not long since mentioned. The king, with infini.e difficulty, extricated himself from the consequences of this murder, which threatened, under the papal banners, to arm all Europe against him; nor was he absolved, but by renouncing the most material parts of the constitutions of Clarendon; by purging himself upon oath of the murder of Becket; by doing a very humiliating penance at his tomb, to expiate the rash words which had given occasion to his death; and by engaging to furnish a large sum of money for the relief of the holy land, and taking the cross himself as soon as his affairs should admit it. The king probably thought his freedom from the haughtiness of Becket cheaply purchased by these condescensions; and without question, though Becket might have been justifiable, perhaps even laudable for his steady maintenance of the privileges, which his church and his order had acquired by the care of his predecessors, and of which he by his place was the depository; yet the principles upon which he supported these privileges, subversive of all good government; his extravagant ideas of church power; the schemes he meditated even to his death to extend it yet further; his violent and unreserved attachment to the papacy, and that inflexible spirit, which all his virtues rendered but the more dangerous, made his death as advantageous at that time, as the means, by which it was effected, were sacrilegious and detestable. Between the death of Becket and the king's absolution, he resolved on the execution of a design, by which he reduced under his dominion a country not more separated from the rest of Europe by its situation, than by the laws, customs, and way of life of the inhabitants: for the people of Ireland, with no difference but that of religion, still retained the native manners of the original Celta. The king had meditated this design from the very beginning of his reign; and had obtained a bull from the then pope, Adrian the Fourth, an Englishman, to authorize the attempt. He well knew, from the internal weakness and advantageous situation of this noble island, the easiness and importance of such a conquest. But at this particular time, he was strongly urged to his engaging personally in the enterprise by two other powerful motives. For, first, the murder of Becket had bred very ill humours in his subjects; the chiefs of whom, always impatient of a long peace, were glad of any pretence for rebellion; it was therefore expedient and serviceable to the crown, to find an employment abroad for this spirit, which could not exert itself without being destructive at home. And, next, as he had obtained the grant of Ireland from the pope, upon condition of subjecting it to Peter-pence, he knew that the speedy performance of this condition would greatly facilitate his recovering the good graces of the court of Rome. Before we give a short narrative of the reduction of Ireland, I propose to lay open to the reader the state of that kingdom, that we may see what grounds Henry had to hope for success in this expedition. Ireland is about half as large as England. In the temperature of the climate there is little difference, other than that more rain falls; as the country is more mountainous and exposed full to the westerly wind, which blowing from the Atlantic Ocean prevails during the greater part of the year. This moisture, as it has enriched the country with large and frequent rivers, and spread out a number of fair and magnificent lakes, beyond the proportion of other places has on the other hand encumbered the island with an uncommon multitude of bogs and morasses; so that in general it is less praised for corn than pasturage, in which no sou is more rich and luxuriant. Whilst it possesses these internal means of wealth, it opens on all sides a great number of ports spacious and secure, and by their advantageous situation inviting to universal commerce. But on these ports, better known than those of Britain in the time of the Romans, at this time there were few towns, scarce any fortifications, and no trade that deserves to be mentioned. The people of Ireland lay claim to a very extravagant antiquity, through a vanity com. mon to all nations. The accounts which are given by their antient chronicles of their first settlements, are generally tales confuted by their own absurdity. The settlement of the greatest consequence, the best authenticated, and from which the Irish deduce the pedigree of the best families, is derived from Spain; it was called Clan Milea, or the descendants of Milesius and Kin Scuit, or the race of Scyths, afterwards known by the name of Scots. The Irish historians suppose this race descended from a person called Gathel, a Scythian by birth, an Ægyptian by education, the contemporary and friend of the prophet Moses. But these histories, seeming clear sighted in the obscure affairs of so blind an antiquity, instead of passing for treasuries of antient facts, are regarded by the judicious as modern fictions. In cases of this sort rational conjectures are more to be relied on