BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARIES CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. isJewtoti College of the Sacred Heart Library 885 Cenlic Street Newton, Massachusetts 02159 Digitized by tine Internet Arcliive in 2013 Inttp://arcliive.org/details/irelandundernorm01orpe IRELAND UNDER THE NORMANS IRELAND UNDER THE NORMANS 1169-1216 BY GODDARD HENRY,^OR£EN VOLUME I OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS V.I Oxford Umversity Press, Ely House, London W. i GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON CAPE TOWN SALISBURY IBADAN NAIROBI LUSAKA ADDIS ABABA BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA KUALA LUMPUR HONG KONG TOKYO m 2 e 1557 FIRST PUBLISHED IQII REPRINTED LITHOGRAPHICALLY IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXPORD BY VIVIAN RIDLER PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY 1968 BOSTON GOLUSELieRMr CHESTNUT Hill, MA 02167 PREFACE Much of the story of Ireland has never been adequately told. Her early traditions, indeed, regarded by the annalists and by Geoffrey Keating and others as sober history, have in recent times been more scientifically treated from varying points of view, as legend with a dim substratum of fact, as mythology with a still dimmer basis, as folklore growing out of deep- rooted primitive custom. The footprints of St. Patrick and of the early saints have been followed over the length and breadth of the island. The traces of her missionaries have been sought for and found throughout western Europe. Her wonderful handiwork, executed under the patronage of her Church, on vellum, in metal, on stone, has been praised with justifiable pride, and has taken its place — no mean one — in the history of the evolution of art. Her primitive literature is gradually being given to the world by competent scholars. But when we come to the more fully attested history of later times, the raids of the Wikings in the ninth and tenth centuries have indeed been described and duly deplored, but only scant recognition has been accorded to the contribution made 6 PREFACE by the Northmen to peaceful progress in the formation of seaport towns and the furthering of foreign trade. Throughout the whole historic period down to the coming of the Normans, the turmoil of inter-tribal conflicts has been the despair of writers who seek to tell a connected story, and in general they have passed it over rapidly, though perhaps not rapidly enough for their readers. The Norman invasion, the most far-reaching event that occurred in Ireland since the introduction of Christianity, has of course been repeatedly handled, but the importance of the invasion, and the interest that attaches to it and to the settlement of the new-comers that followed it, seem to demand for the period a much fuller study than any hitherto attempted. Then for the next three centuries, with the exception of some few unconnected episodes, the history of Ireland has been left in great obscurity, until in the sixteenth century she once more emerges into the light, and it is seen that English domination has sunk to its lowest ebb — that, though there are still two peoples in the island, over large parts of it descendants of English settlers have adopted Irish customs and have become as lawless and almost as rude as the Irish themselves, while in purely Irish districts little real advance from the position in the twelfth century has been effected. From this time forward Irish history has been treated PREFACE 7 more adequately, though not always with the freedom from passion becoming to historical writers. The object I had in view in the preparation of this work was, primarily, to give a more adequate as well as a more accurate account of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland, and of the settlement consequent thereon, than had hitherto been published ; while it was my expectation that a closer study of the period would enable a more just estimate to be formed of the influence for good or for evil of the domination of the new people. A beginning would thus have been made towards filling up the gap in Irish history to which allusion has been made. In the course of my study of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (which has been spread over many years) I have not only had occasion to correct many misstatements of fact which have passed current, unquestioned, from writer to writer, but I have been led to regard the domination of the English Crown and of its ministers in Ireland, during the thirteenth cen- tury, and indeed up to the invasion of Edward Bruce in the year 1315, as having been much more complete than has been generally recog- nized, and to think that due credit has not been given to the new rulers for creating the com- parative peace and order and the manifest progress and prosperity that Ireland enjoyed, 8 PREFACE during that period, wherever their rule was effective. With a view to ascertaining the main facts which led up to the invasion, I have commenced the present work with a survey, mainly derived from the Irish annals, of the immediately pre- ceding period. This is followed by a brief study, based chiefly on the Brehon Law Tracts, of some of those customs and institutions which were at the time peculiar to Ireland and which sub- sequently affected the relation between the two races. For the period of the actual invasion we are fortunate in having two independent and virtually contemporary accounts. One of these, that of Gerald de Barry, has indeed long been known and utilized, but owing to his connexion with the invaders and to his inevitable want of sympathy with the Irish, it has been the fashion to discredit his statements and to represent his judgement as hopelessly warped. His observa- tions on the social state of the country have been regarded as calumnies inspired by malevolence, the miraculous stories he tells have been held up as proofs of abnormal credulity, while he has even been charged with the deliberate forgery of important historical documents. That his sympathies were with the invaders, and in particular with those of his relatives who took a leading part in the invasion, should of course always be carefully borne in mind, but a study PREFACE 9 of his writings has led me to regard him not only as an extraordinarily acute observer, and one who for his time was not peculiarly credulous, but also as a writer who (allowance being made for certain obvious prepossessions) faithfully recorded what he saw and heard. Following good classical authority, and from artistic motives, he has put speeches more or less imaginary into the mouths of his protagonists, and even ascribed to them written messages which perhaps are not verbally authentic ; but the charge of deliberate forgery I reject as not merely non-proven, but in the highest degree improbable. The other authority which I think we may regard as virtually contemporary is the Old French poem which some years ago I edited under the title of ' The Song of Dermot and the Earl ' This has come to be recognized as a primary authority for the period of the invasion, but the information to be obtained from it, corroborating, supplementing, and sometimes correcting the account in the ' Expugnatio ', has never been fully incorporated in regular Irish histories ; and in particular the evidence it affords as to the distribution of fiefs among the early settlers, their manorial centres, and the type of castle usually erected by them, has never been fully co-ordinated with evidence to be obtained from charters and other sources, and 10 PREFACE especially from recent archaeological and topo- graphical research. These omissions I have endeavoured to supply. But the fragmentary ' Song ' breaks off before the death of Strongbow in 1176, and Gerald de ^Barry gives us only a few disjointed facts after the death of Hugh de Lacy, a decade later. Then there is a brief period of considerable obscurity until, with the accession of King John, the series of English records begins to cast a more certain light. From this time for- ward patient research in many quarters, coupled with the exercise of a sound judgement and other qualities essential to the historian, should result in the production of a trustworthy and fairly full history of Ireland for the next three cen- turies. The present modest contribution towards fulfilling this great task proceeds no further than the close of the reign of King Jolm. I offer it with a full consciousness of its many defects- some of them due to the need of having first to estabhsh the facts — but whatever its value, it is at least the result of an independent study of the primary sources. Even in this short period — less than half a century from the time when the first invader set foot in Ireland — it is, I think, manifest that the most prominent effect of the Anglo-Norman occupation was not, as has been represented, an increase of turmoil, but rather the introduction over large parts of PREFACE 11 Ireland of a measure of peace and prosperity quite unknown before. I have not thought it part of my duty to pass moral judgements on anybody. Such judge- ments, even if unwarped by prepossessions, usually ignore historical perspective and take little account of the moral standards of the period, and are therefore not only unfair but uninstructive. The most important function of an historian, after he has carefully ascertained the facts of a case, is to understand them in their relation to other facts, and to give an intelligible account of the whole. To understand an action he must regard it from the point of view^ of the actor and with reference to the circumstances in which the actor stood. When he has really done this he will seldom care to pass severe moral judgements. More often he will find that ' tout comprendre est tout pardonner GODDARD H. ORPEN. To Mr. Mills and Mr. McEnery, of the Public Record Office, Dublin, I owe thanks for their courtesy and assistance, and in particular for letting me use not only the original Gormanston Register, but also some proof- sheets of the forthcoming Calendar to the Register which is being prepared in the Office. To the National Library of Ireland I am much indebted for the ease of of my researches among its well- arranged shelves. CONTENTS VOL. I PAGE Chief Governors of Ireland in the Reigns of Henry II, Richard I, and John . . .15 Table of the Descendants of Nest . . .18 Map showing principal Tribal Groups in the Twelfth Century CHAPTER I. Anarchic Ireland : Ninth to Eleventh Centuries ..... 19 11. Dermot, King of Leinster : 1126-66 39 III. Dermot SEEKS Foreign Aid : 1166-7 77 IV. Social and Physical Aspects of Ireland 101 V. The First Conquerors : 1167-70 141 VI. The Coming of Strongbow : 1170 VII. Strongbow as Dermot's Successor: 1171 221 Note : The time of the Norse Attack on DubHn 245 VIII. Henry II in Ireland: 1171-2 247 Note : Grant of Meath to Hugh de Lacy 285 IX. ' Laudabiliter ' 287 Note A : Date of Pubhcation of the Papal Privileges .... 312 Note B : Mr. Round's Position 317 X. Strongbow, Lord of Leinster : 1172-6 . 319 XI. The Sub-infeudation of Leinster 367 Note A : Strongbow's Grant of Aghaboe 394 Note B : Flemish Element among the Settlers 396 14 CONTENTS VOL. II CHAPTER PAGE XII. The Conquest of Ulster: 1177-85 . 5 XIII, The Occupation of Cork : 1177-85 . . 25 XIV. Hugh de Lacy, Lord OF Meath : 1172-86 . 51 Note : The gradual absorption of the See of Glendalough . . . . .71 XV. The Sub-infeudation of Meath . . 75 XVI. John, Dominus Hiberniae : 1185 . . 91 XVII. John de Courcy and Eastern Ireland : 1186-1205 109 §1. The succession of Chief Governors . 109 §2. John de Courcy as Justiciar and in Ulster 114 §3. English Uriel . . . .118 §4. Meath 126 §5. Dublin 129 § 6. The Crown Lands and Leinster . 132 § 7. The downfall of John de Courcy . 134 XVIII. The Occupation of Limerick : 1192-1206 145 XIX. William de Burgh in Connaught : 1200- 1206 . . . . . .179 XX. William the Marshal in Ireland : 1207- 1213 199 Note : King John's Charters of Leinster and Meath 233 XXI. King John in Ireland : 1210 . . 235 XXIL Episcopal Viceroys : 1210-16 . . 279 XXIIL After Fifty Years . . . .323 Map Illustrating the Norman Settlement, CIRCA 1216 INDEX 345 CHIEF GOVERNORS OF IRELAND IN THE REIGNS OF HENRY II, RICHARD I, AND JOHN Hugh de Lacy : appointed custos of Dublin (Gesta Hen. i. 30, Gir. Camb. v. 286) and justiciar ius Hiher- niae (Rog. Hoveden, ii, 34) in April 1172 ; summoned to Normandy, c. April (?) 1173. William Fitz Audelin : sent to transact the king's business, Regis loco et vice, c. April 1173 (see chap, ix, note A). He held office probably for about five months. Richard de Clare, Earl of Striguil : appointed custos regni c. August 1173 (Gir. Camb. v. 298, 'Song,' 2904-5); died c. June 1, 1176 (Gir. Camb. v. 332). Raymond Fitz William : appointed procurator provision- ally by the king's commissioners on the death of Richard de Clare (Gir. Camb. v. 334). William Fitz Audelin : appointed procurator by Henry, c. June 1176 (Gir. Camb. v. 334, Gesta Hen. i. 125). Hugh de Lacy : appointed procurator general, c. May 1177 (Gir. Camb. v. 347), or custos of Dublin (Gesta Hen. i. 164). At the same time Henry created his son John Rex Hiberniae, but it is probable that he did not interfere before 1185. John de Lacy, Constable of Chester ] jointly appointed c. May 1, 1181 (Gir. Camb. v. 355), or as custodes of Dublin (Gesta Hen. i. 270). Hugh de Lacy : re-appointed in the winter of 1181-2 (Gir. Camb. v. 356). Richard de Pec curam regiminis. 16 CHIEF GOVERNORS OF IRELAND PHiLir OF Worcester : appointed procurator, c. Sept. 1, 1184 (Gir. Camb. v. 359). John Filius Regis : in Ireland as dominus from April 25, 1185 (Gir. Camb. v. 380) to December 17, 1185 (R. de Diceto, ii. 39). John de Courcy : appointed by Henry, c. December 1185 (Gir. Camb. v. 392). He was still justiciar when John was Earl of Mortain (Reg. St. Thomas, p. 383). ? William le Petit : stated by Harris to have been Chief Governor in 1191. ? Peter Pipard : jiLSticiarius in 1194 (Marlburgh's Chronicle, Trin. Coll. Dub. MS. E. 3. 20, p. 135). Hamo de Valognes : justiciarius, 1196 (Annals of Inis- fallen) to c. 1198 (Papal Letters (Bhss), vol. i, p. 3). Peter Pipard ] joint justiciars, c. 1198-9 (Chart. William le Petit J St. Mary's, vol. i, p. 144 ; vol. ii, p. 28). Meiler Fitz Henry : his appointment as capitalis jus- ticiarius is entered on Rot. Chart. 2 John, but writs are addressed to him as justiciar from c. July 1199. He remained justiciar until the autumn of 1208, when he appears to have been superseded by Hugh de Lacy. Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster : probably Chief Governor for a few months from the autumn of 1208 (Annals of Inisf alien, and Harris). John de Gray, Bishop of Norwich : justiciar probably from the winter of 1208-9, when William de Braose seems to have fled to Ireland (Hist. Guillaume le Marechal, Rot. Misae, pp. 144, 149). 'King John : in Ireland June 20, 1210, to August 25, 1210 (Rot. de Prestito). John de Gray : remained as justiciar until superseded by Archbishop Henri de Londres, but he appears to have been summoned to attend the king on the Welsh campaign of 1211 (Four Masters, sub anno 1210, and CHIEF GOVERNORS OF IRELAND 17 cf. Roger of Wendover, vol. ii, p. 60), when Richard de Tuit was left as deputy in his stead ; and again in April 1213, when he attended the muster at Barham Down with 500 knights (Roger of Wendover, vol. ii, p. 67), and when probably Geoffrey de Marisco was his deputy. Henki de Londres, Archbishop of Dublin : appointed justiciar on July 23, 1213 (Rot. Pat., 15 John, p. 102). Geoffrey de Marisco : appointed justiciar on July 6, 1215 (Rot. Pat., 17 John, p. 148). The above list differs in several particulars from that compiled by Walter Harris in his edition of Ware's Anti- quities (1764), p. 102. Harris's list, though generally foUowed by later writers, can be shown to be incorrect in many particulars (see c. xvii, § 1). The principal authorities for the above list are in each case given. The only really obscure period is from the termination of John de Courcy's term of office to the appointment of Meiler Fitz Henry. 821379.1 B bC O C! o a ^ >. o ^ a CO O ^ la c £ ^ £) © ee o CO H < H O 01 H "I c s ^ o rr bc bO o © (N © bo «e a ^ 6 a © &i ti g eS CO O "11 sis I. © -r:r o o o Oh "* 00 J? c g bC 83 .© C C3 00 O £ o ■ © ^ © © C j3 00 o © © So. O S O CO o -1 — S -2 ? -So" I* « 2 o. ^ > 2 * I ° a)^ © 5 03 ^ O . ® S? c . tribes in Ulster (the modern province) were the Cinel Owen (seated in Tyrone and London- derry), the Cinel Connell (in Donegal), the Ulidians (in Down and Antrim), and the Oir- ghialla (or people of Uriel, i.e. Louth, Armagh, and Monaghan). There was really no recog- nized king of this province,^ though in general the king of the Cinel Owen, whose traditional seat was the fort of Ailech near Derry, was the most powerful ; but more often than not the kings of the other groups appear to have been quite independent of him, and whenever he claimed supremacy it was necessary to reduce them to subjection. Breffny, a district com- prising the modern counties of Leitrim and Cavan, with which at times parts of Longford were held, though nominally classed with Connaught, was often independent and even opposed to that province. The kingdom of Ossory, correspond- ing to the modern diocese of that name, and including besides Kilkenny the three western baronies of Queen's County, was sometimes claimed as subordinate to Munster and some- times as subject to Leinster, and yet was really more often independent of both. From the 1 Ancient Laws of Ireland, vol. iv, p. 51. ^ In the Book of Rights the kings of Ailech, of Oirghialla, and of Uladh are treated as co-ordinate and quite indepen- dent of each other. NINTH TO ELEVENTH CENTURIES 23 dawn of history for a period of six centuries (i. e. from the middle of the fifth to the middle of the eleventh century) the so-called kings of Leinster were almost without exception chosen from the groups of tribes that clustered round the Curragh of Kildare, and they seldom had any effective authority in Southern Leinster. When the tribe of Okinselagh, seated in the diocese of Ferns, gave kings to Leinster, the tribes of Leix, Offaly, Offelan, and Omurethy (i. e. Northern Leinster), as well as Ossory, were often opposed to them. Munster in later times was generally divided into Thomond or North Munster and Desmond or South Munster, and these districts were constantly at war with each other. Meath, the traditional seat of the ard-n, was more homogeneous, but its boundaries, though generally coinciding with the modern diocese, varied at different times. Dublin and the adjoining district were generally held in- dependently under the Danish kings, while, on the other hand, Offaly and Offelan sometimes gave hostages to the King of Meath. In the twelfth century Meath was again and again partitioned in the most arbitrary manner, and was more than once subjected to ' foreign kings '. But if the authority of the provincial kings Theau- was frequently defied, that of the ard-n or thearJ-n! supreme King of Ireland, if acknowledged at all. 24 ANARCHIC IRELAND was little more than nominal. The Book of Rights contains an elaborate account of the tri- butes stated to be due from the provincial kings (of which as many as twelve are enumerated) to the ard-ri, and from the sub-kings to the provincial kings, as well as of the ' stipends ' to be paid by the latter in each case to the former, but this elaborate account must be regarded as a claim put forward by a king of Munster who aspired to the head kingship of Ireland, rather than as a system ever regularly carried out. Certainly the supreme king could not count upon military assistance from the provincial kings even to resist an invasion of Ireland. Thus when Brian, always acknowledged to be the most powerful monarch Ireland ever had, summoned his great army to crush the Danes of Dublin and to repel the fresh Scandinavian hordes invited to the conquest of Ireland by Sitric, the northern province universally held aloof ; so did the King of Connaught with the major part of the province; while Leinster actually fought on the enemy's side.^ To the same weakness, as we shall find, must largely be ascribed the inability of Rory 0' Conor to cope with the handful of Norman knights who fought under Strongbow. The theoretical organization, then, of Ireland, consisting of five provinces ruled by five kings 1 Ann. Loch Ce, vol. i, p. 7. NINTH TO ELEVENTH CENTURIES 25 in subordination to a supreme king, did not in historic times square with the facts. If we Ireland a wish to get a truer idea of political forces in ofshfftJng Ireland, at any rate after the period of the ^'^^p^ Norse invasions, we must regard the country as split up into about 185 tribes, of which some were grouped together in comparative per- manence, and some were generally subordinate to the principal groups. But we must be pre- pared to find these tribes and groups of tribes ever and again forming new combinations of a more or less temporary nature, either by way of alliance or of conquest, and exercising an independent judgement as to joining or holding aloof from any particular general hosting. In fact the question of peace or war in any par- ticular instance seems to have been decided independently by each petty group of clansmen, and in their decision they appear to have been more often actuated by their own immediate interests, or even by their petty jealousies, than by any large survey of the good of the whole. If now we go a step further back and seek the cause of this — ^how it was that Ireland, even in the latter half of the twelfth century, remained in the tribal state, with one tribe or shifting combination of tribes incessantly at war with other tribes and combinations, while Europe generally was settling down into strong cen- tralized monarchies — we shall find that it 26 ANARCHIC IRELAND was because Ireland lay outside the march of (Jausesof events in Europe. Her Celtic immigrants had develop- brought with them from the common Aryan home a body of primitive custom, which had remained almost unchanged and had never been quickened in its development by contact with more advanced systems. She had never felt the shock of the Roman legions. Her institutions had never been pressed into a new mould by Roman law and government. She had never known the Pax Romana. She had, however, been happily exempt from the rush of barbarians which followed the downfall of the power of Rome in other lands, and to this is probably due much of her early civilization and comparative advance in the seventh and eighth centuries, when her missionary monks helped to preserve some of the learning of the past and to hand on the torch of a higher faith to succeeding generations. Christianity too had come to her gradually and peaceably, and had not been imposed by the sword of a conquering race from without, as was the case with the continental Saxons. It left her tribal system untouched, or rather the Church took the mould of the tribe, and the ' family of the saint ' was organized and held property somewhat on the analogy of that of the secular chieftain. Hence some of those ecclesiastical peculiarities which afterwards attracted so much attention. Had NINTH TO ELEVENTH CENTURIES 27 Ireland been allowed to go her way unheeded by Europe, she might in time, and after much suffering, have evolved a better ordered system with some hope of progress in it, and the world might have seen a Celtic civilization where Celtic imagination and Celtic genius, free and unfettered, would assuredly have contributed something towards the solution of human problems, which, as it is, mankind has missed for ever. But it was not to be. In the ninth ^.^^^ and tenth centuries the ' Land Leapers ' from the North, ' merciless soure and hardie,' swept across the land, pillaging, burning, and destroy- ing. The Irish, with their loose tribal organiza- tion, were incapable of offering an effective resistance. The same cause, by a curious com- pensation, saved them from final defeat and subjugation. There was no national army which, once destroyed, would leave the country open to the invader. There was no capital city, the taking of which would mark the down- fall of the national government. There was little to plunder except in the ecclesiastical centres. So the Northmen never subjugated Ireland, nor made it a Scandinavian kingdom. They finally settled down in the walled towns they had built on the sea-coast, and from Pagans and pirates became Christians and traders. But the evil they had done lived after them. Their example in plundering churches 28 ANARCHIC IRELAND and monasteries, to which art, learning, and cul- ture were largely confined, was only too aptly followed by the Irish themselves. The march of Irish civilization was arrested, nay, put back. The primitive literature of Ireland, which seems to have survived her Christianization, and even to have been preserved in the vernacular by Christian writers, was to a large extent lost. The authority of the ard-ri, never very great, was diminished, and was only co-extensive with his might. The power of the subordinate chiefs was increased, the influence of the Church, which even at home had never advanced beyond the missionary stage, was on the wane, and the turmoil and anarchy were greater than ever. But, it may be said, the Scandinavian inva- sions came to an end. The power of the North- men was finally crushed at Clontarf, and there remained a century and a half before Ireland was again interfered with by any extern power. Why did she not evolve into something great in this time ? Why did she not at least con- solidate herself into one nation ? The battle of Clontarf marks an important epoch in Irish history, but not exactly in the way in which it is popularly remembered. It certainly did not rid Ireland of ' the foreigners '. The Norsemen remained as before in possession of the walled city of Dublin and of the sea-board NINTH TO ELEVENTH CENTURIES 29 towns which they had created on the east and south coasts, whence they dominated the adjoin- ing districts, and occasionally joined in the internal contests of the Irish themselves. It is true that the defeat put an end to the last great attempt of the Scandinavian race to gain the upper hand in Ireland. Just at the moment when the Danes in England were succeeding in uniting all elements under one powerful monarchy, and making her for the first time in history one nation, all chance (if chance there were) of a like result in Ireland was at an end. But, indeed, the wise government of Swegen and Cnut succeeded in winning the allegiance of the various kingdoms of England because they were akin to the English. They brought no novel institutions w^ith them, above all no novel system of land tenure, and even their language was closely allied to English. Their kinsfolk would have had an incomparably more difiicult task in Celtic . Ireland, and they could hardly have succeeded where the Normans ulti- mately failed. At any rate, for good or for evil, the possibility of a Scandinavian domina- tion of Ireland was at an end. Yet it may be questioned whether the result of the battle was not in other respects more disastrous to the conquerors than to the conquered. The battle of Clontarf marks the downfall of the hopes of Brian to establish a strong monarchy in 30 ANARCHIC IRELAND Ireland, and the failure of the most promising attempt ever made to make Celtic Ireland a nation. Whatever Brian's motive may have been, whether purely patriotic or largely per- sonal, he went nearer to effecting this great object than any Irishman before or since. When no more than a sort of outlaw with a handful of followers in the wilds of Thomond, Brian is said to have spurred on his brother Mahon to declare undying war to the foreigners, and to have aided him to win back his province of Thomond from their clutches. On succeeding in 976 to his brother's throne, he amply avenged his brother's treacherous murder and forced all Munster to acknowledge him as king. In 999 he defeated the men of Leinster and their allies the Norsemen of Dublin at Glenmama.^ Then, not hesitating in pursuit of his great object to ally himself with the foreigners, he entered Meath and forced the ard-ri Malachy to yield to him the crown of Ireland (a. d. 1002). Finally, still accompanied by the Norsemen, he marched triumphantly through the north of Ireland ^ and 1 As to the site of this battle see Journ. R. S. A. I., vol. xxxvi (1906), p. 78. 2 There is an interesting proof of Brian's visit to Armagh on one of these expeditions (Four Masters, 1004) in the shape of an entry in the Book of Armagh made in conspedu Briani imperatoris Scotorum, recognizing the supremacy of the see of Armagh : Facsimiles Nat. MSS. Irel., vol. i, pi. XXV. NINTH TO ELEVENTH CENTURIES 31 obtained successively the hostages of theUHdians, the Cinel Owen, and the Cinel Connell. Having thus by the right of the sword made himself master of Ireland, he used his power well. A glowing picture of Brian's rule is given us in what may be regarded as a 'Brian Saga ' ^ : — He proclaimed peace throughout Erin. He hanged and killed and destroyed the robbers and thieves and plunderers of Erin. He ex- tirpated, banished, and ruined the foreigners in every district. He killed their kings and their chieftains, their men of renown and valour. He enslaved their stewards and their mer- cenaries, their comely, large, cleanly youths, and their smooth, youthful maidens. So that after the banishment of the foreigners the poet sang : From Tory island to pleasant Cleena, While carrying with her a ring of gold. In the days of Brian, the brilliant, the fearless, A woman might wander alone through Erin. He rebuilt churches and sanctuaries, destroyed by the Norsemen. He purchased books beyond the sea to supply the place of those that had been burned and ' drowned ' by the plunderers. By him were erected the church of Killaloe,^ and the church of Inish Caltra, and the bell- 1 Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, R. S., pp. 136-40. 2 Not, of course, any part of the existing cathedral, but perhaps the stone-roofed church of St. Flannan with its early Romanesque doorway, which still stands close by. 32 ANARCHIC IRELAND tower of Tomgraney, and many other works. By him were made bridges and causeways and high roads. He strengthened the duns and fastnesses and islands (crannogs) and royal forts of Munster ; and continued in this way, peaceful and prosperous, for twelve years ^ in the chief sovereignty of Erin. Making large allowances for the poetry and partisanship of the passage condensed above, there seems no reason to doubt that Brian laid the foundations of a real monarchy in Ireland. But Brian fell at Clontarf, and the edifice he had commenced fell with him. He left no successor strong enough to maintain the position he had won for himself with the sword. Nay, the very success of his career made it much more difficult for even any of the legitimate line of titular monarchs to make his rule a reality. Few pages of Irish history are more bitter reading for ireat- an Irishman than those which tell of the sub- ^e^vic- sequent fortunes of the shattered battalion of tors of Dalcassians, the brave remnants of Brian's Clontarf. own tribe. No sooner had they buried their dead on the field of battle than dissensions, we are told,^ broke out among the leaders of Brian's army. Cian, son of MoUoy, and Donnell, son ^ The writer says ' for fifteen years But Brian cannot be said to have been King of Ireland until after the deposition of Malachy in 1002. 2 Wars of the Gaedhil with the GaiU, pp. 212-16. NINTH TO ELEVENTH CENTURIES 33 of Duvdavorenn, leaders of the men of Desmond, took counsel together against the Dal Cais ; and the men of Desmond, noting how few of the Dal Cais had survived and how many of them were wounded, said one to the other — ' The attention of Brian's son will be on you to seek for lordship and power such as his father had, and should he reach his home it will be more difficult to meet him than now.' Accordingly they demanded hostages of Donough, son of Brian, and insisted on the observance of the rule according to which the sovereignty of Munster should belong alternately to the Eoghanachts and Dal Cais, tribes which drew their descent respectively from Eoghan Mor and Cormac Cas, sons of Oilioll Olum, King of Munster in the third century — a rule which had already been ignored when Brian succeeded his brother Mahon. But Donough replied that it was not voluntarily they had been subject to his father nor to his father's brother ; for the whole of Munster had been wrested by Brian from the foreigners, when the men of Desmond were unable to contest it with them, and he refused to give them hostages. There- upon the men of Desmond arose and took their arms to give battle to the Dal Cais, and badly would the latter have fared, brave as they were — their very wounded, we are told, stuffed their wounds with moss and insisted on standing by 821379.1 ^ 34 ANARCHIC IRELAND their comrades — only that their treacherous foes fell out amongst themselves over the division of the expected spoils. ' Wilt thou give me an equal division of half Munster, as much of it as we may both conquer ? ' said Donnell, son of Duvdavorenn. ' That will I not give, indeed,' said the son of Molloy. ' If thou give it not, then,' said Donnell, ' on my word I shall not go with thee against the Dal Cais, because I am not better pleased to be under thee than under the son of Brian Borumha, unless for the profit of land and territory for myself.' Thus the conspiracy fell through, and before the year was out a battle was fought between the conspirators, and Cian, son of Molloy, and two of his brothers were slain, and ' a prodigious slaughter ' was made around them.^ In the following year Donnell, son of Duvdavorenn, led an army to Limerick to challenge the Crown of Munster, but he was defeated and slain by the sons of Brian. ^ Thus ended this conspiracy, but it was not the only piece of treachery that the heroes of Dal Cais had to meet on their return from Clontarf. They had reached the ford across the Barrow at Athy, and had refreshed themselves with the waters, and had cleansed their wounds, when they found Donough, son of Gillapatrick, King of Ossory, with the men of Leix, lying in 1 Ann. Ulster, 1014. 2 ibid. 1015. NINTH TO ELEVENTH CENTURIES 35 wait for them in battle array on the further side, ' for they were natural enemies to each other.' The men of Ossory straightway de- manded hostages, which Donough O'Brien indignantly refused. When the wounded men heard of this demand, ' their strength and their fury grew so that every man of them was able for battle,' and they bade their com- rades drive stakes into the ground ' to which they could put their backs standing during the battle '. The men of Ossory, however, intimidated by this wonderful courage in the Dal Cais, both whole and wounded, declined the battle. This whole story, embeUished as it doubt- less is to heighten the glory of the Dal Cais, shows clearly the evil results to the country at large of the clan system. The chieftain, if he did not fight merely for his own hand, had no higher conception of duty than to increase the power of his clan ; with this object in view, he was stayed by no scruples. The clans- man, while ready to lay down his life for his chief, felt no enthusiasm for a national cause. The sentiment for ' country ', in any sense more extended than that of his own tribal territory, was alike to him and to his chief unknown. Just as Brian had disturbed the old rule of alternate succession in Munster between the c 2 36 ANARCHIC IRELAXD The hi^h- descendants of Cormac Cas and those of Eoghan S^^a ^lor, so, but v^-ith still more fatal effect, he had ^tm^i^st. P^^^ ^^^^ custom, acquiesced in for upwards of five centuries, according to which the ard-ri of Ireland was chosen alternately from the two great houses of the Hy Xeill race, or descendants of Xiall of the Xine Hostages, King of Ireland at the close of the fourth centiu^y. Henceforth the prize of the sovereignty of Ireland was open to all comers. What Brian had won by the sword an O'Brien, or an 0* Conor, or a ^lac Murrough, might van by the same means. For the moment the deposed King Malachy was allowed to resume the cro^ra which he had been forced to peld to Brian. There is evidence indeed that the succeeding generation regarded Brian as a mere usurper. For just as EngUsh jurists speak of the year of the Restoration as the twelfth year of Charles II, ignoring the intervening rule of CromweU, or as French Royahsts regard the period 1793-1814 as part of the reign of Louis XVIII, so the amiaUst Tigernach, who died in 1088, takes no account of Brian's reign, but states that Malachy reigned for forty-three years, just as if there had been no interruption, and in this reckoning he is followed by the amiaUsts generally.^ From the death of Malachy (1022), however, up ^ Aim. Tigernach, 1022. So Ann. Clonmacnois, Ann. Ulster, Ann. Loch Ce. NINTH TO ELEVENTH CENTURIES 37 to the year of Dermot's expulsion (1166), there never was a universally acknowledged king of Ireland. In the phrase of the annalists, there were only kings co fressahhra, ' with oppo- sition.' At first perhaps Donough, Brian's son, who High had foully got rid of his elder brother Teig, was ^th the chief aspirant to the throne, but he never ^^^^f' obtained the submission of either Ulster or Connaught, and his nephew Turlough O'Brien, aided by his foster-father Dermot Mac Maelnamo, waged constant war with him, until at length, in 1064, Turlough wrested the crown of Munster from his uncle's grasp. Even before this Dermot Mac Maelnamo, King of Leinster and Dublin, was the most powerful of the provincial kings, and by some is reckoned King of Ireland,^ but in 1072 he was defeated and slain by Conor O'Melaghlin, King of Meath, son of Malachy. Turlough O'Brien was now styled King of 1 See Ann. Clonmacnois, 1041, where the criterion of an ard-ri co fressahhra is given. The name Maehiamo (pro- nounced with a short penultimate), in Irish Mdel na mho, probably means ' chief of the kine '. Cf. Mdel-duin, ' chief of the fortress,' Mdel doborchon, Mdel milchon, ' chief of the otters ' and ' greyhounds ' respectively. Mdel properly means ' bald '. When used with a saint's name, as in Mdelpatric, it means the tonsured one (i.e. servant) of the saint. Like the Welsh moel it is often applied to a bare hill or mountain- top. The transition from the head or top of a man or mountain to ' head ' in the sense of ' chief ' is easily paralleled. 38 ANARCHIC IRELAND Ireland ' with opposition '. He, too, failed to exact hostages from Ulster. He died in 1086. His son, Murtough O'Brien, was opposed by Donnell O'Loughlin, King of Ailech or Ulster, who now revived the almost lapsed claims of the royal line of Niall Mor. They fought almost incessantly for a quarter of a century without decisive result. Both are claimed by their respective partisans as kings of Ireland. A new claimant now appeared in the person of Tur- lough 0' Conor, King of Connaught, in whose time we first hear of Dermot Mac Murrough. CHAPTER II DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 1126-66 To follow the fortunes of Dermot Mc Murrough prior to his expulsion in 1166 will lead us into a tortuous maze of inter-provincial and inter- tribal fighting, but if we wish to understand the causes which led to his expulsion and — what is more important — gain even a glimpse of the anarchy that revelled throughout Ireland up to the coming of the Normans, we cannot entirely pass over this page of history, amply evidenced as it is by unimpeachable Irish authorities. We shall, however, omit to notice all fighting except what had a direct bearing on Dermot's position and fortunes, and merely endeavour to piece together what remains into an intelligible narrative. Dermot was son of Donough Mc Murrough, Dermot's King of Southern Leinster, and was born in slain 1110.^ His father was one of a long line of kings of Okinselagh, who in recent times had ^ This date follows from the statement in the Book of Leinster (f . 20) that Dermot died in the sixty-first year of his age. See Song of Dermot, note to 1. 1729. 40 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER won recognition as Kings of Leinster and of Dublin, and who once at any rate, in the person of Dermot, son of Maelnamo, had even aspired to the overlordship of Ireland. This Donough McMurrough, Dermot's father, was slain in 1115 in the battle of Dublin by Donnell, son of Murtough O'Brien, and the Foreigners of Dublin.^ Giraldus says that the citizens of Dublin mur- dered Dermot' s father while sitting in the hall of one of his chief men which he used for his court of justice, and that, adding insult to injury, the citizens buried him along with a dog. There is no authority in the annals for these particulars, which are, however, repeated by Keating, and were probably current in Leinster as part of the story in Giraldus' s time. Donough McMurrough was succeeded by another member of the family, and then by his son Enna, both of whom are styled kings of Leinster. Enna died in 1 126, and was immediately succeeded as lord of Okinselagh by Dermot, then in his seventeenth year.^ ^ Ann. Tigemach [under this head I refer to the con- tinuation of Tigemach's annals, 1088-1178, one of the most valuable native authorities for this period, edited by W. Stokes in Revue Celtique, vol. xviii], Ann. Ulster, &c. Donough McMurrough was two years in joint kingship with Conor O'Conor, King of Offaly, when they were both slain : Book of Leinster (Facsimile, p. 39 d). ^ According to the Book of Leinster, Dermot reigned forty-six years. His reign must therefore have been reckoned from the year 1126. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 41 The youthful King of Okinselagh had, however, a long struggle before he was the acknowledged King of Leinster. For the past decade Turlough Turlougii O' Conor, King of Connaught, had been striving aimsar to reduce the provinces of the south of Ireland, throne, with a view to gaining for himself the practically vacant throne of Ireland. His general method was to harry each province in turn, force it into submission, and then divide it between two or more kings. But the process had to be repeated in each case more than once. In 1115 he divided Attempts Meath between two of the O'Melaghlins, one of Meath whom immediately killed the other. ^ In 1118 Munstei. he divided Munster, which had been united since the time of Brian Borumha, between an O'Brien and a Mc Carthy, and hurled the royal palace of Kincora, ' both stone and wood,' into the Shannon.^ In 1120 he expelled Murrough O'Melaghlin, the surviving King of Meath, and when the so-called ard-ri, Donnell O'Loughlin, came to his assistance, Turlough made a ' false peace ' with them.^ Five years later he again expelled Murrough O'Melaghlin and placed three kings over Meath, one of whom was immediately killed.* Again and again Turlough constructed 1 Ann. Tigernach, Four Masters, 2 Ann. Tigernach. ^ Ann. Ulster, Ann. Loch Ce, Ann. Tigernach, 1120. 4 Ann. Ulster, 1125. The continuator of Tigernach says that Turlough divided Meath into four parts and gave one 42 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER a wicker bridge across the Shannon at Athlone and defended it with a fortress, in order that, as one annaUst puts it, ' he might at his pleasure have access to take the spoils of West Meath,' ^ but each time, at the first opportunity, the king of the country thus threatened destroyed both bridge and fortress. In 1121 he laid waste Desmond ' from Magh Feimhin to Tralee, both lands and churches, namely, seventy churches or a little more ', until, in the simple but expres- sive words of another annalist, ' he caused the people of Munster to cry aloud.' ^ In the same year he made another plundering excursion as far as Lismore and ' obtained cattle-spoils in- numerable On his next expedition in 1123 to Desmond he was bought off with hostages, including the king's son, but before another year was out he had the usual ground — a general rising against him — for putting the hostages to death.^ Upon the death of Enna McMurrough, King of Leinster, in 1126, Turlough made a hosting part to Tieman O'Rourke, who now ' submitted to him and made an alliance with him as to doing his will '. 1 Ann. Clonmacnois, 1132. Turlough made at least four other bridges for plundering purposes at Athlone (Four Masters, 1120, 1129, 1140, 1155), and each time the bridge was destroyed within a few years. 2 Ann. Ulster, Ann. Tigemach (continuation). ^ The fullest account is given by the continuator of Tigemach. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 43 into Leinster and exacted hostages. In the Sets up course of the same year he deposed ' the son Leinster of MacMurrough presumably Dermot, and set (^^^e-S) up his own son Conor as King of Leinster and DubUn, to which position, of course, he had no sort of hereditary or elective claim. This is only one out of many examples of the forcible breaking up of the old rules whereby the provincial kings were chosen from certain ruling families of the leading tribes of the province. If the plan had succeeded it might have formed part of the meritorious policy of consolidating Ireland under one king, but it was premature and utterly failed. In the same year Tur- lough formed a great encampment in Ormond from August 1 to February 1, a veritable pirates' nest, from which he sent out plundering parties to Connello (co. Limerick), Glanmire (co. Cork), and to the south of Ossory, ' and carried off many kine and a great number of captives '. This was the signal for ' a great storm of war throughout Ireland in general not to be allayed by Cellach, the co-arb of St. Patrick, though he was for a year and a month endeavouring to pacify the country.^ The men of Munster and of Leinster once more revolted against Turlough, and their hostages were again forfeited. The Leinstermen deposed 1 Ann. Tigemach, Ann. Loch Ce, Ann. Ulster, Four Masters, 1126. 44 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER the king that had been forced upon them, but in 1127 they had to accept another nominee of Turlough, namely Donnell son of Mac Faelain.^ He came of a family from which several kings of Leinster had been chosen in the centuries which preceded the rise to power of Okinselagh, and he might have been ultimately accepted by the North Leinster clans ; but the young prince of Okinselagh, in whose family the sovereignty of Leinster had been for three- quarters of a century, was not prepared to waive his claims. Accordingly, in 1128 Turlough made a foray-hosting into Okinselagh, to Wexford, and thence round Leinster to Dublin, and wrought great destruction of cattle on the route ; ' but the ill-fame of that hosting,' we are told, ' rested on Tiernan O'Rourke.' ^ Thus early do we find the King of Connaught and Tiernan O'Rourke in hostile relations with Dermot. It does not appear whether Dermot formally submitted to Turlough at this time. Probably he did or was ignored, as we do not hear of his taking any steps to assert his claims for some years. He was probably biding his time until he should be strong enough to assert his rights. andthe ^^^^ deed, which may have had a political abbess of motive, is ascribed to him, or at least to his Kildare. ^ Ann. Ulster, 1127, where see editor's note. 2 Ann. Ulster, Ann. Loch Ce, 1128. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 45 tribe. When Donnell son of MacFaelain was set up as king by Turlough 0' Conor fighting took place between the tribes of Offaly and Offelan as to which of the two tribes should have the appointment of the new abbess of Kildare, and Carroll, the new king's brother, was slain.^ Three years later Dermot appears to have settled the question in a peculiarly revolting fashion. The house of the abbess was captured and burned by the men of Okinselagh and many were slain, ' and the nun herself was carried off a prisoner and put into a man's bed.' ^ The motive was evidently similar to that which induced so many in high position to blind their rivals when they got them into their power — namely, while keeping clear of actual murder, to incapacitate the victim from holding office. Probably the appointment of the successor of St. Bridget was regarded as a prerogative of the King of Leinster. Meanwhile Turlough 0' Conor continued his Tur- merciless raids on Munster by land and sea. iaufs In 1127 he drove Cormac McCarthy into the monastery at Lismore, and divided Munster into two (or three) parts ^ and carried off thirty 1 Ann. Ulster, 1127. 2 Ann. Loch Ce, 1132; cf. Ann. Clonmacnois, 1135. Neither the Four Masters nor the continuator of Tigemach have this entry. That in the Annals of Ulster is defective. ^ Ann. Tigemach. The Four Masters say that Turlough divided Munster into three parts. 46 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER hostages. He had a fleet of 190 vessels on Lough Derg, and from this base devastated the adjoining cantreds of Munster. His fleet was an important element in his destructive strength, and it was not only on the Shannon that he had ships. His sea-fleet plundered as far as Tory- Island and Tirconnell in the north and Valentia and Cork in the south. ^ But we need not follow Turlough in his raids any further. During a long reign of fifty years he was perhaps the most turbulent of his contemporaries, but it must not be supposed that much better conditions Fighting prevailed under rulers elsewhere. In the north fise-^^ the Cinel Owen were repeatedly fighting with the men of Uladh and with the Cinel Connell, and the subordinate clans were frequently at war with each other. Meath was almost incessantly fighting with Connaught, and Tiernan O'Rourke was always joining in, first on one side and then on the other, according as he saw some momentary advantage to be gained by himself. Meath was itself split into opposing factions, and Munster was only once able to combine to resist Turlough' s oppression. To return to Dermot McMurrough. In 1134 he suffered a defeat at the hands of the men of Ossory, but later in the same year, aided by the Ostmen of Dublin, he avenged himself by 1 Four Masters, 1130. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 47 inflicting a slaughter on Conor O'Brien, the men of Ossory, and the Ostmen of Waterford.^ Dermot was now a prince whose alUance was Dermot worth seeking. In 1137, accompanied by his power, late opponent Conor O'Brien, and aided by the ^' Ostmen of DubUn and Wexford with a fleet of two hundred ships, he laid siege to Waterford, and obtained the hostages, not only of that town, but of Donough Mc Carthy (perhaps one of the 1 Ann. Loch Ce, 1134. In the Annals of Tigemach this war is ascribed to the maledictions of the clerics of Ireland and Connaught, uttered apparently at the time of the consecration of Cormac's chapel at Cashel, which took place earlier in the year. The entries are misplaced and probably incomplete, but a careful reading will, I think, show that the facts as originally recorded must have been as follows : — At the time of the consecration a peace was arranged between Connaught and Leth Mogha (or Southern Ireland) by the Archbishop of Connaught and the co-arb of St. Jarlaith of Tuam. The Dalcassians, however, could not resist the temptation to destroy or otherwise desecrate the cathach of St. Jarlaith. [' The cathach ' was a reliquary brought into battle to ensure victory, and the Dalcassians no doubt attributed their numerous defeats to the virtue of this reliquar}^]. Thereupon the archbishop and the co-arb of St. Jarlaith (who had brought the cathach with him) pronounced a malediction on the Dalcassians, which was fulfilled within the year by Conor O'Brien's defeat and by a slaughter of the Dalcassians inflicted by the men of Desmond ; cf. Chronicon Scotorum, 1130, where, however, the editor misunderstands the word cathach. The O'Don- nells also had a cathach (Ann. Ulster, 1497), which contained a copy of the Psalter believed to have been written by St. Columba. It is now in the Library of the R J.A. The Cinel Owen probably had another : Ann. Ulster, 1182. 48 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER kings set up by Turlough O'Conor in 1127) and of the neighbouring district of the Decies. But more than this. According to the Four Masters, Conor O'Brien gave hostages to Dermot and submitted to him as king in consideration of Dermot' s securing to him the obedience of the Mc Carthys of Desmond.^ Hi« About the same time Dermot made a treaty defensive alliance with Murrough O'MelaghHn, King of Meath, O'Meiagh- whereby Dermot, quite after the manner of modern principaHties and powers, undertook to come to Murrough's assistance with his forces and at his own charges ' against any one with as great an army provided that Murrough would be pleased to suffer him to enjoy with- out disturbance the territories of Offelan and Offaly. These territories in the north of Leinster had recently been burnt and spoiled by the men of East Meath.^ In 1138, in pursuance of this treaty, Dermot came to the assistance of the King of Meath against the formidable combina- tion of Turlough O'Conor, Tiernan O'Rourke, and Donough O' Carroll of Uriel, who once more ' mustered their forces to contest unjustly his own lands with O'Melaghlin '. The two armies ^ Four Masters, 1137. It does not appear that Dermot did anything further to carry out this agreement. Next year Cormac McCarthy was treacherously killed by Turlough O'Brien, Conor's brother, and in 1139 the Clann Carthy were expelled from Munster by the race of Brian. 2 Ann. Clonmacnois, 1136. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 49 Leinster. were encamped for a week in close proximity, but eventually separated without a battle and without one giving hostages to the other. ^ Dermot, though now a power to be reckoned ^^^^^Jj^*"^ with in the south of Ireland, had enemies within with the his own borders. Among these were Donnell nas of MacFaelain, Murtough Mac Gillamocholmog, and Murrough 0' Toole, all lords of North Leinster tribes. They belonged to families which from the seventh to the middle of the eleventh cen- turies had habitually supplied kings of Leinster, and they no doubt resented Dermot' s claim to be their overlord. Donnell MacFaelain is styled by the Four Masters righdhamhna of Leinster.^ This term, usually anglicized Roydamna, has been translated ' royal heir ' and even ' crown prince ', but these are most misleading render- ings. The word means literally ' the makings of a king ', and a roydamna might more properly be regarded as a fully qualified candidate for the succession to the throne if a vacancy should occur. How exactly he was marked out from the rest of the rigraid or kingfolk is obscure. He was certainly not regularly elected by the tribes concerned, as the ' tanist ', an officer of a later period, was. There might be more than one roydamna at the same time. Indeed, at 1 Four Masters, 1138. 2 He was presumably the Donnell son of Mac Faelain set up as King of Leinster by Turlough O'Conor in 1127. 821379,1 J) 50 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER the period of which we speak at any rate, it would seem that the provincial kings themselves were seldom formally elected. They appear usually to have had to fight their way to the throne, battle-axe in hand. The roydamnas, as may well be imagined, were often objects of jealousy and suspicion to the monarch even after he was seated on his throne. So now Dermot got rid of his possible rivals in the ruthless way not unusual among the provincial kings, namely by either killing or blinding them. In the year 1141 seventeen of the kingfolk of Leinster, including those above mentioned, were ' removed' for him in this way by his brother Murrough,^ an act which in the words of one chronicler ' brought all Leinster far under hand Thus did Dermot, like many of his compeers, secure his throne with the corpses and pierced eye-balls of his rivals. One horror, however, often added in the case of other kings, was wanting in his case. The slaughtered and mutilated victims were not of his own household. Dermot' s alliance with Conor O'Brien did not last long. In 1141 Conor forced the Ostmen against ^£ Dublin to submit to him, and in the Dermot. ' ^ Ann. Tigernach, 1141. This, our best authority, ascribes the act to Murchad son of Murchad, but on the cui bono principle we cannot acquit Dermot (to whom the Four Masters and the Annals of Clonmacnois ascribe it) of responsibiUty for the crime. t ■onor OBrien turns DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 51 same year a great army led by the O'Briens raided first Connaught and then Okinselagh as far as Wexford.^ Next year Conor O'Brien died, and the sovereignty of all Munster was assumed by his brother Turlough. He proceeded to carry on incessant war with Connaught. Dermot Dermot now was either forced or found it prudent to holtages give hostages to Turlough O' Conor and join o'Conor. him in a fruitless march into Munster, with the result that his territory was immediately raided by Turlough O'Brien.^ Murrough O'Melaghlin, King of Meath, no O'Meiagii- lin im- longer supported by Dermot, was now treacher- prisoned ously taken prisoner by Turlough O'Conor f^ugh"^ ' while he was under the protection of the relics ^'^^"^^ and guarantees of Ireland '. A long list of these relics and guarantees is given by the Four Masters ; ^ but no oaths, however sacred, bound Turlough O'Conor, who in an unscrupu- lous age seems to have been pre-eminent in unscrupulousness. He gave the kingdom of Meath, ' from the Shannon to the sea,' to his own son Conor, who, however, was killed next year by one of his new subjects, ' for he considered him as a stranger in sovereignty over the men of Meath.' * The kingdom of Meath was now once more the subject of forced partitions and reparti- tions. After delivering a battle ' like the Day 1 Four Masters, 1141. 2 Ibid. 1142. 3 1143 4 Ibid. 1144. D 2 52 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER of Judgement ' on the unfortunate Meathmen, Turlough divided East Meath between Tiernan O'Rourke and Dermot Mc Murrough, while both remained under his protection.^ We can imagine what the result of this arrangement might have been had it lasted for any time. But it was set aside within the year. The clergy, headed by the honoured name of Gilla Mac Liag or Gelasius, Co-arb of St. Patrick, or, as we should say. Arch- bishop of Armagh, now intervened. The Church had been directly outraged by Turlough' s action towards his son Rory, the future ard-rl, whom he had imprisoned in 1143 in violation of its protection, as well as by his action towards Murrough O'Melaghlin, and no doubt the clergy sincerely desired to stay the incessant wars which were reducing Ireland to sheer anarchy. A great hosting and convention of the clergy was now held, and Rory, at their intercession, was set free. This was followed by a great assembly of the men of Ireland convened by the two Turloughs at Terryglas in Ormond, wPiere, in accordance with the wishes of the clerics and laymen, ' they made the perfect peace of Ire- land so long as they should be alive '. One immediate consequence was that Murrough O'Melaghlin was restored. He had, however, to share his kingdom with his son Murtough, and Meath had to pay an eric of 400 cows for the 1 Ann. Tigernach, Four Masters, 1144. DEEMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 53 killing of Turlough's son. Leinster would seem not to have been included in the peace, as it was raided in the same year by Turlough O'Brien. Indeed the ' perfect peace ' did not last a twelvemonth. In the very next year Renewal (1145) there was great war, 'so that Ireland ^ was a trembling sod ' convulsed by the move- ments of the Kings of Connaught and Munster and Meath and Breffny.^ As Dermot was not concerned, beyond having his territory again raided by Turlough O'Brien, we, happily, may pass over these convulsions. A new power soon appeared on the scene. Muitough Since the days of Donnell O'Loughlin, the un^vfws northern province, though its various tribe- ^f^^^^^^"^ groups fought frequently amongst themselves. North to sove- had seldom interfered in the disputes of the rest reignty. of Ireland. But now Murtough son of Niall O'Loughlin, King of the Cinel Owen and repre- sentative of the claims of the northern Ui Neill to the crown of Ireland, comes prominently into notice. After a succession of campaigns, 1 147-9, he subdued the Ulidians and obtained their hostages, and th-e Oirghialla (or men of Uriel) and the Cinel Connell submitted to him. Next Tiernan O'Rourke and Dermot McMurrough ' came into his house ', the usual expression for submission. In 1150, when he is styled by the Four Masters King of Ireland, he made a royal 1 Ibid. 1145. 54 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER journey into Meath, where the hostages of Connaught were brought to him without a hosting — a significant proof of his power. He divided Meath between 0' Conor, O'Rourke, and O' Carroll; and 'through the curse of the co-arb of Patrick and the clergy ', Murrough O'Me- laghlin was once more banished. But Turlough O' Conor never really submitted to him while life lasted, nor did Turlough' s great enemy and namesake, Turlough O'Brien. The end of the latter' s power, however, was at hand. In 1151 Turlough 0' Conor led an army into Munster and, joined by Dermot Mc Murrough and others, met the army of Turlough O'Brien at Moinmor, and cut them to pieces. ' Until sand of sea and stars of heaven are numbered,' says one annalist, ' no one will reckon all the sons of kings and chiefs and great lords of the men of Munster that were killed there, so that of the three battalions of Munster that had come thither none escaped save only one shattered battalion.' ^ The rape We have now reached the year 1152, when ^^P^ Dervorgil took place. In this year the two most powerful chieftains in Ireland, Murtough O'Loughlin and Turlough 0' Conor, met and ' made friendship under the Staff of Jesus and under the relics of Columkille '. Afterwards, in company with Dermot Mac Mur- rough, they made a new division of Meath, ^ Ann. Tigemach, 1151. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 55 restoring Murrough O'Melaghlin to the western half, and putting his son MelaghUn over the eastern half. Tiernan O'Rourke, who had claims upon Meath under former partitions, did not accept this new arrangement. He was defeated by the new alliance, and even his territory of Conmaicne (the present county of Longford and the southern half of Leitrim) was taken from him and given to a more amenable member of the family, and a stronghold of his, Daingean Bona Cuilinn,^ near the Shannon, was burned. It was on this occasion that Dermot carried off Dervorgil, his old enemy's wife, with her cattle and furniture, the lady consenting to the abduc- tion, and her own brother Melaghlin, the new king of East Meath, instigating Dermot to the act ' for some abuses of her husband, Tiernan, done to her before \^ Violent and bad a man as Dermot undoubtedly was, he was not worse or more violent than Tiernan O'Rourke. We first hear of the latter in the year 1124, when he had a son old enough to be killed, apparently in battle, and from that time to the day of his death there is hardly a year in which a predatory excursion or some killing or fighting by him is not recorded. Though he married the daughter of Murrough O'Melaghlin, King of Meath, he ^ Now Dangan, in the parish of Kilmore, county of Roscommon (O'Donovan). 2 Four Masters, Ann. Tigernach, Ann. Clonmacnois, 1152. 56 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER was always fighting against the O'Melaghhns, raiding their territory, and aiding in and pro- fiting by the numerous partitions to which that unhappy kingdom was subjected. No wonder the O'Melaghhns distrusted and hated him. In 1140 his own subjects expelled him, but he recovered his chieftainship again. In 1152 he must have been at least sixty years of age, while his rival Dermot was forty-two, and Dervorgil herself had attained the ripe age of forty-four.^ It is impossible that in an age of lawless violence, treachery, and loose sexual relations,^ this elope- ment or abduction of a faithless wife could have been regarded as a very serious moral offence. To O'Rourke, however, it was a grievous persona] insult, and one which he seems never to have forgotten or forgiven. That it was the sole cause of Dermot' s expulsion fourteen years afterwards, as stated both by Giraldus and by the writer of the Song of Dermot, and affirmed by by some of the Irish annals,^ is, considering the lapse of time, too much to assert ; but by making a mortal enemy of Tiernan O'Rourke, who, as we shall see, was the actual agent of Dermot' s expulsion, it directly contributed to that result, 1 She died in 1193 at the monastery of Melhfont, in the eighty-fifth year of her age. 2 In this very year the great synod of Kells, under Cardmal Papiron, found it necessary to pass enactments against concubinage and irregular unions. Four Masters, 1152. ^ Ann. Clonmacnois, 1164; Ann. Tigernach, 1166. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 57 and we cannot wonder that the popular imagina- tion should have exaggerated the personal element in the cause, and that a later age should have seen a dramatic fitness in the consequence. Next year Tiernan O'Rourke submitted to Deivorgii Turlough 0' Conor and left him hostages, and 0' Conor marched against Dermot and took away Dervorgil and her cattle from him, ' so that she was in the power of the men of Meath.' ^ According to a subsequent entry in the Four Masters she returned to her lawful husband.^ There seems no reason to doubt that she con- tinued to live with him. We next hear of her in the year 1157 as a benefactress of the newly consecrated church of the Cistercian Abbey at Mellifont, near Drogheda. To it she gave ' three score ounces of gold, and a chalice of gold on the altar of Mary (to whom these churches were usually dedicated), and a cloth for each of the nine other altars that were in that church '. Her husband, Tiernan O'Rourke, was present among other kings and seventeen bishops, together with the legate and the Archbishop of Armagh, on the consecration day when these ^ O'Conor marched to a place called Doire-an-ghabhlain, ' the oak wood of the Fork,' which O' Donovan failed to identify. Perhaps it is the place now called Old Gowlin, on the western side of Blackstairs. 2 Cf. Ann. Tigemach, 1153 : ' The daughter of Murrough O'Melaghlin came again to O'Rourke by flight from Leinster.' 58 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER munificent gifts were made.^ Recent excava- tions on this site disclose the base of a magnificent cruciform ^ building of the transition period, which must, however, represent a later construc- tion. Ten years afterwards, Dervorgil com- pleted the church of the Nuns at Clonmacnoise,^ the remains of which to this day afford a beautiful example of the Hiberno-Romanesque style. In 1186 she retired from the world to the monastery she had endowed at Mellifont,* and here, in the eighty-fifth year of her age, in the year 1193, she died.^ The To return to Dermot. In 1153 we find him of^dtd? releasing from fetters O'More, the lord of Leix, throne nominally subordinate chieftains, after he had been blinded against the guarantee of laity and clergy.^ To blind a chieftain was to render him incapable of ruling, and this par- ticularly odious method, as it seems to us, of incapacitating rivals and opponents was only too common in this age. In this very year, for in- stance, Melaghlin, son of Murrough O'Melaghlin, who now upon his father's death claimed to be sole king of Meath, blinded his nephew, son of his elder brother, to put an end to rival ^ Four Masters, Ann. Tigernach. 1157. 2 Fifty-fifth Report, Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland, 1887. ^ Four Masters, 1167. 4 Ann. Loch Ce, Ann. Ulster, 1186. 5 Ibid. 1193. 6 Four Masters. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 59 claims, and Teig O'Brien, who had been set up as king of half Munster by Turlough O'Conor, was blinded by his brother to incapacitate him from reigning. In 1136 Turlough O'Conor bHnded his own son Hugh, no doubt because he was considered dangerous. And when his son Rory, or Roderic (as he is usually called), the last king of Ireland, succeeded him, his first act was to imprison three of his brothers and to blind the eldest. This revolting practice was not peculiar to Ireland. The Welsh chronicles at this period ^ contain numerous entries of the same barbarity, to which was sometimes added a further mutila- lation to make sure that the blind victim, already incapacitated from ruling, should leave no children after him to avenge his wrongs. We find even Henry II adopting the custom of the country and, in his rage at his want of success against the Welsh, blinding his hostages, sons of the Welsh chieftains.^ As regards the blinding of hostages, however, it must be borne in mind that this punishment was, perhaps not un- naturally, regarded as more merciful than putting them to death, and the system of taking hostages for good behaviour would have been unmeaning if, on breach of the conditions, punishment in some form had not followed. The blinding of rivals was a consequence of the custom by which 1 Brut y Tywys. for the years 1110, 1124-8, 1151. 2 Ibid. 1164 {recte 1165). 60 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER the chief was chosen from the recognized ruhng family or famihes. All who were eligible were naturally suspicious of each other. For the next three years Der mot's power, at no time very great, seems to have been on the wane. In 1154 he was defeated by the men of Ossory, and his territory of Omurethy was Death of plundered by Tiernan O'Rourke. In 1156, o^Conor!^ however, Turlough 0' Conor died, and there was 1156. ^ re-arrangement of parties. In spite of his almost incessant plundering (to no good purpose) of four-fifths of Ireland, and in spite of his cruelty, treachery, and general unscrupulousness, Turlough O' Conor is magniloquently described as ' the Augustus of the west of Europe, flood of glory and princeliness and veneration for churches and clerics, head of the prosperity and wealth of the world, one who so long as he was alive never lost a battle or a hard conflict, the one man coming from the blood of Adam's children whose mercy and bounty, charity and generosity, were best.' ^ This extraordinary obituary notice is followed by a recital of Turlough' s dying muni- ficence to the Church, which msiy account for the extravagance of the monkish eulogy. After the lapse of seven and a half centuries we too may forgive Turlough much, and remember him as the young King of Erin for whom ' the cross ^ Ann. Tigemach, 1156. The Four Masters repeat most of this eulogy. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 61 of Cong ' — one of the noblest surviving examples of native Irish craft — was made in the year 1123.^ Just before Turlough 0' Conor's death, Tur- Rc- lough O'Brien was forced to give him hostages ment^of for half Munster, and on Rory O'Conor's acces- P^^^^^^- sion to the throne of Connaught Turlough sub- mitted to him. Tiernan O'Rourke, too, had made a temporary peace with Turlough O'Conor.^ Dermot, on the other hand, soon afterwards gave hostages to Murtough O'Loughlin, now un- questionably the most powerful king in Ireland, and Murtough in return secured to Dermot his whole province of Leinster.^ A dispute was going on as to the kingship of Meath between Dermot O'Melaghlin and his brother Donough. The latter had been appointed king by Murtough O'Loughlin in the previous year, but had been deposed by the Meathmen. He was now assisted by Dermot McMurrough and the Ostmen of Dublin to defeat Tiernan O'Rourke and regain his kingdom. Then followed a struggle for power between Rory and Murtough, which we need not follow in detail. They did not at first meet in battle, but each king in turn made a foray-hosting to support his own nominees in Meath and Munster and depose the nominees ^ Ann. Tigernach, 1 123. Let us try too to remember the name — Maelisa, son of Bra tan O'Echan — of the wonderful craftsman who made the shrine. 2 Four Masters, 1156. ^ Ann. Ulster, 1156. 62 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER of his rival, with consequent turmoil, fighting, and plundering among all concerned. In 1159 Tiernan O'Rourke definitively cast in his lot with Rory 0' Conor and turned against Murtough O'Loughlin, but the latter for the time crushed the combination at the bloody battle of Ardee, and asserted his supremacy over nearly all Ireland.^ This victory was followed up by host- ings into Connaught and Meath, and finally, in 1161, Rory gave hostages to Murtough.^ Dermot was now secure in his kingdom of Leinster, and high in favour with the northern Activity powcrs, both lay and clerical. The latter indeed, northern Under GiUa Mac Liag or Gelasius, Archbishop clergy. ^£ Armagh, come very much into evidence about this time. In 1157 the clergy, assembled to consecrate the church of the Cistercian monas- tery at Mellifont, excommunicated Donough O'Melaghlin, King of Meath, for a recent offence to the Church, and he was banished for a, time. In 1158 Gelasius held a synod in Meath, when riaherty O'Brollaghan, Abbot of Derry, was given a bishop's chair with jurisdiction over all the Columban communities throughout Ireland.^ And now, in 1162, a synod of the clergy of Ireland was held at Clane, on the Liffey, in the presence and under the protection of Dermot McMurrough. ^ Ann. Ulster, Ann. Tigernach, Four Masters, 1159. 2 Ibid. 1161. 3 Ann. Ulster, 1158 ; cf. ibid. 1161. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 63 It was presided over by Gelasius, and attended by twenty-six bishops. The synod formally abolished the ' scandalous custom which had been vehemently denounced by St. Bernard, whereby the co-arbship of St. Patrick at Armagh passed by hereditary succession for fifteen generations, and in eight cases had been filled by married laymen. They also endeavoured to secure uniformity of doctrine and the supre- macy of Armagh by providing that no one should be a lector (fer leginn) in any church in Ireland except an alumnus of Armagh.^ In this year Dermot obtained great sway over the Ostmen of Dublin, ' such as was not obtained before for a long time.' Upon the death of Grene (or Gregory), the Bishop of Dublin and Archbishop of Leinster, who, like his predecessors, had been consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lorcan 0' Toole, son of the King of Omurethy and Abbot of Glendalough, was consecrated Archbishop of Leinster by Gelasius. Lorcan was Dermot' s brother-in-law, and may have owed his elevation to Dermot' s influence both with the Ostmen and with Gelasius and the ard-ri. To this period must be ascribed Dermot' s grant of Bahdubgaill (Baldoyle) to the Priory of All Hallows, close to Dublin.^ 1 Ann. Ulster, 1162. 2 Reg. All Hallows (Irish Arch. Soc), p. 50. L[aurentiu.sJ, Archbishop of Dublin, is the first witness. 64 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER U" Lough - For a few years there was no change in the politi- cal situation. O'Loughlin continued to hold the commanding position and to support Dermot in the possession of Leinster, but there was no real settlement or lasting peace. Rory 0' Conor and Tiernan O'Rourke were merely biding their time and watching for an opportunity to crush their foes. The opportunity came in the fateful year 1166. theKing^ O'Loughlin had more than once had occasion of I'lidia. assert by the strong hand his supremacy over the kingdom of Uladh or Ulidia, a district represented by the modern counties of Down and Antrim. In 1165 the people of this region turned against O'Loughlin, who accordingly entered their territory with a large army, harried the land, killed a countless number of the inhabitants, and expelled the king, Eochy Mac Dunlevy. Later on in the same year, at the intercession of Donough 0' Carroll, Prince of Uriel, Mac Dunlevy was restored to his kingdom, on giving as pledges a son of every chieftain in Ulidia and his own daughter to O'Loughlin.^ The very next year, however, Eochy Mac Dunlevy was blinded by O'Loughlin, and some of the principal men of Ulidia were put to death ' in despite of the protection of the successor of Patrick and of the Staff of Jesus and of Donough O'Carroll, King of Uriel '.^ 1 Ann. Ulster, 1165. - Ann. Ulster, 1166. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 65 This base act of treachery and violation of oaths and guarantees was immediately followed by the defection of Ulidia and Uriel from O'Loughlin, and led to his defeat and death soon afterwards. It was also the signal for Rory Rory O' Conor to assert his supremacy, and for ^sS^to^ Tiernan O'Rourke to avenge himself upon his p^^'®^- enemy, Dermot Mac Murrough, now deprived of O'Loughlin's powerful protection.^ O'Conor, accompanied by O'Rourke, marched through Meath, where he received hostages from Dermot O'Melaghlin, to Dublin. The Ostmen of Dublin submitted to him, and he was there inaugurated king ' as honourably as any king of the Gael was ever inaugurated '.^ From thence, accom- panied by the Ostmen, he went to the monastery of Mellifont, near Drogheda, and received hostages from Donough 0' Carroll, King of Uriel. It was Attacks 1 -r\ Dermot the turn of Lemster next, and Dermot, unsup- and de- ported by his great ally, and not able to count him."^^ on the fidelity of the Leinster tribes, could only 1 I follow the order of events as given by the continuator of Tigernach (1166), where they form a consecutive narrative. With this the Annals of Ulster agree in the main, but the Four Masters give the entries as to the killing of O'Loughlin and 0' Conor's incursion into Tirconnel before his march on Meath, Dublin, Uriel, and Leinster. 2 Four Masters. The continuator of Tigernach says that the Foreigners gave the kingship to Rory, and he gave 4,000 cows to the Foreigners. This enormous ' stipend ' shows the political importance of Dublin at this time. 821379.1 -R 66 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER stand at bay in his hereditary prineipahty of Okinselagh. The Song of Dermot tells how one after the other of Dermot' s urrighs or sub- kings deserted him, and of his futile efforts to retain their allegiance. Rory marched through Leinster, where the petty Kings of Offelan and Offaly, always jealous of Okinselagh, at once submitted to him and received their stipends as his urrighs, Dermot endeavoured to stay his progress at a wood called Fid Dorcha, ' the dark wood,' which appears to have been the gate of Okinselagh in the north,^ but 0' Conor forced the pass. Dermot, in desperation, and that there might be the less for his enemies to plunder, burned the royal city of Ferns, and gave four hostages to 0' Conor, and ' got no glory save the corpses of the men of Okinselagh '.^ With this submission O' Conor appears to have been satis- fied. He did not recognize Dermot as King of Leinster, from which position he had been de facto deposed, but he left him in possession of his hereditary principality of Okinselagh, and, taking hostages from Ossory on the way, returned home to Connaught. He remained, however, only ^ This ' dark wood ' was probably the woody fastness afterwards kno\\Ti as ' the Leverocke ', co. Carlo w : Dym- mok, Tracts I. A. S., vol. ii, p. 26 ; Car. MSS., No. 635. It lay about Clonegal (Fiants Ehz. 4918, 5344, and cf. Inquis. Lageniae, Carlow, 6 Car. I), and it was necessary to traverse it to get to Ferns from the north. 2 Ann. Tigernach, 1166. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 67 four nights in his house, when he fared forth on a hosting to Assaroe, where the Cinel Connell submitted to him. During his absence there, Donough 0' Carroll and Tiernan O'Rourke, at the instigation of the Cinel Owen themselves, who had abandoned their lord, marched with their forces into Tirowen to take vengeance on O'Loughlin. O'Loughlin, now under the ban o'Lough- of the Church, and more completely deserted by nee.^^"' his own men than even Dermot, was slain at a place called by the Four Masters Leiter Luin, somewhere in the Fews of Armagh. ' A great marvel and wonderful deed was then done : to wit, the King of Ireland to fall without battle, without contest, after his dishonouring the successor of Patrick, and the Staff of Jesus, and the successor of Colum-cille, and the Gospel of Martin, and many clergy besides.' ^ It is a common form with the annalists to His fail attribute to a miracle or to the supernatural aWe to^ agency of the offended saints the deaths of ^q^^^^^ persons who had outraged the Church, whether by plundering church property or by killing those under its special protection. In the case of Murtough O'Loughlin, however, there are substantial grounds for attributing the sudden and complete collapse of his hitherto irresistible power to the action of the clergy of the north of Ireland, and especially to that of Flaherty 1 Ann. Ulster, 1166. E 2 68 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER O'Brollaghan, the co-arb of Columkille. The entry in the Annals of Ulster continues as follows : — ' Howbeit his body was carried to Armagh and buried there, in spite of the co-arb of Columkille with his community ; and Colum- kille himself [i. e. the co-arb ?] and the head of the students of Derry fasted ^ regarding it, i. e. regarding his being carried to [Christian] burial.' There are many indications that about this period the Church in Ireland was endeavouring by every means in its power to bring about a higher standard of fair dealing between man and man, and to enforce a more rigorous fidelity to the plighted word. Dermot, weakened and humiliated by the defection of the Ostmen, the north Leinster tribes, and Ossory, and by the loss of his great protector in the north, was not long allowed to remain in possession even of the territory of his own group of tribes. Tiernan O'Rourke, fresh from his victory over O'Loughlin and confident in the support of O'Conor, was not the man to let slip the opportunity of paying off an old score. Accordingly he made an alliance with Dermot O'Melaghlin, whose territory in Meath he had frequently harried and claimed as his own, and towards whose house, in spite of his marriage alliance, he had been a lifelong foe, and their ^ This is a late example of the custom of fasting to compel the granting of a request, as to which see infra, p. 106. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 69 united forces, accompanied by the Ostmen of Dublin and the revolted Leinstermen, made a hosting against Dermot Mc Murrough, ' in order to take vengeance upon him for O'Rourke's wife.' This is the motive expressly assigned for the hosting by our best authority, and we may well believe that it was the one which mainly actuated Tiernan O'Rourke ; but other motives probably influenced his allies. Dermot O'Melaghlin, for instance, had an old score of his own to wipe out, for Mc Murrough had more than once supported the rival claims of his brother, Donough O'Melaghlin, to the throne of Meath. Besides, Dermot O'Melaghlin had just taken hostages from Offaly and Offelan, and probably aimed at securing for himself a large slice of Dermot' s lost kingdom. The Ostmen and the North Leinster tribes always chafed under the yoke of Okinselagh, and had many deeds of violence to avenge. In the face of this combination Dermot, deserted even by some of his immediate neighbours, and feeling that resistance was useless, fled over sea, hunted out of Ireland by his relentless foe. The victorious army proceeded to demolish Dermot' s stone house {tech cloiche) at Ferns, and to burn the wooden defences of his entrenchment (longport). The leaders then divided Okinselagh between Donough Mac Gillapatrick, King of Ossory, and Murrough Mc Murrough, Dermot's brother, and 70 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER sent their hostages to Rory O'Conor.^ Enna McMurrough, Dermot's son and roydamna of Leinster, did not escape, but was captured by the King of Ossory, and in 1168, after Dermot's return, was bUnded by his captor. Rory 0' Conor had now no rival to the throne of Ireland, and he soon afterwards made a ' great army-circuit and obtained hostages from all the principal tribe-groups of Ireland except the Cinel Owen, and even from these he exacted hostages in the next year. Dermot's Such is the brief outline of Dermot's political c rime. ^i^^ surroundings up to the time of his banish- ment. It is usual to describe him as a particu- larly turbulent, cruel, and unscrupulous Irish king. But this description is certainly not borne out by the Irish annals. In turbulence, in the matter of plundering expeditions into the territories of others, in cruelty to kith and kin, in falseness to the sworn word, his record is far surpassed by those of at least half a dozen of his compeers. This was probably not due to any leanings towards moderation and virtue — when he had Normans to back him he was ready to use ^ Ann. Tigemach, 1166. The Four Masters speak of Murrough alone as being set up as king. Probably the district to the west of the mountains in the modem county of Carlow was annexed to Ossory. In 1169 St. Mulhns appears to have been under the domination of the King of Ossory (Song of Dermot, p. 85), and in 1170 O'Ryan of Odrone fought with Ossory against Raymond at Baginbun. DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 71 his power without scruple — but simply to weak- ness. Except in 1137, when he acted with Conor O'Brien and besieged Waterford, and again in 1151-2, when he gave hostages to Turlough 0' Conor, then regarded as ard-n, and acted with him against his own bitter foes, Turlough O'Brien and Tiernan O'Rourke, and perhaps once or twice when he defended Meath against O'Rourke' s aggression, he does not seem to have joined in any of the incessant fighting that went on outside his kingdom during the forty years of his rule. His own family and tribe were always loyal to him, and this can hardly be said of any other Irish king. A study of the annals shows that in Dermot's time, and indeed generally throughout history, Leinster was the weakest of the provinces. The tribes of North Leinster, of Ossory, and of Okinselagh, never willingly submitted to the same ruler. The Ostmen were in general practically independent, and Dermot, like most of his predecessors, had no really loyal followers outside his own tribe- group. He appears to have been frequently engaged in endeavouring to keep in subjection the various members of his kingdom and in repelling attacks from without, and had it not been for the powerful aid of Murtough O'Loughlin, who may be regarded as the legiti- mate ard-ri, he could not have held out as long as he did. After all is said that can be fairly 72 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER said, Dermot's great crime, for which his name has since been held in detestation, was bringing the foreigners into Ireland, the foreigners who came to stay and ultimately to rule. From this act he came to be known distinctively as Diarmait na nGall, or Dermot of the Foreigners, while his brother, who was set up as King of Okinselagh in his room, was called Murchadh na nGaedhal, or Murrough of the Irish. Dermot Howcvcr bad a man Dermot may have been, Hmrdr he was a munificent patron of the Church and was always befriended by his own clergy. About the middle of the century he founded the Cistercian abbey de Valle Salutis at Baltinglass, and the nunnery of St. Mary de Hogges, close to Dublin*^ To this nunnery he subordinated the cells of Kilclehin (Kilculliheen, just opposite Waterford) and Athady (Aghade, co. Carlow). Where Trinity College, Dublin, now stands he founded, shortly before his expulsion, the priory of All Hallows, and endowed it with the land of Baldoyle together with its men (serfs).^ About the same time he confirmed a gift of lands by Dermot O'Ryan, chief of Idrone, for the construction of a Benedictine monastery at Killenny (' Old Abbey,' now Barrow Mount, Co. Kilkenny) by a charter which is still extant.^ ^ Ware. 2 Reg. All Hallows, Dub. (Ir. Arch. Soc), p. 50. 3 Facsimiles Nat. MSS. Irel., pt. 2, p. Ixii. Both this DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 73 Finally, about the year 1161, he founded and endowed an Augustinian monastery at Ferns, near his own royal seat.^ The ruins existing on the site include an interesting example of the transition from the old Celtic round tower to the later square tower or belfry, viz. a tower square below and round above. At this abbey Dermot took refuge in the year 1166, after burning his house as already mentioned. The Song of Dermot supplies a graphic picture of the deserted king going about disguised as a monk and endeavouring vainly to rally his disaffected sub-kings around him. Dermot married Mor, only daughter of Mur- Dermot's tough O'Toole, King of Omurethy (or Southern Kildare), and sister of the famous Laurence O'Toole, Abbot of Glendalough, and afterwards (1162) Archbishop of Dublin. Six children of Dermot are mentioned. Three sons, namely, Donnell Kavanagh, an illegitimate son of whom we shall hear more, eponymous ancestor of the clan Kavanagh ; Enna, reputed ancestor of the Kinselaghs, taken prisoner in 1166 and blinded in 1168 by Donnell Mac Gillapatrick of Ossory; and Conor, put to death as a hostage by Rory and the last mentioned charter are witnessed by Dermot 's brother-in-law, Archbishop Laurence, i.e. in or after 1162. ^ See Dugdale, Mon. Angl., vol. vi, p. 1141, for this charter. It is witnessed by six bishops and by Laurence O'Toole while Abbot of Glendalough, i. e. before 1162. 74 DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 0' Conor in 1170. And three daughters, namely, Aife (Eva) afterwards married to Strongbow, Urlacam married to Donnell O'Brien, King of Thomond, and (probably) Dervorgil,^ married to Donnell Mac Gillamocholmog, a sub-king whose territory lay to the south-west of Dublin. These marriage connexions may have had something to do with the friendly relations which generally subsisted among Dermot's sons-in-law. Like other provincial kings, Dermot, when in power, no doubt had his court officials and household officers, but we know little about them. One of the witnesses to his Ferns charter is described as his chancellor. Maurice Regan, to whom we are principally indebted for the materials woven into the Song of Dermot, was his latimer, or Latin-writer, and appears as his confidential agent and messenger. In his All Hallows' charter Dermot speaks of Edan, or Aedh O'Kaelly (O'Caellaighe), Bishop of Louth or Clogher, as his spiritual father and confessor, and his foster-brother was an O'Caellaighe, pro- bably of the same family.^ Aedh Mac Criffan, ^ She is called Dervorgil filia or inien (inghen) Mac Murchada in Chart. St. Mary's, Dub., vol. i, Nos. 4, 5, 6. 2 The son of Dermot's foster-brother O'Caellaighe was one of the hostages killed in 1170 (Four Masters). The family was probably that of O'Caellaighe, kings of Upper Ossory in the twelfth century, the last of whom was slain in 1172 (Ann. Tigernach). This fosterage relationship probably explains the connexion of Dermot with the Bishop DERMOT, KING OF LEINSTER 75 who is believed to have superintended the compilation of the famous Book of Leinster, under Dermot's patronage, was his fer leginn or lector. This book, perhaps the chief treasure of Dermot's library, contains one of the most valuable collections of Celtic lore which have survived to us. In it Aedh is addressed by Finn Mac Gorman, Bishop of Kildare (who appears to have been the actual compiler of part of the book), as ' the chief historian of Leinster in wisdom, and knowledge, and the cultivation of books, and science, and learning '.^ We may here add the personal description of Dermot supplied by Gerald de Barry, who was intimate with those who had known him in the closing years of his life. ' Dermot was tall of ^pp.^j.. stature and of stout build. A man of warlike ance and character. spirit and a brave one in his nation, with a voice hoarse from frequent shouting in the din of battle. One who preferred to be feared rather than to be loved, who put down the nobles and exalted the lowly, who was obnoxious to his own people and an object of hatred to strangers. His hand was against every man, and every man's hand against his.' of Louth which puzzled the editor of the Register of All Hallows (see note,, p. 125). 1 See marginal note, Book of Leinster (facsimile), p. 288. CHAPTER III DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID 1166-7 From a place called Corcoran ' on the coast of Dermot Imokilly, a little south of Youghal, Dermot, the R^beit once powerful King of Leinster, on the first day Warding of August 1166, with some few followers, stole at Bristol, away, a fugitive from his native land. After a fair passage he landed at Bristol, even then an important port and commercial centre, and one well known to the Norse merchants of Dublin, Wexford, and Waterford. He and all his company were entertained by Robert Fitz Harding at his house near the monastery of St. Augustine, just outside Bristol. This fact, which we know from the Song of Dermot, is peculiarly interesting, for Robert Fitz Harding is a name well known in the annals of Bristol. ^ Song of Dermot, 1. 221. See this place identified, R. S.A.I. 1903, p. 418, and 1904, pp. 191-2. The chronicler says that Dermot brought with him * Awelaf Okinad e plus de seisante treis \ This last number seems to have been used at the time for any small figure, just as 60,000 seems to have been used for any large figure ; cf . Fantosme, 1. 161, meinsde seisante mil e plus de seisante treis, and see Round, Feudal ^ England, p. 291. 78 DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID He was an old man in 1166, having been born in 1085. He was reeve of Bristol and had purchased land in the immediate neighbourhood of the town, viz. the manor of Bedminster, including the vill of Redcliff on the other side of the river, and the vill of Billeswick to the south- west, where he had founded an abbey for Augus- tinian canons. He had supported Earl Robert of Gloucester and Matilda in the struggle with Stephen, and had won the favour of Matilda's son, who rewarded him with the fief of Berkeley. It was probably through the trading relations that had subsisted for some time between the Ostmen of Dublin and the merchants of Bristol that Dermot had become acquainted with the reeve of the latter town, and was able to count on his hospitality and friendship. These trad- ing relations afterwards supplied a motive for Henry's effort to colonize the depleted city of Dublin with his men of Bristol, and in this connexion it is worth noting that among the earliest citizens of the Anglo-Norman town was ' John son of Jordan son of Harding ',^ possibly a nephew of Dermot' s host. Dermot After staying a while in Bristol Dermot sum- from moned his followers and told them that he Henry II. j^^^ rcsolvcd to go to Normandy to hold parley with King Henry. Accordingly he journeyed to Normandy and set out to seek the king. ^ Hist, and Mun. Docs, of Ireland (Gilbert), p. 40. DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID 79 But the King of England was sometimes as hard to find in those days as a criminal in hiding is to-day. Where exactly Dermot came up with him is not clear, but it was somewhere in the more distant parts of Aquitaine.^ Henry, we know, was always on the move. His dominions extended from the Tweed to the Pyrenees, and throughout this vast region his busy mind and active body knew no rest. He spent the Christmas of 1166 at Poitiers and then went south into Guienne and Gascony. ' The Song ' indicates that Dermot had no small difficulty in finding him. He went ' up and down, forwards and back, he sent messages and made inquiries until at last he came up with him and gained audience. Now what induced Dermot to take this long Probable reasons and troublesome journey ? He would never for so have undertaken it unless he had good reason for believing that his suit would be successful. But what grounds had he for believing this ? Had he gone for assistance in the first instance, as he did afterwards, to South Wales, we could have easily understood his action. Again and again Norse and Irish of the east coast had ^ Giraldus (v. 227) says vaguely that Henry was ' in remotis et transmarinis Aquitannicae Galliae partibus'. The Song of Dermot (11. 258-9) seems to mention the place of meeting, but it is not easy to identify it. A une cite I'ad trove, Que seign esteit clame. 80 DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID assisted the Welsh, both against the Normans and in their own intestine feuds, and Dermot might well expect to receive from the Welsh payment in kind. Indeed we find a tolerably close connexion between Leinster and Wales reach- ing back to the dawn of history. But there was no such obligation on a Norman king ^ — rather the reverse — and no precedent for seeking aid in that quarter. It certainly looks as if Dermot knew of Henry's meditated expedition into Ireland, and had perhaps even heard of Adrian's Bull. At any rate, it is very probable that Fitz Harding knew all about Henry's designs. He was his intimate and trusted friend. When Henry was nine years old, Geoiffrey of Anjou had sent him to Bristol to his uncle, Earl Robert of Gloucester, and he lived in Bristol Castle for four years. Then was formed his friendship with Robert Fitz Harding, which remained unbroken for life. When Henry came to England again in 1152 he was assisted by Fitz Harding, who was rewarded, as we have seen, with the fief of Berkeley, and no doubt every time Henry went into Wales he saw Fitz Harding on the way. Fitz Harding, Henry's trusted and favoured ^ Some * ships from Dublin and other cities in Ireland ' had indeed come to assist Henry in his Welsh expedition of 1165, but these were fitted out by the Ostmen and not by Dermot. Brut y Tywys. 1164 {recte 1165). DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID 81 vassal, must have known of Henry's ambitious views with regard to Ireland, and it was prob- ably on Fitz Harding's advice that Dermot took the unprecedented course of appealing to the Angevin king. The Song of Dermot gives us an account of Hisinter- Dermot s mterview with Henry, it tells us Henry, how Dermot ' very courteously saluted him ' and then puts the following speech into Dermot' s mouth : — May God who dwells on high Ward and save you, King Henry, And likewise give you Heart and courage and inclination To avenge my shame and my misfortune That my own people have brought upon me ! Hear, noble King Henry, Whence I was born, of what country. Of Ireland I was born a lord. In Ireland acknowledged king ; But wrongfully my own people Have cast me out of my kingdom. To 3^ou I come to make plaint, good sire. In the presence of the barons of your empire. Your liegeman I shall become Henceforth all the days of my life. On condition that you be my helper. So that I lose not everything. You I shall acknowledge as sire and lord. In the presence of your barons and earls. However he phrased it, Dermot' s story fell upon willing ears. Henry had long cast hungry eyes towards Ireland. In the struggle with the 821379.1 F 82 DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID Welsh which had now been going on for three- fourths of a century, had not the Irish always harboured Welsh fugitives ? Nay, had they not frequently given active assistance to Welsh insurgents, and, worse still, supported rebellious Norman vassals ? Shortly after coming to the throne Henry had meditated an expedition into Ireland, and had obtained the famous Bull ' Laudabiliter ' sanctioning the invasion ; but the scheme, which was laid before a council at Winchester about Michaelmas 1155, did not commend itself to the Empress Matilda, and the expedition was postponed.^ No doubt pre- texts for war, when required, are in general easily manufactured, but here was an admirable one offered by Dermot, ready made to Henry's hand. For an exiled prince to seek restitution by aid of a foreign force was no unusual pro- ceeding, nor one repugnant to the average morality of the time. True, if such princes were wiser and more patriotic than their fellows, they might have learnt and observed the great historic lesson that such a course was a likely way to enslave both themselves and their country. The story of Vortigern and Hengist, whether true or false, was at any rate believed. 1 Robert of Torigny, p. 186, says that the project was not approved by the Empress Matilda, Henry's mother, and was postponed. The evidence as to Laudabihter will be considered later on. DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID 83 A similar story was told of the introduction of the Romans under Claudius into Britain. The Normans appear to have got their first foothold in South Wales on the invitation of a disaffected native chieftain, and Henry's expedition to Gwynedd or North Wales in 1157 was ostensibly undertaken to reinstate a dispossessed prince. But exceptional patriotism and exceptional wisdom are not to be looked for in banished princes. Even Harold, son of Godwin, did not hesitate in the year 1050 to seek Irish aid to restore him to the position from which he had been expelled. Instances of Irish tribes using the assistance of the Ostmen of Dublin and Waterford, or even invoking the aid of the northmen of the Isles,^ to get the upper hand over their fellow countrymen, are not rare, and at the great battle of Clontarf Irishmen fought on the side of Brodir and of Si trie. But if there was nothing peculiarly disgraceful to Dermot, according to the ideas of the time, in his applica- tion, there was certainly nothing to bring discredit on Henry in his listening to it and expect- ing to gain advantage to himself by acceding to it. Do ut des is an old maxim in international politics. Dermot's offer suited Henry's am- bitious projects much too well to be ignored, ^ In 1154 Murtough O'Loughlin hired the fleets of Aran, Cantire, Man, and the Scottish coast, to fight the fleet of Turlough O'Conor: Four Masters, 1154, F 2 84 DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID but at the moment Heiiry was unable to take full advantage of it. His contest with Becket, now in full swing, had stirred up many enemies against him, and his whole attention was devoted to counteracting their machinations. Henry Accordiuglv, as Henry was iust then unable gives . . Letters to Organize an expedition into Ireland on ]>rmot. Dermot's behalf, he did what he could in the circumstances to secure Dermot's allegiance and keep the opportunity open for carrpng out his o^^^l designs later on. He accepted Dermot's proffered homage and oath of fealty, promised to help him as soon as he could, loaded him with presents,^ and gave him Letters Patent - to the following effect : — ' Henry, King of England, Duke of Xormandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, to all his liegemen, English, Xormans, Welsh, and Scots, and to all nations subject to his sway, greeting. Whensoever these letters shall come unto you know that we have received Dermot, Prince of Leinster, into our grace and favour ; vrherefore whosoever within the bounds of our territories shall be willing to give him aid, as our vassal and liegeman, in recovering his dominion, let ^ The Pipe Roll of the 12th Hen. II records gifts to certain Irishmen. This perhaps refers to Dermot, who, according to Giraldus (p. 228), was ' regiae munificentiae donariis honoratus plurimum et oneratus.' 2 Gir. Camb. v. 227. DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID 85 him be assured of our favour and licence in that behalf.' Dermot then returned to Bristol, where he Dennot was again entertained by Robert Fitz Harding, Bristol, this time by Henry's express command. Here Dermot stayed for some weeks, and, having Henry's purse to draw upon, lived in good style. ^ From the ships trading with Ireland he was able to get news of what was going on in his own country and among his own people ; but though he caused Henry's Letters to be read in public, and made liberal promises of land and pay to all and sundry v/ho might help him, he failed in this quarter to obtain the aid he sought. Bristol at this time was a thriving and growing commercial town, and was hardly the place to yield adventurers of the type required by Dermot. At length, however, there came to him the man he wanted in the person of ^eets Richard Fitz Gilbert, called by his contem- bow. poraries Earl of Striguil and known to all time as ' Strongbow ', whose fortress of Striguil stood on the cliff overhanging the Wye, where the stately ruins of the castle of Chepstow now stand. Richard Fitz Gilbert came of the great family The do of Clare, so called from one of the many fiefs Waies. in Suffolk which had been given by William, the Conqueror to Richard's great-grandfather, who 1 Song of Dermot, 11. 300-5. 86 DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID was known in Normandy as Richard de Bienf aite. We first read of the de Clares in Wales in the reign of Henry I. About the year 1109, in consequence of the burnings and plunderings of Owain ab Cadwgan (of whom as the ravisher of Nest we shall hear again), Henry confiscated Cadwgan's territory in Ceredigion (Cardigan), and gave the lands to Gilbert, son of Richard de Bienfaite, known as Gilbert of Tonbridge, if he could win it.^ This practice of issuing ' terri- torial letters of marque ' was only too common with the Norman and Angevin kings, and we shall meet with parallels hereafter. Gilbert appears to have accomplished his purpose with some success, and to have built castles at the mouths of the rivers Ystwith and Teivi. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Richard Fitz Gilbert, afterwards created Earl of Hertford, who appears to have carried on the work of colonization and peaceful rule so successfully that this part of Wales was ' like a second England '.^ The accession of Stephen to the throne, however, threw all England into com- motion, and gave the signal in Wales for many attempts to throw off the yoke of the foreigner. The year 1136 opened with a successful out- break ^ against the Norman and Flemish settle- 1 Brut y Tywys. 1107, Ann. Camb, 1111. 2 Gesta Stephani, p. 12. 2 The authorities for this outbreak are Cont. Florence of DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID 87 merits in Gower, and soon afterwards Richard Fitz Gilbert was waylaid and killed, and the Welsh overran and ravaged all his lands in Ceredigion. In October in the same year, Stephen, Constable of Aberteivi (father of Robert Fitz Stephen, of whom we shall hear much), and the sons of Gerald the Steward (ancestor of the Geraldines of Ireland) met with a bloody defeat. The bridge over the Teivi was broken down, and * it was a wretched spectacle,' says one chronicler, ' to see crowds passing to and fro across a bridge formed by the horrible mass of human corpses and horses drowned in the river.' Stephen, after some un- availing efforts to recover the position, thought it prudent or necessary to leave the Welsh to themselves. Strongbow's father was Gilbert Fitz Gilbert, strong- younger brother of Richard, Earl of Hertford, father. He appears as owner of Striguil from perhaps as early as 1138, when he seems to have succeeded his uncle, Walter de Clare, the founder of Tintern. About the same time he was made Earl of Pembroke by Stephen.^ In 1144 he subdued Dyved (Pembrokeshire) and erected Worcester, 1136-7; Gesta Stephani, pp. 11-14; Brut y Tywys. 1135; Anii. Camb. 1136. ^ Ord. Vit. (Duchesne), p. 917. The statement that he held the office of Marshal has been shown to be founded on an error ; Round, Commune of London, p. 302. 88 DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID the castle of Caermarthen.^ In 1147 he broke with Stephen, who refused to give him the for- feited de Clare castles in England,^ and shortly afterwards he died. The sobriquet Strongbow appears to have been given in Wales to Gilbert Fitz Gilbert,^ but it has clung to his better known son, Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare, whose fortunes we shall have to trace. His mother was Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester. He succeeded his father as Earl of Pembroke, and with this title we find him as one of the witnesses to Stephen's proclamation of the Treaty of Wallingford, by which Henry was recognized as successor to the throne (1153).* We know little or nothing of him during the years that elapsed from the death of his father to his interview with Dermot Mac Murrough.^ It is probable that his earldom of Pembroke, 1 Brut y Tywys. 1144, Ann. Camb. 1145. 2 Gesta Stephani, pp. 127-9. ^ Ann. Camb. 1149, where he is described as ' Gilbertus comes qui Strongboga dictus est'. His son Richard is not called Strongbow by any contemporary authority. The earliest mention of the name appears to be in a Tinteni Abbey Charter (May 22, 1223), the correct text of which was given for the first time by Mr. Round, Commune of London, p. 309. * Rymer, Foedera, vol. i, p. 18. ^ We find Richard Fitz Gilbert and Roger, Earl of Clare, witnesses to a royal charter ' apud Dover in transitu Regis ' in January, 1156 : Eyton's Itin., p. 16. DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID 89 like others of Stephen's creation, was forfeited strong- bow's on Henry's accession, as he is always styled position. Earl of Striguil by contemporary writers. Gerald, in a series of punning antitheses which cannot be fully reproduced, describes him as ' a man whose past was brighter than his pros- pects, whose blood was better than his brains, and whose claims of succession were larger than his lands in possession As a past sup- porter of Stephen he was out of favour with the king, and from a variety of causes he had lost the lands in Dyved and Ceredigion and about Caermarthen, which had been won by his grandfather and held at times by his uncle and by his father. It appears that about the year 1158 Henry had re-granted the lands of Ceredigion to one Roger de Clare, who was probably second son of Richard of Tonbridge, and cousin of Strongbow. This may have been one of Strongbow' s grievances against Henry, as he no doubt considered that he had an hereditary claim to these lands. Rhys ap Gruffudd, Prince of South Wales, however, not satisfied with the territories assigned to him by Henry, had again and again overrun Cere- digion and burned the Norman castles there and in Dyved, failing only at Caermarthen itself. Indeed, owing to his patriotic energy the power of the Normans, and of their Flemish dependants throughout South Wales had been much curtailed. 90 DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID In 1165,^ in conjunction with the princes of Gwynedd and Powys, Rhys dared to withstand Henry in person, and the latter, after beating in vain against the rocks of Berwyn, had been obUged to retire without effecting anything. In the autumn of the same year the Lord Rhys took the castles of Aberteivi and Cilgerran and threw Robert Fitz Stephen, constable of the latter, into prison, and in the following year he successfully resisted the efforts of the Normans to recover the ground they had lost. Thus even if Strongbow in 1166 had not, strictly speaking, forfeited his claim to the lands in Ceredigion and Dyved, it seems pretty clear that he could have enjoyed no effective posses- sion of them. He appears, in fact, when Dermot met him to have been a man who, having been brought up to greatness, had fallen upon evil days, and who therefore was all the more ready to endeavour to repair his fortunes by a bold adventure in another country.^ As Lord Marcher of Striguil, however, he was still a power in the land ; and as a de Clare he had a name to conjure with. We may be quite sure, too, that in the incessant border warfare of South Wales he had gained an experi- ence in fighting against large bodies of light- armed, swift-footed, impetuous foes, in a diffi- 1 Brut y Tywys. 1164; Ann. Camb. 1166. 2 Wm. of Newburgh, vol. i, p. 167. DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID 91 cult country, which was afterwards invaluable to him under not dissimilar circumstances in Ireland. After a lengthy conference Dermot came to Agree- an agreement with Strongbow. The earl was strong-^ to collect a force and to come to Ireland in the ensuing spring to aid Dermot in recovering his throne, and in return Dermot was to give his eldest daughter Eva (Aoife) to the earl to wife and the succession of the kingdom after his death. Whatever might be said for the legality of this arrangement had Dermot been dealing with a Norman seignory, it was of course inoperative under Irish law, whereby the provincial kings were, in theory at any rate, selected by the tribesmen from one or more ruling families. Still, as the position of a new chief depended in the last resort on his power to compel recognition and the delivery of hostages, which were often not yielded until after a fierce contest, Strongbow may possibly have expected that the force of his arms, after winning the throne for Dermot, might be able to hold it for himself. But it is very improbable that he looked forward to occupying the precise position of a Celtic king. He expected rather to fill in Ireland a position similar to that which his father and grandfather before him had filled in Wales, and he only valued Dermot's under- taking in so far as it was likely to help him to 92 DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID win for himself that position. He was, in fact, Welsh about to extend to Ireland a method of acquisi- paraiiels. ^.^^^ ^ hich had already been successfully adopted in Wales. What title had he or an}^ Norman in Wales but the title of the sword, backed by the licence of a king ill recognized in Wales ? True, Norman and Angevin kings had more than once led armies into Wales, and had recently wrested from the native princes an unwilling homage and oath of fealty, but the royal armies had followed, and not preceded, the granting of the original licence and the victory of the private sword, and in the case of Ireland the royal armies would no doubt follow in the same way. Even the proposed native marriage had its successful precedent. It was in all probability largely owing to the marriage of Gerald of Windsor with the daughter of the King of South Wales that Gerald and the sons of Gerald had been able to hold their own in Dyved,^ whence other adventurers, uncon- nected with the native princes, had been again and again expelled. There was only one point in which the parallel was perhaps incomplete. ^ So Bernard of Xewmarch, who won for himseK the territor}^ of Brecknock, married a native ^vife, Xest, grand- daughter of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn : Gir. Camb. vi. 28. Similarly William Martin, grandson of Martin of Tours, strengthened his position in Kernes by his marriage with Angharad, daughter of Rhys ap Gruffudd : Owen's Pem- brokeshire, Preface, vii, and p. 39. DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID 93 Strongbow's grandfather, Gilbert de Clare of Tonbridge, had received a personal licence from his sovereign, Henry I, before he made sword- land for himself in Ceredigion, and so no doubt had most of the other adventurers in Wales. But the licence which Dermot had obtained from Henry II was in general terms and ad- dressed to all and sundry. It would be safer, therefore, to get special leave from the king before embarking on this new adventure ; other- wise the earl might forfeit the lands he already possessed, as well as those to which he had hereditary claims, without being allowed to retain those which he might acquire in Ireland. This thought seems to have made him hesitate and delay ^ for two years to fulfil his part of the bargain with Dermot. Meanwhile Dermot had to content himself Dermot r-, goes to with the conditional undertaking from Strong - South bow, and, despairing of obtaining further assis- tance in the neighbourhood of Bristol, he set out along the coast route through South Wales to St. Davids. Dermot probably took this journey, not, as Gerald suggests, for the pleasure of inhaling the scent of his beloved ^ The Earl of Striguil is stated to have formed one of the escort of the Princess Matilda on her leaving England, probably late in September 1167, for her marriage with Henry, Duke of Saxony : R. de Dice to, vol. i, p. 330. 94 DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID country, or of feasting his eyes with the sight of his native land (though the distance is such that it is difficult, even on the clearest day, to distinguish between mountains and clouds), but with the much more practical expectation of securing further aid either from the Welsh themselves or from the Norman adventurers still holding their own in those parts. Indeed it is possible that Strongbow himself may have directed him to this district, with which, as having been included in his lost lordship, he must have been familiar. Certain it is that the men whose services Dermot was now to secure, and who afterwards took so prominent a part in the invasion of Ireland, belonged to a family which had been long connected in feudal relation with the de Clares, though their kinsman, Gerald de Barry, takes no notice of the connexion. This remarkable family, though thorough Normans in character and training, were linked together by common de- scent from a Welsh princess, Nest, daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, the last independent king of South Wales, and grandfather of Rhys ap Gruff udd, who at this time, in the estimation of the Welsh, was the lawful prince. The pro- In an age and country of loose morals, this x^t.^ lady was perhaps conspicuous for her laxity. At one time she had a royal lover in the person of Henry I, by whom she had a son named Henry, DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID 95 who was slain in Anglesea in 1157.^ He left two sons, Meyler and Robert, both of whom settled in Ireland, the former figuring conspicuously among her early invaders and rulers. Early in the twelfth century, Gerald, younger son of Walter Fitz Other, castellan of Windsor, married Nest. We first hear of this remarkable man in Wales in the year 1097, when he was castellan of Pembroke under Arnulf de Montgomery.^ This castle was originally but a slender fortress surrounded by an earthen vallum and a palisade, as indeed we may be pretty sure were nearly all the first castles built by the Normans in Whales ; but its splendid position on a rock, washed on three sides by a pill or arm of the sea, rendered it strong enough to withstand more than one siege.^ Gerald's grandson, the his- torian Gerald de Barry, tells us that Gerald married Nest in order to make himself and his dependants more secure. There can indeed be little doubt that Gerald's union with a W^elsh princess was of material aid to him and his sons in holding their own among the warlike clans ^ Brut y Tywys. 1156; Ann. Camb. 1158; Gir. Camb. vi. 130. 2 Brut y Tywys. 1095. Gir. Camb. vi. 89. In 1102, at the time of his rebelhon against Henry I, Arnulf sent Gerald to Ireland to ask for the daughter of Murtough O'Brien, King of Ireland, in marriage and for miUtary assis- tance, both of which he obtained. Brut y Tywys. 1100. 3 Brut y Tywys. 1092, 1094; Gir. Camb. vi. 90. 96 DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID of South Wales. About the year 1 108 ^ Nest was carried off from her husband by Owain ap Cadwgan from the new castle which Gerald had just built at a spot called Kenarth, or Kengarth Bychan.^ The Chronicle of the Princes gives a graphic account of the rape, and we are left to suspect that in her case, as in that of Dervorgil, rajpta nimirum fuit quia rapi voluit, ' They took Nest with her two sons and a daughter, and also another son that he (Gerald) had by a concubine.' Who this last son was is not clear, but William, the eldest son of Gerald, is afterwards in the same chronicle called ' the Bastard '. Gerald de Barry, however, calls him the eldest son by Nest, and gives no hint of his illegitimacy. The other children may have been Maurice, ancestor of the earls of Leinster and of Desmond, David, afterwards Bishop of St. Davids, and Angharat, afterwards wife of William de Barry and mother of Gerald the historian. At least, these are all of Nest's children believed to have been children of Gerald. These children, shortly after Owain carried them off, were restored to 1 Brut y Tywys. 1106; Ann. Camb. 1110. Cenn-garth would mean an eminence which is enclosed or fortified, or has an enclosure or fortification upon it. Rhys, Arch. Camb., 1895, p. 23. From one of the later MSS. of the Brut this appears to have been regarded as referring to a rebuilding of Pembroke Castle itseK. But this is doubtful, and some think the site intended was that of Carew Castle. DEEMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID 97 their father at the intercession of Nest, who, we are told, said to Owain, ' If thou wilt have me faithful to thee and remain with thee, send my children to their father.' Whether she remained with Owain, who afterwards became a sort of outlaw and was finally killed by Gerald, or whether she returned to her husband, we are not told, but her ' faith unfaithful ' did not ' keep her falsely true ', for, in addition to three other sons and a daughter of doubtful paternity,^ she had a son by yet another husband or lover (it is uncertain which), namely Stephen, the Constable of Aberteivi, now known as Cardigan. This son was Robert Fitz Stephen, of whom also we shall hear much. He outlived his half- brothers, and may have been their junior. When Dermot was journeying through Wales, Agree- Robert Fitz Stephen was a prisoner of Rhys ap with Gruffudd.^ Rhys, as we have seen, was very gtephe much dissatisfied with the districts assigned to him by Henry in 1157, and had on more than one occasion opposed the king and ravaged the lands occupied by the Normans, especially Cere- digion. In the year 1165, in one of these efforts to recover his hereditary dominions, he took the castle of Cilgerran on the Teivi, a little above Cardigan, and imprisoned his cousin, Robert ^ Their names were William Hay, Hoel, Walter,- and Gledewis : Gir. Camb., De Rebus, vol. i, p. 59. 2 Gir. Camb. v. 229 ; Song of Dermot, 11. 374-99. 821379.1 G 98 DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID Fitz Stephen, its castellan. Gerald de Barry tells us that Rhys had just released Robert Fitz Stephen after three years' imprisonment, on condition that he would join him against Henry, a condition which Fitz Stephen was reluctant to perform. Now, however, at the intercession of David Fitz Gerald, Bishop of St. Davids, and of his brother Maurice, Rhys, at Dermot's request, consented to a new disposition of his prisoner. It was accordingly arranged that Robert Fitz Stephen and Maurice Fitz Gerald should cross over to Ireland in the ensuing spring to aid Dermot in recovering his territories, Dermot on his part promising to grant to them the town of Wexford with two adjoining cantreds in fee. This was obviously an arrangement to suit all parties. Rhys, who no doubt sympathized with Dermot, but was quite unable to spare any native troops, would get rid of a number of foreigners from his territories ; Fitz Stephen was to get his liberty without onerous conditions ; and both he and Maurice would have a better prospect of winning sword-land for themselves in Ireland than they had at that moment in Wales, where Rhys was carrying all before him, and was no longer leaving even his aunt's descendants unassailed. Dermot, on his side, was obtaining valuable aid at the cost of a town which did not belong to him, but was held adversely by the Norsemen, and of the adjoining DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID 99 districts, which, as lying between the two Norse toA\Tis of Wexford and Waterford, were probably at no time very remunerative to him. This arrangement having been made, Dermot Dermot ® . ® goes to proceeded on his journey to Ty Dewi, or St. St. Davids, the extreme western point of Wales, where he was only the distance of one day's sail from his hereditary kingdom. Here he was probably entertained by David Fitz Gerald, the bishop of the place, who, we are told, sympathized warmly with the unfortunate exile. The rule of celibacy among the clergy was not strictly observed in Celtic districts at that time, and the bishop had a son named Milo or Miles, who afterwards fought valiantly for Dermot, received from Strongbow a large grant of lands in Southern Ossory, and was the ancestor of the Geraldine barons of Iverk. The bishop's palace, the splendid ruins of which remain at St. Davids, was not then in existence, nor was the present beautiful cathedral. No doubt they were represented by more modest structures. The little river Alun still babbles by the cathedral close, but the famous slab that bridged it, the Lechlawar, has not only ceased to speak, but has ceased in any recog- nizable shape to exist. A few carved and inscribed tombstones have alone survived the wreck of centuries. Gerald's description of the surroundings is, however, still applicable. G 2 100 DERMOT SEEKS FOREIGN AID ' Menevia,' as he calls St. Davids, ' is situated in a most remote corner of land upon the Irish Ocean, with soil stony and barren, neither clothed with woods, diversified by rivers, nor adorned by meadows, ever exposed to the winds and tempests,' though happily no longer ' subject to the hostile attacks of the Flemings on one side and of the Welsh on the other '.^ The coast is rocky, but indented with numerous little bays and natural havens. From one of R«tums these Dermot embarked early in August 1167, H67^^^"^ and landing, perhaps at Glascarrig, on the coast of Wexford, made his way straight to Ferns. Why he did not wait to return in company with his promised auxiliaries is not clear. His bold resolve can hardly have been due merely to impatience at the sufferings of his continued exile, as stated by Gerald. It is more probable that it was owing to the receipt of intelligence of a movement in his favour among his own tribesmen. Certainly we hear of no opposition from his brother, Murrough ' of the Irish who had been set up as king in his room, nor from the men of Okinselagh. 1 Gir. Camb. vi. 102. CHAPTER IV SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF IRELAND Before resuming our narrative it will be useful to consider some aspects of the social state of Ireland in the period immediately prior to the coming of the Normans, and to glance at its physical aspect. In its physical features Ireland in the twelfth Hibemia century was in some respects very different from et pah"^ the Ireland of to-day. It was more watery and much more woody. Even now, in the western and northern regions, the island abounds in great shallow lakes. A line drawn from Dundalk to Kenmare will leave nearly all these lakes on its north-western side. But there is reason to believe that in the twelfth century and earlier the water levels were everywhere higher than they are to-day, and that much of the lowlands, even south-east of the above line, was marshy and dotted with small lakes which have since been drained away. As an example we may mention the place called Lagore {Loch Gabhar), near Ratoath . in East Meath. In 934 ' the island ' (i. e. the crannog or fortified island) here 102 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL was destroyed by Olaf, grandson of Ivar.^ The site is well known, but the lake has been drained away, and now there remains a small low-lying plain with a low mound in the middle. The place has yielded vast quantities of bones and many weapons and other articles.^ Probably the climate was more humid than it is at present, but indeed the description of it given by Gerald de Barry applies to most districts to-day. He lays much stress on the rains and general moisture, which in spite of a fertile soil prevented the due ripening of the corn. ' What the Spring germinates and brings forth, and the Summer nourishes and advances, can with diffi- culty,' he says, * be garnered in Autumn owing to the excessive rain.' ^ No Irish farmer will discredit the statement ; he will only wonder how without time-saving machinery crops could have been garnered at all. Ireland was also much more woody than at any subsequent time. Indeed the woods appear to have covered the greater part of the island known to Gerald. 'There are,' he says, ' in places beautiful champaign lands, but in comparison with the forest regions they are of small extent.' * Even at the close of the sixteenth century ^ Ann. Ulster, 934. In 851 the islands in the east of Bregha (East Meath) are mentioned. 2 Proceedings R. I. A. (1840), vol. i, p. 420. 3 Gir. Camb. v 27. * Ibid., p. 26. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 103 there were several woody fastnesses in each of the four provinces, of which but slight, if any, remains are to be seen to-day.^ Through these woods tracks were cut in places, and from time to time cleared, and when we read of a fight in a ' pass ' it is often a pass through the woods that is intended. Communication was difficult, especially be- tween the provinces. There were, of course, roads of some sort in all inhabited places, besides a few main roads ^ (though no such roads as the Romans left behind them in England), but there were few permanent bridges over the larger rivers. When we turn from the land to the people, and try to form an accurate picture of their political organization, their social customs, and their manner of living generally in the period immediately preceding the Norman invasion, we are confronted with a mass of scattered material embodied in Irish literarj^ remains of various dates and degrees of credibility. To collect, sift, and present in synthetic form the ^ See the list in Dymmok's ' Treatice of Ireland' (1599). 2 See Joyce, Social Hist., vol. ii, p. 393. When Giraldus (v. 26) says of Ireland, amongst other characteristics, that it was ' terra deserta, invia, sed aquosa ' (modelling his language on Psalm Ixii. 3) he does not mean, as has been supposed, that it was all ' trackless ' any more than that it was all ' desert ' or all ' marshy ' . He was no doubt referring to the vast regions of bog, forest, and mountain-land only. 104 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL facts to be deduced from these Irish sources, so as to give as complete and as authentic a picture as possible, is fortunately beyond the scope of this work.^ We shall here attempt to explain briefly those customs and institutions only which principally distinguished the native Irish from the Norman invaders, and which must be borne in mind if we would rightly understand the subsequent history of the two peoples. The most authentic information as to these customs and institutions is to be gathered from the Brehon Law Tracts,^ and accordingly to these we shall first direct our attention. There was no regular machinery in Ireland for the enactment of laws or for the judicial enforce- Custom- ment of customs normally observed. The so- arv ^g^^jj^^ Brehon Law was really a body of customs which had no known commencement, but which had been observed more or less faithfully from time immemorial. These customs, speaking generally, were not peculiar to Ireland. Prob- bably the nucleus from which they grew was at one time the common heritage of the whole Aryan family of races. But in Ireland customary law had been developed from within, and was ^ This is to be the less regretted as a praiseworthy, though somewhat uncritical, attempt ' at opening up the entire field ' has been recently made by Dr. P. W. Joyce in his Social History of Ancient Ireland (1903). 2 Ancient Laws of Ireland. Five volumes have been published and a useful Glossary. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 105 almost entirely uninfluenced by contact with other peoples. Until the coming of the Normans — and then only partially — Ireland never felt the direct influence of a race more advanced than herself. She never experienced the stern discipline of Roman domination, nor acquired from the law-givers of modern Europe a concep- tion of the essential condition of a progressive society, the formation of a strong state able to make and, above all, enforce the laws. Some modification in her ancient customs no doubt took place owing to the influence of Christian missionaries, but the great change they effected mainly concerned religious beliefs and obser- vances, and left political, legal, and social insti- tutions almost untouched. That an attempt was made by the early Christian Church to intro- duce the death-penalty for murder instead of pecuniary compensation may be reasonably in- ferred from the case of the murder of Odhran, St. Patrick's charioteer, as traditionally reported in the introduction to the Senchus Mor, the oldest of the Brehon Law Tracts. But the attempt failed, and indeed the history of Ireland many centuries later has shown that nothing short of an entirely new judicial system, backed by a powerful executive, could effect this reform. Accordingly the body of primitive customs which the Gaels brought with them to Ireland was slowly developed and expanded from within, 106 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL first by the Druids, and then by their christianized successors, the brehons. The brehons were a class, tending to become hereditary, of persons who alone possessed an intimate knowledge of these immemorial customs, and who for a fee offered themselves as skilled arbitrators to decide disputes in accordance therewith. No adequate machinery, however, existed either for compelling the submission of a dispute to the arbitration of a brehon or for enforcing obedience to the award when given. Much of the Senchus Mor is taken up with the law of Distress as a method of inducing the defendant, or party distrained, to consent to arbitration. In the case of persons of distinction it was necessary for the plaintiff to begin by fasting (troscad) on his debtor's doorstep until he received a pledge of submission to law.^ This curious custom has been shown to have existed until recently among the Hindoos, by whom it was called ' sitting dharna ' . ^ Its attested existence at the two extremities of the Aryan world affords an interesting indication of a com- mon origin. But it may be asked, What if the ^ Brehon Laws, vol. i, p. 112, 1. 15. There are many allusions in the religious legends and romantic tales of Ireland to ' fasting ' to obtain an advantage over an oppo- nent, or to compel the granting of a request. See Joyce, Social Hist., vol. i, pp. 206-7. An example from the Annals as late as the year 1 166 was referred to supra, p. 68. 2 See Maine, Early Institutions, pp. 297-301. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 107 defendant forcibly resisted the distraint or let his creditor starve ? It is not enough to reply that in that case he would render himself liable to increased penalties. How were these to be enforced ? The Druid, who like the Brahmin was priest as well as judge, could threaten immediate supernatural terrors, which in most cases would be effective, but the christianized brehon could rely on this aid only in a secondary degree. The ultimate sanction of his award was, after all, only public opinion. Contumacy might be fol- lowed by social ostracism.^ This absence of an effective sanction was the greatest defect in the whole system. Most of the Brehon Law Tracts consist of an Brehon ancient text, to which have been subsequently Trcocts. added glosses, or explanations of words and phrases, and more lengthened commentaries. The tracts do not form a code of laws, or even a systematic digest. In all probability they were the work of the brehons, and were used as textbooks in their law schools. Only in a long ^ So with the continental Gauls : — ' Si qui aut privatus aut populus eorum (Druidum) deereto non stetit, sacrificiis interdicunt. Haec poena apud eos est gravissima. Quibus ita est interdictum, hi numero impiorum ac sceleratorum habentur, his omnes decedunt, aditum sermonemque defugiunt, ne quid ex contagione incommodi accipiant, neque his petentibus ius redditur neque honos ullus com- municatur ' : Caesar, Bell. Gall. vi. 13. It was the primitive * boycott 108 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL course of time did they assume their present shape. Some of the tracts have the appearance of a law professors notebook, into which headings only of presumably well-known rules, or even mere titles of departments of law, were copied as texts for exegetical dissertation. In utilizing these tracts as evidence of customs existing in the twelfth century, we are met at the outset by the difficulty of dating works of such gradual growth. The text of the Senchus Mor, the most important and probably the oldest of these tracts, has been variously assigned by competent scholars to about the year 800, or to about two centuries later. ^ This at first sight leaves a wide ^ M. D'Arbois de Jubainville fixes on the former date : Lit. Celtique, vol. vii, pp. 332^6. The oldest MSS. into which the Senchus Mor has been copied date from the four- teenth century, and some of the glosses and commentaries may be no earlier, but the text is cited in the Lebor na h. Uidre and Liber Hymnorum, MSS. dating from c. 1100. Both the introduction and the glossed text of the Senchus Mor are cited in Cormac's Glossary, and this work is believed to have been written by Cormac Mac Cuilennain (ob. 907). The Senchus Mor mentions no law-book, nor does the word lebor occur in the text. It, however, speaks of the recht litre, meaning the Canon Law, probably the collection of c. 700. These and other indications point, in M. D'Arbois* opinion, to c. 800 as the date of the text. Dr. Whitley Stokes, from a consideration of the verbal forms, believed that the Senchus Mor was compiled in, or perhaps slightly before, the eleventh century. The two opinions may be reconciled if we suppose the verbal forms to have been modernized in a recension of about the later date. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 109 margin of possible error as to the date of the original text, but, as suggested in the note, the two opinions are not irreconcilable, and in any ease there can be no doubt that the glosses and commentaries extend to a much later period. While some of the customs embodied in these tracts can be traced back to a period even long anterior to the eighth century, it is improbable that elaborate dissertations on obsolete customs would be copied into textbooks in the fourteenth century, and purely antiquarian matter can in general be distinguished. Moreover, seeing that the picture of society presented by the Brehon tracts can be shown by other testimony to be in many important respects essentially true of purely Irish districts up to the close of the sixteenth century, and in view of the undoubted almost stationary nature of Irish society, we cannot be far wrong in assuming that at least those customs which are elaborated in the com- mentaries were in full force in the twelfth century and even somewhat later. Owing to the confused and often contradictory statements in the tracts, and especially in the commentaries, and to the obscurity surrounding the technical terms emplo^^ed, it is almost im- possible to gain a clear and consistent view of these customs. Different modern writers have drawn very different conclusions from them, and I can only give the brief results of my 110 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL own independent study of the published tracts and of other sources, without being at all con- fident that they are in all respects correct.^ Land First as regards the customary methods of Tenure. ]^Qi(jij^g land. According to the theory of Celtic law the land belonged to the tribe that occupied it. At the stage reached in the twelfth century the land of Ireland appears to have been divided into about 185 cantreds (iricha ced or tuaiha),^ and these may be regarded as so many distinct tribal territories. Some of this land, however, from an early date appears to have ^ Of previous writers I have found M. D'Arbois de Jubainville (Etudes sur le Droit Celtique) the most illumi- nating, and, in a less degree, Sir Henry Maine (Early History of Institutions). Dr. Atkinson's Glossary is useful for checking the published translations. It leaves, however, many of the most difficult points undecided, and has not escaped the severe criticism of Dr. Stokes. 