Falkiner— T//^' Hospital of St, John of Jerusalem. 287 



impossible to give an accurate impression of the former without a 

 brief notice, for which this is perhaps the least inappropriate point of 

 digression, of the history of the Irish Templars. The Order of 

 Knights Templars or Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Jesus Christ and of the 

 Tem]3le of Solomon," which had been constituted under the Rule of 

 St. Bernard early in the twelfth century, had, like the rival Order of 

 St. John, emerged from the misfortunes of the Second Crusade in the 

 blaze of martial glory created by the exploits with which their valour 

 before Damascus had redeemed the honour of the arms of Christendom. 

 At the moment of Strongbow's enterprise, Prance and England were 

 filled with returned warriors whose swords were idle. In the interval 

 between the Second and Third Crusades these monks militant busied 

 themselves mainly in developing the splendid foundations which 

 admiration for the prowess they had exhibited in the cause of Christ 

 had led the sovereigns of Europe, and their nobles, to bestow upon the 

 Order. But many among them were able to spare time from their 

 more monastic functions to an adventure which promised a rich reward 

 for the services they were so well qualified to render. Though it does 

 not appear that the Templars were associated in the same degree as 

 their rivals, the Hospitallers, with Strongbow and the earlier "Norman 

 invaders, it is clear that they were not unrepresented in the train of 

 Henry II, when that monarch came over to assume the direction of 

 the enterprise his vassal had begun. J^or was the King slow to 

 recompense the zeal of these knights in his behalf. At the very spot^ 

 where Henry landed, some seven miles from Waterford, the Templars 

 received a grant of land which became the foundation of the Precep- 

 tory of Crook, and to this were added other grants in the south-east 

 corner of Ireland. In Dublin, where any claim they might have laid 

 to Kilmainham was forestalled by Strongbow's grant to the Hospi- 

 tallers, the Templars received a valuable prize in the grant of Clontarf ; 



between the King's houses and the sea near Waterford ; the Church of St. Aloch 

 near "Wexford, with the land belonging thereto, and Agdmile, a burgess of Water- 

 ford with all his chattels." (Record and process of a plaint between the Abbot 

 of the Port of St. Mary (Dunbrody), plaintiff, and the Master of the Templars in 

 Ireland, before the King's Justices of the Common Pleas, Dublin. — Sweetman's 

 " Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland," 1285-1292, p. 329.) 



A Charter by Henry III, dated 1253, with an inspeximus and confirmation by 

 Edward I, dated 1280, was produced at the same trial. In a confirmation by 

 Henry III in 1227, Agdmile is described as a burgess of "Wexford. 



^ As to the identification of Henry II's landing-place with Crook, see an article 

 by Rev. James Graves, in Journal of R.S.A.I., vol. iv., pp. 385-8. 



