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It was while the country was in this
unsettled condition that a new turn was given to the course of events
by the appeal of Dermot MacMorrogh, King of Leinster, to King Henry
II of England to become his ally in his quarrel with Tiernan O'Rorke,
Prince of Breifne (Counties of Leitrim and Cavan). This was the
first step in the drama of events which led to the permanent establishment
of the English in Ireland.
The coming of the English has been often treated as if it were
an isolated occurrence, a sudden bolt from the blue for which nothing
in the previous history of Ireland had made preparation. But, as
we have seen, the relations between the two countries had become
increasingly close in the twelfth century, and both in politics
and commerce the two neighbouring kingdoms had frequent interaction.
When, therefore, an Irish prince made his appeal for help to an
English king against his personal enemy there was nothing to cause
special surprise either to his own people or to the sovereign to
whom he applied. Nor was the idea of adding Ireland to his great
empire a new one to Henry. Lord already of Normandy, Anjou, Aquitaine,
Maine, Touraine, Poitou, suzerain of Brittany, King of England,
prince of dominions which made England the centre of power in the
West, Henry had long turned his thoughts toward Ireland. Already
in 1155 he had considered that the island to the west would be a
fair gift to make to his favourite brother William, and he had made
tentative preparations by consulting his Council of Winchester about
its conquest and had sent the learned John of Salisbury, then coming
into notice as one of the most remarkable men of his day, to the
English Pope, Adrian IV, to request permission to add the island
of Ireland to his dominions. But the King's mother, the Empress
Maud, or Matilda, resisted the project, and it was temporarily dropped,
though after the death of Prince William in 1164 the thoughts of
the King still occasionally returned to the idea, with the object
of making his son John lord of Ireland. |
But the Papal permission and benediction, often erroneously styled a
Bull, lay in his archives unused till long after Adrian's death, and the
ensuing contest between rival Popes made it, for the moment, of little
avail for the purpose for which it had been given.[1] Henry's mind was
fully occupied with the affairs of his unwieldy and disunited empire;
most of his time was spent in France, and to his English subjects this
king, who only visited his English kingdom for short intervals with absences
of from four to eight years between the visits, was almost a foreigner.
He spoke no English but only French or Latin with a smattering of many
other tongues "from the Bay of Biscay to the Jordan." Only gradually
did this descendant of the conquering Normans, who by marriage or inheritance
was also lord of the greater half of France, come to recognize the superior
importance of his English possessions. He was absorbed at the moment in
the affairs of his French territories, and the dream of a conquest of
Ireland might never have been revived but for the sudden appearance of
an Irish King coming in his own person to request that Henry would help
him in the recovery of the kingdom of Leinster, from which his rebellious
sub-chiefs had driven him. This unexpected appeal revived all Henry's
old ambitions; it gave an excellent opening, which might prove profitable
to himself, for interference in the affairs of Ireland. His gracious reception
of Dermot showed that the proposal was not unwelcome to him.
[1] For the Bull Laudabiliter see Appendix I.
It was soon after Christmas in the year 1166 that Dermot MacMorrogh, King
of Leinster (b. 1110), sought Henry's aid to extract him from the difficulties
that his own misconduct had brought upon himself and his province. Wild
as were the times in which he lived, Dermot is singled out among the princes
of his period as being so intolerable that he was expelled by the chiefs
over whom he ruled. Gerald of Wales avers that "the cruel and intolerable
tyranny which he imposed upon the chiefs of the land" was the result
of youth and inexperience, but this can hardly be accepted as an excuse
for a prince who had occupied the throne for over thirty years when he
was driven out. Already in 1133 he is stated to have imposed "great
tyrannies and cruelties" upon his Leinster nobles, seventeen of whom
he had blinded or slain. He had confirmed himself in the possession of
his kingdom by the killing of two princes and the blinding of a third.
He spoiled churches without compunction. A still more brutal and unseemly
act was the forcing of the Abbess of Kildare to leave her convent and
to marry one of his people; at the same time he slew nearly two hundred
of her nuns and townsmen who endeavoured to defend her. He was in perpetual
strife with the men of Ossory and the King of Meath, as well as with the
O'Rorkes of Breifne and the O'Kellys of Oriel.[2]
[2] A large district west of Lough Neagh and the Lower Bann.
He fought with the Dublin Danes against the Danes of Waterford. All this
was much in the manner of the times, but the fact that Leinster was 'confirmed'
to Dermot on more than one occasion shows that he held his position with
an unusual degree of precariousness. He is said to have been "hated
by his Leinstermen." Dermot is described by Gerald, the historian
of the conquest, as very tall, "of a large and great body, a valiant
and bold warrior of his nation and by reason of his continual halowing
and crying, his voice was hoarse; he rather chose to be feared than loved;
a great oppressor of his nobility, but a great advancer of the poor and
weak. To his own people he would be rough, and grievous and hateful to
strangers. He would be against all men and all men against him."
[3] The act for which, according to the popular judgment, Dermot was driven
out of Ireland, his abduction of Dervorgil, wife of Tiernan O'Rorke, Prince
of Breifne, occurred in 1152, fourteen years before his expulsion.[4]
Tiernan belonged to a family noted for its pride and turbulence from the
days of Art O'Rorke, "the Cock," who in 1031 had descended the
Shannon in boats to menace Thomond (Clare) and had met with a signal defeat
at the hands of Donogh O'Brien, to those of Elizabeth. Descended from
old kings of Connacht, they never forgot their high estate or ceased to
try to recover it. They had been ousted by the O'Conors, and pushed back
into the narrower limits of Breifne, which they shared with the O'Reilleys.
Standing thus in the gangway between the warlike Cinel Eoghan of Tyrconnel
in Ulster and the province of Connacht, their country was perpetually
overrun with armies in whose wars they became involved; but in the eleventh
century they were chiefly bent on recovering their position by a series
of wars with Thomond. In 1084 the son of "the Cock" had fallen
in battle with Murtogh O'Brien, and his head had been cut off and exposed
by O'Brien on the hills above Limerick. It was recovered four years later
by Rory O'Conor and Donell MacLochlan, and Limerick and Kincora were burned
by them in revenge.
[3] Giraldus Cambrensis, or Gerald of Wales, was of the great family
of the FitzGeralds, or Geraldines. He came over twice to Ireland, first
in 1183 with his brother Philip de Barry and Richard de Cogan, and later,
in 1185, with Prince John. To him we owe much of our knowledge of contemporary
events and personages.
[4] Grace, Annales Hiberniae, 1167, says that Dermot MacMorrogh, Prince
of Leinster, "while O'Rorke, King of Meath, was far from his country,
ravished his wife with her own consent, and at her own solicitation."
The date, at least, is incorrect.
Tiernan (or Tighernan) O'Rorke, who now plays an important rôle
in the annals of his country, had been stripped of fresh portions of his
territory alike by the kings of Ulster and Connacht. In the Book of Fenagh,
written in O'Rorke's own district of Breifne, Dervorgil, his unfaithful
wife, is called "the wife of one-eyed Tiernan of many crimes."
One of these crimes for which the annalist says no equal had previously
been found in Erin, and which earned the malediction of both laymen and
clergy, was the profanation, openly in his own presence, of the Abbot
of Armagh and the plundering of his retinue, many of whom were slain;
even a young cleric, specially protected, was killed. The annalist exclaims
that this act was like contempt of the Lord Himself and that it produced
a universal distrust of any protection throughout the country.[5]
[5] Annals of Loch Ce, 1128.
Dervorgil may have been weary of life with such a man; she is said to
have been carried off by her own consent and at the instigation of her
brother, who had his own scores to pay off against Dermot for the latter's
rebellion against their father the King of Meath. A year later, Dervorgil
was restored, with the rich dowry of cattle and valuables that she had
carried with her on her elopement. But though this act made some sensation
at the time, and though years afterward O'Rorke demanded a heavy eric
of a hundred ounces of gold from Dermot (probably nearly £5000 of
our money), "more for the shame than the loss that he had suffered,"
the event had no immediate influence on Irish affairs beyond the fresh
cause of revolt and disaffection that it provided. It had all been over
long before Dermot sought King Henry in Aquitaine. The restless energy
and ceaseless journeyings of Henry II made it always difficult to know
in what part of his widespread dominions he would be found. "The
King," said one of his courtiers, "never sits down, but is on
his legs from morning till night." When Dermot, after searching for
him "up and down, forwards and back," at last arrived before
him, he was far away beyond seas in the remote parts of Aquitaine and,
as always, "much engaged in business." The meeting of these
two men, who represented in their persons the future relationship and
destiny of their two countries, is interesting. There was probably something
sympathetic between the English King, with his square, stout build, his
muscular arms and neck bent forward, and his grey eyes that flashed so
readily into anger, and the Irish Prince, whose huge frame and tall stature
announced the warrior and whose voice had become hoarse by constantly
raising his war-cry in battle. Henry, brought unexpectedly face to face
in a French city with a representative of a country that had often been
in his thoughts, at once agreed to Dermot's request. He gave him a letter
authorizing all who desired it to go with Dermot, and liberally provided
him with gifts and with the money necessary for his enterprise. Dermot
returned to Bristol, where he stayed on both journeys with one Robert
FitzHarding, an influential citizen and friend of King Henry, who assisted
him in his efforts to induce the nobles of South Wales to accompany him
to Ireland.
