An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 Part 25

Henry was at that time suffering from domestic troubles in Normandy; he therefore summoned De Clare to attend him there. It would appear that he performed good service for his royal master, for he received further grants of lands and castles, both in Normandy and in Ireland. On his return to the latter country, he found that the spoilers had quarrelled over the spoil. Raymond _le Gros_ contrived to ingratiate himself with the soldiers, and they demanded that the command should be transferred from Hervey de Montmarisco, Strongbow's uncle, to the object of their predilection. The Earl was obliged to comply. Their object was simply to plunder. The new general gratified them; and after a raid on the unfortunate inhabitants of Offaly and Munster, they collected their booty at Lismore, intending to convey it by water to Waterford.

The Ostmen of Cork attacked them by sea, but failed to conquer. By land the Irish suffered another defeat. Raymond encountered MacCarthy of Desmond on his way to Cork, and plundered him, driving off a rich cattle spoil, in addition to his other ill-gotten goods. Raymond now demanded the appointment of Constable of Leinster, and the hand of Strongbow's sister, Basilia. But the Earl refused; and the general, notwithstanding his successes, retired to Wales in disgust.

Hervey now resumed the command, A.D. 1174, and undertook an expedition against Donnell O'Brien, which proved disastrous to the English. Roderic once more appears in the field. The battle took place at Thurles, and seventeen hundred of the English were slain. In consequence of this disaster, the Earl proceeded in sorrow to his house in Waterford.[298]

This great success was a signal for revolt amongst the native chieftains. Donald Cavanagh claimed his father's territory, and Gillamochalmog and other Leinster chieftains rose up against their allies. Roderic O'Connor at the same time invaded Meath, and drove the Anglo-Normans from their castles at Trim and Duleek. Strongbow was obliged to despatch messengers at once to invite the return of Raymond _le Gros_, and to promise him the office he had demanded, and his sister's hand in marriage.

Raymond came without a moment's delay, accompanied by a considerable force. His arrival was most opportune for the English cause. The Northmen of Waterford were preparing to ma.s.sacre the invaders, and effected their purpose when the Earl left the town to join the new reinforcements at Wexford. The nuptials were celebrated at Wexford with great pomp; but news was received, on the following morning, that Roderic had advanced almost to Dublin; and the mantle and tunic of the nuptial feast were speedily exchanged for helmet and coat-of-mail.[299]

Unfortunately Roderic's army was already disbanded. The English soon repaired the injuries which had been done to their fortresses; and once more the Irish cause was lost, even in the moment of victory, for want of combination and a leader.

Henry now considered it time to produce the Papal Bulls, A.D. 1175. He therefore despatched the Prior of Wallingford and William FitzAldelm to Waterford, where a synod of the clergy was a.s.sembled to hear these important doc.u.ments. The English monarch had contrived to impress the Holy See with wonderful ideas of his sanct.i.ty, by his penitential expiations of his share in the murder of St. Thomas a Becket. It was therefore easy for him to procure a confirmation of Adrian's Bull from the then reigning Pontiff, Alexander III. The Pope also wrote to Christian, the Legate, to the Irish archbishops, and to the King. Our historians have not informed us what was the result of this meeting. Had the Papal donation appeared a matter of national importance, there can be little doubt that it would have excited more attention.

Raymond now led an army to Limerick, to revenge himself on Donnell O'Brien, for his defeat at Thurles. He succeeded in his enterprise.

Several engagements followed, in which the Anglo-Normans were always victorious. Roderic now sent amba.s.sadors to Henry II. The persons chosen were Catholicus, Archbishop of Tuam; Concors, Abbot of St. Brendan's, in Clonfert; and St. Laurence O'Toole, styled quaintly, in the old Saxon manner, "Master Laurence." The King and Council received them at Windsor. The result of their conference was, that Roderic consented to pay homage to Henry, by giving him a hide from every tenth head of cattle; Henry, on his part, bound himself to secure the sovereignty of Ireland to Roderic, excepting only Dublin, Meath, Leinster, Waterford, and Dungarvan. In fact, the English King managed to have the best share, made a favour of resigning what he never possessed, and of not keeping what he could never have held. This council took place on the octave of the feast of St. Michael, A.D. 1175. By this treaty Henry was simply acknowledged as a superior feudal sovereign; and had Ireland been governed with ordinary justice, the arrangement might have been advantageous to both countries.

Roderic was still a king, both nominally and _ipso facto_. He had power to judge and depose the petty kings, and they were to pay their tribute to him for the English monarch. Any of the Irish who fled from the territories of the English barons, were to return; but the King of Connaught might compel his own subjects to remain in his land. Thus the English simply possessed a colony in Ireland; and this colony, in a few years, became still more limited, while throughout the rest of the country the Irish language, laws, and usages, prevailed as they had hitherto done.

