584 C Proc - B.N.F.C. 



mansion which prevailed during the twelfth century, when the 

 Kingdom of Meath was the battle ground of contending Irish 

 chiefs, Norman knights, and the jealous Henry, King of Eng- 

 land. Here the body of Hugh de Lacy, murdered at Durrow 

 in 1 1 86, was buried. Even this gave rise to a bitter controversy 

 among the Churchmen, and the body was divided ; one part 

 went to Dublin, and one to Bective. An appeal to the Pope, 

 however, resulted in the transfer of all the remains of the Irish 

 Viceroy to the care of the monks of St. Thomas, Dublin. The 

 annals of Bective Abbey furnish us with detailed particulars of 

 many of the most important events connected with the history 

 of Ireland, particularly of the period when the power of the 

 native chiefs passed into the hands J of the Anglo-Norman 

 invaders, and the group of buildings remaining furnish excellent 

 examples of the typical architectural features of that most im- 

 portant period. After a further drive of about five miles we 

 reached Trim, a country town, now the embodiment of peaceful 

 repose, but once the centre around which was performed the 

 most stirring events of Irish history, as its numerous ruins of 

 churches, monasteries, castles, and fortified residences proclaim. 

 Trim may be said to be the key to the Kingdom of Meath, and 

 was selected as such by Hugh de Lacy when he was granted eight 

 hundred thousand acres of Meath by Henry II., who parcelled out 

 Ireland among his trusty followers, and these Norman knights 

 were as jealous among themselves as the Irish chiefs, and hence 

 there was perpetual warfare. As the Normans did in England 

 so the Anglo-Normans did in Ireland, building castles to pro- 

 tect what they had taken, and endowing churches to condone 

 the wrong. This was the policy of De Lacy in Trim, and hence 

 its numerous buildings. Hammer says of De Lacy — "The 

 realm of Ireland at this time was singularly well governed by 

 Hugh De Lacy, a good man, a wise magistrate, who for the 

 good of the land and the people established many good orders. 

 He made bridges, and built towns, castles, and forts through 

 Leinster, as Sir John De Courcy did in Ulster. The priest kept 

 his church ? the soldiers his garrison, and the ploughman 



