ROYDAMNA-CULDEES-DANES. 33 We may add, that the monarch elect often acted as if he deemed the right of making war on the reigning monarch one of his prerogatives. In those old times Ireland was for the Irish, who enjoyed the possession, as children do a toy, by tearing it to pieces. The Culdees were a religious order which appeared in Ireland about the ninth century. They have been the subject of much worthless controversy. There is no mention of them in Adamnan's Life of Columba, nor in Bede's history. It is not decided that Columba was the founder. Upon the death of Niall, Murkerta, his son, became roydamna, Donogh having ascended the throne according to the ruinous system of alternate succession. Murkerta signalized himself against the Danes. This patriotic prince directed all his efforts to expel the stranger; while Callaghan, king of Cashel, imitated their atrocities and depredations, and often acted in alliance with them. The Danes of Dublin, who, under Anlaf, had made many gallant attempts to establish a kingdom in Northumberland, were converted to Christianity about 948, in which year they founded, it is said, the abbey of St. Mary. Though their power was great, their repose was little, and their sway insecure. Notwithstanding the treachery of many of the native princes, especially those of Leinster, who through cupidity or revenge joined their standard, still the great body of the Irish people maintained a strenuous struggle against them. The rapacious spirit of the Danes survived their paganism; and Kells, Down, Armagh, Lough Ree, Slane, and the distinguished school of Clonard, were still the scenes of their predatory exploits. Nothing hindered their conquering Ireland so much as that division of the kingly authority which prevailed among them, as well as the Anglo-Saxons and the Irish. In 939, Donogh's roydamna, Murkerta, enforced tribute and hostages from his foes. The Dublin Danes surrendered to him their prince Sitric, and the Munster D men their fierce king, Callaghan. After a reign of about twenty-five years, Donogh died; during it the country was in the most wretched and distracted state. He was succeeded by Congelach, in consequence of the decease of the roydamna. For a series of years, the changeful fortune of war continued to give Danish and Irish masters successively to Dublin. CHAPTER IV. CONGELACH.-BRIAN BORU.-RODERIC O'CONNOR.- KENNEDY, king of Munster, was succeeded by his son, Mahon, whose brother, the renowned usurper Brian, was then in his thirty-fourth year. They were of the tribe of the Dalcassians, "who were the first in the field, and the last to leave it." Those heroic princes soon distinguished themselves against the Danes, A. D. 969; they defeated the Danes of Limerick in an engagement at Sulchoid, slew 3000 of them, and pursuing the remainder into the city, sacked and burned it. Mahon fell a victim to the jealousy of a prince, who, detesting his wide-spread fame, invited him to a friendly conference, and barbarously murdered him on the mountains near Macroom. The place of his death is yet called Mahon's Grave. His fate was fearfully avenged by the gallant Brian. Brian never ceased to harass the Danes. He attacked their settlement in the beautiful and venerated isle of Inniscattery, which he recovered, having slain with his own hand their chieftain, Mark, and his two sons, and baffling all the efforts of Ivor and Anlaf, the generals of their allies from Limerick. The monarch Congelach was succeeded by Domnal, son of the brave Murkerta, who, after a reign of twentyfour years, ended his days in religious retirement at Armagh. Malachy the Great was the next prince who wielded the sceptre of the Hy-Nialls. He was doomed to see it wrested from his hands, after having been possessed by his ancestors for more than 500 years. Malachy's achievements before his downfall merit a short notice. His accession was signalized by a splendid victory over the Danes of Dublin and the isles, who invaded his dominions. The victor boldly turned assailant, and attacking the main body of the enemy, collected from all parts, he overthrew them at Tara, in a conflict which lasted three days and three nights. The discomfited foe was forced to accept whatever terms the monarch pleased to dictate; and, among others, not the least glorious to his patriotism and humanity, was the unconditional liberation of all the Irish held in captivity. The monarch's edict to this effect, known as the "Noble Proclamation," was followed by the release of 2000 persons, among whom were Domnal, king of Leinster, and O'Neill, of Tyrone. The battle of Tara, in which the strength of the Danes was irretrievably broken, and their greatest leaders slain, was the glorious precursor to that of Clontarf. An effort of the princes of Leinster to rid