858 



called Balljdughal with the villeins thereof."* Betagh or service 

 tenants were also customary, and many such tenures exist to a certain 

 degree, even to the present day. 



Of the mintage of this period, it is to be remarked, that coins of 

 the Danish King Anlaf in 1029, are recorded by Ware, and by Simon 

 in his Essay on Irish Coins, (pp. 9 and 10.) The commercial pursuits 

 of this people rendered such a medium of negotiation essential, and 

 although the Roman coins found in Ireland might have been part of 

 the plunder of Britain, as suggested, (ante, p. 70,) yet it seems far 

 more probable that they were introduced into circulation by the 

 Danes.-f" In 1074 we find Lanfranc, in his letter to Turlough, com- 

 plaining " quod sacri ordines per pecuniam ab episcopis dantur."J 

 In 1150, according to the Chronicon Ratisbonense,§ Murtough 

 O'Brien contributed a large sum of money out of the treasury at 

 Cashel, towards building churches, &c. in Ratisbon. About 1154 

 we findll the Pope in his Bull to Henry the Second, (supposing it 

 genuine,) requiring a pecuniary contribution from the houses of Ire- 

 land, " annua unius denarii pensio." All these external authorities, 

 however, only shew that money was current in Ireland, but none of 

 them, it must be admitted, establish the fact of an Irish mint. It is 

 not, however, to be overlooked, that Turlough O'Conor, King of Ire- 

 land, is said** to have erected a mint and coined silver at Clonmacnois 

 about A. D. 1156; and it has been stated, -f-f- from the Irish Annals, 

 that the O'Tooles coined their own money before the English inva- 

 sion. After that event halfpence were coined by Prince John, in Dub- 

 lin, and for all subsequent mintage, the curious reader is referred to 

 the Essay on Irish Coins, by Simon, already alluded to. 



* Ware's Antiquities, c. 20. 



I Sylloge, p. 50. 



II See ante, p. 308. 

 It Ante, p. 109. 



t Ante, pp. 287-8. 

 § Cited Cambr. Evers. p. 164. 

 ** Cambrensis Eversuf, p. 85. 



