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diff --git a/6632-0.txt b/6632-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5029e63 --- /dev/null +++ b/6632-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14290 @@ + +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. + + + + + + + + +A Popular + +History of Ireland: + + +from the + + +Earliest Period + +to the + + +Emancipation of the Catholics + + +by Thomas D'Arcy McGee + + + +In Two Volumes + + + + + +Volume I + + +PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. + + + +Ireland, lifting herself from the dust, drying her tears, and proudly +demanding her legitimate place among the nations of the earth, is a +spectacle to cause immense progress in political philosophy. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _high-class history_, as +cheap as _largely circulating romance_. 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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +CAMERON & FERGUSON. + +[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.] + + +CONTENTS—VOL. I. + + + BOOK I. + CHAPTER I.—The First Inhabitants + CHAPTER II.—The First Ages + CHAPTER III.—Christianity Preached at Tara—The Result + CHAPTER IV.—The Constitution, and how the Kings kept it + CHAPTER V.—Reign of Hugh II.—The Irish Colony in Scotland obtains +its Independence + CHAPTER VI.—Kings of the Seventh Century + CHAPTER VII.—Kings of the Eighth Century + CHAPTER VIII.—What the Irish Schools and Saints did in the Three First +Christian Centuries + + BOOK II. + CHAPTER I.—The Danish Invasion + CHAPTER II.—Kings of the Ninth Century (Continued)—Nial +III.—Malachy I.—Hugh VII + CHAPTER III.—Reign of Flan "of the Shannon" (A.D. 879 to 916) + CHAPTER IV.—Kings of the Tenth Century—Nial IV.—Donogh +II.—Congal III.—Donald IV + CHAPTER V.—Reign of Malachy II. and Rivalry of Brian + CHAPTER VI.—Brian, Ard-Righ—Battle of Clontarf + CHAPTER VII.—Effects of the Rivalry of Brian and Malachy on the Ancient +Constitution + CHAPTER VIII.—Latter Days of the Northmen in Ireland + + BOOK III. + CHAPTER I.—The Fortunes of the Family of Brian + CHAPTER II.—The Contest between the North and South—Rise of the +Family of O'Conor + CHAPTER III.—Thorlogh More O'Conor—Murkertach of +Aileach—Accession of Roderick O'Conor + CHAPTER IV.—State of Religion and Learning among the Irish previous to +the Anglo-Norman Invasion + CHAPTER V.—Social Condition of the Irish previous to the Norman Invasion + CHAPTER VI.—Foreign Relations of the Irish previous to the Anglo-Norman +Invasion + + BOOK IV. + CHAPTER I.—Dermid McMurrogh's Negotiations and Success—The First +Expedition of the Normans into Ireland + CHAPTER II.—The Arms, Armour and Tactics of the Normans and Irish + CHAPTER III.—The First Campaign of Earl Richard—Siege of +Dublin—Death of King Dermid McMurrogh + CHAPTER IV.—Second Campaign of Earl Richard—Henry II. in Ireland + CHAPTER V.—From the Return of Henry II. to England till the Death of Earl +Richard and his principal Companions + CHAPTER VI.—The Last Years of the Ard-Righ, Roderick O'Conor + CHAPTER VII.—Assassination of Hugh de Lacy—John "Lackland" in +Ireland—Various Expeditions of John de Courcy—Death of Conor +Moinmoy, and Rise of Cathal, "the Red-Handed" O'Conor—Close of the Career +of De Courcy and De Burgh + CHAPTER VIII.—Events of the Thirteenth Century—The Normans in +Connaught + CHAPTER IX.—Events of the Thirteenth Century—The Normans in Munster +and Leinster + CHAPTER X.—Events of the Thirteenth Century—The Normans in Meath +and Ulster + CHAPTER XI.—Retrospect of the Norman Period in Ireland—A Glance at +the Military Tactics of the Times—No Conquest of the Country in the +Thirteenth Century + CHAPTER XII.—State of Society and Learning in Ireland during the Norman +Period + + BOOK V. + CHAPTER I.—The Rise of "the Red Earl"—Relations of Ireland and +Scotland + CHAPTER II.—The Northern Irish enter into Alliance with King Robert +Bruce—Arrival and First Campaign of Edward Bruce + CHAPTER III.—Bruce's Second Campaign and Coronation at Dundalk—The +Rising in Connaught—Battle of Athenry—Robert Bruce in Ireland + CHAPTER IV.—Battle of Faughard and Death of King Edward +Bruce—Consequences of his Invasion—Extinction of the Earldom of +Ulster—Irish Opinion of Edward Bruce + + BOOK VI. + CHAPTER I.—Civil War in England—Its Effects on the +Anglo-Irish—The Knights of St. John—General Desire of the +Anglo-Irish to Naturalize themselves among the Native Population—A Policy +of Non-Intercourse between the Races Resolved on in England + CHAPTER II.—Lionel, Duke of Clarence, Lord Lieutenant—The Penal +Code of Race—"The Statute of Kilkenny," and some of its Consequences + CHAPTER III.—Art McMurrogh, Lord of Leinster—First Expedition of +Richard II. of England to Ireland + CHAPTER IV.—Subsequent Proceedings of Richard II.—Lieutenancy and +Death of the Earl of March—Second Expedition of Richard against Art +McMurrogh—Change of Dynasty in England + CHAPTER V.—Parties within "the Pale"—Battles of Kilmainham and +Killucan—Sir John Talbot's Lord Lieutenancy + CHAPTER VI.—Acts of the Native Princes—Subdivision of Tribes and +Territories—Anglo-Irish Towns under Native Protection—Attempt of +Thaddeus O'Brien, Prince of Thomond, to Restore the Monarchy—Relations of +the Races in the Fifteenth Century + CHAPTER VII.—Continued Division and Decline of "the English +Interest"—Richard, Duke of York, Lord Lieutenant—Civil War again in +England—Execution of the Earl of Desmond—Ascendancy of the +Kildare Geraldines + CHAPTER VIII.—The Age and Rule of Gerald, Eighth Earl of +Kildare—The Tide begins to turn for the English Interest—The +Yorkist Pretenders, Simnel and Warbeck—Poyning's Parliament—Battles +of Knockdoe and Monabraher + CHAPTER IX.—State of Irish and Anglo—Irish Society during the +Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries + CHAPTER X.—State of Religion and Learning during the Fourteenth and +Fifteenth Centuries + + BOOK VII. + CHAPTER I.—Irish Policy of Henry the Eighth during the Lifetime of +Cardinal Wolsey + CHAPTER II.—The Insurrection of Silken Thomas—The Geraldine +League—Administration of Lord Leonard Gray + CHAPTER III.—Sir Anthony St. Leger, Lord Deputy—Negotiations of +the Irish Chiefs with James the Fifth of Scotland—First Attempts to +Introduce the Protestant Reformation—Opposition of the +Clergy—Parliament of 1541—The Protectors of the Clergy +Excluded—State of the Country—The Crowns United-Henry the Eighth +Proclaimed at London and Dublin + CHAPTER IV.—Adhesion of O'Neil, O'Donnell, and O'Brien—A new +Anglo-Irish Peerage—New Relations of Lord and Tenant—Bishops +appointed by the Crown—Retrospect + + BOOK VIII. + CHAPTER I.—Events of the Reign of Edward Sixth + CHAPTER II.—Events of the Reign of Philip and Mary + CHAPTER III.