cause of complaint, bestowed three-fourths of Ireland on the adventurers.

Besides the forementioned downfall of the monarchy, and the anarchy and interminable feuds which succeeded that fall, other causes contributed to facilitate the reduction of the kingdom. The difference of arms; the superiority of the English, accustomed to continental wars, in planning and conducting a campaign; their knowledge in the construction of fortifications, and carrying on sieges; the use of the cross-bow; their acquaintance with political intrigues, whereby to inflame into mutual hostility a divided people, gave them advantages over a people brave but simple, accustomed to fight in the open plain, frequently appointing the place and day, as if to fight a duel; nor was the bull of Pope Adrian, bestowing Ireland to his countryman Henry II. without its effect, on the minds and fortunes of a people extremely religious, and submissive to ecclesiastical authority.

AN

IMPARTIAL HISTORY

OF

IRELAND,

FROM THE PERIOD OF THE ENGLISH INVASION TO THE PRESENT TIME.

THOUGH the disordered state of Ireland, occasioned by the overthrow of the constitution and monarchy, threatened sooner or later the downfall of the nation, the catastrophe was accelerated, as usual, by proximate causes, beyond which the generality of mankind do not look. As the downfall of Troy was immediately occasioned by female lubricity, though without that cause it must have fallen under the dominion of the Greeks, so Ireland had its Helen, captivated not by a buxom youthful Paris, arbiter of celestial beauty, but by an athletic grey-beard, Dermod Mac Morrough, king of Leinster.

Dervorgeile, daughter of Mortough Mac Floinn, a prince of Meath, had been espoused against her inclinations to Teighernan O'Rourk, prince of Brefney (Leitrim). This princess always cherished a secret partiality for Dermod, a son of Morrough, king of Leinster, who had paid her his addresses before her marriage. Profiting of the absence of her husband on a pilgrimage, she wrote to him by a special messenger,

requesting him, in violation of conjugal fidelity, to come and deliver her from conjugal engagements contracted with a husband whom she did not love.

O'Rourk, on his return, being apprised of the elopement of his spouse, addressed himself to the monarch, demanding satisfaction for the affront put upon him and his family. O'Connor, being an equitable prince, gave a favourable ear to the complaints of O'Rourk, ordered the forces of Connaught to assemble, who, joined by those of Brefney, Orgiel (Louth), and Meath, entered Leinster, to avenge the insult offered to the prince of Brefney. Dermod, aware of the march of the royal army, and the sentence of excommunication hurled against him by the clergy, called a meeting of the nobles of his kingdom, at Fearna, (Ferns), in the county of Wexford, to deliberate on the means of averting the storm that menaced him. His subjects, scandalised by the enormity of his crime, and discontented by the tyranny of his government, instead of supporting him in this critical moment, renounced their allegiance and put themselves under the protection of the monarch. In this plight, Dermod, abandoned by his own subjects, and too haughty to bend to cirstumstances, or make reparation for his sins, embraced the desperate and traitorous resolution of calling in a foreign power, and embarked for England. Hereupon the monarch finding no enemies to combat, destroyed the castle of Ferns, whence he took the unfortunate Dervorgeile, whom he

shut up in the monastery of St. Bridget, in the Co. Kildare; after which he dismissed his troops, and returned to the kingdom of Connaught.

The haughty Dermod, in a manner obliged to seek an asylum amongst strangers, breathed vengeance against his revolted subjects, and against the nation in general. He went to request the aid of Henry II. king of England, then in Aquitain, in order to recover his dominion, promising to yield him obedience as a vassal.

Henry II. was a powerful and ambitious prince. Besides England and Wales, he possessed the duchies of Normandy, Anjou, Aquitain, Poitou, Touraine and Maine. He was highly flattered by the offers of the Irish prince, as favouring designs he long had, upon Ireland; but replied, that the actual situation of his affairs upon the continent did not allow his giving him any troops; but if he would go to England he would give him the royal authority for levying volunteers. Accordingly he sent orders to his ministers, to favour the enterprise of the fugitive.

Taking leave of Henry, Dermod embarked for England, and, arriving at Bristol, he communicated the orders of Henry to the magistrates of that city, who made them public. Richard Strongbow, son of Gilbert, earl of Pembroke, was then at Bristol. He had dissipated his fortune, and contracted immense debts, and was further in disgrace with the king. Thus capable of any enterprise, that might promise to mend his broken fortune, he offered his services to Dermod, who kindly received him, with a proffer

far above what he had reason to expect. For he promised him his daughter Eve in marriage, with an assurance of his succession to the crown of Leinster after his own death, on condition he would aid him to the utmost in its recovery. The condition was joyfully accepted by earl Richard.

Dermod, relying on the promises of his future son-in-law, addressed himself to Ralph Griffin, governor of Wales, and solicited the liberation of Robert Fitz-Stephen, a courageous and experienced officer, who was four years a prisoner of state. Fitz-Stephen having by this means obtained pardon, willingly accepted the condition of volunteering to Ireland, from a country whence he was banished for ever, together with Maurice Fitz-Gerald, his step-brother, who got a promise of the town of Wexford, and some adjoining territory, for him and his posterity. Dermod entered into similar engagements with many others, whom he attracted, as Nubrigensis, an English cotemporary writer says, by the hope of a profusion of wealth. The greater part of these volunteers were indigent people, according to the same author, "men struggling with poverty, and greedy of gain."

The king of Leinster, satisfied with the success of his negociations in England, returned to Ireland, where he remained incog. in the city of Ferns, waiting the arrival of his allies.

Fitz-Stephen was urged by two powerful motives, not to forget his engagements with Dermod: the liberation he had obtained, on