through all Ireland, where they could not be acknowledged or enjoyed, but, as he expresses it, per totam terram et potestatem meam. Eva, the daughter and heiress of Dermod, who was married to Strongbow, speaks with still more precision. She, still affecting sovereignty paramount in her dominions, confirms the grants made to the see of Dublin by earl John, and other good men of Leinster, which then was the proper and immediate seat of English power.*

4. On the accession of Richard, Hugh de Lacy the younger had so effectually recommended himself to Earl John, that he soon supplanted De Courcy, and obtained his government. De Courcy retired in disgust to Ulster, attending to his own immediate interests in the possessions which he had acquired in that province, and by detaching himself from the new deputy, betrayed the weakness of the English government, which became daily more insecure from the avowed animosity of the adherents to the house of Roderick O'Con nor. Cathal, his son, surnamed the Bloody-handed, was high in the esteem of his countrymen; and placing himself at the head of a powerful faction, declared himself resolved to assert the ancient honours of his family, his province and his country, by exterminating these invaders. A very inconsiderable body of English he entirely cut to pieces, after a most determined resistance; and afterwards founded an abbey upon the field of action, called De Colle Victoria: thus raising a trophy rather to the romantic valour of his enemies than to his own glory.

5. The reports of this misfortune alarmed Earl John for the security of his Irish government. The public confusion and distress of that kingdom were aggravated by the burning of the city of Dublin, and the neighbouring districts being infested by robbers, who annoyed the inhabitants without restraint or correction. This latter aggravation Doctor Hanmer lays to the account of the famous Robin Hood, some of whose followers fled to Ireland as a place of disorder, and consequently well-fitted. for their predatory system. His robberies at length became so notorious and provoking, that the natives compelled him to seek safety in Scotland.

4

6. These public disorders cast such suspicion upon the administration of De Lacy, that William Petit was substituted in his place in 1191, as lord justice; but was in the same year succeeded by William, earl of Pembroke, earl marshal

*E Registro vocato Crede Mihi, fol. 90.

of England. This nobleman had married the daughter of Earl Strongbow, by the princess of Leinster, and in right of his wife was entitled to large possessions in Ireland. The Earl of Pembroke, however, in the same year, gave place to Peter Pipard, as lord deputy, and he was replaced by Hamo de Valois, who continued at the head of the Irish government till the demise of King Richard in the year 1199.

7. In the preceding year died Roderic O'Connor, last of the Irish monarchs, in extreme old age, in the monastery of Cong, where he passed his latter years in quiet, unnoticed by the contending factions of his province. He was unhappy in the domestic feuds of his own family, though he lived to see some part of the stain of his reign wiped away by the advantages latterly gained by Cathal his son over the English, whom he always detested as his mortal and unprovoked enemies.

CHAPTER III.

1199.-JOHN.

1. THERE have been strong differences amongst historians concerning the nature and effects of the grant of Henry II. to his son John. Richard, as we have observed, was too much engaged in other pursuits to question it. On his death, however, (we avoid the consideration of his nephew Arthur's pretension to the crown) and John's accession to the throne, all the rights which were in Henry, and might have been conveyed to his son, were now concentered in him, either by virtue of the charter of donation, or by operation of law, as the inheritor of the crown. One of the first acts of John, upon his accession to the throne of England, was to remove with disgrace from the government of Ireland Hamo de Valois, who had from peculation both on the clergy and laity amassed an immense treasure, and whom he fined in a sum of money equal to 15,000l. according to the present value of money as the price of his quietus.

2. Meilar Fitzhenry, natural son of Henry I. and one of the most distinguished barons, who had originally adventured

into Ireland, was appointed to succeed him as lord justice; but, unassisted by the king, and ill-supported by the English lords who had received Irish grants, he was confined inactive to the seat of government, without any means of attempting measures either of aggression or defence. John de Courcy and Hugh de Lacy, two of the most powerful settlers in Ireland, had for some time affected a state of independence. The former was so far from acknowledging allegiance to king John, that he openly impeached his title to the crown; and seemed rather to assume the port of an Irish chieftain than of an English baron. Both De Courcy and De Lacy had united their forces in the cause of Cathal. John was particularly provoked at the revolt and conduct of De Courcy. He summoned him to repair to his presence, and do him homage. De Courcy treated his mandate with Meilar Fitzhenry marched in the mean time to reduce De Burgo, who had risen in arms; and De Lacy and his brother Walter being restored to favour, had a commission to seize and send De Courcy prisoner to the king.

contempt.

