Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/267

HISTORY.] IRELAND 251 vars botli by sea and land, and to pay him tries or blood fines. In other words, Aed proposed to make the Dalriadic colony an integral part of the Irish kingdom. St Columcille came thither from" his island home attended by a large retinue of monks, many of whom were bishops, to plead the cause of the bards and of his kinsman Aedan. His influence seems to have been decisive ; the bards were not banished, but were reformed, and the Dalriadie colony was made independent. The decision about the bards was no doubt a reasonable compromise at the time. The schools which the re formed order were obliged to keep mainly contributed to make Ire land a refuge of learning in the 7th and 8th centuries, and created a native literature, such as it was, several centuries before those of the other barbarian nations of Europe. But, on the other hand, professional poets, whose duty it was to sound the praises of chiefs and clans in rhymes of the most complex and artificial metres and inflated language could not produce a really healthy vigorous litera ture. Some notion of what that literature might have been if pro duced in the favourable atmosphere of a growing political and social life may perhaps be formed from works, written it is true in Latin, but yet the genuine outcome of Irish culture, such as those of St Columbanus ; the poems of Hibernicus exul, as the unknown exile is called who wrote in the second half of the 8th century the earliest epic of the Middle Ages 1 ; the poems of Sedulius Scotus, now brought to light more fully ; Adumnan s life of St Columba, or Columcille, which Pinker ton considered to be " the most complete piece of such biography that all Europe can boast of, not only at so early a period, but even through the whole Middle Ages"; and above all the writings of John Scotus Erigena, undoubtedly the greatest philosopher of the Middle Ages. We are, however, now in a better position to judge of the injurious action of the bardic institution as a whole. Several causes among others, geogra phical position helped to arrest the political and social growth of tho Irish people, and crystallize their culture in the tribal stage, but the most powerful of those causes was the existence of the or ganized professions of the suide, who kept up elaborate systems of pedigrees, and of the filid or bards, whose business it was to flatter the vanity of their patrons and pander to their vices. These kept the clan spirit alive, shut out the influx of new opinions, and stopped the growth of national political ideas. The ephemeral lustre of the Irish mediaeval schools could never compensate for such losses. The intensity of the tribal spirit even among churchmen is illus trated by an event which took place in the reign of Domnall, son of Aed (628-642). St Carthach, or as he was also called St Mochuda, a West Munster man, wandered into what is now the King s county, and built a monastery at Haitian, now Rabin, near Tullamore. The clergy of Leth Cuind that is, of the Hui Neill were jealous of the intrusion of the Munster monk into their territory, and accordingly insisted on Mochuda s expulsion, who sought a refuge among the Desi in Mimster, and there founded the monastery of Less Mor, now Lismore, in Waterford, which became a famous school. Another event of this reign, of great importance, was the battle of Mag Rath, now Moira, in the county Down. Congal Claen, the king of Dal-Araide, who had been in exile, invaded Ireland with an army of foreign adventurers, and aided by Domnall Brec, king of the Albanian Scots, endeavoured to recover the ancient supremacy of the Rudrician race, or Ulaid, but was signally de feated. This wanton attack of Domnall Brec weakened the power of the Scots in Alba for a long time, and thus influenced largely the course of events in North Britain. Joint kingship was one of the most curious features of the Irish system ; it frequently occurred in the course of the Hui Neill rule. The reign of the joint kings Diarmait and Blathmac of the northern Hui Neill (658-665) is interesting on account of the glimpse which Bede gives us of Irish society in the 7th century. After mention ing the sudden appearance of a great pestilence which depopulated the southern coasts of Britain, and afterwards extended into the province of the Northumbrians, Bede adds (Eccl. Hist., iii. 26), " This pestilence did no less harm in the island of Ireland. Many of the nobility and of the lower ranks of the English nation were there at that time, who in the days of the bishops Finan and Colman, forsaking their native island, retired thither, either for the sake of divine studies or of a more continent life ; and some of them presently devoted themselves to a monastical life, others chose rather to apply themselves to study, going about from one master s cell to another. The Scots willingly received them all, and took care to supply them with food, as also to furnish them with books to read and their teaching gratis." Later on in the same century (681) the cow-tribute or boroim of Leinster was abolished at the instance of St Moling by the over-king Finnachta ; and at the end of it (697) St Adamnan, abbot of Hi, who had come to Ireland in connexion with the still unsettled question of the time of keeping Easter, succeeded in exempting women from military service. The necessity for such a law, which has been called from its author the Cain Adamnain, shows how little affected the tribal system of Ireland was by Roman civilization, even at this period. In the 1 "HibiTnici exulis versus ad Karolum im; eratorcm," in JIui, Classicorum