Chapter III: The Conquest of Ireland (2)

The history of Richard of Striguil is far from clear. From the number of troops which eventually accompanied him to Ireland it is evident that he had been during these two years actively preparing for his expedition; and it may even be that the extent of his preparations had drawn upon him the suspicions of King Henry. We only know that, for some cause or other, he was now a ruined man; his lands were forfeited to the Crown;[470] and he seems to have lingered on, absorbed in a desperate effort to regain Henry’s favour, and clinging to his lost home with a feeling that if he once turned his back upon it, he would never be allowed to see it again. A letter from Dermot, telling of the successes of his party in Leinster and renewing his former offers, forced him into action.[471] He made a last appeal to the king, intreating either for restoration of his lands or for the royal license to go and repair his fortunes elsewhere. Henry ironically bade him go, and he went.[472] On S. Bartholomew’s eve, 1170, he landed at Waterford with twelve hundred men;[473] next day he was joined by Raymond “the Fat,” a young warrior whom he had sent over three months before[474] with ten knights and seventy archers, and who with this small force had contrived to beat back an assault of three thousand Irishmen of Decies and Ostmen of Waterford upon his camp of wattle and thatch, hastily thrown up on the rocky promontory of Dundonulf.[475] On August 25 Richard and Raymond attacked Waterford; three assaults in one day carried both town and citadel;[476] seven hundred citizens were slaughtered,[477] and the officers of the fortress, whose names tell of northern blood, were made prisoners.[478] A few days later Richard was married at Waterford to Dermot’s daughter Eva.[479] He then joined his father-in-law in a circuitous march across the hills and through Glendalough,[480] whereby they avoided a great host which Roderic had gathered at Clondalkin to intercept them, and arrived in safety on S. Matthew’s day beneath the walls of Dublin.[481] Dermot sent his bard to demand the instant surrender of the town, with thirty hostages for its fidelity. A dispute arose, probably between the Irish and Danish inhabitants, as to the selection of the hostages;[482] Archbishop Laurence was endeavouring to compose the difficulty,[483] and Hasculf Thorgils’ son, a chieftain of northern blood who commanded the citadel, had actually promised to surrender it on the morrow,[484] when a sudden attack made by Raymond the Fat on one side and by a knight called Miles Cogan on the other carried the town before the leaders of either party knew what had happened.[485] A second rush won the citadel; Hasculf escaped by sea and took refuge in the Orkneys;[486] Dublin was sacked,[487] and left throughout the winter under the command of Miles Cogan,[488] while Richard of Striguil was guarding Waterford against the men of Munster,[489] and Dermot, from his old head-quarters at Ferns,[490] was making raid after raid upon Meath and Breffny.[491]

[470] The cause of Richard’s disgrace seems to be nowhere
stated, except by William of Newburgh. He has (l. ii. c. 26;
Howlett, vol. i. pp. 167, 168), as usual, an independent
version of the whole affair. According to him, Richard’s
chief motive for going to Ireland was to escape from his
creditors, he being deep in debt; he went in defiance of an
express prohibition from Henry, and it was on hearing of his
victories--_i.e._ some time in the latter part of 1170--that
Henry confiscated his estates. Dugdale (_Baronage_, vol. i. p.
208) gives 1170 as the date of the forfeiture, on the authority
of a MS. in the Bodleian library. But this is irreconcileable
with the very circumstantial story of Gerald. Gerv. Cant.
(Stubbs), vol. i. p. 234, dates the forfeiture three years
before Henry’s visit to Ireland, _i.e._ 1168.

[471] Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 12 (as above, pp.
246, 247).

[472] _Ib._ cc. 12, 13 (pp. 247, 248). Cf. Gerv. Cant. as above.

[473] Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 16 (Dimock, vol.
v. p. 254). Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 72. The latter gives
the number of troops as fifteen hundred; Gerald makes them two
hundred knights and a thousand foot-men.

[474] So says Gerald, as above, c. 13 (p. 248); but Mr. Dimock
(_ib._ note 2) thinks this too early.

[475] _Ibid._ (pp. 248, 249). There is however a less heroic
version of this affair in the Anglo-Norman Poem (Michel), pp.
68–70. We are there told that Raymond and his men had provided
themselves with food by “lifting” all the cattle in the
neighbourhood and penning them within the camp. At the sound
of arms these creatures rushed out in a wild stampede, and it
was this which put the assailants to flight. On the site of
Dundonulf see Mr. Dimock’s _Glossary_ to Gir. Cambr., vol. v.
p. 421.

[476] Gir. Cambr. as above, c. 16 (_ib._ pp. 254, 255).

[477] Four Masters, a. 1170 (O’Donovan, vol. ii. p. 1177).

[478] Ragnald and “the two Sihtrics”; Gir. Cambr. as above (p.
255). The Four Masters (as above) give to the commandant of
the citadel--which Gerald calls “Ragnald’s tower”--the name of
Gillemaire. In the Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 72, we read
that “les plus poanz de la cité” were Regenald and “Smorch.”

[479] Gir. Cambr. as above. Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 73.
Four Masters, a. 1170 (as above).

[480] Gir. Cambr. as above, c. 17 (p. 256).