than improbable relations. It is most probable that Bb Ireland was first peopled from Britain. The coasts of these countries are in some places in sight of each other. The language, the manners, and religion of the most antient inhabitants of both are nearly the same. The Milesian colony, whenever it arrived in Ireland, could have made no great change in the manners or language, as the antient Spaniards were a branch of the Celta, as well as the oid inhabitants of Ireland. The Irish language is not different from that of all other nations, as Temple and Rapin, from ignorance of it, have asserted; on the contrary, many of its words bear a remarkable resemblance not only to those of the Welsh and Armoric, but also to the Greek and Latin. Neither is the figure of the letters very different from the vulgar character, though their order is not the same with that of other nations, nor the names, which are taken from the Irish proper names of several species of trees; a circumstance which, notwithstanding their similitude to the Roman letters, argues a different original and great antiquity. The Druid discipline antiently flourished in that island; in the fourth century it fell down before the preaching of St. Patrick; then the Christian religion was embraced and cultivated with an uncommon zeal, which displayed itself in the number and consequence of the persons who in all parts embraced the contemplative life. This mode of life, and the situation of Ireland, removed from the horrour of those devastations which shook the rest of Europe, made it a refuge for learning, almost extinguished every where else. Science flourished in Ireland during the seventh and eighth centuries. The same cause which destroyed it in other countries, also destroyed it there. The Danes, then Pagans, made themselves masters of the island, after a long and wasteful war, in which they destroyed the sciences along with the monasteries, in which they were cultivated. By as destructive a war they were at length expelled; but neither their antient science nor repose returned to the Irish; who, falling into domestic distractions as soon as they were freed from their foreign enemies, sunk quickly into a state of ignorance, poverty, and barbarism; which must have been very great, since it exceeded that of the rest of Europe. The disorders in the church were equal to those in the civil œconomy, and furnished to the pope a plausible pretext for giving Henry a commission to conquer the kingdom in order to reform it. The Irish were divided into a number of tribes or clans, each clan forming within itself a separate government. It was ordered by a chief, who was not raised to that dignity either by election or by the ordinary course of descent, but as the eldest and worthiest of the blood of the deceased lord. This ordet of succession, called tanistry, was said to have been invented in the Danish troubles, lest the tribe, during a minority, should have been endangered for want of a sufficient leader. It was probably much more antient; but it was, however, attended with great and pernicious inconveniences, as it was obviously an affair of difficulty to determine who should be called the worthiest of the blood; and a door being always left open for ambition, this order introduced a greater mischief than it was intended to remedy. Almost every tribe, besides its contention with the neighbouring tribes, nourished faction and discontent within itself. The chiefs we speak of, were in general called tierna or lords, and those of more consideration riagh or kings; over these were placed five kings more eminent than the rest, answerable to the five provinces into which the island was antiently divided. These again were subordinate to one head, who was called monarch of all Ireland, raised to that power by election, or, more properly speaking, by violonce Whilst the dignities of the state were disposed of by a sort of election, the office of judges, who were called Brehons, the trades of mechanics, and even those arts which we are apt to consider as depending principally on natural genius, such as poetry and music, were confined in succession to certain races: the Irish imagining that greater advantages were to be derived from an early institution, and the affection of parents desirous of perpetuating the secrets of their art in their families, than from the casual efforts of particular fancy and application. This is much in the strain of the eastern policy; but these and many other of the Irish institutions, well enough calculated to preserve good arts and useful discipline, when these arts came to degenerate, were equally well calculated to prevent all improvement, and to perpetuate corruption, by infusing an invincible tena ciousness of antient customs. The people of Ireland were much more addicted to pasturage than agriculture, not more from the quality of their soil than from a remnant of the Scythian manners. They had but few towns, and those not fortified, each clan living dispersed over its own terri. tory. The few walled towns they