A PROSPECT OF The State of IRELAND FROM The Year of the World 1756. TO The Year of Christ 1652. Written by P. W. Printed for Johanna Broom at the Gun in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1682. TO THE KING SIR I Appear before Your Majesty with the ill grace of a Man who comes for a Pardon and confesses he did the fauâ—t in hopes of it For 't is undeniably a guilty presumption in me to make bold with Your Royal Name and that to a slight Argument or at least made so by ill handling such as will give People too much reason to say Your Name is the only thing which shews handsom in the whole Prospect Neither have I any but the sorry excuse of defenceless guilt I was drawn in though not by others by Counsellors as dangerous and deceitful as my own thoughts I considered that This in the original design was part of a Book which has the honour to be made Your's and thought my altering the Method did not alter Your Majesties Property neither could I conceive when Your Name appear'd on the one half any but Yours could shew well on the other I considered that 't is an account of part of Your People and contains an account of part of Your Pedigree To the King and to the Head of the Family Justice I thought appropriated both For it is the glory of the Irish Nation to have contributed to Your Sacred Blood as well as the rest under Your happy Government and when they shed their own in Your defence to know they spend an inconsiderable part for preservation of the most Noble and most Precious a sweeter and sometimes a stronger tye than the Duty of Subjects As reciprocally Nature with its secret allurements of propension towards a Country from whence we are derived and where our Ancestours have lived great and glorious joyns with the common care of a King and Father of all his People to move Your Majesty to cherish them with the rest Thus much I beg leave to say by the by in behalf of my Native Countrey because every Writer has not been either so curious to observe or so kind to publish it But leaving that matter these reasons persuaded me I might find at least Companions in my fault and where Your Sacred Name has been made bold with as improperly Yet what wrought most was a strong temptation and which I could the less resist because it came in the disguise of gratitude to appear as little unworthy as I could of many and signal effects of Your Goodness Every body knows I am deeply in Your Debt and I thought it but just every body should know I own it with the â—ense which becomes me though I have not hitherto said so much as bare I thank you no not to Your Majesty Your self sometimes The thoughts of Death which it concerns a man of my age to entertain would be too terrible to me if it should carry me away with the imputation of an insensible or ungrateâ—ul man As I have always thought the best return a Subject can make to the favours of his Prince is by his service to deserve them I have indeed the comfort that I cannot reproach my self with not having done my best But alas I must say to You as to God after all I have to my great grief been but an unprofitable servant That thought is a misery which I am ill able to support Should Ungrateful be added to Useless it would certainly and soon sink my gray hairs to the Grave Fear of this as fear sometimes produces boldness has cast me into that of which I am now guilty and in which my ill Fate still pursues me For I am useless now too having with much pains got a Present to make You for which neither Your Majesty nor any body else perhaps will be the better and I know not whether worth more than just so much Paper But yet 't is all I can do For we of the Scribling Trade are like Merchants who trade upon credit and pay altogether in Bills Besides that in truth there lives not perhaps the man whose stock or luck in managing it is great enough to answer the mighty sum I owe You. These were the thoughts which slatter'd my presumption with hopes of Pardon to which all even Your Mercy will yet be needful For I am an unrepenting Sinner and who far from sorrow glory in the fault which gives me an occasion to tell all the World I have lived and mean to die Your Majestie 's most Loyal most obedient and most humble Subject Peter Walsh THE PREFACE READER You may well imagine by the Title and Method of this Treatise the Author was very far from intending it should pass for a History of Ireland And for the Bulk I can assure you that although considering the extent of Times and variety of Matters treated of therein it be but little yet according to his first design it should have been far less at least by five parts of six The truth is I never had a thought of writing a word on this Subject before the Earl of Castlehaven desired nor only desired but importun'd me a twelve month past when his Lordship's Memoir's had been a working off the Press that I would draw an Appendix to be publish'd with them which might in short represent the original Cause of the Rebellion broke out in Ireland on the 23d of October 1641. and consequently somewhat of the State of that Kingdom and Fatal Feud betwixt the two Nations there since Henry II's time What little inclination I had to the Subject it will be to no purpose I should tell being you see I was at last persuaded though nevertheless I must acknowledg it was only the power this Nobleman has and can justly challenge over me * See Castle-Haven's Memoir's pag. 87. wrought my acquiescence to his desires But laying aside that matter what I would next inform you of are these particulars 1. That although eight or nine sheets in the Whole was the most I had first design'd to write because a larger Tract could not so well suit the Title of an Appendix to his Lordship's Memoir's yet when I was once enter'd on the Subject so great a variety of matters offer'd themselves to consideration as took up more time and paper than I first intended 2. That in the mean while some Copies of the said Memoir's chancing by some unexpected accident to be given out by the Book-seller my Lord considering he could not otherwise prevent a sinister interpretation of his meaning by them in the main as they were seen thus imperfect found himself necessitated not only not to stay my leisure but instead of such an Appendix as he expected from me to change his former Preface and write and print another with an Appendix also of his own though upon another Subject and with such both amendments and accomplishments as he thought necessary to order the free exposing of his Book to
publick view 3. That notwithstanding I had on this emergent occasion thought my self eas'd of any further study on a Subject I had no liking to it prov'd much otherwise For his Lordship nevertheless continued his desires that I should prosecute and finish what I had begun and to oblige me to it without hopes of any change in him gave notice in his Preface to the Reader of his Memoir's how the Appendix he had first intended and promis'd of the State of Ireland was grown to such a Bulk as would require its coming out in a Book by its self And therefore I found my self more deeply engag'd 4. That however seeing I was now at more liberty as for Time so for Matter and for Title both I resolv'd to change my first design of so few sheets and write under the Title of a Prospect c. about threescore sheets in all but in the same method and Stile I had already begun with as more agreeable to my purpose of giving though not a strict much less a full History yet the choicest Collections and freest observations too I could derive from or in my way i. e. in several easie plain Discourses make upon the History of Ireland Thirty sheets representing in short the state of that Kingdom from the first Plantation of it after the Flood till the English Conquest and the other thirty what follow'd since for the last five hundred years 5. That because I considered the Form as Printers call it which I had also begun with already and therefore must have continued the same would be too narrow and little for a Volume of sixty sheets not rendred unproportinoably thick I give them divided as in two Parts which I call the Former and Later so in two Volums each apart So much for the Occasion Title Method Form Division of this Treatise As for those matters of Irish Antiquity so strangely far out of our ken discours'd in this Former Part I doubt not some at least or peradventure many of 'em will be excepted against by Criticks in this censorious Age. And that where nothing else can be objected Varro's Three Differences of Time must serve the turn We shall be told How the First having been That which extended from the Creation to the Flood is call'd Obscure and uncertain because we are wholly ignorant of all things happen'd in it The Second which was That from the Flood to the first Olympiad is termed Fabulous by reason of a world of Fables reported thereof But the Third extending frem the said Olympiad to our days is called Historical because the Acts of it are delivered in Histories that are true And indeed I must confess that so said Varro the most learned of the Romans 1700 years ago following herein the Greeks and after him of late our English Cambden who lays so much stress upon this observation of Varro that page 17. Hol. Translat he makes it his only argument to ruin the credit of Geoffrey of Monmouth's new History of Brute But withal I do profess that for my own part I see nothing in it that stresses My reasons are 1. The sayings of Varro how learned soever he was are no Oracles 2. The Histories of the Jewish Nation at least the Books of Moses and several more of the Old Testament Record a great variety of Matters hapned some before the Flood many more after it both the one and the other with all certainty and truth imaginable and yet all of 'em before the First Olympiad which according to Cambden himself was no earlier than the year of the World 3189. though others make it earlier by fifteen years 3. And to wave all kind of advantages from those holy Books which both Jews and Christians repute infallible as being the Oracles of God Josephus in his first Book against Appion a Book written by him 1600. years ago assures us that even the Histories of the Phenicians Egyptians and Chaldeans have recorded likewise with great truth and certainty the Reigns of their own Kings and other memorable things happen'd in their Countreys many hundred years before the first Olympiad yea not a few of them happen'd even long before either Moses or Abraham himself was born 4. There have been several Books written for true History of matters that as the Authors would make us believe happen'd since the first Olympiad nay written partly of some things reported in them to have happen'd fourteen hundred years after that Olympiad which yet we know to be most faculous Witness among so many other the foresaid Geoffrey of Monmouth's seven Books of History to say nothing at all of Annius Viterbiensis But to return back to Josephus it is also remarkable how in the same Book against Appion he wonders not a little at those who as to matters of Antiquity suppose the truth ought only to be gather'd from the Greeks Whereas indeed says he whatever is written by the Greeks is new and of late memory and has been done in the World in a manner but yesterday And this he proves in the same place at large Besides he shews that albeit their knowledg or practice not only of other Arts and Sciences but of any kind of Letters had been very late yet the latest of all among 'em was that of History That herein even after they had given themselves industriously to it they were notwithstanding very imperfect uncertain short their chiefest Authors contradicting one another in what they wrote as knowing there were no ancient Records not even in Athens it self to check their falsity nor Laws to curb their Liberty of writing what they pleas'd at random and what they wrote being so little as to other Countreys of the World that of Rome it self though very powerful within Italy in those times and so near home they seem'd for some Ages wholly ignorant That even their most curious Writers and among 'em Ephorus by name were so ignorant of the Gauls and Spaniards as to have thought the later a People denominated of one only City and related the manners both of the one and the other to be such as neither are nor at any time were among either Finally that their knowledg of other Nations was a long time so extream little as to have extended only to the bordering Thracians and the Inhabitants of the Sea Coasts lying Easterly and Westerly not far from Greece all other Inland or untraffiquing nay and all trassiquing too so they were far remote Countreys being utterly unknown to them Moreover and more nearly to our present purpose it is observable how so excellent so unbyass'd a Writer as Josephus undoubtedly is not only has in the same Book this very expression That he presumes not for matter of Antiquity to compare his own Jewish Nation with the Chaldeans Egyptians or Phaenicians but for certainty and truth highly celebrates in particular the Phenician Historian Dius and the Chaldean Berosus And yet we know from him that as well the one as the other
had once more recruited from the Isle of Man and other Islands possess'd as yet by the Danes but were now finally destroyed in Ireland by the said new King of Leinster And lastly as Hackluyt reports in his Chronicle and so does Hanmer too that in the Reign of Muirchiortach mhac Brien who was the fourth after Brian Boraimhe Magnus then King of Denmark would needs venture the attempting Ireland once more to recover what his Predecessors held there but that landing with part of his Fleet before the greater part of them came up he was set upon immediately by the Countrey people and kill'd and his Fleet understanding it return'd presently from whence they came SECT II. The Irish for 2600 years a free Nation They were never subject to nor so much as invaded by the Romans Their Political Government or three Great Councils of Teamhvuir alias Tarach Eumhna and Cruachain The first a Triennial Parliament It 's Laws Feastings and other Ceremonies The strict examination therein of their publick Acts and Monuments What of that nature done in the great Parliament under Laogirius St. Patrick himself being one of the Examiners What matters debated in the Councils of Eumhna and Cruachain The Titles of Duke Marquess Earl Baron Knight not in use with them as neither in Scotland till William the Conqueror's time Their Leinster Militia called Fiona Eirlonn commanded by Fionn mhac Cuuail as General of it Hector Boethius and Hanmer corrected Their other Militia in Mounster by name Dal-Gheass Their celebrated Learning after their Conversion to Christianity Their four chief Vniversities whereof Ardmagh had 7000 Scholars at one time Their wonderful Sanctity i. e. the prodigious Numbers of their holy Monks and Nuns under S. Patrick first and next under the great Abbot Conghall alias Congellus This Abbot in person founded and governed the Monasteries both of Beanchuir in Ulster and Bangor in Wales near West-Chester his Disciples those of Lindisfarn in England Luxeu in Burgundy Bobie in Italy c. They converted several foreign Countreys But Scotland particularly was converted by Columb Cille A special priviledge given him and his Successors the Abbots of Hy. AND so by this time I think enough is said of the Warlike Spirit and Valour of the ancient Irish for so many Ages of the World until that time which was near the Eleventh Century of Christian Religion For as yet the infinite goodness patience and mercy of God expecting still their amendment restrain'd his Justice from bereaving them utterly of that Virtue that masculine bold Heroick Spirit I mean which preserv'd them so long even well nigh six and twenty hundred years a free Nation independent of any other unsubdued undisturb'd uninvaded otherwise and no longer nor no oftner nor with other success or issue than we have seen Not even the old Roman Empire it self whose conquering Eagles made all the rest at least of the Western World and among them all even the very most unaccessible remote recesses of Great Brittain a prey to their uncircumscribed ambition having never at any time had either footing or command or tribute or acknowledgment in Ireland Though we knowwell enough out of History a Tacitus in vit Agric. what a longing they had to be doing there at least to see that Countrey and people which dared receive continually so many fugitives b Cum suum Romani Imperium undique propagassent multi proculdâ—bio ex