were now about to be more firmly rivetted upon Ireland than ever. Strongbow followed up his victory by invasions of Wexford, Waterford, Wicklow, and other districts, in all of which he proved successful, and established his power more firmly than before.

It may appear surprising, that with so small a force as that under Strongbow and the first Norman invaders, such great results should have been achieved. The Irish had their fatherland to fight for, whereas the Normans fought for mere adventure or plunder. Yet, in almost every instance, the former were defeated with great loss. Not that the Irish showed any want of valour, for they often fought with the most determined bravery. But their great weakness consisted in their want of discipline, in their want of arms, and in the want of that complete subordination to their leaders which is absolutely necessary for the success of military movements. The Irish Kerns, or light-armed infantry, fought in no regular order. They kept constantly in motion, from one part of the field to the other; often, however, doing great damage to those whom they found off their guard. They were exceeding active in their movements, and possessed great dexterity in the use of missile weapons. They retreated, returned to the attack, shifted their position, retreated and attacked again and again, with extraordinary alacrity. Their horsemen also were of the same irregular and skirmishing character. They were mounted on the light and active horses of the country, but they were generally undrilled, and consequently confused in their movements. Contrasted with the Norman men-at-arms and archers, the native Irish were comparatively powerless, no matter how brave and valorous they might naturally be. The Norman knights were clad in complete steel, themselves as well as their horses. They were trained from infancy to the use of arms and in the exercises of chivalry. Arms was their trade, their profession, by which they lived. Depending, as they did, upon their swords, for their subsistence, they perfected themselves in the art of using them to the best advantage for themselves, no matter what the cause or the service might be in which they were engaged. The Norman archers also were a highly disciplined and effective body of soldiers; it was their cross-bows and cloth yard shafts which decided the battle of Hastings. Unlike the Irish Kerns, they always moved in orderly array, and were protected on either flank by the knights and men-at-arms. What chance had untrained and light-armed men against such formidable antagonists as these? How could half naked infantry stand before the shock of heavy cavalry clad in steel? The thing was impossible: they were trodden down and slaughtered, or fled panic-stricken in all directions. And thus was it, that the success of the Normans was so invariable in almost all their early encounters with the Irish people.

CHAPTER IV.

Henry's alarm at the success of Strongbow-Arrives in Ireland with an army-The Irish chiefs make their submission to him-Triumphal progress to DublinHenry's "Reforms" of the church-Returns to England-Fresh feuds and discords -The Irish chiefs endeavour to shake off the yoke, and fail-Wretched state of the country-Prince John sent over to Ireland as its lord-Insults the Irish chiefs-General rising of the Irish, and their success-Are again destroyed by their feuds-Death of Henry II.

Ar length Henry, the Anglo-Norman king, became alarmed at the success of Strongbow, and issued an edict, peremptorily forbidding the exportation of men, arms, or ammunition, to Ireland; and commanding all his subjects in that country immediately to return home, on pain of banishment and forfeiture of their estates. Strongbow, alarmed at this edict, immediately despatched an envoy to Henry to make his entire submission to him; but this being taken no notice of, Strongbow himself set out, and by the exertion of all his influence, obtained a reconciliation with the monarch. Strongbow renewed his homage and oath of fealty to Henry, and surrendered to him the city of Dublin and the adjacent country, together with all the seaport towns and forts possessed by him in Ireland; while Henry consented that Strongbow should retain all his Irish possessions under homage and fealty to the English crown. Henry also prepared to follow up this arrangement by an expedition to Ireland, conducted by himself in person. A powerful fleet and army were assembled at Milford Haven, in Wales, with which Henry set sail, and landed at Waterford about the latter end of October, 1171.

