for our national success in modern times. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap40"></a>CHAPTER II.<br/> +LIONEL, DUKE OF CLARENCE, LORD LIEUTENANT—THE PENAL CODE OF +RACE—"THE STATUTE OF KILKENNY," AND SOME OF ITS CONSEQUENCES.</h3> + +<p> +While the grand experiment for the separation of the population of Ireland into +two hostile camps was being matured in England, the Earls of Kildare and Ormond +were, for four or five years, alternately entrusted with the supreme power. +Fresh ordinances, in the spirit of those despatched to Darcy, in 1342, +continued annually to arrive. One commanded all lieges of the English King, +having grants upon the marches of the Irish enemy, to reside 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, or other +officer of any town within the English districts; nor was any mere Irishman +"thereafter, under any pretence of kindred, or from any other cause, to be +received into holy orders, or advanced to any ecclesiastical benefice." A +modification of this last edict was made the succeeding year, when a royal writ +explained that exception was intended to be made of such Irish clerks as had +given individual proofs of their loyalty. +</p> + +<p> +Soon after the peace of Bretigni had been solemnly ratified at Calais, in 1360, +by the Kings of France and England, and the latter had returned to London, it +was reported that one of the Princes would be sent over to exercise the supreme +power at Dublin. As no member of the royal family had visited Ireland since the +reign of John—though Edward I., when Prince, had been appointed his +father's lieutenant—this announcement naturally excited unusual +expectations. The Prince chosen was the King's third son, Lionel, Duke of +Clarence; and every preparation was made to give <i>eclat</i> and effect to his +administration. This Prince had married, a few years before, Elizabeth de +Burgh, who brought him the titles of Earl of Ulster and Lord of Connaught, with +the claims which they covered. By a proclamation, issued in England, all who +held possessions in Ireland were commanded to appear before the King, either by +proxy or in person, to take measures for resisting the continued encroachments +of the Irish enemy. Among the absentees compelled to contribute to the +expedition accompanying the Prince, are mentioned Maria, Countess of Norfolk, +Agnes, Countess of Pembroke, Margery de Boos, Anna le Despenser, and other +noble ladies, who, by a strange recurrence, represented in this age the five +co-heiresses of the first Earl Marshal, granddaughters of Eva McMurrogh. What +exact force was equipped from all these contributions is not mentioned; but the +Prince arrived in Ireland with no more than 1,500 men, under the command of +Ralph, Earl of Strafford, James, Earl of Ormond, Sir William Windsor, Sir John +Carew, and other knights. He landed at Dublin on the 15th of September, 1361, +and remained in office for three years. On landing he issued a proclamation, +prohibiting natives of the country, of all origins, from approaching his camp +or court, and having made this hopeful beginning he marched with his troops +into Munster, where he was defeated by O'Brien, and compelled to retreat. Yet +by the flattery of courtiers he was saluted as the conqueror of Clare, and took +from the supposed fact, his title of <i>Clarence</i>. But no adulation could +blind him to the real weakness of his position: he keenly felt the injurious +consequences of his proclamation, revoked it, and endeavoured to remove the +impression he had made, by conferring knighthood on the Prestons, Talbots, +Cusacks, De la Hydes, and members of other families, not immediately connected +with the Palatine Earls. He removed the Exchequer from Dublin to Carlow, and +expended 500 pounds—a large sum for that age—in fortifying the +town. The barrier of Leinster was established at Carlow, from which it was +removed, by an act of the English Parliament ten years afterwards; the town and +castle were retaken in 1397, by the celebrated Art McMurrogh, and long remained +in the hands of his posterity. +</p> + +<p> +In 1364, Duke Lionel went to England, leaving de Windsor as his deputy, but in +1365, and again in 1367, he twice returned to his government. This latter year +is memorable as the date of the second great stride towards the establishment +of a Penal Code of race, by the enactment of the "Statute of Kilkenny." This +memorable Statute was drawn with elaborate care, being intended to serve as the +corner stone of all future legislation, and its provisions are deserving of +enumeration. The Act sets out with this preamble: "Whereas, at the conquest of +the land of Ireland, and for a long time after, the English of the said land +used the English language, mode of riding, and apparel, and were governed and +ruled, both they and their subjects, called Betaghese (villeins), according to +English law, &c., &c.,—but now many English of the said land, +forsaking the English language, manners, mode of riding, laws, and usages, +live, and govern themselves according to the manners, fashion, and language of +the Irish enemies, and also have made divers marriages and alliances between +themselves and the Irish enemies aforesaid—it is therefore enacted, among +other provisions, that all intermarriages, fosterings, gossipred, and buying or +selling with the 'enemie,' shall be accounted treason—that English names, +fashions, and manners shall be resumed under penalty of the confiscation of the +delinquent's lands—that March-law and Brehon-law are illegal, and that +there shall be no law but English law—that the Irish shall not pasture +their cattle on English lands—that the English shall not entertain Irish +rhymers, minstrels, or newsmen; and, moreover, that no 'mere Irishmen' shall be +admitted to any ecclesiastical benefice, or religious house, situated within +the English districts." +</p> + +<p> +All the names of those who attended at this Parliament of Kilkenny are not +accessible to us; but that the Earls of Kildare, Ormond, and Desmond, were of +the number need hardly surprise us, alarmed as they all were by the late +successes of the native princes, and overawed by the recent prodigious +victories of Edward III. at Cressy and Poictiers. What does at first seem +incomprehensible is that the Archbishop not only of Dublin, but of Cashel and +Tuam—in the heart of the Irish country—and the Bishops of Leighlin, +Ossory, Lismore, Cloyne, and Killala, should be parties to this statute. But on +closer inspection our surprise at their presence disappears. Most of these +prelates were at that day nominees of the English King, and many of them were +English by birth. Some of them never had possession of their sees, but dwelt +within the nearest strong town, as pensioners on the bounty of the Crown, while +the dioceses were administered by native rivals, or tolerated vicars. Le Reve, +Bishop of Lismore, was Chancellor to the Duke in 1367; Young, Bishop of +Leighlin, was Vice-Treasurer; the Bishop of Ossory, John of Tatendale, was an +English Augustinian, whose appointment was disputed by Milo Sweetman, the +native Bishop elect; the Bishop of Cloyne, John de Swasham, was a Carmelite of +Lyn, in the county of Norfolk, afterwards Bishop of Bangor, in Wales, where he +distinguished himself in the controversy against Wycliffe; the Bishop of +Killala we only know by the name of Robert—at that time very unusual +among the Irish. The two native names are those of the Archbishops of Cashel +and Tuam, Thomas O'Carrol and John O'Grady. The former was probably, and the +latter certainly, a nominee of the Crown. We know that Dr. O'Grady died an +exile from his see—if he ever was permitted to enter it—in the city +of Limerick, four years after the sitting of the Parliament of Kilkenny. +Shortly after the enactment of this law, by which he is best remembered, the +Duke of Clarence returned to England, leaving to Gerald, fourth Earl of +Desmond, the task of carrying it into effect. In the remaining years of this +reign the office of Lord Lieutenant was held by Sir William de Windsor, during +the intervals of whose absence in England the Prior of Kilmainham, or the Earl +of Kildare or of Ormond, discharged the duties with the title of Lord Deputy or +Lord Justice. +</p> + +<p> +It is now time that we should turn to the native annals of the country to show +how the Irish princes had carried on the contest during the eventful half +century which the reign of Edward III. occupies in the history of England. +</p> + +<p> +In the generation which elapsed from the death of the Earl of Ulster, or rather +from the first avowal of the policy of proscription in 1342, the native tribes +had on all sides and continuously gained on the descendants of their invaders. +In Connaught, the McWilliams, McWattins, and McFeoriss retained part of their +estates only by becoming as Irish as the Irish. The lordships of Leyny and +Corran, in Sligo and Mayo, were recovered by the heirs of their former chiefs, +while the powerful family of O'Conor Sligo converted that strong town into a +formidable centre of operations. Rindown, Athlone, Roscommon, and Bunratty, all +frontier posts fortified by the Normans, were in 1342, as we learn from the +Remonstrance of Kilkenny, in the hands of the elder race. +</p> + +<p> +The war, in all the Provinces, was in many respects a war of posts. Towards the +north Carrickfergus continued the outwork till captured by Neil O'Neil, when +Downpatrick and Dundalk became the northern barriers. The latter town, which +seems to have been strengthened after Bruce's defeat, was repeatedly attacked +by Neil O'Neil, and at last entered into conditions, by which it procured his +protection. At Downpatrick also, in the year 1375, he gained a signal victory +over the English of the town and their allies, under Sir James Talbot of +Malahide, and Burke of Camline, in which both these commanders were slain. This +O'Neil, called from his many successes Neil <i>More</i>, or the Great, dying in +1397, left the borders of Ulster more effectually cleared of foreign garrisons +than they had been for a century and a half before. He enriched the churches of +Armagh and Derry, and built a habitation for students resorting to the primatial +city, on the site of the ancient palace of Emania, which had been deserted +before the coming of St. Patrick. +</p> + +<p> +The northern and western chiefs seem in this age to have made some improvements +in military equipments, and tactics. <i>Cooey-na-gall</i>, a celebrated captain +of the O'Kanes, is represented on his tomb at Dungiven as clad in complete +armour—though that may be the fancy of the sculptor. Scottish +gallowglasses—heavy-armed infantry, trained in Bruce's campaigns, were +permanently enlisted in their service. Of their leaders the most distinguished +were McNeil <i>Cam</i>, or the Crooked, and McRory, in the service of O'Conor, +and McDonnell, McSorley, and McSweeney, in the service of O'Neil, O'Donnell, +and O'Conor Sligo. The leaders of these warlike bands are called the Constables +of Tyr-Owen, of North Connaught, or of Connaught, and are distinguished in all +the warlike encounters in the north and west. +</p> + +<p> +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 half of this century. The lords of Annally, Moy-Cashel, Carbry, Offally, +Ely, and Leix, rivalled each other in enterprise and endurance. In 1329, +McGeoghegan of West-Meath defeated and slew Lord Thomas Butler, with the loss +of 120 men at Mullingar; but the next year suffered an equal loss from the +combined forces of the Earls of Ormond and Ulster; his neighbour, O'Farrell, +contended with even better fortune, especially towards the close of Edward's +reign (1372), when in one successful foray he not only swept their garrisons +out of Annally, but rendered important assistance to the insurgent tribes of +Meath. In Leinster, the house of O'Moore, under Lysaght their Chief, by a well +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 Conal O'Moore, they destroyed the foreign strongholds of Ley and +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, and for two centuries thereafter upheld their independence. +Simultaneously, the O'Conors of Offally, and the O'Carrolls of Ely, adjoining +and kindred tribes, so straightened the Earl of Kildare on the one hand, and +the Earl of Ormond on the other, that a cess of 40 pence on every carucate (140 +acres) of tilled land, and of 40 pence on chattels of the value of six pounds, +was imposed on all the English settlements, for the defence of Kildare, Carlow, +and the marches generally. Out of the amount collected in Carlow, a portion was +paid to the Earl of Kildare, "for preventing the O'Moores from burning the town +of Killahan." The same nobleman was commanded, by an order in Council, to +strengthen his Castles of Rathmore, Kilkea, and Ballymore, under pain of +forfeiture. These events occurred in 1356, '7, and '8. +</p> + +<p> +In the south the same struggle for supremacy proceeded with much the same +results. The Earl of Desmond, fresh from his Justiceship in Dublin, and the +penal legislation of Kilkenny, was, in 1370, defeated and slain near Adare, by +Brian O'Brien, Prince of Thomond, with several knights of 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. The English burghers, +however, after the retirement of O'Brien, rose, murdered the new Warden, and +opened the gates to Sir William de Windsor, the Lord Lieutenant, who had +hastened to their relief. Two years later the whole Anglo-Irish force, under +the fourth Earl of Kildare, was, summoned to Limerick, in order to defend it +against O'Brien. So desperate now became the contest, that William de Windsor +only consented to return a second time as Lord Lieutenant in 1374, on condition +that he was to act strictly on the defensive, and to receive annually the sum +of 11,213 pounds 6 shillings 8 pence—a sum exceeding the whole revenue +which the English King derived from Ireland at that period; which, according to +Sir John Davies, fell short of 11,000 pounds. Although such was the critical +state of the English interest, this lieutenant obtained from the fears of +successive Parliaments annual subsidies of 2,000 pounds and 3,000 pounds. The +deputies from Louth having voted against his demand, were thrown into prison; +but a direct petition from the Anglo-Irish to the King brought an order to de +Windsor not to enforce the collection of these grants, and to remit in favour +of the petitioners the scutage "on all those lands of which the Irish enemy had +deprived them." +</p> + +<p> +In the last year of Edward III. (1376), he summoned the magnates and the +burghers of towns to send representatives to 'London to consult with him on the +state of the English settlements in Ireland. But those so addressed having +assembled together, drew up a protest, setting forth that the great Council of +Ireland had never been accustomed to meet out of that kingdom, though, saving +the rights of their heirs and successors, they expressed their willingness to +do so, for the King's convenience on that occasion. Richard Dene and William +Stapolyn were first sent over to England to exhibit the evils of the Irish +administration; the proposed general assembly of representatives seems to have +dropped. The King ordered the two delegates just mentioned to be paid ten +pounds out of the Exchequer for their expenses. +</p> + +<p> +The series of events, however, which most clearly exhibits the decay of the +English interest, transpired within the limits of Leinster, almost within sight +of Dublin. Of the actors in these events, the most distinguished for energy, +ability, and good fortune, was Art McMurrogh, whose exploits are entitled to a +separate and detailed account. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap41"></a>CHAPTER III.<br/> +ART McMURROGH, LORD OF LEINSTER—FIRST EXPEDITION OF RICHARD II., OF +ENGLAND, TO IRELAND.</h3> + +<p> +Whether Donald Kavanagh McMurrogh, son of Dermid, was born out of wedlock, as +the Lady Eva was made to depose, in order to create a claim of inheritance for +herself as sole heiress, this, at least, is certain, that his descendants +continued to be looked upon by the kindred clans of Leinster as the natural +lords of that principality. Towards the close of the thirteenth century, in the +third or fourth generation, after the death of their immediate ancestor, the +Kavanaghs of Leighlin and Ballyloughlin begin to act prominently in the affairs +of their Province, and their chief is styled both by Irish and English "the +McMurrogh." In the era of King Edward Bruce, they were sufficiently formidable +to call for an expedition of the Lord Justice into their patrimony, by which +they are said to have been defeated. In the next age, in 1335, Maurice, "the +McMurrogh," was granted by the Anglo-Irish Parliament or Council, the sum of 80 +marks annually, for keeping open certain roads and preserving the peace within +its jurisdiction. In 1358, Art, the successor of Maurice, and Donald Revagh, +were proclaimed "rebels" in a Parliament held at Castledermot, by the Lord +Deputy Sancto Amando, the said Art being further branded with deep ingratitude +to Edward III., who had acknowledged him as "the Mac-Murch." To carry on a war +against him the whole English interest was assessed with a special tax. Louth +contributed 20 pounds; Meath and Waterford, 2 shillings on every carucate (140 +acres) of tilled land; Kilkenny the same sum, with the addition of 6 pence in +the pound on chattels. This Art captured the strong castles of Kilbelle, +Galbarstown, Rathville, and although his career was not one of invariable +success, he bequeathed to his son, also called Art, in 1375, an inheritance, +extending over a large portion—perhaps one-half—of the territory +ruled by his ancestors before the invasion. +</p> + +<p> +Art McMurrogh, or Art Kavanagh, as he is more commonly called, was born in the +year 1357, and from the age of sixteen and upwards was distinguished by his +hospitality, knowledge, and feats of arms. Like the great Brian, he was a +younger son, but the fortune of war removed one by one those who would +otherwise have preceded him in the captaincy of his clan and connections. About +the year 1375—while he was still under age—he was elected successor +to his father, according to the Annalists, who record his death in 1417, "after +being forty-two years in the government of Leinster." Fortunately he attained +command at a period favourable to his genius and enterprise. His own and the +adjoining tribes were aroused by tidings of success from other Provinces, and +the partial victories of their immediate predecessors, to entertain bolder +schemes, and they only waited for a chief of distinguished ability to +concentrate their efforts. This chief they found, where they naturally looked +for him, among the old ruling family of the Province. Nor were the English +settlers ignorant of his promise. In the Parliament held at Castledermot in +1377, they granted to him the customary annual tribute paid to his house, the +nature of which calls for a word of explanation. This tribute was granted, "as +the late King had done to his ancestors;" it was again voted in a Parliament +held in 1380, and continued to be paid so late as the opening of the +seventeenth century (A.D. 1603). Not only was a fixed sum paid out of the +Exchequer for this purpose—inducing the native chiefs to grant a right of +way through their territories—but a direct tax was levied on the +inhabitants of English origin for the same privilege. This tax, called "black +mail," or "black rent," was sometimes differently regarded by those who paid +and those who received it. The former looked on it as a stipend, the latter as +a tribute; but that it implied a formal acknowledgment of the local +jurisdiction of the chief cannot be doubted. Two centuries after the time of +which we speak, Baron Finglas, in his suggestions to King Henry VIII. for +extending his power in Ireland, recommends that "no black rent be paid to any +Irishman <i>for the four shires</i>"—of the Pale—"and any black +rent they had afore this time be paid to them for ever." At that late period +"the McMurrogh" had still his 80 marks annually from the Exchequer, and 40 +pounds from the English settled in Wexford; O'Carroll of Ely had 40 pounds from +the English in Kilkenny, and O'Conor of Offally 20 pounds from those of +Kildare, and 300 pounds from Meath. It was to meet these and other annuities to +more distant chiefs, that William of Windsor, in 1369, covenanted for a larger +revenue than the whole of the Anglo-Irish districts then yielded, and which led +him besides to stipulate that he was to undertake no new expeditions, but to +act entirely on the defensive. We find a little later, that the necessity of +sustaining the Dublin authorities at an annual loss was one of the main motives +which induced Richard II. of England to transport two royal armies across the +channel, in 1394 and 1399. +</p> + +<p> +Art McMurrogh, the younger, not only extended the bounds of his own inheritance +and imposed tribute on the English settlers in adjoining districts, during the +first years of his rule, but having married a noble lady of the "Pale," +Elizabeth, heiress to the barony of Norragh, in Kildare, which included Naas +and its neighbourhood, he claimed 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 of the day to conciliate their formidable +neighbour, that they addressed a special representation to King Richard, +setting forth the facts of the case, and adding that McMurrogh threatened, +until this lady's estates were restored and the arrears of tribute due to him +fully discharged, he should never cease from war, "but would join with the Earl +of Desmond against the Earl of Ormond, and afterwards return with a great force +out of Munster to ravage the country." This allusion most probably refers to +James, second Earl of Ormond, who, from being the maternal grandson of Edward +I., was called the noble Earl, and was considered in his day the peculiar +representative of the English interest. In the last years of Edward III., and +the first of his successor, he was constable of the Castle of Dublin, with a +fee of 18 pounds 5 shillings per annum. In 1381—the probable date of the +address just quoted—he had a commission to treat with certain rebels, in +order to reform them and promote peace. Three years later he died, and was +buried in the Cathedral of St. Canice, Kilkenny, the place of sepulture of his +family. +</p> + +<p> +When, in the year 1389, Richard II., having attained his majority, demanded to +reign alone, the condition of the English interest was most critical. During +the twelve years of his minority the Anglo-Irish policy of the Council of +Regency had shifted and changed, according to the predominance of particular +influences. The Lord Lieutenancy was conferred on the King's relatives, Edward +Mortimer, Earl of March (1379), and continued to his son, Roger Mortimer, a +minor (1381); in 1383, it was transferred to Philip de Courtenay, the King's +cousin. The following year, de Courtenay having been arrested and fined for +mal-administration, Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, the special favourite of +Richard, was created Marquis of Dublin and Duke of Ireland, with a grant of all +the powers and authority exercised at any period in Ireland by that King or his +predecessors. This extraordinary grant was solemnly confirmed by the English +Parliament, who, perhaps willing to get rid of the favourite at any cost, +allotted the sum of 30,000 marks due from the King of France, with a guard of +500 men-at-arms and 1,000 archers for de Vere's expedition. But that favoured +nobleman never entered into possession of the principality assigned him; he +experienced the fate of the Gavestons and de Spencers of a former reign; +fleeing, for his life, from the Barons, he died in exile in the Netherlands. +The only real rulers of the Anglo-Irish in the years of the King's minority, or +previous to his first expedition in 1394, (if we except Sir John Stanley's +short terms of office in 1385 and 1389,) were the Earls of Ormond, second and +third, Colton, Dean of Saint Patrick's, Petit, Bishop of Meath, and White, +Prior of Kilmainham. For thirty years after the death of Edward III., no +Geraldine was entrusted with the highest office, and no Anglo-Irish layman of +any other family but the Butlers. In 1393, Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of +Gloucester, uncle to Richard, was appointed Lord Lieutenant, and was on the +point of embarking, when a royal order reached him announcing the determination +of the King to take command of the forces in person. +</p> + +<p> +The immediate motives for Richard's expedition are variously stated by +different authors. That usually assigned by the English—a desire to +divert his mind from brooding over the loss of his wife, "the good Queen Anne," +seems wholly insufficient. He had announced his intention a year before her +death; he had called together, before the Queen fell ill, the Parliament at +Westminster, which readily voted him "a tenth" of the revenues of all their +estates 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 +advanced towards completion, and Sir Thomas Scroope had been already some +months in Dublin to prepare for his reception. The reason assigned by +Anglo-Irish writers is more plausible: he had been a candidate for the Imperial +Crown of Germany, and was tauntingly told by his competitors to conquer Ireland +before he entered the lists for the highest political honour of that age. This +rebuke, and the ill-success of his arms against France and Scotland, probably +made him desirous to achieve in a new field some share of that military glory +which was always so highly prized by his family: +</p> + +<p> +Some events which immediately preceded Richard's expedition may help us to +understand the relative positions of the natives and the naturalized to the +English interest in the districts through which he was to march. By this time +the banner of Art McMurrogh floated over all the castles and raths, on the +slope of the Ridge of Leinster, or the steps of the Blackstair hills; while the +forests along the Barrow and the Upper Slaney, as well as in the plain of +Carlow and in the South-western angle of Wicklow (now the barony of +Shillelagh), served still better his purposes of defensive warfare; So entirely +was the range of country thus vaguely defined under native sway that John +Griffin, the English Bishop of Leighlin, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, +obtained a grant in 1389 of the town of Gulroestown, in the county of Dublin, +"near the marches of O'Toole, seeing he could not live within his own see for +the rebels." In 1390, Peter Creagh, Bishop of Limerick, on his way to attend an +Anglo-Irish Parliament, was taken prisoner in that region, and in consequence +the usual fine was remitted in his favour. In 1392, James, the third Earl of +Ormond, gave McMurrogh a severe check at Tiscoffin, near Shankill, where 600 of +his clansmen were left dead among the hills. +</p> + +<p> +This defeat, however, was thrown into the shade by the capture of New Ross, on +the very eve of Richard's arrival at Waterford. In a previous chapter we have +described the fortifications erected round this important seaport towards the +end of the thirteenth century. Since that period its progress had been steadily +onward. In the reign of Edward III. the controversy which had long subsisted +between the merchants of Ross and those of Waterford, concerning the trade +monopolies claimed by the latter, had been decided in favour of Ross. At this +period it could muster in its own defence 363 cross-bowmen, 1,200 long-bowmen, +1,200 pikemen, and 104 horsemen—a force which would seem to place it +second to Dublin in point of military strength. The capture of so important a +place by McMurrogh was a cheering omen to his followers. He razed the walls and +towers, and carried off gold, silver, and hostages. +</p> + +<p> +On the 2nd of October, 1394, the royal fleet of Richard arrived from Milford +Haven, at Waterford. To those who saw Ireland for the first time, the rock of +Dundonolf, famed for Raymond's camp, the abbey of Dunbrody, looking calmly down +on the confluence of the three rivers, and the half-Danish, half-Norman port +before them, must have presented scenes full of interest. To the townsmen the +fleet was something wonderful. The endless succession of ships of all sizes and +models, which had wafted over 30,000 archers and 4,000 men-at-arms; the royal +galley leading on the fluttering pennons of so many great nobles, was a novel +sight to that generation. Attendant on the King were his uncle, the Duke of +Gloucester, the young Earl of March, heir apparent, Thomas Mowbray, Earl of +Nottingham, 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 of the "Pale." Several dignitaries of the English Church, as well +Bishops as Abbots, were also with the fleet. Immediately after landing, a <i>Te +Deum</i> was sung in the Cathedral, where Earl Richard had wedded the Princess +Eva, where Henry II. and John had offered up similar thanksgivings. +</p> + +<p> +Richard remained a week at Waterford; gave splendid <i>fetes</i>, and received +some lords of the neighbouring country, Le Poers, Graces, and Butlers. He made +gifts to churches, and ratified the charter given by John to the abbey of Holy +Cross in Munster. He issued a summons to Gerald, Earl of Desmond, to appear +before him by the feast of the Purification "in whatever part of Ireland he +should then be," to answer to the charge of having usurped the manor, revenues, +and honour of Dungarvan. Although it was then near the middle of October, he +took the resolution of marching to Dublin, through the country of McMurrogh, +and knowing the memory of Edward the Confessor to be popular in Leinster, he +furled the royal banner, and hoisted that of the saintly Saxon king, which bore +"a cross patence, or, on a field gules, with four doves argent on the shield." +His own proper banner bore lioncels and fleur-de-lis. His route was by +Thomastown to Kilkenny, a city which had risen into importance with the +Butlers. Nearly half a century before, this family had brought artizans from +Flanders, who established the manufacture of woollens, for which the town was +ever after famous. Its military importance was early felt and long maintained. +At this city Richard was joined by Sir William de Wellesley, who claimed to be +hereditary standard-bearer for Ireland, and by other Anglo-Irish nobles. From +thence he despatched his Earl Marshal into "Catherlough" to treat with +McMurrogh. On the plain of Ballygorry, 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 almost equivalent to extermination. They were, +in effect, that the Leinster chieftains, under fines of enormous amount, +payable into the Apostolic chamber, should, before the first Sunday of Lent, +surrender to the English King "the full possession of all their lands, +tenements, castles, woods, and forts, which by them and all other of the +Kenseologhes, their companions, men, or adherents, late were occupied within +the province of Leinster." And the condition of this surrender was to be, that +they should have unmolested possession of any and all lands they could conquer +from the King's other Irish enemies elsewhere in the kingdom. To these hard +conditions some of the minor chiefs, overawed by the immense force brought +against them, would, it seems, have submitted, but Art sternly refused to +treat, declaring that if he made terms at all, it should be with the King and +not with the Earl Marshal; and that instead of yielding his own lands, his +wife's patrimony in Kildare should be restored. This broke up the conference, +and Mowbray returned discomfitted to Kilkenny. +</p> + +<p> +King Richard, full of indignation, put himself at the head of his army and +advanced against the Leinster clans. But his march was slow and painful: the +season and the forest fought against him; he was unable to collect by the way +sufficient fodder for the horses or provisions for the men. McMurrogh swept off +everything of the nature of food—took advantage of his knowledge of the +country to burst upon the enemy by night, to entrap them into ambuscades, to +separate the cavalry from the foot, and by many other stratagems to thin their +ranks and harass the stragglers. At length Richard, despairing of dislodging +him from his fastnesses in Idrone, or fighting a way out of them, sent to him +another deputation of "the English and Irish of Leinster," inviting him to +Dublin to a personal interview. This proposal was accepted, and the English +king continued his way to Dublin, probably along the sea coast by Bray and the +white strand, over Killiney and Dunleary. Soon after his arrival at Dublin, +care was taken to repair the highway which ran by the sea, towards Wicklow and +Wexford. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap42"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br/> +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.