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where there was a stone with the impression of two feet believed to be of the size of the feet of the first captain, chief, or acquirer of the territory.

"4. That the hereditary historian or chronicler of the territory should be present to read to the chief about to be installed the heads of the law relating to the conduct of the chieftain, and that the latter should swear to observe those laws, and to maintain the customs of the territory inviolable.

"5. That after taking this oath, the chief laid aside his sword and other weapons, upon which the historian of the district, or some other person whose proper office it was, handed him a straight white wand as a sceptre and an emblem of purity and rectitude, to indicate that his people were to be so obedient to him that he required no other weapon to command them.

"6. That after receiving this straight white wand, one of his sub-chiefs put on his shoe or sandal in token of obedience, or threw a slipper over his head in token of good luck or prosperity.

"7. That after the foregoing ceremonies were performed, one of his sub-chiefs pronounced his surname without the Christian name in a loud voice, after which it was pronounced in succession by the clergy according to their dignity, and by his sub-chiefs and freeholders, according to their respective ranks. After this the chieftain turned round thrice backwards and thrice. forwards in honour of the Most Holy Trinity, and to view his people and his territory in every direction, which being done, he was the legitimate chief of his name."1

1 On the subject of the inauguration of Christian kings the evidence given by Cumin and Adamson is the most ancient. The earliest authorities given by Selden for the coronation of the Christian emperors, and for that of the Kings of France and England, are subsequent to the time of Adamson, who died in 704. The sacred cruet of Rheims used in anointing the Kings of France is not mentioned before the ninth century. In the Notitia Episcopatum, printed at Rome in 1533, we are told that the ancient kings, usually consecrated according to the ceremony of the Roman ritual, were those of Castile, Arragon, Ireland, Scotland, Poland, and Hungary.

"In the year 993, Muregan, successor of St. Patrick, Archbishop of Armagh, made a visitation of Tyrone, and conferred the degree of king upon Hugh, sor. of Donnell, in the presence of the congregation of St. Patrick." "And," says O'Donovan, "it is highly probable that since the introduction o Christianity the sole monarchs of Ireland were inaugurated by the Archbishops of Armagh, attended by the four provincial kings, who took a conspicuous part in the ceremony. There is every reason to believ that the clergy were engaged in the inauguration of the lords of large districts, but that the chief of single cantred or barony was appointed by the head chieftain, with the consent of the clan sept, by the simple ceremony of delivering him a rod at a certain place appointed for that purpose."O'Donovan MS.

* Annals of Ulster. O'Donovan here uses the name "cantred" as synonymous with "barony According to Hardiman, "barony" was a denomination much older than " county," and corresponded the territory of a chieftain.

For some years after the inauguration of Felim, little is recorded of his-t torical interest. Rory, the brother of Hugh Breifneach, made some attempts to dispossess him; but these attempts were unsuccessful, and no further opposition to his succession seemed likely to arise. Other actors, however, soon appeared upon the stage, and events occurred which very nearly changed the whole destiny and fortune of the Irish nation.

A few years before the period at which we have now arrived, negotiations had taken place between King Edward II. and the King of Scotland, in which Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, was one of the negotiators on the part of England. A war had previously raged between the two countries, but a truce was made for the purpose of the negotiations.

This truce being violated, a renewed war was the result, in which the Scottish king, Robert Bruce, was victorious. The English monarch, stung by this defeat, collected his forces from all quarters, ordered levies of infantry to be made in Wales and in the northern counties of England, and issued a proclamation to his own vassals and the native Irish chieftains, calling upon them to aid him. To this call no voice of loyal obedience responded from the heirs of the ancient Irish kings. The noble stand made by the Scots for their independence had a magical effect on the Irish. Bruce was no stranger to them. In the very earliest part of his career, immediately after his coronation, he had been obliged to fly to Ireland for protection, and remained concealed for some months in a small island off the north coast. Having received aid from sympathizing friends in Ulster, with a fleet of thirty-three galleys and about 300 men, he initiated that career of victory which ended in his country's independence.

