312 



and local kings of the island are frequently acknowledged in the let- 

 ters, charters, and grants from the successsors of Henry the Second, 

 yet, if faith can be given to Froissart's narrative of the interview be- 

 tween Richard the Second and the four Irish petty kings, it would 

 be a melancholy proof to what a state of degradation the tyranny and 

 oppression of the English adventurers had reduced them. 



It has been hinted as an evidence of the vanity of the Irish annals, 

 that they record so many kings as ruling over such petty districts of 

 country. This application of the term, however, seems also derivable 

 from the East ; Homer abounds in instances of such sovereigns ; Ulys- 

 ses was king of Ithaca, our venerable friend Nestor was king of Pylos, 

 in a small tract of Palestine Joshua enumerates thirty-one kings ; and 

 Callaway, in his Oriental Observations, (p. 18,) mentions that " the 

 natives of Ceylon often style the governors and judges of the supreme 

 courts rajas or kings." In fact, the title of petty king in Ireland was 

 somewhat analogous to that of baron in the feudal dispensation, and 

 like it (in its first institution,) held by tenure. 



In 1167, as has been observed, Roderic held the last assembly 

 of the States (such as had been usually held on Tara) at Athboy, 

 County Meath, where Gelasius the Primate, and the celebrated Lau- 

 rence O'TooIe, Archbishop of Dublin, attended. In 1172 Henry the 

 Second convened that synod at Cashel, at which the archbishops and 

 bishops of the country are said to have given him sealed charters, con- 

 finning the kingdom of Ireland to him and his heirs for ever, in consi- 

 deration of which the benefit of the English laws was at the same time, 

 tendered on the king's part.* The royal invader was not regardless of 

 the advantages which this submission opened to himself and his family, 

 and it seems now satisfactorily proved, that he proposed making it a 



• Ware's Bibhops, p. 468. 



