Historical portraits of Irish Chieftains and Anglo-Norman Knights, etc

Front matter

HISTORICAL PORTRAITS OF IRISH CHIEFTAIiNS AND ANGLO-NORMAN KNIGHTS. BY THE Rev. CHARLES B. GIBSON, M.R.I.A., AUTHOR OF THE BISTOKY OF THE CODNTY AND CITY OF CORK ; LAST EARL OF DESMOND ; PRINCESS OF BREF.\EY j BEYOND THE ORANOE RlVStt LIFE AMONGST CONVICTS, &C. " Lives great men, all remind us, We can make our lives sublime ; Aod departing, leave behind us, Footprints on the sands of Time." Longfellow. LONDON : LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1871. LONDON : j. MOORK, PRINTER, 4a, EXETER STBBET, STRAND- TO THE MOST NOBLE THE MARQUIS OF KILDARE, M.R.I.A. My Lord Marquis, Of all the Anglo-Norman Knights that in vaded Ireland, your ancestors rank amongst the bravest and most chivalrous ; I therefore think it fitting to dedicate a work which treats of the Irish Invasion, to your lordship, a noble representative of the Geraldine race.

But you have other claims, besides that of noble descent. You have fairly won your spurs in the field of Irish literature. Your Earls of Kildare will always rank as a valuable and interesting contribution to Irish History. I should have been glad, had this volume of Historical Portraits of Irish Chieftains and Anglo-Norman Knights, been more worthy of your lordship's acceptance. With the sincere desire and prayer that the Kildare Brf nch of the Geraldine tree, may be ever green and fruitful, I have the honour to remain, My Lord Marquis, Your most obedient Servant, CHARLES BERNARD UiBSOJT London, June, 1871.

Preface

. An attempt to write History in the attractive form of Historical Portraits, will, of course, be dis countenanced by the " Dry-as-Dust" School; but we know of no other mode of dealing with periods of Ancient History, intended for the public, and not for the learned, exclusively. This is true of early Grecian and Eoman History, in the production of wbich the imagination has had some share. No man, without some kind of imagination, should attempt to write ancient history, for its materials present a dark chaos, from which such a mind alone can produce light and order. There are periods of history which can be read by the light or illumina tion of romance, only. Mr. Hallam, speaking of the Visigoths, says, "I hold the annals of barbarians so unworthy of remembrance, that I will not detain the reader by naming one Sovereign of that obscure race." VI

PREFACE.

. But let Mr. Hallam select a Goth, who may be thought, fairly, to represent the nation, or tribe, and let him tell us all he knows of his personal history, with all the old traditional gossip he can pick up respecting him, and the reader will thank him for the portrait. Attila the Hun, with his large head, imperious will, and dragon-like love of beautiful women, makes an interesting portrait, in the hands of Gibbon, the Historian ; but Mr. Hallam' s taste, or power, did not lie in this department. We confess it requires the magic power of the Wizard of the North, to call up and impart indi viduality to the heroes of the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, and the rapid and careful pen of a Bulwer, to sketch the features of those warlike kings and chieftains, as they pass swiftly through the pages of history, or lie stiff and shrouded in the annals of their age, for they are all alike fierce in aspect, and blood-begrimed.

The marks of brutality which would cause any one of those heroes to stand out prominently on the pages of modern history, were too common, in their own time, to create surprise, or give distinction. It was the high and calm brow of an Alfred, the statesman-

PREFACE.

. VII like bearing of a Harold, and the mild face of a Confessor, that appeared singular at this epoch, and made the principal figure on the canvas. It must be borne in mind, that during the rude and fierce period to which we refer, the history of the time was little more than the history of the reigning sovereign or chieftain ; that it was, in fact, little more than a history of his own making, and could not fail to reflect the principal lineaments of his character ; so that to bring out or develope his individuality, is to lighten or illuminate the dark age in which he lived, and ruled. Holding this to be the case, I have attempted to write the history of the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland, in the form of Historical Portraits. HISTORICAL PORTRAITS OF IRISH CHIEFTAINS AND ANGLO -NOEMAN KNIGHTS

