Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/275

yll. " e - rch ( rick 1 its - ol )r 5 HISTORY.] Alarmed at the principality forming near him, Henry invaded Ireland in person, having first had Hadrian s grant confirmed by Alexander III., so as to gain the support of the Irish clergy. He landed near Waterford 18th October 1172. Giraldus says he had 500 knights and many other soldiers ; Regan, the metrical chronicler, says he had 4000 men, of whom 400 were knights; the Annals of Louyh Ce that he had 240 ships. The Irish writers tell little about these great events, except that the king of the Saxons took the hostages of Munster at Waterford, and of Leinster, Ulster, Thomond, and Meath at Dublin. They did not take in the grave significance of doing homage to a Norman king, and becoming his "man." Henry s farthest point westward was Cashel, where he received the homage of Donald O Brien, king of Thomond, but does not appear to have been present at the famous synod. Christian O Conarchy, bishop of Lismore and papal legate, presided, and the archbishops of Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam attended with their suffragans, as did many abbots and other dignitaries. The primate of Armagh, the saintly Gelasius, was absent, and presumably his suffragans also, but Giraldus says he afterwards came to the king at Dublin, and favoured him in all things. Henry s sovereignty was acknowledged, and constitutions made which drew Ireland closer to Rome. In spite of the " enormities and filthinesses," which Giraldus says defiled the Irish Church, nothing worse could be found to condemn than marriages within the prohibited degrees, and trifling irregularities about baptism. Most of the details rest on the authority of Giraldus only, but the main facts are clear. The synod is not mentioned by the Irish annalists, nor by Regan, but it is by Hoveden and Ralph de Diceto. The ratter says it was held at Lismore, an error arising from the president having been bishop of Lismore. Tradition says the members met in Cormac s chapel. Henry at first tried to be suzerain without displacing the natives, and received the homage of Roderick O Connor, hitherto considered head king. But the adventurers were uncontrollable, and he had to let them conquer what they could, exercising a precarious authority over the Normans only through a viceroy. Fitzadelm and other early governors seemingly had orders to deal as fairly as possible with the natives, and this involved them in quarrels with the "conquerors," whose object was to carve out principali ties for themselves, and who only nominally respected the sovereign s wishes. One is forcibly reminded of the squabbles of the crusaders. The mail-clud knights were not uniformly successful against the natives, but they generally managed to occupy the open plains and fertile valleys. Geographical configuration preserved centres of resistance, the O Neills in Tyrone and Armagh, the O Donnells in Donegal, and the Macarthies in Cork being the largest tribes that remained practically unbroken. On the coast from Bray to Dundalk, and by the navigable rivers of the east and south coasts, the Norman put his iron foot firmly down. Prince John landed at Waterford in 1185, arid the neigh- bouring chiefs hastened to pay their respects to the king s son. Prince and followers alike soon earned hatred, the former showing the incurable vices of his character, the latter pulling the beards of the chieftains. After eight dis graceful months he left the government to De Courcy, but retained the title "Dominus Hibernice." It was even in tended to crown him ; and Urban III. sent a licence and a crown of peacock s feathers, which was never placed on his head. Had Richard I. had children Ireland might have become a separate kingdom. Henry granted Meath, about 800,000 acres, to Hugo de Lacy, reserving scarcely any prerogative to the crown, and 259 making his vassal almost independent. De Lacy sublet the laud among kinsmen and retainers, and to his grants the families of Nugent, Tyrell, Nangle, Tuyt, Fleming, and others owe their importance in Irish history. It is not surprising that the Irish bordering on Meath should have thought De Lacy the real king of Ireland ; the follow ing passage from the Annals of Lough Ce is worth quoting : " The son of the king of the Saxons went across after wards to complain of Hugo de Lacy to his father ; for it was Hugo de Lacy that was king of Erin when the son of the king of the Saxons came, and he permitted not the men of Erin to give tribute or hostages to him." During his brother s reign John s viceroy was William Richard Marshal, earl of Pembroke, who married Strongbow s MH89- daughter by Eva, and thus succeeded to his claims in ") Leinster. John s reputation was no better in Ireland than in England. He thwarted or encouraged the Anglo- Normans as best suited him, but on the whole they increased their possessions. In 1210 the excommunicated King king visited Ireland again, and being joined by Catlial Jolm i]1 Crovderg O Connor, king of Connaught, marched almost Ir unchallenged by De Lacy from Waterford by Dublin to Carrickfergus. Thus, with the aid of Irish allies, did Henry II. s son chastise the sons of those who had given Ireland to the crown. John did not venture farther west than Trim, but most of the Anglo-Norman lords swore fealty to him, and he divided the partially obedient dis tricts into twelve counties Dublin (with Wicklow), Meath (with Westnieath), Louth, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Kerry, and Tipperary. John s resignation of his kingdom to the pope in 1213 included Ireland, and thus for the second time was the papal claim to Ireland formally recorded. During Henry III. s long reign the Anglo-Norman power Henry increased, but underwent great modifications. Richard, ^}- earl marshal, grandson of Strongbow, and to a great L"T extent heir of his power, was foully murdered by his own feudatories men of his own race ; and the colony never quite recovered this blow. On the other hand the De Burghs, partly by alliance with the Irish, partly by sheer hard fighting, made good their claims to the lordship of Connaught, and the western O Connors henceforth play a very subordinate part in Irish history. Tallage was first imposed on the colony in the first year of this reign, but yielded little, and tithes were not much better paid. On the 14th January 1217 the king wrote from Oxford Objec- to his justiciary, Geoffrey de Marisco, directing that no * 1( ? ns tc Irishman should be elected or preferred in any cathedral c ] en?y in Ireland, "since by that means our land might be dis turbed, which is to be deprecated." This order was annulled in 1224 by Honorius III., who declared it "destitute of all colour of right and honesty." The pope s efforts failed, for in the 14th century several Cistercian abbeys excluded mere Irishmen, and as late as 1436 the monks of Abington complained bitterly that an Irish abbot had been imposed on them by lay violence. Parliament was not more liberal, for the statute of Kilkenny, passed in 1366, ordained that "no Irishman be admitted into any cathedral or collegiate church, nor to any benefice among the English of the land," and also "that no religious house situated among the English shall henceforth receive an Irishman to their profession." This was solemnly con firmed by the English parliament in 1416, and an Irish Act of Richard III. enabled the archbishop of Dublin to collate Irish clerks for two years, an exception proving the rule. Many Irish monasteries admitted no Englishmen, and at least one attempt was made, in 1250, to apply the g ._ same rule to cathedrals. The races remained nearly tioil a f separate, the Irish simply staying outside the feudal the two system. If an Englishman slew an Irishman (except one races.