Hispania Gallia Britannia huc se receperunt ut iniquissimo Romanorum jugo colla subducerent Camden Hibern from their power in Spain and France and Great Brittain and protect them to their face But I am not to dwell or dilate on this Subject nor indeed on any other concerning that Nation the method I prescribed my self and bulk of this Treatise not allowing it 11. What I would in the next place reflect upon and as briefly as I well can is somewhat of their Policy or Government their standing Militia their Learning and their Sanctity when they were a happy flourishing people before the first Invasion of the Danes For their Government besides a Monarch five Provincial Kings and in process of time especially since the first Danish War manyother much lesser Kings they had anciently three great Councils held in three several places the Council of Taragh the Council of Eumhna and the Council of Gruachain all three called in their language Feis Teambrach Feis Eumhna and Feis Gruachain The first was a Triennial Parliament of all the Estates assembled at Taragh in Meath at the Monarch's pleasure about that time of year which we call now All Saints It was ordained first by Ollamh Fodhla the Twentieth Monarch after Herimon to be thenceforth from time to time perpetually observ'd in after Ages It was death without mercy without any hopes of it without any power in the Monarch himself to extend it to any person whatsoever either to â—ssault or wound or strike or draw upon any man attending that great Assembly or to be convicted either of robbery or stealth during the Session of it It was called only for making Laws reforming general abuses revising their Antiquities Genealogies Chronicles and either restoring or preserving peace and love among 'em by feasting together for seven days in one great House And therefore it is notable what Dr. Keting has in the Reign of Tuathall Teachtvair the Monarch of the manner of their meeting and sitting at these Feasts That the Room prepared to receive them all being made of purpose tho very longs yet narrow with Tables set on both sides and both ends and all things ready for the Entertainment and then the Room cleared of all persons whatsoever only the Marshal the chief Herauld or Chronicler and a Horn-winder excepted and then at three convenient little distances of time this Horn-winder calling to Dinner by the winding of his Horn at the first of 'em all the Esquires or Shield-bearers to the Princes and Nobility came to the door and there delivered their Shields to the Marshal who by the Heraulds direction hung them up in their due places over the Tables prepared of the right hand-side for the Estates At the second in like manner all the Taget-bearers to the Generals and other great Commanders of the Militia delivered up theirs and were on the other side of the House placed orderly as the former But at the third all the Kings Princes Estates Military men and other chief Gentry came in and fat down each one under his own Goat of Arms blazon'd on his Shield without any disorder about precedency or of places no man sitting on the outside of the Table nor any Woman at all admitted the Table in one end being for the Antiquaries and in the other for other Officers But to pass over this matter of Ceremony Herauldry and Feasting what I chiefly note in their procedure when they sat in Council or Parliament is their extraordinary care diligence and exactness in providing That all their
monuments of Antiquity their Genealogies Cronicles and Records should have nothing foisted into them nothing at all inserted but what was true and certain by the approbation of a special Committee of the most skilful in such matters That all such and only such National Concerns Annals or other matters which they approv'd after their diligent search and examination of them should be there in publick written in the Kings or Monarchs book of Royal Records called the Psalter of Taragh and whatever was repugnant to that Book should have no credit That in prosecution of this great care of their National Monuments it was that when they became Christians a Parliament of all their Estates both Temporal and Spiritual held under the Monarch Laogirius at the same Royal Habitation of the Monarchs Taragh deputed three Kings three Bishops and three of their most singular Antiquaries even Saint Patrick himself there present being one of these Bishops as the other two were Benuin and Caraioch and the three Kings the foresaid Laogirius Monarch of Ireland tho never converted Daire King of Vlster and Cork mhac Luighioch King of Mounster the Antiquaries also being Dubthach Fergus and Rosse mhac Trichim to review and reduce into order all their National Chronicles That this Committee of Nine having done so with great pains and industry they reduced all into one Book fairly written That the keeping of this original Book was intrusted after by the Estates to the Prelats and those Prelats for its perpetual preservation caused several authentick Copies of it to be fairly engross'd whereof some are extant to this day and several more faithfully transcribed out of them their Names taken from the places where they were for many Ages kept being the Book of Ardmach The Psalter of Casshell The Book of Gleann da Loch c. Whereunto I may add as not very impertinent in this place That the Irish Nation were all along from the beginning so addicted to and had so great an esteem of the knowledg of their own Genealogies Histories that Keting in his Preface anciently there have been in Ireland above two hundred chief Annalists or Historians by place and office such who had Estates in Land set apart and assign'd them and to their Issue after them in perpetuity for attending wholly that Calling and study of it every great Lord having a peculiar Sept of them to record and transmit to Posterity what especially concern'd him and those deriving from him besides what concern'd the Nation in general yet all continually subject to the foresaid Triennial Scrutiny in Parliament A care of Antiquity and History I think not to be match'd by any other Nation in Europe And as they took that care to provide for their Antiquaries so they did also as Cambden Britannia tit Ireland p. 140. hath observed the like for their Poets Physicians and Harpers by assigning them Estates in Land to live independently of others only the duty they owed their great Lords excepted still In the two other Councils of Eumhna and Cruachain the matters principally debated by the Nobility Gentry and other members of them were the concerns of all the Artificers Tradesmen and Handicrafts-men of Ireland Smiths of all sorts Carpenters Masons c. whereof a great number was summon'd to be at each Assembly Out of which number these two Councils did cull out sixty the most eminent in their professions and gave them authority all over the Kingdom allowing them distinct jurisdictions to reform all the abuses of their several Callings and suspend such as they thought fit from exercising them So that none could set up or continue any Mechanical occupation but with their Licence after they had examined and made trial of the sufficiency or insufficiency of the party concern'd These Masters so authorised they call'd in their Language Goldannuigh which imports omniscient or skilful in all Mechanicks So much of their Councils and Government as to Civil Affairs in the more ancient times both of Paganism and Christianity Of their Judicatures and Judges whom they call Brehons he that please may see very singular and wonderful things related of them in D. Keting a Reign of Laoghaire the Monarch in St. Patricks days even when they were Pagans But if you desire to know the several degrees of their Nobility or the different Titles of Honour among those Irish Noblemen who sat in their Parliaments or Councils I can only answer besides what is said already that in Ireland until the English Conquest they had none of our Titles that is not those either of Duke or Marquess Earl Viscount Baron or Knight only such Knights as they called Niadha-Nask and may be called by us in English Knights of the Chain or in Latin Milites Torquati from a certain kind of Chain put about their Necks as no more in truth had Scotland any such Titles before the year of Christ 1074. when Malcolm III. Reigned there and William I. surnamed the Bastard and Conquerour had subdued all intirely here in England Concerning which custom of not using any such Titles of Honour in Scotland particularly as likewise concerning the other of the Language spoken till that time in the very Court of Scotland though as well the one as the other may seem foreign to this place this following Note in Samuel Daniel's words may give you further satisfaction As in the Court of England the French Tongue became more generally spoken viz. in William the Conquerours Reign for of that time this Author speaks here so in that of Scotland did the English by reason of the multitude of this Nation attending both the Queen and her Brother Edgar and daily repairing thither for their safety and combination against the common Enemy Of whom divers abandoning their Native distressed Countrey were by the bounty of that King preferred and there planted spread their off-spring into many Noble Families remaining to this day The Titles for distinguishing degrees of Honour as of Duke Earl Baron Rider or Knight were then as is thought first introduced and the nobler sort began to be called by the title of their Seigneuries according to the French manner which before bare the name of their Father with the addition of Mac after the fashion of Ireland Sam. Dan. in the Reign of William I. pag. 34. Where in the Margin he hath this further observation that Scotland before this time generally spake a kind of Irish 12. As to their constant ordinary Militia what it was in their times of peace we find in the Reign of Cormock Vlfada the Son of Airt King of Ireland a little after the Birth of Christ For then it consisted of three Battalions or Divisions of equal number each in all nine thousand men under several Commanders and Fionn mhac Cuual their General who was neither Gyant nor Dane nor other Foreigner as no more were any of his Commanders Captains or Souldiers He was himself but of the ordinary stature of other men though
extraordinary great veneration both in his life and after his death that as Venerable Bede records it not only all In quibus omnibus scilicet Monasteriis per Hiberniam Britanniam propagatis ex utroque Monasterio idem Monasterium Insulanum in quo ipse requiâ—scit corpore principatum tenat Habere autem solet ipsa Irsula Rectorem semper Abbatem presbyterum cujus juri omnis Provincia ipsi etiam Episcopi ordine inusitato debeant esse subjecti juxta exemplum primi Doctoris illius qui non Episcopus sed presbyter extitit Monachus Beda ibid. the Monasteries propagated in Ireland or Britain from either of those two Abbeys founded by himself were subordinate to this latter of Hy wherein he lived longest and died at last being 77 years aged nor only all the whole Province but even the very Bishops themselves contrary to the custom of the Church in other Countreys were subject to the jurisdiction of all the succeeding Abbots thereof tho Presbyters only by ordination to wit according to the primitive pattern of their first Doctor who was himself no Bishop but only a Priest and Monk In fine he most justly deserved the title which Posterity gave him of the first Converter of the North of Scotland and great Apostle of the Picts as Cambden himself calls him And so he might have call'd him too the great and chief if not the first Instructor in Christianity of all the Irish Scots 4. That although I cannot tell certainly what Venerable Bede means here in the Marginal Note by his omnis Provincia whole Province that is whether he mean all the Kingdom of Scotland as it lies now extended and as then comprehending all the several petty Kingdoms both of Scots and Picts for by the Battel fought in Scotland at Monadoire in the Reign of Diarmuid mhic Cearbheoil King of Ireland by the Family of the Neals against the Picts we understand this Nation of Picts had several petty Kings at that time being they lost in this one Battel together with the Victory seven of them kill'd in the place by those Irish formerly planted there or whether he mean the Kingdom of the Irish in Scotland or which is the same thing of the Scots or Dal-Rheudans only all three signifying the same People or whether only the Dominions of those Northern Picts converted by Columb and there can be no other to be meant by omnis provincia since the Island it self wherein that Monastery was exceeded not five English miles in length yet thus much I can certainly say that Keting tells us in his Reign of Aodh or Hugh Ainmhirioch Monarch of Ireland that Columb-Cille in his Voyages and Journey to the Parliament held by this Monarch at Drom-Ceath in that Kingdom was all along out of Scotland attended not only by 30 Sub-deacons 50 Deacons and 40 Priests but 20 Bishops also to praise God continually and officiate in divine Offices in his company whereby we may somewhat guess at the largeness of that Province whereof Venerable Bede does speak here SECT III. The Scene altered Cause of admiration Bloody horrible feuds begun encreas'd multiplied continued 2600 years No People on earth so implacably set upon the destruction of one another as the Milesian Irish were Above 600 Battels fought between themselves A hundred and eighteen Monarchs slaughter'd Fourscore and six of those very men that kill'd them succeeded immediatly in their Thrones Other strange deaths of several of them Of the whole number of 181 Monarchs not above 29 came to a natural end The Author of this account Battels fought by the Monarchs Caomhaol Tighearnmhuir Tuathal Teachtvair where somewhat of the Plebeians 25 years War Conn Ceadchathach alias Constantinus Centibellis and Mogha Nuadhat King of Mounster What Leath Cuinn and Leatha Mogh import The feuds rather inflam'd than allaid under Christianity Number of main Battels fought and Monarchs kill'd the first 400 years after their Conversion by S. Patrick By two of them the one betwixt the Monarch Fearghall and Murcho O Bruin King of Leinster the other between the Monarch Aodlâ— Ollan and Aodha mhac Colgan King also of Leinster may be guess'd how bloody the rest were Foreign Conquests and Plantations neglected all that while Occasionally somewhat of the Heathen Monarch Dathi's Landing in France with an Army to pursue Niall the Great 's example and of his being kill'd by a Thunderbolt near the Alps and of the ten several Invasions of Scotland by the Irish Pagans and but one if one by the Christian Irish The Families descended from those Irish remaining to this day in that Country A word of those call'd English Scots Columb-Cille himself Author of fighting three of the foresaid Battels in Ireland The heavy pennance during life enjoin'd him therefore by S. Molaisse and his humble performance of it and much greater wonders of him Why the particular of those Battels of Columb-Cille mentioned here The Parliament of Dromceathe in his time Banishment of the Poets one of the three ends it was called for Great Injustice Cruelty Pride c. instanc'd severally in their Monarchs Tuathal Teuchtvar c. Nial Naoighiallach Diarmuid mhac Ceirrbheoil and Aodh mhac Ainmhiriogh Some of the Murders and Battels that happened about the end of their fourth Century of Christian Religion particulariz'd HItherto I have briefly run over the Antiquity Martial Exploits Political Government or Grand Councils ordinary Militia and after their Conversion to Christianity the Learning also and Sanctity of the Ancient Irish And so have I think delivered in short all the most glorious Excellencies recorded of that Nation eitheir in their own Monuments or any foreign Histories that I have seen 16. What follows next is on the other side of the Medal to represent unto you not only a mixture of great imperfections with so many excellencies nor only the prevalency of downright evil men against so many good against so prodigiously numerous and great exemplars of virtue living among them after their being enlightned with the doctrine of salvation but according to the vicissitude of all things on earth the change and wane and strange decay and utter fall at last of that People in general from all the glory of their Ancestors And this whether we regard the greatness of their former dominion and power abroad or the more ancient policy of their Government at home or the stupendious fame of their Letters and Holiness every where in those days of old Nay and this alteration too in every point as happening to them even before the English had set one foot in their Country under Henry II. All which I am to represent unto you now because the order of things and both title and nature of this Tract require I should Though I shall nevertheless do it by so much the more briefly by how much I am less inclined to dwell on this subject However I must confess that when I reflect on the most authentick Monuments of
