The history of the County and City of Cork

Front matter

THE HISTORY OF THE COUNTY AND CITY OF COKK. BT Bey. C. B. GIBSON, M.E.I.A. The spreading Lee, that like an island fayre, Encloseth Corke with his divided flood."— Spenser. " The Mayor of the town, with his hrethren, received him in ther skarlet gowns, and ther typetts of velvett, after the English fashion, and made us the beste chere that ever we had in ower lyves." — State Paper. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: THOMAS C. NEWBY, 30, WELBECK STREET. 1861. OOBK: FBINTED BT OUT BBOTHEBSj ACADEMT 6TEEIT. DEDICATED TO EDMUND BUEKE ROCHE, BAEON FEKMOY, M.P. LIEUTENANT AND CUSTOS JROTULORUM, OP THB COUNTY AND CITY OF CORK. V j&zbxzntian. TO THE EIGHT HONORABLE LOED FEEMOY. Mt Deab Lobd, I have nrach pleasure in dedicating this Histokt or the County and City of Cokk to you. It is not all that I could desire, but it is as good as I can make it.

I have the honor to remain, My Dear Lord, Yours very sincerely, CHARLES B. GIBSON. MoNKSTo*n*N, Cork, Feb. 1, 1861. Page. CONTENTS Chapter. I. — The Mao Carthys and O'Briens, - - - -I II. — The Conquest of Cork — The Distribution of the Kingdom among the Anglo-Norman Knights, - - - - 13 III. — The Earls of Desmond — Irish Literature and Laws, - 44 IV. — Thomas of Drogheda — Irish Poets and Poor Scholars, - 74 V. — State of Society — Lambert Simnel and Perkin "Warbeck — City Charters. - - - - 84 VI, — The Normans — The Commoners — The Army — The Church, - 99 VII. — The Earls of Desmond, Ormond and Kildare, - - 113 VIII The Old Countess of Desmond— The Court Page, - - 124 IX — Sir John of Desmond — The Court Page — James Fitz-John, the Pretended Earl, - - - - - 130 X. — The Pretended Earl — The Court Page — Lord Leonard Gray — Sir Anthony St. Leger, .... 151 XT.— Edward VI Mary and Philip— The Earl of Desmond, - 168 1 XII — Garrett styled the Great Earl of Desmond, • - 182 Xm.— Irish Rulers— Lord President of Munster— Lord Deputy- Manners and Customs— Dress, - - - CONTENTS.

XIV. — The Landing at Smerwick— Lord Grey — Spenser — Raleigh — Lord Roche — The Death of the Earl of Desmond, - 234 XV. — A Parliament — The Undertakers — Florence Mac Carthy — O'Neill and O'Donnell, - - - - 269 XVI.— The Poet Spenser, - - - - - 296 XVII.— The Earl of Essex— Death of Sir Thomas Norris— Warham St. Leger and Hugh Maguire Slain — Sir George Carew and James Fitz-Thomas, .... 316 XYIII. — Florence Mac Carthy — John Annias — Sir George Carew, - 337 XIX— The Spaniards at Kinsale, - - - - 354 XX Don Juan in Cork, ----- 375 XXI The Siege of Dunboy Castle, - - - - 384 XXII. — Blarney Castle and Cormac Mac Dermot Mac Carthy, - THE HISTOEY OF CORK.

Chapter I. The Mac Carthys And O'briens

A.D. 976—1170. The province of Munster had been, from an early period, possessed by the Engenians, or Mac Carthys of Cork, and the Dalcassians, or O'Briens of Limerick. The king of the whole of Munster* — for this province had a king paramount — was chosen alternately from these two great families. This arrangement was finally interrupted on the accession of Brian Boru to the throne of Limerick, or Thomond, whose brother, Mahon, had been treacherously and barbarously murdered by Molloy, the ancestor of the O'Mahonys of Cork, and Donovan, or O'Donovan, who lived at Bruree,*f now * Munster, from Mumho, a king of Munster, about 800 years before Christ. Munster, in old time, was divided into five Munsters, viz : — Ormond, Thomond, Desmond, Middle Munster, and West Munster. f Who lived at Bruree. — The O'Donovans were the original princes of Carbery, on the south-western coast of the county of Cork, of which territory they were dispossessed by the ancestors of the famous Florence Mac Carthy, oi' Kilbrittan castle.