Though Dermot was forced to return to Ireland alone and to lie hidden
for a time in his house at Ferns or at the monastery near by, he had been
successful in securing a promise of help from several of the Norman lords
who had recently carved out for themselves at the sword's point properties
in South Wales, and who promised to follow him as soon as their preparations
were complete. Many of them were men of good birth but broken fortunes,
who, in the free manner of the Norman kings, had been granted lands in
different parts of England and Wales "if they were able to conquer
them," as rewards for their services at the battle of Hastings and
elsewhere. Others were mere freebooters, whose advent into Wales was marked
by the most frightful cruelties to the inhabitants and many of whom were
in sore need of money to support their impecunious families. To all of
them Dermot held out a variety of tempting baits; and to the most powerful
of them all, Richard of Striguil, Earl of Pembroke, the ancestor of the
house of the de Clares, later to be more familiarly known by his sobriquet
of "Strongbow," he offered the great bribe of the hand of his
daughter, Aoife, or Eva, with the succession to the kingdom of Leinster
after his own death. Earl Richard had forfeited the royal favour by his
support of King Stephen, and to a man who possessed high titles, but little
means to support them, the prospect of restoring his fortunes in Ireland
out of the way of the royal displeasure must have been an attractive one.
To Robert FitzStephen, who had been kept a close prisoner by Rhys, the
Welsh king, for three years, but who was now released at Dermot's request,
were promised the town of Wexford and some adjoining lands to be held
in fee by him and his half-brother Maurice FitzGerald. The town of Wexford,
being a Danish city and in Danish hands, could, like most of Dermot's
other gifts, only be obtained by conquest.
"A knight, bipartite, shall first break the bonds of Ireland."
So ran an ancient prophecy attributed to Merlin, and men thought they
saw the prophecy fulfilled when FitzStephen, who was on his father's side
an Anglo-Norman, or rather Welsh-Norman, and on his mother's a Cambro-Briton,
and whose armorial bearings were bipartite, gave his word to follow Dermot
across seas. He was the first of that remarkable family who supplied no
less than eighteen knights to take part in the conquest of Ireland, and
who were the progenitors of the famous line of the Geraldines, Earls of
Kildare and Lords of Desmond. They brought with them also one of their
own family to be the historian of the conquest, the Archdeacon Gerald
de Barry, called Cambrensis, or "the Welshman," through whose
vivid pages, supplemented by an old French poem for which the materials
were supplied by the scribe and interpreter of Dermot MacMorrogh, we are
enabled to follow the fortunes of each member of the family. It is an
unusual piece of historical good fortune that we should possess these
two independent reports, which supplement each other and which tell the
same story from two different points of view, both of the writers being
closely interested in the persons and events of which they supply the
record.
Though the adventure which Dermot-na-nGaill, or "Dermot of the Foreigners,"
set on foot is commonly spoken of as the coming of the English to Ireland,
few of the adventurers could be called Englishmen. The leaders were Normans,
French-speaking Lords, recently settled in Wales, the most westward offshoots
of that turbulent and ambitious race which, starting from the same Northern
homes from which the earlier race of Northmen had come, had in their piratical
raids southward gradually established their rule in Normandy and up the
Seine, and swept round the coasts of Spain to find a footing in Sicily,
Apulia, and Calabria. Just a hundred years before Dermot sought the help
of Henry II, William of Normandy had completed the onward march of his
race by his conquest of England, but the two nations were only slowly
uniting into a homogeneous population. All the differences of language,
tradition, and systems of law and tenure, which were to complicate the
future relations of the two peoples in Ireland, were now in process of
being fought out in the neighbouring country. As later in Ireland, the
conquering knights who were spreading over the land stood haughtily aloof
from the main body of the population, whom they were endeavouring to accustom
to new feudal relations as their underlings. Most of the knights who volunteered
to follow Dermot to Ireland had made their homes in the extreme south-west
of Wales, from which Earl Richard de Clare, or "Strongbow,"
took his title of Earl of Pembroke, a district often known as "little
England beyond Wales." Their men-at-arms were largely Flemings who
had come over from Flanders in the reign of Henry I, and had been settled
by him among his enemies the Welsh, in the hope that their solid virtues,
their love of industry and commerce, and their brave and robust character,
might ease his task in subduing the rebellious Welshmen. These Flemings
were destined to form a useful and permanent element in the towns of Leinster,
and to give their name to the family of the Flemings, Lords of Slane.[6]
Of these Normans, Welsh, and Flemings, few would have styled themselves
Englishmen, though there may have been an admixture of English citizens
from Bristol, interested through the efforts of FitzHarding in Dermot's
enterprise. The Annals of the Four Masters speak of the "fleet of
the Flemings" which Dermot induced to come over, and of "seventy
heroes, dressed in coats of mail." The Irish looked on this little
army with contempt; the great hosts collected by Rory O'Conor and O'Rorke
"set nothing by the Flemings." The arrival of these new gaill,
or foreigners, may have seemed to them only one more attack, and an insignificant
one, of their old foes the vikings, who still from time to time descended
on the coasts, carried off their prey, and departed again. What the coming
of these "seventy heroes" meant for Ireland they were only slowly
to discover.
[6] A Richard Fleming established himself in a castle at Slane before
1176. In that year all his followers, a hundred or more, were destroyed
by the King of the Cinel-Eoghan of Ulster. See Annals of Loch Ce, 1176.
The so-called conquest of Ireland falls into three sections: the arrival
of the first-comers under FitzStephen, FitzGerald, and Maurice de Prendergast
in May 1169; the landing of Earl Richard, or "Strongbow," and
the events following this in August 1170; and, finally, the visit of Henry
II in October of the next year, 1171.
When Dermot had returned to his own country it did not seem as though
the Norman lords who had promised him their aid were in any hurry to carry
out their engagements. No forces seemed to be arriving to the support
of the few men who had accompanied him on his return. In his impatience
Dermot sent over his companion and interpreter, Morice Regan, to whom
we owe the French poetical version of this history, to stir up the dilatory
barons. He increased his offers by a general promise of land, horses,
armour, and money to any who would volunteer. Robert FitzStephen led the
way, and in his party came Meiler FitzHenry, Miles FitzGerald, son of
the Bishop of St Davids, Maurice de Prendergast, and Hervey de Montmaurice,
all Norman-Welsh scions or connexions of the great house which derived
from Nesta, or Nes, the daughter of Rhys ap Teudwr, last independent king
of South Wales, by her two husbands and by Henry I, who was grandfather
to Meiler and Robert FitzHenry. They were thus closely allied by blood
with Henry II. FitzStephen marched straight on Wexford, and after a short
contest the town surrendered and was handed over, with the adjoining lands,
to the newcomers. The victorious army then marched northward into Ossory
to reinstate Dermot; by a sudden charge of cavalry they met and defeated
a large body of men who had entrenched themselves behind stockades in
a difficult country of woods and bogs. To the savage delight of King Dermot
two hundred heads of his enemies were laid dripping at his feet.
But a strong combination was being formed against Dermot. "The wheel
of fortune turned and those that were above were threatened with a sudden
fall." Rory (or Roderick) O'Conor, King of Connacht, had just succeeded
to the sovereignty of Ireland on the death of Murtogh O'Lochlan, a prince
of the house of Ulster. Rory was destined to be the last king of an independent
Ireland. A hundred years before, the aged Donogh, son of King Brian Boromhe,
being deposed, had taken the pilgrim's staff and set out to end his days
in Rome. It was said that he took with him the crown of Ireland, which
remained in the possession of the Popes until Pope Adrian gave it to King
Henry II after the latter's conquest of the country. The story must be
metaphorical, for we hear of no crown in the possession of Henry, nor
did he even style himself King of Ireland. But it symbolizes the condition
of the supreme monarchy during the century that elapsed between the death
of Donogh and the death of Rory O'Conor, in whose time the overlordship
came to an end. All the kings who reigned between these two had ruled
with disputed authority. The balance of power had swung from the O'Briens
of Munster away to the O'Lochlans of the north-west of Ulster; but Connacht,
which had been advancing in power and influence, was able to place on
the throne two of her princes during the twelfth century. The policy of
Rory O'Conor, who for years had been reigning king of Connacht before
he attained to the throne of Ireland, had been to try to weaken the other
provinces and at the same time to satisfy the rival aspirations of the
underlords by subdividing the provinces between them. Three times he had
enforced a division of Munster between the O'Briens and MacCarthys, princes
ever at war for ascendancy; twice he had divided Meath and once Tyrone
(Tir Eoghan) in Ulster. But the only result of his policy had been still
further to weaken the already enfeebled country. So far from showing a
disposition to unite, Ireland during the last years of her independence
was more broken up into rival chieftainries than ever before.
Rory had usually sided with O'Rorke and Malaughlan of Meath against Dermot,
and on hearing of his advance northward accompanied by foreign troops
armed in such coats of mail as had never before been seen in Ireland he
sent messengers all round the island and convoked a great assembly to
march against him. He also tried to detach FitzStephen from Dermot's side
with large offers, and when these were declined he appealed to Dermot
to come over to his side and aid him in exterminating the foreigners,
on an undertaking to restore to him his kingdom of Leinster. These offers
having been likewise refused, the armies were drawn up in battle, but
at the last moment peace was made between the rival kings, on condition
of the restoration of Dermot to the throne of Leinster and his recognition
of Rory as King of Ireland Dermot gave his son Canute (Cnut) to Rory as
a hostage and secretly engaged to bring no more foreigners over to Ireland.
The peace was a fortunate one for Dermot, for already some of his 'fair-weather
friends' were falling off and desiring to return to Wales. The most serious
defection was that of Maurice de Prendergast, who fell out with Dermot
and offered his services to MacGillapatrick of Ossory, Dermot's old enemy,
who "leaped to his feet with joy" when he heard the news. Henceforth
Prendergast is known as Maurice of Ossory, but he did not long remain
in Ireland. Hearing of plots to massacre him and his followers, he watched
an opportunity to escape to Waterford and take ship to Wales. His defection
was partly atoned for by the arrival of FitzGerald, half-brother to FitzStephen;
but still Dermot's plans, which had been expanding with each success,
did not ripen as he wished. Leinster, which he had won back, no longer
sufficed him; he aspired to replace Rory as King of Ireland. In the autumn
he wrote to Earl Richard in this strain: "We have watched the storks
and swallows; the summer birds have come and are gone with the wind of
the south; but neither winds from the east nor the west have brought your
much-desired presence." Strongbow had indeed been prudently waiting
to hear the result of the successes of the first adventurers. He was of
a more gentle build and retiring nature than most of Dermot's helpers.