Auctorum e Vaticanis CodJ. editorum, v. 405 sq. reign of the over-king Aed ^laind (733-742), an attempt seems to have been made for the first time to create a national church organi zation. King Aed and his rival, the king of Munster, Cathal, entered into an agreement regulating the tribute due to the church according to the rules and customs of the see of Armagh. Some time elapsed, however, before the regulation was generally accepted over the whole of Ireland. In the year 803 the over-king Ae<] Ordnigthe mustered an army composed of " both laity and clergy," but the latter complained of the hardship of being forced to tako part in warlike expeditions. King Aed agreed to abide by tho advice of a learned priest called Fothud of the Canons, who re commended the exemption of the clergy from the obligation of fighting. This law was called the Cain Patraicc or law of Patrick, probably from having been obtained by the comarba or successor of St Patrick, that is, the archbishop of Armagh at the time. The exemption may have, however, formed part of the regulations, called also Cain Patraicc, which formed the subject of the agree ment between Aed Alaind and Cathal above referred to. Invasions of the Northmen. The first incursion of the Northmen took place in 795 A.D., when they plundered and burnt the church of Rechrann, now Lambey, an island north of Dublin Bay. When this event occurred, the power of the over-king had become a shadow ; the provincial kingdoms had split up into more or less in dependent principalities, almost constantly at war with each other. Even Mag Breg, which was only part of Mcath, was able to rebel against the chief of the latter. The oscillation of the centre of power between Meath and Derry, according as the over-king was of the southern or northern Hiii Neill, which followed the desertion of Tara, produced corresponding perturbations in the balance of parties among the minor kings. The army consisted of a number of clans, each commanded by its own chief, and acting as so many independent units without cohesion. The clansmen owed fealty only to their chiefs, who in turn owed a kind of conditional allegiance to the over-king, depending a good deal upon the ability of the latter to enforce it. A chief might through pique, or from other causes, withdraw his clan even on the eve of a battle, without such defec tion being deemed dishonourable. "What the clan was to the nation or the province, the fine or sept was to the clan itself. The chief tains or heads of septs had a voice, not only in the question of war or peace, for that was determined by the whole clan, but in all sub sequent operations. However brave the individual soldiers of such an army might be, the army itself was unreliable against a well organized and disciplined enemy. Again, such clan armies were only levies gathered together for a few weeks at most, unprovided with military stores or the means of transport, and consequently generally unprepared to attack fortifications of any kind, and liable to melt away as quickly as they were gathered together. Admirably adapted for a sudden attack, such an army was wholly unfit to carry on a regular campaign or take advantage of a victory. There defects of the Irish military system were abundantly shown through out the Dano-Irish wars, and also in Anglo-Norman times. The first invaders were Norwegians, who sought only plunder and captives. They confined their attacks to the sea-coast, or places at easy distances from it. After some time they erected rude earthen or stockaded forts, which served as magazines and places of retreat. Some served a temporary purpose, while others became in time trading stations, or grew into towns. During the first half of the 9th century the attacks were incessant upon almost every part of the coast. The small bodies who came at first having met with considerable resistance, large fleets commanded by powerful vikings followed. Their well-armed crews the principal men at least being mail-clad were able to penetrate into the country, and even to put fleets of boats upon the lakes. An Irish work on the invasions of the Northmen gives an account of one of those vikings named Turgcs or Turgesius, of whose cruelties many stories are told. Gir- aldus Cambrensis and the monk Jocelin repeated these stories, the Irish book being, however, the original source from which the stories came. But Cambrensis goes beyond his source, and makes Turgesius king of Ireland. The Norse snga and chronicles make no mention of Turgcs, and much speculation has been indulged in as to the Norse equivalent of the name. It has been suggested that he was Thorgils, son of Harold Fair Hair, but this is an anachron ism. According to another view, he was the shadowy king Biignar Lodbrok or "Hairy Breeches," but this, besides being also an anachronism, is mere groundless guesswork. Dr Todd has sug gested that the Celtic form Turges represents the Norse Trygvc, but is more likely Thorgeir. The actual story of Turges is a fable, which has grown up by the fusion of the stories of several vikings of the name, helped out by some invention. That there were at least two of the name is proved by an elegy on the death of Eignechan, prince of Tir Conaill, who died about 902, written by Fland Mao Lonnin, a poet who lived within fifty years of the supposed histori cal chief. The poet tells a curious stoiy of three vikings, one of whom was Turgeis and another Tor, who were married to three daughters of the prince. The Turgcs of history is supposed to have come to Ireland in 815, and to have been made prisoner and drowned by Maelsechlainn, or Malachy, the first king of the name