erick O'Connor, through these envoys, made peace and friendship with Henry, as one king with another, and also an act of submission to one whom he acknowledged to be greater than he.

During that winter Henry made still more progress in winning and securing to himself the fealty of the princes. In a Dublin palace which he had constructed of osiers he kept court and entertained lavishly all the winter long. With the choicest repasts, prepared by the best Norman cooks, he won through their stomachs to the hearts of the chiefs-this supplemented by his own gracious suavity, in contrast to the bluntness, sometimes brutality, of the Norman-Welsh who had preceded him. The adroit Henry's affability and politeness, and apparently real friendship and affection, had far more compelling force in winning fealty than would have had the shock of his army.

Then he won Rome, too. He had a synod of the Irish ecclesiastics-all but the Primate Gelasius, and the other northernscalled at Cashel, where, following the example of their chiefs, the Bishops acknowledged Henry as lord supreme in Ireland. At this synod they passed decrees for the bettering of church discipline, which, being sent to Rome, confirmed the fact that Henry was carrying out his undertaking, and reforming morals in the land, and evoked from Alexander the Third the letter confirmatory of Adrian's Bull.

At Easter Henry had to return in haste to England, carrying with him the undisputed lordship of Leinster, Meath and the cities of Dublin, Wexford and Waterford. Meath he gave in trust to De Lacey-who had the governorship of Dublin also. The city of Dublin was given to the occupation of the merchants and people of Bristol. Strongbow was left in possession of Lein

ster.

The strange mesmerism which the presence of Henry seemed to have wrought on the Irish princes was dissipated on his going. They awoke to the rude reality that they had welcomed an invader and meekly accepted him. From the various quarters they began to rise up against the enemy, harass him, and endeavour to drive him out. Now more familiar with, and therefore less daunted by, Norman discipline and equipment, the Irish princes set strategy against skill, and discovered that the Normans were not omnipotent. O'Brien of Thomond inflicted a big defeat upon them at Thurles not the only big defeat that he was to give them. Strongbow the mighty was beaten back in the south and bottled up in Waterford in imminent danger of capture. And, only that the redoubtable le Gros hurried back from Wales to release him

he would have been overthrown. Roderick O'Connor with the help of O'Neill, O'Mellaghlin, O'Carroll, MacDunleavy of Uladh, and an army of twenty thousand overran Meath, and set out for Dublin which he might easily have captured but for his vacillation. He soon after thought it to be to his advantage to make treaty with Henry. He sent to England for that purpose Concord, Abbot of Clonfert, Catholicus, Archbishop of Tuam, and Archbishop Lawrence O'Toole of Dublin. This treaty, known as the Treaty of Windsor, acknowledged Henry's right to the lordship of Leinster, Meath, and the other few places and cities. then occupied by him. He was also acknowledged as the overlord to whom Roderick should pay formal tribute. On the other hand it acknowledged Roderick's right to the high-kingship of fivesixths of Ireland.

But such pacts had little effect either in securing peace or insuring the rights of either party. Every Norman chief warred on his own account, for purpose of extending his power and possessions. And of course every Irish chief and prince, when opportunity offered, warred against the invader.

But such demoralisation set in, that in short time not only was Irish chief warring upon Norman baron, but Irish chief was warring with Irish chief, Norman baron warring with Norman baron, and a Norman-Irish alliance would be warring against Normans, or against Irish, or against another combination of both.

The Normans not only marked their progress by much slaughter and many barbarities, but signalised themselves by robbing and burning churches and monasteries, and oftentimes slaughtering the inmates."

They harried, robbed, ravished, and destroyed wheresoever they went. And against one another, in their own feuds, they oftentimes exercised as much barbarity as against the Irish. Fearfully true is the Four Masters' word that MacMurrough's treacherous act "made of Ireland a trembling sod."

After a time Milo de Cogan and Robert Fitz Stephen won territory for themselves in Munster. John de Courcy won the ancient territory of Ulster-Down and Antrim-and established himself at Downpatrick. Cardinal Vivian, the Pope's legate, saw de Courcy, on his entrance thereto, slaughtering the people on the

Giraldus complains to John, "The poor clergy are reduced to beggary, the Cathedral churches which were rich, endowed with broad lands by the piety of the faithful in olden times, now echo with lamentations for the loss of their possessions of which they have been robbed by these men and others who came over with, and after them; so that to uphold the Church is turned into spoiling and robbing it."

street. Connaught (despite the Treaty of Windsor) was granted to De Burgho (Burke). But it was a long time after it was granted to him before he was enabled-with the help of some of Connaught's own-to find a foothold there.

