The Norman Knights

The last years of the arch-king, Roderick O'Connor, were embittered by the hostility and treason of his own sons. His eldest son, Murray, joined hands with the Norman knight, De Cogan, and with him marched through central Ireland, spreading havoc and burning villages as he went. The native tribes fled in dismay before him. But at last, near Tuam, the Irish turned at bay upon their treacherous prince and his Norman ally. Murray was forced to retreat; but it was too late. A host of Irish, led by Murray's own kinsmen, fell upon the allied force, which was soon scattered in every direction. Murray himself was taken, and his eyes were put out as the penalty of his perfidy. Then Roderick's younger son, Conor, was declared to be the heir to the Irish throne. There soon broke out a desperate struggle between the princes of the royal house, which resulted in much slaughter on both sides, but in no decisive triumph for either.

Conor now treated his father, the arch-king, with cruel severity. He at first banished him into southern Ireland, but afterwards allowed him to live on a small farm in the midst of his own clan. Roderick was old and weary of the world. In a short time he retired to a monastery founded by the early Christians at Cong, on Lough Mask. In this monastery, the aged monarch gave himself up to religious exercises, and reflected mournfully on his many misfortunes. He died at the monastery in his eighty-second year (1198), and was quietly buried in the royal tomb of Clonmacnoise. Thus passed away the last prince fully entitled to wear the crown of all Ireland. With Roderick the long line of "ard-righ," or arch-kings, ended. The task of defending Ireland from her formidable Norman foes was too great for Roderick's powers. He was brave and patriotic, but could not cope at once with the rebellions of Irish princes, and the assaults of foreign invaders.

Meanwhile, Strongbow had been succeeded in the command of Ireland by an indolent knight, Fitz Aldelm. But among the Normans who surrounded him was a stalwart noble, full of restless energy. This was John de Courcy, a descendant of kings, as proud as he was valiant. It has already been stated that Dc Courcy had received the province of Ulster as his appanage from the English king. He now resolved to attempt its conquest. Many of his fellow-knights, eager for warfare, and impatient of their idle life at Dublin, joined his standard. De Courcy set forth at the head of a force of five hundred men. He encountered and defeated a native army at Howth, and then marched on Downpatrick. There was an ancient tradition that this town would be captured by a knight who had birds upon his shield, and who rode a white horse. It happened that a bird was on the armorial crest of De Courcy, and De Courcy also appeared on a white horse. The people of Downpatrick, terrified by these omens, speedily submitted; and De Courcy entered the town.

DE COURCY ENTERING DOWNPATRICK

The warfare between the invaders of Ulster and its Irish defenders lasted for several years. Some-times one side, and sometimes the other, triumphed. In course of time, De Courcy acquired a strong hold upon various places on the Ulster coast. He fortified Lecale and the Ardes, built castles on the shores of Strangford Lake, and made some expeditions into the interior. But the greater part of Ulster remained unconquered. The heroic tribe of O'Neil held out sturdily, and to the last resisted De Courcy's attempt to carry his rule over the entire province; while the lesser chiefs, for the while, composed their differences in the face of the danger from a common foe. Even when De Courcy gained a foothold in the interior, he was so constantly harassed by bold bands of the Ulster Irish, that he was often forced to give way, and retire to the seaboard.

The English king, Henry, was especially fond of his youngest son, John,—the same John who afterwards became king of England, and was forced by the barons to sign the "great charter" of his people's liberties. It is thought by some historians that one of Henry's reasons for wishing to conquer Ireland was that he might provide John with a kingdom to himself. John was a youth of eighteen years. He was willful, heartless, and cruel, even at that early age. In spite, however, of his youth and bad qualities, Henry now sent him across St. George's Channel, with the title and powers of "Lord of Ireland." Scarcely had John set foot on the island, before he began to conduct himself in such a way as to inspire the hatred of the Irish, and the contempt even of the English. He was surrounded by a company of dissolute and reckless young nobles, whose society was more congenial to him than was that of the grave statesmen whom his father had sent to advise him.

When John landed at Waterford (1185), he was met by the English archbishop of Dublin, and a large number of knights in costly array. These were attended, also, by some of the chiefs of the Leinster clans who had submitted to the English, and now came to pay homage to their new ruler. These chiefs advanced to meet the prince with grave dignity, in order to give him, according to an old Irish custom, the kiss of peace. John laughed insolently in their faces. He caught hold of their beards, and roughly pulled them, and made sport of their attire. The Leinster chiefs, outraged by this insult, abruptly retired to their homes.

John was scarcely less insulting in his bearing towards the English knights, by whom he presently became as intensely detested as he was by the Irish. He spent his days in reckless pleasures, and thus wasted the time which was to have been spent in military campaigns. He caused a number of castles to be built; but these were assailed by the Irish chiefs, and several of them were captured. The bold Donald O'Brien took the largest castle, that of Ardfinan; while Lismore was also seized by the native bands. John's rule, indeed, was disastrous on every hand; and he was at last reluctantly called back to England by his royal father. A famous, strong-willed English cavalier, Hugh de Lacy, had held for a short time a high place in Ireland,—that of constable,—before John's arrival. He had been recalled by the king, who now sent him back to Ireland again to take the chief command. De Lacy is described by the old writers as being short of stature, deformed, with large, dark, piercing eyes, and forbidding features. He was very covetous of power, as well as of riches. During his previous sojourn in Ireland he had been guilty of many misdeeds, one of which had never been forgotten or forgiven by the Irish. He had enticed Tiernan O'Rourke, lord of West Meath, one of the bravest of the native chiefs, to meet him on a lonely hill for a peaceful conference; and had there caused him to be murdered. Soon after his return to take John's place, he married the daughter of O'Connor, a powerful Irish noble.