[481] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 75–78. Cf. Gir. Cambr.
and Four Masters as above. The latter say that “there was a
challenge of battle between them” (_i.e._ between Roderic
and the foreigners) “for three days, until lightning burned
Ath-Cliath” [Dublin].

[482] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 79, 80.

[483] Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 17 (Dimock, vol.
v. p. 256).

[484] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 80. He is there called
“Hesculf”; in p. 79, “Mac Turkil Esculf.” In the Four Masters,
a. 1170 (O’Donovan, vol. ii. p. 1177), he is “Asgall, son of
Raghnall, son of Turcaill.” Gir. Cambr. (as above) calls him
simply “Hasculphus.”

[485] Gir. Cambr. as above (pp. 256, 257). Anglo-Norm. Poem
(Michel), pp. 80, 81.

[486] Four Masters, as above. Gir. Cambr. as above (p. 257).

[487] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 81, 82.

[488] Gir. Cambr. as above. Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 82.

[489] “A victory was gained by the son of Cormac, grandson of
Carthach, and the people of Desmond, over the knights who were
left to defend Port Lairge” [_i.e._ Waterford]. Four Masters,
as above. Earl Richard returned thither early in October;
Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 82.

[490] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 83.

[491] Four Masters, a. 1170 (as above, pp. 1177, 1179).

In vain did the Irish clergy meet in synod at Armagh and strive to avert the wrath which seemed to have been revealed against their country by a solemn decree for the liberation of the English slaves with whom, even yet, the houses of the Irish chieftains were filled.[492] One sentence from an Irish record of the next year may serve to illustrate the condition of the country: “Seven predatory excursions were made by the Ui-Maine into Ormond from Palm Sunday till Low Sunday.”[493] It made but little difference when at Whitsuntide Dermot, “by whom a trembling sod was made of all Ireland,” died at Ferns “of an insufferable and unknown disease--without a will, without penance, without the Body of Christ, without unction, as his evil deeds deserved.”[494] At that very moment a wiking fleet gathered from all the lands where the old sea-rovers’ life still lingered--Norway, the Hebrides, Orkney, Man--appeared in Dublin bay under the command of Hasculf, the exiled leader of the Ostmen, and of a northern chief whose desperate valour won him the title of “John the Furious”--in the English speech of that day, John the Wode.[495] Something of the spirit of the old northern sagas breathes again in the story of this, the last wiking-fight ever fought upon the soil of the British isles. Bard and historian alike tell of the mighty strokes dealt by the battle-axes of John and his comrades,[496] and how they had almost hewed their way into Dublin once more, when a well-timed sally of the besieged caught them at unawares in the rear;[497]--how an Irish chief named Gillamocholmog, whom Miles Cogan had posted on a neighbouring hill, chivalrously bidding him watch the course of the battle and join the winning side, rushed down with his followers at the critical moment and helped to complete the rout of the Ostmen;[498]--how John the Wode fell by the hand of Miles Cogan;[499]--how Hasculf was taken prisoner by Miles’s brother Richard and brought back to be reserved for ransom, and how his hot wiking-blood spoke in words of defiance which goaded his captors to strike off his head.[500] Fifteen hundred northmen fell upon the field; five hundred more were drowned in trying to regain their ships.[501] From the shores of Ireland, as from those of England, the last northern fleet was driven away by Norman swords.

[492] Gir. Cambr. as above, c. 18 (p. 258).

[493] Four Masters, a. 1171 (O’Donovan, vol. ii. p. 1185). The
Ui-Maine were a tribe in south-eastern Connaught.

[494] _Ibid._ (p. 1183). Cf. Ann. Loch Cé, a. 1171 (Hennessy,
vol. i. p. 145). The date, “circa Kalendas Maiæ,” is given by
Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 20 (Dimock, vol. v. p.
263).

[495] “Duce Johanne agnomine the Wode,” Gir. Cambr. as above,
c. 21 (p. 264). “Johan le Devé,” Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel),
p. 108. It is there added that, “solum les Yrreis,” he was
a nephew of the king of “Norwiche,” _i.e._ Norway. The Four
Masters, a. 1171 (as above, p. 1185) describe him as “Eoan, a
Dane from the Orkney Islands.”

[496] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 116. Gir. Cambr. as above.

[497] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 111–114. Gir. Cambr. as
above.

[498] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 109–111, 115.

[499] _Ib._ p. 117.

[500] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 117, 118. (On his captor
cf. _ib._ p. 111). Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 21
(Dimock, vol. v. pp. 264, 265).

[501] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 116, 118. The date of this
siege is given by Gir. Cambr. (as above, p. 263) as “eâdem
fere tempestate” (_i.e._ about the time of Dermot’s death),
“circa Pentecosten.” This would be at the beginning of May. In
the Poem it comes much later in the year. There seems however
no reason to upset Gerald’s arrangement of events. See Mr.
Dimock’s remarks, Gir. Cambr. as above, note 2.

