of it. It was at this period that Niall of the Nine Hostages was king in Ireland. In one of Claudian's poems Britain, personified as Britannia, speaks of Stilicho protecting her from neighbouring nations, when the Scot moved all Ierne, and the sea foamed with hostile oars; and adds that, supported by his spears, she would no more fear Scotic enterprises nor tremble at the Picts, or look out along the coast for the coming of the Saxons with inauspicious winds.2 We have already seen that, according to Irish accounts, Crimthan, Niall's predecessor, had overrun Britain and exacted tribute from it, and that Conall Eachluaich had been entrusted with the collection of this tribute. But clearly from the words of Claudian we learn that the Irish were driven out-at all events met with reverses. The wars with the Goths, which began in 400 and ended with the defeat of Alaric at Polentia in 408, compelled Stilicho to recall all his legions from Britain and leave it almost totally unprotected, with the result that the Irish, under Niall, at once took advantage of their opportunity to again invade Britain from the west, as did also the Picts from the north. Again, we have only the most meagre records on which to rely. All we really know is that Niall led his Irish into Gaul, and was assassinated there by Eochaid, son of Enna Cennselleach, king of Leinster, in 405 near the Muir-n'-Icht, that is, the English Channel. According to one version of the story it was on the banks of the Loire that he fell. Anyhow, he is not likely to have raided in Gaul without having made an attempt to reimpose tribute on the Britons. About this time the Britons themselves were impatient to throw off the Roman yoke, and three emperors were elected in succession, of whom the most notable was Constantine, chosen in 407. He carried his legions over into Gaul, and was recognised in nearly every province before the year had elapsed. He was ably assisted by Geraint or Gerontius, a 2 Inde Caledonio velata Britannia monstro, CLAUD. in 1st Cons. Fl. Stilichonis, ii. 247. Briton, probably from Dumnonia, and of the royal family there. Dathi, the successor to Niall in Ireland (405-428), we know, warred in Gaul, and possibly may at this time have contributed a contingent to the army of Constantine. But previous to Constantine one of the usurpers was called Marcus, and he was slain in 406; this date so nearly coincides with that of the death of Niall that it has been suggested by Professor O'Sullivan that Marcus was no other than Niall under a Latin name. "Niall and the other Irish leaders of military expeditions into Britain must have had large bodies of the subject tribes or Aithech Tuatha in their armies. Considering the relations of hostility which existed between these tribes and the ruling Scotic families, they must have formed a very uncertain element in the Scotic army in cases of difficulty and danger; and it seems very probable that many of them either deserted voluntarily to the Romans, or were made prisoners of war and formed into legions or incorporated into existing ones. In the Notitia Imperii the Attacotti are frequently mentioned about this period. A body of them appears to have been employed in the Gothic war against Alarić; others were stationed at Rome and in other parts of Italy."3 On the death of Niall (405) his nephew Dathi became king. He was son of Fiachra, king of Connaught. He summoned a great gathering of the chiefs of Ireland at Tara, and decided with them on making an expedition into Albain, Britain, and Gaul, following the footsteps of Niall and Crimthan. A large army was collected, the largest ever known to have been assembled in Erin. The fleet was in preparation at Dundalk. Dathi, however, did not embark there, but near Moville, and he crossed over into Alba, and disembarked at Port Patrick. Immediately on landing, Dathi sent an embassy to Feredach Finn, the king, demanding submission and tribute. As, however, these were refused, both sides prepared for battle. The conflict took place at Magh an Chaerthe (the Field of the Pillar-stone). It was fought with great fury, and the forces of the king of Alba were defeated with much slaughter. When Feredach saw the death of his son and the discomfiture of his army, he threw himself headlong on the ranks of the enemy, and was seized by Conall Gulban, son of Niall, and the ancestor of S. Columba, who, taking him up in his arms, dashed his brains out against the menhir, from which the plain derived its name. Dathi, having set up a surviving son of the late king on the throne of Alba, and having received assurances of submission and tribute, and having also obtained hostages, continued his march south, and traversed Britain from the north, everywhere exacting tribute, till he reached the English Channel, where he crossed into Gaul, which he also ravaged.