6 28 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Such having been the state of affairs in the north till the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century, we can now turn to the south ; and in dealing 

 with the south, as indeed with the whole country, one fact above all others 

 must be kept well in mind, namely, that the Norman " conquest " was not 

 really a conquest, 1 but an invasion. It was the beginning of a long contest 

 between Normans and English united with feudal law and custom on the one 

 hand and Irish united with Brehon law and custom on the other. 



Derniot MacMurrough, the Brehon King of Leinster, having been deposed 

 by his own people, asked Henry the Second's help to bring about his 

 restoration. Henry himself could not take part, but he gave Dermot leave to 

 contract for help within his English dominions : in return for which Dermot 

 " did homage and took an oath of fealty " : 2 a transaction which probably had 

 not the same meaning to Henry as to Dermot. Dermot received the 

 co-operation of Bichard de Clare, afterwards called Strongbow, who, in 

 turn, enlisted in the venture a number of Normans, mostly descendants of 

 a Welsh princess, Nesta, some of them descendants of Henry the First and 

 therefore cousins in some degree to Henry the Second. Strongbow's reward 

 was to be " the hand of Dermot's only daughter and the succession to his 

 kingdom." 3 Here, again, it is possible Dermot and Strongbow had different 

 ideas in their minds, for Dermot's kingship was not hereditary but elective 

 according to Brehon law. 



In two years, 1169-70, the Normans had captured Wexford, Dublin and 

 Waterford, overrun the surrounding country, and restored Dermot ; and 

 Strongbow had been married to Dermot's daughter. Their success was so 

 great that Henry saw the possibility of the Normans forestalling him by 

 setting up another Norman kingdom in Ireland ; and he requested Strongbow 

 to come back and meet him in England. Strongbow " succeeded, after much 

 altercation, by the address and mediation of Hervey, in appeasing the king's 

 displeasure." 1 But "the earl made his peace with the king upon the terms of 

 renewing his oath of fealty, surrendering to him Dublin and the adjacent 

 cantred, with the towns on the sea-coast and all the fortresses ; and 

 submitting to hold the rest of his conquests to him and his heirs of the king 

 and his heirs." 5 



Thus was feudal law first set up in Ireland. The king became the 

 immediate lord of the cities and the country round Dublin, that is of the 

 people best able to pay him tribute, chiefly Ostmen or Danes, and overlord 

 of Strongbow and the other Normans, while they became lords of all they 



1 The "conquest of Ireland in the twelfth century" is an utter misnomer: Kichey's Short 

 History of the Irish People, p. 143. 



• Kichey, p. 144. 3 1HU., p. 145. * Giruldus Cambrensis. 5 Kichey, p. 153. 