His grey eyes, feminine features, and weak voice bespoke the quiet gentleman
rather than the bold man-at-arms. Out of the camp he had the air of a
simple soldier, and he was at all times more disposed to be led by others
than to command. But, encouraged by Dermot's assurances that he had regained
his kingdom, he set about preparing for the great hazard. Having obtained
the King's permission to go, he sent forward Raymond le Gros, a brave
and stout soldier, who crossed over, erected a fort between Wexford and
Waterford, and after a sharp skirmish brought to his camp seventy of the
principal townsmen as hostages. The first act of wanton cruelty shown
by the adventurers stained their bravery on that day. Raymond, in a noble
speech, prayed for pity on these citizens, but the fighting men, worked
upon by Hervey de Montmaurice, gave their voices for their immediate execution;
and the unfortunate hostages were beheaded, it is said by a girl, and
their bodies thrown over the cliff into the sea.
When Earl Richard arrived from Milford Haven he took Waterford by assault
after severe fighting and entered the town, slaughtering as he went. The
Danish rulers, Reginald (Ragnall) and the two Sitrics, held out for a
time in Reginald's Tower, the massive Danish stronghold which still stands
to prove the solidity of their defences, but the Sitrics were finally
taken and put to the sword, Reginald and an Irish chief named MacLoghlan
of Offaly being saved by Dermot's intervention. Then, the town having
been garrisoned, Dermot was sent for to bring his daughter, Strongbow's
promised wife and prize, and the marriage of Strongbow and Eva was solemnized
with great state, a symbol of the union, for good and evil, between the
two countries.[7] The news of the fall of the Danish towns of Wexford
and Waterford filled the citizens of Dublin with dismay. From all parts
of Ireland they summoned help, and Dermot received tidings that between
Dublin and the South all roads were blocked and passes barricaded, and
that Rory with an immense army lay at Clondalkin ready to oppose his passage.
He summoned the Earl and laid before him a bold plan. Avoiding the open
ways, he marched straight across the mountains of Glendalough, appearing
before the gates of Dublin with an army of over five thousand men. The
citizens, having the fate of the Danish cities of the South before their
eyes, sent Laurence O'Toole, Archbishop of Dublin, to treat for peace.
While negotiations were going on, young Miles de Cogan, with a party of
hot-headed followers, grew impatient of the delay and fell suddenly on
the city, taking it by a surprise attack. Asculf, the Danish king, fled
away by sea, and Strongbow entered the town, of which, in reward for his
services, he appointed de Cogan the Warden.
[7] The celebrated picture of this event painted by Maclise errs in making
the marriage take place immediately after the slaughter of the inhabitants
and among the slain. This is a pictorial exaggeration.
At this critical stage of the story a break occurs. In the manuscript
of the poem which has related his history there are dashed across the
page the words Si est mort li rei Dermot. Propitius sit Deus anime! ("King
Dermot is dead. May God have mercy on his soul!").[8] He died, according
to the Annals of the Four Masters, on May 1, 1171, at his home in Ferns
"without will, without penance, without the body of Christ, without
unction, as his evil deeds deserved." To his own retainers in Ireland
he had a better aspect. "Very rich and powerful" they held him;
"he loved the generous, hated the mean, the noble king who lies buried
at Ferns." Dermot of the Foreigners had some good qualities. He founded
the priory of All Hallows in Dublin, and the Cistercian monastery at Baltinglas;
and the famous Book of Leinster, which preserves the records of his Province,
was drawn up at his instigation. It was written by a Bishop of Kildare
in Dermot's reign. Dervorgil also devoted herself to church-building.
The beautifully decorated church of the nuns of Clonmacnois was erected
by her, and she made munificent gifts to the new Cistercian monastery
of Mellifont near Drogheda, which the enthusiasm of Archbishop Malachy
was founding on the Continental pattern. He had liberal helpers in Tiernan
O'Rorke, Dervorgil's husband, and in Donagh O'Carroll of Oriel, while
the erring wife presented a chalice of gold to the new church, with fine
cloth for the altars and threescore ounces of gold. Dervorgil, who died
in 1195, at the age of eighty-five, was buried in the monastery she had
helped to endow. The abbey church had been consecrated with great solemnity
in 1157, several princes and seventeen bishops, with the Papal legate,
being present. It was the mother-church of five Cistercian houses founded
about this time by Irish princes. These buildings mark in a definite way
the dying out of the old native forms of organization and the closer union
with the Roman Church and system. The visits of Papal legates, beginning
at the date when Cardinal Paparo presided over the Synod of Kells in 1152,
also point to a definite change of position. The liberality of Dervorgil
to two religious foundations, of which one belonged to the old form of
Irish Christianity and the other to the foreign orders now for the first
time making their home in Ireland, is symbolic of the double allegiance
of the people, and of their lingering affection for a system now gradually
to pass away. Between 1139 and 1272 thirty-four abbeys of the Cistercian
order were founded in Ireland, of which twelve were established before
1172. These include St Mary's, Dublin, and Mellifont, founded in 1142,
with the latter's daughter-abbeys—Bective, in Meath, called De Beatitudine;
Baltinglas, in Wicklow, called De Valle Salutis; and Boyle, in Roscommon.[9]
The introduction of the Cistercian and Augustinian orders led to a great
architectural outburst all over the country, in which the Irish princes
took the lead. The Norman adventurers, men of the race which was covering
England and Normandy with splendid cathedrals and abbeys, entered into
the work, and, besides the massive keeps and castles which gradually replaced
the earlier earthen forts all over the provinces, there arose during the
thirteenth century stately abbeys, whose outlines we admire in their ruin
to-day.
[8] The Song of Dermot and the Earl, ed. G. H. Orpen (1892).
[9] See the list given in Grace's Annales Hiberniae, Appendix I, pp. 169-170.
At this moment it must have seemed to Strongbow that he had realized all
the hopes with which he had come to Ireland. He had married Aoife (Eva),
who brought him a rich inheritance; and Leinster, from Waterford to Dublin,
was subdued. King Dermot was dead, and it only remained to enter peacefully
into his promised lordship as his successor. But, just when all seemed
fair, he found himself encompassed with difficulties. First came a demand
from Henry, who in his far realm of Aquitaine had from time to time received
exaggerated reports of the doings of his knights in Ireland, that all
his feudatories should return to England before Easter on pain of forfeiting
their lands, a command that he followed up by ordering a blockade of the
Irish ports. All supplies and reinforcements at once ceased, and the Earl,
much embarrassed, sent off Raymond le Gros to the King with the following
letter: "It was with your licence, if I remember rightly, my Lord
and King, that I crossed to Ireland to aid your faithful vassal Dermot...Whatever
lands I have had the good fortune to acquire here, inasmuch as I owe them
all to your gracious favour, I shall hold them at your will and disposal."
The letter was a politic one and gave the Earl time to plan out his future
movements. Events pressed upon him. The Irish, to whom the idea of an
Irish prince bequeathing his kingdom outside his family, and moreover
to a foreigner, was hitherto unheard of, rose in revolt; "all the
Irish of Ireland" were suddenly ranged against Strongbow, save his
wife's brother, Kavanagh, and two minor chiefs. They lay, sixty thousand
strong under Rory's banner, at Castleknock outside Dublin, Tiernan O'Rorke
being in their company. Archbishop Laurence O'Toole exerted himself to
strengthen the combination by going through the country and rousing up
the chiefs, and by inviting over Godred of Man and the lords of the Isles,
who were to blockade the city on the sea-coast side, while the Irish,
including the Archbishop's troops, surrounded it on the north, west, and
south. A two months' siege ensued, during which, partly owing to the Norse
blockade and partly to that carried out by Henry's orders, no food could
be got into the town, and provisions were running short. Moreover, news
was brought that Robert FitzStephen was closely besieged in his half-built
fort at Carrick, and, soon after, that he had been captured and sent prisoner
to Wexford. Strong-bow attempted to treat with Rory, but again the young
knight-errant Miles de Cogan cut a straight road out of the difficulty.
Keeping the matter secret, a little band of six hundred knights with some
Irish under Donal Kavanagh suddenly sallied out of the town and crept
close up to the stockades of the Irish camp before they were perceived,
with Miles at their head shouting his war-cry of "De Cogan!"
The Irish were quite unprepared for the attack. Rory and many of his men
were bathing in the river at some distance from the camp, and, being left
without leaders, the unarmed Irish "fled through the moors like scattered
cattle."
After collecting the spoils, which sufficed for a whole year, Earl Richard
marched straight to Wexford, hoping to release FitzStephen; but, hearing
that his captors would put FitzStephen to death if he advanced, he abandoned
the attempt, and, receiving an urgent message from Henry, who was now
in England near Gloucester gathering a large force to take with him over
to Ireland, Strongbow hastily delivered Dublin into the care of Miles
de Cogan and Waterford to Gilbert de Boisrohard, and set out to face his
angry liege. It required some courage to confront the blazing eyes of
Henry "Curtmantle" when "the demon blood of Anjou"
mounted to his face, but the Norman poem says that Henry assumed a friendly
manner toward the Earl and at this time made no show of anger. On reflection
the King may well have thought that a subject who had gained a fifth of
Ireland with its two chief towns, and who was ready to resign all claim
to Dublin and the coast towns and fortresses, holding the remainder as
a fief under himself, had not done so badly for his kingdom. The matter
was settled for the time, and the King set out with his usual promptitude
for Waterford, accompanied by the Earl and a splendid fleet. He had in
his army 4500 knights and archers. On October 17, 1171, Henry landed at
Crook, a little below Waterford.