</h3> + +<p> +At Dublin, Richard prepared to celebrate the festival of Christmas, with all +the splendour of which he was so fond. He had received letters from his council +in England warmly congratulating him on the results of his "noble voyage" and +his successes against "his rebel Make Murgh." Several lords and chiefs were +hospitably entertained by him during the holidays—but the greater +magnates did not yet present themselves—unless we suppose them to have +continued his guests at Dublin, from Christmas till Easter, which is hardly +credible. +</p> + +<p> +The supplies which he had provided were soon devoured by so vast a following. +His army, however, were paid their wages weekly, and were well satisfied. But +whatever the King or his flatterers might pretend, the real object of all the +mighty preparations made was still in the distance, and fresh supplies were +needed for the projected campaign of 1395. To raise the requisite funds, he +determined to send to England his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. Gloucester +carried a letter to the regent, the Duke of York, countersigned "Lincolne," and +dated from Dublin, "Feb. 1, 1395." The council, consisting of the Earls of +Derby, Arundel, de Ware, Salisbury, Northumberland, and others, was convened, +and they "readily voted a tenth off the clergy, and a fifteenth off the laity, +for the King's supply." This they sent with a document, signed by them all, +exhorting him to a vigorous prosecution of the war, and the demolition of all +forts belonging to "MacMourgh [or] le grand O'Nel." They also addressed him +another letter, complimentary of his valour and discretion in all things. +</p> + +<p> +While awaiting supplies from England, Richard made a progress as far northward +as Drogheda, where he took up his 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 exchanged professions of friendship with +him. It is said they made "submission" to him as their sovereign lord, but +until the Indentures, which have been spoken of, but never published, are +exhibited, it will be impossible to determine what, in their minds and in his, +were the exact relations subsisting between the native Irish princes and the +King of England at that time. O'Neil, and other lords of Ulster, accompanied +him back to Dublin, where they found O'Brien, O'Conor, and McMurrogh, lately +arrived. They were all lodged in a fair mansion, according to the notion of +Master Castide, Froissart's informant, and were under the care of the Earl of +Ormond and Castide himself, both of whom spoke familiarly the Irish language. +</p> + +<p> +The glimpse we get through Norman spectacles of the manners and customs of +these chieftains is eminently instructive, both as regards the observers and +the observed. They would have, it seems, very much to the disedification of the +English esquire, "their minstrels and principal servants sit at the same table +and eat from the same dish." The interpreters employed all their eloquence 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 consented +to have it ordered otherwise, during their stay as King Richard's guests. +</p> + +<p> +On the 24th of March the Cathedral of Christ's Church beheld the four kings +devoutly keeping the vigil preparatory to knighthood. They had been induced to +accept that honour from Richard's hand. They had apologized at first, saying +they were all knighted at the age of seven. But the ceremony, as performed in +the rest of Christendom, was represented 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 fresh honour to the victorious sword. On +the Feast of the Annunciation they went through the imposing ceremony, +according to the custom obtaining among their entertainers. +</p> + +<p> +While the native Princes of the four Provinces were thus lodged together in one +house, it was inevitable that plans of co-operation for the future should be +discussed between them. Soon after the Earl of Ormond, who knew their language, +appeared before Richard as the accuser of McMurrogh, who was, on his statement, +committed to close confinement in the Castle. He was, however, soon after set +at liberty, though O'Moore, O'Byrne, and John O'Mullain were retained in +custody, probably as hostages, for the fulfilment of the terms of his release. +By this time the expected supplies had arrived from England, and the festival +of Easter was happily passed. Before breaking up from his winter quarters +Richard celebrated with great pomp the festival of his namesake, St. Richard, +Bishop of Chichester, and then summoned a parliament to meet him at Kilkenny on +the 12th of the month. The acts of this parliament have not seen the light; an +obscurity which they share in common with all the documents of this Prince's +progress in Ireland. The same remark was made three centuries ago by the +English chronicler, Grafton, who adds with much simplicity, that as Richard's +voyage into Ireland "was nothing profitable nor honourable to him, therefore +the writers think it scant worth the noting." +</p> + +<p> +Early in May a deputation, at the head of which was the celebrated William of +Wyckham, arrived from England, invoking the personal presence of the King to +quiet the disturbances caused by the progress of Lollardism. With this +invitation he decided at once to comply, but first he appointed the youthful +Earl of March his lieutenant in Ireland, and confirmed the ordinance of Edward +III., empowering the chief governor in council to convene parliament by writ, +which writ should be of equal obligation with the King's writ in England. He +ordained that a fine of not less than fifty marks, and not more than one +hundred, should be exacted of every representative of a town or shire, who, +being elected as such, neglected or refused to attend. He reformed the royal +courts, and appointed Walter de Hankerford and William Sturmey, two Englishmen, +"well learned in the law" as judges, whose annual salaries were to be forty +pounds each. Having made these arrangements, he took an affectionate leave of +his heir and cousin, and sailed for England, whither he was accompanied by most +of the great nobles who had passed over with him to the Irish wars. Little +dreamt they of the fate which impended over many of their heads. Three short +years and Gloucester would die by the assassin's hand, Arundel by the +executioner's axe, and Mowbray, Earl Marshal, the ambassador at Ballygorry, +would pine to death in Italian banishment. Even a greater change than any of +these—a change of dynasty—was soon to come over England. +</p> + +<p> +The young Earl of March, now left in the supreme direction of affairs, so far +as we know, had no better title to govern than that he was heir to the English +throne, unless it may have been considered an additional recommendation that he +was sixth in descent from the Lady Eva McMurrogh. To his English title, he +added that of Earl of Ulster and Lord of Connaught, derived from his mother, +the daughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and those of Lord of Trim and Clare, +from other relations. The counsellors with whom he was surrounded included the +wisest statesmen and most experienced soldiers of "the Pale." Among them were +Almaric, Baron Grace, who, contrary to the statute of Kilkenny, had married an +O'Meagher of Ikerrin, and whose family had intermarried with the McMurroghs; +the third Earl of Ormond, an indomitable soldier, who had acted as Lord Deputy, +in former years of this reign; Cranley, Archbishop of Dublin, and Roche, the +Cistercian Abbot of St. Mary's, lately created Lord Treasurer of Ireland; +Stephen Bray, Chief Justice; and Gerald, fifth Earl of Kildare. Among his +advisers of English birth were Roger Grey, his successor; the new Judges +Hankerford and Sturmey, and others of less pacific reputation. With the +dignitaries of the Church, and the innumerable priors and abbots, in and about +Dublin, the court of the Heir-Presumptive must have been a crowded and imposing +one for those times, and had its external prospects been peaceful, much ease +and pleasure might have been enjoyed within its walls. +</p> + +<p> +In the three years of this administration, the struggle between the natives, +the naturalized, and the English interest knew no cessation in Leinster. Some +form of submission had been wrung from McMurrogh before his release from Dublin +Castle, in the spring of 1395, but this engagement extorted under duress, from +a guest towards whom every rite of hospitality had been violated, he did not +feel bound by after his enlargement. In the same year an attempt was made to +entrap him at a banquet given in one of the castles of the frontier, but warned +by his bard, he made good his escape "by the strength of his arm, and by +bravery." After this double violation of what among his countrymen, even of the +fiercest tribes, was always held sacred, the privileged character of a guest, +he never again placed himself at the mercy of prince or peer, but prosecuted +the war with unfaltering determination. In 1396, his neighbour, the chief of +Imayle, carried off from an engagement near Dublin, six score heads of the +foreigners: and the next year—an exploit hardly second in its kind to the +taking of Ross—the strong castle and town of Carlow were captured by +McMurrogh himself. In the campaign of 1398, on the 20th of July, was fought the +eventful battle of Kenlis, or Kells, on the banks of the stream called "the +King's river," 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 which contributed to the revolution in England, a year or two later. The +tidings of this event filled "the Pale" with consternation, and thoroughly +aroused the vindictive temper of Richard. He at once despatched to Dublin his +half-brother, Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, recently created Duke of Surrey. To +this duke he made a gift of Carlow castle and town, to be held (if taken) by +knights' service. He then, as much, perhaps, to give occupation to the minds of +his people, as to prosecute his old project of subduing Ireland, began to make +preparations for his second expedition thither. Death again delayed him. John +of Ghent, Duke of Lancaster, his uncle, and one of the most famous soldiers of +the time, suddenly sickened, and died. As Henry, his son, was in banishment, +the King, under pretence of appropriating his vast wealth to the service of the +nation, seized it into his own hands, and despite the warnings of his wisest +counsellors as to the disturbed state of the kingdom, again took up his march +for Milford Haven. +</p> + +<p> +A French knight, named Creton, had obtained leave with a brother-in-arms to +accompany this expedition, and has left us a very vivid account of its +progress. Quitting Paris they reached London just as King Richard was about "to +cross the sea on account of the injuries and grievances that his mortal enemies +had committed against him in Ireland, where they had put to death many of his +faithful friends." Wherefore they were further told, "he would take no rest +until he had avenged himself upon MacMore, who called himself most excellent +King and Lord of great Ireland; where he had but little territory of any kind." +</p> + +<p> +They at once set out for Milford, where, "waiting for the north wind," they +remained "ten whole days." Here they found King Richard with a great army, and +a corresponding fleet. The clergy were taxed to supply horses, 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 +order in council, dated February 7th, to send vessels rated at twenty-five tons +and upwards to Milford, by the octave of Easter. King's letters were issued +whenever the usual ordinances failed, and even the press-gang was resorted to, +to raise the required number of mariners. Minstrels of all kinds crowded to the +camp, enlivening it by their strains, and enriching themselves the while. The +wind coming 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. +</p> + +<p> +In two days they saw "the tower of Waterford." The condition to which the +people of this English stronghold had been reduced by the war was pitiable in +the extreme. Some were in rags, others girt with ropes, and their dwellings +seemed to the voyagers but huts and holes. They rushed into the tide up to +their waists, for the speedy unloading of the ships, especially attending to +those that bore the supplies of the army. Little did the proud cavaliers and +well-fed yeomen, who then looked on, imagine, as they pitied the poor wretches +of Waterford, that before many weeks were over, they would themselves be +reduced to the like necessity—even to rushing into the sea to contend for +a morsel of food. +</p> + +<p> +Six days after his arrival, which was on the 1st of June, King Richard marched +from Waterford "in close order to Kilkenny." He had now the advantage of long +days and warm nights, which in his first expedition he had not. His forces 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 have +followed him, but this unfaithful courtier did not greatly hasten his +preparations to overtake his master. With the King were the Lord Steward of +England, Sir Thomas Percy; the Duke of Exeter; De Spencer, Earl of Gloucester; +the Lord Henry of Lancaster, afterwards King Henry V.; the son of the late Duke +of Gloucester; the son of the Countess of Salisbury; the Bishop of Exeter and +London; the Abbot of Westminster, and a gallant Welsh gentleman, afterwards +known to fame as Owen Glendower. He dropped the subterfuge of bearing Edward +the Confessor's banner, and advanced his 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 the Earl of Rutland from +Waterford. No news, however, came. But while he waited, he received +intelligence from Kildare which gratified his thirst for vengeance. Jenico +d'Artois, a Gascon knight of great discretion and valour, who had come over the +preceding year with the Duke of Surrey, marching towards Kilkenny, had +encountered some bands of the Irish in Kildare (bound on a like errand to their +prince), whom he fought and put to flight, leaving two hundred of them dead +upon the field. This Jenico, relishing Irish warfare more than most foreign +soldiers of his age, continued long after to serve in Ireland—married one +of his daughters to Preston, Baron of Naas, and another to the first Lord +Portlester. +</p> + +<p> +On the 23rd of June, "the very vigil of St. John," a saint to whom the King was +very much devoted, Richard, resolving to delay no longer, left Kilkenny, and +marched directly towards Catherlough. He sent a message in advance to +McMurrogh, "who would neither submit nor obey him in anyway; but affirmed that +he was the rightful King of Ireland, and that he would never cease from war and +the defence of his country until his death; and said that the wish to deprive +him of it by conquest was unlawful." +</p> + +<p> +Art McMurrogh, now some years beyond middle age, had with him in arms "three +thousand hardy men," "who did not appear," says our French knight, "to be much +afraid of the English." The cattle and corn, the women and the helpless, he had +removed into the interior of the fastnesses, while he himself awaited, in +Idrone, the approach of the enemy. +</p> + +<p> +This district, which lies north and south between the rivers Slaney and Barrow, +is of a diversified and broken soil, watered with several small streams, and +patched with tracts of morass and marsh. It was then half covered with wood, +except in the neighbourhood of Old Leighlin, and a few other places where +villages had grown up around the castles, raths, and monasteries of earlier +days. On reaching the border of the forest, King Richard ordered all 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 +highway into the woods." +</p> + +<p> +When the first space was cleared, Richard, ever fond of pageantry, ordered his +standard to be planted on the new ground, and pennons and banners arrayed on +every side. Then he sent for the sons of the Dukes of Gloucester and Lancaster, +his cousins, and the son of the Countess of Salisbury and other +bachelors-in-arms, and there knighted them with all due solemnity. To young +Lancaster, he said, "My fair cousin, henceforth, be preux and valiant, for you +have some valiant blood to conquer." The youth to whom he made this address was +little more than a boy, but tall of his age, and very vigorous. He had been a +hard student at Oxford, and was now as unbridled as a colt new loosed into a +meadow. He was fond of music, and afterwards became illustrious as the Fifth +Henry of English history. Who could have foreseen, when first he put on his +spurs by the wood's side, in Catherlough, that he would one day inherit the +throne of England and make good the pretensions of all his predecessors to the +throne of France? +</p> + +<p> +Richard's advance was slow and wearisome in the forests of 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 camp nightly with alarm and blood. +The English archers got occasional shots at his men, "so that they did not all +escape;" and they in turn often attacked the rear-guard, "and threw their darts +with such force that they pierced haubergeon and plates through and through." +The Leinster King would risk no open battle so long as he could thus cut off +the enemy in detail. Many brave knights fell, many men-at-arms and archers; and +a deep disrelish for the service began to manifest itself in the English camp. +</p> + +<p> +A party of Wexford settlers, however, brought one day to his camp Malachy +McMurrogh, uncle to Art, a timid, treaty-making man. According to the custom of +that century—observed by the defenders of Stirling and the burgesses of +Calais—he submitted with a <i>wythe</i> about his neck, rendering up a +naked sword. His retinue, bareheaded and barefoot, followed him into the +presence of Richard, who received them graciously. "Friends," said he to them, +"as to the evils and wrongs that you have committed against me, I pardon you on +condition that each of you will swear to be faithful to me for the time to +come." Of this circumstance he made the most, as our guide goes on to tell in +these words: "Then every one readily complied with his demand; and took the +oath. When this was done he sent word to MacMore, who called himself Lord and +King of Ireland, (<i>that country</i>,) where he has many a wood but little +cultivated land, that if he would come straightways to him with a rope about +<i>his</i> neck, as his uncle had done, he would admit him to mercy, and +elsewhere give him castles and lands in abundance." The answer of King Art is +thus reported: "MacMore told the King's people he would do no such thing for +all the treasures of the sea or on this side, (the sea,) but would continue to +fight and harass him." +</p> + +<p> +For eleven days longer Richard continued his route in the direction of Dublin, +McMurrogh and his allies falling back towards the hills and glens of Wicklow. +The English could find nothing by the way but "a few green oats" for the +horses, which being exposed night and day, and so badly fed, perished in great +numbers. The general discontent now 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 been heartily glad to have been penniless at Poitiers or +Paris." Daily deaths made the camp a scene of continued mourning, and all the +minstrels that had come across the sea to amuse their victor countrymen, like +the poet who went with Edward II. to Bannockburn to celebrate the conquest of +the Scots, found their gay imaginings turned to a sorrowful reverse. +</p> + +<p> +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 for food, that "they rushed into the sea as eagerly as they would into +their straw." All their money was poured into the hands of the merchants; some +of them even fought in the water about a morsel of food, while in their thirst +they drank all the wine they could lay hands on. Our guide saw full a thousand +men drunk that day on "the wine of Ossey and Spain." The scene of this +extraordinary incident is conjectured to have been at or near Arklow, where the +beach is sandy and flat, such as it is not at any point of Wicklow north of +that place. +</p> + +<p> +The morning after the arrival of these stores, King Richard again set forward +for Dublin, determining to penetrate Wicklow by the valleys that lead from the +Meeting of the Waters to Bray. He had not proceeded far on his march, when a +Franciscan friar reached his camp as Ambassador from the Leinster King. This +unnamed messenger, whose cowl history cannot raise, expressed the willingness +of his lord to treat with the King, through some accredited agent—"some +lord who might be relied upon"—"so that <i>their</i> anger (Richard's and +his own), 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 a consultation, it was resolved that de Spencer, Earl of +Gloucester, should be empowered to confer with Art. This nobleman, now but 26 +years of age, had served in the campaign of 1394. He was one of the most +powerful peers of England, and had married Constance, daughter of the Duke of +York, Richard's cousin. From his possessions in Wales, he probably knew +something of the Gaelic customs and speech. He was captain of the rearguard on +this expedition, 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 himself relates in these words: +</p> + +<p> +"Between two woods, at some distance from the sea, I beheld MacMore and a body +of the Irish, more than I can number, descend the mountain. He had a horse, +without housing or saddle, which was so fine and good, that it had cost him, +they said, four hundred cows; for there is little money in the country, +wherefore their usual traffic is only with cattle. In coming down, it galloped +so hard, 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 bore a 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 a little brook. There MacMore stopped. He was a fine +large man—wondrously active. To look at him, he seemed very stern and +savage, and an able man. He and the Earl spake of their doings, recounting the +evil and injury that MacMore had done towards the King at sundry times; and how +they all foreswore their fidelity when wrongfully, without judgment or law, +they most mischievously put to death the courteous Earl of March. Then they +exchanged much discourse, but did not come to agreement; they took short leave, +and hastily parted. Each took his way apart, and the Earl returned towards King +Richard." +</p> + +<p> +This interview seems to have taken place in the lower vale of Ovoca, locally +called Glen-Art, both from the description of the scenery, and the stage of his +march at which Richard halted. The two woods, the hills on either hand, the +summer-shrunken river, which, to one accustomed to the Seine and the Thames +naturally looked no bigger than a brook, form a picture, the original of which +can only be found in that locality. The name itself, a name not to be found +among the immediate chiefs of Wicklow, would seem to confirm this hypothesis. +</p> + +<p> +The Earl on his return declared, "he could find nothing in him, (Art,) save +only that he would ask for <i>pardon</i>, truly, upon condition of having +<i>peace without reserve</i>, free from any molestation or imprisonment; +otherwise, he will 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; he +swore in great wrath by St. Edward, that, no, never would he depart from +Ireland, till, alive or dead, he had him in his power." +</p> + +<p> +The King, notwithstanding, was most anxious to reach Dublin. He at once broke +up his camp, and marched on through Wicklow, "for all the shoutings of the +enemie." What other losses he met in those deep valleys our guide deigns not to +tell, but only that they arrived at last in Dublin "more than 30,000" strong, +which includes, of course, the forces of the Anglo-Irish lords that joined them +on the way. There "the whole of their ills were soon forgotten, and their +sorrow removed." The provost and sheriffs feasted them sumptuously, and they +were all well-housed and clad. After the dangers they had undergone, these +attentions were doubly grateful to them. But for long years the memory of this +doleful march lived in the recollection of the English on both sides the Irish +sea, and but once more for above a century did a hostile army venture into the +fastnesses of Idrone and Hy-Kinsellah. +</p> + +<p> +When Richard arrived in Dublin, still galled by the memory of his disasters, he +divided his force into three divisions, and sent them out in quest of +McMurrogh, promising to whosoever should bring him to Dublin, alive or dead, +"100 marks, in pure gold." "Every one took care to remember these words," says +Creton, "for it was a good hearing." And Richard, moreover, declared that if +they did not capture him when the autumn came, and the trees were leafless and +dry, he would burn "all the woods great and small," or find out that troublous +rebel. The same day he sent out his three troops, the Earl of Rutland, his +laggard cousin, arrived at Dublin with 100 barges. His unaccountable delay he +submissively apologized for, and was readily pardoned. "Joy and delight" now +reigned in Dublin. The crown jewels shone at daily banquets, tournaments, and +mysteries. Every day some new pastime was invented, and thus six weeks passed, +and August drew to an end. Richard's happiness would have been complete had any +of his soldiers brought in McMurrogh's head: but far other news was on the way +to him. Though there was such merriment in Dublin, a long-continued storm swept +the channel. When good weather returned, a barge arrived from Chester, bearing +Sir William Bagot, who brought intelligence that Henry of Lancaster, the +banished Duke, had landed at Ravenspur, and raised a formidable insurrection +amongst the people, winning over the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Duke of +York, and other great nobles. Richard was struck with dismay. He at once sent +the Earl of Salisbury into Wales to announce his return, and then, taking the +evil counsel of Rutland, marched himself to Waterford, with most part of his +force, and collected the remainder on the way. Eighteen days after the news +arrived he embarked for England, leaving Sir John Stanley as Lord Lieutenant in +Ireland. Before quitting Dublin, he confined the sons of the Dukes of Lancaster +and Gloucester, in the strong fortress of Trim, from which they were liberated +to share the triumph of the successful usurper, Henry IV. +</p> + +<p> +It is beyond our province to follow the after-fate of the monarch, whose Irish +campaigns we have endeavoured to restore to their relative importance. His +deposition and cruel death, in the prison of Pontefract, are familiar to +readers of English history. The unsuccessful insurrections suppressed during +his rival's reign, and the glory won by the son of that rival, as Henry V., +seem to have established the house of Lancaster firmly on the throne; but the +long minority of Henry VI.—who inherited the royal dignity at nine months +old—and the factions among the other members of that family, opened +opportunities, too tempting to be resisted, to the rival dynasty of York. +During the first sixty years of the century on which we are next to enter, we +shall find the English interest in Ireland controlled by the house of +Lancaster; in the succeeding twenty-five years the partizans 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 the coronation of the Earl +of Richmond as Henry VII., and his politic marriage with the Princess +Elizabeth—the representative of the Yorkist dynasty. It will be seen how +these rival houses had their respective factions among the Anglo-Irish; how +these factions retarded two centuries the establishment of English power in +Ireland; how the native lords and chiefs took advantage of the disunion among +the foreigners to circumscribe more and more the narrow limits of the Pale; and +lastly, how the absence of national unity alone preserved the power so reduced +from utter extinction. In considering all these far 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 wars as proximate +causes of that revolution. The death of the Heir-Presumptive in the battle of +Kells; the exactions and ill-success of Richard in his wars; the seizure of +John of Ghent's estates and treasures; the absence of the sovereign at the +critical moment: all these are causes which operated powerfully to that end. +And of these all that relate to Irish affairs were mainly brought about by the +heroic constancy, in the face of enormous odds, the unwearied energy, and high +military skill exhibited by one man—Art McMurrogh. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap43"></a>CHAPTER V.<br/> +PARTIES WITHIN "THE PALE"—BATTLES OF KILMAINHAM AND +KILLUCAN—SIR JOHN TALBOT'S LORD LIEUTENANCY.</h3> + +<p> +One leading fact, which we have to follow in all its consequences through the +whole of the fifteenth century, is the division of the English and of the +Anglo-Irish interest into two parties, Lancasterians and Yorkists. This +division of the foreign power will be found to have produced a corresponding +sense of security in the minds of the native population, and thus deprived them +of that next best thing to a united national action, the combining effects of a +common external danger. +</p> + +<p> +The new party lines were not drawn immediately upon the English revolution of +1399, but a very few years sufficed to infuse among settlers of English birth +or descent the partizan passions which distracted the minds of men in their +original country. The third Earl of Ormond, although he had received so many +favours from the late King and his grandfather, yet by a common descent of five +generations from Edward I., stood in relation of cousinship to the Usurper. On +the arrival of the young Duke of Lancaster as Lord Lieutenant, in 1402, Ormond +became one of his first courtiers, and dying soon after, he chose the Duke +guardian to his heir, afterwards the fourth Earl. This heir, while yet a minor +(1407), was elected or appointed deputy to his guardian, the Lord Lieutenant; +during almost the whole of the short reign of Henry V. (1413-1421) he resided +at the English Court, or accompanied the King in his French campaigns, thus +laying the foundations of that influence which, six several times during the +reign of Henry VI., procured his appointment to office as Lord Deputy, Lord +Justice, or Lord Lieutenant. At length, in the mid-year of the century, his +successor was created Earl of Wiltshire, and entrusted with the important +duties of one of the Commissioners for the fleet, and Lord Treasurer of +England; favours and employments which sufficiently account for how the Ormond +family became the leaders of the Lancaster party among the Anglo-Irish. +</p> + +<p> +The bestowal of the first place on another house tended to estrange the +Geraldines, who, with some reason, regarded themselves as better entitled to +such honours. During the first official term of the Duke of Lancaster, no great +feeling was exhibited, and on his departure in 1405, the fifth Earl of Kildare +was, for a year, entrusted with the office of Deputy. On the return of the +Duke, in August, 1408, the Earl rode out to meet him, but was suddenly arrested +with three other members of his family, and imprisoned in the Castle, His house +in Dublin was plundered by the servants of the Lord Lieutenant, and the sum of +300 marks was exacted for his ransom. Such injustice and indignity, as well as +the subsequent arrest of the sixth Earl, in 1418, "for having communicated with +the Prior of Kilmainham"—still more than their rivalry with the Ormonds, +drove the Kildare family into the ranks of the adherents of the Dukes of York. +We shall see in the sequel the important reacting influence of these +Anglo-Irish combinations upon the fortunes of the white rose and the red. +</p> + +<p> +To signalize his accession and remove the reproach of inaction which had been +so often urged against his predecessor, Henry IV, was no sooner seated on the +throne than he summoned the military tenants of the Crown to meet him in arms +upon the Tyne, for the invasion of Scotland. It seems probable that he summoned +those of Ireland with the rest, as we find in that year (1400) that an +Anglo-Irish fleet, proceeding northwards from Dublin, encountered a Scottish, +fleet in Strangford Lough, where a fierce engagement was fought, both sides +claiming the victory. Three years later the Dubliners landed at Saint Ninians, +and behaved valiantly, as their train bands did the same summer against the +mountain tribes of Wicklow. Notwithstanding the personal sojourn of the +unfortunate Richard, and his lavish expenditure among them, these warlike +burghers cordially supported the new dynasty. Some privileges of trade were +judiciously extended to them, and, in 1407, Henry granted to the Mayors of the +city the privilege of having a gilded sword carried before them, in the same +manner as the Mayors of London. +</p> + +<p> +At the period when these politic favours were bestowed on the citizens of +Dublin, Henry was contending with a formidable insurrection in Wales, under the +leadership of Owen Glendower, who had learned in the fastnesses of Idrone, +serving under King Richard, how brave men, though not formed to war in the best +schools, can defend their country against invasion. In the struggle which he +maintained 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 +constant occupation furnished them by the clans of Leinster. The early years of +the Lancasterian dynasty were marked by a series of almost invariable defeats +in the Leinster counties. Art McMurrogh, whose activity defied the chilling +effects of age, poured his cohorts through Sculloge gap, on the garrisons of +Wexford, taking in rapid possession in 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 forces on the Curragh of Kildare, slaying +two hundred men. Castledermot was retaken by the Lord Deputy Scrope the next +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 to +custom, solemnly re-enacted as the only hope of the English interest, and they +naturally drew the sword in maintenance of their palladium. Within six miles of +Callan, in "McMurrogh's country," they encountered that chieftain and his +clansmen. In the early part of the day the Irish are stated to have had the +advantage, but some Methian captains coming up in the afternoon turned the tide +in favour of the English. According to the chronicles of the Pale, they won a +second victory before nightfall at the town of Callan, over O'Carroll of Ely, +who was marching to the aid of McMurrogh. But so confused and unsatisfactory +are the accounts of this twofold engagement on the same day, in which the +Deputy in person, and such important persons as the Earls of Desmond, of +Ormond, and the Prior of Kilmainham commanded, that we cannot reconcile it with +probability. The Irish Annals simply record the fact that a battle was gained +at Callan over the Irish of Munster, in which O'Carroll was slain. Other native +authorities add that 800 of his followers fell with O'Carroll, but no mention +whatever is made of the battle with McMurrogh. The English accounts gravely +add, that the evening sun stood still, while the Lord Deputy rode six miles, +from the place of the first engagement to that of the second. This was the last +campaign of Sir Stephen Scrope; he died soon after by the pestilence which +swept over the island, sparing neither rich nor poor. +</p> + +<p> +The Duke of Lancaster resumed the Lieutenancy, arrested the Earl of Kildare as +before related, convoked a Parliament at Dublin, and with all the forces he +could muster, determined on an expedition southwards. But McMurrogh and the +mountaineers of Wicklow now felt themselves strong enough to take the +initiative. They crossed the plain which lies to the north of Dublin, and +encamped at Kilmainham, where Roderick when he besieged the city, and Brien +before the battle of Clontarf, had pitched their tents of old. The English and +Anglo-Irish forces, under the eye of their Prince, marched out to dislodge +them, in four divisions. The first was led by the Duke in person; the second by +the veteran knight, Jenico d'Artois, the third by Sir Edward Perrers, an +English knight, and the fourth by Sir Thomas Butler, Prior of the Order of +Saint John, afterwards created by Henry V., for his distinguished service, Earl +of Kilmain. With McMurrogh were O'Byrne, O'Nolan, and other chiefs, besides his +sons, nephews, and relatives. The numbers