had lay on the sea coast; they were built by the Danes, and held after they had lost their conquests in the inland parts; here was carried on the little foreign trade which the island then possessed. The Irish militia was of two kinds; one called kerns, which were foot, slightly armed with a long knife or dagger, and almost naked; the other galloglasses, who were horse, poorly mounted, and generally armed only with a battle-axe. Neither horse nor foot made much use of the spear, the sword, or the bow. With indifferent arms, they had still worse discipline. In these circumstances, their natural bravery, which, though considerable, was not superiour to that of their invaders, stood them in little stead. Such was the situation of things in Ireland, when Dermot, king of Leinster, having vio lently carried away the wife of one of the neighbouring petty sovereigns, Roderick, king of Connaught, and monarch of Ireland, join ed with the injured husband to punish so flagrant an outrage; and with their united forces spoiled Dermot of his territories, and obliged him to abandon the kingdom. The fugitive prince, not unapprized of Henry's designs upon his country, threw himself at his feet, implored his protection, and promised to hold of him, as his feudatory, the sovereignty he should recover by his assistance. Henry was at this time at Guienne; nothing could be more agreeable to him than such an incident; but as his French dominions actually lay under an interdict, on account of his quarrel with Becket, and all his affairs, both at home and abroad, were in a troubled and dubious situation, it was not prudent to remove his person, nor venture any considerable body of his forces, on a distant enterprise. Yet not willing to lose so favourable an opportunity, he warmly recommended the cause of Dermot to his regency in England, permitting and encouraging all persons to arm in his favour: a permission, in this age of enterprise, greedily accepted by many; but the person who brought the most assistance to it, and indeed gave a form and spirit to the whole design, was Richard, earl of Striaul, commonly known by the name of Strongbow. Dermot, to confrm in his interest this potent and warlike peer, promised him his daughter in marriage, with the reversion of his crown. The beginnings of so great an enterprise were formed with a very slender force. Not four hundred men landed near Wexford; they took the town by storm. When reinforced they did not exceed twelve hundred; but, being joined with three thousand men by Dermot, with an incredible rapidity of success they reduced Waterford, Dublin, and Limerick, the only considerable cities in Ireland. By the novelty of their arms they had obtained some striking advantages in their first engagements; and by these advantages they attained a superiourity of opinion over the Irish, which every success increased. Before the effect of this first impression had time to wear off, Henry, having settled his affairs abroad, entered the harbour of Cork with a fleet of four hundred sail, at once to secure the conquest, and the allegiance of the conquerours. The fame of so great a force arriving under a prince dreaded by all Europe, very soon disposed all the petty princes, with their King Roderick, to submit and do homage to Henry. They had not been able to resist the arms of his vassals, and they hoped better treatment from submitting to the ambition of a great king, who left them every thing but the honour of their independency, than from the avarice of adventurers, from which nothing was secure. The bishops and the body of the clergy greatly contributed to this submission, from respect to the pope, and the horrour of their late defeats, which they began to regard as judgments. A national council was held at Cashel for bringing the church of Ireland to a perfect conformity, in rites and discipline, to that of England. It is not to be thought, that in this council the temporal interests of England were entirely forgotten. Many of the English were established in their particular conquests, under the tenure of knights' service, now first introduced into Ireland; a tenure which, if it has not proved the best calculated to secure the obedience of the vassal to the sovereign, has never failed in any instance of preserving a vanquished people in obedience to the conquerours. The English lords built strong castles on their demesnes; they put themselves at the head of the tribes, whose chiefs they had slain; they assumed the Irish garb and manners; and thus partly by force, partly by policy, the first English families took a firm root in Ireland. It was indeed long before they were able entirely to subdue the island to the laws of England; but the continual efforts of the Irish, for more than four hundred years, proved insufficient to dislodge them. Whilst Henry was extending his conquest to the western limits of the known world, the whole fabric of his power was privately sapped and undermined, and ready to overwhelm him with the ruins, in the very moment when he seemed to be arrived