When success crowned his efforts in the victory of Bannockburn, the Irish felt that he might be made the instrument of their deliverance; and instead of being tempted to assist the English to subdue him, they sent deputies to Bruce, and having placed themselves and all that belonged to them under his protection, they prayed that if he himself could not be spared from his royal duties, he would send his brother Edward to be their king.

To Bruce this offer was in many ways acceptable. It opened out a new point from which the power of England might be attacked, and it tended to remove a difficulty from which he was already suffering. His brother Edward was a proud, imperious man, ambitious in the extreme, impatient of inferiority to his elder brother, and had already made a claim to a share in the sovereignty of Scotland. The offer of the Irish envoys afforded him an opportunity for gratifying his ambition, and at the same time inflicting a further wound on his

deadly enemies the English. Nevertheless Bruce hesitated. He saw clearly the dangers connected with the proposal, and the magnitude of the enterprise involved in it. The conquest of Ireland was no light undertaking, and a considerable time elapsed before he took any serious steps towards the accomplishment of the design.

At length, in the spring of the year 1315, Edward Bruce, with a fleet of 300 sail, appeared off the coast of Antrim, and landed at Larne with an army of 6,000 men. He was immediately joined by O'Neill, and an immense number of the Irish of Ulster, and overran the whole earldom without meeting with much resistance.

The English lords, deserted by their Irish followers, were unable to make any adequate efforts of defence; and the Earl of Ulster alone appeared ready to face the danger which threatened them. The towns of Dundalk and Louth successively yielded to the invaders, and were burned; and the church of the Carmelite Friars at Ardee, filled with men, women, and children, was also committed to the flames.

Strange to say, little is recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters of the proceedings of Bruce, or of the war which his invasion of Ireland originated; but the Annals of Connaught and of Innisfallen give some details of the part taken by the O'Conors in the struggle which raged in Ireland at this period. The following account is taken mainly from these sources :

"A.D. 1315. Edward,' son of Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, and brother of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, landed with a fleet of 300 vessels in the north-east of Ulster, at whose coming all the inhabitants of the kingdom, both English and Irish, were stricken with such great terror that it made the lands and inhabitants of Ireland to shake with fear.. Immediately after his arrival he burned the towns of Dundalk, Ardee, and Rathmore of Moylinny, and having devastated Ulster, taken the hostages, and collected the revenues of the province for his own use, he compelled the Ulstermen to acknowledge him as their sovereign, and assumed the title of the King of Ireland. When the Red Earl heard that Bruce had thus invaded Ireland, and had usurped the name of King of Ireland, he summoned his vassals to attend him, and marched to Athlone, where he was met by Felim O'Conor, King of the Irish of Connaught, with his provincial troops. The English army spared neither spiritual nor temporal land as they marched along from the river Shannon to Coleraine and Innishowen. They plundered all without respect to patron saint, or shrine, or

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"Iste Edwardus erat homo ferox et magni cordis valde nec voluit cohabitare fratri suo in pace nisi dimidium regni solus haberet et hæc de causa mota fuit guerra in Hibernia."-Fordun.

264 "Bruce, whilst at Dundalk, caused himself to be crowned King of Ireland; and then after overrunning that part of Ireland at present comprising the counties of Down, Armagh, Louth, and Meath, he returned again to the north, where taking up a position in the neighbourhood of the river Bann, he resolved to wait for supplies from his own country."-O'Donovan MS.

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sacred place. Whilst they were thus marching on, spoiling and destroying all places, they met Edward Butler, then Lord Deputy of Ireland, also marching on to meet the Scots, with thirty cohorts of well-appointed soldiers, armed at all points, at the sight of whom the Red Earl was somewhat angry, alleging that he himself had sufficient force to expel Bruce and his Scots out of the kingdom, and desired the deputy not to join him, as he needed not his assistance."'

"The earl encamped that night at Ardee, near Sleivebrey, and Bruce with his Scots and Ulstermen encamped at Innishkeen. The next day the earl followed him, and encamped at Louth, where William Burke, the earl's relative, skirmished with him without gaining any advantage. By the advice of O'Neill, Bruce marched to Coleraine to delay the earl's passage across the Bann. The earl followed him, and arrived at the same river. Both armies here moved face to face on each side of the river Bann without being able to come in contact, or march upon each other, for they were separated by that deep, broad, smooth-running river. However, they discharged arrows at each other across the stream.

