of any agreement he might enter into, and moreover, expressing great anxiety that all disputes and ancient feuds should be buried in oblivion. In full confidence in his sincerity, and trusting to his promises, Roderic accepted of his submission. But the treacherous character of Mac Murrough was soon made manifest. The arrival of Strongbow and his motley mercenaries, so long and so anxiously expected, was the signal for this perfidious prince to renounce his allegiance to Roderic, and to recommence hostilities against his government. CHAPTER II. Arrival of the invaders-They establish themselves on the coast-Pope grants a Bull to Henry-Death of Mac Murrough-Want of union amongst the Irish-Henry lands in Ireland-Enters into a compact with the Irish chiefs-Conquest of Ireland refuted. the invad ers, Anno THE advanced guard of the invading army, commanded Arrival of by Robert Fitzstephens, consisting only of thirty knights, sixty men in armour, and three hundred archers, soldiers 1170. who had proved their prowess in battle, landed in a small creek near Wexford. The arrival of this force, though trifling, created a movement and general armament amongst the Irish. These preparations for resistance alarmed the Welsh; and previous to advancing into the interior, they sent to Mac Murrough to ask his counsel and demand his assistance. The landing of Fitzstephens roused the almost extinguished hopes of Dermod; and those followers who, despairing of success, had deserted their leader, now hastened to rejoin his army, and enabled him to detach five hundred men to reinforce Fitzstephens. Mac Murrough soon after joined with the main body, and having again renewed his promises in the event of victory, he proceeded to take possession, and garrison the sea ports of the southern part of Ireland. Mac Murrough was invested with the nominal command of the troops, and their acts of hostility against the Irish received his sanction and were exercised in his name. He had his own troops, and only a handful of auxiliaries. It was he who recompensed the officers and soldiers, and to his treachery alone is to be attributed the overthrow of the neighbouring princes, formerly his friends. The principal strongholds on the coast having been sur Want of discipline amongst Irish. prised and occupied, the main body of the foreigners, under Strongbow, experienced no opposition to their landing, which soon after took place; and assuming the chief command, but still affecting to be commanded by the Irish prince, this adventurer commenced a vigorous campaign against the Irish. Unaccustomed as the native Irish were to meet disciplined troops in the field, and unsupported by the other princes, whose territories were distant from the scene of action, they, notwithstanding, displayed great courage in their resistance to the invaders. A proficiency in the art of war often decides the fate of battles, and renders the number and bravery of an army of little avail. At the battle of Hastings the use of arrows gave the invading Normans a great superiority over the English. The same weapon mainly assisted in the advantages obtained by Strongbow over the Irish. The use of armour, although known to them, appears to have been neglected. Armed, some with stones, and others with Danish battle-axes and two short lances for close encounters, they were not on equal terms with the soldiers they had to combat. Ignorant of fortifications and sieges, accustomed to open warfare and deadly personal rencontres, they, when defeated, retired to their forests and morasses, abandoning the strong positions with which nature had surrounded them, and which in later days are known, if defended, to be impregnable. But the steady discipline of well-trained soldiers, and the superiority of their arms, could not fail in defeating the Irish, who rushed to the combat in irregular masses, and when repulsed, had no rallying point where they might re-assemble. The English and Welsh adventurers, after several sanlish them- guinary encounters with the natives, established themselves on the coast; and having repulsed all attempts to drive them from the island, formed the project of extending their power and confirming their authority. In proportion as they advanced into the interior, they selected the strongest The Eng lish estab selves on the Irish coast. positions, which they fortified; thus securing a retreat when forced to retire before the Irish. Superstition lent its aid to the invaders; as a great proportion of the Irish looked on the coming of the stranger as a punishment from heaven for their sins in having purchased the children of the English for slaves,* whom the latter were so unnatural as to sell. ceives per Pope to land. The success of these marauders it would appear en- Henry recouraged Henry in the hope of obtaining a permanent foot- mission ing in Ireland, and the acknowledgment of his supremacy from the by the chiefs. Jealous of the success of Strongbow, and invade Irefearing that he and his troops might join Mac Murrough, and declare themselves independent, he hastened to interfere, and availing himself of the religious superstition of the age, he applied for, and obtained a bull from Pope Adrian, authorizing him to invade Ireland, and reduce its inhabitants to obedience to his government. Armed with this religious license to lay waste and despoil-the shield of religion being thrown over every act of enormity he might think proper to commit-he instantly made preparations to follow up the advantages gained by the army of Strongbow. The publication of the bull granted by the Pope, made a great impression on the minds of the Irish, who, accustomed to a blind obedience to every mandate from Rome, refused on several occasions to fight the English, and even surrendered their arms at the orders of Cardinal Vivian, the Pope's legate, who forbade them, under pain of excommunication, to use them against the English!t In the Death of midst of these events, death defeated the ambitious projects rough, of Dermod, who died of a most disgusting disease, the morbus an. 1171. pedicularis. His death, however, did not retard the ope * Giraldus Cambrensis. Hib. expugnat, lib. I. cap. xvii. † Nam Legationis munus ad Hibernos antistis suscepit uti provincialis pronsus a bello discedere cogeret et omnes à fidelium sodalatio excluderent, qui manum contra Regem facerènt, quam Legationem castè intergreque confecit. Stainhurst de reb. in Hib. gest lib. Mac Mur rations of the invaders, who advanced into the interior, and reduced many petty chiefs to obedience. Henry, affecting great anger against Strongbow and his soldiers, for having presumed to extend their views further than was authorised by the letters patent, granted by him to Mac Murrough, which restricted his efforts to the re-establishment of that prince in his kingdom of Leinster, promptly issued his mandate, prohibiting the adventurers and their leaders from proceeding any further in their conquests, and enforced his orders, by making it death and confiscation of lands, to all who should disobey. The result of the expedition had fully demonstrated to Henry the possibility, from the disunion that existed among the Irish, of bringing them under his dominion; and as his relations with France afforded him leisure to arrange and mature his plans, he now only awaited the adherence of Strongbow, and the other commanders, to put them into execution. Mac Murrough had betrayed his country to the foreigner. The princes of Munster had sacrificed to their private interests those of the nation. The inhabitants of Ulster, considering themselves not concerned in the quarrel, from being so far removed from the scene of action, contented themselves with guarding their own frontier, and in the indulgence of a fatal belief in their security. The intestine quarrels of their chiefs respecting supremacy, and their hatred of each other, also pervaded their subjects. The great machine the Irish. of government lost its equilibrium, and was finally dashed to pieces, by the rude shocks of faction. The supreme authority, the only safeguard of a country when invaded, was nominal, and therefore obedience to its ordinances was not to be expected. The supreme monarch of Ireland, deprived of all succour from the princes, who were occupied in either defending their own territory, or negociating terms with the enemy, was not in a state to make any serious resistance against an army already in possession of a great part of the island. The fame of Henry's achieve Quarrels of union amongst |