Henry now appointed Augustin, an Irishman, to the vacant see of Waterford, and sent him, under the care of St. Laurence, to receive consecration from the Archbishop of Cashel, his metropolitan. For a century previous to this time, the Bishops of Waterford had been consecrated by the Norman Archbishops of Canterbury, with whom they claimed kindred.

St. Gelasius died in 1173, and was succeeded in the see of Armagh by Connor MacConcoille. This prelate proceeded to Rome very soon after his consecration, and was supposed to have died there. When the Most Rev.

Dr. Dixon, the late Archbishop of Armagh, was visiting Rome, in 1854, he ascertained that Connor had died at the Monastery of St. Peter of Lemene, near Chambery, in 1176, where he fell ill on his homeward journey. His memory is still honoured there by an annual festival on the 4th of June; another of the many instances that, when the Irish Church was supposed to be in a state of general disorder, it had still many holy men to stem and subdue the torrent of evil. We shall find, at a later period, that several Irish bishops a.s.sisted at the Council of Lateran.

Dermod MacCarthy's son, Cormac, had rebelled against him, and he was unwise enough to ask Raymond's a.s.sistance. As usual, the Norman was successful; he reinstated the King of Desmond, and received for his reward a district in Kerry, where his youngest son, Maurice, became the founder of the family of FitzMaurice, and where his descendants, the Earls of Lansdowne, still possess immense property.[300] The Irish princes were again engaging in disgraceful domestic feuds. Roderic now interfered, and, marching into Munster, expelled Donnell O'Brien from Th.o.m.ond.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RAM'S ISLAND, ARMAGH.]

While Raymond was still in Limerick, Strongbow died in Dublin. As it was of the highest political importance that his death should be concealed until some one was present to hold the reigns of government, his sister, Basilia, sent an enigmatical letter[301] to her husband, which certainly does no small credit to her diplomatic skill. The messengers were not acquainted with the Earl's death; and such of the Anglo-Normans in Dublin as were aware of it, had too much prudence to betray the secret.

Raymond at once set out on his journey. Immediately after his arrival, FitzGislebert, Earl de Clare, was interred in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, now called Christ's Church.

Strongbow has not obtained a flattering character, either from his friends or his enemies. Even Cambrensis admits that he was obliged to be guided by the plans of others, having neither originality to suggest, nor talent to carry out any important line of action.

The Irish annalists call him the greatest destroyer of the clergy and laity that came to Ireland since the times of Turgesius (Annals of Innisfallen). The Four Masters record his demise thus: "The English Earl [_i.e._, Richard] died in Dublin, of an ulcer which had broken out in his foot, through the miracles of SS. Brigid and Colum-cille, and of all the other saints whose churches had been destroyed by him. He saw, he thought, St. Brigid in the act of killing him." Pembridge says he died on the 1st of May, and Cambrensis about the 1st of June. His personal appearance is not described in very flattering terms;[302] and he has the credit of being more of a soldier than a statesman, and not very knightly in his manner or bearing.

The Earl de Clare left only one child, a daughter, as heir to his vast estates. She was afterwards married to William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. Although Strongbow was a "destroyer" of the native clergy, he appears to have been impregnated with the mediaeval devotion for establis.h.i.+ng religious houses. He founded a priory at Kilmainham for the Knights of the Temple, with an alms-house and hospital He was also a liberal benefactor to the Church of the Holy Trinity, where he was buried.[303]

An impression on green wax of his seal still exists, pendent from a charter in the possession of the Earl of Ormonde. The seal bears on the obverse a mounted knight, in a long surcoat, with a triangular s.h.i.+eld, his head covered by a conical helmet, with a nasal. He has a broad, straight sword in his right hand. A foot soldier, with the legend, "Sigillum Ricardi, Filii Comitis Gilleberti," is on the reverse. The last word alone is now legible.

[Ill.u.s.tration: KEIM-AN-EIGH.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: WICKLOW MOUNTAINS.]

FOOTNOTES:

[285] _Irish Brooch_.--The brooch figured above is of great antiquity.

It was found in the Ardkillen crannoge, near Strokestown, county Roscommon. The original is in the Royal Irish Academy, and is considered the finest specimen of bronze workmans.h.i.+p in the collection.

[286] _Standing_.--Four Masters, vol. iii. p. 5, note _m_.

