870 



dignity did take place at the close of the period now under considera- 

 tion, whereby the facilities of the impending English invasion were 

 much increased. Malachy the second, whose government was over- 

 thrown by Brien Boroimhe, was the last of his race, the last of the 

 Hy Nial family, in whom for six centuries (since that battle of Ocha 

 of which express mention has been made, ante, p. 174) the monar- 

 chy of all Ireland was retained.* On his overthrow " the anciently 

 established system of succession to the throne of the whole kingdom 

 was overturned, and as there remained no paramount power authorized 

 to control the provincial kings or minor chieftains,"-|~ jealousies were 

 created, ambitions fed, and the energies of the nation wasted in petty 

 broils. The chieftains no longer rose to sovereignty by acknowledged 

 rights or with the auspices of religion, but only through military pre- 

 eminence, asserted in all that elective licentiousness which the Black 

 Book of Christ Church so strongly condemns. l{; These are, however, 

 political changes as to which the scope of evidence defined for this 

 Essay precludes any inquiry. 



In public solemnities and in battle the kings appeared crowned ;§ 

 and it is stated in the principal accounts of the engagement at Clon- 

 tarf, that when Brien Boroimhe was found dead on the field, he had 

 the royal diadem on his head. 



No external evidence opens any prospect of the legislation of this 

 period ; the Annals of Tigernach record the death of Flannus in 



* Turgesius is perhaps the only prince out of this course, in whom the sceptre of what is 

 called the Milesian line may be said to have rested. The interval of his power, however, was 

 .but a reign of terror unrightful and unacknowledged. 

 i;, f Lanigan's Eccl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 427. 



^; J: " Isti reges non fuerunt ordinati solemnitate alicujus ordinis, nee unctionis Sacramento 

 nee jure haereditario, vel aliqua proprietatis successione; sed vi etarmis quilibet regnum suum 

 obtinuit." — Cited Davis's Historic. Rel. p. 10. 



§ Vita Rumoldi, p. 170. 



