101. Some current stories about Ireland Barnacle geese No snakes in Among the works of this author is a description of Ireland and an account of the conquest of that country by Henry II and the English-Norman nobles of the time. Some of his descriptions and wonderful tales are here given. Ireland is a land of irregular, even mountainous, surface; mild and wet, wooded and swampy. In fact, it is almost a wilderness; quite pathless, though especially well watered. You will find here waters standing on the mountains; on the very tops of wind-blown and rugged hills you can find swamps and marshes. Yet Ireland has here and there beautiful plains, but small in comparison with the forests, and therefore, by the requirements of nature, beautiful rather than spacious. This country has been divided from of old into five almost equal parts, that is to say, two Munsters, northern and southern, Leinster, Ulster, and Connaught. The two Munsters cover the southern part of Ireland, Ulster the northern, Leinster the eastern, and Connaught the western. . . There are here many birds which are called barnacles, which nature produces in a wonderful manner, and, as it were, against nature. They are similar to marsh geese, but smaller. For they grow from spruce logs, carried down to the sea. At first they are like drops of gum; afterwards, like seaweed clinging to the log, inclosed for their freer growth in a covering of shell, they hang down by the beak. In the course of time, being covered closely with a vesture of feathers, they either drop down into the water, or, by flying away, betake themselves to the liberty of the air. . . Of all kinds of reptiles Ireland possesses only such as are not injurious, for it is entirely without those which are poisonous. It is free from snakes and lizards, it has neither toads nor frogs, it lacks turtles and scorpions, nor has it any dragons. It has, however, spiders, salamanders, and chameleons; but these are harmless. Some, by a flattering pretense, declare that St. Patrick and other saints of the country purged the whole island from all such destructive beasts. But history asserts with greater probability that from the very earliest times, long before the foundations of our faith, the island was always without these, as it was without some other things, by a certain natural defect. Nor does it seem to me a matter of wonder that the land should lack these reptiles, as it lacks certain fish, birds, and animals. But what does seem strange is that it cannot and never could retain anything poisonous when brought thither. For we read in the ancient writings of the saints of that country, that sometimes, for the sake of experiment, reptiles were brought thither in brass jars, but as soon as they had passed the middle of the Irish Sea they were found lifeless and dead. . . . To so great a degree is this land antagonistic to poison that if gardens or other places in other countries are sprinkled with its soil, this drives all poisonous reptiles completely away from them. Among the contemporary accounts of the conquest of Ireland is a long narrative poem in French, from which the following is taken, in the form of a modern translation. The poem is commonly known as The Story of Dermot and the Earl. When Henry II had been acknowledged as lord by all the barons who had come over from England before him, he proceeded to make grants to them of the land they had conquered in Ireland, to be held from him on feudal tenure. To Hugh de Lacy he granted All Meath in fee; Meath the king granted For fifty knights, Whose service the baron should let him have, Whenever he should have need of it. To one John he granted Ulster, If he could conquer it by force: John de Courcy was his name, Who afterwards suffered many a trouble there. Just as the king made these great grants to his nobles, so Earl Richard, Hugh de Lacy, John de Courcy, and 102. Grants of King Henry to the English conquerors in Ireland Sub-infeudations to English nobles and knights The chiefs of the Irish clans the other great barons granted parts of their dominions to lesser nobles for feudal services to themselves. To Maurice de Prendergast The valiant earl Richard Had already given Fernegenal, And in his council confirmed it, Before the renowned earl Had landed in Ireland; Ten fiefs he gave him on this condition, For the service of ten knights. Carbery he gave to the good Meiler, The Naas the good earl gave To the son of Gerald, with all the honor : Which belonged to the traitor MacKelan. Between Bray and Arklow : [The Irish chieftains, although many of them had given their allegiance to King Henry, were not inclined to allow their whole land to be divided among English-Norman overlords without a struggle. When Hugh de Lacy built and fortified a dwelling house at Trim in Connaught, and began to rule the surrounding country as an English feudal noble did at home, the king of Connaught called out the heads of the tribes, and they led their followers in one of those wild efforts to drive out the invaders that continued to take place from time to time for more than five hundred years.] All at once O'Connor, The proud king of Connaught, Mac Dermot and MacGeraghty, O'Kelly, king of Hy Many, O'Hart and O'Finaghty, And MacTierney, who was so base, And the rebel MacGaraghan; Went with all his men ; O'Neill, the king of Kinel Owen, Brought with him three thousand Irish. IV. RICHARD I AND THE THIRD CRUSADE The guilt of rebellion of Henry's sons, and their responsibility for his death, is well expressed in this instance of the familiar belief that the body of a murdered man will bleed when his murderer approaches. Henry, king of England, died in the year of our Lord 1189, 103. Scene at in the month of July, on the sixth day, in the octave of the the burial of Henry II apostles Peter and Paul, the nineteenth day of the moon, on the fifth day of the week, at Chinon, and he was buried at Fontevrault, in the abbey of the monks serving God there. On the day after his death, when he was carried to his burial, clothed in his royal apparel, wearing a gold crown on his head, and having gloves on his hands and a gold ring on his finger, 104. A con a scepter in his hand, shoes embroidered in gold upon his feet, and girded with his sword, he lay with his face uncovered. When this was told to Count Richard, his son, he came hastening to meet him. But as he stood bending over him, immediately blood ran from the nostrils of the dead king, as if his spirit was indignant at his coming. Then the aforesaid count, weeping and moaning, proceeded with the corpse of his father to Fontevrault, and there caused it to be buried. The admiration for the person and character of Richard, which has lasted, however undeserved, through all subsequent times, began in his own lifetime, and is reflected by all his early biographers; for example, in the following extract from the contemporary account known as the Itinerary of King Richard. The Lord of the ages had given him such generosity of temporary soul and endued him with such virtues that he seemed rather description to belong to earlier times than these. . . . His was the valor of of Richard Cœur de Hector, the magnanimity of Achilles; he was no whit inferior Lion to Alexander, or less than Roland in manhood. Of a truth he easily surpassed the more praiseworthy characters of our time in many ways. His right hand, like that of a second Titus, scattered riches. Moreover- -a thing that is, as a rule, but very rarely found in so famous a knight - the tongue of a Nestor and the prudence of a Ulysses (as they well might) rendered him better than other men in all kinds of business, whether eloquence or action was required. His military knowledge did not slacken his inclination for vigorous action; nor did his readiness for action ever throw a doubt upon his military prudence. If any one chances to think him open to the charge of rashness, the answer is simple; for, in this respect, a mind that does not know how to submit itself, a mind impatient of injury, urged on by its inborn high spirit to demand its lawful rights, may well claim excuse. Success made him all the better suited for accomplishing exploits, since fortune helps the brave. And though fortune wreaks her spleen on whomsoever she pleases, yet he was not to be drowned, for all her adverse waves. |