a single Person must evince the same truth So for Spain Alphonsus III. by putting out the eyes of all his Brethren save one that was kill'd Alfonsus IV. with the like cruelty us'd by his own Brother â—aymirus Peter the Legitimat Son of Alphonsus XI depos'd and kill'd by his Bastard Brother Henry Garzias by Sanctius then Sanctius by Vellidus and after so many retaliations all Spain under King Roderic betray'd to the Moors by a natural Spaniard a Subject to that King Count Julian Prince of Celtiberia as Bodin calls him yea seven hundred thousand Spaniards kill'd in the short space of fourteen months next following that hideous treachery must evince mightily the self-same truth So for France those horrible Feuds Combustions Devastations cruelties inhumanities barbarous sacriledges of the late Civil Wars there continued 40 years against four Kings whereof you may read at large in D'Avila and the Holy Ligue and both Henry III. and Henry IV. one after another so vilely murder'd by those devoted Assassins of Hell Jacques Clement and Ravilliac evince it still Lastly and to come nearer home tho in an earlier time even so for England 1. Those eight and twenty Saxon Kings of the Heptarchy part by one another kill'd part by their own Subjects murder'd besides many other depos'd and forc'd to fly away for their lives For as Matthew of Westminster l. 1. c. 3. writes of the very Northumbrian Kings alone four were murder'd and three more deposed within the little time of one and forty years only And therefore it was that Charles the Great of France when the news of the last of them by name Ethelbert being murdered came to his hearing not only resolv'd to stop the presents he was before on sending to England nor only to do the English in lieu of sending them gifts all the mischiefs he could but said to Alcuinus an English man his own Instructor in Rhetorick Logick and Astronomy that indeed That was a perfidious and perverse Nation a murderer of their Lords and worse than Pagans Nay therefore also it was that many of the Bishops and Nobles fled out of this Northumbrian Kingdom and no man dared for 30 years next following venture on being their King but all men declined it and so left them a prey to the Irish Scâ—ts and Danes who by the just judgment of God over-run them and destroy'd them at last on that very occasion principally 2. Since the Norman Conquest besides the horrible rebellion of Henry the 2d's own Children against him and many other particulars which I pass over not only all the calamities miseries cruelties unspeakable evils of the Barons Wars on both sides under King John Henry III. and Edward II. nor only the deposition and murder too of this poor Edward even his own Wife Queen Eleanor and his own very Soâ—thâ—e Prince of Wales having both of them concurr'd in the deposing him and usurping his Crown but the most prodigiously mortal dissentions of Lancaster and York began with the rebellion against deposition and murder of Richard the II. and so bloodily prosecuted for thirty years under Henry VI. and Edw. IV. that besides eleven main Battels fought with infinite slaughter of English men on either side nay even twenty thousand men kill'd besides the wounded in one of them which Polydore calls the Battel of Touton a Village of Yorkshire the excellent Historian Philip Comines tells us of 80 of the Blood Royal destroyed in them and among this number Henry VI. a most vertuous innocent holy King most barbarously murder'd To say nothing of Richard the Third that Usurping Tyrant so justly dispatch'd in the Battel of Bosworth by the Earl of Richmond who thereupon succeeded King by the name of Henry VII and by marrying the Daughter of Edward IV. and thereby most happily uniting in himself and his Queen and Issue the right of the two Houses ended those fatal dissentions of Lancaster and York Dissentions indeed so fatal to England that besides all her best blood at home as we have seen by their long continuance from the year of Christ 1393. to the year 1486. lost Her not only the Kingdom of France but even the more ancient Inheritance of our Kings in the Dukedoms of Normandy Aquitane and whatever else belong'd to the English Crown on that side of the Sea only the Town of Calais with its little Appendages excepted Were it necessary Buchanan could furnish out of the neighbouring Kingdom of Scotland a very large addition of more examples to the purpose of this place But more than enough has been already said to conclude that notwithstanding any thing or expression in either of the two former Sections my meaning could not be to make those bloody Feuds in Ireland or consequents of them so peculiar to the Milesian Race or Irish Nation as if no other People on Earth had been at any time guilty of the like or as horrid The truth is I mean'd only to say That in respect of their long duration perpetual return from time to time for almost five and twenty hundred years compleat and their excessive degree at very many times within that long Succession of Ages especially considering the small extent of Ireland those cruel bloody Feuds were both National and peculiar to that People only Which I think is true notwithstanding that other Nations either much greater or much lesser might have been in some few Instances of time as high nay peradventure much more horrible transgressors in the very same kind than those antient Milesians were at any one time since their Conquest of Ireland from Tuath-Dee-Danan 33. The second point is to do those ancient Milesians the right as to acknowledg what their Histories have at large That amidst all the Feuds and fury of their Arms how bloody or how lasting soever they had several both Monarchs and after the Pentarchy was set up lesser Kings yea some of those too in their time of Paganism and many more as well of those as these after Christianity establish'd that were of great renown among them for other excellent Qualifications becoming their dignity than those only of Martial Vertue and Fortitude In time of Paganism they had their XXII Monarch Ollamh Fodhla so called from his great Knowledg that very name given him importing in Irish as Gratianus Lucius hath observ'd a great master in Sciences and Teacher of all Knowledg to his People It was he that divided the Lands of Ireland into Hundreds call'd by them Triochae-chead and placed a Lord over each Hundred and over each Town of the Hundred a Bailiff an Applotter of Duties and receiver of Strangers to provide Entertainment for them They had their XCI Monarch Conair mor mhac Eidirsgceoil so great a Justiciar so zealous a Prosecutor of all Malefactors that although with great pains industry hazard to himself yet he forc'd at last all kind of Robbers Thieves Vagabonds and Idlers to fly the whole Kingdom and after this during his Reign
Kingdom been destroy'd but for the enormity of their sins Whereof whoever pleases may see proofs at large in Fitz-Herberts Policy and Religion Part 1. chap. 21. 22. 23 c. yea Jesus the son of Syrach for he may be more easily consulted in every Bible at hand may give to a sober man assurance enough where he says First cap. 10. 8. that the Kingdom is translated from Nation to Nation because of unjust dealings injuries calumnies and various deceits Secondly c. 40. 10. that death and bloodshed strife and the sword oppression famine contrition and scourges were all of them created for the wicked and for them the deluge was made Nay if we consult the Books of Kings read the Prophets run over the Books of Josuah Judges Deuteronomy Chronicles and the rest of the old Testament examine all the Histories of Christendom we shall not find any whole Kingdom or Nation destroy'd but for grievous and horrible sins either of the Rulers or People or Priests or all together Yea we shall commonly find the very quality and species of those transgressions mentioned that brought the vengeance on them However and notwithstanding that further yet we know that bloodshed is one of those four sins that cry to Heaven Gen. X. 11. for vengeance the Voice of thy brothers blood cries to me from the earth said God himself to Cain and that the very second of the Gen. IX 6. Laws he gave to Noe was that whosoever did shed the blood of man his also should be shed after all I dare not affirm positively that either those very Feuds of the Irish how unparallel'd soever in blood or those other transgressions in specie be they what you please were the sins that moved God to pronounce this final doom against them but only in general That their great sins compell'd him to it And how should I indeed For who was the Counsellor Esay XL. 13. Rom. XI 39. of God or who knows any thing of the secrets of his Providence except only those to whom himself was pleased to reveal them Nevertheless I dare acquaint the Reader that although I give but little credit generally and sometimes none at all to the Relations of Cambrensis where he seems rather to vent his passion and write a Satyr against that People than regard either Modesty or Truth yet I will not call in question what he relates l. 2. de Expug Hib. c. 33. of the Prophetical predictions made so many Ages before by the four Prophetical Saints of that Nation Moling Brachan Patrick and Columb-Cille and written by themselves says he in their own Irish Books extant yet in Ireland concerning the final Fate of their Countreymen the old Milesian Race viz. That the people of Great Brittain shall not only invade them but for many Ages continue a sharp cruel and yet doubtful War upon them at home in Ireland sometimes the one and sometimes the other side prevailing That although those Invaders shall be often disturb'd worsted weakned especially and according to the prophecy of Brachan by a certain King that shall come from the desert Mountains of Patrick and on a Sunday-night seize a Castle in the Woody parts of Ibh Faohlain and besides force them almost all away out of Ireland yet they shall continually maintain the Eastern Sea-Coast in their possession That in fine it will be no sooner than a little before the day of judgment and then it will be when they shall be throughly and universally victorious over all Ireland erect Castles every where among the Irish and reduce the whole Island from Sea to Sea under the English Yoak And verily those Prophetical predictions five hundred years since delivered us by Cambrensis as he received 'em from the Irish themselves are the more observable That by consulting the History of after-Ages from Henry II. of England to the last of Queen Elizabeth and first of King James we may see them to a tittle accomplish'd Unless peradventure some will unreasonably boggle at the circumstance of time express'd in these words Paulò ante diem Judicii a little before the day of Judgment Which yet no man has reason to do Because we know not how near this great day which shall end the World may be to us at this very present As for that King foretold as coming from the desâ—rt Mountains of Patric there may be occasion and place enough to speak of him again that is hereafter in the Second Part of this Treatise But whether from this Irish