The Invasion of the Normans

In the middle of the twelfth century, the first Plantagenet king, Henry the Second, was reigning in England. He was a great grandson of William of Normandy, who had conquered England, and had assumed the English crown a hundred years before. Henry was more Norman than English in character and tastes. The Normans, who had, centuries before, conquered and established themselves in the northern part of France, which was thus called "Normandy," were of the same race as those Danes who had later swept over England and Ireland. They came originally, as did the Danes, from Norway and Denmark; and having subdued Normandy, they had now overcome the English, as the Danes had done before them, and were destined, like the Danes, to extend their invasion to Ireland also. But, unlike the Danes, the Normans were at least Christians; and so, in their conquests, they did not disturb the existing faith of the English or the Irish.

The pope of Rome, in the middle of the twelfth century, was an Englishman, whose family name was Nicholas Breakspeare, and whose papal title was Adrian the Fourth. In those days, the popes claimed the right to dispose, as they pleased, of all the islands of the sea. They were in the habit of granting islands to such kings as they favored; and the kings, armed with the pope's grants, believed that they were justified in seizing upon the islands, and ruling them. Adrian the Fourth, by a solemn "bull," or decree, made over Ireland to Henry the Second of England, and gave him permission to invade, conquer, and hold possession of the island (1155). The pope declared that he did this for the purpose of suppressing vice, planting virtue, and spreading the faith among the Irish. Sixteen years elapsed, however, before Henry availed himself of the pope's authority to invade Ireland.

The reigning king of Ireland at this time was Roderick O'Connor, a brave, but harsh and cruel ruler. Roderick was the last of the Celtic sovereigns of all Ireland. It was with difficulty that he held possession of the royal power. In both Ulster and Munster his authority was disputed and defied by the native princes. He had, moreover, a bitter quarrel with Dermid, Prince of Leinster; and it was this quarrel, which, in its results, brought about the Norman invasion of Ireland. Dermid of Leinster was a coarse and brutal old man, over sixty years of age, but still swayed by violent passions. He was gigantic of stature, stalwart of frame, despotic and overbearing in temper. Among the petty chiefs in Connaught was Tiernan O'Rourke, lord of Brefny, who had a comely wife named Dervorgoil. Dermid persuaded Dervorgoil to desert her husband, and to elope with him. O'Rourke vowed vengeance upon the destroyer of his domestic peace, and appealed for help to Roderick. In this appeal he was joined by Dervorgoil's kinsmen, the powerful family of O'Melaghlin.

Dermid soon found himself confronted by a formidable array of enemies. King Roderick, O'Rourke, and the O'Melaghlins were speedily joined not only by the Danes who were settled in and around Dublin, and whom Dermid had grievously oppressed, but also by many of Dermid's own subjects. In vain did the dissolute old tyrant labor to gather about him an army which could cope with such a host of strong and enraged foes. Then he added a fresh crime to his other misdeeds, and turned traitor to his country. He fled from Ireland, hastened to France, and presented himself before the English king, who was then busy with his wars in Aquitaine. Dermid unblushingly proposed to Henry to lose no time in making use of the pope's authority, given thirteen years before, to possess himself of Ireland; and eagerly offered his aid in accomplishing that end. Henry was not yet ready to enter upon the conquest of Ireland in person; but he gave Dermid a letter which granted permission to his knights and subjects to enlist under the Leinster prince, and to help him in his design of subduing Ireland. In return for this concession, Dermid promptly swore allegiance to the English crown.

Armed with Henry's letter, Dermid repaired to western England and Wales, and soon found some adventurous Norman knights, who, lured by Dermid's lavish promises of lands and plunder, agreed to lead an expedition into Ireland. The chief of these was Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, who, from the strength of his arms, was called "Strongbow." This man was bold, able, and ambitious. He was middle-aged, poor in purse, and had long chafed at the want of an opportunity to show his metal on the battle-field. He was a distant relative of Henry, but Henry had for a long time found no use for his services. Strongbow was at once attracted by Dermid's project. Dermid promised him not only a large domain in Ireland, but also his daughter Eva in marriage and Strongbow conceived the hope of one day himself becoming king of Leinster.