The garrison of Dublin fought in truth even more desperately than their assailants; for they were fighting for their all. A remonstrance addressed by some of the Irish princes to the king of England against the aggressions of his subjects[502] can hardly have been needed to open Henry’s eyes to the danger gathering for him and his realm beyond the western sea. This little band of adventurers, almost all bound together by the closest ties of kindred,[503] were conquering Leinster neither for its native sovereign nor for their own, but were setting up a new feudal state independent of all royal control, under the leadership of a disgraced English baron. Such a state, if suffered to grow unhindered, would soon be far more dangerous to England than to Ireland, for it would be certain to play in every struggle of the feudal principle against the royal authority in England the part which the Ostmen had played of old in the struggles of the Danelaw. At the beginning of the year 1171 therefore Henry issued an edict prohibiting all further intermeddling of his subjects in Ireland, and bidding those who were already there either return before Easter or consider themselves banished for life.[504] Not a man went back; Richard of Striguil sent Raymond over to Normandy with a written protest to the king, pleading that his conquests had been undertaken with the royal sanction and that he was ready to place them at the king’s disposal;[505] but the “Geraldines,” as the kindred of Maurice Fitz-Gerald called themselves, seem to have at once accepted their sentence of exile and resolved to hold by their swords alone the lands which those swords had won.[506]

[502] Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 234, 235.

[503] The close kindred of these Norman-Welsh settlers in
Ireland is a very remarkable feature of their settlement.
Robert Fitz-Stephen and Maurice Fitz-Gerald were half-brothers
(Gir. Cambr. as above, c. 2, p. 229); the two Fitz-Henrys,
Raymond the Fat, Miles Fitz-David and Robert de Barri were
their nephews (_ib._ cc. 4, 13, and l. ii. c. 10, pp. 234, 248,
335); Richard of Striguil was nephew to Hervey of Mountmorris
(_ib._ l. i. c. 3, p. 230), who afterwards married a daughter
of Maurice Fitz-Gerald, while Maurice’s eldest son married
Richard’s daughter Alina (_ib._ l. ii. c. 4, p. 314); another
daughter of Richard married his constable Robert de Quincy
(Anglo-Norm. Poem, Michel, p. 130); and his sister Basilea
became the wife of Raymond the Fat (_ib._ p. 145, and Gir.
Cambr. as above, l. ii. c. 3, pp. 312, 313).

[504] Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 19 (Dimock, vol.
v. p. 259).

[505] _Ibid._ Cf. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 235. Raymond
was back again in time to share in the defence of Dublin
against Roderic O’Conor--_i.e._ by the end of May or beginning
of June. Gerald says he had to seek the king in “Aquitanic
Gaul,” but this time the phrase cannot be taken literally.
Eyton’s _Itinerary_ shews plainly that throughout 1171 Henry
never was further south than the Norman, or, at the utmost, the
Breton border.

[506] This seems to be the key-note of a speech which Gerald
puts into Maurice’s mouth; _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 23 (as
above, pp. 266, 267).

The hostility of the Ostmen had apparently ended with Hasculf’s defeat; thenceforth they seem to have made common cause with the new-comers in whom they were perhaps already beginning to recognize the stirrings of kindred blood. But, on the other hand, the position of Earl Richard and his comrades had been seriously weakened by Dermot’s death. The king of Leinster’s devise of his kingdom to his son-in-law was, like the grants which he had made to the Geraldines and like his own homage to King Henry, void in Irish law. In Irish eyes his death removed the last shadow of excuse for the presence of the strangers on Irish soil; their allies rapidly fell away;[507] and by midsummer the whole country rose against them as one man. Roderic O’Conor mustered the forces of the north; Archbishop Laurence of Dublin, whose family occupied an influential position in Leinster, called up the tribes of the south; while a squadron of thirty ships was hired from Jarl Godred of Man.[508] The aim of the expedition was to blockade Dublin, whither Earl Richard had now returned, and where almost all the leaders of the invasion, except Robert Fitz-Stephen and Hervey of Mountmorris, were now gathered together. The whole Irish land-force amounted to sixty thousand men; half of these were under the immediate command of Roderic, encamped at Castle-Knock;[509] Mac-Dunlevy, the chieftain of Uladh, planted his banner on the old battle-field of Clontarf;[510] Donell O’Brien, the king of North Munster, posted himself at Kilmainham; and Murtogh Mac-Murrough, a brother of Dermot, whom Roderic had set up as king of Leinster in 1167, took up his position at Dalkey.[511] To these were added, for the northern division, the men of Breffny and of East Meath under Tighernan O’Ruark, those of Oiriel or southern Ulster under Murtogh O’Carroll,[512] and those of West Meath under Murtogh O’Melaghlin; while the archbishop’s call had brought up the whole strength of Leinster except the men of Wexford and Kinsellagh;[513] and even these, as the sequel proved, were preparing to fight the same battle on other ground.

[507] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 83.

[508] Gir. Cambr. as above, cc. 22, 24 (pp. 265, 266, 269).
This is the archbishop afterwards canonized as S. Laurence
O’Toole.

[509] Cf. Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 84, with Gerald’s
reckoning of Roderic’s own forces at thirty thousand. _Expugn.
Hibern._, l. i. c. 24 (Dimock, vol. v. p. 268).

[510] “A Clontarf ficha sa banere.” Anglo-Norm. Poem, as above.