Prince John, whom Henry had appointed Lord of Ireland, came over in 1185, when he was nineteen years of age, and made himself most beneficial to the country by reason that he, with the crowd of young libertines who formed his court, made mock of and insulted such Irish chieftains as hastened to pay him homage. His attitude and actions during the short time he was permitted to remain in the country were proving splendidly disastrous to English prospects there and magnificently helpful to Irish.

Only a few years later John de Courcy, the conqueror of Ulster, and the very strongest figure among those Normans, was overwhelmingly defeated in an attempt to conquer Connaught, and his army almost annihilated. And the Irish princes had recovered enough proper pride and national spirit to form a compact, under Connor of Maenmagh, son of Roderick, for driving out the English-which might now have been easily accomplished. But before their plans were perfected Connor was slain, and the growing compact dissolved. Indeed had they at any time after Henry's leaving been able to combine and strike together, the English, despite the great advantage of discipline, skill, and equipment, could have been driven into the sea. The key of the arch, however, which should have been the strongest stone was the weakest― ever ready to crumble. This was Ard-Righ Roderick, who not only lost Ireland but eventually lost Connaught. His own sons warred against him and warred against one another as well. He was deposed, exiled, recalled, travelled-a kind of royal beggar -to princes who had been tributary to him, entreating them to put him on the throne again. With an Ard-Righ thus disobeyed and disrespected by his own, and his kingdom, which should have been the dominant one, warring within itself, the fates were with the foreigner, and they precariously held their own in the east, occasionally making effective plunges into the independent provinces that surrounded them, and occasionally too having their own insecure possessions lunged into by the Irish enemy.

The English royal house was in worse condition even than the Irish royal house. Henry died cursing his sons, and his sons may be said to have lived and died cursing one another. John, who had essayed to oust his worthier brother Richard-while the latter was on the Crusade-and also while he was languishing in a German prison-began to reign over England in the last year of

the twelfth century, very shortly after Donal MacCarthy of Desmond defeated the English of Munster and drove them out of Limerick. The great northern prince, Flaherty O'Muldory of TirConaill, had just then passed away. And also just then had passed unfortunate Roderick O'Connor-who died where he had spent his last days, in the Abbey of Cong in Mayo-and was buried in the ancient cemetery of Clonmacnois.

CHAPTER XXXVII

NORMAN AND GAEL

THE Norman Kings used the Church for all purposes of statecraft, its higher officers were checks and spies upon popular movements, while its ablest bishops, neglecting their spiritual offices, were wholly absorbed in temporal administration. The episcopate was thoroughly secularised and the character of the bishops became very bad. The pious chroniclers in England have left us lurid pictures of the moral degradation of their greater Churchmen of these ages. Their passage to Ireland brought no access of sanctity. They acted as viceroys for the King of England. The Irish Church was treated with great cruelty and the direst oppression. Its bishops were driven from their sees, the canons from their cathedrals, the priests from their parishes. A Gaelic monk could not be harboured in a monastery, or an Irish nun in a convent, in any district where their writ ran. From the pulpits they thundered: "It is no offence against God to kill any Irish human being." They displayed real ability and amazing zeal in leading their troops in the field and in building mighty castles at all strategical points, throughout the land. The sword of Mars, God of War, was their sceptre, not the Cross of the Prince of Peace. They extended the long arm of excommunication against our race; rarely did they uplift the hand of benediction. In their complaint to Pope John XXII, Donald O'Neill, King of Ulster, and the other princes of the Gael (1318) declared: "As it very constantly happens, whenever any Englishman, by perfidy or craft, kills an Irishman, however noble, or however innocent, be he clergyman or layman . . . nay, even if an Irish prelate were to be slain, there is no penalty or correction enforced against the person who may be guilty of such wicked murder, but rather the more eminent the person killed, and the higher the rank which he holds among his own people, so much the more is the murderer honoured and rewarded by the English, and not merely by the people at large, but also by the religious and bishops, of the English race, and, above all, by