THE REIGN OF HENRY II.
[Sidenote: England lays claim to Ireland, 1155.]
The claims of the Kings of England to Ireland were very vague. They
sometimes acted as patrons of the Irish Ostmen, who were not unwilling to
follow the example of their Northumbrian kinsmen, but they performed no
real function of sovereignty. William the Conqueror and his sons had not
time to attend to Ireland, and this applies in an even greater degree to
Stephen. Henry II. ascended an undisputed throne, and in the first year
of his reign turned his thoughts to the fertile island of the West. Being
badly in want of a title, he sent John of Salisbury to Rome for leave to
conquer Ireland, to root up the saplings of vice there, and to bring the
wild Irish into the way of the true faith. The Pope was Nicholas
Breakspeare, known in history as Adrian IV., the only Englishman who ever
filled the papal chair. The popes were usually ready to grant boons to
kings, if by so doing they could extend their own power, and an English
pope must have felt a double pride in conferring favours on a king of
England. The mission of John of Salisbury was successful. He brought back
the Bull _Laudabiliter_ and a gold ring containing a very fine emerald,
intended to be used in Henry's investiture. Empress Maude objected to an
Irish expedition, and nothing was done until long after Adrian's death.
Henry took the precaution of having the grant confirmed by Alexander
III., and there is ample evidence that he annexed Ireland with the entire
approbation of that Pope.[29]
[Sidenote: Adrian IV grants Ireland to Henry II.]
Irish scholars, torn asunder by their love of Rome and their love of
Ireland, formerly attempted to prove that Adrian's bull was not genuine;
but its authenticity is no longer disputed. The momentous document runs
as follows:--
[Sidenote: Adrian's bull.]
'Hadrian the bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his very dear son
in Christ, the illustrious King of the English, health and apostolic
benediction:
'Your magnificence praiseworthily and profitably takes thought how to
increase a glorious name on earth and how to lay up a reward of
everlasting happiness in heaven, while you are intent, like a Catholic
prince, on enlarging the bounds of the Church, on declaring the truth to
unlearned and rude peoples, and on uprooting the seedlings of vice from
the Lord's field. The better to attain that end you have asked counsel
and favour of the apostolic see. In which action we are sure that, with
God's help, you will make happy progress in proportion to the high design
and great discretion of your proceedings, inasmuch as undertakings which
grow out of ardour for the faith and love of religion are accustomed
always to have a good end and upshot. There is no doubt and your nobility
acknowledges that Ireland, and all islands upon which Christ the sun of
justice has shone, and which have received the teachings of the Christian
faith, rightfully belong to the blessed Peter and the most holy Roman
Church. We have, therefore, the more willingly made a faithful plantation
among them, and inserted a bud pleasing to God, in that we foresee that
it will require a careful internal watch at our hands. However, you have
signified to us, my dear son in Christ, that you wish to enter the island
of Ireland, in order to reduce that people to law, and to uproot the
seedlings of vice there, and to make a yearly payment of a denarius to
the blessed Peter out of each house, and to preserve the rights of the
churches of that land whole and undiminished.
'We, therefore, seconding your pious and laudable desire with suitable
favour, and giving a kindly assent to your petition, do hold it for a
thing good and acceptable that you should enter that island for the
extension of the Church's borders, for the correction of manners, for the
propagation of virtue, and for increase of the Christian religion; and
that you should perform that which you intend for the honour of God and
for the salvation of that land; and let the people of that land receive
you honourably and venerate you as their lord; the ecclesiastical law
remaining whole and untouched, and an annual payment of one denarius
being reserved to the blessed Peter and to the most holy Roman Church.
But if you shall complete the work which you have conceived in your mind,
study to mould that race to good morals, and exert yourself personally
and by such of your agents as you shall find fit in faith, word, and
living, to honour the Church there, and to plant and increase the
Christian faith, and strive to ordain what is for the honour of God and
the safety of souls in such a manner that you may deserve at God's hands
a heap of everlasting treasure, and on earth gain a glorious name for
ages yet to come.'
[Sidenote: The papal title.]
The right of the Pope to dispose of islands rested upon the donation of
Constantine, which is now admitted to be as certainly spurious as
Adrian's bull is certainly genuine. Adrian may have believed the donation
authentic, but in any case, as Irish scholars point out, Constantine
could not give what he had never possessed. It is true that Ireland never
really formed part of the Roman Empire, but so strong was the idea of an
oecumenical sovereignty that Celtic lawyers imagined a state of things
in which Ireland would be tributary to the King of the Romans. This was a
mere fiction, but it was one of which Rome would readily take advantage,
and the Pope who insisted so sturdily on Barbarossa holding his stirrup
was not the one in whose hands any available weapon would be allowed to
rust.[30]
[Sidenote: Henry II. finds a pretext for interference.]
Henry II. was the most powerful prince in Europe, and sooner or later he
was almost sure to have a reason for interfering in Ireland. The
opportunity was at last afforded by Dermod MacMurrough, King of Leinster,
who aspired to reign over all Ireland with the help of Anglo-Norman arms.
As early as 1152 Dervorgil O'Melaghlin, wife of Tiernan O'Rourke, Prince
of Brefny, being ill-treated by her husband, left him, and placed
herself, her cattle, and her furniture under the protection of Dermod.