that Nation as written by their own most select Antiquaries and believed by themselves I am absorpt in admiration at the wonderful patience of God with them in particular above all other People that I have read of expecting their amendment so long that is well nigh 3000 years compleat before he would quite destroy them A period so large that within a far less extent of time his wrath subverted utterly the Assyrian Chaldean Median Persian Macedonian Roman Empires and all the Republicks of Europe and Affric and all other Kingdoms or Dominions how great or how little soever any where on earth whereof we have but the least competent knowledge out of ancient History or other authentick book And yet he continued still the Irish Nation and Monarchy beyond that extent of time And yet 't is no less apparent in their own Chronicles that according to the judgment of man they had as little deserved the mercy of God as any of their Neighbours or other the destroy'd Nations For to lay aside their Idolatry and all the appendants of it which yet among them in their time of Paganism were as great and horrible and provoking of Heaven as any where else in the world and to pass over also those other Immoralities of theirs how enormous soever in the sight of God which were nevertheless but common to them with other Nations reputed the most civil among men certainly if not among Cannibals or Lestrigons or such other Monsters unworthy to be called men or at least to be brought in comparison with any People that make use of reason live in society and approve Government never has any other Nation upon Earth anneer'd the Milesian race inhabiting Ireland in the most unnatural bloody everlasting destructive Feuds that have been heard or can well be imagin'd Feuds so prodigiously bloody that as they were first founded so they still encreased and continued in blood even along from the first foundation of the Irish Monarchy in the blood of Heber shed in Battel by his Brother Herimon until the slaughter of Muirchiortach mhac Neill the last reputed Monarch saving one by the hands of Fearrnibh Fearrmhaighe and O Brian or even until the death of Diarmuid na Ngall the last King of Leinster at his Town of Ferns And yet such Feuds as not only had for necessary concomitants the greatest pride most hellish ambition and cruellest desires of revenge but also had for no less necessary consequents the most horrible Injustices Oppressions Extortions Rapins Desolations of the Countrey Perfidiousnesses Treasons Rebellions Conspiracies Treacheries Murders and all this from time to time for six and twenty hundred years only a very few lucid intervals of the frenzy excepted These prodigious provocations of Heaven to that excessive degree wherein they were National and peculiar to that People only and the contemplation thereof is it that upon return of it suspends my soul in admiration at the patience of God bearing so long with them in particular above all other Nations far less guilty for ought appears to us in History and much sooner utterly subverted by his revenging hand of justice Never have we read of any other People in the World so implacably so furiously so eternally set upon the destruction of one another as first The Progenies of Heber and Herimon then those two or three other descended from Ire and i the and Breoghuin all of the same Milesian stock or kinred and then again the two former and then last of all the descendents of each apart among themselves contending for the sovraignty of the whole Island were To say nothing now of those no less bloody contentions of others of them very often about Provincial or even lesser Kingdoms and Rights after that either these or those petty Kingdoms came up Never have we heard of any other Countrey on Earth so frequently so miserably beyond almost all belief afflicted harassed wasted turn'd into a Wilderness by the accursed Pride of her Nobles Tyranny of her Princes Rebellion of their Subjects Fury of her Men at arms and other Souldiers Preying Sacking Burning all that stood over ground in the Provinces invaded by them Never has either book or man told us of any Region besides Ireland that beheld so many of her beauteous Fields turn'd ruddy all cover'd with the bloody gore of above 600 Battels fought on 'em so cruelly and unnaturally by her own Children of the same Language Lineage Religious rites tearing out the lives of one another partly for dominion and often for meer revenge Never has the Sun bestowed his light on any other Land to behold a hundred and eighteen Monarchs slaughter'd by the hands of their own disloyal Native Subjects four and twenty of them in Battel and the rest by downright Assassination and Murder And which is yet more hideous fourscore and six of them succeeded immediately in their Regal Thrones by those very men that so villanously had dispatch'd them Nay and a Brother and a Son also to be in this number besides a wicked Sister too that by the priviledge of her Sex more finely indeed but I am sure no less impiously adding one more to the former number of Royal Victims and this of purpose to make way for her own Son to mount the Throne bereav'd of life the Monarch Criomhthan mhac Fiodhuigh her own Brother with a cup of Poyson ministred by her own hand to him I say nothing of Lughac Riamh-Ndearg murder'd by himself Nothing of Aodh Ruadh Diahorba Niall Caille those three destroy'd by water Nothing of Roithsoigh mac Roain Dathi Laoghaire mhac Neill or Lugha mhac Laoghaire all four struck dead by Thunderbolts Nothing of Cormuck Vlsada that was choak d by the evil spirits for not adoring them Lastly nothing of Tighernmbuir long before any of the former by either good or evil Angels on a sudden destroy'd on Magh Sleachta in Letrim and together with him three parts of the People of Ireland on the same Field and same night which was our All-Souls Eve and the night of the day we name All-Saints or All-Hallows for their adoring on that very day and place the devillish Idol set up by him there to be adored as the only God Of none of all these however strangely kill'd either by their own hands or by water or thunder or invisible Demons or other miraculous means do I take notice here because none of them was taken away by any other man Yet I cannot pass over without special note either Sedhna Jonnarruydgh or Simeon Breaâ— two of the number dispatcht by the hands of men their own Subjects Whereof the former was in a most barbarous manner even that of straining his members asunder tortur'd to death by the later who nevertheless did succeed him next and this later again in the very same manner bereaved of life by Duach Fionn the formers Son succeeding now by a cruel retaliation in the Soveraignty and so transmitting to others this particular feud which tho
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
only pursued but exceeded them as being wholly intent upon destroying one another at home he thought it now high time to warn them as his Children And that he did so both early and loudly and often by laying his hand upon them wâ—th smart enough though not to their extermination or destruction as yet 25. It was within the first Century of Christian Religion among them he warn'd 'em with the loss of all their Dominions abroad The Orcades and the Hebrides and all the Islands not Mannuinn â—or Isle of Man it self excepted nay the Terra Firma of Scotland and all their Conquests and Plantations there both ancient and late those very Descendants of their own loyns renounced utterly in that very Age any further payment of Tribute or Chiefry or other duty of Allegiance or subjection to them And I think any indifferent looker on would esteem so great a loss then both an early and loud warning indeed given them to amend But they did not regard it as not touching them yet in their sensible Being at home And therefore God proceeds thenceforwards by other i. e. by nearer and keener methods touching 'em to the quick where they should have more feeling Such undoubtedly were those two dreadful Plagues the one in the Reign of Diarmuid mhic Ferghussa mhic Ceirrbheoil which they call'd Crom-Choinnioll in English the Fading or Falling Candle that swept away infinit numbers of them yea very many of their most admired Saints and among others Mac Dail the Patron of Kilcullin the other call'd by them an Bhuidh Choinnioll or the Yellow Candle no less contagiously mortal whereof even their very Sovereigns in whose Reigns it happen'd the two Brothers Blaithmhac and Diarmuid Ruannigh died Such also were those three or four several Invasions and inroads made into their Country by the Saxons and Brittons either in conjunction or apart close one after another The first of them in the joynt Sovereignty of the foresaid two Brothers when the Irish who had so long and so unnaturally fought one another were now constrain'd to fight a forein and common Enemy at their own doors at home and give them Battel at a place call'd Pancti The second in the Reign of Fionachta Fleadhach when Egfrid King of Northumberland sent an Army under the conduct of one Brit or Berthus to Invade ' em Who as Venerable Beda * Anno Dominicae Incarnationis 684. Egfridus Rex Northanhymbrorum misso in Hiberniam Scotorum Insulam cum exercitu Duce Bertho vastauit misere Gentem innoxiam Nationi Anglorum semper amicissimam ita ut nec Ecclesiis quidem aut Monasteriis manus parceret hostilis l. 4. c. 26. relates it in the year of Christ 684. so miserably wasted the Irish Nation though a Nation most harmless to others and always most friendly in particular to the English that he spared neither Church nor Chappel nor Monastery His Army says Keâ—ing in the Reign of the foresaid Firnachta spoil'd and burn'd all the Sea-coasts of Leinster without any difference put between sacred and profane And either a little before or after this devastation it was that in the same Reign they or some other Forces Landing out of Great Britain fought the Irish in the Battel named Cath Rath Moire in Moghlinne where besides a great many of the latter Comhusgach a Pictish King was lost Lastly in the Reign of Loinnsioch mhic Aonghussa the Brittons prey'd harras'd ransack'd the whole Country call'd Magh-Mhuir Theimhne until the fortune of a Battel I mean that of Cullinn or Muigh Cullinn which the Vltonians were compell'd to at last made them retire Besides these several Inroads touching them pretty near the quick at home in divers parts of their Country the mercy of God seeing not their amendment yet was pleas'd in this very Loinnsioch's Reign to try other means more general to the whole Nation of Ireland by afflicting them all with such a Mortality of their Kine and Famin thence ensuing and continuing for three years in such extremity that men ate one another as Keting writes But neither was this kind of warning any whit more effectual to work a Reformation For Loinnsioch himself their Monarch was kill'd in Battel by Ceallach King of Connaght And after his immediate Successor Conghall Kinn who most sacrilegiously rob'd and burn'd as well all the Churches and Sanctuaries as all the rest of the Town of Kildare before he was seiz'd upon by a sudden death the just reward of his Sacriledge as all men thought in those days the very next three Monarchs Fearrghall Foghartach and Kionaoth were all of 'em one after another kill'd in three Battels fought by their own Coutrey-men and Subjects against them And though Flaithiortoch immediate Successor to the last of these three escaped violent death by making himself the only happy man of all the Irish Monarchs at least of all until his time except Maolchoba in putting off voluntarily his Royal Robe changing it for a Religious Weed and both living and dying in peace a profess'd Monk in the Monastery of Ardmagh yet he that succeeded him next in the Sovereignty Aodh Ollan was kill'd in Battel by Domhnal mhac Murchadha as we have seen before All which notwithstanding the patience and goodness of God to them still was such that he would warn them yet and warn 'em indeed now even by prodigies and wonders both in Heaven above and in the Earth below In the Reign of this Domhnal mhac Marchadha who both kill'd and succeeded Aodh Ollan the form of a hideous horrible Serpent appear'd a long time moving over their heads in the Firmament And in his next Successor Niall Frassach's Reign the Earth under 'em throughout Ireland shut up her fruitful Womb in such extraordinary manner that she deign'd them no return at all of their Seed but instead thereof brought upon them a second and it a most cruel most universal Famin through all their Quarters Then follow'd in the Monarch Aodh Ordnighe's Reign that Prodigious Thunder and Lightning which in one little nook of the Land between Corca Bhaisgin and the Sea kill'd in a trice a thousand and seven persons dead What shall I say of that wonderful threefold and peradventure greatest prodigy of all pour'd down from Heaven in a tripartite division at the Birth of the foresaid Niall Frassach I mean those three stupendious showers fallen at that time on three several Fields in Ireland the one of Honey on Fothanbeg the other of Silver on Fothain mhor and the third of blood on Maigh-Laightonn Indeed according to Keting they fell in the Reign of the above Fearrghall the seventh Monarch in order ascending up from this Niall surnamed Frassach in Irish in Latin Nimbosus or Imbricus from those wonderful showers happening at his Nativity And though I am no Diviner to interpret what they portended for certain yet taking the shower of blood in conjunction with those other Prodigies that one after another so closely follow'd in
