The English Settlement of Ireland

Henry the Second celebrated his victory by holding brilliant Christmas festivities in Dub-lin. Gathered about him was a gay array of valiant Norman knights, whose armor and attire dazzled the natives, and who, in their elegance, displayed a marked contrast to the ruder Irish chiefs. Most of the Irish wore, instead of mail, orange-colored and saffron shirts. Instead of long bows, they carried javelins, spears, and battle-axes. Henry soon turned from revels and rejoicings to serious work. He was a very able states-man, as well as an energetic warrior. He set to himself the task of establishing his authority in Ireland. He refused to confirm Strongbow as king of Leinster, and he took away the lands which had been given by Dermid to Strongbow and his companions; giving them back to them, however, as their feudal chief. This was the first step taken by Henry in introducing the feudal system into Ireland.

He then proceeded to plant in the Irish districts over which he held sway, English laws and institutions. He did not require the native Irish, however, to submit to English laws, but allowed the ancient Brehon laws to remain in force among them. The English laws were only imposed on the Normans and English who established themselves in the country. The king appointed marshals, justiciaries, constables, chamberlains, and other officers, to act in Ireland. He divided the portions of the island under his control into counties, and appointed sheriffs to serve in them. He created three great law-courts,—the King's Bench, the Common Pleas, and the Exchequer,—corresponding to the courts of the same name in England. He appointed a lord-chief-justice, a chancellor, and a treasurer. He also created the office of viceroy, the holder of which should act as supreme governor of Ireland during the king's absence. He filled all the offices with his own Norman adherents, and put all the military strongholds under the command of Norman soldiers.

Henry knew how important it was to win the submission of the Christian bishops and clergy to his rule. Their hold upon the reverence and affection of the people was a strong one. By conciliating them, he would be strengthening his own power in Ireland. The bishops and clergy were already inclined towards him, out of respect to the papal bull under which he had claimed the right to invade Ireland. Henry summoned an assembly of bishops and priests at Cashel, and declared to them, that henceforth the church-lands should be exempt from confiscation or taxation; that the priesthood should be relieved of certain fines; and that the people should be compelled to pay tithes for the support of the church. A large majority of the bishops and priests thereupon accepted the sovereignty of the English king, and exercised their influence in securing his authority in the island.

But by far the most important acts of Henry in Ireland were those by which he dealt with the lands, and attempted to replace the ancient tenure and division of lands by the feudal system. According to the old Irish custom, the lands had been held by each tribe in common. Then the princes and chiefs had acquired possession of large tracts, which were tilled by the peasantry and the slaves. But still the lands were supposed to be derived, not from a sovereign or prince, but from the tribe as a whole. The feudal system was directly the opposite of this. By the feudal system, all the land of a country was supposed to be owned by the king. He claimed the right to divide it up, and give portions of it, as he pleased, to his knights and courtiers. In return for these grants of land, the knights and courtiers agreed to give military aid, at the head of their retainers, to the king in time of war. So, too, the knights and courtiers divided up the domain thus acquired, and distributed it among their followers, who in their turn agreed to follow their lords to the field whenever summoned. The lands became hereditary in the families which held them, and the military services owed for them became hereditary also.

Henry really had no right, either to the sovereignty of Ireland, or to the disposal of the Irish lands. His claim was founded upon the pope's authority, which had no basis in law. His dominion in Ireland was purely and simply the result of superior physical force. And in order to establish his power, he forcibly imposed the feudal system upon the conquered race. He thus laid the foundation for those land troubles in Ireland which have continued from the time of his invasion down to the present day. He began by taking lands away from the native Irish, and giving them into the hands of Norman and English foreigners. These became the landlords; while the native Irish became their tenants, and the humble tillers of the soil. The descendants of the Normans and English continued to be the owners and masters, and the descendants of the Celtic population continued to be their serfs. In later centuries, more and more lands were taken from the Irish by succeeding English monarchs, and handed over to their English followers, soldiers, and favorites. In this way, in the course of time, grew up the unjust and cruel land-system in Ireland, which survived to our own time.

The whole of the ancient royal domain of Meath, where the kings of all Ireland had reigned so long in power and renown, was given by Henry to the Norman lord, Hugh de Lacy. Ulster was awarded to John de Courcy; but owing to the obstinate resistance of the O'Neils, the O'Donnels, and other sturdy Ulster chiefs, De Courcy never succeeded in getting possession of the province. Cork was given up to Fitz-Stephen and De Cogan, Limerick to De Braosa, Decies to Le Poer, Waterford to De Bohun, Wexford to Fitzgerald and Montmorres, Connaught to Fitz-Aldelm. The city of Dublin was awarded to the English town of Bristol.