Prophesie either had as for the substance not the exact words of it from Cambrensis for he pretends not to give to us the exact words or had perhaps at least for some part of it from the Irish themselves resorting to Rome in those days the famous Italian Prophet of Calabria Joachimus Abbot of Flore did foretell in his time the utter destruction and eternal desolation that Joachimus Ab. post Tract super cap. X. Isaiae Part 1. de Oneribus sexti Temporis was to come upon the Irish Nation I cannot say This I know 1. That in all his predictions all along in his several Commentaries on Jeremy Esay the Apocalyps c. he pretends to divine Revelation 2. That he lived several years after the Writings of Cambrensis on Ireland had been publick For Cambrensis dedicated one part of them to Henry II. himself who died in the Year of Christ 1189. and the rest to his Son Richard when yet but Earl of Poicton And Joachim was in Sicily with Richard now King of England and Philip Polydore Virgil. in Ricardo primo King of France both wintring there with their Fleets An. 1190. in their way to the Invasion of the holy Land Nay I have my self read his submission of his Works to the See Apostolick dated by himself ten years after which was the Year 1200. of our Saviours Incarnation 3. That being ask'd what the success of this great expedition to the holy Land against Saladine should be his Answer was it should prove unsuccessful and that the time of recovering Hierusalem was not yet come 4. That this prediction of his was punctually true as appear'd ere long 5. That his Prophecy of the old Irish Nation is in these genuin words you read in the Margin * Ex rigoribus horribilis hyemis glacialis flatibus Aquilonis parit Hibernia Incolas furibundos Sed si sequentium temporum terrores praenoscerent internos impetus cogitarene à facie spiritus Domini ferreum pectus averterent se à sempiternis opprobriis liberarent Sed ex quo invicem vertitur furor aspideus involvit tam Clerum quam populum par insultus non video quod superna Clementia ulterius differat quin in â—os exactissimum judicium acuat in stuporem perpetuae desolationis impellat Omnes istos populos Cathedra Dubliniensis astringit Sed Darensium enormis iniquit as totum defaedat ordinem charitatis Et ideo
in like manner Claudius the Roman Emperour though come in person with a mighty power of Legions and Auxiliaries into Brittain found it his safest way to run away in two great Battels from the victorious Army of Guiderius and Arviragus the Lxvii and Lxviii Brittish Monarchs one after another in so much that Claudius was content at last ' een fairly to capitulate for Peace with Arviragus by sending to Rome for his own Daughter Gennissa and giving her in marriage to him nay and leaving him too the Government wholly of all these Provincial Islands for so Geoffrey calls them in this place That Severus how great soever both a Souldier and Emperour he was found it a desperate business to fight in Great Brittain against the Brittons when he saw himself receiving his death's wound from Fulgenius in that Battel whence he was carried dead and buried in York That under Vortigern their Lxxxvi Monarch Hengistus the Saxon invited in by him landed the second time in Great Brittain with an Army of three hundred thousand Heathen Foreigners and yet Aurelius Ambrosius the next Brittish King after Vortigern fought him in the head of all his formidable Forces and in a plain Field overthrew both him and them all nay pursued them in their Flight till he reduced them to nothing and the whole Island of Brittain to its native liberty from any Foreign Yoak Nor had his Victories a period here but over-run Ireland also where he took Prisoner in a great Battel the Monarch of that Countrey Gillomar and then brought away Choream Gigantum the Giants Monument of stones from the Plains of Kildare in that Kingdom which he set up on Salisbury Plains in England That Arthur who was likewise save one the next King of Great Brittain for he was son to Vter Pendragon that Reign'd immediately before him subdued all England Scotland Ireland the Isles of Orkney Denmark Norway Gothland along to Livonia France and as many Kingdoms in all as made up XXX Yea moreover i. e. after so many great and mighty Conquests and besides the killing too of Monsters and Giants fought even Flollo and Lucius the two Lieutenant Generals of the Roman Emperour Leo kill'd them both in France and the later of them I mean Lucius in the head of a dreadful Army consisting of four hundred thousand men all which he overthrew and ruin'd That although by occasion of some unhappy quarrels among the Britons themselves under Catericus their Lxxxxvi King a bad man the Saxons to be reveng'd on them wrought King Gurmundus the late African Conqueror of Ireland to come from thence into Great Britain with an Army of a hundred sixty six thousand Heathen Africans and burn spoil and destroy the better parts thereof and after put and leave the Saxons in possession of all he could which was that whole Countrey then called Loegria now England as distinguish'd both from Scotland and Wales meaning by Wales the ancient Kingdom of Cambria which comprehended all beyond the Savern and that notwithstanding the Saxons had by such means got possession of all Loegria and held it for several years they were beat out again so soon as the Britons agreed amongst themselves meeting at Westchester and chusing there Caduallo for their King who bravely recovered the whole Island every way round even to the four Seas and kept both Picts and Scots and such of the Saxons as were left alive or permitted to stay in perfect obedience to the British Crown during his own Reign which lasted forty years in all and that so did Cadwallador after him during his In short that as the progeny of Frute continued free independent successful glorious in the first period of their Monarchy under sixty six Kings of their own during at least a thousand years and forty from the landing of Brute till the Invasion of Julius Caesar and as for the next period which took up five hundred and nine years more till the landing of Hengistus the Saxon albeit the Roman power and glory did sometimes lessen sometime ecclipse theirs yet they preserved still their freedom and Laws and Government under twenty other Kings of their British Nation successively reigning over them and paying only a slight acknowledgment of some little tribute to the Roman Emperours nay and this same but now and then very seldom so in the third or last period of it containing somewhat above two hundred and fifty years from the said landing of Hengistus to the twelfth year of Cadwallador they upon the Romans quitting them not only restor'd themselves under Aurelius and Arthur by their own sole valour to the ancient glory of their Dominion but maugre all the opposition of the Confederated Saxons Picts and Scots now and then rebelling against them enjoyed it under the succession of seven Brittish Kings more from Arthur to Cadwallador yea Malgo the fourth of this very last number when the six foreign Provincial Countreys as Geoffrey calls them viz. Ireland Island the Orcades Norway Denmark and Gothia had rebell'd anew was so fortunately brave as by dint of Sword to have reduced them all again to their old subjection under Great Brittains Empire Add moreover that Cadwallador himself albeit the last of this Trojan Race wielding the Sâ—â—pter of Great Brutus enjoyed the same Glorious Power that his Predecessours had before him over the whole extent of this Noble Island That the total change and utter downfal of the Brittish Government happening after in his days proceeded only from an absolute Decree of Heaven and mighty Anger of God incensed against the Brittons for their sins but neither in the whole nor in part from any Power of the Saxons or other Enemies or men upon Earth That the immediate visible means which God made use of to destroy them irrecoverably were 1. A most bloody fatal Division after some years of this Cadwallador's reign happening among them yea continuing so long and to such a degree that between both sides all the fruitful Fields were laid waste no man caring to till the ground 2. The consequence of this waste a cruel Famine over all the Land 3. A Plague so prodigiously raging that the number of the Living was not sufficient to bury the Dead That the Almighty's hand lying so heavy on them by so dreadful a Pestilence was it alone that forc'd Cadwallador in the twelfth year of his Reign to retire for some time into Little Britanny in France That after ten years more when this Epidemical Plague had been wholly over and Cadwallador prepared to ship his Army and return a voice of Thunder by Angelical Ministery spake to him from Heaven commanding him aloud to desist from his Enterprize and telling him in plain terms it was decreed above unalterably The Race of Brutus should bear no more sway in Great Brittain till the time were come which Merlin had prophecied of to King Arthur And to conclude all That in pure obedience to this Voice of God it was that Cadwallador giving
those very Monarchs for he names only the first and last of 〈◊〉 being Feidlimidius whom he mistakes for one more was not King of Ireland but of Mounster only So little he has of the very Milesians or their Antiquities or Actions Except only 1. A few words of the six Sons of Muredus Provincial King of Ulster entring Scotland 2. A slender touch upon the Danish Invasions of Ireland In which notwithstanding he is mightily out both as to the Year of Christ he fixes on for the first of those Invasions viz. 838. and as to the name person feats yea and Nation too of Gurmundus all being meer Fictions borrow'd mostly from Galfridus Monumethensis However with such and many more idle stories in other matters not only impertinent to the Title of his Books or discharge of his Promise nor only not had from any Records or Writings whatsoever as neither from the oral Testimony of men of knowledg or integrity but wholly deriv'd from old Wive's Tales and pastime of Ferry-men and random reports of Soldiers and imposture of some Knaves who fain'd things of purpose to impose on his vain credulity and besides with most vile reflections Invectives Satyrs almost every where against the Irish Nation of his own time their Princes Priests and People generally without sparing any degree not even the very Monks nor even the very Bishops excepted he patch'd up finish'd at last after five years study all his foresaid five Books of Ireland prefixing Dedicatories of some to the King as of other of 'em to Richard Earl of Poictou who soon after was Richard I. of England And now putting an extraordinary value on these Works of his own and no longer able to conceal his ambitious design of glory by 'em he goes to Oxford renews the ancient Roman Rehearsals there in the most publick Audience could be had continues 'em three days together from morning till night allowing a day for each of his Topographical Books And to make his Comedy the more solemn feasts all the meaner sort of that whole City on the firstday on the second all the Doctors Masters