however he continued in the whole his Reign over Connaght 50 years and according to all the Irish Annals and Historians over Ireland 20. Though says Gratianus according to a more exact severe discussion of the truth if the date of his Monarchy be taken from the death of his Predecessor Mairchiortach O Brien to his own he must have reigned over Ireland 34 years in all or at least 28 if it be continued only till the foresaid Hostages were forc'd from him But I range again For as well this calculation of his years or Reign as his religious preparation for death and his burial and rest close by the high Altar of St. Cieran in the Cathedral Church of Cluan-mhac-Noise is forein to my purpose here And therefore I return again Muirchiortach commonly call'd Mac Loghlenn but immediate Son to Niall and by him Nephew to that Domhnal whom we have so lately seen to have so long contended for the Sovereignty of Ireland and therefore stilâ—d by Colganus King of Ireland upon the death of Toirghiallach mor O Conchabhar assumes that Title of the Irish Monarchy which he had so venturously and early prepar'd for while Toirrghiallach was yet alive and in health Of him at least of any warlike action either of his or indeed of any others in his Reign tho Keting has not a word save only those very few that on an other occasion I have given before page 73. viz. that Mairchiortach mhac Neill the Monarch that succeeded Toirghiallach mor O Conchabhar was in the 18th year of his Reign kill'd by Fearnibh Fearrmhaighe and O Brian yet the diligence and accurateness of Gratianus Lucius makes abundant compensation For this Author p. 86. says of the present Muirchiartach first in general That his humour having been wholly Martial and his fortune answerable he over-run all the Provinces of Ireland in a continual course of Victories obtained partly by Battels and partly by the sole terrour of his Name That he subdued them all and forced them every one to give him Hostages That therefore at least He without any contradiction may be admitted next after Maolseachluinn II. for the undoubted King of all Ireland And then after letting us know that this Prince's great Vertues were much eclipsed by the Precipitancy of his anger and that whom prosperity had rais'd to such a heighth adversity at last did throw down as low even to the very earth he particularly recounts how Eochadh King of Vlster not only refus'd to pay any more Tribute or other dues to him but even without any other provocation made War upon him That he being thereupon enraged enters the Territories of Eochadh routs his Forces burns his Lands takes his Vassals and puts them in Fetters Eochadh himself by good luck escaping That after this yea notwithstanding a reconciliation made between them by the intercession and upon the Engagement of the Primat of Ardmagh and Donochadh King of Oirghllae for performance of Covenants on both sides and Eochadh's consequential pardon and reception to grace which to assure him Muirchiortach took the most solemn Oath he could for such it was accounted then in that Kingdom on the Staff of Jesus what this was S. Bernard tells in the Life of Malachias yet ere long whether out of the former cause or any other new one enraging him he had Eochadh's eyes pull'd out of his head and three of his Nobles duos Olingsios Cathasachi O Flahry nepotem most cruelly put to death without any regard to the engagement of the Sureties And to conclude that Donochadh O Cearrbhaoil the foresaid King of Oirghillae one of the Sureties taking to heart so heinous a breach of Faith Oath Covenants and assurance given by himself and therefore resolving to be reveng'd draws to his association the People of Vibhruinne and Comhaicne marches with an Army of 9000 men into Cineal-Eoghain otherwise call'd by them Tir-Eoghain but by us Tir-oen where the Monarch then resided surprizes him unprovided fights the few tumultuary Forces led forth by him routs them and kills him in that Field a man ever before Victorious in all his Encounters whatsoever Yet such was his end in the 10th of his reign Anno Christi 1166 says Gratianus Lucius though Keting says he was kill'd in the eighteenth of his Reign by Fearrnibh Fearrmhaighe and O Brien as I have noted before But as their difference in computing the years of the Reign is not material the one beginning it when this Muirchiortach mhac Neill had forc'd his predecessor Toirrghiallach mor O Conchabhar to give him Hostages and the other when Toirrghiallach died so neither is it material to know whether any such persons call'd Fearrnibh Fearrmhaighe and O Brien were or were not in that Battel to kill him What is to our present purpose you have it very particularly delivered by the one and not gainsaid by the other And yet upon reflection I must confess I find that I have not delivered all the material things written by Gratianus Lucius in this Reign of Muirchiortach mhac Neill He further writes page 87. that in the Year 1156. even the very first year of it presently after Toirrghiallach mor O Conchabhar's death his Son and Heir and King of Connaght Ruidhruigh O Conchabhar did receive twelve Hostages from Muirchiortach O Brien even that very Mounster King so lately before deprived and banish'd to Tir-Eoghain by the said Toirrghiallach Father to this Ruidhruigh as we have seen already That in the Year 1157. he rush'd into Muirchiortach mhac Neill the Monarch's own peculiar Countrey Tir-Eoghain burnt the fruitful Peninsula there call'd Inis-Eoghain destroy'd all the delicate Gardens Orchards Plantations wasted the whole Region to Cianachty That after this he turn'd his Arms on Mounster Where having first setled the foresaid Muirchiortach O Brien in possession of North Mounster he forc'd Hostages from Diarmuid mhac Cormuic mhic Cartha King of South Mounster to remain with him till Muirchiortach mhac Neill the Monarch did relieve the said Diarmuid That Anno 1158. he enter'd Leinster in like hostile manner with great Force marcht through it to Leiglin being encamp'd there had Hostages brought him from Ossory and Luighis and in the close of all loaded Mac Craih O Morrdha the little King of Luighis with Irons That in the next place he made Inroads into Teabhan driving away thence from the Kerins an exceeding great prey of Cows and with his Fleet afflicted all the Coasts of Tir-Eoghain mightily That in the Year 1161. falling violently on Meath he both compelled the Countreys call'd Vibh Falain and Vibh Faoilghe to give him pledges and then plac'd Governours in them viz. Faolan O Faoelain in the one and Mlaghlin O Conchabhair in the other That after all he made his Conditions of peace with the Monarch deliver'd him four Hostages receiv'd from him in gift the entire Province of Connaght with the one half of Meath and from Diarmuid O Maolseachluinn a hundred ounces of Gold for that
makes use of the same reason against the derivation of Britannia from Brutus yet having since consulted the learned Cambden's most accurat search into these matters though he has not a word of the Irish History of Briotan nor seems ever to have heard thereof I find nevertheless there may be very probable answers given out of him to that question put by me after Polydore and Keting And therefore I now decline it tho not the History it self of that Scythic Briotan's giving the denomination of Brittain to this whole Island otherwise and whether before or after his time first of all it matters not called Albion As for Abraham Wheloc's Saxon Annotations on Bedes Ecclesiastical History l. 〈◊〉 c. 1. pag. 25. where it is observed that this Island was called Brutaine and Brutannia from the name of Brutus I am not moved thereby because the Saxons had that name from the Britons themselves and the Britons though they write it Brutaine with u yet pronounce it Brittain with an i. as I am told by men skilful in their Tongue they commonly do in other words written with u. pronounce i. However I am content to acknowledg here that in putting the foresaid question I suppos'd more than I ought and that I pass'd over in silence for a worse the far better and more probable reasons nay the convincing reasons indeed What these are you may see at large in Buchanan and before him sufficiently enough for some part of them in Polydore who both the one and the other demonstrate the whole story of Brutus to be a meer Fiction though Henry of Huntingdon and the Author of Polychronicon otherwise reputed good Historians thought fit to recommend to all posterity the Fable out of Gâ—ffrey of Monmouth as an undoubted Truth However we are told I am sure by Geffrey for I have him by me That rutus was son to Silvius the son of Ascanius whom undoubted Monuments of Antiquity assure us to have been son to Aeneas and Founder of Alba on Tiber and Third King of the Latius That this very Brutus at the Age of sixteen having by chance in hunting the Deer kill'd his said Father King Ascanius and being therefore banish'd Italy went to Greece That here assembling together seven thousand Trojans descended from those who had been brought prisoners thither when Troy was burn'd and heading them he made War on Pandrasus the King of Greece defeated his Armies forc'd his Towns and took himself Prisoner and kept him so till by mutual agreement Ignoge the Princess Daughter to this King was given him to Wife and for a Portion with her besides a great mass of Gold and Silver a strong Fleet of three hundred and four and twenty sail well provided of all kind of necessaries That now putting to Sea with his Trojans and so great a Fleet to seek his Fortune elsewhere and coming to a desert Island by name Largecia the Oracle of Diana there admonish'd him to steer his course for Albion That in his way thither besides destroying a Fleet of Pirats that set on him at Sea and spoiling all Mauritania in Afric from end to end landing in France he first overthrew in Battel Groffarius the Pictish King of Aquitain plunder'd his Towns over-run his whole Countrey and theâ— again in a second mighty Battel defeated both the same Groffarius and all the other eleven Kings of France with their Forces That having perform'd these Wonders there he set sail for Albion which was inhabited then by Giants These were a prodigious Race of See Buchanan l. 2. page 43. Impres Amsterd anno 1643. where he gives an account of this no less ill-contrived than Monstrous Fable added by some later Author than Geoffrey of Monmouth as if Geoffrey himself had not store enough of indeed very stupendious Lyes Monsters some of them twelve Cubits high and all of them or at least their Predecessours before 'em begot by Incubi i. e. Fayery Devils on the thirty Daughters of Dioclesian King of Syria and his Wife Labana who the first night of their marriage kill'd their thirty Husbands and for that cause being forc'd to Sea by their said Father in a ship without Mariners or Pilot after long wandring and hovering arrived at last in Albion a meer Desart then Where it seems notwithstanding they were provided for by those wicked Aery Daemons that lay with them and procreated of them this horrible Race of Giants That upon his landing here at a place called Totnes where all the Giants were in a body to hinder his descent he fought them overthrew them pursued 'em all over the Island destroyed them utterly every where That having done so he divided the whole Countrey among his Followers gave them the name of Britons and to it that of Brittain from his own name both then begot Children especially three by name Locrinus Albanactus and Camber then built the famous City of new Troy since called London by corruption of the word Luds Town because one of his posterity King Lud not only repair'd it but strengthened it with a Wall and Towers and Bulwarks and then last of all before his death making three Royal Divisions of Brittain and erecting each into a Kingdom bestow'd the first of them together with the supreme sovereignty of the other two in some cases on his eldest son Locrinus called then from his name Loegria by us now England the second on his second son Albanactus from whose name 't was called Albania though Scotland after and on his third son Camber the third of those Divisions termed likewise from his name Cambria comprehending at that time not only the Countrey now called Wales but whatever is on that side of the Severn That by these brave Princes and their issue after 'em the Noble Cities of York Edenburg Carlisle Canterbury Winchester Shaftsbury Bath Leicester the Tower of London Westchester and Caer-Leon upon Vsk were from the foundations built and finish'd and the Brittish Nation and Kingdom most gloriously maintained at home and enlarg'd abroad even in the very Continent well-nigh all over Europe That not only Ebrancus the V. King of Great Brittain after Brutus and Builder of York with a numerous Fleet invaded France ransack'd it all over and return'd home triumphantly with the richest spoils thereof nor only his twenty sons which he had by twenty several Wives conquer'd all Germany under the command of one of themselves called Assaracus and possess'd it a long time after but Belinus and Brennus sons to Dunvallo Mulmutius the Nineteenth King as Belinus himself was the XX. made an absolute Conquest first of all the Kingdom of Gaul now called France and soon after of all Italy not Rome it self excepted which they took and burnt to ashes That Cassibellanus the Lxv. of the Brittish Monarchs when Julius Caesar invaded them at two several times fought him defeated him both times and the second time made him fly to France in such despair that he never more return'd That
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
Reign of Charles the Great that then Classis Normannorum Hiberniam Scotorum Insulam aggressa commisso praelio cum Scotis innumerabilis multitudo Normannorum extincta est turpiter fugiendo domum reversa est the Norman Fleet having attack'd Ireland the Island of the Scots and given them Battel and an innumerable multitude of the Normans being kill'd in that Fight was forc'd at last to run away shamefully and return home See Gratianus Lucius in his Cambrens Evers page 13. 47. I have insinuated page 57. that they were the Irish who gave a beginning abroad even to the Schools at Oxford And now I add that as Polidore Virgil says King Alfred having in the year of Christ 895. by his Royal Authority approved of Oxford for a place of general studies sent Joannes Scotus Erigena thither ut omnium primus ibi bonas literas doceret the very first publick Professor and Teacher of good Letters there says Pitsius page 162 who further gives this Encomium to Erigena that in Learning or knowledg of the Learned Arts he had scarce his match throughout the World in that Age qui in omni meliori doctrina vix sui similem quenquam in illa Aetate per terrarum orbem habuerit Now it is clearly demonstrable both out of History and the surname Erigena that this very Joannes Scotus Erigena was an Irish man and that not only by Education and breeding as Harpsfield grants he was but by extraction and birth The proofs at large may be seen in Lucius page 148. where he quotes Nicolaus I. the Pope Anastasius Malmsbury Hoveden Westmonasteriensis Vsher and last of all Edward Matthews de Scriptor Angl. Bened. page 166. who particularly notes That this Joannes Scotus was in Latin surnamed Erigena because of his birth in Eriâ— For so Ireland has been always call'd by the Natives to this very day and was then by others too Erigena therefore being the same with Hibernigena you may conclude that if Angligena and Francigena import the one an English man the other a French man born so must Erigena an Irish man by birth Nor is any thing said here of Erigena in any wise inconsistent with Cambden's relation out of the old Annals of the Abbey of Winchester Wherein after telling how King Alfred had recall'd the Muses to Oxford and built three Colledges there one for Grammarians another for Philosophers and a third for Divines 't is further said that in the year of Christs Incarnation 806 being the second year of St. Grimbald ' s coming into England the first Regents and Professors in the Divinity Colledg were St. Naoth an Abbot and holy Cambden translated by Hol. page 378. Grimald a right excellent Professour of the most sweet written Word of holy Scripture All this might be true and yet Erigena be and continue still the first Professour of the Learned Arts and good Letters at Oxford Where I relate page 34. the famous Battel fought at Clantarff by the brave Brian Boraimh I Hanmer pag. 91. pass by Hanmers relation of it Even as I have all along pass'd by many ther of his stories concerning Ireland As for Example 1. That of Gurguntius the son of Belinus King of Great Brittain to have met at Sea about the Isle of Orkney as he return'd from the Conquest of Denmark a Fleet of sixty Sail of Spaniards with Men and Women commanded by the Governour of Baiona seeking some Countrey to inhabit or live in and to have assign'd them Ireland c. 2. That other yet more ridiculous one out of Harding and Mewinus a Brittish Chronieler quoted by Harding * Harding lived in the Reigns of Henry V. Henry VI. and Edward IV. How Gathelus and Scota came to these Northern parts anno Christi 75. 3. That of Fredelenus King of Denmark in the Reign of Augustus Caesar to have invaded Ireland and taken Dublin though not by force but by the help of Swallows firing the City with fire tied to their wings though himself was presently forc'd by the Kiâ—g of Leinster to depart and run away to his Fleet. 4. That of Frotho III. King of Denmark when our Saviour was born to have made all Ireland tributary and been Monarch thereof As also that other in him out of Saxo Grammaticus and Albertus Krantzius concerning Frotho IV. thirty years after the former his having sent the Giants and the huge Monster Startucerus to invade the same Kingdom 5. That of King Arthur of Great Brittain and Gillomar King Hanmer page 50 51 and 52. of Ireland Mark King of Cornwall Sir Tristram and La Bel Isod c. though besides the Books of Houth he quotes also Florilegus and Fabian Caxton Holinghed Flemming and Harding for 'em 6. That of his genealogy of Fionn mhac Cuuail and his making this Fionn and his Associats both to have been Giants and of Danish birth whereof I have spoken before page and therefore need not say any more in this place 7. That of his three vast Armies of Foreigners invading Ireland by combination in several Provinces at one time and this to have been the time of Constantine the Great 's Empire at Rome The first of thirty thousand landed at Derry in Vlster and their Navy fired and themselves too in one Battel slain by Conn Ceadchathach one of the Princes of that Province as he calls him The second of a greater number landed at Skerries not far from Dublin but destroy'd in one other Battel by Diarmuid Lambdhearg King of Leinster who says he kill'd six and thirty thousand of them on the spot The third and it much more numerous yet landed in Mounster and utterly destroy'd at Fentra when the Forces of all Ireland encountring them slew seven score thousand of them in that one Field 8. That where ever he had it for he tells not where of the Battel of Garistown and Arcath or as the Irish call it Ardchath fought as he says in the reign of Cairbre Liffor Monarch of Ireland by the seven Kings of that Nation and their Army 65000 Horse and Foot against the Danish Bownies who had been formerly entertain'd by those Princes to defend their Coasts but now rebell'd being 28700 hardy resolute Warriours and fought well-nigh a whole day with equal Fortune so mortally that Horses were up to their bellies in blood until at last Fortune favouring the righteous Cause of the Princes they put these rebellious forein Bownies to a total rout and edg of the Sword all of them although it cost their side also very dear even the lives of four of their Kings and nineteen thousand seven hundred and sixty others All these Relations though given as true ones by Hanmer at large I have pass'd by First because of their manifest repugnancy to all the Irish Chronicles Nay because there is not one word or syllable of any of them in Doctor Ketings Irish Chronicle which yet is an ample Summary of all the Authentick or esteemed Chronicles and Histories of