Chapter I. Norman Invasion-civil State Of Ireland, Compared With

ENGLAND— MALACHY— BRIAN BORU— THE DANES— THE DEATH OF TURGESIUS. rpHE Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland during the -*- reign of Henry II., did not take place till more than a hundred years after the conquest of England, by William I. Whether it was, that Irish " iniquities were not full " — England, in some things, is a century in advance of Ireland, — or that the latter country was unworthy of a Norman lord or ruler at that time, will depend altogether on the views taken of the political and social effects of the invasion, which some writers have erroneously styled "the conquest of Ireland." Some seem to doubt whether Ireland has as yet been conquered ; and we are not surprised at these doubts. Sir John Davis, the Irish Attorney- General of James the First, wrote a work, which was published in 1613 — that is about 440 years after the Anglo-Norman invasion — entitled A Discovcrie of the True Causes tvhy Ireland was never entirely Subdued.

We have no hesitation in pronouncing this book one of the ablest, if not the ablest, work ever penned on Irish affairs. B HISTOUICAL PORTRAITS. "The first attempt to conquer this kingdom," writes Sir John, " was but an adventure of a few private gentlemen. Fitz-Stephen and Fitz-Gerald first broke the ice, with a party of 390 men. The Earl Strongbow followed with 112 more, whose good success upon the sea-coasts of Leinster and Munster drew over the king in person the next year, cum quingentis militibus, as Giraldus Cambrensis reporteth ; which, if they were but 500 soldiers, seemeth too small a train for so great a prince. " But admit they were 500 knights, yet because in those days every knight was not a commander of a regiment or company, but most of them served as private men — sometimes 100 knights under a spear, as appeareth by the lists of the ancient armies, — we cannot conjecture his army to have been so great, as might suffice to conquer all Ireland, being divided into so many principalities, and having so many hydreas heads, as it had at that time."

These hydra heads displayed the capacity, for the space of four or five hundred years, of growing up as fast as they were chopped off ; so that it really was not till near the death of Queen Elizabeth that the conquest seemed complete ; it was not till then that Sir George Carew was enabled to write his Pacata Hibernia — a name that seemed intended as a motto for Ireland's tomb,— but from that time, to the present, one rebellion, or attempt at rebellion, has continued to spring so rapidly and phœnix-like from the ashes of that which preceded it, that we almost hesitate, in this year of Grace 1871, to assert that Ireland is even yet subjected ; not, at least, in the sense of all its inhabitants being loyal subjects. ANGLO-NORMAN KNIGHTS. 11 " The defects," writes Sir John Davis, " which hindred the perfection of the conquest of Ireland were of two kinds, and consisted, first, in the faint prosecu tion of the warre, and next, in the looseness of the civill Government."

He mentions a third impediment to the conquest. "A barbarous country," he says, "is not so easily con quered as a civil ; whereof Cæsar had experience in his wars against the Gauls, Germans, and Britains, who were subdued to the Boman empire with far greater difficulty than the rich" — and, he might have added, settled and civilised — "kingdoms of Asia." Camden, in his Itinerary, describes the English Con queror William I. as standing on the high cliffs of Wales, which command the Wicklow mountains, in Ireland, and saying, with something of the profane boasting of Artaxerxes, " I will have the ships of my kingdom brought hither, wherewith I will make a bridge to invade this land." When Murchardt, king of Leinster, heard this boast, he asked, "Hath the king, in his great threatening, inserted the words, If it please God?

" " No," was the reply. " Then, said Murchardt, seeing this king putteth his trust only in man, and not in God, I fear not his coming." When this was told to William, he frowned, and bit his thumb. Sir John Davis, in showing the necessity of the strong arm of the warrior, such as William the Conqueror, in preparing the field for the legislator and civil ruler, says : — " The husbandman must first break the land before it can be made capable of good seede ; when it is thoroughly broken and manured, if he do not, forthwith, cast good .seede into it, it will grow wilde againe, and beare nothing but weeds. So a barbarous country must be first broken by a warre, before it will be capable of good government ; and when it is fully subdued and conquered, if it be not well planted and governed, after the conquest, it will, eft-soones, return to the former barbarisme."