[511] _Ibid._

[512] Four Masters, a. 1171 (O’Donovan, vol. ii. p. 1185). Gir.
Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 24 (Dimock, vol. v. p. 269).

[513] Gir. Cambr. as above.

For nearly two months[514] the English knights were thus blockaded in Dublin. Their sole hope of relief was in Robert Fitz-Stephen, who had been left in command at Wexford. They were all but starving when Donell Kavanagh, a half-brother of Eva Mac-Murrough and a devoted adherent of her husband, slipped into the city with tidings that Wexford had risen; Robert Fitz-Stephen was blockaded in the little fort of Carrick by the townsfolk and the men of Kinsellagh, to the number of three thousand; unless he could be succoured within three days, all would be over with him and his men.[515] Earl Richard at once called a council of war. It comprised nearly all the leaders of the English and Welsh forces in Ireland:--Richard of Striguil himself; Maurice Fitz-Gerald with three of his gallant nephews, Meiler Fitz-Henry, Miles Fitz-David and Raymond the Fat; Miles Cogan, the captor of Dublin and its chief defender in the recent siege; Maurice de Prendergast,[516] who two years before had thrown up the adventure and gone home in disgust at the faithlessness of his allies,[517] but had returned, it seems, in Earl Richard’s train, and was yet to leave, alone of all the invading band, an honoured memory among the Irish people;[518] and some fourteen others.[519] They decided upon sending Maurice de Prendergast and Archbishop Laurence to Roderic with an offer of surrender on condition that Richard of Striguil should hold the kingdom of Leinster under Roderic as overlord. Roderic rejected the proposal with scorn; the knights might hold what the earlier pirates had held--Dublin, Waterford and Wexford; not another rood of Irish land should be granted to the earl and his company; and if they refused these terms, Dublin should be stormed on the morrow.[520] That afternoon the little garrison--scarce six hundred in all[521]--sallied forth and surprized Roderic’s camp while he and his men were bathing; Roderic himself escaped with great difficulty; fifteen hundred Irishmen were slain, many of them perishing in the water; while at sunset the victors returned, after a long pursuit, with scarcely a man missing, and laden with provisions enough to supply all Dublin for a year.[522] The rest of the besieging army dispersed at once, and the very next morning Earl Richard was free to set out for the relief of Robert Fitz-Stephen.[523]

[514] _Ib._ c. 22 (p. 266). This would bring the beginning of
the siege to Midsummer at latest, for it was certainly over by
the middle of August. The Four Masters (as above) make it last
only a fortnight.

[515] Gir. Cambr. as above. The Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp.
85, 86, gives a very hasty and confused sketch of this Wexford
affair.

[516] Earl Richard, Meiler, the two Mileses and Maurice
Prendergast are mentioned in the Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp.
86, 87. Raymond is named by Gerald, _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i.
c. 22 (Dimock, vol. v. p. 266), as “a curiâ jam reversus”; his
presence also appears later in the Poem. Gerald alone mentions
the presence of Maurice Fitz-Gerald, whom the Poem never names
throughout the siege; while Gerald never names Maurice de
Prendergast. Is it possible that he has transferred to his
own uncle the exploits of his namesake? But if so, where can
Fitz-Gerald have been?

[517] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 51–67.

[518] _Ib._ pp. 97–103.

[519] The Poem (as above), p. 87, reckons them at twenty in
all, and names four besides those already mentioned, viz.,
Robert de Quincy, Walter de Riddlesford, Richard de Marreis and
Walter Bluet.

[520] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 87–90.

[521] The Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 90, 91, describes the
force as composed of three divisions, each consisting of forty
knights, sixty archers and a hundred “serjanz.” Gir. Cambr. as
above, c. 24 (p. 268), makes the three bands of knights contain
respectively twenty, thirty and forty, each accompanied by as
many archers and citizens as could be spared from guarding the
walls.

[522] Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 24 (Dimock, vol.
v. pp. 268, 269). Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 90–94. Cf. the
brief account in Four Masters, a. 1171 (O’Donovan, vol. ii. p.
1185).

[523] Gir. Cambr. as above (pp. 269, 270). Anglo-Norm. Poem
(Michel), p. 95.

He was however already too late. Three thousand men of Wexford and Kinsellagh, finding that they could make no impression by fair means upon Robert Fitz-Stephen shut up in the fort of Carrick with five knights and a handful of archers, at length had recourse to fraud. Two bishops and some monks were made to stand under the walls of the fort and swear upon relics brought for the purpose that Dublin was taken, the earl and his comrades slain, and Roderic on the march to Wexford at the head of his victorious host. On a promise of liberty to escape to Wales[524] Robert in his despair surrendered, only to see his little band of humbler followers slaughtered to a man, and himself and his five knights cast into chains. The men of Wexford then fired their town and took refuge with their captives on the neighbouring island of Beg-Erin,[525] whence they sent word to Richard of Striguil that if he dared to approach them he should immediately receive the heads of his six friends.[526] Notwithstanding this disaster at Wexford, and the failure of a plot to entrap the chief of Ossory--a well-deserved failure, due to the loyalty of Maurice de Prendergast[527]--the invaders were rapidly gaining ground. The king of North Munster, who was married to Eva’s sister, again forsook Roderic and made alliance with his English brother-in-law;[528] an attempt made by Tighernan O’Ruark to renew the siege of Dublin ended in failure;[529] and at last Murtogh of Kinsellagh was reduced to make a surrender of his principality into Richard’s hands and accept a re-grant of it from him as overlord, while Donell Kavanagh was invested on like terms with the remaining portion of Leinster.[530]

[524] Gir. Cambr. as above, c. 25 (pp. 270, 271).