The Normans lost no time in making raids to seize the lands thus granted, and planted settlements and forts wherever they could get a foothold. They swarmed through the fertile valleys of the Irish rivers, and established themselves on the broad plains of Louth and Meath. All along the eastern coast the Normans effected lodgements, as the Danes had done centuries before. Thus the new-comers occupied and held the lands awarded to them by the king, by sheer force. Every Irishman who resisted them was condemned as a traitor. No mercy was shown to the native "rebels."

If a tribe whose domain had thus been seized resisted, it was promptly driven from the soil on which it had dwelt from time immemorial. The Irish who remained became peasant tillers of the land which had lately been their own, were forced to pay rent for it, and were subject to being expelled from it at the will or sudden caprice of the new possessors. But, after all, Henry had only succeeded in establishing his actual rule over a small portion of Ireland. He held Limerick, Cork, Waterford, Wexford, and Dublin, and a certain region of country roundabout those places, with his garrisons and soldiery. Outside these limits, his dominion was rather nominal than a reality. The center of English power in Ireland was Dublin, and a certain territory in its neighborhood, comprising the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, and Louth. This territory came to be known as the "English Pale,"—a name which it retained for a long period. It was over four hundred years, indeed, before the power of the English became permanently established in Ireland, beyond the region described as the Pale.

King Henry only remained in Ireland seven months. He was suddenly called away on a serious errand. Thomas a Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, had been killed before the altar of his own cathedral by some of Henry's knights. The king, suspected of having connived at the crime, was summoned to explain it to the envoys of the pope, who were in France. He left Strongbow as viceroy, or governor, of Ireland; and Strongbow continued the struggle to subdue the native Irish. The warfare between the Normans and the Irish went on incessantly. Ulster and Connaught held out persistently against the intruders, who often sallied forth from their strongholds in the Pale, only to be driven back before the fiery though undisciplined valor of the Irish. Strongbow's career as viceroy was full of ups and downs. He still asserted his claim to the crown of Ulster but this was stoutly resisted by Donald "the Handsome," son of the late king, Dermid. Strongbow, enraged at this, caused one of Donald's sons, whom he held as a hostage, to be put to death.

Then began a fierce and vindictive struggle between the two claimants to the Leinster throne; and, from this time forth, Strongbow's fortunes began to wane. Donald inflicted a severe defeat upon him; and, in the following year (1174), Strongbow was confronted at Thurles by the army of the arch-king Roderick, allied with a powerful chief, Donald O'Brien. The viceroy was utterly routed, leaving more than a thousand of his Norman warriors dead on the field. He fled within the walls of Dublin with the remnant of his force, to find there that his garrison had been slaughtered by the people. While his condition was thus desperate, Strongbow was suddenly ordered by Henry to join him in France. He soon returned to Ireland, however, with new powers. He made his peace with the powerful family of Geraldine, whom he had alienated from him by his jealousy of them, giving his sister in marriage to Maurice Fitzgerald, the chief of the family.

For a little, the fortunes of war turned in favor of Strongbow. He retook Limerick, strengthened the defenses of Waterford, and probably caused his rival, Donald, to be murdered. But now the sturdy warrior, who had fought so obstinately to subdue the Irish, was attacked by a fatal disorder. His foot became ulcerated, and he lingered in a long and agonizing illness. He died nine years after his first arrival in Ireland and was buried with much pomp, in Christ Church, Dublin (1177). Thus passed away the most redoubtable of Ireland's Norman enemies. The name of Strongbow still recalls to Irish minds the beginning of the seven centuries of English dominion. In the same year died Strongbow's brother-in-law, the brilliant Maurice Fitzgerald, who had so long been his companion in arms. Fitzgerald was the ancestor of a long line of nobles, who became the heads of the two branches of the powerful Geraldine family, the earls of Desmond and Kildare.

Roderick O'Connor, the arch-king of Ireland, had been able to hold his own against the Normans west of the river Shannon, and had even gained some victories over their armies. But he had not been able to attempt their expulsion from Irish soil. He was a brave and patriotic, but unfortunate, prince. He was constantly called upon to fight with the jealous rival chiefs of the north and west. In the hour of his perplexities his own sons turned against him, just as the sons of the English Henry had by this time become their father's foes on the battle-field. Roderick was at last compelled to seek a sort of alliance with the English conqueror. He accordingly sent envoys, among them the devout St. Lawrence, to Henry, and made a treaty with him (1177). This compact was called the treaty of Windsor, because it was signed in that royal town. By its provisions, Henry recognized Roderick as king of all Ireland, outside the places actually held by the English. In return, Roderick acknowledged Henry as his "lord paramount," agreed to pay a certain annual tribute of hides, and stipulated that the chiefs under him should every year present to the English king a certain number of hawks and hounds. But, as a result of the events which ensued, this treaty was never fully carried out.