CQi IRE! 
lord fn ip ’>is been much difputed ; but the moil probable 
opinion is, that the king’s ion was .now,to be invefted 
with a'll the rights and powers which had formerly be¬ 
longed to Roderic, vrho was allowed the title of king of 
Ireland. It does not appear, indeed, that Henry had any 
right to deprive Roderic of thefe powers, and (till lefs had 
he to difpofe of any of the territories of thefe chieftains 
who had agreed to become his tributaries. This never- 
thelefs he certainly did ; and it failed not to be productive 
of an immediate war with thefe chiefs. 
The new governor entered on his office with fpirit and 
vigour; but, being mif-reprefented t'o the king by fome 
factious barons, he was in a fhort time recalled, and two 
others, totally unfit for the government, appointed in his 
room. This error was foon corrected, and Lacy was re¬ 
placed in three months. The fame jealoufy which pro¬ 
duced his firth degradation, foon produced a fecond; and 
Philip de Braofa, or Philip of Worcejlcr as he is called, a 
man of a inoft avaricious difpofition, was appointed to 
lucceed him. This governor behaved in fuch a manner, 
that his fuperftitious fubjects expefted every moment that 
the vengeance of heaven would fall upon him, and deliver 
them from his tyranny. 
About this time (in 1183) the valiant Milo de Cogan 
fell by the fouled treachery. Travelling from Cork to 
Lifmore, he with fix other perfons, among whom was 
Ralph fon of Robert Fitz-Stephen, was aflaffinated, by 
Mac Tire, an Irishman whom he had regarded as his 
warmed friend, and who had invited him to his houfefor 
this bafe purpofe with the ftronged profeffions of cordial 
hofpitality. The fatal intelligence made fo profound an 
impreflion on the elder Fitz-Stephen, who had fome time 
before loft another fon, as to deprive him of his reafon. 
As Maurice Fitz-Gerald had been dead fome years, and 
Harvey of Mountmorris had retired to a monadery, few 
of the leaders of the fird Englith adventurers in Ireland 
were now left upon the dage. 
The power of the new governor was of fiiort duration ; 
for now prince John prepared to exercife the authority 
with which his father had inveded him in Ireland. He 
W'as attended by a confiderable military force; his train 
was formed of a company of gallant Normans in the pride 
of youth ; but luxurious, infolent, and followed by a num¬ 
ber of Engliftimen, drangers to the country they were to 
vifit, defperate in their fortunes, accudomed to a life of 
profligacy, and filled with great expectations of advantage 
from their prefent fervice. The whole affembly embarked 
in a fleet of fixty (hips, and arrived at Waterford in 1185, 
after a profperous voyage, filling the whole country with 
the greeted furprife and expectation. 
The young prince had not yet arrived at the years cf 
difcretion; nor indeed, from his fubfequent conduit, 
does it'appear that his difpofition was luch as qualified 
him in the lead for the high dignity to which he was 
raifed. The hardy Welftunen who fird migrated into 
Ireland immediately waited upon him to do him homage; 
but they were difagreeable to the gay courtiers, and to 
the prince himfelf, who attended to nothing but his plea- 
fures. The Iridi lords were at fird terrified by the mag¬ 
nificent reprefentation of the force of the Englifh army; 
and, being reconciled to fubmifllon by the dignity of the 
prince’s dation, hadened in crowds to Waterford to do 
him homage. They exhibited a fpeCtacle to the Norman 
courtiers which the latter did not fail to treat with con¬ 
tempt and ridicule. The Irifh lords, with uncouth at¬ 
tire, thick bufliy beards, and hair Handing on end, ad¬ 
vanced with very little ceremony; and, according to their 
own notions of refpeCt, offered to kiis the young prince. 