Dervorgil was forty-four and Dermod sixty-two, so that the affair, in
spite of a beautiful poem on the subject, was not what would be commonly
called romantic. Yet Cleopatra was thirty-nine, when Antonius, at the age
of fifty-three, refused to survive her. O'Rourke felt the insult and the
loss of the lady, or, at least, of her property, and appealed to Tirlogh
O'Connor, King of Connaught and titular King of Ireland. Dermod was
compelled to abandon Dervorgil, who survived her husband eleven years,
and died as late as 1193, during a pilgrimage to Mellifont Abbey. On the
death of Tirlogh O'Connor his son Roderic became a candidate for the
chief sovereignty, but Dermod espoused the cause of the O'Neill
candidate, who was successful. The flight or abduction of Dervorgil was
certainly not the proximate cause of the Norman invasion, but by placing
Dermod in permanent opposition to O'Connor and O'Rourke, it probably
contributed to bring it about.
[Sidenote: Dermod MacMurrough.]
In 1166 Dermod, who had made himself odious by his tyranny, was expelled
from Leinster by O'Connor and O'Rourke, who demolished his stronghold at
Ferns, and transferred his kingship to the next-of-kin. The clergy appear
to have been generally favourable to Dermod; and as Adrian's bull, even
if not published, could hardly be a secret, it may have been their advice
which induced him to go to Henry II. Dermod, though seventy-seven years
old, was still active and enterprising, and he sought the king in
Aquitaine or Guienne. Henry was too busy to think of going to Ireland
himself, but he gave the suppliant a kind of letter of marque in the
following terms:--'Henry, King of England, Duke of Normandy and
Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, to all his faithful English, Norman,
Welsh, and Scots, and to all nations subject to his jurisdiction,
greeting: When these present letters reach you you will know that we have
received into the bosom of our grace and favour Dermod, prince of the
Leinstermen. If anyone, therefore, within the bounds of our power wishes
to help his restoration as our man and liege subject, let him know that
he has our licence and favour for the purpose.'[31]
[Sidenote: Dermod seeks allies in England.]
Thus armed, Dermod returned to Bristol, which was much frequented by
ships from Leinster, and he appears to have been supplied with money by
his partisans there. His promise of gold and land at first attracted
little attention, but after two or three weeks he was visited by Richard
Fitz-Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Chepstow. Earl Richard, whose father had
lost most of his lands, lent a favourable ear to Dermod, and undertook to
bring an army to Ireland in the spring of 1169. The Irishman promised to
give him his daughter Eva, his only legitimate child. According to Norman
law Eva would bring the kingdom of Leinster to her husband and children.
According to Celtic law the lands belonged to the tribe, and the royal
dignity was elective. In this singular contract between MacMurrough and
Fitz-Gilbert, we have the key to most of the problems which have made
Ireland the despair of statesmen.
[Sidenote: Earl Richard and his friends.]
Dermod, however, did not rest his hopes of success upon Earl Richard
alone. He went to St. David's, so as to be as near Ireland as possible,
and made friends with the bishop, who had two brothers admirably suited
for the work in hand. Nesta, the beautiful daughter of Rice ap Tudor,
Prince of South Wales, is reported to have been the mistress of Henry I.,
and to have had two sons by him. The younger of these had also two sons,
the Robert and Meiler Fitz-Henry who played a prominent part in the
conquest of Ireland. Nesta afterwards married Gerald of Windsor, by whom
she had three sons and one or two daughters, and from one or other of her
children all the Fitzgeralds, Barrys, Carews, and Cogans are descended.
After the death of Gerald, Nesta married Stephen, the castellan of
Abertivy, and by him had one son, the famous Robert Fitz-Stephen.
Giraldus, who must have known, twice states expressly that Fitz-Stephen
had no legitimate child. The historian himself was Nesta's grandson,
through her daughter Angareta, who married William de Barry. Robert
Fitz-Stephen, and his half-brother, Maurice Fitzgerald, listened readily
to MacMurrough, who promised them Wexford and two cantreds of land, if
they would help him conquer Leinster.[32]
[Sidenote: Fitz-Stephen and others land in Ireland, 1169.]
Robert Fitz-Stephen was a desperate man. Betrayed by his own followers,
he had suffered three years' imprisonment among the Welsh, had been
released on promising to serve Rice Fitz-Griffith against Henry II., and
had agreed to hold Abertivy for the Cambrian and not for the Angevin.
Dermod now offered him a loophole to escape from, and he agreed to accept
his offers and to invade Ireland. His half-brother, Maurice Fitzgerald,
consented to accompany him. Dermod then slipped over to Ireland and
sought a refuge among the clergy of Ferns, who entertained him, as the
Archdeacon of St. David's carefully notes, to the best of their small
ability. It was in the winter of 1168 that MacMurrough returned to
Ireland, and in May 1169 Fitz-Stephen and his brother followed with
thirty knights of their own kinfolk, sixty men-at-arms, and 300 archers,
picked, as Giraldus says, from among the youth of Wales. Three ships
carried them all, and they landed safely in Bannow Bay, a shallow inlet
which they had probably mistaken either for Waterford or Wexford. The
brothers were accompanied by Hervey de Montmorency, who was sent by his
nephew, Earl Richard, rather as a spy than as a soldier. On the following
day Maurice de Prendergast, whose name still lives at Haverfordwest,
brought ten knights and a number of archers from Milford, and landed not
far from the same place. As soon as Dermod heard of the adventurers'
arrival he sent his son Donald with 500 men to welcome them, and soon
followed himself. Donald, surnamed Kavanagh, from having been fostered at
Kilcavan, was illegitimate; but that was a matter little considered among
the old Irish, and he became the ancestor of those Kavanaghs or
MacMurroughs who afterwards claimed the kingship of Leinster and even of
Ireland, and who baffled Richard II. and his great army.