[525] _Ibid._ (p. 271). Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 85, 97.

[526] Gir. Cambr. as above, c. 28 (p. 273).

[527] See the story in Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 97–103.

[528] _Ib._ pp. 97, 98.

[529] Four Masters, a. 1171 (as above, pp. 1185–1187). Gir.
Cambr. as above, c. 29 (p. 274).

[530] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 103.

The earl’s triumphs, however, met with an abrupt check from over sea. His uncle Hervey of Mountmorris, who had gone to plead his cause with the king after the failure of Raymond’s mission, returned to Waterford[531] with tidings that Henry himself was on his way to Ireland and required the self-styled earl of Leinster to go and speak with him without delay. Richard hurried over to Wales,[532] met Henry on the border,[533] and was forgiven on condition that he should surrender Dublin and the other coast towns absolutely into the king’s hands and do him homage and fealty for the rest of Leinster;[534] he then accompanied Henry into Pembrokeshire;[535] where the royal fleet was assembling in Milford Haven. It consisted of four hundred ships,[536] carrying a force of about four thousand men, of whom some five hundred were knights and the rest archers, mounted and unmounted.[537] The king embarked on the evening of Saturday, October 16, and landed next day at Croch, eight miles from Waterford.[538] On the morrow, S. Luke’s day, he entered the town of Waterford;[539] there he was met by his seneschal William Fitz-Aldhelm, his constable Humfrey de Bohun, Hugh de Lacy, Robert Fitz-Bernard, and some other officers of his household whom he had sent over to prepare for his coming.[540] The Irish of the district and the Ostmen of the town, in the person of their chieftain Ragnald, made submission to him as their sovereign;[541] while Richard of Striguil formally surrendered the place into the king’s hands and did homage to him for the earldom of Leinster.[542] The men of Wexford now, according to an agreement which they had made with Henry while he was waiting for a wind at Pembroke,[543] brought their captive Robert Fitz-Stephen to his sovereign’s feet, to be by him dealt with as a rebel and a traitor. Henry loaded him with reproaches and imprisoned him afresh, but his anger was more assumed than real, and the captive was soon released.[544] The submission of the English adventurers was followed by that of the Irish princes. Dermot MacCarthy, king of Cork or South Munster, was the first of them who came to Henry’s feet at Waterford, swore him fealty, gave hostages and promised tribute.[545] On November 1[546] Henry advanced to Lismore, and thence, two days later, to Cashel, where at the passage of the Suir he was met by the king of Limerick or of Northern Munster, Donell O’Brien, with offers of tribute and obedience. The lesser chieftains of southern Ireland followed the example of the two kings; in three weeks from his arrival all Munster was at his feet, and its coast-towns, Wexford, Waterford, Limerick and Cork, were all in the custody of his own officers.[547] At Martinmas he reached Dublin;[548] before Christmas he received hostages from all the princes of Leinster and Meath, from Tighernan O’Ruark of Breffny, from O’Carroll of Oiriel, and from the king of Uladh or eastern Ulster;[549] his new vassals built him a dwelling of wattle or wicker-work, after the manner of their country, outside the walls of Dublin, and there in their midst he held his Christmas court.[550]

[531] Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 28 (Dimock, vol.
v. p. 273). Hervey must have gone before Midsummer; he was
clearly not in Dublin during the second siege, and returned
shortly after its conclusion.

[532] _Ibid._ Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 105, 106.

[533] At Newnham in Gloucestershire, according to Gerald (as
above). The Anglo-Norm. Poem (p. 106), however, says they met
at Pembroke. This would make a difference of at least ten days
in the date. From the account of Henry’s movements in the _Brut
y Tywys._, a. 1171 (William, pp. 211–213), it seems that he
crossed the border about September 8 and reached Pembroke on
September 20.

[534] Gir. Cambr. as above. Cf. Will. Newb., l. ii. c. 26
(Howlett, vol. i. pp. 168, 169).

[535] _Brut y Tywys._, a. 1171 (Williams, p. 215).

[536] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 25; Rog. Howden
(Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 29; Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 235.
The Four Masters, a. 1171 (O’Donovan, vol. ii. p. 1187), and
Ann. Loch. Cé, a. 1171 (Hennessy, vol. i. p. 145), give the
number as two hundred and forty.