2 Keating, Hist, of Ireland (Ir. Texts Soc), vol. i, p. 128. Each cantred contained 30 ballybetaghs, and each bally- betagh 12 seisreachs or ploughlands. Giraldus (vol. v, p. 145) gives 176 cantreds, each cantred containing 100 vills. The term tricha ced means ' thirty himdreds and if we suppose each bally be tagh to be estimated to contain 100 homesteads, and each vill 30 homesteads, we can reconcile the two methods of subdivision. A ploughland contained 120 Irish acres, each of which, Keating says, was equivalent to 2 or 3 English acres. Taking the Irish acre as equivalent to 2J EngUsh acres, the 66,600 ploughlands of Ireland would amount in round numbers to 20,000,000 statute acres, which is almost exactly the area of Ireland. Dividing this by 185, we get 108,000 acres as the average area of a tuath or cantred. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 111 been held by certain families in severalty. Thus a certain portion was assigned as mensal land to the chief for the time being of the tribe. Other portions were acquired by professional men, or rather families, as, for instance, brehons, physicians, chroniclers, &c., as emoluments of their profession.^ Besides these, it appears that in course of time chiefs of septs and other wealthy and powerful individuals managed to acquire lands which were not subject to parti- tion like ordinary tribe-land, but were occupied by the family under their head, and descended in the family as lands of inheritance according to certain rules based on the four-fold family organization.^ Notwithstanding these excep- ^ Br. Laws, vol. iii, p. 50, 1. 2. 2 Ibid., p. 48, 1. 15. The four-fold family organization is knovvn as the Gelfine system, the principal rules concerning which will be found in Br. Laws, vol. iii, pp. 330-4, vol. iv, pp. 38-42 and 282, &c. Exactly how this joint-family was organized is too obscure to be discussed here. It must suffice to say that it consisted, when complete, of seventeen related males, distributed into four di\isions of four men each, with a fifth man, who seems to have been the chief, in the Gelfine division. These four classes succeeded to the acquired property, and were liable for the crimes, of the members according to certain rules. Moreover, for some purposes they seem to have represented the entire sept or kindred. When the number seventeen was complete, and a duly qualified member was born into the Gelfine division, the eldest of those most distantly related to the chief seems to have gone out of the family. The chief appears to have been selected from, a restricted number of qualified persons 112 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL tional cases, and, apart from church land and monastic land, the greater part of the land appears to have been regarded as belonging to the tribe. Much of this would be waste land of the tribe and commons on which the tribesmen could pasture their cattle, while the rest, mostly arable and meadow land, was divided from time to time among the free tribesmen. In the twelfth century there was probably land and to spare for all, but land without cattle to stock and work it was of no value, and accordingly a man was poor or wealthy, not primarily according to the amount of land he held, but in proportion to the head of cattle he possessed. Cattle, then, formed the principal wealth of the community, as indeed of all primitive com- munities, and the ordinary tribesman obtained the requisite number of cattle from his own chief or from some other wealthy noble. A considerable section of the Senchus Mor deals with the relationship thus constituted between the chief or nobles and individual tribesmen.^ The editor speaks of this section as the ' Law of Tenures and renders the two contracts mentioned as ' ^a^-r-stock and daer-stock tenure and translates the words ceile and ceilsine as by a rule similar to that of Tanistry, by which the tribal chief was selected. 1 Br. Laws. vol. ii, pp. 194-340. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 113 ' tenant ' and ' tenancy But this rendering is misleading, as suggesting that the relationship was one of landlord and tenant, and that the laws concern the tenure of land. Had this been so in the twelfth century the conflict between Celtic and Norman or English ideas would have been much less acute than it actually was. Of course a tribesman might hire land which be- longed to his chief in severalty, but his share in the tribe-land was his of ancient right, and was in no way due to his chief. No translation is entirely free from objection, but it would be less misleading to speak of the correlation as that of ' lord ' or ' chief ' and ' vassal ', as not necessarily connoting the tenure of land. A contract for the letting of cattle is known as cheptel in French law, but there seems to be no simple equivalent in modern English law. With this explanation we may call the contract a cattle-bailment, and for convenience speak of the parties to it as bailor and bailee, but as the contract (if such it should be called) un- doubtedly created, or rather regulated, a quasi- feudal relation, we shall in general regard it as a contract of vassalage and call the parties thereto king or chief and vassal. Two kinds of cattle-bailment are described, one called free (saerrath) and the other base or servile (daerrath). In the free contract the bailee, in return for 821379.1 XT 114 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL a certain number of cattle, had to render the value of one-third in food-rents, or rents in kind, every year to the bailor,^ who would in general be either the tribal king or the chief of the bailee's sept. This amounted to interest at 33^ per cent. If nothing was paid for three years, compound interest became due,^ and the amount was liable to be penally increased if the bailee made default.^ Besides this, the bailee or vassal was bound to assist the chief in erecting his dun, or in reaping his harvest, or by joining in his hostings. Homage, too, had to be paid. It consisted in standing up (ureirghe) before the sitting lord.^ The contract lasted normally for seven years, and then apparently the original loan had to be restored.^ A man was obliged to accept cattle on these terms from his own king, and probably from the chief of his sept, but from no one else.^ If he entered into the contract with others he could terminate it at any time on restoring the stock.^ If the chief, on the other hand, recalled his stock the bailee could elect to become a base vassal, and then 1 Br. Laws, vol. ii, p. 194, 11. 15-16. 2 Ibid., p. 196," 1. 7, and 198, 1. 20 et seq. 3 Ibid., p. 198, 1. 9 ; 194, 11. 6-9, and 219, 1. 15 and comm., where a defaulting bailee of three cows is shown to owe no less than forty-two cows at the end of the seven years ! 4 Ibid., p. 194, 11. 9-14. 5 Ibid., p. 204, 11. 5-11. « Ibid., p. 208, 11. 1-10 ; p. 210, 11. 4-8. ' Ibid., p. 206, 1. 6. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 115 the chief would be obliged to give the additional stock required by that contract or forfeit the stock already given. ^ Regarded as a business contract, this arrange- ment is so oppressive as to be in fact economically impossible. The arrangement, or rather custom, should, I think, be regarded as resulting essen- tially from status and not from contract. The king or chief had the right of being maintained by his principal vassals, and he gave them a certain amount of cattle, not as a mere business transaction — not as the capital out of which alone the vassals might be expected to make the food-rents due — but primarily as a mark of their subjection and as a measure of their obligations. The free vassal, if not wealthy enough to support his obligations, could only escape from them by surrendering some of his liberties and accepting the position of a base vassal. The relationship between the tribal king and his free vassals seems analogous to that between the provincial king and the tribal kings. The Book of Rights enumerates the stipends (tuarastla) given by the provincial kings to their subordinate kings, and the tributes and refections {ctsa, hiathaidh) paid by the subordinate kings to the provincial kings. In each case the stipend is very much less than the tribute, and there is 1 Br. Laws, vol. ii, p. 212, 11. 1-18. H 2 116 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL no doubt that the acceptance of a stipend was a mark of submission.^ In the contract of base vassalage a certain number of cattle were delivered to the vassal proportional to the food-rents to be paid and the services to be performed by him (tuircreic), and in addition a further number of cattle equivalent in value to the honour-price of the vassal (seoit turcluide),^ This addition was in effect a purchase of the honour-price of the vassal, who thus underwent a diminution of status. It was in fact this parting with his honour-price that constituted the base or servile element in his relation to his lord, for the food- rents to which the base vassal became liable were very much lighter than those of the free vassal,^ while the services to be performed were of a similar character.* If the base vassal ^ So when Malachi II * went into Brian's house i.e. submitted to him, Brian gave him twelve score steeds, * and there was not one of the twelve score men who accompanied Malachy who would deign to carry a led horse with him,' so reluctant were they to admit vassalage to Brian. To get out of the difficulty Malachy made a present of the horses to Brian's son : Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 132- Compare the story of Gormlaith and the tunic which Brian had given to the King of Leinster as a mark of vassalage : ibid., p. 143. 2 Br. Laws, vol. ii, p. 222, 1. 9, and p. 226, 1. 13. 3 Ibid., pp. 254-60. ^ Namely erecting the dun and harvest work, ibid., p. 256, i. 9 ; also joining in the chief's hostings, ibid., vol. iii, p. 494. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 117 were injured or killed, his chief, and not himself or his family, became entitled to the amount recoverable as honour-price.^ His oath, too, was valueless, and, unlike the free vassal, he could not give evidence against his chief. ^ Elaborate rules were devised by the brehons to prevent the capricious termination of the contract on either side. When entering into the contract the base vassal had to give notice of its terms to his tribe, who might refuse to sanction an excessive delivery of stock, as in the event of the vassal absconding the tribe became liable, and the land or part of it might become forfeited to the chief This was probably one of the ways in which the nobles became entitled to land in severalty. By means of these food-rents, or rents in kind, the chiefs, both of the tribe and of the septs or families into which the tribe was divided, were supplied and maintained with their suites, and it was their custom to obtain what was Refec- due, or part of it, on visitation to the houses of the vassals, both free and base — a custom which seems to indicate less disparity in the manner of living of the various classes than might otherwise be supposed. It is probable that in course of time this custom came to be 1 Br. Laws, vol. iii, p. 334, 11. 12-15. 2 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 344, 1. 14. 3 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 222, 1. 16 ; pp. 228, 230, 258, 1. 10. 118 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL regarded as the right of the chieftain quite independently of the deUvery of cattle on which it was originally based, and to be looked upon as a rent due for the land held by the tribesmen as tenants. It and analogous cus- toms, or abuses of customs, known by various names, such as cuddy, coshery, bonnaght, coigny and livery, &c. — whether as practised by Irish chiefs or imitated and perhaps further abused by Anglo-Irish lords — though more than once forbidden by statute, lived on in Munster and in Irish districts to Elizabethan times, and were denounced by Sir John Davies as evil customs which made the lords absolute t3nrants, the land waste, and the tenants very slaves and villeins.^ Even up to the beginning of the seventeenth century by far the greater part of the land in the Irish districts continued to be divisible from time to time among the tribesmen, and the parts that were not so divisible appear to have been held by joint families rather than by individuals — at least the succession of owners was regulated by what Davies calls the law of Tanistry. In his official capacity Davies investigated the state of Mac Mahon's, Maguire's, and O'Reilly's countries, or Monaghan, Fer- 1 A Discovery, &c. (ed. 1787), pp. 131, 134. As to these exactions and others, see Harris's Ware, Antiq. (ed. 1754), p. 74. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 119 managh, and Cavan respectively. He gives the fullest details as to Fermanagh. There were Land Tenure here fifty-one and a half ballybetaghs divisible inFer- among the tribesmen by the custom of gavelkind i^^f^y. and chargeable to Maguire with about 240 beeves annually. Of lands not so chargeable there were (1) the church lands, which were considerable and found in every barony, but of which the extent is not given ; (2) the mensal lands of Maguire, amounting to four bally- betaghs, the occupiers of which paid food-rents ; (3) lands given to certain septs, such as Chroniclers, Rhymers, and Galloglasses, amount- ing to two ballybetaghs ; and (4) there was ' a chief of every sept who had certain services, duties, and demesnes that ever passed to the tanist of that sept and never were subject to division '.^ This chief was the ' canfiny or caput cognationis ' mentioned in the ' Resolu- tion of the judges touching gavelkind in 1606 and we can hardly doubt that he represented the Gelfine chief of the Brehon Law Tracts.^ i Letter to the Earl of Salisbury (ed. 1787), pp. 243-58. - See the Irish Custom of Gavelkind, Davies, Report of Cases (ed. 1762), p. 134 ; and compare the Case of Tanistry, ibid., p. 78. ^ ' Canfiny ' represents the Irish ceann-fine, head of the fine, sept, or family, of the same lineage or surname. For his qualifications see Br. Laws, vol. ii, p. 278, 11. 19-25. In this section I think the word fine in general refers to the ' sept ' or ' family and not to the ' tribe 120 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL The distinction drawn in modern law between crimes, or offences regarded as affecting the State, and torts, or private wrongs, was unknown to the Celtic world. All offences were regarded as affecting individuals alone. The great object of the Brehon Law was to induce those who were wronged to forgo the right of private vengeance, and to submit their claims to the arbitrament of the brehons. This aim, when effected, was no small victory over violence, but humanity had elsewhere already found that sterner methods are required than those adopted by the brehons. When the submission to law was made, the work of the brehons mainly resolved itself into estimating the damages or penalties to be paid by the wrongdoer in the particular circumstances of the case. This is most strikingly shown in the law of murder. There was no public prosecution. If the family of the victim con- sented to forgo their right of vengeance the brehon assessed the composition to be paid, and determined, according to certain rules, the persons by whom and the persons to whom the payments were to be made. The composition for murder (eric) consisted of (1) 'body-fine' (coirp-dire), apparently fixed for all free men at seven cumals ^ or twenty-one 1 Br. Laws, vol. ill, p. 350, 1.4. A cumal meant originally a ' bondmaid ', but was used as a measure of value, equiva- lent (generally) to three cows. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 121 cows ; (2) ' honour-price ' (enech-lann or log enech, literally ' face-price '), varjdng, with the dignity of the victim, from one cumal for a bo- aire or cow-chief, the highest of the non-noble classes, to twenty-eight cumals for the chief king.^ The right of private vengeance was at one time not only freely admitted, but in the case of the family of the murdered man was recog- nized as a sacred duty. This was, of course, not peculiar to Ireland, nor to Celtic peoples. Probably all the branches of the Aryan family of races passed through this stage, as also some non-Aryans — for example, the Hebrews. But agreeably to the habit of non-interference by the ruling powers with the mutual relations of families, and the absence of any executive machinery, the right of private vengeance con- tinued to be exercised in Ireland to a late period, and influenced to the last the rules of Brehon Law for the composition of homicide. This is shown by the curious distinction made between ' necessary ' and ' unnecessary ' homi- cide. Necessary, or (to use a term which better expresses the idea) ' obligatory ' homicide 1 Br. Laws, vol. ii, p. 226, 1. 13, and p. 224, 11. 8 and 9. A different scale is given in the Crith Gahhlach, ibid., vol. iv, and yet another in the Uraicecht Bece or Small Primer, vol. v. The principal passages in the Brehon Law Tracts con- cerning the composition for murder are, vol. iii, pp. 68, 98 (where * malice aforethought ' is a faulty translation, as the commentary shows), and 536, vol. iv, pp. 240-6L 122 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL was when the kilHng was motived by vengeance for the previous kiUing of a near relative of the avenger. It was classed with cases of accidental homicide, probably as involving no moral obliquity. Unnecessary or non-obligatory homicide was where the killing was intentional, but the motive was not what was regarded as legitimate vengeance but something else, such as private gain.^ In all these cases, at the time the commentaries were written, a composition might be arranged, but a significant distinction was made as to the persons on whom the liability fell. In the case of obligatory homicide (to which must be added ' the four " obligatory " woundings which defile not the purity of the hand ' ^) this liability did not fall exclusively on the actual slayer, but was shared in certain proportions by those who were entitled to the honour-price of the victim for whose death vengeance had been taken — that is to say, by those on whom the duty of vengeance fell.^ 1 Br. Laws, vol. iii, p. 68, 11. 12-14, and vol. iv, p. 248, I. 25. For the translation of indethbire torba, seeD'Arbois de Jubainville, Cours de Litt., vol. vii, p. 182, and Atkinson's Glossary, s.v. dethbire. These scholars take the words differently, but agree as to the fundamental meaning of the distinction. 2 Br. Laws, vol. iv, p. 252, 1. 17 et seq., and p. 244, 1. 20 et seq., where cenmoto = besides, not except. ^ In addition to the above passages, see vol. iv, p. 254, II. 12-14. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 123 In the case of unnecessary or non-obligatory crimes the liability fell primarily on the criminal and on his movable property, and the family might either deliver up the criminal and keep his land or give the land for his crime.^ This, indeed, affords a further distinction, for in cases of obligatory crimes the family had no such choice. The old rule in this case was ' a man is better than land and this evidently meant that it was better to sacrifice his land than to give up the righteous avenger. The above appear to be the general principles which regulated the composition in cases of homicide. To pursue the matter further would lead us into a maze of doubtful detail. It is important, however, to note that in most cases of homicide motived by vengeance for a previous homicide, the debts incurred in consequence of the two homicides would cancel each other, or if the honour-prices of the victims were not equal the difference alone would require adjustment. This ' compounding of felony ' was one of the principal features in the Brehon Law which caused it to be condemned by English Acts of Parliament as no law, but a bad custom,^ and which led Edmund Spenser to describe it as 1 Br. Laws, vol. iv, p. 246, 11. 23-9. 2 Ibid., p. 246, 1. 15. 3 Early Statutes (Berry), pp. 389, 436. 124 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL a wild law by which many murders amongst the Irish were smothered up. Spenser also notices that the brehons for the most part adjudge a better share of the eric to the head of the sept than to the parties grieved.^ This would occur in many cases, as, for instance, if it were for the killing of a base vassal who had parted with his honour-price to the chief, or a fuidhir, a numerous class of bondmen whose erics went to their lord.^ The brehon's fee was ordinarily one-tweKth of the fine, but if he levied the fine in circumstances of difficulty he might take as much as two-thirds.^ Tiieposi- The position of women in Ireland presented women, some peculiarities. The Irish maiden was in her father's power until marriage, and he was expected to pay for her fosterage and to wed her to a man of equal family.* The contract of marriage was accompanied by a nuptial gift (coibche) from the husband, equivalent to haK the honour-price of the bride's father,^ and this was paid, not to the wife, but to her father, or if the marriage took place after the death of her father half of it was paid to the chief of the sept.^ The wife on her side brought 1 View of the State of Ireland (1810), p. 7. 2 Br. Laws, vol. v, p. 512, 1. 7. ^ Ibid., vol. iii, p. 316, 1. 26 and commentary. * Ibid., vol. ii, p. 346, 1. 6. 5 Ibid., vol. V, p. 288, 1. 18. « Ibid., vol. iii, p. 314, 1. 5 ; vol. iv, p. 62, 1. 9. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 125 a contribution (tinol) of cattle or goods, part of which passed to the husband and part was regarded as her separate property.^ Neither as daughter nor as wife had she any share in the tribe-land,^ but during her first marriage her position was one of considerable independence and dignity. A broad distinction must, how- The ever, be made between the first or chief wife ^[J^"^'^' '* (cetmuintir) and subsequent wives taken on repudiation of the first wife, as well as various temporary or irregular partners or concubines 1 Br. Laws, vol. ii, p. 346, 1. 9, and compare p. 378, 1. 29, with p. 386, 1. 3. Tinol means the ' act of collecting *, and it was probably subscribed by the bride's father and friends. A similar custom survived in Westmeath up to the close of the seventeenth century ; see Piers' Description of Westmeath in Collectanea de Rebus Hib. (Valiancy), vol. i, p. 122. 2 In the ancient leading case of Ciannacht, overruling two previous unjust (blotch-producing) decisions of Sencha (iv, pp. 9-17), and in the case of Seither (ibid., pp. 17-19), the successful plaintiffs appear to have been daughters of the Picts of Uladh who had intermarried with the Feini in the south, and who claimed lands in their native country, where matriarchal rules of descent still survived. So far as these interesting cases were tentatively used in much later times as precedents, they seem to have been applied only to land which had come to be regarded as heritable, or at least as separated for the time being from ordinary partible tribe-land (vol. iv, pp. 39-47) ; such as lands belonging to the gelfine when the male succession failed (p. 40, 1. 19, and p. 42, 1. 18), and orba cruibh no sliasta (' hand and th^gh land ') of the mother, and unoccupied land (p. 44, 1. 14). 126 80CTAL AND PHYSICAL who were not regarded as lawful wives, but whose rights, though far inferior to that of the cetmuintir, were carefully regulated by law, and whose offspring seem to have been under no disability.^ If the wife's property was equal to that of her husband, and if their marriage state was equally free and lawful, the wife was called ' a wife of equal rank ', and no contract, unless for the common benefit of the couple, was binding without the consent of both.^ Husband and wife could separate at any time by mutual consent, when a fair division of the property and its increase should be made. For this division elaborate rules are given.^ Seven grounds are enumerated entitling the woman to separate from her husband.* Some of these are not recognized in modern law, as where the husband circulates a false story about his wife or a satire until she is laughed at. The wife of equal rank, we may assume, would generally be a cetmuintir, but a cetmuintir, even without property and though she had no children, held an equally high position in the eye of the law. On the other hand, even a first wife, though she had faithfully performed her duties, was ^ As to the various species of concubines, see vol. ii, p. 396, 1. 27, to p. 404, 1. 13, and Glossary, s.v. Dormaine. 2 Br. Laws, vol. ii, p. 356, 1. 29. She was be cuitchernsa. apparently co-tigernasa, ' of equal lordship ' : see Glossary. ^ Vol. ii, pp. 363-77. * Vol. v, p. 292, heptad 52. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 127 liable to be displaced by the husband intro- ducing into the house a new wife ^ to whom he had given a nuptial present (coibche). This coihche would then be forfeited to the first wife, and honour-price would have to be paid to her by the new wife and by the husband, and the marriage would be dissolved — unless indeed the first wife remained with her husband, when a new coibche would be due to her.^ Indeed, the Brehon Law Tracts alone make it quite plain that repudiations by the husband were frequent, and temporary unions very common, and that both were fully recognized by the law.^ In all cases the contract was sealed, as it were, Temp, by the coibche or nuptial gift from the man, ^^Irrh but provision was made in the law to regulate the payment of no fewer than twenty-one of these nuptial gifts in respect of the same woman on successive marriages. A continually decreas- ing portion of each gift went to the wife's father, if alive, or one-half of the father's share ^ This new wife is frequently called an culaltrach or adulteress. We cannot call her a concubine, for her sub- sequent legal position, if she had sons, appears to have been equivalent to that of the cetmuintir (vol. ii, p. 378, 1. 16 ; pp. 384, 1. 17), and she was one of the four lawful wives (vol. v, p. 286, 11. 18-20). 2 Vol. ii, p. 382, 1. 15 et seq., and vol. v, p. 72, 1. 17. ^ As an example taken from the highest ranks : Gorm- fhlaith, sister of Maelmordha,King of Leinster, was married to, and repudiated by, Amlaf , King of Dublin, Malachy II, of Ireland, and Brian Borumha, successively. 128 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL to the chief of the sept if the father were no longer living.^ It is said in the Senchus Mor that Beltene (May Day) was usually the time of making these separations,^ and this is enough to suggest a connexion with the traditions as to annual marriages taking place at the great aonachs or fairs held on Beltene, Lugnasad, and Samain, or May 1, August 1, and November 1 respectively. The tradition of these marriages and separations was particularly vivid at Tel- town in County Meath, where the ancient fair of Tailtiu was held on the Lugnasad.^ A 1 Br. Laws, vol. ii, p. 346, U. 9-13 ; vol. iii, p. 314, 1. 5 ; vol. iv, p. 62, 1. 9 et seq. The passage cited from vol. iv seems to explain the supposed contradiction noticed in the note to vol. iii, p. 314, and to render superfluous the explanation offered in the Glossary s.v. coibche. The chief had no share, at least in the first three nuptial gifts, if the father was alive ; after that he perhaps had a share, whether the father was alive or not, as in the discreditable case mentioned by way of analogy. The passage in vol. iii, p. 316, 11. 14-16, must mean that the shares of father or chief vest absolutely only if the wife is justified in separating. If she was not justified the whole coibche had to be repaid to the husband : ibid. U. 17-20, and vol. iv, p. 64, 11. 6-9. 2 Vol. ii, p. 390, 11.18-21. The husband had to give a sack of provisions to the wife (under notice to quit) every month up to the end of the year, i. e. to the next May Day, when the formal separation took place. (Hence the phrase, * to give the sack ' ?) Separations also took place at the other quarters of the year : ibid., p. 370, 11. 24-7. ^ See Book of Rights, p. 243, note h. The custom died hard. Campion, writing in 1571, says : 'Yea even at this day, where the cleargie is fainte, they (the Irish) can be ASPECTS OF IRELAND 129 *^ Teltown marriage ' is an expression used for an irregular union. In Cormae's Glossary it is said that a hillock at the fair of Tailtiu was called tulach na coibche, and this use of the technical law-term makes the identity of the custom as revealed in the Law Tracts with that preserved on the spot by tradition quite certain. The laxity of Irish marriage customs was repeatedly noticed by foreign ecclesiastics in the eleventh and tweKth centuries. Thus Ecciesi- Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, writing m censures. 1074 to Gothric, King of Dublin, says : ' It is reported that in your kingdom men take wives of their own family (parentela) or of that of their deceased wives, and that others at their own caprice and will leave their lawfully wedded wives, and that some give their own wives to others and by an infamous exchange receive the wives of others in return.' ^ At the same time and in the same strain he wrote to Turlough O'Brien, King of Ireland.^ At the beginning of the twelfth century Anselm, wTiting to Murtough O'Brien, King of Ireland, says : ' We hear that marriages in your kingdom are dissolved with- out any cause and wives exchanged, and that content to marrie for . a yeare and a day of probation, and at the yeares end to return her home uppon any light quarrels, if the gentle womans f riendes bee weake and unable to avenge the injury ' (Reprint, 1809, p. 23). 1 Ussher's Sylloge, ep. 26. 2 jbi^., ep. 27. 821379.1 I 130 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL blood relations under colour of marriage or otherwise do not fear to unite openly and without blame, contrary to canonical prohibi- tion.' ^ The language of St. Bernard, referring to the year 1124 and to the north of Ireland, though more vague in its charges, is still more bitter.^ We are thus prepared for the language attributed to Popes Adrian IV and Alexander III in the third quarter of the twelfth century. Making due allowance for ecclesiastical coun- sels of perfection in these matters, it must be admitted that there was much in Irish marriage customs which must have appeared, even to average foreign lay opinion, as repre- hensible.^ b'oHterage. It was the custom of the chiefs and nobles of the Irish to send their children, especially their sons, to be fostered in some other family away from home. A section of the Senchus Mor is devoted to the rules as to fosterage, the fees to ^ Ussher's Sylloge, ep. 35. In epistle 37, apparently to the same king, Anselm says : * Dicitur enim quod viri ita libere uxores suas uxoribus aliorum commutant, sicut quilibet equum equo, aut quamlibet aliam rem re alia ab illo commutat ; aut pro libitu et sine ratione relinquunt.' 2 De vita S. Malachiae, Migne, vol. clxxxii, col. 1034, cap. viii. ^ Marriage by coibche was, I think, what is referred to by the Stat, of Kilkenny, § 2, which prohibits alliance par . . . concuhinaunce ou de caif[e]. Early Statutes, p. 432, and cf . Hardiman's edition, Tracts I. A. S., vol. ii, p. 8. Caife might very fairly represent the sound of coibcke. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 131 be paid according to the rank of the father, the duties of the foster-parent, his UabiHty for the crimes of his foster-son, and so on. All writers speak of the warm friendship that always existed between the foster-son and his foster-father and foster-brothers, and Giraldus contrasts it with the enmity that often arose between natural brothers and blood relations.^ Of the latter the Annals supply numerous examples. The root cause of this enmity probably explains the origin of fosterage. The sons of a chief, perhaps by different wives, were all equally eligible for the chieftainship. Hence mutual jealousies and enmities, and hence probably the necessity of having the sons reared in different families and away from home. This was one of the Irish customs adopted in after years by some of the border Anglo-Irish lords, with the natural result that the children in many cases grew up Irish in speech, in manners, in habits of thought, and in sym- pathies. It was not only to prevent them from ' degendring from their auncient dignities ', but also because the ties created by fosterage led to ' espials and forewarnings ' which im- peded the action of the government, that attempts were made to prohibit the English from fostering, as well as from intermarrying, with the Irish, and that the practice was 1 V. 167. 12 132 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL reprobated by Edmund Spenser and Sir John Davies.^ The Brehon Law Tracts contain a mine of information as to the customs of the Irish and the real facts of their social state, but, owing to a variety of uncertainties, it is a mine diffi- cult to work, and at times so obscure that we cannot be certain of having extracted the genuine ore of fact. We cannot pursue the search in this quarter any further. When we turn to the pages of Gerald de Barry we are confronted with no uncertainties of language or of dates, but though our author was a man of remarkable observation and acuteness he had little opportunity of observing more than the surface of Irish life and manners, and, bearing in mind his relationship with the invaders, we must make allowance for that want of sympathy which those whose heart is engaged in any militant cause inevitably display towards their opponents. As to the facts of the invasion, with which we shall have to deal in detail hereafter, he must have learnt them almost entirely from the invaders, and principally from his uncle Robert Fitz Stephen and his cousin Raymond le Gros. As to his description 1 31 Ed. Ill, § 8. Early Statutes, p. 412 ; also Stat, of Kilkenny, ibid., p. 432; Spenser, View of the State of Ireland (Reprint), pp. 110-12; Davies, Discovery (1787), p. 135. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 133 of Ireland and the Irish, so far as he did not draw his account from personal observation, he must have derived it largely from the Irish themselves — probably from the clergy, with whom alone he could readily converse. Living in a credulous age, he was not a peculiarly credulous man, and most of his stories of a miraculous nature can be shown to have been believed in by the Irish themselves. like Herodotus, he may have been occasionally gulled or misled by his informants ; but, again like Herodotus, he seems to have faithfully recorded what he heard. At any rate, these stories which have cast an undeserved discredit on his work are, except to the folklorist, of no importance. For the rest, there is no reason to think that he has anywhere wilfully perverted the truth as he saw it. The following is a summary of his most Gerald de pertinent observations :— ^ fhellZ Irish children, he says, are not scientifically ^^^^^ treated, as is usual elsewhere, but are left almost entirely to Nature, who, however, man- ages to rear them up to full strength with tall, handsome figures, regular features, and fresh complexions. But though richly endowed by Nature, the barbarous fashion of their beards and clothes and their ignorance mark their un- civilized state. They are slightly clad in woollen ^ V. 150 et seq. 134 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL clothing, mostly black,^ the colour of their sheep, and arranged in barbarous fashion. They wear close-fitting hoods, made of patch- work, extending over the shoulders and down to the elbows, and under this a pkalanga instead of a mantle (pallium). They also wear woollen trews, or hose and breeches in one, usually dyed some colour.^ For riding they use neither saddle nor riding-boots nor spurs, but urge on their horses with a crooked stick.^ Reins serve as bit and bridle. In war they wear no defensive armour. They use a short spear, a pair of javelins, and a large battle-axe, well wrought and tempered, which they borrowed from the Ostmen. This they wield with one hand with such force that neither conical helmet nor coat of mail can protect the person. Hand-stones (lapides pugillares),^ when other weapons fail, ^ ' Black, yellowish, grey, and drab clothes for the sons of the Feini grades ' : Br. Laws, vol. ii, p. 148, 1. 3. 2 The Irish falaing, or cloak reaching down below the knees, and the trews, are well illustrated in a thirteenth - century copy of the Topographia Hibernica : MS. Roy. 13, B. viii, Brit. Mus. See reproductions. Green's Short History (illustrated ed., 1893), pp. 901, 903 ; and the close- fitting hood, cochull, in MS. Harl. 1319, reproduced ibid., opp. p. 904. ^ The crooked stick {echflesc, €ach-lasc = horse-rod) prob- ably had a goad at its curved end. See Joyce, Social Hist., vol. ii, p. 417. * Lapides pugillares looks like a translation of the Ua Idimhe Idich, or ' champion's hand-stone ', frequently mentioned in the ancient tales (O'Curry, Manners and ASPECTS OF IRELAND 135 they hurl more dexterously than any other nation, so as to inflict great loss on the enemy. The Irish, he says, are a rude people, living on animal produce and little advanced from the pastoral stage. While shunning the labour of agriculture, they are not attracted by the refinements, and dislike the restraints, of town- life, and cannot shake off the bucolic ways to which they have hitherto been accustomed. They use most of their land as rough pasture, little is cultivated and still less sown,^ and this though much of the land is naturally fertile. There are few fruit-bearing trees, foreign sorts not having been planted. Chestnut, beech, maple (aralus ?), and box-trees are not in- digenous, but yew-trees are more plentiful than elsewhere, and were often planted in ancient cemeteries. The forests abound in fir-trees.^ Metallic veins are not turned to account, and gold, which is much in request, is imported by merchants.^ They do not profitably employ Customs, vol. i, p. 263 et seq. ; Joyce, Social Hist., vol. i, p. 100). It seems to have been artificially prepared and kept ready for use in the hollow of the shield. ^ Yet the Irish cultivated wheat, oats, barley, and rye, also flax and glaisin (some blue dye-plant : woad ?). 2 Compare the list of trees in Br. Laws, vol. iv, pp. 147-8, with which the above account, as far as it goes, agrees. It is curious to note the absence of beech. Was there a pre? historic plague of the cryptococciis fagi ? ^ See Joyce, Social Hist., vol. i, p. 554. Surface-washing for gold was probably practised by the Irish, and they may 136 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL their time in making linen or woollen cloth, or any other sort of merchandise, nor in any kind of mechanical art.^ Sunk in sloth, they think the height of luxury is to have no work to do, and what they most dearly prize is the enjoy- ment of liberty. Gerald praises highly the musical attainments of the Irish. ' In this art,' he says, ' they far surpass any people I have met.' They use and delight in two instruments alone : the cithara (or harp, Ir. crott) and the tympanum (Ir. timpan).^ In another place he speaks with enthusiastic appreciation of the illuminations in a book of the Gospels which he saw at Kildare. His fine description of it would apply to the well-known have attempted mining ; but there are several allusions to the importation of torques and gold ore in Irish literature, and probably some Irish gold was obtained by plunder or commerce from Britain and Gaul. 1 This passage cannot mean that the Irish were ignorant of these arts, nor can it mean that they never practised them, but that the people as a whole preferred idleness to industry. Gerald has already indicated that they made their woollen clothing from their own sheep, and, as a matter of fact, spinning and weaving were done by the women from very early times: Joyce, Social Hist., c. xxvi. Irish goldsmith work has never been surpassed, and the Irish were proficient in several arts. 2 The timpan was not a drum, but an instrument like a psaltery, with brass strings, and played with a plectrum. It is probably that represented in the illustrated MS. of the Topographia, and reproduced in Green's Short History (illustrated ed., 1893), p. 899. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 137 Book of Kells. ' However often and however closely I scrutinize it,' he concludes, ' I am always astounded afresh, and always find more and more to admire in it.' ^ In speaking of the illicit marriages of the Irish, Gerald uses the intemperate language habitual with ecclesiastics.^ He stigmatizes the Irish as treacherous and keeping faith with no man. Then he gives us some interesting details as to their usages in making a solemn covenant The of friendship. First they enter into an alliance covenant, of gossipred,^ then they go in procession thrice round a church ; afterwards they enter the church and before the altar, in the presence of the relics of the saints, with many solemn oaths, and after the celebration of the mass and the prayers of the priests, they form what purports to be an indissoluble alliance. Finally, for the better confirmation of friendship, and as it were for the perfecting of the business, each drinks the other's blood voluntarily shed ^ V. 123^. 2 ' Nondum matrimonia contrahunt ; non incestus vitant ; . . . fratres, pluribus per Hibemiam locis, fratrum de- functorum uxores non dico ducunt, sed traducunt,' &c. : V. 164. ^ ' Primo compaternitatis foedera jungunt.' Alliance par compaternitee between English and Irish was made felony by the Stat, of Kilkenny (1366). It is usually translated ' gossipred ', but it was not confined to the relation consti- tuted at baptism. 138 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL for the purpose.^ This last ceremony, Gerald observes, was derived from the rites of their pagan ancestors, who used to confirm their treaties with blood. The statement that the blood covenant was used by the Irish has been hotly denied by Irish writers,^ but not only are there references to it in earlv Irish literature,^ but according to the Annals it was practised in Thomond nearly a century after Gerald wrote.* Gerald praises the clergy highly for their piety and exemplary continence. The principal defect he finds in them arises, he thinks, from their monastic training. They make good monks, but indifferent pastors. They were too fond of leading a contemplative life within the precincts of their churches, while neglecting the duty of preaching to the people and correcting their faults. There is only one other passage in the writings of Giraldus that need be referred to here. It is important as showing conclusively — what in 1 V. 167. 2 e.g. Keating, Hist., vol. i, p. 19. ^ Silva Gadelica (Ir. text), p. 376, and cf. Joyce, Social Hist., vol. ii, p. 510. * Ann. Ulster, vol. ii, p. 356, and editor's note, Ann. Loch Ce, 1277. Thomas de Clare treacherously killed Brian Roe O'Brien ' after they had poured their blood into the same vessel, and after they had formed gossipred, and after they had exchanged mutual vows by the reUcs, bells, and croziers of Munster Clearly the whole ceremony as described by Giraldus. ASPECTS OF IRELAND 139 any case we should be led to infer — that at the time of the Norman invasion the Irish, broadly speaking, used no castles. It also The Irish seems to prove, if I understand it rightly, that castles, the dry-stone cahcrs and strong earthen ring- forts, many of which still remain in Ireland, were at that time unused. After stating that Turgesius the Norwegian had subdued the whole island [early in the ninth century] and encastled it (incastellavit) in suitable places, he proceeds: ' Hence among these remains and vestiges of the past you will find here up to this day both many great entrenchments, very deep, and circular, and often three-fold, and also walled castles still entire, but vacant and deserted. For the Irish pay no regard to castles, but use the woods as their strongholds and the marshes as their entrenchments.' ^ This last sentence is clear enough, and agrees with all we know. In the whole history of the Norman invasion there is no allusion to the siege or taking of an Irish fortress. The walled towns of the Northmen alone offered resistance. We ^ Gir. Camb. v. 182. 1 have endeavoured to translate the passage quite literally. The original is as follows : * Unde et fossata infinita, alta nimis, rotunda quoque, et pleraque triplicia ; castella etiam murata, et adhuc integra, vacua tamen et deserta, ex reliquiis illis et anti- quitatis vestigiis hie iisque in hodiemum multa reperies. Hibemicus enim populus castella non curat. Silvis nam- que pro castris, paludibus utitur pro fossatis.' 140 SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL ASPECTS may disregard Gerald's theory that the en- trenchments and walled castles of which he speaks were all erected by the Norwegians. The latter must refer to the dry-stone cahers now to be seen principally in the western parts of Ireland, but also in other parts, as, for instance, the great stone fort of Aileach or Greenan Ely, near Derry, which was for ages the seat of the northern kings, but which was destroyed by Murtough O'Brien in 1101 and apparently never afterwards occupied.^ The great circular and often three-fold entrenchments can, I think, only be the stronger examples of ring-forts which we generally call duns or raths, such as those at Tara, Emain Macha, Rathcroghan, and Dun Aillinn, seats of the principal kings which were all deserted long before Gerald wrote. ^ ^ Ann. Ulster and Four Masters, 1101. There is also in Leinster a well-preserved, though but little known, dry- stone caher, called Rathgall, three miles due east of Tullow. It is comparable in size to the largest of those in the west. I mention it in particular because it is very probable that Gerald's observant eye saw it, and that he had it in his mind when he wrote the passage quoted. It is only four miles from Raymond le Gros's mote-castle near Tullow, and Gerald can hardly have failed to visit his favourite cousin there. 2 See the Prologue to the Cal. of Oengus, 165, 177, 189, 193. This work is now ascribed by Dr. W. Stokes to about the year 800 (edition, Henry Bradshaw Society, 1905). CHAPTER V THE FIRST CONQUERORS 1167-9 It was in August 1167 that Dermot returned to Ireland from his exile. Though he did not Denuot wait for Strongbow or Fitz Stephen, he did okinse not come quite alone. He was accompanied by a knight of Pembrokeshire named Richard Fitz Godebert (who appears to have been a Fleming from Roch Castle, near Haverford), and a small body of troops.^ Dermot at once recovered his hereditary kingdom of Okinselagh, apparently without opposition, but he was not allowed to remain long unmolested. His return is was the signal for Rory 0' Conor and Dermot' s by^he^^ mortal enemy, Tiernan O'Rourke, with Dermot O'Melaghlin and the Ostmen of Dublin, to take the field against him. This was, in fact, the same combination that had dethroned him earl}^ in 1166, and they marched to the same dark wood, Fid-dorcha,^ where they had previously ^ Song of Dermot, IL 404-19. He was probably son of Godebert Flandrensis of Ros. See infra, p. 392. 2 Ann. Tigernach. According to the Four Masters, Rory marched to Cill Osnadh, now Kelhstown, co. Carlow. This 142 THE FIRST CONQUERORS defeated him. Dermot, who must have seen that a contest was hopeless, treated for peace. A week was spent in negotiations, but before they were concluded a party of nobles stole out from O' Conor's camp to seek a combat, and six of them were killed in a conflict with Dermot' s horsemen. A general engagement followed, Dermot was put to flight ' with his Saxons ', and ten-score heads of Leinstermen and the heads of two of the foreign knights were collected by the victors.^ Is given Notwithstanding their victory, 0' Conor and O'Rourke, instead of once more expelling Dermot, came to terms with him. The ard-ri accepted hostages from Dermot and left him in possession of ten cantreds of his tribe-lands, probably about the whole of the present county of Wexford, while O'Rourke accepted 100 ounces of gold as his I6g-enech, or honour-price, for the wTong done him by Dermot in carrying off his wife. Those who think that the rape of Dervorgil had nothing to do with Dermot' s expulsion, inasmuch as it happened fourteen years before that event, must have overlooked this payment to the injured would be exactly in the direction of the fastness of ' the Leverocke ' {leamhrach, e\m-wood ?), which we have already shown to be probably the Fid-dorcha : supra, p. 66. ^ The Four Masters state that ' the son of the King of Britain (Rhys ?), who was the battle -prop of the island of Britain was among the slain. But for this no early authority is known. THE FIRST CONQUERORS 143 husband, a payment which was exactly in accor- dance with Brehon Law, and which shows beyond question that the original cause of the feud between Tiernan and Dermot had by no means been forgotten. The ard-n has been severely blamed by modern writers for not crushing Dermot utterly when he was in his power. I do not know that it is the duty of an historian to mete out either praise or blame. His first duty with regard to human actions, after having carefully ascer- tained them and faithfully recorded them, is to understand them. In this case it is not difficult to understand Rory's action. Had he foreseen that Dermot would bring in more foreigners, who would oust many an Irish chieftain from his territory, he would, without doubt, have remorse- lessly exterminated him and his. But it is, perhaps happily, not given to man to see far into the future, and Rory, having obtained Dermot's submission, having seen that due reparation according to law was given to O'Rourke, may well have thought that Dermot had received a sufficient lesson, and that justice was amply vindicated. Dermot, it must be recollected, was no longer the powerful king of a province, but the petty chieftain of a mor-tuath, or approximately the modern county of Wexford. One possible check on Dermot's power Rory seems to have omitted. Had he set up a strong king of 144 THE FIRST CONQUERORS Leinster in Der mot's room and over Dermot, he would have erected a power whose interest it would have been to watch Dermot' s movements with argus eyes, and control them with an iron hand. Perhaps inevitable tribe- jealousies pre- vented this, but in any case it had long been the policy of those who sought to obtain the over- lordship of Ireland, in order to augment their own power, to subdivide rather than to con- solidate the provincial kingdoms. Murrough Mac Murrough appears never to have been recog- nized as king of North Leinster nor of Ossory. Both he and, afterwards, his son Murtough were at most only kings of South Leinster. hesTow During the ensuing year 1168 it would seem that Dermot made no overt attempt to break his engagement with the ard-rl, or to reassert his claims to the throne of Leinster. The remnant of Richard Fitz Godebert's little band would have brought back news of their want of success and of Dermot' s submission, and we cannot wonder if Strongbow and Fitz Stephen hesitated to carry out their engagements at the time stipulated. Dermot, however, had no intention of relinquishing his purpose, and was merely biding his time for a favourable opportunity of throwing off the mask of submission. Regan It was probably in the winter of 1168-9 that Wales!* Dermot sent his trusty ' latimer ', Maurice Regan, to Wales, as Regan himself, through the THE FIRST CONQUERORS 145 pen of the Norman rhymer, informs us/ to remind Fitz Stephen and Fitz Gerald of their promises, and to whip up further recruits : — Whoever shall wish for land or pence, Horses, trappings, or chargers. Gold or silver, I shall give them A very ample pay. Whoever may wish for soil or sod. Richly shall I enfeoff them. Urged on by some such message, Robert The Fitz Stephen now bestirred himself and got ofrltf together a force pf thirty knights — ' milites,' ^^^j^j^' Gerald calls them^ — of his own kinsmen and retainers, and sixty other horsemen clad in coats of mail (loricati), as well as about three hundred archers on foot, the flower of the youth of Wales. Having embarked his men in three ships, he landed at Bannow Bay on the south coast of Wexford about May 1, 1169. Such was the small beginning of a movement of peoples destined in a brief period to have big results for Ireland. Among his principal followers were his nephews Meiler Fitz Henry and Miles, son of the Bishop of St. Davids, whom we have already mentioned, and Robert de Barry, elder brother of the historian. With the expedition, ^ Song of Dermot, 11. 420-38. 2 The milites were not necessarily dubbed knights, but were fully equipped men-at-arms, such as tenants in capite were bound by the conditions of their tenure to furnish to the Crown. 821379.1 V 146 THE FIRST CONQUERORS which was evidently dispatched with Strong- bow's knowledge and approval, was sent Hervey de Montmorency, Strongbow's paternal uncle, to investigate the position of affairs on the spot and report to Strongbow. Descrip- Gerald de Barry, who misses no opportunity Hervey. of placing Hervcy's character and actions in an unfavourable light, describes him here as a man of fallen fortunes, without military equipment or pecuniary resources, who came over as a spy on behalf of his nephew rather than as a soldier. At a later period he gives the following sketch of his personal appearance and moral character : * Hervey was a tall, handsome man, with prominent grey eyes, pleasing presence, comely countenance, and polished address. . . . But in proportion as Nature had endowed his outward appearance with many graces, so she had deformed the inner man with the stains of many vices. From youth upwards he had abandoned himself to all kinds of venery. . . . He was a malicious, double-faced informer, a cunning, smooth-tongued rogue, and his honeyed words were fraught with venom. Shallow and shifty, he was constant only in inconstancy ' ^ — with more to the same effect. Hervey, it is evident, was not a Geraldine ; nay, more — as a military commander he was the principal rival of Raymond, the pattern and paragon of 1 Gir. Camb. v. 327. THE FIRST CONQUERORS 147 Geraldine perfection. How Hervey was Strong- bow's uncle, as stated by Gerald, was long un- known, but it has recently been shown ^ that Adeliz de Clermont, Strongbow's paternal grand- mother, married a de Montmorenc}'^ as her second husband, and bore to him Hervey, who accordingly was half-brother to Strongbow's father. Gerald, indeed, gives us personal descriptions of all the protagonists in the drama of the conquest, and making due allowance for his bias in favour of his relatives, and for his evident prejudice in the cases of Strongbow and Hervey, we can form from his descriptions some idea of their appearances and main characteristics. He says of his uncle, Robert Fitz Stephen, that he Of Fit/ was a burly, healthy-looking man, somewhat ^^^^^^"^^ above middle height, and with a comely coun- tenance. A good liver, open-handed, generous, and jovial, but too much given to wine and women. A man of singular courage and energy, but, like a second Marius, the sport of fickle Fortune, now and again prosperous, but more often weighed down by adversity. He describes his cousin, Meiler Fitz Henry, as a swarthy man And of with stern black eyes and piercing look. Below 1 By Mr. Round, Feudal England, p. 519. The im- possibility of the previously received pedigree, and the error on which it was founded, had already been indicated in a note to the Song, p. 266. K 2 148 THE FIRST CONQUERORS the middle height, but very strong for his size. His chest was broach his waist narrow, his Umbs bony and sinewy. A courageous and eager soldier, who shrank from no enterprise, whether to be undertaken alone or in company with others. The first to plunge into battle and the last to leave the field, he knew no alternative but death or victory. The com- This little band of warriors was joined next Maurice Mauricc de Prendergast, who came from der^a^r district of Rhos in Pembrokeshire, where the name Prendergast survives as that of a suburb of Haverford. In all probability he was one of the principal Flemish settlers there. He brought with him ten men-at-arms and a considerable body of archers in two ships. These men, who remained apart under Maurice's command, and, as we shall see, mostly followed his fortunes, were also probably Flemings by descent. Pro- bably, too, Fitz Stephen brought with him some of the Flemings who had fought by his side in Wales. The Four Masters, indeed, speak of the whole band as 'the fleet of the Flemings '. The leaders, however, other than Maurice de Prender- gast, were Normans, though they had the blood of Welsh princes in their veins. Fitz Stephen's archers were selected from ' the youth of Wales ', but though the names of many of the early settlers in Ireland can be traced to South Wales, and especially to Pembrokeshire, there is not THE FIRST CONQUERORS 149 much positive evidence that many men of pure Welsh descent settled at this time in Ireland. The names are, for the most part, apparently Norman or English, with only an occasional Welsh name, but with, in Wexford especially, a fair sprinkling of what seem to be Flemish names. Names, however, are not always con- clusive of origin.^ Surnames taken from place- names in South Wales may not all have belonged to Normans. Thus the descendants of Godebert the Fleming took the name of de la Roche from the rock-castle near Haverford. This little army of invaders, probably not ex- The land- ceeding 600 men in all, landed on what was then ' an island in Bannow Bay, on the southern coast of the present County Wexford. As the walled towns of Waterford and Wexford were held by Norsemen independently of Dermot, they could not land in either of the harbours connected with those towns, and if the map of Wexford be studied, or, better still, if the coast-line itself be examined, it will be found difficult to discover a more favourable landing-place for vessels of light draught.^ They drew up their ships on the sandy 1 Even the ' to-name ' le Waleis (afterwards Walsh) does not necessarily imply pure Welsh blood. Raymond le Gros had a nephew David agnomme Walensis non cognomine, natione Kamhrensis non cognatione : Gir. Camb. v. 321. 2 The bay no longer affords good anchorage even for shallow vessels. It is nearly drained at low water, and there is a dangerous bar. But that this was not always so is 150 THE FIRST CONQUERORS beach, and sent messengers at once to Dermot to apprise him of their arrival, and he immediately sent forward his illegitimate son, Donnell Ka- vanagh, to welcome them. The island of Bannow is now joined to the mainland on the eastern side by a narrow neck of sand washed up by the sea. At one time there was evidently a channel here. The island, however, is low and unprotected by cliffs, so that it was not a strong place or one that could well be held in the face of a hostile country. Fortunately, however, for the in- vaders, the adjoining country was not hostile. The people of the district, Gerald tells us, had formerly deserted Dermot in his misfortune, but now that his luck had turned they flocked together to support him.^ In any case, Dermot lost no time in joining them with 500 men, and on the following day the combined troops marched to attack the Scandinavian stronghold of Wexford, distant about sixteen English miles. W'exfoixi Wexford, known to the Irish as Loch Garman, ohjoctive. owcd its importance and probably its origin to the Ostmen, as they were called, whether Danes indicated by the once prosperous towns of Bannow and Clonmines situated on its shores. See paper by the Rev. James Graves, Ealk. Arch. Soc, 1850, p. 187. ^ The chieftains of the adjoining districts, the modern baronies of Forth and Bargy, were O'Lorcain and O'Duibh- guin : Topog. Poems, p. 93, note (468, 470). Both of them are mentioned in the Song as being at a later period on Strongbow's side : 11. 3214, 3217. THE FIRST CONQUERORS 151 or Norwegians, and had been held by them for about three hundred years. It was a walled town, and though the Irish had several times inflicted an overthrow on the foreigners of Loch Gar man, they were quite incapable of taking the town by storm. The extensive harbour^ almost enclosed by Rosslare Point and the Raven, afforded ample shelter for the Danish vessels, which carried on a trade with South Wales and Bristol only inferior to that of Dublin and Waterford. As long as the sea com- munication remained open the town could not be reduced by siege, even supposing the Irish were capable of conducting lengthy siege opera* tions. Dermot, however, claimed to be overlord of the ' Foreigners of Wexford ', and in 1161 Donnell Kavanagh gained a victory over them. Whatever the result of this may have been, the Ostmen, we may be sure, were among the first to throw off their allegiance when Dermot was in difficulties. Apart, however, from any claim of right by Dermot, Fitz Stephen, as a prudent general, could not leave so important a post in hostile hands in his rear. Accordingly Wexford was the first objective of the invaders. What sort of stronghold it was we have scanty means of judging. Like Dublin and Waterford, it was a walled town running down to the water's edge. These walls included towers or turrets (pro- piignacula) at intervals, and were defended on 152 THE FIRST CONQUERORS the outside by a ditch, beyond which there was rising ground. So much we can glean from Gerald's narrative. Probably the later walls, which still exist in places and can be traced all round on the land side, follow in part the lines of the old walls, though embracing a larger area towards the north. We do not hear of any castle or citadel in the town. When the townsmen heard of Dermot's ap- proach they boldly sallied forth to the number of two thousand, confident in the issue of a battle with their old foe ; but they soon per- ceived that it was a new sort of enemy they had to deal with. Instead of a horde of naked Irish kerns armed with pikes and darts, with perhaps a body of galloglasses, as they were afterwards termed, wielding in one hand the broad battle- axe borrowed from the Danes themselves, they saw before them an orderly body of men drawn up in even ranks, armed with the bow which carried death at a distance, and flanked on either side by a squadron of horsemen, with long lances, glittering kite-shaped shields, and helmets and coats of mail. The Ostmen of Wexford were no doubt not wholly unused to armour. Their compatriots at Clontarf, a century and a half before, are said to have been encased in mail,^ ^ Thie accounts of the battle of Clontarf all mention the lurech {=lorica) on the Danes, but it was probably of leather reinforced with metal rings and studs. THE FIRST CONQUERORS 153 but in the interval they had given up their old piratical life, and had become Christians and traders. They had certainly now no such armour as they saw on the Norman chivalry before them, nor were they archers or horsemen. Accordingly, in these changed circumstances, they changed their tactics, and after firing the suburbs, so as to deprive the enemy of shelter, they retired within the ramparts. Fitz Stephen at once made his preparations The for the attack. On the rising ground behind the ^^^^ town he placed his archers so as to command the turrets on the walls. ^ Under the shelter of their arrows, the men in mail proceeded to fill up in places the ditch which surrounded the walls on the outside.^ Over the places thus levelled a rush was made to scale the walls with ladders or some extemporized substitute. The townsmen, however, stood to the defence, and, hurling great beams and stones from the battle- ments on the heads of the assailants, for the time repulsed the assault. According to the Song, eighteen of the English were killed, while the townsfolk lost but three. Gerald ^ The existing walls run some way up the hill behind the town, but the ground still rises beyond them. 2 ' Viris armatis fossa ta replentibus ' : Gir. Camb. v. 232. This phrase has, I think, been mistranslated 'Hning the ditches with those of his troops who wore armour ' (Giles). ' The men in mail lined the ditches ' (Barnard). For the operation asabove rendered of. Caesar, De Bello Gallico, vii. 82. 154 THE FIRST CONQUERORS mentions that his elder brother, Robert de Barry, as he led the escalade, was struck on the helmet by a stone, and, falling headlong to the bottom of the ditch, was with difficulty rescued by his comrades. Withdrawing then from the walls, the assailants rushed to the neighbouring strand and set fire to all the ships they could lay their hands on. One band of youths boarded a merchant vessel from England, laden with corn and wine, when the sailors cut the hawser, and the vessel, driven by the west wind, stood out towards the sea, so that the boarding- party were barely able to escape by taking again to their boats and rowing to land. Night closed in without the invaders obtaining any real advantage. Wexford Ncxt moming, after mass was solemnized in oiuennr^ full parade, Fitz Stephen proceeded to renew the attack, but this time with more circumspection than before. Despairing of taking the walls by a mere rush, he was preparing to adopt some of the devices of that military science for which the Normans were famous, when the besieged, abandoning all hope of defending their town, sent envoys to treat for peace. Mainly by the mediation of two bishops, terms were arranged. The townsmen submitted to Dermot, and gave him four hostages for their future fidelity. No violence was done, but the town was henceforth held by the victors. Pleased with his first THE FIRST CONQUERORS 155 success, and by way of encouraging his allies, The first Dermot is said to have at once redeemed his ^^'^^^^ promise to Fitz Stephen, and assigned to him and his half-brother, Maurice Fitz Gerald (who had not yet arrived) the town of Wexford with all its dependent territory. To Hervey de Montmorency he gave two cantreds adjoining the sea between Wexford and Waterford.^ This latter gift would seem to indicate that Hervey, perhaps as representing Strongbow, was a much more important personage in Dermot' s eyes than one would gather from the pages of Gerald. These lands, which probably included the present baronies of Bargy and Shelburne, were after- wards re-granted or confirmed to Hervey by Strongbow.^ After the taking of Wexford, Dermot brought Fi his allies with him to Ferns, where they stayed ^ainsT for three weeks to heal their wounded and to refresh themselves. Then Dermot proposed an expedition against the King of Ossory,^ to which ^ Gir. Camb. v. 233. According to the Song of Dermot, the dehvery of Wexford to Fitz Stephen, and the grant of the adjoining land at Carrick to Maurice Fitz Gerald, took place at a later period, after the earUer raids and just before Raymond's landing ; and this appears more probable : 11. 1392-9. Henry afterwards took Wexford into his own hands, but ultimately gave it to Strongbow (Song of Dermot, 1. 2902), so that it merged in the lordship of Leinster. 2 Song of Dermot, 11. 3070-1, and see note. ^ The principal authority for this Ossorian expedition is Song of Dermot, 11. 520-823. Giraldus, v. 233-6, includes 156 THE FIRST CONQUERORS his allies, ready for any fighting, agreed. The kingdom, as it was usually called, of Ossory corresponded to the present diocese of that name, and included, besides the entire county of Kilkenny, three baronies in the western part of Queen's County. It thus extended from the Slieve Bloom mountains to the meeting of the three rivers near Waterford, and was separated from Okinselagh by the lower reaches of the river Barrow. This large district was some- times reckoned as part of Munster and sometimes as part of Leinster, but was perhaps more often practically independent of both. Dermot, how- ever, claimed its submission. In 1152 Ossory may have furnished him with troops in the fateful expedition against Tiernan O'Rourke,^ but subsequently he met with more than one reverse at its hands, and it was no doubt due to the defection of Ossory along with that of other subordinate chief tainries that Dermot was un- able to make any stand against his enemies in 1166. In that year, as we have seen, the King of Ossory had shared in the partition of Der- mot' s principality of Okinselagh, and had taken prisoner Dermot's son, Enna, who had probably been left behind as Dermot's representative. both this expedition, and one to be presently described, under the same heading, de expugnatione Ossiriae; cf. Ann. Tigernach, 1169. ^ Song of Dermot, 1. 75. THE FIRST CONQUERORS 157 In 1168 Donough Mac Gillapatrick had deliber- ately blinded Enna, styled by the annalists ' rigdamna of Leinster to dispose of his claims. Dermot had therefore special grounds for his animosity against the King of Ossory, who, however, at this time appears to have been Donnell, son of Donough Mac Gillapatrick.^ After the success at Wexford, many of the men of Leinster returned to their allegiance, and Dermot's troops were reinforced partly by them and partly by a body of the Ostmen of Wexford, until he had 3,000 fighting men under his command. It is probable that the army entered Ossory by the well-known route called the Bealach Gabhrdin, or Pass of Gowran, and that it was somewhere along this route that Donnell Mac Gillapatrick attempted to stop him. It is quite certain that large districts in Leinster and in other parts of Ireland were at this time, and for centuries afterwards, covered with natural forests quite impassable for cavalry, or indeed, ^ Grerald calls him Duvenaldus, which represents Domhnall (Donnell), not Donnchadh (Donough), while in the Song of Dermot he is called Macdonchid (variously spelled), i.e. Mac Donnchadha, or. son of Donnough ; cf . note, 1. 560. Perhaps this Donough died in the winter of 1168-9, and was succeeded in half Ossory by his son Donnell. The Ossorian succession at this period is, however, rather obscure ; partly because there were three contemporaneous kings in Ossory, and two of them were of the family of Mac Gillapatrick and were each named Donnell. 