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
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
the Birth of Christ in the Year of the World 5199. as he does in his Reign of the Irish Monarch Criomthan Niadhnair whom he calls in Latin Criomthanius Niadhnarius Whereby 't is evident he follows the computation of Eusebius holding therein with the generality of the Irish Chronologers and consequently differing in so much from Keting as he does also differ from him and hold with the same generality as to the length of Reign or Life attributed to the two Monarchs Cobhthach Caolbhreag Siorna Saoghallach some others In other matters treated by him in his Cambrensis Eversus he seldom varies from Keting otherwise than by addition of more particulars So you have at last my whole Account and I hope a sufficient one of these two Authors whom I must acknowledg to have been my only chief Directors for what concerns those Irish Affairs treated of in the Former Part of this Prospect I say my only chief Directors c. For I am to inform you now a little farther That as to other matters and some Irish too whether purposely or occasionally discours'd I have not seldom in the same Former Part especially in the V. and VI. Section made use of my own reading and Collections out of other Authors some Ancient some Modern As for example out of Tacitus and the Augustan History Writers and Venerable Bede Cambrensis and Polychronicon I have borrow'd some things out of Roderic of Toledo and Polidore Virgil Harpsfield Bodin William Camden and Buchanan other out of S. Bernard the far greater part of my whole discourse of Malachias out of a French Anonimous Author in Messingham and Sir James Ware 's Book de Praesulibus Hiberniae what I write of Laurase O Tuathail otherwise called in Latin Laurentius Dubliniensis out of Rabanus Jonas Abbas Odericus Vitalis Angligena Notkerus and Spondanus those matters you find related by me of Columbanus Gallus and their Associats besides divers other things out of other Authors And these and those are commonly quoted where I make use of them although sometimes they are not because both Margins being so narrow and Pages so little as you see they are I thought it unfitting to croud them with quotations From the Learned Cambden I seldom recede tho almost as seldom made use of by me in the same Former Part. But the acknowledg'd either purity or elegancy of Buchanan's style makes me no admirer of his skill in the Antiquities of that Nation he writes of Much less can I esteem Hector Boethius in his writing at random of those matters what he had never had but from errant Impostors or certainly himself had forg'd And this without question even contrary to what he had found written by that Irish great Furtherer of his whose name was Cornelius Historicus and his Work entitled Chronicon multarum rerum I mean if this Cornelius was indeed no less by education in the Countrey knowledg in the Language than by birth an Irish man and withal so learned as D. Hanmer page 193. out of Bale and Stanihurst represents him to have been under Henry III. of England about the Year of Christ 1230. that is about 200 years before Boethius had written his History of Scotland Of Hanmer or Campion either though each of them entitles his own Work The History of Ireland nay each of 'em ventures on deducing his Narration from almost the very beginning of times after the Flood I scarce make mention but once or twice where the Subject or leads or forces me to oppose their great mistakes Which certainly are very numerous in both especially in Hanmers Work as this is by much the larger of the two Campion's being only a little extemporary Piece written by him in ten Weeks time as himself confesses in his Dedication thereof * 27 May 1571. To this year Camplon brought his History But Hanmer deduc'd his Chronicle for so he calls it no further than to the year 1286. I suppose he intended to bring it to his own time had he not been prevented by death which seiz'd him at Dublin where he died of the Plague Anno 1064. to Robert Earl of Leicester Nor must we much wonder it should be either so brief or so faulty seeing we have his own farther acknowledgment in his Preface to the Reader That he had never so much as seen any of those Irish Books that treat of matters that happen'd before the English Conquest much less could have any person to interpret them A greater cause of admiration Doctor Meredith Hanmer has given us by making his Chronicle of Ireland so large and yet giving every whit as little of the true Antiquities of Ireland for those times preceding the same English Conquest as Campion before him had e'en a few scraps out of Cambrensis but many more additional meer stories from himself where-ever he had ' em Among which stories however I do not rank his pious Relations of several Irish Saints which take up above 20 leaves of his Chronicle That is from p. 33. to p. 104. But for Edmund Spencer in his Dialogue be-between Irenaeus and Eudoxus bound up in the same Volume as it was at first publish'd in print together with the two former Books of Campion and Hanmer at Dublin an 1635. by Sir James Ware I had 〈◊〉 little occasion to quote him as I could have no other exception against him than what is common to Hanmer and Campion too Save only those two Particulars in his 33 46 Pag. whereof Keting has taken special notice before me viz. 1. The two Saxon Kings Egfrid the Northumbrian and Edgar of England to have had the Kingdom of Ireland in subjection 〈◊〉 That the large spread Irish Families or â—epts of the Birns Tools and Cauanaghs in the Province of Leinster were originally Brittish and those other of the Mac Swines Mac Mahoons and Mac Shehies in the Province of Mounster no less originally English In both Particulars how mightily Spencer is out and without any support either from History or Criticism Keting in his Preface has very sufficiently if not abundantly shewn And therefore I will say no more of Spencer than that although in writing his Faerie Queen he had the right of a Poet to fancy any thing nevertheless in the Historical part of his Dialogue written by him anno 1599. he should have follow'd other Rules I say Historical part c. For I am willing to acknowledg that where he pursued the Political main design of this Dialogue which was to prescribe the ways and means to reduce Ireland a design well becoming him as being Secretary to Arthur Lord Grey of Wilton and Deputy of Ireland under Q. Elizabeth none could surpass him no man could except against him save only those that would not be reduc'd But I digress again For my purpose here in mentioning Spencer should only have been to tell you that in all my Former Part I quote him but once Vnto which if I add in the last place
years consumed by a Pestilence not one remaining of them A just judgment from Heaven without peradventure on him who had fled thither as it were from Heaven for having in his own Countrey in Scythia kill'd both his Father and Mother to make way for a Brother of his and their Son to come to the Royal Throne How in the end of 30 years more Nemedus another Scythian some of the Irish Chronologists say he was a son to Bartholanus left by him in Scythia when himself had departed thence with his four Sons Starius Gervale Annin and Fergus in a Fleet of 34 Ships and 30 Marriners in each of them arriving in Ireland overthrew in three Battels the remainder of those Affrican Gyants but was overcome in the fourth And how soon after this defeat Nemedus being dead his People rousing themselves put it to the issue of one great Battel sought at the same time both by Sea and by Land they having 30 thousand at Land and so many more at Sea and the Fight proved so mortal that albeit they had the victory yet they could reap no benefit by it the very Air being so corrupted by the stench of the Carcasses which lay unburied every where for they kill'd promiscuously in every place after that Victory Man Woman and Child of their Enemies that all over the Land there was an universal Pestilence which after seven years more made 'em depart and quit the whole Country leaving only ten Captains to defend those of their People that could not have Shipping against the remainder of the Gygantick Affricans How these Children or Posterity of Nemedus Clanna Neimheadh the Irish call 'em to avoid that dreadful and continual Pestilence departing in a thousand Vessels great and small under the Conduct of three Chieftains Simeon Breac Ibaath and Briotan the other two sailing to Greece Briotan with his adherents Landed in the North of that Countrey which we now call Scotland and with his and their Posterity remaining there gave the denomination of Brittain to this whole Island which is now called Great Brittain as holy Cormac the K. of Mounster and Bishop of Cashel in his Psalter of Cashel together with all the Chronologers of Ireland affirm Wherein surely they have at least much more probability of their side than any late Authors have that derive that name from Brutus or his Romantick History either in Galfridus or in any other For if from Brutus besides other reasons why not Brutannia rather than Britannia How the five sons of Dela viz. Gandius Genandius Segandius Rutheragus and Slanius being the 8th Generation from Simeon Breac and calied in Irish Fir-bholg after 217 years compleat from the former arrival of Nemedus there invaded Ireland with 5000 men of all sorts in their company and studing no great resistance won it entirely routed utterly out of it the remainder of that cursed Generation of Cham the Affrican Giants and divided it into five Provinces or Portions which Division continues till this day How they and four of their Children after them were in succession Monarchs of all Ireland after that Slanius who was the youngest of them all had by force and War upon the rest erected it to a Monarchy though he enjoy'd it but one year Death having given him no longer joy of his Conquest over his Brethren How none before them i. e. none of the former Invaders called themselves Kings they being the first Kings and Slanius among them too as I have now said the first Monarch that Ireland ever had Yet the Reigns of all the nine made not above 36 years in the whole How Eugenius or Eoghun as the Irish Books call him and so they have quite other terminations both for all these and all other Names too expressed by us with Latin terminations being the last of them and prosperously Reigning in peace and plenty over Ireland the Nation whom the Irish call Tuath-De-Danann under their King Nuathad Airgidlaimh as descending from the foresaid Nemedus or Nemeus or Neimh which you please to call him and therefore claiming that Kingdom as their right invaded it fought a great Battel in Connaught with Feramh-Bolg the Generation of Simeon Breac and Neimheadh or Nemedus kill'd a hundred thousand of them and thereby and without much loss to themselves conquer'd the whole kingdom the Reliques of Ferramh-Bolg retiring to the small Islands of Arrain I le Rachluinn and many other about Ireland and Scotland where they continued till such time as Ireland came to be govern'd by Provincial Kings under the Milesians How the Posterity of those Reliques of Ferraimb Bolg being forced away by the Picts had their refuge back again to Ireland and first to the King of Leinster turning Tenants to him for such Lands as he was pleased to lett unto them and next from Leinster because of the heavy rent there to Connaught shifting so in the best manner they could for themselves until by Co-Chulain and Connall Cearnach and the Inhabitants of Vlster they were wholly driven away the second time and quite Banish'd for ever only three Families Sur-names or Septs of them excepted which according to the judgment of some Irish Antiqnaries remain still in Connaght and Leinster as Dr. Keting who also names these Septs does write Adding thereunto this further animadversion as a necessary consequence that these three Families are not of Clanna Gaoidhel or Posterity of Gathelus from whom all the Milesians descended long before either Milesius himself or his Predecessors came into Spain Lastly how according to the Book called Psaltuir Chassil the aforesaid Colony or Nation of Tuatha-De-Danann held the Sovereignty of Ireland for 197 years under seven or rather indeed nine Kings for after Fiacha who was the 6th of them reigned the three Sons of Cearmada by turns yearly But neither to prosecute nor so much as to insert any of these Plantations or Conquests of Ireland by Ciocal or Partholan or Neimhe or Feara Bolg or Tuatha Dee Danann as the Irish names of them are can be much if any thing at all to my main purpose here And though perhaps it might be in some sort material to tell you what a famous man in his Generation nay in a great part of the World Milesius himself otherwise called Galathus in Latin but in Irish Galamh had been Or to tell you 1. Of his first adventuring from Spain to Scythia and serving there as General of the Army under his Kinsman Refloir the great Monarch of that Countrey 2. Of his marrying this Refloir's Daughter and Refloir's growing jealous of his greatness and preparing therefore to dispatch him and his preventing the King by taking away his life and then his quitting Scythia and passing to Egypt by Sea with a Fleet of sixty Sail and his being there employ'd by Pharaoh as General against the King of Ethiopia's Forces warring at that time on Egypt 3. Of the many over-throws given by him to them and Pharaoh's so great favour to him thereupon that