—Accession of Queen Elizabeth—Parliament of +1560—The Act of Uniformity—Career and Death of John O'Neil "the +Proud" + + + +HISTORY OF IRELAND + + + +BOOK I. + + + +CHAPTER I. +THE FIRST INHABITANTS. + +Ireland is situated in the North Atlantic, between 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. + +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 (_Nay_). 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. + +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. + +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. + +The _first_ 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. + +The story of the _second_ 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. + +The _Firbolgs_ or Belgae are the _third_ 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 _fourth_ 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 +_Tuatha de Danans_, 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 _fifth_ immigration. + +This fifth and final colony called themselves alternately, or at +different periods of their history, _Gael_, from one of their remote +ancestors; _Milesians_, from the immediate projector of their +emigration; or _Scoti_, 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 _Tuatha_ 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. + +Such are the stories told of the _five_ 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. + + + +CHAPTER II. +THE FIRST AGES. + +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. + +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 _Righ_, a word which answers to the Latin _Rex_ and +French _Roi_; and the chief king or monarch was called _Ard-Righ_, or +High-King. The eldest nephew, or son of the king, was the usual heir of +power, and was called the _Tanist_, or successor; although any of the +family of the Prince, his brothers, cousins, or other kinsmen, might be +chosen _Tanist_, 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 _Tanist_, 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 _Tanist_, 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 _Tanist_, had the +more sounding title of _Roydamna_, or King-successor. + +The chief offices about the Kings, in the first ages, were all filled +by the Druids, or Pagan Priests; the _Brehons_, or Judges, were usually +Druids, as were also the _Bards_, 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 _Dukes_ of France, and _Barons_ 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 _Red Branch_—that is +to say, the Militia of Ulster; the _Fiann_, or Militia of Leinster, +sometimes the royal guard of Tara, at others in exile and disgrace; the +_Clan-Degaid_ of Munster, and the _Fiann_ of Connaught. The last force +was largely recruited from the Belgic 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 _cu_, a hound, or watch-dog, and +_Ullin_, 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. + +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 _surnames_ 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. + +We have already compared the shape of Erin to a shield, in which the +four Provinces represented the four quarters. Some shields have also +_bosses_ or centre-pieces, and the federal province of MEATH was the +_boss_ 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. + +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 _Druidism_, 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 _Belus_ +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 _Bruais_, 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 +_quern_ and the shuttle were left exclusively in the hands of the +bondswomen. + +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 _Crom_; Eocaid invented or introduced a +new species of wicker boats, called _cassa_, and spent much of his time +upon the sea; a solitary queen, named Macha, appears in the succession, +from whom Armagh takes its name; except Mab, 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 _Neea-Naari_, 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 _his_ 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 _Borooa_, or Tribute. "The Legitimate" +was succeeded by his son, who introduced the Roman _Lex Talionis_ ("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 _esker_, 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 _Longbeard_. 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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER III. +CHRISTIANITY PREACHED AT TARA—THE RESULT. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 (_Laeghaire_), 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER IV. +THE CONSTITUTION, AND HOW THE KINGS KEPT IT. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Chiefs_ 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 _Champions_, 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. + +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, _storm_,) 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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER V. +REIGN OF HUGH II.—THE IRISH COLONY IN SCOTLAND OBTAINS ITS +INDEPENDENCE. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _this_ world." Some writers have represented Columbkill's +_Culdees_, (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." + +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: + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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—_Mal-Colm_, 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. + +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, +_stylus_ 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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER VI. +KINGS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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 +_Habeus Corpus_ of that rude age), and for the maintenance and spread +of sound Christian principles. + + + +CHAPTER VII. +KINGS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY. + +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. + +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, _apropos_ 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. + +FEARGAL'S two immediate successors met a similar fate—death in the +field of battle—after very brief reigns, of which we have no great +events to record. + +FLAHERTY, the next who succeeded, after a vigorous 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. + +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. + +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 _phratry_, of the Roman _fatria_, or _gens_, of the Germanic +and Anglo-Saxon _guild_, and of the mediaeval sworn _commune_, 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. + +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. + +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 _soubriquet_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +WHAT THE IRISH SCHOOLS AND SAINTS DID IN THE THREE FIRST CHRISTIAN +CENTURIES. + +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. + +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. + +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 _alumni_ 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 (_Ta-mun_), 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 +_quests_ 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 _alma +mater_—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. + +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—_trian-more_ (or the +town proper), _trian-Patrick_, the Cathedral close, and +_trian-Sassenagh_, 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. + +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 _cashel_ 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 _Antiphonarium_ of Bangor, as well as that of Armagh, remains +to show that such a want was not left unsupplied in the early Church. + +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 _visited_ 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. + +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. + +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 _Saints_, her +namesakes, are recorded. It was the custom of those days to call all +holy persons who died in the odour of sanctity, _Saints_, hence +national or provincial tradition venerates very many names, which the +reader may look for in vain, in the Roman calendar. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +BOOK II. + + + +CHAPTER I. +THE DANISH INVASION. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, _bare_ of defensive +armour. + +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. + +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. + +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 +_Ard-Righ_. 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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER II. +KINGS OF THE NINTH CENTURY (CONTINUED)—NIAL III.—MALACHY I.—HUGH VII. + +When, in the year 833, Nial III. received the usual homage and +hostages, which ratified his title of _Ard-Righ_, 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. + +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 _Southern_ 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. + +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 _Turgeis_ or _Turgesius_, 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 _Cambrensis_, 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. + +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 _rendezvous_ 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 _Erenach_ (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. + +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 _Cambrensis_, 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 _Cambrensis_ 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: _firstly_, that Turgesius was taken and drowned in Lough +Owel in the year 843 or 844; and _secondly_, that this catastrophe was +brought about by the agency and order of his neighbour, Melaghlin. + +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 +_gilla_, or common servant. The river of Callan being greatly swollen, +the _gilla_, 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 _Ard-Righ_,) 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. + +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 _were_ +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 _all_ cases, or that such ought to be our conclusion in any, in the +absence of sufficient evidence to that effect. + +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 _Black_-Gentiles, or Danes, as +distinguished from their predecessors, the _Fair_-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. + +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 +_Feis_, 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." + +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 +_Tuatha_ 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. + +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 _Roydamna_, 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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER III. +REIGN OF FLAN "OF THE SHANNON" (A.D. 879 TO 916). + +Midway in the reign we are called upon to contemplate, falls the +centenary of the first invasion of Ireland 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, _not_ 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. + +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 +_Roydamna_, 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. + +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 _esker_ 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 _esker_, 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 _Brehons_ of Cashel to be tributary to their king; and this +_Borooa_ 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. + +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 _Tanists_, 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. + +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 _dicta_ 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. + +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. + +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 _Black-Knee_ (_Glundubh_), 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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER IV. +KINGS OF THE TENTH CENTURY; NIAL IV.; DONOGH II.; CONGAL III.; DONALD +IV. + +Nial IV. (surnamed _Black-Knee_) 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 _Ard-Righ_, and the entrance of Brian Boru, on the +national stage, as King of Cashel, and competitor for the monarchy. + +The reign of Nial _Black-Knee_ 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 _Roydamna_; 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 _Roydamna_ 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 _Black-Knee_. 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. + +The defeat sustained near Rathfarnham, by the late king, was amply +avenged in the first year of the new _Ard-Righ_ (A.D. 920), when the +Dublin Danes, having marched out, taken and burned Kells, in Meath, +were on their 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 _Roydamna_ 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! + +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. + +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 _Roydamna_ 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 _soubriquet_ 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 _Roydamna_ +transferred the hostages to King Donogh, as his _suzerain_, 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 _Roydamna_ 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. + +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 _Roydamna_. 