158 THE FIRST CONQUERORS with safety, for any troops. Through these forests narrow tracks were cut to the open places or plains where the cattle fed, and such agricul- ture as was in vogue was carried on. The upper slopes of the hills were also generally bare, and thither the cattle used to be driven in summer to feed. When we read of a ' pass ' it is often one of these tracks through the forests that is meant, and not a defile between mountains. It was in some such forest-track that Mac Gilla- patrick of Ossory now endeavoured to arrest Der mot's predatory expedition. He defended it in the usual way, but with more than the usual care and completeness. He caused a barricade to be made consisting of a triple fosse and vallum, and on the top of each vallum he erected a sort of stockade of intertwined branches (hate). Behind this barricade he sat down with five thousand men awaiting the enemy. Here the battle lasted from morning until eventide, until at last the English, though with considerable loss, forced their way through. They now advanced into the plain and laid waste the country, collecting what spoil they could. They did not penetrate very far, however, but took a northerly direction, and then endeavoured to return to their own country, apparently by the shorter but more difficult route through the fdsach or wilderness of the Dinin and across the Slievemargy hills to the valley of the Barrow. THE FIRST CONQUERORS 159 On this march they very nearly met with a disaster. Mac Gillapatrick had rallied his men, and was hanging about the rear of the retreating army as it was about to enter a pass where Dermot had on three occasions met with a defeat. The Irish troops, who were under the command of Donnell Kavanagh, fearing lest they should be defeated for the fourth time, fled in a panic through the woods, leaving only forty-three men with their commander. The little body of Normans were now in a tight place, as their horse could not operate amid the woods and swamps of the pass. Accordingly Maurice de Prendergast, who was in command, urged his men forward as rapidly as possible, so as to gain the hard open country on the upper slopes of the hills, where the cavalry could act. At the same time he set a little ambuscade of fifty archers in a thicket at the side of the pass to take the enemy in the rear. Meanwhile the men of Ossory, to the number of two thousand, were impetuously pursuing the retreating invaders until the hard open ground was reached, when the latter turned, and, charging their pursuers, speared them with, their long lances and scattered them in utter rout. Dermot' s men, who had fled to the woods earlier in the day, now returned and joined in the melee, cutting off with their broad axes the heads of those who were thrown to the ground by the charge of the horse. Thus 160 THE FIRST CONQUERORS what seemed at first like the flight of the in- vaders was turned into the defeat of the pursuers, and to Dermot as he rested by the Barrow were brought some two hundred of the heads of his enemies. Here Gerald gives us a horrible picture of the savagery of the times, or at least of the brutality of Dermot. ' To see to whom the heads belonged he turned them over one by one ; then thrice did he clap his hands and leap for joy, and, giving thanks to the Most High, burst into exultant song. Aye, and even the head of one whom he hated above the rest, he took up by the ears and hair, and in a most blood- thirsty and brutal manner tore away with his teeth the lips and nose.' ^ ^ This action of Dermot may perhaps indicate the late survival in Ireland of a once widespread superstition noticed by Dr. J. G. Fraser (Psyche's Task, pp. 56-8), viz. that one way of allaying the avenging ghost of a murdered man was to taste the blood of the slain, and so, by making him part of oneself, and estabUshing in the strictest sense a blood -covenant with him, one could convert him from an enemy into an ally. He refers inter alia to a ' still wide- spread opinion in Calabria that if a murderer is to escape he must suck his victim's blood from the reeking blade of the dagger with which he did the deed '. An historic example from Italy, which at any rate offers analogies to Dermot's action, occurred at the massacre of the Baghoni in Perugia in 1500, when ' one of the noble murderers tore from a great wound in his (the victim's) side the stni quiver- ing heart, into which he drove his teeth with savage fury *. (See the contemporary chronicle of Matarazzo, quoted in The Story of Perugia, Mediaeval Town Series, p. 65). The THE FIRST CONQUERORS 161 Overruling the bolder proposal made by Fitz Stephen, that they should remain where they were for the night and on the morrow continue the contest with the King of Ossory, Dermot marched his men along by the Barrow to Old Leighlin, situated on a hill two miles west of the river, where they spent the night, and where the leaders were possibly entertained in the monastery of St. Laserian. Next day they returned to Ferns for another brief period of rest. Such was the dread inspired by Dermot' s auxiliaries, the fame of whose exploits now began to be noised abroad, that many disaffected tribes of Leinster returned to their allegiance ; but there were important chieftains in North Leinster, always jealous of Okinselagh, who still held out. Among these was Faelan Mac Fhaelain or Mackelan (as the name was anglicized), lord of Off elan, the tribal territory of the 0'B5rrnes, Expedi- who at this time occupied the north-eastern part offeialf.^ of the present County Kildare, including Naas. Mackelan came of a family which, in centuries gone by, had given more than one king to Leinster, and a member of this family had, as fear of the avenging spirit was not confined to the case of murder, but was felt even when the victim was slain in battle, as in Dermot 's case. Probably the common custom of decapitating the slain arose from a similar behef. For the usage of the blood-covenant in Ireland at this time and even later, see Giraldus, v. 167, Ann. Ulster, 1275, and editor's note, vol. ii, p. 356, and supra, p. 137. 821379.1 L 162 THE FIRST CONQUERORS we have seen, been set up as king by Turlough O'Conor in 1127, and had eventually been slain by Dermot. Naturally, the present chief bore Dermot no goodwill, and had been one of the first to turn against him. So now Dermot, with the aid of his Norman allies, drove him out of Offelan, raided his territory, and carried off And a great spoil. ^ The next to suffer was 0' Toole, (TTooie. chieftain of Omurethy, a district comprising the southern half of the present County Kildare. This chieftain was brother of Lorcan or Laurence O'Toole, Archbishop of Dublin, and brother-in- law of Dermot himself ; but family ties are seldom allowed to stand in the way of the ambition of monarchs, and Dermot proceeded to spoil the district of Glendalough,^ which must even thus early have been subject to O'Toole. The Irish, though brave and inured to fighting, could not stand against the far-reaching arrows, the long lances, and the military skill of the Normans. Many of them, however, preferred to see their homesteads burned, their lands laid waste, and their cattle spoiled, rather than give in their submission to Dermot. The King of Ossory, for example, still held out, and a fresh expedition ^ was accordingly organized into his territory on a larger scale than before. Donnell 1 Song of Dermot, 11. 846-75. 2 Ibid., 11. 884-917, and notes. ^ i^id., H. 920-1055. THE FIRST CONQUERORS 163 Kavanagh had now five thousand men under Second cxDcdi" his command, and then there was the contingent tion into of Ostmen from Wexford, who, we are told, ^^^^^y- hated Dermot and fought under compulsion, and were consequently viewed with suspicion, besides the foreign contingent, with whom Dermot himself always marched, perhaps for greater safety. From the indications given in the Song of Dermot, we can gather the route they took with some particularity. They marched into the district of the Fotharta Fea, now known as the barony of Forth, in County Carlow, having, no doubt, passed the mountains by the cutting through, which the Slaney flows, and they encamped for the night by the river Burren,^ some of them occupying an old disused fort,^ in which circumstance we may perhaps discover the cause of the curious event that followed. Our two Norman authorities tell how the camp was aroused in the night by a phantom army and put to panic flight. ' Sud- denly,' says Gerald, ' as it were countless thou- sands of warriors burst in upon them on all sides, seeming to overwhelm everj^hing in their furious charge, while the rattling of their armour, 1 Sur Vewe de Machurtin (Song of Dermot, 11. 957-68) where Macburtin probably represents Mag Boirenn, or the plain of the Burren. 2 Probably 'le langport' (Ir. longphort = encenn-pment or fort) of the Song of Dermot, 1. 1000, is the castellarium quoddam antiquum of Gerald. L2 164 THE FIRST CONQUERORS the mighty crash of their battle-axes, and their fearful shouts filled the air.' The Normans thought that they were being treacherously attacked by the men of Wexford, who in their turn thought that they were being entrapped by Dermot, while in reality no one was hurt except those who were in the confusion knocked on the head by their panic-stricken comrades. Knowing the belief that Irish peasants in the more backward parts have to this day in fairy hosts, and how they associate them and their hostings with the old forts or raths that dot the land, we may shrewdly suspect that some of Dermot's followers, imbued with the same super- stitious beliefs, saw the fairy hosts issue from the old rath in which the army slept, and that from them the panic spread to the rest of the troops. Next morning they pursued their march, and advanced into Ossory until they came to ' a river of great vehemence ', presumably the Nore, where they encamped for the night. Mac Gillapatrick did not dispute with them the passage of the Nore, but fortified the pass of Achadh-ur against them. Achadh-ur was the ancient name of the little town now called Freshf ord, on the river Nuenna, about three miles above its junction with the Nore. It was a place of some importance, as is testified by the beautiful romanesque doorway of the existing THE FIRST CONQUERORS 165 church — a doorway which was probably erected early in the century of which we write. As one approaches this town from the side of Kilkenny and the Nore, the hills to the south come close to the road, and leave a comparatively narrow passage between them and the Nuenna. This spot may have been that chosen by Mac Gilla- patrick to meet the invader. He trenched the pass in the usual manner, with a hedge of stakes and intertwined branches on the top of his earthen rampart. This post he bravely held against the attack of the Wexford men, but he could not withstand the terrible shafts that sped from the Norman bows, nor the onset of the mail-clad spearmen. He preferred flight, however, to submission, and was vainly pursued by Dermot to the borders of his country. Then Dermot returned to Ferns with a great spoil. And now occurred the first division in the ranks of the invaders.^ For some reason, at Piender- which we can only vaguely guess, Maurice de fgaves Prendergast and about two hundred men, per- 1^^^°^^*^- haps in the main the Flemings he had brought with him, wished to return to Wales. The char- acter of this man as it appears in the Song is that of a chivalrous warrior who would keep his word even with an enemy, and he may have been disgusted with Dermot's brutality. Gerald, A Song of Dermot, 11. 1056-1151. 166 THE FIRST CONQUERORS however, after telling of his arrival in Ireland, never mentions his name, but when Rory's great hosting into Okinselagh (to be mentioned immediately) was threatened he says that many of Dermot's friends deserted him, some even going openly over to the enemy,^ and it may well be that this was the occasion of Prender- gast's defection. Perhaps on seeing the opposi- tion that had arisen against them throughout the greater part of Ireland, Prendergast and his men may have despaired of ultimate success and may have resolved to return to Wales. In any case, he parted in bad terms with Dermot, and drawing off two hundred of his men — about one-third of the foreign contingent — set out for Wexford. Dermot at once sent a message to the ship-captains of Wexford charging them to give no assistance to Prendergast, but to obstruct his design in every way they could. And joins Prendergast, baulked in this way, immediately Patrick, scnt word to Donnell Mac Gillapatrick, Dermot's great enemy, to offer him his services. That chieftain gladly accepted the offer, assured him of safe-conduct, and promised him ample reward. Accordingly Prendergast, turning aside from Wexford, took the road to St. MuUins, on the Barrow, in the present county of Carlo w. This did not suit Dermot at all, and his son Donnell Kavanagh, with five hundred men, 1 V. 237. THE FIRST CONQUERORS 167 endeavoured to bar his way. A battle was fought, evidently in the pass of Pollmounty, a narrow defile between the hills on the direct route to St. MuUins, and Prendergast forced his way through. St. Mullins was an ancient ecclesiastical centre, and the remains of a round tower, a carved cross, and numerous churches may still be seen there. Here after three days, Donnell, King of Ossory, arrived with a company of troops, and on the altar and shrine of St. Moling took oath never to betray Maurice de Prendergast or his men. The King of Ossory was now able to take the offensive against Dermot, and with the aid of Maurice, who in consequence of his new service re- ceived the name of ' Maurice of Ossory harried Dermot' s territory. Dermot, it will be noted, was not the only Irish king who was readj^ to employ foreigners to fight his battles for him. It was probably about this time that Rory Hosting O' Conor, attended by Tiernan O'Rourke, Dermot o'Conoi O'Melaghlin, and the Ostmen of Dublin (again okhise- the same combination as before), led a host- ^^^h- ing into Okinselagh. According to the Four Masters, this vast array ' deemed the Flemings as the followers of Fitz Stephen are called, ' not worth notice ' — so incorrectly did they calculate the forces of the future. O' Conor simply exacted Dermot's son as a hostage and 168 THE FIRST CONQUERORS retired.^ A different complexion is given to the hosting by Gerald de Barry, who also supplies some new details.^ According to him, the ard-ri, alarmed at Der mot's successes and apprehensive of evil from the introduction of foreigners, came with his vast host to crush Dermot and exterminate the foreigners while they were as yet few in numbers. Dermot at this crisis found himself deserted by his fair- weather friends, some of whom secretly dis- appeared while others openly joined the foe. Among the latter, as we have seen, must probably be included Maurice de Prendergast and his Flemings. Thus in his hour of need Dermot found himself with very few firm supporters, besides Fitz Stephen and his men. He therefore retired with those who remained faithful to him ' to a place not far from Ferns which, surrounded as it was by dense woods, steep mountains, and watery marshes, formed a natural fastness very difficult of access From this description we can locate the site of Dermot's retreat with much confidence some- where near Mount Leinster to the west of Ferns, in the district still known as the Duffry. This district, situated in the parish of Temple- shanbo, remained for centuries one of the most ^ Four Masters, Ann. Tigemach, 1169. 2 Gir. Camb. v. 236-^4. The Song of Dermot does not mention this hosting. THE FIRST CONQUEROKS 169 inaccessible fastnesses of Leinster. As its name, the Dubh-tir, ' black or dark country,' indicates, it was covered with dark woods. It is bounded on the west and north by the steep sides of Mount Leinster and its adjacent spurs (the praerupti monies of Gerald), it is coursed by numerous mountain streams, while in the low- lands to the east the remains of bogs and marshes may still be discerned. Here they felled trees and plashed the woods in the method well known to the Irish ; they broke up the surface of the level ground with deep pits and trenches, leaving only narrow and tortuous entrances and exits, through which they could easily pass, but in which the enemy would be hopelessly entangled. Having thus strengthened a naturally strong position, they awaited with great resolution the advance of the army of Ireland. Rory, on his arrival, at first sent to Fitz Stephen messengers, who endeavoured by the proffer and promise of valuable gifts, and by every argument, to persuade him to return in peace and amity to his own country. Failing with him, the messengers then urged Dermot to unite with the men of Ireland in exterminating the foreigners, promising in that event the peaceable restoration of all Leinster to Dermot, together with the firm friendship of the ard-rL But Dermot, to his credit be it said, would not 170 THE FIRST CONQUERORS agree to this treachery. It would seem as if there was nothing for it but to fight, and Gerald puts long speeches into the mouths of Rory O'Conor, Dermot, and Fitz Stephen, all, as it were, animating their respective followers for the approaching battle. But we may pass over these speeches, all the more as there was no fighting. Perhaps on learning how few the foreigners were Rory may have thought their presence a matter of no importance, as seems to be the statement of the Irish annals ; per- haps he may have shrunk from attacking them in their present strong position, as Gerald says. Indeed, the two motives are not abso- lutely inconsistent with each other, and Rory may have been actuated partly by the one and partly by the other. In either case we may accept the statement of Gerald that through the intervention of good men (meaning thereby the clergy, who seem always to have supported Dermot) and by the grace of Heaven, peace was at length established upon the following con- ditions : that Leinster should be left to Dermot, who should acknowledge Rory as ard-n and yield him due submission. To secure this compact Dermot handed over his son Conor as a hostage to Rory, who on his part promised that if Dermot fulfilled his engagements he would give his daughter in marriage to Dermot's son. Besides these conditions, which were publicly THE FIRST CONQUERORS 171 proclaimed and confirmed by the oaths of the parties, it was secretly agreed between Dermot and Rory that Dermot should bring no more foreigners into Ireland, and moreover that he should send back those whom he had brought as soon as he had reduced Leinster to submission. Such is Gerald's account of the matter, but without questioning that it correctly represents the view taken by his friends ^ and states truly the conditions of peace, we may doubt if it gives a correct impression of the main object of Rory's expedition. Since his inauguration Policy as King of Ireland in 1166, Rory had been ard-n. very active in making hostings throughout the various divisions of his kingdom, obtaining hostages from the subordinate kings, dividing their territories, settling disputes, and generally making his power felt. A brief account of these proceedings, derived mainly from the Four Masters, will show what Rory's general policy was, and will serve to put in truer perspective his Leinster expedition. In 1167 Rory followed up his hostings of the previous year by leading an expedition into Tiro wen, where Murtough O'Loughlin, his former rival, had recently been slain. Here he divided the territory between Niall O'Loughlin ^ Gerald must have derived his account of the miUtary events of this year mainly from his uncle, Robert Fitz Stephen. 172 THE FIRST CONQUERORS and Aedh O'Neill, and exacted hostages from each. Then on the return of Dermot Mc Mur- rough, as we have seen, he exacted hostages from him for Okinselagh, and obtained a large money compensation for the affront done to Tiernan O'Rourke. In Munster, Murtough O'Brien, who had expelled his father Turlough in 1165, and had apparently been recognized in 1166 by Rory O'Conor, whose half-brother he was, as King of Thomond, was killed in 1168 by Conor O'Brien — the representative of an elder branch. Conor was himself, with his conspirators, immediately afterwards killed, and Donnell O'Brien, of whom we shall hear much, a brother of Murtough, then assumed the kingdom of Munster. Rory O'Conor, however, led an army into Munster, divided the king- dom between Dermot Mac Carthy and Donnell O'Brien, obtained hostages from the former, and levied an eric of 720 cows on Desmond for the killing of Murtough O'Brien. In Meath in the same year, the king, Dermot O'Melaghlin, in revenge of his father, killed the lord of Delvin, who was under the protection of Connaught, and Rory at the head of an army exacted an eric of 800 cows. Dermot O'Melaghlin was deposed by the people of East Meath in revenge for the payment of the aforesaid cows. He recovered his position by fighting, and joined in the hosting into Okinselagh in 1169. But later THE FIRST CONQUERORS 173 in the same year^ he was slain by his nephew, Donnell of Bregia. Thereupon Rory again inter- fered, expelled Donnell of Bregia, and divided Meath between himself and Tiernan O'Rourke. Thus in Ulster, Munster, and Meath, the activity of the ard-ri was directed to secure the submission of the provincial kings by the exac- tion of hostages, and to weaken their power by dividing their territories. Much might be said for this policy had it been effective, but these enforced divisions only resulted in chronic fighting among the dissatisfied chieftains. We now come to Rory's expedition into Leinster, which seems to have taken place late in 1169. His object, primarily at least, was not to get rid of the handful of foreigners, in his eyes almost a negligible quantity, still less was it to expel Dermot, but to obtain his submission, exact more important hostages, and regularize his position in Leinster. These objects he for the moment obtained, and the settlement was for the moment as effective or ineffective ^ as the settlement of the other portions of Ireland. ^ The entries in Four Masters, 1169, are, as often, out of chronological order. Dermot O'Melaghlin's death is re- corded prior to his joining in the hosting. 2 In 1169 Conor O'LoughUn assumed the kingship of the Cinel Owen. In 1170 Donnell O'Brien was at war with O'Conor, and Donnell of Bregia was back again in Meath, turned against O'Conor and O'Rourke, and submitted to Dermot : Four Masters. 174 THE FIRST CONQUERORS With the return of Rory's army the first great danger that threatened the invaders passed away, and the first opportunity that Ireland had of ridding herself of the foreigner Coming of was lost. Soon afterwards Dermot heard to his Fitz great joy of the arrival of two ships at Wex- Oeraid. ^^^^ bearing Maurice Fitz Gerald, Fitz Stephen's half-brother, accompanied by ten knights, thirty mounted retainers, and about one hundred archers on foot.^ This reinforcement went far to fill the gap caused by the defection of Maurice de Prendergast and his men. Maurice Fitz Gerald at this time must have been upwards of sixty years of age. He is described by his nephew Gerald de Barry as an upright and discreet man, remarkable for his good faith and energy, modest as a maiden, true to his word, and famed for his courage. He was the com- mon ancestor of the two great houses of the Geraldines, that of Leinster and that of Desmond, both of which houses played so important a part in the subsequent history of Ireland. We must now return to ' Maurice of Ossory ' Maurice and tell how he fared under his new master.^ dergastin The territory adjoining Ossory on the north Ossory. J^eix (iucludcd in Mary's reign in Queen's County), of which the O' Mores were the ruling family. It was no part of Ossory, but was 1 Gir. Camb. v. 244; Song, 11. 1157-75. 2 Song, 11. 1176-1391. THE FIRST CONQUERORS 175 properly subject to the King of Leinster. With the aid of Prendergast the King of Ossory made a successful raid into the territory of Leix, and eventually O'More promised to submit to Mac Gillapatrick and give hostages on a fixed day three or four days ahead. A truce for that period was accordingly granted. Meantime O'More besought Dermot, as King of Leinster, to come to his aid, and he with Fitz Stephen and Fitz Gerald came promptly into Leix. When Prendergast was informed of this, and knew that he would have to fight, not against an Irish host, but against a superior number of his own late comrades, he recommended a retreat. This was successfully carried out, though the retreating army was pursued by Dermot to the borders of Ossory. Dermot then returned to Ferns, taking care, however, to bring with him hostages from O'More of Leix. The men of Ossory now began to grumble at having to give pay to English soldiers who no longer brought them victory, and some even proposed to massacre them and divide their goods. The king, however, would not agree to this treachery, but with regret gave leave to Prendergast to return to his own country, and probably informed him of the meditated plot. The foreigners were now at Kilkenny, making preparations for their immediate return, when they heard that the men of Ossory had plashed 176 THE FIRST CONQUERORS the passes through which they had to go and had laid an ambuscade for them with two thousand well-armed men. The king, who was no doubt innocent of this treachery, or at any rate helpless to prevent it, was at Fertagh, a place about fifteen miles away. Prendergast accordingly required all his address and craft to get himself out of the tight place in which he found himself. He sent word to Mac Gilla- patrick that he was willing to serve him for another period, and took care that the news should be spread through the country. Those in ambush then returned to their homes, where- upon Prendergast and his men secretly took horse and rapidly escaped to Waterford, whence they sailed for Wales. Expedi- Early in the next year (1170), Dermot, agTinst emboldened by the accession to his forces of Dublin. Yitz Gerald and his men, determined to march on Dublin and attempt to obtain the submis- sion of the Ostmen of that city. We have already mentioned that Dermot Mac Maelnamo, great-grandfather of Dermot Mac Murrough, had been recognized as King of Dublin, and that Donough Mac Murrough, Dermot's father, had been slain by the foreigners of Dublin and, according to the current story, buried ignomi- niously with a dog. In 1162 Dermot himself appears to have been recognized as overlord of Dublin. He had, therefore, claims on Dublin THE FIRST CONQUERORS 177 as well as a blood-feud with its inhabitants. While, then, Fitz Stephen was left behind, forti- fying a rock known as the Carrick,^ on the right bank of the Slaney a couple of miles above Wexford, Fitz Gerald, accompanied by Dermot, took the command of the army and marched to the Dyflinarskirri or Scandinavian district in the immediate neighbourhood of Dublin. No attempt was made to take the city, but the adjoining regions were soon laid waste by plunder, fire, and sword, and at length the citizens, who seem to have shrunk from meeting the Normans in the open, sued for peace and gave security for their future fidelity and due submission.* It was probably soon after this that Donnell O'Brien O'Brien, king of half Munster, turned against against the ard-ri and forfeited his hostages.^ As we ^yjo^^^ have seen, Rory had divided Munster between him and Dermot MacCarthy in 1168. Next year Donnell treacherously blinded his brother, Brian of Slieve Bloom, who had assumed the principality of Ormond, near that mountain, in 1168. This may have been done merely to get rid of a rival to his throne, but evidently Donnell ^ Song of Dermot, 1. 1397, note, where the true site of this stronghold is shown. 2 Gir. Camb. v. 245. Ann. Tigemach, 1170: *Mac Murchada received the Kingship of the Foreigners of Leinster.' ^ Four Masters, Ann. Tigemach, 1170. 821379.1 -vr 178 THE FIRST CONQUERORS was not satisfied with the division of his patri- mony made by the ard-ri. He had pretension to be king of all Munster, as his father Tur- lough had been before him, and he resented the interference of Rory 0' Conor and withdrew his allegiance. Donnell was son-in-law to Dermot Mac Murrough, and he now sought and readily Obtains obtained the assistance of some of his father- assistance . 1 , « . IT • 1 • • 1 1 from Fitz in-law s foreign allies m his struggle with the Stephen. Robert Fitz Stephen, with a band of men including Meiler Fitz Henry and Robert de Barry, marched across Ireland to Limerick to aid in repelling the advance of the ard-rL O' Conor brought a huge fleet, probably down the Shannon, and ravaged Munster therefrom, while his men of Connaught advanced into Thomond and Ormond, and the plank bridge of Killaloe was burned. We have no particulars of the part played by the Normans in this expedition, and are merely told that Rory, after getting the worst of several conflicts, was obliged to retire.^ Next year the ard-ri con- tinued the contest and forced fresh hostages from Donnell. The temporary assistance of the foreigners was of little avail to Donnell, but the foreigners themselves had learned the way to Limerick, and had learned, moreover, that they could go with a small expeditionary force across Ireland and return in safety. 1 Gir. Camb. v. 245. CHAPTER VI THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 1170 Dermot had now, at the close of the year Dermot 1169, by the aid of his Norman auxiUaries, Kin^i made himself master, in a sense, of all Leinster, ^^^^^^ including Ossory, from Dublin to Wexford. That is to say, he had overrun the various tribal territories included in Leinster, with the excep- tion perhaps of Offaly, as to which nothing is said, and had presumably obtained submission and exacted hostages from their chiefs. The recognition was, no doubt, in many cases forced, but he was nevertheless once more the recognized King of Leinster, able to make his power felt exactly in the same way as other provincial kings, when their authority was disputed, were able to make their power felt. He had, more- over, an ally, if not a subordinate, in his son-in- law, Donnell O'Brien, King of Thomond, who had recently, with the aid of Fitz Stephen, successfully withstood the ard-ri. The time had now come when, if he was to carry out the secret clause in his treaty with the ard-ri, he should send his foreign mercenaries home, but M 2 180 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW so far was he from fulfilling that engagement that he now, we are told, looked beyond the Aspires confines of Leinster, and hoped with the aid monarchy of his Norman troops to subdue the King of Ireland Connaught and win for himself the high-kingship of Ireland. He disclosed his design in con- fidence to Fitz Stephen and Fitz Gerald, who replied that it might easily be accomplished if he could obtain further troops from England. He then urged them to invite over their kindred and countrymen in greater numbers to Ireland, and he is even said to have made to each of them the same offer that he had made to Strongbow, namely, his daughter's hand and the succession of the kingdom, if they would carry out the execution of his project. But as they both happened to be lawfully wedded, they were unable to avail themselves of this offer, and Writes to finally Dermot resolved to write to Richard how!^ Fitz Gilbert, Earl of Striguil, to remind him of his promise and urge its prompt fulfilment. Strongbow was told, in language, we may be sure, much less flowery than that which Gerald reports to us, that all Leinster had now been subdued, and that if he would come with a strong force it would be easy to conquer the rest of Ireland.^ While Strongbow had now, in consequence of Fitz Stephen's success, more inducement than 1 Gir. Camb. v. 246. THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 181 ever to risk his life and fortunes in the Irish adventure, he had, in Dermot's new proposal, fresh ground for hesitation. Henry's general licence was, as we have seen, a licence to aid Dermot in the recovery of his dominion in Leinster, but Dermot's new proposal was to conquer all Ireland. In these circumstances Strongbow thought it prudent to seek Henry's express sanction to the enterprise, and having obtained an interview with the king he besought him either to restore to him the lands which belonged to him by hereditary right or to grant him leave to accept Dermot's offer and seek his fortune in Ireland.^ Henry appears to have avoided committing himself to a positive answer; but Strongbow, laying hold of some words of his, spoken, according to Gerald, more in jest than in earnest, which he interpreted as favour- able to the project, set about making his pre- parations. When winter was past, about the Coming of first of May, he sent on before him into Ireland May"ina Raymond, a young man of his household, with ten knights and seventy archers.'^ Raymond was a son of William Fitz Gerald, and therefore nephew to both Robert Fitz Stephen and Maurice Fitz Gerald, and the fact that he was a member of Strongbow's household, ^ Ibid., p. 247. So Gervase of Canterbury (vol. i, p. 234) says of Earl Richard, licentiam abeundi petiit et obtinuit. 2 Ibid., p. 248. 182 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW and sent forward at the head of his little force by Strongbow, is a further indication that the earlier expedition of the Geraldines was under- taken in concert with Strongbow, and not altogether independently of him. One of the knights sent by Strongbow with Raymond was Walter Bluet.^ Raglan Castle, in Monmouth- shire, is said to have been granted to him in consideration of soldiers, money, and arms fur- nished to Strongbow for his expedition to Ireland.^ Descrip- Gerald de Barry gives a description ^ of his Ray-^ cousin Raymond, which, though probably more applicable to a somewhat later period of his life, may be substantially reproduced here. He was of little more than average height, but very stout (hence he was often called Raymond le Gros). He had rather curly yellow hair, large round grey eyes, a somewhat prominent nose, and a high-coloured, jovial, pleasant countenance ; and although undoubtedly corpulent, he made up for the heaviness of his body by his light- heartedness and high spirits. He was a man of simple habits, not luxurious in either food or dress, patient and hardy, and equally inured ^ Song of Dermot, 1. 1497. Walter Bluet witnessed several charters granted by Strongbow to St. Mary's Abbeys at Dublin and Dunbrody. 2 Joum. Brit. Arch. Assoc., vol. x, p. 319. 3 Gir. Camb. v. 323. THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 183 to heat and cold. He was careful of his men, and would spend nights in going the rounds of his sentinels and challenging them to keep them on the alert. It was owing to his vigilance that the men in his command had the good fortune of rarely, if ever, being overwhelmed in rash undertakings or being caught by surprise. In short, he was a kind and prudent man, a skilful and daring soldier, and a consummate general. Raymond, we are told, landed at a certain His land sea-cliff called Dundonnell ' about four[teen] and^^'^^*^ miles from Waterford on the southern coast of ^"<^^/"P- ment. Wexford', where he threw up a somewhat slight fortification made of earth and boughs of trees. ^ The name Dundonnell, pointing to an ancient Celtic or, possibly, Scandinavian fort, is now forgotten, and the place is called Bagin- bun. Common fame derives this strange name from the two greatest ships in which the English- men there arrived. It used sometimes to be written ' Bagg and Bunn and la Bague and la Bonne are not improbable names of Norman ^ The authorities for Raymond's landing-place and the subsequent battle are Gir. Camb. v. 248-53, and the Song of Dermot, 11. 1400-99. Gerald calls the place Dundunnolf and the Song Dondonuil, &c. The Irish Abridgement of the Expugnatio gives the true form Dun Domhnaill (anglice Dundonnell). For its identification with Baginbun see my papers in the Joum. R. S. A. I. 1898, pp. 155-60, and. 1904, pp. 354-7, and compare Mr. Westropp's description, ibid. 1906, p. 257. 184 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW ships. Tradition has Unked the spot with the landing of Fitz Stephen, and the earthworks there with the name of Strongbow, and has retained the memory of a fateful battle fought in the neighbourhood ; but from contemporary evidence we know that neither Strongbow nor Fitz Stephen landed here, and there is no reason to suppose that either of them entrenched him- self or fought a battle in this district. But the position of the headland, and the character of the great earthwork there, point clearly to Raymond's landing-place and fortification as indicated in the authorities, and the fateful battle may well have been the fight to be presently described. Baginbun is a rocky headland rising abruptly from the sea on the south coast of County Wexford, between Bannow Bay and the Hook. A minor point of the headland jutting out towards the east is cut off by some ancient earthworks, after the manner of a ' cliff- castle '. This probably represents the early Scandinavian or Celtic dun. The whole head- land, embracing about thirty acres, is also marked off from the mainland by a huge trench, 700 feet long and 40 feet wide, with inner and outer earthen ramparts, and this entrenchment was in all probabiHty the work of Raymond le Gros. At this fortress, then, Raymond was joined THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 185 by Hervey de Montmorency with three knights, and (we must suppose) a small troop of men. We hear nothing of Robert Fitz Stephen and the Geraldines, who may have been absent in Thomond assisting Donnell O'Brien, Dermot's son-in-law, in his revolt against the ard-n, Dermot himself, weakened by the defection of Maurice de Prendergast, and perhaps by the absence of Robert Fitz Stephen, did not stir. It was probably thought wiser to make no move until Strongbow came. Meanwhile Ray- mond and his little band, probably not much more than a hundred all told, were in great danger of being overwhelmed, and they had ample need of strong entrenchments and stout hearts. Accordingly Raymond collected cattle, drove them within his lines, and awaited the event. This followed speedily in the shape of a determined attack by the Ostmen of Waterf ord. The men of Waterford may well have thought Attack that the time had come for them to strike the men of first blow. With the warning they had received Yoid^ in the fall of Wexford in the previous year, they may well have foreseen that their town would be attacked next. It would be better to extir- pate this little band of foreigners entrenched so near the mouth of their fiord before they were reinforced by further troops. They had heard of the exploits of Fitz Stephen, and they knew what masters of the art of war were these 186 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW Norman kinsmen of theirs, with whom, however, they had lost all sense of kinship. Therefore they did not despise Raymond's little force, though it numbered hardly a hundred men. They took counsel with their neighbours, with whom they seem to have been on good terms, and organized a force some three thousand strong. O'Phelan, Prince of the Decies, a large district adjoining their territory on the west, assisted them, and a contingent came from Ossory, across the river, and even from O'Ryan, chieftain of Odrone, in the modern county of Carlo w.^ They crossed the river Suir, and hav- ing formed into three bands marched towards Battle of Raymond's camp. The two accounts of the S^^^" ensuing battle which have come down to us, though not exactly inconsistent with each other, differ somewhat in details. Reconciling them as well as we can, we infer that Raymond determined to sally forth and meet his oppo- nents in the open. Whatever his motive may have been, this movement seems to have been a mistake, and nearly led to a disaster. His little band could not resist so great a multitude, but turned and fled back to their camp. So closely were they pursued that some of the enemy got inside the entrenchments before the barricades could be closed. Then Raymond, 1 In the partition of Dermot's territory made in 1166 Odrone had probably been annexed to Ossory : supra, p. 70. THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 187 seeing the jeopardy that he and his men were in, faced the foe, and cut down with his sword the first of his pursuers who crossed the threshold. It was probably at this moment that a curious incident, preserved by the old French chronicle, occurred. Eaymond, as we have seen, had collected a number of cattle within his lines at Baginbun, and these, either taking fright at the turmoil, or, as would seem more probable, being designedly driven forth, rushed wildly through the entrance of the fort and met the impetuous onset of the attacking party. This was the first company That sallied from the fort, I trow, says the Norman Rhymer, with a touch of humour. The maddened cattle disconcerted and put into confusion the ranks of the Irish, and then Raymond, who had meanwhile rallied his men, raised his battle-cry of St. David and, throwing himself upon the disordered crowd, turned what seemed very nearly a crushing defeat into a complete victory. Upwards of 500 are said to have been killed, and numbers were thrown from the cliffs into the sea. In the quaint words of an early translator of the Expugnatio, ' Here the pride of Waterford fel ; here al his myght went to noght. Her-of come [to] the Englysshe hope and comfort ; and to the Iresshe dred and wanhope ; for it was neuer 188 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW there-to-for I-herd, that of so fewe men so grett a slaght was done.' The glory of victory was quickly tarnished by a deed of unusual severity. The English had taken seventy of the principal townsmen of Waterford prisoners, and the question arose what was to be done with them. Raymond and Hervey, as we are told by Raymond's cousin, took opposite sides on this question. Raymond pleaded on behalf of mercy to those who were no longer resisting but were vanquished, and urged that they should be held to ransom. Hervey argued that mercy was out of place while the people generally were unsubdued, that they had come to conquer and not to spare, that the prisoners were more numerous than the guards, and were an ever-present danger in their midst in the event of a further attack. In the end the sterner counsels prevailed, and the wretched captives had their limbs broken and were cast headlong from the cliffs into the sea. Notwithstanding the completeness of this vic- tory Raymond remained very quietly atBaginbun for some three months,^ waiting for Strongbow's arrival before attempting anything further. Meanwhile the earl was completing his prepara- ^ It is possible that the date (about the calends of May) given by Gerald for Raymond's arrival is too early. The Song of Dermot says that Strongbow arrived very soon after the battle : bien tost apres, 1. 1501. THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 189 tions and was marching along the coast-route Thecom- of South Wales to St. Davids, gathering fresh stfong- recruits as he went. This was part of the route ^^^^^ so graphically described for us in Gerald's Itinerary through Wales. Starting from his Castle of Striguil on the cliff overhanging the Wye ; he would march through Netherwent, famous for its archers, many of whom, no doubt, he brought with him, to the ancient Roman town of Caerleon, the city of the legions, and so to Newport and ' the noble fortress on the Taff ' (Cardiff), first perhaps a mere ' mote- castle ' erected within the Roman castrum by Robert Fitz Hamon, the conqueror of Morganwg, but rebuilt magnificently by Robert, Earl of Gloucester, son of Henry I. Next he would advance through Morganwg to Neath and the Flemish settlements at Gower, where such names as Scurlege Castle and Horton remind us of the Scurlocks and Hores, early settlers in Wexford. Then he would reach Caermarthen, where his father, Gilbert Fitz Gilbert, had built the castle, and thence to Haverford, and perhaps St. Davids, to the famous shrine.^ At Haverford he appears to have persuaded Maurice de Prendergast, who, as we have seen, had returned to his home in the neighbourhood, to try his fortunes in Ireland once more. Indeed, it is probable that many ^ This is stated in the Irish Abridgement of the Expug- natio, § 19. See English Historical Review, 1905. 190 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW of Strongbow's followers came from the cantrefs about Haverford and Pembroke, inasmuch as the names of many of those who are believed to have accompanied him, as well as of those who are known to have been among the first settlers in Ireland, can with great probability be traced to these regions. We may here quote Gerald's description of the earl. In reading it we must bear in mind that Strongbow did not belong to the noble progeny of the Castellan of Pembroke. He did not belong even to one of the allied families connected by a common descent from Nesta. True, his fortunes were to a large extent linked with those of the great Geraldine clan. He had fought by their side against the common enemy in South Wales, and now he had come to their assistance in Ireland, and had ranged himself with them against the natives, whether Norse or Celtic, and later on he enfeoffed them with rich lands. He is not, therefore, to be classed with William Fitz Audelin and other late-comers, who were jealous of the Geraldines and craftily deprived them of the best fruits of their valour, leaving to them the remote and barren marches next the enemy, while them- selves keeping the rich and safe lands beside the coast. Nevertheless we can detect a jealousy of Strongbow in the mind of our historian, a jealousy which shows itself in an endeavour THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 191 to belittle his powers and his performances, a jealousy which was probably but the reflection of a feeling amongst the Geraldines that Strong- bow had come over after they had shown the way and borne the brunt of the danger, and by his greater name and greater success had over- shadowed their more sterling qualities and had secured the greater reward. This is the manner of man he was according Descrii)- to Gerald de Barry : ' A man with reddish hair, st!-ong- freckled skin, grey eyes, feminine features, thin voice, and short neck. For the rest, he was tall in stature, open-handed, and kindly in disposition. What he could not accomplish by force he would effect by gentle speech. As a private individual he was more disposed to be led than to lead. In time of peace he had more the air of an ordinary soldier than of a commander, but in war he was a commander rather than a fighter. He was daring enough in carrying out the plans of his subordinates, but of his own initiative he would never take the offensive or stake everything on personal valour. In actual battle his standard was ever a sure rallying-point for his men. In defeat, as in victory, he was calm and unmoved, neither driven to despair by adversity nor unduly elated by prosperity.' ^ Making allowance for the evident Geraldine 1 Gir. Camb. v. 272. 192 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW bias of this picture, we think we can gather from it, and still more certainly from what we know of Strongbow's doings, that he was really a man of higher stamp than any of the descendants of Nesta. He was not so reckless a fighter as Meiler Fitz Henry, nor so bold a general in the field as Raymond le Gros, but he had military and, above all, statesmanlike quaUties denied to them, which fitted him for the work of subduing Ireland and subjecting her people to Norman rule. Perhaps the difference was partly racial, for he had no Welsh blood in his veins. He would gain his end by the sword if necessary, but if possible by the gentler arts of persuasion and compromise. Much as we may admire the courage which the first conquerors showed in facing fearful odds, and wonder at the success of their expeditions, they had really effected little towards gaining a permanent foothold in Ireland or in pacifying, as distinguished from plundering, I^einster, and at the time of Strongbow's arrival their prospects were far from assured. In the six remaining years of Strongbow's life the Anglo-Norman settle- ment in Leinster became an accomplished fact, and the whole face of the province was changed. At the last moment, when his preparations were complete and Strongbow was ready to embark, messengers came from the king for- THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 193 bidding the expedition ; ^ but it was too late to draw back, and Strongbow sailed from Milford Haven with a force consisting of 200 knights and about 1,000 other troops, probably lancers and archers.^ He landed near Waterford, prob- ably where King Henry landed in the follow- ing year, at Crook, or more precisely at the landing-place now called Passage, a little below the confluence of the three rivers, the exact date being the eve of St. Bartholomew, August 23, 1170. Next day Raymond joined him with forty knights, including perhaps some of the earlier comers, and on the morning of the 25th the united forces advanced to the assault of Waterford. Waterford was at this time a walled town. Water The ancient walls have been traced, and it the ^ appears that they formed a small triangle, containing about fifteen statute acres, with the base along the right bank of the river.^ Reginald's Tower, believed to be the turris Raghnaldi men- tioned by Gerald, still exists, and marks the ^ Wm. of Newburgh, vol. i, p. 168. 2 Giraldus, p. 254. The Song, 1. 1503, says Bien quinz cent od sei mena. The entries in the Irish annals are meagre and confused. That in the Annals of Tigemach (followed by the Four Masters) lumps together the arrivals of Robert Fitz Stephen and Richard Fitz Gilbert and the captures of Wexford and Waterford. 3 Smith's Waterford (1746), p. 169. Cf. Cal. Docs. Irel., vol. i, no. 763. 821379.1 -»j 194 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW eastern limit of this base. Other towers mark- ing the other two angles have disappeared. The ancient Irish name for the harbour or estuary was Loch Da Caech (i. e. the lough or estuary of the two blind ones), but it was afterwards generally called Port Lairge, probably from Laraic, a Scandinavian chieftain.^ The North- men, however, called it Vedrafiordr, meaning ' weather-haven ', and this is the name now represented by Waterford. The ' foreigners of Port Lairge ' are first mentioned towards the close of the ninth century.^ Reinforcements throng in early in the next century and ' place a stronghold (longport) there '.^ Among them is Raghnall, grandson of Ivar, one of the clan that founded dynasties in Dublin and Limerick as well as in Waterford. With him comes Earl Ottir the Black, ' and the whole of Munster,' in the exuberant language of the Irish shanachy,'* ' became filled with immense floods, and count- less sea-vomitings of ships and boats and fleets, so that there was not a harbour nor a landing- port nor a dun nor a fortress nor a fastness in all Munster without fleets of Danes and pirates.' In the course of the tenth century the Northmen settled down into a more peaceful life as traders in their seaport towns — occasionally, no doubt, 1 Four Masters, 951, note. 2 ibid., 888. 3 Ibid., 910, 912, 915; Ann. Ulster, 913, 914. 4 Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, p. 41. THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 195 fighting and raiding, but less frequently than the Irish themselves raided and fought. They became Christians too, of a sort, and those of Waterford, following the example of their kinsmen in Dublin, applied in 1096 to Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, to ordain one Malchus, a monk of Winchester, as their bishop.^ By this time the town had become of considerable size and importance. Its inhabitants held the country near Waterford, and the name of the barony of Gaultier, ' the land of the foreigners,' marks their occupation. It is even possible that the round stone forts at the promontory of Hook and at Dunmore date from the Norse period, and are to be ranked with Reginald's Tower as among the few relics of Scandinavian masonry which have survived to our times. ^ 1 Ussher's Sylloge, epist. 34, ed. Elrington, vol. iv, p. 518 ; Eadmer's Hist. R. S., pp. 76-7. 2 The Hook Tower has, however, been virtually rebuilt to form a lighthouse, and Reginald's Tower appears to have been restored and perhaps remodelled by the Normans. The masonry of the upper part is very similar to that of the Norman addition to the town walls, and is of quite a different character from the lower part. The town walls were ex- tended by the Normans in the early part of the thirteenth century so as to include a larger area to the south and west, and the existing remains of walls and mural towers probably date from about that time. Those at the eastern side appear to follow the hues of the Scandinavian walls. Grants of customs to enable the citizens to enclose the town were repeatedly made by Henry III (Cal. Docs. Ireland, vol. i, nos. 1163,2133, 2613). N 2 196 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW Water- As in the case of their kin at Wexford, the ford _ taken by Ostmen of Waterf ord ^ were able for a time to assault. j.gp^lsg their assailants from the walls. Twice they had beaten them off, when Raymond, who is stated by his kinsman to have been in command, perceived a little house jutting out from the wall and supported by a post on the outside. He at once summoned the whole force to the assault at this spot, and sent some mail- clad men to hew down the post. When this was done the house fell, dragging a considerable portion of the wall with its ruins and laying open a practicable breach. Rushing over the debris and through this breach, the assailants stormed the town, butchered the citizens in crowds, and gained a bloody victory. In RaghnalFs or Reginald's tower, which is mentioned by name, two Norse leaders, named Sitric, were taken and put to the sword. A third leader, named Raghnall, and Melaghlin O'Phelan, Prince of the Decies, taken in the same place, were spared at the intervention of Dermot, w^ho with Fitz Stephen and Maurice Fitz Gerald arrived shortly afterwards. 1 The authorities for the capture of Waterford are Giraldus, vol. v, p. 254-5 ; Song of Dermot, U. 1499-1539. The Annals of Tigernach (followed and corrected by the Four Masters) states that Mac Gillamuire, the officer of the fort at Waterford, was taken prisoner, but it appears that this was Raghnall's patronymic. See note to Song, 1. 1506. THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 197 Thus fell Waterford, a city which the Irish seem never to have taken, not at least since the days of Der mot's great-grandfather, Diarmaid MacMaelnamo, and certainly never to have garrisoned and held. Dermot himself, indeed, as we have mentioned, aided by Conor O'Brien and the Danish fleets of Dublin and Wexford, had besieged it in 1137 and exacted hostages, but it does not appear that the city was taken or plundered. Now Strongbow placed a garrison in the city, locating the guards, as we may suppose, in the Danish towers. Herein we see the difference between the Celt and the Norman. The Celt would have plundered and burnt the town and then left it. The Norman plunders, no doubt, but puts a garrison in to hold the place, and, if necessary, fortifies it. Strongbow had now given earnest, as it were, that he would fulfil his engagement with Dermot, and Dermot now showed himself ready to fulfil his part of the bargain. This was promptly done, and Dermot' s daughter, Aoife or Eva, was given Marriage in marriage to the earl, and the treaty, according bow and^ to which Strongbow was to succeed Dermot as King of Leinster, was confirmed, so far at least as such a treaty could be confirmed without the free sanction of the tribes concerned. A famous fresco preserved in the precincts of Maclise's the House of Commons has for its subject the p^^*"^^* marriage of Strongbow and Eva. The knight 198 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW and his lady stand in the open battlefield, amid flaming houses and with the bodies of the dead and dying strewn around. Far be it from me to question the prescriptive right of the painter to treat his subject in an imaginative way, and to introduce any setting that serves to help out his thought ; but in view of the state- ments of recent historians it is almost necessary to remark that Maclise's picture is not a con- temporary record, and cannot be used, as the Bayeux Tapestry has been used, to fill up the gaps of contemporary writers. There is no other authority for this scene, which on the face of it is utterly improbable. In all probability the marriage ceremony took place in the Christ Church of the Holy Trinity at Waterford ^ some days after the taking of the town. It is true that Gerald, in a heavily loaded Latin sentence (of which he was probably proud), lumps to- gether a great number of events : he says in a breath, as it were, that the two Sitrics were taken in Reginald's tower and put to the sword ; that Reginald and Melaghlin O'Phelan were taken in the same place, but that their lives were spared at the intercession of Dermot, who had just then arrived with Maurice and Fitz Stephen ; that a garrison was placed in the city ; ^ The crypt of this church seeras to have been a rephca of that at Christ Church, DubUn ( Journ. R. S. A. I. 1894, p. 73) ; but probably both were Norman. THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 199 that Dermot's daughter Eva was there married to the earl, her father giving her away and con- firming the treaty ; and that the united army marched towards Dubhn. It is obvious that all these events did not take place on the same day. Dermot could hardly have received notice of Strongbow's arrival in time to enable him to summon his men and reach Waterford in the middle of the assault, which according to Giraldus took place on the day next but one to Strongbow's arrival. But we are not depen- dent on inferences for the conclusion that some days elapsed between the taking of the town and the marriage of Strongbow and Eva. According to the express statement of the Song of Dermot, which indeed is not inconsistent with that of Giraldus, it was after the earl had taken Waterford that he sent messengers to Dermot to acquaint him with this fact and to invite the king to join him with his English troops, and it was in joyful response to this message that Dermot came with the English barons and his daughter, and fulfilled, as far as in him lay, his part of the bargain.^ But, indeed, the marriage of Eva and Strong- Signifi- bow stands in need of none of these lurid oHhe accompaniments to heighten its dramatic effect. No marriage like it had ever taken place in Ireland before. Irish ladies of the highest rank 1 Song of Dermot, 11. 1516-39. 200 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW had indeed wedded with Norman knights. Murtough O'Brien, King of Munster and (with opposition) of Ireland, had, for instance, given his daughter in marriage to Arnulf de Mont- gomery, the first founder of Pembroke Castle. But these ladies had gone to live on their lords' lands and had followed their lords' fortunes, while Eva was to endow her lord with a broad fifth of Ireland. It is true that according to Celtic law it was not in her power, nor in Dermot's power, to do this. In theory and in normal practice the successor to the chieftain- ship was chosen from some ruling family by the subject tribes, but it must be remembered that it was no uncommon occurrence for different members of the privileged family or families to fight for the succession, and even for a ruler to be imposed from without in opposition to the local choice. The succession was, however, never regarded as simply hereditar}^ nor in recent times, at any rate, was it ever held or handed on by a woman. This marriage then, with its professed object, was something entirely new in Ireland. It marks the first clash of English feudalism with Celtic tribalism — the first clash of those discordant ideas which were to lead to so much hardship and misunder- standing in the future between the two races. It is not, indeed, to be supposed that Strong- bow was so ignorant of Celtic customs as to THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 201 imagine that he was getting by this marriage a clear and indisputable title to the kingship of Leinster. He must have been familiar with the tribal customs of Wales, which, though breaking down, were not very dissimilar to those of Ireland. In all probability, as already remarked, he did not look forward to the position of a tribal chief at all, but rather to that of a feudal lord over a vast fief which he knew he must sooner or later hold of the Crown. Dermot, indeed, who was utterly unscrupulous in the furtherance of his ambition and revenge, may have intended to force a tanist upon his subjects, or at least to appear to Strongbow to be doing so ; but Strongbow himself probably regarded the marriage as merely strengthening a position which he knew full well must be won and held by the sword ; just as Gerald of Windsor and Bernard of Newmarch had strengthened the positions they had won in Wales by their marriage alliances with the families of the legitimate princes. But this marriage was more than the mark of clashing ideas : it was a sign which all might read that the invaders had come to stay. They were not mere marauders who ravage and plunder and run off with the spoil. They were not mere mercenaries who when they had won Dermot' s battles for him would return with their pay whence they came. They had come to stay 202 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW and to rule. Thus much those who were clear- visioned amongst the spectators of this wedding may have foreseen. But there was something else which the Irish at any rate did not foresee, but which we, looking back across the centuries, can see clearly enough. This union of Strong- bow and Eva was the symbol of that union between the two islands which, for better or worse, has lasted ever since. A council of war was now held at which Strongbow, Dermot, Raj^mond, Maurice de Pren- dergast, Meiler Fitz Henry, and other leaders were present, and it was determined that the next move should be on Dublin. This, we may be sure, was a project which commended itself to Dermot. He had, as we have seen, an old claim on the allegiance of Dublin and a blood-feud with its inhabitants. But apart from personal motives, there were excellent strategic reasons pointing in the same direction. Wexford and Waterford had fallen, but the greatest of the Norse strongholds remained intact. The Ostmen of Dublin had, indeed, nominally submitted to Dermot in the early part of the year, but something more than nominal submission was now required. It was obvious that if Dermot was to hold Leinster securely it was desirable to take and hold Dublin. Moreover, Dermot, as we have seen, did not now limit his ambition to Leinster. With the aid of his THE COMING OF STROXGBOW 203 foreign troops he hoped to take vengeance on his old enemy Tiernan O'Rourke and on Eory 0' Conor himself. He had not forgotten or for- given those who had expelled him from his king- dom of Leinster. He had even ultimate aims on the high-kingship of Ireland. In these wider aims, we may be quite certain, his English allies, with a view to their o^^Tl succession, actively encouraged him. From their point of view it was absolutely essential to gain possession of Dublin. Once inside its walls they would know how to hold it, and they would have a new base, accessible by sea, in the middle of the east coast from which to extend their operations. Dublin, though held by foreigners and not the seat of the King of Ireland, nor the mother city of the Irish Church, was undoubtedly the chief town, and was rapidly coming to be regarded, in a less technical sense, as the metropolis of Ireland. In order to understand its position better, it will be well here to glance briefly at its past history. Dublin had been for upwards of three cen- Soandina- turies in Scandinavian hands. ^ It owed its Dublin. 1 The foreigners of Dublin are generally called by modem writers Danes, but Dr. Alexander Bugge has shown that the dynasty was probably Norwegian throughout : The Royal Race of Dublin (1900). Giraldus, too, speaks not only of the earlier invasion under Turgesius (Thorgils) as Norwegian, but says that the later comers under Amlaf Sitric and Ivar came from Norway and the northern isles. They were called in his time Ostmanni : Gir. Camb. v. 182-7. 204 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW origin and importance as a town and seaport to them. The name, Duhh-linn, means the ' black pool and was in early times applied by the Irish to the mouth of the Liffey, and not to a town at all. It seems to have been the North- men who first applied the name, under the form Dyflin, to the town. The Irish always called the town Baile atha cliath, meaning ' the town of the ford (or crossing) of hurdles', a name which appar- ently owed its origin to a bridge of hurdles by which the ancient road slighe Cualann from Tara crossed the Liffey above the ' black pool until it was superseded by the bridge of the Ostmen. As we have seen, the battle of Clontarf, though it permanently weakened the Northmen and put an end to all possibility of uniting Ireland under a Scandinavian dynasty, did not seriously affect the position they had gained in Ireland. They retained their hold of Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick, until the coming of their remote kinsfolk the Normans. They joined occasionally in the tribal warfare of the Irish, but they devoted themselves more and more to trade and peaceful arts. Their trade with Bristol was not confined to a traffic in slaves, and the town of Chester appears to have had definite trading rights with Dublin in the time of Henry I.^ They were Christians of a sort ^ See Round's Feudal England, p. 465, where a writ from Henry II (c. 1175-6) is cited, directing that the burgesses THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 205 even before the battle of Clontarf, but they now more fully adopted the cross of Christ as their symbol of victory instead of the dis- credited Raven banner. Dunan or Donatus was the first Ostman Bishop of Dublin (circa 1038), and in his time the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, commonly called Christ Church, is said to have been founded.^ It is not known by whom Dunan was con- The Churcl secrated, but after his death, in 1074, the clergy in com and laity of Dublin chose a priest named ^j^U^^" Patrick and sent him to Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, to be consecrated.^ This cere- mony Lanfranc performed at St. Paul's Cathedral after receiving Patrick's profession of canonical obedience, and copies of Lanfranc' s letters sent by the hand of the newly consecrated bishop to ' Gothric glorious King of Ireland ' and to ' Terdelvac magnificent King of Ireland ' have been preserved.^ This Gothric was in all proba- bility the Godfrey, son of Amlaf , son of Raghnall, King of Ath Cliath, whose death is recorded in the next year.* Terdelvac was of course of Chester might buy and sell in Dublin, and have the same rights, liberties, and free customs which they used to have in the time of Henry I. ^ Liber Niger of Christ Church. 2 Ussher's Works (Elrington's ed.), vol. iv, p. 488. It appears from this letter that even at this time the Norse- men expressly termed Dublin Hiberniae insulae metropolis. 3 Ibid., pp. 490, 492. 4 Ann. Ulster, 1075. 206 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW Turlough O'Brien, King of Munster, who, since the death of Dermot MacMaelnamo, was the most powerful chieftain in the south of Ireland, and had probably been acknowledged by the citizens of Dublin as their overlord. Following the example of Bishop Patrick, the three succeeding bishops of Dublin were all consecrated in Eng- land, and promised obedience to the See of Canterbury, while they maintained an attitude of independence, if not of antagonism, towards the See of Armagh and the Celtic Church.^ In 1028 Sitric Silkbeard went on a pilgrim- age to Rome, but his family seem to have maintained their position in Dublin up to the year 1052. In that year Dermot, son of Maelnamo, King of Leinster, then the most prominent king in Ireland, plundered Fine Gall, drove out Echmarcach, and assumed the king- ship of the foreigners.^ Dermot was slain in 1072, and thenceforward the Northmen, though generally ruled by their own countrymen, were often obliged to give hostages to the more prominent Irish kings. Indeed, during the century and a half of anarchy, of which we have already given a slight sketch, it seems to have been more and more recognized that any ^ See their professions of canonical obedience, Ussher's Sylloge, p. 120, also Epistle no. 40 ; and cf . Ware's Bishops. 2 Ann. Tigemach, Four Masters, 1152 ; Ann. Ulster, vol. i, p. 591, note. THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 207 chieftain who had pretensions to the crown of Ireland should first of all obtain the adhesion of the foreigners of Ath-cliath. We have seen that TheHigh^ Malachi II, Brian Borumha, and Dermot Mac Dublin. Maelnamo all entered Dublin and took hostages, and in each case their claims to the chief power may be said to date from the submission of Dublin. Next Turlough O'Brien secured the adhesion of Dublin before making his first (unsuccessful) attempt to obtain hostages from the northern chieftains,^ and again in 1080 it was at Dublin that he received the submission of Meath and of the clergy of the north.^ Mur- tough, his son, the year after his accession to the throne of Munster, defeated the Leinstermen at Rath Edair (Howth), and apparently secured the allegiance of Dublin.^ In 1118 Turlough O' Conor, now preparing to contest the throne, marched on Dublin and exacted hostages.* In 1154 Murtough O'Loughlin, Turlough's most formidable foe and successor, obtained the sub- mission of the Ostmen of Dublin, and gave them 1,200 cows as their wages or stipend to secure their fealty and future services in war.^ Finally, 1 Four Masters, 1075. 2 Ann. Tigemach, Four Masters, 1080. 3 Ibid. 1087. 4 Ann. Ulster, Ann. Loch Ce, Four Masters, 1118. ^ Four Masters, 1154. Four years previously, on the occasion of an advance by Murtough O'Loughlin, ' the Foreigners made a year's peace between the North and the 208 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW on O'Loughlin's death in 1166, Rory O'Conor marched on Dublin, took hostages, and was there inaugurated as ard-ri, and he levied a tax of 4,000 cows upon the men of Ireland for the stipend of the foreigners.