History. 



Death of 



Strongbow. 



A. D. 1177 



Bull of the 

 Pope in fa- 

 vour of 

 Benry. 



A. D. 1185. 

 His son 

 John in Ire- 

 land; 



his conduct 

 there. 



A. D. 1189. 

 Divisions 

 among the 

 English; 



their re- 

 sults. 



234 IRELAND. 



he was ordered to return to Wales ; and two councillors 

 were sent bv the king for that purpose ; but they, as 

 well as Stronebow, were so firmly convinced of the ne- 

 cessity of Raymond's continuance in Ireland, t 

 departure was put off, and he resumed the command 

 of the army. His authority and talents were at t :.s pe- 

 riod of great service ; for Limeric was invaded by its 

 prince, who was assisted by a powerful chieftain of 

 Kin=ale Against these Raymond marched, and haying 

 forced the pass of Cashel, the Irish princes were intimi- 

 dated, and agreed to renew their oaths of allegiance. 



From this part of Ireland the victorious general was 

 recalled by the death of Strongbow ; this event, and the 

 necessity of his own departure for England, rendered it 

 prudent to abandon the city of Limeric, as being at too 

 great a distance from the principal seat of the English 

 power. The troops were also wjthdrawn from the 

 towns and forts of Leinster. . 



As soon as Henry was informed ot the death ot 

 Strongbow, he appointed William Fitzandelm to the 

 chief command in Ireland. About the same time, a 

 bull of Pope Adrian, constituting Henry its lord, was 

 read before an assembly of the Irish clergy at Water- 

 ford One of the first acts of the new governor waa to 

 render the situation of some of the original adventurers 

 so uncomfortable, that they went in quest of new set- 

 tlements : Hence were formed the settlement of 1 

 by John de Courcey, and that of Connaught by Milo 

 de Cogan The expedition of the former succeeded, 

 though not without much difficulty, and several obsti- 

 nate battles with the Irish. De Cogan, on the contra- 

 ry, was obliged to abandon his settlement. 



As Ireland now began to assume the appearance of 

 an important and valuable acquisition, Henry resolved 

 to appoint one of his sons its feudatory sovereign. Ac- 

 cordingly, in the year 1178, John, his youngest son, 

 was declared lord of Ireland, in a council of barons and 

 prelates but he did not go to Ireland till the year 

 1185, when he was 18 years old. It soon appeared, 

 that neither he nor his followers were qualified, either 

 by their behaviour or intelligence, to conciliate or im- 

 prove the Irish. The Norman courtiers mocked and 

 insulted the uncouth garb and manners of the IrisI 

 lords; and increased the indignation thus raised, by 

 seizing the lands of such of them as held under Eng- 

 lish lords by English tenure within the pale, that is, in 

 those parts which had been colonized by the English. 

 The fiery temper and high spirit of the Irish being 

 thus roused, they fled into those parts of Ireland where 

 they were most likely to gain assistance, 

 possessions were invaded on all sides ; so that, in less 

 than a year, Henry found it necessary to recal hi 

 son, and appointed John de Courcey governor. Ihe 

 circumstances in which he was placed, would probably 

 have rendered his efforts to retrieve the misconduct ot 

 his predecessor unavailing, had not the Irish prince 

 quarreled among themselves. Even then he was una- 

 ble to take advantage of the death of Roderic, by 

 gaining possession of Connaught ; and it was not wit! 

 out great difficulty that he maintained the English set- 

 tlements. 



On the death of Henry in 1189, De Courcey was 

 called, and Hugh de Lancey appointed m his 

 De Courcey, however, refused to obey the summons, 

 and, retiring jnto Ulster, assumed the character of an 

 independent chief. The Irish princes, as usual, rousei 

 themselves as soon as they found that their Enghs 

 lers were divided among themselves ; and, among these, 

 Cathal, who succeeded Roderic in the government ot 



King John 

 in Ireland, 

 1210. 



Connaught, was the most remarkable for his enterprise History, 

 and success. The English government, weakened by ' -"Y ' 

 dissensions, and by the sutffien and repeated attacks of 

 the Irish, was entrusted to different ndblemen; but with 

 no decisive or permanent amelioration. At length, 

 in 1199, Fitzhenry, descended from a natural son of 

 Henry I. of England, was appointed by John, who 

 now filled the throne of that country, chief governor 

 of Ireland. He was extremely well qualified for his 

 situation ; but, opposed by De Burgo, who held Lime- 

 ric, he for some time was unable to carry into effect the 

 plans he had formed for the tranquillity of Ireland, and 

 the establishment of the English power. At last, in 

 1 203, having succeeded in collecting an army of native 

 Irish, he marched against De Burgo, and compelled 

 him and his Irish allies to renew their allegiance. As 

 soon as this was effected, Fitzhenry resolved to re- 

 duce De Courcey, "who still maintained an independent 

 authority in the'province of Ulster, and refused to ac- 

 knowledge King John. In this enterprize he also suc- 

 ceeded. 



In 1210 John resolved to visit Ireland, 

 is not clearly known ; but the only exploit which he 

 performed, during his stay of three months, was the re- 

 duction of the fortresses in Meath and Ulster, belong- 

 ing to the Lacies, who had incurred his displeasure. 

 In one most important point, however, this visit of the 

 English sovereign was highly beneficial to Ireland, for 

 a regular code of English laws was promulgated ; and, 

 in order that these laws might not become a dead let- 

 ter, through the want of proper and efficient means to 

 carry them into execution, courts of judicature were 

 established in Dublin. The territory which the Eng- 

 lish possessed was divided into counties, over which 

 sheriffs and other civil officers were appointed. It does 

 not clearly appear whether the English pale, as it was 

 called, at this time comprised twelve or fifteen counties, 

 though it is probable that there were only twelve, m 

 Leinster, Munster, and Ulster; and that the three 

 others, which lay in Connaught and the southern parts 

 of Munster, were soon afterwards added. 



The benefit thus conferred on Ireland by John, w 

 followed by another still more important in the ^year 

 1216- for at this period Henry III. extended Magna 

 Charta to Ireland. During the space of nearly 3 

 years from this time, that is, through the reigns of 

 Henry III. and his successor Edward I. till the inva- 

 sion of Scotland by Edward II. the history of Ireland 

 presents a confused and uninteresting series of petty 

 warfares among the Irish princes and chieftains, and 

 the English lords. The English monarchs, occupier 

 with more immediate and momentous concerns, had nei- 

 ther leisure nor inclination to attend effectually to tl 

 affairs of Ireland. One circumstance, however, de- 

 mands and deserves our notice during this period. 

 1295 the first regular Irish parliament was held ; a 

 from their proceedings and acts, we may glean some 

 curious and instructive information regarding the s 

 of Ireland, and the causes of its domestic feuds, 

 norance, and barbarism. The defence of the English Stateof 

 borders was entrusted to the lords of the marches, but country, 

 they neglected their duty, living at a distance from the 

 borders The defence, and the improvement also, of 

 the Eno-lish settlements were weakened and impedec 

 .by the non-residence of many of the great propneto 

 but the circumstance which proved most unequivocally 

 the desperate state in which the English settlements 

 were, and at the same time pointed out one of t je pnn. 

 cipal and most deeply seated sources of the civil wars, 



Magna 

 Charta ex- 

 tended to 

 Ireland. 

 A.D. 12K 



