307 



In 1164 a considerable Irish force was engaged as allies in a Scotch 

 rebellion, and sustained a signal defeat at Renfrew.* 



About the year 1166 Roderic O'Conor, the son of the before-men- 

 tioned Turlough, succeeded to the sovereignty of Ireland, from which 

 he was for some years withheld by the power and machinations of 

 rival princes; and in 1167 he convened at Athboy the last assembly 

 of the states ever held by any of the native Irish kings. 



This was the time when Dermod, the petty king of Leinster, who 

 had some years previously carried otf the wife of O'Ruarc of Breffny, 

 Avas compelled to abdicate his kingdom, and even to fly the country 

 in consequence of the successful influence of the injured husband, and 

 especially the power of Roderic, who espoused his cause. The exiled 

 prince, having crossed to Bristol to solicit the aid of the English mo- 

 narch, and having there learned the absence of Henry, continued his 

 journey to France, where that king was then sojourning ; " craved 

 his assistance in restoring him to his sovereignty, and offered on the 

 success of that interference, to hold his kingdom in vassalage under 

 the crown of England. "-t The suppliant, as might be supposed, ob- 

 tained a ready hearing from one who had long watched for some pre- 

 tence whereon to ground an invasion of Ireland. It is even confidently 

 alleged, that he had many years previously obtained the Pope's Bull,!]! 

 as an ecclesiastical sanction, but is supposed to have been withheld 

 from acting on it by the advice of his mother the Empress Matilda. 

 For the present, however, he contented himself with giving Dermod a 

 power, to associate to his cause all volunteers who were willing to 

 espouse it; a sanction which, strengthened by glowing prospects and 



* See Chron. Melros ad ann. 1164, cited in Doctor Mac-Pherson's Dissertation, p. 251. 



f Hume's History of England, vol. i. 



{ A Bull to this effect is published in many works, but its authenticity is disputed. 



K R 2 



