Page:A View of the State of Ireland - 1809.djvu/368

sessed the Hand sundry wayes, so they laide together their force, & associated to them Gurmondus, a Rover out of Norway, who having a navy still in a readinesse, and an army thereafter furnished, holpe the Saxons, to hunt the Brittaines into the marshes of Wales, builded the towne of Gormond-chester, and then having holpen the Saxons, made a voyage into Ireland where he sped but meanely, and therefore the Irish account not this for any of their conquests, as some of their antiquities have informed me. The same Gurmondus finding hard successe, did but build a few slight castles and trenches in the frontiers, and then leaving the land, got him home into France, where he was finally slaine, him our Chronicles name King of Ireland. But the Irish affirme that before Turgesius no Easterlings obtained a Kingdome. Here Cambrensis to salve the contradiction, thinketh Gurmundus to have conquered the land by Turgesius his Deputy, sent thither at his provision, which answere breedeth a contrariety more incurable, for himself numbreth betweene Laigirius King of Ireland, in an. 430. and Fedlemidius whom Turgesius vanquished, Monarches 33. and yeares 400. so that Turgesius lived in an. 830. and could not possibly deale with Gurmondus, who joyned with the Saxons against Careticus in Anno 586. This knot might be untwyned with more facility. Gurmondus made much of that little he caught, and wrote himselfe King, which Title our Histories doe allow him, because he opened a gappe, enjoyed it for a while, and brake a way for his Countreymen. Turgesius brought