Henry's stay in Ireland had the aspect of a triumphal progress. As far
west as Limerick and as far north as the borders of Ulster the Irish chiefs
came in and made submission to him. It was recognized that the prime object
of his visit was not to fight the Irish, but to take over the Norse towns
and to check the growing power of his own barons; and kings who had stoutly
withstood the aggressions of a set of Norman knights, apparently each
fighting for his own hand, now came in without a contest and made their
submission to the overlord. Dermot MacCarthy, King of Cork, Donal O'Brien,
King of Limerick, who surrendered his capital into Henry's hands, MacGillapatrick,
Lord of Ossory, and Malachy O'Phelan, chief of the Decies, and after them
the lesser chiefs of Munster, came in, and were courteously received and
sent away with gifts. In Dublin Tiernan O'Rorke and other chiefs submitted.
Henry brought over a considerable army, but he did not shed Irish blood.
"All the Irish in Ireland" had risen against the barons when
they found Dermot giving away the tribal lands, or the barons conquering
them, but they did not rise against Henry; on the contrary, they seem
to have looked on him as their natural protector against the aggression
of his nobles. A curious instance of the general attitude is shown in
the action of the citizens of Wexford, who had imprisoned FitzStephen.
They informed Henry that they had acted on his behalf against his rebellious
vassal, who had invaded the country without the King's licence. Henry,
"who loved the baron much," taking his cue from this curious
argument, had FitzStephen brought before him to Waterford, soundly rated
him, and committed him to prison in Reginald's Tower with great show of
wrath and anger, "for he feared the Irish would murder him."
At Waterford he had him under his own eye. He took an early opportunity
of setting him at liberty, though he did not hesitate to reap advantage
from his present helplessness by requiring him to relinquish the town
and lands of Wexford into the King's hands—a method of asserting
his suzerainty which Henry had already practised with success in dealing
with his barons in South Wales.[10]
[10] Giraldus Cambrensis, Conquest of Ireland, Bk. I, ch. xxxi.
The most significant of the submissions made to Henry was that of the
Aird-ri of Ireland, Rory O'Conor, who took the oath of allegiance on the
borders between his own province of Connacht and that of Meath, side by
side with O'Brien, King of Thomond, his then ally. This submission of
the High King to the foreign sovereign was an act of the greatest importance.
It can hardly be said to have been obtained by conquest or even by an
overwhelming show of military force. The Irish kings had bowed to the
inevitable, but they do not seem to have bowed unwillingly, for they believed
that Henry alone could keep in check his marauding nobles. Rory by his
submission recognized an authority in the kingdom superior to his own,
a High Kingship to which even his own must look up. From this moment the
office of High King of Ireland practically came to an end, for Rory had
no successor; he was the last of the historic line. The office from henceforth
was felt to have been transferred into the hands of the English King.
The relations for the moment were of the friendliest kind. The festival
of Christmas 1171 saw these Irish princes gathered with their retainers
to the Danish city of Dublin, then "a very thronged port, emulating
our London in commerce," [11] as the guests of the English King.
They were entertained in so sumptuous a style that provisions threatened
to run short and were sold at excessive prices, no cargo vessels having
been able to cross on account of the severe tempests. For the accommodation
of the guests Henry had a palace of peeled osiers or wattle constructed
"after the manner of the country" just outside the then narrow
walls of Dublin on the rise of the Howe over the Stein, where St Andrew's
Church now stands, This was the site of the Danish Thing-mote, or national
assembly, and was called in the tenth century Hoggen-green, from the Scandinavian
word hoga or howe, a hill or tumulus. It is only within the last couple
of centuries that this historic site has been levelled and its mould spread
over the present Nassau Street. In Henry's day it looked out over the
' Green ' of the town, stretching down to the borders of the Liffey, which
then flowed through open fields to the bay at Clontarf. The 'Stein,' then
the usual landing-place for Dublin, was so called from the long stone
on which capital sentences were carried out under Norse rule, after decrees
of death had been passed at the Thing-mote; it was only removed in the
seventeenth century. The novelty of Henry's entertainment and the splendour
with which it was carried out astonished his guests, who "learned
to eat crane's flesh, which they had hitherto disliked." Meanwhile
the Norman archers stationed at Finglas amused their leisure by wantonly
cutting down and burning as firewood the old yews and ash-trees which
had been planted in former days by Abbot Kenach round the cemetery.[12]
[11] Chronicle of William of Newburgh, ed. Thomas Hearne (1719), pp.
194-195.
[12] Very old yews still form a walk at Glasnevin, close to Finglas, perhaps
the descendants of these groves. It is now known as Addison's Walk.
From Christmas to Lent Henry was busy visiting parts of his new dominions
and settling the future administration of the country. He appointed Hugh
de Lacy first Justiciar, and garrisoned the towns. He visited Lismore
and Cashel, and in pursuance of the conditions laid down by the Pope he
arranged for a synod at the latter place for the correction of morals
and to introduce the payment of tithes. He was occupied in planning a
new fort for Lismore when, the wind changing at last, he received at Wexford
ill news of great importance. Two legates, commissioned by the Pope, had
arrived in England to inquire into the murder of Archbishop Thomas a Becket
and were threatening to lay the country under an interdict; at the same
inauspicious moment he learned that his sons had risen in rebellion against
him. Such tidings were too urgent to be ignored, and, breaking off his
plans in Ireland, the King set sail from Wexford on Easter Day 1172, "after
the celebration of Mass," [13] landing in St David's Bay at noon
of the next day. "Thus," say the Annals of Clonmacnois quaintly,
"the King's Majesty made a final end of an entire conquest of Ireland."
[13] Annals of Loch Ce, 1172.
When Henry left Ireland he had received hostages as overlord from Leinster,
Meath, Munster, and the chiefs of Oriel and of Eastern Ulster,[14] besides
the still more important submission of Rory of Connacht. Thus every province
was represented in the formal acts of submission to the King of England.
Such general offers of fealty had never been made in Ireland save to the
acknowledged Aird-ri, and even then, as a rule, only when exacted by force.
It is the more remarkable that they should have been obtained by Henry
without the use of compulsion and that the whole country should have participated
in making them. This submission, however, did not include any acceptance
of the rule of Henry's Norman barons, whose advance was checked in a practical
way by the heavy defeat of Strongbow at Thurles by Donal O'Brien and King
Rory in 1174, two years after Henry's departure, while in Meath the Irish
demolished the forts which de Lacy was erecting to secure his new grants.
But in the following year, after consultation, Rory O'Conor and Donal
O'Brien were ready to renew their allegiance to the King of England in
the most formal and solemn manner at the Council of Windsor (October 6,
1175), in the presence of the King, barons, and bishops of England. As
his representatives at this council Rory sent three of the highest ecclesiastics
in Ireland: the distinguished Laurence (or Lorcan) O'Toole, traveller,
scholar, and statesman, who had been transferred from his abbey at Glendalough,
in Wicklow, to the posts of Archbishop of Dublin and Chancellor; the Archbishop
of Tuam (Co. Galway); and the Abbot of St Brendan. Through them, with
every circumstance of solemnity, the Aird-ri ratified his former treaty,
promising "to hold his lands well and peaceably of the English King
as his liege lord," and in token of this to pay an annual tribute
of a tenth of all choice skins of animals slain in Ireland, to be approved
by dealers, and of birds (of the chase), and wolfhounds. The Danish cities
of Dublin and Waterford, with the adjacent lands as far as Dungarvan,
and the whole province of Leinster, pledged by Dermot MacMorrogh to Strongbow,
were reserved to be held of the King directly. Apart from these reserved
lands, Rory was to hold sway over the lesser chieftains and to receive
their tributes as of old, King Henry's tribute being added as an additional
claim.[15]
[14] Ibid., 1171.
[15] Henry of Hovenden, Annals, 1175. The destruction of wild birds in
Ireland has been wholesale. In a Parliament held in 1480 duties were imposed
on the export of hawks and falcons to restrain the carrying of them out
of the land. Even at that date they were in danger of becoming extinct.
The last golden eagle was shot at Killarney only some forty years ago.
In case any of the chiefs should rebel against the King or against Rory
or refuse to pay tribute, the King of Connacht was authorized to judge
them, and if necessary to remove them from their possessions, to be helped
therein by the King's Constable of Ireland. Two years later, in 1177,
a council was convened at Waterford, and the solemn compact of Windsor
was renewed in the presence of the Papal legate, Cardinal Vivianus, "who
openly showed the King's right to Ireland" and enforced it by a threat
of Papal excommunication against all who should refuse obedience to Henry's
authority. Thus in a series of explicit steps the office of overlord was
confirmed to the King of England. Into the hands of the new overlord Rory
and his successors placed their hostages in token of homage and fidelity,
as formerly they had been committed to the Aird-ri. Rory's own hostage
was his son, and it was while conducting him to Normandy in November 1180,
to place him in Henry's keeping, that Archbishop O'Toole fell ill in the
monastery of Eu and died there.[16]
[16] The common idea that Rory was ignorant of the import of his acts
cannot be maintained. For some years he had considered the matter before
sending his son as hostage. His adviser, Laurence O'Toole, was one of
the most able and learned, as well as devout, prelates of the day, and
fully qualified to deal with State affairs.
When exhorted by the monks of Eu to make his will, "God knows,"
he said, "out of all my revenues I have not a coin to bequeath."
It was at the Council of Waterford that the much-disputed and misnamed
"Bull" of Pope Adrian was first brought forward, conferring
on Henry II the papal approval of his expedition to Ireland, and the right
of dominion over the island. It was given in accordance with the general
claim made by the Popes over all islands, which it was believed were under
the special protection of the Papal See, and was conditional on his promise
to endeavour to reduce the country to social and ecclesiastical order.
