[279] Easterly.—­Cambrensis takes to himself the credit of having advised the despatch of a letter to Strongbow.  He also gives us the letter, which probably was his own composition, as it is written in the same strain of bombast as his praises of his family.—­Hib.  Expug. lib. i. c. 12.  It commences thus:  “We have watched the storks and swallows; the summer birds are come and gone,” &c.  We imagine that Dermod’s style, if he had taken to epistolary correspondence, would have been rather a contrast.

[280] Suffolk.—­See Gilbert’s Viceroys of Dublin, passim.  We recommend this work to our readers.  It should be in the hands of every Irishman at least.  It combines the attraction of romance with the accuracy of carefully written history.

[281] Been.—­If we are to believe Cambrensis, Raymond argued against this cruelty, and Henry in favour of it.

[282] Deserved.—­The Annals of Clonmacnois give a similar account; but in a paper MS. in Trinity College, Dublin, it is said that he died “after the victory of penance and unction.”  The old account is probably the more reliable, as it is the more consonant with his previous career.

[283] Difficulty.—­The army was so well supplied, that the English got sufficient corn, meal, and pork to victual the city of Dublin for a whole year.—­Harris’ Hibernae, p. 25.

[284] Crime.—­So fearful was the unfortunate monarch of a public excommunication and interdict, that he sent courtiers at once to Rome to announce his submission.  When he heard of the murder he shut himself up for three days, and refused all food, except “milk of almonds.”  See Vita Quadrip. p. 143.  It would appear this was a favourite beverage, from the amount of almonds which were brought to Ireland for his special benefit.  See p. 272.

CHAPTER XVII.

Arrival of Henry II.—­Some of the Native Princes pay him Homage—­His Character—­Dublin in the time of Henry II.—­His Winter Palace—­Norman Luxuries—­King Henry holds a Court—­Adrian’s Bull—­Temporal Power of the Popes in the Middle Ages—­Conduct of the Clergy—­Irish Property given to English Settlers—­Henry II. returns to England—­The Account Cambrensis gives of the Injuries done to Ireland by his Countrymen—­Raymond, Montmarisco, and Strongbow—­The latter is defeated—­He recalls Raymond from Wales—­Treaty between Roderic and Henry—­Death of Strongbow.

[A.D. 1171-1176.]

[Illustration:  H]

Henry landed in Ireland on the 18th of October, 1171, at Crook, in the county of Waterford.  He was accompanied by Strongbow, William FitzAldelm, Humphrey de Bohun, Hugh de Lacy, Robert FitzBarnard, and many other lords.  His whole force, which, according to the most authentic English accounts, was distributed in four hundred ships, consisted of 500 knights and 4,000 men-at-arms.  It would appear the Irish had not the least idea that he intended to claim the kingdom as his own, and rather looked upon him as a powerful potentate who had come to assist the native administration of justice.  Even had they suspected his real object, no opposition might have been made to it.  The nation had suffered much from domestic dissension; it had yet to learn that foreign oppression was an incomparable greater evil.