seeing him a Widower his former Wife the Scythian Kings Daughter having died before he came to Egypt the gave him one of his own Daughters to Wife 4. Of his departure from Egypt by Sea and various adventures for some years roaming about all the Northern Seas and Isles of Europe 5. Of his return at last to his own Countrey of Spain and the five and forty Battels fought there victoriously by him and under his conduct by his near Cosins the Children of Breoghuin the Son of Bratha who founded Braganza in Portugal against the forein Enemies that invaded that Kingdom then 6. Of the destruction and utter extirpation at least for a good while of all those Foreiners out of Spain by his Valour and Wisdom and which was consequent of his possessing by himself and his foresaid Kinsmen the greater Part of this Kingdom 7. Of his two and thirty Sons part Legitimat but the most part Illegitimat 8. Of the great Dearth in his time all over Spain continuing six and twenty years thro want of Rain 9. And lastly how this Dearth together with several other reasons but particularly that of his minding now the Prophetical Prediction of him by his own Magitian Cathoir some years before That his Posterity should settle in Ireland made him and soon after his death eight of his Sons think upon invading Ireland Tho I say these are matters not wholly foreign to my purpose yet because they are unnecessary it sufficeth to have touch'd 'em lightly And so I proceed to what I intended as more material here to let you know Which is 1. That of those 8. Sons of that Great Milesius for no more of his two and thirty Sons ventured to Ireland who presently after their Fathers death setting forth from Breoghuin's Tower a place in Gallicia long after called Notium but of later years Compostella and putting to Sea with the first convenience and landing in Ireland then when the three Sons of Cearmada ruled there by turns and by their great Valour destroying all three at last in the Battel of Tailtinn and thereby subduing thorowly the whole Nation of Tuatha-De-Danann two only I mean of those eight Brothers survived to rejoyce in their Conquest finish'd by that Battel Eibhir and Erimhon alias Heber and Herimon as the Latins call them the other six being lost by various Chances 2. That Eibhir and Erimhon assuming now the sovereign power of the whole Island after partition made first to themselves then to their Cousins German then to their other Captains and last of all to the common Soldiers of convenient proportions of Land ruling severally over all that is Eibhir in the Southern and Erimhon in the Northern Division the first year in perfect peace together and then falling at odds through the Pride and instigation of Heber's Wife that put her Husband upon having all in both Divisions to himself alone to the end forsooth she might sit and strut upon the three chief Ardes or Heights of Ireland as the only Queen thereof and then coming to a pitch'd Battel and Heber kill'd in it and then Herimon remaining the only King without any Competitor until his death which hapned fourteen years after He was the first of a hundred fourscore and one that as Monarchs of all Ireland successively governed it and the Milesian or Irish Nation the only possessors of it for two thousand four hundred eighty eight years until the landing of Henry the second there in the year of Christ 1172. 3. Cambrensis himself tho Giraldus Camb. Topog. Hiber dist 3. c. xv 17. 36 37 44. otherwise no great favourer of the Irish does certifie so much by computing from Herimon the first King to Laogirius who was King when St. Patrick landed there Anâ— Christi 432. to preach the Gospel a hundred thirty and one from Laogirius to King Fedlimidius which contain'd 400 years of the flourishing state of Christianity among the Irish three and thirty more and from that period to Ruaridh O Conchabhair who was the Monarch when Henry II. landed as before the whole remainder of that number of a hundred fourscore and one who besides a far greater number of the Provincial Kings under them governed as Sovereign Monarchs of all that Island for so many Ages from the year of the World 2736. Argument enough I think for the Antiquity of the Irish Nation to be no where parallel'd if not peradventure by the Chineses only in the late History written of them by Martinus à Martinâ—s 4. That for their bravery in Martial Exploits to say nothing now of a thousand bloody proofs thereof given by them at home for much above 2000 years fighting almost continually either the Progeny of Heber in general against Herimon's for the Sovereignty or one Province or greater Division Leath Cuinn and Leath Mogh invading the other especially after the Provincial Kings had set up by the Authority of Eoghun Mor or Eugenius Magnus the Monarch about 600 years after the death of Herimon so that very few of their Monarchs in so large an extent of time died other than violent deaths and this in Battel commonly but to say nothing of these proofs given by them at home their manifest Invasions abroad their Plantations and at last even total Conquest of the Kingdom of Albain that part of Great Britain which in after Ages came to be called Scotland from their conquering and planting of it with Colonies of their Children for they themselves were in this part of the World the original Scots as their Countrey now called Ireland or in Latin Hibernia was then the only Countrey named Scotia is an argument which cannot be refuted 5. That the Nation which we call Picts but the Irish in their Language Cruinith having in the reign of Herimon the first Irish Monarch roam'd about by Sea from Scythia till they arrived at last in Ireland and there desiring to inhabit and being denied this request but however directed by Herimon to that part of the now Great Britain which lying Northeast of Ireland was called Albain then and is so still by the Irish and here seated themselves and then multiplying exceedingly for two hundred and fifty years at the expiration of this time upon some difference hapned Aonghus or Aenaeas Ollbhuadhach the VII Monarch of Ireland succeeding Herimon made so sharp and long a War upon them and not on them only but as well on the Northern Britains remaining still their Neighbours as upon the Inhabitants of the barren Orcades the Race of Fir Bholg long before expelled Ireland that in fifty fierce Battels given them he utterly broke their whole strength and made them Tributaries Nor was this the only Conquest made by the Milesian Irish either on the Heathen or Christian Picts and their Associats in Albain For to pass over those six or seven Invasions more of the Irish into Albain under several of their Monarchs from the Reign of the foresaid Aonghus or Enaeas to the
Hector Boethius makes him a Giant of 15 Cubits high and he was an Irish man both by birth and descent lineally come of his Mothers side in the fifth Generation from Nuatha Neacht King of Leinster and so upward all along from Herimon whatever is reported by D. Hanmer a Page 24. to the contrary in his History of Ireland Hanmer might as well have made the Cappadocian Knight a Saxon as Fionn the son of Cuual a Dane And so might Hector Boethius have as well turn'd Huon of Burdeaux or Amadis de Gaul or the Knight of the Sun or the Seven Champions of Christendom and such like Romances into the very truest Histories as the Fables written of Fionn mhac Cuual and the Captains under him called Fiona Erionn only to entertain leasurable hours and Fancy For the Irish had their Romances too for divertisement They had Bruoidhuin in Chaorhuinn and the Battel of Fionthraghadh or Fentra as Hanmer calls it and the story of Gilladeackuir's Jade and many other such and so among these some also of Fionn mhac Cuual and his Commanders Which yet every one of common sense among the Irish could distinguish from their Chronicles and other Monuments of real story In short these Gentlemen Fionn mhac Cuaal and Fiona Erionn were the stoutest and bravest fighting men of their time in Ireland And they were kept in constant pay by the Monarch Princes and people of that Kingdom to guard the Coasts from abroad and keep all at home quiet With power nevertheless that if the case required it either to suppress a Rebellion or withstand an Invasion or succour Dal Riadac in Scotland the said General Fionn mhac Cuual might make up the standing Forces to seven Battalions that is one and twenty thousand men in all And this is the naked truth concerning these Fiona Erionn so famous in their Generation On which truth many fabulous stories have been superstructed To them may be added those other brave Warriors whether of a later or earlier Generation but as to the reality of things for ought I know of as much bravery and Valour called Dal-Gheasse These were the standing Militia of those fortunate successful Kings of Mounster Ceallaghan and Brian Boraimhe in the second Danish War and the only Gens d'Armes about their persons and continued to be so to the succeeding Kings of Mounster and Leathe Mogh who were Monarchs of Ireland at least bore that Title three of them in succession after the death of that Maolseachluin who immediatly succeeded Brian Boraimhe What number these Valiant men Dal-Gheasse did make I cannot find But see them all along represented for incomparable Warriors till being over-power'd at last by the King of Connaght and Leathe Cuinn and presumed Monarch Torlagh More O Connor they were utterly destroyed a little before the English Conquest and with them the Kingdom of Mounster extinguish'd For this by that Monarch was divided in two and continued so till the English abolish'd them both 13. Of their Learning Historians make no mention till after their conversion to Christianity Which Conversion if we speak of it as to the generality of Ireland was begun by Saint Patrick their Apostle as we have seen before early in the fifth Century that is in the year 431. upon his second landing in that Countrey and compleated by him within threescore and one years more For so long he lived carrying on that holy Work though he had been full threescore and one aged upon this second landing of his when he began it About this time all the Western and Southern parts too of the Roman Empire being over-run by the Goths Vandals Huns Franks and oâ—her barbarous partly German partly Scythick Nations and consequently all kind of Learning for the matter destroyed by them where ever they set footing and the little remainders of the learned Contemplative men retiring still from the noise of Arms and finding themselves no where on the Continent and as little in Great Britain at rest or in safety many of them at last passed over to Ireland That is to a Countrey where as they were told for certain and so it was indeed the Romans never challeng'd any right and consequently neither could the Barbarians on account of such right pretend any quarrel to it and yet a Countrey to admiration religious and holy This of all likelihood was one of the causes or means whereby Ireland began suddenly to flourish above any Countrey of Europe at that time in Learning Besides and to speak without likelihood but by the authority of good Authors for matters of Fact their blessed Apostle St. Patrick himself at his coming thither to convert them in the aforesaid year brought with him besides other Clerks in his own Company thirty Bishops whom himself had in his Journey through foreign parts gathered together and before his shipping for Ireland and for that mission of purpose consecrated because he foresaw the Harvest would be very great and therefore he needed many Workmen So affirmeth an ancient French Author of good repute Henricus Altisiodorensis c Vitae S. Germani cap. 168. who flourish'd in the Emperour Carolus Calvus's Reign Moreover the Irish Chronicles tell us that he also brought along with him all those of Ciniodb Scuit or Scottish that is Irish Nation whom he met abroad any where that were Christians So here you may clearly see between these Bishops Clerks and other Christians the first Seminary of that great Learning in Ireland then when all the other Western Kingdoms and Provinces were grown illiterate barbarous rude However or whatever the causes or the Teachers of that Learning in Ireland were besides these Bishops and Clerks who no man will doubt but they were at least the Chief Instructors in holy Scripture and all matters of Divinity as were also next unto them those other Bishops consecrated by S. Patrick at home in Ireland during the time of his Apostleship even 355. in number says Nennius that is one for every two Churches founded by him in that Countrey and those 3000 Priests Jocelin says 5000 likewise that were not Bishops all of them every one consecrated by himself in this Kingdom it is confessed of all hands and venerable Bede a Histor Anglic l. 3. c. 4 5. 19. l. 4. c. 25. of old and Cambden b Britan. pag. 730. edit London in Fol. an 1607. of late are sufficient vouchers for it That in those dayes the Saxons flowed over into Ireland as to the Mart of good Literature And that when any was wanting here from home it came to be a Proverb He is gone to Ireland to be bred Pursuant hereunto is that Distich in the life of Sulgenus who flourish'd about 700 years since Exemplo patrum commotus amore legendi Ivit ad Hibernos sopbia mirabile claros Besides all the Irish Chronicles tell us of the four great Universities in Ireland Ardmagh Cashel Dun-da-Leathghlass and Lismore not to mention many other Colledges of
not by torture yet by murder continued on still For the same Duach Fionn lost both his Soveraignty and Life by the hands of Muireadhach Bolgrach Son to the above Simeon Breac and this Muireadhach also both his in like manner to Euno Dearg Son to that very Duach now mentioned Which Euno having thus not only satisfied his revenge by sacrificing to his Fathers Ghost but his ambition too by acquiring the Monarchy and enjoying it twelve years had the great luck to die a natural death I say great luck c. For in short of so vast a number of Irish Monarchs of the sole Milesian Race or Conquest as we have seen in the beginning of this Treatise in all 181. not above nine and twenty for ought we know or I can observe by reading over their Lives came to a natural end All the rest of them besides a few whose deaths what they were or how are not mentioned at all perishing as you have seen except only Nial Gluinndubh and Conghallach mhac Maoilmhithe both in two several Battels kill'd by Foreign Enemies the Danes in their second War on Ireland unless peradventure you may think it fit to except also Brian Boraimhe from that general rule upon this ground that he was kill'd by a Dane tho the Battel against him was no less composed of Irish than Danes Which account as well of those Irish Monarchs as of all the foresaid prodigious number of Battels fought between the several contending Parties of that Nation during their eternal bloody feuds in the long succession of so many Ages I have taken the pains by reading over attentively at least twice or thrice Dr. Ketings History and all the several Reigns of the said Monarchs and consequently all the memorable acts performed or happened in each of them to give here in brief that is by summing up together what is so dispersedly given by him in his far more Voluminous work Which whoever please to consult may find not only the names and acts but even the genealogies of all the said Monarchs carried up along to their several stocks Heber Herimon Ire i the and Breoghuin the Son of Bratha who dyed in Spain long before Milesius himself was born And he shall moreover find not only the principal actors in and occasions of fighting every one of so vast a number of Battels and the time or Reign of the Monarch under whom each of them happened but the particular places or Fields on which at least one half of them had been fought and from which each of them respectively has its particular denomination I say at least one half c. because I find not in Keting the Fields or places by particular name set down either of sixteen of those 25 Battels fought by Caomhaol youngest Son to Heber against the Progeny of Herimon or of fourteen of those other 27 Battels wherein Tighearnmhuir that kill'd Caomhaol and thereupon succeeding him in the Soveraignty foil'd both his and all his Fathers Race or of any except the first of all those hundred and five of Tuathal Teachtvair fought by him and the Nobility in five and twenty years against the Plebeians and the two usurping Monarchs elected by them successively one after another Cairbre Caitcheann and Conrach mhac Rossae or even of any of those other yet much more numerous of Con Ceadchathach in all 260 whence the Irish gave him in their own Language the furname of Ceadchathach * Cead in Irish imports an hundred and Cath a Battel and in Latin call'd him Constantinus Centibellis which we may render in English Con of the hundred Battels which he had Victoriously fought to reduce the Provinces of Ireland to his own terms foiling the Province of Vlster in a hundred of them the Mounster men in a hundred more and those of Leinsten in sixty though after all he was himself in ten other Battels by Mogha Nuathat King of Mounster so mightily beaten and worsted that he was forced at last even fairly to part stakes and come to a new division of Ireland in two equal parts between 'em by the Meer of Eisger-Riada as it were a line drawn from the Eastern Sea at Dubh-linn now Dublin to the Western at Galway quitting so the whole Southern side of the line for ever to Mogh and contenting himself with the North-side only Which division as it continued in after Ages tho not as to the first purpose of it but seldom and took its name from those two Dividers the Southern part of it being in Irish called Leath Mogh and the Northern Leath Cuinn the former importing the half of Mogh and the latter the half of Con for the word Leath signifies half So it transmitted to their several Posterities and rest of the Princes and People inhabiting either of these two halves a strong addition to their former Feuds and new general occasion of many cruel Fights Of all and every of which Fights and all the rest whatsoever except only those but now excepted the date and place and persons principally concern'd and particular occasions too not seldom may be read in the foresaid History of Dr. Keting And among them seaven of those ten Battels fought by Mogha against Con Ceadchathach particularly named from the places where they were fought viz. the Battels of Brosnuighe and Sampaire and Greine and Atha-Luaine and Luighe Croich and Asail and Vsnach the names of the other three are lost 17. But that which in this whole account of their Battels fought and Monarchs kill'd by their own Natives must be not only strange but astonishing is that the fury extended even to many Ages of Christianity or rather indeed in a very great measure to the whole extent or duration of their being a free People In the very first four hundred years of Christian Religion flourishing in Ireland so conspicuously as we have seen before with Myriads of holy Professors yet their Princes and Nobles and other Martial men were as furiously given to the destruction of one another as their Ancestors had been in the time of Paganism In so much that of 33 Monarchs who according even to Polychronicon and Cambrensis had Reigned successively in that Nation from Laogirius in whose Reign and fourth year of it S. Patrick entred upon the work of their Conversion to the Reign of Aodh Ordnigh in which the first Invasion and War of the Danes upon em began four and twenty were by their own Irish Christian Subjects most unchristianly murder'd in the Island of Saints six of them in Battel and eighteen without battel or other solemnity or ceremony than that of the vilest Assassination committed on great Princes Nor were the six Battels in which those six Monachs were kill'd the only Battels fought in that space of time wherein the primitive fervour of Christianity most flourish'd among other Professors of it in that Country So far otherwise that of those 33 Monarchs who Reign'd in that time before the first Landing