Pope Adrian, who was an Englishman, bade the King of England go forth
to the conquest "for the enlargement of the Church's borders, for
the restraint of vice, the correction of morals and the planting of virtue,
the increase of the Christian religion, and whatsoever may tend to God's
glory and the well-being of that land." Shortly before, Pope Alexander
II had given his approval in a similar manner to William I on his Norman
conquest of England. In September 1172 the then Pope, Alexander III, also
had given his benediction to the enterprise in Ireland in three letters,
couched in very similar terms, to the King himself, to the Legate of the
Apostolic See in Ireland with the archbishops and bishops, and to the
kings and princes of Ireland, exhorting obedience to the sovereign, and
saying that "he has learned with joy that they have taken Henry as
their king." He commanded the prelates to assist Henry in his government
of Ireland, and to smite with ecclesiastical censures any of its kings,
princes, and people who shall dare to violate the oath of fidelity they
have sworn." [17] Thus, supported by Papal authority, the Synod of
Cashel met some time in 1172, soon after the departure of Henry, under
the presidency of Christian O'Conarchy, Bishop of Lismore and Papal Legate;
Gelasius (Gilla MacLiag), the Primate, being too far advanced in age to
be present, though he later travelled to Dublin to express his approval
of the measures passed. These chiefly made for Church discipline and for
the contract and observance of lawful marriages; and the prelates took
their first step in the Anglicizing Church policy afterward pursued by
ordering that all divine offices should be celebrated according to the
forms of the Anglican Church, "for it is right and just that as Ireland
has received her lord and king from England she should accept reformation
from the same source." Though several Irish bishops were present
no voice was raised in dissent, and thus, approved and supported by ecclesiastical
as well as secular authority, began the rule of England over Ireland.[18]
[17] Sweetman, Calendar of Documents, 1, No. 38.
[18] Gesta Henrici, i, 28; Roger of Hovenden, ed. W. Stubbs, ii, 31.
It must be allowed that the claim of the English kings to govern Ireland
was at least as good as that by which any European monarch held his throne.
The excuse provided by the invitation of Dermot to Henry made it even
stronger than most of these others. It was better than that by which the
Normans held England, which was purely the right of conquest, and in which
no general submission of those in power had ever been obtained. Henry
or his successors would undoubtedly have attempted the conquest of Ireland
at some time; the island lay too close at hand for a people who had conquered
large parts of Western Europe to remain indifferent to it, and we have
seen that to acquire Ireland had been long projected in Henry's mind.
The circumstances under which the new relations began were auspicious;
but the retirement of the King placed the centre of authority at a distance,
and the English monarchs were forced to leave the actual power in the
hands of the ambitious Norman nobles who ruled in their name on the spot.
To them the acquisition of lands and authority was the only object aimed
at; and the quarrels of these foreigners among themselves for position
and property were not less fierce and persistent than those they carried
on with the Irish whose lands they coveted. The Crown could only step
in at intervals, and its authority gradually faded into the distance before
the always present domination of the barons, which soon developed into
semi-independence; it became a matter of individual choice with them whether
they became Irish and renounced their allegiance to the English Crown
or whether they remained English and strangers in their adopted country.
Thus a sense of division which no length of time has healed, sprang up
from the beginning; neither good rule nor bad rule served to lessen it
in the eyes of a considerable section of the people; to the native Irish
the English remained a foreign nation, whose right was disputed, and whose
rule was accepted only through necessity. They continued to be looked
upon as interlopers.
A permanent result of the visit of Henry II to Dublin was the giving
of a charter conferring that city on the inhabitants of Bristol, the town
which had most cordially aided the King and Dermot MacMorrogh in raising
troops for the Irish undertaking. This remarkable charter, the oldest
municipal document relating to any Irish town, is the first of seven original
extant charters of dates between 1172 and 1320 concerning Dublin issued
by English kings. It was designed to bring to an end the Norse authority
over the Irish capital, and to transfer the city definitely under English
control. Up to this time the Norse rulers still looked upon it as the
capital of their Irish dominions; though for some time back this assumption
of authority had been challenged by the Irish princes of Leinster who
had never abandoned their claims on Dublin as part of their possessions,
so that we find both Irish and Norse governors styled kings of Dublin.
Up to the arrival of the Normans all the larger towns were occupied chiefly
by Danes or Norse, and had Danish or Norse governors. We have seen that
when Miles de Cogan entered the city the governor of the capital was Asgall,
or Asculf, son of Ragnall mac Torcaill, and that he fled away by sea.
He is sometimes called king, but Ragnall, his father, is styled Mór
Maer, or High Steward of Dublin, the latter title being probably a more
correct designation; Asgall was taken and beheaded by the English in 1171,
after a battle fought "on the green of Dublin" between de Cogan
and Tiernan O'Rorke accompanied by the men of Meath and the Danish troops.[19]
Henry, when making his grants to his barons, expressly retained in his
own hands the Danish towns with some part of the surrounding districts.
[19] Annals of the Four Masters, 1171; Annals of Loch Ce, at same date;
Giraldus Cambrensis, Conquest of Ireland, Bk. I, ch. xxi.
He designed to attach them directly to the Crown, and to make them centres
of English influence, which, in fact, they remained through centuries.
By the Bristol charter,[20] which gave to Bristol men settling in Dublin
all the privileges possessed by them at home, he encouraged merchants
of that city, doubtless old traders between the two towns, to come over
and establish themselves in Ireland; the charter was enlarged in 1174,
and gave to the burgesses of the capital liberty to transact business
throughout the entire land of England, Normandy, Wales, and Ireland, free
of any toll or customs whatever, and these privileges were confirmed more
than once in the reign of King John. The giving of the Bristol charter
was followed by a large influx of merchants from all parts of England,
Scotland, South Wales, and even from Flanders, Brabant, and France. An
old list of names of citizens shows that towns as far separated from each
other as Edinburgh, Lincoln, Cardiff, and Cirencester, contributed their
quota to the inhabitants of Dublin as tailors, mercers, spicers, goldsmiths,
and followers of many other occupations. They formed themselves into merchant
guilds, and carried on an active trade during the thirteenth century in
corn,[21] cattle, and derivative products; live stock, fish, and skins;
silk and cloth of gold; English and Irish and foreign cloth, worsted,
linen, and the thick Irish mantle or 'falaing,' as well as iron, brass,
steel, glass, lead, and timber. Irish products were on sale in England
and abroad in 1207; a 'tymbre' of forty Irish marten-skins was ordained
by Philippe Auguste to be furnished by merchants coming from Ireland to
the port of Rouen; and both peltry and silk from Ireland paid tolls in
Paris in the thirteenth century; while droguet, or drugget, is said to
have taken its name from Drogheda.[22]
[20] Sir John Gilbert, Historical and Municipal Documents of Ireland
(1870) charters of 1171 and 1185, at pp. 1, 2, 49.
[21] For the mention of large shipments of corn to France, see Gilbert,
Facsimiles of National Manuscripts, Pt. II, No. LXXXIII; to England, Sweetman,
Calendar, 1, Nos. 756, 1052, 1055, etc.; to Galloway and the Isles, ibid.,
No. 1040.
[22] Francisque Michel, Recherches sur le commerce des étoffes
de soie (Paris, 1854), ii, 244.
Of these merchants a fair proportion came from Bristol, several of them
becoming free citizens between 1225 and 1250, and holding posts of distinction
such as those of Provost and Mayor of Dublin. As time went on, the old
Scandinavian inhabitants were pushed out, and they settled on the north
side of the Liffey in a suburb which became known as Villa Ostmannorum
(later corrupted into Oxmantown),[23] similar settlements being made in
Cork, Waterford, and Limerick, as the English colony increased in number
in these cities. Though they are seldom named in charters, they kept a
firm hold over trade, and they were associated by King John in an inquiry
held in Dublin in 1215. One Richard Olaf was Keeper of the Exchange of
the King of England in the reign of Edward I. In Waterford, a charter
of denization was granted by Henry II, and later confirmed by Edward I,
to certain old Ostman inhabitants of the town, and Ostman jurors served
on inquisitions in all the old Danish cities. In Limerick, which long
continued to be mainly a Danish town, twelve English and an equal number
of Ostmen and Irish jurors took part in an inquisition as to the property
of the See of Limerick, taken by William de Burgh in 1202. The cantred
of the Ostmen in that town lay on both sides of the Shannon, and under
its first charter the Provost was a Syward.
[23] Ostman, or Eastman, became a general title for the Scandinavian
inhabitants about this time, and included all these nationalities.
In 1200 the King still retained in his own hands "the cantred of
the Ostmen and the Holy Isle," when he granted the custody of the
city to William de Braose. In these civic communities the Irish had no
legal part unless they became Anglicized, though the fact that they acted
as jurors in equal numbers with English and Danes in Limerick shows that
they took more part in civic affairs than is generally supposed. There
was constant traffic between them and the English settlers in the towns,
as the list of native commodities proves; but the frequent changes of
name at this time make attempts at identification impossible. Numbers
of the sons of Irish chiefs were called by Norse names, Olaf, Sitric,
Magnus, etc.; even Dermot MacMorrogh called his son Cnut. The Irish no
doubt found it more convenient to trade with the newcomers under Norman
or English names. An example of this is furnished by the deed of Anglicization
of an Irish-born merchant of Dublin who called himself Robert de Bree.
He only secured his charter of Anglicization in the reign of Edward I,
but he held considerable properties in the city, and his descendants intermarried
with leading citizens. There must have been many similar cases. The privileges
of Dublin were enlarged both under Prince John and Henry III, and were
extended to other towns. Traders who were not citizens might not tarry
in Dublin beyond forty days, nor buy corn, wool, and hides except from
citizens. They could not sell cloth by retail, nor keep wineshops except
on shipboard.[24] The import of wine was very large and brought in a good
revenue to the kings.
[24] Gilbert, Historical and Municipal Documents of Ireland (1870), charter
of 1192, p. 51.
In pre-Norman days the principal drink seems still to have been mead or
ale, though there had been a trade in French wines from the earliest times.