and chief Scholars of the Vniversity on the third day the rest of the Scholars the Soldiers too and all the Burgesses of that Place A sumptuous and noble act says Gerald himself glorying of it whereby the ancient Custom of Poets was renewed which neither the present Age nor any former could shew in England But after all he came short of his expectation of glory His little performance and great ignorance his many Fables and evil choice of other materials toâ— yea and his mortal enmity hatred malevolence to the Irish Nation were seen through especially at Court where as himself complains he had too many back Friends to malign him Above all his Satyrs and spleen against the very name of the Irish lai'd him open Nor were the true causes thereof unknown Besides the common concern he had in the destruction of that People for the sake of his Kinsmen there was another more peculiar to himself that continually egg'd him to the greatest violence against them He had even for his own sake very deeply engag'd in a particular controversie with Albinus O Molloy a Cistercian Irish Monk and Abbot of Baltinglass wherein he was worsted Whether any other causes mov'd him I do not know But this I know that in his Second Book of the Conquest of Ireland he desir'd that whole Nation might either be throughly weakned or totally destroy'd yea notwithstanding the Peace but lately concluded and still observ'd by them And that besides in the same Book cap. 36. he prescrib'd the ways to do it I see also that on every occasion as he is perpetually in the greatest extreams even of Romantic praises of his own Relatives Fitz Stephens Fitz Gerald Meyler the two Barrys and all their Brittish Soldiers too his own Countrey-men so of the other side upon the least pique he is no less passionately excessive in charging with and exaggerating the vilest things against the very Normans and English in Ireland tho embarqu'd in the save public quarrel with them against the Irish Nation Witness among others Herveus de Monte Marisco and William Fitz Adelm the King's Lieutenant and Progenitor of the noble Family of Bourks in that Kingdom Nay witness the King himself Henry II. Whom altho during his Life this Author made the Occidental Alexander the Invincible the Salomon of his own Time the most Pious of Princes and his only Fame tho far short of his Merits to have repress'd the fury of all the very Gentils of Europe and Asia too beyond the Mediterranean Sea adding many more Hyperbolical expressions to magnifie him above all truth and reason as for example That his Victoâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 with the Circumference of the Earth and That if you seek after the Limits of his Conquests you shall sooner come to the end of the World than of them yet after this Great Prince's death as David Powel very particularly observes he the same Author Gerald of Wales most bitterly invey'd against him in his Book de Instructione Principis where he so belâ—bed forth the venom of his malevolence that he manifestly discover'd his old inveterate hatred of this King Henry So says Powell Moreover and in reference particularly to his stories of Ireland you may find in Primat Ushers Sylloge pag. 155. how the expostulations of other men and evidence of Truth compell'd him at last to several Retractations among which he confesses that altho he had some of his Relations from persons of credit in that Countrey yet for the rest he had only common report and fame Which if I be not mistaken is in effect to acknowledg that he had common Lyes and Forgeries to authorize them Nay further You may read Sir James Wares Censure of them in his own Antiquities of Ireland cap. 23. where in express terms he says in Latin That Gerald of Wales in his Topography of Ireland has heap'd together so many Fabulous Relations that to discuss them exactly would require a just Treatise And then adds in the same place his own wonder How it should come to pass that some of this very Age tho otherwise grave and learned men have again for Truths obtruded on the World those Fictions of Girald Besides You are to know that notwithstanding so many just exceptions against those Books of Cambrensis yea notwithstanding they had therefore lyen after his death 400 years neglected obscure unknown till Cambden had them printed at Francford an 1602. yet ever since that year they have proved the only chief warrant to all such men of little reading as were delighted in writing ill of the ancient Irish To conclude what I would say on the whole is That if hatred enmity open profess'd hostility and special interest and actual engagement too in the destruction of that ancient Irish Nation if ignorance of their Language and wilful passing by their History even the most authentick of their
signifying much of either side at least as to Ireland in general by any of these Invasions there was nothing more heard of them or of the Invaders Much less was there ever in any Chronicle or Book that I could see either in English Irish or Latin before Cambden's Britannia came forth any mention made of Edgar King of England how puissant soever he was his having conquered a great part of Ireland and Dublin withal or indeed so much as one foot of Land there nay or so much as his having attempted any such thing And therefore I take no notice of Cambden's old Charter of King Edgar wherever he found it And so I do as little of Buchanan's relation where he writes that Gregory the Great King of Scotland who began his Reign Anno Christi 875. and ended it with his life Anno 902. invaded Ireland with a puissant Army during the minority of Donogh King of Ireland and Tutorship of this young King by Brien and Conchuair beat these Tutors in two several great Fights took Dondalk Droghedagh and Dublin visited here the young King assum'd his Tutorage to himself placed Governours in the strong Towns receiv'd threescore Hostages for their fidelity and with them return'd victorious to Scotland Certainly Ireland never had at any time since the very beginning not even since the first Monarch Slanius who reigned above three thousand years ago any King that was a Minor as Doctor Keting well observes and may be seen by any that reads over in his Chronology and History all the Reigns of the several Monarchs who during that vast extent of time successively govern'd Ireland or had the Title to govern as Monarchs there until it came under the English Power in the year of Christ 1172. There was not one of them all that came to the Soveraignty but either by election of the people or power of the Sword as there was not one in seven but came to it by this latter way that is by killing of his Predecessor Keting in the life of Brian Borumha and this commonly too in Battel Besides their very fundamental Law of Tanistry did exclude a Minor What then must we think where so many thousands descended of Heber and Herimon were at hand to claim their Titles rather than a Minor should have it But to say no more to this feigned Invasion from Scotland nor any thing other than what I have already of those former true however inconsiderable ones from elsewhere in Great Britain and to return back where I was to the Invasions both true and terrible and lasting indeed of the Danes what I would say is that notwithstanding those cruel Heathens had from the year of Christ 820. when they first invaded Ireland in the Reign of Hugh in Irish Aodh surnamed Ordnighe Monarch of Ireland and Airtre mhic Caithil Provincial King of Mounster and after that year all along in the Reigns of both that Monarch and his two Successors Conchauar mhac Donchadha and Niall Caille as likewise of Feilimidh mhic Griomthaine the Latins call him Feidlimidius successor to Airtre in the Kingdom of Mounster in several Fleets the two first one after another landing in Mounster the third in the North the fourth in vibh Cinsallach in Leinster fifth in the Harbour of Limmerick sixth of 60 Sail at the River Boyne seventh of forty Sail on the River Liffy eighth and ninth extraordinary great mighty ones at Lough-Foyle in Vlster poured in continually from time to time for above forty years together those almost incredible Numbers of men related by Hanmor yet the Irish fought 'em still and foyl'd 'em too in eight or nine Battels And although being too much overpowred by the continual supplies of new men coming to their Enemies who were absolute masters of the Seas they after a tedious cruel and continual War became at last for some little season Tributary to their Captain General Turgheise for so the Irish call him by us called Turgesius who now stiled himself King of Ireland lived in the middle thereof at Lough Ribh near the place where now Athlone is had both there and all over the whole Kingdom in every Province and Countrey and almost nook of it his Dane-Raths and other Fortifications made and strong Garrisons planted in 'em yet very soon after the generality of their Princes and people I say the generality for some of them held out still in some inaccessible places of Rocks and Bogs ' and Woods had so yielded to him their wisdom valour enfranchiz'd them most wonderfully in little above one Months time by their utter destruction of this Tyrant all his Heathen Crue For upon his lusting after the beautiful Daughter of Maolsechluin King of Meath and his desiring her of her Father to be his Concubine and the Fathers seeming of purpose to consent and then sending her privately at the Night appointed but attended with fifteen resolute Youths in Womens attire with short Swords under their Gowns and instructions what to do and then when it was very late at Night and all the rest of the leacherous Tyrants great Commanders withdrawn each to his own Apartment their seizing him so soon as he began to be rude with her and the Armour too of all the rest laid together in one heap on a Table in the Hall and then her Fathers rushing in at the same time and killing all those Commanders every one when they expected other Company each one of them one of the young beautiful Damsels as the Tyrant had promised them hereupon I say and upon the word given by Messengers who were ready of purpose flying into all parts the Irish to a man throughout the Kingdom are presently in Arms fall upon the astoâ—ish'd Danes attack and carry their Forts fight their Troops wherever they embody rout 'em kill 'em and pursue the remainders of them to their very Ships getting now away out of the Roads as Wind Weather serv'd ' em As for Turgesius himself Maolseachluin reserv'd him in Fetters for a time and then drown'd him at last in Lough-ainme So that after much about forty years bloody continual and general War at home in all the Provinces and several years most miserable and general thraldom under the yoke of such powerful barbarous and fell Tyrants who left not a Monastery or Church or Chappel standing where ever they came who placed a Lay-heathen Abbot in every Cloyster and endowed Church to gather the Revenues who layed so many times all their Countrey in Ashes who no less than four several times in one Month burnt Ardmagh the most holy See and Metropolitan City then of all Ireland who slew indistinctly for so many years both Priests and Clerks and Laicks and mean and great and rich and poor without mercy and who at last having subdued the miserable remainder imposed those burdens of Bondage on them which were such that if as to the particulars they were not attested by all the Irish Chronicles in