His attendants depped in, and prevented this horrid vio¬ 
lation of decorum by thru ding away the Iriflimen. The 
whole affembly burd into peals of laughter, pulled the 
beards, and committed feveral other indignities on the 
perfons, of their gueds ; which were immediately and fe- 
verely refen ted. The chieftains left the court, boiling 
with indignation; and, meeting others of their country- 
A N D. 
men hadening to do homage to the prince, they informed 
them of the reception they themfelves had me( with. A 
league was indantly formed to extirpate the Eriglidi, and 
the whole nation flew to arms ; while John and his cour¬ 
tiers, indead of oppofing the enemy, employed themfelves 
in harafling and opprefling thofe who were under their 
immediate jurifdidtion. The country was therefore over¬ 
run by the barbarians, agriculture entirely neglected, and a 
dreadful famine threatened to follow the calamities of .war. 
This terrible devadation had continued for eight months 
before the king was fully acquainted with it. He then 
determined to recal his fon; but was at a lofs whom he 
(hould name for his fucceffor. Lacy, whofe vvifdom, juf- 
tice, and knowledge of Iridi affairs, combined with his 
military talents, had eminently qualified him for the of¬ 
fice of chief governor, had been treacheroufly murdered. 
Being engaged in erefting, on the fite of an ancient ab¬ 
bey, a fortrefs to repel the incurfions of the enemy, he 
was aflaffinated with an axe by one of his labourers, who 
fled exulting, as the avenger of facrilege, to his country¬ 
men in arms. The king was at lad obliged to have re- 
courfe to John de Courcey, whofe boiderous valour 
deemed now to be abfolutely neceffary to prevent the Eng- 
1 iHi from being totally exterminated. The new governor 
was obliged at fird to aft on the defenfive; but, as his 
enemies foon forgot their league, and began their ufual 
hodilities againd each other, he was at lad enabled to 
maintain the authority of the Englifli government, and t® 
fupport its acquifitions in Ireland, though not to ex¬ 
tend them. 
Henry was fo well pleaded with the conqued of Ire¬ 
land, that he placed the title of Lord of Ireland, in his 
royal ftyle, before his hereditary dates of Normandy and 
Aquitaine. And yet Ireland, fays judge Cox, was at this 
time fo inconfiderable, or fo little improved, that there 
were not five cadles of Iridi building in the whole king¬ 
dom : “Dublin, Cork, and Waterford, were built by the 
Eaderlings; and all the red have been built fince the re¬ 
duction of Ireland. As to the cadles built by the Irifh, 
they were no other than turf or wattles pladered over. 
The fird pile of lime and done, built in Ireland, was the 
cadle of Tuam, erefted A. D. 1x61, by Roderic O’Con¬ 
nor, the monarch; and, for the rarity of it, called Caf- 
trum Mirificum.” 
Henry II. died in the year 1189, and was fucceeded by 
his fon Richard I. The new king was determined on an 
expedition to the Holy Land, which left him no leifure to 
attend to the affairs of Ireland. John, by virtue of the 
powers granted him by his father, took upon him the ma¬ 
nagement of Iridi affairs; and immediately degraded de 
Courcey from his government, appointing in his place 
Hugh de Lacy the younger. De Courcey, provoked at 
this indignity, retired into Ulder, where he was imme¬ 
diately engaged in a furious war with the natives, and at 
lad almoft entirely detached liimfelf from the Englifli go¬ 
vernment. This diffenfion, which betrayed the weaknefs 
of the Englifli government, afforded no (mall encourage¬ 
ment to its Irifli enemies. Cathal, (furnamed, from his 
feats of homicide, the bloody-handed,) prince of Con¬ 
naught, and a fon of Roderic O’Connor, took advantage 
of the confufion that enfued to make preparations for at¬ 
tacking the Englifli fettlements with all his force. The 
vanity of this chieftain, who affeCted to reflore the mo¬ 
narchy of Ireland, was raifed high by the fuccefs of a 
battle, which was in fait more glorious to the vanquiflied 
than to the conqueror. Armoric of St. Lawrence, with 
a band of thirty horfemen and two hundred infantry, was 
on his march to join de Courcey through a part of Ca- 
thal’s territory, when he was intercepted by that prince 
with a numerous army. Retreat was impracticable ex¬ 
cept for the cavalry, who, after fome heiitation, refolved 
to (hare the fate of their companions. It was determined 
that, with the exception of two, who were appointed to 
view the fcene from an eminence, and to give de Cour- . 
cey a faithful account of the refult, they lhould all fell 
their 
