country is thus lamentably, and, we must believe, truly depicted. "Without law to guide her, with rulers treacherous, false, and factious, the realm of Erin hath sunk into darkness."* Donough was succeeded in the supreme throne by a prince named Congelach, who, but a few months before his accession, had acquired considerable renown by a gallant attack on the city of Dublin, in which, being aided by the rare alliance of the people of Leinster, he reduced that city to a state of ruin and desolation, on which some of the annalists are not unpleased to dwell,† describing the burning of its ships and ramparts, the flower of its warriors laid in the dust, and the blooming youths and venerable matrons all led away in chains. The repeated attacks, indeed, made by the natives upon Dublin, who was again retaken from them as often as they possessed themselves of it, showed with what obstinacy the work of warfare was carried on, and by how little else the attention of either party could have been occupied. In the course of the very next year, Blacar, the Danish king, returning with fresh supplies of force, retook the city. The same alternations of success and reverse were exhibited some few years after, when Godfred, the son of Sitric, having been forced, with the loss, enormous for those times, of no less than 6000 men, to surrender and fly from Dublin, was enabled in like manner, in the course of the following year, to recover his dominions.‡ CHAPTER XX. Early Life of Brian Boru.-His first Battles under his Brother Mahon.-Defeat.-Victory at Sulchoid.- Murder of Mahon.-Accession of Brian to the Throne of Munster.-Attacks and Defeats the Murderers of his Brother.-Death of the Monarch Congelach.-Domnal, his Successor.-Charter of the English King, Edgar, a Forgery.-Power of the Kingdom of Munster.-Increased considerably under Brian.-Accession of the Monarch Malachy.Gains a great Victory over the Danes.-Defeat of the People of Leinster by Brian.-Growing Jealousy between this Prince and the Monarch.-Irruption of the latter into Brian's principality. Cuts down the Sacred Tree of the Dalcassians.-Invades and lays waste Leinster. An army marched against him by Brian.-Convention between the two Kings.Joint Victories over the Danes.-Renewal of their mutual hostilities.-Brian invades the Territory of the Monarch. How far the heroic Murkertach, had he lived to attain the supreme sovereignty, was likely to have succeeded in delivering his country from the foreigner, the imperfect outline we have of his character renders it vain to attempt to speculate. But there had now appeared on the scene of strife a young and enterprising warrior, whose proud destiny it was, at a later period, to become the instrument of effecting this glorious work; and whose whole long life seems to have been a course of maturing preparation for the great achievement he succeeded in accomplishing at its close. This prince, to whose original name, Brian, was added afterwards the distinctive title of Boromh, or Boru, was one of the numerous sons of Kennedy, King of Munster; and, at the time of the acces sion of his brother, Mahon, to the throne of that kingdom, was in his thirty-fourth year. Being by birth a Dalcassian, he had naturally been nursed up, from his earliest days, amidst all those traditional incitements to valour which the history of the chivalrous tribe afforded. Their proverbial character, as always "the first in the field, and the last to leave it," was in itself, as repeated proudly from father to son, a motive and pledge for the continued valour of the whole race. While yet a youth, his high reputation for soldiership had collected around him a number of young followers; with whom, posting IV. Mag. ad an. 942 (ær. com. 944.) † Ibid. SA surname given to him, according to O'Halloran, M'Curtin, and others, in consequence of the tribute (Boroimhe signifying a tribute of cows and other cattle) which he exacted from the people of Leinster; but derived by others with more probability from the name of the town Borumh, which stood in the neighbour. hood of his palace of Kincora in the county of Clare. See O'Brien's Dictionary, in voce Borumha. There is extant a poem, attributed to Mac Liag, the secretary of Brian, giving an account of the "Twelve Sons of chaste Cinneide." (Kennedy.)-Trans. Iberno Celt. Society. himself at defiles and mountain passes, or lying in wait in the depths of the forest, he frequently intercepted the enemy in their plundering expeditions, or harassed and cut them off in their retreats.