[Sidenote: They win Wexford.]
After a smart conflict Fitz-Stephen and MacMurrough mastered Wexford,
which was a Danish town. The Irishman's readiness to grant Wexford to the
adventurers was very probably caused by the fact that the town had never
been really in his power. Perhaps he hoped to get rid of the Normans when
he had used them to subdue his enemies. It was evident that Fitz-Stephen
and his company could do little more than hold Wexford. If Leinster was
to be conquered it could only be by a much larger force. Nevertheless,
Fitz-Stephen decided to advance into the country, and was joined by the
Wexford Danes, who probably were not slow to learn that the Normans were
their kinsmen. With a heterogeneous army of 3,000 men, Dermod and his
allies marched towards Ossory. There was a battle in open ground with the
Ossorians, and the mail-clad stranger had an easy victory. Among the
slain was a personal enemy of Dermod, and we are told that that savage,
'lifting up the dead man's head by hair and ears, cruelly and inhumanly
tore away the nostrils and lips with his teeth.' In the meantime King
Roderic had set his army in motion against the invaders, and easily
penetrated to the neighbourhood of Ferns. The monastery was surrounded by
woods and bogs, and Fitz-Stephen, who was an adept in Welsh warfare,
taught the Leinstermen how to make it impregnable with ditches and
abattis. Neither party were very anxious to fight, and Dermod made a
treaty with Roderic, in which he acknowledged him as chief king, in
consideration of being allowed to enjoy Leinster in peace. Giraldus says
there was a secret understanding that the adventurers should be sent home
as soon as they had pacified Leinster, and that no reinforcements should
be brought over.
[Sidenote: Earl Richard hesitates. His friends take Waterford.]
Whatever understanding he might have with O'Connor, Dermod did not soon
abandon the hope of more help from Wales. 'We have,' he wrote to Earl
Richard, 'observed the storks and swallows; the summer birds have come,
and with this west wind have returned. Neither Favonius nor Eurus has
brought us your much-desired and long-expected presence.' The Earl had
waited for the return of Hervey de Montmorency, and when he brought a
favourable report it was still necessary to make at least some show of
consulting Henry II. The King had forbidden him to go to Ireland, but he
now sought an audience and begged either the restoration of his estates
or leave to carve out a new one for himself. Henry gave an ambiguous
answer, which the Earl chose to interpret in his own favour. In May 1170
he sent out Hervey again, accompanied by Raymond Fitzgerald, called Le
Gros, a creature of Fitz-Stephen and Maurice, with twenty knights and
seventy archers. Raymond landed at the south-eastern angle of the modern
county of Kilkenny, just at the point where the united Nore and Barrow
flow into the Suir. He intrenched himself at once, and was soon attacked
by the Waterford Danes. If Giraldus is to be believed, a panic seized the
assailants, of whom 500 were killed, and many taken. Among Raymond's
followers was a leper named William Ferrand, who performed prodigies of
valour, 'choosing rather to die gloriously than to endure the burden of
his disease.' A question arose as to the disposal of the prisoners.
Raymond was for sparing, Hervey for slaying. 'The opinion of the latter,'
says Giraldus, 'prevailed; the citizens were condemned, and, their limbs
having been broken, they were cast headlong into the sea.'
[Sidenote: Earl Richard lands, 1170.]
Earl Richard landed near Waterford on August 23, 1170. The city was taken
soon afterwards, and Reginald's tower is particularly mentioned as
forming part of the defences. That tower still stands with one of
Cromwell's cannon balls sticking in the wall--a monument of three
distinct invaders: the Pagan Northman, the Catholic Anglo-Norman, and the
Puritan Englishman. 'Earl Strongbow,' say the Lough Cé annalists with
pathetic brevity, 'came into Erin to Dermod MacMurrough to avenge his
expulsion by Roderic, son of Tirlogh O'Connor; and Dermod gave him his
own daughter and a part of his patrimony; and Saxon foreigners have been
in Erin since then.'
[Sidenote: The adventurers take Dublin.]