[537] Gerald (_Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 30, Dimock, vol. v.
p. 275) reckons five hundred knights, with “arcariis [_var._
satellitibus equestribus] quoque et sagittariis multis.” The
Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 123, makes the knights four
hundred, and a few lines later sums up the whole force as
“quatre mil Engleis.” Mr. W. Lynch (_View of Legal Inst. in
Ireland under Hen. II._, p. 2) argues from the payments for
arms, provisions, shipping, etc. recorded in the Pipe-Rolls
for 1171, that the army must have numerically “far exceeded
the force described in our printed historians.” He gives a
few details of these payments, extracted from the Pipe-Roll
in question (17 Hen. II., a. 1171); some more, from this and
the next year’s roll, maybe seen in Eyton, _Itin. Hen. II._,
pp. 161, 163. The host was no doubt composed almost wholly of
English tenants-in-chivalry; but whatever may have been its
numbers, there was a large proportion of these tenants who had
nothing to do with it except by paying its expenses next year
with a great scutage. See in Madox, _Hist. Exch._, vol. i. pp.
629–632, the extracts from Pipe Roll 18 Hen. II. “de scutagio
militum qui nec abierunt in Hyberniam nec denarios” (in some
cases “nec milites nec denarios”) “illuc miserunt.”

[538] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 25; Rog. Howden
(Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 29. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 348,
makes October 16 the day of Henry’s arrival in Ireland; Gerv.
Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 235, makes it “about S. Calixtus’s
day” (October 16 would be two days after). Gerald, _Expugn.
Hibern._, l. i. c. 30 (Dimock, vol. v. p. 275) makes him reach
Waterford “circa kalendas Novembris, die videlicet S. Lucæ.”
The Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel, p. 123) turns this into “à la
Tusseinz”; the Four Masters, a. 1171 (O’Donovan, vol. ii. p.
1187) record his coming without any date at all; and the _Brut
y Tywys._ a. 1171 (Williams, p. 217), absurdly says he sailed
on Sunday, November 16. The Anglo-Norman poet seems to have
taken Croch--“à la Croiz” as he calls it--for the place of
embarkation.

[539] _Gesta Hen._, Rog. Howden and Gir. Cambr. as above.

[540] _Gesta Hen._ and Rog. Howden, as above. Anglo-Norm. Poem
(Michel), p. 124.

[541] _Gesta Hen._ as above. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. p.
30.

[542] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 124.

[543] See the curious story of their envoy’s arrival and
reception at Pembroke, _ib._ pp. 119–123.

[544] Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. cc. 31, 32 (Dimock,
vol. v. pp. 276, 277, 278). Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 125,
126.

[545] Gir. Cambr. as above, c. 31 (p. 277).

[546] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 30, says he stayed at
Waterford fifteen days.

[547] Gir. Cambr. as above, cc. 31, 32 (pp. 277, 278). He adds
that Henry returned to Waterford, where he released Robert
Fitz-Stephen, and thence proceeded to Dublin. The Anglo-Norm.
Poem (Michel), pp. 126, 127, places this progress through
Cashel and Lismore in inverse order, after Henry’s first visit
to Dublin, and says nothing of a second visit to Waterford. Its
account is however much less circumstantial than Gerald’s. The
_Gesta Hen._ and Rog. Howden only name two places where Henry
stayed--Waterford and Dublin; and as they both say he reached
the latter at Martinmas, while Roger says he left Waterford
when he had been there a fortnight (_i.e._ on November 1),
Gerald’s story fills up the interval very well.

[548] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 28. Rog. Howden (as
above), p. 32.

[549] Gerald (as above, c. 33, p. 278) enumerates the princes
who submitted at Dublin as follows: “Machelanus Ophelan
[O’Phelan], Machtalewi, Otuetheli [O’Toole], Gillemoholmoch
[Gillamocholmog of Fingal by Dublin--see above, p. 106],
Ocathesi [O’Casey], Ocaruel Urielensis [O’Carroll of Oiriel],
et Ororicius Medensis [O’Ruark]”. He then relates the
half-submission of Roderic of Connaught (of which more later),
and adds: “sic itaque, præter solos Ultonienses, subditi per
se singuli.” (_Ib._ p. 279.) He need not however have excepted
the Ulstermen; for the Ann. Loch Cé, a. 1171 (Hennessy, vol.
i. p. 145)--copying, it seems, the old Annals of Ulster (see
Four Masters, O’Donovan, vol. ii. p. 1187, note _c_, and
O’Kelly’s note to Lynch’s _Cambr. Evers._, vol. ii. p. 472,
note _d_)--say that Henry while at Dublin received hostages
from “Leinster, Meath, Breffny, Oiriel and Uladh.” This leaves
only Connaught and Aileach unsubdued. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs, vol.
i. p. 235) and the _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs, vol. i. p. 25) lump
all these submissions together, and the latter seems to place
them all, as well as the submission of the bishops, during
Henry’s stay in Waterford. Rog. Howden (Stubbs, vol. ii. p.
30) not only does the same still more distinctly, but he does
worse; he places the submission of the bishops first, and then
says that the lay princes submitted “exemplo clericorum.” It
is he, not Gerald or any one else, who is responsible for this
misrepresentation, which the champions of the Irish Church have
been justly denouncing ever since Dr. Lynch’s time.

[550] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 28, 29. Rog. Howden
(Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 32. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 236.
Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 33 (Dimock, vol. v. p.
279).