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. + +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 +_Roydamna_, 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 _Uai-Nial_, 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. + +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 _Hy_, _Kinnel_, _Sil_, _Muintir_, +_Dal_, 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 _is_ 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. + +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 _not_ 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 +_Roydamna_, 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. + +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. + +The story of Malachy II. is so interwoven with the still-more +illustrious career of Brian _Borooa_, 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 +_Gluniarran (Iron-Knee_, 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. + + + +CHAPTER V. +REIGN OF MALACHY II. AND RIVALRY OF BRIAN. + +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. + +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. + +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— + +"Kennedi Cas revere the law!" + + +which induced him to abandon his pretensions. This Prince, usually +spoken of by the Bards as "the chaste Kennedy," died in the year 950, +leaving behind him four or 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. + +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 + + "My heart shall burst within my breast, + Unless I avenge this great king; + They shall forfeit life for this foul deed + Or I must perish by a violent death." + + +But the climax of his lament was, that Mahon "had 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. + +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. + +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). + +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." + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER VI. +BRIAN, ARD-RIGH—BATTLE OF CLONTARF. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _you_!" 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." + +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 + +"Orkney's woe and Randver's bane." + + +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. + + + +CHAPTER VII. +EFFECTS OF THE RIVALRY OF BRIAN AND MALACHY ON THE ANCIENT +CONSTITUTION. + +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 _with_ 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— + +"Joyful are the race of Conn after Brian's +Fall, in the battle of Clontarf." + + +A new dynasty is rarely the work of one able man. 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 _power of combination_, 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: + +"After the happy Melaghlin +Son of Donald, son of Donogh, +Each noble king ruled his own tribe +But Erin owned no sovereign Lord." + + +The annals of the eleventh and twelfth centuries 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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +LATTER DAYS OF THE NORTHMEN IN IRELAND. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Danish_ undertaking we hear +of again, in our Annals, was the attempt of a united fleet, equipped by +Dublin, Wexford, and Waterford, in the year 1088, to retake 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Crovan_ (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 _Barefoot_) 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 +_Magnus_ (called, it is said, from his adoption of the Scottish kilt, +Magnus _Barefoot_) 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. + +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. + +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 _wick_ or _ford_, +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. + +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! + + + +BOOK III. +WAR OF SUCCESSION. + + + +CHAPTER I. +THE FORTUNES OF THE FAMILY OF BRIAN. + +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. + +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." + +"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 _go Fresabra_, +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. + +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. + +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, _an Trostain_, or the cross-bearer. + +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 _Hamlet_. 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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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 +_Bachall-Isa_, 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 _More_, or the great. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER II. +THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE NORTH AND SOUTH—RISE OF THE FAMILY OF O'CONOR. + +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. + +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 _asker_, 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. + +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!" + +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 +_Ard-Righ_, 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 _Ard-Righ_, on his election, or in an emergency, made +an armed procession through the island. Ordinarily, however, his +suffragans visited him, and not he them; all Ireland went up to Tara to +the _Feis_, or to 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. + +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 +_Bachall-Isa_—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. + +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 _Iar_ 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 +_Ard-Righ_ 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 _interim_, to this city peace, +order, and unity, were not even partially restored, until two years +later—A.D., 1132. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER III. +THORLOGH MORE O'CONOR—MURKERTACH OF AILEACH—ACCESSION OF RODERICK +O'CONOR. + +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 +_caths_), 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 _Moy_, +between the rivers Erne and Drowse, near the present Ballyshannon. On +the _Bachall-Isa_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _esker_. 