enjoyed the Sovereign Power of Albain The other two were Mac Con otherwise called Lughae and Criomthan mhac Fiodaigh 4. There went also thither about the year of Christ 150. on his own account with considerable Forces Cairbre Riadfadae Son to the 106. Monarch of Ireland by name Conaire mhac Mogha Lauae who Conquer'd large Dominions for himself in the more Northern parts of that Kingdom and left his Posterity after him there who are those or at least a great and the more ancient part of those called by â—â—da Nistor Eccles l. 1. c. 1. Venerable Bede Dal-Rheudini as being the Inhabitants and first Irish Planters of Dal-Rheuda or as the Irish call it Dal-Riada in Scotland Whether it be not called so from that Cairbre Riadbfadae that is from this surname of his Riadfadae being changed by V. Bede to Rheuda as it might easily be I know not But this I know that Dal which is prepos'd in the composition signifies Part or Lot And so the whole word Dal-Rheuda or Dal-Riada signifies the Part of such a man who was the chief in Conquering it 5. The foresaid Mac Con alias Lughae within a few years more at least within less than thirty purfuing the same examples Landed in Scotland with a power of his Country-men Adventurers For it was from thence he returned back into Ireland to fight the Battel called Maigh Mhuchruimhe wherein being Victorious and killing the Monarch Art Aoinfir he made himself Sovereign in his place 6. This Mac Con's Grand-Son Fiachae Ceanann entring likewise Scotland not only gain'd large possessions but left his Posterity after him to give a beginning to Mac Allin and his Family there who are all descended from him 7. Colla Vais who had been four years tho by Usurpation the 115. Monarch of Ireland when he was by the lawful Heir his own Cousin German Muireadhach Tiriogh defeated in Battel and forc'd to flie adventuring over to Scotland with the two other Collaes his Brethren and rest of his adherents and acquiring great scopes of ground there became the Grandsire of the Clan Ndomnaills both in Scotland and Ireland For all of this Surname in either Kingdom in their several generations or branches derive their extraction in a direct line from this Colla Vais and consequently neither from Herimon or Heber but from i the a Cousin of theirs who was the Son of Breoghuin mhic Bratha of the same stock with Milesius 8. Next after that Colla did Criamhthan mhac Fioda the 120. King of Ireland with a Royal Army invade Albain I mean Scotland He had in his company another very powerful Noble man called Earc mhac Eocha Muingreahar mhic Aongussa And from him the Septs not only of Clann Eirc and Cineall Gabhrain but those of Cineall Conghvill Cineall Naonghussa and Cineall Conriche Anile with their distinct propagations and Families in Scotland ever since to this present are descended 9. Corck mhac Luighdhioch is the next in order that deserves mention Because that by the false and wicked surmises of his Step-mother upon his refusal to consent to her incestuous Lust she was Daughter to Fiachac mhac Reill King of Ely falling into his Fathers displeasure and thereupon forced to seek his fortune in Scotland and arriving there accompanied with such armed Troops as he could raise and then by his own deserts coming into such extraordinary favour with the Scottish King Fearradhach Fionn otherwise called Fionn Chormac that he obtain'd his Daughter call'd Muingfionn to Wife he had issue by her besides other Sons Manie Leambna from whom the Sept of Leambnuidh in Scotland and Cairbre Cruithnioch from whom the Families of Eoghanacht Muighe Geirghin in the same Kingdom were propagated 10. Soon after him Niall Naoighiallach the 121. and most powerful indeed of all the Irish Monarchs that were at any time before or since entred Scotland with so great a force that there was no resisting him But having said enough of him before I need not add to it here 11. In the last place and year of Christ 493. much about ninety three years after the said War-like Prince Niall the Great surnamed also Naoighiallach had been kill'd in France and in the 20. year of Lugha the 125 Monarch Son to Laogirius his Reign the six Sons of Muireadhach * So says Keting in the Reign of Niall Naoighiallach yet formerly in the Reign of Oilioll Molâ— he calls them the six Sons of Eirc mhic Eachae Muinreamhair mhic Eoghuin Mhic Neill King of Vlster being six Brothers of Mairchiartach Mor that soon after came to be Monarch of Ireland namely to the two Fergusses the two Aongussaes and the two Loarns together with other Septs or Families of Dal-Riada in the same Province of Vlster adventur'd for Albain and whether or no they gave the denomination of Dal-Rheuda or Dal-Riada to the Country there mostly possessed by them tho at least for a great part of it planted before as we have seen by the Progeny of Cairbre Rioghfadae †Eochae Muinreamhar of the Progeny of Cairbre Ridhfadae had two Sons Earcha and Elchon From the former the the Families of Dal-Riada in Scotland were descended From the later those of Dal-Riada in Ulster So Keting soys in the Reign of Art Aonsir where he further says that the two Dal-Riades or Families of them have been distinguished by the surname or nick-name of Russach given those of Dal Riada in Ulster the Irish Chronicles are plain and positive herein that they gave to themselves and all their Country-men the Scots of Albion the first King that ever they had of the name of Fergus who was one of those six Brothers And it is he that both the Irish and English Scots have since for his honor surnamed the Great as likewise Fergus I. Not that he was indeed the first Irish or Scottish King of Dal-Rheuda wherein Buchanan and all the rest of his Fellow-Historians that were English Scots are extreamly out for long before that very Fergus there have been many Scottish Kings of Irish descent in Dal-Rheuda but that he was greater than any of the former and the first of his own name that ruled there To conclude so many were the Invasions and so great the Plantations made in that Country by the Irish Milesians and other Gathelians in their time of Paganism that as they Conquer'd so they planted it throughly at last having quite expell'd the Picts And so they kept it possess'd intirely by themselves as Lords thereof for some Ages That is until after the Norman Conquest of England very many of the Saxons retiring thither under their protection others invited in and accompanying William the Scottish King and both of them multiplying mightily they not only made the other Nations which are now called English Scots but by degrees gained from them as we see even all other the better parts of that Kingdom besides the Lowlands I say accompanying William the Scottish King For Stow in his Chronicle tells That
and upon what occasion you may peradventure know in the next Section At present it may suffice to know they were much like the Olympick Games of Greece But whatever this Aonach of Tailteann as the Irish call it be thought to have been Lucius proceeds and tells us that in the same Year also Muirchiortach O Brien King of North mounster was murder'd by the South mounster men That the Monarch made his Brother Domhnal O Brien King to succeed him put him in full possession fined the Desmonians in 3120 Beeves for killing his Brother and made them effectually pay this Fine The same year likewise he fined the Methians in 800 Beeves and the men of Dealfna heavily for the killing of O Finolan one of their Lords In the Year 1169. Domhnal Breagach for being Author of Diarmuid the Prince of Meath's death he punish'd with the loss of that Estate which the said Domhnal by so wicked an Act of murder aim'd to inherit But this Monarch did confiscate it so as he reserv'd West-meath to himself and the Conacians bestowing at the same time Eastmeath on the foresaid Tighernan O Ruairk and his people of Breithfne Anno 1175. Domhnal O Brien King of North-mounster pull'd out the eyes both of Diarmuid mhic Teaidhg and Mahoom mhic Toirrgiallaidgh vihh Bhrian yea and murder'd the Son of Conchabhar O Brien of Corcumruadh To punish this Tyranny Rotherick or Roderick for so the English Writers name this Ruadhruigh the present Monarch enters Tomond makes Domhnal fly and because he could not find him lays his whole Countrey waste In the same Year 1175. he defeated in Ormund the Irish call it Ir-mhoun that is East Mounster both the Welsh English and Irish Troops led by Strougbow kill'd 1700 of them in the place and forc'd that Earl how valiant and fortunate soever till then to give over his present design and retire in great disorder to Watenford After this but yet in the same Year still Ruadhruigh considering not only the defection of many of the Princes from him but their variance among themselves and which was most dangerous of all his own Sons turn'd unruly and rebellious and therefore considering also that himself alone was not able any longer to bear up against so many Enemies both Domestick and Foreign Irish and Brittish well nigh already environing him round he now at last descends to Capitulations of Peaco with the King of England The sum of them says Lucius the Irish Annals deliver in words importing mostly this sense that Cathal alias Catholicus O Dubhay Archbishop of Tuam return'd out of England with the Peace concluded by him there with Henry II. on these conditions viz. That Rotherick should enjoy still the authority and Title of King over the Irish and the Provincial Kings their respective dignities and power but with their former dependance on and subjection to him the said Ruadruigh O. Rotherick But whatever those Capitulations were which you may see more particularly and fully in Roger Hoveden ad An. 1175. pag. 312. the troubles of Ruadhruidh were but little abated by them In the Year 1177. one of his own Sons by name Murchadh out of some unreasonable pique turn'd most unnaturally Traytor to him sided with the common Enemy and was the very Guide to Miles Cogan and his English Troops in their entring Connaght or at least from their coming to Roscommon till they were soon after fought and beat and forc'd back out of that whole Province by Ruaruidh himself Who thereupon seiz'd the said Murchadh and though his own Son put out his eyes for his rebellious unnatural Treachery and justly enough without any peradventure as at the same time for some other heinous transgression he confin'd prisoner to the small Island in Loch-Cuam his own other yea his eldest Son Conchabhar whom notwithstanding O Flatherty and other Favourers of this young Prince rescued by plain force within a twelve-month from that restraint and set at liberty To conclude partly the forein Invaders but chiefly his own Children brought this last Irish Monarch's hoary hairs with grief to the Grave Even his own eldest Son