Ireland under the Tudors Part 4

[17] Reeves's Ad.a.m.nan, p. 332 n.

[18] _Wars of the Gaedhill with the Gaill_, chap. x.x.xvi.

[19] _Wars of the Gaedhill with the Gaill_, chap. xl.

[20] The quotations are from _Burnt Njal_, chap. cliii.

[21] _Burnt Njal_, chap. cliv.

[22] _Ibid._, chap. clvi. _Wars of the Gaedhill with the Gaill_, chaps.

xcviii. and xcix. _Annals of Lough Ce_, pp. 7-13.

[23] _Burnt Njal_, chap. clvi.

[24] Many details about the Hiberno-Norse coins are to be found in Worsaae.

[25] _Book of Rights_, pp. 225 _sqq._, and O'Donovan's preface.

[26] See Hook's _Lives of Lanfranc, Anselm, and Ralph d'Eures_.

Translations of the letters mentioned in the text may be found in King's Primer of the Irish Church; most of the originals are printed in Ussher's _Sylloge_.

[27] The Irish always called Dublin Ath-cliath, or the Ford of Hurdles.

[28] The great mine of knowledge about the Irish Scandinavians is Todd's _Wars of the Gaedhill with the Gaill_, in the Record series. I have also used Dasent's _Story of Burnt Njal_, and Anderson's _Orkneyinga Saga_.

Haliday's _Scandinavian Kingdom of Dublin_, edited by Mr. J. P.

Prendergast, is a good modern book. Worsaae's _Danes and Norwegians_ is said to be somewhat fanciful, but it contains information not readily accessible elsewhere.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IRELAND IN 1172.

_The princ.i.p.al Danish Settlements are underlined Blue._]

CHAPTER III.

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 t.i.tle, 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 invest.i.ture. 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 doc.u.ment runs as follows:--

[Sidenote: Adrian's bull.]

'Hadrian the bishop, servant of the servants of G.o.d, to his very dear son in Christ, the ill.u.s.trious 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 G.o.d'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 n.o.bility 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 G.o.d, 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 a.s.sent to your pet.i.tion, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d and the safety of souls in such a manner that you may deserve at G.o.d's hands a heap of everlasting treasure, and on earth gain a glorious name for ages yet to come.'

[Sidenote: The papal t.i.tle.]

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 oec.u.menical 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 st.u.r.dily 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 t.i.tular 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 a.s.sailants, 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.