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. + +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. + +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 _Naasteaghna_, 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 _Relig +na Righ_—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 _duns_, +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 +_rendezvous_ 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. + +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 _na Gael_, or "of the Irish," to +distinguish him from Dermid _na Gall_, or "of the Stranger," was +inaugurated in his stead. From Morrogh _na Gael_ 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. + + + +CHAPTER IV. +STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING AMONG THE IRISH, PREVIOUS TO THE +ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Episcopi Vagantes_, or itinerant, and +_Episcopi Vacantes_, 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. + +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. + +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. + +The estates of the Church were, in most instances, farmed by laymen, +called _Erenachs_, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _pallium_, 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. + +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. + +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. _Marianus_ is the +first writer by whom the name _Scotia Minor_ 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 _Tigernach_, 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. + +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." + +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. + + + +CHAPTER V. +SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE IRISH PREVIOUS TO THE NORMAN INVASION. + +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. + +This population was divided into two great classes, the _Saer-Clanna_, +or free tribes, chiefly, if not exclusively, of Milesian race; and the +_Daer-Clanna_, or unfree tribes, consisting of the descendants of the +subjugated 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. + +The _Daer-Clanna_, 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 _Saer-Clanna_ 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. + +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 +_is_ transferred from one nation to another, because of injustices, +oppressions, and divers deceits. + +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. + +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 +_eric_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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 _Sidhe_, 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 _Banshee_, 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. + +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 _Giraldus_, 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. + +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 _fithcheall_, 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. + +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 _Dala_ leading to Ossory, and so on into Munster; the +road _Assail_, extending western through Mullingar towards the Shannon; +the road _Cullin_, extending towards Dublin and Bray; the exact route +of the northern road, _Midhluachra_, is undetermined; _Slighe Mor_, the +great western road, followed the course of the _esker_, 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 _carbads_, or chariots; a main road +was called a _slighe_ (_sleigh_), 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 _ara_, 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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER VI. +FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE IRISH PREVIOUS TO THE ANGLO-NORMAN INVASION. + +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 +_Inismore_—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. + +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. + +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 _if it please God?_" and when +answered "No;" "Then," said the Irish monarch, "I fear him not, since +he putteth his trust in man and not in God." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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 +_glibs_ and _cooluns_ did not escape the studious eye of him who sang +Jerusalem Delivered and Regained. + + + +BOOK IV. +THE NORMANS IN IRELAND. + + + +CHAPTER I. +DERMID McMURROGH'S NEGOTIATIONS AND SUCCESS—THE FIRST EXPEDITION OF THE +NORMANS INTO IRELAND. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, _Murrogh na Gael_. 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 _eineach_"—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. + +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 +_Kavanagh_; 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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER II. +THE ARMS, ARMOUR AND TACTICS OF THE NORMANS AND IRISH. + +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 _destrier_. 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 _hobbies_ 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 +_Constable's_ command, some twenty-five men; next, the _Banneret_ was +entitled to unfurl his own colours with consent of the Marshal, and +might unite under his pennon one or more constabularies; the _Knight_ +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. + +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 _quarrels_—the ammunition +just mentioned—1 shilling and 6 pence. Iron, steel, and wood, were the +materials used in the manufacture of this weapon. + +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 _non +accerata_ (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. + +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. + +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 _Danes'-forts_, 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 +_Berserkers_, 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; _Giraldus_ 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. + +The two divisions of the Irish infantry were the _galloglass_, or +heavily armed foot soldier, called _gall_, either as a mercenary, or +from having been equipped after the Norman method, and the _kerne_, 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 _Cath_, 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. + + + +CHAPTER III. +THE FIRST CAMPAIGN OF EARL RICHARD—SIEGE OF DUBLIN—DEATH OF KING DERMID +McMURROGH. + +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. + +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 _le +gros_, 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 _Giraldus_, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Kavanagh_; 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. + +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. + +Maurice Regan, the "_Latiner_," 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 _Ard-Righ_, at the +instigation of McMurrogh, burning and plundering the churches of Kells, +Clonard and Slane, and carrying off the hostages of East-Meath. + +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 _Kavanagh_, 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. + +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 _Giraldus_, 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. + + + +CHAPTER IV. +SECOND CAMPAIGN OF EARL RICHARD—HENRY II. IN IRELAND. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Giraldus_, 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 _Giraldus_, 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. + +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 _Hook_, and the other _Crook_, the +old adage, "by hook or by crook," is thought to have arisen on this +occasion. + +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. + +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 _Ard-Righ_ 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 _Lackland_, "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 _King_ 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 _Ard-Righ_, that in the two authentic +documents from his hand which we possess, he neither signs himself +_Rex_ nor _Dominus Hibernioe_. These documents are the Charter of +Dublin, and the Concession of Glendalough, and their authenticity has +never been disputed. + +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 _Erenachs_ 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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER V. +FROM THE RETURN OF HENRY II. TO ENGLAND TILL THE DEATH OF EARL +RICHARD AND HIS PRINCIPAL COMPANIONS. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _le gros_. 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. + +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 _Kavanagh_, +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 _Kavanagh_, utterly rejecting the title derived +through the lady Eva. + +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 +_Moinmoy_, 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. + +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 _Kavanagh_ 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. + +Strongbow is described by _Giraldus_, 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. + +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 _Giraldus_. 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. + +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 _le gros_. 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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER VI. +THE LAST YEARS OF THE ARD-RIGH, RODERICK O'CONOR. + +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. + +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 _Lackland_, a few years later; it was solemnly approved by a +special Council, or Parliament, and signed by the representatives of +both parties. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Giraldus_ 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 _Roydamna_ or successor of his father. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Hibernicized_ 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. + + + +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. + +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. + +This founder of the Irish de Lacys is described by _Giraldus_, 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 +_Sionnach_, 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 _Gorm_, by his second—of whom, +and of their posterity, we shall have many occasions to make mention. + +In one of the intervals of de Lacy's disfavour, Prince John, surnamed +_Sans-terre_, 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 _Giraldus +Cambrensis_, 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. + +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 _Moinmoy_ 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. + +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 _Crovdearg_, son of Turlogh More, and younger +brother of Roderick, assumed the sovereignty of Connaught about the +year 1200. + +In the twelve years which intervened between the death of _Moinmoy_ and +the establishment of the power of Cathal _Crovdearg_ 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 +_Crovdearg_, 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. + +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 _Bollscaire_, 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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +EVENTS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY—THE NORMANS IN CONNAUGHT. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Crovdearg_. 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. + +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. + +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. + +While Cathal _Crovdearg_ 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. + +No sooner was Cathal _Crovdearg_ 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. + +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 _Iar_, 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. + + + +CHAPTER IX. +EVENTS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY—THE NORMANS IN MUNSTER AND LEINSTER. + +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. + +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 _Gott_, or the Stammerer, took the title of _More_, 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 _Atheleireach_ (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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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 _Ard-Righ_. 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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER X. +EVENTS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY—THE NORMANS IN MEATH AND ULSTER. + +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. + +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 _en masse_ 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 +_na Caislean_, 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 _Bregia_, whose death +is recorded at the year 1277, "as one of the three men in Ireland" whom +the midland English most feared. + +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. + +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 +_Clan-Hugh-Buidhe_, (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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Bwee_ 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 _Bwee_ 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. + +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." + +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." + + + +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. + +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. + +"There were," says _Giraldus Cambriensis_, "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." + +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. + +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. + +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 _Cambrensis_, 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 _lawing_ and +vexation, that the veteran was more troubled in _lawing_ 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 _eric_, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Giraldus_, 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. + +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. + +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. + +The Irish depended for their knowledge of the English towns and castles +on their daring _spies_, 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— + +"He is a carpenter, he is a turner. +My nursling is a bookman. +He is selling wine and hides +Where he sees