It cannot be said, as it respects the Norman Conquest of England, that there was any " faint prosecution of the war." William of MalmesTbury seems to view the English Conquest as the work of a Mightier arm than that of the Conqueror; to esteem it "an extraordinary work of Providence, that the English should have given up all for lost, after the battle of Hastings, where only a small, though brave army, had perished." Henry of Huntingdon speaks even more emphatically : — "In the year of Grace 1060, the Divine Buler accomplished what he had before purposed respecting the English nation. He gave them up to the Normans, a cruel and wise people, to be exterminated."* " God sees the wretched people," says the Saxon chronicler, " most unjustly oppressed ; first they are despoiled of their possessions, and then butchered.

Whoever had any property, lost it by heavy taxes and unjust decrees." Again, "It is not easy to relate the miseries sustained, at this time, by England, from royal exactions." — Chro. Saxon, p. 228. The English nobles and clergy were as bad as the king. " The nobles and bishops built castles, and filled them with devilish and wicked men ; and oppressed the people cruelly, torturing them for their money. They * " Millesimo et sexagesimo sexto anno gratiæ, perfecit dominator Deus de gente Anglorum quod diu cogitaverat. Genti namque Kor manorum asperæ et callidæ traditit eos ad exterminandum." ANGLO NORMAN KNIGHTS. 13 imposed taxes on towns, and when they had exhausted them of everything they set them on fire. You might travel a day, and not find a man living in a town. If two or three men [Normans] were seen riding up to a town, all its inhabitants left it, taking them for plun derers.

And this lasted, growing worse and worse, through Stephen's reign. Men said, openly, that Christ and his saints were asleep." — Chro. Saxon, p. 239. A more complete proof of this state of things results from the comparative condition of English towns in the reign of the Confessor, and at the compilation of Dooms day Book.* At the former period, there were, in York, 1,607 inhabited houses, at the latter, 967; at the former period, in Oxford, 727, at the latter, 243. Of 172 houses of Dorchester, 100 were destroyed ; of 243 in Derby, 103 ; of 487 in Chester, 205. Some towns suffered less, but all presented a decreased and decaying population. The weight and severity of the Norman yoke was greatly relieved in the time of Henry II., whom Hallam styles " the best of these monarchs ; " and the reign of his son John — who perhaps was the worst — is distin guished by the granting of the Magna Charta.

It is worthy of remark that the noble knights who invaded Ireland were the same class of men, and some of them the same men, who afterwards wrested the sword of oppression from the hands of this cowardly prince, and taught him to respect the liberties of the people. If the unsettled state of England in 1064, demanded the strong and stern rule of a conqueror, like William * The Compilation of Doomsday Book was commenced in 1080, and finished in 1086. Edward the Confessor reignod from 1041 to 1066. of Normandy, the necessity was even greater in Ireland in 1170. " Since the death of Malachy," observes O'Conor, " this nation has been falling into a state of political reprobation. Each province set up for itself, the monarchy grew indifferent, and the monarch hateful to the majority of the chieftains.

When Roderick mounted the throne, the measure of their iniquity was full." I have pored over Irish Annals for years to discover when and why it was that Ireland attained the high appellation of " the Island of Saints." Had there been real saints in the land before the introduction of Chris tianity, we should say it gained the high appellation during the reign of Gedhe Ollghothach, in Anno Mundi 3960, for " observers of antiquity affirm of him that the conversation of his subjects in general, in his time, was as sweet a harmony to one another as any musick, because they lived together in such concord, amity, and atone ment among themselves, that there was no discord or strife heard to grow between them, for any cause what soever. An Irish poet gives us a glowing description of the condition of Ireland during the reign of the monarch Cathaeir Mor of the Wine-red hand : — " I walked entranced through a land of morn ; The sun, with wondrous excess of light, Shone down, and glanced over seas of corn, And lustrous gardens aleft and right.

Even in the clime of resplendent Spain Reams no such sun upon such a land ; Rut it was the time, 'twas in the reign Of Cathaeir Mor of the Wine-red hand. " Anon stood nigh by my side, a man Of princely aspect, and port sublime. Here, queried I, ' Oh ! my Lord and Khan, What clime is this, and what golden time ? ' When he — ' The clime is a clime to praise, The clime is Erin's, the green and bland ; And it is the time, these be the days Of Cathaeir Mor of the Wine-red hand.' 11 Then I saw thrones, and circling fires, And a dome rose near me, as by a spell, Whence flowed the tones of silver lyres And many voices, in wreathed swell ; And their thrilling chime fell on mine ears, As the heavenly hymn of an angel band — It's now the time, these be the years Of Cathaeir Mor of the Wine-red hand."

