315 



sitting in majesty in a black field,* And in confirmation of our fiDi- 

 mer assertion, that orders of knighthood existed at a very remote period 

 in Ireland, Froissart gives a very remarkable narrative of four Irish 

 kings, who having made their submissions to king Richard the 

 Second, that monarch proposed to confer upon them the order of 

 English knighthood, which, when explained to them, they alleged that 

 they had long before received knighthood from their fathers at their 

 respective ages of seven years, according to an ancient practice by 

 which the kings of Ireland were accustomed to create their sons 

 knights at that period of their lives ;-f thus perfectly agreeing with the 

 account from Tigernach, relative to Cuchullin.J ., 



9c While it is to be inferred that the knowledge of family pedigrees 

 must have been preserved with jealous accuracy, in consequence of the 

 frequent contests which the bards used to maintain for the honour of 

 their respective patrons, it is said that Brien Boroimhe was the first 

 who appointed surnames of distinction to all the branches of the 

 Milesian race, and regulated the precedence of the nobility in the 

 general assemblies, allowing none to bear arms in his court but the 

 Dal-Cassians. O'Halloran is credulously diffuse in his account of the 

 heraldry, armorial bearings, &c., displayed at the court of Brien, 

 while certainly Stephanus Vitus, in the Chronicon Ratisbonense, says 

 of Conor O'Brien, who was king of Munster form 1120 to 1142, that 

 he .sent knights companions, distinguished by the blazon of the cross, 

 and destined for Jerusalem, to Lothaire, king of the Romans, and 



• " Rex HybemisB habet regem aureum tenentem lilium, in majestate sedentem in campo 

 nigro." — Catal. Glorise Mnndi, p. 1. Conclus. 17. p. 11. 



t See L'ljistoire de Froissart, vol. iv. p. 203, very fully as to this interview. 



X " Septimum aetatis annum attigit, quando obtinuit insignia militaria." — See Ante, p. 77, 

 where the word " seventeen " should have been " seven." 



s s 2 •" 