the foresaid Conchabhar in the year 1186. first depriv'd him of his very Kingdom of Connaght then by sundry other indignities forc'd him to fly away to Mounster and last of all after he had been recall'd by the Connaght Nobility compell'd him again to seek refuge in Tir-Chonaill And here it was that this now afflicted man indeed though in his youth and manly years too for some time the Darling of Fortune found his long wish'd-for death among the Chanon Regulars in the Year of Christ 1198. having first by habit and profession made himself a member of that Religious Order He continued seventeen years possess'd at least in part and in Title of his Monarchy over the Irish For so many years their Antiquaries allow his Reign over Ireland though from the beginning of it to his death were efflux'd full two and forty years Thus you have in substance the account and a very particular full one indeed it is given by Gratianus Lucius of this very last Milesian Monarch and his Reign over Ireland Wherein if I be not extreamly mistaken you have withal though among other matters which I have for some use that may be made of them hereafter mentioned Instances enough answerable both in quality and number to those alledged before out of any of the former Reigns of Irish Monarchs since Maolseachluinn II. for demonstrating what I intended by them all Certainly these and those jointly taken are sufficient demonstrations that the Monarchs Princes and other great ones of that Nation receiv'd no correction from the great Hand that from above scourg'd them so grievously so often and so long Nor can it be denied that the later part of the same Instances I mean that large part of them which hap'ned between Maolseachluinn II. Reign and Ruadhruigh O Conchabhair's death are most evident convictions of the little nay the evil use in order to any reformation of their fatal Feuds they made of the hundred and thirty years freedom from foreign Enemies after the last expulsion or subjection of the Danes though a large term of time questionless allow'd them by the extraordinary mercy of God to consider at least then more wisely of the matter and not only relent from their former unnatural courses of persecuting and spoiling and killing and murdering one another but heartily repent what themselves and their Parents and their Grandsires had done in that kind exasperating him continually to hasten on 'em that final doom of theirs which he had so long suspended Neither is it any further to be doubted that both the former and later part equally of the same Instances are sufficient proofs that those passages of Jeremy the Prophet which I have given before page 153. however in his time and as spoken by him describing only the stubbornness of his own Jewish Countrymen might nevertheless be most justly applied by Keting the
Longford ad Euium Fluvium had its beginning Anno 1152. Such is the account I find mostly in Lucius and for some part in Keting of the endeavours used in those later times by several Irish Princes and Prelats to repair in some degree the general destruction brought upon their Schools of Learning and Piety and upon all that was excellent or civil in their Nation by the long Danish Wars and their own intestin broils immediately following Questionless they reputed Monasteries as and as indeed they were in that Age among them in Ireland the best Schools of Learning and Religion so the best means to civilize a Christian People much over-run with ignorance barbarism and wildness and fierceness too of Nature which two or three hundred years continual War in the very entraâ—ls of their Countrey for the most part with Heathen Foreigners and for the rest with the Natives themselves one against another must of necessity have brought with it The fourth Point is to let you know that in this very decrepit Age and finâ—l wane of the Irish Monarchy Heaven was yet so propitious to them as to raise among them in the Ecclesiastical State some however few even as wonderfully eminently Saints peradventure as were in the primitive Ages of Christianity in that Kingdom For to say nothing now of those other excellent Bishops of this time Ceallach or Celsus of Ardmagh Gillaspuick alias Gilbertus of Limmâ—rick Malâ—bus of Lismore and Giolla-Criost or Christianus of Clocher though St. Bernard himself besides what he has of the rest especially of Malchus calls this Christian a good man full of grace and vertue inferiour indeed to his Brother he means Malachias in celebrity of Fame but peradventure not so in sanctity of Life and Zeal of Justice however to pass over I say all these four excellent Prelats of this time those I mean at present were especially two other holy Monks and they extraordinary Bishops too one after an other The former of them was Malachias in Irish Maolmo says Keting or at least my Copy of him but Malmedoic O Morgain says Waraeus a burning and shining Light indeed as Saint Bernard applies to him what our Saviour Christ did say of Saint John Baptist He was born an Vlster man of noble Parents in the year of our Lord 1094. died in the 54 of his own Age being the year of our Lord 1148. and therefore lived under some part of Donachadh mhac Brien Boraimh's reign and the whole Reigns of his three Successors even till the beginning of Muirchiortach mhac Neill's reign the last Irish Monarch saving one That is he lived in a great part of those very times when almost the whole face of the Irish Church was most wofully deformed ulcer'd horrible to be seen In most places all kind of Ecclesiastical Discipline all the Canons of the Church trodden under foot in many other all the very Sacraments of Christ not only neglected but of no use at all Nor must we much wonder at it if we consider that the very Head of the Ecclesiastical Order in Ireland the See of Ardmagb had in those days been as a meer lay Fee or Temporal Inheritance possess'd by strong hand of one powerful Family even for fifteen Generations successively i. e. ever since the expulsion of the Danes almost two hundred years out of that Province That besides although sometimes there was not one Clerk in this Family yet they never wanted a Bishop And thirdly that before Ceallach whom we call Celsus the immediat but virtuous good Predecessor of Malachias eight married men without any Orders though not without Learning had been the only Bishops of that Metropolitan See Hence throughout all Ireland that dissolution of the Churches discipline enervation of her Censures evacuation of Religion whereof we have spoken before says the Mellifluous D. S. Bernard in the Life of Malachias cap. vii For what has never been elsewhere not even since the very beginning of Christianity heard was now in Ireland to be seen Bishops without Ordination without reason multiplied at the lust of the Metropolitan Insomuch that one Bishoprick was not content with one Bishop but almost every Church in it had a peculiar Bishop And indeed how was it likely to be otherwise or that under so diseased so corrupt a Head the Members could be sound To reform these horrible corruptions of the Irish Church God it seems had in his secret counsels design'd Malachias to be the man First by his Birth of noble Parents hard by Ardmagh and his being the only beloved Son of such a Family Then by his contemning in his tender years even from his childhood at School in that City whatever seem'd worldly or vain and his giving himself on all occasions especially in all secret recesses to prayer Then by his accoasting admiring and delivering himself very early in his Youth to Imarius the holy Anchoriâ—e who had by his own choice many long years before been shut up perpetually and as it were buried alive in a little Cell that join'd to the Wall of the Cathedral Church Then by the multitude of other young delicate striplings that surmounting all considerations of flesh and bloud and sense and what ever seem'd gay or pleasant to the eye soon after follow'd his example Then by the holy Spirit 's moving not only the good Archbishop Celsus but Imarius also to force him in a manner to the Order of Deaconship before he was 25 years old and to that of Priesthood so soon as he was 25 compleat they as they might well supposing that the sanctity of his conversation did abundantly supply the defect of his Canonical Age for these Orders Then by the further injunction laid upon him immediately by Celsus making him notwithstanding his Youth Vicar General of the Diocess Then by the tenour of his Life and power of his Word piercing like a two edged Sword the very entrails of all that heard him preach and like a burning Torch enflaming them as the Son of Syrach speaks of Elias the Prophet's Word Then by his departing but with the licence of Celsus and Imarius for some years to Lismore in Mounster and putting himself there in a Monastery under the discipline of Malchus the holy miraculous Bishop of that See who had been himself though an Irish man by birth educated in the Abbey of Winchester in England Then by occasion of King Cormack's retirement from his Enemies to the said Monastery where this afflicted Prince making it his choice to live in a poor narrow cell feed on bread and a little salt drink nothing but water bath his body once every day in cold water to extinguish the rebellion of his flesh do all this by the direction of Malachias his only Instructor and comfort yea and continue it until at last he rather suffer'd than desired himself to be restor'd his Enemies flying away before his face every where by this occasion I say the hidden things of Malachias came to be