HISTOEY OF COBK. in the county Limerick, then in the kingdom of Cork. The murder is thus recorded in the Dublin copy of the Annals of Innisfallen : — A.D. 976. " Donovan, son of Cathal, Prince of Cairbre Ardhbha, treacherously seized upon Mahon, son of Kennedy, in his own house, at Brugh-righ, where he was under the protection of Colum, son of Ciaragan, Bishop of Cork, (successor of Barra,) who guaran teed his safety, to make peace with Maolmhuadh, son of Bran, to whom, and to whose brothers, Teige and Brian Donovan treacherously delivered Mahon, who was murdered by them, without respect to the saint [recte, holy man] who had ensured his safety." We have a more circumstantial account of this murder and its consequences, in a curious Irish work, called Cogadh Gaeidheal re Gallaibh, that is, " War of the Gaels [or Irish] with the Danes."

We give an abstract from Doctor 0' Donovan's translation : — Donovan and Molloy, chiefs of Desmond, perceiving the increasiDg 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 Donovan should invite Mahon to a banquet at his house at Bruree. Although Mahon suspected the loyalty of his host, he accepted the invi tation, 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 therefore 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 MACCAETHYS AND O'BRIENS. 3 and Danish troops.

Molloy ordered his 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 dene ? " 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 : " A.D. 978. Brian, son of Kennedy, and his son Moragh, at the head of the Dal-glais, fought the battle of Bealach-leachta, against Maolmuaidh [Molloy] son of Bran, at the head of the Eugenians, with the additional forces of the Danes of Munster. In this battle, Maolmuaidh was slain by the hand of Moragh, son of Brian ; two hundred of the Danes were also slain, together with a great number of the Irish " Some think this battle was fought at Bearna-dhearg, (Bed-Chair) on Sliabh-Caoin. An ancient manuscript says at Cnoc-ramhra, south of Mallow, on the road to Cork ; another ancient manuscript, at Magh Cromtha (Macroom), near Muisire-na-mona-moire, or Mushera mountain." * " 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 Barr's of Cork. 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 license. My heart within this breast had burst, If vengeance I had longer nursed : A king and brother ! deed accursed ! Ob ! Mahon, generous and brave, I little thought this early grave, Would hide thy manly frame ; Would 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 eould bind a Dane, With breast of stone.

Tbe blood tbat wanned 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 lan old harp in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin, called " Brian Boru's harp." Doctor Petrie says it belongs to a later period ; but I believe there can be no doubt that this Irish monarch, like Eichard Cœur de Lion, used the harp, or ceannaircruit, as well as the sword and battle-axe. The tradition of the harp is that it was sent to Eome 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 Boru, who became king of Thomond, on his brother Mahon's death, directed his first efforts against Donovan's allies, the Danes of Limerick,* and slew Ivor, (who first suggested the murder,) and two of his sons. Upon their death, Donovan sent for Harold, another of Ivor's sons, whom Brian also slew, plundering Limerick, which was in their hands. He then assumed the chief kingship of Mu aster, and left no stone unturned to briag the whole province under his iron heel, and that of his successors. The murder of Mahon was fearfully avenged, more than a century after, by the murder of Cormac, the bishop king of Desmond, one of the progenitors of the noble house of Mac Carthy. The Mac Carthy's are the descendants of Aenghus, the first christian king of Munster.