* Upon the accession of his brother Mahon to the throne of Cashel, the constant and active career of warfare in which that intrepid prince engaged, furnished a practical school for the ripening of Brian's military talents, and by inuring him to service in a subordinate rank, rendered him the more fit for the highest. At a memorable slaughter of the Danes, by Mahon, near Lake Gur, it is supposed that Brian, though not expressly mentioned, may have been present; but the first important event connected with his name was an expedition led by Mahon beyond the Shannon, to the districts bordering on Lough Ree. There, by predatory incursions in various directions, they had succeeded in amassing considerable plunder; when Fergal O'Ruarc, with a large army of Conacians, pouring suddenly down upon them, the brother chiefs were compelled reluctantly to retreat. Followed closely as far as the banks of the river Fairglin, they there stood at bay and engaged their pursuers. But Brian's good genius had not yet exempted him from all failure. Notwithstanding the valour of Mahon, and the intrepid bearing of the future hero of Clontarf, the Momenian troops were defeated; and Mahon, forced to swim across the river to save his life, was compelled ingloriously to leave his shield behind him.t But the victory at Sulchoid over the Danes of Limerick, achieved principally through Brian's skill in partisan warfare, first gave earnest of the successful struggle he was destined to wage against the oppressor. A strong body of cavalry, detached from the Danish force stationed at Sulchoid, having advanced to reconnoitre the army of Mahon, a sudden attack was made upon them by Brian at the head of some squadron of light borse, and with such effect that one half of their number lay dead upon the spot. The remainder fled in confusion, pursued by Brian, to the main body of the army encamped at Sulchoid. Thither Mahon also followed rapidly with the whole of his forces; and a general engagement ensued disastrous to the Danes, of whom no less than 3000 were slaughtered on the spot. The remainder fled, in confused rout towards Limerick, pursued so closely and eagerly that the victors entered the city along with the vanquished, making prisoners of all whom they did not put to the sword; and then, having ransacked that rich city of all its gold and merchandise, they left it a mass of ruins and flames. § A. D. 969. There were yet other triumphs, won by the two brothers in concert, on which it is unnecessary here to dwell. To the gallant Mahon, however, the constant success that attended him in all his enterprises proved in the end fatal. A mortified rival, named Maolmua, who, having failed against him in the field, was resolved to accomplish by treachery what he despaired of in fair battle, concerted a plan by which, under the pretence of an amicable meeting for the purpose of conference, he induced the unsuspecting Mahon to trust himself, with a few followers, in his power. Thus unguarded, A. D. the king was made prisoner by the traitorous Maolmua and his brother conspira- 976. tors; and being then hurried away by night to a solitary place in the mountains, was there basely murdered. The great importance attached by the Irish, from the earliest periods of their history, to the names and sites of places connected with memorable events, is shown in the instance of the supposed locality of Mahon's murder, which appears to have been as anxiously inquired into as it is variously stated. While some authorities mention, as the scene of the crime, a mountain now called Sliabh-Caon, near Magh-Feine, or the Sacred Plain, and describe the very spot where it was committed as being near the Red Gap, or fissure, in the hill of Caon, there are others which state the murder to have occurred on *Vallancey (from Munster Annals,)—Law of Tanistry, &c. † IV. Mag. ad an. 961 (ær. com. 963.) Vallancey, whose guide is the Munster Annals, makes it 965. In the account here given of the result of this battle, I have followed the authority of the Four Masters, which appears to me far more trustworthy than that of the poem cited from the Munster Book by Vallancey, attri. buting all the victory and the glory to the Munster hero. On the incident of the shield, it is fair to add, the Four Masters are silent. "Sulchoid is frequently mentioned in subsequent ages and wars, even as far down as the last campaigns and revolutions that happened in this kingdom, as a noted post for the encampment of armies; being situ. ated in a plain, which is guarded by heights on both sides, within one day's march of Limerick, and in the direct road from Dublin to that town by the way of Cashel."-Law of Tanistry. § Annal. Inisfall. (God. Bodleian.) ad an. 951. The events in this series of the Inisfallen Annals are in general antedated by fifteen, sixteen, or even a still greater number of years. Annal. Ult. ad an. 975. Annal. Inisfall. ad an. 976. "In my copy of the Inisfallenses," says Vallancey," Bearna Dearg, now Red-Chair, on the mountain which was then called Sliabh Caoin, but now Sliabh-Riach, between the barony of Fermoy and the county of Limerick, is said to be the pass on which Maolmuadh and his brothers waited for the royal captive, and put him to death. But, as this place was much out of their direct road from Dona. one of the Muskerry mountains, at a place called, from this melancholy event, LeachtMagama, or Mahon's Grave. On the death of this prince, his brother Brian, who had held for some time the subordinate sovereignty of Thomond, or North Munster, succeeded to the throne of all Munster; and the very first act of justice he felt himself called upon to perform, was the infliction of summary vengeance on the base murderers of his brother. Attacking successively, in the very hearts of their own territories, the two princes, Donovan and Maolmua, who had been chiefly concerned in that treacherous plot, he succeeded, notwithstanding the aid afforded to these traitors by the Danes, in nearly exterminating the