on each side could hardly fall short +of ten thousand men, and the action may be fairly considered one of the most +decisive of those times. The Duke was carried back wounded into Dublin; the +slopes of Inchicore and the valley of the Liffey were strewn with the dying and +the dead; the river at that point obtained from the Leinster Irish the name of +<i>Athcroe</i>, or the ford of slaughter; the widowed city was filled with +lamentation and dismay. In a petition addressed to King Henry by the Council, +apparently during his son's confinement from the effects of his wound, they +thus describe the Lord Lieutenant's condition: "His soldiers have deserted him; +the people of his household are on the point of leaving him; and though they +were willing to remain, our lord is not able to keep them together; our said +lord, your son, is so destitute of money, that he hath not a penny in the +world, nor a penny can he get credit for." +</p> + +<p> +One consequence of this battle of Kilmainham was, that while Art McMurrogh +lived, no further attacks were made upon his kindred or country. He died at +Ross, on the first day of January, 1417, in the 60th year of his age. His +Brehon, O'Doran, having also died suddenly on the same day, it was supposed +they were both poisoned by a drink prepared for them by a woman of the town. +"He was," say our impartial <i>Four Masters</i>, who seldom speak so warmly of +any Leinster Prince, "a man distinguished for his hospitality, knowledge, and +feats of arms; a man full of prosperity and royalty; a founder of churches and +monasteries by his bounty and contributions," and one who had defended his +Province from the age of sixteen to sixty. +</p> + +<p> +On his recovery from the effects of his wound, the Duke of Lancaster returned +finally to England, appointing Prior Butler his Deputy, who filled that office +for five consecutive years. Butler was an illegitimate son of the late Earl of +Ormond, and naturally a Lancasterian: among the Irish he was called Thomas +<i>Baccagh</i>, on account of his lameness. He at once abandoned South Leinster +as a field of operations, and directed all his efforts to maintain the Pale in +Kildare, Meath, and Louth. His chief antagonist in this line of action was +Murrogh or Maurice O'Conor, of Offally. This powerful chief had lost two or +three sons, but had gamed as many battles over former deputies. He was +invariably aided by his connexions and neighbours, the MacGeoghegans of +West-Heath. Conjointly they captured the castles and plundered the towns of +their enemies, holding their prisoners to ransom or carrying off their flocks. +In 1411 O'Conor held to ransom the English Sheriff of Meath, and somewhat later +defeated Prior Butler in a pitched battle. His greatest victory was the battle +of Killucan, fought on the 10th day of May, 1414. In this engagement +MacGeoghegan was, as usual, his comrade. All the power of the English Pale was +arrayed against them. Sir Thomas Mereward, Baron of Screen, "and a great many +officers and common soldiers were slain," and among the prisoners were +Christopher Fleming, son of the Baron of Slane, for whom a ransom of 1,400 +marks was paid, and the ubiquitous Sir Jenico d'Artois, who, with some others, +paid "twelve hundred marks, beside a reward and fine for intercession." A +Parliament which sat at Dublin for thirteen weeks, in 1413, and a foray into +Wicklow, complete the notable acts of Thomas <i>Baccagh's</i> viceroyalty. Soon +after the accession of Henry V. (1413), he was summoned to accompany that +warlike monarch into France, and for a short interval the government was +exercised by Sir John Stanley, who died shortly after his arrival, and by the +Archbishop of Dublin, as Commissioner. On the eve of St. Martin's Day, 1414, +Sir John Talbot, afterwards so celebrated as first Earl of Shrewsbury, landed +at Dalkey, with the title of Lord Lieutenant. +</p> + +<p> +The appointment of this celebrated Captain, on the brink of a war with France, +was an admission of the desperate strait 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 ground the appointment of this inexorable +soldier. Adopting the system of Sir Thomas Butler, Talbot paid little or no +attention to South Leinster, but aimed in the first place to preserve to his +sovereign, Louth and Meath. His most southern point of operation, in his first +Lieutenancy, was Leix, but his continuous efforts were directed against the +O'Conors of Offally and the O'Hanlons and McMahons of Oriel. For three +succeeding years he made circuits through these tribes, generally by the same +route, west and north, plundering chiefs and churches, sparing "neither saint +nor sanctuary." On his return to Dublin after these forays, he exacted with a +high hand whatever he wanted for his household. When he returned to England, +1419, he carried along with him, according to the chronicles of the +Pale—"the curses of many, because he, being run much in debt for +victuals, and divers other things, would pay little or nothing at all." Among +the natives he left a still worse reputation. The plunder of a bard was +regarded by them as worse, if possible, than the spoliation of a sanctuary. One +of Talbot's immediate predecessors was reputed to have died of the malediction +of a bard of West-Meath, whose property he had appropriated; but as if to show +his contempt of such superstition, Talbot suffered no son of song to escape +him. Their satires fell powerless 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 the Desmonds and Ormonds. The see of Dublin +falling vacant during his administration, he procured the appointment of his +brother Richard as Archbishop, and left him, at his departure, in temporary +possession of the office of Lord Deputy. Branches of his family were planted at +Malahide, Belgarde, and Talbotstown, in Wicklow, the representatives of which +survive till this day. +</p> + +<p> +One of this Lieutenant's most acceptable offices to the State was the result of +stratagem rather than of arms. The celebrated Art McMurrogh was succeeded, in +1417, by his son, Donogh, who seems to have inherited his valour, without his +prudence. In 1419, in common with the O'Conor of Offally, his father's friend, +he was entrapped into the custody of Talbot. O'Conor, the night of his capture, +escaped with his companions, and kept up the war until his death: McMurrogh was +carried to London and confined in the Tower. Here he languished for nine weary +years. At length, in 1428, Talbot, having "got license to make the best of +him," held him to ransom. The people of his own province released him, "which +was joyful news to the Irish." +</p> + +<p> +But neither the aggrandizement of new nor the depression of old families +effected any cardinal change in the direction of events. We have traced for +half a century, and are still farther to follow out, the natural consequences +of the odious <i>Statute of Kilkenny</i>. Although every successive Parliament +of the Pale recited and re-enacted that statute, every year saw it dispensed in +particular cases, both as to trading, intermarriage, and fostering with the +natives. Yet the virus of national proscription outlived all the experience of +its futility. In 1417, an English petition was presented to the English +Parliament, praying that the law, excluding Irish ecclesiastics from Irish +benefices, should be strictly enforced; and the same year they prohibited the +influx of fugitives from Ireland, while the Pale Parliament passed a +corresponding act against allowing any one to emigrate without special license. +At a Parliament held at Dublin in 1421, O'Hedian, Archbishop of Cashel, was +impeached by Gese, Bishop of Waterford, the main charges being that he loved +none of the English nation; that he presented no Englishman to a living; and +that he designed to make himself King of Munster. This zealous assembly also +adopted a petition of grievances to the King, praying that as the Irish, who +had done homage to King Richard, "had long since taken arms against the +government notwithstanding their recognizances payable in the Apostolic +chamber, his Highness the King would lay their conduct before the Pope, and +prevail on the Holy Father to publish <i>a crusade against them</i>, to follow +up the intention of his predecessor's grant to Henry II.!" +</p> + +<p> +In the temporal order, as we have seen, the policy of hatred brought its own +punishment. "The Pale," which may be said to date from the passing of the +<i>Statute of Kilkenny</i> (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 by Seneschals or Sheriffs. In 1422 Dunlavan and Ballymore are +mentioned as the chief keys of Dublin and Kildare—and in the succeeding +reign Callan in Oriel is set down as the chief key of that part. Dikes to keep +out the enemy were made from Tallaght to Tassagard, at Rathconnell in Meath, +and at other places in Meath and Kildare. These narrower limits it long +retained, and the usual phrase in all future legislation by which the +assemblies of the Anglo-Irish define their jurisdiction is "the four shires." +So completely was this enclosure isolated from the rest of the country that, in +the reign at which we have now arrived, both the Earls of Desmond and Ormond +were exempted from attending certain sittings of Parliament, and the Privy +Council, on the ground that they could not do so without marching through the +enemy's country at great risk and inconvenience. It is true occasional +successes attended the military enterprises of the Anglo-Irish, even in these +days of their lowest fortunes. But they had chosen to adopt a narrow, bigoted, +unsocial policy; a policy of exclusive dealing and perpetual estrangement from +their neighbours dwelling on the same soil, and they had their reward. Their +borders were narrowed upon them; they were penned up in one corner of the +kingdom, out of which they could not venture a league without license and +protection, from the free clansmen they insincerely affected to despise. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap44"></a>CHAPTER I.<br/> +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.</h3> + +<p> +The history of "the Pale" being recounted down to the period of its complete +isolation, we have now to pass beyond its entrenched and castellated limits, in +order to follow the course of events in other parts of the kingdom. +</p> + +<p> +While the highest courage was everywhere exhibited by chiefs and clansmen, no +attempt was made to bring about another National Confederacy, after the fall of +Edward Bruce. One result of that striking <i>denouement</i> of a stormy +career—in addition to those before mentioned—was to give new life +to the jealousy which had never wholly subsided, between the two primitive +divisions of the Island. Bruce, welcomed, sustained, and lamented by the +Northern Irish, was distrusted, avoided, and execrated by those of the South. +There may have been exceptions, but this was the rule. The Bards and Newsmen of +subsequent times, according to their Provincial bias, charged the failure of +Bruce upon the Eugenian race, or justified his fate by aspersing his memory and +his adherents of the race of Conn. This feeling of irritation, always most +deep-seated when driven in by a consciousness of mismanagement or of +self-reproach, goes a great way to account for the fact, that more than one +generation was to pass away, before any closer union could be brought about +between the Northern and Southern Milesian Irish. +</p> + +<p> +We cannot, therefore, in the period embraced in our present book, treat the +Provinces otherwise than as estranged communities, departing farther and +farther from the ancient traditions of one central legislative council and one +supreme elective chief. Special, short-lived alliances between lords of +different Provinces are indeed frequent; but they were brought about mostly by +ties of relationship or gossipred, and dissolved with the disappearance of the +immediate danger. The very idea of national unity, once so cherished by all the +children of <i>Miledh Espaigne</i>, seems to have been as wholly lost as any of +those secrets of ancient handiwork, over which modern ingenuity puzzles itself +in vain. In the times to which we have descended, it was every principality and +every lordship for itself. As was said of old in Rome, "Antony had his party, +Octavius had his party, but the Commonwealth had none." +</p> + +<p> +Not alone was the greater unity wholly forgotten, but no sooner were the +descendants of the Anglo-Normans driven into their eastern enclosure, or +thoroughly amalgamated in language, laws and costume with themselves, than the +ties of particular clans began to loose their binding force, and the tendency +to subdivide showed itself on every opportunity. We have already, in the book +of the "War of Succession," described the subdivisions of Breffni and of Meath +as measures of policy, taken by the O'Conor Kings, to weaken their too powerful +suffragans. But that step, which might have strengthened the hands of a native +dynasty, almost inevitably weakened the tribes themselves in combating the +attacks of a highly organized foreign power. Of this the O'Conors themselves +became afterwards the most striking example. For half a century following the +Red Earl's death, they had gained steadily on the foreigners settled in +Connaught. The terrible defeat of Athenry was more than atoned for by both +other victories. At length the descendants of the vanquished on that day ruled +as proudly as ever did their ancestors in their native Province. The posterity +of the victors were merely tolerated on its soil, or anxiously building up new +houses in Meath and Louth. But in an evil hour, on the death of their last King +(1384), the O'Conors agreed to settle the conflicting claims of rival +candidates for the succession by dividing the common inheritance. From this +date downwards we have an O'Conor Don and an O'Conor Roe in the Annals of that +Province, each rallying a separate band of partizans; and according to the +accidents of age, minority, alliance, or personal reputation, infringing, +harassing, or domineering over the other. Powerful lords they long continued, +but as Provincial Princes we meet them no more. +</p> + +<p> +This fatal example—of which there had been a faint foreshadowing in the +division of the McCarthys in the preceding century—in the course of a +generation or two, was copied by almost every great connection, north and +south. The descendants of yellow Hugh O'Neil in Clandeboy claimed exemption +from the supremacy of the elder family in Tyrone; the O'Farells, acknowledged +two lords of Annally; the McDonoghs, two lords of Tirerril; there was McDermott +of the Wood claiming independence of McDermott of the Rock; O'Brien of Ara +asserted equality with O'Brien of Thomond; the nephews of Art McMurrogh +contested the superiority of his sons; and thus slowly but surely the most +powerful clans were hastening the day of their own dissolution. +</p> + +<p> +A consequence of these subdivisions was the necessity which arose for new and +opposite alliances, among those who had formerly looked on themselves as +members of one family, with common dangers and common enemies. The pivot of +policy now rested on neighbourhood rather than on pedigree; a change in its +first stages apparently unnatural and deplorable, but in the long run not +without its compensating advantages. As an instance of these new necessities, +we may adduce the protection and succour steadily extended by the O'Neils of +Clandeboy, to the McQuillans, Bissets, of the Antrim coast, and the McDonnells +of the Glens, against the frequent attacks of the O'Neils of Tyrone. The latter +laid claim to all Ulster, and long refused to acknowledge these foreigners, +though men of kindred race and speech. Had it not been that the interest of +Clandeboy pointed the other way, it is very doubtful if either the Welsh or +Scottish settlers by the bays of Antrim could have made a successful stand +against the overruling power of the house of Dungannon. The same policy, +adopted by native chiefs under similar circumstances, protected the minor +groups of settlers of foreign origin in the most remote districts—like +the Barretts and other Welsh people of Tyrawley—long after the Deputies +of the Kings of England had ceased to consider them as fellow-subjects, or to +be concerned for their existence. +</p> + +<p> +In like manner the detached towns, built by foreigners, of Welsh, Flemish, +Saxon, or Scottish origin, were now taken "under the protection" of the +neighbouring chief, or Prince, and paid to him or to his bailiff an annual tax +for such protection. In this manner Wexford purchased protection of McMurrogh, +Limerick from O'Brien, and Dundalk from O'Neil. But the yoke was not always +borne with patience, nor did the bare relation of tax-gatherer and tax-payer +generate any very cordial feeling between the parties. Emboldened by the +arrival of a powerful Deputy, or a considerable accession to the Colony, or +taking advantage of contested elections for the chieftaincy among their +protectors, these sturdy communities sometimes sought by force to get rid of +their native masters. Yet in no case at this period were such town risings +ultimately successful. The appearance of a menacing force, and the threat of +the torch, soon brought the refractory burgesses to terms. On such an occasion +(1444) Dundalk paid Owen O'Neil the sum of 60 marks and two tuns of wine to +avert his indignation. On another, the townsmen of Limerick agreed about the +same period to pay annually for ever to O'Brien the sum of 60 marks. +Notwithstanding the precarious tenure of their existence, they all continued +jealously to guard their exclusive privileges. In the oath of office taken by +the Mayor of Dublin (1388) he is sworn to guard the city's franchises, so that +no Irish rebel shall intrude upon the limits. Nicholas O'Grady, Abbot of a +Monastery in Clare, is mentioned in 1485 as "the twelfth Irishman that ever +possessed the freedom of the city of Limerick" up to that time. A special +bye-law, at a still later period, was necessary to admit Colonel William +O'Shaughnessy, of one of the first families in that county, to the freedom of +the Corporation of the town of Galway. Exclusiveness on the one side, and +arbitrary taxation on the other, were ill means of ensuring the prosperity of +these new trading communities; Freedom and Peace have ever been as essential to +commerce as the winds and waves are to navigation. +</p> + +<p> +The dissolution and reorganization of the greater clans necessarily included +the removal of old, and the formation of new boundaries, and these changes +frequently led to border battles between the contestants. The most striking +illustration of the struggles of this description, which occurs in our Annals +in the fifteenth century, is that which was waged for three generations between +a branch of 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 to the Donegal chiefs, but the new masters of Sligo, +after the era of Edward Bruce, not only refused any longer to pay tribute, but +endeavoured by the strong hand to extend their sway to the banks of the Drowse +and the Erne. The pride not less than the power of the O'Donnells was +interested in resisting this innovation, for, in the midst of the debateable +land rose the famous mountain of Ben Gulban (now Benbulben), which bore the +name of the first 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 the advantage of actual possession, prevailed in establishing +the exemption of their territory from the ancient tribute. The Drowse, which +carries the surplus waters of the beautiful Lough Melvin into the bay of +Donegal, finally became the boundary between Lower Connaught and Tyrconnell. +</p> + +<p> +We have already alluded to the loss of the arts of political combination among +the Irish in the Middle Ages. This loss was occasionally felt by the superior +minds both in church and state. It was felt by Donald More O'Brien and those +who went with him into the house of Conor Moinmoy O'Conor, in 1188; it was felt +by the nobles who, at Cael-uisge, elected Brian O'Neil in 1258; it was felt by +the twelve reguli who, in 1315, invited Edward Bruce, "a man of kindred blood," +to rule over them; it was imputed as a crime to Art McMurrogh in 1397, that he +designed to claim the general sovereignty; and now in this century, Thaddeus +O'Brien, Prince of Thomond, with the aid of the Irish of the southern +half-kingdom, began (to use the phrase of the last Antiquary of Lecan) "working +his way to Tara." This Prince united all the tribes of Munster in his favour, +and needing, according to ancient usage, the suffrages of two other Provinces +to ensure his election, he crossed the Shannon in the summer of 1466 at the +head of the largest army which had followed any of his ancestors since the days +of King Brian. He renewed his protection to the town of Limerick, entered into +an alliance with the Earl of Desmond—which alliance seems to have cost +Desmond his head—received in his camp the hostages of Ormond and Ossory, +and gave gifts to the lords of Leinster. Simultaneously, O'Conor of Offally had +achieved a great success over the Palesmen, taking prisoner the Earl of +Desmond, the Prior of Trim, the Lords Barnwall, Plunkett, Nugent, and other +Methian magnates—a circumstance which also seems to have some connection +with the fate of Desmond and Plunkett, who were the next year tried for treason +and executed at Drogheda, by order of the Earl of Worcester, then Deputy. The +usual Anglo-Irish tales, as to the causes of Desmond's losing the favour of +Edward IV., seem very like after-inventions. It is much more natural to +attribute that sudden change to some connection with the attempt of O'Brien the +previous year—since this only makes intelligible the accusation against +him of "<i>alliance</i>, fosterage, and alterage with the King's Irish +enemies." +</p> + +<p> +From Leinster O'Brien recrossed the Shannon, and overran the country of the +Clan-William Burke. But the ancient jealousy of Leath-Conn would not permit its +proud chiefs to render hostage or homage to a Munster Prince, of no higher rank +than themselves. Disappointed in his hopes of that union which could alone +restore the monarchy in the person of a native ruler, the descendant of Brian +returned to Kinkora, where he shortly afterwards fell ill of fever and died. +"It was commonly reported," says the Antiquary of Lecan, "that the multitudes' +envious eyes and hearts shortened his days." +</p> + +<p> +The naturalized Norman noble spoke the language of the Gael, and retained his +Brehons and Bards like his Milesian compeer. For generations the daughters of +the elder race had been the mothers of his house; and the milk of Irish +foster-mothers had nourished the infancy of its heirs. The Geraldines, the +McWilliams, even the Butlers, among their tenants and soldiers, were now as +Irish as the Irish. Whether allies or enemies, rivals or as relatives, they +stood as near to their neighbours of Celtic origin as they did to the +descendants of those who first landed at Bannow and at Waterford. The "Statute +of Kilkenny" had proclaimed the eternal separation of the races, but up to this +period it had failed, and the men of both origins were left free to develop +whatever characteristics were most natural to them. What we mean by being left +free is, that there was no general or long-sustained combination of one race +for the suppression of the other from the period of Richard the Second's last +reverses (A.D. 1399) till the period of the Reformation. Native Irish life, +therefore, throughout the whole of the fifteenth, and during the first half of +the sixteenth century, was as free to shape and direct itself, to ends of its +own choosing, as it had been at almost any former period in our history. +Private wars and hereditary blood-feuds, next after the loss of national unity, +were the worst vices of the nation. Deeds of violence and acts of retaliation +were as common as the succession of day and night. Every free clansman carried +his battle-axe to church and chase, to festival and fairgreen. The strong arm +was prompt to obey the fiery impulse, and it must be admitted in solemn +sadness, that almost every page of our records at this period is stained with +human blood. But though crimes of violence are common, crimes of treachery are +rare. The memory of a McMahon, who betrayed and slew his guest, is execrated by +the same stoical scribes, who set down, without a single expression of horror, +the open murder of chief after chief. Taking off by poison, so common among +their cotemporaries, seems to have been altogether unknown, and the cruelties +of the State Prisons of the Middle Ages undreamt of by our fierce, impetuous, +but not implacable ancestors. The facts which go to affix the imputation of +cruelty on those ages are, the frequent entries which we find of deposed +chiefs, or conspicuous criminals, having their eyes put out, or being maimed in +their members. By these barbarous punishments they lost caste, if not life; but +that indeed must have been a wretched remnant of existence which remained to +the blinded lover, or the maimed warrior, or the crippled tiller of the soil. +Of the social and religious relations existing between the races, we shall have +occasion to speak more fully before closing the present book. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap45"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br/> +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.</h3> + +<p> +We have already described the limits to which "the Pale" was circumscribed at +the beginning of the fourteenth century. The fortunes of that inconsiderable +settlement during the following century hardly rise to the level of historical +importance, nor would the recital of them be at all readable but for the +ultimate consequences which ensued from the preservation of those last remains +of foreign power in the island. On that account, however, we have to consult +the barren annals of "the Pale" through the intermediate period, that we may +make clear the accidents by which it was preserved from destruction, and +enabled to play a part in after-times, undreamt of and inconceivable, to those +who tolerated its existence in the ages of which we speak. +</p> + +<p> +On the northern coasts of Ireland the co-operation of the friendly Scots with +the native Irish had long been a source of anxiety to the Palesmen. In the year +1404, Dongan, Bishop of Derry, and Sir Jenico d'Artois, were appointed +Commissioners by Henry IV., to conclude a permanent peace with McDonald, Lord +of the Isles, but, notwithstanding that form was then gone through during the +reigns of all the Lancasterian Kings, evidence of the Hiberno-Scotch alliance +being still in existence, constantly recurs. In the year 1430 an address or +petition of the Dublin Council to the King sets forth "that the enemies and +rebels, <i>aided by the Scots</i>, had conquered or rendered tributary almost +every part of the country, <i>except the county of Dublin</i>." The presence of +Henry V. in Ireland had been urgently solicited by his lieges in that kingdom, +but without effect. The hero of Agincourt having set his heart upon the +conquest of France, left Ireland to his lieutenants and their deputies. Nor +could his attention be aroused to the English interest in that country, even by +the formal declaration of the Speaker of the English Parliament, that "the +greater part of the lordship of Ireland" had been "conquered" by the natives. +</p> + +<p> +The comparatively new family of Talbot, sustained by the influence of the great +Earl of Shrewsbury, now Seneschal of France, had risen to the highest pitch of +influence. When on the accession of Henry VI., Edward Mortimer, Earl of March, +was appointed Lord Lieutenant, and Dantsey, Bishop of Meath, his deputy, +Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, and Lord Chancellor, refused to acknowledge +Dantsey's pretensions because his commission was given under the private seal +of Lord Mortimer. Having effected his object in this instance, the Archbishop +directed his subsequent attacks against the House of Ormond, the chief +favourites of the King, or rather of the Council, in that reign. In 1441, at a +Dublin Parliament, messengers were appointed to convey certain articles to the +King, the purport of which was to prevent the Earl of Ormond from being made +Lord Lieutenant, alleging against him many misdemeanours in his former +administration, and praying that some "mighty lord of England" might be named +to that office to execute the laws more effectually "than any Irishman ever did +or ever will do." +</p> + +<p> +This attempt to destroy the influence of Ormond led to an alliance between that +Earl and Sir James, afterwards seventh 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 Earl of Ormond. He stood, therefore, in +the relation of cousin to the cotemporary head of the Butler family. When his +nephew Thomas openly violated the Statute of Kilkenny, by marrying the +beautiful Catherine McCormac, the ambitious and intriguing Sir James, anxious +to enforce that statute, found a ready seconder in Ormond. Earl Thomas, forced +to quit the country, died an exile at Rouen, in France, and Sir James, after +many intrigues and negotiations, obtained the title and estates. For once the +necessities of Desmond and Ormond united these houses, but the money of the +English Archbishop of Dublin, backed by the influence of his illustrious +brother, proved equal to them both. In the 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 Lord Commissioner. Their factious +controversy culminated with "the articles" adopted in 1441, which altogether +failed of the intended effect; Ormond was reappointed two years afterwards to +his old office; nor was it till 1446, when the Earl of Shrewsbury was a third +time sent over, that the Talbots had any substantial advantage over their +rivals. The recall of the Earl for service in France, and the death of the +Archbishop two years later, though it deprived the party they had formed of a +resident leader, did not lead to its dissolution. Bound together by common +interests and dangers, their action may be traced in opposition to the +Geraldines, through the remaining years of Henry VI., and perhaps so late as +the earlier years of Henry VII. (1485-1500). +</p> + +<p> +In the struggle of dynasties from which England suffered so severely during the +fifteenth century, the drama of ambition shifted its scenes from London and +York to Calais and Dublin. The appointment of Richard, Duke of York, as Lord +Lieutenant, in 1449, presented him an opportunity of creating a Yorkist party +among the nobles and people of "the Pale." This able and ambitious Prince +possessed in his hereditary estate resources equal to great enterprises. He was +in the first place the representative of the third son of Edward III.; on the +death of his cousin the Earl of March, in 1424, he became heir to that property +and title. He was Duke of York, Earl of March, and Earl of Rutland, in England; +Earl of Ulster and Earl of Cork, Lord of Connaught, Clare, Meath, and Trim, in +Ireland. He had been twice Regent of France, during the minority of Henry, +where he upheld the cause of the Plantagenet King with signal ability. By the +peace concluded at Tours, between England, France, and Burgundy, in 1444, he +was enabled to return to England, where the King had lately come of age, and +begun to exhibit the weak though amiable disposition which led to his ruin. The +events of the succeeding two or three years were calculated to expose Henry to +the odium of his subjects and the machinations of his enemies. Town after town +and province after province were lost in France; the Regent Somerset returned +to experience the full force of this unpopularity; the royal favourite, +Suffolk, was banished, pursued, and murdered at sea; the King's uncles, +Cardinal Beaufort and the Duke of Gloucester, were removed by death—so +that every sign and circumstance of the time whispered encouragement to the +ambitious Duke. When, therefore, the Irish lieutenancy was offered, in order to +separate him from his partizans, he at first refused it; subsequently, however, +he accepted, on conditions dictated by himself, calculated to leave him wholly +his own master. These conditions, reduced to writing in the form of an +Indenture between the King and the Duke, extended his lieutenancy to a period +of ten years; allowed him, besides the entire revenue of Ireland, an annual +subsidy from England; full power to let the King's land, to levy and maintain +soldiers, to place or displace all officers, to appoint a Deputy, and to return +to England at his pleasure. On these terms the ex-Regent of France undertook +the government of the English settlement in Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Arrived at Dublin, <i>the</i> Duke (as in his day he was always called,) +employed himself rather to strengthen his party than to extend the limits of +his government. Soon after his arrival a son was born to him, and baptized with +great pomp in the Castle. James, fifth Earl of Ormond, and Thomas, eighth Earl +of Desmond, were invited to stand as sponsors. In the line of policy indicated +by this choice, he steadily persevered during his whole connection with +Ireland—which lasted till his death, in 1460. Alternately he named a +Butler and a Geraldine as his deputy, and although he failed ultimately to win +the Earl of Ormond from the traditional party of his family, he secured the +attachment of several of his kinsmen. Stirring events in England, the year +after his appointment, made it necessary for him to return immediately. The +unpopularity of the administration which had banished him had rapidly +augmented. The French King had recovered the whole of Normandy, for four +centuries annexed to the English Crown. Nothing but Calais remained of all the +Continental possessions which the Plantagenets had inherited, and which Henry +V. had done so much to strengthen and extend. Domestic abuses aggravated the +discontent arising from foreign defeats. The Bishop of Chichester, one of the +ministers, was set upon and slain by a mob at Portsmouth. Twenty thousand men +of Kent, under the command of Jack Cade, an Anglo-Irishman, who had given +himself out as a son of the last Earl of March, who died in the Irish +government twenty-five years before, marched upon London. They defeated a royal +force at Sevenoaks, and the city opened its gate at the summons of Cade. The +Kentish men took possession of Southwark, while their Irish leader for three +days, entering the city every morning, compelled the mayor and the judges to +sit in the Guildhall, tried