305 



tic account extol him most liberally, while the letter of Anselm 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, preserved in the Sylloge, (p. 60,) is 

 addressed to him as " glorioso gratis dei regi Hiberniae," and he is 

 therein much commended for the peace in which he endeavoured to 

 govern his subjects. In the Chronicon Mannia? it is said, (but with 

 a palpably erroneous date,) that the nobility of that island, during the 

 minority of their rightful prince, sent ambassadors to Mortough, re- 

 questing that he would send them a king of the royal stock of Ireland, 

 with which he is said to have most willingly complied.* 



In 1089 the Irish were again active in restoring a Welsh prince to his 

 territories.-f In the same year the Danes plundered the Abbey of Inis- 

 bofin,:]: (County Longford.) In 1095 the Annals of the Four Masters 

 record a plague, which the Chronicon Saxon refers to 1096, and states 

 as proceeding from famine; while Holinshed (p. 23) mentions a set- 

 tlement of the Easterlings in the same year at the north side of the 

 Lift'ey, adjoining Dublin, " which of them to this day is called Ost- 

 mantoune." In 1099 a Norwegian prince, of whom the Chronicon 

 Manniae relates (p. 11) an absurd instance of arrogance not worth 

 detailing, depopulated Ireland. § Torfaeus, in his History of Norway, 

 is very diffuse in the exploits of this royal pirate. In 1100 Derry was 

 plundered, and burned in 1131, 1149, and 1166 ;|| and in 1111 

 Downpatrick and Kells sustained the same fate. II In 1115 the 



* " Miserunt legatos ad Murecardum O'Brien regem Ybemiae, postulantes ut aliquem 

 virum industrium de regali stirpe (Hiberniae) in regem eis mitteret, donee Olaus filius Godredi 

 cresceret. Annuit eis rex libentissime." — Chronic. Manniae, pp. 8 and 9. 



f " Hiberni eodem anno Rbysum restituerunt, el deinde cum gloria ad patriam suam re- 

 Tcrsi sunt." — Caradoc Lhancarvan. 



X See Acta Sanctorum, p. 423. 



§ " Magnus rex, in Hiberniam cum copiis devectus, populatur." — Ant. Celt. Scand. 

 p. 240. 



II Trias Thaum. p. 633. 



VOL. XVI. R R 



