opening new communications through the English territory. But while his success in the field filled the native chiefs with terror, the magnificent state which he affected, excited the envy and jealousy of the English lords, particularly Richard de Bourgo, Earl of Ulster, who in all the style of an inde. pendent sovereign, kept his court at Trim, conferred the honour of knighthood on some of his adherents, and would probably have commenced hostilities against Gaveston, had he not been suddenly recalled. Aweak government sought by new honours to court the favour of this ambitious chieftain; but these only tended to increase his insolence, and Thomond, already so miserably wasted by contending factions, became the scene of his outrageous violence. In 1311, he joined Donogh, the competitor with Dermod O'Brien for the sovereignty; but Fitzgerald and De Clare espousing the cause of the latter, De Bourgo was signally defeated and taken prisoner,

with many of his adherents. He was thus compelled to submit to terms of pacification dictated by the conquerors, and the marriage of his two daughters with Maurice and Thomas Fitz-Gerald, afterwards Earls of Desmond and Kildare, promised lasting tranquillity between these powerful families.

The scourge of foreign invasion was now superadded to the internal distractions of the country. The success of Robert Bruce at the battle of Bannockburn having secured his title to the crown of

Scotland, the Irish chieftains were inspired with the hope, that in the present enfeebled state of the English Government, they, by a vigorous effort, might also recover their independence. The Ulster chieftains were particularly anxious to be freed from their connexion with England, and offered to receive a Scottish prince for their sovereign, if he was accompanied by a sufficient force to effect their deliverance. Edward, brother of Robert Bruce, was not more distinguished by his valour than his ambition, and the King of Scotland encouraged him to undertake an enterprize so accordant with his propensities. Edward embraced the proposal with ardour, but his first attempt was repulsed, owing to the active vigilance of Lord Edmond Butler, the Chief Governor, and want of preparation amongst his Irish partizans. Undismayed, however, by his first failure, he arrived on the North-western coast of Ireland in 1315, where he landed six thousand men; and being joined by the Ulster chieftains with considerable forces, he proceeded to ravage the English settlements with fire and sword. Dundalk, Atherdee, and several places of less note soon fell into his hands. The Earl of Ulster, accompanied by Fedlim O'Connor, the Irish chieftain of Connaught, marched against the invader, who, by the advice of his associate O'Nial of Tir-Owen, retired at his approach. The Earl pursued him to Colerain, where he was attacked and defeated by Bruce, who immediately

commenced a negociation with the Connaught Prince, which finally succeeded. Fedlim withdrew his forces from De Bourgo's army, to oppose a competitor for the Sovereignty of Connaught, and the Earl speedily followed, discomfited and disgraced.

Fedlim subdued his rival by the aid of some English troops, under the command of Sir John Bermingham; but the first use he made of his success was to declare openly in favour of Bruce, and draw his sword against his deliverers. He entered the province of Munster, slew Lord Stephen of Exeter, Milo de Cogan, and many of the English settlers; and his example was quickly followed by Mortogh O'Brien of Thomond, and many others of the native chieftains. The spirit of insurrection now diffused itself in all directions, and the clergy were particularly active in inveighing against the English government, and exciting the people to arm in favour of the Scottish chieftain.

Encouraged by these proceedings, Edward Bruce had himself crowned King of Ireland at Dundalk; and his army being increased by a powerful reinforcement from Scotland, and a great number of Irish and English mal-contents, including the Lacies and their adherents, he marched towards the South, followed by a barbarous train, who were inflamed to the commission of the most dreadful acts of violence by their previous sufferings in a season of extreme dearth. The English settlements were now

threatened with a formidable invasion both from Ulster and Connaught, and to repel it required the most vigorous exertions of the well-affected, amongst whom John Fitz-Gerald, Lord Offaley, and Lord Edmond Butler, were particularly conspicuous: to encourage this spirit of loyalty the former was created Earl of Kildare,* and the latter Earl of Carrick. A strong force was sent into Connaught under William de Bourgo to chastise Fedlim O'Connor, who was called from his expedition into Munster to repel the invaders, and a most sanguinary conflict took place near Athenree, in which Fedlim was slain with eight thousand of his followers. Undismayed by the destruction of his confederate, Bruce ravaged the country to the very walls of Dublin ; but the citizens made such preparations for a vigorous defence, that he turned aside towards Kildare, and marching through Ossory, pierced into Munster. Bloodshed and desolation marked the progress of this barbarous enemy, who after wasting with peculiar violence the lands of the Earl of Carrick in the neighbourhood of Nenagh, entered Limerick on the 21st of September, and here he is said to have kept his court till the following Easter.

In the mean time a Parliament was called at Kilkenny to raise a subsidy for the defence of the realm,

*This distinguished Nobleman, died in 1316. He was the founder of the Augustinian Friary, or Black Abbey, at Adare, in the county of Limerick.

and an army was collected by the Butlers and Geraldines, which amounted to near thirty thousand men. Roger Mortimer, who was appointed to the Irish government, landed at Youghal with a numerous train of knights and men at arms; but the English government found still more powerful aid in the papal thunders which were fulminated against Robert and Edward Bruce, the Irish clergy of every order, and all the enemies of King Edward. The Scottish chief, conscious of his inability to meet his formidable antagonists in the field, now led his forces back to Ulster, and the Chief Governor wisely preferred employing his resources in putting down the spirit of insurrection in Leinster, and correcting the abuses of the state, to pursuing a disheartened enemy through a remote and desolate country where his forces must be quickly consumed by famine and pestilence and such was the dreadful termination of the ill-conducted expedition of Edward Bruce. All means of subsistence having been quickly exhausted by the rapacious violence of his followers, thousands of them perished for want of food; and to such an extremity of misery were they driven at length, that the survivors subsisted on the dead bodies of their comrades. In the meantime the English had succeeded in re-establishing their interest in Munster, where the Prince of Thomond had previously obtained considerable success: and when the other provinces were