over his designed return and instead thereof going to Rome and soon after dying there upon the 12th of the Calends of May in the Year of our Lord 689 left his Countrey a prey to the Saxons who till then could never subdue it nor prevail against the Brittons but were themselves always overthrown and forc'd all along e'n by so many Brittish Kings in succession from Aurelius and Arthur to Caduallo either to fly the Land or submit to their mercy All which in substance and much more at large we are told by Geoffrey * Galfridus Monumetensis in his Latin History de Origine Gestis Britannorum printed at Paris by Ascensius Badius Anno 1517. But the fourth Book of this Romantick story iâ— wholly taken up with the deceitful Propâ—ecies of Merlin though Prophecles much augmented says Neubrigensis by additions of Geoffrey's own inventive Brain which he foisted in as Merlin's Nor has been ashamed to endeavour to make us believe that Merlin was a great and wonderful and true Prophet indeed yea notwithstanding that Merlin's own Mother confessed him to be the Son of an Incubus Devil See Galfridus himself l. 3. c. 3. of Monmouth in his seven Books of History and out of him by others Only besides my summing up the number of Kings and fixing the period of times and contracting the whole story and digesting it into this order and Method give me leave to except the particular of Dioclesian the Syrian King 's thirty Daughters and the Incubi Devils with their Gigantic procreation For this I had from Buchanan's relation of it l. 2. Rer. Scot. as added by some others to supply a defect of so much in the new History of Galfridus 45. But as William of Newbery commonly called in Latin Neubrigensis this Geoffrey's own Contemporary in England has in Proemio Histor five hundred years since reflected with much freedom and tartness on the Vanity incredibility and falsity of his History in general and more particularly on that part of it which represents King Arthur such a wonderful Heroe so has in later times Polydore Virgil first and after him George Buchanan ruin'd the very foundation of the whole Fabrick I mean the very Being or Existence of Brute himself at any time on Earth And certainly in my opinion the reasons of Polydore seem convincing enough to any unbyass'd man For says he l. 2. Histor Anglic neither Titus Livius nor Dionysius Halicarnasseus nor any of those other Authors that most diligently write of Roman Antiquities have one syllable of this Brutus Nor could any thing concerning so much as either his Name or Existence be fetch'd from the ancient Annals of Great Brittain seeing that five hundred years or thereabouts before this new History of Galfridus had been contriv'd Gildas I mean the true and not the supposititious one complain'd that if ever the ancient Britons his Countrey-men had any such or other Annals at all they were undoubtedly either perish'd in the War at home or carried away so far abroad as no news could be had of them Besides the particular of the taking of Rome by Belinus and Brennus quite over-throws all both Fabrick and foundation of this New History if we compute the times set down in it and compare them with those in the Greek and Roman Chronicles For in this New History not only Brute is said to have conquer'd Albion about the tenth year after his Father Silvius had been kill'd which was the year of the World 4100 but the two Brothers Belinus and Brennus sons to Molmutius the XX. King and they the XXI Generation from Brute are said to have taken Rome about four hundred years after the same Brute had conquer'd this Island And yet according to the Epitome or account of times both in Eusebius and all other as well Greek as Latin Histories Rome was taken by Brennus and his Gauls even after full seven hundred years and ten had been over from the foresaid year wherein Brute is said by the new History to have enter'd Albion So that by this new History Brennus must have taken Rome three hundred and ten years before it was really taken at all Then which I think nothing can be desired more convincing to ruin both the Fabrick and foundation of this Romance of Brute And so in effect has Polydors thought before me But if you would have more yea many more unanswerable arguments on this Subject you may consult George Buchanan where he has them at large L. 2. Histor Scot. For as it ought to be no part of my purpose here to compare or confront so many or indeed any of those vain particulars in the new History of Brute either with the Commentaries of Caesar or Annals and History of Tacitus or his Life of Agricola or Venerable Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English or the Saxon Chronology publish'd by Wheloc or the most ancient Monuments of the Irish or any other sacred or profane of so many other Kingdoms of Europe or with Reason it self so it is neither any part of it to dilate or give those manifold arguments of Buchanan though they be directly home against the very foundation of the same new History or the Being or Existence at any time of Brute It sufficeth me in this place to have given the reasons of Polydore against it My purpose here being no other than in relation to the above passage in my eighth and ninth page to conclude out of all That the Irish Cronologers and Historians have at least much more probability on their side in asserting unanimously that their true Briotan who descended of Nemedus and planted a Colony in the North part of this great Island so early was he that gave the whole Island the denomination of Brittain from his own name than they on the other side have who if the arguments hitherto be conclusive tell us in effect that a false and forged Brutus one that never was in Being should have given it And indeed the Authority of the Irish Monuments in the Psalter of Cashel an authentick Book of Irish Histories written above eight hundred years since by so great and knowing and holy a man as Cormack who was at the same time both King and Bishop of Mounster and the further derivation of the more remote Antiquities inserted in it from that other Book much more ancient yet which above one thousand two hundred years since in the composing or collecting of it out of all the former Chronicles of that Nation from the very first Plantations of it had been in the Parliament or National Assembly of all the Estates at Tarach under Laogirius the Monarch supervised and agreed upon by the choicest Committee they could appoint of three Antiquaries three Kings and three Bishops whereof S. Patrick himself was one over-ballances by much the credit of Geoffrey of Menmouth in his new History of Brutus written by him no earlier than Henry II. Reign and opposed nay quite run down by his own
and gloriously in twelve great Battels victorious over the Saxons That he took at last even York and London from them and after this again overthrew them in very Essex and Kent where they were strongest and placed their last reserve That he forc'd the remainders of them either to fly the Kingdom or submit to his pleasure In a word That he restored his whole Countrey and perfect peace unto it And that this happy effect of his pious and victorious Armes continued until the ambition anger and which you please to call it either treacherous rebellion or just indignation and resentment of his Nephew Modroedus for being put by the right of Succession gave too great a turn to his fortunate successes chiefly by the Scottish i. e. Irish Army's falling from him and their conjunction with Modroedus against him For this also I must here particularly note that during their confederacy and sideing with him which had early begun and always continued from the very beginning of his Wars until this unlucky difference about the succession and second unlucky Battel of Humber that followed thereupon he also continued perpetually successful But so soon as they joyn'd against him fortune deserted him and together with him his Countrey But whether so or no or whether indeed any of those other particulars related of K. Arthur by Buchanan himself as true History be or be not such as he would have us believe I think enough return'd in answer to Hanmer and Campion's making the Kings of Ireland Tributary to King Arthur of Great Brittain However because I believe it not very forrein nor much beside the matter I do on this occasion add That Polidore Virgil found so little satisfaction to his mind nay so great certainty of untruth in the relations written of this so much celebrated King Arthur that although in his History l. 3 he sums up in brief that is in seven or eight lines all the Wonders of them yet as he calls them so he reputes them no other than Vulgar stories Which to have been his inward sentiment of those relations may be further seen by his telling us That although King Arthur died in the very flower of his youth yet because of his exceeding great strength of body and no less vigorous heroick bravery of Soul Posterity has reported almost the very same Wonders of him which in our own time are among the Italians Romantickly sung of Rowland Nephew to Charles the Great And this without so much as mentioning any years at all of his Reign is all that Polidore has of this great Brittish Heroe Save only that he was the son of King Vter-pendragon That if he had lived a while i. e. his just age longer he had at last restored his perishing Countrey And that but a few years before the Reign of Henry VIII there was in Glastenbury Cloyster a very magnificent Tomb erected to his memory of purpose that after Ages might be thereby persuaded he had been a Prince adorned with all whatever ought be reputed most excellently great and stupendious and that this Tomb as if it had been erected soon after his death had certainly been design'd a memorial of his glory whereas indeed the Cloister it self wherein it stood was not in being then So this Author Polydore Virgil. And yet after all I cannot but acknowledg that so great a concurrence of other Authors together with the general vogue of King Arthur even all along to our time in these Nations of England Scotland and Ireland especially considering that all sides are agreed about his having existed or been and been also about the year of Christ five hundred King of Great Brittain must argue of necessity some great extraordinary exploits of his against the Saxons Nor truly do I see how otherwise Polydore himself cou'd say That if he had lived longer a while he had enfranchiz'd his Countrey Neither is it a valuable argument to the contrary at least if we believe the judicious impartial Cambden That the Saxon Chronologie or other Saxon Authors have nothing of him and his brave atchievements against them I am sure I have my self read in Cambden this very day to this purpose That he has observ'd the Saxon Writers defective in this particular viz. That they pass over in silence what was bravely done against their own Nation and only care the recording what redounded to their glory or concern'd their own People The conclusion of all is That the Romantick stories made of King Arthur by idle Wits in part and part by others who as they were equally ambitious to magnifie their Nation and ignorant or heedless how easily they might be disprov'd out of the known undoubted Histories of the times brought his true deeds into question so far that no man knows which or what to believe of them 51. To ruin the Romantick Fable indeed of Hanmer's three incredible Armies * In my 26 page my memory fail'd me when relying upon it as having not had the Hiâ—â—ory of Hanmer by me then or at hand I suppos'd those truly incredible and false numbers of men related by him to have been really poured into Ireland by the Danes in the first true War made by them on that Countrey Whereas indeed upon review of Hanmer himself I found he related those very incredible Numbers as landed there long before that is when truly there was neither Invasion nor any kind of Number either of Danes or any other forein Enemies troubling that Kingdom invading Ireland by combination at the same time and this the very time when Constantine the Great was Emperour of Rome Cairbre Laoffachair Monarch of Ireland and Conn Ceadchathach one of the Princes of Vlster c the Irish Analists are unanimous in furnishing us abundantly with particulars Out of them it is clear and manifest that Conn Ceadehathach was not one of the Princes of Vlster as Hanmer says he was but Monarch of Ireland That he came to the Monarchy in the year of the World 5324. of Christ 122 and continued Monarch thirty five years till he was murthered by Assassines employ'd on that Errand by Tibraid Tiriogh King of Vlster which happened at least a hundred and twenty years before Constantine the Great was Emperour of Rome That as he was called or surnamed in Irish Ceadchatach in Latin Centimachus from the hundred Battels which he had fought so he fought not any of them or other soever against any Foreiner but all against his own Countrey-men the native Irish nor in all his Reign as neither indeed for some Ages before and after it did any Foreigners invade the Irish That although Cairbre Lissechaire was Monarch of that Kingdom begun his Reign Anno Mundi 5456 Christi 267. and continued it twenty seven years and so perhaps might have been contemporary for some part of his Reign with Constantine the Great of Rome yet during his Reign there was no other Battel fought in Ireland but the Battel of Gowra I am sure
