Falkinkr — The IIospi(al of St. John of Jerusalem. 297 



to their administrative functions the position of generalissimo of the 

 forces of the Crown, and the Knights grew to be considered the 

 flower of the Royal army. Normans and strangers to a man, and 

 owning fealty to the English rulers of the country, neither Hospi- 

 tallers nor Templars seem to have had the smallest sympathy with 

 the native Irish. Their military record in Ireland is mainly the story 

 of expeditions, by no means invariably successful, undertaken to quell 

 the revolts of insurgent chiefs. Thus, in 1274, Prior "William Fitz- 

 Roger commanded a contingent of the army led by Thomas de Clare 

 into the fastnesses of Wicklow, and, after losing many of his Knights 

 in battle, was taken prisoner by the Irish in Glenmalure. The Prior 

 does not seem to have been in any hurry to undertake this enterprise, 

 for when commanded by Edward I to return to Ireland for the de- 

 fence of that kingdom, he pretended to have received a summons 

 from his Superior to the Holy Land. But the King would stand no 

 nonsense, and being ordered to Ireland *' on pains of the loss of all the 

 lands of his house in that country," the Prior obeyed the mandate and 

 returned to Kilmainham. But, though captured at Glenmalure, Eitz- 

 Eoger survived to fight another day ; and a few years later he is found 

 at the house of his Order at Kandon, in Eoscommon, preparing " to 

 lead an army against the King's enemies in Connaught."^ 



But the military activity of the Prior of Kilmainham and his 

 Knights was by no means confined to Ireland. They were also liable 

 to be called on by the Crown for service abroad, and on such occasions 

 they bore a highly honourable place in the armies of the EngiiKh 

 Kings. Of what services, if any, they rendered on the stricken fields 

 of Crecy and Poictiers, we have no record ; but that their prowess was 

 fully appreciated by so martial a sovereign as Henry Y we know 

 from the story of the siege of Rouen. Doubtless, the most chivalrous 

 figure in the dim procession of these vanished representatives of the 

 religious chivalry of the Crusades is that of Thomas le Botiller, 

 Prior of Kilmainham and Chancellor of Ireland, the doughty warrior 

 monk who led the Irish troops across the seas in the service of Henry V, 

 in the year 1418. This Prior was an illegitimate scion of the house of 

 Butler, a son of James, third Earl of Ormond, and a man of equal ability 

 as soldier and as statesman, who twice filled the office of Lord Justice of 

 Ireland. The Prior's exi)loits at Rouen are picturesquely recounted in 

 the quaint verses of John Page, who was himself present at the siege. 



1 Sweetman's " Calendar of Documents " (1252-1284), p. 200 ; and (1235-1292), 

 p. 369. 