Early in November two royal chaplains had been despatched to summon the Irish bishops to a council and claim their submission.[551] We hear not a word of Pope Adrian’s bull; but we can hardly doubt that its existence and its contents were in some way or other certified to the Irish prelates before, in response to the royal mandate, they met in council at Cashel in the first weeks of 1172.[552] The archbishop of Armagh absented himself on the plea of extreme age and infirmity;[553] all his episcopal brethren, however, made full submission to Henry, pledged themselves to conform in all things to the pattern of the English Church,[554] gave written promises to support the English king and his heirs as lawful sovereigns of Ireland,[555] and joined with him in sending to Rome a report of his proceedings and their own.[556]

[551] _Gesta Hen._ (as above), p. 28. Rog. Howden (as above),
p. 31. The messengers were Nicolas, a chaplain of the king, and
Ralf archdeacon of Landaff. They were sent out “circa festum S.
Leonardi” (November 6). _Gesta Hen._ as above.

[552] The _Gesta Hen._ and Rog. Howden as above, both place
this council before Christmas 1171. Gir. Cambr. as above, c. 35
(p. 281), and R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 351, date it 1172.
It seems better to follow them, for though Gerald is certainly
no chronologist, he is the only writer who gives a detailed and
rational account of this synod; and the summary given by R.
Diceto also shews a fair knowledge of the subject, though he
makes the synod meet at Lismore instead of Cashel.

[553] Gir. Cambr. as above (p. 283). He adds that the primate
afterwards went to Dublin and there submitted to Henry; but see
Dr. Lanigan’s comment, _Eccles. Hist. Ireland_, vol. iv. pp.
205, 206.

[554] Gir. Cambr. as above. R. Diceto (as above), pp. 350, 351.

[555] They sent him “litteras suas in modum cartæ extra
sigillum pendentes:” _Gesta Hen._ (as above), p. 26. Cf. Rog.
Howden (as above), pp. 30, 31. This is however placed by both
writers some time before the council. See above, p. 114,
note 6{549}.

[556] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 31, says that Henry
sent copies of the bishops’ letters of submission to Rome.
Dr. Lanigan (_Eccles. Hist. Ireland_, vol. iv. pp. 217, 218)
objects that this can only have been done some time later,
as Henry’s communications were cut off by the weather. But
this is not borne out either by the words of R. Diceto
(Stubbs, vol. i. p. 350) or by those of Gerald (_Expugn.
Hibern._, l. i. c. 36, Dimock, vol. v. p. 284). They both
say distinctly that a persistent contrary wind hindered all
communication _from England to Ireland_. For communication
in the opposite direction such a wind would surely be most
favourable. Moreover, it is quite certain that the Pope did,
some time before September 20, 1172, receive reports of Henry’s
proceedings in Ireland both from Henry himself and from the
Irish bishops, for he says so in three letters--one addressed
to Henry, another to the kings and bishops of Ireland, and the
third to the legate, Christian bishop of Lismore--all dated
Tusculum, September 20, and all printed in Hearne’s _Liber
Niger_, vol. i. pp. 42–48, as well as in the notes to _Macariæ
Excidium_ (O’Callaghan), pp. 255–262.

In all Ireland the king of Connaught was now the only ruler, spiritual or temporal, who had not submitted to Henry.[557] Trusting to the inaccessible nature of his country,[558] Roderic had at first refused all dealings with the invader, declaring that he himself was the sole rightful monarch of Ireland.[559] It seems however that he afterwards came to a meeting with William Fitz-Aldhelm and Hugh de Lacy by the banks of the Shannon, on the frontier of Connaught and Meath, and there promised tribute and fealty like his fellow-kings.[560] The promise was however worthless until confirmed by his personal homage; and this Henry soon perceived was only to be extorted at the sword’s point. The impossibility of fighting to any advantage in the wet Irish winter compelled him to postpone the attempt until the spring;[561] and when spring came he found that his intended campaign must be abandoned altogether. From the day when he left Milford he had received not one word of tidings from any part of his dominions.[562] This total isolation, welcome at first as a relief from the load of cares which indeed he had purposely left behind him,[563] became at the end of nineteen weeks a source of almost unbearable anxiety. On March 1 he removed from Dublin to Wexford;[564] there for nearly a month he remained eagerly watching for a ship from England; none came until after Mid-Lent,[565] and then it was laden with such ill news that he could only take such hasty measures as were possible at the moment for maintaining his hold upon Ireland, and prepare to hurry out of it as soon as the wind would carry him.[566] Richard of Striguil was suffered to remain at Kildare[567] as earl of Leinster; the general direction of government and administration throughout the king’s Irish domains was intrusted to Hugh de Lacy,[568] who had already received a grant of Meath in fee,[569] and who was also left in command of the citadel of Dublin,[570] with a garrison of twenty knights, among whom were Maurice Fitz-Gerald[571] and Robert Fitz-Stephen.[572] The grants of territory made by Dermot to the half-brothers were of course annulled; Waterford and Wexford were both garrisoned and placed in charge of an officer appointed by the king;[573] and in each of these towns a fortress was either erected or repaired by his orders.[574]

[557] Perhaps we should add the chief of Aileach; see above, p.
114, note 6{549}.

[558] R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 348.