none at all mention'd by Keting who yet makes it the chief business of his History to mention the Battels fought in the Reign of every Monarch That the Battel of Gowra was occasion'd by a difference happening and continuing some years betwixt the family or Sept of Baoiskin whereof Fionn mhac Cuuail was one and the Sept of Morna meer Irish of the Milesian Conquest both and both contending for the command of the standing Militia of the Countrey and Caibre Lioffechair the Monarch favouring one side and others of great power the other the contention at last came to a Battel called from the place where it was fought the Battel of Gowra where this Monarch was kill'd by one Kirbe Which is all the account Keting has of it but without mention of any other Fight in this Monarchs Reign Though by his telling us the quarrel and the Parties that fought you see they were no Danes nor Danish Bowny's but meer Irish Bowny's and these neither of one side but some of one and some of the other the quarrel requiring it should be so These are the particulars and many more I might add which together with the general reason before them given moved me to pass by so many ill-contrived stories as I have mention'd here besides many other out of Hanmer But for his relation of the Battel of Clantarff being it is not only almost in every particular so contrary to all the Irish Chronicles but indeed as to the White Danish Knight and his injur'd Bed and Sword and Scabbard and thirty thousand Danes landed with him c. a meer Romantick story there needs no more be said of it Nor am I moved at all by Hanmers quoting the Book of Houth for himself both in this Relation and several other 1. Because for many reasons needless to be given here I take not the Book of Houth as neither indeed any English or other Foreign Author to be of any credit in such matters of Irish Antiquity as preceded the English Conquest in Ireland if otherwise in themselves either improbable or contradicting the whole current of the genuine Monuments of that Nation extant still and written in their own Language That is to say in a Language which neither the Authors of the Book of Houth nor other English Writers nor any Foreiner whatsoever could understand without the help of a very skilful perfect Scholar in it even such a one as among ten thousand Irish Natives cannot be found at present nor could for many Ages past 2. Because having never seen that Book of Houth I cannot rely on Hanmers quotation of it as whom I have manifestly found in several places to make too bold with several other Authors For having these Authors at hand perused and compared them with his quotations of them I have reason to persuade my self that either he never read 'em or which must be worse wilfully impos'd upon them against his own knowledg 53. Where I distinguish page 95. the present Scottish Nation into Irish and English Scots you are to suppose that very many among these must of necessity be Descendants partly of the more ancient Britons who sometimes inhabited the Northern Parts of Great Brittain and partly too of the Pictish Nation For the Irish that conquer'd both ' were not so numerous then as to plant the one half nay nor a third part of all those Countreys now comprehended under the name of Scotland though they became Lords of all by that Battel wherein they destroy'd utterly the Pictish Kingdom So that you may conclude the present English Scots as they are commonly call'd but not those other who go by the name of Scoti Albini * George Bu-l 2. Rer. Scotic page 54. tells us That in the beginning as well the colonies sent by the Irish to the North of Great Brittain as those that sent them went by the common name of all their Nation to wit that of Scoti or Scots But soon after to distinguish the one from the other those in Ireland were called Scoti Jerni that is Irish Scots and these in Brittain Scoti Albini i. e. Albanian Scots So says he And the distinction is proper and significant enough But that other which the Irish make even to this day in their own Language 'twixt an Irish and an English Scot is no less observable For the former they call Albanach Gaodhleach denoting both the Countrey of his Birth Albania and the Stock of his Extrnction Gathelus but the latter they call Albanach Gallda i. e. a Saxon or English Albanian are a mix'd People descended part from Britons Picts and part from Saxons and Normans whether any be remaining still of Danish posterity there I cannot tell nor is it necessary in this place I should What may be of more advantage for understanding somewhat better those affairs of Scotland is I doubt not this following passage out of Cambden After that the Scots were come into Brittain and had joyn'd themselves unto the Picts albeit they never ceas'd to vex the Brittons with skirmishes and inroads yet grew they not presently into any great State but kept a long time in that corner where they first arrived not daring as Beda writes for the space of 127 years to come forth into the Field against the Princes of Northumberland Until at one and the same time they had made such a slaughter of the Picts that few or none of them were left alive and withal the Kingdom of Northumberland what with civil Dissentions what with Invasions of the Danes sore shaken and weakned fell at once to the ground For then all the Northern Tract of Brittain became subject to them and took their name together with that hithermore Countrey on this side Cluyd and Edenborough Frith For that it also was a parcel of the Kingdom of Northumberland and possess'd by the English Saxons no man gainsayeth And hereof it is that all they which inhabit the East part of Scotland and be called Lowland-men as one would say of the Lower-Country are the very off-sping of the English Saxons and do speak English But they that dwell in the West Coast named Highland-men as it were of the upper Countrey be meer Scots and speak Irish as I have said before and none are so deadly Enemies as they be unto the Lowland men which use the English Tongue as we do Hitherto Cambden in his Britannia Tit. Scots pag. 126. Holl. Translat But as well to give the true reason why as to particularize more exactly that period of time during which the genuine Scots had ceas'd from acts of hostility against the Saxons I add out of V. Bede in his Eccles Histor of England l. 2. c. ult That Anno Dom. 603. Edan King of those Scots that inhabited Brittain at that time moved by the success of the Northumbrian King Ethelfrid against the Britons drew to the Field cum immenso exercitu with an exceeding great Army against him but was overcome and fled with a
it be not the greatest of them all I am sure that as it was very great indeed so the Irish Nation is beholden to a Foreiner namely Adolphus Cypreus for transmitting the remembrance of it to Posterity in his Annals of the Bishops of Sleswick a City in Denmark For these are his own Latin words in the sixth page of that Work Reynerus Rex Danorum LVI potentissimus qui tamen ab excitata fortuna quae ipsi in subjugandis Regnis Sueciae Russiae Angliae Scotiae Norvegiae Hiberniae plurimum favit ad inclinatam pene jacentem descivit Namque ab Hella Hiberniae Rege captus in carcere expiravit sub an 841. In English these Reyner the LVI most powerful King of the Danes who nevertheless from the height of Fortune that favour'd him so mightily in subduing the Kingdoms of Swedland Russia England Scotland Norway Ireland was thrown down as low For being taken by Hella King of Ireland he died there in prison about the year 841. And yet I must observe here with Gratianus Lucius 1. That Cypreus mistook both the name and quality of him that took Prisoner this great Danish King 2. That no King of Ireland nor Provincial nor even other lesser King in Ireland was ever call'd by the name of Hella nor was that name of any body at all known among the Irish 3. That the right Irish name in all likelihood was Oillioll which because hard of pronuntiation Foreiners mistook or chang'd it to Hella 4. That since Christianity planted in that Countrey not even any Oillioll was King among 'em save only the Monarch Oillioll surnamed Molt who was next successour to Laoghaire mhac Neill in the year 458. and was killed in Battel An. 478. And lastly therefore that he must have been some great General of an Army and his name Oillioll that took this great Reynerus and kept him in Prison till he died 68. Another is of the Fatal Stone as they call it and refers to page 378. where I ended my Animadversions on the Scottish Histories concerning Fergus I. Of that famed Stone Keting in his Relations of the People call'd Tuath De Dainainn gives this account 1. That this Nation who were the last possessors of Ireland immediately before the Milesian Race had on their arrival there from Norway brought with them four special Jewels of extraordinary use namely a Sword Lance Pot and the Enchanted Stone which in Irish they call by one name Liath Fail by an other Cloch na Cineamhna this later importing in English the Stone of Destiny or Fortune 2. That after the Milesiaus had conquer'd those Tuath-Da-Danan and consequently got possession of this Stone and after they had not only plac'd it at Teambhuir our Tarach where all their Nobles and people did usually meet to chuse the King of Ireland but ordain'd that the new Elect should sit thereon as son as he did so the Stone under him by vertue of some Magical or Diabolical Charm gave such a mighty loud ecchoing astonishing sound that presently the Election was known thereby far and near 3. That this Oraculous Vertue of it ceased as some say when the Pentarchy was set up in that Kingdom by the Monarch Eochadh Feilioch or as others say about the time of our Saviours birth when throughout the World all the sallacious Oracles of the Gentiles became mute 4. That for its name of Cloch na Cineamhne or Stone of Destiny or Fatal Stone the reason was an old Prophesie deliliver'd of it by Tradition which Hector Boethius rendred thus in Latin Verse Ni fallat Fatum Scoti hunc quocumque locatum invenient Lapidem regnare tenentur ibidem But in Irish Meeter it is in Keting thus Ciniodh Scoâ—t saor an Fine man baâ—breag an Faisdine mar a bhfulghid an Liath Fail dlighid flaitheas do ghabhail Importing in both that where-ever the Seottish Nation did find that Stone they should have Dominion Power and