at the highest and most permanent point of grandeur and glory. His excessive power, his continual accession to it, and an ambition, which by words and actions declared that the whole world was not sufficient for a great man, struck a just terrour into all the potentates near him; he was indeed arrived at that pitch of greatness, that the means of his ruin could only be found in his own family. A numerous offspring, which is gnerally considered as the best defence of the throne, and the support as well as ornament of declining royalty, proved on this occasion the principal part of the danger. Henry had in his lawful bed, besides daughters, four sons, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, and John, all growing up with great hopes from their early courage and love of glory. No father was ever more delighted with these hopes, nor more tender and indulgent to his children. A custom had long prevailed in France for the reigning king to crown his eldest son in his life-time. By this policy, in turbulent times, and whilst the principles of succession were unsettled, he secured the crown to his posterity. Henry gladly imitated a policy enforced no less by paternal affection, than its utility to public peace. He had, during his troubles with Becket, crowned his son Henry, then no more than sixteen years old. But the young king, even on the day of his coronation, discovered an haughtiness which threathened not to content itself with the share of authority to which the inexperience of his youth and the nature of a provisional crown confined him. The name of a king continually reminded him, that he only possessed the name. The king of France, whose daughter he had espoused, fomented a discontent, which grew with his years. Geoffrey, who had married the heiress of Bretagne, on the death of her father, claimed to no purpose the entire sovereignty of his wife's inheritance; which Henry, under a pretence of gaurdianship to a son of full age, still retained in his hands. Richard had not the same plausible pretences, but he had yet greater ambition. He contended for the dutchy of Guienne before his mother's death, which alone could give him the colour of a title to it. The queen, his mother, hurried on by her own unquiet spirit, or as some think, stimulated by jealousy, encouraged their rebellion against her husband. The king of France, who moved all the other engines, engaged the king of Scotland, the earl of Flanders, then a powerful prince, the earl of Blois, and the earl of Boulogne, in the conspiracy. The barons in Bretagne, in Guienne, and even in England, were ready to take up arms in the same cause; whether it was, that they perceived the uniform plan the king had pursued in order to their reduction, or were solely instigated by the natural fierceness and levity of their minds, fond of every dangerous novelty. The historians of that time seldom afford us a tolerable insight into the causes of the transactions they relate; but whatever were the causes of so extraordinary a conspiracy, it was not discovered until the moment it was ready for execution. The first token of it appeared in the young king's demand to have either England or Normandy given up to him. The refusal of this demand served as a signal to all parties to put themselves in motion. The younger Henry fled into France. Lewis entered Normandy with a vast army. The barons of Bretagne under Geoffrey, and those of Guienne under Richard, rose in arms; the king of Scotland pierced into England; and the earl of Leicester, at the head of fourteen thousand Flemings, landed in Suffolk. It was on this trying occasion that Henry displayed a greatness independent of all fortune. For, beset by all the neighbouring powers, opposed by his own children, betrayed by his wife, abandoned by one part of his subjects, uncertain of the rest, every part of his estate rotten and suspicious, his magnanimity grew beneath the danger; and when all the ordinary resources failed, he found superiour resources in his own courage, wisdom, and activity. There were at that time dispersed over Europe bodies of mercenary troops, called Brabançons, composed of fugitives from different nations; men who were detached from any country, and who, by making war a perpetual trade, and passing from service to service, had acquired an experience and military knowledge uncommon in those days. Henry took twenty thousand of these mercenaries into his service, and as he paid them punctually, and kept them always in action, they served him with fidelity. The papal authority, so often subservient, so often prejudicial to his designs, he called to his assistance in a cause which did not misbecome it; the cause of a father attacked by his children. This took off the ill impression left by Becket's death, and kept the bishops firm in their allegiance. Having taken bis measures with judgment, he pursued the war in Normandy with vigour. In this war his mercenaries had a great and visible advantage over the feudal armies of France; the latter not so useful, while they remained in