[287] _Mills_.--Dame-street derived its name from a dam or mill-stream near it. There was also the gate of Blessed Mary del Dam. The original name was preserved until quite recently. In the reign of Charles I. the Master of the Rolls had a residence here, which is described as being "in a very wholesome air, with a good orchard and garden leading down to the water-side."--Gilbert's _Dublin_, vol. ii. p. 264. In fact, the residences here were similar to those pleasant places on the Thames, once the haunts of the n.o.bility of London.

[288] _Peac.o.c.ks_.--To serve a peac.o.c.k with its feathers was one of the grandest exploits of mediaeval cookery. It was sown up in its skin after it had been roasted, when it was allowed to cool a little. The bird then appeared at the last course as if alive. Cream of almonds was also a favourite dainty. Indeed, almonds were used in the composition of many dishes; to use as many and as various ingredients as possible seeming to be the acme of gastronomy. St. Bernard had already loudly condemned the _bon vivants_ of the age. His indignation appears to have been especially excited by the various methods in which eggs were cooked. But even seculars condemned the excesses of Norman luxuries, and declared that the knights were loaded with wine instead of steel, and spits instead of lances.

[289] _Henri-curt-mantel_.--A soubriquet derived from the short mantle he constantly wore.

[290] _Good_.--Even the infidel Voltaire admitted that the Popes restrained princes, and protected the people. The Bull _In Coena Domini_ contained an excommunication against those who should levy new taxes upon their estates, or should increase those already existing beyond the bounds of right. For further information on this subject, see Balmez, _European Civilization, pa.s.sim._ M. Guizot says: "She [the Church] alone resisted the system of castes; she alone maintained the principle of equality of compet.i.tion; she alone called all legitimate superiors to the possession of power."--_Hist. Gen. de la Civilization en Europe_, Lect. 5.

[291] _Grounds_.--De Maistre and Fenelon both agree in grounding this power on const.i.tutional right; but the former also admitted a divine right.--De Maistre, _Du Pape_, lib. ii. p. 387.

[292] _Grant_.--See M. Gosselin's _Power of the Popes during the Middle Ages_, for further information on this subject.

[293] _Writer_.--_Ireland, Historical and Statistical_.

[294] _Bull_.--There can be no reasonable doubt of the authenticity of this doc.u.ment. Baronius published it from the _Codex Vatica.n.u.s_; John XXII. has annexed it to his brief addresed to Edward II.; and John of Salisbury states distinctly, in his _Metalogicus_, that he obtained this Bull from Adrian. He grounds the right of donation on the supposed gift of the island by Constantine. As the question is one of interest and importance, we subjoin the original: "Ad preces meas ill.u.s.tri Regi Anglorum Henrico II. concessit (Adria.n.u.s) et dedit Hiberniam jure haereditario possidendam, sicut literae ipsius testantur in hodiernum diem. Nam omnes insulae de jure antiquo ex donatione Constantini, qui eam fundavit et dotavit, dic.u.n.tur ad Romanam Ecclesiam pertinere."--_Metalogicus_, i. 4.

[295] _Friends.--Hib. Expug_. lib. ii. c. 38.

[296] _Hugh de Lacy_.--In a charter executed at Waterford, Henry had styled this n.o.bleman "Bailli," a Norman term for a representative of royalty. The territory bestowed on him covered 800,000 acres. This was something like wholesale plunder.

[297] _Building_.--This was the Danish fortress of Dublin, which occupied the greater part of the hill on which the present Castle of Dublin stands. See _note,_ Four Masters, vol. iii. p. 5. The Annals say this was a "spectacle of intense pity to the Irish." It certainly could not have tended to increase their devotion to English rule.

[298] _Waterford_.--The English and Irish accounts of this affair differ widely. The Annals of Innisfallen make the number of slain to be only seven hundred. MacGeoghegan agrees with the Four Masters.

[299] _Coat-of-mail_.--Costly mantles were then fas.h.i.+onable. Strutt informs us that Henry I. had a mantle of fine cloth, lined with black sable, which cost 100 of the money of the time--about 1,500 of our money. Fairholt gives an ill.u.s.tration of the armour of the time (_History of Costume_, p. 74). It was either tegulated or formed of chains in rings. The nasal appendage to the helmet was soon after discarded, probably from the inconvenient hold it afforded the enemy of the wearer in battle. Face-guards were invented soon after.

[300] _Property_.--Maurice FitzGerald died at Wexford in 1179. He is the common ancestor of the Earls of Desmond and Kildare, the Knights of Glynn, of Kerry, and of all the Irish Geraldines.

[301] _Letter_.--"To Raymond, her most loving lord and husband, his own Basilia wishes health as to herself. Know you, my dear lord, that the great tooth in my jaw, which was wont to ache so much, is now fallen out; wherefore, if you have any love or regard for me, or of yourself, you will delay not to hasten hither with all speed."--Gilbert's _Viceroys_, p. 40. It is said that this letter was read for Raymond by a cleric of his train, so it is presumable that reading and writing were not made a part of his education.

