303 



the assertion of his title; but that being deferred, " he took the habit 

 of a rehgious in Saint Stephen's Abbey in Rome, and spent the rest of 

 his days in the exercises of devotion."* On his departure, Turlough, 

 without any election, assumed the kingdom. How highly he was held 

 in estimation in other countries, appears from various authorities, and 

 particularly from the passage below-f- cited from the letter of Primate 

 Lanfranc to him, directed " Magnifico Hiberniae Regi Toi'delbaco," 

 and preserved in the Sylloge Epist. Hibern. (p. 50.).|. 



In 1067 " came one of Harold's sons from Ireland with a naval 

 force into the mouth of the Avon unawares, and plundered over all 

 that quarter.§ Florentius Wigorniensis seems to refer this last expe- 

 dition to the year 1068,11 while he mentions another similar expedition 

 of these princes from Ireland in the following year,** with which the 

 Saxon Chronicle nearly agrees. 



In 1070 a fleet of Danes, laden with the plunder of England, was 

 cast away by a great storm, and many of their ships wrecked on the 

 coast of Ireland. -f-j* In 1071 Clondalkin Abbey was despoiled and 

 burned, and again in 1076. i^::!: In 1073 the Irish of Ulster were ac- 



* Warner, vol. ii. p. 232. 



f "Tot tantaque bona de magnitudinis vestrae erga bonos pia Immilitate, contra pravas 

 districta. severitate, circa omne honiinum genus discretissima equitate, frater et coepiscopus 

 noster Patricius narravit, ut quamvis nos nunquam viderimus, tanquam visos tamen vos dili- 

 gamus, &c." 



I It was to the liberality of this prince Westminster Abbey was indebted for its beautiful 

 roof of Irish oak. 



§ Saxon Chron. ad ann; 



!| " Haraldi regis filii Godwinus, Eadmundus, Magnus de Hibernid redeuntes in Sumer- 

 setania applicuerunt, et de Domnania et Cornubia praeda rapta non modica in Hiberniam 

 redierunt." 



•• " xliv. navibus de Hibernia venientes in ostio fluminis Tavi applicuerunt, &c." 



•ft Saxon Chron. It Trias Thaum. p. 633. 