When Kincora was burned down in 1107 it is recorded that sixty keeves,
or vats, of mead and ale ('brogoid' or 'bragget') were destroyed. Later
on, wine became more common, and we learn that when the army of Edward
Bruce entered Dundalk in 1315 the abundance of wine found there made it
difficult for him to keep his men in hand. English weights and measures
were introduced into Ireland early in the thirteenth century, though the
old Irish 'crannock,' or wicker basket, was still used as a measure; and
strong walls and forts and good bridges were proceeded with, special aids
of money being subscribed by the townsmen of Dublin and Drogheda for the
purpose. The Dublin mayoralty was established in 1229. Annual fairs were
permitted in all the chief cities for eight days each, and the afterward
notorious Donnybrook Fair became the chief annual market for Dublin.
Merchants of Lucca seem to have been specially active in the Irish trade.
They are frequently mentioned. In 1291 a petition was sent in by the company
of Richardi of Lucca, praying for relief. They complained that they had
been unlawfully seized by the King's Treasurer and his agents at Ross,
Waterford, Limerick, Kilkenny, Youghal, and Cork, and imprisoned with
confiscation of their goods. These Lucca merchants were money-lenders
on a large scale.[25] But the forced prisages as loans taken from merchants
became very oppressive, and in 1220 it was complained that the cities
had become so impoverished by them that merchants hesitated to bring their
merchandise thither. Dublin had become "odious to traders."
[25] Gilbert, Facsimiles of National Manuscripts, Pt. II, No. LXXXI.
We must return to the date of King Henry's departure for England. Neither
to the Irish nor to the Norman knights left behind him was there any finality
in Henry's 'conquest.' His last acts before his departure put an end to
all hope of this He made a new disposition of the lands and offices of
his grantees, plainly designed to weaken the power of Earl Richard and
to divide the Geraldines. It was the first step in that policy of keeping
the Norman colony weak and separated in order to preserve the distant
influence of the Crown that was to prove in later days so frequent a source
of demoralization to the settlers. Nothing, as we may well believe, could
have prevented the ambitious and restless Norman barons who had reached
the extreme westerly coasts of Wales from ultimately crossing to the country
which on a fine day they could see distinctly from the opposite headlands.
It became, therefore, the plain policy of the King either to support his
vassals and bind them to the Crown by fair treatment, or to let them set
up semi-independent, strong principalities of their own. But he did neither.
He granted all Meath to Hugh de Lacy [26] by service of fifty knights,
and made him Constable of Dublin, passing over Strongbow; the gallant
Miles de Cogan he took with him to Wales, where Raymond le Gros, who had
been refused Earl Richard's sister in marriage, soon followed him. His
retention in his own hands of the coast towns, and of a strip of land
on the Wicklow shore, was plainly designed to keep Strongbow in check
and to weaken his power. On another of his nobles, the afterward famous
John de Courcy, Henry, after the manner of many earlier Norman grants,
bestowed Ulster "if he could conquer it." These are new names—barons
who had come over with Henry and who had borne none of the struggles of
the first-comers—and though de Courcy and de Lacy proved to be among
the ablest of Henry's settlers and the best fitted for the work in hand,
their appointments must have been received with chagrin by their predecessors.
[26] The de Lacys took their name from their property in Normandy. The
first baron had fought with William the Conqueror at Hastings, and received
in reward a grant of land in the Welsh Marches. Hugh was the fifth baron.
The family estates included Ewyas Lacy, Stanton Lacy, and Ludlow Castle.
One of the family founded Llanthony Abbey.
That the King, although he appeared to slight Strongbow, had not lost
faith in him is shown by his sending for him and de Lacy shortly afterward
to Normandy to aid him in his troubles with his rebellious sons. With
them went many of the veteran troops that had served in Ireland to fight
for the King, apparently with Irish followers, against the Earl of Leicester
and the King of Scotland. Earl Richard's prompt obedience and valuable
help restored him to favour, and he was shortly afterward sent back to
Leinster, granted Wexford and the castle of Wicklow, and appointed to
the custody of the coast towns. Strongbow returned none too soon; during
his absence the country had risen in revolt against the new lords. Tiernan
O'Rorke, who saw the castles of de Lacy advancing farther west and the
foreigners pushing their way into his country, demanded redress. A meeting
had been arranged at Tlachtgha, or the "Hill of Ward," near
Athboy, in Meath, at which Tiernan attended with a large following. While
the discussion was going on between him and de Lacy the latter was surrounded
and would have been killed but that his bodyguard, who suspected treachery,
had lingered within sight on the pretence of tilting in the French fashion,
and came up to his rescue. One of them ran his spear through O'Rorke and
the horse he was mounting, slaying at the same time three of his clansmen
who at the risk of their lives had brought him his horse. This is the
English version of the old chief's death. The Irish accounts say that
he was treacherously slain by Hugh and Donal O'Rorke, members of his own
family. His head was cut off and sent to the King in England, and his
body was hung, feet upward, on the north side of Dublin. This was the
first of those horrible exhibitions which defaced the walls and castle-gates
of Dublin from century to century. With the country in revolt, and confronted
with the prospect of his troops throwing down their arms and returning
to Wales, Strongbow bethought him of Raymond le Gros. The troops roundly
declared they would fight under no other leader. Raymond's cheerful easy
temperament made him the favourite of his men. His care for his army was
such that he would pass whole nights without sleep, taking the rounds
himself to see that all was well in the camp, and though his stoutness
brought him the nickname of "le Gros" his activity prevented
this from being an encumbrance. In war he was prudent as well as fearless,
and he thought more of the welfare of his men than of being their commander.
They liked a general who allowed them to carry off booty and to raid at
will. Hervey de Montmaurice, who had been placed in command of the forces
on Raymond's withdrawal to Wales, was a very different man. He was no
soldier, and his only thought in joining the expedition to Ireland had
been to repair his broken fortunes. He was the rival and bitter enemy
of Raymond, a cruel and ruthless man, who, when Raymond had pleaded for
mercy, insisted (in the early days of the invasion) on throwing the unfortunate
citizens of Waterford over the cliff.
Strongbow now sent for Raymond, promising that he would at last give
him his sister if he would come over at once to his aid.
The most notable of Raymond's exploits was the capture of Limerick in
October 1175. The events that led up to this expedition had occurred during
the absence of Raymond in Wales; and to understand it we must revert to
the condition of things in Munster. The family of the O'Briens, which
had attained its greatest power during the century and a quarter between
the reigns of King Brian and Murtogh Mór (d. 1119), was now represented
by Donal O'Brien, who had made submission to Henry on his landing, owing
perhaps to his alliance with Dermot MacMorrogh. Donal had married Dermot's
daughter, resigning at the same time the city of Limerick into his hands.
But no sooner was Henry back in England than the South rose in revolt,
Dermot MacCarthy recapturing Cork, from which the English garrison had
been withdrawn, and Donal O'Brien repossessing himself of Limerick. Hervey
de Montmaurice saw in these moves an occasion to recover his waning popularity.
He induced Strongbow to join him in an expedition against Munster, and
called the Danes of Dublin to their aid. Rory O'Conor, hearing of the
coming struggle, advanced into Ormond to the assistance of his former
foe, O'Brien, who flung himself with his whole strength between the army
of Strongbow and the advancing Danes from Dublin. He was completely successful
in his manoeuvre. The English forces suffered their first considerable
defeat at the pass of Thurles (Co. Tipperary) (1174), and left four of
the leaders and a large number of men dead on the field.[27] Strongbow
shut himself up in the fort of Waterford, while several of the Leinster
princes, who had given in their submissions, headed by Donal Kavanagh,
a natural son of Dermot MacMorrogh, declared against the English.
[27] The different authorities give accounts of this battle varying in
some details.
In the North Rory was putting forth all his efforts to rouse the princes
of Ulster to make common cause with the South. Raymond arrived in Ireland
to find the Earl shut up in Waterford and the citizens threatening to
massacre every Englishman they could lay hands on. His old troops, too,
had broken out and had restored their spirits by a raid into Offaly, from
which they returned with new mounts and an immense booty of food and plunder,
fighting their way by sea through an attack by the ships of Cork, and
sailing into Waterford Harbour with the captive vessels in tow. In the
city Strongbow still held out in Reginald's Tower with the remnant of
his garrison. Having relieved the Earl, and fought his way through with
him to Wexford, Raymond demanded the fulfilment of the promises made to
him, and messengers were dispatched in great haste to Dublin to bring
Basilia, Strongbow's sister, to whom Raymond was married straightway with
great festivities. In the midst of the wedding feast news was brought
that Rory of Connacht had raided Meath right up to the walls of Dublin.
"Forgetting wine and love," Raymond sprang to arms, but, before
he could reach Meath, Rory, who had previously had experience of Raymond's
furious onslaughts, prudently retired to his own country. For a time all
was quiet. Raymond occupied himself in rebuilding the Meath castles which
Rory had razed to the ground, while Strongbow and Hugh de Lacy set about
the work of parcelling out the provinces of Leinster and Meath among their
followers on a fixed feudal tenure which ignored completely the rights
of the original inhabitants. Each of the new owners endeavoured to sustain
himself in his possessions by building castles and forts in which he could
lie entrenched against attack. At first the forts were mere erections
of wood or earth, with wooden stockades, but gradually these gave way
to massive and imposing buildings of stone, the remains of which are still
to be seen wherever the Normans settled. Earl Richard's own castle at
Kildare, Hugh Tyrrell's great fortress at Trim, Maurice FitzGerald's stronghold
at Naas, of which the outlines still remain, are only examples of the
solid fastnesses in which the barons entrenched themselves all over the
East of Ireland. Some of the grants then made became permanent; such was
that of Howth to St Laurent, which has been held by his heirs the St Lawrences
as Barons or Earls of Howth in direct descent to the present day.
Donal O'Brien had celebrated his great victory at Thurles by an orgy
of frightful atrocities on members of his own family, with the object
of removing out of his way all possible competitors to the throne of Munster.