De Lacy's violent tyranny soon made him as heartily hated as John had been. He seized and sacked monasteries and churches, and appropriated their wealth to his own use. He took a fancy, among other things, to convert the ancient monastery of Durrow, which had been founded centuries before by the sainted Columbkill, into a castle for his own residence. This was looked upon by the Irish as a desecration of the sacred edifice. One day, as De Lacy was standing on the walls, inspecting the alterations which his workmen were making on the monastery, a daring young Irishman of noble family, named O'Meyey, suddenly attacked him from behind. With one mighty blow of his axe, he completely severed the tyrant's head from his body. O'Meyey fled into the neighboring forest, and safely escaped. The Irish rejoiced at the death of a man who had so cruelly used them, and were glad that the fate to which he had doomed O'Rourke had now befallen him also.

The English king, Henry the Second, died (1189) after a long and brilliant reign, and was succeeded by his warlike son, Richard the First (the "Lion-hearted"). Throughout his brief reign of ten years, Richard was almost continually absent from his kingdom, either at the crusades, or engaged in fighting the French. The English in Ireland were therefore, during that period, left to shift for themselves. Of all the cavaliers who remained on Irish soil, the boldest and most ambitious was De Courcy. He professed to be very pious. He carried about with him certain writings of Columbkill, and took great care to guard and preserve the relics of some of the Irish saints. Yet he did not pause in his attempts to subdue the Irish of Ulster, and also of Connaught, to his sway. In spite, however, of the feuds which so often arose to divide the Irish princes, even De Courcy's prowess slid not avail to greatly extend the limits of his dominion. In a great battle fought in Connaught, De Courcy was routed by an allied force of Irishmen of Connaught, Ulster, and Munster, under the valiant Donald O'Brien, and was forced to retire once more to his eastern strongholds.

For ten years, Ireland was the scene of almost perpetual carnage. Conor, the son of Roderick, the arch-king, was assassinated by his cousins; and the old fires of jealousy and rivalry broke out among the princes with all their former fury. The English allied themselves, now with one chief, now with another, taking advantage of their fierce dissensions as occasion offered. The fortunes of war varied from month to month. The unhappy people were desolated by all these conflicts, yet they sturdily resisted the attempts of the English to possess themselves of the domain. The new landlords, even when they had effected a lodgement, were continually harassed by the inhabitants, and only held their own by the superior force of arms. Whenever an English lord of the soil became weak in defense, the vengeance of the people fell quickly and savagely upon him. Meanwhile, the two different systems of law—the Norman, or English, and the ancient Irish—were put in force side by side, and created endless confusion. In the English Pale, if an Irishman killed an Englishman, his punishment was death. But in those parts of the country where the Brehon, or old Irish, law, prevailed, an Englishman who killed an Irishman, only had to pay a fine. Similar differences ran all through the two codes, that of the Irish being always the more gentle of the two.

Just as the reign of Richard the First was coming to a close, a great Irish hero arose, in the person of Cathal O'Connor. Cathal's life had been a romantic one from his childhood. He was a younger half-brother of the arch-king Roderick, but was illegitimate. He therefore became, when a mere babe, the object of the hatred of the jealous Irish queen. His mother fled with him for refuge in the monasteries, and Cathal spent his boyhood as a farm laborer. One day, when he was reaping wheat in a field, he heard of events which opened the way to his return to his native Connaught. "Farewell, sickle!" he exclaimed, throwing it clown, "now for the sword!" He entered vigorously into the conflict which was raging in Connaught, and displayed a fiery valor which inspired his adherents to heroic deeds. The death of Donald O'Brien, who had fought so obstinately against the English, left Cathal the foremost of Irish warriors. He made alliances with powerful chiefs, and soothed the discords which had doomed Ireland to so many misfortunes. just as the twelfth century was closing, Cathal was able to declare himself king of Connaught, and to maintain his title by a stout defense.

The base and cruel John had now ascended the English throne, and soon made extensive grants of land in Connaught to his English followers. Chief among the knights thus favored were De Courcy and De Burgh. But they could not conquer the territories which John had given them; and, soon after this, De Courcy, who had proved so persistent and redoubtable, disappears altogether from the scenes of his exploits in Ireland. We find, however, the descendants of these early English knights, who contended so stoutly for the possession of Irish land, to this day surviving as nobles and landlords. The descendant of De Courcy is baron Kinsale, who has the privilege of wearing his hat in presence of the English sovereign,—a privilege accorded to an ancestor as the reward of some service to the crown. The Burkes, lords of Clanricarde, spring from the sturdy stock of De Burgh; and both families hold both Irish titles and Irish lands in our own time.