To this singular letter Fitz-Stephens sent the follow ing laconic answer :— "Your present I will not accept. Nor will I break the faith and troth I have plighted to my friend Der mond. He forsakes not me; I will not forsake him, nor leave him distressed. You speak of lechery! What is that amongst martial men? I hear you have bastards. yourself. To what end is your embassy? If Roderick give counsel we need it not. If he prophesy, we credit not his oracle. If he command as a prince' we obey not his authority. If he threaten as an enemy a fig for his monarchy."* Baffled in his hopes of detaching Fitz-Stephens from his alliance with Dermot, Roderick made an effort to recal that prince to a sense of the duty which he owed to his monarch and his country. Here also he was disappointed and therefore determined to appeal to the ultima ratio regum, the doubtful issue of battle. But the timid and short-sighted policy of his clergy overruled the more magnanimous and prudent resolution of the monarch. Yielding to their persuasions, he entered into a treaty of peace with Dermot. By this treaty, he covenanted that the king of Leinster should be restored to his territory. On his part, Dermot engaged to renew his homage and in proof of his fidelity gave, as a hostage, his son Cothurin ab Cnuth who was to receive Roderick's • Hanmer, 115. Cox, vol. 1, p. 15, 16. Two letters which passed betwixt the O Neal and Aodh Roe O Donel, in the year 1491, furnish another curious specimen of laconic and energetic epistles. O Donel refused to pay O Neal a tribute or head-rent which he claimed as his liege lord. O Neal wrote to him thus : "Cuir chugam mo chios no muna ccuirthear." Pay me my rent, or if you dont. O Donel replied in the same style:— These short and egan vol, 2, p. 211. "Ni bhfuil cios orm agus da mbiadh.” I owe you no`rent and if I did: pithy letters were the precursors of a war.-Mac Geogh- daughter in marriage. By private contract the Leinster prince (every way a traitor,) stipulated that on his reestablishment in his kingdom, all strangers should be driven from the country.* But Dermot's ambition had been augmented by success and in imagination he already wielded the sceptre of Ireland. Yet he concealed his views, in hopes that Strongbow would arrive at the head of a formidable military force, to assist him in the execution of his plans. Various circumstances had compelled that commander to procrastinate his expedition : but in May 1171, Raymond Le Gross his domestic friend landed with ten knights and seventy archers, at Dundenil or Dundonalf, within four miles of Waterford, on the south of Wexford. These were assailed by a mixed body of undisciplined Danes and Irishmen. But the wary Briton had erected a temporary fort and had collected a numerous herd of cattle, for the subsistence of his troops. These he drove impetuously against the enemy, who astonished at this novel mode of warfare, fell into disorder and were routed with much slaughter. One thousand of the assailants were slain and seventy of the citizens of Waterford were taken prisoners. Raymond would have treated these men with humanity and was inclined to enter into a negotiation, with the citizens of Waterford, for their ransom. But Harvey De Monte Marisco who had accompanied him in his expedition, precipitated these unhappy victims of barbarity, from a rocky precipice into the sea.t On the twenty-third of August, 1171, Strongbow himself landed at the bay of Waterford, with two hundred knights and one thousand two hundred well discplined and well appointed infantry. Joined by Raymond and his party, he marched against Waterford and took that city by storm. Here, in the moment of victory, the Lib. P: Lam. Cox, vol. 1, p. 17, Ware's Ann. Leland vol. 1, p. 36. Ware's Annals; British army was guilty of the most inhuman acts, and the city was a wide and melancholy scene of carnage and devastation. Satiated at last with blood, Earl Richard began to think of Love, Hymen and empire. His marriage with Eva the daughter of Dermot was now publickly and triumphantly solemnized, and he was openly declared her co-heir in the kingdom.* On the twenty first of September the allied force took Dublin by storm.