He blinded two of his nearest relations, one of whom died soon after,
and put two neighbouring princes to death. So great were his crimes that
Rory O'Conor descended on Thomond and drove out O'Brien, who, in revenge,
laid siege to the city of Limerick, where the garrison was ill-provided
with food. Hearing of its condition, Raymond flew to the relief of the
city. It was a hazardous expedition, for the town was now surrounded by
a wall and dike, as well as by the strong waters of the Shannon. But Raymond
had with him the intrepid Meiler FitzHenry, whom no force could daunt,
and Donal MacGillapatrick, King of Ossory, whose services Raymond accepted
with some mistrust, but who pledged his faith to commit no deceit or treachery
against him and to conduct him safely to Limerick. When they arrived before
the town they found the river so swollen by the winter rains that the
ford was impassable. Two young soldiers plunged on horseback into the
rushing stream, but one was carried away by the torrent, and no one seemed
disposed to attempt to join the survivor on the opposite bank. Nevertheless,
Meiler, spurring his horse, dashed furiously into the river. He managed
to brave the flood, and crossed safely to the far shore, though attacked
on all sides by the stones and darts of the Irish, which he warded off
as well as he could with his helmet and shield. Raymond, seeing the danger
to his friend, in great agitation called on his troops to follow him as
he plunged into the river. They crossed with few losses, and drove back
the enemy within the walls. They then followed them up and entered behind
them, taking the town by assault, enriching themselves with a great spoil.
Having placed the command of the town in the hands of his cousin, Miles
de Cogan, Raymond returned into Leinster.
During his absence Raymond's crafty enemy Hervey de Montmaurice had been
using his opportunity to undermine his influence with the King. He misrepresented
his actions and assured Henry that Raymond was aiming not only at the
dominion of Limerick, but at the sovereignty of Ireland. Raymond found
himself faced with a recall to England; but, while he was preparing to
obey, hurried messengers from Limerick arrived with the intelligence that
the town was once more blockaded by a vast army under Donal O'Brien and
that all the stores were exhausted; they implored that immediate help
might be sent. Again the troops declared that except under Raymond's command
they would not move, and in this strait, after consulting with the commissioners
sent by the King to recall him, Raymond consented to lead the relief party,
which consisted of some eighty knights and five hundred trained troops,
with Irish contingents from Ossory and Wexford. On their way they learned
that O'Brien had raised the siege and was awaiting them behind a strongly
fortified and entrenched rampart at the pass of Cashel. On this spot the
Prince of Ossory, whose kinsman O'Brien had murdered, made an ominous
speech to the small body of Norman troops whom he was accompanying: "Brave
soldiers," he proclaimed, "and conquerors of this island,...look
well to yourselves, for if we find your ranks give way, which God forbid,
it may chance that, in conjunction with the enemy, our Irish battleaxes
may be turned against you. It is our custom to side with the winning party
and to fall on those who run away. Trust to us, therefore, but only while
you are conquerors." Spurred to action, as was intended by this threat,
Meiler, who led the van, rushed like a whirlwind upon the enemy, cutting
them down right and left, and forcing his way through with great slaughter.
They entered Limerick, restored order, and held a lengthy conference with
O'Brien and Rory O'Conor outside the city near Killaloe, in which these
princes renewed their fealty to the English King and gave hostages for
their obedience. Raymond also received a fresh submission from MacCarthy
of Desmond in return for his help in replacing him on his throne, from
which his own son had ejected him. Raymond accepted for his service to
this prince a valuable grant of land in Kerry, which has ever since remained
in the hands of a branch of the FitzGerald family, who hold the title
of Knights of Kerry.
While Raymond was so occupied a secret letter from his wife, Basilia,
was put into his hand. It ran thus: "Be it known to your sincere
love that the great jaw-tooth which of late gave me so much trouble has
just dropped out. Wherefore, if thou hast any regard for thyself or me,
delay not thy return." He recognized in the cryptic message an intimation
that her brother, Earl Richard, who had never approved of her marriage
to Raymond le Gros, was dead. He had been very sick when Raymond left
Dublin. Raymond hastened his return, and all arrangements for the burial
of the Earl in the new Cathedral of the Holy Trinity were made before
the news became generally known, and Richard de Clare was laid to rest
under a stately tomb by Archbishop Laurence O'Toole in June 1176. So long
as Strongbow lived and was present on his lands quiet seems to have prevailed.
He was rather a statesman than a soldier of fortune, and his marriage
with an Irish wife shows that he had definitely thrown in his lot with
Ireland. His natural successor was Raymond le Gros, but the King's jealousy
of the brilliant services he had performed, and the favour with which
he was regarded, again stood in the way of his advancement. His recall
was not waived, and he was allowed to leave Ireland, after the resignation
of his offices. A noble, closely attached to the King's interests and
allied to him by blood, William FitzAudelin, was sent over in his place,
thus once more proving Henry's purpose to strengthen the authority of
the Crown at the expense of that of his barons.
Meanwhile in Limerick things had not gone well. On his departure Raymond
had committed the government of the town into the hands of O'Brien, as
a baron of the King who had just renewed his oath of fealty and given
his solemn promise to keep the peace. But hardly had Raymond evacuated
the town than O'Brien cut down the bridge over the Shannon behind the
departing troops, and, looking back, Raymond saw the city flaming in every
quarter, the fierce descendant of Brian Boromhe having declared that Limerick
should no longer be "a nest for foreigners." When the news of
the taking of Limerick was reported to King Henry he shrewdly said: "The
attack on Limerick was a bold adventure; greater still its relief; but
only in its evacuation was there wisdom."
The man whom Henry sent over to replace Raymond was of very different
character. FitzAudelin [28] is said by Gerald of Wales to have been a
smooth and courtier-like man, but crafty as a snake in the grass. Whom
he honoured one day he calumniated the next; a man who never, in the course
of his tours of inspection, neglected his own interests, or failed to
collect all the gold he could lay hands upon. Gerald displays a natural
anger against a man who came over with the fixed intention of ruining
the family of the Geraldines, but his prejudices are shown to have been
well merited by all FitzAudelin's acts. One of the first incidents recorded
of him on his arrival at Wexford, where Raymond le Gros awaited his coming
in order to hand over the Sword of State, shows him in his true character.
Seeing Raymond and Meiler on horseback surrounded by their followers all
in polished armour and with the same Geraldine device upon their shields,
he whispered to his friends, "I will bring all this bravery to a
speedy end; those shields shall soon be scattered." Raymond, however,
with apparent cordiality, offered him his congratulations, embracing him
in a friendly manner and placing his official positions in his hands,
retaining only his own personal baronies and those of Fotherd and Odrone
in Carlow, which came to him with his wife. This is the last we hear of
the most brilliant of the adventurers. With FitzAudelin came a group of
twenty knights, and John de Courcy, Robert FitzStephen, and Miles de Cogan
were ordered to attend him, each with a train of ten knights. About the
same time Hugh de Lacy, who had long been sharing the King's wars in France,
seems to have returned to Ireland, and his grant of Meath was confirmed
to him with additions in Offaly, Kildare, and Wicklow. Hugh de Lacy was
a great castle-builder, and his memory is chiefly preserved on account
of the numerous moats, or forts, built by him to secure Meath and Leinster
to the Norman lords.
[28] Wilham FitzAudelin and William de Burgh, who founded the family
of the de Burghs, or Burgos, are often confused. They do not seem to have
been Jdentical, though of the same family, FitzAudelin's ancestor, Arlotta,
mother of the Conqueror, having married a de Burgh. Later the de Burghs
became known as Burkes.
Castles were erected by him at Clonard, Kells, Kildare, and probably Drogheda;
while Castleknock near Dublin, Granard on the borders of Breifne (Co.
Longford) and other moats were the work of his feudatories. Among the
later grantees he was the wisest ruler, a man of firm and steadfast character,
very attentive both to his private affairs and to the administration of
his province. He was not attractive in appearance, being short and ill-proportioned,
with a swarthy complexion and black, sunken eyes; nor was he a successful
commander. In private life he is said to have been avaricious and of lax
morals. But, unlike the other Norman lords, he recalled the peasants who
had been violently driven out, reinstated them on their lands, and ruled
them with a firm and gentle hand. The unoccupied districts became cultivated
and stocked with herds of cattle.
Quiet and order reigned in his territories, and he won the hearts of
the Irish people and drew around him their native leaders, as none other
of the newcomers had done. Like Strongbow, he showed his intention of
throwing in his lot with his adopted country by marrying in 1180 an Irish
wife, Rose, daughter of King Rory O'Conor of Connacht. He had previously
been married to another Rose "of Monmouth" {Roysya de Monemue),
by whom he had two sons, Walter and Hugh, who succeeded him in the Lordship
of Meath. As the marriage of Strongbow to Eva had aroused the anger and
suspicions of Henry, so that of de Lacy to Rose O'Conor, which had been
carried through without asking his licence, moved him to jealousy.[29]
Again a whisper went about that Hugh intended to make himself King of
Ireland, and the strong fortresses that he was building all over his territories
gave strength to the rumour. He had been appointed Constable or Governor,
of Dublin in 1178, but in the midst of his work of settlement he was twice
recalled, being finally superseded in 1184, when the King sent his son,
Prince John, to Ireland But he remained in the country, continuing the
erection of castles at every point of vantage, until an abrupt end was
put to his career. He was out inspecting a new castle that he was building
at Durrow, near the borders of Westmeath, beside or on the site of one
of St Columcille's most famous monasteries when a youth whom he was superintending
suddenly, as he stooped to show him how to work, struck off his head with
one blow of his axe, having been instructed to perform the act by his
foster-father, the chief of the O'Caharnys of Teffia. The desecration
of so sacred a spot may have also inflamed the mind of the young peasant.