Waterford and Wexford having fallen, and his daughter Eva having been
married to Earl Richard, Dermod, who now aspired to the crown of all
Ireland, felt himself strong enough to attack Dublin. The Earl had
brought 200 knights and 1,000 other soldiers, so that the allied force
was a considerable one. MacMurrough led the army safely through the
Wicklow mountains, which were the scene of more than one disaster to
Elizabeth's officers. Dermod's auxiliaries had been trained in Wales; and
probably understood mountain warfare much better than those who had
served in the Netherlands, or even on the Scottish border. Lawrence
O'Toole, Archbishop of Dublin, a man revered both by Danes and Irishmen,
attempted to make peace between the citizens and their assailants; but
Raymond and Milo de Cogan, while their elders parleyed, led a chosen band
to the assault. They soon mastered the place; and Hasculph, with a number
of followers and some treasure, escaped to the Orkneys, whence he went to
Norway for help. Meath, which for some unexplained reason was in
O'Rourke's possession, was next invaded, and Roderic then wrote to
upbraid Dermod with having broken his oath by interfering outside the
bounds of Leinster. MacMurrough shortly answered that he meant to be
monarch of Ireland, and Roderic then killed his son, who was with him as
a hostage. The clergy of Armagh assembled in their synod saw or suspected
that the invasion was different from all former invasions. They agreed
that Ireland had brought a curse on herself by keeping Englishmen in
slavery, and they ordered the liberation of all such bondsmen. Henry II.
also saw that something extraordinary had happened. He had no fancy for
having an independent Norman principality within sight of Snowdon, and he
ordered the adventurers to return, strictly forbidding all communication
with them in the meantime. Fitz-Gilbert wrote to the King, who was in
Aquitaine, protesting that he believed he had the royal licence for what
he had done, and that he was ready to be his vassal for all he might gain
in Ireland. Raymond was sent with the letter, but Henry kept him a long
time in suspense.
[Sidenote: The Danes vainly attempt to retake Dublin.]
At Whitsuntide, 1171, while Earl Richard was waiting for the King's
answer, Hasculph returned with sixty ships, containing a well-armed
force, under a berserker called John the Mad. Milo de Cogan had been left
governor of Dublin, and he and his brother Richard succeeded after a
short fight in routing their assailants. John the Mad was killed, and
Hasculph taken while trying to escape across the slob to his ships. The
prisoner annoying him by threats of another and more formidable attempt,
Milo ordered him to be beheaded. He had, however, spoken truth, for
Godred, King of Man, soon appeared with thirty ships, and blocked the
mouth of the Liffey, while Roderic, having collected a great army from
all parts of Ireland, except the extreme north and south, besieged the
city by land. The Earl and his followers being thus shut up in Dublin,
Dermod's local enemies besieged Fitz-Stephen in the castle which he had
built at Wexford. No help, as the Irish well knew, could be expected from
England while Henry II. frowned, and the Normans at Dublin resolved on a
great effort to relieve Fitz-Stephen. A sally was arranged, and Roderic's
army was dispersed. The Irish had trusted entirely to their numbers, and
kept no watch and no order. Such stores of provisions fell into the
victors' hands that there was no need to victual Dublin for a year
afterwards. Fitz-Stephen, however, was not relieved. By force or
stratagem, Giraldus says it was by perjury, the Wexford people obtained
possession of his person, and killed or captured his men. Hearing of the
disaster at Dublin, the victors burned their town and withdrew with their
prisoners to an island in the middle of the harbour. Earl Richard arrived
too late for his immediate purpose, and continued his journey to
Waterford, whence he made his way to the King, whom he met near
Gloucester. Henry was at first obdurate, but it was finally agreed that
Dublin and all other port towns, with the lands adjoining, should be
handed over to the King, and that the Earl and his heirs should hold all
their other conquests of him and his heirs. While preparations were being
made for a royal expedition, O'Rourke once more attacked Dublin, but the
Cogans again surprised the Irish camp, and the city was never again
seriously threatened by the natives.
[Sidenote: Henry II. lands in Ireland, 1171.]
The last attack on Dublin was about September 1, 1171, and on October 16
the King sailed from Milford Haven with 400 ships, containing 4,000 men,
of whom 400 or 500 were knights. He landed next day at Crook, on the
right bank of the Suir, some miles below Waterford, which he entered on
the 18th. The Wexford men saw that the game was up, and brought
Fitz-Stephen to the King, expecting thanks for surrendering the man who
had dared to make war without the royal licence. Henry spoke sharply to
the prisoner, and ordered him to be kept safely in Reginald's tower.
Dermod MacCarthy, chief of Desmond and Cork, did homage at Waterford.
Thence Henry went to Lismore, where he stayed two days. From Lismore he
went to Cashel, where Donald O'Brien, chief of Thomond and Limerick,
followed MacCarthy's example. The minor chiefs of Munster also made their
submission, the only one mentioned by Giraldus being O'Phelan, who ruled
a great part of the county of Waterford. Dermod's old antagonist, Donald
of Ossory, also did homage. Henry placed governors both in Cork and
Limerick, but it is not clear that he visited either of those cities. He
then returned along the Suir to Waterford, where he took Fitz-Stephen
into favour, and restored Wexford to him. During this progress the King
selected three sites for fortresses, which were afterwards built by his
son John--Lismore on the Blackwater, and Ardfinnan and Tibraghny on the
Suir. The first and last were intended to command the upper tidal waters
of the Blackwater and Suir; Ardfinnan secured a passage from the southern
sea-board into Central Ireland, and Cromwell recognised its importance
nearly five hundred years afterwards.
[Sidenote: Henry II. winters at Dublin.]