[559] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 25, 26. Gerv. Cant.
(Stubbs), vol. i. p. 235.

[560] Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 33 (Dimock, vol.
v. p. 279). See Dr. Lanigan’s refutation of Gerald’s comment on
the legal effect of this transaction, _Eccles. Hist. Ireland_,
vol. iv. pp. 203, 204.

[561] _Gesta Hen._ (as above), pp. 26, 29.

[562] Gir. Cambr. as above, c. 36 (p. 284). R. Diceto as above,
p. 350.

[563] See Gervase of Canterbury’s account of his motives for
going to Ireland (Stubbs, vol. i. p. 235).

[564] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 29; Rog. Howden
(Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 33.

[565] Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 37 (Dimock, vol.
v. p. 285).

[566] _Ib._ c. 37 (pp. 285, 286). In the Anglo-Norm. Poem
(Michel), pp. 128, 129, Henry is made to receive the bad news
before leaving Dublin, which is obviously too soon. Cf. _Gesta
Hen._ as above, and Rog. Howden (as above), pp. 33, 34.

[567] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 132.

[568] “Constituit eum justitiarium Hyberniæ.” Rog. Howden (as
above), p. 34.

[569] _Ibid._ _Gesta Hen._ (as above), p. 30. Gir. Cambr. (as
above), c. 38 (p. 286). Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 130. See
the charter of donation in Lyttelton, _Hen. II._, vol. iv. p.
295.

[570] Gir. Cambr., _Gesta Hen._ and Rog. Howden, as above.
Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 129.

[571] Gir. Cambr. as above.

[572] Anglo-Norm. Poem, as above--adding Meiler Fitz-Henry and
Miles Fitz-David.

[573] _Gesta Hen._, Rog. Howden and Gir. Cambr. as above.

[574] _Gesta Hen._ and Rog. Howden, as above. If we may believe
the Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel, p. 130) Henry furthermore made
a grant of Ulster to John de Courcy--“si à force la peust
conquere.”

A better mode of securing his authority in Dublin was probably suggested to him by the ravages which war and famine had made among its population. Eight years before he had taken the burghers of Bristol, so long the medium of trading intercourse between England and Ireland, under his especial patronage and protection.[575] He now granted to them the city of Dublin, to colonize and to hold of him and his heirs by the same free customs which they enjoyed in their own town of Bristol.[576] It is plain that Henry was already aiming at something far other than a mere military conquest of Ireland; and the long and varied list of English names, from all parts of the country, which is found in a roll of the Dublin citizens only a few years later,[577] shews how willingly his plans were taken up, not only at Bristol but throughout his realm, by the class to which he chiefly and rightly trusted for aid in their execution. Unluckily, they were scarcely formed when he was obliged to leave their developement to other hands; and the consequence was a half success which proved in the end to be far worse than total failure. On Easter night[578] he sailed from Wexford;[579] next day he landed at Portfinnan, hard by S. David’s;[580] before the octave was out he had hurried through South Wales to Newport;[581] in a few days more he was at Portsmouth;[582] and before Rogation-tide he was once more in Normandy, ready to face the bursting of a storm whose consequences were to overshadow all his remaining years and to preclude all chance of his return to complete his conquest of Ireland.

[575] In January 1164 “he granted a short charter of privileges
to the burghers of Bristol, whom as sovereign lord he calls
_his_ burgesses, although they were then under the lordship
of the earl of Gloucester. This charter contains only an
exemption from toll and passage and other customary payments
for themselves and their goods through the king’s own lands,
with a confirmation of their existing privileges and liberties”
(Seyer, _Mem. of Bristol_, vol. i. p. 494, with a reference to
“Charters of Bristol, No. 1”).

[576] Charter printed in Gilbert, _Hist. and Munic. Documents
of Ireland_, p. 1.

[577] _Ib._ p. 3 _et seq._

[578] R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 351, says at sunset on
Easter day (April 16); the Ann. Loch Cé, a. 1172 (Hennessy,
vol. i. p. 147), say on Easter day “after Mass.” Gerald,
_Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 38 (Dimock, vol. v. p. 286), the
_Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 30, and Rog. Howden (Stubbs),
vol. ii. p. 34, say he sailed early on the Monday morning,
the two latter adding a reason--he would not travel on the
feast-day, though he had suffered his household to do so. Most
probably he sailed at midnight, as seems to have been often
done. The _Brut y Tywys._ a. 1172 (Williams, p. 217), makes him
reach Pembroke on Good Friday, but this is impossible.

[579] _Gesta Hen._ as above, p. 30. Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel),
p. 131. The household had sailed from Croch to Milford; _ibid._
Cf. Rog. Howden as above, p. 34.

[580] _Gesta Hen._ and Rog. Howden, as above. R. Diceto
(Stubbs), vol. i. p. 351. The name of the place, Portfinnan, is
given only in the Anglo-Norm. Poem (as above).

[581] See the itinerary in Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i.
cc. 38–40 (Dimock, vol. v. pp. 286–291), compared with _Brut y
Tywys._ a. 1172 (Williams, pp. 217–219).

[582] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 30. Rog. Howden
(Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 34. It is Porchester in R. Diceto
(Stubbs), vol. i. p. 351.