cern. He shut himself up in darkness, refusing even the attendance of his domestics. He even rejected, during three days, all nourishment. The courtiers, dreading the effects of his regret, were at last obliged to break into his solitude, in order to persuade him to be reconciled to a measure that he could not redress. The pope soon after, being made sensible of the king's innocence, granted him his pardon; but upon condition that he would make every future submission, and perform every injunction that the holy see should require. All things being thus adjusted, the assassins who had murdered Becket retired in safety to the enjoyment of their former dignities and honours; and the king, in order to divert the minds of the people to a different object, undertook an expedition against Ireland.

Ireland was at that time nearly in the same situation Zustand in which England had been after the first invasion of Irlands the Saxons. Its inhabitants had been carly converted to Christianity; and, for three or four centuries after, possessed a very large proportion of the learning of the times being undisturbed by foreign invasions, and perhaps too poor to invite the rapacity of conquerors, they enjoyed a peaceful life, which they gave up to piety, and such learning as was then thought necessary to promote it. Of their learning, their arts, their piety, and even their polished manners, too many monuments remain to this day for us to make the least doubt concerning them; but it is equally true, that in time they fell from these advantages: and their degenerate posterity, at the period we are now speaking of, were involved in the darkest barbarity. This may be imputed to the frequent invasions which they suffered from the Danes and Norwegians, who overran the whole country, and every where spread their ravages, and confirmed their authority. The natives, kept in the strictest bondage, grew

theils .

every day more ignorant and brutal; and when at last they rose upon their conquerors, and totally expelled them from the island, they wanted instructors to restore them to their former attainments. Henceforward they long continued in the most deplorable state of barbarism. The towns that had been formerly built were suffered to fall into ruin; the inhabitants exercised pasture in the open country, and sought protection from danger by retiring into their forests and bogs. Almost all sense of religion was extinguished; the petty princes, exercised continual outrages upon each other's territories; and strength alone was able to procure redress. Irland in At the time when Henry first planned the invasion 5 Konig of the island, it was divided into five small kingdoms, reich ge namely, Leinster, Meath, Munster, Ulster, and Connaught. As it had been usual for one or other of the five kings to take the lead in their wars, he was denominated monarch of the island, and possessed a power resembling that of the early Saxon monarchs in England. Roderic O'Connor, king of Connaught, then enjoyed this dignity, and Dermot M'Morrogh was king of Leinster. This last-named prince, a weak, licentious tyrant, had carried off and ravished the daughter of the king of Meath, who, being strengthened by the alliance of the king of Connaught, invaded the ravisher's dominions, and expelled him from his kingdom. This prince, thus justly punished, had recourse to Henry, who was at that time in Guienne, and offered to hold his kingdom of the English crown, if he should recover it by the king's assistance. Henry readily accepted the offer; but being at that time embarrassed by more near interests, he only gave Dermot letters patent, by which he empowered all his subjects to aid the Irish prince in the recovery of his dominions. Dermot, relying on this authority, repaired to Bristol, where, after some

difficulty, he formed a treaty with Richard, surnamed Strongbow, earl of Pembroke, who agreed to reinstate him in his dominions, upon condition of his being, married to his daughter Eva, and declared heir of all his territory. He at the same time contracted for succours with Robert Fitzstephen and Maurice Fitzgerald, whom he promised to gratify with the city of Wexford, and the two adjoining districts, which were then in possession of the Easterlings, or descendants of the Norwegians. Being thus assured of assistance, he returned privately to Ireland, and concealed himself during the winter in the monastery of Fernes, which he had founded. Robert Fitzstephen was first able, the ensuing spring, to fulfil his engagements, by landing with thirty knights, sixty esquires, and three hundred archers. They were soon after joined by Maurice Prendergast, who, about the same time, brought over ten knights and sixty archers; and with this small force they resolved on besieging Wexford, which was to be theirs by treaty. This town was quickly reduced; and the adventurers, being reinforced by another body of men, to the amount of a hundred and fifty, under the command of Maurice Fitzgerald, composed an army that struck the barbarous natives with awe. Roderic, the chief monarch of the island, ventured to oppose them, but he was defeated; and soon after the prince of Ossory was obliged to submit, and give hostages for his future conduct.

land

Dermot, being thus reinstated in bis hereditary do- Engländer minions, soon began to conceive hopes of extending the schiffen limits of his power, and making himself master of Ire-noch Jr. land. With these views he endeavoured to expedite Strongbow, who, being personally prohibited by the king, had not yet come over. Dermot tried to inflame his ambition by the glory of the conquest, and his ava

ven

rice by the advantages it would procure: he expatiated on the cowardice of the natives, and the certainty of his success. Strongbow first sent over Raymond, one of his retinue, with ten knights and seventy archers; and receiving permission shortly after for himself, he landed with two hundred horse and a hundred archers. All these English forces, now joining together, became irresistible; and though the whole number did not amount to a thousand, yet, such was the barbarous state of the natives, that they were every where put to the rout. The city of Waterford quickly surrendered; Dublin was taken by assault; and Strongbow, marrying Eva, according to treaty, became master of the kingdom of Leinster upon Dermot's decease. Heinrich The island being thus in a manner wholly subdued, miles for nothing was capable of opposing the progress of Irland the English arms, Henry became jealous of the success of the adventurers, and was willing to share in person those honours which they had already secured. He A.D. therefore shortly after landed in Ireland, at the 1171. head of five hundred knights and some soldiers; not so much to conquer a disputed territory, as to take possession of a subject kingdom. In his progress through the country, he received the homage of the petty chieftains, and left most of them in possession of their ancient territories. In a place so uncultivated and so ill peopled, there was still land enough to satisfy the adventurers who had followed him. Strongbow was made seneschal of Ireland; Hugh de Lacey was made governor of Dublin, and John de Courcy received a patent for conquering the province of Ulster, which yet remained unsubdued. The Irish bishops very gladly admitted the English, as they expected from their superior civilization a greater degree of reverence and respect. Pope Adrian IV. had, in the beginning,

encouraged Henry to subdue the Irish by his bull, granting him the kingdom. Pope Alexander III. now confirmed him in his conquest; and the kings of England were acknowledged as lords over Ireland for ever. Thus, after a trifling effort, in which very little money was expended, and little bloodshed, that beautiful island became an appendage to the English crown, and as such it has ever since continued with unshaken fide

lity.

The joy which this conquest diffused was very great; Heinrich and Henry seemed now to have attained the summit of sieht alle his wishes. He was undisputed monarch of the greatest eine Wunsch domain in Europe; father of a numerous progeny, that erfüllt.

gave both lustre and authority to his crown; victorious over all his enemies, and cheerfully obeyed by all his subjects. Henry, his eldest son, had been anointed king, and was acknowledged as undoubted successor; Richard, his second son, was invested with the duchy of Guienne and Poictou; Geoffrey, his third son, inherited, in right of his wife, the duchy of Bretagne; and John, his youngest, was designed as king in Ireland. Such was the flattering prospect of grandeur before him; but such is the instability of human happiness, that this very exaltation of his family proved the means of embittering his future life, and disturbing his govern

ment.

Among the few vices ascribed to this monarch, unli-Die schöne mited gallantry was one. Queen Eleanor, whom he Rosamund. married from motives of ambition, and who had been divorced from her former royal consort for her incontinence, was long become disagreeable to Henry; and he sought in others those satisfactions he could not find with her. Among the number of his mistresses we have the name of Fair Rosamond, whose personal charms and premature death make so conspicuous a