water to drink had all this rigour effectually put in execution against him and rejected even Columb-Cille's Petition for his release though come of purpose out of Scotland to obtain it And so I have done with my Instances nor have I more to say in reference to them Only that although I cannot tell what reasons either of these two Christian Monarchs had for such extream rigour towards Christian Princes of their own Nation though their Prisoners or at their mercy nor can tell as to particulars how considerably this cruel usage did add unto or inflame the former feuds Yet this much I can tell that neither of them had other than a violent death the former murder'd by Aodh Dubh mhac Suibhne the later kill'd in Battel by Brandubh King of Leinster as I have said before upon another occasion And so by consequence I have likewise done with all my special remarks on this large subject of the manifold bloody Feuds of that Nation both in the time of their Paganism and in that of their being under the Gospel of Christ for I intended no more such heer than I have given Which is the reason that now returning once more thither where I was before I conclude at last this long Section with one general remark on that People as they were under the Gospel in the more early Ages of it among them viz. That from the killing of their foresaid Christian Monarch Aodh mhac Ainmhiriogh the last we spake of here the Fate not only of the Milesians but other Gathelians whatsoever in Ireland and the Genius of their Kings Princes Nobles and other Martial men continuing for 300 years after him the very same it had been in the Age before him carried them on perpetually from time to time fighting and slaying and murthering one another at home until the four and twentieth of those Christian Monarchs of theirs who died violent deaths by the hands of their own Irish Subjects within the first 400 years of Christian Religion generally planted among 'em by name Aodh Ollann had been slaughter'd in the Battel of Seir by Domhnal mhac Murchadha that immediatly succeeded him Nay until that in this Domhnals Reign which continued 42 years and the Reign of his Successor Niall Frassach which lasted but four besides Colman the Bishop of Laosaine murdered by Vibh Tuirtre the Battel of Beallach Cro between Criomthan mhac Euno and Fionn mhac Airb the Battel of Beallach Gawran between Mac Conchearca King of Ossory and Dunghall King of Vibh Cionsallach kill d therein the Battel of Leagea betwixt Vibh Mbruine and Vibh Mainne the Battel of Corann betwixt Cinneal Gonnail and Cionneal Eoghuin and finally the killing of Combhasgach King of Ibh-Failghe by Maolduin mhac Aodha Beanainn King of Mounster whether in Battel or out of Battel I know not had fill'd up at last brim full the measure of their domestick unnatural slaughters happening within that term of time their first four Centuries of Christianity SECT IV. National sins Very slight causes of War Cormock Ulfada's beard Muireadhagh's Tiriogh's revenge and the three Colla's War on Ferghussa Fogha King of Eumhna Sundry warnings from God to the Irish Christians but not like the judgment at Magh-Sleachta or the other by Loch Earne on their Pagan Predecessors 1. The loss of all their Dominions abroad 2. Those two Epidemical Plagues at home called the Crom-Chonnioll and Buy-Chonnioll 3. Mortality of Kine and great Famil that follow'd 4. Those three or four Inroads made into their Country by the Saxons and Brittons 5. Prodigies with another extraordinary Famin. Notwithstanding all no amendment This instanc'd in the death of the Monarch's Loinnseach Conghall Cinn Fearrghall Foghartach and Kionaoth What of Flaithiortach The flood-gates of the North set open at last to pour Vengeance on this contumacious people Yet they amidst all continue their intestine feuds Witness the Monarchs Aodh Ordnigh Conchabhar mhac Donochadh and Niall Caille A sad Interregnum The particulars of their Bondage under Turgesius The glory of their Learning and Sanctity now gone for ever Scarce delivered from that Bondage when they relapsed again far more enormously than before This also instanc'd 1. In eight of those eleven Monarchs that Reign'd in the second Danish War 2. In the Reigns of those other six following that assumed the title of Monarchs though not allow'd for such by near at least one half of the Provinces Maolseachluinn the Second by his death put an end to the real Monarchy of Ireland among the Irish and Ruaruidh O Conchabhair saw in his own days not only the pretence or shadow of it gone but the very Being of this Nation any more a free People on Earth 24. SUch were the National provocations of Heaven peculiar to that People hitherto i. e. for two and twenty hundred years besides what we shall yet see did happen after above any other Nation of the whole Earth Immortal Feuds of death tyrannical oppressions of the Subject cruelty as well of justice as revenge Treason Conspiracies Rebellions Murders even of their Sovereigns effusion of human blood like water And this without pity without remorse without any cause sometimes but very slight and sometimes vain and ridiculous An arbitration between two religious Monks in a difference deciding against one of them must engage Families and Countrys in Arms to fight it out in Battel and cut one another in pieces A known Murtherer proscrib'd as unpardouable by their most sacred Laws and therefore justly put to death by the Monarch must nevertheless on pretence of his being seiz'd upon after he had been received into the protection of an Abbot be a just cause of rebelling and fighting that very Monarch and killing his whole Army to boot Nay one single Beast a Cow at most but very little worth taken away I know not how from the owner was the only cause of a great Battel fought between the same Monarch and the Provincial King of Connaught and a Battel wherein most of the Gentry of that Province and Mounster too were kill'd As if neither the Assailant nor Defendant tho Christian Kings both could find any other way to satisfie the poor Woman that was rob'd of that Cow or rather indeed as if they had sported so with the lives not only of their Subjects but of their Friends I say nothing of the Candle-snuff or of its firing the Monarch Cormack Vlfada's beard at an entertainment given him in Maig-Breag by Giolla King of Vlster who shuffing a Candle instead of throwing it aside threw it whether by chance or of purpose into Cormack's long beard which presently catch'd and burn'd up to his tresses Only I say That however this ridiculous matter happen'd or pass'd at that time it cost Vlster dear long after Cormack's death That Muireadhach Tiriogh the great Grand-child of this Cormack and sixth King of Ireland after him took it for a pretence to pour an Army of one and twenty thousand men under the command
whole Irish Nation had the ambition or lust or heart or valour now to entitle himself to that Soveraignty which had cost their Fore-fathers so many hundred Battels and such Rivers of blood to conquer it from one another he now usurps the title as he had before the power of King of Ireland though not acknowledged for such by the Irish at least not otherwise than by the meerest Galley-slaves their cruel unjust tormentors may be In fine that how long or how short soever it continued after this although it was indeed unsupportable to any human Creatures not wholly devoid of sense or feeling nevertheless it was no other than the most eminently prophetical Saints of that Nation Columb-Cille and Berchane observing even in their own time the detestable Pride Ambition Injustice Violence Licentiousness Aveâ—sation from all good Government so common and so ingrafted in their great Lords and Chieftains had 200 years before it happen'd fore-told should happen as a just judgment from God upon so sinful a Generation of men And which is very remarkable that Columb-Cille particuly foretold how in that very Monastery which in his time had been founded at Ardmacha such a Heathen powerful Stranger from beyond Seas and such in all respects as Turgheis was should make himself Abbot of it as verily he did upon his chasing away Foranan the Christian Abbot long before he had assum'd the Title of King of Ireland Yea and which I am sure is no less if not more remarkable yet that Berchan in express terms prophesied how under such a Forreign Tyrant every Church or Cili in Ireland should be possess'd by an Abbot of his Gang. 27. Besides I can inform you that altho in regard of the extraordinary mortifications offered and prayers incessantly pour'd out to God by the small remainder of the Irish Clergy who had hitherto saved themselves in uncouth horrid Wildernesses he was mercifully pleas'd as Keting says about this time i. e. after some few years of the universal Bondage to inspire that counsel to Maolseachluinn mhac Mhaolruanuidh the Irish King of Meath which as we have related before destroy'd both the Tyrant himself and all his Armies and Fortifications too on a sudden and consequently set all the Irish Nation free being now restored every private person to his former possessions as the Lords and Princes and Provincial Kings were each of them to his own respective jurisdiction at large and the said Maolseachluinn by common consent made Monarch and so their Policy and power of Dominion at home fully recovered Yet so were not their Riches their Treasures their Gold Silver and Jewels those former spoils of so many forreign Provinces for so many hundred years gathered home to Ireland by their Pagan Predecessors During so many strong impressions of the late conquering Heathen Foe into the very heart and all the most secret recesses of Ireland all were taken by them and carried away by their several Fleets some to Norway some to Denmark and the rest to other Eastern Borderers on the German or Baltick Sea And which was a greater loss to the Learned their Libraries their Books were never recover'd Only the few Religious men that preserv'd themselves preserved also a few of their Books But the greatest loss of all was not only of Learning in the Mart of Litterature but of Sanctity in the Island of Saints Neither the one nor the other was ever at any time after this restor'd in Ireland at least not near the former degree of eminence The only thing the only virtue indeed that after so many great losses revived illustriously and continued eminently conspicuous in that People was their Military prowess their Valour Bravery Fortitude in the second Danish War to say nothing more of their destroying Turgesius and all his Forces by help of that stratagem which ended the first And yet I must confess that all their Martial spirit in that very second War did exert it self in was only in defending themselves at home without any design or thought for ought appears to us of imitating those former Heroes among their Ancestors that carried the terror of their Arms both far and near abroad The truth is they were no sooner enfranchiz'd from the Tyranny of Turgesius than they resign'd themselves wholly to ease and rest and a life of extream unworthy unmasculin laziness Insomuch that they not only neglected all kind of Navigation and provision for it tho they might have considered that the like neglect formerly since they became Christians had been at least one of their greatest banes and that which gave their Invaders the opportunity of attacking them without fear on every Quarter of their Island whether with great or small inconsiderable Fleets but were so far besides blinded that having slighted all the Danish Fortificacations throughout the Land they made none at all in their stead nor indeed in any place not even on the Sea Ports for their own defence from abroad And which was yet more strange would not themselves be at the trouble of guarding so much as any one of all those very Ports but entertain'd in pay some of those very Forreigners their late vanquisht enemies for that employment of greatest trust whom therefore that is from their being hired for pay they call'd Buannacidhs In a word they gave themselves over to Luxury and full enjoyment of the good things of the Land which naturally of it self without much labour was a Country flowing with Milk and Honey and all things else necessary both for life and pleasure But the greatest of Curses expecting them was that by the time and it was but a very short time when they had surfeired on plenty and wantonness they presently says Keting return'd to their old vomit again They renew'd their fatal Feuds divided were at cruel discord fell a persecuting one another like mad as in former times with all kind of hostility This kindled anew the wrath of God against the Nation in general to such an extream that notwithstanding his mercy prevail'd with him still so far as not to bereave them of their Martial Fortitude tho they had so long and so often and so freshly now again abus'd it so mightâ—ly but to expect for a much longer time even two or three Ages yet their amendment and repentance before he would utterly destroy them nevertheless he did without delay permit his justice to set open once more the Flood-gates of the North to pour in the second time upon them those Ministers of his Vengeance the Norvegians Danes and their other barbarous Heathen Associats known to us only by the name of Oostmans or Easterlings and to continue their â—â—undations in Ireland to Plague a Rebellious ungrateful Generation of Christians and plague 'em now for a hundred and fifty years more compleat For as I have already noted elsewhere so long at least did this second Danish War continue heavy upon 'em only some few lucid intervals it had excepted And yet neither