^ These facts go to show the increasing political importance of Dublin. Though inhabited and directly ruled by foreigners, and not the seat of the ard-ri, it had gradually come to be regarded as in some sort the capital of Ireland. At the time of which we treat, Haskulf , son of Raghnall, son of Thorkil, was King of Dublin.^ He had thrown off his allegiance to Dermot, and had, as we have seen, submitted to Rory O'Conor, and along with O'Rourke had been one of the principal instruments of Derm of s Rory aids cxpulsiou. On hearing of Dermot' s impending ^ " expedition against Dublin, Haskulf sent to his South of Ireland,' indicating that they held the balance between the contending sides. 1 Ann. Tigemach, Four Masters, 1166. The enormous number of cows constituting its ' stipend ' indicates the pre-eminence of DubUn. On the same occasion the stipends to Uriel, Offaly, Olfelan, and Ossory were only 240 cows apiece. This acceptance of cows from the overlord was the regular symbol of subjection to him. 2 He is called Asgall son of Raghnall son of Turcall by the Four Masters, 1170. Gerald calls him Hasculphus, and in the Song he is named Hesculf or Esculf Macturkil or Mactorkil. Raghnall son of Turcall, King of the Foreigners of Dublin, was slain in 1146, and Brodar son of Turcall, King of DubUn, in 1160: Ann. Tigernach. THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 209 overlord for assistance, and Rory promptly came to his aid, accompanied by O'Rourke, O'Melaghlin, and 0' Carroll, with the forces of Breffn}^ Meath, and Uriel. The regular route from Wexford to Dublin followed up the course of the Slaney to the west of the Wicklow Mountains, and approached Dublin by way of Naas and Clondalkin. A possible alternative at this side was the defile of Glen Saggart. There was also a less frequented coast route through the Windgate near Bray, and a route through Enniskerry and the Scalp, both narrow defiles. Rory, expecting Dermot by some one of these routes, lay at Clondalkin, five miles south-west of Dublin, with his main army, and sent out troops to plash and beset the passes through the woods and hold the narrow defiles against Dermot's advance. Informed of this by his The Irish scouts, when already some wav on his march, turned. Dermot avoided the traps laid for him, and leading his army across the mountain ridge to Glendalough reached Dublin by a mountain track ^ — perhaps approximately that now fol- lowed by the military road from Sally Gap by Glencree and Killakee to the woods of Rath- farnham — thus turning the Irish position. We may be quite sure that Strongbow came to the walls of Dublin intending to take posses- ^ Per devexa montium de Glindelachan latera : Gir. Camb. V. 256 ; cf. Song of Dermot, 11. 1570-1623. 821379.1 • Q 210 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW sion of the town by assault if necessary, and having taken it, to put a garrison into it and hold it against all comers. The Irish custom of taking hostages for good behaviour was a poor substitute for placing a garrison in a secure The Ost- fortress, when that was practicable. The towns- treat for folk, with the example of Waterf ord before their P^^^®* eyes, endeavoured at once to make terms with Dermot. Perhaps they had lost some of their dash and daring, now that they had become Christians, and no longer believed that the Valkyries, Odin's corse-choosers, were waiting on the battle-field to bring .^11 who fell bravely fighting to Odin's hall. At any rate, they sent envoys to Dermot headed by their archbishop, Lorcan or Laurence 0' Toole, who was Dermot's brother-in-law. It was due in particular to his mediation that negotiations for peace were entered on. Maurice Regan, Dermot's trusty servant and secretary, to whom we owe so much of our information, was dispatched to the town with Dermot's terms, which were that the citizens should return to their allegiance and should surrender to him thirty hostages for their good behaviour. The position of a hostage at this time was far from enviable. Even if well treated by his jailor, his eyes or his life were always liable to be forfeited upon breach of the conditions which those who had surren- dered him had undertaken to observe. This THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 2U forfeiture was constantly exacted by the highest and best in the land, and indeed had it been otherwise the system of hostages would have been unmeaning and useless. We can then well believe the statement that a difficulty arose when it came to the selecting of the hostages. None but the more influential citizens would of course be accepted, and these were the very ones who could best resist the imposition of the hated office. The negotiations were therefore protracted, and apparently extended over three days. Meanwhile two young leaders. Miles de Cogan The tow n and Raymond le Gros, who were posted near ^J^^ris^"^ the city, becoming impatient at the delay, rushed suddenly with their following at the walls and gained access to the town. The Ostmen were evidently taken unawares, for they seem to have made no stand against the storming party. Many of them were killed, but the greater number, led by Haskulf, succeeded in escaping with their more valuable effects to their boats and galleys, which were moored in the river ready for this contingency, and sailed off to their kinsfolk in the Hebrides and Man. This exploit, in which we may suspect a treacherous breach of truce, was performed without the order or the knowledge of either Dermot or Strongbow, who were encamped somewhat further from the citv. Thus Dublin fell on the O 2 212 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW day of St. Matthew the Apostle, September 21, 1170. Rorv's But what was the Irish army under the ard-ri Ixpk^ined. doing all this time ? It is clear that they departed without fighting, but why ? To this question our Norman authorities do not give any complete answer. From the Song, indeed, we should infer that when Bory saw himself out-manoeuvred by Dermot's march across the mountains, he simply retired and disbanded his army. The Irish Annals,^ however, throw a some- what different light on the action of the ard-ri, Rory had summoned his army to defend the Ostmen of Dublin, who had recently submitted to him, against the threatened attack of Dermot and the English, and he remained on the ' Green of Ath-Cliath ' (near Kilmainham) ready to fight in their defence. But instead of showing fight against Dermot, the men of Dublin prepared to submit to him, and with this view had entered independently into negotiations with him. Rory regarded this impending submission as a repudia- ^ Four Masters, Ann. Tigemach, Ann. Ulster, 1170. The Four Masters give the clearest account, and probably preserve the meaning of the original entry. The passage in the Annals of Tigemach which states that * the Foreigners assented to the burning of the town, since they perceived that to be with MacMurchada was to revolt against the King of Ireland \ is unintelligible as it stands. Probably we should read Oaedhil for Gaill, i.e. 'the Irish* for 'the Foreigners '. THE COMmG OF STRONGBOW 213 tion of their allegiance to him. After three days, while the negotiations were still going on, a thunderstorm broke over the town, and the lightning set it on fire. This ' act of God ' was regarded as showing the displeasure of Heaven against the Ostmen for having ' deserted from the Connaughtmen and the people of North Ireland in general Accordingly 0' Conor left the traitors to their fate and returned with his whole army. The subsequent surprise and sacking of the town was looked upon as a ' miracle or just judgement, on the Ostmen ' for having violated their word to the men of Ireland '. Such is the view the annalists seek to convey, and we may accept it as helping to explain Rory's inaction ; but we may suspect that, had not the Irish, unsupported by the Ostmen, felt themselves unable to cope with the Norman force in the open ground in the neigh- bourhood of Dublin, they would not have departed without forcing a battle. The Northmen had been driven out of Dublin before, but never by any one who knew how to hold a town, and they had always succeeded in regaining their position. But now the town was occupied by one who was a master in the military art, and we may be quite sure that its fortifications were made stronger than ever. Dermot had amply avenged himself on the citizens of Dublin, but he still burned for ven- 214 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW geance on Tieman O'Rourke^ and the men of Meath and Breffny who had been the immediate Dermot agents of his expulsion. Accordingly an army invades iii-rx i i • ■» - • -r-. Meath. was led by Dermot and his knights into East Meath, and they plundered Clonard and burned Kells and many another place in the valleys of the Boyne and Blackwater celebrated from of old for some religious house. Then they invaded O'Rourke's proper territory as far as Slieve Gory, a hilly district in the barony of Clankee, in the county of Cavan, and carried off many prisoners and cows to their camp. Donnell of Bregia, the reinstating of whom may have formed a pretext for this incursion, and the men of East Meath, now turned against O'Rourke and 0' Conor and Hi.- gave hostages to Dermot. The next step was for puf to^^ Tiernan O'Rourke to put to death the hostages death. ^^^^ Meath which he held, and for O'Conor to put to death the hostages which Dermot had given him for Leinster. These latter were ^ Tieman O'Rourke was, as we have seen, hereditary chieftain of Breffny, a district embracing the modem counties of Cavan and Leitrim. He is called by Gerald Bex Meden- sium, and the expression at this time was not incorrect. For in the previous year Dermot O'Melaghlin, the hereditary King of Meath, had been murdered by his nephew Donnell O'Melaghlin, known as Donnell of Bregia, and O'Conor had in consequence expelled Donnell and divided Meath into two parts, keeping the western part to himself and giving East Meath to his staunch ally Tieman. At this time, then, Tieman's territory extended right across Ireland from the mouth of the Erne to the mouth of the Bo}Tie. THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 215 Dermot's own son, Conor, his grandson, son of Donnell Kavanagh, and the son of his foster- brother O'Caellaighe. They were put to death at the instigation of O'Rourke, ' for O'Rourke had pledged his conscience that Rory should not be King of Ireland unless they were put to death.' ^ Gerald, indeed, purports to give us the correspondence that passed between Rory and Dermot on the subject, and Rory's letter is so exactly in keeping with the facts that we may take it as in substance correct. ' Contrary to the terms of our treaty,' he writes, ' you have invited a host of foreigners into this island. So long, however, as you confined your opera- tions within your ancient kingdom of Leinster, we bore it patiently ; but now, inasmuch as, unmindful of your oath and reckless of the fate of your hostage, you have passed the limits assigned and insolently crossed even your hereditary boundaries, for the future you must either restrain the irruptions of your foreign troops or I shall certainly send to you the decapitated head of your son.' To this warning Dermot arrogantly replied that he would not desist from his enterprise until he had subdued Connaught, which belonged to him by ancestral right,^ and won for himself the monarchy of ^ Ann. Tigemach, Ann. Ulster, Four Masters, 1170 ; Gir. Camb. V. 257. 2 By this expression Dermot probably alluded to his 216 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW Ireland. We cannot wonder that Rory kept his word. In the face of this new and extended invasion of the foreigners, while the ard-ri felt called upon to do no more than wreak his vengeance on Council Dermot's hostages, an assembly of clergy con- ciergy. vencd at Armagh came to the inept conclusion that it was a just judgement for the sins of the people in carrying on a slave trade with England, and they accordingly decreed that throughout the island all English slaves should be set free.^ In times past Bristol had been the great centre of this trade with the Ostmen, but through the exertions of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, the iniquitous traffic had been abandoned.^ Possibly during the anarchy of Stephen's reign it had to some extent revived. A few other items may be gleaned from the Irish Annals. It appears that the people of Uriel, as well as those of Meath, gave hostages to Dermot ^ and assisted him against O'Rourke.^ The latter made reprisals upon his enemies and harried again the northern part of Meath and Fingall, but the serious fighting for the year was descent from Dermot MacMaelnamo, who by some was reckoned King of Ireland. The remark is significant as bearing out what has already been stated, that since the usurpation of Brian Borumha any chieftain might aspire to the crown of Ireland. ^ Gir. Camb. v. 258. 2 WilUam of Malmesbury. ^ Ann. Tigemach. * Four Masters. THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 217 over. Dermot retired to his former seat at Ferns, never to leave it again ; and Strongbow, on October 1, leaving Dublin under the care of Miles de Cogan, set out for Waterford ' with an ample suite According to the Four Masters, the garrison left here had met with a reverse at the hands of Dermot Macarthy and the men of Desmond, and it may be that Strongbow thought it necessary to strengthen it. He had, however, a greater difficulty to contend with. The King Henry of England had become alarmed at the news of [n^tde Strongbow's successes, magnified perhaps by report. It would never do to allow anything like an independent kingdom to be erected in Ireland. It was difficult enough to keep in hand the lords who had carved out for themselves lordships in Wales, among whom were these very de Clares and Fitz Geralds. It might become impossible to control them in the sea-divided Ireland. Besides, he had designs on that coun- try of his own, when he could find time and opportunity to prosecute them. Accordingly he issued an edict placing the Irish ports under a sort of paper blockade, and ordering all his subjects there to return before the following Easter on pain of forfeiting their lands and being banished from the kingdom for ever. This move of Henry's put Strongbow into great straits, for not only could he no longer 218 THE COMING OF STRONGBOW obtain reinforcements^ or supplies from Wales, but he was in danger of losing his followers, who, to avoid outlawry, would have to obey the royal edict. Accordingly, after consulting his friends, he dispatched Raymond to the king, then in Hayraond Aquitaiuc, with the following letter : ' It was H^nrv. with your licence, my lord, if I remember rightly, that I crossed over to Ireland to aid your liege- man Dermot in recovering his territories. Where- fore whatever lands I have had the good fortune to acquire here either from his patrimony or from that of any one else, inasmuch as I owe them all to your gracious favour, I shall hold them at your will and disposal.' ^ The terms of this letter, and the undertaking contained in it, sufficiently indicate what Strong- bow understood to be the motive of Henry's action. It was not any regard for the rights of the Irish ; it was simply the apprehension of trouble and risk to the English crowTi if a strong, independent kingdom were established in Ireland. If there had really been any danger of Strongbow's setting up an independent kingdom there, Henry's determination thus early to counteract such a project would have 1 That some individuals nevertheless came to Ireland from England at this time ' against the king's command ', and were fined for so doing, appears from the Pipe Roll, 17 Henry II, pp. 29, 92. 2 Gir. Camb. v. 259. THE COMING OF STRONGBOW 219 been amply justified. The whole subsequent history of the relation between England and the quasi-independent kingdom of Scotland shows what troubles and perils such a relationship necessarily involves. But there w^as certainly no immediate prospect of Strongbow's succeeding in any such enterprise, even if, as is unlikely, he ever entertained the idea. Henry's embargo, then, must rather be regarded as the first example of that perversity which in after years too often characterized England's policy towards Ireland, and from which, perhaps, it is not yet wholly free, a perversity w^hich manifests itself in first encouraging the formation of an English colony in Ireland for the greater glory and security of the English Crown, and then, not from any regard to the native Irish, but from motives of suspicion and jealousy, thwarting the efforts of that colony whenever it seemed likely to be successful and prosperous. CHAPTER VII STRONGBOW AS DERMOT'S SUCCESSOR 1171 Dermot MacMurrough did not live long to Death of 11-1 T 1 • p Dermot, enjoy his recovered kingdom. In the spring oi Mayini. 1171 he died, and was buried at Ferns/ The Irish annalists, in recording the event, show their bitter feeling by alleging that he died an evil death — ' without unction, without the Body of Christ, without penance, without a will' — and ascribing it to the miracle of the saints whose churches he had destroyed. A more friendly hand, however, has made the following entry in the Book of Leinster : ' Diarmait son of Dunchadh son of Murchadh [reigned] forty six [years]. And he was King of all South Erin and also of Meath. He died at Ferna after the victory of unction and penance in the sixty-first year of his age.' ^ There seems no reason why we should not accept the dates indicated by this entry, which comes at the end of a long list of the Kings of Leinster. It would refer the commence- ment of his reign to the year 1126 (if we count 1 Gir. Camb. v. 263 ; Song of Dermot, 11. 1728-31. 2 Book of Leinster (Facsimile), p. 39 (d). STRONGBOW inclusively), and that was the year of the death of the preceding king, Enna Mac Murrough. He is described by Giraldus as plenus dierum at his death, but sixty-one was old for an Irish warrior king, and as he headed his army on arduous expeditions to the last, he must have retained much of his vigour.^ Rising in Dcrmot's death was the signal for the revolt Leinster. of the Irish of Leinster against Earl Richard. It is plain that the tribes were not ready without a struggle to accept the arrangement, entirely unknown to Irish legal custom, by which the crown of Leinster was to pass, on Dermot's ^ O'Donovan states that Dermot was in his sixty-second year at the time of the rape of Dervorgil (1152) : notes to Four Masters, vol. iii, pp. 4 and 96. From this it would follow that he was in his eighty- first year at his death in 1171, But O'Donovan's statement seems to result, from a miscalculation founded on an unsupported statement of Dr. O'Conor that Dermot was expelled in his seventieth year (1166) : see note to Song of Dermot, 1. 1729. The Book of Leinster contains the only early data on the subject, and its statements are consistent with Dermot's pedigree and the succession of kings. His father, Dunchad Mac Murchada, was killed at Dublin in 1115 (Ann. Ulster, Ann. Tigemach, Ann. Loch Ce), when Dermot, ex hypothesi, was only five years old. The next king, Diarmait Mac Enna, died in 1117. He was succeeded by Enna Mac Dunchada Maic Murchada (presumably an elder brother of Dermot), w^ho died in 1126 (ibid.), from which date Dermot's reign is reckoned. He would then have been in his seventeenth year. As we have seen, however, some years elapsed before he gained real power. DERMOT'S SUCCESSOR death, to his foreign son-in-law. Only three Irishmen of any note are said to have remained faithful to Strongbow. These were Donnell Kavanagh, his brother-in-law, who had hitherto accompanied him in his victories; O'Reilly of Tirbriuin or Breffny, whose family had a long- standing blood-feud with the O'Rourkes of the same district, and this O'Reilly had probably been expelled from his country by Tiernan O'Rourke ; and Aulaff O'Garvy, a petty chieftain of the district about Rathvilly, co. Carlo w.^ The Leinster tribes were incited to revolt by Mur- tough MacMurrough, son of Dermot's brother, Murrough ' of the Irish,' who had been set up as King of Okinselagh on Dermot's banishment. But the combination against Strongbow was not O'Conoi s confined to Leinster. The ard-ri 0' Conor lent DuWi^. a willing ear to the request for assistance, and summoned ' the Irish of all Ireland ' to accom- pany him to the siege of Dublin.^ Lorcan, or Laurence 0' Toole, the Archbishop of Dublin, according to a report mentioned by Gerald, 1 Song of Dermot, 11. 1734-41 ; cf. 11. 1788 and 1900. 2 The authorities for O'Conor's siege are the Song of Dermot, 11. 1746 to 1966; Gir. Camb. v. 265-70; Ann. Tigernach, 1171. The two last place Haskulf's expedition before O'Conor's hosting, but for the reasons given infra, pp. 245-6, I am inclined to think that the Song of Dermot preserves the true sequence. The Four Masters follow the Annals of Tigernach, and the siege is not mentioned in the Annals of Ulster nor in those of Loch Ce. 224 STROXGBOW is said to have been especially zealous in beating up allies, not hesitating to call in foreigners to expel foreigners. In conjunction with Rory 0* Conor, he sent letters to Gottred, King of ^lan, and the wikings of the western isles, urging them to blockade the city by sea. Some of these chieftains, induced by promise of reward, and also thinking that their own inde- pendence would be imperilled by the success of the English adventurers, straightway sailed to the mouth of the Liffey with a fleet of thirty ships, thus effectually cutting off Dublin from any supplies which, in spite of Henry's embargo, might come by sea. Meanwhile, the vast host assembled by 0' Conor invested the city on every side. Castleknock, about four miles to the west of the city, was the head-quarters of the ard-ri, while still nearer, on the other side of the river, Domiell O'Brien, who had recently submitted to 0* Conor, was at Kilmainham. On the north, at Clontarf, lay Mac Dunle\'y% King of Uhdia, or Eastern Ulster, while Murtough Mac Murrough blocked the southern coast road at Dalkey. For nearly two months the investment lasted, and provisions began to fail. Xo attempt seems to hare been made to take the town by assault, or even to commence siege operations. The walls and ditches had probably been strengthened by the Xormans diu:ing the winter, and, at any DERMOT'S SUCCESSOR 225 rate, the Irish were quite unversed in the art of conducting a regular siege. They probably did not advance within bowshot of the walls, but seem to have been satisfied with a somewhat loose investment. There were some skirmishes between the opposing parties for the space of a fortnight, and a party of horsemen, we are told,^ was sent by 0' Conor to cut down the corn of the Saxons, from which we may perhaps infer that the month of August had been reached. Still, the inactivity of this huge investing army ^ ^ Ann. Tigernach, 1171, followed with slight variations by the Four Masters. 2 Giraldus says ' cum infinita totius fere Hibemiae multi- tudine ' (p. 265), and speaks of O'Conor's division as alone comprising 30,000 men (p. 268). Such large numerical calculations may be disregarded, but it was httle exaggera- tion to say that all Ireland sent contingents to this siege. From Giraldus (p. 269) we learn that besides those men- tioned above the following chieftains were also present : — In the southern army Machdanus, i.e. Faelan Mac Failain (Mackelan), King of Offelan ; Machtalewi, a Leinster chief- tain of uncertain locaUty (see Song of Dermot, note, p. 318) ; Gillemeholmoch, i.e. Domhnall Mac Gillamocholmog, King of Ui Donchadha ; and Otuethelis, i. e. Ua Tuathail (O'Toole), King of Ui Muireadhaigh. In the northern army Ororicius Medensis, i.e. Tigheaman Ua Ruairc (O'Rourke), King of Breifne, with claims over Meath ; Ocaruelus Urielensis, i.e. Murchadh Ua Cearbhaill, King of Oirghialla (Murrough O'Carrol, King of Uriel) ; Machsachelinus, i. e. (probably) Domhnall Breagach Ua Maelseachlainn (O'Melaghhn), Ejng of Meath ; and Ocadesi, i. e. Ua Cathasaigh (O'Casey), lord of Saithne. Tiro wen, Tirconnell, Desmond, and Ossory seem to be the only important districts not represented. 821379.1 • p 226 STRONGBOW is hard to explain, unless, as seems probable, they were waiting for the expected arrival of Haskulf, son of Thorkil, the exiled lord of Dublin, before undertaking the assault of the town, strong- Unable to obtain supplies by either land or L)ow seeks terms. sea, the earl found his stock of provisions nearly exhausted, when a new cause of anxiety arose. Donnell Kavanagh with a few followers managed to slip into the beleaguered city with the intelli- gence that Robert Fitz Stephen was besieged in his castle of Carrick, and that if not relieved within three days it would be all over with him.^ Thereupon Strongbow summoned his principal followers to a council of war. The Song of Dermot gives us the names of several. They include some with whom we are already familiar and others of whom we shall hear again : Robert de Quency, Walter de Ridelisford, Maurice de Prendergast, Miles de Cogan, Meiler Fitz Henry, Miles, son of David Fitzgerald, the bishop, Richard de Marreis, and Walter Bluet. To The Song of Dermot, 1. 1753, says seisanile] mil[e] erent armez, but as already mentioned {supra, p. 77), this phrase merely means ' a very large number '. ^ This is the statement as given by Giraldus, p. 266. According to the Song of Dermot (11. 1790^), Donnell Kavanagh told the earl of Fitz Stephen's actual capture and imprisonment. This may be correct ; in which case Strongbow's subsequent march towards Wexford was undertaken in the hope of forcing his captors ' to hberate the imprisoned Robert ' (1. 2023). DERMOT'S SUCCESSOR 227 these we must add from Giraldus, Raymond le Gros and Maurice Fit z Gerald.^ When the barons were assembled in council the earl laid before them the desperate state of affairs, and proposed to make terms with 0' Conor, to offer ' to become his man and hold Leinster of him This proposal was adopted, and the Archbishop Laurence O'Toole,^ accompanied by Maurice de Prendergast, was sent to the King of Connaught with the message. Rory 0' Conor, however, confident in his strength, would have none of these terms. He was willing indeed to leave to Strongbow the cities the Norsemen had hitherto held, Dublin, Waterford, and Wexford, but not another rood of ground in all Ireland would he give them, and, he added, that if the earl did not accept this offer he would assault the city on the morrow. 1 Gir. Camb., vol. v, p. 266, where Raymond is said to have just returned from court, i.e. from liis mission to Henry II. Two of the sons of Maurice Fitz Gerald, Gerald and Alexander, were also in DubUn (Gir. Camb., p. 268). His wife and younger children appear to have been left under the care of Fitz Stephen (ibid., p. 266). After 1. 1802, in the transcript of the Song of Dermot, one or more Hnes are missing, and Morice le fiz Gerout and le gros Reymun may have been mentioned here. 2 The presence of Laurence O'Toole in the beleaguered city, and his undertaking this mission of peace, discredit his alleged zeal in organizing the hosting against the Normans. After all, Giraldus merely mentions this antagonistic zeal as a report {ut ferehatur), and we may venture to disbeheve it. The archbishop is not mentioned in the Irish versions. P 2 228 STRONGBOW A bold On hearing this reply the bold course was sortie adopted to sally forth and attack the camp of the King of Connaught. It might seem a forlorn hope, but it was better than to be starved to death cooped up within the walls of the town, and there was Fitz Stephen's peril to be remem- bered. Gerald de Barry here puts into the mouth of his uncle a speech which, though it probably represents correctly enough the motives and feelings of the besieged garrison, need not here be given at length. One bitter sentence, however, is so remarkable at this early date, and has been so applicable to the English colony almost at any time in the centuries that have since elapsed, that I cannot forbear quoting it : ' What are we waiting for ? ' he exclaims, 'Are we looking for help from our own people ? Nay, such is our position, that to the Irish we are Englishmen, and to the English, Irishmen.' ^ Accordingly, three companies of about 200 men each, under the command of Miles de Cogan, Raymond le Gros, and Earl Richard respectively, prepared for an immediate sortie.^ Each com- ^ ' Ea jam lege tenemur, ut sicut Hibemicis Angli sic et Anglis HGibemici simus,' Gir. Camb., p. 267 ; cf . Camb. Eversus, vol. iii, p. 167. The allusion, no doubt, was to Henry's embargo, and perhaps to the unfavourable report brought back by Raymond. 2 The two accounts of this sortie agree substantially even in many details, but it is characteristic of Grerald that he speaks of Raymond as being in the foremost company and DERMOT'S SUCCESSOR 229 pany consisted of about 30 or 40 knights on horseback, 60 bowmen, and 100 foot-soldiers. In addition there were a few Irishmen under Donnell Kavanagh, and some of the citizens of Dublin. A sufficient guard had, of course, to be left in the town. Crossing the Liffey, perhaps by the wicker bridge erected by the Norsemen, Miles, who led the little band, set out rapidly towards Finglas. This is still the name of a little village about three miles nearly north of Dublin. It is the site of an ancient abbey ascribed to St. Cainnech. Here they turned to attack Rory's camp at Castleknock, about three miles to the south-west. The object of the detour seems to have been to surprise the camp and take it in the flank. At any rate, the huge disorderly force was quite unprepared for an attack, and was soon put to utter rout. The king himself is said to have been bathing, we may suppose in the Liffey hard by, and to have barely escaped.^ The pursuit lasted till evening, the first to make the attack, while the Song clearly shows that Miles de Cogan was in the van and in command of the whole force. ^ * Rotherico vero, qui tunc forte in balneis sedebat, vix elapso,' Gir. Camb., p. 269. The Song, 11. 1949-50, says, ' A hundred and more were slain while bathing where they were beset,' The Annals of Tigemach, however, state that O'Conor had ' marched to meet the Leinstermen (what Leinstermen ?) and the cavalry of Breffny and Uriel went to cut down the Enghshmen's com ', when ' the Earl and Miles STROXGBOW when the victors returned to the city, laden \^'ith victuals and spoils. It was an astounding victory. Eorv-'s army is said to have numbered 30,000 men, and they were utterly discomfited by a tiny band of a few hundreds. Allowing for gross exaggeration in the former figure, the result shows what superior arms and discipline can do. The effect was immediate and far- The siege reaching. The remaining armies to the north and south of Dublin at once dispersed in terror, and Rory 0' Conor never made another attempt to oust the foreigners from Dublin. strong- Having thus effectuallv raised the siege, Earl bow ^ " ^ marches Richard delivered Dublin to the custody of towards at-i i /-^< i • i <• i Wexford. Miles de Logan, and straightway set out for the relief of Fitz Stephen. He took the upper road to the west of the Wicklow Mountains, through the present counties of Ivildare and Carlow. The present county of Wexford is girt round by natural obstacles, formidable to a tweKth-century invader. Washed on the south and east by the sea, it was protected on the north by a difficult hill and forest region, while on the west it is cut off by a high mount am range and a deep river. As we have seen, when 0' Conor came to attack Dermot Mac Murrough in 1166 and again in 1167, he forced the pass through ' the Dark Wood ' on de Cogan entered the camp of Leth Cuinii and killed a multi- tude of their rabble, and carried off their provisions, their armour, and their sumpter-horses'. DERMOT'S SUCCESSOR 231 the north leading from the Fotharta, now the barony of Forth, County Carlow. From this southwards to the Barrow there are only two narrow gates through the range of mountains. One, the Pass of PoUmounty, at the south end of the range, where a little stream makes its way to join the Barrow. Here it was that Donnell Kavanagh endeavoured to arrest the desertion of Maurice de Prendergast in 1169. The other, Scollagh Gap, a high defile leading from Odrone (now the barony of Idrone) between Mount Leinster and Blaekstairs into Okinselagh. This last appears to have been the entrance towards which Strongbow was marching, and here, in the The fore ' Pass of Odrone ', as it is called by Giraldus, he SoUagh was opposed by O'Ryan, chieftain of the district, who had formed a barricade of fallen trees across the narrow route. ^ A sharp engagement followed, ^ This identification, though new, is, I think, tolerably certain. Gerald tells us (p. 270) that the earl marched from Dubhn towards Wexford superiore per Odronam via^ and that the army of the Leinstermen met him in passu Odronae, quanquam in sui natura arcto nimis ei invio, con- cidibus tamen plurimum arte munito, and that after the fight the earl ad campana indemnis evasit (p. 272), and he speaks of the force as descending to the territory of Wexford, (p. 273). This all points to Scollagh Gap as the scene of the fight. In fact, even at the present day, it is the only route between the barony of Idrone and the County Wex- ford. There are indeed no trees in the actual defile, but on the approach to it from the west there is a natural wood, called Coonogue wood, which very probably in the twelfth 232 STRONGBOW in which O'Ryan was killed by an arrow shot by a monk named Nichol, and Meiler Fitz Henrv was stunned by the blow of a stone. These incidents, trivial as they are, help us to understand the extraordinary success of the invaders against almost any odds. The Irish had no weapon of greater precision or more deadly effect than a stone ^ with which to reply to an arrow dealing death from afar. When their leader fell, the Irish dispersed, and the earl and his men got safely through the defile and descended towards Wexford to succour Fitz Stephen.^ Fitz We must now turn for a moment to Fitz besieged Stephen, to see how he had fared while these atcarnck. events wcre in progress. At the time of the rising he was in Wexford. He sent a small force, about thirty-six of his men, to aid Earl Hichard in Dublin, but he soon found himself obliged to abandon Wexford and shut himself up in his newly constructed ' castle ' at Carrick on Slaney.^ We can identify this spot with confidence, and from the site and the con- century closed the entrance. The Song (1. 2018) says the wood was afterwards called ' the Earl's pass but this name has been forgotten. 1 Gerald notices the dexterity of the Irish at hurhng by hand lapides pugillares ; see supra, chap, iv, p. 134. 2 The authorities for the fight in the Pass of Odrone are the Song, 11. 1967-2020 ; Gir. Camb. v. 270-2. ^ The authorities for the siege of Carrick are Giraldus, pp. 270-3, and Song of Dermot, 11. 1768-97. DERMOT'S SUCCESSOR 233 temporarv' descriptions we can form an idea of this, the first Xorman castle erected in Ireland. It was situated on high ground on the right or His south bank of the Slaney, just before the river widens into a shallow estuary. On the side next the river the rock descends precipitously, but on the land side there is a gradual ascent. A level space on the top — shaped approximately like a gibbous moon, with dimensions of about 130 X 90 feet — is now cut off by a high earthen vallum and wide fosse. Fitz Stephen's fortress is described by Giraldus as ' an ill fortified camp, weakly enclosed with a wooden palisade and a rampart of earth.' ^ It probably, therefore, did not contain a mote or mound of earth within. It was rather a kind of ' promontory castle strong by nature along one curved side and strengthened by art on the other. Within this enclosure a wooden tower (bretesche or turri-< lignea) was probably erected. From it a small body of resolute archers could keep a large force of unarmoured men for some time at bay. For some days indeed Fitz Stephen, with only five men-at-arms and a few archers, successfully ^ * Municipium immiinitissimum virgis tenuiter et cespit^ clausum,' Gir. Camb., p. 266. He also mentions its fossaia (p. 270). For proofs of this identification, a description and plan of the site, and its subsequent history', see a contribution by the present \\Titer to Hore's Hist, of Wexford, pp. 22-34. The site is now marked by a Crimean monument resembling (from a distance) an ancient Irish Round Tower. 234 STRONGBOW resisted every attack ; but at length the assail- ants succeeded in obtaining his surrender by the weapons of deceit and perjury. The Bishops of Wexford and Kildare, and other persons in religious garb, says Giraldus, came up to the entrenchments, and all most solemnly took their oaths on holy relics that Dublin had fallen, that the earl, Fitz Gerald, Raymond, and all the English had been slain, and that the hosts of Connaught and Leinster were marching on Wexford. They further protested that they were acting in Fitz Stephen's interest, in order that they might send him and his men safe to Wales before the arrival of his enemies. Giving credence to these asseverations, Fitz Stephen surrendered, whereupon his treacherous assail- ants killed some of his men, ill-treated the rest with wounds and blows, and flung the survivors into prison. News of this disaster met the earl when descending into the territory about Wexford. He also learnt that the inhabitants had burned the town and had put their prisoners on the island of Beg-erin.^ They further threatened that if he should dare to come near them they ^ Begerin or Begery is, or rather was, a small island in Wexford harbour associated with St. Ibhar. It is now joined to the mainland by reclamation. It contains the ruins of a small church and some ancient cross -inscribed stones. DERMOT'S SUCCESSOR 235 would send him the severed heads of his friends. Checkmated here, the earl in much bitterness of spirit turned to Waterford, where the garrison had held its own. Strongbow now set about securing his position Parley as Dermot's successor in Leinster. This he aimed King of at accomplishing rather by diplomacy, backed where needful by a show of strength, than by actual fighting. First of all, he organized an ex- pedition against Donnell Mac Gillapatrick, King of Ossory. Ossory was by far the most impor- tant of the sub-kingdoms nominally subject to the King of Leinster. Indeed, more often than not it was practically independent, and in recent times its king had been frequently at war with King Dermot. Since the coming of the Nor- mans more than one hazardous expedition had been made into Ossory without any permanent result. Obviously Strongbow^ needed all available strength to overawe its king. Accordingly he invited Donnell O'Brien, King of Thomond, to join the expedition. This prince, having married a daughter of Dermot Mac Murrough, was con- nected with the earl ; but he is found at one time fighting on his side, and at another time against him, in a somewhat bewildering fashion.^ Fitz ^ Donnell O'Brien seems to have supported Strongbow's claim to succeed Dermot Mac Murrough in Leinster, but to have resisted him^ — at this period at least — when he sought to extend his conquests beyond the limits of that kingdom. 236 STRONGBOW Stephen had assisted him in driving RoryO' Conor out of Thomond in 1170, but in 1171 O'Brien had to give hostages to the ard-rt, and we find him accompanying the ard-ri in the great hosting against the earl in iDubUn. Now he came with about 2,000 men to aid Strongbow against the King of Ossory. They met at Odoth (Ir. ui Duach), a district roughly corresponding to the barony of Fassadinin, in the County Kilkenny. Here the King of Ossory came to a parley with them under the safe-conduct of his former friend, Maurice de Prendergast. O'Brien's counsel was to seize the King of Ossory as a traitor, and the barons seemed willing to agree ; when Maurice de Prendergast intervened, up- braided the barons with being false to their oaths, and ' swore by his sword ' that he would kill the first man that laid his hand on the king. Then Strongbow delivered up Mac Gillapatrick to Maurice de Prendergast, and Maurice brought him back in safety to his woody fastness, slaying on the way some of O'Brien's men who were pillaging the land. This story, which redounds to the credit of Maurice de Prendergast, is told with considerable detail in the Song of Perhaps he was for accepting the offer Strongbow made when besieged in Dublin, and separated from the ard-ri on that account. This supposition would help to explain the dispersal of Rory's host and O'Brien's present alliance with Strongbow. DERMOT'S SUCCESSOR 237 Dermot.^ It ends with an interesting legal incident. The barons accused Maurice of having rescued a traitor, whereupon — ' Maurice folded his glove and gave it to his lord as a pledge that he would redress in his court whatever transgression he had com- mitted. And the renowned English vassals went sufficient security for him.' The expedition then broke up. O'Brien went Arrange- ment back to Limerick, and the earl to Ferns. Here, with the at the seat of the old royal power, Strongbow ^^nse- was more successful in establishing himself as ^^s^^- Dermot's successor. With the aid of Donnell Kavanagh, he captured a neighbouring petty chieftain who had deserted and repudiated Dermot in 1166, and now refused allegiance to Strongbow. He seems to have been Murrough 0' Brain of the Duffry,^ a woody district lying between Enniscorthy and the mountains to the west. He and his son were beheaded and their bodies thrown to dogs. On the other hand, a much more important personage, Murtough 1 11. 2035-154. Probably, as we shall see, Donnell Mac Gillapatrick was left in possession of a large part of Central Ossory. We shall find him later on assisting the English. 2 Song of Dermot, 11. 2161-80 ; cf. 11. 141 and 3215 and notes. The name was not, however, anglicized O'Brien, but O'Brin and (later) O'Breen. O'Dubhagain places the Siol Brain in the Duffry (Topog. Poems, p. 91), and probably the very individuals, ' Murchad Uabrain ' and ' Dalbach ' his son, are among the witnesses to a charter of Dermot Mac Murrough : Fac. Nat. MSS. Ireland, pt. 2, pi. Ixiii. 238 STRONGBOW Mac Murrough, son of Dermot's brother, Mur- rough ' of the Irish ', came to terms with the earl. He, like his father before him, was acknowledged as King of Okinselagh by those tribesmen of the territory who had fallen away from Dermot, and those who after Dermot's death had refused to acknowledge Strongbow. The earl is now said to have ' granted to him the kingdom of Okinselagh ', and at the same time to have ' bailled the pleas of Leinster to Donnell Kavanagh '.^ By these expressions I think we must understand that Strongbow at this time granted a large portion of the dis- trict of Okinselagh to Murtough, perhaps to be held as a sort of fief under him on quasi-feudal terms, and that Donnell Kavanagh was appointed as an Irish seneschal with jurisdiction over pleas between Irishmen in Leinster. Even if no formal charter or grant was executed, some such arrangement seems to have been made. For though a very full list is afterwards given of the fiefs created by Strongbow in Leinster, it will be observed that a large portion of what was then known as the kingdom of Okinselagh was not distributed among his Norman and Welsh fol- lowers, and that this portion, though afterwards perhaps somewhat encroached upon, remained for centuries distinctively Irish, and was not planted with colonists in the same way as the 1 Song of Dermot, 11. 2181-8. DERMOT'S SUCCESSOR 239 parts granted to his followers were. Moreover, a few years later we are expressly told that Murtough Mac Murrough and Donnell Kavanagh, as well as most of the other Leinster chieftains, were on Strongbow's side, and had given him hostages for their fidelity. Murtough Mac Mur- rough is styled lord of Okinselagh in the entry in the Irish Annals recording his death, which occurred in 1193, and Donnell Kavanagh was killed by two Irishmen in 1175. There is nothing to show that they were not faithful to the English to the last.^ It was probably after Strongbow had left J)ubiir» Dublin upon the dispersal of Rory O' Conor's assaulted, army, and before the arrival of Henry II in Ireland (October 18), that Dublin was the object of two separate attacks.^ The first was headed by Tiernan O'Rourke, and consisted of the men of Breffny and Uriel, and the second was an attempt to regain the town by Haskulf Mac Thorkil, the former Norse governor. The ^ When, about a century later, in the accounts of the minister of Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, we get a detailed picture of Anglo-Norman organization in this district, we find that fees were paid to the chief of the McMurroughs and to his brother, and that robes (the earl's livery) were given to them as to other officers of the earl. They were evidently left in possession of considerable tracts of land in North Wexford and Southern Carlow, and Lived on good terms with the earl. 2 For the time when the Norse attack took place see note at the close of this chapter. 240 STRONGBOW glory of successfully resisting both these attempts belonged primarily to Miles de Cogan, to whom Earl Richard had entrusted the custody of the city when he, with most of the leading Normans, ( i )Bv departed. The attack by O'Rourke's army was (VRourke. met by de Cogan outside the walls ' on the green of Ath-cliath ', when a number of chiefs were killed, including O'Rourke's son, royal heir H^A^u (^^^damna) of Breffny.^ Haskulf's attempt to recover his patrimony, which perhaps preceded this last, was a much more formidable affair, and is told in great detail and with evident local knowledge in the Song of Dermot.^ Haskulf had collected a large fleet of sea-rovers from Norway and ' the islands ' (Orkneys and Hebrides, and the Isle of Man), and he had the assistance of a noted berserker, John ' the Wode ', or the Mad, said to be nephew of the King of Norway.^ It is probable that Haskulf's expedition was originally planned to synchronize with 0' Conor's hosting, but, happily perhaps for the Norman invaders, ^ Ann. Tigernach, Ann. Ulster, 1171, where the editor has wrongly punctuated the passage, the date ' 16th of the Kalends of November ' obviously referring to Henry's arrival. Giraldus dates this attack circa Kalendas Septem- bris (p. 274). It is not mentioned in the Song. 2 Song of Dermot, 11. 2255-492. Cf. Gir. Camb. v. 263-5; Ann. Tigernach, Ann. Ulster, 1171. 3 Song of Dermot, 11. 2264-8 ; John (the Mad) from the islands of Ore, Ann. Ulster, 1171 ; ' duce Johanne agnomine the Wode, quod La tine sonat Insano vel Vehementi,' Gir. Camb., p. 264. DERMOT'S SUCCESSOR 241 he came too late. ' At the Steine ' they landed and encamped, preparatory to attacking the city. The Steine was the name of an open piece of land to the east of the city, extending south- wards from the Liffey. It was so called from a Menhir or Standing Stone, probably erected by the Northmen in days gone by at their landing- place. On part of this piece of land, where Trinity College now stands, stood the priory of All Hallows, founded by Dermot Mac Murrough. Miles de Cogan now made preparations to resist the attack. First we are told of an amusing Parley parley between him and Donnell Mac Gilla- Giiiamo- mocholmog. The latter was petty king of a dis- trict close to Dublin on the south, and knew well what he had to expect if he opposed unsuccess- fully Haskulf's return. He had, indeed, joined Rory O' Conor's abortive hosting against the Normans in Dublin a little earlier in the sum- mer, but on the dispersal of the Irish forces he had made peace with Miles and had given him hostages. Probably Miles was not very confident of his fidelity, and preferred not to have him within the walls. Accordingly he said to him : ' I will return you your hostages on these conditions, that you stand aside and watch the coming battle, aiding neither us nor them, but if with God's help we discomfit these men, then that you and your force aid us to overthrow them ; while if we be recreant, that you aid them with all 821379.1 O 242 STROXGBOW your might in cutting us to pieces and destroying us.' This advice suited Gillamocholmog exactly, so he placed himself ^Wth his men outside the city, on the summit of the ' hoofores ' or Howe overlooking the Sterne. This was an artificial mound, the existence of which on Hoggen Green, a little to the south of the entrance to Trinity College, up to the year 16S5 is well attested.^ John the Wode advanced with his men in well-ordered ranks towards the city. It was a very different army from Rory's midisciplined, ill-armed host. They were * born warriors, in Danish fashion completely clad m iron : some in long coats of mail, others with iron plates cunningly fastened to theii' tmiics, and all bear- ing round shields painted red and rimmed with iron. Men with non hearts as well as iron arms'.- We do not read that they had bows, but they carried formidable battle-axes. To meet such men Miles and his little garrison had need of all their courage and resource. The attack was delivered against the eastern gate of the city, called Saint Mary's Gate. Its site is well knoT\m. The chinch of St. Mars- del Dam stood outside the walls close to it — so called from a mill-dam on a httle stream, the Poddle, now built over. The gate was after- wards kno\ra as Damas Gate, and the street ^ See the Scandinavian Kingdom of Dublin, by C.Halliday, pp. 162-^, ' Gil. Camb., vol. v, p. 264. DERMOT'S SUCCESSOR 243 leading up to it Damas Street, now refined in pronunciation into Dame Street. It was the direct route from the Steine. While the Norse- men were advancing towards the eastern gate. Miles de Cogan secretly dispatched his brother Richard with a small force of thirty horsemen out of a gate on the opposite side of the town, directing him to make a detour and fall upon the camp of the enemy in the rear. At the same time he manned the battlemented wall with archers and men with darts to resist the attack. While the assault was going on, Richard de Cogan fell upon the camp unexpectedly, and John the Wode, hearing the noise and the shouting in his rear, turned back to succour his men. Then Miles made a sortie with 300 men, and took the enemy in the rear as they were engaged with his brother Richard. In vain did John the W^ode perform prodigies of valour, lopping off with one blow of his mighty battle- axe the armoured leg of a horseman, and killing nine or ten of the English. Taken in front and rear at the same time, the Norsemen fled for their ships. Now was the time for Gillamocholmog to join in on the winning side. ' Up now, brave sirs ! ' he shouted to his men, ' Let us aid the rightful English ! Up now quickly. To good Richard and Miles we shall bring aid ! ' And thereupon the Irish, with javelins and darts, rushed upon the flying foe. Many were killed Q2 244 STRONGBOW on the field, and many were drowned while endeavouring to reach their ships. John the Wode was slain, and Haskulf was taken prisoner. The latter, it is said, might have ransomed his life, had it not been for his reckless outburst before Miles in the justice-hall to which he had been brought. ' We came this time,' he cried, ' a small band, but it is only the beginning. If I live, we shall soon return in much greater num- bers.' This audacious speech cost him his head. NOTE TO CHAPTER VII, pp. 223 and 239. THE TIME OF THE NORSE ATTACK ON DUBLIN With regard to the time at which the Norse attack took place, the authorities conflict. Giraldus places it ' about Pentecost' (May 16), before Ror3^'s siege (p. 263), while the Song (1. 2256) says it occurred while Strongbow ' w^as with his lord i.e. about the middle of September. For reasons partly given in the notes to the Song, I incline to think the sequence there observed was the true one. The narrative in the Song for the period from Dermot's death to the landing of Henry is more continuous and much fuller in its details than that of Giraldus. It reads like the story of an eyewitness throughout, and wher- ever it can be tested it appears to be accurate. It follows Strongbow' s movements, and accounts for both his absence and that of Fitz Stephen from Dublin at the time of the Norse attack. Also the sequence there given harmonizes with the changed attitude of Gillamocholmog on the two occasions. Moreover, where actual docu- ments dated at the time are not available, a date fixed approximately by reference to another event is more likely to be correct than a precise date given by such a writer as Giraldus (with whom chronology was a weak point) many years after the event. Furthermore, the order pre- served in the Song seems to explain the long inactivity of Rory O' Conor and his allies before Dublin. They must have been waiting for 246 NOTE something before attempting a serious assault, and this ' something ' may well have been the arrival of Haskulf . It would be strange if, when seeking for assistance from Godred, King of Man, and the wikings of the islands, they had omitted to communicate with Haskulf, the dispossessed lord of Dublin, to whose aid they had come in the preceding autumn. But Haskulf may well have been late, and the intended combination upset by Strongbow's brilliant sortie. Thus the order of events as given in the Song seems to explain much that is hard to account for if we suppose that order reversed. On the other hand, it must be noted that in the Annals of Tigernach, followed by the Four Masters, the entry as to Haskulf's attack precedes that as to Kory's siege, but these entries are quite inde- pendent of each other, and entries in the annals do not always follow the chronological order. Thus, for example, in 1169, the Four Masters record the death of Dermot O'Melaghlin, King of Meath, and afterwards mention him as accom- panying 0' Conor's hosting into Okinselagh. CHAPTER VIII HENRY II IN IRELAND 1171-2 Before the summer of 1171 was ended strong- Strongbow was master of the three principal the king, seaport towns of Ireland, namely, Dublin, Waterford, and Wexford, and partly by arms and partly by diplomacy had done much to strengthen his position as Der mot's successor in Leinster. He had successfully repelled all out- side attempts, whether Norse or Irish, to oust him from his position, and by the power and prestige of his arms, aided by the wisdom of his policy, he had won the acquiescence of the principal tribes of Leinster to his rule. He knew well, however, that there was another and a more formidable power with which he must reckon before he could hope to secure to himself the fruits of his conquest. It was in defiance of Henry's express orders that he had set sail a year previously from Milford Haven, and his lands at home had in consequence been taken from him by the king. He had been sorely hampered in his operations by Henry's embargo, which had effectually prevented him from getting 248 HENRY II IN IRELAND adequate supplies and reinforcements in the spring of the year. He had then sent Raymond on a fruitless embassy to endeavour to gain the King's favour to his expedition, and on Ray- mond's return with dispiriting news, just before the great attempt to overwhelm the invaders in Dublin, he had dispatched his uncle, Hervey de Montmorency, on a second embassy with the same object. Hervey appears to have found Henry at Argentan, in the act of holding a council of his barons with reference to his pro- posed expedition to Ireland. This was in the month of July. Hervey offered on the part of the earl to surrender to the king the cities of Dublin and Waterford, and the other strong- holds which the earl held in right of his wife, and the king, we are told, promised on his doing so to restore to the earl his lands in England (Wales) and Normandy, to leave him in posses- sion of the rest of what he had acquired by his marriage, and to appoint him constable or seneschal of Ireland.^ We may, however, doubt if the terms of the arrangement were quite so definitely fixed at this time. For when Hervey returned to Ireland, early in September, he came with the news that the king was on his way to Ireland with a large army, and, whatever the nature of his report may have been, he strongly ^ Robert of Torigny, p. 252, where, however, the names of the ambassadors are not mentioned. HENRY II IN IRELAND 249 urged the earl to cross the channel and meet the king. Accordingly the earl at once set sail, and found the king either at Newnham in Gloucester- shire, where he had already mustered a con- siderable army,^ or at Pembroke. The time was indeed in many respects oppor- The time tune for Henry to make his long meditated Henry\s expedition to Ireland. If he were to claim the ^ion!^^ benefit of Strongbow's conquests, to make Strongbow's proffered submission to him a reality, and to take advantage of the opening thus afforded to obtain the submission of the still independent Irish kings, now was the time for him to act. Moreover, an expedition to Ireland at this moment would gain him a respite from the meeting with the cardinal legates who had been dispatched by the Pope to deal with Henry's supposed complicity in the murder of Becket. Time would dull the edge of the horror which all Christendom felt on hearing of the arch- bishop's tragic end, and Henry, as the acknow- ^ Gir. Camb., vol. v, p. 273. According to the Song (1. 2230) the earl found Henry at Pembroke, and this may be right. According to the Brut, Henry entered Wales soon after September 8, and reached Pembroke on the 21st, where, or at St. Davids, he stayed until October 16, when he sailed for Ireland : cf . Eyton's Itin. The later date for the meeting would seem to suit Strongbow's movements as recorded in the Song best. On the other hand, Gerald is precise in his mention of the place, which, at any rate, was probably the muster-ground of the feudal host. HENRY II IN IRELAND ledged lord of Ireland, would be in a better position to make terms with the Pope. True, he oould not at this moment enter Ireland mas- querading as a sort of crusader, and, with the blessing of the present occupant of the Holy See, professing to reform the moral iniquities of that country. But he might do something there to bring about a closer conformity with the Church of Rome, and the papal blessing and sanction would be sure to follow. Accordingly, in July he held a council of the barons at Argentan, and obtained their approval of his Irish expedition.^ Early in August he landed at Portsmouth, having left orders with the bailiffs of the ports on both sides of the channel to prevent any papal envoys from following him.^ Then he made preparations for the assembling of a fleet of transports at Milford Haven, and for a muster of the chivalry of England somewhere near the Welsh border, probably at Newnham in Glouces- tershire, where, according to Gerald de Barry, Strongbow is said to have met him. strong- According to Gerald, too, it was only after renders much altercation, and by the address of Hervey, maritime ^^^^ royal ire was appeased : the earl under- toHTis to taking to surrender to the king Dublin and the Henry. ® ® neighbouring cantreds, the other maritime towns, and all castles, and to renew the oath of fealty 1 Robert of Torigny, 1171. 2 Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 24. HENRY II IN IRELAND 251 for the rest of his conquests. These terms do not appear to differ essentially from those offered on the earl's behalf at the council of Argentan. They included, however, the surrender not only of the towns of Dublin, Waterford, and Wexford, but also of the lands now comprised in the county of Dublin and the littoral as far south as Arklow. So far as appears, there were no stone- built castles to surrender, except perhaps a Norse stronghold at Wicklow.^ By these terms, as one writer notices,^ Strongbow was indeed giving up the more valuable portions of his conquest ; but he was left in possession of an extensive fief, now to be held of the king ; while if Henry was to exercise any control over the adventurers, and to extend his domination, as he hoped, over the unconquered parts of Ireland, it was absolutely essential for him to hold the seaport towns in his own hands. This important question having been thus satisfactorily settled, Henry pursued the coast ^ The Castellum Wikingelonense is spoken of as already in existence in the summer of 1 173, when it, together with the town of Wexford, was granted by Henry to Earl Richard : Gir. Camb., vol. v, p. 298. It was perhaps a Scandinavian stronghold occupying the site of the Black Castle atWicklow, on a rocky point jutting out into the sea immediately south of the harbour. See Eng. Hist. Rev. 1907, p. 250. The castle, however, is not mentioned in Strongbow's grant of Wicklow to Maurice Fitz Gerald : Gormanston Register, f . 190. 2 WilUam of Newburgh, vol. i, p. 168. 252 HENRY II IN IRELAND road which led through South Wales towards St. Davids. Henry Six ycars had elapsed since Henry's last expe- tavourto dition into Wales, when he was beaten back from the rocks of Berwyn by the ceaseless rain, and Rhys, the Prince of South Wales, was now much perturbed at his approach. Probably he had been summoned to the muster-ground at Newnham ; at any rate he hastened to meet Henry, whose goodwill he was anxious to secure.'^ Ireland, however, was now Henry's objective, and he had no intention of frittering away his strength in Whales. Moreover, it was important for him to secure the peaceful passage of his army along the route to Pembroke, and Rhys was easily able to purchase his goodwill by a promise of 300 horses and 4,000 cows, and an undertaking to give him hostages for good be- haviour. Ultimately, indeed, Henry took only 36 horses, saying that ' it was not for want of them they were accepted, but to express his thanks to Rhys ', and he gave him time as to the delivery of hostages and the rest of the promised tribute. Rhys had indeed reason to view with satisfaction Henry's expedition. He had found that the previous Irish expeditions had relieved ^ According to the Brut y Tywys., p. 211, Henry, giving out that he would go and subdue Ireland, ' convoked to him all the princes of England and Wales.' Accordingly Rhys went to meet him about September 8. HENRY II IN IRELAND 253 him of the presence of several of his most dangerous rivals and of their supporters, thus enabling him to consolidate his power. He had just built ' a castle of stone and mortar ' at Aberteivi (Cardigan), to replace the Norman structure which he had demolished when he captured its constable, Robert Fitz Stephen, as already mentioned. He also held Cilgerran Castle, perched on a rock hard by. And now Henry, so far from making him restore these places to the de Clares, regularized his position by giving him, according to the Welsh Chronicle, the whole district of Ceredigion, now Cardigan- shire, the vale of the Towy, and other debatable lands. ^ While showing this favour to the native prince, Henry, with real or assumed anger, threatened the Norman barons of South Wales for having given Earl Richard a passage through to Ireland, but, except that he put royal garri- sons into their castles, nothing came of his threats.^ As we shall see, it was Henry's cue throughout this expedition to appear as the friend of the natives, Welsh and Irish, and the stern represser of the Anglo-Norman march- ^ Brut y Tywys. 1171, where a detailed account is given of Henry's movements in Wales and of his interviews with Rhys. 2 Gir. Camb., vol. v, p. 274. The account here given of Henry's anger towards the proceres of South Wales seems to confirm the statement of William of Newburgh that Henry had expressly forbidden Strongbow's expedition. 254 HENRY II IN IRELAND lords ; his real object being to secure the control of the Crown over both. Henry reached Pembroke about September 21. After a few days he went on the usual pilgrimage to St. Davids, and made an offering at the shrine. Here, attended by Earl Richard and some others, he was informally entertained on Michaelmas Day by the bishop, David Fitz Gerald. Shortly after dinner he mounted horse and returned to Pem- broke in heavy rain.^ The distance from St. Davids to Pembroke is sixteen miles over a very hilly coun- try. We cannot wonder that Henry's suite found his extraordinary activity irksome at times. ^ Adeputa- Henry was detained at Pembroke for seven- Wexford. teen days longer by unfavourable winds. While he was there a deputation came from the men of Wexford to announce to him that they had captured 'his felon', Robert Fitz Stephen, who had often, they said, waged war against him in Wales and in England, and had lately come to Ireland to destroy their country. They had put him in prison, and would give him up to the king to deal with according to his pleasure. Evidently they were anxious to curry favour with the powerful king now approaching their 1 Brut y Tywys., p. 215. To avoid an excess of expense to the bishop, Henry decUned a formal banquet, and the company, we are told, ' dined standing/ 2 For the view taken by Henry's clerks of his restless activity see Norgate's Angevin Kings, vol. i, p. 411. HENRY II IN IRELAND 255 shores. Henry assured them of his favour, provided they surrendered their prisoner to him to deal with. His anger against Fitz Stephen was assumed, we are told, to ensure the prisoner's safe delivery into his hands,^ but Henry was also anxious to impress the Irish with the idea that he was coming as their friend and protector. On October 16, all being ready and the wind Hemy at last favourable, the king embarked ' at the Ireland, Cross ' below Pembroke,^ and landed next day n^7i/^' at Crook, near Waterford, the exact landing- 1 Song of Dermot, 11. 2497-578. Perhaps this was the embassy alluded to by Gervase of Canterbury (vol. i, p. 235). He says that the Irish sent ambassadors to Henry in 1171, to ask him to take over the lordship of the country and reUeve them from the aggression of Earl Richard : ' ut in Hiberniam veniret, eisque contra importunitatem Ricardi comitis succurreret, sibique dominium Hiberniae assumeret.' The deputation of the traiterez duzze de Weyseford seems to have been distinct from the embassy composed of Murtough MacMurrough and the burgesses of Wexford, mentioned in the account of the Sheriff of Winchester : Pipe Roll, 19 Hen. II (1172-3). They appear to have gone as far as Winchester, where they were entertained at the king's expense, and presented with six robes, costing the consider- able sum of £10 145. 11c?. 2 Song of Dermot, 1. 2590 : a la Croiz en mer entra. This appears to have been the usual place of embarkation. John, too, in 1210, embarked afud Crucem super mare, suhtus Penbroc : Rot. de Prest., 12 John, pp. 177, 246. The place is probably now occupied by Pembroke Dock on MiKord Haven. It is not mentioned in other accounts of Henry's embarkation, and is thus an indication of the independence and accuracy of the Song. 256 HENRY II IN IRELAND place being probably the ferry-point now called Passage, about a mile from the old church of Crook,^ and five miles from Waterford. His army consisted of five hundred knights and their esquires, and a large body of archers, about 4,000 in all.^ A fleet of 400 ships was required to trans- port the men with their horses, arms, and pro- visions.^ Among the knights who accompanied Henry were William FitzAudelin, the king's dapifer, Humphrey de Bohun, his constable, Hugh de Lacy, Robert Fitz Bernard, sheriff of Devon, and Bertram de Verdun.* ^ Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 25 ; Rog. Howden, vol. ii, p. 29 : apud Crock. This is the Irish Cruach, now represented by Crook, a parish which adjoins the landing-place at Passage. 2 Giraldus says ' cum miUtibus quasi quingentis, arcariis {v. I. satellitibus equestribus) quoque et sagittariis multis.' The Song says quatre cent chevalers, and gives the total, quatre mil Engleis. ^ Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 25 ; Rog. Howden, vol. ii. 4 This hst is given in the Song of Dermot, 11. 2601-10. According to the Gesta Hen. and Rog. Howden {ut supra), WiUiam Fitz Audehn and Robert Fitz Bernard had been sent to Ireland some time before and met Henry at Water- ford. But we find both of these individuals witnessing a charter at Pembroke on October 7, 1171 (Round's Com- mune of London, p. 152), so that at most they can only have preceded the king by a few days. To the above Ust we may add from the witnesses to Henry's Dubhn charter, WilUam de Braose, Reginald de Curtenay, Hugh de Gunder- ville, Randulph de Glanville, Hugh de Cressy , and Reginald de Pavilly ; and from Henry's charter to Hugh de Lacy, William de Albiny, William de Stoteville, Ralph de Verdun, William de Gerpunville (the king's falconer), and Robert de Ruilly. HENRY II IN IRELAND 257 Henry's army seems to have consisted almost The army d/U(J its entirely of English tenants in chivalry. Many supplies, of the tenants in chief, however, sent money instead c4 men for the Irish expedition, and there are many entries in the Pipe Rolls concern- ing the scutage, at the rate of £1 per knight's fee, of those who neither went to Ireland nor sent men or money there. The Pipe Rolls show further how this army was supplied during the six months of Henry's stay in Ireland. From almost all parts of England large quantities of wheat, oats, beans, cheeses, and hogs were for- warded, with canvas to cover the corn, and hand-mills to grind it. A moderate sum was spent on wine, part of which was bought in Waterf ord, and a few horses were sent, the feudal tenants of course supplying their own mounts. Engineering tools were also brought over in large quantities, viz. axes, spades, shovels, pickaxes, planks, nails, and a few castella lignea or ready- made wooden towers. For the king's own use the royal tent was conveyed to Ireland, also wearing apparel, skins, silks, cloths, 1,000 lb. of wax for his charters and other documents, and ^ In the Pipe Roll, 18 Hen. II, mention is made of only 163 coterelli or mercenary troops in the king's service in Ireland, for whom garments were purchased. The word coterelli is rendered ' cottagers ' by Sweetman, and this rendering led Professor G. T. Stokes to remark that Henry * did not despise measures for the social and material im- provement of the people ' I 821379.1 ^ 258 HENRY II IN IRELAND spices and electuaries for Joseph, his doctor. Most of these suppUes were shipped from Bristol. Henry's Though at the head of an imposing force, objects, ^-^ come with the intfention of forcibly imposing his rule over the Irish. The late period of the year would alone indicate that no extensive campaign was meditated. He came to regulate the conquests that had already been made by his subjects, to secure the supremacy of the Crown over them and their lands, and to receive the submission of as many of the remaining independent Irish princes as could be induced to come in. Strong- On the day following his landing in Ireland, homage being St. Luke's Day, Henry entered Waterford, Uinster. there Strongbow formally surrendered the city to him and did homage for Leinster, which the king granted to him in fee.