secure success for their ally. Their army was caught in an ambuscade by the forces of the rival claimant, and almost annihilated. During their retreat across the waters of Lough Ree, the Connaught chief again attacked, and De Courcy escaped with only a few men.

De Lacy was lord justice, and therefore very jealous of De Courcy, and he did his utmost to bring the latter into disfavor with the king. In 1204, after The end of much scheming, he succeeded in having De De Courcy. Courcy proclaimed a traitor, and orders were given for his arrest. His subsequent history is uncertain.

SUMMARY

In 1166, Dermot MacMurrogh, king of Leinster, was deposed by Roderick O'Conor and others. He sought aid from Henry II, duke of the Normans, and his Norman barons. The latter fitted up several expeditions, landed in Ireland, and captured the towns of Wexford and Waterford in 1169-70. Among these Norman barons were Fitzgerald, Fitzstephen, De Lacy, De Courcy, and the great Strongbow. Henry II came himself to Ireland in 1171, at the head of a large army, received the submission of the chiefs, and returned, leaving De Lacy as governor of the city of Dublin. Strongbow was appointed lord lieutenant in 1173. These invaders were French-speaking Normans who, just a century before, had conquered England, and who were now eager to enrich themselves from the spoils of Ireland. With no other aim than plunder, they made numerous successful raids through the country in spite of the opposition of Roderick and the Irish chiefs. Thus, by the year 1200, the Normans had gained a footing in Ireland, but had accomplished nothing that could properly be called a conquest.

96. The genius of the Normans. When William the Norman gained possession of England, one of his first acts was to secure his position in the capital by building the Tower of London. This immense The Tower stronghold, which frowns upon London even of London. to-day, after the lapse of nearly nine centuries, is typical of the Norman genius. It illustrates the method by which the Normans secured their position in England, and later in Ireland. William himself built about fifty other great Norman castles throughout the length and breadth of the Saxon land which he had conquered, and in these castles placed his feudal nobles, who acknowledged him as their lord and master.

When the Norman warriors came to Ireland, they were at first mercenaries of Irish princes like Dermot MacMurrogh; but they were soon granted land, either by the Irish chiefs who sought their services, or by the king of England, after he had asserted his claim to be overlord of Ireland. The Norman warriors immediately put in practice the lesson taught by William the Conqueror. They built just such keeps and castles as the

Norman

Tower of London, though not on so large a scale, and many of their strongholds are still standing. The plan of these castles included an outer wall, encircled by a deep moat or canal filled with water, castles in which surrounded the whole castle, and could be crossed only by a drawbridge. This bridge could be

Ireland.

drawn up from within the castle, and when it was drawn up, all access from without was cut off. The strong outer wall of the fortress was pierced by a single doorway,

high enough for a knight on horseback to ride through without dismounting. This doorway could be closed by an iron portcullis, a gate running in grooves in the wall, which was raised by chains from a windlass above. When let down, this strong iron gate could not be pushed open, as it was held in place by the heavy grooved stones on either side. Often the lower edge of this portcullis was armed with a row of spikes, so that, should any of the enemy be underneath at the time it was lowered in haste, they would be transfixed and killed. Along the top of the outer wall of the fortress there were openings for the bowmen to shoot through, and these openings give the walls the toothed appearance, like the edge of a saw, which makes them so picturesque in modern landscapes. Inside the wall were dwelling-houses and storehouses, and the whole was dominated by a keep or central stronghold, a high tower with very thick walls, also pierced for archers, into which the garrison could retire, if the outer fortress was taken.

Castlebuilders.

De Courcy was one of the greatest builders of Norman. castles in Ireland, and one great stronghold of his over Dundrum Bay in Down is to-day almost as perfect as during his lifetime. The other great Normans, De Lacy, De Clare, and the rest, were not behind De Courcy. They erected Norman keeps and castles at every point where they gained a footing; and it was the presence of these fortresses of stone which made it almost impossible for the Irish chiefs to drive out the Normans, as they had earlier driven out the Norsemen. The use of armor in battle was another evidence of the same instinct of self-defence. The coats

Norman armor and discipline.

of mail of the Norman knights are even more imperishable than their castles, and they are to be found in every museum to-day. A third element of

strength was the sense of rigid discipline which the Normans brought with them to England and Ireland, and which was an inheritance from the ancient Roman armies. In this they excelled the Irish tribal forces, just as they excelled the Saxons at the battle of Hastings, and many of their victories in Ireland were due rather to superior order than to superior valor. The Irish had never submitted to discipline, which ran counter to their tribal instincts. They fought in masses rather than in regular ranks, and had no system of tactics. They still adhered to the habits of warfare developed in an earlier age, relying on the wildness of the country, on the forests and bogs, for their defence, rather than on fortifications of stone. Later, when the sons of Ireland mastered the principle of ordered war, they became very formidable warriors, winning battles in every part of Europe, and leading the armies of many nations. The Norman invaders brought with them the French language Norman which they had learned in Normandy, and ideas many French knightly traditions. It is worth remembering that the Conqueror's great grandson, Henry II, who was the first invading sovereign, had larger territories in France than in England, and that the part of Ireland over which he exercised real authority, a very small part, was one of the divisions of a realm which stretched from the south of Scotland to the north of Spain.

French.

97. King John comes to Ireland. King John came to the throne of England in 1199. He remembered the condition of confusion and turmoil which reigned in Ireland. He therefore determined to go there again, to attempt to bring order out of chaos. of hostiliHe did not carry out his intention until 1210, however; in that year he assembled a formidable army

Cessation

ties.