3. De Lacy penetrated into Ulster, and came to an engagement with De Courcy at Down, in which he was forced to retire with disgrace. Immediately after this defeat, De Courcy offered the combat to Hugh de Lacy, which this lord, in respect of his commission from the king declined; but, by proclamation, promised a large reward to those who should seize and deliver him up alive or dead. Having bribed some of the attendants of De Courcy, they treacherously assailed him, whilst in an act of devotion near the church of Down, and killed some of his retinue, particularly two sons of Armorie of St. Lawrence, his nephews, and although De Courcy with his usual prowess seized a large wooden cross, and with this weapon killed thirteen of his assailants, yet the survivors overpowered, bound, and led him captive to De Lacy, who paid them, indeed, the reward of their treachery, but afterwards ordered them to be hanged. De Courcy was conveyed England and confined to the Tower.*

* There he remained unnoticed, until a champion of Philip, king of France appeared at the court of John, and proposed to assert his master's claim to Normandy in single combat. De Courcy was recommended to meet the French champion, and after some indignant denials at last accepted the challenge. When he entered the lists, 'the Frenchman, terrified at his stern aspect and gigantic size, declined the combat, and basely retired. De Courcy, at the request of

4. The vigour and activity of Meilar Fitzhenry in the southern expedition against De Burgo and his adherents gave the English interest a firmer establishment in this part of Ireland than it had obtained for some years; these successes were followed up by measures for adding splendour and consequence to the English government, by building a tower and palace in Dublin. Upon the vacancy of the primacy of Armagh, John had appointed one Tickhull, an Englishman, to whom the suffragans of that province and the whole Irish people objected. Afterwards, with the countenance of the see of Rome, Eugene, an Irishman, a prelate of exemplary virtue, was promoted in his place to that see.

5. John, having been on that occasion threatened with excommunication, and fearing a consequent conspiracy of the Irish chieftains, demanded of several noblemen their sons as hostages, and, amongst others, the son of William de Braosa, lord of Brecknock, a grantee of a large tract of land in Thomond. His lady answered, with indiscreet severity, that her children never should be intrusted to the man who had murdered his own nephew. Vengeance was instantly denounced against William: and John was not ashamed to assign the necessity of reducing and punishing this lord and his adherents, as the reason for his expedition into Ireland, where he arrived in June, 1210.

6. Soon after his landing, more than twenty dynasts at tended to do him homage. The English barons, Hugh and Walter de Lacy, conscious of their misconduct, retired to France, whither William de Braosa also fled, leaving his wife and children still concealed in Ireland.* Cathal, king of Connaught, agreeably to his former stipulations, and O'Nial, prince of Sir Owen, who had long proved a formidable enemy to De Courcy, and had lately been reinstated in his territory, also attended the king; and their submission was accepted.

7. John went over with several men of learning in his retinue, by whose council and assistance a regular code and

the two kings, who were present, gave a proof of his bodily strength, by cleaving at one blow a helmet, coat of mail, and stake, on which they were fastened. John gave him his liberty, restored him to his possessions, and in compliance with a singular request of De Courcy, granted to him and his heirs the privilege of standing covered in their first audience with the kings of England.

They afterwards fled to Scotland, where they were taken by an agent of John, and committed to Bristol gaol, where they perished from want and hardship.

charter of English laws was drawn up and deposited in the exchequer of Dublin, under the king's seal, for the common benefit of the land (as the public records express it). And for the regular and effectual execution of these laws, beside the establishment of the king's courts of judicature in Dub lin, John caused a new division of the king's lands into counties, where sheriffs and other officers were appointed. The twelve counties then established, viz. Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Argial, now called Louth, Katherlagh, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary, mark the extent of the English territory as confined to a part of Leinster and Munster, and to those parts of Meath and Argial, which lie in the province of Ulster. This division justifies the Irish annalists in stating, that the chiefs in the remoter districts of Ulster had not given John the dominion of their lands.

8. John resided only three months in Ireland, during which he attempted nothing by force of arms. He had not even the resolution to oppose or reduce Hugh O'Nial, who, at the time when John was marching through his territory, boldly defied his power, and renounced his sovereignty. Upon the king's departure, the administration of his govern ment in Ireland was committed to John de Grey, bishop of Norwich, who continued for three years to administer it with a vigour and justice till then unknown in any of his predecessors,

9. In 1213 the archbishop of Dublin, Henry de Londres, was invested with the king's government of Ireland; which was, however, for the most part administered by his deputy Geoffry Morris, or de Maurisco, an eminent English settler in Munster. The archbishop was obliged to attend his royal master in England, whose full confidence be possessed, being admitted to his councils, and possessing particular influence over him. This prelate is named first of the lords present at the execution of the deed by which John resigned the kingdoms of England and Ireland to the see of Rome, and basely consented to hold them as a fief by the service of one thousand marks, to be paid annually, seven hundred for England, and three hundred for Ireland. He was present when John did homage to Pandolph; and is honourably mentioned as having been on that occasion the only prelate who ventured to express his indignation at the degradation of the king, and the insolent haughtiness of the legate.

10. In the famous contest between John and his barons,