^ The deed evidencing this grant is not forthcoming, but if we may judge from the copies of the grant of Meath to Hugh de Lacy, executed a few months later, it was made without any express reserva- tions and was deemed at the time to confer cognizance of all pleas. In accordance with the terms arranged at Newnham, the lands granted did not include Dublin, nor the adjacent terri- tory, nor the littoral as far south as Arklow, nor the town of Wexford. These lands, together with Waterford, were reserved by the king, and 1 Song of Dermot, 11. 2613-22. HENRY II IN IRELAND 259 formed the original demesne of the Crown in Ireland. The rest of Leinster (excluding, of course, the 'kingdom of Meath'), probably defined ' as Dermot Mac Murrough held it was to be held of the king and his heirs by the service of 100 knights. Henceforth Strongbow and his heirs were to hold the lordship of Leinster not on any fictitious Irish title, but as tenants-in- chief of the English Crown. While Henry was staying at Waterford, the Fitz men of Wexford, in accordance with their under- fm-^^^" taking, delivered up to him their prisoner, Robert p"^^"^^* Fitz Stephen. With an assumption of anger, designed to conciliate the Irish, and show that he meant to exercise his authority over the ' first conquerors and hold them in check, Henry soundly upbraided Fitz Stephen for his unau- thorized attack on Ireland, and caused him to be chained to another prisoner, and to be incar- cerated in Reginald's Tower. ^ And now, without delay, began the submission Mac of the Irish kings. Dermot Mac Carthy, King Sbmits. of Desmond, came of his own accord to Henry at Waterford, took the oath of fealty, did homage, gave hostages, and agreed to pay tri- bute for his kingdom.^ 1 Gir. Camb., vol. v, p. 277. 2 Ibid. The Gesta Hen. and Roger of Howden speak of the Irish kings (except the King of Connaught) and of all the bishops and archbishops as submitting and R2 HENRY II IN IRELAND Henry Henry then advanced to Lismore. His object fifOGS to Lismore. WaS doubtless to have an interview with Christian O'Conarchy, legate of the Pope, and at this time Bishop of Lismore. Christian had been a monk at the Cistercian monastery of Clairvaux, under St. Bernard, and in 1142 had been sent by him to Ireland as first abbot of Mellifont.^ He had thus received a French training, and had been imbued from his youth with the reform- ing zeal of St. Bernard and St. Malachi. His position and training therefore marked him out as president of the council of clergy which shortly afterwards met at Cashel, and it was manifestly to arrange for this council that Henry made this detour into Munster. He was anxious to secure the support of the clergy to his action in Ireland, and by his efforts to improve their status and reform the Church he hoped to gain both their goodwill and that of Rome. He stayed for two days at Lismore, and, probably by arrange- ment with the bishop, selected a site for a castle swearing fealty to Henry while still at Waterford, but it is far more probable, as stated by Giraldus, that the kings severally submitted at different places on Henry's route, while most of the prelates can hardly have signified their submission before the meeting of the council of Cashel. In the Pipe Roll, 19 Hen. II, p. 51 (Winchester) is an entry of £6 for delivering the son of the King of Cork as a hostage, and also items for his corrody and that of Murchardus and the burgesses of Wexford. ^ Ware's Bishops. HENRY II IN IRELAND 261 there, but the actual erection of it was postponed.^ It was afterwards built by his son John in 1185, Prom Lismore Henry went on to Cashel, the And to seat of the Munster archbishopric, where in all probability he had an interview with Archbishop Donnell O'Huallaghan, respecting the proposed council, and arranged for its meeting at the archiepiscopal city. Soon afterwards, on Novem- ber 6,^ he sent Nicholas, his chaplain, and Ralph, Archdeacon of Llandaff, to summon the Irish bishops to the council. On the morrow of Henry's arrival at Cashel, O'Brien Donnell O'Brien, King of Thomond, came to meet him on the banks of the Suir, probably at the ford of Golden, and submitted to him in the same way as Dermot Mac Carthy had done. As part of the arrangement with these kings, Henry sent constables and officers of his own to Cork and Limerick, the chief towns of Desmond and Thomond respectively. Other princes of the 1 Song of Dermot, 11. 2667-72. There is a typical mote and wedge-shaped bailey about a mile east of Lismore. It is probable that this was the site of John's castdlum. See Eng. Hist. Review, 1907, p. 456. It is noteworthy that in going from Lismore to Cashel Henry may have crossed the Suir by the ford at Ardfinnan, and we are expressly told that he returned to Waterford by Tibraccia (Tibberaghny). It was at these three places, Lismore, Ardfinnan, and Tibberaghny , that John built castles in 1185. The sites had been probably selected by Henry. 2 This date is given in Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 28. ^ In the above account of Henry's movements I have 262 HENRY IT IN IRELAND south of Ireland followed suit, including Don- nell Mac Gillapatrick of Ossory and Melaghlin O'Phelan of the Decies. Henry then returned to Waterford by the left bank of the Suir, passing Tibberaghny on the way, a place where his son erected another castle in 1185.^ Fitz On his return to Waterford, Henry released released. Robert Fitz Stephen, as his imprisonment had sufficiently served its purpose. At the same time, he deprived him of Wexford and the adjoining territory, which had been given to him by Dermot Mac Murrough, and so far as appears it was not until 1177 that Fitz Stephen was rewarded by a grant of lands in Ireland. The king evidently still viewed the first conquerors with suspicion. The Song of Dermot indeed does not mention Fitz Stephen's imprisonment by the king, but in a passage similar to that already referred to in the case of Maurice de Prendergast,^ gives us an interesting glimpse of followed Giraldus (pp. 276-8). According to the Song of Dermot, which is here less circumstantial than usual, Henry went to Dublin from Waterford, and thence to Cashel and Lismore ; then he marched about Leinster and returned to Dublin (11. 2649-95). The Gesta Henrici and Roger of Howden do not expressly mention the visit to Lismore and Cashel, but speak of the preparations for the synod as taking place while Henry was at Waterford, and state that he arrived in Dublin at Martinmas (November 11). ^ The site of John's Castrum apud Tibracciam (Tibber- aghny) is also marked by a mote : Eng. Hist. Review, 1907, p. 252. 2 Supra, p. 237. HENRY TI IN IRELAND 263 the legal procedure of the time. The lords of Wexford, it says, delivered up their prisoner to the king in the presence of his barons (i. e. in full court) and the king ' received the body ', and in the presence of the men of Wexford formally accused him of the contempt he had committed (in invading Ireland without permission). Then Fitz Stephen ' folded his glove ', and offered it to the king as a pledge that he would willingly give redress in the king's court according to the judgement of his peers, and thereupon his friends, French, Flemings, and Normans, went bail for him.^ Leaving Robert Fitz Bernard with a con- Henry siderable garrison at Waterford, Henry, on Dublin. November 1,^ set out for Dublin by way of 1 Song of Dermot, 11. 2627-48 (where in 1. 2646 we should probably restore par Vesgart, ' decision, judgement,' for par la garde). The procedure was that followed even a century later in Courts Baron, where the formula ran as follows : ' He shall wage his law with his folded glove {de sun guant plyee) and shall deUver it into the hand of the other, and then take his glove back and find pledge for his law ' (Selden Soc. Publ., iv. 17, quoted in this connexion by Mr. Round, Commune of London, p. 153). The folded glove, according to Prof. Maitland, typified the chattel of value which in very old times was the vadium, wed, or gage con- stituting the contract, but was now supplanted by a contract with sureties, who had become the real security for the party's appearance in court. 2 Rog. Howden (vol. ii, p. 30) says that Henry stayed at Waterford for fifteen days, i. e. to November 1, but this must be taken to include his visit to Lismore and Cashel. HENRY II IN IRELAND Ossory. Unfortunately, we have no details of his journey. He arrived at Dublin on the feast of St. Martin (November 11). Either on the way, or when at Dublin, Henry received the submission of all the principal Leinster chieftains. Further Among thosc specifically mentioned were Faelan submis- sdons. Mac Faelain, King of Offelan or Northern Kildare ; O'Toole, King of Omurethy or Southern Kildare ; and Donnell Mac Gillamocholmog, whose terri- tory lay in the vale of Dublin. Some of the northern chieftains also gave in their submission, such as Murrough 0' Carroll, King of Uriel, and, most important of all, Dermot's old enemy, Tiernan O'Rourke, King of Breffny and part of o'Conor's Meath.^ As to the attitude of Rory 0' Conor, ^ ^ ^ ' it is not at first sight easy to reconcile the authorities. According to Gerald de Barry, Rory came to the Shannon, probably at Athlone, to meet the king's messengers, Hugh de Lacy and William Fitz Audelin, and made his sub- mission to them in the same way as Donnell O'Brien had done to Henry. According to other English authorities, Rory held aloof, claiming ' that the whole of Ireland was rightly his, and that all the other kings of the land ought to be placed under his authority '.^ The older Irish annals, while stating that Henry received the 1 Gir. Camb., vol. v, p. 278. R. de Diceto, vol. i, p. 348, where O'Rourke is called ' monoculus ' ; cf. Ann. Tig. 1148. 2 Gervase Cant., vol. i, p. 235. Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 25. HENRY II IN IRELAND 265 pledges of Munster, Leinster, Breffny, Uriel, and Uladh or Eastern Ulster, say nothing about Connaught.^ Probably Rory, though anxious to obtain the king's peace, and willing to acknow- ledge Henry as overlord, was not satisfied to be placed on a par with the other kings who had recently submitted to him as ard-ri. He cer- tainly did not do personal homage to Henry, or give him hostages, or ' come into his house ', so that he cannot be said to have fully submitted to him in accordance either with English or with Irish procedure. And Henry took no steps to enforce his submission. To make a campaign against the ard-ri would not have suited the role which Henry desired to assume — the role of one whom the Irish had voluntarily accepted as their lord, who had come to protect them from the violence of the Anglo-Norman adven- turers, to reform their Church, and bring order into their country. Besides, the wet season of the year and the difficult nature of the country would make such a campaign hazardous. At any rate, nothing was done to regulate Rory's position until four years later, when, by the Treaty of Windsor, as we shall see, a short- lived arrangement was made on the basis of Rory's overlordship of the other Irish 1 Ann. Ulster, Ann. Loch Ce, Ann. Tigernach, 1171. The Four Masters characteristically omit all mention of the submission of the Irish to Henry. 266 HENRY TI IN IRELAND kings outside the area of Anglo-Norman domi- nation. J'lu' Thus it appears that of all the principal tribe- ciiieftains groups of Ireland the Cinel Owen and the Cinel aloof. Connell had alone shown no disposition to accept Henry as their overlord. Since the death of Murtough O'Loughlin, in 1166, no successor to his power had arisen in the north. According to the Four Masters, in 1167 Rory O'Conor, pur- suing his usual policy, had divided Tirowen between Niall O'LoughHn and Aedh O'Neill,^ but the division was not long observed. In 1169 Conor O'Loughlin, Murtough's son, assumed the kingship of the Cinel Owen, but was killed next year in the course of a blood-feud with a subor- dinate sept.^ Niall O'Loughlin now assumed the kingship,^ and appears to have been King of the Cinel Owen when Henry arrived in Ireland, but his authority was disputed by both the Ulidians and the Cinel Connell. In 1171 the Cinel Owen were fighting with the former, and in 1172 they were defeated by the latter, ' and great slaughter was put upon them.'* These northern tribes were too busy settling their own disputes to pay any attention to what was going on in the rest of ^ Four Masters, 1167. According to the Annals of Ulster only ' some of the Cinel Owen ' submitted to Rory. 2 Ann. Ulster, Ann. Loch Ce, 1170. ^ Ann. Tigernach, 1170. He was slain in 1176. 4 Ann. Ulster, Ann. Loch Ce, 1171, 1172. HENRY II IN IRELAND 267 Ireland, with which, indeed — except at intervals under Donnell and Murtough O'Loughlin — they had seldom concerned themselves since the days of Brian Borumha. At Dublin Henry did not shut himself up in Henry the fortress, as one in an enemy's country, but oubiin.^^ had a palace built for his use outside the walls, near the church of St. Andrew. It was a won- derful structure of wattle-work, erected at his request in the native style by the kings and great men who had submitted to him.^ Evidently Henry was trying to please his new vassals by showing an appreciation of native craftsmanship, and living freely in their midst. Here he stayed, or here, at any rate, were his head-quarters, from the feast of St. Martin to the Purification (November 11 to February 2), and here, sur- rounded by his vassals, English and Irish, he kept Christmas with the usual festivities. Gerald expressly tells us that many Irish princes came to visit the king's court and marvelled at the ^ ' Ibi construi fecit juxta ecclesiam Sancti Andreae apostoli extra civitatem Duvelinae ad opus suum palatium regium, quod reges et ditiores terrae mirifice construxerunt ad opus ejus per praeceptum ipsius de virgis, ad morem patriae illius ' : Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 28. ' Palatium regium miro artificio de virgis levigatis ad modum patriae illius constructum ' : Rog. Howden, vol. ii, p. 32. The old church of St. Andrew, as shown on Speed's map (1610), was just outside Damas Gate on the south side of Da mas Street. I 268 HENRY II IN IRELAND splendid abundance of his table and the courtly attention of his household, and learned to feast on cranes' flesh, a food they had hitherto viewed with abhorrence, riiefiret We have one authentic memorial of Henry's ( 'barter, stay in Dublin, namely, the first Dublin charter, the original of which, executed in Dublin in the winter of 1171-2, is still preserved in the muni- cipal archives. By this charter Henry granted to his men of Bristol (Bristowa) his city of Dublin (Duvelina), to be inhabited, together with all the liberties and free customs which they had at Bristol and throughout his entire land.^ By a subsequent charter, executed probably in 1174 at St. Lo, in Normandy, Henry granted to ' his burgesses of Dublin ' (i. e. whether men of Bristol or not) freedom from various tolls and duties throughout his lands. In 1185 John confirmed to his men of Bristol his father's grant, and in 1192 gave to the citizens of Dublin an extended charter similar to that granted by him to Bristol in 1188.^ In the next century it became not uncommon for the great Anglo-Norman lords to grant ' the law of Bristol ' to the more promising ^ Reproduced in Facsimiles of Nat. MSS. of Ireland, and Cal. Anc. Records of Dublin (J. T. Gilbert), frontispiece. As late as the year 1887 this charter was produced as evidence in a court of law. 2 For all these charters and others see Hist, and Mun. Documents of Ireland (J. T. Gilbert). John's 1192 charter has also been preserved. HENRY II IN IRELAND 269 vills that sprang up in their lands as the first step to an organized municipaUty. The little piece of parchment on which Henry's first charter to Dublin is written measures only 6J x 5 inches, but it represents the source and origin of all municipal life in Ireland, and is surely a treasure which the municipality of Dublin may be proud to hold. Henry, in fact, found Dublin largely depleted of inhabitants. There were indeed many sur- vivors of the old Norse population, but the capital city of the new regime could not be entrusted to them, and accordingly they appear to have been settled on the north side of the river, in a suburb near St. Mary's Abbey, which came to be known as the Villa Ostman- norum, Ostmaneby, or (corruptly) Oxman- town.^ It was clearly necessary to replenish the city, and Henry's selection of Bristol, the third city in England, as the source for the new colony, probably contributed to the commercial success of Anglo-Norman Dublin. The mer- chants of Bristol were no strangers to Dublin, and from no town in England could Dublin be so easily reached. Bristol had aided Henry's ex- pedition, and it was from the port of Bristol that supplies were sent to his army. Whether any considerable number of Bristol men actually 1 So in Waterford, Cork, and Limerick there was an Ostmen's quarter. 270 HENRY II IN IRELAND settled in Dublin at this time may, however, be doubted. A roll of some 1,600 names of Dublin citizens, referred to about the close of the twelfth century, contains only fourteen names with the designation de Bristollo appended.-^ This in itself is not decisive, as many of the names have no local designation appended, but only a patronymic, or frequently a ' to-name ' taken from their trade (about 200) or from some other circumstance, and some of these may have belonged to Bristol. Besides, the list is defective at the commencement, and it is impossible to say how many membranes have been lost ; but if the men of Bristol took advantage of Henry's charter in large numbers, it is at the commence- ment of the roll — for it appears to be chrono- logically arranged — that we should expect to find their names. However this may have been, ^ Hist, and Mun. Documents of Ireland, pp. 3^8. Many of the names are to be met with elsewhere. Thus I have noted [inter alios) : Robert of Castle Cnoc (p. 20), Richard Gillemichel (p. 37), Elyas f . Norman (p. 39),Wimam Blundel (p. 41), Walter de Stakepol (p. 44), in the Register of St. Thomas's Abbey, Dublin ; William of Abbedestuna ( = Ab- boteston) (p. 16), Norman Clater (p. 25), William Wiking (p. 44), Robert the iremongere (= le H}Tnmangere) (p. 41), Alexander de Wavilla (p. 47), in the Chartulary of St. Mary's Abbey, DubUn ; and Godfry de Wintone (p. 8), Rodbertus de Hichtrichburig (= Hehtredebiri) (p. 12), Johannes Hiber- niensis (p. 13), Thomas de Blakemor (p. 23), and some going back to the time of Archbishop Laurence (1177), Robert de Deri (p. 16), Peter, brother of William (same page), in the Calendar of Christ Church Deeds ; see nos. 468 (f ), 472, 476. HENRY II IX IRELAND 271 the list seems to show that at the period it covers Dubhn was inhabited by persons who came from many towns in England and Wales, and from a few towns in France and Scotland. Thus 37 are described as of Cardiff, 29 of Worcester, 28 of Gloucester, 27 of London, 14 of Bristol, 13 of Winchester and Bedford, 12 of Northamp- ton, 11 of Exeter and Haverford, 10 of Hereford, 8 of Cardigan and Ludlow, 7 of Warwick, 6 of Lichfield, Chester, Striguil, Taunton, Bodmin, Coventry, and Oxford, and smaller numbers of many other towns. About 14 others are de- scribed as Cornishmen, 11 as Flemings, about 6 as Francigenae, and onU^ one as Hiherniensis, There is a slight sprinkling of Irish and of Scandinavian names in the list, and 56 are described as of various Anglo-Norman towns in Ireland. It must not, however, be assumed that all these persons came directly to Dublin from the towns whose names they bore. Certainly Dublin citizens bore these and other local designations ^ These included Leicester. Marlborough, Shrewsbury, York, Pembroke, St. Briavel, St. Austin's, Cirencester, Brecon, Southampton, Leominster, Lancaster, Fumess, Dunstable, Caermarthen, Glasgow, Dumfries, Edinburgh, Carhsle, Stafford, Malmesbury, Monmouth, Wigmore, Swan- sea, Newport, Banbury, Reading, Cambridge (Grantebruche), Dorchester, Redchff, Wells, Bath, Ripon, Tewkesbury, Lewes, Walhngford, and St. Albans ; and in France, Toulouse, La Rochelle, Falaise, and Dinant. 272 HENRY II IN IRELAND for many generations, and their progenitors may have been known by them in Bristol before migrating to DubHn. But making allowances for such cases, it seems pretty clear that the early citizens of Dublin drew their origin from very many towns besides Bristol. On the other hand, that the connexion with Bristol is not to be estimated by the fourteen names in this list is abundantly proved by the records of the thir- teenth century, which show Bristol men holding property and rising to distinction in Dublin.^ Indeed, Henry himself while in Dublin, perhaps before the date of his charter, made a special Grant to grant of a piece of land and houses outside the of Bristol, eastern gate of Dublin, between it and the bridge [over the Poddle] leading to St. Andrew's Church, to Aelelmus, brother of Hamund of Bristol,^ ^ The Chartulary of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, indicates that many Bristol men held property in Dublin. See, for instance, the grants from Roger Cordewaner (vol. i, pp. 214- 16), who at one time was Mayor of Bristol (Reg. St. Thomas, p. 18), and WilUam, his brother. Ralph of Bristol was Treasurer of St. Patrick's, Dublin, in 1219, and Bishop of Kildare in 1223-32. Geoffry of Bristol was Canon of St. Patrick's in 1223. William of Bristol was Mayor of DubHn 1287-8 ; Chartulary of St. Mary's, vol. i, p. 493. Robert of Bristol was Provost of Dubhn in 1235; Cal. Christ Church Deeds, no. 48. 2 Chart. St. Mary's, Dubhn, vol. i, p. 140, no. 118 (g). Adelelm, brother of Hamo, witnessed a Dubhn deed circa 1190 : Cal. Christ Church Deeds, no. 472 ; cf. 468 a. His brother Roger also appears to have settled in Dubhn : ibid., no. 468 d ; Chart. St. Mary's, vol. i, p. 173. This piece of land HENRY II IN IRELAND 273 or Adelelmus Dives, ' Aldelm the Rich,' as he is called in a later document. In the almost complete dearth of surviving records, Henry's charter of Dublin to the men of Bristol and his special grant to Aldelm the Rich stand almost alone as attested examples of Henry's dealings while in Ireland with the lands he had reserved to the crown. We have, indeed, ample evidence that he confirmed to the priory of All Hallows, founded and endowed by To All Dermot Mac Murrough, the lands which it held Prfory^ before his coming to Ireland,^ and he may have confirmed their lands to other religious houses, as he certainly did somewhat later. ^ It appears must have been quite close to, if it did not comprise, the site of the palace erected for Henry. Aldelm rented part of it to William Dubeldai (ibid., p. 10), who built on the Poddle (by licence from John in 1185 : ibid., p. 223) a mill often mentioned in later documents. Elicia, daughter of AJdelm, and Scholastica, his grand-daughter, granted the plot and the rent of the mill to the monks of St. Mary's Abbey (ibid., pp. 325, 225), and the monks afterwards acquired the mill itself from members of the Dubeldai family (ibid., p. 222, and cf. p. 461). 1 Reg. All Hallows, Dubhn, pp, 11-20. This charter was executed at Dubhn and witnessed by Laurence, Arch- Bishop of Dublin, Edan, Bishop of Louth, Richard, Earl of Striguil (R. Comite Destr[igoil]), Hugh de Lacy, Ralph de Warner (probably Ralph de Wameville, Chancellor (1173), aft-erwards (1180) Bishop of Lisieux), Robert Poer, and William his chancellor (?) [Who was tliis ? Did WiUiam FitzAudelin act as chancellor in Ireland ?] 2 It has indeed been contended that Henry, even before he came to Ireland, by a charter tested at Falaise confirmed 821379.1 a HENRY II IN IRELAND also from a late enrolment^ that in this year Henry granted the lands of Faithleg, near his To Ail- landing-place at Crook in Waterford, to Ailward juvenis, as king's merchant, but we have no clear evidence of other grants out of the Crown lands at this time. The Some time in the winter of 1171-2 the council Councilor Cashel. of clcrics which Henry had summoned met at Cashel under the presidency of Christian O'Con- archy, Bishop of Lismore and Papal Legate. There were present Donatus, or Donnell O'Hual- laghan, Archbishop of Cashel, Laurence, or their possessions to the monks of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, and by another charter confirmed Strongbow's grant of Kilmainham to the knights of St. John, but both contentions can be showTi to be due to a somewhat similar misapprehen- sion and to be very improbable ; see infra, pp. 328, 365. 1 Chief Rememb. Roll, Dubhn, 38 Ehz. (cited LjTich's Legal Institutions, p. 107). Ailward juvenis was probably son of Ailward the chamberlain, at this time in the young king's suite. Close to Faithleg Church is a Norman mote, and in what was the attached bailey stand the ruins of a later stone castle which belonged to the Ailwards up to 1690. Henry's grant of Clontarf, Crook, &c., to the Templars may be confidently assigned to the time of his purgation, of which it was probably a condition. It is dated at Abr\Ticae (Avranches), where Henry and all the chief witnesses can be shown to have probably been present on May 21, 1172, the day of the purgation. The witnesses include Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen, AmuLf, Bishop of Lisieux, Henry, Bishop of Bayeux, and Richard, Archdeacon of Poitiers, besides Richard de Humez, Constable of Normandy, and other constant attendants of the king at this time. Cal. Docs. Ireland, vol. iii, p. 329. HENRY II IX IRELAXD 275 Lorcan 0' Toole, Archbishop of DiibUn, and Cathohcus, or Cadhla O'Duffy, Archbishop of Tuam, with their suffragans and co-bishops, together with abbots, archdeacons, priors, and deans, and many other dignitaries of the Irish Church. There were also present, commissioned by the king, Ralph, Abbot of Buildwas, Ralph, Archdeacon of Llandaff, Nicholas, the king's chaplain, and others.^ Gelasius, or Gilla Mac Liag, the primate, on account of his great age, was not able to be present.^ He was, however, entirely in favour of the new movement in the Church, and afterwards came to Dublin to signify his assent to all Henry's arrangements.^ As a former pupil and friend of St. Malachy and his successor in the see of Armagh, he had devoted his efforts during a long episcopate towards securing the primacy of his see, and bringing 1 Gir. Camb.. vol. v, p. 281 ; cf . Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 28 ; Rog. Howden, vol. ii, p. 31, where Hsts of the Irish bishops are given. Ralph Diceto and Rog. Wendover speak of Lismore as the place where the council met, probably confusing the see of the bishop-president with, the place of assembly. The latter writer says that at the council ' the laws [rede, ecclesiastical regulations] of England ' were gratefully received by aU and confirmed by oath. 2 Gelasius died on March 27, 1174, in the eighty-seventh year of his age and the thirty-seventh of his episcopacy : Ann. Ulster, 1174. Gir. Camb.. vol. v, p. 283. where he also mentions the interesting detail that Gelasius hved. ofE the nulk of one white cow which he brought with him wherever he went. S2 HENRY II IN IRELAND about the conformity of the Irish Church with that of Western Christendom. Giraldus professes to give the Constitutions of Cashel in the very words in which they were promulgated. They were shortly to the fol- lowing effect : — The Con- 1. That the faithful shall desist from co- o/^Cashei. habitation with relations by blood or affinity, and shall contract and observe lawful marriages. 2. That children shall be catechized at the church doors, and shall be baptized in conse- crated fonts within authorized churches. 3. That the faithfiil shaU pay tithes of cattle, corn, and other produce to their parish church. 4. That church property shall be free from all secular imposts, and in particular that no petty kings nor lords nor magnates shall henceforth exact refection and lodging in chiu-ch-lands, and that the detestable practice of exacting food four times a year from church-farms shall be abonshed. 5. That in composition for homicide by lay- men, clerics, though of kin to the perpetrators, shaU pay no part of the fine [eric]. 6. That the faithful taken with illness shall make their walls in the presence of their confessor and neighbours, reserving one-third of their movables for their funeral obsequies if they leave a legitimate wife and legitimate children, and one-half if they leave only a wife or legitimate children. HENRY II IN IRELAND 277 7. That to those who die after good confession due obsequies be paid with masses and vigils. Finally, that all divine matters shall henceforth be conducted according to the observances of the Anglican Church.^ There is no reason to doubt that these consti- tutions, or canons, are correctly reported by Giraldus. They were directed to three objects : (1) to reform certain irregularities in the matters of baptism, marriage, and burial ; (2) to give the clergy certain important privileges and immunities calculated to enrich them and secure their support to Henry's assumption of the overlordship of Ireland ; (3) to bring about a closer conformity through the Anglican Church with Rome. All three objects were sure to find favour with the papal see. It was probably at this synod that the Irish prelates swore fealty to Henry as their king and lord, and pledged themselves to conform in all things to the example of the English Church.^ Each prelate too, we are told, gave him a letter 1 Gir. Camb., vol. v, p. 282. In Gesta Hen. and Rog. de Hoveden (as above) mention is made in general terms of the canons as to baptism, tithes, and marriages, the former adding statements as to the abuses in vogue, e.g. with regard to marriages : ' Plerique enim illorum [Hibemensium] quot volebant uxores habebant, et etiam cognatas suas germanas habere solebant sibi uxores.* 2 Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 26 ; Roger Howden, vol. ii, p. 31 ; R. Diceto, vol. i, p. 351. 278 HENRY II IN IRELAND with seal attached, after the manner of a charter, confirming to him and his heirs the kingdom of Ireland.^ These letters the king sent to Pope Alexander III to obtain the papal confirmation, which accordingly Henry obtained. No mention is made at this time of ' the Bull Laudabiliter which, as we have already stated, Henry had long ago obtained from Adrian IV, and we may conclude that no public use was made of it while Henry was in Ireland. It is, however, possible that it may have been privately communicated to the clergy, and this, if done, would further account for the readiness with which they accepted Henry as their overlord, and co-operated with his aims. However this may have been, Henry, as we shall see when we examine the evidence concerning the BuU,^ had sound reasons for not making public use of the document before obtaining the sanction of the present occupant of the papal chair to his enterprise. ^ ' Et inde recepit ab unoquoque archiepiscopo et episcopo litteras suas in modum cartae extra sigillum pendentes, et confirmantes ei et haeredibus suum [?] regnum Hiberniae, et testimonium perhibentes ipsos eum et haeredes suos sibi in reges et dominos constituisse in perpetuum ' : Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 26 ; cf. Roger Howden, vol. ii, p. 30. Both these writers, however, speak of the submission of the prelates as if it preceded the council of Cashel. We may doubt the accuracy of this description of the letters of the prelates. 2 See chap. ix. HENRY II IN IRELAND 279 About March 1 Henry reached Wexford. He Henry was becoming very anxious to hear tidings of his wexford, dominions over sea, but owing to the stormy winter hardly a vessel crossed the channel, and no news was forthcoming. While here Henry attached to his household Raymond le Gros, Miles de Cogan, William Maskerel, and some others of the best men he could find in those parts, ' with a view,' says Gerald, ' to strengthen his own and weaken the earl's party.' ^ That he was still indeed apprehensive of the earl's power is plain from his creating a counterpoise to it in the person of Hugh de Lacy. While at Wexford he made a grant to Hugh of the land of Meath Grant of for the service of fifty knights, to hold as Mur- Hugh^ar rough O'Melaghlin or any before or after him ^^y- held it.^ The ground or pretext for this grant was not exactly on all fours with the ground for granting Leinster to the earl. Dermot was the acknowledged King of Leinster, and Strongbow was regarded as in some sort his successor. Dermot is indeed described in the Book of Lein- ster as King of Leth Mogha (Southern Ireland) ^ Gir. Camb., vol. v, p. 284, ' ut et suum validiorem et comitis partem redderet exiliorem.' Miles de Cogan accom- panied Henry when he left Ireland : Ann. Inisf alien, Dublin MS. 2 See note at end of this chapter. The Gesta Hen,, vol. i, p. 30, and Roger Howden,vol. ii, p. 34, state that the service reserved in Henry's grant to Hugh de Lacy was 100 knights, but this appears to be a mistake. 280 HENRY II IN IRELAND and Meath, but his claims to Meath were of quite recent date, and were not undisputed. The last undisputed King of Meath was Murrough O'Melaghlin, the father of Dervorgil, and he died in 1153. Since that time Meath had repeatedly been the subject of arbitrary parti- tions, though again and again an O'Melaghlin was proclaimed king. The latest of these partitions was in 1169, when Dermot O'Melaghlin was killed by Donnell of Bregia, his brother's son, and Rory 0' Conor, in revenge for that deed, divided Meath into two parts, and gave the eastern half to Tiernan O'Rourke and kept the western half himself. After the taking of Dublin in 1170, Dermot Mac Murrough, as we have seen, led an army partly composed of his Norman allies through Meath and even into Breffny, and Donnell of Bregia and the people of East Meath turned against O'Rourke and 0' Conor, and gave hostages to Dermot. So at his death Dermot may have been regarded as overlord of Meath. At last, after Mid-Lent, with a change of wind to the east, news came both from England and Aquitaine. It was of so grave a nature that Henry had to give up whatever plans he had for further securing his foothold in Ireland, ^ ^ ' Dolet quoque plurimum se regnum Hibemicum, quod aestate imminente tarn incastellare quam firma stabilire pace statuerat, et in formam omnino redigere, tarn intern - pestive relicturum Gir. Camb., p. 285. HENRY II IN IRELAND 281 and prepare to return to face the storm that was gathering in both his EngUsh and his con- tinental dominions. The cardinal legates com- missioned by the Pope to inflict the extreme penalties of the Church on Henry's dominions, unless suitable reparation were made for Becket's murder, appear to have been in Normandy all the winter, and were now threatening an inter- dict unless the king forthwith came to meet them. And ' as misfortunes never come singly ', the king also learned that his son Henry, who had been crowned as a sort of subordinate colleague at Westminster in the preceding July, was in a state of incipient rebellion with a discontented baronage at his back. Accordingly Henry placed constables in charge Hemy of his seaport towns : at Dublin, Hugh de tinai Lacy with a garrison of twenty knights, includ- ^[^nt^f^" ing Robert Fitz Stephen, Maurice Fitz Gerald, Meiler Fitz Henry, and Miles Fitz David; at Wexford, William Fitz Audelin, Philip de Hast- ings, and Philip de Braose, with thirty knights ; and at Waterford, Robert Fitz Bernard, Hum- frey de Bohun, and Hugh de Gundeville, with forty knights.^ Hugh de Lacy, too, was 1 Gir. Camb., p. 286 ; Song of Dermot, 11. 2709-24. In the Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 30 and Roger Howden, vol. ii, p. 34, it is stated that the custody of both Waterford and Wexford was given to Robert Fitz Bernard, and that Henry 282 HEXRY II IX IRELAND appointed justiciar/ and this appointment, passing over the manifest claims of Richard of Striguil in favour of one who had taken no part in the conquest, is a further proof of Henry's jealousy of the earl, and of his desire to erect a counterpoise to his influence. Moreover, by giving the leading Geraldines posts in Dublin under Hugh de Lacy, taking Miles de Cogan and, seemingly, Raymond le Gros away with him, and placing his own men in Wexford and Waterford, Henry seems to have aimed at further ' strengthening his own party and weakening that of Earl Richard'. And Having thus made his final arrangements, Ireland. Henrv set sail from Wexford at sunrise on Easter 11:2.^" Monday, April 17, 1172, and after a prosperous voyage landed about noon at the port of St. Davids.^ One month from that date he met the cardinal legates in Normandy. Results Henry must have regarded his expedition to mSina. Ireland as an almost unqualified success. He regretted, indeed, having to leave before building ordered castles to be built in the three towns. This may be correct. At any rate, as we shall see, WilHam Fitz Audelin did not long remain at Wexford. ^ Rog. de Hoveden, v"ol. ii, p. 34. The Song, 1. 2759 ; Annals of Inisfallen ; and cf . Gir. Camb., vol. v, p. 284. ^ His troops sailed the pre\'ious morning from Crook, near Waterford. The name of Henry's landing-place, which is left blank in the Gesta, is given in the Song as Portfinan. HENRY II IN IRELAND 283 castles in some strategic sites and completing the establishment of peace and order throughout the land.^ But, so far as he had gone, almost every- thing had turned out exactly to his desire. He had not unsheathed a sword, and yet he had received from the kings of three-fourths of Ireland an oath of fealty to him as overlord and a promise of tribute. Rory 0' Conor indeed had submitted reluctantly (if at all) and subject to reservations, but his position could be arranged later on. The chieftains of the Cinel Owen and the Cinel Council were alone in ignoring him, and this they had done, so far as appears, not in a spirit of defiance, but simply because they did not feel the pressure of his power, and did not concern themselves with what went on out- side their borders. They, too, might be dealt with at another time. As to the clergy, he had entirely won them over to the support of the new regime, and by the measures adopted through them for the reform of abuses and the improvement of their status he had practically ensured the favour of Rome to his enterprise, and this would be useful to him in more ways than one. Above all — and this appears to have been his main object in coming to Ireland — by taking into his hand and garrisoning the seaport towns, he had effectually precluded Richard de Clare from founding an independent kingdom in Ireland. 1 Gir. Camb., vol. v, p. 285. 284 HENRY II IN IRELAND But de- And yet appearances were deceptive. Henry ceptive. really far from having secured his own dominance over the kings who had so readily submitted to him, or an effective control over the lords to whom he had granted large fiefs. To the Irish kings their acknowledgement of Henry as overlord meant no more than the similar acknowledgement, which they had often given, and broken, to an ard-ri. Nay, as Henry would be far off across the seas, they probably expected it to mean a great deal less. And by granting on feudal conditions the greater part of Dermot's kingdom to Earl Richard, and, still more certainly, by similarly granting the entire kingdom of Meath to Hugh de Lacy, while con- ferring on these lords unlimited jurisdiction and complete control over their fiefs, Henry had rendered inevitable a conflict between EngUsh and Irish aims and interests.^ ^ It is worth noting that if we depended on the compilation of the Four Masters for our knowledge of Henry's expedition to Ireland all we should know is contained in the following entry at the end of the year 1171 : ' The King of England, the second Henry, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, Earl of Andegavia, and lord of many other countries, came to Ireland this year. Two hundred and forty was the number of his ships, and he put in at Port-Lairge.' No notice is taken of the submission of the chieftains, though this is recorded in earlier annals. Such suppressions of unwelcome facts greatly impair the value of this compilation. NOTE GRANT OF MEATH TO HUGH DE LACY Transcribed from the Gormanston Register, f. 5. Henricus Rex Anglie et dux Normannie et Acquitannie et comes Andegavie Archiepiscopis episcopis abbatibus comitibus baronibus justi- ciariis et omnibus ministris et fidelibus suis Francis Anglis et Hiberniensibus totius terre sue salutem. Sciatis me dedisse et concessisse et presenti charta mea confirmasse Hugoni de Lacy pro servicio suo terram de Midia cum omnibus pertinenciis suis per seruicium quinquaginta militum sibi et heredibus suis Tenendam et habendam a me et ab heredibus meis sicuti Mur- cardus Ha Mulachlyn (sic) melius eam tenuit vel aliquis alius ante ilium vel postea. Et de incre- mento illi dono omnia feoda que prebuit vel que prebebit circa Duueliniam dum Ballivus meus est ad faciendum mihi seruicium apud ciuitatem meam Duuelinie. Quare volo et fir miter precipio ut ipse Hugo et heredes sui post eum predictam terram habeant et teneant et omnes libertates et liberas consuetudines quas ibi habeo vel habere possum per prenominatum seruicium a me et ab heredibus meis bene et in pace libere et quiete et honorifice in bosco et piano in pratis et pascuis in aquis et molendinis in viuariis et stangnis in piscacionibus et venacionibus in viis et semitis et portubus maris et in omnibus aliis locis et aliis rebus ad eam pertinentibus cum omnibus libertatibus quas ibi habeo vel illi dare 286 HENRY II IN IRELAND possum et hac mea carta confirmaui. Testibus :^ Comite Ricardo filio Gilbert! ; Willelmo de Braosa ; Willelmo de Albin[eio] ; Reginaldo de Cortenay ; Hugone de Gundevilla ; Willelmo filio Aldelini dapifero ; Hugone de Cresy ; Willelmo de Stotevilla ; Radulfo de Aya (sic) ; Reginaldo de Pavily ; Radulfo de Verdun ; Willelmo de Gerpunvilla ; Roberto de Ruilli ; Apud Wesefordam. 1 This list of witnesses, wanting in the Gormanston Register, is given by Mr. Round, Commune of London, p. 152, from MS. Hargrave 313, fol. 44 d (pencil). A similar list, with some differences of spelling, is given in the Liber Niger of Christ Church, f. 224 (Cal. no. 121). Radulfus de Aya was presumably the Radulphus de Haya who after- wards supported the young king in his rebellion : Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 46. CHAPTER IX ' LAUDABILITER ' A HEATED controversy has raged at intervals during the last three hundred years over the document known as the ' Bull Laudabiliter by which Pope Adrian IV has been supposed to have granted Ireland to Henry 11.^ As long ago as 1615 it was denounced as a forgery by Stephen White, an Irish Jesuit, of whom nothing else is known. ^ He was followed by John Lynch, a learned and estimable member of an old Anglo-Irish house, whose work, entitled Cambrensis Eversus, though showing a remark- able knowledge of Irish history and tradition, is, as regards its avowed object — to controvert Giraldus — in the main a pompous failure.^ Three long chapters of this work, which was ^ Mr. Round points out that the so-called ' Bull ' is only ' a letter commendatory ' : Commune of London, p. 172. Following Giraldus, we shall call it a ' privilege '. 2 Apologia pro Hibernia adversus Cambri calumnias, ed. Rev. Matthew Kelly, 1849. ^ Cambrensis Eversus, by ' Gratianus Lucius ' (Dr. John Lynch), caps. 22^, ed. Rev. Matthew Kelly, 1848-52. The editor answers effectively most of the author's arguments. 288 ' LAUDABILITER ' published in 1662, are devoted to a denunciation of the so-called Bulls of Adrian IV and Alex- ander III. This writer was followed by the Abbe Mac Geoghegan in his History of Ireland. Other writers, including such great Catholic historians as Dr. Lingard and Dr. Lanigan, have defended the authenticity of the ' Bull ', and English writers generally have accepted it as genuine. In 1872, however. Dr. Moran, then Catholic Bishop of Ossory, re-examined the question and argued with great learning against the authenticity of the instrument, and he has since been followed by other distinguished Roman Catholic writers. It would be out of place here to notice all the arguments which have been urged at various times against the authenticity of these documents. There is the less necessity to do so, as Miss Norgate, the historian of the Angevin kings, has recently reviewed the whole con- troversy with admirable temper and sound judgement, and, as regards the principal docu- ment, ' Laudabiliter,' has ably answered all serious objections that have been advanced to its authenticity.^ As, however, great if undue importance has been attached to the question^ I shall briefly tell the story of the Papal Sanc- tions as it may be gleaned from the contemporary authorities, adding only such comments as 1 Eng. Hist. Rev., vol. viii, pp. 13-52. ' LAUDABILITER ' 289 appear necessary to elucidate the same and to meet the main difficulties which have occurred to some minds. On one important point, at any rate, I think I have something new to add. By assigning to Anew its true date, about April 1173, Henry's Letter of Credence when sending William Fitz Audelin on a special mission of some sort to Ireland, I bring forward some independent confirmation of Gerald's statement that Fitz Audelin was entrusted with the publication of the Papal Privilegia ; and at the same time I prove that his mission, as already surmised by Mr. Round, took place about April 1173, and not, as has been generally assumed, in 1175, thus finally disposing of the argument against the truth of the story drawn from the supposed delay in publication. It is true that the original documents are not now forthcoming, and that no copies of them are to be found in the Vatican archives, but then it appears that there are no documents relating to Ireland in the Roman archives earlier than the year 1215, and if all transcripts are to be rejected as such a good many pages from our most careful histories will have to be deleted. It appears to me that the account given by Gerald de Barry is throughout con- sistent with itself, is not disproved by any known facts, and is confirmed on many sub- stantial points by independent writers and 821379.1 rp 290 ' LAUDABILTTER ' authentic documents ; while to those best acquainted with the thought and poHcy of the time the disputed documents are in themselves in no way improbable. Better evidence than this we seldom obtain for any contemporary episode of the kind. Adrian IV Nicholas Brcakspcar, Bishop of Albano, was andJohn i i ofSalis- elected Pope as Adrian IV about the same time m5' as Henry II was crowned King of England. The king at once wrote to the Pope con- gratulating himself and his country on the elevation of an Englishman to the papal chair, and making suggestions to the Pope as to the work which lay before him.^ In the same year, 1155 — perhaps at the same time — he sent an embassy to the Pope, which included John of Salisbury, to whom was entrusted the com- mission to endeavour to obtain the papal sanction to Henry's meditated subjugation of Ireland to his rule. This sanction, John of Salisbury tells us, he obtained : ' At my prayer Adrian granted Ireland to the illustrious King of the English, Henry II, to be possessed as an inheritance, as his letter to this day testifies. For all islands by ancient right, by virtue of the Donation of Constantine, the original donor ^ See Miss Norgate's Angevin Kings, vol. i, p. 497, note. The whole chapter gives an admirable account of the religious revival during ' the last years of Archbishop Theobald '. ' LAUDABILITER ' 291 of it, are said to belong to the Church of Rome, He also sent by me a golden ring adorned with an excellent emerald, by which investiture of the right to rule Ireland might be made ; and this ring is still ordered to be kept in the State archives.' ^ This statement refers to the year 1155, and purports to have been written shortly after Adrian's death in 1159. Now of John of Salisbury we know much. His character was one of transparent honesty. He was the devoted admirer of Thomas Becket, the trusted secretary and envoy of Archbishop Theobald, and the dearest friend of the English- born Pope.^ No more suitable man for the delicate commission could have been selected. That he should have falsely concocted the above statement is unthinkable. Of course it has been asserted that the passage is a fraudulent inter- polation, but this ready method of removing inconvenient evidence can only be admitted after stringent proof, which does not in this case appear to be forthcoming. Moreover, we Council • of ^^in- have the statement of an entirely independent Chester, chronicler that at Michaelmas in this very year, 1155, Henry laid before his barons at Winchester a scheme for conquering Ireland as a provision ^ Metalogicus, iv. 42. Johannis Sarisb. opera, ed. Giles, vol. V, p. 205. 2 Miss Norgate, Angevin Kings, vol. i, pp. 480-91 ; Diet. Nat. Biog., vol. xxix, pp. 439-41 (R. L. Poole). T 2 ' LAUDABILITER ' for his brother WilHam, but his mother, the Empress Matilda, dissuaded him from the project at the time.^ Accordingly the project was laid aside until the events we have related forced Henry's hand. This independent evi- dence of Henry's intentions at the precise date can hardly have been taken into account by the supposed fabricator of the statement in the Metalogicus, with which it is incomplete harmony. Privilege "^^^ Said, whcn Henry went to was not Ireland in 1171 why did he not make use of Hshed in Adrian's Privilege if it existed ? Then, if ever, was the time to publish it. A little considera- tion, however, will show that Henry could not have made any profitable public use of the document at that time. Adrian had died twelve years previously, and the existing Pope, Alex- ander III, was bitterly incensed at the moment against Henry on account of the conflict with Archbishop Thomas and the fearful tragedy in which that conflict had resulted. Until Henry had made his peace with Alexander it would have been perfectly futile to seek his confirmation of his predecessor's Privilege ; while to have paraded the sanction of the deceased Pope at a moment when the existing Pope was threatening an interdict would have been to provoke a counterblast which would have far more than undone any possible advan- ^ Robert of Torigny (anno 1155), p. 186. ' LAUDABILITER ' 293 tage to be gained. This seems a simple and adequate explanation of the non-publication of ' Laudabiliter ' at the time of Henry's expedition. Henry took much more prudent steps to gain the approval of the present occupant of the papal chair. As we have seen, one of Henry's first acts in Ireland was to summon a synod of the clergy of Ireland to meet at Cashel. Gerald, who gives the fullest and clearest account of this synod, says that a public inquiry was The state- made into the ' enormities and foul customs ' Gfraidul {enormitates, spurcitiae) of the people of the land, which were carefully reduced to writing under the seal of the legate. Christian, Bishop of Lismore, who presided at the synod. ^ This synod seems to have taken place some time early in 1172. There were present at it on behalf of the king, Ralph, Abbot of Buildwas, Ralph, Archdeacon of Llandaff, Nicholas the chaplain, and others.^ Referring to this synod, but with- out giving any precise date, Gerald afterwards ^ says that Henry, having sent an embassy to Rome ^ with the aforesaid letter concerning the ^ ' Ubi, requisitis et auditis publice terrae illius et gentis tarn enormitatibus quam spurcitiis, et in scriptum etiam sub sigillo legati Lismoriensis, qui ceteris ibidem dignitate tunc praeerat, ex industria redactis ' : Gir. Camb., p. 280. 2 Ibid., p. 281. 3 Ibid., p. 315. * This was probably soon after Henry's purgation before the legates at Avranches on Msij 21, 1172 : see Norgate, Angevin Kings, vol. ii, p. 81. ' LAUDABILITER ' ' foul customs ' of the people, obtained from Alexander III, then Pope, a Privilege authorizing him both to rule the people of Ireland and, ill-instructed as they were in the rudiments of faith, to mould them by ecclesiastical rules and discipline into conformity with the usages of the Anglican Church. This Privilege, he con- tinues, was sent to Ireland by the hands of Nicholas, Prior of Wallingford, and William Fitz Audelin,^ and was forthwith publicly read with general approval before a synod of bishops convened at Waterford. Along with it was also read another Privilege, which the king had formerly obtained from Pope Adrian, Alex- ander's predecessor, through the agency of John of Salisbury, who had been sent to Rome to obtain it. By the hands of John, too, the same pope presented to the King of the English a golden ring in token of investiture, and this ring, together with the Privilege, was forthwith deposited among the archives at Winchester. Gerald then gives the contents of these two Privileges. That of Adrian may be closely Privilege rendered as follows : ' Adrian, bishop, servant of Adrian scrvants of God, to our well-beloved son in Christ the illustrious King of the English greeting and apostolic benediction. Laudably and profitably doth your Majesty contemplate ^ Fitz Audelin, as we shall see, was probably sent on this mission in the spring of 1173 : see Appendix to this chapter. ' LAUDABILITER ' 295 spreading the glory of your name on earth and laying up for yourself the reward of eternal happiness in heaven, in that, as becomes a catholic prince, you purpose to enlarge the boundaries of the Church, to proclaim the truths of the Christian religion to a rude and ignorant people, and to root out the growths of vice from the field of the Lord ; and the better to accomplish this purpose you seek the counsel and goodwill of the apostolic see. In pursuing your object, the loftier your aim and the greater your discretion, the more prosperous, we are assured, with God's assis- tance, will be the progress you will make : for undertakings commenced in the zeal of faith and the love of religion are ever wont to attain to a good end and issue. Verily, as your Excellency doth acknowledge, there is no doubt that Ireland and all islands on which Christ the sun of righteousness has shone, and which have accepted the doctrines of the Christian faith, belong to the jurisdiction of the blessed Peter and the holy Roman Church ; wherefore the more pleased are we to plant in them the seed of faith acceptable to God, inasmuch as our conscience warns us that in their case a stricter account will hereafter be required of us. ' Whereas then, well-beloved son in Christ, you have expressed to us your desire to enter the island of Ireland in order to subject its 296 ' LAUDABILITER ' people to law and to root out from them the weeds of vice, and your willingness to pay an annual tribute to the blessed Peter of one penny from every house, and to maintain the rights of the churches of that land whole and inviolate : We therefore, meeting your pious and laudable desire with due favour and according a gracious assent to your petition, do hereby declare our will and pleasure that, with a view to enlarging the boundaries of the Church, restraining the downward course of vice, correcting evil customs, and planting virtue, and for the increase of the Christian religion, you shall enter that island and execute whatsoever may tend to the honour of God and the welfare of the land ; and also that the people of that land shall receive you with honour and revere you as their lord : provided always that the rights of the churches remain whole and inviolate, and saving to the blessed Peter and the Holy Roman Church the annua] tribute of one penny from every house. If then you should carry your project into effect, let it be your care to instruct that people in good ways of life, and so act, both in person and by agents whom you shall have found in faith, in word, and in deed fitted for the task, that the Church there may be adorned, that the Christian religion may take root and grow, and that all things appertaining to the honour of God and the salvation of souls may be so ' LAUDABILITER ' 297 ordered that you may deserve at God's hands the fullness of an everlasting reward, and may obtain on earth a name renowned throughout the ages.' ^ Alexander's Privilege, as given by Gerald, is little more than a brief confirmation of that of Adrian. It may be rendered as follows : — ' Alexander, bishop, servant of the servants of Aiex- of God, to his well-beloved son in Christ the ^"^"'"^ illustrious King of the English greeting and apostolic benediction. Forasmuch as those con- cessions of our predecessors which are known to have been reasonably made deserve to be permanently confirmed. We, following in the footsteps of the venerable Pope Adrian, and paying heed to the satisfaction of your desire, ratify and confirm the concession of the said Pope made to you concerning the lordship of the kingdom of Ireland, saving to the blessed Peter and the Holy Roman Church in Ireland as in England the annual payment of one penny from every house, to the end that the foul customs (spurcitiae) of that country may be abolished, and the barbarous nation, reckoned 1 Adrian's Privilegium is also given by Rog. Wend., vol. i, p. 11. Ralph de Diceto, vol. i, p. 300. They may have taken it from Giraldus, but their insertion of it at least shows that they did not consider it a forgery. Or are we to suppose that they were duped, or were in the conspiracy ? It is also to be found in the Book of Leinster, Facsimile, p. 342. 298 ' LAUDABILITER ' Christian in name/ may through your care assume the beauty of good morals, and that the church of those regions, hitherto disordered, may be set in order, and the people may hence- forth through you attain the reality as well as the name of the Christian profession.' It is not my purpose to discuss questions of textual criticism, but it is right to mention that an element of doubt is supposed to be thrown on the authenticity of Alexander's Privilege by the fact that in the manuscript of another of Gerald's works, De Principis Instructione, when introducing this Privilege, words are added meaning, ' as by some is asserted or pretended to have been obtained, or by others is denied to have ever been obtained.' These words, as the editor of the Expugnatio points out, have the appearance of a marginal note that has become incorporated with the text.^ Possibly in conse- quence of the denial of authenticity so expressed, some of the later (fourteenth century) manu- scripts of the Expugnatio omit all mention of Alexander's Privilege, and the omission is effected so clumsily that pure hash is made of the prefatory matter.^ The editor is clearly ^ This expression, barbara natio quae Christiano censetur nomine, recalls the language of St. Bernard respecting the inhabitants of St. Malachi's diocese, Christiani nomine, re pagani : Migne, vol. clxxxii, cap. viii, col. 1034. Gir. Camb., vol. v, p. 318, note. ^ Ibid., pp. 315, 316, notes. ' LAUDABILITER ' 299 right in saying that this bungling change could not possibly have been the work of Giraldus,^ and it is not easy to see how the words throw- ing doubt on Alexander's Privilege could have been written by him either. It seems to me that these 'rectifications' of Gerald's original statement may be disregarded, and that the question of the authenticity of Alexander's Privilege must be determined on other grounds. It will have been observed that Gerald's account of the original obtaining of Adrian's Privilege agrees closely with that given by J ohn of Salisbury. The latter, indeed, says that Adrian ' granted Ireland ' to Henry ' to be possessed as an estate of inheritance ', while the Privilege, as given by Gerald, contains no actual grant. We may, however, regard this expression of John of Salisbury as merely a loose and exaggerated way of describing the general effect of the Privilege. So the author of the 1 Ibid., Preface, p. xliii. In the passage in the De Principis Instructione as edited by Mr. Brewer, Adrian, and not Alexander, appears as the pope from whom Henry obtained the privilegia after the council of Cashel ; and Mr. Dimock, in the note to his remarks in the Preface to the Expugnatio (as above), supposes that Giraldus by this apparent sHp may have himself given rise to the subsequent blundering rectification. But Mr. G. F. Warner, in the new edition of the De Principis Instructione (Gir. Camb., vol. viii, p. 195) shows that the shp was Mr. Brewer's, and not Giraldus's. The sole MS. reads Alexandro tertio, thus agreeing with the Expugnatio. 300 ' LAUDABILITER ' Gesta and Roger Hoveden still more em- phatically say that Alexander ' by apostolic authority confirmed the kingdom to Henry and his heirs and appointed them kings of it for ever '.^ This is certainly an incorrect description of any of the documents themselves, but it may perhaps be regarded as the view the court wished to be taken of those documents, and, curiously enough, it is the view which seems to have generally prevailed up to recent times. But though Adrian's Privilege contains no formal grant, temporal domination is implied throughout, and is indeed sanctioned and its acquisition encouraged when the Pope expresses his will and pleasure that the people of Ireland should receive Henry with honour and ' revere him as their lord ' (dominus). This is the appropriate word to express territorial domina- tion, and was in fact the title always assumed by John in his charters and public documents. Adrian's Privilege is, in effect, a mere sanction on the part of the Pope to Henry's entering Ireland, if he should be minded to do so, with a view to effecting certain reforms there. Of course Henry could not do this without assum- ing the position of dominus of Ireland, and the Pope expressly recognizes this fact and uses his influence to prevail upon the Irish people to receive him as such. ^ Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 28 ; Roger Hoveden, vol. ii, p. 31. ' LAUDABILITER ' 301 The language employed in these Privileges, though indicating that in the opinion of the Popes concerned there were many things in Ireland calling for reformation, deals only in generalities, and especially in the case of Adrian's Privilege does not go beyond what might be expected in a reforming Pope. Alex- ander, indeed, uses stronger language, and, as we may note, employs one of the very words (spurcitiae) which Gerald uses in stating the subject of the inquiry which took place in connexion with the Council of Cashel. But there are some other documents of really much greater significance as bearing on the action of the Pope after the date of Henry's expedition to Ireland. These are three letters Alex of Alexander III, all dated Tusculum, the Letter! 20th of September, and almost certainly to be referred to the year 1172. One is addressed to Christian, Bishop of Lismore, legate of the apostolic see (who had presided at the Council of Cashel), the four Archbishops of Ireland (who are mentioned by name), and their suffragans. Another is addressed to Henry himself, and the third to the kings and princes of Ireland. These remarkable Letters were entered in the Black Book of the Exchequer of England,^ and, though not mentioned by Gerald ^ These letters of Alexander are printed in the Liber Niger Scaccarii, ed. Tho. Heame (1728), vol. i, pp. 42-7 ; 302 ' LAUDABILITER ' de Barry, they fully bear out his account of the transactions between the prelates at the Council of Cashel and the Pope, and manifest the favour with which the Pope viewed Henry's recent action in Ireland. The following is the substance of these Letters, which are too long to quote in full : — In the first Alexander refers to the vitiorum enormitates made known to him by the letters of the prelates {ex vestrarum serie literarum) as well as by trustworthy statements of others, and rejoices that, as he learns from the prelates, those unlawful practices are, under Henry's influence, beginning to disappear [alluding prob- ably to the decrees of the Council of Cashel]. He then commands the bishops to assist Henry in maintaining possession of the land and in extirpating those abominable practices {ad ex- tirpandam inde tantae ahominationis spurcitiam), and to visit with the censure of the Church any king, prince, or other person who should dare to contravene his oath of fealty to the said king {juramenti debitum et fidelitatem praedicto Regi exhibitam). In the letter to Henry, after congratulating the king on his triumph, the Pope refers in similar strong language to the enormities and crimes {enormitates et vicia) of the Irish, specifi- also in Rymer's Foedera, vol. i, pt. i, p. 45, and in 0pp. Alex. Ill, Migne, 200, col. 883-6. ' LAUDABILITER ' 303 cally mentioning various unlawful sexual alli- ances, eating flesh in Lent, not paying tithes, and not showing due respect to churches and ecclesiastics. [Most of these subjects, it is to be noted, were dealt with by the Council of Cashel.] He gives as his authority for these charges the aforesaid letters of Christian, Bishop of Lismore, and the other Irish prelates, and the oral testimony of R[alph], Archdeacon of Llandaft*, of whom he speaks highly. From this we may infer that Ralph, Archdeacon of Llandaff, who, as we have seen, was one of those present on the king's behalf at the Council of Cashel, was also one of the envoys sent on the embassy to Rome consequent on that council. He was just the person we might expect to be chosen for the purpose. Alexander then proceeds to express his thankfulness that Henry should have been inspired to undertake the subjugation of the Irish and to extirpate the abominable foulness (ahominationis spurcitiam) alluded to, and he enjoins it upon him, ' for the remission of his sins,' to show still greater energy in the undertaking so laudably com- menced. This expression seems to allude to Henry's sins against the Church, and could hardly have been written by anybody ex- cept the Pope himself. Finally, alluding, as Adrian had done, to the peculiar rights which the Church of Rome possessed over islands, 304 ' LAUDABILITER ' Alexander urges Henry to preserve and extend in that land the rights of the blessed Peter. In the letter to the kings and princes, Alex- ander expresses his joy at learning that they had received Henry for their king and lord and had sworn fealty to him, commends them for having submitted of their own free will, and admonishes them to maintain their oath and fealty inviolate. It will be observed that in these Letters Alexander repeatedly employs the strong words enormitates and spurcitiae, which Giraldus also employs when describing the subjects of the public inquiry instituted by the synod of Cashel, the results of which he tells us were written down under the seal of the legate and sent to Trifer- Romc. Now this coincidence of language can use o/^"^ seemingly be explained in only one of two ways : rrrm^sTy ^i^^cr Gerald and Alexander were both adopting, trlder and ^^^J naturally would, the precise phrases used Giraldus. in the Synodal inquiry, and embodied in the prelates' letter ; or Gerald wrote the letters ascribed to Alexander. But seeing that Gerald makes no use or mention of Alexander's letters, this last supposition, on this ground alone, seems perfectly futile. These letters, it will be seen, bear out the statement of Gerald de Barry even in details, and while the natural and, on the whole, well- founded disbelief of Irishmen in the justice of * LAUDABILITER ' 305 the sweeping and extravagant charges contained in the letters is quite intelligible and wholesome, it is hard to see why their authenticity should be called in question by any dispassionate his- torian. They have, indeed, been accepted as genuine by Roman Catholic writers and others who have laboured to prove that Adrian's Privilege was a forgery. Others again, with greater daring, but perhaps more consistently with their conclusions, have rejected all docu- ments, from whatever source derived, implying a papal sanction to Henry's expedition, and have denied all statements concerning it to be found in the chronicles and writings of the time. This implies such a wholesale conspiracy of lying and forgery, and one that would have been so easily, and in many quarters so gladly, detected at the time, that its seems superfluous to deal seriously with it. It may, however, be asked, Why did not Gerald transcribe these letters of Alexander, if they were in existence, seeing that they entirely support his account of the matter, instead of giving us only the Privileges of Adrian and Alexander ? The simple answer seems to be Why that these latter were; as he says, published at ^de^no Waterford, and were therefore available to him, ^^^^^an while the three letters were very probably not ^r's available. There is no reason to suppose that either the prelates or the kings of Ireland 821379.1 -g 306 ' LAUDABILITER ' would publish the letters addressed to them, and Henry may well have thought that the simple confirmation of Adrian's Privilege was more to his purpose than the letter addressed to himself. It must be borne in mind that only recently and tentatively had Rome begun to exercise jurisdiction in Ireland, and there are signs that the clergy in many parts and the laity generally were not prepared to accept her decrees unreservedly. Henry was already assured of the support of the higher ranks of the clergy, but there were many in Ireland, both clerics and laymen, who would be certain to resent the intemperate denunciations contained in Alex- ander's letters to Henry and to the prelates, and their publication might be expected to do more harm than good to Henry's cause. Rome was going too fast and too far, and Henry may indeed have wished to be saved from his friends. Only one other difficulty in accepting the contemporary accounts of this episode need here be noticed. Giraldus, it is said, states that the papal Privileges were for the first time published in Ireland by William Fitz Audelin at a synod in Waterford in 1175, or possibly at the earliest in 1174,^ and it may be asked how we are to account for this delay in the pro- duction of such important documents. The answer is that Giraldus gives no precise date, 1 Gir. Camb. v. 315. ' LAUDABILITER ' 307 that the dat€ usually accepted is only a hasty No ex- inference of the editor, and that Fitz Audelin's ^^lay i^^^ mission for the publication of the Privileges P^b^ica- ^ ® tionofthe took place in 1173, probably in the month of Privileges. April. As Alexander's letters, presumably sent at the same time, are dated September 20 (1172), there was no exceptional delay. Mr. Round, with his wholesome habit of investiga- ting ' universally admitted facts has already pointed out that the inference as to the date is a mistaken one, and has sho\\TL from the Pipe Roll that the mission probably took place between Michaelmas 1172 and Michaelmas 1173.