Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/271

 HISTORY.] IRELAND 255 in marriage, and even, it is said, promised to make him his suc cessor. The league was unsuccessful, and Arnulph betook himself to the court of Muircertach, who so far from being able to give his son-in-law assistance, expected help from him against Magnus, who appears to have threatened Muircertach with war, probably on account of his relations with Dublin. There is a story of Magnus sending his shoes to Muircertach, and of the latter submitting un conditionally, which is, however, a mere fable ; but the latter in his desire to crush his rival Domnall may have done homage to Magnus as suzerain of the kingdom of Dublin. Magnus and Muircertach came, however, to terms ; they exchanged hostages, and Sigurd the son of the king of Norway was betrothed to Biadhmuin, the daughter of the Irish king. Magnus then became the guest of the latter at Cenncoradh in the winter of 1102 ; and in the following spring they invaded Ulster, but were signally defeated by Domnall O Loughlin, and Magnus was killed shortly after in a foraging expedition in the present county of Down. Muircertach then courted the friendship of Henry, king of England, took back his daughter from Arnulph, and gave her to another man ; and, faithless, like most of the princes and nobles of that time, he even plotted against the life of Arnulph. St Anselm nevertheless com pliments him upon his good government, and passes a high eulogium on some of the Monster bishops. Ideas of a higher political life and church organization appear at this time to have made consider able progress in Ireland, and to have had an appreciable influence on the policy of Muircertach himself. After the death of Muircertach the power of the O Briens was for a time broken by Tordelbach (Turlough) O Connor, king of Connaught, and a pretender to the over-kingship, a man whom no tie or obligation bound. Conchobar (Connor) O Brien, grandson of Muircertach, succeeded however in defeating O Connor ; and his brother Tordelbach, who succeeded him, carried on the war until the whole country was reduced to that state so graphically described by the Four Masters as &quot;a trembling sod.&quot; In the midst of this al most continuous war and devastation morals became relaxed, and the practice of religion almost ceased. The church property had passed into the hands of the lay successors, and no provision was made for the service of the churches, most of which were in ruins. A time reformer, however, appeared in Maelmaedog Ua Morgair, or St Malachy, who was appointed legate by Innocent II. Through his exertions a great synod was held at Kells under Cardinal Paparo (Malachy having died at Clairvaux in 1148) in 1152, at which true diocesan jurisdiction was established, Dublin being brought into connexion with the Irish Church, and raised to the rank of an archiepiscopal city ; another archbishopric was founded at Tuam, to the great discontent of the northern and southern parties represent ing &quot;Cond sHalf&quot; and &quot;Mug s Half &quot;in the church, the cardinal, as papal legate, having brought the palliums for the four arch bishops. Tithes were also ordained to be levied for the support of the clergy, and many reforms decreed. Many churches and monas teries were built, and great advance took place in architecture and artistic metal work, which were not mere imitations of foreign art, but the true outcome of the earlier period of Celtic art. Between 1148 and 1150 Muircertach (Maurice or Murtough) O Loughlin was acknowledged as over-king in three out of the four provinces. Tordelbach O Brien, however, renewed the struggle between the north and south, but after he had received the homage of the Dano-Irish of Dublin, a trace was arranged between the rivals. In 1151 the Munster king was deposed by his brother Tadg, who was supported by Tordelbach O Connor, king of Connaught, with the assistance of Diarmait MacMurchada (Dermot MacMurrough). O Loughlin took up the cause of his former rival, but was defeated by O Connor. The latter died in 1156 after a long reign, and O Loughlin remained undisputed over-king. Ruadri (Roderick) O Connor succeeded his father Tordelbach, and signalized the beginning of his reign by blinding one brother and imprisoning two others. Muircertach O Loughlin, having blinded the chief of Dal- Araide, a savage mode of mutilation very much in fashion at the time, a league was formed against him, and he was defeated and slain, whereupon Ruadri claimed to be over-king, and, there being no serious opposition, he was inaugurated with great pomp at Dublin, which already began to have considerable weight in Irish affairs, and had now for the first time assumed somewhat of the character of a metropolis. The Diarmait MacMurchada above mentioned was the great- grandson of Diarmait Mac Mael na mBo, and was consequently both by descent and position much mixed up with foreigners, and generally in a state of latent if not of open hostility with the over- kings of the Hni Neill and Dal-Cais dynasties. He was a tyrant, and a man of bad character. In 1152 Tigernan O Rourke, prince of Brefni, had been dispossessed of his territory by Tordelbach O Connor aided by Diarmait, and the latter is accused of also carrying off Derbforgaill (Dervorgilla), O Rourke s wife. It is pro bable, however, that the latter event has been entirely misrepre sented, and that the lady had merely thrown herself, in accordance with Irish law, upon the protection of the Leinstcr king. However this may have been, the accession of Ruadri to the