Thus fell one of the best of the invaders, and we learn that Henry, on
hearing the news, "rejoiced thereat." [30] The result of Hugh's
efforts was that by 1186 "Meath from the Shannon to the sea was full
of castles of foreigners." and Grace's Annals add that "the
subjugation of Ireland went no further."
[29] The marriage is said to have been "according to that country's
custom" (secundum morem patriae illius). Rose's eldest son, William
Gorm, married a daughter of Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, and was killed
in 1233 fighting with Cathal O'Reilly. The Lynches of Galway and Pierce
Oge Lacy, the famous rebel of Elizabeth's day, were descended from him.
Her other sons seem to have adopted the name of le Blund. Rose was still
alive in 1224.
[30] Chronicle of William of Newburgh, ed. Thomas Hearne, 1, 285; Annals
of Loch Ce, and Grace, Annales Hiberniae, 1186.
Among other sweeping grants made by Henry quite irrespective of the claims
of the ruling princes were those of "the kingdom of Cork from Cape
St Brandon [in Kerry] to the river Blackwater [in Waterford]," for
the service of sixty knights, to Robert FitzStephen and Miles de Cogan,
except the city of Cork, which the King retained in his own hands; and
the equally extensive grant of the kingdom of Limerick, again excepting
the city, to Herbert FitzHerbert and others. These grants did not take
immediate effect, as the grantees declared that the country had not been
conquered and was not subject to the King. They slowly set about taking
possession of portions of these territories, but the fickleness of the
King, who from time to time apportioned the same lands to different barons
whom for the moment he wished to honour, made the settlement of the South
impossible. The city of Limerick, especially, was kept in perpetual turmoil
by the family of de Braose, to whom it was afterward (1203) granted for
a large annual payment, which was seldom forthcoming; the squalid story
of his wrangles with the authorities ended in miserable tragedy.[31] Miles
de Cogan and Ralph FitzStephen retained some properties in Cork and Limerick,
and endeavoured to extend them by speculative grants to their followers;
but they fell victims to a treacherous assault upon their party by MacTire,
chief of Imokilly, at a parley held near Lismore in 1182. The Barrys,
de Prendergasts, and de Carews took land about this time, and the Geraldines,
of whom Maurice FitzGerald was the head, were destined to become the great
and unhappy line of the Earls of Desmond. Many of the massive castles
which were to be scenes of sieges during the wars of Elizabeth's reign
date from the end of the twelfth and the thirteenth century, such as Askeaton,
Shanid, and Croom, Adare and Grene (or Pallas Green). Eventually all belonged
to the Desmond family.
[31] Sweetman, op. cit., 1, Nos. 146, 235, 271, etc.
In the North also matters were stirring. John de Courcy had returned to
Ireland among the advisers of FitzAudelin. This man, whose great stature,
strong and muscular limbs, and love of fighting, marked him out as a born
warrior, became from his exploits the centre of the most extravagant legends,
so that it is now difficult to disentangle truth from fiction. Men told
how, in later days, after he had been captured by Hugh de Lacy the Younger
in 1202, King John sent for him from the Tower of London, where he had
been long immured, and brought him over to France to fight on his behalf
against a chosen champion of the King of France, whom no one dared approach.
But the champion, on seeing the immense frame and grim aspect of the man
opposed to him, was seized with terror and took to flight. De Courcy,
in order to let off his ire, is said to have set up a helmet and coat
of mail on a wooden block, and to have struck his sword clean through
it, the weapon sinking so deep into the wood that no one could withdraw
it. When asked by the princes why he had looked so terrible before he
struck the blow, he replied "By St Patrick of Down in Ireland, if
I had missed my purpose in striking this stroke, I would have slain both
of you kings and as many as I could more, for the old sores I have felt
at your hands." [32] Such a man was the conqueror of Ulster. The
"stalwart doings" or gestes of this mighty warrior are related
at length in the Book of Howth, and the narrative of the affection between
him and the lord of Howth, Sir Amory St Laurent, and of their deeds together
reads like one of the romances of the Round Table.[33] He was so eager
for a fight that when he was in command he was apt to forget his duties
as a leader, and to charge forward impetuously at the head of his troops;
but in private life he was sober and modest, "giving God the glory
of his victories."
[32] Book of Howth, in Carew, Miscellany, p. 114.
[33] Ibid., pp. 80-94.
It was natural that two men so unlike as FitzAudelin and de Courcy should
not agree well together. The guile and smooth speech of the Governor,
at once a bully and a coward, revolted the blunt soldier, and he determined
to carve out an independent career for himself. Recalling Henry's former
grant to him of Ulster "if he could take it," he gathered around
him a little band of twenty-two men-at-arms and three hundred common soldiers,
who were complaining in the garrison of Dublin of want of pay and provisions,
and boldly set out on his raid upon Ulster. The attempt to force his way
into a country which had hitherto resisted all efforts of the English
to set foot in it, and which had maintained an independent position even
in the native wars, seemed like an act of knight-errantry, but in spite
of its hardihood it was destined to succeed. Men recalled the old saying:
"A white knight sitting on a white horse and having birds on his
shield shall be the first to enter Ulster by force of arms." John
fulfilled the prophecy in every detail. Fair, and riding a white steed,
he bore on his shield the device of three griphs or geires gules, crowned
or. The resemblance was possibly not wholly accidental; de Courcy may
have heard the tradition.[34] On the morning of his fourth day's march
he entered the city of Down without opposition, the King, Roderick MacDonlevy,
who was taken completely by surprise, having made a hasty flight before
him.
[34] De Courcy is said to have kept a book of the prophecies of St Columcille
constantly by him.
Down was an important ecclesiastical centre, the burial-place, as was
commonly supposed, not only of St Patrick, but of St Brigit and St Columcille.
It was the capital of Eastern Ulster, and quite independent of the princedoms
of Tyrone and Tyrconnel. Its cathedral stood on a height, and below lay
the marshlands of the river Quoile, west of Strangford Lough. At the moment
of de Courcy's raid the Papal legate, Vivianus, had arrived in the city
from Scotland and the Isle of Man. He attempted mediation between the
combatants, but, all efforts failing, he advised the Irish to fight for
their native land and heartened them with his blessing and prayers. Thus
encouraged, the King of East Ulster sent to all parts to assemble forces.
Within eight days ten thousand warlike men gathered round him, the men
of the North being, as Gerald says, more truculent than those of the South.
Distrusting the weak fort which was all the defence the city offered,
de Courcy descended to the swampy marshes near the seashore. The battle
must have been fought almost on the same spot as that on which King Magnus
Barelegs fell seventy-four years before. A terrific struggle ensued. John
was seen on every part of the field with flourished sword, "with
one stroke lopping off heads, with another arms." As with the Norse
in the earlier battle of Down, the vast multitudes of the Irish troops
found it difficult to manoeuvre in the narrow dykes between the bogs,
and great numbers fell as they tried to make their escape along the shore;
they sank in the quicksands as their pursuers pressed them forward through
water dyed with blood. Report said that this also had been foretold. A
superstitious dread accompanied every action of de Courcy's little force,
no doubt tending to ensure its victory. The battle was fought in 1177,
and the Normans were completely victorious. In another battle contested
shortly afterward on the same spot, in which the O'Neills joined the Irish
forces, accompanied by the Primate of Armagh and many clergy with their
sacred relics, the same result followed, even the precious Book of Armagh
falling into de Courcy's hands. The book was restored, but the relics
were captured and many of the clergy slain. De Courcy showed his interest
in the Irish traditions of Down, which became his capital, by inviting
Jocelyn, a monk of Furness Abbey in Lancashire, to write a life of St
Patrick. This work is still extant. Gradually, in spite of some checks,
de Courcy pushed forward his conquests, till nearly all Eastern Ulster
was in his hands. His territory included Down and Antrim, which he ruled
like an independent prince, free from the interference of king or viceroy.
He strengthened his position by his marriage with Affreca, daughter of
Godred, King of Man; and when in 1204 he was driven out by Hugh de Lacy
the Younger the King of Man came to his assistance. He coined his own
money, extended his moat-castles over the country, and made munificent
benefactions to the churches and abbeys which he founded For twenty years
Uladh seems to have been at peace under his strong rule.
But though de Courcy succeeded in establishing himself in Eastern Ulster
he was by no means uniformly fortunate in the field. His worst defeats
were in his wars in Connacht, and to understand them we must take up the
history of that province from the date of King Rory's submission to Henry
at the Council of Windsor in 1175. Having sent his son to England as hostage
for his fidelity and wedded his daughter Rose to Hugh de Lacy, Rory might
well have expected quiet in his old age. But revolts in his own family
put an end to all hope of this. Already, in 1177, his son Murtogh had
led an army into Connacht with the help of Miles de Cogan and the English,
but they had been driven out with the loss of their men. Now his eldest
son, Conor Moinmoy, headed a rebellion against him and succeeded in driving
him into Munster. This may have been the determining cause of Rory's retirement
from the throne into the monastery of Cong, where, except for a short
interval when he attempted to regain his kingdom, he remained till his
death in 1198. His retirement was the signal for a general war among his
sons and grandsons on the one side and his brother, Cathal Crovdearg "of
the Red Hand" on the other. Each party was supported by one of the
rival Norman barons, who hoped to reap advantages for himself. Cathal
of the Red Hand was aided by John de Courcy, and the opposite party, of
whom another Cathal, grandson of Rory, was the head, by William de Burgh
of Limerick with the O'Briens of Munster. The war between these cousins
went on for years, William de Burgh changing sides with surprising facility.
Twice Cathal of the Red Hand was banished from the province, but on the
death of Cathal Carragh in 1201 he assumed the kingship. At this juncture
we find William de Burgh fighting on his side. The story of Cathal Crovdearg
is so characteristic of the times that it will be well to tell it more
at length.[35]
[35] A full account of the Norman Settlements will be found in Mr. Goddard
H. Orpen's Ireland under the Normans, 1169-1233 (1911-20).
END OF CHAPTER V
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