^ Following up this clue, I have, I think, identified the actual Letter of Credence given by Henry to William Fitz Audelin on this occasion, and have been able to date it (approximately) April 1173. As the proof of this is rather tedious and technical, I have given it in a note appended to this chapter. As we have seen, then, in none of the docu- No actual ments does the Pope purport to make a grant £e£nd^ of the sovereignty of Ireland to Henry II. That sovereignty, or rather overlordship, so far as it existed, was won partly by the swords of the Norman adventurers, and was established more legally by the personal submission of the Irish kings and prelates. Adrian, for special reasons as to the welfare of the Church, warmly ^ Commune of London, pp. 182-4. 308 ' LAUDABILITER ' approved of Henry's meditated expedition ; and Alexander, for similar reasons, still more warmly approved of the accomplished fact. The difference, however, between a formal grant of dominion and such a sanction from a medi- aeval Pope is one that appeals to a lawyer rather than to a layman, and it is not surprising that in this case it has been habitually ignored. It is probable that the authenticity of these documents would never have been contested were it not for the strong language employed in them characterizing the low state of morals and religion in Ireland. This strong language is to be found mainly in Alexander's letters (the evidence for which is entirely independent of Giraldus), and it may be largely discounted as being only the manner of ecclesiastical writing Real at the time. What the enormitates vitiorum and character ... n t_ • r j 'J.^ of the spurcihae really were may be interred with tates^^' ^^ch confidence from the canons of the synod spurcitiae. of Cashel, and are there seen to have been, with one exception, mostly matters of ritual, and above all the non-existence of the privileges elsewhere enjoyed by the Roman Church. The exception was the loose marriage customs that prevailed from of old among the lay-folk of Ireland. We have seen these customs con- demned by foreign ecclesiastics such as Lan- franc, Anselm, and St. Bernard, and as late as 1152 by the synod over which Cardinal Papiro ' LAUDABILITER ' 309 presided ^ — not to mention Giraldus and other contemporary writers. Our study of the mar- riage customs indicated in the Brehon Law Tracts^ has rendered quite intelligible this per- sistent condemnation, and it is vain to assert that it was unfounded. A wider outlook than was possible at the time, however, would have shown that these customs were not a sign of degeneracy, but an indication that the people were still in a lower plane of civilization than had been reached elsewhere ; and a wiser statesmanship would have known that they were not to be amended by the use of hard names and exaggerated language, but by patient teaching, wholesome example, and the gradual introduction and enforcement of better laws. In short, from such study as I have been able to give to this episode, I cannot see any- no valid thing in these documents to warrant their being re^ct- branded as forgeries. They hang well together, ^^^^^ and fully bear out the account of the transaction ments. given by Giraldus, and, considering the almost complete absence of records reaching back to this period, the main facts of his account are quite as fully substantiated by independent evidence as we have any grounds for expecting. The theory of wholesale forgery seems to me ^ Four Masters, 1152. The first canon was ' to put away concubines and lemans from men ' — not from the clergy, as has been supposed. 2 Supra, pp. 124-30. 310 ' LAUDABILITER ' perfectly gratuitous and highly improbable. The Privileges, as we have them, were at any rate published to the world in the Expugnatio in 1188, and there is no sign that any voice was raised at Rome or elsewhere to denounce them. The importance of the papal action has, however, been exaggerated. Adrian's Privilege played no part-^certainly no public part — in obtaining the submission of the princes and prelates of Ireland, and Alexander's action seems to have had no marked effect beyond probably con- firming most of the clergy in their support of the new regime. Indeed, the action of the Popes may be regarded from another point of view as a grateful anticipation and recognition of the service Henry was proposing to do, or had done, to the Church of Rome in the way of extending her boundaries, supporting her juris- diction, and bringing about a closer conformity to her usages, rather than as a means of con- ferring any very important benefit or assistance to Henry in Ireland. Moreover, Alexander's position must be borne in mind. There was a succession of anti-popes favoured by the emperor and other powers during his troubled pontificate, and Henry had been sorely tempted to throw his weight into the schismatic scale. To retain Henry's favour was vital to Alexander. Viewed as a matter of mundane policy, in securing Henry's support by sanctioning his ' LAUDABILITER ' 311 action in Ireland, Alexander was getting more than he gave. The Pope was not long in following up the ^^^^^^^^ opening thus made. In 1177, four years after March the publication of the papal Privileges at Waterford, Cardinal Vivian came to Ireland as legate of the Pope and summoned a synod of the bishops at Dublin. At this synod, according to Gerald, he made a public declaration of the right of the King of England to Ireland and of the confirmation of the Pope, and enjoined on clergy and people, under pain of anathema, not to presume to depart from their allegiance.^ Here, fortunately, there is independent Irish evidence of the holding of this synod by Vivian, and an indication that its decrees were not relished by the Irish. The Four Masters, under 1177, record: 'Cardinal Vivianus arrived in Ireland : A synod of the clergy of Ireland, both bishops and abbots, about that cardinal in Dublin on the first Sunday in Lent, and they enacted many ordinances not now observed.' ^ Gir. Camb. v. 345. The words jus Anglorum regis in Hiberniam, et summi pontificis confirmationem, viva voce publice protestatur, must refer to^ proclamation by the papal emissary of the sanction of the existing Pope, Alexander III. When Vivian landed in England in July 1176 he was compelled to swear that he would do nothing against the king, before being allowed to proceed on his journey : Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 118. His holding a council in Dublin is incidentally mentioned, ibid., p. 161. NOTE A DATE OF THE PUBLICATION OF THE PAPAL PRIVILEGES The date usually assigned by historians for the publication of ' Laudabiliter ' is 1175, or per- haps 1174, but Mr. Round has pointed out (Com- mune of London, pp. 181-4) that this date is not actually given by Giraldus, who alone men- tions the publication, but is an inference drawn by Mr. Dimock from the supposed sequence of events indicated by Giraldus. But this sequence was misunderstood, and the precise inference unwarranted. In the first book of the Expugnatio, Giraldus carries the story, so far as Ireland is concerned, no further than the year 1172. He gives, however, some account of Henry's wars of 1173-4. In his preface to the second book he apologizes for no longer being able to detail the series of events fully, but says that he will jot down, cursim et breviter, the materials for history rather than attempt a regular historical narrative. The first four chapters of the second book then mention certain events in Ireland to be ascribed to the years 1173-4, and the fifth chapter, entitled Privilegiorum impetratio, opens as follows : * Interea quanquam martiis plurimum intentus et detentus exercitiis, Anglorum rex, suae tamen inter agendum Hiberniae non im- memor, cum praenotatis spurcitiarum Uteris in synodo Cassiliensi per industriam quaesitis ' LAUDABILITER ' 313 directis ad curiam Romanam nunciis, ab Ale- xandre tertio tunc praesidente privilegium im- petravit.' This Privilege, together with Adrian's Privilege, he then sent to Ireland by the hands of Nicholas, Prior of Wallingford, and William Fitz Audelin, who immediately summoned the Synod of Waterford and had them both publicly read. It is plain that the word interea may refer to any period of time between the date of the Council of Cashel (the winter 1171-2) and that of the last event mentioned in 1174. Moreover, Mr. Round quotes an entry on the Pipe Roll of 1173 which seems to show that William Fitz Audelin was actually sent to Ireland on a mission between Michaelmas 1172 and Michaelmas 1173, and so far to corroborate Gerald's statement. This entry is as follows : 'In Passagio Willelmi filii Aldelini et sociorum suorum et Hernesiorum suorum in Hyberniam xxvii sol. et vi den. per breve Ricardi de Luci ' (p. 145). The Pipe Roll contains other writs by Richard de Luci, and, as pointed out in Eyton's Itinerary (p. 174), it is evident that in the spring and summer of 1173 he was acting as Viceroy in England. But further, I venture to suggest that the Letter of Credence given at this time to William Fitz Audelin has been preserved and is well known, but has been wrongly referred to some other period. This document is given in Rymer's Foedera, i, p. 36, from .Bibl. Cotton., Titus, B. XI, fol. 90, and referred to the year 1181, and is as follows : — 'Henricus, Rex Angliae, dux Normanniae et Aquitaniae, et comes Andegaviae, archiepiscopis, episcopis, regibus, comitibus, baronibus, et om- nibus fidelibus suis Hiberniae, salutem. Sciatis 314 ' LAUDABILITER ' me, Dei gratia, salvum esse et incolumem, et negotia mea bene et honorilice procedere : ego vero, quam cito potero, vacabo magnis negotiis meis Hiberniae.^ Nunc autem ad vos mitto Willielinuni tilium Adelmi. dapiferum meum, cui commisi negotia mea tractanda et agenda mei loco et vice. Qiiare vobis mando et lirmiter precipio, quod ei sicut michimet intendatis de agendis meis, et faciatis quicqiiid ipse vobis dixerit ex parte mea : sicut amorem meum habere desideratis, et per tidem quam mihi debetis. Ego quoque ratum habebo et tirmum quicquid ipse fecerit, tanquam egomet fecissem, et quicquid vos feceritis erga eum stabile liabebo. Testibus, Galfrido archidiacono Cantuar Eicardo archidiacono Pictavien^ Ricardo constabulario Apud Valuiiis.' Leland (Histor\' of Ireland, vol. i. p. 113) quotes this document, with the addition of do?ninus Hiherniae to Henry's titles, 'from an old parchment roll in possession of the Earl of Meath,' and supposes it to be the commission given to William Fitz Audelin when sent as procurator to Ireland in 1177. In this he is followed by Gilbert (Viceroys of Ireland, p. 41) and others. But this supposition is disproved by the fact that about May L 1173, the two archdeacon witnesses were elected Bishops of Winchester and Ely respectively, though they were not consecrated until the following year (Roger of Howden, vol. ii, pp. 56. 69; Eyton's Itin., p. 175). E^-ton places it about the end of July 1171, when Henry was leaving Normandy on his way to Ireland. But a little consideration ^ Cf. the opening words of Giraldus quoted above, p. 312. ' LAUDABILITER ' 315 might have shown that Henry could not have called himself dominus Hiberniae at that time, or (if this description be not part of the original document) could not have addressed his rescript to the archbishops, &c., and all his liege sub- jects (omnibus fidelibus suis) of Ireland, nor have enjoined them per fidem quam mihi debetis before he had obtained their oaths of fealty. The letter was certainly written after Henry had returned from Ireland, and probably after his reconcilia- tion with the papacy and before the actual out- break of hostilities with his sons. As far as Henry is concerned it might then be dated in October or November 1172, or in March or April 1173, when the king was in Normandy, but when we turn to the witnesses we find that the two arch- deacons crossed from England to Normandy probably shortly before May 1173. The Pipe Roll (19 Hen. II, Southampton) has this entry : ' et in liheraitione ix navium quae debuerunt transfretare cum 'Ricardo de Luci et Bjicardo Fictaviae Archidiacono et Gaufr^^Zo Csmtuariensi Archidiacono et aliis Baronibi^s precepto 'Regis £13 I5s, per breve Ricardi de Luci.' Pipe Roll Soc, vol. xix, p. 54, and see Eyton, Itin., p. 174, where the author takes the word debuerunt to mean no more than that Richard de Luci did not cross the sea. The two archdeacons, he says, would go to Normandy in prospect of their elections to bishoprics. The presence of Richard [de Humez], Constable [of Normandy], presents no difficulty. All this seems to fix March or April 1173 as the date of this rescript and of Fitz Audelin's mission. We may add that as Hugh de Lacy was summoned about this time to the king's aid in Normandy, it would be necessary to send some representative of the 316 ' LAUDABILITER ' king to Ireland. Richard of Striguil was with the king in the beginning of August (Ralph de Diceto, vol. i, p. 375), and probably earlier, and was not entrusted with the custody of Ireland until the middle of that month at the earliest. See chapter x, pp. 325-8, infra, where another indication of the presence of William Fitz Audelin in Ireland at about this time is noted. NOTE B MR. ROUND'S POSITION As I have more than once endorsed points made by Mr. Round in his contribution to the ' Laudabihter ' controversy, I should say that his conclusions are peculiar and differ widely from mine. He accepts Alexander's Black Book Letters as genuine, and as the real answer to Henry's embassy, but he thinks that Giraldus, instead of giving these, substituted ' a concocted confirmation of an equally concocted " Bull " '. ^ He hardly attempts to explain why Giraldus should do this, but suggests that there was a conspiracy (which included among its active members not only Giraldus, but also the writer of the passage in the Metalogicus, the author of the Gesta Henrici, and Roger Hoveden, with Henry himself, presumably, in the background) to represent the Pope as actually granting or confirming the kingdom of Ireland to Henry and his heirs for ever (a representation not, I think, anywhere made by Giraldus), and that, as Alexander's real letters contained no such grant, Gerald substituted the document known as ' Laudabiliter ' and its alleged confirmation, though, as Mr. Round emphatically asserts, ' Laudabiliter ' contains no such grant either ! A more futile forgery it would be hard to imagine. As to the method of the forgery, Mr. Round thinks that Gerald employed largely the genuine ^ Commune of London, p. 194. 318 ' LAUDABILITER ' letters of Alexander entered in the Liber Niger, and he maintains that ' Laudabiliter ' does little more than paraphrase and adapt the contents of Alexander's letter to Henry. I think Mr. Round greatly exaggerates the resemblance. But on the supposition that Gerald's statements are true, so far as there is a similarity between either the language or the sentiment of Alex- ander's letter and that of Adrian's Privilege, what can be more natural than that Alexander should to some extent echo the thought and even the phraseology of the document he was at the same time confirming ? By way of prov- ing that Gerald was capable of concocting the privilegia, Mr. Round adduces Dermot's letter to Strongbow, which certainly seems to contain much of Gerald's own fine writing. But surely the fact that Gerald, for literary effect, com- posed in his own words an epistle to represent Dermot's message, does not prove him — a medi- aeval priest — morally capable of concocting, for political purposes, two great state documents, and of solemnly representing them as coming from the Papacy. Having thus expressed the opinion that ' Laudabiliter ' was a concoction, Mr. Round proceeds to show that this was not the view taken by the Papacy itself in after-times. He quotes a papal dispensation of 1290, which refers to Henry's invading Ireland ' at the wish of the papal see', and also a striking passage from the instructions of Innocent X to Rinuccini, which proves clearly that even in 1645 the Pope believed ' Laudabiliter ' to be genuine. For Professor Thatcher's position as to 'Laudabiliter,' &c., see note at end of this volume. CHAPTER X STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 1172-6 After Henry's departure from Ireland, Earl Richard and Hugh de Lacy set about securing themselves in their possessions and making The Henry's grants effective. They were not disturbed Ske pos- by any opposition from outside their lordships ; session, the strong garrisons that Henry left in Dublin, Waterford, and Wexford were enough to secure them from attack.^ The recent submissions of the chieftains of the south and east of Ireland effectually prevented any general combination against them, if such could in any circumstances have been organized, and the Cinel Owen and Cinel Connell, who alone had not submitted, were fighting bitterly amongst themselves.^ Trouble, however, arose, as might have been foreseen, from some of the chieftains dispossessed by Henry's grants. Tiernan- O'Rourke had in- deed no hereditary rights in Meath, but, as we have seen, he had claims under the forcible ^ ' Interea sub regni custodibus tranquilla Hibemia pace respirante ' : Gir. Camb. v. 292. 2 Ann. Ulster, Four Masters, 1172. 320 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER partition of 1169. In 1170, however, the men of East Meath had turned against him, and had set up a native prince, who had given hostages to Dermot. Early in 1171 Tiernan made several raids into the district, drove off countless cattle, and — ' war-dog,' as he is called by the annalist — burned the round tower of TuUyard ' with its fill of human beings '.^ O'Rourke was one of those expressly named as having sworn fealty to Henry, but he had no idea of giving up his claims in East Meath to Henry's grantee, and there was an inevitable clash of interests between him and Hugh de Lacy. The latter advanced as far as Fore in West Meath ^ to take possession of his fief — a proceeding which Tiernan naturally re- sented. A meeting was arranged between the rival claimants at a place now known as the Hill of Ward, near Athboy,^ with the result that ^ Ann. Tigernach, Ann. Inisf alien, Four Masters, 1171, where see O'Donovan's note identifying the place. This is the last of several similar entries showing that these ecclesiastical towers were used, not only as beKries, but as keeps. See Table of ' References to Belfries ' in the Irish Annals, compiled by Margaret Stokes, Early Christian Architecture in Ireland. 2 Ann. Tigernach, 1172. ^ The place is called Cnoc Tlachtgha in the Annals of Tigernach (followed by the Four Masters). This was one of the old centres of pre-Christian observances, and has been identified by O'Donovan with the Hill of Ward (perhaps an ignorant half -translation of Cnoc an hhdird, ' the Bard's Hill'). Giraldus, who gives an elaborate defence of the STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 321 O'Rourke was slain. There were charges of O'Rourke treachery on both sides, which it would be useless 11^72; now to investigate. It appears, however, from the statements of the Irish annalists that O'Rourke had enemies in his own household : ' Tiernan O'Rourke, King of Breffny and Con- macne, a man of great power for a long time, was killed by the Saxons and by Donnell son of Annadh O'Rourke of his own clan along with them. He was beheaded also by them, and his head and body were carried ignominiously to Dublin. The head was raised over the door of the fortress — a sore miserable sight for the Gael. The body was hung in another place with the feet upwards.' ^ In the same year this Donnell O'Rourke and the English made two incursions into Annaly, a district now included in the County Longford, killed its chief, Donnell O'Farrell, and carried off many cows and prisoners.^ In the next year Donnell O'Rourke was slain by some of Tiernan' s followers. One of his hands was occurrence, calls the place Collis Ororicii, evidently so named after the event. 1 Ann. Ulster, 1172. 2 The Annals of Tigemach and those of Inisf alien (1172) specify the tribe-lands as Muintir Anghaille, Muintir GhioUagain, and the town of Ardacha Eascoip Maoil (Ardagh), and state that Hugh de Lacy was the leader of the expeditions. Lands in these districts, which were included in the ancient kingdom of Meath, were afterwards granted by Hugh de Lacy to his followers. 821379.1 X 322 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER struck off and sent to Rory 0' Conor, ' who drove a nail through it on the top of the castle of Tuam ' as a warning to traitors.^ As for the earl, before Henry's departure he went to Ferns, the old royal seat of Leinster, and there gave his daughter (by a former marriage, Robert de we must suppose) to Robert de Quency — prob- marries ably a relative of Sayer de Quency, the future ^Q^^^' Earl of Winchester — appointed him Constable daughter, Leinster, and gave him the Duffry in fee.^ This was the district to the west of Ferns and Enniscorthy of which Murrough 0' Brain, lately slain, had been chieftain. Afterwards the earl abode at Kildare. From this he made an incur- sion into Clanmalier,^ a sub-district of Offaly, under the rule of O'Dempsy, a chieftain who refused to parley with the earl or give him hostages. When the earl was returning with his spoil to Kildare, his rearguard was attacked by O'Dempsy in a pass through the woods, and siahi!^ his constable, Robert de Quency, was killed.* 1 Ann. Tigemach, 1173. 2 Song of Dermot, 11. 2741-50. ^ Clanmalier comprised the baronies of Portnahinch in Queen's County and Upper Philipstown in Kjng's County. See Book of Rights, pp. 193, 216-17, and compare the map of Leis and OffaUe reproduced in the Journ. R. S. A. I., 1862-3, p. 345. The O'Dempsys of Clanmalier were nominally subject to the O' Conors Faly. 4 Song of Dermot, 11. 2769-816. This affair is recorded in the Ann. Tigemach, 1172, as follows : ' An onfall by Cu Aifne, son of Aed Hua Conchobair Failge, on the earl's troops STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 323 Raymond le Gros now applied for the vacant constableship, and besought the earl to give him his sister Basilia in marriage. Strongbow re- fused, and Raymond, bitterly offended, returned to Wales, to his father's castle at Carew in Pembrokeshire.^ Hervey de Montmorency, the earl's uncle, appears to have been appointed constable. Hervey, as we have mentioned, had received Dunbrody a large grant from Dermot after the taking of Wexford, and this grant, comprising apparently the present baronies of Bargy and Shelburne in the south-west corner of the County Wexford, had been confirmed to him by Strongbow. It seems to have been in 1172 or, at latest, early in 1173, that Hervey gave a considerable portion of the latter barony to the monks of Buildwas in Shropshire, to found an abbey of the Cistercian Order. This date, somewhat earlier than that usually ascribed to Hervey' s grant, seems to be fixed by Strongbow' s confirmation charter, among the witnesses to which was Robert de in Kaldare, and some of the Foreigners and the Hui Failgi were killed there.' The Annals of Inisf alien, Dublin MS. (1172) has the following entry: *Conaifne, son of Aedh O'Conor Failge, and O'Diomasa surprised the Earl of Stri- guil's forces at Kildare, where a few of the English were slain, among whom was Robert de Quincy, the earl's son-in- law.' The pass where the reverse occurred was probably a track through the woody fastness of Rosglas, near Monasterevan. i Song of Dermot, 11. 2827-60. X2 324 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER Quenci, who, as we have seen, appears to have been slain before the earl was summoned to Normandy in 1173.^ The monastic buildings ' de Portu Sanctae Mariae de Dunbrothy ', as the house was called, were not commenced until after the year 1182. In this year the Abbot of Buildwas sent over a lay brother named Alan to inspect the site. Alan found the place a waste wilderness, and was obliged to use a hollow oak-tree as his lodging while the boundaries of the lands given were being marked out. On his certifying to the desolation of the site, the sterility of the land, and the fierceness of the barbarous people living in the neighbourhood, the Abbot of Buildwas made over all rights under Hervey's charter to St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin. The 1 See these charters in the Chartulary of St. Mary's Abbey, vol. ii, pp. 151-4. There is, however, a difficulty about their exact dates. Hervey's charter is witnessed by Fehx [O'DuUany], Bishop of Ossory, but the obit of his predecessor, Donnell O'Fogarty, is given by the Four Masters in 1178, two years after Strongbow's death ! Possibly episcopo is a transcriber's error for abbate, as Felix was called Abbot of Ossory, i.e. of Jerpoint, before he was translated to the see. Again, another witness is Domina Nesta, but from Giraldus (p. 314) we should certainly infer that Hervey's marriage with Nesta, daughter of Maurice Fitz Gerald, did not take place until 1174. Perhaps, however, this is another case in which we cannot take the order in which Giraldus mentions events as strictly chronological. Or it may be that a later copy of Hervey's charter was inserted in the Register. It is there said to have been executed in triplicate. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 325 monks were soon busy in the place/ erecting their buildings and converting the wilderness into a garden. They were granted protection by John in 1185.^ Their privileges were con- firmed and extended by William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, and by subsequent lords of the soil, and for at least three centuries the Abbot of Dunbrody was a power in the land, and virtually supreme within his own borders. And now, at the confluence of the Suir and Barrow, the stately ruins of the abbey-church stand lonely amid the fields, to attest the former greatness of the house. As we have seen, it was probably in March or April 1173 that Henry sent over to Ireland William Fitz Audelin on a special mission, with powers to act on the king's behalf, and about the De Lacy same time both Hugh de Lacy and Richard strong- Fitz Gilbert appear to have been summoned to Henry's aid in Normandy. The earl, we are ^^^^^ told, came with a number of knights and was mandy. given the custody of the frontier fortress of Gisors.^ Hugh de Lacy was entrusted with the defence of Verneuil, which was besieged by the 1 Chart. St. Mary's Abbey, DubUn, vol. i, pp. 354-5. St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, had already been subordinated to Ralph, Abbot of Build was, and his successors by Henry in 1175 : ibid., p. 79. 2 ibid., vol. ii, p. 167. ^ Song of Dermot, 11. 2886-7. The exact date is uncertain. Henry fortified and provisioned Gisors and other frontier fortresses in March : Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 42. 326 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER French king in July.^ Early in August we find Strongbow in the force which Henry mustered for the reUef of Verneuil.^ ' By a double treachery,' however, ' Louis, under cover of a truce, gained possession of the town, set it on fire, and retreated into his own domains before Henry could over- take him.' ^ We need not follow the fortunes of this war. Henry, we are told, was well pleased with the services of the earl, and gave him leave to return to Ireland. At last, indeed, Henry Custody seems to have taken him into favour. He gave given to him the custody of the kingdom, sending with bow^Aug. Raymond (according to Gerald) as coadjutor. At the same time he granted to him Wexford, which henceforth became merged in the lordship of Leinster, and the castle of Wicklow.* But a price had to be paid for this favour, and Henry, when sending back the earl to Ireland, summoned through him the garrisons he had left in the seaport towns, and apparently others as ^ Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 49. 2 Ralph de Diceto, vol. i, p. 375, where Richard of Striguil is said to have lately come from Ireland. ^ Norgate's Angevin Kings, vol. ii, p. 147. 4 Song of Dermot, 11. 2894-905 ; Gir. Camb. v. 298. The Song says : — Si li baillat la marine Watreford e DyveUne. These were the crown-lands. This appointment and grant took place at Rouen, where Henry was from August 10 to 21 : Gesta Hen., vol. i, pp. 56, 57. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 327 well, to aid him in his war with the revolted barons. Robert Fitz Stephen and Maurice de Prendergast are expressly mentioned, as well as Robert Fitz Bernard, who had been left in command of the garrison of Waterford.^ Pre- sumably William Fitz Audelin left at the same time. He cannot have been more than five months in Ireland as representative of the king, and, except his summoning the Synod of Water- ford and publishing the papal Privileges, nothing is recorded of his brief governorship, which indeed has escaped the notice of historians. There is, however, one other clear indication of his presence as governor at this time. In pur- suance of the king's precept he caused a legal inquisition to be made at Dublin as to the lands which had been properly given to the white monks of St. Mary's Abbey before his arrival in Ireland.^ From the list of lands so found to belong to them it is clear that this inquisition must have been taken before, and with a view to, Henry's confirmatory grant of these precise 1 Song of Dermot, 11. 2906-39 ; Giraldus ut supra. The Irish forces joined in the campaign against the Earl of Leicester and were present at the b^^-ttle of Fomham, near St. Edmund's, October 1173. Then they are said to have been employed against William the Lion, King of Scotland, and after his capture in July 1174 to have passed over to Normandy to the king : Song, 11. 2946-85. Fantosme, 1. 1057, expressly mentions Robert Fitz Bernard at Fomham. 2 Chart. St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, vol. i, p. 138. 328 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER lands to St. Mary's Abbey tested at Falaise,^ and this grant should probably be referred to October 1174, when Henry and nearly all the witnesses can be sho\\Ti to have been at Falaise, when the war was over. Raymond Encouraged by the news of Henry's difficulties com^"^^^ abroad and by the weakening of the garrisons mander. -^^ Ireland, the Irish chieftains who had so recently sworn fealty to Henry are said to have been in a state of rebellion against the king. The earl's own household troops, too, were ^ Ibid., p. 81. This confirmatory grant has been placed in July 1171 : Dugdale, Monasticon, v. 363, ii ; and Ej-ton, Itin., p. 158, who, however, says that 1175 is as Ukely as 1171. Gilbert (Preface, Chart. St. Marj^'s, vol. i, p. xviii) endeavours to support the earher date by reference to some legal proceedings in 1282-3 (ibid., p. 297), in the course of which the abbot produced a charter from Henry II as evidence that the abbey had been founded and granted its liberty before liberties had been granted to the city of Dubhn. But, as the same proceedings show, the comparison was vdih. John's charter of 1192 or 1200 to the city. The persons to whom Henr\-'s confirmatory^ charter is addressed : ' archiepiscopis, &c., et omnibus fidelibus suis Francis et AngUcis et Hyberniensibus,' sufficiently indicate that it could not have been granted before Henry's y^isit to Ireland. Besides, the places confirmed to St. Marj^'s include places granted by Strongbow (ibid., pp. 78, 83), and Henry- would never have confirmed a grant from Strongbow before receiving his submission. The Falaise charter must, how- ever, have preceded the Feckenham charter (ibid., p. 79), which must be dated 1175, according to Mr. Round in July (Feudal England, p. 510), but according to E}i;on's Itinerary', p. 196. in October. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 329 discontented and threatening mutiny. There was soon no money wherewith to pay them, and under Hervey as constable there was no prospect of their being able to subsist by plunder. They therefore clamoured for Raymond to be ap- pointed their commander, and threatened, if this were not done, to return to England or, worse, desert to the enemy. Accordingly, Raymond was appointed to the command of the troops. An incursion was immediately made into Offelan incursion (a district in the north-east of the present County Offeian. Kildare), which resulted in obtaining an immense booty and a fresh supply of horses and arms for the troops.^ Offelan was in Leinster, and its chief was one of the foremost in opposing Dermot. As Dermot' s successor, or rather, as grantee of Leinster, Strongbow would necessarily insist on submission here. Some other pretext must have been made for the next exploit. This was the plundering; of Lismore, both the city and the And to ^ ® Lismore. adjoining territory. Lismore was in the terri- tory of the Decies in Munster, and both Dermot Mac Carthy, King of Munster, and Melaghlin O'Phelan, King of the Decies, had submitted to Henry at Waterford, but only as subordinate kings submit to their overlord. This was the 1 Gir. Camb. v. 308. Faelan Mac Faelain afterwards gave hostages to Strongbow : Song of Dermot, 1. 3216. He lived to 1203, when he died in the monastery of Connell founded by Meiler Fitz Henry : Four Masters, 1203. 330 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER first instance in which the Normans advanced beyond the bounds of Leinster and Meath, and Giraldus himself disdains to excuse the earl for countenancing it.^ Human nature being what it is, however, such encroachments are the inevitable result when a strong conquering and as yet united race gets a foothold among a weak, ill-knit congeries of tribes. If it was the first encroachment it was certainly not the last. Having collected their prey, the plunderers drove the cattle by the coast route to Waterford. The rest of their spoil they loaded in thirteen small vessels, some of which had come from Waterford, and others they had found in the port of Lismore itself. While they were waiting, apparently at Youghal haven, for a favourable breeze, a fleet of thirty-two ships from Cork, full of armed men under the command of Gil- bert, son of Turgerius,^ presumably an Ostman, Naval attacked them. A naval combat ensued, one of combat. . . the few recorded in Irish history. The Ostmen fought with stones (slings) and axes, the Nor- mans, under Adam de Hereford, with bows and arbalests.^ At length the men of Cork were 1 Gir. Camb. v. 382. 2 In the ' curia que f uit Gileberti filii Turgarii ' was situated the church of St. Nicholas, Cork : Reg. St. Thomas's, Dubhn,p.209. ^ ' Isti lapidibus et securibus acriter impetunt, illi vero tarn sagittis, quam laminis ferreis quibus abundabant, promptissime resistunt.' Laminae /err eae = quarrels. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 331 defeated and the Ostman leader slain, and the victorious fleet, increased in number by the captured vessels, sailed in triumph to Water- ford. -"^ Raymond himself was not present at this fight, but, hearing of it, he immediately hastened to the district with a small band of troops, and meeting Dermot MacCarthy, who had come with an army to aid the men of Cork, he put him to flight at Lismore, and brought back 4,000 head of cattle to Waterford. It was, perhaps, in consequence of this attack O'Brien on Lismore that Donnell O'Brien, King of against Thomond, and with pretensions to be King of bow.^^ Munster, now turned against Strongbow. As long as Strongbow confined his efforts to secur- ing for himself Dermot's kingdom of Leinster, Donnell in general supported him, but in face of this attack on his neighbour, Dermot Mac Carthy, he may well have suspected Strongbow' s ulterior aims, and thought that his own turn would come next. In any case, towards the close of 1173, in company with a battalion from the west of ^ Gir. Camb. v. 309. It is not quite clear in what partus the fight took place. In the Book of Howth and in Bray's Conquest of Ireland (Carew, Cal. Misc., pp. 67, 291) Dungar- van is supplied as the scene of the battle. This is a good deal more than sixteen miles, the stated distance, from Cork. Youghal harbour, connected with Lismore by the navigable Blackwater, suits the distance better, and was probably regarded as the port of Lismore. The plundering of Lismore is mentioned in the Annals of Tigemach. 332 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER Connaught headed by Conor Maenmoy, son of Rory 0' Conor, he led an expedition ' to attack the castle of Kilkenny and the foreigners who dwelt therein This is the first intimation we have that Strongbow had a castle in Kilkenny. Probably it was part of the agreement with Donnell Mac Gillapatrick that Strongbow should be allowed to erect and garrison a castle there. Like nearly all the early Anglo-Norman castles, it was probably a mote-castle, or an entrenched and stockaded mound of earth with a wooden tower on top. It was certainly not of any great strength, and at Donnell' s approach the garrison evacuated it and retreated to Waterf ord. Donnell then destroyed the place and plundered the district round about. ' That reduction,' adds the annalist, ' was a grief to the Foreigners of Ireland.' ^ Early in 1174 a new expedition was planned against Munster. The ever- victorious Raymond le Gros had returned to Wales in consequence of news he had received of the death of his father, William Fitz Gerald, and in his absence Hervey de Montmorency had once more been appointed constable. Hervey, we are told, now led the Ann. Tigernach (continuation), Ann. Inisfallen (Dublin MS.), 1173. That there was a mote at Kilkenny Castle as late as 1307 appears from an extent of the lands of Joan, Countess of Gloucester and Hertford (35 Ed. I, no. 47, m. 34). STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 333 earl and his household troops to Cashel. The object probably was to make a reprisal for O'Brien's attack on Kilkenny. Hearing, how- ever, that Rory 0' Conor was coming to help the men of Munster, the earl sent to Dublin for reinforcements. A strong band, consisting of the Ostmen of Dublin, led by some of the garri- son, immediately advanced to join the earl at Cashel. These reinforcements marched through Ossory to the neighbourhood of Thurles, where they encamped for the night. Next morning Ostman at dawn, Donnell O'Brien and Conor Maenmoy, off at Rory's son, who were fully informed by their J^}!74^'®^' scouts of these movements, surprised the Ostman force and after a sharp struggle utterly defeated them. Four hundred of the Ostmen (or, accord- ing to the older Irish annals, 700 foreigners) were slain, besides four Norman knights who led them. Outmanoeuvred and in great peril from the combination against him, the earl, when he heard of this misfortune, retreated in confusion to Waterford.^ ^ See the authorities collected in O'Donovan's note to Four Masters, 1174. There is, however, no such direct opposition between the brief entries in the older annals and the more detailed account given by Giraldus as O' Donovan intimates. In the Annals of Tigernach (followed with variations by the Four Masters) it seems indeed to be stated that the junction with the Dublin contingent had been effected before the battle. Even this is not quite certainly intended. But in any case the evidence of Gerald on such 334 STROXGBOW, LORD OF LEIXSTER Revolt of the Ostmen of Water- ford. strong - bow seeks aid from Ray- mond. This was the first serious check the earFs arms had received, and though the victors returned home and did not follow up their success, the news of the mishap, we are told, was the signal for a rising of all Ireland against the English.^ So far as appears, however, there was no rising in Leinster ; but the Ostmen of Waterf ord and Wexford, no doubt on hearing of the calamity which had befallen their kinsfolk of Dublin, became disaffected, and this disaffection, in Waterford at any rate, ' where the earl was as one besieged,' was very serious, and after- wards broke out in open revolt. By the rising of all Ireland against the EngUsh we must under- stand the gathering of the clans of Ulster and Connaught, who were now being summoned by Rory for a hosting into Meath. In these straits the earl sent a message to Raymond in Wales promising that he would give him his sister BasiHa in marriage and the constableship of Leinster, as he had formerly asked, and urging him to come to his aid with a a point is preferable. His bias, moreover, would have been to exaggerate, not to minimize, the mishap, which occurred under Hervey's command, so as to give the greater glory to Raymond, who soon, restored the position, and there are not wanting indications that he does exaggerate the evil pHght of the earl. ^ Gerald's language (p. 311) is very emphatic and obviously exaggerated : ' casus istius occasione totus totius Hibemiae populus in Anglos unanimiter insurgunt.' STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 335 strong force. Raymond, along with Meiler Fitz Henry and others of his kinsmen, immediately collected a force of thirty knights, 100 horse- soldiers, and 300 archers on foot, and conveyed them to Wexford in fifteen ships. They arrived just in time to quell a mutiny of the Ostmen here, and then set out to relieve Strongbow. It appears that the earl was at this time on an island in the Suir, near Waterford, now known as the Little Island, but then called Inis Teimle or Inis Doimhle, and that here Raymond came to meet him, and conducted him to Wexford.^ Raymond appears to have been unable to enter Waterford. The governor of the town, called Fretellus by Giraldus, endeavoured to follow the earl, but was slain with some of his com- panions by the Ostmen whom he had employed to convey him down the river in a boat. Having done this treacherous deed, the Ostmen returned to Waterford and excited a revolt, in which all 1 Gir. Camb. v. 311-12. Song of Dermot, 11. 2994- 3031, where the meeting -place of the earl and Raymond is called iddle de Instepheni. The DubUn copy of the Annals of Inisf alien state that the men of Waterford, on hearing of the defeat of Thurles, ' killed the two hundred who were guarding the town. Then the earl went on an island near the town and remained there a month, and then went back again to Dublin' : Four Masters, 1174, note. According to the Song, Raymond landed with only ' three ships', another indication of probable exaggeration in Gerald's account. 336 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER the English who could be found in the open spaces and houses of the town were slaughtered, without regard to age or sex. The garrison in Reginald's Tower, however, succeeded in holding the town and quelling the mutiny. The Ostmen, except the leaders of the revolt, were pardoned, but were henceforth distrusted and reduced in status.^ Marriage The nuptials of Raymond and Basilia were now raondand Celebrated in Wexford, and on the following Basiha. Raymond set out, accompanied by his brother-in-law, to the relief of Hugh de Lacy's barons in Meath, whose territory at this moment was being raided by a huge army under Rory O'Conor. Hosting The Irish annals do not mention this hosting O'Conor of Rory O'Conor into Meath. Indeed, if we Meath. depended solely on Irish sources of information we should know very little about the doings of the Normans during the early years of the in- vasion, and especially during the three years 1 This seems to be the meaning of Gerald's words : ' denuo proditores ad pacem cum deteriore tarn opinione quam con- ditione sunt reversi ' (p. 313). This reduction in status was perhaps the real historical foundation for the curious finding of the jury entered in the Plea Roll of the 4th Edward II (see Fac. Nat. MSS. of Ireland, vol. iii, In trod, vi, pi. vii, and App. iii). At least the historical statement there made is not borne out by anything we know, and seems very improbable. It was probably in consequence of this revolt that the Ostmen were removed from Waterford and settled in the villa Ostmannorum. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 337 that followed Henry's visit to Ireland. With the exception of the killing of O'Rourke and the battle of Thurles, they hardly mention anything bearing on the fortunes of the invaders during these three years. From the Irish annals, however, we learn that Donnell Bregach O'Me- laghlin, who in 1170 had turned against O'Conor and O'Rourke and given hostages to Dermot, and who had probably accepted the new regime, was killed in 1173 by his half-brother. Art O'Melaghlin, and that Art succeeded him in West Meath, while the kingdom of East Meath appears to have been assumed by Manus O'Melaghlin. Probably it was to assist these princes against the encroachments of the Nor- mans, who were already beginning to build castles in Meath, that Rory now crossed the Shannon with a formidable army. The Song of Dermot gives us several interesting particulars about this hosting.^ In the first place, it shows that the hosting was on a very large scale, and consisted of contingents from all the principal tribes of Connaught and Ulster. It gives a list of the chieftains who joined in it, which must have been supplied by a contem- ^ 11. 3222-341. The account there given is not connected with the return and marriage of Raymond and his rescue of Strongbow — the sequence is interrupted by a long detailed account of the sub-infeudation of Leinster and Meath — but it evidently refers to the hosting mentioned by Giraldus, pp. 311, 313. 821379.1 Y 338 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER porary Irish authority.^ In the next place, we find there an authoritative contemporary descrip- tion of the kind of castle erected by Hugh de Lacy at Trim, which, taken together with a similar description of the castle built by Richard le Fleming at Slane, has led to a fresh examina- tion of the subject, and an entire revision of our ideas as to the type of the castles erected in Ireland by the first Anglo-Norman settlers. The first We are told that Hugh de Lacy ' fortified a Trim. house at Trim, and threw a fosse around it, and then enclosed it with a herisson or stockaded rampart.^ He then placed a garrison in the house (meysun), appointed Hugh Tyrrell warden of the castle (chastel), and left for England. Rory 0' Conor chose his time well for a last effort to oust the foreigners from Meath. Hugh de Lacy was away with the king in 1 Ibid., 11. 3238-59. The list includes, besides the Connaught princes, the kings of Meath, Breffny, Uriel, Uladh, the Cinel OWen, and the Cinel Connell — the whole of Leth CJuinn, in short. [Corrigenda in the notes to this passage : Oharthire, probably O'hEghra (O'Hara) ; PoUilethhan, i.e. Poll tighe Liabhain, a place in O'Shaughnessy's country : Keating's Hist. (I. T. S.), vol. ii, p. 324. Macgarragan, Mac Carrghamhna, lord of Muintir Maoilsionna (in Westmeath) : Topogr. Poems, p. 12.] 2 A Trym ferma une meisun, E fosse jeta envirun, E pus I'enclost de hireson. Song, U. 3223-5. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 339 Normandy/ Strongbow was only just emerging from his difficulties in Leinster, and the barons of Meath could expect no help from the depleted and disheartened garrison of Dublin. On hearing of the gathering of the clans against him, Hugh Tyrrell sent a messenger in haste to seek succour from the earl, and the earl immediately assembled the host of Leinster and marched to Trim. But he arrived too late. The Irish were before him. Hugh Tyrrell, from lack of support; had evacuated the castle, and Evacu- when the Irish came it was empty. Thereupon Hugh^^ ' they threw down the mote and levelled it even ^y^^^^^- with the ground, but first of all they put the house to flames '.^ The Irish had departed before the earl arrived, and he found neither house nor cabin, big or little, to shelter him for the night in Trim. Straightway he mounted horse, pursued the retreating host, and came up with their rear. The Irish had no armour, and could not stand the charge of the Norman chivalry. But they scattered in every direction, and their pursuers only succeeded in cutting off ^ Hugh de Lacy appears to have been with the king at Rouen about December 1174, and at Valognes in April 1175 : Eyton's Itin., pp. 187, 189. 2 La mot[e] firent degeter, Desque a la tere tut verser, E la meysun tut premer De fu ardant estenceler. Song, 11. 3300-3. Y2 340 STROXGBOW. LORD OF LEIXSTER a few. The earl then retvixned to Dubhn, and Hugh TTrrell re-fortified his fortress {jorcekMe). Type of This castle, then, was not a strono: structure of castle at ^ Trim. stone and mortar such as we are accustomed to associate with the term ' castle but consisted simply of a wooden house or rather tower {turns lignea or hretesche) placed on the summit of an artificial mound or hillock of earth (mote, Latin mota), and surrounded at the base by a fosse and an earthen rampart bearing a stockade. And at Similarly at Slane, on the northern bank of the Bov::e between Xavan and Drogheda. where Hu^:. Lie Lacy gave twenty knights' fees to Richard le Fleminc:. the Sonj: savs that Richard ' raised a mote in order to harass his enemies ' } It then describes an attack by the Lrish. the defence and ultimate destruction of the * mey- son ', and the slaughter of its garrison. It is plain that this castle, Hke that at Trim, consisted of a wooden house or tower on a mote. At Slane, on the top of the hill near : : r : ieiit monastery, the mote still exists. A: Tri::: the re-erected mote was ^ r levelled when the great twenty-sided donjon :i::d extensive court- yard, the ruins of which are among the nnest in Ireland, were constructed. Motes, or lortined hillocks of earth wholly : : : vitly artificial, are 1 Un[e] mot ]ej nst cil jeter Pur ses eneniis grever. Song, U. 317S-9. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 341 found in considerable numbers in Ireland, but Motes the only in places to which the Normans are known works to have penetrated at an early stage of the inva- Gorman sion. Indeed, nearly every undoubted example castles, can be shown to be either at a known castle- site, or actually connected with subsequent castle buildings, or, where no early castle is men- tioned or can be detected, at what appears to have been the seat of an early Norman manor. They are usually from about twenty to forty feet in height, with very steep sides, and with a flat space on the summit from about thirty to a hundred feet across. At the base of the mote, and separated from it by its encircling ditch, is frequently found an enclosure (bawn, bailey, or courtyard), sometimes also artificially or natur- ally raised, and varying in shape and size and defences with the configuration of the ground or the needs of the builder. If not sufficiently protected by the natural or artificial steepness of the ground outside, this enclosure is usually guarded by an earthen rampart and outer ditch, the latter generally communicating with the ditch round the mote, and the whole fortress is some- times surrounded by an additional outer rampart. We have only to imagine one of the motes Wooden defences bearing on its flat summit a loop-holed and battle- mented tower of wood, and girt round its upper edge by a stout palisade, and the earthen ram- parts below similarly bearing wooden defences 342 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER and enclosing the buildings in the bailey, to obtain a picture of the type of castle first erected by the Normans in Ireland. But indeed the picture has been already drawn for us on the Bayeux Tapestry a century before the time of which we write, when castles of the same type were erected by the same race in somewhat similar conditions in England. The tower on high, the forerunner of the donjon keep, was connected with the bailey either by a light plank bridge of steps spanning the ditch at a steep incline, or by a stepped way borne by the inner rampart of the bailey, which in this case was carried across the ditch and up the slope of the mote. Partly by documentary evidence, but mainly by evidence of an archaeological nature, this type of castle has been shown to have been almost universally adopted by the first Norman invaders of Ireland. Except in the case of ' promontory fortresses such as those already described at Baginbun and Carrick on Slaney, where a mote would not be required, and indeed would be difficult to erect, and in a few cases where an isolated rock formed a ready-made substitute, a mote, as above described, has been proved to exist, or to have formerly existed, at nearly every known early castle site.^ ^ The writer has examined this subject and adduced evidence to the above effect in the following papers : ' Mote STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 343 Such a castle required little skilled labour, and only materials easy to obtain, but when com- pleted it would afford a sure refuge in case of a sudden attack, and from the high-placed tower a handful of archers could keep an unarmoured host for some time at bay. The wooden materials, however, were liable to be burnt, if the attackers were numerous enough and suffi- ciently daring to get near. Hence we often read of the burning of these early castles, and as often of their rapid reconstruction. Gradually, and as opportunity occurred, the woodwork was in many cases replaced by stone towers and stone walls, but the original plan was in general substantially retained. The passage summarized above from the Song of Dermot indicates further how it was that the Irish, in spite of their vast superiority in num- bers, and even when united, could not hold their country against the invaders, and how it was that the invaders, on the other hand, failed to make and Bretesche Building in Ireland,' Eng. Hist. Rev., 1906, pp. 417^4 ; ' Motes and Norman Castles in Ireland,' ibid. 1907, pp. 228-54 and 440-67 ; ' Motes and Norman Castles in Ireland,' Joum. Roy. Soc. Antiquaries, Ireland, 1907, pp. 123-52 ; ' Motes and Norman Castles in County Louth,' ibid. 1908, pp. 241-69 ; ' Motes and Norman Castles in Ossory,' ibid. 1909, pp. 313^2 ; also in monographs on the mote-castles of Foderedunolan, Athlone, Newcastle Mackynegan, Castlekevin, Killeedy, Shanid, Knockgraffon, Street, Ardowlan and Castlelost. And see Map, m/ra, vol. ii. 344 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER their conquest complete. Without armour and with inferior weapons and discipline, the Irish, however numerous and however brave, could not face the death-dealing bolts of the crossbowmen or the charge of ironclad knights in the open field. They could only make a raid, bum, plunder, and retreat. The Xormans, on the other hand, even if they overtook the retreating forces, could not adequately punish a foe that immediately dispersed among the woods and morasses. Reprisals Xext vcar (1175) the Normans appear to have been active m Meath m making reprisals on the chieftains who took part in the hosting of the previous year. Thus we learn that they hanged Manus O'Melaghhn at Trim.^ Probably he was tried and condemned as a traitor for the part he had played. They plundered Clonard and Dur- row, and made raids into the territories of certain chieftains in West Meath who appear to have joined in Rory's hosting.^ Indeed, the whole country from Athlone to Drogheda is said to have been laid waste by them.^ Besides re- building the castles of Trim and Duleek, they ^ Ann. Tigemach, Four Masters, 1175. Art O'Melaghlin, on the other hand, appears to have been left in possession of West Meath or part of it. Three 3'ears later the Xormans aided him in maintaining his position : ibid. 1178. 2 e.g. the Muintir Mail Sinna, whose chieftain, Mac Carrghamhna, is mentioned in the Song (1. 3255) mider the form Macgarragan. ^ Ann. Tigemach, 1175. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 345 erected castles at other places. From about this period we may date the complete occupation of East Meath and probably of part of West Meath as well. Rory O' Conor did not make any effort this year to interrupt the re-settlement of Meath. As we shall see, he was now prepared to accept the domination of the foreigners both in Leinster and in Meath, and in the autumn was related to them by way of alliance and not of hostility. About the 1st of October 1175 an expedition Expedi- was organized by Raymond against Donnell Limerick. O'Brien, King of Thomond. Strongbow must ^^^.1175. have desired to avenge the defeat at Thurles in the previous year, and may have authorized the expedition, but Raymond the constable was in sole command, and the earl himself appears to have been absent in England.^ According to our best and most explicit Irish authority for the period, this seemingly rash expedition was undertaken ' at the invitation of Rory 0' Conor, At King of Ireland,' and Raymond was assisted by invita- the Connaughtmen, who ' burnt the greater part ^ Giraldus, v. 321, gives the day of the month, and the Irish annals supply the year. If the date thus arrived at, October 1, 1175, be correct, it would seem that the earl was absent from Ireland, for Richard de Striguil was a witness to two of Henry's charters dated at Marlborough and Feckenham in this year, and the Marlborough charter, at any rate, seems to have been correctly placed in October 1175 ; Eyton's Itin., p. 196, but cf. Feudal England, p. 510. 346 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER of Thomond '.^ This action of the ard-ri may at first sight seem improbable, but there is really no reason why we should doubt its occurrence. It was indeed in exact accordance with a pro- vision in the Treaty of Windsor, just at this time being signed. We have; moreover, repeated ex- amples of the kings of Connaught, of Thomond, and of Desmond, as well as those of subordinate districts, seeking aid from the Norman knights to subdue their enemies both within and without their borders. Rory's invitation, more- over, throws much light on the situation and explains much. It detracts somewhat from the hazardous nature of the expedition, and from ^ Ann. Tigemach, 1 175. The whole entry is thus rendered by Stokes : ' A hosting by Ruaidri Hua Conchobair into Thomond, and he banished Domnall Hua Briain into Ormond, and gave the kingship of Thomond to the son of Murchad Hua Briain to his own mother's son. At the invitation of the King of Ireland, Ruaidri Hua Gonchobair, the Foreigners of Dublin and Waterford and Domnall Hua Gillapatraic, King of Ossory, came to Limerick, without being perceived by the Dal Cais, and plundered Limerick ; and on this expedition the Connaughtmen burnt the greater part of Thomond.' The entry in the Four Masters, rendered in the same phraseology, would run as follows : ' A hosting by R. O'C. king of Ireland into Munster and he banished D. O'B. from Thomond, and on that expedition he greatly wasted the country.' It looks as if the Four Masters had adapted the commencement and the end of the entry in the earlier annals, while omitting all reference to the EngUsh ; and yet, except as regards Rory's invitation, we have ample corroboration of the part omitted. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 347 Raymond's glory, and therefore perhaps was not mentioned by the writers on the Norman side. But it shows that Raymond had not to fear the combination which wrecked Hervey's attempt, and indeed, as the event proved, had only the Ostmen of Limerick to contend with. The preceding paragraph in the Annals of Tigernach states that Rory 0' Conor made a hosting into Thomond, and banished Donnell O'Brien, and gave the kingdom to the son of Murrough O'Brien, his own mother's son.^ The immediate occasion of this expulsion may have been the violent conduct of Donnell O'Brien, who earlier in the year had blinded Dermot, son of Teig O'Brien, and Mahon, son of Turlough O'Brien, both of whom were descended from senior branches of the house. But this was by no means an unusual precaution to take, and, as Rory's own hands were not clean in this respect, it is perhaps more probable that his animosity was aroused by the killing of his kinsman, the son of Lethderg O' Conor, effected by O'Brien on the same day. At any rate, the hereditary feud between the 1 In Four Masters, 1168, it is stated that Murtough (then slain), son of Turlough O'Brien (ob. 1167), was son of Rory O'Conor's mother. This seems to indicate that at one time Turlough O'Brien had to wife the same lady as at some other time was wife of his great enemy, Turlough O'Conor (ob. 1156). The above Murrough must have been brother to Murtough. Rory O'Conor was imprisoned by his father as early as 1136 and again in 1143. 348 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 0' Conors and the O'Briens was repeatedly breaking out, and contributed in no small degree to the ultimate loss of both kingdoms. The cap- Raymond's expedition, then, was undertaken Limerick, in favourable circumstances. His force con- sisted of 120 knights, 300 mounted archers, and 400 on foot. They assembled in Ossory, where O'Brien's old enemy, Donnell Mac Gillapatrick, undertook to guide them to Limerick. They reached the city in safety, but it ' was surrounded by a river, a wall, and a fosse, so that no man could pass over except by a treacherous ford'. As Gerald recounts the story, the honours of the day were all with his kinsfolk, but indeed he is substantially supported by the Song. First of all, David of Wales, a nephew of Raymond, without waiting for orders from his uncle, who was in the rear, rode his horse into the stream, and, crossing obliquely, was carried safely over. As, however, only one man followed him, the two proceeded to return, when his unfortunate follower was swept away by the impetuosity of the current. Next Meiler Fitz Henry outdid his kinsman's exploit by riding across and holding his ground on the other side in spite of enemies on the bank and missiles showered on him from the walls of the town. Attracted by the shouts, Raymond now came up, and, seeing Meiler' s peril, animated his men to essay the ford. Then plunging into the stream he led the whole force STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 349 across without much loss, stormed the walls, and captured the town. ' It was a glorious vic- tory,' and called forth a rhapsody from Gerald, but, like many another, it led to nothing. For the moment, however, all went well. Raymond provisioned and garrisoned the town, and having placed it in the custody of his cousin, Milo Fitz David, he returned with the rest of his force to Leinster.^ While Raymond was conducting this brilliant l^rf^^^^^ ^ ® Windsor, expedition to Limerick, Rory 0' Conor was send- Oct. 6, ing envoys to Henry to arrange a treaty of peace. These envoys were Catholicus, Archbishop of Tuam, Canthordis, Abbot of St. Brandon, and Master Laurence, described as chancellor of the King of Connaught. They found the king at Windsor, where, on the 6th of October 1175, in the presence of the council and of Laurence 0' Toole, Archbishop of Dublin, the treaty was signed. By this treaty Henry ' granted to Rory, his liege man. King of Connaught, as long as he should faithfully serve him, that he should be king under him, prepared to do him service as his vassal ; and that he should hold his land (of Connaught) well and peaceably, as he held it before his lord the King of England entered Ireland, rendering to him tribute '. As to the rest of the land and its inhabitants, Rory was to 1 Gir. Camb. v. 320-3, 326 ; Song of Dermot, 1. 3370 ad finem. 350 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER be overlord, and was to enforce the payment of tribute and due obedience to the EngUsh Crown, and for this purpose, if necessary, to call for the assistance of the king's constable and troops ; and the annual tribute to be paid as well for Connaught as for the rest of the land was to be the tenth merchantable hide. The treaty was, however, subject to this proviso, that Rory was not to interfere with the lands which the king retained in his dominion and in the dominion of his barons, namely Dublin, Meath, ' as fully as Murrough O'Melaghlin held it,' Wexford with the whole of Leinster, and Waterford with all the land between it and Dungarvan. The Irish who had fled were to return to the land of the king's barons in peace, and, at the will of their lords, either pay tribute or perform their accustomed services for their lands ; and if any refused, Rory, at the requisition of their lords, was to compel them to return. And the King of Connaught was to take hostages from all who were committed to him, and to give hostages to the King of England.^ ^ Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 101-3 ; Rog. Howden, vol. i, pp. 83, 84. It is probable that Strongbow had been sum- moned to the king with reference to this treaty. He was in the king's entourage at ^larlborough, apparently in this month. See note, p. 345, supra. At this council Henry appointed Augustin, an Irishman, to the vacant see of Waterford, and sent him to Ireland with the archbishops of Dublin and Cashel to be consecrated : ibid. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 351 How little we can trust references in the Irish Irish Annals to political dealings between England and Ireland may be exemplified by the only ac- count of this treaty preserved by them. ' Cadla O'Duffy (Catholicus, Archbishop of Tuam) came out of England from the Son of the Empress, having with him the peace of Ireland and the kingship thereof, both Foreigner and Gael, to Rory O' Conor, and to every provincial king his province from the King of Ireland, and their tributes to Rory.' ^ Had the text of the treaty not been preserved, what should we make of this extraordinary account ? But this treaty was not workable. It was The ostensibly based on the supposition that Rory umvOTk- O' Conor was a king in Ireland in the same sense that Henry was a king throughout his domi- nions across the water, able to rule and enforce obedience to his mandates. But we cannot imagine Rory 0' Conor collecting tribute for the Saxon king from the chieftains of Ulster or from Donnell O'Brien, with whom he was at this moment at war, and restraining them from rebellion and disloyalty to the English Crown! Probably the endeavour to collect tribute for this purpose from his own subordinate chieftains Ann. Tigemach, 1175. This entry is repeated in the Dublin copy of the Annals of Inisf alien. The other annals, including the Four Masters, take no notice of the treaty whatsoever. 352 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER in Connaught was the cause of his subsequent unpopularity.^ As the next few years showed, Rory was not able to enforce obedience to himself even from his own sons.^ If any attempt was to be made to enforce the terms of this treaty, assuredly the king's constable and the king's troops would have to be repeatedly requisitioned. Raymond, though a successful general, and the darling of his soldiers, had an enemy at home. Hervey de Montmorency, we are told, though he had recently allied himseK with the Geraldines by marrying Nesta, daughter of Maurice Fitz Gerald, actuated by envy and malice, sent messengers to Henry, asserting that Raymond was designing to secure not only Limerick, but all Ireland, for himself and his friends.^ It is probable that Henry did not approve of Ray- mond's aggressive methods, which were sure to lead to disturbances. At any rate, early next ^ That he did collect some tribute from Connaught ap- pears from the statement in the Annals of Loch Ce, 1186, that it was to Hugh de Lacy the tribute of Connaught was paid. 2 In 1177 Rory O'Conor's son, Murrough, brought Miles de Cogan and his knights to Roscommon 'to spoil Con- naught through hatred of his father '. The Connaughtmen, however, laid waste the country before the invaders and eventually drove them out : Ann. Ulster. This rebeUion was unsuccessful, and Murrough was bhnded by his father. Ten years later, however, as we shaU see, Conor Mainmoy, another son, succeeded in expelling his father and ruling in his stead. ^ Gir. Camb., p. 327. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 353 year (1176) he sent four commissioners to recall Raymond, two of whom were to return with him, and the other two to stay in Ireland with the earl.^ Raymond was ready to obey the king's sum- Relief of mons when mtelHgence came from the garrison April he had left at Limerick that Donnell O'Brien with a large army was blockading the town, and that as their provisions were exhausted during the winter they were in need of immediate succour. The earl's troops refused to move with- out their favourite commander, so Raymond, with the approval of the king's commissioners, once more turned his standard towards Limerick. This time, in addition to his own band of 80 men-at-arms, 200 retainers, and 300 archers, he had with him some Irish contingents under Murtough Mac Murrough of Okinselagh and Don- nell Mac Gillapatrick of Ossory, both of whom had definitively thrown in their lot with the invaders.^ When on his way towards Cashel Raymond learnt that the men of Thomond had raised the siege of Limerick and had come to oppose him at ' the pass of Cashel '. The natural difficulties of this pass had been 1 Gir. Camb., p. 328. Their names were Robert Poer, Osbert de Herlotera, William de Bendinges, and Adam de Gernemes (?) (perhaps * Gememue Eyton's Itin.). 