Falkiner — The Hosintal of St. John of Jerusalem. 283 



There is no distinct eviclence to connect Strongbow in any especial 

 manner with the Order of the Knights of St. John, though it is on 

 record that his father before him had endowed the Hospitallers with 

 lands in Suffolk. It is probable, however, that the first grant, which 

 the Dublin jury found to have been made prior to Henry the Second's 

 Charter of 1172, was made even before his coming into Ireland. We 

 know from the language of the old French poem, "The Song of 

 Dermot and the Earl," as well as from more dryasdust sources, that 

 subsequent to his agreement with Dermot M'Murrough, and before the 

 actual invasion of Ireland, Strongbow had bought the assistance of 

 several among his confederates by provisional allotments of territory 

 in the scene of his enterprise : — 



To Maurice de Prendergast 



The valiant Earl Eichard 



Had already given Eernegenal,^ 



And in his Council confirmed it 



Before the renowned Earl 



Had landed in Ireland : 



Ten fiefs he gave him on this condition 



Eor the service of ten Knights."- 



The poem contains no record of a like gift to the Hospitallers. But 

 the Knights Hospitallers of Jerusalem were already famous when 

 Strongbow was organizing his memorable enterprise, and nothing- 

 seems more probable than that the leader of the adventurers should 

 have conciliated their powerful support by the grant of a site for a 

 priory near the capital. If the old Monastery of St. Maignenn still 

 survived the havoc wrought by the early Danes, no more appropriate 

 spot could have been assigned to an Order of militant monks than an 

 ecclesiastical establishment which occupied a site of considerable 

 strategic importance. However that may be, it is certain that to 

 Strongbow and his comrade in arms, Tyrel, the Knights of St. John 

 owed the first endowment of their Order in Ireland, and the nucleus 

 of the great possessions which they gradually acquired in this island — 

 possessions which in time became sufficiently extensive and important 

 to give to the Prior of Kilmainliam a high place alike in the councils 

 of his Order and in those of the Plantagcnet Lords of Ireland. 



^ A territory in ShelmaHer East, County "Wexford. 

 2 The Song of Dermot and the Earl, 11. 3072-79. 