and sentenced Lord Say to death, who, with his +son-in-law, Cromer, Sheriff of Kent, was accordingly executed. Every evening, +as he had promised the citizens, he retired with his guards across the river, +preserving the strictest order among them. But the royalists were not idle, and +when, on the fourth morning Cade attempted as usual to enter London proper, he +found the bridge of Southwark barricaded and defended by a strong force under +the Lord Scales. After six hours' hard fighting his raw levies were repulsed, +and many of them accepted a free pardon tendered to them in the moment of +defeat. Cade retired with the remainder on Deptford and Rochester, but +gradually abandoned by them, he was surprised, half famished in a garden at +Heyfield, and put to death. His captor claimed and received the large reward of +a thousand marks offered for his head. This was in the second week of July; on +the 1st of September, news was brought to London that the Duke of York had +suddenly landed from Ireland. His partizans eagerly gathered round him at his +castle of Fotheringay, but for five years longer, by the repeated concessions +of the gentle-minded Henry, and the interposition of powerful mediators, the +actual war of the roses was postponed. +</p> + +<p> +It is beyond our province to follow the details of that ferocious struggle, +which was waged almost incessantly from 1455 till 1471—from the first +battle of St. Albans till the final battle at Tewksbury. We are interested in +it mainly as it connects the fortunes of the Anglo-Irish Earls with one or +other of the dynasties; and their fortunes again, with the benefit or +disadvantage of their allies and relatives among our native Princes. Of the +transactions in England, it may be sufficient to say that the Duke of York, +after his victory at St. Albans in '55, was declared Lord Protector of the +realm during Henry's imbecility; that the next year the King recovered and the +Protector's office was abolished; that in '57 both parties stood at bay; in '58 +an insecure peace was patched up between them; in '59 they appealed to arms, +the Yorkists gained a victory at Bloreheath, but being defeated at Ludiford, +Duke Richard, with one of his sons, fled for safety into Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +It was the month of November when the fugitive Duke arrived to resume the Lord +Lieutenancy which he had formerly exercised. Legally, his commission, for those +who recognized the authority of King Henry, had expired four months +before—as it bore date from July 5th, 1449; but it is evident the +majority of the Anglo-Irish received him as a Prince of their own election +rather than as an ordinary Viceroy. He held, soon after his arrival, a +Parliament at Dublin, which met by adjournment at Drogheda the following +spring. The English Parliament having declared him, his duchess, sons, and +principal adherents traitors, 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 <i>their</i> authority—"it having been ever +customary in their land to receive and entertain strangers with due respect and +hospitality." Under this law, an emissary of the Earl of Ormond, upon whom +English writs against the fugitives were found, was executed as a traitor. This +independent Parliament confirmed the Duke in his office; made it high treason +to imagine his death, and—taking advantage of the favourable conjuncture +of affairs—they further declared that the inhabitants of Ireland could +only be bound by laws made in Ireland; that no writs were of force unless +issued under the great seal of Ireland; that the realm had of ancient right its +own Lord Constable and Earl Marshal, by whom alone trials for treason alleged +to have been committed in Ireland could be conducted. In the same busy spring, +the Earl of Warwick (so celebrated as "the Kingmaker" of English history) +sailed from Calais, of which he was Constable, with the Channel-fleet, of which +he was also in command, and doubling the Land's End of England, arrived at +Dublin to concert measures for another rising in England. He found the Duke at +Dublin "surrounded by his Earls and homagers," and measures were soon concerted +between them. +</p> + +<p> +An appeal to the English nation was prepared at this Conference, charging upon +Henry's advisers that they had written to the French King to besiege Calais, +and to the Irish Princes to expel the English settlers. The loyalty of the +fugitive lords, and their readiness to prove their innocence before their +sovereign, were stoutly asserted. Emissaries were despatched in every +direction; troops were raised; Warwick soon after landed in Kent-always +strongly pro-Yorkist-defeated the royalists at Northampton in July, and the +Duke reaching London in October, a compromise was agreed to, after much +discussion, in which Henry was to have the crown for life, while the Duke was +acknowledged as his successor, and created president of his council. +</p> + +<p> +We have frequently remarked in our history the recurrence of conflicts between +the north and south of the island. The same thing is distinctly traceable +through the annals of England down to a quite recent period. Whether difference +of race, or of admixture of race may not lie at the foundation of such +long-living enmities, we will not here attempt to discuss; such, however, is +the fact. Queen Margaret had fled northward after the defeat of Northampton +towards the Scottish border, from which she now returned at the head of 20,000 +men. The Duke advanced rapidly to meet her, and engaging with a far inferior +force at Wakefield, was slain in the field, or beheaded after the battle. All +now seemed lost to the Yorkist party, when young Edward, son of Duke Richard, +advancing from the marches of Wales at the head of an army equal in numbers to +the royalists, won, in the month of February, 1461, the battles of +Mortimers-cross and Barnet, and was crowned at Westminster in March, by the +title of Edward IV. The sanguinary battle of Towton, soon after his coronation, +where 38,000 dead were reckoned by the heralds, confirmed his title and +established his throne. Even the subsequent hostility of Warwick—though +it compelled him once to surrender himself a prisoner, and once to fly the +country—did not finally transfer the sceptre to his rival. Warwick was +slain in the battle of Tewkesbury (1471), the Lancasterian Prince Edward was +put to death on the field, and his unhappy father was murdered in prison. Two +years later, Henry, Earl of Richmond, grandson of Catherine, Queen of Henry V. +and Owen Ap Tudor, the only remaining leader capable of rallying the beaten +party, was driven into exile in France, from which he returned fourteen years +afterwards to contest the crown with Richard III. +</p> + +<p> +In these English wars, the only Irish nobleman who sustained the Lancasterian +cause was James, fifth Earl of Ormond. He had been created by Henry, Earl of +Wiltshire, during his father's lifetime, in the same year in which his father +stood sponsor in Dublin for the son of the Duke. He succeeded to the Irish +title and estates in 1451: held a foremost rank in almost all the engagements +from the battle of Saint Albans to that of Towton, in which he was taken +prisoner and executed by order of Edward IV. His blood was declared attainted, +and his estates forfeited; but a few years later both the title and property +were restored to Sir John Butler, the sixth Earl. On the eve of the open +rupture between the Roses, another name intimately associated with Ireland +disappeared from 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 +the French camp at Chatillon, in the subsequent campaign—1453. His son, +Lord Lisle, was slain at the same time, defending his father's body. Among +other consequences which ensued, the Talbot interest in Ireland suffered from +the loss of so powerful a patron at the English court. We have only to add that +at Wakefield, and in most of the other engagements, there was a strong +Anglo-Irish contingent in the Yorkist ranks, and a smaller one—chiefly +tenants of Ormond—on the opposite side. Many writers complain that the +House of York drained "the Pale" of its defenders, and thus still further +diminished the resources of the English interest in Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +In the last forty years of the fifteenth century, the history of "the Pale" is +the biography of the family of the Geraldines. We must make some brief mention +of the remarkable men to whom we refer. +</p> + +<p> +Thomas, eighth Earl of Desmond, for his services to the House of York, was +appointed Lord Deputy in the first years of Edward IV. He had naturally made +himself obnoxious to the Ormond interest, but still more so to the Talbots, +whose leader in civil contests was Sherwood, Bishop of Meath—for some +years, in despite of the Geraldines, Lord Chancellor. Between him and Desmond +there existed the bitterest animosity. In 1464, nine of the Deputy's men were +slain in a broil in Fingall, by tenants or servants of the Bishop. The next +year each party repaired to London to vindicate himself and criminate his +antagonist. The Bishop seems to have triumphed, for in 1466, John Tiptoft, Earl +of Worcester, called in England, for his barbarity to Lancasterian prisoners, +"the Butcher," superseded Desmond. 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. On this charge he summoned them before +him at Drogheda in the following February. Kildare wisely fled to England, +where he pleaded his innocence successfully with the King. But Desmond and +Plunkett, over-confident of their own influence, repaired to Drogheda, were +tried, condemned, and beheaded. Their execution took place on the 15th day of +February, 1467. It is instructive to add that Tiptoft, a few years later, +underwent the fate in England, without exciting a particle of the sympathy felt +for Desmond. +</p> + +<p> +Thomas, seventh Earl of Kildare, succeeded on his safe return from England to +more than the power of his late relative. The office of Chancellor, after a +sharp struggle, was taken from Bishop Sherwood, and confirmed to him for life +by an act of the twelfth, Edward III. He had been named Lord Justice after +Tiptoft's recall, in 1467, and four years later exchanged the title for that of +Lord Deputy to the young Duke of Clarence—the nominal Lieutenant. In +1475, on some change of Court favour, the supreme power was taken from him, and +conferred on the old enemy of his House, the Bishop of Meath. Kildare died two +years later, having signalized his latter days by founding an Anglo-Irish order +of chivalry, called "the Brothers of St. George." This order was to consist of +13 persons of the highest rank within the Pale, 120 mounted archers, and 40 +horsemen, attended by 40 pages. The officers were to assemble annually in +Dublin, on St. George's Day, to elect their Captain from their own number. +After having existed twenty years the Brotherhood was suppressed by the +jealousy of Henry VII., in 1494. +</p> + +<p> +Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare (called in the Irish Annals Geroit More, or "the +Great"), succeeded his father in 1477. He had the gratification of ousting +Sherwood from the government the following year, and having it transferred to +himself. For nearly forty years he continued the central figure among the +Anglo-Irish, and as his family were closely connected by marriage with the +McCarthys, O'Carrolls of Ely, the O'Conors of Offally, O'Neils and O'Donnells, +he exercised immense influence over the affairs of all the Provinces. In his +time, moreover, the English interest, under the auspices of an undisturbed +dynasty, and a cautious, politic Prince (Henry VII.), began by slow and almost +imperceptible degrees to recover the unity and compactness it had lost ever +since the Red Earl's death. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap46"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br/> +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.</h3> + +<p> +Perhaps no preface could better introduce to the reader the singular events +which marked the times of Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare, than a brief account +of one of his principal partizans—Sir James Keating, Prior of the Knights +of St. John. The family of Keating, of Norman-Irish origin, were most numerous +in the fifteenth century in Kildare, from which they afterwards spread into +Tipperary and Limerick. Sir James Keating, "a mere Irishman," became Prior of +Kilmainham about the year 1461, at which time Sir Robert Dowdal, deputy to the +Lord Treasurer, complained in Parliament, that being on a pilgrimage to one of +the shrines of the Pale, he was assaulted near Cloniff, by the Prior, with a +drawn sword, and thereby put in danger of his life. It was accordingly decreed +that Keating should pay to the King a hundred pounds fine, and to Sir Robert a +hundred marks; but, from certain technical errors in the proceedings, he +successfully evaded both these penalties. When in the year 1478 the Lord Grey +of Codner was sent over to supersede Kildare, he took the decided step of +refusing to surrender to that nobleman the Castle of Dublin, of which he was +Constable. Being threatened with an assault, he broke down the bridge and +prepared his defence, while his friend, the Earl of Kildare, called a +Parliament at Naas, in opposition to Lord Grey's Assembly at Dublin. In 1480, +after two years of rival parties and viceroys, Lord Grey was feign to resign +his office, and Kildare was regularly appointed Deputy to Richard, Duke of +Gloucester, afterwards Richard III. Two years later, Keating was deprived of +his rank by Peter d'Aubusson, Grand Master of Rhodes, who appointed Sir +Marmaduke Lumley, an English knight, in his stead. Sir Marmaduke landed soon +after at Clontarf, where he was taken prisoner by Keating, and kept in close +confinement until he had surrendered all the instruments of his election and +confirmation. He was then enlarged, and appointed to the commandery of +Kilseran, near Castlebellingham, in Louth. In the year 1488, Keating was one of +those who took an active part in favour of the pretender Lambert Simnel, and +although his pardon had been sternly refused by Henry VII., he retained +possession of the Hospital until 1491, when he was ejected by force, "and ended +his turbulent life," as we are told, "in the most abject poverty and disgrace." +All whom he had appointed to office were removed; an Act of Parliament was +passed, prohibiting the reception of any "mere Irishman" into the Order for the +future, and enacting that whoever was recognized as Prior by the Grand Master +should be of English birth, and one having such a connection with the Order +there as might strengthen the force and interest of the Kings of England in +Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +The fact most indicative of the spirit of the times is, that a man of Prior +Keating's disposition could, for thirty years, have played such a daring part +as we have described in the city of Dublin. During the greater part of that +period, he held the office of Constable of the Castle and Prior of Kilmainham, +in defiance of English Deputies and English Kings; than which no farther +evidence may be adduced to show how completely the English, interest was +extinguished, even within the walls of Dublin, during the reign of the last of +the Plantagenet Princes, and the first years of Henry VII. +</p> + +<p> +In 1485, Henry, Earl of Richmond, grandson of Queen Catherine and Owen ap +Tudor, returned from his fourteen years' 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 by Henry VII. Though a staunch Yorkist, he showed no outward +opposition to the change of dynasty, for which he found a graceful apology soon +afterwards. Being at Mass, in Christ's Church Cathedral, on the 2nd of +February, 1486, he received intelligence of Henry's marriage with Elizabeth of +York, which he at once communicated to the Archbishop of Dublin, and ordered an +additional Mass for the King and Queen. Yet, from the hour of that union of the +houses of York and Lancaster, it needed no extraordinary wisdom to foresee that +the exemption of the Anglo-Irish nobles from the supremacy of their nominal +King must come to an end, and the freedom of the old Irish from any formidable +external danger must also close. The union of the Roses, so full of the promise +of peace for England, was to form the date of a new era in her relations with +Ireland. The tide of English power was at that hour at its lowest ebb; it had +left far in the interior the landmarks of its first irresistible rush; it might +be said, without exaggeration, that Gaelic children now gathered shells and +pebbles where that tide once rolled, charged with all its thunders; it was now +about to turn; the first murmuring menace of new encroachments began to be +heard under Henry VII.; as we listen they grow louder on the ear; the waves +advance with a steady, deliberate march, unlike the first impetuous onslaught +of the Normans; they advance and do not recede, till they recover all the +ground they had abandoned. The era which we dated from the Red Earl's death, in +1333, has exhausted its resources of aggression and assimilation; a new era +opens with the reign of Henry VII.—or more distinctly still, with that of +his successor, Henry VIII. We must close our account with the old era, before +entering upon the new. +</p> + +<p> +The contest between the Earl of Kildare and Lord Grey for the government +(1478-1480) marks the lowest ebb of the English power. We have already related +how Prior Keating shut the Castle gates on the English deputy, and threatened +to fire on his guard if he attempted to force them. Lord Portlester also, the +Chancellor, and father-in-law to Kildare, joined that Earl in his Parliament at +Naas with the great seal. Lord Grey, in his Dublin Assembly, declared the great +seal cancelled, and ordered a new one to be struck, but after a two years' +contest he was obliged to succumb to the greater influence of the Geraldines. +Kildare was regularly acknowledged Lord Deputy, under the King's privy seal. It +was ordained that thereafter there should be but one Parliament convoked during +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 and +Kildare's—were by compromise confirmed. Of these were two which do not +seem to collate very well with each other; one prohibiting the inhabitants of +the Pale from holding any intercourse whatsoever with the mere Irish; the other +extending to Con O'Neil, Prince of Tyrone, and brother-in-law of Kildare, the +rights of a naturalized subject within the Pale. The former was probably Lord +Grey's; the latter was Lord Kildare's legislation. +</p> + +<p> +Although Henry VII. had neither disturbed the Earl in his governments, nor his +brother, Lord Thomas, as Chancellor, it was not to be expected that he could +place entire confidence in the leading Yorkist family among the Anglo-Irish. +The restoration of the Ormond estates, in favour of Thomas, seventh Earl, was +both politic and just, and could hardly be objectionable to Kildare, who had +just married one of his daughters to Pierce Butler, nephew and heir to Thomas. +The want of confidence between the 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 to accept the excuse as valid, but every arrival of Court news +contained some fresh indication of his deep-seated mistrust of the Lord Deputy, +who, however, he dared not yet dismiss. +</p> + +<p> +The only surviving Yorkists who could put forward pretensions 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 Castle in 1449. +Lincoln, with Lord Lovell and others of his friends, was in exile at the court +of the dowager Duchess of Burgundy, sister to Edward IV.; and the son of +Clarence—a lad of fifteen years of age—was a prisoner in the Tower. +In the year 1486, a report spread of the escape of this Prince, and soon +afterwards Richard Symon, a Priest of Oxford, landed in Dublin with a youth of +the same age, of prepossessing appearance and address, who could relate with +the minutest detail the incidents of his previous imprisonment. He was at once +recognized as the son of Clarence by the Earl of Kildare and his party, and +preparations were made for his coronation by the title of Edward VI. Henry, +alarmed, produced from the Tower the genuine Warwick, whom he publicly paraded +through London, in order to prove that the pretender in Dublin 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 the channel, reached +Dublin without interruption. With this fleet came the Earl of Lincoln, Lord +Lovell, and the other English refugees, who all recognized the <i>protege</i> +of Father Symon as the true Prince. Octavius, the Italian Archbishop of Armagh, +then residing at Dublin, the Bishop of Clogher, the Butlers, and the Baron of +Howth, were incredulous or hostile. The great majority of the Anglo-Irish +lords, spiritual and temporal, favoured his cause, and he was accordingly +crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, with a diadem taken from an image of our +Lady, on the 24th of May, 1487; the Deputy, Chancellor, and Treasurer were +present; the sermon was preached by Pain, Bishop of Meath. A Parliament was +next convoked in his name, in which the Butlers and citizens of Waterford were +proscribed as traitors. A herald from the latter city, who had spoken over +boldly, was hanged by the Dubliners as a proof of their loyalty. The Council +ordered a force to be equipped for the service of his new Majesty in England, +and Lord Thomas Fitzgerald resigned the Chancellorship to take the command. +This expedition—the last which invaded England from the side of +Ireland—sailed from Dublin about the first of June, and landing on the +Lancashire shore, at the pile of Foudray, marched to Ulverstone, where they +were joined by Sir Thomas Broughton and other devoted Yorkists. From Ulverstone +the 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 the southern counties, hastened to meet him, and both armies met at +Stoke-upon-Trent, near Newark, on the 16th day of June, 1487. The battle was +contested with the utmost obstinacy, but the English prevailed. The Earl of +Lincoln, the Lords Thomas and Maurice Fitzgerald, Plunkett, son of Lord +Killeen, Martin Swart, and Sir Thomas Broughton were slain; Lord Lovell +escaped, but was never heard of afterwards; the pretended Edward VI. was +captured, and spared by Henry only to be made a scullion in his kitchen. Father +Symon was cast into prison, where he died, after having confessed that his +<i>protege</i> was Lambert Simnel, the son of a joiner at Oxford. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing shows the strength of the Kildare party, and the weakness of the +English interest, more than that the deputy and his partizans were still +continued in office. They despatched a joint letter to the King, deprecating +his anger, which he was prudent enough to conceal. He sent over, the following +spring, Sir Richard Edgecombe, Comptroller of his household, accompanied by a +guard of 500 men. Sir Richard first touched at Kinsale, where he received the +homage of the Lords Barry and de Courcy; he then sailed to Waterford, where he +delivered to the Mayor royal letters confirming the city in its privileges, and +authorizing its merchants to seize and distress those of Dublin, unless they +made their submission. After leaving Waterford, he landed at Malahide, passing +by Dublin, to which he proceeded by land, accompanied with his guard. The Earl +of Kildare was absent on a pilgrimage, from which he did not return for several +days. His first interviews with Edgecombe were cold and formal, but finally on +the 21st of July, after eight or ten days' disputation, the Earl and the other +lords of his party did homage to King Henry, in the great chamber of his +town-house in Thomas Court, and thence proceeding to the chapel, took the oath +of allegiance on the consecrated host. With this submission Henry was fain to +be content; Kildare, Portlester, and Plunkett were continued in office. The +only one to whom the King's pardon was persistently refused was Sir James +Keating, Prior of Kilmainham. +</p> + +<p> +In the subsequent attempts of Perkin Warbeck (1492-1499), in the character of +Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes murdered in the tower by Richard +III., the Anglo-Irish took a less active part. Warbeck landed at Cork from +Lisbon, and despatched letters to the Earls of Kildare and Desmond, to which +they returned civil but evasive replies. At Cork he received an invitation from +the King of France to visit that country, where he remained till the conclusion +of peace between France and England. He then retired to Burgundy, where he was +cordially received by the Duchess; after an unsuccessful descent on the coast +of Kent, he took refuge in Scotland, where he married a lady closely allied to +the crown. In 1497 he again tried his fortune in the South of Ireland, was +joined 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 having made his peace with Henry, Warbeck was forced again to fly into +Scotland. In 1497 and '8, he made new attempts to excite insurrection in his +favour in the north of England and in Cornwall. He was finally taken and put to +death on the 16th of November, 1499. With him suffered his first and most +faithful adherent, John Waters, who had been Mayor of Cork at his first landing +from Lisbon, in 1492, and who is ignorantly or designedly called by Henry's +partizan "O'Water." History has not yet positively established the fraudulency +of this pretender. A late eminently cautious writer, with all the evidence +which modern research has accumulated, speaks of him as "one of the most +mysterious persons in English history;" and in mystery we must leave him. +</p> + +<p> +We have somewhat anticipated events, in other quarters, in order to dispose of +both the Yorkist pretenders at the same time. The situation of the Earls of +Kildare in this and the next reign, though full of grandeur, was also full of +peril. Within the Pale they had one part to play, without the Pale another. +Within the Pale they held one language, without it another. At Dublin they were +English Earls, beyond the Boyne or the Barrow, they were Irish chiefs. They had +to tread their cautious, and not always consistent way, through the endless +complications which must arise between two nations occupying the same soil, +with conflicting allegiance, language, laws, customs, and interests. While we +frequently feel indignant at the tone they take towards the "Irish enemy" in +their despatches to London—the pretended enemies being at that very time +their confidants and allies—on farther reflection we feel disposed to +make some allowance on the score of circumstance and necessity, for a duplicity +which, in the end, brought about, as duplicity in public affairs ever does, its +own punishment. +</p> + +<p> +In Ulster as well as in Leinster, the ascendency of the Earl of Kildare over +the native population was widespread and long sustained. Con O'Neil, Lord of +Tyrone, from 1483 to 1491, and Turlogh, Con and Art, his sons and successors +(from 1498 to 1548), maintained the most intimate relations with this Earl and +his successors. To the former he was brother-in-law, and to the latter, of +course, uncle; to all he seems to have been strongly attached. Hugh Roe +O'Donnell, Lord of Tyrconnell (1450-1505), and his son and successor, Hugh Dhu +O'Donnell, (1505-1530), were also closely connected with Kildare both by +friendship and intermarriage. In 1491, O'Neil and O'Donnell mutually submitted +their disputes to his decision, at his Castle of Maynooth, and though he found +it impossible to reconcile them at the moment, we find both of these houses +cordially united with him afterwards. In 1498, he took Dungannon and Omagh, +"with great guns," from the insurgents against the authority of his grandson, +Turlogh O'Neil, and restored them to Turlogh; the next year he visited +O'Donnell, and brought his son Henry to be fostered among the kindly Irish of +Tyrconnell. In the year 1500 he also placed the Castle of Kinnaird in the +custody of Turlogh O'Neil. In Leinster, the Geraldine interest was still more +entirely bound 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 the wife of the +chief of Imayle. The Earl of Ormond, and Ulick Burke of Clanrickarde, were also +sons-in-law of the eighth Earl, but in both these cases the old family feuds +survived in despite of the new family alliances. +</p> + +<p> +In the fourth year after his accession, Henry VII., proceeding by slow degrees +to undermine Kildare's enormous power, summoned the chief Anglo-Irish nobles to +his Court at Greenwich, where he reproached them with their support of Simnel, +who, to their extreme confusion, he caused to wait on them as butler, at +dinner. A year or two afterwards, he removed Lord Portlester, from the +Treasurership, which he conferred on Sir James Butler, the bastard of Ormond. +Plunkett, the Chief-Justice, was promoted to the Chancellorship, and Kildare +himself was removed to make way for Fitzsymons, Archbishop of Dublin. This, +however, was but a government <i>ad interim</i>, for in the year 1494, a wholly +English administration was appointed. Sir Edward Poynings, with a picked force +of 1,000 men, was appointed Lord Deputy; the Bishop of Bangor was appointed +Chancellor, Sir Hugh Conway, an Englishman, was to be Treasurer; and these +officials were accompanied by an entirely new bench of judges, all English, +whom they were instructed to instal immediately on their arrival. Kildare had +resisted the first changes with vigour, and a bloody feud had taken place +between his retainers and those of Sir James of Ormond, on the green of +Oxmantown—now Smithfield, in Dublin. On the arrival of Poynings, however, +he submitted with the best possible grace, and accompanied that deputy to +Drogheda, where he had summoned a Parliament to meet him. From Drogheda, they +made an incursion into O'Hanlon's country (Orior in Armagh). On returning from +Drogheda, Poynings, on a real or pretended discovery of a secret understanding +between O'Hanlon and Kildare, arrested the latter, in Dublin, and at once +placed him on board a barque "kept waiting for that purpose," and despatched +him to England. On reaching London, he was imprisoned in the Tower, for two +years, during which time his party in Ireland were left headless and +dispirited. +</p> + +<p> +The government of Sir Edward Poynings, which lasted from 1494 till Kildare's +restoration, in August, 1496, is most memorable for the character of its +legislation. He assembled a Parliament at Drogheda, in November, 1495, at which +were passed the statutes so celebrated in our Parliamentary history as the +"10th Henry VII." These statutes were the first enacted in Ireland in which the +English language was employed. They confirmed the Provisions of the Statute of +Kilkenny, except that prohibiting the use of the Irish language, which had now +become so deeply rooted, even within the Pale, as to make its immediate +abolition impracticable. The hospitable law passed in the time of Richard, Duke +of York, against the arrest of refugees by virtue of writs issued in England, +was repealed. The English acts, against provisors to Rome—ecclesiastics +who applied for or accepted preferment directly from Rome—were adopted. +It was also enacted that all offices should be held at the King's pleasure; +that the Lords of Parliament should appear in their robes as the Lords did in +England; that no one should presume to make peace or war except with license of +the Governor; that no great guns should be kept in the fortresses except by +similar license; and that men of English <i>birth</i> only should be appointed +Constables of the Castles of Dublin, Trim, Leixlip, Athlone, Wicklow, +Greencastle, Carlingford, and Carrickfergus. But the most important measure of +all was one which provided that thereafter no legislation whatever should be +proceeded with in Ireland, unless the bills to be proposed were first submitted +to the King and Council in England, and were returned, certified under the +great seal of the realm. This is what is usually and specially called in our +Parliamentary history "Poyning's Act," and next to the Statute of Kilkenny, it +may be considered the most important enactment ever passed at any Parliament of +the English settlers. +</p> + +<p> +The liberation of the Earl of Kildare from the Tower, and his restoration as +Deputy, seems to have been hastened by the movements of Perkin Warbeck, and by +the visit of Hugh 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 by the +accomplished Prince, then lately come of age, and filled with projects natural +to his youth and temperament. With O'Donnell, according to the Four Masters, he +formed a league, by which they bound themselves "mutually to assist each other +in all their exigencies." The knowledge of this alliance, and of Warbeck's +favour at the Scottish Court, no doubt decided Henry to avail himself, if +possible, of the assistance of his most powerful Irish subject. There was, +moreover, another influence at work. The first countess had died soon after her +husband's arrest, and he now married, in England, Elizabeth St. John, cousin to +the King. Fortified in his allegiance and court favour by this alliance, he +returned in triumph to Dublin, where he was welcomed with enthusiasm. +</p> + +<p> +In his subsequent conduct as Lord Deputy, an office which he continued to hold +till his death in 1513, this powerful nobleman seems to have steadily upheld +the English interest, which was now in harmony with his own. Having driven off +Warbeck in his last visit to Ireland (1497), he received extensive estates in +England, as a reward for his zeal, and after the victory of Knock-doe (1505), +he was installed by proxy at Windsor as Knight of the Garter. This +long-continued reign—for such in truth it may be called—left him +without a rival in his latter years. He marched to whatever end of the island +he would, pulling down and setting up chiefs and castles; his garrisons were to +be found from Belfast to Cork, and along the valley of the Shannon, from +Athleague to Limerick. +</p> + +<p> +The last event of national importance connected with the name of Geroit More +arose out of the battle of KNOCK-DOE, ("battle-axe hill"), fought within seven +or eight miles of Galway town, on the 19th of August, 1504. Few of the cardinal +facts in our history have been more entirely misapprehended and misrepresented +than this. It is usually described as a pitched battle between English and +Irish—the turning point in the war of races—and the second +foundation of English power. The simple circumstances are these: Ulick III., +Lord of Clanrickarde, had married and misused the lady Eustacia Fitzgerald, who +seems to have fled to her father, leaving her children behind. This led to an +embittered family dispute, which was expanded into a public quarrel by the +complaint of William O'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 punish his son-in-law, and both parties prepared +for a trial of strength. It so happened that Clanrickarde's alliances at that +day were chiefly with O'Brien and the southern Irish, while Kildare's were with +those of Ulster. From these causes, what was at first a family quarrel, and at +most a local feud, swelled into the dimensions of a national contest between +North and South—Leath-Moghda and Leath-Conn. Under these terms, the +native Annalists accurately describe the belligerents on either side. With +Kildare 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 of Hy-Many, McWilliam of Mayo, the Barons of Slane, Delvin, Howth, +Dunsany, Gormanstown, Trimblestown, and John Blake, Mayor of Dublin, with the +city militia. With Clanrickarde were Turlogh O'Brien, son of the Lord of +Thomond, McNamara of Clare, O'Carroll of Ely, O'Brien of Ara, and O'Kennedy of +Ormond. The battle was obstinate and bloody. Artillery and musketry, first +introduced from Germany some twenty years before (1487), were freely used, and +the ploughshare of the peasant has often turned up bullets, large and small, +upon the hillside where the battle was fought. The most credible account sets +down the number of the slain at 2,000 men—the most exaggerated at 9,000. +The victory was with Kildare, who, after encamping on the field for twenty-four +hours, by the advice of O'Donnell, marched next day to Galway, where he found +the children of Clanrickarde, whom he restored to their injured mother. Athenry +opened its gates to receive the conquerors, and after celebrating their victory +in the stronghold of the vanquished, the Ulster chiefs returned to the North, +and Kildare to Dublin. +</p> + +<p> +Less known is the battle of Monabraher, which may be considered the offset of +Knock-doe. It was fought in 1510—the first year of Henry VIII., who had +just confirmed Lord Kildare in the government. The younger O'Donnell joined him +in Munster, and after taking the Castles of Kanturk, Pallis, and Castelmaine, +they marched to Limerick, where the Earl of Desmond, the McCarthys of both +branches, and "the Irish of Meath and Leinster," in alliance with Kildare, +joined them with their forces. The old allies, Turlogh O'Brien, Clanrickarde, +and the McNamaras, attacked them at the bridge of Portrush, near Castleconnell, +and drove them through Monabraher ("the friar's bog"), with the loss of the +Barons Barnwall and Kent, and many of their forces; the survivors were feign to +take refuge within the walls of Limerick. +</p> + +<p> +Three years later, Earl Gerald set out to besiege Leap Castle, in O'Moore's +country; but it happened that as he was watering his horse in the little river +Greese, at Kilkea, he was shot by one of the O'Moores: he was immediately +carried to Athy, where shortly afterwards he expired. If we except the first +Hugh de Lacy and the Red Earl of Ulster, the Normans in Ireland had not +produced a more illustrious man than Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare. He was, +says Stainhurst, "of tall stature and goodly presence; very liberal and +merciful; of strict piety; mild in his government; passionate, but easily +appeased." And our justice-loving <i>Four Masters</i> have described him as "a +knight in valour, and princely and religious in his words and judgments." +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap47"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br/> +STATE OF IRISH AND ANGLO-IRISH SOCIETY DURING THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH +CENTURIES.