But this happy state of things did not continue. Cathaeir Mor, or Cathaeir the Great, of the Wine-red hand, was slain in battle, in a.d. 122, long before any Christian saint had set foot in Ireland. His death is thus noticed in Irish Annals : " Age of Christ, 122, Cathaeir Mor, after having been three years King over Ireland, was slain by Conn" — that is "Conn of the Hundred Battles," who succeeded to the chief kingship. The effect of Cathaeir Mor's death on the state of Ire land is thus eloquently expressed, in the latter part of the poem, from which I have quoted : — " I sought the hall, and, behold, a change From light to darkness, from joy to woe ! Kings, nobles, all, looked aghast and strange ; The minstrel group sat in dumbest show ! Had some great crime wrought this dread amaze, This terror ?

None seemed to understand ! 'Twas then the time, we were in the days Of Cathaeir Mor of the Wine-red hand. " I again walked forth ; but lo ! the sky Showed fleckt with blood, and an alien sun Glared from the north, and there stood on high, Amid his shorn beams — a skeleton ! It was by the stream of the castled Maine, One autumn eve, in the Teuton's land, That I dreamed this dream of the time and reign, Of Cathaeir Mor of the Wine-red hand." Feeling some hesitation in deciding for myself against the claims of Ireland to be called the u Island of Saints," I wrote to Doctor O'Donovan, of the Four- Masters, and the following is his reply: — "I have been long under the impression that this appellation was given by some foreign writer, in consequence of the number of missionaries which Ireland sent abroad from the sixth to the ninth centuries.

I do not believe that the name was applied to Ireland on account of the peace and tran quillity which, at any period, reigned among the laity. If Ireland ever deserved the appellation of which the bards boast, ' Erin, pure Island of Saints,' it must have been during the seventh and eighth centuries. I am a bad believer in saints, or ancient civilisations, for which I must suffer some thousands of years in purgatory. I hope you will weigh this subject well, which is of great importance." Doctor O'Donovan gives the correct clue to the difficulty, where he says, "the appellation was given in consequence ofthe number of missionaries sent abroad." In the first ages of the Christian Church the term " saint " was applied to all believers. In course of time it was confined to churchmen. It is so employed in the Annals of Ireland. [See Age of Christ, 664.]

The term might be correctly rendered Island of Monks, for Ireland was as much the Land of Monks in the eighth and ninth centuries, as are Italy, Spain, and Portugal in the nineteenth. But every country under heaven has had its golden age. We are told that Eollo, the great ancestor of the Conqueror, suspended a valuable bracelet from an oak, in a forest near the Seine, and that it remained there for three years. Bede says of the kingdom of Northumber land, in the reign of Edwin, that " a woman with a new born child might travel over the whole island without fear of insult." And it is recorded in the Four Masters, under date a.d. 1167, that " women used to travel Ire land alone." The poet Moore has presented us with one memorable example. " Rich and rare were the gems she wore, And a bright gold ring on her wand she bore ; But oh ! her beauty was far beyond Her sparking gems or snow-white wand.

" Lady ! dost thou not fear to stray, So lone and lovely, through this bleak way ? Are Erin's sons so good or so cold, As not to be tempted by woman or gold ? " Sir Knight ! I feel not the least alarm, No son of Erin will offer me harm, For though they love women and golden store, Sir Knight, they love honour and virtue more ! " On she went, and her maiden smile, In safety lighted her round the green isle ; And blest for ever is she who relied Upon Erin's honour and Erin's pride ! " If the women who "travelled alone," in the twelfth century, were anything like this vision of beauty, God must have had them in His special keeping. MALACHY AND BRIAN BOROIMHE. The reigns of Malachy and Brian Boroimhe are conc siclered exceptions to the general system of misrule, anarchy, and bloodshed, which devastated the kingdom.