"Edward Bruce, hearing of the great fame of Felim O'Conor, who was then in the army of the Red Earl, sent him a secret message promising that he would secure him in the kingdom of Connaught if he would adhere to him; and he advised him to return home, and defend his kingdom of Connaught against the rivals of his own family."

This advice of Bruce's was given not without reason. The part taken by Felim in lending his aid to the Red Earl drew down on him the odium of the other septs of the O'Conors, and of his fellow-countrymen in general; and the favourable opening afforded by this feeling for an attempt to supplant him in the sovereignty of Connaught was quickly perceived, and as quickly taken advantage of by Rory, son of Cathal Roe, the chief of the restless and warlike. sept of the Clann Murtough, who also opened secret communications with Bruce, and promised that he would banish all Englishmen out of Connaught if Bruce would accept his services. Bruce replied by authorizing him to make war upon the English, but directed him not to interfere with Felim's territory.

To make war on the English was not, however, Rory's chief design. His real object was to supplant Felim. To accomplish this, he assembled the men of Breifny and Connaught, and hired great companies of gallowglasses, and entering the territory of Sil Murray, burned the towns of Sligo, Ballymote, Kilcolman, Ballintober-Bride, Dunamon, and the castles of Roscommon, Rinnduin at St. John's, and Athlone, together with all the houses that lay in his way between these places.

1 "Respondet Dominus Ricardus comes Ultonic, Ego habeo de meo posse xxxvi cohortes et sufficit ad tot―de terra expellandos.”—Annals of Innisfallen, Bodl. Lib. Oxoniæ.

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You may return home; I and my vassals will overcome the Scots."-Dalrymple, Annals o Scotland.

2 Annals of Innisfallen, and O'Donovan MS.

Having achieved these exploits, he desired M'Dermot to inaugurate him, and to yield him obedience and hostages; but this M'Dermot absolutely refused. Rory then received hostages and pledges from all the other chiefs of the province, and repaired to Carnfree, where he was invested King of Connaught by the twelve chiefs and twelve coarbs of Sil Murray, and the other spiritual men who were accustomed to perform the ceremonies usual on such occasions; but, add the annalists, "M'Dermot refused to attend, or to put on the royal slipper, which was his proper office."

After his inauguration Rory avenged himself on those who refused to acknowledge him as king, and in every way exercised sovereign power in the country. Meanwhile Felim, acting on the hint which he had received from Bruce, represented to the Red Earl that it was absolutely essential for him to return to Connaught, as his absence had been taken advantage of by his rival Rory; and accordingly, shortly after, he took his departure from the north, and returned homewards.

On his march through Ulster and Oriel he had not one day of rest, being continually assaulted by the natives, until he reached Granard, the territory of his maternal uncle, Shane O'Ferrall. Thence he proceeded to Connaught, and on his arrival there, finding that Rory had such a firm hold over the kingdom that it was not safe to oppose him immediately, he advised some of the chieftains who were favourably disposed towards himself to render ostensible and temporary submission to his rival, and to wait for a more favourable opportunity for disputing his right to exact such.

Meanwhile the Red Earl and his companions, deprived of Felim's assistance, determined to retreat, and retired to Coleraine, and to the castle of Connor. Thither the Scots and the Ulstermen followed them. Some skirmishing then ensued, in which William Burke and some of his knights were taken prisoners, and the Red Earl was put to flight, and pursued by the enemy all the way to Connaught. On his arrival there, all those who had been suffering from the oppression of Rory O'Conor, both Irish and English, flocked to his standard. In the Annals of Connaught and of Cloonmacnoise we find the names of some of the principal chieftains who attended :

"The following were the chief men who waited on the Red Earl, and who had been banished from their lands by Rory O'Conor: Felim O'Conor, King of Connaught; Murtough O'Brien, King of Thomond; Mulroony M'Dermot, Chief of Moylurg; and Gilbert O'Kelly, Chief of Hy-Many."

M'Dermot, seeing so many deposed chieftains waiting upon the Red Earl, resolved to abandon his foster-son Felim for the present, and to submit to

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