</h3> + +<p> +The main peculiarities of social life among the Irish and Anglo-Irish during +the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are still visible to us. Of the drudges +of the earth, as in all other histories, we see or hear little or nothing, but +of those orders of men of whom the historic muse takes count, such as bards, +rulers, builders, and religious, there is much information to be found +scattered up and down our annals, which, if properly put together and clearly +interpreted, may afford us a tolerably clear view of the men and their times. +</p> + +<p> +The love of learning, always strong in this race of men and women, revived in +full force with their exemption from the immediate pressure of foreign +invasion. The person of Bard and Brehon was still held inviolable; to the +malediction of the Bard of Usnagh was attributed the sudden death of the +Deputy, Sir John Stanley; to the murder of the Brehon McEgan is traced all the +misfortunes which befell the sons of Irial O'Farrell. To receive the poet +graciously, to seat him in the place of honour at the feast, to listen to him +with reverence, and to reward him munificently, were considered duties +incumbent on the princes of the land. And these duties, to do them justice, +they never neglected. One of the O'Neils is specially praised for having given +more gifts to poets, and having "a larger collection of poems" than any other +man of his age. In the struggle between O'Donnell and O'Conor for the northern +corner of Sligo, we find mention made of books accidentally burned in "the +house of the manuscripts," in Lough Gill. Among the spoils carried off by +O'Donnell, on another occasion, were two famous books—one of which, the +Leahar Gear (Short Book), he afterwards paid back, as part of the ransom for +the release of his friend, O'Doherty. +</p> + +<p> +The Bards and Ollams, though more dependent on their Princes than we have seen +them in their early palmy days, had yet ample hereditary estates in every +principality and lordship. If natural posterity failed, the incumbent was free +to adopt some capable person as his heir. It was in this way the family of +O'Clery, originally of Tyrawley, came to settle in Tyrconnell, towards the end +of the fourteenth century. At that time O'Sgingin, chief Ollam to O'Donnell, +offered his daughter in marriage to Cormac O'Clery, a young professor of both +laws, in the monastery near Ballyshannon, on condition that the first male +child born of the marriage should be brought up to his own profession. This was +readily agreed to, and from this auspicious marriage descended the famous +family, which produced three of the Four Masters of Donegal. +</p> + +<p> +The virtue of hospitality was, of all others, that which the old Irish of every +degree in rank and wealth most cheerfully practised. In many cases it +degenerated into extravagance and prodigality. But in general it is presented +to us in so winning a garb that our objections on the score of prudence vanish +before it. When we read of the freeness of heart of Henry Avery O'Neil, who +granted all manner of things "that came into his hands," to all manner of men, +we pause and doubt whether such a virtue in such excess may not lean towards +vice. But when we hear of a powerful lord, like William O'Kelly of Galway, +entertaining throughout the Christmas holydays all the poets, musicians, and +poor persons who choose to flock to him, or of the pious and splendid Margaret +O'Carroll, receiving twice a year in Offally all the Bards of Albyn and Erin, +we cannot but envy the professors of the gentle art their good fortune in +having lived in such times, and shared in such assemblies. As hospitality was +the first of social virtues, so inhospitality was the worst of vices; the +unpopularity of a churl descended to his posterity through successive +generations. +</p> + +<p> +The high estimation in which women were held among the tribes is evident from +the particularity with which the historians record their obits and marriages. +The maiden name of the wife was never wholly lost in that of her husband, and +if her family were of equal standing with his before marriage, she generally +retained her full share of authority afterwards. The Margaret O'Carroll already +mentioned, a descendant and progenitress of illustrious women, rode privately +to Trim, as we are told, with some English prisoners, taken by her husband, +O'Conor of Offally, and exchanged them for others of equal worth lying in that +fortress; and "this she did," it is added, "without the knowledge of" her +husband. This lady was famed not only for her exceeding hospitality and her +extreme piety, but for other more unexpected works. Her name is remembered in +connection with the erection of bridges and the making of highways, as well as +the building of churches, and the presentation of missals and mass-books. And +the grace she thus acquired long brought blessings upon her posterity, among +whom there never were wanting able men and heroic women while they kept their +place in the land. An equally celebrated but less amiable woman was Margaret +Fitzgerald, daughter of the eighth Earl of Kildare, and wife of Pierce, eighth +Earl of Ormond. "She was," says the Dublin Annalist, "a lady of such port that +all the estates of the realm couched to her, so politique that nothing was +thought substantially debated without her advice." Her decision of character is +preserved in numerous traditions in and around Kilkenny, where she lies buried. +Of her is told the story that when exhorted on her death-bed to make +restitution of some ill-got lands, and being told the penalty that awaited her +if she died impenitent, she answered, "it was better one old woman should burn +for eternity than that the Butlers should be curtailed of their estates." +</p> + +<p> +The fame of virtuous deeds, of generosity, of peace-making, of fidelity, was in +that state of society as easily attainable 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, or lovers. Perhaps it would +be impossible to find any history of those or of later ages in which women are +treated upon a more perfect equality with men, where their virtues and talents +entitled them to such consideration. +</p> + +<p> +The piety of the age, though it had lost something of the simplicity and +fervour of older times, was still conspicuous and edifying. Within the island, +the pilgrimage of Saint Patrick's purgatory, the shrine of our Lady of Trim, +the virtues of the holy cross of Raphoe, the miracles wrought by the <i>Baculum +Christi</i>, and other relics of Christ Church, Dublin, were implicitly +believed and piously frequented. The long and dangerous journeys to Rome and +Jerusalem were frequently taken, but the favourite foreign vow was to +Compostella, in Spain. Chiefs, Ladies, and Bards, are almost annually mentioned +as having sailed or returned from the city of St. James; generally these +pilgrims left in companies, and returned in the same way. The great Jubilee of +1450, so enthusiastically attended from every corner of Christendom, drew vast +multitudes from our island to Rome. By those who returned tidings were first +brought to Ireland of the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. On receipt of +this intelligence, which sent a thrill through the heart of Europe, Tregury, +Archbishop of Dublin, proclaimed a fast of three days, and on each day walked +in sackcloth, with his clergy, through the streets of the city, to the +Cathedral. By many in that age the event was connected with the mystic +utterances of the Apocalypse, and the often-apprehended consummation of all +Time. +</p> + +<p> +Although the Irish were then, as they still are, firm believers in supernatural +influence working visibly among men, they do not appear to have ever been +slaves to the terrible delusion of witchcraft. Among the Anglo-Irish we find +the first instance of that mania which appears in our history, and we believe +the only one, if we except the Presbyterian witches of Carrickfergus, in the +early part of the eighteenth century. The scene of the ancient delusion was +Kilkenny, where Bishop Ledred accused the Lady Alice Kettel, and William her +son, of practising black magic, in the year 1327. Sir Roger Outlaw, Prior of +Kilmainham, and stepson to Lady Alice, undertook to protect her; but the +fearful charge was extended to him also, and he was compelled to enter on his +defence. The tribunal appointed to try the charge—one of the main grounds +on which the Templars had been suppressed twenty-five years before—was +composed of the Dean of St. Patrick's, the Prior of Christ Church, the Abbots +of St. 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 which he was a native. It is pleasant to remember that, although +Irish credulity sometimes took shapes absurd and grotesque enough, it never was +perverted into diabolical channels, or directed to the barbarities of +witch-finding. +</p> + +<p> +About the beginning of the fifteenth century we meet with the first mention of +the use of Usquebagh, or <i>Aqua Vitae</i>, in our Annals. Under the date of +1405 we read that McRannal, or Reynolds, chief of Muntireolais, died of a +surfeit of it, about Christmas. A quaint Elizabethan writer 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 remedy by their +<i>Aqua Vitae</i>, vulgarly called <i>Usquebagh</i>, which binds up the belly +and drieth up moisture more than our <i>Aqua Vitae</i>, yet inflameth not so +much." +</p> + +<p> +And as the opening of the century may be considered notable for the first +mention of <i>Usquebagh</i>, so its close is memorable for the first employment +of fire-arms. In the year 1489, according to Anglo-Irish Annals, "six hand guns +or musquets were sent to the Earl of Kildare out of Germany," which his guard +bore while on sentry at Thomas Court—his Dublin residence. But two years +earlier (1487) we have positive mention of the employment of guns at the siege +of Castlecar, in Leitrim, by Hugh Roe O'Donnell. Great guns were freely used +ten years later in the taking of Dungannon and Omagh, and contributed, not a +little to the victory of Knock-doe—in 1505. About the same time we begin +to hear of their employment by sea in rather a curious connection. A certain +French Knight, returning from the pilgrimage of Lough Derg, visiting O'Donnell +at Donegal, heard of the anxiety of his entertainer to take a certain Castle +which stood by the sea, in Sligo. This Knight promised to send him, on his +return to France, "a vessel carrying great guns," which he accordingly did, and +the Castle was in consequence taken. Nevertheless the old Irish, according to +their habit, took but slowly to this wonderful invention, though destined to +revolutionize the art to which they were naturally predisposed—the art of +war. +</p> + +<p> +The dwellings of the chiefs, and of the wealthy among the proprietors, near the +marches, were chiefly situated amid pallisaded islands, or on promontories +naturally moated by lakes. The houses, in those circumstances, were mostly of +framework, though the Milesian nobles, in less exposed districts, had castles +of stone, after the Norman fashion. The Castle "bawn" was usually enclosed by +one or more strong walls, the inner sides of which were lined with barns, +stables, and the houses of the retainers. Not unfrequently the thatched roofs +of these outbuildings 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. Of the interior economy of the Milesian rath, or dun, we know less +than of the Norman tower, where, before the huge kitchen chimney, the +heavy-laden spit was turned by hand, while the dining-hall was adorned with the +glitter of the dresser, or by tapestry hangings;—the floors of hall and +chambers being strewn with rushes and odorous herbs. We have spoken of the zeal +of the Milesian Chiefs in accumulating MSS. and in rewarding Bards and Scribes. +We are enabled to form some idea of the mental resources of an Anglo-Irish +nobleman of the fifteenth century, from the catalogue of the library remaining +in Maynooth Castle, in the reign of Henry VIII. Of Latin books, there were the +works of several of the schoolmen, the dialogues of St. Gregory, Virgil, +Juvenal, and Terence; the Holy Bible; Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy, and +Saint Thomas's Summa; of French works, Froissart, Mandeville, two French +Bibles, a French Livy and Caesar, with the most popular romances; in English, +there were the Polychronicon, Cambrensis, Lyttleton's Tenures, Sir Thomas +More's book on Pilgrimages, and several romances. Moreover, there were copies +of the Psalter of Cashel, a book of Irish chronicles, lives of St. Beraghan, +St. Fiech and St. Finian, with various religious tracts, and romantic tales. +This was, perhaps, the most extensive private collection to be found within the +Pale; we have every reason to infer, that, at least in Irish and Latin works, +the Castles of the older race—lovers of learning and entertainers of +learned men—were not worse furnished than Maynooth. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap48"></a>CHAPTER X.<br/> +STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING DURING THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH +CENTURIES.</h3> + +<p> +Although the English and Irish professed the same religion during these ages, +yet in the appointment of Bishops, the administration of ecclesiastical +property, and in all their views of the relation of the Church to the State, +the two nations differed almost as widely as in their laws, language, and +customs. The Plantagenet princes and their Parliaments had always exhibited a +jealousy of the See of Rome, and statute upon, statute was passed, from the +reign of Henry II. to that of Richard II., in order to diminish the power of +the Supreme Pontiffs in nominating to English benefices. In the second +Richard's reign, so eventful for the English interest in Ireland, it had been +enacted that any of the clergy procuring appointments directly from Rome, or +exercising powers so conferred, should incur the penalty of a +praemunire—that is, the forfeiture of their lands and chattels, beside +being liable to imprisonment during the King's pleasure. This statute was held +to apply equally to Ireland, being confirmed by some of those petty conventions +of "the Pale," which the Dublin Governors of the fourteenth century dignified +with the name of Parliaments. +</p> + +<p> +The ancient Irish method of promotion to a vacant see, or abbacy, though +modelled on the electoral principle which penetrated all Celtic usages, was +undoubtedly open to the charge of favouring nepotism, down to the time of Saint +Malachy, the restorer of the Irish Church. After that period, the Prelates +elect were ever careful to obtain the sanction of the Holy See, before +consecration. Such habitual submission to Rome was seldom found, except in +cases of disputed election, to interfere with the choice of the clergy, and the +custom grew more and more into favour, as the English method of nomination by +the crown was attempted to be enforced, not only throughout "the Pale," but, by +means of English agents at Rome and Avignon, in the appointment to sees, within +the provinces of Armagh, Cashel, and Tuam. The ancient usage of farming the +church lands, under the charge of a lay steward, or <i>Erenach</i>, elected by +the clan, and the division of all the revenues into four parts—for the +Bishop, the Vicar and his priests, for the poor, and for repairs of the sacred +edifice, was equally opposed to the pretensions of Princes, who looked on their +Bishops as Barons, and Church temporalities, like all other fiefs, as held +originally of the crown. Even if there had not been those differences of +origin, interest, and government which necessarily brought the two populations +into collision, these distinct systems of ecclesiastical polity could not well +have existed on the same soil without frequently clashing, one with the other. +</p> + +<p> +In our notice of the association promoted among the clergy, at the end of the +thirteenth century, by the patriotic McMaelisa, ("follower of Jesus"), and in +our own comments on the memorable letter of Prince Donald O'Neil to Pope John +XXII., written in the year 1317 or '18, we have seen how wide and deep was the +gulf then existing between the English and Irish churchmen. In the year 1324, +an attempt to heal this unchristian breach was made by Philip of Slane, the +Dominican who presided at the trial of the Knights Templars, who afterwards +became Bishop of Cork, and rose into high favour with the Queen-Mother, +Isabella. As her Ambassador, or in the name of King Edward III., still a minor, +he is reported to have submitted to Pope John certain propositions for the +promotion of peace in the Irish Church, some of which were certainly well +calculated to promote that end. He suggested that the smaller Bishoprics, +yielding under sixty pounds per annum, should be united to more eminent sees, +and that Irish Abbots and Priors should admit English lay brothers to their +houses, and English Superiors Irish brothers, in like manner. The third +proposition, however, savours more of the politician than of the peacemaker; it +was to bring under the bann of excommunication, with all its rigorous +consequences in that age, those "disturbers of the peace" who invaded the +authority of the English King in Ireland. As a consequence of this mission, a +Concordat for Ireland seems to have been concluded at Avignon, embracing the +two first points, but omitting the third, which was, no doubt, with the English +Court, the main object of Friar Philip's embassy. +</p> + +<p> +During the fourteenth century, and down to the election of Martin V. (A.D. +1417), the Popes sat mainly at Avignon, in France. In the last forty years of +that melancholy period, other Prelates sitting at Rome, or elsewhere in Italy, +claimed the Apostolic primacy. It was in the midst of these troubles and trials +of the Church that the powerful Kings of England, who were also sovereigns of a +great part of France, contrived to extort from the embarrassed pontiffs +concessions which, however gratifying to royal pride, were abhorrent to the +more Catholic spirit of the Irish people. A constant struggle was maintained +during the entire period of the captivity of the Popes in France between Roman +and English influence in Ireland. There were often two sets of Bishops elected +in such border sees as Meath and Louth, which were districts under 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 almost +invariably nominees of the English Court; those of the Province of Dublin were +necessarily so; but the prelates of Ulster, of Connaught, and of +Munster—the southern seaports excepted—were almost invariably +native ecclesiastics, elected in the old mode, by the assembled clergy, and +receiving letters of confirmation direct from Avignon or Italy. +</p> + +<p> +A few incidents in the history of the Church of Cashel will better illustrate +the character of the contest between the native episcopacy and the foreign +power. Towards the end of the thirteenth century, Archbishop McCarwill +maintained with great courage the independence of his jurisdiction against +Henry III. and Edward I. Having inducted certain Bishops into their sees +without waiting for the royal letters, he sustained a long litigation in the +Anglo-Irish courts, and was much harassed in 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 royal exchequer. Edward having +undertaken to erect a prison—or fortress in disguise—in his +episcopal city, the bold Prelate publicly excommunicated the Lord Justice who +undertook the work, the escheator who supplied the funds, and all those engaged +in its construction, nor did he desist from his opposition until the obnoxious +building was demolished. Ralph O'Kelly, who filled the same see from 1345 to +1361, exhibited an equally dauntless spirit. An Anglo-Irish Parliament having +levied a subsidy on all property, lay and ecclesiastical, within their +jurisdiction, to carry on the war of races before described, he not only +opposed its collection within the Province of Cashel, but publicly +excommunicated Epworth, Clerk of the Council, who had undertaken that task. For +this offence an information was exhibited against him, laying the King's +damages at a thousand pounds; but he pleaded the liberties of the Church, and +successfully traversed the indictment. Richard O'Hedian, Archbishop from 1406 +to 1440, was a Prelate of similar spirit to his predecessors. At a Parliament +held in Dublin in 1421, it was formally alleged, among other enormities, that +he made very much of the Irish and loved none of the English; that he presented +no Englishman to a benefice, and advised other Prelates to do likewise; and +that he made himself King of Munster—alluding, probably, to some revival +at this time of the old title of Prince-Bishop, which had anciently belonged to +the Prelates of Cashel. O'Hedian retained his authority, however, till his +death, after which the see remained twelve years vacant, the temporalities +being farmed by the Earl of Ormond. +</p> + +<p> +From this conflict of interests, frequently resulting in disputed possession +and intrusive jurisdiction, religion must have suffered much, at least in its +discipline and decorum. The English Archbishops of Dublin would not yield in +public processions to the Irish Archbishops of Armagh, nor permit the crozier +of St. Patrick to be borne publicly through their city; the English Bishop of +Waterford was the public accuser of the Irish Archbishop of Cashel, last +mentioned, before a lay tribunal—the knights and burgesses of "the Pale." +The annual expeditions sent out from Dublin, to harass the nearest native +clans, were seldom without a Bishop or Abbot, or Prior of the Temple or +Hospital, in their midst. Scandals must have ensued; hatreds must have sprung +up; prejudices, fatal to charity and unity, must have been engendered, both on +the one side and the other. The spirit of party carried into the Church can be +cherished in the presence of the Altar and Cross only by doing violence to the +teachings of the Cross and the sanctity of the Altar. +</p> + +<p> +While such was the troubled state of the Church, as exemplified in its twofold +hierarchy, the religious orders continued to spread, with amazing energy, among +both races. The orders of Saint Francis and Saint Dominick, those twin giants +of the thirteenth century, already rivalled the mighty brotherhood which Saint +Bernard had consecrated, and Saint Malachy had introduced into the Irish +Church. It is observable that the Dominicans, at least at first, were most +favoured by the English and the Anglo-Irish; while the Franciscans were more +popular with the native population. Exceptions may be found on both sides: but +as a general rule this distinction can be traced in the strongholds of either +order, and in the names of their most conspicuous members, down to that dark +and trying hour when the tempest of "the Reformation" involved both in a common +danger, and demonstrated their equal heroism. As elsewhere in Christendom, the +sudden aggrandizement of these mendicant institutes excited jealousy and +hostility among certain of the secular clergy and Bishops. This feeling was +even stronger in England during the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II., +when, according to the popular superstition, the Devil appeared at various +places "in the form of a grey friar." The great champion of the secular clergy, +in the controversy which ensued, was Richard, son of Ralph, a native of +Dundalk, the Erasmus of his age. Having graduated at Oxford, where the Irish +were then classed as one of "the four nations" of students, Fitz-Ralph achieved +distinction after distinction, till he rose to the rank of Chancellor of the +University, in 1333. Fourteen years afterwards he 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 his native Province and +country, he soon commenced those sermons and writings against the mendicant +orders which rendered him so conspicuous in the Church history of the +fourteenth century. Summoned to Avignon, in 1350, to be examined on his +doctrine, he maintained before the Consistory the following propositions: 1st, +that our Lord Jesus Christ, as a man, was very poor, not that He loved poverty +for itself; 2nd, that our Lord had never begged; 3rd, that He never taught men +to beg; 4th, that, on the contrary, He taught men not to beg; 5th, that man +cannot, with prudence and holiness, confine himself by vow to a life of +constant mendicity; 6th, that minor brothers are not obliged by their rule to +beg; 7th, that the bull of Alexander IV., which condemns the Book of Masters, +does not invalidate any of the aforesaid conclusions; 8th, that by those who, +wishing to confess, exclude certain churches, their parish one should be +preferred to the oratories of monks; and 9th, that, for auricular confession, +the diocesan, bishop should be chosen in preference to friars. +</p> + +<p> +In a "defence of Parish Priests," and many other tracts, in several sermons, +preached at London, Litchfield, Drogheda, Dundalk, and Armagh, he maintained +the thesis until the year 1357, when the Superior of the Franciscans at Armagh, +seconded by the influence of his own and the Dominican order, caused him to be +summoned a second time before the Pope. Fitz-Ralph promptly obeyed the summons, +but before the cause could be finally decided he died at Avignon in 1361. His +body was removed from thence to Dundalk in 1370 by Stephen de Valle, Bishop of +Meath. Miracles were said to have been wrought at his tomb; a process of +inquiry into their validity was instituted by order of Boniface IX., but +abandoned without any result being arrived at. The bitter controversy between +the mendicant and other orders was revived towards the end of the century by +Henry, a Cistercian monk of Baltinglass, who maintained opinions still more +extreme than those of Fitz-Ralph; but he was compelled publicly and solemnly to +retract them before Commissioners appointed for that purpose in the year 1382. +</p> + +<p> +The range of mental culture in Europe during the fourteenth century included +only the scholastic philosophy and theology with the physics, taught in the +schools of the Spanish Arabs. The fifteenth century saw the revival of Greek +literature in Italy, and the general restoration of classical learning. The +former century is especially barren of original <i>belles lettres</i> writings; +but the next succeeding ages produced Italian poetry, French chronicles, +Spanish ballads, and all that wonderful efflorescence of popular literature, +which, in our far advanced cultivation, we still so much envy and admire. In +the last days of Scholasticism, Irish intelligence asserted its ancient +equality with the best minds of Europe; but in the new era of national +literature, unless there are buried treasures yet to be dug out of their Gaelic +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 +of Drogheda, Professor of both laws at Oxford, are respectable representatives +among the last and greatest group of the School-men. Another illustrious name +remains to be added to 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 afterwards printed at Venice. His Commentaries on +<i>Scotus</i>, his Dictionary of the Sacred Scriptures, and other numerous +writings, go far to justify the compliments of his cotemporaries, though the +fond appellation of the "flower of the earth" given him by some of them sounds +extravagant and absurd. Soon after arriving from Rome to take possession of his +see he died at Tuam in 1513, in the fiftieth year of his age—an early age +to have won so colossal a reputation. +</p> + +<p> +Beyond some meagre annals, compiled in monastic houses, and a few rhymed +panegyrics, the muses of history and of poetry seem to have abandoned the +island to the theologians, jurists, and men of science. The Bardic order was +still one of the recognized estates, and found patrons worthy of their harps in +the lady Margaret O'Carroll of Offally, William O'Kelley of Galway, and Henry +Avery O'Neil. Full collections of the original Irish poetry of the Middle Ages +are yet to be made public, but it is scarcely possible that if any composition +of eminent merit existed, we should not have had editions and translations of +it before now. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="part07"></a>BOOK VII.<br/> +UNION OF THE CROWNS OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND.</h3> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap49"></a>CHAPTER I.<br/> +IRISH POLICY OF HENRY THE EIGHTH DURING THE LIFETIME OF CARDINAL +WOLSEY.