† The Danish prince Asculphus governor of the city, escaped with many of his adherents to the Orcades. But the defenceless town was plundered by the victors. A multitude of the citizens were slaughtered without mercy, and numbers of them driven headlong into the river. Meanwhile Dermot wasted the province of Meath with fire and sword. The treacherous conduct of this monarch so incensed Roderick king of Ireland, that he put to death his son Cothurin ab Cnuth, whom he had detained as a hostage and thus doubly inflamed the resentment of his rebellious vassal.‡ On the first of May, 1172, Dermot king of Leinster died at Ferns. It is stated by some writers, that this regal ruffian fell a victim to the morbus pedicularis.§ Earl Strongbow succeeded to his kingdom. In October 1172, Henry II. embarked at Milford for Ireland, with four hundred knights and four thousand soldiers. His fleet which consisted of two hundred and forty ships, arrived at Waterford, on the eighteenth day of the same month, and the troops were landed without the smallest opposition. He had indeed long meditated the conquest of Ireland, and to give his claim to that country some semblance of right, had obtained a bull from Pope Adrian, which empowered him "to enter and possess the land and there to execute according to his wisdom, whatever shall be for the honour of God and the safety of the realm." The Pope made this grant • Cirald. Camb. Cox, Leland ut supra. Ware. + Camb. Expug. Hib. 1. 1, c. 13, 18. W. Neubriggen, l. 2, c. 26. + Ibid. Ware's an, § O Halloran vol. 2, p. 352. Annals of the Four Masters. Gir, Camb. Expug. lib. 1, c. 20, p. 771, Regan, Ms, "in right of Saint Peter and the church of Rome, to whom Ireland" he said," and the other islands, where Christ is known, belong." The ostensible objects were, first," that the people might be brought to obedience unto law, and sin rooted out from amongst them." Second," that the payment of Peter's pence should be enforced and the rites of the church preserved inviolate." Third," that the people might be reformed to somə better order and trade of life.*" This ridiculous transfer of a whole nation to a foreign sovereign, was accompanied by a gold ring, in token of investiture and was afterwards confirmed by a breve of Pope Alexander III. Henry's title to the lordship of Ireland was acknowledged, on the very day of his arrival, by Dermod Mac Arthy prince of Desmond, who surrendered Cork to the British sovereign.+ O Brien of Thomond, Domnald More Mac Giolla Phadruig (Fitz-Patrick,) of Ossory, Malachy O Folan of Deisies, O Carrol prince of Argial and O Ruarc of Breffney, followed his example. But Roderick O Connor king of Ireland disdaining to acknowledge the supremacy of a foreign monarch, resisted him with spirit, and at last entered into a treaty with Henry in 1175. In this treaty, he is recognised as king of Connaught, which with his other lands he was to hold in full sovereignty. On his part, he undertook to do homage and pay tribute to the king of England. His Irish subjects seem to have considered him as still possessed of his regal rights, and under this idea the Lagenian annals have the following remarkable passage: "An. 1175, Catholicus O Dubhy came out of England from Fitz-Empress (Henry) with the peace of Ireland and the royal sovereignty of all Ireland to Rory O Connor, and his own Coigeadh (province) to each provincial king in Ireland and their rents to Roderick." • Hanmer, 107. + Girald, Camb. + Hanmer 144. The clergy (Gelasius and those of Ulster excepted,) probably influenced by the Pope's bull, were amongst the first to acknowledge Henry as their liege lord. The princes of Leinster, and of by far the greater part of the kingdom, submitted to his authority. But the Hi-Nialls, the O Donnells and other princely septs of Ulster, with a few noble families in Connaught, preserved their independence inviolate.* Such was the commencement of the British power in Ireland. It was necessary to glance at this subject, on account of the important results which, ever since that period, have materially affected both the political and the ecclesiastical state of Ireland. • Mac Geog. Tom; 1, p. 482. 5, p. 128. Staniqurst de Reb. in Hib, gost. lib. |