Ireland, though now threatened with the utter extinction of her national independence, made no effort to avert the evil. The completest apathy prevailed; not a sign of alarm or resistance was made; and Henry landed, to take possession of Ireland, and leave it virtually a subjected nation. Not only were the Irish princes apathetic of the danger of the new invasion, but they even made haste to resign themselves to the will of the invader! Enamoured, as it were, of political slavery, they allowed its gilded collar to be slipped round their necks. As for the people, they soon felt the iron in their hearts: the dungeon and the sword, chains and fetters, fire and devastation, were their lot for hundreds of years to come. Probably it favoured the designs of Henry, that at the time when he landed, civil war was raging in the heart of Ireland. When the invading prince made his appearance on the Irish shores, the unnatural spectacle was to be observed of the Irish people mercilessly spoiling and slaying each other, hounded on by their respective chiefs and princes! Henry took advantage of this revolting state of things, and entered Ireland in the pretended

character of a "protector"; and hence, perhaps, the tacit submission of the people to his sway. Scarcely had he landed, ere the powerful king of Desmond, or South Munster, came forward and resigned his estates into the hands of the English king, who re-granted them immediately, on the usual conditions of feudal tenure, excepting the city of Cork, which he reserved for himself. Other princes, among whom were those of Thomond, Ossory, and the Desies, immediately followed the example. They even vied with each other in the alacrity of their submissions. Thus Henry's march to Dublin was a kind of triumphal procession-not the slightest opposition being offered to his progress. Arrived there, he gave a splendid entertainment to the vassal princes, who, hugging their chains, seemed delighted with the privilege of serving so noble and mighty a master.

Henry, in his capacity of religious missionary, took an early opportunity of "reforming" the Irish church. He summoned a synod of the Irish princes and prelates, at Cashel, when the following decrees were enacted-exposing the miserable pretence of Henry for the invasion of Ireland, and the uselessness of his presence there, so far as the reform of the church was concerned-It was decreed: "1. That all the faithful throughout Ireland should contract and observe lawful marriages, rejecting those with their relatives, either by consanguinity or affinity. 2. That infants should be catechised before the doors of the church, and baptised in the holy font in the baptismal churches. 3. That all the faithful should pay the tithe of animals, corn, and other produce, to the church of which they are parishioners. 4. That all ecclesiastical lands, and property connected with them, be quite exempt from the exactions of all laymen. And especially, that neither the petty kings, nor counts, nor any powerful men in Ireland, nor their sons with their families, should exact, as was usual, victuals and hospitality, or entertainments, in the ecclesiastical districts, or presume to extort them by force; and that the detestable food or contributions which used to be required four times in the year, by the neighbouring counts, from farms belonging to the churches, should not be claimed any more." Such were the whole of those wonderful church "reforms" of the Anglo-Norman king, for which the liberties of a kingdom were not thought too dear a price.

As Henry was preparing to secure and extend his conquests, he was suddenly interrupted by the alarming intelligence of the rebellion of his sons in England. He hastened home, leaving the Norman barons in charge of the newly conquered districts. A large part of Ireland still remained independent, among which were the powerful kingdoms of Connaught and Ulster. These were still ruled by their own chiefs, and governed by their own laws. Indeed, Henry did not seem to have any desire to extend the English laws and usages further than for the protection of the Anglo-Norman

subjects whom he left behind him. No sooner had he left, than feuds and discords broke out afresh. The extension of the English power being now intrusted to unprincipled adventurers, the doomed Irish were not long in feeling all the tortures of the Scourge which Henry had delivered into their hands. Lands were seized, and districts ravaged and plundered on all sides, with or without pretence-it was all the same.