* Dathi had penetrated as far as the Alps, where he was killed by a flash of lightning in 428. On his death, his son Amalgaidh took command of the army, and carried the dead body of his father back with him, gaining nine battles by sea and ten by land.5 The names of the places in which the fights took place cannot be identified, with the sole exception of London, 3 O'SULLIVAN, Introduction to O'CURRY'S Lectures on the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, 1873, i. p. xlvi. 4 See the book Sluaigh Eadha, or 66 Military Expeditions," quoted by O'CURRY in his MS. Materials of Anc. Irish Hist., 1861, p. 284. 5 Genealogies, Tribes, etc., of the Hy Fiachrach, 1844, p. 23. VOL. XXXI. 2 F which was the scene of one of his battles. It is to this period, apparently, that we must attribute the attempt of the Irish under one Aulac Goronog, or the Crowned, to possess themselves of Morganwg. Aulac cannot be identified, unless he be the same Amalgaidh. In his defence of his crown Tewder or Tewdrig the king of Morganwg fell, and his son Meurig was forced to come to terms with the invader, surrender Garthmadrin, which is a part of Brecknockshire, and give with it his daughter to the Irish prince. From that time the Irish domination extended over the whole of Brecknock, Carmarthen, and Pembrokeshire.6 Already, however, all the north, Gwynedd and Anglesey was in their occupation, as well as the whole of Cardigan. In fact, the only portions of Wales in which the Britons maintained their independence were Powys, Gwent, and Morganwg, and this independence was incessantly menaced, and only occasionally and fitfully maintained. Powys, Gwent, and Morganwg were not colonised by the Irish, but became tributary to the Irish crown. This domination seems to have lasted from 240 to 480, nearly two centuries and a half. Brecknockshire took its name from Brychan, reputed son of Aulac, but the name probably represents the sept which occupied that portion of Wales, descended from Breogan, the mythical leader of the Milesians, who entered Ireland and subdued the Firbolgs. The name means "the speckled" or "tartan-clad," and is doubtless the same as that which enters into the Latin designation of the Brigantes. The name, however, repeatedly occurs in Ireland as a personal name, and is also so found on an inscribed stone at Endellion in Cornwall, and at Llandyssul in Cardiganshire, and in Ogham, at Kilmalkedar in Kerry. The Hy Bracain occupied what was afterwards the Barony of Ibrickan, in West Clare. It is of this period of protracted misery, from the death of Maximus in 387 to about 448, that Gildas writes, when he says that "Britain groaned in amazement under the cruelty of two foreign nations, the Scots from the north-west and the Picts from the north." According to the same writer, the Britons appealed to Rome, and a legion was sent into the island and inflicted severe losses on the invaders. It was, however, almost immediately withdrawn, and then "their former foes, like ravening wolves rushing upon the fold left without a shepherd, wafted across by the force • Liber Llandavensis, Welsh MS. Soc., pp. 383–5 and 621. of the oarsmen and the blast of the wind, broke through the boundaries, spread slaughter on every side and overran the whole country." Again a legion was sent, which did some execution, but it was withdrawn with a notice that no further assistance would be sent to the island. "No sooner were they gone," continues Gildas, “than the Picts and Scots landed from their boats, in which they had been borne across the Cichiean Valley (the Irish Channel)." The Britons "left their cities, abandoned the protection of the Wall, and dispersed in flight, and the enemy pursued them with more unrelenting cruelty than before, and butchered our countrymen like sheep.' Then Gildas gives the letter to Aetius the Patrician, written in 443: "The barbarians on the one hand chase us into the sea; the sea on the other hand throws us back on the barbarians; and we have but the hard choice left us of perishing by the sword or by the waves." But Aetius, pressed by the arms of Attila, had no leisure to attend to the complaints of the Britons. Gildas, always unwilling to give any credit to his own nation, is obliged, grudgingly, to admit that now, driven by despair, they did make head against the Scots and Picts. "And then, for the first time, they overthrew their enemies, who had for so many years been living in their country .. the audacious invaders went back to their winter quarters, determined before long again to return and plunder." We shall see presently that this admission is fully corroborated by other testimony. Nennius also I quote the Irish Nennius as the most reliable says, "The power of the Cruithnians (Picts) and of the Gaels (Scots) advanced into the heart of Britain, and drove them to the river Tin (Tyne?). . . . Their power continually increased over the Britons, so that it became heavier than the Roman tribute; because the object aimed at by the Northern Cruithnians and Gaels was the total expulsion of the Britons from their lands."7 In the Life of S. Carantoc occurs a passage relative to the same period: "In those days the Scots overran Britain for thirty years: the names of their generals were Thuthaius (Dathi), Machleius (MacLaoghaire), and Anpachius (Amalgaidh).”8 In the reign of Oiliol Molt in Ireland, again, we hear of 7 Irish Nennius, ed. TODD and HERBERT, 1848, p. 73. |