He flourished in the fifth century. He received the rite of baptism from the hands of the great Irish Apostle, Saint Patrick, on the Eock of Cashel. An interesting circumstance, well calculated to put the faith of the new convert to the test, occurred on that occasion. Saint Patrick's crosier was so placed as to pierce the king's foot to the bone. He supposing it to be part of the ceremony of initiation, bore it like a christian soldier, without wincing. Aenghus fell in battle at Cell-Osnadha.f There is a story that his * Donovan's allies, the Danes of Limerick : — " A battle was gained by Brian, son of Ceinneidigh, over the foreigners of Luimneach, and Donnabhan, son of Cathal, Lord of Ui-Fidbgeinte, wherein the foreigners of Luimneach were defeated and slaughtered." — Four Masters, A.D. 976. f Cell-Osnadha : — "Tbis place is now called Kelliston, and is situated in the barony of Forth, in the county of Carlow, and there exists among tbe old natives of the place, a most curious and remarkably vivid tradition of this battle, which explains the Irish name of the place as denoting ' Church of the groans,' and which it received, according to this tradition, from the lamentations of the Munster women after the loss of their husbands and brothers in the battle." — Four Masters, Dr. O'Donovaiis edition, A D. 487. death, and that of his queen, Eithne,* had been predicted by St. Kieran, in consequence of some horrid crimes imputed to her.

An Irish poet thus records his fall : — Died the branch, the spreading tree of gold, Aenghus the laudable son of Nadfraech, His prosperity was cut off by Illann, In the battle of Cell-Osnadha the foul. "This Aenghus," (writes Doctor O'Donovan,) "is the common ancestor of the families of Mac Carthy, O'Keeffe, O'Sullivan, and O'Callaghan, now so widely spread in Ireland, England, and America, and even on the continent of Europe, where some of them bear coronets. If the saplings of this 'spreading tree of gold,' Aenghus Mac Nadfraech, could now be reckoned in the different countries in which they have pullulated, it would appear that they are vastly numerous, and that, as the multiplication of a race is a blessing, king Aenghus has reaped the full benefit of that 5 alma benedictio ' imparted by St. Patrick, when he baptized him at Cashel, and, by a singular mistake, put his faith to tho trial, by piercing his foot with the top of his crosier."

There is nothing very remarkable in this pullulation, for the descendants of the blood-royal in England, may now be reckoned by tens of thousands. — Vide Sir Bernard Burke on the " Vicissitudes of Noble Families." The Mac Carthys, the kings of Desmond, or Cork, derived their name from Carthach. The son of Carthach was the first of the family who was called Mac Carthaigh * Eithne : — There is a story told of her having being fed by her fosterers, with the flesh of cbildren, in order to fit ber for early marriage. Keating's Ireland, preface xxi. Tu enim, filia, et Dominus noster Rex, uno die, occidemini ab inimicis vestris : sed det Dominus vobis miscricordiam. — Ada Sanctorum, p. 460. or Mac Carthy. Cormac, son of Muireadhach,* and grandson of Mac Carthy, was the bishop-king of Desmond, perhaps the most distinguished member of this noble family.

Doctors O'Brien and Lanigan, think he was merely honored with the title of bishop for his piety and liberality to the church, but they were mistaken, for we find his death thus recorded in the Annals of Kilronan, which were compiled in the fifteenth century : — A.D. 1138. — "Cormac, grandson of Carthach, chief king of Desmond, and bishop-king of Ireland, in his time, for piety and the bestowal of jewels and wealth to the clergy and their churches, and for ecclesiastical wealth to God, in books and implements, fell treacherously by Thomond, and a blessing on his soul." It is also recorded in the Four Masters, thus : — A.D. 1138. — "Cormac, son of Muireadhach, son of Carthach, lord of Desmond, and bishop-king of Ireland, in his time, for his bestowal of jewels and wealth to the clergy and to the churches, the impiover of territories and churches, was treacherously slain in his own house, by Toirdhealbhach, the son of Diarmaid O'Brien, and by the two sons of O'Connor Kerry."