whole force of their respective armies. To his son, Morrough, who in one of these battles, made the first essay of his military prowess, fell the good fortune of encountering, hand to hand, the chief instigator of the base deed, Maolmua, and the glory of sacrificing him upon the spot to the manes of his murdered relative. Respecting the place where this latter victory was gained, there appears to be no less doubt and discussion than with regard to the site of the murder. But, that the battle was fought in the neighbourhood of Mahon's Grave, which is one of the opinions on the subject cited by the annalists, seems highly probable, from the name popularly given to the conflict being Cath BhealaigLeachta, or the battle of the Road of the Sepulchre.t While engaged in this work of just retribution, Brian found time also to give battle to those Danes who had a few years before taken possession of the isle of Iniscathy, in the mouth of the Shannon; and who, through the aid of the Danes of Limerick, still maintained themselves in that station. This beautiful island, with its eleven churches, and the ornamented tomb of its patron saint, Senanus, was one of those favourite places of pilgrimage and penance to which, in defiance of all danger, and even of death itself, religious persons had long continued to resort; and still, as its shrines were enriched with new offerings by these visiters, they became but fresh objects of plunder and outrage. About the middle of this century the Northmen had used Iniscathy as a place of arms; and, in the year 972, Mark, a Danish chieftain, the son of Harold, appears to have established himself in the island. But Brian now landing there, at the head of 1200 of his own brave tribe, the Dalcassians¶ succeeded, though opposed by the Danes of Limerick, under their generals, Ivar, Amlaf, and Duibhan, in recovering the island from the hands of these foreigners; having slain, in the battle which led to this result, the chieftain Mark, and his two sons." ** After affecting these important objects, he proceeded to devastate all the other small islands of the Shannon, carrying off with him the treasures and effects of the Danes wherever he found them along those shores. On the death of the monarch, Congelach (A. D. 956,) who fell in a great battle with the Leinster people and the Danes, he was succeeded by Domnal, the son of the hero, Murkertach, and it was during the long reign of Domnal that the events just recounted took place. In the time of this monarch is placed the date of a pretended charter of the English king Edgar, claiming dominion over "the greatest part of Ireland, together with van's house to their own home near Bandon, I rather give credit to another designation which I find in an old roll or series of the kings of Munster, with an account of the years of their reigns, and the manner of their death; wherein it is mentioned that Mahon was murdered on the mountain of Mussiry, near Macroomp, at a place called Leacht Mhaghthamhna, or the Grave of Mahon, from his name. This place lies in the direct line between the places where Maolmuadh and Donovan (the murderers) had their residence."-Law of Tanistry, &c. The reader has here, in the name, Mhaghthamhna, a specimen, in addition to some others which I have already given, of the absurd mode of spelling by which the Irish language is disfigured. This heap of consonants is pronounced simply Magama. I have before given the instance of Tigernach, which, in pronunciation, is softened into the graceful name of Tierna. The Inisfallen annalist, in noticing the different opinions as to the site of the murder, refers to a work which he calls "The History of the Saints of the Race of Conary." In the same manner, Mahon had enjoyed for some time the principality of Thomond before, in the course of succession, he was elevated to the sovereignty over all Munster. † Annal. Inisfall. ad an. 978.-IV. Mag. ad an. 976. The remarks of Mac Culloch, in speaking of the Western Isles, with respect to the proofs they afford of the strength and ardour of the religious feeling in early times, are equally applicable to the isle of Iniscathy, t Ibid. and its numerous churches and cells. Islands, few circumstances are much more striking than the enormous disproportion of their religious esta. "In comparing the former with the present state of the Western blishments at that period; when also, if we may judge from the poverty of the territory, there could be but few temporal motives for such establishments seem to have held out no great temptations beyond those of a spiritual nature, for the erection of twelve Assuredly the rocky and barren mountains of Harris churches, while its present population, now, perhape, niore than doubled, would with difficulty fill one." || For an account of this island, see Sir R. C. Hoare's Tour in Ireland. Archdall) is still to be seen here, with the remains of eleven small churches, and several cells. In the stone that closes the top of the altar window of the great church, is the head of the Saint, with his mitre boldly "The monument of St. Senan (says executed and but little defaced. graces the scene. This island is remarkable for the resort of pilgrims on certain festivals." Monast. Hibern. An ancient Round Tower of 120 feet in height, and in complete repair, at Iniscattery. See, for St. Patrick's prophecy respecting Senanus, Usher, Eccles. Primord, 874. T Annal. Inisfall. ad an. 977. ** Aarchdall at Inniscaretty. its most noble city, Dublin."