</h3> + +<p> +Henry the Eighth of England succeeded his father on the throne, early in the +year 1509. He was in the eighteenth year of his age, when he thus found himself +master of a well-filled treasury and an united kingdom. Fortune, as if to +complete his felicity, had furnished him from the outset of his reign with a +minister of unrivalled talent for public business. This was Thomas Wolsey, +successively royal Chaplain, Almoner, Archbishop of York, Papal Legate, Lord +Chancellor, and Lord Cardinal. From the fifth to the twentieth year of King +Henry, he was, in effect, sovereign in the state, and it is wonderful to find +how much time he contrived to borrow from the momentous foreign affairs of that +eventful age for the obscurer intrigues of Irish politics. +</p> + +<p> +Wolsey kept before his mind, more prominently than any previous English +statesman, the design of making his royal master as absolute in Ireland as any +King in Christendom. He determined to abolish every pretence to sovereignty but +that of the King of England, and to this end he resolved to circumscribe the +power of the Anglo-Irish Barons, and to win over by "dulce ways" and "politic +drifts," as he expressed it, the Milesian-Irish Chiefs. This policy, continued +by all the Tudor sovereigns till the latter years of Elizabeth, so far as it +distinguished between the Barons and Chiefs always favoured the latter. The +Kildares and Desmonds were hunted to the death, in the same age, and by the +same authority, which carefully fostered every symptom of adhesion or +attachment on the part of the O'Neils and O'Briens. Neither were these last +loved or trusted for their own sakes, but the natural enemy fares better in all +histories than the unnatural rebel. +</p> + +<p> +We must enumerate some of the more remarkable instances of 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 pilgrimage to +Rome, was entertained with great honour at Windsor and Greenwich for four +months each time. He returned to Ulster deeply impressed with the magnificence +of the young monarch and the resources of his kingdom. During the remainder of +his life he cherished a strong predilection for England; he dissuaded James IV. +of Scotland from leading a liberating expedition to Ireland in +1513—previous to the ill-fated campaign which ended on Flodden field, and +he steadily resisted the influx of the Islesmen into Down and Antrim. In 1521 +we find him described by the Lord Lieutenant, Surrey, as being of all the Irish +chiefs the best disposed "to fall into English order." He maintained a direct +correspondence with Henry until his death, 1537, when the policy he had so +materially assisted had progressed beyond the possibility of defeat. +Simultaneously with O'Donnell's adhesion, the same views found favour with the +powerful chief of Tyrone. The O'Neils were now divided into two great septs, +those of Tyrone, whose seat was at Dungannon, and those of Clandeboy, whose +strongholds studded the eastern shores of Lough Neagh. In the year 1480, Con +O'Neil, lord of Tyrone, married his cousin-germain, Lady Alice Fitzgerald, +daughter of the Earl of Kildare. This alliance tended to establish an intimacy +between Maynooth and Dungannon, which subserved many of the ends of Wolsey's +policy. Turlogh, Art, and Con, sons of Lady Alice, and successively chiefs of +Tyrone, adhered to the fortunes of the Kildare family, who were, however +unwillingly, controlled by the superior power of Henry. The Clandeboy O'Neils, +on the contrary, regarded this alliance as nothing short of apostasy, and +pursued the exactly opposite course, repudiating English and cultivating +Scottish alliances. Open ruptures and frequent collisions took place between +the estranged and exasperated kinsmen; in the sequel we will find how the last +surviving son of Lady Alice became in his old age the first Earl of Tyrone, +while the House of Clandeboy took up the title of "the O'Neil." The example of +the elder branch of this ancient royal race, and of the hardly less illustrious +family of Tyrconnell, exercised a potent influence on the other chieftains of +Ulster. +</p> + +<p> +An elaborate report on "the State of Ireland," with "a plan for its +Reformation"—submitted to Henry in the year 1515—gives us a +tolerably clear view of the political and military condition of the several +provinces. The only portions of the country in any sense subject to English +law, were half the counties of Louth, Meath, Dublin, Kildare, and Wexford. The +residents within these districts paid "black rent" to the nearest native +chiefs. Sheriffs were not permitted to execute writs, beyond the bounds thus +described, and even within thirty miles of Dublin, March-law and Brehon-law +were in full force. Ten native magnates are enumerated in Leinster as "chief +captains" of their "nations"—not one of whom regarded the English King as +his Sovereign. Twenty chiefs in Munster, fifteen in Connaught, and three in +West-Meath, maintained their ancient state, administered their own laws, and +recognized no superiority, except in one another, as policy or custom compelled +them. Thirty chief English captains, of whom eighteen resided in Munster, seven +in Connaught, and the remainder 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 Dillons and Tyrrells, in the West the Burkes and +Berminghams, in the South the Powers, Barrys, Roches—the Earl of Desmond +and his relatives. The enormous growth of these Munster Geraldines, and their +not less insatiable greed, produced many 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 Suir and the Shannon, in Ormond and +Thomond. They narrowed the dominions of the O'Briens on the one hand and the +McCarthys on the other. Concluding peace or war with their neighbours, as +suited their own convenience, they sometimes condescended to accept further +feudal privileges from the Kings of England. To Maurice, tenth Earl, Henry VII. +had granted "all the customs, cockets, poundage, prize wines of Limerick, Cork, +Kinsale, Baltimore and Youghal, with other privileges and advantages." Yet Earl +James, in the next reign, did not hesitate to treat with Francis of France and +the Emperor of Germany, as an independent Prince, long before the pretence of +resisting the Reformation could be alleged in his justification. What we have +here to observe is, that this predominance of the Munster Geraldines drove +first one and then another branch of the McCarthys, and O'Briens, into the +meshes of Wolsey's policy. Cormac Oge, lord of Muskerry, and his cousin, the +lord of Carbery, defeated the eleventh Earl (James), at Moore Abbey, in 1521, +with a loss of 1,500 foot and 500 or 600 horsemen. To strengthen himself +against the powerful adversary so deeply wounded, Cormac sought the protection +of the Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Surrey, and of Pierce Roe, the eighth Earl +of Ormond, who had common wrongs to avenge. In this way McCarthy became +identified with the English interest, which he steadily adhered to till his +death—in 1536. Driven by the same necessity to adopt the same expedient, +Murrogh O'Brien, lord of Thomond, a few years later visited Henry at London, +where he resigned his principality, received back his lands, under a royal +patent conveying them to him as "Earl of Thomond, and Baron of Inchiquin." +Henry was but too happy to have raised up such a counterpoise to the power of +Desmond, at his own door, while O'Brien was equally anxious to secure foreign +aid against such intolerable encroachments. The policy worked effectually; it +brought the succeeding Earl of Desmond to London, an humble suitor for the +King's mercy and favour, which were after some demur granted. +</p> + +<p> +The event, however, which most directly tended to the establishment of an +English royalty in Ireland, was the depression of the family of Kildare in the +beginning of this reign, and its all but extinction a few years later. Gerald, +the ninth Earl of that title, succeeded his father in 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 closely connected with the +royal family. Yet he stood in the way of the settled plans of Wolsey, before +whom the highest heads in the realm trembled. His father, as if to secure him +against the hereditary enmity of the Butlers, had married his daughter Margaret +to Pierce Roe, Earl of Ossory, afterwards eighth Earl of Ormond—the +restorer of that house. This lady, however, entered heartily into the +antipathies of her husband's family, and being of masculine spirit, with an +uncommon genius for public affairs, helped more than any Butler had ever done +to humble the overshadowing house of which she was born. The weight of Wolsey's +influence was constantly exercised in favour of Ormond, who had the skill to +recommend himself quite as effectually to Secretary Cromwell, after the +Cardinal's disgrace and death. But the struggles of the house of Kildare were +bold and desperate. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap50"></a>CHAPTER II.<br/> +THE INSURRECTION OF SILKEN THOMAS—THE GERALDINE +LEAGUE—ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LEONARD GRAY.</h3> + +<p> +The ninth and last <i>Catholic</i> Earl of Kildare, in the ninth year of Henry +VIII., had been summoned to London to answer two charges preferred against him +by his political enemies: "1st, That he had enriched himself and his followers +out of the crown lands and revenues. 2nd, That he had formed alliances and +corresponded with divers Irish enemies of the State." Pending these charges the +Earl of Surrey, the joint-victor with his father at Flodden field, was +despatched to Dublin in his stead, with the title of Lord Lieutenant. +</p> + +<p> +Kildare, by the advice of Wolsey, was retained in a sort of honourable +attendance on the person of the King for nearly four years. During this +interval he accompanied Henry to "the field of the cloth of Gold," so +celebrated in French and English chronicles. On his return to Dublin, in 1523, +he found his enemy, the Earl of Ormond, in his old office, but had the pleasure +of supplanting him one year afterwards. In 1525, on the discovery of Desmond's +correspondence with Francis of France, he was ordered to march into Munster and +arrest that nobleman. But, though he obeyed the royal order, Desmond +successfully evaded him, not, as was alleged, without his friendly connivance. +The next year this evasion was made the ground of a fresh impeachment by the +implacable Earl of Ormond; he was again summoned to London, and committed to +the Tower. In 1530 he was liberated, and sent over with Sir William +Skeffington, whose authority to some extent he shared. The English Knight had +the title of Deputy, but Kildare was, in effect, Captain General, as the Red +Earl had formerly been. Skeffington was instructed to obey him in the field, +while it was expected that the Earl, in return, would sustain his colleague in +the Council. A year had not passed before they were declared enemies, and +Skeffington was recalled to England, where he added another to the number of +Kildare's enemies. After a short term of undisputed power, the latter found +himself, in 1533, for the third time, an inmate of the Tower. It is clear that +the impetuous Earl, after his second escape, had not conducted himself as +prudently as one so well forewarned ought to have done. He played more openly +than ever the twofold part of Irish Chief among the Irish, and English Baron +within the Pale. His daughters were married to the native lords of Offally and +Ely, and he frequently took part as arbitrator in the affairs of those clans. +The anti-Geraldine faction were not slow to torture these facts to suit +themselves. They had been strengthened at Dublin by three English officials, +Archbishop Allan, his relative John Allan, afterwards Master of the Rolls, and +Robert Cowley, the Chief Solicitor, Lord Ormond's confidential agent. The +reiterated representations of these personages induced the suspicious and +irascible King to order the Earl's attendance at London, authorizing him at the +same time to appoint a substitute, for whose conduct he would be answerable. +Kildare nominated his son, Lord Thomas, though not yet of man's age; after +giving him many sage advices, he sailed for England, no more to return. +</p> + +<p> +The English interest at that moment had apparently reached the lowest point. +The O'Briens had bridged the Shannon, and enforced their ancient claims over +Limerick. So defenceless, at certain periods, was Dublin itself that Edmond Oge +O'Byrne surprised the Castle by night, liberated the prisoners, and carried off +the stores. This daring achievement, unprecedented even 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 +great guns and other munitions of war to strengthen his own Castles of Maynooth +and Ley—a charge more direct and explicit than had been alleged against +him at any former period. +</p> + +<p> +While the Earl lay in London Tower, an expedient very common afterwards in our +history—the forging of letters and despatches—was resorted to by +his enemies in Dublin, to drive the young Lord Thomas into some rash act which +might prove fatal to his father and himself. Accordingly the packets brought +from Chester, in the spring of 1534, repeated reports, one confirming the +other, of the execution of the Earl in the Tower. Nor was there anything very +improbable in such an occurrence. The cruel character of Henry had, in these +same spring months, been fully developed in the execution of the reputed +prophetess, Elizabeth Barton, and all her abettors. The most eminent layman in +England, Sir Thomas More, and the most illustrious ecclesiastic, Bishop Fisher, +had at the same time been found guilty of misprision of treason for having +known of the pretended prophecies of Elizabeth without communicating their +knowledge to the King. That an Anglo-Irish Earl, even of the first rank, could +hope to fare better at the hands of the tyrant than his aged tutor and his +trusted Chancellor, was not to be expected. When, therefore, Lord Thomas +Fitzgerald flung down the sword of State on the Council table, in the hall of +St. Mary's Abbey, on the 11th day of June, 1534, and formally renounced his +allegiance to King Henry as the murderer of his father, although he betrayed an +impetuous and impolitic temper, there was much in the events of the times to +justify his belief in the rumours of his father's execution. +</p> + +<p> +This renunciation of allegiance was a declaration of open war. The chapter thus +opened in the memoirs of the Leinster Geraldines closed at Tyburn on the 3rd of +February, 1537. Within these three years, the policy of annexation was hastened +by several events—but by none more than this unconcerted, unprepared, +reckless revolt. The advice of the imprisoned Earl to his son had been "to play +the gentlest part," but youth and rash counsels overcame the suggestions of age +and experience. One great excess stained the cause of "Silken Thomas," while it +was but six 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 +at Clontarf, and the neighbourhood being overrun by the insurgents, 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 with +Lord Thomas. King Henry's Bishops hurled against the assassins the greater +excommunication, with all its penalties; a terrific malediction, which was, +perhaps, more than counterbalanced by the Papal Bull issued against Henry and +Anne Boleyn on the last day of August—the knowledge of which must have +reached Ireland before the end of the year. This Bull cited Henry to appear +within ninety days in person, or by attorney, at Rome, to answer for his +offences against the Apostolic See; failing which, he was declared +excommunicated, his subjects were absolved from their allegiance, and commanded +to take up arms against their former sovereign. The ninety days expired with +the month of November, 1534. +</p> + +<p> +Lord Thomas, as he acted without consultation with others, so he was followed +but by few persons of influence. His brothers-in-law, the chiefs of Ely and +Offally, O'Moore of Leix, two of his five uncles, his relatives, the Delahides, +mustered their adherents, and rallied to his standard. He held the castles of +Carlow, Maynooth, Athy, and other strongholds in Kildare. He besieged Dublin, +and came to a composition with the citizens, by which they agreed to allow him +free ingress to assail the Castle, into which his enemies had withdrawn. He +despatched agents to the Emperor, Charles V., and the Pope, but before those +agents could well have returned—March, 1535—Maynooth had been +assaulted and taken by Sir William Skeffington—and the bands collected by +the young lord had melted away. Lord Leonard Gray, his maternal uncle, assumed +the command for the King of England, instead of Skeffington, disabled by +sickness, and the abortive insurrection was extinguished in one campaign. +Towards the end of August, 1535, the unfortunate Lord Thomas surrendered on the +guarantee of Lord Leonard and Lord Butler; in the following year his five +uncles—three of whom had never joined in the rising—were +treacherously seized at a banquet given to them by Gray, and were all, with +their nephew, executed at Tyburn, on the 3rd of February, 1537. The imprisoned +Earl having died in the Tower on the 12th of December, 1534, the sole survivor +of this historic house was now a child of twelve years of age, whose life was +sought with an avidity equal to Herod's, but who was protected with a fidelity +which defeated every attempt to capture him. Alternately the guest of his aunts +married to the chiefs of Offally and Donegal, the sympathy everywhere felt for +him led to a confederacy 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 chivalrous affection, +was harboured for a time in Munster, thence transported through Connaught into +Donegal, and finally, after four years, in which he engaged more of the minds +of statesmen than any other individual under the rank of royalty, was safely +landed in France. We shall meet him again in another reign, under more +fortunate auspices. +</p> + +<p> +Lord Leonard Gray continued in office as Deputy for nearly five years +(1535-40). This interval was marked by several successes against detached clans +and the parties to the Geraldine league, whom he was careful to attack only in +succession. In his second campaign, O'Brien's bridge was carried and +demolished, one O'Brien was set up against another, and one O'Conor against +another; the next year the Castle of Dungannon was taken from O'Neil, and +Dundrum from Magennis. In 1539, he defeated O'Neil and O'Donnell, at Bolahoe, +on the borders of Farney, in Monaghan, with a loss of 400 men, and the spoils +they had taken from the English of Navan and Ardee. The Mayors of Dublin and +Drogheda were knighted on the field for the valour they had shown at the head +of their train-bands. The same year, he made a successful incursion into the +territory of the Earl of Desmond, receiving the homage of many of the inferior +lords, and exonerating them from the exactions of those haughty Palatines. +Recalled to England in 1540, he, too, in turn, fell a victim to the sanguinary +spirit of King Henry, and perished on the scaffold. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap51"></a>CHAPTER III.<br/> +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 PROCTORS OF THE CLERGY EXCLUDED—STATE OF THE +COUNTRY—THE CROWNS UNITED—HENRY THE EIGHTH PROCLAIMED AT LONDON AND +DUBLIN.</h3> + +<p> +Upon the disgrace of Lord Leonard Gray in 1540, Sir Anthony St. Leger was +appointed Deputy. He had previously been 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 might have crept in among the +Englishry, whether upon the marches or within the Pale. In this employment he +had at his disposal a guard of 340 men, while the Deputy and Council were +ordered to obey his mandates as if given by the King in person. The +commissioners were further empowered to reform the Courts of Law; to enter as +King's Counsel into both Houses of Parliament, there to urge the adoption of +measures upholding English laws and customs, establishing the King's supremacy, +in spirituals as in temporals, to provide for the defence of the marches, and +the better collection of the revenues. In the three years which he spent at the +head of this commission, St. Leger, an eminently able and politic person, made +himself intimately acquainted with Irish affairs; as a natural consequence of +which knowledge he was entrusted, upon the first vacancy, with their supreme +directions. In this situation he had to contend, not only with the +complications long existing in the system itself, but with the formidable +disturbing influence exercised by the Court of Scotland, chiefly upon and by +means of the Ulster Princes. +</p> + +<p> +Up to this period, the old political intimacy of Scotland and Ireland had known +no diminution. The Scots in Antrim could reckon, soon after Henry's accession +to the throne, 2,000 fighting men. In 1513, in order to co-operate with the +warlike movement of O'Donnell, the Scottish fleet, under the Earl of Arran, in +his famous flagship, "the great Michael," captured Carrickfergus, putting its +Anglo-Irish garrison to the sword. In the same Scottish reign (that of James +IV.), one of the O'Donnells had a munificent grant of lands in Kirkcudbright, +as other adventurers from Ulster had from the same monarch, in Galloway and +Kincardine. In 1523, while hostilities raged between Scotland and England, the +Irish Chiefs entered into treaty with Francis the First of France, who bound +himself to land in Ireland 15,000 men, to expel the English from "the Pale," +and to carry his arms across the channel in the quarrel of Richard de la Pole, +father of the famous Cardinal, and at this time a formidable pretender to the +English throne. The imbecile conduct of the Scottish Regent, the Duke of +Albany, destroyed this enterprise, which, however, was but the forerunner, if +it was not the model, of several similar combinations. When the Earl of +Bothwell took refuge at the English Court, in 1531, he suggested to Henry +VIII., among other motives for renewing the war with James V., that the latter +was in league "with the Emperor, the Danish King, and O'Donnell." The following +year, a Scottish force of 4,000 men, under John, son of Alexander McDonald, +Lord of the Isles, served, by permission of their King, under the banner of the +Chieftain of Tyrconnell. An uninterrupted correspondence between the Ulster +Chiefs and the Scottish Court may be traced through this reign, forming a +curious chapter of Irish diplomacy. In 1535, we have a letter from O'Neil to +James V., from which it appears that O'Neil's Secretary was then residing at +the Scottish Court; and as the crisis of the contest for the Crown drew near, +we find the messages and overtures from Ulster multiplying in number and +earnestness. In that critical period, James V. was between twenty and thirty +years old, and his powerful minister, Cardinal Beaton, was acting by him the +part that Wolsey had played by Henry at a like age. The Cardinal, favouring the +French and Irish alliances, had drawn a line of Scottish policy, in relation to +both those countries, precisely parallel to Wolsey's. During the Geraldine +insurrection, Henry was obliged to remonstrate with James on favours shown to +his rebels of Ireland. This charge James' ministers, in their correspondence of +the year 1535, strenuously denied, while admitting that some insignificant +Islesmen, over whom he could exercise no control, might have gone privily +thither. In the spring of 1540, Bryan Layton, one of the English agents at the +Scottish Court, communicated to Secretary Cromwell that James had fitted out a +fleet of 15 ships, manned by 2,000 men, and armed with all the ordinance that +he could muster; that his destination was Ireland, the Crown of which had been +offered to him, the previous Lent, by "eight gentlemen," who brought him +written tenders of submission "from all the great men of Ireland," with their +seals attached; and, furthermore, that the King had declared to Lord Maxwell +his determination to win such a prize as "never King of Scotland had before," +or to lose his life in the attempt. It is remarkable that in this same spring +of 1540—while such was understood to be the destination of the Scottish +fleet—a congress of the Chiefs of all Ireland was appointed to be held at +the Abbey of Fore, in West-Meath. To prevent this meeting taking place, the +whole force of the Pale, with the judges, clergy, townsmen and husbandmen, +marched out under the direction of the Lords of the Council (St. Leger not +having yet arrived to replace Lord Gray), but finding no such assembly as they +had been led to expect, they made a predatory incursion into Roscommon, and +dispersed some armed bands belonging to O'Conor. The commander in this +expedition was the Marshal Sir William Brereton, for the moment one of the +Lords Justices. He was followed to the field by the last Prior of Kilmainham, +Sir John Rawson, the Master of the Rolls, the Archbishop of Dublin, the Bishop +of Meath, Mr. Justice Luttrell, and the Barons of the Exchequer-a strange +medley of civil and military dignitaries. +</p> + +<p> +The prevention or postponement of the Congress at Fore must have exercised a +decided influence on the expedition of James V. His great armada having put to +sea, after coasting among the out-islands, and putting into a northern English +port from stress of weather, returned home without achievement of any kind. +Diplomatic intercourse was shortly renewed between him and Henry, but, in the +following year, to the extreme displeasure of his royal kinsman, he assumed the +much-prized title of "Defender of the Faith." Another rupture took place, when +the Irish card was played over again with the customary effect. In a letter of +July, 1541, introducing to the Irish Chiefs the Jesuit Fathers, Salmeron, +Broet, and Capata, who passed through Scotland on their way to Ireland, James +styles himself "Lord of Ireland"—another insult and defiance to Henry, +whose newly-acquired kingly style was then but a few weeks old. By way of +retaliation, Henry ordered the Archbishop of York to search the registers of +that see for evidence of <i>his</i> claim to the Crown of Scotland, and +industriously cultivated the disaffected party amongst the Scottish nobility. +At length these bickerings broke out into open war, and the short, but fatal +campaign of 1542, removed another rival for the English King. The double defeat +of Fala and of Solway Moss, the treason of his nobles, and the failure of his +hopes, broke the heart of the high-spirited James V. He died in December, 1542, +in the 33rd year of his age, a few hours after learning the birth of his +daughter, so celebrated as Mary, Queen of Scots. In his last moments he +pronounced the doom of the Stuart dynasty—"It came with a lass," he +exclaimed, "and it will go with a lass," And thus it happened that the image of +Ireland, which unfolds the first scene of the War of the Roses, which is +inseparable from the story of the two Bruces, and which occupies so much of the +first and last years of the Tudor dynasty, stands mournfully by the deathbed of +the last Stuart King who reigned in Scotland—the only Prince of his race +that had ever written under his name the title of "<i>Dominus Hiberniae</i>." +</p> + +<p> +The premature death of James was hardly more regretted by his immediate +subjects than by his Irish allies. All external events now conspired to show +the hopelessness of resistance to the power of King Henry. From Scotland, +destined to half a century of anarchy, no help could be expected. Wales, +another ancient ally of the Irish, had been incorporated with England, in 1536, +and was fast becoming reconciled to the rule of a Prince, sprung from a Welsh +ancestry. Francis of France and Charles V., rivals for the leadership of the +Continent, were too busy with their own projects to enter into any Irish +alliance. The Geraldines had suffered terrible defeats; the family of Kildare +was without an adult representative; the O'Neils and O'Donnells had lost ground +at Bellahoe, and were dismayed by the unlooked-for death of the King of +Scotland. The arguments, therefore, by which many of the chiefs might have +justified themselves to their clans in 1541, '2 and '3, for submitting to the +inevitable laws of necessity in rendering homage to Henry VIII., were neither +few nor weak. Abroad there was no hope of an alliance sufficient to +counterbalance the immense resources of England; at home life-wasting private +wars, the conflict of laws, of languages, and of titles to property, had become +unbearable. That fatal family pride, which would not permit an O'Brien to obey +an O'Neil, nor an O'Conor to follow either, rendered the establishment of a +native monarchy—even if there had been no other obstacle—wholly +impracticable. Among the clergy alone did the growing supremacy of Henry meet +with any effective opposition. +</p> + +<p> +At its first presentation in Ireland, and during the whole of Henry's lifetime, +the "Reformation" wore the guise of schism, as distinguished from heresy. To +deny the supremacy of the Pope and admit the supremacy of the King were almost +its sole tests of doctrine. All the ancient teaching in relation to the Seven +Sacraments, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Real Presence, Purgatory, and +Prayers for the Dead, were scrupulously retained. Subsequently, the necessity +of auricular confession, the invocation of Saints, and the celibacy of the +clergy came to be questioned, but they were not dogmatically assailed during +this reign. The common people, where English was understood, were slow in +taking alarm at these masked innovations; in the Irish-speaking +districts—three-fourths of the whole country—they were only heard +of as rumours from afar, but the clergy, secular and regular, were not long +left in doubt as to where such steps must necessarily lead. +</p> + +<p> +From 1534, the year of his divorce, until 1541, the year of his election, Henry +attempted, by fits and starts, to assert his supremacy in Ireland. He appointed +George Browne, a strenuous advocate of the divorce, some time Provincial of the +order of St. Augustine in England, Archbishop of Dublin, vacant by the murder +of Archbishop Allan. On the 12th of March, 1535, Browne was consecrated by +Cranmer, whose opinions, as well as those of Secretary Cromwell, he echoed +through life. He may be considered the first agent employed to introduce the +Reformation into Ireland, and his zeal in that work seems to have been +unwearied. He was destined, however, to find many opponents, and but few +converts. Not only the Primate of Armagh, George Cromer, and almost all the +episcopal order, resolutely resisted his measures, but the clergy and laity of +Dublin refused to accept his new forms of prayer, or to listen to his strange +teaching. He inveighs in his correspondence with Cromwell against Bassenet, +Dean of St. Patrick's, Castele, Prior of Christ's Church, and generally against +all the clergy. Of the twenty-eight secular priests in Dublin, but three could +be induced to act with him; the regular orders he found equally +intractable—more especially the Observantins, whose name he endeavoured +to change to Conventuals. "The spirituality," as he calls them, refused to take +the oaths of abjuration and supremacy; refused to strike the name of the Bishop +of Rome from their primers and mass-books, and seduced the rest into like +contumacy. Finding persuasion of little avail, he sometimes resorted to harsher +measures. +</p> + +<p> +Dr. Sall, a grey friar of Waterford, was brought to Dublin and imprisoned for +preaching the new doctrines in the Spring of 1538; Thaddeus Byrne, another +friar, was put in the pillory, and was reported to have committed suicide in +the Castle, on the 14th of July of the same year; Sir Humfrey, parson of Saint +Owens, and the suffragan Bishop of Meath, were "clapped in ward," for publicly +praying for the Pope's weal and the King's conversion; another Bishop and friar +were arrested and carried to Trim, for similar offences, but were liberated +without trial, by Lord Deputy Gray; a friar of Waterford, in 1539, by order of +the St. Leger Commission, was executed in the habit of his order, on a charge +of "felony," and so left hanging "as a mirror for all his brethren." Yet, with +all this severity, and all the temptations held out by the wealth of +confiscated monasteries, none would abide the preaching of the new religion +except the "Lord Butler, the Master of the Rolls (Allan), Mr. Treasurer +(Brabazon), and one or two more of small reputation." +</p> + +<p> +The first test to which the firmness of the clergy had been put was in the +Parliament convoked at Dublin by Lord Deputy Gray, in May, 1537. Anciently in +such assemblies two proctors of each diocese, within the Pale, had been +accustomed to sit and vote in the Upper House as representing their order, but +the proposed tests of supremacy and abjuration were so boldly resisted by the +proctors and spiritual peers on this occasion that the Lord Deputy was +compelled to prorogue the Parliament without attaining its assent to those +measures. During the recess a question was raised by the Crown lawyers as to +the competency of the proctors to vote, while admitting their right to be +present as councillors and assistants; this question, on an appeal to England, +was declared in the negative, whereupon that learned body were excluded from +all share in the future Irish legislation of this reign. Hence, whoever else +are answerable for the election of 1541 the proctors of the clergy are not. +</p> + +<p> +Having thus reduced the clerical opposition in the Upper House, the work of +monastic spoliation, covertly commenced two years before, under the pretence of +reforming abuses, was more confidently resumed. In 1536, an act had been passed +vesting the property of all religious houses in the Crown; at which time the +value of their moveables was estimated at 100,000 pounds and their yearly value +at 32,000 pounds. In 1537, eight abbeys were suppressed during the King's +pleasure; in 1538, a commission issued for the suppression of monasteries; and +in 1539, twenty-four great Houses, whose Abbots and Priors had been lords of +Parliament, were declared "surrendered" to the King, and their late superiors +were granted pensions for life. How these "surrenders" were procured we may +judge from the case of Manus, Abbot of St. Mary's, Thurles, who was carried +prisoner to Dublin, and suffered a long confinement for refusing to yield up +his trust according to the desired formula. The work of confiscation was in +these first years confined to the walled towns in English hands, the district +of the Pale, and such points of the Irish country as could be conveniently +reached. The great order of the Cistercians, established for more than four +centuries at Mellifont, at Monastereven, at Bective, at Jerpoint, at Tintern, +and at Dunbrody, were the first expelled from their cloisters and gardens. The +Canons regular of St. Augustine at Trim, at Conal, at Athassel and at Kells, +were next assailed by the degenerate Augustinian, who presided over the +commission. The orders of St. Victor, of Aroacia, of St. John of Jerusalem, +were extinguished wherever the arm of the Reformation could reach. The +mendicant orders, spread into every district of the island, were not so easily +erased from the soil; very many of the Dominican and Franciscan houses standing +and flourishing far into the succeeding century. +</p> + +<p> +If the influence of the clergy counterbalanced the policy of the chiefs, the +condition of the mass of the population—more especially of the +inhabitants of the Pale and the marches—was such as to make them cherish +the expectation that any governmental change whatever should be for the better. +It was, under these circumstances, a far-reaching policy, which combined the +causes and the remedy for social wrongs, with invectives against the old, and +arguments in favour of the new religion. In order to understand what elements +of discontent there were to be wrought to such conclusions, it is enough to +give the merest glance at the social state of the lower classes under English +authority. The St. Leger Commission represents the mixed population of the +marches, and the Englishry of "the Pale" as burthened by accumulated exactions. +Their lords quartered upon them at pleasure their horses, servants, and guests. +They were charged with coin and livery—that is, horse-meat and man's-meat +—when their lords travelled from place to place—with summer-oats, +with providing for their cosherings, or feasts, at Christmas and Easter, with +"black men and black money," for border defence, and with workmen and axemen +from every ploughland, to work in the ditches, or to hew passages for the +soldiery through the woods. Every aggravation of feudal wrong was inflicted on +this harassed population. When a le Poer or a Butler married a daughter he +exacted a sheep from every flock, and a cow from every village. When one of his +sons went to England, a special tribute was levied on every village and +ploughland to bear the young gentleman's travelling expenses. When the heads of +any of the great houses hunted, their dogs were to be supplied by the tenants +"with bread and milk, or butter." In the towns tailors, masons, and carpenters, +were taxed for coin and livery; "mustrons" were employed in building halls, +castles, stables, and barns, at the expense of the tenantry, for the sole use +of the lord. The only effective law was an undigested jumble of the Brehon, the +Civil, and the Common law; with the arbitrary ordinances of the marches, known +as "the Statutes of Kilcash"—so called from a border stronghold near the +foot of Slievenamon—a species of wild justice, resembling too often that +administered by Robin Hood, or Rob Roy. +</p> + +<p> +Many circumstances concurring to promote plans so long cherished by Henry, St. +Leger summoned a Parliament for the morrow after Trinity Sunday, being the 13th +of the month of June, 1541. The attendance on the day named was not so full as +was expected, so the opening was deferred till the following +Thursday—being the feast of Corpus Christi. On that festival the Mass of +the Holy Ghost was solemnly celebrated in St. Patrick's Cathedral, in which +"two thousand persons" had assembled. The Lords of Parliament rode in cavalcade +to the Church doors, headed by the Deputy. There were seen side by side in this +procession the Earls of Desmond and Ormond, the Lords Barry, Roche and +Bermingham; thirteen Barons of "the Pale," and a long train of Knights; Donogh +O'Brien, Tanist of 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 chiefs and Norman barons been seen together, except +on the field of battle; never before had Dublin beheld marshalled in her +streets what could by any stretch of imagination be considered a national +representation. For this singularity, not less than for the business it +transacted, the Parliament of 1541 will be held in lasting remembrance. +</p> + +<p> +In the sanctuary of St. Patrick's, two Archbishops and twelve Bishops assisted +at the solemn mass, and the whole ceremony was highly imposing. "The like +thereof," wrote St. Leger to Henry, "has not been seen here these many years." +On the next day, Friday, the Commons elected Sir Thomas Cusack speaker, who, in +"a right solemn proposition," opened at the bar of the Lords' House the main +business of the session—the establishment of King Henry's supremacy. To +this address Lord Chancellor Allen—"well and prudentlie answered;" 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, by +the Earl of Ormond, "greatly to their contentation." Then St. Leger proposed +that Henry and his heirs should have the title of King, and caused the "bill +devised for the same to be read." This bill having been put to the Lords' +House, both in Irish and English, passed its three readings at the same +sitting. In the Commons it was adopted with equal unanimity the next day, when +the Lord Deputy most joyfully gave his consent. Thus on Saturday, June 19th, +1541, the royalty of Ireland was first formally transferred to an English +dynasty. On that day the triumphant St. Leger was enabled to write his royal +master his congratulations on having added to his dignities "another imperial +crown." On Sunday bonfires were made in honour of the event, guns fired, and +wine on stoop was set in the streets. All prisoners, except those for capital +offences, were liberated; <i>Te Deum</i> was sung in St. Patrick's, and King +Henry issued his proclamation, on receipt of the intelligence, for a general +pardon throughout <i>all</i> his dominions. The new title was confirmed with +great formality by the English Parliament in their session of 1542. +Proclamation was formally made of it in London, on the 1st of July of that +year, when it was moreover declared that after that date all persons being +lawfully convicted of opposing the new dignity should "be adjudged high +traitors"—"and suffer the pains of death." +</p> + +<p> +Thus was consummated the first political union of Ireland with England. The +strangely-constituted Assembly, which had given its sanction to the +arrangement, in the language of the Celt, the Norman, and the Saxon, continued +in session till the end of July, when they were prorogued till November. They +enacted several statutes, in completion of the great change they had decreed; +and while some prepared for a journey to the court of their new sovereign, +others returned to their homes, to account as best they could for the part they +had played at Dublin. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap52"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br/> +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.</h3> + +<p> +The Act of Election could hardly be considered as the Act of the Irish nation, +so long as several of the most distinguished chiefs withheld their concurrence. +With these, therefore, Saint Leger entered into separate treaties, by separate +instruments, agreed upon, at various dates, 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 of Thomond, Art O'Moore, lord of +Leix, and Ulick Burke, lord of Clanrickarde, 1542 and 1543; but, during the +reign of Henry, no chief of the McCarthys, the O'Conors of Roscommon or of +Offally, entered into any such engagement. The election, therefore, was far +from unanimous, and Henry VIII. would perhaps be classed by our ancient +Senachies among the "Kings with opposition," who figure so often in our Annals +during the Middle Ages. +</p> + +<p> +Assuming, however, the title conferred upon him with no little complacency, +Henry proceeded to exercise the first privilege of a sovereign, the creation of +honours. Murrogh O'Brien, chief of his name, became Earl of Thomond, and +Donogh, his nephew, Baron of Ibrackan; Ulick McWilliam Burke 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, and been refused, +the higher title of Earl of Ulster. The order of Knighthood was conferred on +several of the principal attendants, and to each of the new peers the King +granted a house in or near Dublin, for their accommodation, when attending the +sittings of Parliament. +</p> + +<p> +The imposing ceremonial of the transformation of these Celtic chiefs into +English Earls has been very minutely described by an eye-witness. One batch +were made at Greenwich Palace, after High Mass on Sunday, the 1st of July, +1543. The Queen's closet "was richly hanged with cloth of arras and well +strawed with rushes," for their robing room. The King received them under a +canopy of state, surrounded by his Privy Council, the peers, spiritual and +temporal, the Earl of Glencairn, Sir George Douglas, and the other Scottish +Commissioners. The Earls of Derby and Ormond led in the new Earl of Thomond, +Viscount Lisle carrying before them the sword. The Chamberlain handed his +letters patent to the Secretary who read them down to the words <i>Cincturam +gladii</i>, when the King girt the kneeling Earl, baldric-wise, with the sword, +all the company standing. A similar ceremony was gone through with the others, +the King throwing a gold chain having a cross hanging to it round each of their +necks. Then, preceded by the trumpeters blowing, and the officers at arms, they +entered the dining hall, where, after the second course, their titles were +proclaimed aloud in Norman-French by Garter, King at Arms. Nor did Henry, who +prided himself on his munificence, omit even more 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 of Thomond, bishoprics +excepted; to McWilliam Burke, all the parsonages and vicarages of Clanrickarde, +with one-third of the first-fruits, the Abbey of <i>Via Nova</i> and 30 pounds +a year compensation for the loss of the customs of Galway; to Donogh O'Brien, +the Abbey of Ellenegrane, the moiety of the Abbey of Clare, and an annuity of +20 pounds a year. To the new lord of Ossory he granted the monasteries of +Aghadoe and Aghmacarte, with the right of holding court lete and market, every +Thursday, at his town of Aghadoe. For these and other favours the recipients +had been instructed to petition the King, and drafts of such petitions had been +drawn up in anticipation of their arrival in England, by some official hand. +The petitions are quoted by most of our late historians as their own proper +act, but it is quite clear, though willing enough to present them and to accept +such gifts, they had never dictated them. +</p> + +<p> +In the creation of this Peerage Henry proclaimed, in the most practical manner +possible, his determination to assimilate the laws and institutions of Ireland +to those of England. And the new made Earls, forgetting their ancient relations +to their clans—forgetting, as O'Brien had answered St. Leger's first +overtures three years before, "that though he was captain of his nation he was +still but one man," by suing out royal patents for their lands, certainly +consented to carry out the King's plans. The Brehon law was doomed from the +date of the creation of the new Peers at Greenwich, for such a change entailed +among its first consequences a complete abrogation of the Gaelic relations of +clansman and chief. +</p> + +<p> +By the Brehon law every member of a free clan was as truly a proprietor of the +tribe-land as the chief himself. He could sell his share, or the interest in +it, to any other member of the tribe—the origin, perhaps, of what is now +called tenant-right; he could not, however, sell to a stranger without the +consent of the tribe and the chief. The stranger coming in under such an +arrangement, held by a special tenure, yet if he remained during the time of +three lords he became thereby naturalized. If the unnaturalized tenant withdrew +of his own will from the land he was obliged to leave all his improvements +behind; but if he was ejected he was entitled to get their full value. Those +who were immediate tenants of the chief, or of the church, were debarred this +privilege of tenant-right, and if unable to keep their holdings were obliged to +surrender them unreservedly to the church or the chief. All the tribesmen, +according to the extent of their possessions, were bound to maintain the +chief's household, and to sustain him, with men and means, in his offensive and +defensive wars. Such were, in brief, the land laws in force over three-fourths +of the country in the sixteenth century; laws which partook largely of the +spirit of an ancient patriarchal justice, but which, in ages of movement, +exchange, and enterprise, would have been found the reverse of favourable to +individual freedom and national strength. There were not wanting, we may be +assured, many minds to whom this truth was apparent so early as the age of +Henry VIII. And it may not be unreasonable to suppose that one of the +advantages which the chief found in exchanging this patriarchal position for a +feudal Earldom would be the greater degree of independence on the will of the +tribe, which the new system conferred on him. With the mass of the clansmen, +however, for the very same reason, the change was certain to be unpopular, if +not odious. But a still more serious change—a change of +religion—was evidently contemplated by those Earls who accepted the +property of the confiscated religious houses. The receiver of such estates +could hardly pretend to belong to the ancient religion of the country. +</p> + +<p> +It is impossible to understand Irish history from the reign of Henry VIII. till +the fall of James II.—nearly two hundred years—without constantly +keeping in mind the dilemma of the chiefs and lords between the requirements of +the English Court on the one hand and of the native clans on the other. +Expected to obey and to administer conflicting laws, to personate two +characters, to speak two languages, to uphold the old, yet to patronize the new +order of things; distrusted at Court if they inclined to the people, detested +by the people if they leaned towards the Court—a more difficult situation +can hardly be conceived. Their perilous circumstances brought forth a new +species of Irish character in the Chieftain-Earls of the Tudor and Stuart +times. Not less given to war than their forefathers, they were now compelled to +study the politician's part, even more than the soldier's. Brought personally +in contact with powerful Sovereigns, or pitted at home against the Sydneys, +Mountjoys, Chichesters, and Straffords, the lessons of Bacon and Machiavelli +found apt scholars in the halls of Dunmanway and Dungannon. The multitude, in +the meanwhile, saw only the broad fact that the Chief had bowed his neck to the +hated Saxon yoke, and had promised, or would be by and by compelled, to +introduce foreign garrisons, foreign judges, and foreign laws, amongst the sons +of the Gael. Very early they perceived this; on the adhesion of O'Donnell to +the Act of Election, a part of his clansmen, under the lead of his own son, +rose up against his authority. A rival McWilliam was at once chosen to the new +Earl of Clanrickarde, in the West. Con O'Neil, the first of his race who had +accepted an English title, was imprisoned by his son, John the Proud, and died +of grief during his confinement. O'Brien found, on his return from Greenwich, +half his territory in revolt; and this was the general experience of all +Henry's electors. Yet such was the power of the new Sovereign that, we are told +in our Annals, at the year 1547—the year of Henry's death—"no one +dared give food or protection" to those few patriotic chiefs who still held +obstinately out against the election of 1541. +</p> + +<p> +The creation of a new peerage coincided in point of time with the first +unconditional nomination of new Bishops by the Crown. The Plantagenet Kings, in +common with all feudal Princes, had always claimed the right of investing +Bishops with their temporalities and legal dignities; while, at the same time, +they recognized in the See of Rome the seat and centre of Apostolic authority. +But Henry, excommunicated and incorrigible, had procured from the Parliament of +"the Pale," three years before the Act of Election, the formal recognition of +his spiritual supremacy, under which he proceeded, as often as he had an +opportunity, to promote candidates for the episcopacy to vacant sees. Between +1537 and 1547, thirteen or fourteen such vacancies having occurred, he +nominated to the succession whenever the diocese was actually within his power. +In this way the Sees of Dublin, Kildare, Ferns, Ardagh, Emly, Tuam and Killaloe +were filled up; while the vacancies which occurred about the same period in +Armagh, Clogher, Clonmacnoise, Clonfert, Kilmore, and Down and Conor were +supplied from Rome. Many of the latter were allowed to take possession of their +temporalities—so far as they were within English power—by taking +an oath of allegiance, specially drawn for them. Others, when prevented from so +doing by the penalties of <i>praemunire</i>, delegated their authority to +Vicars General, who contrived to elude the provisions of the statute. On the +other hand, several of the King's Bishops, excluded by popular hostility from +the nominal sees, never resided upon them; some of them spent their lives in +Dublin, and others were entertained as suffragans by Bishops in England. +</p> + +<p> +In March, 1543, Primate Cromer, who had so resolutely led the early opposition +to Archbishop Browne, died, whereupon Pope Paul III. appointed Robert Waucop, a +Scotsman (by some writers called <i>Venantius</i>), to the See of Armagh. This +remarkable man, though afflicted with blindness from his youth upwards, was a +doctor of the Sorbonne, and one of the most distinguished Prelates of his age. +He introduced the first Jesuit Fathers into Ireland, and to him is attributed +the establishment of that intimate intercourse between the Ulster Princes and +the See of Rome, which characterized the latter half of the century. He +assisted at the Council of Trent from 1545 to 1547, was subsequently employed +as Legate in Germany, and died abroad during the reign of Edward VI. +Simultaneously with the appointment of Primate Waucop, Henry VIII. had +nominated to the same dignity George Dowdal, a native of Louth, formerly Prior +of the crutched friars at Ardee, in that county. Though Dowdal accepted the +nomination, he did so without acknowledging the King's supremacy in spirituals. +On the contrary he remained attached 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 he was recalled from his place of banishment in Brabant, and +his first official act on returning home was to proclaim a Jubilee for the +public restoration of the Catholic worship. +</p> + +<p> +The King's Bishops during the last years of Henry, and the brief reign of +Edward, were, besides Browne of Dublin, Edward Staples, Bishop of Meath, +Matthew Saunders and Robert Travers, successively Bishops of Leighlin, William +Miagh and Thomas Lancaster, successively Bishops of Kildare, 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. Quin was promoted to the See in 1522, and resigned his charge in +the year 1551. He is called a "favourer" of the new doctrines, but it is not +stated how far he went in their support. His successor, Dr. William Casey, was +one of the six Bishops deprived by Queen Mary on her accession to the throne. +As Bishop Tirrey is not of the number—although he lived till the third +year of Mary's reign—we may conclude that he became reconciled to the +Holy See. +</p> + +<p> +The native population became, before Henry's death, fully aroused to the nature +of the new doctrines, to which at first they had paid so little attention. The +Commission issued in 1539 to Archbishop Browne and others for the destruction +of images and relics, and the prevention of pilgrimages, as well as the +ordering of English prayers as a substitute for the Mass, brought home to all +minds the sweeping character of the change. Our native Annals record the +breaking out of the English schism from the year 1537, though its formal +introduction into Ireland may, perhaps, be more accurately dated from the +issuing of the Ecclesiastical Commission of 1539. In their eyes it was the +offspring of "pride, vain-glory, avarice, and lust," and its first +manifestations were well calculated to make it for ever odious on Irish soil. +"They destroyed the religious orders," exclaimed the Four Masters! "They broke +down the monasteries, and sold their roofs and bells, from Aran of the Saints +to the Iccian Sea!" "They burned the images, shrines, and relics of the Saints; +they destroyed the Statue of our Lady of Trim, and the Staff of Jesus, which +had been in the hand of St. Patrick!" Such were the works of that Commission as +seen by the eyes of Catholics, natives of the soil. The Commissioners +themselves, however, gloried in their work, and pointed with complacency to +their success. The "innumerable images" which adorned the churches were dashed +to pieces; the ornaments of shrines and altars, when not secreted in time, were +torn from their places, and beaten into shapeless masses of metal. This harvest +yielded in the first year nearly 3,000 pounds, on an inventory, wherein we find +1,000 lbs. weight of wax, manufactured into candles and tapers, valued at 20 +pounds. Such was the return made to the revenue; what share of the spoil was +appropriated by the agents employed may never be known. It would be absurd, +however, to expect a scrupulous regard to honesty in men engaged in the work of +sacrilege! And this work, it must be added, was carried on in the face of the +stipulation entered into with the Parliament of 1541, that "the Church of +Ireland shall be free, and enjoy all its accustomed privileges." +</p> + +<p> +The death of Henry, in January, 1547, found the Reformation in Ireland at the +stage just described. But though all attempts to diffuse a general recognition +of his spiritual power had failed, his reign will ever be memorable as the +epoch of the union of the English and Irish Crowns. Before closing the present +Book of our History, in which we have endeavoured to account for that great +fact, and to trace the progress of the negotiations which led to its +accomplishment, we must briefly review the relations existing between the Kings +of England and the Irish nation, from Henry II. to Henry VIII. +</p> + +<p> +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 who should take precedence, turned mainly on this +very point. The French monarchy was then at its lowest, the English at its +highest pitch, for Charles VI. was but a nominal sovereign of France, while the +conqueror of Agincourt sat on the throne of England. Yet in the first assembly +of the Prelates and Princes of Europe, we are told that the ambassadors of +France raised a question of the right of the English envoys to be received as +representing a nation, seeing that they had been conquered not only by the +Romans, but by the Saxons. Their argument further was, that, "as the Saxons +were tributaries to the German Empire, and never governed by native sovereigns, +they [the English] should take place as a branch only of the German empire, and +not as a free nation. For," argued the French, "it is evident from Albertus +Magnus and Bartholomew Glanville, that the world is divided into three parts, +Europe, Asia, and Africa;—that Europe is divided into four empires, the +Roman, Constantinopolitan, the Irish, and the Spanish." "The English +advocates," we are told, "admitting the force of these allegations, claimed +their precedency and rank from Henry's being monarch of Ireland, and it was +accordingly granted." +</p> + +<p> +If this often-told anecdote is of any historical value, it only shows the +ignorance of the representatives of France in yielding their pretensions on so +poor a quibble. Neither Henry V., nor any other English sovereign before him, +had laid claim to the title of "Monarch of Ireland." The indolence or ignorance +of modern writers has led them, it is true, to adopt the whole series of the +Plantagenet Kings as sovereigns of Ireland—to set up in history a dynasty +which never existed for us; to leave out of their accounts of a monarchical +people all question of their crown; and to pass over the election of 1541 +without adequate, or any inquiry. +</p> + +<p> +It is certain that neither Henry II., nor Richard I., ever used in any written +instrument, or graven sign, the style of king, or even lord of Ireland; though +in the Parliament held at Oxford in the year 1185, Henry conferred on his +youngest son, John <i>lack-land</i>, a title which he did not himself possess, +and John is thenceforth known in English history as "Lord of Ireland." This +honour was not, however, of the exclusive nature of sovereignty, else John +could hardly have borne it during the lifetime of his father and brother. And +although we read that Cardinal Octavian was sent into England by Pope Urban +III., authorized to consecrate John, <i>King</i> of Ireland, no such +consecration took place, nor was the lordship looked upon, at any period, as +other than a creation of the royal power of England existing in Ireland, which +could be recalled, transferred, or alienated, without detriment to the +prerogative of the King. +</p> + +<p> +Neither had this original view of the relations existing between England and +Ireland undergone any change at the time of the Council of Constance. Of this +we have a curious illustration in the style employed by the Queen Dowager of +Henry V., who, during the minority of her son, granted charters, as "Queen of +England and France, and lady of Ireland." The use of different crowns in the +coronations of all the Tudors subsequent to Henry VIII. shows plainly how the +recent origin of their secondary title was understood and acknowledged during +the remainder of the sixteenth century. Nothing of the kind was practised at +the coronation of the Plantagenet Princes, nor were the arms of Ireland +quartered with those of England previous to the period we have +described—the memorable year, 1541. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="part08"></a>BOOK VIII.<br/> +THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION.</h3> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap53"></a>CHAPTER I.<br/> +EVENTS OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD SIXTH.</h3> + +<p> +On the last day of January, 1547, Edward, son of Henry, by Lady Jane Seymour, +was crowned by the title of Edward VI. He was then only nine years old, and was +destined to wear the crown but for six years and a few months. No Irish +Parliament was convened during his reign, but the Reformation was pushed on +with great vigour, at first under the patronage of the Protector, his uncle, +and subsequently of that uncle's rival, the Duke of Northumberland. Archbishop +Cranmer suffered the zeal of neither of these statesmen to flag for want of +stimulus, and the Lord Deputy Saint Leger, judging from the cause of his +disgrace in the next reign, approved himself a willing assistant in the work. +</p> + +<p> +The Irish Privy Council, which exercised all the powers of government during +this short reign, was composed exclusively of partizans of the Reformation. +Besides Archbishop Browne and Staples, Bishop of Meath, its members were the +Chancellor, Read, and the Treasurer, Brabazon, both English, with the Judges +Aylmer, Luttrel, Bath, Cusack, and Howth—all proselytes, at least in +form, to the new opinions. The Earl of Ormond, with sixteen of his household, +having been poisoned at a banquet in Ely House, London, in October before +Henry's death, the influence of that great house was wielded during 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 to James, Earl of Desmond, brought Bryan powerful connections in the +South, which he was not slow to turn to a politic account. His ambition aimed +at nothing less than the supreme authority, military and civil; but when at +length he attained the summit of his hopes, he only lived to enjoy them a few +months. +</p> + +<p> +To enable the Deputy and Council to carry out the work they had begun, an +additional military force was felt to be necessary, and Sir Edward Bellingham +was sent over, soon after Edward's accession, with a detachment of six hundred +horse, four hundred foot, and the title of Captain General. This able officer, +in conjunction with Sir Francis Bryan, who appears to have been everywhere, +overran Offally, Leix, Ely and West-Meath, sending the chiefs 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 Edward by Bryan, +who held successively the rank of Marshal of Ireland and Lord Deputy. To the +latter office he was chosen on an emergency, by the Council, in December, 1549, +but died at Clonmel, on an expedition against the O'Carrolls, in the following +February. His successes and those of Bellingham hastened the reduction of Leix +and Offally into shire ground in the following reign. +</p> + +<p> +The total military force at the disposal of Edward's commanders was probably +never less than 10,000 effective men. By the aid of their abundant artillery, +they were enabled to take many strong places hitherto deemed impregnable to +assault. The mounted men and infantry, were, as yet, but partially armed with +musquetons, or firelocks—for the spear and the bow still found advocates +among military men. The spearmen or lancers were chiefly recruited on the +marches of Northumberland from the hardy race of border warriors; the mounted +bowmen or hobilers were generally natives of Chester or North Wales. Between +these new comers and the native Anglo-Irish troops many contentions arose from +time to time, but in the presence of the common foe these bickerings were +completely forgotten. The townsmen of Waterford marched promptly at a call, +under their standard of the three galleys, and those of Dublin as cheerfully +turned out under the well-known banner, decorated with three flaming towers. +</p> + +<p> +The <i>personnel</i> of the administration, in the six years of Edward, was +continually undergoing change. Bellingham, who succeeded St. Leger, was +supplanted by Bryan, on whose death, St. Leger was reappointed. After another +year Sir James Croft was sent over to replace St. Leger, and continued to fill +the office until the accession of Queen Mary. But whoever rose or fell to the +first rank in civil affairs, the Privy Council remained exclusively Protestant, +and the work of innovation was not suffered to languish. A manuscript account, +attributed to Adam Loftus, Browne's successor, assigns the year 1549 as the +date when "the Mass was put down," in Dublin, "and divine service was +celebrated in English." Bishop Mant, the historian of the Established Church in +Ireland, does not find any account of such an alteration, nor does the +statement appear to him consistent with subsequent facts of this reign. We +observe, also, that in 1550, Arthur Magennis, the Pope's Bishop of Dromore, was +allowed by the government to enter on possession of his temporalities after +taking an oath of allegiance, while King's Bishops were appointed in that and +the next two years to the vacant 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 Crown was concerned, during the +remainder of this reign, while a similar vacancy in Armagh was filled, at least +in name, by the appointment of Dr. Hugh Goodacre, chaplain to the Bishop of +Winchester, and a favourite preacher with the Princess Elizabeth. This Prelate +was consecrated, according to a new form, in Christ Church, Dublin, on 2nd of +February, 1523, together with his countryman, John Bale, Bishop of Ossory. The +officiating Prelates were Browne, Staples, and Lancaster of Kildare—all +English. The Irish Establishment, however, does not at all times rest its +argument for the validity of its episcopal Order upon these consecrations. Most +of their writers lay claim to the Apostolic succession, through Adam Loftus, +consecrated in England, according to the ancient rite, by Hugh Curwen, an +Archbishop in communion with the See of Rome, at the time of his elevation to +the episcopacy. +</p> + +<p> +In February, 1551, Sir Anthony St. Leger received the King's commands to cause +the Scriptures translated into the English tongue, and the Liturgy and Prayers +of the Church, also translated into English, to be read in all the churches of +Ireland. To render these instructions effective, the Deputy summoned a +convocation of the Archbishops, Bishops, and Clergy, to meet in Dublin on the +1st of March, 1551. In this meeting—the first of two in which the +defenders of the old and of the new religion met face to face—the +Catholic party was led by the intrepid Dowdal, Archbishop of Armagh, and the +Reformers by Archbishop Browne. The Deputy, who, like most laymen of that age, +had a strong theological turn, also took an active part in the discussion. +Finally delivering the royal order to Browne, the latter accepted it in a set +form of words, without reservation; the Anglican Bishops of Meath, Kildare, and +Leighlin, and Coyne, Bishop of Limerick, adhering to his act; Primate Dowdal, +with the other Bishops, having previously retired from the Conference. On +Easter day following, the English service was celebrated for the first time in +Christ Church, Dublin, the Deputy, the Archbishop, and the Mayor of 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 invective +against the new Order of Jesuits. +</p> + +<p> +Primate Dowdal retired from the Castle Conference to Saint Mary's Abbey, on the +north side of the Liffey, where he continued while these things were taking +place in the city proper. The new Lord Deputy, Sir James Crofts, on his arrival +in May, addressed himself to the Primate, to bring about, if possible, an +accommodation between the Prelates. Fearing, as he said, an "order ere long to +alter church matters, as well in offices as in ceremonies," the new Deputy +urged another Conference, which was accordingly held at the Primate's lodgings, +on the 16th of June. At this meeting Browne does not seem to have been present, +the argument on the side of the Reformers being maintained by Staples. The +points discussed were chiefly the essential character of the Holy Sacrifice of +the Mass, and the invocation of Saints. The tone observed on both sides was +full of high-bred courtesy. The letter of the Sacred Scriptures and the +authority of Erasmus in Church History were chiefly relied upon by Staples; the +common consent and usage of all Christendom, the primacy of Saint Peter, and +the binding nature of the oath taken by Bishops at their consecration, were +pointed out by the Primate. The disputants parted, with expressions of deep +regret that they could come to no agreement; but the Primacy was soon +afterwards transferred to Dublin, by order of the Privy Council, and Dowdal +fled for refuge into Brabant. The Roman Catholic and the Anglican Episcopacy +have never since met in oral controversy on Irish ground, though many of the +second order of the clergy in both communions have, from time to time, been +permitted by their superiors to engage in such discussions. +</p> + +<p> +Whatever obstacles they encountered within the Church itself, the propagation +of the new religion was not confined to moral means, nor was the spirit of +opposition at all tunes restricted to mere argument. Bishop Bale having begun +at Kilkenny to pull down the revered images of the Saints, and to overturn the +Market Cross, was set upon by the mob, five of his servants, or guard, were +slain, and himself narrowly escaped with his life by barricading himself in his +palace. The garrisons in the neighbourhood of the ancient seats of +ecclesiastical power and munificence were authorized to plunder their +sanctuaries and storehouses. The garrison of Down sacked the celebrated shrines +and tomb of Patrick, Bridget, and Columbkill; the garrison of Carrickfergus +ravaged Rathlin Island and attacked Derry, from which, however, they were +repulsed with severe loss by John the Proud. But the most lamentable scene of +spoliation, and that which excited the profoundest emotions of pity and anger +in the public mind, was the violation of the churches of St. Kieran—the +renowned Clonmacnoise. This city of schools had cast its cross-crowned shade +upon the gentle current of the Upper Shannon for a thousand years. Danish fury, +civil storm, and Norman hostility had passed over it, leaving traces of their +power in the midst of the evidences of its recuperation. The great Church to +which pilgrims flocked from every tribe of Erin, on the 9th of +September—St. Kieran's Day; the numerous chapels erected by the chiefs of +all the neighbouring clans; the halls, hospitals, book-houses, nunneries, +cemeteries, granaries—all still stood, awaiting from Christian hands the +last fatal blow. In the neighbouring town of Athlone—seven or eight miles +distant—the Treasurer, Brabazon, had lately erected a strong "Court" or +Castle, from which, in the year 1552, the garrison sallied forth to attack "the +place of the sons of the nobles,"—which is the meaning of the name. In +executing this task they exhibited a fury surpassing that of Turgesius and his +Danes. The pictured glass was torn from the window frames, and the revered +images from their niches; altars were overthrown; sacred vessels polluted. +"They left not," say the Four Masters, "a book or a gem," nor anything to show +what Clonmacnoise had been, save the bare walls of the temples, the mighty +shaft of the round tower, and the monuments in the cemeteries, with their +inscriptions in Irish, in Hebrew, and in Latin. The Shannon re-echoed with +their profane songs and laughter, as laden with chalices and crucifixes, +brandishing croziers, and flaunting vestments in the air, their barges returned +to the walls of Athlone. +</p> + +<p> +In all the Gaelic speaking regions of Ireland, the new religion now began to be +known by those fruits which it had so abundantly produced. Though the southern +and midland districts had not yet recovered from the exhaustion consequent upon +the suppression of the Geraldine league and the abortive insurrection of Silken +Thomas, the northern tribes were still unbroken and undismayed. They had +deputed George Paris, a kinsman of the Kildare Fitzgeralds, as their agent to +the French King, in the latter days of Henry VIII., and had received two +ambassadors on his behalf at Donegal and Dungannon. These ambassadors, the +Baron de Forquevaux, and the Sieur de Montluc, who subsequently became Bishop +of Valence, crossing over from the west of Scotland, entered into a league, +offensive and defensive, with "the princes" of Tyrconnell and Tyrowen, by which +the latter bound themselves to recognize, on certain conditions, "whoever was +King of France as King of Ireland likewise." This alliance, though prolonged +into the reign of Edward, led to nothing definitive, and we shall see in the +next reign how the hopes then turned towards France were naturally transferred +to Spain. +</p> + +<p> +The only native name which rises into historic importance at this period is +that of Shane, or John O'Neil, "the Proud." He was the legitimate son of that +Con O'Neil who had been girt with the Earl's baldric by the hands of Henry +VIII. His father had procured at the same time for an illegitimate son, +Ferodach, or Mathew, of Dundalk, the title of Baron of Dungannon, with the +reversion of the Earldom. When, however, John the Proud came of age, he centred +upon himself the hopes of his clansmen, deposed his father, subdued the Baron, +and assumed the title of O'Neil. In 1552 he defeated the efforts of Sir William +Brabazon to fortify Belfast, and delivered Derry from its plunderers. From that +time till his tragical death, in the ninth year of Queen Elizabeth, he stood +unquestionably the first man of his race, both in lineage and action. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap54"></a>CHAPTER II.<br/> +EVENTS OF THE REIGN OF PHILIP AND MARY.</h3> + +<p> +The death of Edward VI. and the accession of the lady Mary were known in Dublin +by the middle of July, 1553, and soon spread all over the kingdom. On the 20th +of that month, the form of proclamation was received from London, in which the +new Queen was forbidden to be styled "head of the church," and this was quickly +followed by another ordinance, authorizing all who would to publicly attend +Mass, but not compelling thereto any who were unwilling. A curious legal +difficulty existed in relation to Mary's title to the Crown of Ireland. By the +Irish Statute, 38. Hen. VIII., the Irish crown was entailed by name on the Lady +Elizabeth, and that act had not been repealed. It was, however, held to have +been superseded by the English Statute, 35. Hen. VIII., which followed the +election of 1541, and declared the Crown of Ireland "united and knit to the +Imperial Crown of the Realm of England." Read in the light of the latter +statute, the Irish sovereignty might be regarded a mere appurtenance of that of +England, but Mary did not so consider it. At her coronation, a separate crown +was used for Ireland, nor did she feel assured of the validity of her claim to +wear it till she had obtained a formal dispensation to that effect from the +Pope. +</p> + +<p> +The intelligence of the new Queen's accession, and the public restoration of +the old religion, diffused a general joy throughout Ireland. Festivals and +pageants were held in the streets, and eloquent sermons poured from all the +pulpits. Archbishop Dowdal was called from exile, and the Primacy was restored +to Armagh. Sir Anthony St. Leger, his ancient antagonist, had now conformed to +the Court fashion, and was sent over to direct the establishment of that +religion which he had been so many years engaged in pulling down. In 1554, +Browne, Staples, Lancaster, and Travers, were formally deprived of their sees; +Bale and Casey of Limerick fled beyond seas, without awaiting judgment. Married +clergymen were invariably silenced, and the children of Browne were declared by +statute illegitimate. +</p> + +<p> +What, however, gratified the public even more than these retributions was the +liberation of the aged Chief of Offally from the Tower of London, at the +earnest supplication of his heroic daughter, Margaret, who found her way to the +Queen's presence to beg that boon; and the simultaneous restoration of the +Earldom of Kildare, in the person of that Gerald, who had been so young a +fugitive among the glens of Muskerry and Donegal, and had since undergone so +many continental adventures. With O'Conor and young Gerald, the heirs of the +houses of Ormond and of Upper Ossory were also allowed to return to their +homes, to the great delight of the southern half of the kingdom. The subsequent +marriage of Mary with Philip II. of Spain gave an additional security to the +Irish Catholics for the future freedom of their religion. +</p> + +<p> +Great as was the change in this respect, it is not to be inferred that the +national relations of Ireland and England were materially affected by such a +change of sovereign. The maxims of conquest were not to be abandoned at the +dictates of religion. The supreme power continued to be entrusted only to +Englishmen; while the same Parliament (3rd and 4th Philip and Mary) which +abolished the title of head of the Church, and restored the Roman jurisdiction +in matters spiritual, divided Leix and Offally, Glenmalier and Slewmargy, into +shire ground, subject to English law, under the name of King's and Queen's +County. The new forts of Maryborough and Philipstown, as well as the county +names, served to teach the people of Leinster that the work of conquest could +be as industriously prosecuted by Catholic as by Protestant rulers. Nor were +these forts established and maintained without many a struggle. St. Leger, and +his still abler successor, the Earl of Sussex, and the new Lord Treasurer, Sir +Henry Sidney, were forced to lead many an expedition to the relief of those +garrisons, and the dispersion of their assailants. It was not in Irish human +nature to submit to the constant pressure of a foreign power without seizing +every possible opportunity for its expulsion. +</p> + +<p> +The new principle of primogeniture introduced at the commutation of +chieftainries into earldoms was productive in this reign of much commotion and +bloodshed. The seniors of the O'Briens resisted its establishment in Thomond, +on the death of the first Earl; Calvagh O'Donnell took arms against his father, +to defeat its introduction into Tyrconnell; John the Proud, as we have seen in +the reign of Edward, had been one of its earliest opponents in Ulster. Being +accused in the last year of Queen Mary of procuring the death of his +illegitimate brother, the Baron of Dungannon, in order to remove him from his +path, he was summoned to account for those circumstances before Sir Henry +Sidney, then acting as Lord Justice. His plea has been preserved to us, and no +doubt represents the prevailing opinion of the Gaelic-speaking population +towards the new system. He answered, "that the surrender which his father had +made to Henry VIII., and the restoration which Henry made to his father again +were of no force; inasmuch as his father had no right to the lands which he +surrendered to the King, except during his own life; that he (John) himself was +the O'Neil by the law of Tanistry, and by popular election; and that he assumed +no superiority over the chieftains of the North except what belonged to his +ancestors." To these views he adhered to the last, accepting no English +honours, though quite willing to live at peace with English sovereigns. When +the title of Earl of Tyrone was revived, it was in favour of the son of the +Baron, the celebrated Hugh O'Neil, the ally of Spain, and the most formidable +antagonist of Queen Elizabeth. +</p> + +<p> +In the Irish Parliament already referred to (3rd and 4th Philip and Mary) an +Act was passed declaring it a felony to introduce armed Scotchmen into Ireland, +or to intermarry with them without a license under the great seal. This statute +was directed against those multitudes of Islesmen and Highlanders who annually +crossed the narrow strait which separates Antrim from Argyle to harass the +English garrisons alongshore, or to enlist as auxiliaries in Irish quarrels. In +1556, under one of their principal leaders, James, son of Conal, they laid +siege to Carrickfergus and occupied Lord Sussex some six weeks in the glens of +Antrim. Their leader finally entered into conditions, the nature of which may +be inferred from the fact that he received the honour of knighthood on their +acceptance. John O'Neil had usually in his service a number of these mercenary +troops, from among whom he selected sixty body-guards, the same number supplied +by his own clan. In his first attempt to subject Tyrconnell to his supremacy in +1557, his camp near Raphoe was surprised at night by Calvagh O'Donnell, and his +native and foreign guards were put to the sword, while he himself barely +escaped by swimming the Mourne and the Finn. O'Donnell had frequently employed +a similar force, in his own defence; and we read of the Lord of Clanrickarde +driving back a host of them engaged in the service of his rivals, from the +banks of the Moy, in 1558. +</p> + +<p> +Although the memory of Queen Mary has been held up to execration during three +centuries as a bloody-minded and malignant persecutor of all who differed from +her in religion, it is certain that in Ireland, where, if anywhere, the +Protestant. minority might have been extinguished by such severities as are +imputed to her, no persecution for conscience' sake took place. Married Bishops +were deprived, and married priests were silenced, but beyond this no coercion +was employed. It has been said there was not time to bring the machinery to +bear; but surely if there was time to do so in England, within the space of +five years, there was time in Ireland also. The consoling +truth—honourable to human nature and to Christian charity, is—that +many families out of England, apprehending danger in their own country, sought +and found a refuge from their fears in the western island. The families of +Agar, Ellis, and Harvey, are descended from emigrants, who were accompanied +from Cheshire by a clergyman of their own choice, whose ministrations they +freely enjoyed during the remainder of this reign at Dublin. The story about +Dr. Cole having been despatched to Ireland with a commission to punish +heretics, and, losing it on the way, is unworthy of serious notice. If there +had been any such determination formed there was ample time to put it into +execution between 1553 and 1558. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="chap55"></a>CHAPTER III.<br/> +ACCESSION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH—PARLIAMENT OF 1560—THE ACT OF +UNIFORMITY—CAREER AND DEATH OF JOHN O'NEIL "THE PROUD."</h3> + +<p> +The daughter of Anna Boleyn was promptly proclaimed Queen the same day on which +Mary died—the 17th of November, 1558. Elizabeth was then in her 26th +year, proud of her beauty, and confident in her abilities. Her great capacity +had been cultivated by the best masters of the age, and the best of all ages, +early adversity. Her vices were hereditary in her blood, but her genius for +government so far surpassed any of her immediate predecessors as to throw her +vices into the shade. During the forty-four years in which she wielded the +English sceptre, many of the most stirring occurrences of our history took +place; it could hardly have fallen out otherwise, under a sovereign of so much +vigour, having the command of such immense resources. +</p> + +<p> +On the news of Mary's death reaching Ireland, the Lord Deputy Sussex returned +to England, and Sir Henry Sidney, the Treasurer, was appointed his successor +<i>ad interim</i>. As in England, so in Ireland, though for somewhat different +reasons, the first months of the new reign were marked by a conciliating and +temporizing policy. Elizabeth, who had not assumed the title of "Head of the +Church," continued to hear Mass for several months after her accession. At her +coronation she had a High Mass sung, accompanied, it is true, by a Calvinistic +sermon. Before proceeding with the work of "reformation," inaugurated by her +father, and arrested by her sister, she proceeded cautiously to establish +herself, and her Irish deputy followed in the same careful line of conduct. +Having first made a menacing demonstration against John the Proud, he entered +into friendly correspondence with him, and finally ended the campaign by +standing godfather to one of his children. This relation of gossip among the +old Irish was no mere matter of ceremony, but involved obligations lasting as +life, and sacred as the ties of kindred blood. By seeking such a sponsor, +O'Neil placed himself in Sidney's power, rather than Sidney in his, since the +two men must have felt very differently bound by the connection into which they +had entered. As an evidence of the Imperial policy of the moment, the incident +is instructive. +</p> + +<p> +Round the personal history of this splendid, but by no means stainless Ulster +Prince, the events of the first nine years of Elizabeth's reign over Ireland +naturally group 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 Ireland was fixed upon the movements of John the Proud. In +tracing his career, we therefore naturally gather all, or nearly all, the +threads of the national story, during the first ten years of Queen Mary's +successor. +</p> + +<p> +In the second year of Elizabeth, Lord Deputy Sussex, who returned fully +possessed of her Majesty's views, summoned the Parliament to meet in Dublin on +the 12th day of January, 1560. It is to be observed, however, that though the +union of the crowns was now of twenty years' standing, the writs were not +issued to the nation at large, but only to the ten counties of Dublin, Meath, +Louth, West-Meath, Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, and +Tipperary, with their boroughs. The published instructions of Lord Sussex were +"to make such statutes (concerning religion) as were made in England, +<i>mutatis mutandis</i>." As a preparation for the legislature, St. Patrick's +Cathedral and Christ Church were purified by paint; the niches of the Saints +were for the second time emptied of their images; texts of Scripture were +blazoned upon the walls, and the Litany was chanted in English. After these +preparatory demonstrations, the Deputy opened the new Parliament, which sat for +one short but busy month. The Acts of Mary's Parliament, re-establishing +ecclesiastical relations with Rome, were the first thing repealed; then so much +of the Act 33, Henry VIII., as related to the succession, was revived; all +ecclesiastical jurisdiction was next declared vested in the Crown, and all +"judges, justices, mayors, and temporal officers were declared bound to take +tie oath of supremacy;" the penalty attached 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 declared that commissioners in +ecclesiastical causes should adjudge nothing as heresy which was not expressly +so condemned by the Canonical Scriptures, the received General Councils, or by +Parliament. The penalty of <i>praemunire</i> was declared in force, and, to +crown the work, the celebrated "Act of Uniformity" was passed. This was +followed by other statutes for the restoration of first fruits and twentieths, +and for the appointment of Bishops by the royal prerogative, or <i>conge +d'elire</i>—elections by the chapter being declared mere "shadows of +election, and derogatory to the prerogative." Such was, in brief, the +legislation of that famous Parliament of ten counties—the often quoted +statutes of the "2nd of Elizabeth." In the Act of Uniformity, the best known of +all its statutes, there was this curious saving clause inserted: that whenever +the "priest or common minister" could not speak English, he might still +continue "to celebrate the service in the Latin tongue." Such other observances +were to be had as were prescribed by the 2nd Edward VI., until her Majesty +should "publish further ceremonies or rites." We have no history of the debates +of this Parliament of a month, but there is ample reason to believe that some +of these statutes were resisted throughout by a majority of the Upper House, +still chiefly composed of Catholic Peers; that the clause saving the Latin +ritual was inserted as a compromise with this opposition; that some of the +other Acts were passed by stealth in the absence of many members, and that the +Lord Deputy gave his solemn pledge the statute of Uniformity should be +enforced, if passed. So severe was the struggle, and so little satisfied was +Sussex with his success, that he hastily dissolved the Houses and went over +personally to England to represent the state of feeling he had encountered. +Finally, it is remarkable that no other Parliament was called in Ireland till +nine years afterwards—a convincing proof of how unmanageable that body, +even constituted as it was, had shown itself to be in matters affecting +religion. +</p> + +<p> +The non-invitation of the Irish chiefs to this Parliament, contrary to the +precedent set in Mary's reign and in 1541, the laws enacted, and the commotion +they excited in the minds of the clergy, were circumstances which could not +fail to attract the attention of John O'Neil. Even if insensible to what +transpired at Dublin, the indefatigable Sussex—one of the ablest of +Elizabeth's able Court—did not suffer him long to misunderstand his +relations to the new Queen. He might be Sidney's gossip, but he was not the +less Elizabeth's enemy. He had been proclaimed "O'Neil" on the rath of +Tullahoge, and had reigned at Dungannon, adjudging life and death. It was clear +that two such jurisdictions as the Celtic and the Norman kingship could not +stand long on the same soil, and the Ulster Prince soon perceived that he must +establish his authority, by arms, or perish with it. We must also read all +Irish events of the time of Elizabeth by the light of foreign politics; during +the long reign of that sovereign, England was never wholly free from fears of +invasion, and many movements which now seem inexplicable will be readily +understood when we recollect that they took place under the menaces of foreign +powers. +</p> + +<p> +The O'Neils had anciently exercised a high-handed superiority over all Ulster, +and John the Proud was not the man to let his claim lie idle in any district of +that wide-spread Province. But authority which has fallen into decay must be +asserted only at a propitious time, and with the utmost tact; and here it was +that Elizabeth's statesmen found their most effective means of attacking +O'Neil. O'Donnell, who was his father-in-law, was studiously conciliated; his +second wife, a lady of the Argyle family, received costly presents from the +Queen; O'Reilly was created Earl of Breffni, and encouraged to resist the +superiority to which the house of Dungannon laid claim. The natural +consequences followed; John the Proud swept like a storm over the fertile hills +of Cavan, and compelled the new-made Earl to deliver him tribute and hostages. +O'Donnell, attended only by a few of his household, was seized in a religious +house upon Lough Swilly, and subjected to every indignity which an insolent +enemy could devise. His Countess, already alluded to, supposed to have been +privy to this surprise of her husband, became the mistress of his captor and +jailer, to whom she bore several children. What deepens the horror of this +odious domestic tragedy is the fact that the wife of O'Neil, the daughter of +O'Donnell, thus supplanted by her shameless stepmother, under her own roof, +died soon afterwards of "horror, loathing, grief, and deep anguish," at the +spectacle afforded by the private life of O'Neil, and the severities inflicted +upon her wretched father. All the patriotic designs, and all the shining +abilities of John the Proud, cannot abate a jot of our detestation of such a +private life; though slandered in other respects as he was, by hostile pens, no +evidence has been adduced to clear his memory of these indelible stains; nor +after becoming acquainted with their existence can we follow his after career +with that heartfelt sympathy with which the lives of purer patriots must always +inspire us. +</p> + +<p> +The pledge given by Sussex, that the penal legislation of 1560 should lie a +dead letter, was not long observed. In May of the year following its enactment, +a commission was appointed to enforce the 2nd Elizabeth, in West-Meath; and in +1562 a similar commission was appointed for Meath and Armagh. By these +commissioners Dr. William Walsh, Catholic Bishop of Meath, was arraigned and +imprisoned for preaching against the new liturgy; a Prelate who afterwards died +an exile in Spain. The primatial see was for the moment vacant, Archbishop +Dowdal having died at London three months before Queen Mary—on the Feast +of the Assumption, 1558. Terence, Dean of Armagh, who acted as administrator, +convened a Synod of the English-speaking clergy of the Province in July, 1559, +at Drogheda, but as this dignitary followed in the steps of his faithful +predecessors, his deanery was conferred upon Dr. Adam Loftus, Chaplain of the +Lord Lieutenant; two years subsequently the dignity of Archbishop of Armagh was +conferred upon the same person. Dr. Loftus, a native of Yorkshire, had found +favour in the eyes of the Queen at a public exhibition at Cambridge University; +he was but 28 years old, according to Sir James Ware, when consecrated +Primate—but Dr. Mant thinks he must have attained at least the canonical +age of 30. During the whole of this reign he continued to reside at Dublin, +which see was early placed under his jurisdiction in lieu of the inaccessible +Armagh. For forty years he continued one of the ruling spirits at Dublin, +whether acting as Lord Chancellor, Lord Justice, Privy Councillor, or First +Provost of Trinity College. He was a pluralist in Church and State, insatiable +of money and honours; if he did not greatly assist in establishing his +religion, he was eminently successful in enriching his family. +</p> + +<p> +Having subdued every hostile neighbour and openly assumed the high prerogative +of Prince of Ulster, John the Proud looked around him for allies in the greater +struggle which he foresaw could not be long postponed. Calvagh O'Donnell was +yielded up on receiving a munificent ransom, but his infamous wife remained +with her paramour. A negotiation was set on foot with the chiefs of the +Highland and Island Scots, large numbers of whom entered into O'Neil's service. +Emissaries were despatched to the French Court, where they found a favourable +reception, as Elizabeth was known to be in league with the King of Navarre and +the Huguenot leaders against Francis II. The unexpected death of the King at +the close of 1560; the return of his youthful widow, Queen Mary, to Scotland; +the vigorous regency of Catherine de Medicis during the minority of her second +son; the ill-success of Elizabeth's arms during the campaigns of 1561-2-3, +followed by the humiliating peace of April, 1564—these events are all to +be borne in memory when considering the extraordinary relations which were +maintained during the same years by the proud Prince of Ulster, with the still +prouder Queen of England. The apparently contradictory tactics pursued by the +Lord Deputy Sussex, between his return to Dublin in the spring of 1561, and his +final recall in 1564, when read by the light of events which transpired at +Paris, London, and Edinburgh, become easily intelligible. In the spring of the +first mentioned year, it was thought possible to intimidate O'Neil, so Lord +Sussex, with the Earl of Ormond as second in command, marched northwards, +entered Armagh, and began to fortify the city, with a view to placing in it a +powerful garrison. O'Neil, to remove the seat of hostilities, made an irruption +into the plain of Meath, and menaced Dublin. The utmost consternation prevailed +at his approach, and the Deputy, while continuing the fortification of Armagh, +despatched the main body of his troops to press on the rear of the aggressor. +By a rapid countermarch, O'Neil came up with this force, laden with spoils, in +Louth, and after an obstinate engagement routed them with immense loss. On +receipt of this intelligence, Sussex promptly abandoned Armagh, and returned to +Dublin, while O'Neil erected his standard, as far South as Drogheda, within +twenty miles of the capital. So critical at this moment was the aspect of +affairs, that all the energies of the English interest were taxed to the +utmost. In the autumn of the year, Sussex marched again from Dublin northward, +having at his side the five powerful Earls of Kildare, Ormond, Desmond, +Thomond, and Clanrickarde—whose mutual feuds had been healed or +dissembled for the day. O'Neil prudently fell back before this powerful +expedition, which found its way to the shores of Lough Foyle, without bringing +him to an engagement, and without any military advantage. As the shortest way +of getting rid of such an enemy, the Lord Deputy, though one of the wisest and +most justly celebrated of Elizabeth's Counsellors, did not hesitate to +communicate to his royal mistress the project of hiring an assassin, named Nele +Gray, to take off the Prince of Ulster, but the plot, though carefully +elaborated, miscarried. Foreign news, which probably reached him only on +reaching the Foyle, led to a sudden change of tactics on the part of Sussex, +and the young Lord Kildare—O'Neil's cousin-germain, was employed to +negotiate a peace with the enemy they had set out to demolish. +</p> + +<p> +This Lord Kildare was Gerald, the eleventh Earl, the same whom we have spoken +of as a fugitive lad, in the last years of Henry VIII., and as restored to his +estates and rank by Queen Mary. Although largely indebted to his Catholicity +for the protection he had received while abroad from Francis I., Charles V., +the Duke of Tuscany and the Roman See—especially the Cardinals Pole and +Farnese—and still more indebted to the late Catholic Queen for the +restoration of his family honours, this finished courtier, now in the very +midsummer of life, one of the handsomest and most accomplished persons of his +time, did not hesitate to conform himself, at least outwardly, to the religion +of the State. Shortly before the campaign of which we have spoken, he had been +suspected of treasonable designs, but had pleaded his cause successfully 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 John +O'Neil's camp, where a truce was concluded between the parties, Lord Sussex +undertaking to withdraw his wardens from Armagh, and O'Neil engaging himself to +live in peace with her Majesty, and to serve "when necessary against her +enemies." The cousins also agreed personally to visit the English Court the +following year, and accordingly in January ensuing they went to England, from +which they returned home in the latter end of May. +</p> + +<p> +The reception of John the Proud, at the Court of Elizabeth, was flattering in +the extreme. The courtiers stared and smiled at his bareheaded body-guard, with +their crocus-dyed vests, short jackets, and shaggy cloaks. But the broad-bladed +battle-axe, and the sinewy arm which wielded it, inspired admiration for all +the uncouth costume. The haughty indifference with which the Prince of Ulster +treated every one about the Court, except the Queen, gave a keener edge to the +satirical comments which were so freely indulged in at the expense of his style +of dress. The wits proclaimed him "O'Neil the Great, cousin to Saint Patrick, +friend to the Queen of England, and enemy to all the world besides!" O'Neil was +well pleased with his reception by Elizabeth. When taxed upon his return with +having made peace with her Majesty, he answered—"Yes, in her own +bed-chamber." There were, indeed, many points in common in both their +characters. +</p> + +<p> +Her Majesty, by letters patent dated at Windsor, on the 15th of January, 1563, +recognized in John the Proud "the name 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 of November of the same year, +reciting the letters patent aforesaid, bound himself and his suffragans to +behave as "the Queen's good and faithful subjects against all persons +whatever." Thus, so far as an English alliance could guarantee it, was the +supremacy of this daring chief guaranteed in Ulster from the Boyne to the North +Sea. +</p> + +<p> +In performing his part of the engagements thus entered into, O'Neil is placed +in a less invidious light by English writers than formerly. They now describe +him as scrupulously faithful to his word; as charitable to the poor, always +carving and sending meat from his own table to the beggar at the gate before +eating himself. Of the sincerity with which he carried out the expulsion of the +Islesmen and Highlanders from Ulster, the result afforded the most conclusive +evidence. It is true he had himself invited those bands into the Province to +aid him against the very power with which he was now at peace, and, therefore, +they might in their view allege duplicity and desertion against him. Yet +enlisted as they usually were but for a single campaign, O'Neil expected them +to depart as readily as they had come. But in this expectation he was +disappointed. Their leaders, Angus, James, and Sorley McDonald, refused to +recognize the new relations which had arisen, and O'Neil was, therefore, +compelled to resort to force. He defeated the Scottish troops at Glenfesk, near +Ballycastle, in 1564, in an action wherein Angus McDonald was slain, James died +of his wounds, and Sorley was carried prisoner to Benburb. An English auxiliary +force, under Colonel Randolph, sent round by sea, under pretence of +co-operating against the Scots, took possession of Derry and began to fortify +it. But their leader was slain in a skirmish with a party of O'Neil's people +who disliked the fortress, and whether by accident or otherwise their magazine +exploded, killing a great part of the garrison and destroying their works. The +remnant took to their shipping and returned to Dublin. +</p> + +<p> +In the years 1565, '6 and '7, the internal dissensions of both Scotland and +France, and the perturbations in the Netherlands giving full occupation to her +foreign foes, Elizabeth had an interval of leisure to attend to this dangerous +ally in Ulster. A second unsuccessful attempt on his life, by an assassin named +Smith, was traced to the Lord Deputy, and a formal commission issued by the +Queen to investigate the case. The result we know only by the event; Sussex was +recalled, and Sir Henry Sidney substituted in his place! Death had lately made +way in Tyrconnell and Fermanagh for new chiefs, and these leaders, more +vigorous than their predecessors, were resolved to shake off the recently +imposed and sternly exercised 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 simultaneously at three different points—in +the year 1566. No considerable success was, however, obtained over him till the +following year, when, at the very opening of the campaign, the brave O'Donnell +arrested his march along the strand of the Lough Swilly, and the tide rising +impetuously, as it does 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 the tide; John the Proud fled alone, along the river Swilly, +and narrowly escaped by the fords of rivers and by solitary ways to his Castle +on Lough Neagh. The Annalists of Donegal, who were old enough to have conversed +with survivors of the battle, say that his mind became deranged by this sudden +fall from the summit of prosperity to the depths of defeat. His next step would +seem to establish the fact, for he at once despatched Sorley McDonald, the +survivor of the battle of Glenfesk, to recruit a new auxiliary force for him +amongst the Islesmen, whom he had so mortally offended. Then, abandoning his +fortress upon the Blackwater, he set out with 50 guards, his secretary, and his +mistress, the wife of the late O'Donnell, to meet these expected allies whom he +had so fiercely driven off but two short years before. At Cushendun, on the +Antrim coast, they met with all apparent cordiality, but an English agent, +Captain Piers, or Pierce, seized an opportunity during the carouse which ensued +to recall the bitter memories of Glenfesk. A dispute and a quarrel ensued; +O'Neil fell covered with wounds, amid the exulting shouts of the avenging +Islesmen. His gory head was presented to Captain Piers, who hastened with it to +Dublin, where he received a reward of a thousand marks for his success. High +spiked upon the towers of the Castle, that proud head remained and rotted; the +body, wrapped in a Kerns saffron shirt, was interred where he fell, a spot +familiar to all the inhabitants of the Antrim glens as "the grave of Shane +O'Neil." And so may be said to close the first decade of Elizabeth's reign over +Ireland! +</p> + +<p> +End of Volume 1 of 2 +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Popular History of Ireland Volume 1, by Thomas D'Arcy McGee + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A POPULAR HISTORY OF IRELAND *** + +***** This file should be named 6632-h.htm or 6632-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/6/3/6632/ + +This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan with help from +Charles Aldarondo and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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