The antiquarian may see, at the present day, the stoue-roofed church on the rock of Cashel, called Cormac's Chapel, which Doctor Petrie styles "one of the most curious and perfect churches, in the Norman style, in the British Empire." Here we are pointed to king Cormac's tomb, in which was discovered a crosier of " exceedingly beautiful workmanship." It * Cormac, son of Muireadhach. — Some are in the habit of confounding Cormac the bishop-king of Desmond, with Cormac, son of Cuileannan, king of Cashel, who was " a king, a bishop, an anchorite, and a scribe, profoundly learned in the Scotia tongue." This Cormac was slain in 927, at the battle at Bealach-Mughna, or rather was beheaded after the battle. The site of this battle is still pointed out, and the stone on which the king's head was cut off by a common kearn.

This Cormac was the author of an ancient Irish Glossary, called Sanason Chormaic, and is also said to have compiled the Psalter of Cashel. is now in the possession of Doctor Petrie, from whom we have the following description : — " The head is formed of copper, and measures twelve inches in length, and five in the diameter of the crook or circular. The crook, or upper portion of the crosier, represents a serpent terminated by a double-faced head. Its surface is covered with a sunk lozenge carving, filled with a vitreous enamel of a blue colour, and the intervening elevations of which are gilt — a design obviously intended to represent the scales of the reptile. Within the curve is a human figure, standing with one leg placed on the neck of the serpent, and the other on the back of a double-faced wingless dragon, which he has pierced in the back with a spear, which the dragon bites.

This human figure is dressed in a simple tunic, tied round the waist, and the feet are covered with buskins, which extend above the ankles. This figure had wings fastened to the shoulders, and to the central bar, which connects the figure with the circle, but these wings have been detached and lost. Both the figures were gilt, and their eyes, as well as those of the serpent, are formed of small gems, and the sides of the dragon are ornamented with a line of turquoises, placed at equal intervals from each other. The bowl, or middle portion, which is hollow, is encircled by a central belt, ornamented with nine turquoises and nine sapphires, placed alternately, and at equal distances from each other, the intervening spaces being filled with sculptured beads, Above and below this belt there are figures of four dragons, gilt, and with eyes formed of gems.

The tail of each of these animals is brought round the head of the other, so as to form a very symmetrical ornament, and the surrounding ground is filled with a blue enamel. Immediately above the bowl, and encircling the upper portion of the staff, is an ornament resembling the Irish crown, consisting of eight radii, ornamented above the fillet with the same number of gems. The lower portion of the head, or cylindrical socket, is ornamented with a very graceful pattern, composed of leaves, or flowers, in three vertical ranges. The ground in these ornaments is also of a blue enamel, but the stems are gilt, and the flowers are filled with an enamel of white and red, now a good deal decayed. These ranges are separated from each other by three figures of a fish, the well known mystical symbol of the early christians, and these figures are each ornamented with a range of se ven gems — torquoises and sapphires alternately — placed at equal distances along the back."

We agree with Doctor Petrie, that this crosier is of the highest interest, as a specimen of the jewellery art in Ireland, before the arrival of the English. The bishop-king was succeeded by his son Diarmaid. It was not till the year 1151, that an opportunity was afforded Diarmaid Mac Carthy of throwing off the yoke of the man who had murdered his pious father. Thorlough O'Conor, king of Connaught, led an army into Munster, and established Diarmaid in the sovereignty of Desmond. But O'Conor had not long withdrawn his forces, before O'Brien set out upon another of his predatory excursions. On his return he met O'Conor, king of Connaught, and Diarmaid Mac Murrough, king of Leinster, who, with their united forces, gave battle to this redoubtable descendant of Brian Boru. The Dalcassian, or O'Brien troops, were defeated with tremendous slaughter.