Regal Majesty 5. That because of this prophetical Prediction and reputation of it when Fergus that famous Invader of the Picts I mean Fergus Mor mhac Ercho mhic Eochadh muin reamhair as the Irish call and genealogize him from his Father and Grandfather whom the Scottish Historians call Fergus I. would be created K. over hisown conquering Nation the Scots of Pictavia or Albania in Great Brittain he sent to his Brother Mairchiortach Mor mhac Ercha then Monarch of Ireland for this fatal Stone and had it over into Scotland of purpose that by sitting on it when he was created King he might assure the establishment of his Crown and power of his own People in his new conquer'd Kingdom 6. That for many ensuing Ages it remain'd there for a monument either of Religion or Superstition being in the same manner and to the same purpose sate upon by the succeeding Kings of Scotland till Edward I. of England in the current of his Victories had it brought away out of the Abbey of Scone to the Abbey of Westminster Where ever since it has been kept placed under the Royal Chair which the Kings of England usually sit in at their Coronation 7. That in the memory of our Fathers that prophetical Prediction of it and the ancient Scots which you have but now seen was fulfill'd in England too when James VI. of Scotland was crowned King of England at Westminster and has ever since continued to be more and more verified in the succession of Charles I. of glorious memory and Charles II. our present most gracious King For by the line of Maine mhic Cuirek mhic Luighc they are descended through a World of Generations of ancient Scots the Milesian Irish from Heber who as has been already noted elsewhere being the son of Milesius and in a joint Sovereignty ruling with his Brother Herimon was three thousand years since King of all Ireland And this is the account which Keting where he treats of Tuath-De-Danainn gives of that fatal Stone Save only that he makes no express mention of Charles II. nor could indeed as who died himself in the Reign of Charles I. But nevertheless he express'd his mind sufficiently as to the purpose of that Fatal Prediction by naming his Father and Grandfather both I am sure his expression of joy in the same place for their having successively come to be Kings of England Scotland France and Ireland must have involv'd the concomitant wishes of his heart for their posterity after them to attain and continue the same glory while time shall be And therein he has me to join with all my very Soul 69. The Fifth may be referr'd to page 155. where I treated briefly somewhat of Cormock O Cuillenain that excellent pious holy man who was at the same time both Arch-Bishop and King of Mounster and continued so for seven years together that is even all along till he lost his life in the Battel of Mughna For to this rare Example of the same man's being both King and Priest may be added
in the World before the loss of their freedom or their subjection to a forein Power Nor had I any farther if it be a farther end in the matter then That of your understanding throughly at least sufficiently who or what kind of People were the former of those two Nations whose Posterities I have before i. e. in the very beginning of the first Section page 5. observ'd like the Twins of Rebecca contending these last five hundred years in the bowels of Ireland But who the later Nation were and how and by what degrees and means they not only for many Ages got the better of the former but subdued them utterly at last in the memory of our Fathers and what besides happen'd in our own days to the Issue as well of these Conquerours as of those conquer'd by 'em in that Country will be the subject of the Second Part. FINIS Additions 1. AFTER the Fourth Observation on the Catalogue of Kings add what follows here viz. That although it be no part of my business in this Place to speak in particular of any of those Kings other than what I have already of a few of 'em and that only for thy better understanding the said Catalogue yet because I considered that peradventure the Relation of Siorna Saoghall-ach's See the Catalogue Numb 27. long extent of Life and Beign is the only extraordinary of all whatsoever delivered anywhere in the whole Irish History concerning any of so great a number of Monarchs or Kings and Sovereign Princes of Ireland some Readers will boggle at or scruple the truth thereof by objecting How it seems at least improbable that he should be a hundred years old when he came to be Monarch or should reign a hundred and fifty years after or should be in all two hundred and fifty years of Age when he was kill'd by Roitheachtsigh alias Roithsigh mhac Roain therefore to shew that this Relation of him is not improbable I give here those arguments that convince my self And to say nothing of his Surname Saoghalach which attributed to him alone among all other Irish Kings whereof notwithstanding some had reigned 60. others 70 years must import him to have been of extraordinary Long Life and even a man of Ages what convinces me is 1. That not only the Irish Book of Reigns besides many other ancient Monuments and Historians of that Nation who speak of this Subject and after them Gratianus Lucius in our own time have deliver'd it so but Keting himself though he be the chiefest of all the Historians of later days that to reduce the Irish Chronology to an agreement with his own Computation of the years of the World would consequently needs reduce those hundred and fifty years of Siorna's Reign to 21. confesses they did so 2. That very good Historians both ancient and modern of other Countreys tell us how in later Times then Siorna Saoghallach's Reign there have been many that lived as long and some longer then he And yet I 'le lay no stress on Xenophon's writing That a certain Maritim King lived 800. and his son 600 years Nor on Ravisius giving the very same or at least the like Relation of one Impetris King of the Plutinian Islanders and his Son Nor on Pliny recording the five hundred years life of Dondonius a Sclavonian Nor on Homer or his Followers speaking Nestors age to have been 300 years Neither on Hellanicus a most ancient Writer saying That in the Province of Aetholia some lived 200. others 300 years Nor on Onesicritus neither though attesting the same age of two and three hundred years even as very ordinary in the Island of Pandora All these I pass over because I am not certain of the Age of the World they lived in that is whether it was not of earlier Date than Siorna Saoghalach's reign who was kill'd An. M. 4â— 69. according to Lucius My instances are in Servatius Bishop of Tongres and Joannes de Temporibus and Xequipir an Ethiopian and the Nameless Indian living in the same Time and Kingdom of Bengala with Xequipir The first of these four died in the year of Christ 403. after he had lived 300 years as Sigebert in his Chronicle and others write The second took his denomination or surname de Temporibus from those 336 years he had lived under many Emperours whereof one was Charles the Great of whose Life-guard he had sometimes been and another was Conrad III. in whose Reign he died in France An. D. 1139. as not only Petrus Messias in the said Conrad's Life but the Author of Fasciculus Temporum and many more Writers affirm The third I mean Xequipir was yet alive so near our own time as the year of Christ 1536. after having lived till then 300 years For so Hernandus Lopez à Castagneda â— 8 Chronici has written of him The Last or the Nameless Indian had in the foresaid year of Christ 1536 come to the year of his own age 335. says Joannes Petrus Maffeius â— XI Histor Indic and before him the above Lopez both the one and the other telling us many more particulars of Xequipir and Lopez som of this Anonimus Indian but neither being able to recount or give us any light to see how many years more either of 'em lived nor when they died Of all which you may read more at large in Augustinus Torniellius's Annales Sacri c. ad an M. 1556. n. 4. 5. And so I have given the two arguments which convince my self that from the Relation of Siorna Saoghalach's Life of 250 years c. nothing can be derived to make any Reader at all scruple the truth of the Irish History of that Kingdoms Monarchs or Kings Nor by consequence any thing against the Catalogue of them which you have in the beginning of this Book or the long extent of Time which in all they reign'd according to the Title of that Catalogue 2. After the Last Inference from the same Catalogue add this here as an other viz. That notwithstanding any thing said hitherto as it is confess'd that the former sixteen of those 23 of the English or Fourth and Last Conquest of Ireland never assum'd the Stile or Title of Kings of Ireland for Henry VIII was the First of this Conquest that assum'd it altho nevertheless all the same former sixteen Kings of England were Sovereign Lords of Ireland too at least by Title every one in his turn since the 17th year of Henry the II's reign over England so it must be confess'd That properly speaking none of those Irish Kings who rul'd in Association with any other could be called Monarchs while their Association lasted And we see by this Catalogue that such were in all at least for some time 29 among those of the former Three Conquests whereof One and Twenty were Milesians Which is the reason that Cambrensis where he tells us of 181 Monarchs of the Milesians must be corrected as to that appellation or Title of Monarch attributed so indistinctly by him to them all and so must I wheresoever in this Former Part of my Prospect I have in this particular follow'd him The Irish Historians in their own Language speak more properly giving 'em all the Title of Kings of Ireland Errors in the Matter where and where they are corrected THE First in Page 4. and 16. concerning Eoghun Mor and Aonghus Ollbhuodhach but corrected p. 89. and 435. The second p. 67. about Dearmach corrected p. 181. Third in p. 18. concerning Muâ—rieadhach's Six sons c. and corrected p. 93. Fourth p. 19. about the nine Hostages corrected p. 359. Errors in Words and Letters to be corrected by this following Table wherein the first Number signifies the Page the second the Line a add d dele and r read First in the Dedicatory 2. 7. d. as Secondly in the Preface 7. 18. d. his 35. 16. r. 1662. p. 39. 31. r. 1604. Thirdly in the Former Part 35. 5. d. the Monarch 71. r. Tighernmhais 99. 16. d. to 107. 29. d. of 137. 6. r. theâ— and again 8. r. the. 180. 14. for Diarmuid r. Dombnall 221. 7. Taumaturga 272. 5. for him r. bâ— and 24. r. or any 317. 13. d. to 319. â— a. as 351. 14. r. Monmouth 354. 13. r. understood 382. 21. r. Aetius 385. 26. r. other 387. 8. r. 51. 389. 19. r. Language and 29. r. Niull 395. 7. d. was and for kill'd r. died 413. 9. r. Trouts 414. 1. r. Leap and 8. for though r. the. 434. â— 26. r. 219. 459. 2. r. Notkerus 461. 26. r. To and in the Note â— penvâ—t r. Books Lastly observe that the Orthography of all the proper Irish Names and Surnames of the Kings throughout this whole Book must be corrected by that in the Catalogue where any variation appears