of his brilliant exploits. The Danes still held possession of some maritime towns, and were gradually gaining strength and making encroachments on their neighbours. The princes of Munster and Connaught became alarmed at their progress, and, seeing the coming storm, resolved to raise Brien Boiroihme, a celebrated warrior, then king of Munster, to the throne; whereupon Malachi was forced to abdicate and content himself with Meath, and Brien was elected at Athlone, A.D. 1002, supreme monarch of Ireland, led a powerful army into Ulster, where O'Nial acknowledged his authority, and was afterwards crowned at Tarah.

He enacted many salutary laws, compelled the Danes to restore the property they had unlawfully seized, made them rebuild the churches they had destroyed, encouraged literature, erected fortresses, built bridges over the principal rivers, and greatly improved the condition of the country. He introduced surnames, and each sept or clan assumed the name of some ancestor, to which they prefixed the Mac or the O, meaning, according to the signification of these Irish articles, the son, or descendant of such ancestor. His descendants took the

surname of O'Brien, and the descendants of Connor, one of the supreme kings already mentioned, took the name of O'Connor.

The Danes now landed very considerable reinforcements, and Brien Boiroihme assembled his forces, and with the kings of Connaught and Malachi II., then king of Meath, and an army of thirty thousand men, under the command of his son Morrough, took the field, to strike a final blow for the independence of his country. The enemy was encamped near Dublin, where the celebrated and decisive battle of Clontarf was fought, on the 23rd April, 1014, in which the Danes lost ten thousand men, and the Irish gained a glorious victory with the loss of seven thousand, but Brien, the noble deliverer of his country, was amongst the slain.

Malachi II. now became supreme monarch of Ireland, and, after a tranquil and prosperous reign, died A.D. 1022, at a very advanced

age.

After the death of Malachi there was no acknowledged supreme king for many years. Some provincial princes assumed the title, but could not exercise the authority: they were denominated Righe Gafra Sabhrach, signifying kings

with opposition. At length Torlagh O'Connor, king of Connaught, obtained the throne of Ireland, and, from his great achievements, was named Torlagh More, or the Great.

32

THE ENGLISH INVASION.

WE have now arrived at an important epoch in the tragical history of Ireland. She had

scarcely emerged from a long and painful struggle with the barbarous and cruel Danes, when the ambition of Henry II., and the perfidious conduct of one of her own provincial kings, involved her in new and still more afflicting difficulties. We shall now trace their origin, in our progress, through a period of over five hundred years. Henry II. enjoyed an extent of dominions both in England and France unknown to any of his predecessors, and only sought a pretext and an available opportunity to invade and conquer Ireland. Pope Adrian, who was rapidly extending his jurisdiction, and assuming despotic power over kings and nations, had already sent Cardinal Paparon to Ireland, conferred palls on prelates, enforced the celibacy of the clergy, and introduced new regulations in her national church, by various canons.

Under such circumstances, Henry II., who was a perfect master of dissimulation, affected a design to promote the advancement of religion and the interest of the Holy See, and applied to his Holiness to sanction an invasion of Ireland, for the purpose of carrying out his pretended views, offering him, at the same time, an annual tribute from Ireland, in return for his acquiescence. Pope Adrian was too much flattered by the acknowledgment of his authority by so powerful a sovereign, to hesitate in granting what appeared to him so reasonable a request, and accordingly granted the requisite sanction in the fullest spirit of arrogance and usurpation.* But Henry was not yet in a position to avail himself of the bull he so obtained from Pope Adrian, having enough to do in supporting his claim to Anjou, suppressing a troublesome rebellion in Wales, and struggling against the vexatious assumptions of Thomas à Becket.

Ireland was now governed by Torlagh More O'Connor, who was opposed by powerful rivals, and amongst others by Murkeitach O'Loghlin, prince of Tyrone, (the ally and personal friend of Dermod M'Murchad, king of Leinster,) who,

Leland's "History of Ireland."