Seven thousand of their carcases were left to blacken in the waters of Moin-mor,* or great bog. Among the slain was Muircheartach, son of Conor O'Brien, -jlord of Thomond, and royal heir of Munster, " the second best man among the Dalcassians." There escaped but one shattered battalion out of three which came to the ground in all the pride and panoply of war. Turlough O'Brien was banished, and the supremacy of Munster assumed by the conqueror, Thorlough O'Conor, king * Moin-mor, i.e. the "Large Bog.". — There are many places of this name in Munster, but the place where this terrible battle was fought, would seem to be Moanmore, in the parish of Emly, barony of Clanwilliam, and county of Tipperary. — 0' Donovan' s Edition Four Masters, vol. i. p. 1096, t Son of Conor CfBrein: — I conclude that Conor O'Brien, lord of Thomond, was the king's brother, and that the young man who fell was the king's nephew. of Connaught.

And thus was Diarmaid and his father, Cormac, revenged by the hand of a stranger. The condition of Thorlough O'Brien, after the battle, appears to have been truly miserable and contemptible, that of an outcast and a wanderer. Take the following entry : — "Thorlough O'Brien went to Limerick, but he did not get shelter in Munster, and he took many jewels with him, i.e. ten score ounces of gold and sixty beautiful jewels, beside the drinking-horn ' of Brian Borumha, and he divided them among the chiefs of Sil-Muireadhaigh, (the O'Conors of Connaught,) TJi- Briuin, (the O'Eourkes of Brefney,) and Commhaicne, (the O'Farrells,) but his presents to the Connaught chieftains were of no avail ; two years after this (1153,) he was banished to the north of Ireland, and Munster was divided between Fadhg O'Brien and Diarmaid Mac Carthy.

Fadhg O'Brien's reign was of short duration; he was taken prisoner the next year by Finn O'Brien, blinded, and thus rendered, according to the Brehon law, in capable of reigning. O'Neill of Ulster then rose, and united his forces with those of Leinster, to place Conor O'Brien on the throne of Thomond. The old king appeals to Eoderick O'Conor, king of Connaught, who has just succeeded his father ; Eoderick responds to the appeal, enters Munster at the head of a large army, and not only replaces Thorlough on the throne of Thomond, but compels Diarmaid Mac Carthy to give him (Eoderick O'Conor,) hostages of subjection as supreme monarch, although Mac Carthy had but a few months before given the same pledges of allegiance to O'Loughlin O'Neill, king of Ulster. What could Diarmaid, or any one similarly circumstanced do, when placed between two such consuming fires.

He gave tokens of allegiance to both. Turlough O'Brien, the hoary king of Limerick or Thomond, who has managed once more to clamber to his old throne, now seeks his revenge, and in order to incapacitate Conor O'Brien from ever again assuming the government, or his son from succeeding him, he has them both seized and blinded. Four years after his restoration (1162,) we find him at war, and winning. In the first battle, the grandson of Carthach, and other men of distinction were slain. In a second battle, he was also victorious, slaying Na-Caeimh; lord of Feara-muighe, (Hugh O'Keeffe, lord of Fermoy,) and two other chieftains. These two battles were only the commencement of a more general war between Thomond and Desmond, during which there was fearful slaughter and devastation on both sides.

The old man was soon after this deposed by his own son, and driven into Leinster. Ho made no further effort to regain his throne. It is probable that the unnatural conduct of his son shortened his life. We have the following entry in the annals under A.D. 1167 : — "Thorlough, son of Diarmaid O'Brien, king of Munster and Leath-Mhoga, a man who had aimed at the sovereignty of all Ireland, the best man that came in his time for bestowing jewels and wealth upon the poor and the indigent of God, died." His son Murtagh, by whom he was dethroned, did not long survive him. He was murdered two years after, by the grandson of Conor O'Brien, and Morough M'Carthy, the son of Diarmaid, king of Desmond. This murder brought Eoderick O'Conor to Munster, which he again divided between Diarmaid Mac Carthy, and Donnell, the brother of the late king of Thomond, compelling the Mac Carthys to pay an eric (or fine) of three times twelve score cows, (720 cows) " for the killing of Murtagh O'Brien."