2 Donnell of Ossory and Donnell of Thomond were bitter foes. In the preceding year the son of the former was treacherously slain by the latter : Four Masters, 1175, 821379.1 2 354 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER increased in the usual Celtic manner by felling trees, digging ditches, and running a strong barricade across it. Raymond divided his little band into three squadrons, and Donnell of Ossory, seeing how few they were, though well armed, warned them that unless they were vic- torious his Irish troops could not be trusted not to turn upon them. ' For we Irishmen,' he said, ' ever side with the winners, and fall upon those who flee.' Then Meiler, who led the first squadron, threw himself with his men like a mighty whirlwind into the pass, tore down the barricade, and clove a path with the sword through all who resisted him. This was on Easter Eve (April 3). On the following Tuesday the triumphant force entered Limerick.^ Parley Raymond stayed at Limerick to repair the O'Conor damage sustained during the siege, and shortly O'Brien, afterwards met Rory O'Conor and Donnell O'Brien in a parley, on the same day, but not in the same place. These two kings, it seems, were not yet at peace with one another. Rory had a fleet on Lough Derg, and at the close of the last year had laid Ormond waste and exacted hostages from the O'Briens of that district.^ Now he came down Lough Derg in one of his ^ Gir. Camb. v. 329-30. Raymond approached Ldmerick via Cashel probably because he had joined Donnell Mac Gillapatrick somewhere in Ossory. 2 Ann. Tigemach, 1175. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 355 ships, and anchored near the lower end of the lake. Donnell encamped not far off on the western side of the river, on the skirts of a wood. Raymond took up his position between the two, a little north of Killaloe. A long three-cornered parley followed, which resulted in both princes giving hostages and solemnly swearing to be faithful in future to the English king.^ The Irish annals are silent about Raymond's inter- vention between the two kings, but they state that about this time Donnell made peace with Rory, and gave him hostages.^ Raymond was, no doubt, acting under directions given him by Henry's commissioners, and he seems to have been actually carrying out the terms of the Treaty of Windsor, by which the King of Con- naught was to receive hostages from all who were committed to him, and himself to give hostages to the King of England. When Raymond returned with his hostages Mac to Limerick, he received envoys from Dermot seeks aid Mac Carthy, King of Desmond, imploring aid, as Raymond, a liege vassal of the King of England, against his eldest son, Cormac Liathanach, who had de- prived him of his kingdom and thrown him into prison, and promising large gifts to Raymond as well as pay to his troops. Raymond accord- ingly led his victorious standards towards Cork, and by his aid Dermot Mac Carthy recovered 1 Giraldus, p. 331. 2 Ann. Tigemach, 1176. Z2 356 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER his kingdom.^ Thus were the forces of the crown from time to time requisitioned, but in this case not exactly as proposed by the Treaty of Windsor. News of In the midst of these triumphs came the Strong- alarming news that Strongbow was dead. In conveying this inteUigence to Raymond, great precautions were taken lest it should get abroad. The messenger, himself ignorant of its contents, bore a letter from Basilia con- taining this enigmatic sentence : ' The great jaw tooth which has troubled me so much has just dropped out. Wherefore, if thou hast any regard for me or even for thyself, delay not thy return.' This letter was privately read to Raymond by a clerk of his household, and Raymond, though he probably could not read, was shrewd enough to guess that the falling out of the tooth signified the death of the earl, who he knew was suffering from a serious illness. He had, in fact, died from blood-poisoning of the foot about the end of May,^ but from fear of a rising among the Irish ever\i:hing was done to conceal the fact until Raymond's return with his 1 Giraldus, p. 331 ; cf. Ann. Tigemach, 1176 (followed by the Four Masters), where, however, Raymond is not mentioned. - Ralph de Diceto, vol. i, p. 407, says April 5 ; Giraldus (p. 332) says 'circa Kalendas Junii', and this is probably more correct. Wilham Fitz Audelin was with the king up to the end of May : Eyton's Itin., pp. 203-4. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 357 troops. In this emergency Raymond hastened back to Limerick, and took counsel with the most discreet of his household. It was agreed that in view of the earl's death, and Raymond's imminent departure for England, it would be necessary to give up for the present the attempt to hold a town so remote and so surrounded by enemies as Limerick, and withdraw the whole force to protect the coast-towns and the castles Evacua- of Leinster. As a last resource, then, Raymond Limerick, committed the custody of the town to Donnell O'Brien, as though to a baron of his lord the King of the English, and Donnell gave fresh hostages and took new oaths to preserve the town uninjured, to restore it at the king's com- mand, and to keep the peace. Nevertheless, the garrison had hardly evacuated the place when Donnell broke down the bridge and fired the town.^ Never again, if he could help it, would the old Danish walls afford protection to foreigners ! O'Brien may have been false to his repeated oaths of fealty, but he grimly held to this resolve, and, while he lived, never again did the English hold the city of Limerick. When Henry heard the whole story he is reported to have said, with insight at once generous and sound : , ' Brilliant was the assault of Limerick, more brilliant still its relief, but only in its evacuation was there wisdom.' 1 Gir. Camb. v. 332-3. 358 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER When Raymond and his men reached DubHn, Richard of Striguil was buried in the church of the Holy Trinity, and Archbishop Laurence O'Toole performed the obsequies with due solemnity. Strong- As far as we can judge from the somewhat bows . T . 1 • 1 1 r death a scanty indications which the facts as known to irdaml. ^s afford, the untimely death of the Earl of Striguil was a real misfortune, not only for the Anglo-Norman colony, but for Ireland. If Ireland was to benefit by Norman rule and Norman organization, and by the higher civiliza- tion and greater industrial energy of the new colonists, there was needed a man whom the other colonists would recognize as being, by birth, antecedents, and abilities, their natural superior. It was not a soldier that was wanted, nor even a general capable of conducting extensive mili- tary operations, but a statesman actuated by the single purpose of making the Norman rule a success. Richard de Clare came of an illustrious house, had thrown in his lot with Ireland, had wedded an Irish wife, and his whole future depended on the success of his undertaking. It was not so with the court-official who followed him. Moreover, to judge by the earl's success in winning over most of the chieftains of Leinster to acquiesce in the Norman settlement, which he did (after showing his strength) more by per- suasion and reasonable treatment than by the STRONGBOW, LORD OP LEINSTER 359 sword,^ he was the man best fitted to carry on the work of pacification. This, it is scarcely needful to say, was not the opinion of the native annalists. Their feeling towards Strongbow is plain from their ascribing his death to ' the miracles of Brigit and Colum- cille and the other saints whose churches he had destroyed.' But the native annalists not un- naturally fathered on Strongbow the evils which they deemed to have arisen from the English intervention in general. To him personally they do not ascribe any act of treachery or bad faith, or even of unusual severity, and with the exception of the revolt of the Ostmen of Water- ford, Leinster, under his rule when viceroy and for many years afterwards, appears to have been quiet and prosperous. The fine monument consisting of the recum- Strong- bent effigy of a mail-clad knight still existing tomb, in the cathedral of the Holy Trinity (or, as it is commonly called, Christ Church), and known as Strongbow's Tomb, was not originally erected to Strongbow. An ancient inscription inserted ^ Thus Murtough McMuirough and Donnell Kavanagh of Okinselagh, Donnell Mc Gillapatrick of Ossory, and Donnell Mc Gillamocholmog of the vale of Dublin, all seem to have had territory given to them and to have acquiesced in the Anglo-Norman settlement. See too the Hst of Leinster chieftains stated in the Song (11. 3208-21) to have given hostages to Strongbow and to have been on his side. O'Toole is the only important king not mentioned. 360 STROXGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER in the wall of the south aisle records the fact that the original monument was broken by the fall of the roof and body of Christ Church in the year 1562, and though the inscription goes on to state that the monument was set up again in 1570 by Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland, there can be little doubt that the effigy of another knight was substituted for that of Strongbow. The existing effigy was never broken, and the arms exhibited on the shield are not those of the de Clares.^ It appears that it was customary to provide in legal documents for the payment at Strongbow' s tomb of moneys due, and therefore, lest debtors should go free and the bonds of society be broken, it was necessary to provide for the continued existence of the tombstone. Beside this tombstone is a smaller one, which as long ago as 1584 was described as the effigy of a youth cut in two and supporting his entrails with both his hands. About it a foolish legend is told that it represents Strongbow's son, who, it is said, was cut in two by his enraged 1 This appears to have been first noticed by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in his Tour in Ireland 1806, p. 14, note, where he describes the arms on the monument as ' Argent, on a chief azure, three crosses crosslets fitchee of the field while the arms of the de Clares were Gules, three chevronels or. On the seal of Strongbow's grant of Aghaboe the knight bears a shield with a field chevronee, from which the three chevronels of de Clare are supposed by Boutell to have been derived. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 361 father for showing cowardice in the face of the foe.^ The story is purely apocryphal, and probably owes its origin to a misconception of the design of the monument. In the writer's opinion the figure is that of a kneeling lady holding up the folds of her robe with her two hands and wearing a wimple round her face. It should be placed upright, and probably formed part of the side of a sepulchral monument, whether Strongbow's or another's. In a quite legitimate sense, however, we may regard Christ Church itself as a memorial of ^^"st . 1 p 1 • Church a btrongbow. It is true that the fabric was memorial probably not completed until half a century bowf^"^ after his death, and that in the course of the long years that have rolled over its head it has suffered from many disastrous accidents and changes until in our own days it was completely restored on the original lines through the munificence of a Dublin citizen ; yet there is reason to think that it was commenced under the auspices of Strongbow when viceroy in Dublin ; and, even if this cannot be demon- strated, it was certainly among the first of the many splendid fanes which owed their origin to the energy, taste, and munificence of the Anglo-Norman colony of which Strongbow was the pioneer and chief. ^ By Richard Stanihurst, De rebus in Hibemia gestis (Antwerp, 1584), pp. 171-3. 362 STROXGBOW, LORD OF LEIXSTER The first foundation of a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity on the same site must indeed be ascribed to a much earlier time. It was certainly in existence when the Xormans came, and had been richly endowed both by Irish kings of Leinster and by Scandinavian lords of DubUn.^ A late, and in some respects clearly legendary, account of its origin is given in an entry in the Black Book of Christ Church.^ The foundation is there ascribed to ' Sitruic, son of Ableb ', meaning thereby Sitric, son of Olaf, who was lord of Dublin at the time of the battle of Clontarf. No part of this building, however, remains. Certain architectural features in the crypt, which runs under the whole building except the western bay of the nave, are pro- nounced by the competent authority of Mr. Street, the architect employed at the recent restoration, to be at the earUest of very late Romanesque character, or of about the end of the twelfth century ; and though these features ^ See the confirmation grant by Laurence, Archbishop of DubUn, c. 1178, Cal. Christ Church Deeds, Xo. 364 (a), and that by King John, Mar. 6, 1201, ibid., No. 364 (c), and Chart. Priv. et Immun., p. 12. From the latter we learn that gifts were made to the church by the following kings of Leinster : Donchad m. Domnail Remair, si. 1089, F. M. ; Enna MacDonchada, ob. 1126, F. M. ; and Diarmaid Mac Murchada, ob. 1171 ; as well as by Sitric son of Olaf and the sons of Thorkil. - Cal. Lib. Niger, Proc. R. I. A., xxvii (c), p. 69. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 363 do not appear in the eastern part, Mr. Street con- sidered that no long period elapsed between the commencement of the crypt and its completion. Whatever church existed on the site before the time of the English invasion was, he concludes, entirely removed in order to provide the neces- sary foundations for one on so large a scale. The choir and transepts were no doubt the first portions built above ground. The original choir was, however, replaced in the middle of the fourteenth century by a much longer structure. This was pulled down in 1871, and the present eastern termination built on what appears to have been the original lines. The form of the original choir was inferred from the plan of the crypt, which has a semicircular apse, round which the aisle is continued, and east of which are three small square-ended chapels, and with this the two western arches of the choir, which had not been disturbed, agreed. Now the entry in the Black Book before referred to (as calendared) goes on to state that Archbishop Laurence, Richard, Earl of Striguil, Robert Fitz Stephen, and Raymond le Gros, ' built the choir, with bells and two chapels, viz. of St. Edmund, king and martjn:,^ of St. Mary, called Alba, and ^ This dedication was probably suggested by the great victory near St. Edmunds on October 17, 1174, to which the royal troops, including Robert Fitz Stephen and many of the barons of Ireland, marched ' praef erentes sibi vexiUum 364 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER St. Laud, and gave St. Michael's church for the Mensa.' Taking this tradition in connexion with the architectural evidence, it is probable that while Strongbow was viceroy a commence- ment was made to rebuild the old Norse cathedral. The choir, bell tower (blown down in 1316), and two eastern chapels were first erected, and of course the crypt underneath this portion of the church. The transepts which still remain belong to the transitional period, and were probably built very little later. Early in the next century the nave, which is Early English in style, was erected — all except the western bay, which appears to have been built, ' in order to lengthen and enlarge the church,' after the year 1234.^ To restore the building as nearly as might be to its appearance at about this time was Mr. Street's professed aim, and, though he has not escaped criticism, the result is a small but beautiful structure with a continuity of existence from the days of Strongbow, and one of which all citizens of Beati Eadmundi regis et martyris ' : Gesta Hen. i. 61, and cf. Song of Dermot, 11. 2946-79, and ante, p. 327, note 1. This coincidence, which has hitherto escaped notice, seems to confirm the entry in the Black Book. Cf . note p. 366. 1 Rot. Pat. 18 Hen. Ill, m. 4. This record gives us the date of the final completion of the nave. The choir and transepts must have been completed in the early years of the Anglo-Norman occupation, perhaps about 1178, the probable date of Archbishop Laurence's confirmatory grant. STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER 365 Dublin who care for historical associations may be justly proud. Another foundation which may with even tir* greater confidence be ascribed to Strongbow, ^ku^! though no remains of it exist to-day, is the ^^^^^^'^ Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem at Kilmain- ham, close to Dublin, on the west. Strongbow's charter is, unfortunately, not forthcoming, but the early title of the Knights Hospitallers here, commencing with Strongbow's grant of all the land of Kilmainham, was established in some legal proceedings between them and the mayor and citizens of Dublin in the year 1261.^ The first prior of Kilmainham appears to have been Hugh de Clahull,^ probably brother of Strong- 1 Hist, and Mun. Docs, of Ireland (Gilbert), pp. 495-9. Mr. C. Litton Falkiner, in a paper on the hospital (Proc. R. I. A., vol. xxvi (c), pp. 275-317), has, however, fallen into error in supposing that in the proceedings of 1261 the jurors ' found that Strongbow's grant was made prior to Henry the Second's charter of 1172 '. The charter to which they refer as subsequent to the grant to Kilmainham was one granted by Henry III (' dominus rex nunc '), that is to say, the Dublin charter of 1229 (Hist, and Mun. Docs, of Ireland, pp. 89-90), confirming, inter alia, John's charter of 1200 (ibid., pp. 57-60), which conferred the liberties rehed on b}' the mayor. They also found that soon after Strongbow's grant Hugh Tyrel of Castleknock granted to the prior Kilmehauok (printed Kylmehanok), a place on the north side of the Liffey, opposite Ealmainham. - See list given by Mr. Falkiner, ubi supra, p. 316. and cf. Reg. St. Thomas's, pp. 370-1, where he is also called Hugh of Kilmainan. 366 STRONGBOW, LORD OF LEINSTER bow's marshal, John de ClahuU, and the third prior from about the year 1200 was Maurice de Prendergast.^ Though we cannot be quite sure, there seems to be no reason to doubt that he was the Maurice de Prendergast, one of the ' first conquerors ', of whom we have already heard much. The priors of Kilmainham sat as spiritual peers in the Irish parliament, and played an important part for upwards of three centuries in the civil and military history of Ireland. The site of the hospital was strategically important as an outpost of Dublin on its most vulnerable side. * St. Mary called Alba and St. Laud ' supra J p. 363. The anomalous entry in the Liber Niger as calendared, apparently recording the erection of two chapels to three separate saints, and the obscurity of the above dedications, led me to suspect that the second chapel was really dedi- cated to St. Mary of Alba Landa or Ty Gwyn, a Cistercian monastery at Whitland in Pembrokeshire, with which the invaders from South Wales must have been very famiUar. The Rev. Dr. Lawlor, editor of the Calendar, has now, at my request, kindly transcribed the whole entry (itself a transcript) for me. The critical passage runs thus : ' . , . f ecerunt chorum ecclesie metropoHtane cum campanili et duabus capellis viz. Sci Edmundi regis et martiris et [See or Bte] Marie que dicitur Alba et Sci Landi ' {sic). The spelling of this last name, which is quite distinct and is so printed by Dugdale (vi. 1148), confirms the suspicion that some scribe, when copying an earlier record, made two saints out of See Marie de Alba Landa. If de in the supposed original entry were misread dr = dicitur, the other changes would be almost consequential. CHAPTER XI THE SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER Having now reached the death of the earl Extent oi the sc^ttltj" whose name is indissolubly linked with the ment at conquest of Ireland, it will be useful to pause for a moment in our narrative and, so far as our limited vision permits, survey the nature and extent of the Anglo-Norman settlement in the country at this time. In spite of the occasional distant forays and expeditions we have noticed, this settlement, with the excep- tion of the Scandinavian towns of Dublin and Waterford and certain neighbouring districts reserved to the crown, was entirely confined to the limits of the ancient kingdoms of Leinster and Meath, that is to say, to the two great lordships of Richard de Striguil and Hugh de Lacy respec- tively. Indeed, at the date of the earl's death considerable portions of the districts indicated had not yet been parcelled out among ' the barons In the first place, then, certain lands were Lands appropriated or retained by the Crown. These to^the^^ included Dublin and the greater part of the county of Dublin, and the whole littoral from Bray to Arklow. Also the town of Waterford 368 SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER and the adjoining district as far at least as Dungarvan. The district near DubHn had probably been dominated by the Norsemen of Dublin, and at any rate appears to have been excepted from Henry's grants to Richard de Striguil and Hugh de Lacy. Power was indeed given to Hugh de Lacy in his charter to deal with the lands about Dublin, but only while he was the king's bailiff, and only to enable him to perform the royal service at Dublin.^ Some of these lands in the north of the county, which Hugh de Lacy had alienated contrary to the intention of this charter, were duly restored to their use as mensal lands of the viceroy by Philip of Worcester when he was sent to super- sede Hugh as representative of the crown in 1184.^ South of the city the territory of an Irish tribe or group of tribes ruled over by Mac Gillamocholmog lay in the vale of Dublin, or the low land between the Liffey and the mountains, and this chieftain, who sided with the Normans, was confirmed as a feudal owner probably in such part of his territory as he held in severalty.^ The lands of the see of Dublin 1 ' Et de incremento illi dono (i.e. the land of Meath) omnia feoda que prebuit vel que prebebit circa Duveliniam, dum Balivus mens est, ad "faciendum mihi servitium apud civitatem meam Duvelinie.' ^ q[j. Camb. v. 359-60. 3 His seat at Liamain (corruptly ' Limerun afterwards more correctly anglicized ' Leuan and eventually Lj'^ons), was at first confirmed to him and then resumed and added SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER 369 were very extensive, and these were confirmed j^^^^^^ to Archbishop Laurence 0' Toole. The principal archiepiscopal manors to the north of the river were Swords, Lusk, and Finglas, and to the south Clondalkin, Tallaght, Rathcoole, and Shankill.^ The possessions of the see and abbacy of Glendalough were still more extensive, and seem to have included not only the moun- tainous districts of which Glendalough was the centre, but also much of the best lands on the skirts of the mountains.^ Other lands, both north and south of the Liffey, belonged to Christ Church, Dublin,^ and to the Cistercian Abbey of of St. Mary.* Of the remaining lands the king from time to time granted portions to various tenants in chief. One of the most considerable of these grantees was Walter de Ridelisford, to whom Brien (Bray) and other lands were granted by Earl Richard as representative of the Crown. ^ to the royal manor of Newcastle Lyons. C. D. I., vol. i, 569. His descendants retained a seat at Rathdown, co. Wicklow, for many generations. 1 Crede Mihi, no. i. 2 Ibid., nos. iii, xliv. The earliest confirmation of the lands of the abbacy was by Earl Richard as viceroy. It contains a long Ust of Irish names sicut mihi in verho veritatis Diarmicius rex testatus est. ^ Calendar of Christ Church Deeds, nos. 1-6 ; 20th Rep., Deputy Keeper. 4 Chart. St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, vol. i, pp. 78-83, 138. ^ Antiquissime htere patentes, no. 58. Perhaps * Brien ' stands for ui Briuin Cualann, which included Bray. 821379.1 A a 370 SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER The land of Raheny, north of Dublin, was given by Strongbow to Vivien de Cursun.^ He also gave on behalf of the king, and with the assent of the citizens of Dublin, to Saveric Sellarius (Sadler) of Exeter a burgage ' in front of the monastery of St. Mary [del Dam] within the city, having a frontage in the road which is over against the gate of the castle '.^ This document is of particular interest as showing that there was a castle of some sort — probably a mote- castle — in Dublin at this time, and as indicating that its site is included in the present castle precincts. John, when Earl of Mortain, con- firmed to Almaric de St. Laurent ' the land of Houede (Howth) as his father held the same \^ and the lands of Howth have been held by the St. LawTences as barons and earls of Howi:h up to our own day. Finally, considerable portions were retained jiqjqX and formed into royal manors. Those in the manors, y^i^ Qf Dublin at the end of the century were Newcastle of Lyons, Saggart, Esker, and Crum- lin.^ On the littoral south of Bray the tribe- land of ui Teigh (anglicized Othec or Othee), 1 Chart. St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, vol. i, p. 258. 2 Reg. St. Thomas's, p. 369. The site of St. Mary's Church was afterwards occupied by Cork House. ^ Rot. Cane. Cal. (Tresham), no. 16. * For the Norman settlement in this district see a careful paper by Mr. James Mills (now Deputy Keeper of the Records) in the Journal R. S. A. I. 1894, pp. 161-75. SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER 371 early in the next century at all events, was dominated by the royal castle and manor of Newcastle Mc Kynegan.^ Further south Wick- low Castle was for the time granted to Earl Richard,^ and Arklow, a decade later, to Theobald Walter.^ The town of Waterford, as we have seen, was, Water- from the time of Henry's visit to Ireland, retained in the king's hand, and in 1177 ' the city with all the surrounding province ' as far as Lismore, was given into the custody of Robert le Poer, the marshal.* The principal, indeed the only connected, account of the sub-infeudation of the two evidence, great lordships of Leinster and Meath is con- tained in the Song of Dermot. We can, how- ever, test its accuracy in many ways. In a few cases the original charters or trustworthy copies are forthcoming. In several cases we have transcripts of charters by the various feoffees dealing with portions of the lands stated to ^ See my paper on Novum Castnim McKynegan, Joum. R. S. A. I. 1908, p. 126. 2 Gir. Camb. v. 298. The earl granted it to Maurice Fitz Gerald : ibid., p. 314. 3 Arklow was probably given by John to Theobald Walter in 1185, or at any rate prior to 1189, when seisin of Leinster was given to WilUam the Marshal; see Hist. GuiU. le Marechal, 11. 9609-16, and reference to the original charter in Carte's Life of Ormond, Introd., p. xlvi. * Gesta Hen., vol. i, p. 161. A a 2 372 SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER have been granted to them. Giraldus confirms the account in several particulars and mentions certain castles erected about five or six years afterwards on some of these manors ; and still later records show us the original feoffees or their representatives in possession of lands in the districts indicated. The Irish annals, too, record the erection of certain castles and con- tain a few confirmatory entries, while recent archaeological research has disclosed the exis- tence, or proofs of the former existence, of the earthworks of castles of the mote type at almost all the probable manorial centres. Thus the list of grants given in the Song is corroborated and supplemented in various ways, and has not been showTi to be incorrect in any particular. With this list, then, as a basis, and supplementing it from all available sources, we can construct a rough survey of the primary distribution of the lands of Leinster and Meath as effected by Richard de Clare and Hugh de Lacy respectively. In this chapter we shall confine our view to the lordship of Leinster. Of course the effective occupation and exploita- tion of these lands took time, and to make the picture more complete and prove its general correctness we shall refer to some events which took place at a later period, but it will be our aim to deal with, only those manors w^hich originated with Earl Richard's grants. SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER 373 Unfortunately the Song, while recounting the earl's principal grants, does not state what places he retained as demesne lands and centres of his manors. We can only infer them Seignonai from incidental allusions in the Song and else- where, and from the better-knowTi organization of the lordship at a later time. We have, indeed, a complete list of the seignorial centres at the time of the partition of Leinster among Strongbow's granddaughters in 1247, but in several cases these are known to have originated in escheats or to have been of later formation. Others, however, appear to have been in exis- tence at a very early period, and we shall men- tion such of these as may, in their origin, with probability be assigned to Strongbow's time. Wexford was the principal town of the lordship from August 1173, when Henry, who had annexed it, restored it to the earl, and the mote there, with which the walls were connected, and on which a stone castle was afterwards built, was perhaps Strongbow's work.^ This was, no doubt, the seat of his most important manor in South Leinster, and the adjoining districts, especially the barony of Forth, appear to have been very fully colonized from the first, and mainly by Flemings and others from South ^ Henry on leaving Ireland is said to have ordered a castle to be built at Wexford : Gresta Hen. i. 30. The mote may have been erected then. SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER 375 and must have grown up under the protection of an early castle. The existing castle ruins, though of later date, are well situated at the confluence of the Burren and the Barrow. Probably, too, the rock fortress of Dunamase in Leix was retained by Strongbow. This no doubt was the site of the Celtic hill-fort called Dun Masg pillaged by the Northmen in 843.^ The ruins of a late castle occupy the site, but in plan it is essentially of the mote and bailey type. The mote, however, was a natural rock precipitous on all sides but one, where there is a steep decline. The slope here was marked off by ditch and rampart into two, or perhaps three, baileys. The elder William Marshal claimed, and eventually succeeded in obtaining this castle from Meiler Fitz Henry,^ and, as we shall see when we come to tell of the Earl Marshal's doings, it was probably on the ground that Dunamase was demesne land of Strongbow wrongfully retained by Meiler in collusion with King John. It was afterwards the principal seignorial stronghold in this division of Leinster.^ As we have seen, a mote-castle was erected 1 Ann. Ulster, 843. 2 Histoire G. le Marechal (Paul Meyer), 11. 14127-31 ; and cf. Rot. Pat. 17 John, pp. 153 b, 161 b, 180. 3 Cal. Docs. Ireland, vol. i, no. 2120. See too, Inquis. P. M., 11 Ed. I, on the lands of Roger le Mortimer: ibid., vol. ii, no. 2028. 376 SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER at Kilkenny prior to 1 173, when it was destroyed by Donnell O'Brien.^ It was probably re-erected before the expedition to Limerick in 1175, but there is no clear indication of a developed manor here before the time of Earl William Marshal. It seems probable, too, that the motes of Odagh and Castlecomer, which appear as centres of already developed seignorial manors about the close of the twelfth century, should be attributed to Strongbow. The territory in which these motes are situated had been overrun by the invaders even in Dermot's lifetime, and it was at ' his court ' at Odagh that Strongbow, in 1171, had the parley with Donnell Mac Gillapatrick, chief King of Ossory, from which, as already mentioned, the king was conducted in safety by Maurice de Prendergast.^ Either then or later. King Donnell appears to have submitted to Strongbow, and we find him assisting the invaders in the two expeditions to Limerick (1175-6).^ The mote at Kilkenny was probably erected with King Donnell' s assent, and he is generally believed to have been left in possession of the greater part of the central plain of Kilkenny up to his death in 1185.* The castle ^ Supra, p. 322, and see my paper on * Motes and Norman Castles in Ossory \ Joum. R. S. A. I. 1909. 2 Supra, p. 236. ^ Supra, pp. 348, 353. 4 Between 1181 and 1185 King Donnell made a grant of Kilferagh, near Kilkenny, to John Cumin, Archbishop of Dublin : Crede Mihi, no. xxxii. SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER 377 of the Comar, or confluence (Castlecomer), was at any rate erected before the year 1200, when it was burned by the O'Brennans.^ Thus it seems that not only the Norse town of Wexford, but also St. Brigit's Kildare, the confluence at Carlow, the rock fortress of Duna- mase, and St. Cainnech's Kilkenny, afterwards the five capita of the quinquepartite lordship of Leinster, were all selected by Strongbow as among the principal centres of his vast fief, and it is not improbable that the motes of Old Ross, Castlecomer, and Odagh were also his works. For Strongbow' s principal grants we have The clear and positive evidence. Taking first the L^ins4r* modern county of Kildare, which seems to have J^^^^^^^^ been fully parcelled out among the earl's followers, we may describe it accurately enough for present purposes as being divided, at the time of the invasion, into three great tribal territories : Offelan in the north, Offaly (or rather part of that territory) in the middle, and Omurethy in the south. Giraldus speaks of three cantreds of Offelan, of which that farthest from Dublin was granted to Meiler Fitz Henry, the middle cantred to Maurice Fitz Gerald, and the cantred nearest to Dublin to the Hereford brothers.^ The Song of Dermot and certain contemporary documents enable us to define these grants a little more closely. ^ Liber Primus Kilkenniensis. 2 Qy.^ Camb. v. 314. 378 SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER Meiier The eail's grants appear to have been as Henry. follows : Carbury was granted to Meiier Fitz Henry. ^ This district is now represented by the barony of Carbury in County Kildare. It is the ' more remote cantred of Offelan ' stated by Giraldus to have been given to Meiier as a ' marcher ' or border baron. ^ Meiier granted four carucates of land at ' Karebri ' to the abbey of Connell,^ which he founded. The barony, together with all Meiier' s lands in Leinster, afterwards escheated to the Marshals,* lords of Leinster, and still later, in the fourteenth century, Carbury was in the possession of the Bermingham family and became known as ' Ber- mingham's country '.^ The late Tudor castle of Carbury was built immediately adjoining a mote, which occupies a striking position on the summit of a hill. In all probability this mote represents the first Norman castle. ' The cantred of Offelan nearest to Dublin ' ^ Karebri donat al hon Meiier : Song, 1. 3084. 2 Gir. Camb., p. 314. The ui Cairbre were, however, a distinct race from the ui Faelain : Topog. Poems, p. 76. 3 C. D. I., vol. i, no. 273. This was in 1205. * The ' castle of Cabry ' was to be dehvered to Gilbert, Earl of Pembroke, in 1234 : ibid., no. 2175. In 1249 the castle was assigned to Margaret, countess of Lincoln, widow of Walter, Earl Marshall : ibid. no. 2989. At the partition of Leinster ' Karberye ' went with Kildare. 5 Ann. Clonmacnois, 1076 (translation by Connell Ma- geoghagan, 1627). Ann. Laud MS., Chart. St. Mary's, DubUn, vol. i, pp. 378, 396. SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER 379 was given to Adam de Hereford,^ and this large Adam of district was divided between him and his brothers John and Richard. Adam de Hereford has already been mentioned as commander in the naval encounter with the Ostmen of Cork in 1173. He retained in his own hands Saltus Salmonis (or Leixlip), from which the barony of Salt obtained its name, and also Cloncurry and Oughterard. To his brother John he gave Kill, Kildrought (Celbridge), Clonshanbo, and Main- ham, including Rathcoffey ; and to his brother Richard he gave Downings in the barony of Otymy, now Clane, and Richard's son Henry was afterwards lord of Otymy. ^ The present castle at Leixlip is situated on a high promontory at the junction of the Rye and the Liffey. There are motes at Cloncurry, Castlewarden near Oughterard, Kill, Mainham, and Clane. The middle cantred of Offelan (which in- Maurice eluded Naas) and the cantred of Wicklow Gerald, were given to Maurice Fitz Gerald for the service of twelve knights.^ In 1185 John, dominus ^ Gir. Camb., p. 314. The Song does not particularize : Adam de Erford ensement Donat riche feffement. (11. 3106-7.) These particulars are given in the Register of St. Thomas's, Dublin, pp. 102-4 ; cf . the grants by the brothers Hereford, ibid., pp. 75-89, 142-4, &c. There is a transcript of this deed (in some respects obviously corrupt) in the Gormanston Register, f . 190, where 380 SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER Hiberniae, confirmed this grant as regards the cantred of Offelan to WiUiam, son of Maurice Fitz Gerald, and his heirs (who were known as barons of Naas) to be held of the heirs of Earl Richard for the service of five knights.^ A few years later John confirmed to Gerald, son of Maurice Fitz Gerald, and ancestor of the barons of Offaly, earls of Kildare, and dukes of Leinster, the lands of Omolrov (?), Rathmore, Maynooth, Laraghbryan, Taghadoe, and Straf- fan, ' being the half -cantred which he held of the gift of William, son of Maurice, his brother.' ^ The other half-cantred remained with the barons of Naas. There is a high mote in the town of Naas with a terrace surrounding the the parcels are : ' Wykingl[o] et to tarn cantredam in quo Wykingl[o] sedet excepta villa Erkeks (?) et comoto illo in quo villa Erkek sedet . . . cum his dedi etiam cantredam quem Makylan tenuit non propinquiorem DiueUn sed ab illo s[cilicet] propinquiorem {sic)\ Cf. Song, 11. 3086-95. Perhaps ' Erkek ' = Arklow, written Herkelou, Gesta, i. 163. ^ Chartae Priv. et Immun., p. 5, where the parcels are : * Unum canteredum terre quem Makelan tenuit non pro- pinquiorem Duveline sed alium scihcet in quo villa de Nas sita est.' Wicklow had been resumed by the Crown : Gir. Camb. V 337. 2 Red Book of the Earl of Kildare. See transcript in Facsimiles National MSS. Ireland, vol. iii, pi. Ix, and cf. Journ. R. S. A. I. 1879-82, p. 425. When I have no doubt, I give the modern forms of the names. There is also a mote at Rathmore, which seems to have been piled over a sepulchral mound. SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER 381 mote about ten feet below the top. This terrace is a feature not infrequently found. It probably carried a palisade for which after- wards, in some cases, a stone wall was sub- stituted. Offaly [or that part of Offaly lying] to the west of Offelan is said to have been granted to Robert de Bermingham.^ This, taken literally, Robert de would include all that portion of King's County ham!^^"^ to the east of Tullamore ; but only a small portion of this district was at first taken from the 0' Conors Faly, and the original Berming- ham fief appears to have been confined to Tethmoy, of which they were known as barons. This district was comprised in the baronies of Warrenstown and the northern part of Cooles- town in King's County.^ Kildare and the adjacent territory [of Offaly] is said by Giraldus to have been given by the earl Meiier to Meiier Fitz Henry, but afterwards, in 1181, to Henry, have been taken from him, and the province of Leix given him by way of exchange.^ It is possible 1 Song of Dermot, 11. 3104-5 :— A Robert de Burmegam Offali al west de Offelan. 2 Tethmoy is one of the numerous anglicized forms (Toumuy, Totemoy, &c.) of the Irish Tuath dd mhuighe, i.e. the tuath or cantred of the two plains : Topog. Poems, p. 85, note 413. For the position of this district see the old map of Leis and Offalie, Journ R. S. A. 1. 1862-3, p. 345. 3 Gir. Camb., p. 355. 382 SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER that such a grant may have been made shortly before the earl's death, and that Meiler may have founded a claim thereon which was after- wards a cause of his conflict with William the Marshal ; but there is good reason to think that during the earl's life Kildare was the principal manor of the lordship in North Leinster,^ as it certainly was afterwards in the hands of the Marshals.^ An attempt was made by Meiler to gain a foothold in the territory of Leix thus given him in exchange. It was the tribe-land of the O'Mores, and from the greater portion of it they were not dispossessed. A castle was built for Meiler in 1182 by Hugh de Lacy at Timahoe,^ an ancient ecclesiastical centre, and half a mile west of the village is a mote, known as the Rath of Ballynaclogh, which probably represents Meiler's castle.* He also occupied and adapted the rock fortress of Dunamase, but eventually he gave this up to WiUiam the Marshal, and it became the principal manor of the Marshals in ^ The earl after his various expeditions generally returned to Kildare as his head-quarters and abode : Song of Dermot, 11. 2696, 2771, 2795. 2 C. D. I., vol. i, nos. 1872, 1950. 3 Gir. Camb., p. 356. ^ It has a raised circular bailey, the earthen walls of which are carried up the mound, as was frequently done in stone when a stone keep was built on a mote. Both mote and bailey are surrounded by a fosse and outer rampart. SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER 383 the district of Leix.^ East of Dunamase and adjoining the Barrow lies the barony of Reban. This was granted, probably by Earl Richard, Robert to Robert de St. Michael. ^ The family of Michael. St. Michael supplied barons of Reban up to the time of Elizabeth.^ Here may still be seen the remains of the original mote and bailey, close to the later stone castle. A district called ' le NoRRATH ', a name now preserved in the barony ^^^^^^ of Narragh and Reban East, was granted to Fitz Robert Fitz Richard,* and a castle was built for 1 Hist. Guil. le Marechal, 11. 14128-9 : Son boen chastel otreia, Donmas, at conte en heritage. M. Meyer, by a blunder pardonable in a foreigner, places this castle in the County Clare (ibid., vol. iii, p. 195, note). 2 Robert de St. Michael witnessed Strongbow's grant of Aghaboe. He also witnessed a charter of his neighbour Robert Fitz Richard in the Hfetime of Raymond le Gros : Chart. St. Mary's, Dublin, vol. i, p. 68. His son David de St. Michael married Margery, daughter of Thomas le Fleming, another neighbour, and granted the church of Reban to the abbey of St. Mary, retenta in manu nostra capellaria Castelli nostri de Riban (ibid., p. 115). This was, I think, before the close of the century. Margery was the widow of Robert de Bigarz, and after the death of David de St. Michael she married Roger Waspail (ibid., pp. 115, 116, and C. D. I., vol. i, no. 1392). She had by her second husband, David, a son, Richard de St. Michael, who fined for his father's land in 1215 (C. D. I., vol. i, no. 673), and confirmed his father's gift to the abbey of St. Mary : Chart. St. Mary's, Dublin, vol. i, p. 121. 3 Fiants, Ehz. (1582), no. 3882. 4 Song of Dermot, 11. 3122-5. 384 SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER him ajpud Norrach in 1182 by Hugh de Lacy.^ In 1598 a Wesley (or Wellesley) was baronet of the Norragh.^ Oboy, a district lying between Timahoe and the Barrow in the barony of Ballyadams in Robert de Queen's County,^ was granted to Robert de Bigarz. g[gaP2, and here a castle was built for him in 1182 by Hugh de Lacy.* Its exact site is a matter of some uncertainty. The manor afterwards reverted to the Marshals, lords of Leinster.^ Thomas Ardri was given to Thomas le Fleming.^ le Fiem- ^^jj-^g jg ^j^^ name of a small parish of 323 acres on the east side of the Barrow to the south of Athy. It was apparently here that a castle was built for Thomas Flandrensis by ^ Gir. Camb., p. 356 ; cf . his grant, Reg. St. Thomas's, p. 228. 2 Hogan's Ireland in 1598, p. 47; Car. Cal. 1596, p. 191. ^ Oboy is an angUcized form of ui Buidhe. For the situation of this tribe see Book of Rights, p. 213, note. ^ Gir. Camb., p. 356, ajpud Ohowi. Tullomoy in the barony preserves the name : Tulach ua m-Buidhe. There is a fine mote at Kilmorony in this barony on the Barrow, and as it is not far from Ardri and separated from it by the Barrow, it may be the site of Robert de Bigarz's castle. See quotation from Giraldus under Ardri, infra. 5 At the partition of Leinster ' Obboy ' was assigned along with Dunamase to Roger de Mortimer, husband of Maude de Braose, who was daughter of Eva Mareschal : Chart. St. Mary's, DubUn, vol. ii, p. 403. 6 Song of Dermot, U. 3112-13. SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER 385 Hugh de Lacy in 1181 ; ^ but the farm with the old castle site was given along with the church of Ardree to the abbey of St. Thomas by Milo de Stanton early in the thirteenth century.^ At this time the manorial seat seems to have been at ' Mon ' (i. e. Moone or Moone Abbey), after- wards a seignorial manor. All the land between Oboy and Leighlin was granted by the earl to his marshal, John de Joimde ClahuU.^ This would cover the barony of Slievemargy in Queen's County. In 1181 a castle was built for John de ClahuU above the Barrow, not far from Leighlin.* The site of this castle is probably marked by the mote of 1 Gir. Camb. v. 356 ; ' Castellum Thomae Flandrensi non procul ab hoc [Obowi] in ulteriore videlicet Omurethi parte, Beruensis fluminis interlabentibus undis (erexit). 2 Reg. St. Thomas's, Dubhn, p. 162. For a description of this site see Eng. Hist. Review (1907), p. 249. 2 Song of Dermot, 11. 3100-3. That this was the situation of John de ClahuU's lands appears also from a charter by which John Cumin, Archbishop of DubUn, ad petit ionem Johannis de Clahalla, domini fundi, during a vacancy of the see of Leighlin, instituted Thurstin, a cleric, to the moiety of the churches of Sancti Congani de Clunussi (St. Comgan of Glen Uissen or Killeshin), Sancti Patricii de Slefta (Sletty), Sancti Congalh de Catherloc (Carlow), Sancte Brigide de Clodahc (Cloydagh, a parish in the north of Idrone West), and Sancti Ganulni de Clonena (Cloneen ?) : Crede Mihi, no. Iv. This deed must be dated before the consecration of Herlewin, Bishop of LeighHn, c. 1201. * Gir. Camb., p. 355. John de ClahuU, marescallus, wit- nessed Strongbow's grant to Savaric Saddler of Exeter: Reg. St. Thomas's, Dubhn, p. 369. 821379.1 B b 386 SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER Killeshin. It is situated in a subdivision called Castlequarter, close to the old church of Killeshin. The mote is twenty-five feet high, is surrounded by a square fosse, and contains traces of a rect- angular building on the top. The tradition of an important Anglo-Xorman town here, of which, except the mote and Celtic church, ' there is now [above ground] no trace,' has come do^ra to our own times. ^ Twenty knights' fees in Omurethi were Walter de granted to Walter de Ridelisford.^ This was ford!^^^* ^ large territory in the south of the County Kildare. A castle was erected for Walter de Ridelisford apyd Tristerdermoth (Castledermot) in 1181.^ In the early English versions of the Expugnatio, Kilcae or Kilca (i. e. Kilkea) is put instead of ' near Tristerdermoth ' as the place where Walter de Ridelisford's castle was built.* Kilkea was undoubtedly a manor of his, and here, close to the old church and later castle, is a mote. Passing now to the county of Carlow, the ^ Coote's Survey of Queen's Co., p. 194 ; Ord. Surv. Letters Q. C, vol. i, p. 105. - Song of Dermot, 11. 3096-9 ; Omurethi is the territory of ui Muireadhaigh, of which the O'Tooles were lords. 3 Gir. Camb., p. 355. As to the castle site see Eng. Hist. Re\iew, 1907, p. 248. * The two earhest EngHsh versions have been pubhshed by the Early Enghsh Text Society (1896). Cf . Book of Ho^\'th Car. Cal., p. 98, and Bray's Conquest of Ireland, ibid., p. 309. SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEIXSTER 387 districts of Fotherd (or Fotheret) and Odrone, Raymond together with Glascarrig on the east coast of Wexford near Cahore Point, were granted by Earl Richard to Raymond le Gros. Fotherd was given as a marriage portion with BasiUa. The name is now preserved in the barony of Forth, but the ancient district granted to Raymond was more extensive, and included portions of the baronies of Rathvilly and Carlow as well.^ A castle was built for Raymond at Fotheret Onolan in 1181, and this has been identified by means of contemporary charters with the mote of Castlemore near TuUow.^ Raymond's manor of Odrone ^ was comprised in the barony of Idrone East. Raymond seems to have granted this land to his nephew, William de Carew, who had vills at Dunlech (Dunleckny) and also at Techmulin (St. Mullins).* There are motes in both places. Glascarrig he appears to have granted to one of his Cantitune nephews, and here, too, a little north of the slight ruins ^ Song of Dermot, 11. 3064-9. Fotherd, &c., represents the Irish Fotharta, of which there were several. This one was distinguished as Fotharta Fea or Fotharta Osnadhaigh. The ruling family was O'Xuallain (O'Xolan), hence the form in Giraldus and many Anglo-Norman charters. 2 Gir. Camb., p. 355. For the identification of Ray- mond's Castle \^ith Castlemore Mote, see Journ. R. S. A. I. 1906, pp. 368-82. ^ Odrone or Idrone represents the Irish Ui Drona, a tribal territory of which the O'Ryans were the ruling family. 4 Chart. St. Mary's, Dublin, vol. i, p. 112. B b 2 388 SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER of the priory, close to the sea, may be seen the mote which probably represents the Norman fortress. We have positive evidence of only two grants by Strongbow in Ossory, one at the north and the other at the south end of the ancient kingdom. Adamde In Upper Ossory the earl gave to Adam de Hereford. c YislU the vill of AcHEBO and the entire half of the cantred in which the vill is situated, as Dermot Ochelli {0' Caelaidhe) held the same in Ossory to hold in fee by the service of five knights. The original deed with the seal appended has happily been preserved among the Ormond Muniments.^ The cathedral church of the diocese of Ossory was at this time at Aghaboe, and the remaining half of the vill and half-cantred were perhaps see-lands. Early in the thirteenth century the see-lands of Aghaboe were transferred by Hugh de Rous, the first Anglo-Norman bishop of Ossory, to William, Earl Marshal, ' in exchange for others in more convenient places ' ^ — that is to say, nearer Kilkenny, the new episcopal seat, and at the time of the partition of Leinster Aghaboe was a very rich seignorial manor and was assigned along with Dunamase to Eva de Braose. It was one of the last places retained ^ See transcript, Note A to this chapter. 2 For Earl William's Charter, see Liber Albus Ossoriensis, Proc R. I. A., vol. xxvii (c), p. 118. SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER 389 by the English m Upper Ossory, but m 1346 Dermot Mac Gillapatrick, the one-eyed, burnt the vill of Aghaboe, including the church and shrine of St. Cainnech/ and three years later the castle was taken. ^ The castle site is marked by a square mote not far from the parish church, with foundations of a thick mortared wall round the top and traces of a wide fosse round the bottom. In the southern portion of Ossory the earl gave the extensive tribe-land of Iverk {Uibh Eire) to Miles, son of David, Bishop of St. Davids, :^iiies and he became the first of the line of barons of Iverk.^ Early in the thirteenth century his son David richly endowed the nunnery of Kilculli- heen, close to Waterford on the Kilkenny side, and from his grant it appears that his chief manorial centres were ' the castle of Polsculi and the new castle of Clone '.^ These places are now known as PortnascuUy, on a small tidal stream or ' pill ' debouching into the Suir nearly mid- way between Carrick and Waterford, and Clone or Clonamery on the Nore below Inistioge. At 1 Clyn's Aiinals, 1346. 2 See History of St. Canice (Graves and Prim), p. 19, note a. 3 Song, 11. 3108-11, and Jourii. R. S. A. 1. 1893, pp. 179-84. 4 Cal. Docs. Ireland, vol. i, no. 2485, from an Inspeximus dated Jmie 10, 1240. This document shows that David's lands included the greater part of the present barony of Ida as well as that of Iverk. 390 SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER PortnascuUy is a well-preserved and strongly- fortified mote-and-bailey earthwork, and at Clone is an early stone castle or tower built on a mote. These earthworks probably date from the time of Miles Fitz David. In the present county of Wexford it seems probable that the old royal seat at Ferns was left in the possession of Murtough Mc Murrough, who had, as we have seen,^ come to terms with Strongbow. At any rate, a large district in the north of the county as well as adjoining parts of the counties Wicklow and Carlow, appear not to have been granted by Strongbow to his followers. Gilbert The district of Offelimy by the sea, now hard?^^^^ represented by the barony of Ballaghkeen, was granted to Gilbert de Boreart (Boisrohard).^ Before Henry II came to Ireland Strongbow had appointed this Gilbert custos of Waterford,^ and he witnessed three of Strongbow's charters.* In the town-land of Ballymotymore in this barony there is a conspicuous mote. The DuFFRY, a woody district to the west of the Slaney, extending from near Enniscorthy to 1 Supra, p. 238. 2 Song, 11. 3114-17. In 1177 the land of Gilbert de Boisrohard was declared to be appurtenant to the service of Wexford. R. de Hoveden, ii. 134. 3 Song, 11. 2211-14. 4 Reg. St. Thomas's, p. 370 ; Chart. St. Mary's, vol. ii, p. 154 ; Gormanston Reg., f. 190. SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER 391 the spurs of Mount Leinster, had been granted, as we have seen,^ to Robert de Quency, the Robertde constable ; but he was killed in 1172-3, leaving an infant or posthumous daughter, Maud, by his wife, who was a daughter of Strongbow. Maud de Quency was afterwards married to Philip, son of Maurice de Prendergast.^ Philip succeeded in right of his wife to the Duffry, and was probably the builder of Enniscorthy Castle which is situated on a rock on the west side of the Slaney at the head of the tidal way. In 1227 he obtained from the Bishop of Ferns a surrender of that part of Enniscorthy which lies to the east of the river, about the ancient church of St. Senan. The town that grew up about the castle and the Anglo-Norman settle- ment in the neighbourhood should probably be ascribed to Philip de Prendergast atid his son Gerald.^ ' Fernegenal a district correspond- ing with the barony of Shelmaliere East, was granted by the earl to Maurice de Prendergast Maurice for the service of ten knights, as an inducement dergast. to him to return to Ireland.* Afterwards Robert Fitz Godebert was enfeoffed of this district, or a large portion of its southe.rn 1 Supra, p. 322. 2 Song, 11. 2819-26 and 3040-57. ^ See Hore's Hist, of Co. Wexford, vol. vi. 4 Song of Dermot, 11. 3072-83. Fernegenal represents the Irish Fearann na g Cenel : Topogr. Poems, p. 92 and note 471. 392 SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER extremity, by Maurice. He was probably a brother of Richard Fitz Godebert, the ' knight of Pembrokeshire ' who accompanied Dermot on his return to Ireland in 1167, and son of Godebert, a Fleming of the hundred of Rhos (Rouse) near Haverford.^ His sons took the name de la Roche from the castle there still known as Roch Castle. This descent of the Roches of Wexford, and presumably of the lords of Fermoy, appears from a charter to the monastery of St. Nicholas of Exeter, by which David, Henry, and Adam de Rupe granted the island of Begerin (in Wexford harbour) to the monastery "pro salute anime patris nostri Boberti flii Godeberti.^ Early in the thirteenth century, Gerald de la Roche, son of David, divided the district between himself and his kinsman David Fitz Adam Sinad (Sinnott),^ evidently also of ^ Supra, p. 141. 2 Monasticon Diocesis Exoniensis, ed. George Oliver, Hist, of St. Nicholas, Exeter, ex archivis civitatis Exoniacj no. ix, p. 120. The charter is witnessed {inter alios) by Maurice de Prendergast, PhiHp Puher (Poer), Alexander de Brideshale, Robert and Henry de la Roche, Walter Hoel, and Roger Christopher, and must be dated before the close of the twelfth century, and probably about 1182. Adam, monk of St. Nicholas, qui hanc elemosinam impetravit, witnessed a charter by Miles de Cogan, Reg. St. Thomas's, p. 204 ; and charters by Margarite de Cogan, ibid., pp. 226, 227. 3 See deed quoted in the Annuary (1868-9) R. S. A. I., p. 52, note ; and for further remarks concerning the Flemish SUB-INFEUDATION OF I.EINSTER 393 Flemish descent, and hence the two portions became known as Roche's land and Sinnott's land. ' Obarthy on the sea,' a name surviving in the barony of Bargy, was given or confirmed to Hervey de Montmorency.^ His lands included Hervey also the present barony of Shelburne, where he morency. founded and endowed the Abbey of Dunbrody, and where in ' the Island ' (a portion of the parish of Kilmokea formerly surrounded by the Barrow) he probably had his caput baroniae,^ Thus it would appear that at the time of Earl Richard's death, while County Kildare and a large portion of County Carlow had been fully parcelled out into large fiefs, only the adjoining fringe of King's and Queen's County had been similarly dealt with. The settlement in Ossory had not proceeded very far, and in County Wexford the southern and eastern parts alone had been granted to the barons. element among the invaders, Note B at the end of this chapter. ^ Song of Dermot, 11. 3070-1. Obarthi represents the Irish Ui Bairrche. 2 Hervey 's fief must have reverted to the lord of Leinster. Much of it, however, had been alienated to the Church. What remained was afterwards known as the Barony of the Island, and along with the manor of Old Ross fell, at the partition, to the share of Matilda Mareschal, who married Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk. NOTE A STRONGBOW'S GRANT OF AGHABOE Comes Ricardus filius Comitis Ricardi [sic] Gisleberti Omnibus Amicis suis et hominibus Francis Anglicis Walensibus hiberniensibus tam presentibus quam futuris Salutem. Sciatis me dedisse et concessisse Ade de hereford dimidiam uillam de achebo. et totum dimidium cantredum terre in quo uilla sedet cum totis pertinentibus suis. Sicut ochelli dermot scilicet illam melius tenuit in usseria per liberum seruicium quinque militum. Sibi et heredibus suis de me et heredi- bus meis libere et quiete et honorifice In terra. In Aqua. In bosco. In piano. In Monasteriis. In Molendinis. In piscaturis. In stagnis. In viuariis. In foro. In domibus et castellis firmandis. In uiis. In semitis. et in omnibus libertatibus absque omnibus malis consuetudini- bus tenendum et habendum in feodo et hereditate per liberum seruicium prenominatum. Scilicet, quinque militum. Quare uolo et firmiter pre- cipio quatenus predictus Adam et heredes sui totum tenumentum suum de me et heredibus meis ita libere et quiete et honorifice teneanty ut ille de hominibus meis qui melius et liberius tenumentum suum de me et heredibus meis tenuerit in hibernia. vel tenere debuerit. de tanto feodo. his testibus. Ramundo constabu- lario. Griffino fratre suo. Roberto de sancto michaele. Ricardo de hereford. Johannes de SUB-INFEUDATION OF LETNSTER 395 hereford. hugone de gurnai. Waltero de ridel [eford]. Johanne de clohalle. Rogero de San- ford. Willelmo Bret. Waltero filio pagani. Hugone de leia. hugone d luieuilla [sic]. Transcribed from the photo-zincograph copy of the original : Nat. MSS. of Ireland, vol. ii, pi. Ixiii. The original charter and seal are thus described by the Rev. James Graves in the Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeo- logical Society, vol. i, p. 502 : ' The charter is written on a piece of thick vellum, measuring seven inches by six and a quarter, the hand is clear and bold, and the ink in good preservation ; the seal appended to the document is about three inches in breadth and of rude workmanship. It bears on the obverse a mounted knight clad in a long surcoat, equipped with a heater-shaped shield, his head defended by a conical helmet furnished with a nasal, and bearing in his extended right hand a very broad sword, straight, and apparently two-edged. Of the inscription the word GiLLEBERTi alone remains. The reverse is charged with the figure of a footman, wearing a surcoat reaching down half the leg, his body covered by a long shield, the right foot extended, and the spear brought down to the charge. A hood of mail and a flat skull-cap with projecting rim protect the head ; and the shield is charged with three chevronels, the well-known bearing of the de Clares.' NOTE B I FLEMISH ELEMENT AMONG THE SETTLERS The Flemish element among the early settlers impressed itself so strongly, especially in South Wexford, that a word or two on the subject will not be out of place. The district of Rhos, near Haverford in Pembrokeshire, now the hundred of Roose, from which Maurice de Pren- dergast and his men seem to have come, was colonized by Flemings in the time of Henry I.-^ It was afterwards, perhaps, further recruited by Henry II with some of Stephen's disbanded Flemish mercenaries. This Low Dutch settle- ment, which Freeman calls ' the last of a series of which the coming of Hengist was the first was very complete within its limits. The original Welsh inhabitants appear to have been driven out or exterminated, their language dis- appeared and was replaced by a dialect closely akin to the English of the day, and the local nomenclature was largely changed, so that the district came to be called ' Little England beyond Wales '.^ Other Flemish settlements took place about the same time at Tenby and in the peninsula of Gower. A very similar phenomenon occurred in the baronies of Forth and Bargy in County Wexford. The original ^ William of Malmesbury, Gesta Reg., book v ; Florence of Worcester ; Brut y Tyw vs. 1105. - See Norman Conquest, vol. v, p. 209, and App. CC. ^ Camden's Britannia (1695), j). 631. I SUB-INFEUDATIOX OF LEINSTER 397 Irish inhabitants seem to have almost disap- peared, and though the local nomenclature was only slightly changed, the people retained up to the eighteenth century peculiar customs and a peculiar Teutonic dialect which has been a standing puzzle to writers.^ Their difference in personal appearance from the inhabitants of the Irish baronies in North Wexford has also been observed.^ The explanation is not far to seek. These baronies were among the first to be occupied by the adventurers from South Wales, who were largely these very Flemings, and they brought over with them and retained their peculiar dialect, which developed somewhat on lines of its own, but never lost the charac- teristics which link it with Low Dutch dialects. The Four Masters were probably not far wrong in speaking of the forces which accompanied Fitz Stephen as the ' fleet of the Flemings '. Maurice de Prendergast, the Geraldines, and even Strongbow, probably brought many Flem- ings with them, and probably they were after- wards followed by their kinsfolk from the same quarter. George Owen, in his Description of Pembrokeshire, notes that great numbers of the Irish went back to Pembroke about the time of Tyrone's rebellion, and adds ' as manye as come out of the countey of Weisford saye they understande noe Irishe, neyther doth anye well understande his Englishe \^ ^ See Glossary of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in Forth and Bargy, collected by Jacob Poole and edited by WilUam Barnes (1867); also ' An Account of the Barony of Forth,' written circa 1680, edited bv Herbert Hore, Journ. R. S. A. I. 1862-3, pp. 53-84. 2 See O'Donovan's note. Four Masters, 1169, p. 1172. ^ See Henry Owen's edition, Cvmmrodorion Soc, 1892, p. 40. 398 SUB-INFEUDATION OF LEINSTER But the Flemish element was not confined to South Wexford. Among the leading settlers elsewhere were some half-Normanized Flemings. The Roches followed their lords the Prendergasts to Cork. Mangunel, a Flemish name, was to be found in Cork.^ A Fleming w^as baron of Slane, and a Fleming was given lands at Ardree, near Athy. Wilkin was a typical Flemish name, and we find a Wilkin of Castlewilkin, near Limerick.^ Other undoubted examples might be added, and the fashion of adopting names in the Norman form, as in the case of the Roches, has probably obscured the Flemish origin of some families. When for convenience we speak of the invaders as Normans or Anglo-Normans, we must be understood to include these semi- Normanized Flemings, and also a sprinkling of Welshmen and Englishmen as w^ell. Giraldus gives a good character to the Flemings of Wales : ' Gens fortis et robusta, gens lanificiis usitatissima, nunc ad aratrum nunc ad arma promtissima.* ^ These were qualities likely to be required in Ireland. ^ Reg. St. Thomas's, p. 216. William Mangunel, a Fleming of Haverford; was expert in the art of divination with a ram's shoulder-blade : Gir. Camb. vi. 87. 2 Four Masters, 1200. ^ yi NOTE C PROFESSOR THATCHER'S POSITION IN RELATION TO ' LAUDABILITER ' AND THE PAPAL SANC- TION OF HENRY'S ACTION IN IRELAND When dealing with the subject of ' Laudabihter ' (vol. i, cap. ix) I considered it outside the scope of my purpose to discuss specifically the arguments of particular writers against the authenticity of the documents in question ; but I was led to mention Mr. Round's view in a note, and perhaps it will be expected that I should notice the view taken still more recently by Professor Oliver J. Thatcher in his Studies concerning Adrian IV (Decennial Publications of the University of Chicago, 1st series, vol. iv, pp. 153-78). Professor Thatcher, following in the main the late Professor Scheffer-Boichorst, accepts the passage in the Metalogicus (translated in part, ante, vol. i, pp. 290-1) as the genuine statement of John of Sahsbury, and also as a correct account of what actually occurred. He also accepts Alexander's three Letters as genuine ; but he regards ' Laudabiliter ' as ' neither a genuine letter of Adrian IV, nor a forgery in the true sense of the word '. 'It was not,' he says, ' written with the purpose of deceiving or of securing any material advantage.' He regards it as ' merely a Latin exercise of some twelfth-century student, who was prac- tising himself in the art of letter-writing, and for this purpose chose to impersonate Adrian IV '. His position as regards the authenticity of the documents is similar to that of Mr. Round, but he interprets the facts in an entirely different way. He holds, in short, that Adrian did actually make a feudal grant of Ireland to Henry and his heirs in the document, now lost, referred to by John of Salisbury, and did send a ring by which investiture might be made, but that no investiture was in fact made, the probable reason being that Henry did not wish to hold Ireland as a fief from the Papacy, but wanted to acquire it (with the papal sanction as his own absolute dominion. This view, representing the Pope as read}^ to make a grant of Ireland and Henry as refusing to accept the gift from the Pope's hands, is a curious inversion of the view usually taken by Irish writers. It is certainly one way — though not, I think, the simplest — of accounting for the dis- crepancies between John of Salisbury's account and ' Laud- abiliter ' . But the question remains, why was ' Laudabiliter ' inserted in the Expugnatio, and how was it that its spurious- ness was not at once exposed ? This mediaeval student in letter- writing, it may be observed, cannot have been Giraldus. For when intro- 400 SUB-IXFEUDATION OF LEINSTER ducing Adrian's Privilege Giraldus refers to the agency of John of Salisbury in obtaining both it and the ring of investiture, mentioning the latter almost in John's own words, and Giraldus, even if we can suppose him capable of effectually disguising his own well-marked style, and — what is harder to believe — of daring to impersonate the Pope, would certainly have composed a document in closer coiiformity to John's account of it. Are we, then, to suppose that Giraldus inserted some student's exercise by mistake for the genuine article ? The principal argument adduced by Professor Thatcher against the authenticity of ' Laudabiliter ' — apart from its discrepancy with John of Sahsburv's account — is one that has been used before, viz. the close verbal similarity between some of the opening sentences and the commencement of another letter addressed by the same Pope to Louis VII. The similarity is indeed very close, but did the papal chancellery, even in the prefatory matter of its multi- tudinous correspondence, never repeat itself ? Of course, if ' Laudabihter ' is to be regarded as a student's exercise Alexander's confirmation of it must be assigned to a similar lowly origin ; but the only textual criticism offered is that, contrar\^ to the rule of the papal chancellery, the words ' vos ' and ' vester ' are used in addressing Henry instead of ' tu ' and ' tuus '. But surely this is a change which any courtier-scribe of the day, wishing to flatter the king \\-\X\\ the greater dignity of the plural, would feel himself justified in making — more especialh' as it appears that Frederick I and Adrian IV had actually quarrelled about the usage. We certainly cannot be confident that these documents are faitliful and accurate transcripts of originals, such as we should expect a scholar to make to-day ; but to regard ' Laudabiliter ' as a mere student's exercise, which was solemnly inserted in the Expugnatio, for no apparent pur- pose, instead of the true version, and which has for centuries deceived not only the enemies of England but the Papacy itself, seems to me to be a very hazardous position to take up, and one which requires stronger evidence in its support than any that ha^ as yet been produced. As, however, Professor Thatcher and (apparently) ^Ir. Round both hold that Henry's expedition was in fact sanctioned by Pope Adrian as well as approved by Pope Alexander, the question of the precise form in which Adrian's sanction was given becomes on this view a matter of minor importance. END OF VOL. I BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARIES CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. / DATE DUE 1 ^ ^- " — l-M ,1 24 20» 15 CAYLORO rniNTCOINU.SA.