Leaving a governor in Waterford, Henry then led the bulk of his army to
Dublin, where he received the submissions of O'Rourke and of the chiefs
of Leinster and Uriel. Hugo de Lacy and William Fitz-Adelm were sent to
meet Roderic at the Shannon, and the monarch of Ireland acknowledged
himself a tributary and vassal of the King of England. Ulster still held
out; for the submission of the nominal head king can in no way be held to
bind the chiefs, much less the people, of his own province, and certainly
not those of all Ireland. Giraldus does not venture to advance any such
theory, and yet Hooker, who translated his work in Elizabeth's time,
coolly interpolates the statement that 'by him and his submission all the
residue of the whole land became the King's subjects, and submitted
themselves.' The synod which met at Cashel under the legate's presidency
did what was possible for the Church to do in strengthening Henry's
pretensions. The King held a court at Dublin during the winter of 1171
and 1172. His temporary palace, erected outside the walls on the ground
now occupied by the southern side of Dame Street, was built of polished
wicker-work, after the manner of the country. Here he kept Christmas in
state, and invited the Irish chiefs to share his feast. They admired the
King's grandeur, and were by him persuaded to eat crane's flesh, which
the Normans thought a delicacy, but which the Irish had hitherto loathed.
The winter was so stormy that there was scarcely any communication with
England, and Henry's pleasure in his new acquisition must have been
darkened by the sense of impending retribution for the recent murder of
Becket.
[Sidenote: Henry's warlike preparations. He distrusts the adventurers.]
From the preparation which he made for the invasion of Ireland, it seems
clear that the King profoundly distrusted the adventurers who had
insisted on winning him a new realm. Vast stores of provisions, a great
number of hand-mills, artisans for building bridges, horses, and tools
for building or trenching, might indeed have been required for a war
against the natives. But the Irish had no fortresses, and wooden castles,
of which we also read, can only have been intended for attacking the
port-towns which Earl Richard had promised to give the King, and which
were already in Norman hands. Henry saw enough of Ireland to know that he
had really nothing to fear from the adventurers. Dermod MacMurrough was
dead before his arrival, and it was clear that Earl Richard would have
enough to do in maintaining his wife's monstrous claim without doing
anything to offend his own sovereign.
When, therefore, shortly before Easter, 1172, news came from Aquitaine
and Normandy that the legates were on their way to inquire into the
Canterbury tragedy, Henry lost no time in appointing Hugo de Lacy his
representative at Dublin, and in arranging for the safe keeping of
Waterford and Wexford. He sailed from the latter port on Easter Monday
1172, having been in Ireland exactly six months.[33]
[Sidenote: Henry leaves Ireland. He grants Meath to De Lacy.]
Before leaving the country Henry granted to Hugo de Lacy all the
territory of Meath, by the service of fifty knights. This included
Westmeath, with parts of King's County and Longford, and was about
800,000 acres in extent. De Lacy, to whom Hoveden gives the title of
justiciar, must be considered as the first Viceroy of Ireland, and he
lost no time in advancing a claim which, if successful, would make him
one of the most important vassals of the Crown. Tiernan O'Rourke, the
one-eyed King of Meath, consented to meet the Pretender at the Hill of
Ward. The conference ended in a quarrel, and O'Rourke was killed.
Giraldus charges treason upon the Irishman, and the Irish annalists
charge it upon the Norman. The important point is that De Lacy was able
to make head against the Irish, and that a powerful Norman colony was
established by him in the fertile central tract of Ireland. Earl Richard
was rather less successfully engaged in fighting for Leinster, which
Henry had granted him by the service of one hundred knights, when he was
summoned to Normandy, where he did such good service that the King made
him Viceroy in De Lacy's room. This was in 1173. It was in the next year,
or perhaps in 1175, that Henry had the bulls or privileges of Adrian IV.
and Alexander III. promulgated in Ireland. We can hardly suppose that
they were previously unknown to the clergy, who so manifestly favoured
the Anglo-Normans all through. Perhaps the King's main object in
publishing them at this time was to make his own peace with Rome, by
ostentatiously announcing that he held Ireland of the tiara, and not in
right of his own sword.
[Sidenote: Difficulties of the adventurers.]
When Earl Richard returned to Ireland he found that he had lost ground.
The Irish were beginning to recover confidence, and Hervey and Raymond
were quarrelling bitterly. The latter was the favourite of the soldiers,
who insisted on having him for leader, and he gained some successes over
the Danes of Cork and over the MacCarthys. Believing himself worthy of
the highest rewards, Raymond asked for the Constableship of Leinster, and
for the hand of Basilia, the earl's sister. The new Viceroy was
disinclined to grant these terms, and Raymond, whose father had just
died, went over to Wales to look after his old inheritance. Hervey thus
became second in command, and planned a campaign in concert with the
Dublin garrison. Earl Richard accompanied him to Cashel, but the intended
junction was not effected. Donald O'Brien's homage to Henry II. did not
prevent him from hindering his representative, and at Thurles he
surprised and totally defeated the Dublin division. No less than 400
Danes are said by Giraldus to have fallen, which shows that a portion of
that nation had accepted the alliance of their Teutonic kindred. The
O'Briens were aided by a large contingent from Connaught, but it does not
appear that Roderic was himself present. The immediate result of this
defeat was the recall of Raymond and his marriage to Basilia. He easily
put down a partial revolt of the Waterford and Wexford Danes; and,
finding himself indispensable, remained at Wexford until his bride was
brought to him. The honeymoon was scarcely begun when news came that
Roderic was wasting Meath, and had penetrated nearly to Dublin. Raymond
hastened thither, and the Connaught men retired before him. Castles,
according to Giraldus, were already built at Trim and Duleek; but they
had not proved strong enough to resist Roderic, and Raymond's first care
was to restore and strengthen them. The adventurers, most of whom were
already nearly related, were still more closely united by the marriage of
Hervey to Raymond's sister Nesta, and of Earl Richard's daughter Aline to
William Fitzgerald.