These Grande Monarchs are looked upon as the very beau ideal of Irish kings and heroes ; and their names are so associated with the poetry of the country, that we almost hesitate to break the spell ; but the interests of truth sometimes demand the sacrifice of poetical fiction. The Abbe Macgeoghegan says that O'Melaghlin, or Malachy, King of Meath, the same who " Wore the collar of gold, Which he took from the proud invader," ' ' gave himself up to pleasure, and neglected the welfare of the nation." It was, therefore, decreed that he should be dethroned, and the sceptre transferred to Brian Bora, King of Munster. " The collar of Tomar," says Moore, in his History of Ireland, was a golden torque, which the monarch Mala chy took from the neck of a Danish chieftain, whom he had conquered. Dr. O'Donovan — a far higher authority than Mr. Moore — says that " there was no Tomar in Malachy' s time."

The Danish chieftain, who wore this famous golden tore, or collar, was slain near Castle dermot, in a.d. 846, that is about 150 years before the monarch Malachy flourished. This Tomar was the ancestor of the Danish kings of Dublin. Tomar's golden collar was preserved by the Danes of Dublin, and worn, perhaps, by the chief magistrates of that city to the year a.d. 994, when it was carried off by Malachy, who appears to have plundered the Danish corporation chest, from which he took both collar -and sword. The Four Masters, under date 994, say, "The ring of Tomar, and the sword of Carlus, were carried away by force, by Malachy, from the Foreigners of Ath-cliath, i.e., the Danes of Dublin. Eight years after this, in a.d. 1002, Brian Boroimhe, or Boru, the son of Kennedy, King of Limerick, assumed the chief sovereignty of Ireland, deposing the legitimate monarch, Malachy.

The Annals of Ireland say that Brian Boru was seventy five years old at this time. This probably is a mis take. If it be correct, he must have been twenty-four years older than Malachy, whom he deposed. Brian Boroimhe, after a reign of eleven or twelve years of anarchy and bloodshed, fell at the famous battle of Clontarf, near Dublin. Malachy, who, on the death of Brian, became reinstated as chief monarch of Ireland, is reported, by Keating, to bave witnessed the battle, and to have acted a cowardly and treacherous part. But some of the annalists assert there was no treachery on the part of the dethroned monarch, although it was his interest to support the Danes. We believe the decree, or law, deposing Malachy, was that of lamh lathar, or of the " strong hand." It will surprise, and even shock, some Irish readers, to learn, that when Brian Boroimhe, the very Bobert Bruce of Irish history, had conceived the ambitious design of deposing the chief monarch, Malachy, he joined with the Danes against him.

The intimate con nexion existing between the Irish chieftains and Danes, or Scandinavians, may be gathered from the fact that Malachy II., monarch of Ireland, married the daughter of Olaf, the Danish king of Dublin ; and that on the death of Olaf, Brian Boru married his widow. The daughter of Brian was married to Sitric III., " of the Silken Beard," the Danish king who fought against his own father-in-law, Baron Boru, at the battle of Clontarf, on Palm Sunday a.d. 1014. Sitric reigned for forty years, as Danish king of Dublin, and died on a pilgrimage to Borne. Many of his coins are still extant, an evidence that these Norse men were no barbarians. Brian's wrath against the Danes was first aroused by a domestic, or family injury ; by the treachery of Ivor, king of the Danes of Limerick, who abetted and aided an Irish chieftain, named Molloy, in the murder of Mahon, Brian's brother, at a feast at Bruree, in the county Limerick.

We have a curious account of this murder, and its effects on Brian's mind, in an old Irish book, called The War of the Gaels, with the Danes. Donovan and Molloy, chiefs of Desmond, perceiving the increasing power of the O'Briens, and fearing that if it were not checked, the crown of Munster would remain in the family for ever, united with Ivor, king of the Danes of Limerick, to destroy Mahon, who was then king of Thomond and Ormond. Ivor suggested that Donovon should invite Mahon to a banquet at his house at Bruree. Although Mahon suspected the loyalty of his host, he accepted the invitation, for "his safety had been guaranteed by Columb MacKiergan, successor of St. Barry, bishop of Cork, and other of the clergy of Munster," in other words, by solemn oaths, in which the names of these pious men were invoked.