The cruelty and treachery of the Normans soon alienated the affection (as it was called) of the Irish chiefs who had submitted to Henry; and they determined on making a unanimous effort for independence. Roderick, the Irish monarch, who had hitherto been an inactive spectator of the rapid progress of the Norman power, consented to place himself at the head of the confederacy. Seizing a fitting opportunity, he made a sudden incursion into Meath, destroyed all the forts raised by the Norman lords, and advancing into Leinster, laid waste the whole county, as far as the confines of Dublin. Roderick, however, had but little of the qualities of a general, and his men had few of the requisites of steady soldiers; for, scarcely had they got thus far, than they dispersed without coming into collision with the enemy, leaving the Normans again to take possession of the country, and rebuild the forts which had been torn down. They also made an incursion into Limerick, when the city of that name was taken and plundered, and a large number of the inhabitants slaughtered in cold blood. Their army was now no better than a mere band of well organized freebooters, who waded to booty through blood, and trampled all honour, honesty, and virtue completely under foot. They disregarded every thing that had formerly been held sacred; they burned down monasteries, plundered churches, and polluted sanctuaries of all kinds. The invaders also quarrelled frequently among themselves, which, added to the bloody feuds that raged from time to time between the rival chiefs and kings of Ireland, completed the horrible picture of this period. It only needed the submission of the Irish monarch, which took place a. D. 1175, to complete the nation's humiliation. Roderick acknowledged the Anglo-Norman king as his liege lord, and bound himself to pay an annual tribute; in return for which, he was confirmed in his possessions, and allowed to retain the empty title of king of Ireland. The kings of England were accordingly henceforward to be considered as the lords paramount of Ireland, and the Irish kings but as the vassals of the Norman princes.

On the death of Strongbow, which took place soon after, Ireland was cast into fresh troubles, from the quarrels and jealousies of her new governors. It would be futile to describe in detail the feuds of the adventurers; and their destructive invasions of the Irish territory yet unsubdued. Whichever of the Anglo-Norman parties gained the ascendancy,-whoever was chief governor, or king's deputy, it was all the same to the Irish. The result to them

invariably was, invasion, massacre, and plunder. Thus Ulster and Connaught were invaded and laid waste in 1177, while Munster was torn to pieces by the feuds of its native chiefs. The entire nation was plunged in anarchy, and both natives and foreigners seem to have alike completely set at nought the restraints of law, of religion, and of humanity. The Normans were ready to take advantage of every domestic feud, for extending their power and increasing their wealth; they set son against father, and father against son, and lent their arms to promote the most unnatural crime and rebellion. Thus, it was to aid the sons of the Irish monarch in a rebellion against their own father, that the destructive but unsuccessful invasion of Connaught was undertaken. One governor succeeded another, and the result was almost invariably the same. Cruelty, rapine, and murder, followed everywhere in the steps of the invaders.

About this time, however, the arrogance of the Norman monarch received a sudden check, and the spirit of independence in Ireland, though now fast flickering towards its extinction, seemed as if on the point of rescuing the kingdom from the hands of his followers. It is not improbable that, by this time, the Normans had learnt to despise the Irish, as they had long despised the Anglo-Saxons, for their pusillanimity in defending their native soil; and imagined that no slight was too marked, no insult so gross, as not to be endured by them with patient submission and forbearance. But the Norman king here reckoned without his host, as the events we are about to relate will sufficiently show. It appears that from an early period, Henry had designed Ireland as an inheritance for his son John, now (A. D. 1184) a boy of only twelve years of age. This was quite in accordance with the ancient as well as (we regret to add) modern method of handing over kingdoms of people from one person to another, just like a herd of sheep, or a flock of geese. In accordance with this design of the Norman king, Prince John was invested with the lordship of Ireland, and the Pope immediately confirmed the grant. And straightway, this boy of scarce twelve years old, set out for Ireland, to take possession of his kingdom! -a kingdom, be it remembered, which was yet only partially in the possession of the invaders, and was held from day to day only by a strong and well disciplined army. Yet this boy was now sent to rule Ireland !-an act savouring of all the wantonness and arrogance of uncontrolled and despotic power. Scarcely had the prince landed, ere many of the Irish chieftains, who, since their first submission, had been living quietly under the AngloNorman government, hastened to offer their respects to him, as the son of their sovereign. They came clad in their fine national costume, wearing linen vests, flowing mantles, long locks, and bushy beards. Prince John and his arrogant young Norman courtiers, received the chiefs, many of whom were venerable old men, with mockery aud insult. They broke out in derision of