the field, entered it late in the summer, and commonly left it in. forty days. The king of France was forced to raise the seige of Verneuil, to evacuate Normandy, and agree to a truce. Then at the head of his victorious Brabançons Henry marched into Britanny with an incredible expedition; the rebellious army, astonished as much by the celerity of his march as the fury of his attack, was totally routed. The principal towns and castles were reduced soon after. The custody of the conquered country being lodged in faithful hands, he flew to the relief of England. There his natural son Geoffrey, bishop elect of Ely, faithful during the rebellion of all his legitimate offspring, steadily maintained his cause, though with forces much inferiour to his zeal. The king, before he entered into action, thought it expedient to perform his expiation at the tomb of Becket. Hardly had he finished this ceremony when the news arrived that the Scotch army was totally defeated, and their king made prisoner. This victory was universally attributed to the prayers of Becket; and whilst it established the credit of the new saint, it established Henry in the minds of his people; they no longer looked upon their king as an object of the divine vengeance, but as a penitent reconciled to heaven, and under the special protection of the martyr he had made. The Flemish army, after several severe checks, capitulated to evacuate the kingdom. The rebellious barons submitted soon after. All was quiet in England; but the king of France renewed hostilities in Normandy, and laid siege to Rouen. Henry recruited his army with a body of auxiliary Welch, arrived at Rouen with his usual expedition, raised the siege, and drove the king of France quite out of Normandy. It was then that he agreed to an accommodation; and in the terms of peace, which he dictated in the midst of victory, to his subjects, and his enemies, there was seen on one hand the tenderness of a father, and on the other the moderation of a wise man, not insensible of the mutability of fortune. his sons, The war, which threatened his ruin, being so happily ended, the greatness of the danger served only to enhance his glory; whilst he saw the king of France humbled, the Flemings defeated, the king of Scotland a prisoner, and his sons and subjects reduced to the bounds of their duty. He employed this interval of peace to secure its continuance, and to prevent a return of the like evils; for which reason he made many reforms in the laws and polity of his dominions. He instituted itinerant justices, to weaken the power of the great barons, and even of the sheriffs, who were hardly more obedient: an institution which, with great public advantages, has remained to our times. In the spirit of the same policy he armed the whole body of the people; the English commonalty had been in a manner disarmed ever since the conquest. In this regulation we may probably trace the origin of the militia; which, being under the orders of the crown rather in a political than a feudal respect, were judged more to be relied on than the soldiers of tenure, to whose pride and power they might prove a sort of counterpoise. Amidst these changes the affairs of the clergy remained untouched. The king had experienced how dangerous it was to attempt removing foundations so deeply laid both in strength and opinion. He therefore wisely aimed at acquiring the favour of that body, and turning to his own advantage a power he should in vain attempt to overthrow, but which he might set up against another power, which it was equally his interest to reduce. Though these measures were taken with the greatest judgment, and seemed to promise a peaceful evening to his reign, the seeds of rebellion remained still at home, and the dispositions that nourished them were rather increased abroad. The parental authority, respectable at all times, ought to have the greatest force in times when the manners are rude and the laws imperfect. At that time Europe had not emerged out of barbarism; yet this great natural bond of society was extremely weak. The number of foreign obligations and duties almost dissolved the family obligations. From the moment a young man was knighted, so far as related to his father, he became absolute master of his own conduct; but he contracted at the same a time a sort of filial relation with the person who had knighted him. These various principles of duty distracted one another. The custom which then prevailed, of bestowing lands and jurisdictions under the name of appanages to the sons of kings and the greater nobility, gave them a power which was frequently employed against the giver; and the military and licentious manners of the age almost destroyed every trace of every kind of regular authority. In the east, where the rivalship of brothers is so dangerous, such is the force of paternal power among a rude people, we scarce ever hear of a son in arms against his father. In Europe, for several ages it was very common. It was Henry's great misfortune to suffer in a particular manner from |