* Even were this strange document authentic, which has long ceased to be assumed, the pompous and boastful character of Edgar would account sufficiently for its large pretensions, without having recourse to any more substantial grounds. It is related of him, that when residing once at Chester he obliged eight of his tributary kings to row him in a barge upon the Dee. But, in the list of the royal liegemen, there is not one from Ireland. A. D. After a reign of twenty-four years, Domnal ended his days in penitence at Armagh,t and was succeeded in the throne by Malachy the Great, a prince who, though eminently qualified by character and talents to uphold nobly the Hy-Niell sceptre, 980. was doomed, under the spell of an ascendant genius, to see it pass away from his hands. The consequences, moral as well as political, of that endless division and subdivision of kingship, which formed the principal of the Irish system of government, have been sufficiently dwelt upon and exemplified in the preceding pages. For this distraction of the public counsels and energies, a partial remedy would appear to have been devised, in that two-fold division of the whole island which took place, as we have seen, at rather an early period ;-the northern half, Leath Cuinn, being allotted nominally to the monarch, while the southern portion, Leath Mogh, formed the dominions of the king of Cashel. But this improvement, as it might have been deemed, on the ancient quintuple division, while it left all the former sources of dissension still in full play, but added another provocative to strife and rivalry in the second great royal prize, which, by this new distribution of power, was to be held forth to the ambitious. Nor was it from the competition for these two prizes that the mischief chiefly arose,-the lines of succession to them being kept in general distinct,-but from the collision into which the respective parties were brought by their relative position afterwards. Had the monarch possessed a substantial control over the portion of the kingdom allotted to him, such a power, aided by the traditional reverence which still encircled the throne of Tara, might, in difficult conjunctures, have enabled him to enforce his authority with success. But it is clear that, in his mere monarchical capacity, the power of the monarch was only nominal, or, at the best, occasional; and that, in the general struggle for plunder and pre-eminence in which all were alike engaged, his authority depended as much for its enforcement on the amount of troops, alliances, and subsidies he was able to command, as that of any one of those minor kings, over whom he was by courtesy sovereign. When to this it is added, that the monarchs themselves, considered in their personal characters, were, as may have been judged from the scanty space their names have occupied in these pages, a series, with but few exceptions, of weak and insignificant personages, it will not be thought wonderful that the throne of Munster, filled alternately from among the chiefs of two warlike tribes, each emulous of the other's valour and renown, should in the race of power have gained rapidly on its monarchical rival, and at length outgone and eclipsed it. Throughout the two centuries, indeed, preceding the period we have now reached, the acts and achievements of the kings of Munster furnish the chief material of Irish history; and how far, in the early part of the ninth century, they had already usurped on the power and station of the monarch, may be collected from an historical mistake committed by Giraldus Cambrensis, who, in speaking of Feidlim, the active and ambitious ruler of Munster at that period, was so far deceived by the prominent station this prince occupied, as to style him "king of all Ireland." The several princes, whether Eugenian or Dalcassian, who succeeded Feidlim in the throne of Cashel, continued each to strengthen and advance the aspiring power of the province; till at length, under the military genius of Brian, it received an impulse onward, which not even the talent and public spirit of the monarch, Malachy, could avert: and accord. ingly, as we shall find, the venerable fabric of the Hy-Niell dynasty, rich as it was in the recollections and associations of nearly 600 years, sunk almost unresistingly beneath the shock. "Maximam partem Hiberniæ, cum sua nobilissima civitate Dublinia." This charter may be found in Usher's Sylloge. The original, he says, is preserved in Worcester Cathedral, and there is a copy of it among the records in the Tower. Hume. These eight kings, according to Turner, were "Kenneth III, king of Scotland, Malcolm of Cum. bria, Macchus of Anglesey and the Isles, three kings of Wales, and two others."-Hist. Anglo-Sax. c. vi. There is extant a charter of Edgar, professing to be signed by Kenneth III, Ego Kinadius rex Albania adquievi," which has no less the appearance of being a forgery than the arrogant charter respecting Ireland. Archdall, who quotes Annal. Munst. According to Procopius, the practice of bestowing the title of King on mere generals was prevalent among what are called the barbarous nations: Αλλα Ρηξ καλούμενος διεβίω ουτω γαρ σφιν τους ηγεμόνας οι βάρβαροι νενομικασιν.