[Sidenote: The adventurers fail to hold Limerick. William Fitz-Adelm made
Viceroy.]
[Sidenote: Death of Strongbow, 1176.]
Donald O'Brien was not left long to enjoy his victory. Limerick was taken
by a sudden onslaught under Raymond, and the bounds of the colony were
advanced as far as they had yet been. Raymond still lingered on the
Shannon, where he received a loving letter from his wife, in which she
informed him 'that the great molar tooth, which had been hurting her so
much, had now fallen out.' He could not read, but his chaplain secretly
imparted the contents of the paper, and he guessed that Basilia alluded
to the death of her brother, who had been for some time ill. He hurried
to Dublin, and found that Earl Richard was indeed dead. Deprived of their
leader, and probably hard pressed by the Irish, the Normans thought it
prudent to evacuate Limerick. It was surrendered to Donald O'Brien, who
set fire to the city in four places as soon as they were gone. When the
King heard of this he remarked that the abandonment of Limerick was the
only wise thing that had been done concerning it. The Normans chose
Raymond their governor in Earl Richard's room; but he was quickly
superseded by William Fitz-Adelm de Burgh, whom Henry sent over as
Viceroy with large powers.
[Sidenote: Fitz-Adelm depresses the adventurers.]
According to Giraldus, the new governor did all in his power to depress
the adventurers of Nesta's stock. Raymond came to meet him with a chosen
band of his relations and friends finely mounted and armed. Instead of
being conciliated, the Viceroy muttered to his suite, 'I will soon cut
short this pride and disperse these shields.' According to the same
authority, he took advantage of the death of Maurice Fitzgerald to
defraud that leader's children. Giraldus is partial, but it is easy to
see that official governors were from the first jealous of the local
magnates, and were disposed to engross all influence. Fitz-Adelm did
little or nothing to increase the Norman power in Ireland, and he was
recalled in 1177.
[Sidenote: Treaty between Henry II. and Roderic O'Connor.]
In October 1175, not long before the death of Earl Richard, Henry II.
made a treaty with Roderic O'Connor, which must be understood as a kind
of declaration of policy. The commissaries who attended at Windsor on
Roderic's part were Catholicus, or Keyly O'Duffy, Archbishop of Tuam, the
Abbot of Ardfert, and the King of Connaught's Brehon, whom Giraldus calls
his Chancellor. The Archbishop of Dublin, St. Lawrence O'Toole, was among
the witnesses to the instrument by which Henry granted 'to his liege man
Roderic, King of Connaught, as long as he should serve faithfully, to be
King under him, ready to serve him as his man, and to hold his land well
and peacefully, as he held it before the King of England's entry into
Ireland, paying him tribute.' Should he be unable to maintain his
authority, the King's forces were to help him. The tribute was to be one
in every ten marketable hides. Roderic was not to meddle with those lands
which the King held in his own hands, or in those of his barons: that is
to say, Dublin with its appurtenances; Meath with its appurtenances, in
as ample a manner as Murchat O'Melaghlin had held it; Wexford with its
appurtenances, and all Leinster; Waterford and Dungarvan with its
appurtenances, and all the lands between the two places. Irish fugitives
willing to return into the King's land were to have peace on paying the
aforesaid tribute, 'or by performing the ancient accustomed services for
their lands.' Those who would not return were to be coerced by the King
of Connaught, who was to take hostages from all whom the King granted to
him, and to give hostages on his own part wherever the King required him.
No refugees from the King's lands were to be entertained by Irishmen
under any pretence. At the same time, as if to mark the fact that
Irishmen were his own subjects as well as Normans, Henry appointed
Augustine O'Sealbhaigh to the bishopric of Waterford, and sent him, in
charge of the Archbishop of Dublin, to be consecrated by the Archbishop
of Cashel. This was a confirmation of the Eugenian constitution, and put
an end to the succession of the Danish bishops through Canterbury. Henry
had no wish to have future Beckets interfering in Ireland. Canterbury was
near and Rome was far.
[Sidenote: Henry's original policy frustrated by De Courcy.]
The treaty with Roderic, if we accept it as Hoveden and Benedict have
handed it down, shows that a full conquest of Ireland was not intended by
Henry II. The possession of the port-towns gave him the command of St.