He there fore attended the feast, where he was seized and delivered into the hands of his ruthless foes, Molloy and Ivor, who were waiting for him in a neighbouring wood, with a body of Irish and Danish troops. Molloy ordered his IBISH CHIEFTAINS AND ANGLO-NORMAN KNIGHTS. 21 people instantly to despatch him. His order was obeyed. " A bright and sharp sword " was plunged into his heart, and his blood stained St. Barry's Gospel,* which he held in his hand, to protect him by its sanctity. Two of the clergy of St. Barry witnessed the transaction from a hillock. It is said that when Mahon received the stroke, he cast the gospel from his hand, with so much force, that it struck the breast of one of the priests of Cork. " What hast thou done ? " demanded the priest of Molloy. " Cure that man if he come to thee," was the sneering reply.

The priest, in his wrath, cursed Molloy bitterly, predicting that his grave would be dug near the side of the hill where they stood, and that the sun would never shine upon it. The story goes that Molloy lost his eye-sight, was slain in a hut, constructed of alder trees, and buried on the north side of a hill, in a spot where the sun never shines. We learn from the Dublin copy of the Annals of Innisfallen, that Molloy was slain by Morough, son of Brian Boru. Brian Boru is said to have given expression to his sorrowful revenge for his brother's death, in an elegy, which we have taken the liberty of paraphrasing, with something more than a poet's licence. " My heart within this breast had burst, If vengeance I had longer nursed : A king and brother ! deed accursed ! Oh ! Mahon, generous and brave, I little thought this early grave, Would hide thy manly frame ; * "St. Barry's Gospel."— There is no such manuscript or book now in existence.

Doctors Todd and O'Donovan, of Trinity College, agree with me in thinking it must have been a copy of the Four Gospels, written by the priests of Saint Finn Ban's of Cork. Wouldst thou hadst fallen behind thy shield, A victor in some bloody field, And poets sang thy fame ! Mahon, confiding in a knave, Saw foeman's face in the clear wave, That gave his own. The Church her safety pledged in vain ; What power divine could bind a Dane, With breast of stone. The blood that warmed thy tender heart, Of Barry's Gospel stained a part — Ochone ! Ochone ! Their blood shall flow for this vile deed ; I'll crush these vipers and their seed ! Now, Ivor, you or I shall bleed." There is an old harp in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin, called "Brian Bora's harp." Doctor Petrie says it belongs to a later period ; but I believe there can be no doubt that this Irish monarch, like Bichard Cœur de Lion, used the harp, or ceannaircruit, as well as the sword and battle-axe.

The tradition of the barp is that it was sent to Borne after the death of Brian, who fell at Clontarf, where it remained more than five centuries, and was then presented by one of the Popes to Henry YIIL, by whom it was returned to Ireland. " to be figured on his coins, in compliment to the musical taste of the Irish." The harp, when perfect, had thirty strings. Brian proved himself as powerless in the subjugation of the Danes, as in the restoration of order among the Irish chieftains. The battle of Clontarf was not a decisive event, like Bannockburn, or Waterloo. We very much doubt that it was a decided victory. The Danes held Dublin after the battle. From it we may date the fall of the Brian Boru dj-nasty. An old Norse, or Danish saga, says that the day before the battle, Odin, the god of war, descended from the clouds on a grey horse, and held council with the King, the Queen-mother, Earl Sigurd and Brodin, a deacon, who had denied the faith, and turned sorcerer.

Another seer saw twelve witches, entering a thicket or wood, mounted on twelve broomsticks, or black horses — I forget which. On peering through the trees, he saw them hard at work at a loom with the thread of man's existence, employing a number of devilish and foul incantations, too horrible to describe. These were the Fates, or Odin's " corse-choosers," weaving the destinies of those who were to take part in the coming battle. As they wove they chaunted their death-songs thus : — " Weave the crimson web of war ; Here we go, and here we fly ; Where our friends the conflict share, Where they triumph, where they die. " Low the dauntless here are laid, Gored with many a gaping wound, Fate demands a nobler head, Soon a king shall bite the ground. " Long his loss shall Erin weep, Ne'er again his likeness see ; Long her strains in sorrow steep, Strains of immortality.