Diarmaid Mac Carthy, was king of Desmond, or Cork, and Donnell O'Brien, king of Thomond, or Limerick, when Eobert Fitzstephen, and Eichard, son of Gilbert, (Earl Strongbow,) came to Ireland, with a numerous force of knights and archers, in the pay of Diarmaid Mac Murrough, " to contest Leinster for him, and to disturb the Irish of Ireland in general." CHAPTEB II. THE CONQUEST OE COBK — THE DISTRIBUTION OP THE KINGDOM AMONG THE ANGLO-NOKMAN KNIGHTS. A.D. 1170—1295. The Norman Conquest of Ireland, under Henry IL, did not take place till a hundred years after the conquest of England, by William I. Whether it was that our iniquities were not then full — England is a century before us in everything — or that we were unworthy of a Norman king till 1170, will depend altogether on the view taken of the conquest.

Camden, in his Itinerary, describes the English Conqueror 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. Those who believe in an over-ruling Providence — that the God, who made the world, continues to govern CORE. it — may acknowledge a needs-be for the migration of those conquering hordes, who rushed, like destroying floods, from the North and East, to the West and South of Europe ; that their course was directed by Him, who "hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation."

William of Malmsbury seems to view the English conquest as the work of a mightier arm than that of the Conqueror ; to esteem it " an extraordinary work cf 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." " It was indeed," says the wise and judicious Hallam, "an event not easily paralleled, where the vanquished were little, if at all, less courageous than their enemies ; and where no domestic factions exposed the country to an invader." Henry of Huntington speaks even more emphati cally : "In the year of Grace, 1060, the Divine Euler 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."* This is strong language — ad exterminandum — but it would not seem to be too strong for the occasion : "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. "It is not easy to relate," says another writer, " the miseries sustained, at this time * " Millesimo et sexagesimo sexto anno gratiæ, perfecit dominator Deus de gente Anglorum quod diu cogitaverat. Genti namque Normanorum asperæ et callidæ tradidit eos ad exterminandum." CONQUEST OF CORK. by England, from royal exactions." * " The nobles and bishops built castles, and filled them with devilish and wicked men, and oppressed the people cruelly, torturing men for their money. They imposed taxes on towns, and when they had exhausted them of every thing, set them on fire. You might travel a day, and not find one man living in a town, nor any land in cultivation. Never did the country suffer greater evils. If two or three men [Normans] were seen riding up to a town, all its inhabitants left it, taking them for plunderers.

And this lasted, growing worse and worse, throughout Stephen's reign. Men said openly that Christ and his saints were asleep." [See Chro. Saxon p. 239.] " A more general proof of the ruinous oppression of William the Conqueror may be deduced," says Mr. Hallam, "from the comparative condition of the English towns in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and at the compilation of Doomsday. At the former epoch there were, in York, 1607 inhabited houses, at the latter 967 ; at the former there were in Oxford 721, at the latter 243; of 172 houses in Dorchester, 100 were destroyed; of 243 in Derby, 103; of 487 in Chester, 205. Some other towns had suffered less, but scarcely any one fails to exhibit marks of a decayed population." • But the same eminent writer, who records these devastating examples of the Norman sway, confesses that "good as well as evil resulted from the conquest, even in the time of the Conqueror, who was more despotic and ruthless than any of his descendants." * " Non facile protest narrari miseria quam sustinit illo tempore terra An glorum propter regius exactiones." — Chro.

Saxon,p. 228. " The first and more immediate advantage, was that of deterring a wild and unruly people from the evil of anarchy and rebellion, to which they were addicted, and all their risings were without concert and desperate. The tyranny of William displayed less of passion or insolence than of that indifference about human suf fering, which distinguishes a cold and far-sighted statesman. Impressed by the frequent rising of the English at the commencement of his reign, and by the recollection, as one historian observes, that the mild government of Canute had only ended in the expulsion of the Danish line, he formed the scheme of rivetting such fetters upon the conquered nation, that all resistance should become impracticable." But the weight and severity of the Norman yoke was greatly relieved after the death of the Conqueror.