George's Channel, and a control over the trade of the island. He had seen
enough to know that a permanent conquest was beyond the power of a feudal
army, and his policy was to balance the adventurers, his own creation De
Lacy, and the native princes against each other. Fitz-Adelm, a subtle
intriguer with an eye for money, probably seemed a fitter instrument for
his purpose than any enterprising soldier. But Fitz-Adelm brought with
him to Ireland one of those restless and unscrupulous men of action, who
sometimes disconcert the best laid plans of statesmen. John De Courcy is
represented by Giraldus as a tall, fair man, of immense strength and
extraordinary audacity, an experienced warrior, though often more of a
partisan than a general; but religious in his way, and ever ready to
ascribe to God the glory of any successful exploit. He was the patron of
the monk Jocelin, who wove such a tangled web about St. Patrick, and he
carried with him everywhere a tract of St. Columba, which was supposed to
point him out as the destined conqueror of Ulster. Seeing that neither
gain nor glory could be had under the Viceroy, De Courcy, in January
1177, boldly marched into Ulster with twenty-two knights and 300 chosen
men. Among the knights were Almaric St. Lawrence, ancestor of the Howth
family, and Roger le Poer, apparently a collateral ancestor of the Powers
and Eustaces. In the course of a year or two, though by no means always
successful in battle, De Courcy made himself supreme in eastern Ulster.
Where they had the advantage of the ground, the natives were too much for
the adventurers; but in a fair field a hundred Normans, at least under
such a leader as De Courcy, were more than a match for 1,000 Irish.
Discipline and steadiness soon gave them the coast, and the castles which
they built everywhere enabled them to make war or peace as they pleased.
Downpatrick was John de Courcy's capital.
[Sidenote: De Courcy and De Lacy. Castle-building.]
O'Donlevy, chief king of Uladh, or that part of Ulster now comprised in
Antrim and Down, had done homage to Henry II., and imagined that he would
be thus secured from invasion. But the King evidently understood the
matter differently, for De Courcy had a grant from him of such northern
lands as he could conquer. Fitz-Adelm having failed as a Viceroy, Henry
now fell back upon Hugo de Lacy, who perhaps dreamed of making himself
independent. He distinguished himself by good government from 1177 to
1181, and by showing favour to the Irish; and he married a daughter of
Roderic O'Connor without the King's consent. Henry accordingly sent for
De Lacy to England, and gave the viceregal authority to John, Constable
of Chester. The Lord of Meath succeeded in making his peace, and was soon
restored to the government; Robert of Salisbury, a priest, being sent as
a spy upon him. De Lacy covered his own district with castles, Trim being
his capital. Delvin he granted to William Nugent, his sister Rose's
husband, who became the ancestor of the Earls of Westmeath. Other estates
he gave to his friends and followers, who founded many of the families of
the Pale. The Flemings, Lords of Slane, became the most important of
these. Other barons followed the example of De Lacy; and Giraldus
mentions that by the year 1182 castles were built at or near Newtown
Barry, Castle Dermot, Leighlin, Timahoe, Athy, Narragh, and other places.
The Meath castles, says the chronicler, were too many to mention by name.
[Sidenote: John designated as King of Ireland.]
As early as 1177 Henry had nominated his son John King of Ireland. For
this he had the leave of Alexander III., and in 1186 Urban III. actually
sent a crown of peacock's feathers set in gold for the King to crown one
of his sons, the choice being left to him. The intervening Pope, Lucius
III., had opposed the plan, and this may have been the reason why it was
never carried out. Or the King may have hesitated to repeat even in
John's favour an experiment which had succeeded so ill in the case of his
eldest son. The Oxford nomination of 1177 was allowed to take effect only
so as to constitute John Lord of Ireland, and this title was afterwards
assumed by the Kings of England. In the sixteenth century it was by some
taken as evidence that the crown in Ireland was subject to the popes. But
the idea of a separate, though subordinate, kingdom was very nearly
realised. The acts of the colony were from the date of the Oxford Council
executed in the name of 'John, Lord of Ireland, son of the King of
England,' and the first Anglo-Norman coinage bore his face.
[Sidenote: John sent to Ireland as Viceroy.]
On March 31, 1185, the King knighted John at Windsor, and on April 24 the
latter, who was in his nineteenth year, sailed from Milford Haven, with
300 knights and a large body of troops. The expedition reached Waterford
in safety next day, and the neighbouring chiefs flocked to do honour to
the King's son, and to give him the kiss of peace. The Anglo-Norman
courtiers--young men mostly--pulled their long beards, and they at once
departed to the hostile chiefs, Roderic O'Connor, Donnell O'Brien, and
Dermod MacCarthy. All chance of conciliating the more powerful and
distant potentates was thus taken away. Giraldus Cambrensis was present
at Waterford, and he likens John to Rehoboam. The Irish, who had adhered
to the invaders since Fitz-Stephen's first landing, were deprived of
their lands; the castles were given up to favourites, who did nothing but
eat, drink, and plunder; the worst officers were put in the best places,
and the men, as a natural consequence, were as bad as their masters,
devoted to Venus and Bacchus, but neglectful of Mars. Hoveden adds that
John put all the profits of government into his own pocket, and that his
soldiers being unpaid were useless in war. The three castles projected by
his father were built; but he lost many to the Irish, and De Lacy was
suspected of intriguing against him. It is clear that there could be no
confidence in a prince whose chief care was to rob and displace the men
who had won his principality for him. The disastrous experiment lasted
only eight months, when John returned to England, leaving the government
to John de Courcy, who retained power until the death of Henry II. The
Lough Cé annalists, who wrote beyond the Shannon, give the following
account of John's expedition:--'The son of the King of the Saxons came to
assume the sovereignty of Erin ... afterwards he went across to complain
of Hugo de Lacy to his father; for it was Hugo de Lacy that was King of
Erin when the son of the King of the Saxons came, and he permitted not
the men of Erin to give tribute or hostages to him.' To the Irish
bordering on Meath no doubt De Lacy seemed a veritable king. The Four
Masters, who were better acquainted with the English theory of
government, repeat this; but soften Hugo's title of king into that of the
King of England's deputy.