[302] _Terms_.--_Hib. Expug._ lib. i. cap. 27.

[303] _Buried_.--The early history of this church is involved in much obscurity. It probably owes its origin to the Danes. Cambrensis gives some interesting details about it, and mentions several miraculous occurrences which caused it to be held in great veneration in his days.

He specially mentions the case of a young man in the train of Raymond _le Gros_, who had robbed him of his greaves, and who had taken a false oath before the cross of that church to clear himself. After a short absence in England he was compelled to return and confess his guilt, "as he felt the weight of the cross continually oppressing him." Strongbow's effigy was broken in 1562, but it was repaired in 1570, by Sir Henry Sidney. Until the middle of the last century, the Earl's tomb was a regularly appointed place for the payment of bonds, rents, and bills of exchange. A rec.u.mbent statue by his side is supposed to represent his son, whom he is said to have cut in two with his sword, for cowardice in flying from an engagement. A writer of the seventeenth century, however, corrects this error, and says that "Strongbow did no more than run his son through the belly, as appears by the monument and the chronicle."--Gilbert's _Dublin_, vol. i. p. 113.

CHAPTER XVIII.

FitzAldelm appointed Viceroy--De Courcy in Ulster--Arrival of Cardinal Vivian--Henry II. confers the t.i.tle of King of Ireland on his son John--Irish Bishops at the Council of Lateran--Death of St. Laurence O'Toole--Henry's Rapacity--John Comyn appointed Archbishop of Dublin--John's Visit to Ireland--Insolence of his Courtiers--De Lacy's Death--Death of Henry II.--Accession of Richard I.--An English Archbishop tries to obtain Justice for Ireland--John succeeds to the Crown--Cathal Crovderg--Ma.s.sacres in Connaught--De Courcy's Disgrace and Downfall--His Death.

[A.D. 1176-1201.]

News of the Earl's death soon reached Henry II., who was then holding his court at Valognes, in Normandy. He at once nominated his Seneschal, FitzAldelm de Burgo, Viceroy of Ireland, A.D. 1176. The new governor was accompanied by John de Courcy, Robert FitzEstevene, and Miles de Cogan.

Raymond had a.s.sumed the reins of government after the death of Strongbow, but Henry appears always to have regarded him with jealousy, and gladly availed himself of every opportunity of lessening the power of one who stood so high in favour with the army. The Viceroy was received at Wexford by Raymond, who prudently made a merit of necessity, and resigned his charge. It is said that FitzAldelm was much struck by his retinue and numerous attendants, all of whom belonged to the same family; and that he then and there vowed to effect their ruin. From this moment is dated the distrust so frequently manifested by the English Government towards the powerful and popular Geraldines.

The new Viceroy was not a favourite with the Anglo-Norman colonists. He was openly accused of partiality to the Irish, because he attempted to demand justice for them. It is not known whether this policy was the result of his own judgment, or a compliance with the wishes of his royal master. His conciliatory conduct, whatever may have been its motive, was unhappily counteracted by the violence of De Courcy. This n.o.bleman a.s.serted that he had obtained a grant of Ulster from Henry II., on what grounds it would be indeed difficult to ascertain. He proceeded to make good his claim; and, in defiance of the Viceroy's prohibition, set out for the north, with a small army of chosen knights and soldiers. His friend, Sir Almaric Tristram de Saint Lawrence, was of the number. He was De Courcy's brother-in-law, and they had made vows of eternal friends.h.i.+p in the famous Cathedral of Rouen. De Courcy is described as a man of extraordinary physical strength, of large proportions, shamefully penurious, rashly impetuous, and, despite a fair share in the vices of the age, full of reverence for the clergy, at least if they belonged to his own race. Cambrensis gives a glowing description of his valour, and says that "any one who had seen Jean de Courci wield his sword, lopping off heads and arms, might well have commended the might of this warrior."[304]

De Courcy arrived in Downpatrick in four days. The inhabitants were taken by surprise; and the sound of his bugles at daybreak was the first intimation they received of their danger. Cardinal Vivian, who had come as Legate from Alexander III., had but just arrived at the spot. He did his best to promote peace. But neither party would yield; and as the demands of the Norman knights were perfectly unreasonable, Vivian advised Dunlevy, the chieftain of Ulidia, to have recourse to arms. A sharp conflict ensued, in which the English gained the victory, princ.i.p.ally through the personal bravery of their leader. This battle was fought about the beginning of February; another engagement took place on the 24th of June, in which the northerns were again defeated.[305]