[293] Writer.—­Ireland, Historical and Statistical.

[294] Bull.—­There can be no reasonable doubt of the authenticity of this document.  Baronius published it from the Codex Vaticanus; John XXII. has annexed it to his brief addresed to Edward II.; and John of Salisbury states distinctly, in his Metalogicus, that he obtained this Bull from Adrian.  He grounds the right of donation on the supposed gift of the island by Constantine.  As the question is one of interest and importance, we subjoin the original:  “Ad preces meas illustri Regi Anglorum Henrico II. concessit (Adrianus) et dedit Hiberniam jure haereditario possidendam, sicut literae ipsius testantur in hodiernum diem.  Nam omnes insulae de jure antiquo ex donatione Constantini, qui eam fundavit et dotavit, dicuntur ad Romanam Ecclesiam pertinere.”—­Metalogicus, i. 4.

[295] Friends.—­Hib.  Expug. lib. ii. c. 38.

[296] Hugh de Lacy.—­In a charter executed at Waterford, Henry had styled this nobleman “Bailli,” a Norman term for a representative of royalty.  The territory bestowed on him covered 800,000 acres.  This was something like wholesale plunder.

[297] Building.—­This was the Danish fortress of Dublin, which occupied the greater part of the hill on which the present Castle of Dublin stands.  See note, Four Masters, vol. iii. p. 5.  The Annals say this was a “spectacle of intense pity to the Irish.”  It certainly could not have tended to increase their devotion to English rule.

[298] Waterford.—­The English and Irish accounts of this affair differ widely.  The Annals of Innisfallen make the number of slain to be only seven hundred.  MacGeoghegan agrees with the Four Masters.

[299] Coat-of-mail.—­Costly mantles were then fashionable.  Strutt informs us that Henry I. had a mantle of fine cloth, lined with black sable, which cost L100 of the money of the time—­about L1,500 of our money.  Fairholt gives an illustration of the armour of the time (History of Costume, p. 74).  It was either tegulated or formed of chains in rings.  The nasal appendage to the helmet was soon after discarded, probably from the inconvenient hold it afforded the enemy of the wearer in battle.  Face-guards were invented soon after.

[300] Property.—­Maurice FitzGerald died at Wexford in 1179.  He is the common ancestor of the Earls of Desmond and Kildare, the Knights of Glynn, of Kerry, and of all the Irish Geraldines.

[301] Letter.—­“To Raymond, her most loving lord and husband, his own Basilia wishes health as to herself.  Know you, my dear lord, that the great tooth in my jaw, which was wont to ache so much, is now fallen out; wherefore, if you have any love or regard for me, or of yourself, you will delay not to hasten hither with all speed.”—­Gilbert’s Viceroys, p. 40.  It is said that this letter was read for Raymond by a cleric of his train, so it is presumable that reading and writing were not made a part of his education.