a gathering." + + +An able captain, as well as an intrepid spy, he met 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." + +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 _Crovdearg_ 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. + +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— + + "The foreigners from London, + The hosts from Port-Largy * + Came in a bright green body, + In gold and iron armour. + + + "Unequal they engage in the battle, + The foreigners and the Gael of Tara, + _Fine linen shirts on the race of Conn_, + And the strangers _one mass of iron_." + + +[Footnote: Port-Largy, Waterford.] + +With what courage they fought, these scorners of armour, their +victories of Ennis, of Callanglen, and of Credran, as well as their +defeats at the Erne and at Down, amply testify. The first hundred years +of war for native land, with their new foes, had passed over, and +three-fourths of the _Saer Clanna_ were still as free as they had ever +been. It was not reserved even for the Norman race—the conquest of +Innisfail! + + + +CHAPTER XII. +STATE OF SOCIETY AND LEARNING IN IRELAND DURING THE NORMAN PERIOD. + +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. + +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 _Tuatha_. 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. + +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. + +In the year 1213, O'Donnell despatched Finn O'Brollaghan, his _Aes +graidh_ 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. + +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. + +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 _Giraldus_, who died Bishop of Ferns in 1222; and Clarus +McMailin, Erenach of Trinity Island, Lough Key—if an _Erenach_ 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 _Erenach_ 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. + +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. + + + +BOOK V. +THE ERA OF KING EDWARD BRUCE. + + + +CHAPTER I. +THE RISE OF "THE RED EARL"—RELATIONS OF IRELAND AND SCOTLAND. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER II. +THE NORTHERN IRISH ENTER INTO ALLIANCE WITH KING ROBERT BRUCE—ARRIVAL +AND FIRST CAMPAIGN OF EDWARD BRUCE. + +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 _Caen-More_. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER III. +BRUCE'S SECOND CAMPAIGN, AND CORONATION AT DUNDALK—THE RISING IN +CONNAUGHT—BATTLE OF ATHENRY—ROBERT BRUCE IN IRELAND. + +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. + +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 _Chronicle_, they feasted for +three days, in mirth and jollity, before entering on the third campaign +of this war. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + + + +BOOK VI. +THE NATIVE, THE NATURALIZED, AND "THE ENGLISH INTEREST." + + + +CHAPTER I. +CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND—ITS EFFECTS ON THE ANGLO-IRISH—THE KNIGHTS OF +SAINT JOHN—GENERAL DESIRE OF THE ANGLO-IRISH TO NATURALIZE THEMSELVES +AMONG THE NATIVE POPULATION—A POLICY OF NON-INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE +RACES RESOLVED ON IN ENGLAND. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Agnus Dei_, 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. + +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. + +The first step taken to counteract their tendency to _Hibernicize_ +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Hibernicized_, 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. + + + +CHAPTER II. +LIONEL, DUKE OF CLARENCE, LORD LIEUTENANT—THE PENAL CODE OF RACE—"THE +STATUTE OF KILKENNY," AND SOME OF ITS CONSEQUENCES. + +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. + +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 _eclat_ 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 _Clarence_. 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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _More_, 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. + +The northern and western chiefs seem in this age to have made some +improvements in military equipments, and tactics. _Cooey-na-gall_, 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 _Cam_, 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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER III. +ART McMURROGH, LORD OF LEINSTER—FIRST EXPEDITION OF RICHARD II., OF +ENGLAND, TO IRELAND. + +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. + +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 _for +the four shires_"—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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + +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. + +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. + +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 _Te Deum_ was sung in the +Cathedral, where Earl Richard had wedded the Princess Eva, where Henry +II. and John had offered up similar thanksgivings. + +Richard remained a week at Waterford; gave splendid _fetes_, 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. + +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. + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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? + +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. + +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 _wythe_ 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, (_that country_,) where he has many a wood +but little cultivated land, that if he would come straightways to him +with a rope about _his_ 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." + +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. + +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. + +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 _their_ 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: + +"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." + +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. + +The Earl on his return declared, "he could find nothing in him, (Art,) +save only that he would ask for _pardon_, truly, upon condition of +having _peace without reserve_, free from any molestation or +imprisonment; otherwise, 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER V. +PARTIES WITHIN "THE PALE"—BATTLES OF KILMAINHAM AND KILLUCAN—SIR JOHN +TALBOT'S LORD LIEUTENANCY. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +_Athcroe_, 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." + +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 +_Four Masters_, 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. + +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 _Baccagh_, 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 +_Baccagh's_ 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. + +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. + +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." + +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 _Statute of Kilkenny_. 