Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/336

 Courayer's services to the church of England must be ranked very high. His statements have been severely tested, but have been found extremely accurate. The book on Anglican orders was badly translated by Daniel Williams, a nonjuring clergyman living in France, but has been excellently edited by an Oxford divine (1844). Williams also translated the ‘Defence’ in 1728. 

COURCI, JOHN (d. 1219?), conqueror of Ulster, was a soldier of fortune, whose parentage is a problem as yet, it would seem, unsolved. He was certainly one of the well-known house of that name established in Oxfordshire and Somersetshire, for he appears with a Jordan de Courci (probably his brother) as a witness to a grant by William de Courci (a royal dapifer) to St. Andrew of Stoke (Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. app. i. p. 353 b), which foundation the De Courcis had bestowed on the abbey of Lonlay in Normandy. On this abbey he subsequently bestowed his own foundation of St. Andrew of Ardes, a further proof of the connection, as is also his association with Guarine FitzGerald (see below). It has been pretended by Lodge (Peerage of Ireland) and those who have followed him that John was the son and heir of this William de Courci (who died 1176). But as Alice, daughter of William (and wife of Guarine FitzGerald), is known to have been his heiress, this is impossible. He may have been a natural son of William, or a nephew, or merely a kinsman.

Whatever his origin, the facts of his life have been lost in a maze of legend, and it is now a matter of difficulty to sift the true from the false. His first appearance in history is in the Norman-French poem assigned (but in error) to Mathew Regan, where he is represented (lines 2733–6) as receiving in Ireland from Henry II (1172) a license to conquer Ulster; this, however, is scarcely consistent with the version given by Giraldus (Expugnatio Hiberniæ). According to this, John de Courci was one of three leaders, with ten knights apiece, who were despatched to Ireland by Henry on hearing of Strongbow's death, as an escort to William FitzAldelm, whom he entrusted with plenary powers (cap. xv.). The expedition sailed in December 1176, and within a month of his landing De Courci, with twenty-two knights and some three hundred followers, had set out from Dublin on his daring raid to conquer the kingdom of Ulster (cap. xvii.) Giraldus implies that John and his comrades acted in this on their own impulse, chafing at their enforced inaction under William FitzAldelm's rule. In the ‘Gesta Regis Henrici,’ indeed, he is stated to have forbidden the attempt (, i. 137). It was the depth of winter when they sallied forth, but by a forced march they traversed the distance (some hundred miles) so rapidly as to burst upon Down on the fourth day, and to seize it by a coup-de-main. Down (now Downpatrick) was the capital of the land, and had the additional advantage of resting on the sea, so that the Normans had secured a maritime base. The Irish, stunned by the suddenness of the blow, had fled, carrying their king with them, and the adventurers were at length revelling in plunder. The cardinal Vivian now appeared upon the scene, and endeavoured, but in vain, to restore peace. The men of Ulster, thirsting for revenge, soon rallied, and headed by their king made a desperate effort to recover their stronghold. John sallied forth to meet them in the open, and swept them before him in headlong rout. He distinguished himself among his fellows by deeds of Homeric valour: ‘nunc caput ab humeris, nunc arma a corpore, nunc brachia separabat’ (cap. xvii.). Giraldus presents us with an animated sketch of the young and victorious adventurer: ‘Tunc impletum est illud Celidonii [Merlin]: “Miles albus albo residens equo aves in clipeo gerens Ultoniam hostili invasione primus intrabit.” Erat enim Johannes plus quam flavus, et in albedinem vergens, album forte tunc equum equitans, et pictas in clipeo aquilas præferens … miles animosus audacter ingreditur. … Erat itaque Johannes vir albus et procerus membris nervosis et ossosis, staturæ grandis, et corpore prævalido; viribus immensis, audacia singulari; vir fortis et bellator ab adolescentiâ; semper in acie primus, semper gravioris periculi pondus arripiens. Adeo belli cupidus et ardens ut, militi dux præfectus, ducali plerumque desertâ constantiâ, ducem exuens et militem induens, inter primos impetuosus et præceps, turms vacillante suorum, nimiâ vincendi cupidine victoriam amisisse videretur, et quanquam in armis immoderatus et plus militis quam ducis habens, inermis tamen modestus ac sobrius et ecclesiæ Christi debitam reverentiam præstans; divino cultui per omnia deditus, gratiæque supernæ, quoties ei successerat, cum gratiarum actione totum ascribens Deoque dans gloriam quoties aliquid fecerit gloriosum.’ He tells us, moreover, that this ‘white warrior,