Other Norman nobles and knights, eager to employ their idle arms, joined Dermid and Strongbow. Among them were Maurice Fitzgerald, the ancestor of the Geraldines, who afterwards became very powerful in the Irish districts of Kildare and Desmond; Fitzgerald's half-brother, Robert Fitz-Stephen; the two Fitz-Henrys, illegitimate grandsons of the English Henry the First; Raymond le Gros; and Henry Montmorres. A plan of invasion was soon arranged; and ere long a formidable force of Norman soldiers, well disciplined, skillful with the bow, and amply armed, had been collected. Dermid returned to Ireland, and awaited the coming of his Norman allies. In the late spring (1169), the advance guard of the expedition, under the command of Fitz-Stephen and Montmorres,—in all, about one thousand men—crossed the Irish Channel. The Irish defenders of soil were ill-prepared to cope with the hardy Norman soldiery. Their armor was little protection: their weapons were by no means so effective as those of the Normans.

Fitz-Stephen easily seized Wexford, on the coast, driving its Danish garrison out; and his soldiers ravaged the country roundabout. Then Raymond le Gros crossed the Channel, and assailed Waterford. Strongbow followed with the rest of the Norman army. Waterford was taken, plundered, and fired; and Strongbow was wedded to the princess Eva of Leinster, amid the desolation of the ruined town. Dermid had now joined his allies, and the invaders proceeded to attack Dublin. This town was, for the most part, settled by Danes, who seem to have by this time lost their old-time warlike prowess. At all events, Dublin fell into the hands of the assailants, and was mercilessly sacked by the victorious Normans. From thence they sallied forth to spread desolation through the ancient domain of Meath. The Danes hastily took ship, and found refuge in the Orkney Islands.

Roderick O'Connor, the Irish king, was aroused by these disasters to make a desperate stand against the invaders. Aided by the king of Thomond and the fighting archbishop, Lawrence, Roderick laid siege to Dublin. He entirely failed, however, to dislodge the Normans, and was forced to be content with capturing Wexford from them. A year passed, with varying fortunes to the invaders and the invaded. In the spring Dermid died of a complication of diseases; and Strongbow attempted, in vain, to assert his claim to the throne of Leinster. He suffered a succession of defeats, in the most important of which, that at Thurles, the Normans lost nearly two thousand men. Strongbow was forced to seek safety, with the rest of his army, within the walls of Waterford, where he contented himself with holding sway over the immediate neighborhood of that stronghold.

Events in Ireland had been watched for some time, with growing anxiety, by the English king. He had permitted his knights to enlist under Dermid and Strongbow, and was well content with the prospect of adding Ireland to his dominions. But now Henry began to fear that if the ambitious Strongbow succeeded in conquering the island, he would set himself up as its independent king, and would then altogether renounce his allegiance to the English crown. Accordingly Henry sent word to the Norman knights in Ireland, that they must at once return to England. Perhaps Strongbow and his comrades were not sorry to receive this command; for, when it came, their situation was serious if not desperate. The Irish had at last asserted their superior strength, and the only strongholds left to the Normans were in danger of being taken by the aroused natives. Strongbow, therefore, promptly obeyed the king, crossed over to England, and received the royal pardon.

Henry now resolved that he would put forth all the strength of his English kingdom to subdue Ireland. He was a warlike prince, and greedy of conquest; and he determined to lead his forces in person. An army of four hundred knights and four thousand men-at-arms crossed the channel, being conveyed to the Irish coast by a fleet of two hundred and forty ships. Henry easily effected a landing at Waterford, which still remained in Norman hands (1171). The chiefs of southern Ireland were awed by the display of so imposing an array of well-trained, well-armed, and valiant soldiers. King Roderick was away in the north, engaged in a conflict with the princes of Ulster. The Irish were divided and distracted by the quarrels of rival chiefs. It seemed that no force adequate to cope with the English king could be got together. The power conferred by the pope upon Henry to take Ireland, moreover, checked the patriotism of the Irish clergy, and dampered the ardor of the Irish leaders.

One after another, the princes of southern Ireland gave in their submission to the English monarch. The example was set by McCarthy, king of Cork, who repaired to Waterford, swore allegiance to Henry, and surrendered Cork to a Norman garrison. O'Brien of Thomond, Donchad of Ossory, and O'Phelan of Decies, followed in his wake. Henry made a bloodless march into the interior, planted garrisons at Cashel and Tipperary, and entered Dublin in triumph. The chiefs of Leinster and Munster kept coming in, and accepting the English yoke. Roderick, with little capacity for war on a large scale, was forced to remain sullenly west of the Shannon; but while he made no vigorous attempt to dislodge the English, he never submitted to their rule in Ireland. The heroic chiefs of Ulster, too, the ancient royal race of O'Neil, and the sturdy house of O'Donnel, refused to yield to the invader, and, for centuries after, held out against every effort of the English to subdue them.