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 _a crusade +against them_, to follow up the intention of his predecessor's grant to +Henry II.!" + +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 _Statute of Kilkenny_ (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. + + + +CHAPTER I. +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. + +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. + +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 _denouement_ 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. + +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 _Miledh Espaigne_, 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 "_alliance_, fosterage, and alterage with the +King's Irish enemies." + +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." + +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. + + + +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. + +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. + +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, _aided by the Scots_, had conquered or rendered tributary +almost every part of the country, _except the county of Dublin_." The +presence of Henry V. in Ireland had been urgently solicited by his +lieges 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. + +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." + +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). + +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. + +Arrived at Dublin, _the_ 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. + +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. + +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 _their_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _protege_ 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 _protege_ was +Lambert Simnel, the son of a joiner at Oxford. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _ad interim_, 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. + +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 _birth_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Four Masters_ have described him as "a knight in +valour, and princely and religious in his words and judgments." + + + +CHAPTER IX. +STATE OF IRISH AND ANGLO-IRISH SOCIETY DURING THE FOURTEENTH AND +FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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 _Baculum Christi_, 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. + +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. + +About the beginning of the fifteenth century we meet with the first +mention of the use of Usquebagh, or _Aqua Vitae_, 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 _Aqua Vitae_, +vulgarly called _Usquebagh_, which binds up the belly and drieth up +moisture more than our _Aqua Vitae_, yet inflameth not so much." + +And as the opening of the century may be considered notable for the +first mention of _Usquebagh_, 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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER X. +STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING DURING THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH +CENTURIES. + +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. + +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 +_Erenach_, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _belles lettres_ 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 _Scotus_, 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. + +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. + + + +BOOK VII. +UNION OF THE CROWNS OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND. + + + +CHAPTER I. +IRISH POLICY OF HENRY THE EIGHTH DURING THE LIFETIME OF CARDINAL +WOLSEY. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER II. +THE INSURRECTION OF SILKEN THOMAS—THE GERALDINE LEAGUE—ADMINISTRATION +OF LORD LEONARD GRAY. + +The ninth and last _Catholic_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +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 +PROCTORS OF THE CLERGY EXCLUDED—STATE OF THE COUNTRY—THE CROWNS +UNITED—HENRY THE EIGHTH PROCLAIMED AT LONDON AND DUBLIN. + +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. + +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. + +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 _his_ 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 +"_Dominus Hiberniae_." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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; _Te Deum_ +was sung in St. Patrick's, and King Henry issued his proclamation, on +receipt of the intelligence, for a general pardon throughout _all_ 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." + +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. + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Cincturam gladii_, 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 _Via Nova_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _praemunire_, 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. + +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 +_Venantius_), 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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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 _lack-land_, 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, _King_ 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. + +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. + + + +BOOK VIII. +THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION. + + + +CHAPTER I. +EVENTS OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD SIXTH. + +On the last day of January, 1547, Edward, son of Henry, by Lady Jane +Seymour, was crowned by the title of 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The _personnel_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER II. +EVENTS OF THE REIGN OF PHILIP AND MARY. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +CHAPTER III. +ACCESSION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH—PARLIAMENT OF 1560—THE ACT OF +UNIFORMITY—CAREER AND DEATH OF JOHN O'NEIL "THE PROUD." + +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. + +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 _ad interim_. 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. + +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. + +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, _mutatis mutandis_." 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 _praemunire_ 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 _conge d'elire_—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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +End of Volume 1 of 2 + + + + + + + + + +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 6632-0.txt or 6632-0.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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