themselves of the odious and humiliating tribute still exacted by the crown of Munster, brought Brian into collision with them and the monarch Malachy, and perhaps first suggested that daring course of ambition which he successfully pursued till it conducted him to the imperial seat at Tara. O'Phelan, prince of the Decies, organized the confederacy, which the prince of Ossory and the Danes of Cork and Waterford joined. The active Brian was instantly in the field; he fell upon the whole body of the allies, routed them with immense slaughter, entered Waterford, and then broke up the confederacy; proceeded to Ossory, obtained hostages, and made the hereditary prince his prisoner; marched rapidly into Leinster, reduced it to obedience, and received in his very tent acknowledgments of allegiance and homage from its kings. Such were the early manifestations of that military genius which soon after blazed forth, and shed its lustre upon his long career to its very close-a genius which entitled him to the conspicuous position he subsequently held, and which qualified him for a wider sphere of action-a genius which still recommends him to the historian and the poet. But these brilliant successes did not procure quiet for Brian; perhaps they only provoked the envy of Malachy, and prompted him to try his prowess against the provincial hero. The monarch made an excursion into the territories of the latter, and, among other injuries, ordered to be cut down that sacred tree in the Plain of Adoration, at Adair, under whose boughs the Dalcassian princes were wont to be inaugurated in Pagan times. Brian smothered his resentment, and Malachy was tempted to commit further aggressions, A. D. 983. He invaded Leinster, which, according to the twofold partition of the island before noticed, was under the dominion of Brian. And thus the mischievous division of the island, which nominally allotted the northern portion to the monarch, and the southern to the crown of Cashel, now engendered or fostered that strife which ended in the elevation of the politic and ambitious Brian to the throne of Tara. Brian was quickly in motion, and compelled Malachy, without needing to come to blows, to acknowledge his authority over Leinster and the kingdom of Leath-Mogh, or the southern half of Ireland, and his right to the Boarian tribute, which was the point immediately at issue. These adjustments were followed by a rare interregnum of five years in the reign of civil discord. But Brian was not satisfied: his proud spirit had been stung to the quick by the unprovoked injuries and insults of the superior ruler. Neither is it improbable but that the retaliation he meditated was considerably modified by the view which so able a prince must have taken of the political condition of the nation. His own feelings MALACHY DEFEATS THE DANES. 37 were wounded; his country was torn to pieces by the feuds of rival and reckless chieftains, oppressed by barbarous strangers who held their maritime towns, and plundered their venerated temples, and was no way protected, either against foreign invasion or intestine strife, by an authority able to command respect at home, or to ward off danger from abroad. Boru-for so was Brian called from his triumphant assertion of his claim to the Boarian tribute-prepared to gratify his resentment against Malachy, and to assume the reins of the imperial government. During the quiet which he enjoyed after his settlement with the monarch, he continued to train and augment the troops composed of his brave clansmen of Clare, to reinforce them from various quarters, and to plan out his intended campaigns. All things being in readiness, he divided his corps, and swept like a tempest over Meath and Connaught. Meantime the gallant Malachy did not lose sight of the Danes. He besieged them in Dublin, their stronghold, which he reduced to such extremities that the inhabitants were compelled to agree to pay him yearly, in addition to the usual tribute, one ounce of gold for every principal dwelling-house. Subsequently, in 994, he triumphed over them again, carrying off as trophies the golden collar of Tomar, and the sword of Carlus. It was in allusion to these memorable exploits that Moore, whose genius places him at the head of the national poets of all ages, wrote this touching exhortation: "Let Erin remember the days of old, Ere her faithless sons betrayed her, Which he won from the proud invader." Malachy's arms were, at this time, successful in Mun. ster; but, in the following year, Boru retrieved his defeat, and, bearing down all before him, reduced the imperial residence at Tara to ruins. This success was followed by a treaty of peace, in which, perhaps, both parties were influenced by a conviction of the ruin they were bringing upon their common country. |