[Sidenote: Murder of Hugh de Lacy. The colony continues to extend.]
In or out of office, De Lacy continued to increase his dominion in Meath,
but his career was cut short not long after John's departure. Having
encroached upon the lands of the O'Caharneys, he was murdered while
building a castle at Durrow by a foster-relation of the injured clan. His
death was a great blow to the colonists, but his son Hugo succeeded to
scarcely diminished power, and is accused by Giraldus of systematically
thwarting De Courcy. Fitz-Stephen meanwhile was carving out a
principality in Munster, where he would be tolerably free from official
interference. He and Milo de Cogan were joint grantees of Cork, and the
latter married his daughter Catherine to Maurice, son of Raymond le Gros,
to whom Dermod MacCarthy had given a portion of North Kerry. From this
alliance the Fitzmaurices sprung. It is probable that in granting the
land of the O'Connors to a stranger, Dermod gave that over which he had
no real authority. The territory immediately round the city of Cork was
divided between Fitz-Stephen and Cogan, the former taking that lying to
the east, and the latter that lying to the west. Fitz-Stephen's share
passed to his sister's son, Philip de Barry. Before the death of Henry
II. the country about Cork was studded with castles, but it is impossible
to say how far it was really conquered. Intermarriages with the Irish
were no doubt common from the first. The example set by Strongbow and by
Hugo de Lacy was not likely to want imitators.
[Sidenote: No conquest of Ireland under Henry II.]
The conquest of Ireland by Henry II., as it used to be called, amounts on
the whole to this. The coast from Larne to Cork harbour was, at the date
of the King's death, strongly held by the invaders, all the ports being
in their hands, and the principal points being defended by castles. They
were also pretty firmly established on the south side of the Shannon
estuary. The rivers of Leinster were in their hands, and the central
plain almost, if not quite as far west as the Shannon. De Courcy had
begun to assert his dominion over Monaghan and Armagh. All the Danish
towns except Limerick were fully possessed by the conquerors. On the
other hand, the Irish were not expelled from any part of the island. The
mountains which extend almost uninterruptedly from Dublin to Waterford
still sheltered the O'Tooles, the O'Byrnes, the MacMurroughs, the
O'Nolans, and other clans. Fitz-Stephen had begun the conquest of what is
now the county of Cork, but the Irish were still in force on all sides of
the city. The natives generally had recovered in some degree from their
first alarm. The first invaders had been trained in mountain warfare, but
those who succeeded them were often quite unfit to dispute the possession
of hills and woods with the light-armed natives. And there were
jealousies between Normans, English, and Welsh, which went far to
neutralise the strength of the colony. Had it not been for the
dissensions of the Irish themselves, it is probable that they would have
confined the invaders to the east coast. It was a quarrel between Dermod
MacCarthy and his son which brought the Geraldines to Kerry; disputes
among the O'Connors introduced De Cogan, De Lacy, and De Courcy into
Connaught; and, though they effected nothing, they paved the way for the
De Burgos, to whose founder, William Fitz-Adelm, Henry granted the whole
of the western province. The King's troubles with his own sons, with the
Holy See, and with France, prevented him from attending to Ireland. It
would have been better for the peace of mankind had he made a real
conquest, instead of leaving it to barons, who lost much of their old
civilisation, and who disdained to learn anything from the weaker people
whom they oppressed.[34]
FOOTNOTES:
[29] Matthew Paris calls the Irish 'bestiales.'
[30] See the _Senchus Mór_, ii. 225.
[31] Giraldus, _Ex. Hib._ lib. i. cap. 2.
[32] In Webb's _Compendium of Irish Biography_ is a carefully compiled
catalogue of Nesta's children and grandchildren. I have generally
followed it, noting, however, that Fitz-Stephen's children cannot be held
legitimate in the face of Giraldus' distinct statement.
[33] The details of Henry's preparations may be studied in Sweetman's
_Calendar of Documents_.
[34] In narrating the events of Henry II.'s reign, I have generally
followed Giraldus Cambrensis, checking him by references to Hoveden and
Regan. The _Expugnatio_ may be considered a fanciful book in some ways.
But if we eliminate everything supernatural, and make some allowance for
the writer's prejudices, I see no reason to question his good faith. Of
the native Irish he knew little, but the invaders were his neighbours,
friends, and relations. Fitz-Stephen and the other descendants of Nesta
may be unduly praised, Fitz-Adelm perhaps unduly blamed; but, after all,
this is no more than may be said against most historians of their own
times. Giraldus was undoubtedly an observer of first-rate power.