chief kingship warned Diarmait of his danger ; and accordingly, on learning that O Rourke was leading an army against him with the support of the over-king, he burnt his castle of Ferns, and went to Henry II. to ask his assistance. The results which followed belong to the next section, but here we may point out that many Irish princes before Diarmait had sought the aid of foreigners, and that at that time, and especially in a tribal society, this was not regarded in the same light as in modern times. Political and Social Stale of Ireland in the early Middle Ayes. To complete our account of pre-Norman Ireland, we shall give hero a brief account of the social life of the Irish at the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th century, which indeed substantially repre sents the state of things during the whole period from the 7th to the 12th century. In the Middle Ages there were considerable forests in Ireland encompassing broad expanses of upland pastures and marshy meadows, unbroken up to the 7th century by ditch or dyke. There were no cities or large towns at the mouths of the rivers ; no stone bridges spanned the latter ; stepping stones or hurdle bridges at the fords or shallows offered the only mode of crossing the broadest rivers and connecting the unpaved roads or bridle paths which crossed the country over hill and dale from the principal kingly dtiine (sing. dun). The forests abounded in game the red deer and wild boar were common ; and wolves ravaged the flocks, for the most part unprotected by fences even in comparatively later times. Scattered over the country were numerous small hamlets, composed mainly of wicker cabins, among which were some which might be called houses ; other hamlets were composed of huts of the rudest kind. Here and there were some large hamlets or villages that had grown up about groups of houses surrounded by an earthen mound or rampart ; similar groups of houses enclosed in this manner were also to be found without any annexed hamlet. Sometimes the rampart was double, with a deep ditch between. The simple rampart and ditch enclosed a les or cattleyard and the groups of houses of the owners, for every room was a separate house. The enclosed houses (ratha, sing, rath) belonged to the free men called airig (sing. aire). The sizes of the houses and of the enclos ing mound and ditch marked the rank (that is, the wealth) of the aire. If his wealth consisted of chattels only, he was a 16-aire, or cow-airs. &quot;When he possessed ancestral land, which was no doubt one of the consequences of the Scotic conquest, he was aflaith or lord, and was entitled to let his lands for grazing, to have a hamlet in which lived labourers, and to keep slaves. The larger fort with two or more ditches and ramparts was a dun, where the chieftain or rl lived, and kept his hostages if he had subreguli. The houses of all classes were of wood, chiefly wattles and wicker-work enclos ing clay, and cylindrical in shape, with conical roofs thatched with rushes. The oratories were of the same form and material, but the larger churches and kingly banqueting halls were made of sawn boards. Bede, speaking of a church built by Finan at Lindesfarne, says, &quot;nevertheless, after the manner of the Scots, he made it not of stone but of hewn oak and covered it with reeds.&quot; When St Malachy, who lived in the first half of the 12th century, thought of building a stone oratory at Bangor, it was deemed a novelty by the people, saying, &quot;we are Scoti, not Galli.&quot; Long before this, however, stone churches had been built in other parts of Ireland, and many round towers. In some of the cathraig (sing, cathir), or stone forts, of the south-west of Ireland, the houses within the ramparts were made of stone in the form of a beehive, and similar &quot;cloghans,&quot; as they are called, are found in the western islands of Scotland. Here and there in the neighbourhood of the hamlets were patches of corn grown upon allotments that were annually exchangeable among the inhabitants. Around the diiine and ratha the cultivation was better, for the corn land was the fixed property of the lord, and began to be enclosed by fences in the 7th and succeeding centuries. Oats was the chief corn crop, but wheat and barley were also grown, chiefly, however, by the higher classes. The onion and the parsnip also were cultivated, and mark the first stage in kitchen gardening, which, as well as bee-keeping, was introduced by the church. Flax: and the dye-plants (woad for blue and ru, a kind of madder, for red) were the chief industrial plants. Portions of the pasture lands were reserved as meadows. Tillage was rude, the spade and fork being of wood, though sometimes shod with iron. There are native names for the different parts of the plough, so we may assume that some form of that implement worked by oxen yoked together by a simple straight yoke was in use in the very early times. Wheeled carts were also known ; the wheels were often probably only solid disks, though wheels formed of a hub, spokes, and felloes were used for chariots. The tilled land was manured. Droves of swine under the charge of swineherds wandered through the forests ; some be longed to the chiefs, others to flatha or lords, and others again to village communities. The house-fed pig was also an important object of domestic economy ; its flesh fresh, pickled, or in bacon- was much prized. Indeed, fresh pork was one of the inducements held out to visitors to Tir Tairngirc or Elysium. Horned cattle constituted the chief wealth of the country, and were the standard