—Goth. L. 2. Topog. Hibern. Dist. 3. c. 43. When raised to the throne, the new monarch, Malachy, was in his thirtieth year; and a victory as important as it was splendid, which he gained over the Danes almost immediately on his accession, threw a lustre of hope and promise around the commencement of his reign. Invaded, in the heart of his own dominions, by the Northmen of Dublin and of the Isles, he not merely repelled the incursion with spirit, but, turning assailant in his turn, attacked the main body of the enemy's force, consisting of Danes collected from all parts of Ireland; and, continuing the conflict with but little A. D. interruption for three days and nights, forced them to submit to whatever terms 980. he chose at the sword's point to dictate. Among other conditions, he stipulated for the instant release from captivity of all such natives as were held in bondage by the Danes; and the language of the “noble Proclamation,” as it is justly styled, in which he announced to the country this result of his victory, was in substance as follows;-" Let all the Irish who are suffering servitude in the lands of the stranger return now to their several homes, and enjoy themselves in gladness and peace."* How far this declaration of enfranchisement was allowed to have effect throughout the country, does not appear from the records; but the number of hostages, as well as of captives on other grounds, which the Danes, in obedience to this edict, released, is stated to have been no less than 2000, among whom were Domnal, the king of Leinster, and O'Niell, prince of Tirone; while, as a farther proof of submission, all the O'Niells, from the source of the Shannon to the sea, were declared to be exempt from all future payment of supplies or subsidies to the Northmen. To judge from the results, indeed, attributed to this battle, which was called from the district where it commenced, the battle of Tara, it may be pronounced that, next to the crowning achievements of Brian himself on the glorious field of Clontarf, it was by far the most signal and decisive advantage gained over the Danes during the whole course of their ruinous sway. Besides the immense slaughter of their troops, they had lost likewise nearly all their distinguished captains, and among them Reginald, the son of Anlaf, their king; a loss which, combined with the humiliating sense of defeat, so deeply affected the royal father, that, to relieve his mind, he went on a pilgrimage to the island of Iona, and there died of grief. As by the subjection of the southern moiety of Ireland to the jurisdiction of the king of Munster, the province of Leinster was made a dependency on that kingdom, and forced to pay to its sovereign the tribute of Eidirsgeol,-a mulct imposed from early times, frequent efforts had been made by the states and princes of Leinster to rid themselves of so humbling a mark of submission. With this view they joined in a confederacy now formed against Brian by O'Felan, prince of the Desies, in which were associated also the prince of Ossory, and the Danes of Cork and Waterford. But the rapid movements of the watchful Brian, who suddenly attacking their united forces at a place called in our annals, the Circle of the Sons of Conrad, chased them from thence, with prodigious slaughter, into Waterford, completely disconcerted and broke up the whole confederacy. Proceeding directly after this achievement to Ossory, he forced the chiefs of that district to deliver up to him hostages, and made their hereditary prince, Mac-GillaPatrick, his prisoner. From thence sweeping over the plains of Leinster, and, according to the ordinary practice of Irish warfare, desolating them as he went, Brian succeeded for the time in reducing the refractory province to obedience. Hostages were given in pledge of future fidelity; and the two kings of Leinster, in person, tendered their allegiance and homage in the tent of the conqueror. Placed as the monarch and his rival Brian were at this crisis, each flushed with recent victory, and meditating farther enterprises, there could hardly have existed a doubt in the mind of either that they must ere long be committed together in the field; and, as usually happens, it was from the younger and least tried of the two parties that the provocative to the onset first proceeded. In pursuance of the will of Olill-Ollum, already more than once adverted to, the district of Dalcas, or Dalcassia, the present county of Clare, was inherited by Brian, as prince of the Dalcassian tribe. A predatory incursion under the monarch into this territory, at the commencement of his reign, gave a sufficiently clear indication of hostile feeling; but a still more wounding offence to the pride of the gallant tribe to which Brian belonged, was, about the period we have now reached, wantonly committed. The sacred tree in the Plain of Adoration, A. D. 782. Tigernach, ad an. 980. IV. Mag. ad an. 979 (æræ com. 981.) † lbid., and Ware's Antiquities c. 24. Ibid. "A bhfan mc Connradh."-An. Inisfall. ad an. 979. See also, for this battle, Vallancey.-Laws of Tunis try, &c. |