of Captives And so could one Conghallach some time after this but in the same Monarch's Reign make it either his interest or his revenge to murder that very same Connaght King Besides it was against this Monarch Domhnal mhac Muirchiortac that another Domhnal the Son of Conghallach had the prefidious hard unnatural heart to joyn with the Danes of Dublin and fight him in the great Battel which the Irish call in their Language Cath Chille Monae wherein Ardghall mhac Madagain King of Oirghillac and many other illustrious persons of the Monarch s side were lost although himself after this and many other Battels fought in his Reign had the good luck to die a natural death at Ardmagh Maolseachluinn the II. who appears next for 20 years as Monarch on the stage of Ireland notwithstanding that he had known very well how one Gluneran had lately assum'd the Title of King of the Danes in Ireland that he had fought them victoriously in the Battle of Taragh that he had from thence directly march'd to Dublin forc'd it enter'd it enrich'd himself with all the spoils of that City and that he could not but see work enough remaining still among so many several sorts of Enemies Danes Normans Easterlings and their Irish Confederates yet he found leasure and pick'd some quarrel to march his Army to Mounster against Dal-Gheass and prey and spoil them too albeit they were the bravest Warriours there against the common Enemy In his Reign the three sons of Gearbheoill mhac Lorcain sacrilegiously spoil'd the Sanctuary of Glean-da-Logh For which impiety they were all three kill'd the very next following night And in his Reign Muirchiortach va Conghalla heading or at least assisting the Danes of Dublin plunder'd the Sanctuary of Domhnach-Padruig though to all their cost for they all every one died within a month after this wickedness committed by them Now Brien mhac Kinede surnam'd Boraimh succeeding his murder'd Brother in the Kingdom of Mounster which happen'd in the fourth year of the Monarch Conghallach mhic Mhaolmhithe after he had in the second year of his reign over that Province only and in revenge of his foresaid Brother's most barbarous death challeng'd Maolmodh mhac Brain King of Eonachta to a set Battel sought it accordingly at Bealach Leachta kill'd the greater part of Mac Brains Army and taken all the rest prisoners an Army consisting of a numerous Body of Irish and 1500 Danes that join'd them and when this Battel was over upon intelligence brought him that during his diversion by it Domhnal O Faolan King of the Desies over-ran the greatest part of Mounster preying and spoiling all before him after Brien hereupon had immediately march'd towards him overtaken him fought him at a place called Fane mhich Conrach routed him pursued him kill'd him in his flight and together with him the most part of the Danes of Waterford that join'd with him then forc'd that Town plunder'd it burn'd it and enrich'd his Army the brave Dal-Gheass with the spoils of it and preys of all the parts about it after that within the 8th year of his reign over Mounster he had brought the whole Division of Leathmogh to acknowledg his Sovereignty with perfect obedience and that nevertheless upon the death of Domhnal Claon King of Leinster which soon follow'd that Province withdrawing their obedience and joyning anew with the Danes he had with the whole power of Mounster enter'd it and given both the Leinster-men and their Danish Confederats join'd together the memorable overthrow at Gleannmhama killing 4000 of them in that place I say that after all these and many other bloudy Fights against the Danes only fought by him during his Reign over the Provinces of Mounster and Leath-Mogh under the successive Reigns of three Monarchs or Kings of Ireland Conghallach mhac Mhaolmhthe Domhnal mhac Mairchiortae and Maolseachluinn the Second yet when he was chosen by the far greater part of Ireland in the 23d year of this Maolseachluinn to be Monarch he was nevertheless necessitated to make that choice good and establish himself by fighting on still against some other Irish Lords that opposed him till he had subdued all at last by main force and dint of Sword For to this end it was That with the flower of his Army he march'd to Cineall Laigthagh prey'd it spoil'd it and brought thence 300 Hostages That in like manner he enter'd the Countrey call'd Magh Coruinn seiz'd there Maolruanuidh King of Cineal Gonuill and brought him prisoner along with himself to Ceann Chorah in Tuath Mhumhan In fine That Leinster was wholly over-run and burn'd by him even to the Valley of Gleann-da-Logh and from thence again cross to Cill-Mhuighnionn we call it now Killmainam within a small English mile of the walls of Dublin Westward And yet that also may be true which Keting here observes viz. that Brien was mightily moved to this destruction of Leinster because they were Leinster-men that join'd with the Danes in â—ansacking spoiling and leading away a great number of Cap tives from the Sanctuary of Termon Feichin in Meath I say nothing more of any part of those 21 Battels in all fought as you have elsewhere seen by this Brian Boraimh a great part of them while he was only King of Mounster and the rest after he was Monarch only that in 'em all taking one with another especially counting among 'em as I should the greatest last Battel of them which was that of Clantarff I doubt not there was much more Irish bloud spilt by the Irish themselves on both sides than there was of Danish or by the Danes on either Besides I observe it as worthy of special remark here That immediately after this Battel of Clantarff had been over and the Victorious Army of Brian Boraimh had buried their dead especially this Monarch himself and Murchoe the Prince his oldest Son with the rest of greatest quality of their side that were lost in the Battel and interr'd 'em all at Cill-mhuinionn after those funeral rites perform'd by the whole Army before they separated after the Conacians had then parted and return'd the shortest way home to their own Countrey of Connaght and the Momonians likewise in one body taking another as the nearest way to Mounster these being in all but 4000 men and marching through an Enemies Country were no sooner come to Mullach Mastion about some 20 miles from Dublin in their way to Mounster than those of them who were of West-Mounster and they were three parts of the whole i. e. 3000 men withdrew themselves mutinously apart from the rest who were only a thousand North Mounster men but Dal-Gheass the survivors of those other brave Dal Gheass their Companions that with the loss of their own lives made all their Army Victorious That the Westmounster men being so withdrawn a little distance of ground immediatey sent defiance to Donochadh the Leader till then of both parties as being one of the sons of Brien Boraimh and heading
it and reduced Aodh O Conchabhar the King of it to such streights that in the year 1061. he was e'en forc'd at last to buy his peace by coming to his House in Leinster and submitting to his pleasure That before this in the year 1048. at three several times he wasted Meath so cruelly so without any discrimination or distinction made 'twixt sacred and profane that he destroy'd with fire even most of the very Churches there and in the year 1053. entring it the fourth time he led away both a very great number of Captives and innumerable preys That for the Danes or Easterlings of Dublin who it seems stood upon terms of Contest with him he in the year 1052. plagued them so mightily by burning not only Fingall but all other Territories round about them on every side and then fighting and worsting and slaughtering a great number of them hard by their own Walls that they were glad at last to proclaim him their King also and wholly submit to his will That notwithstanding all his former Victories he was in the year of Christ 1072 on the 17th of February being Tuesday fought defeated kill'd in the Battel of Odhbhen by Conchabhar O Maolseachluinn King of Meath And lastly this Author tells us That among all the Irish Antiquaries only Keting places Donochadh O Brien only Sir James Ware Diarmuid mhac Mhaoil-na-Moa in the Catalogue of Irish Monarchs So that all the rest of the Irish Writers it seems account neither of them and consequently none at all in their days to have been King of Ireland but hold a meer Interregnum then of the Monarchy But be it so or no it matters not to my purpose being the Instances brought all along in that very long Reign of Donochadh at least over Mounster are true whether Donochadh or Diarmuid or any other Irish Prince in their time was more than a Provincial King or less than a Monarch of the whole Island Toirrghiallach mhae Teidhg mhic Brien Boraimb that is in our Language Terence the Son of Teig the Son of Brien Boraimh is now Successor to Donachadh as in the Kingdom of Mounster and Leath mogh so in the Title of Monarch says Keting Nor do I find that any other opposed this Title of his But one reason hereof might be his ruling peaceably troubling no man nor forcing any thing from either Province or man And therefore they took no exception against the Title whether assum'd by himself or given him by others during his short Reign which was but of twelve years only as most Antiquaries say though some extend it to 22 years the occasion of their difference being that the former count the beginning of his Reign from the death of Diarmuid Mhaoil-na-moa in the Battel of Odhbhen the later take it from the death of Donochadh O Brien at Rome or at least from his deposition and flight However this is unanimously confess'd that as he lived quietly for his own part during his Reign so he died naturally in the 77 year of his Age being the year of Christ 1086. But so did not under his Reign Conchabhor O Maolseachluinn King of Meath For this but lately Victorious Prince was treacherously murthered by his own Nephew Murcho ' mhac Floinn and his head after burial of it at Cluain-mhac-Noise carried to the Monarch then residing at Coann-Chora Who desired to see it because he bore this Methian King no good will for having kill'd though in Battel his dear Cousin his Patron his supporter and Protector Diarmuid mhac Donochadh surnamed Maol-na-moa King of Leinster as we have seen before But his curiosity cost him dear For the head being brought him on good Friday as he was viewing it a little Mouse slipt out of it into his Bosom which so affrighted him especially when he understood how next Sunday the same head was miraculously return'd back to Cluain-mhac-Noise with a gold Ring upon it that he fell presently into a languishing Disease that held him after in cruel pain for several years and never was perfectly over till he died So writes the Author of Cambrensis Euersus And now Muirchiortach mhac Toirrghialbhaigh mhac Teaidhg the great Grandchild of Brien Boraimh and Son to the foresaid Toirrgheallach succeeded his Father in the Sovereignty at least of Mounster Leath Mogh and greater part of Ireland for 20 years says Keting In which Reign though he record nothing proper to our purpose in this place and somewhat extraordinary that very same is yet Gratianus Lucius has enough This Author page 82. and 84. gives a very particular account of the great combustions in it He tells us how upon the death of Toirrghiallach O Brien the last Monarch not only this Muirchiortach his Son but Domhnall the Son of Ardghar the Son of Lochlen King of Tir-Conel contended to some purpose for the Sovereignty of Ireland How the former by fight and spoil subdued the Lagenians and the later in the same manner the Methians How Dombnal had in the year 1088. got the start of Muirchiortach by forcing the King and Kingdom of Connaght to give him Hostages for their future fidelity and then immediatly enter'd Mounster burnt Limmerick demolish'd Ceann-Chora the chief Royal Seat ever since Brien Boraimh's time wasted the whole Countrey thereabouts with Fire and Sword and brought away thence besides an infinite number of Horses and all sorts of Cattel vast Treasures of Gold Silver and Plate How on the other side Muirchiortach besides forcing Dublin three several times banishing Godred the Danish King being there himself proclaim'd King at each time marcht into Vlster with the Forces of Mounster Connaght Leinster and Meath harrass'd it most wofully burnt the Royal Seat of Domhnall there and was thus reveng'd not once but often on that â—rovince marching into it every time with main Forces and scouring all the Coasts of the whole Island with a very numerous well provided Navy How Domhnall had withal so many rebellions of his own Subjects against himself in the very North nay within Tircâ—nnel it self that having as often overcome them all he put out the eyes of some of their petty Kings and others to death How after all the foresaid Muirchiortach King of Cashel or which is here the same thing of Mounster and together with him Flann O Maolseachluinn King of Meath and Ruidhruigh O Conchabhar King of Connaght found themselves necessitated not only to give Domhnall a meeting but even to deliver him Hostages in the year of Christ 1090. How in the year 1104. Domhnal turn'd to ashes that Countrey in Meath called then Ibh Laoghaire and in the year 1112 broke into Fingall prey'd it plunder'd it all over and carried away thence besides their Cattel a very great deal of costly Rayments magnam boum pretiosissimarumque vestium vim illinc retulit says my Author How after so many devastations of the poor Countrey and much blood spilt betwixt these two Contenders and after frequent annual Cessations between 'em
half So that by this time I think the Reader has no reason to complain of want of Instances to purpose out of this Reign of Muirchiortach mhac Neill Who as we have seen was the saddest of them all himself as having by his own Vassals been set upon unprovided fought overcome and kill'd In the last place Ruaruidh O Conchabhar King of Connaght e'n that very same Ruaruidh who contended for so many years before with Muirchiortach mhac Neill and submitted to him at last appears now his Successor on this long tottering Theatre of Irish Monarchs Keting delivers a very imperfect account of him saying That besides Cannaght he had only the Kings of Breithfne and Oirghillac to acknowledg his Sovereignty and giving scarce any thing else happen'd in his Reign but what relates to Diarmuid na Ngall the Leinster Kings Rape and to the Brittons invited in by this Diarmuid nothing I am sure of those warlike Actions and great Contests of this Monarch with other Irish Princes But this defect in Keting is elsewhere abundantly supply'd I mean by Gratianus Lucius in his Cambrensis Eversus In this Author grounding himself on the Annals of Inis Faile you may read that this Ruaruidh not only bore the Title of King of Ireland but was so indeed But without any peradventure the Relation given by him shews this last Irish Monarch's fatal Reign to have been fruitful enough of those and they the very last of those Instances I purpos'd to recount Immediately on the death of his Predecessor kill'd by Eochadh he march'd his Connaght Army to Assa Ruah subdued all Tirconel and received their Hostages From thence both with his own Connacians and the Legions of Breithfne Teamhfna and Meath led on by Tighernan O Ruairk King of Breithfne and Diarmuid O Maolseachluinn King of Meath he march'd to Dublin enter'd it was entertain'd in it by the Danes Easterlings and other the Inhabitants of that City and Territories belonging to it with all demonstrations of honour was proclaim'd their King and they presented by him according to the custom then with a royal Gift of 4000 Beeves From hence but joyning first all the Militia of those Citizens to his former Legions he goes directly so accompanied to Droghedagh the Irish call it Droighid At h is received there by Donochad O Cearbheoil King of Oirghiallae has Hostages whom he pleas'd of that Countrey put into his power and then causes a present of 2000 Beeves more to be in his name given that King From thence returning back to Leinster he advances to Findorf gives Battel there to Mac Murcho King of Leinster defcats him pursues him forces him at last to submit and give Hostages then abridges him of his jurisdiction leaves him only Cionsallach and bids him be content with that or he should lose that too From thence he made his progress to Mac Gille Phadruic the King of Ossory who delivering Pledges was royally treated and presented by him And now he enters Mounster has the submissions of all the Province bestows North-Mounster on Muirchiortach O Brien his own Brother by a Mother commands pledges from Diarmuid mhac Cartha King of South-mounster and so passes on in triumph to Connaght his own home having well nigh surrounded the whole Island in this very first year of his Reign After which circuit and either in the same year of our Lord 1166 as Gratianus insinuates it to have been or at furthest in the next as the Annals of Ireland in Cambden expresly say it was that Diamuid mhac Mhurrchadh alias Mhurchu and Diarmuid na Nghall having committed the famous Rape if it was a Rape on Tighernan O Roirk King of Breithfn's Wife the same Tighernan to be reveng'd on Diarmuid by the Monarch's Authority heading both his own Breithne Forces with those of Meath and most of Leinster too march'd into Ibh-Cionsallach made Diarmuid fly beyond Seas destroy'd his Castle at Ferns divided his said Countrey of Cionsallach between Mac Gille Phadrick King of Ossory and one Murchadh the Son of Murchadh and then return'd with seventeen Hostages for the Monarch And now this revenge or justice on Diarmuid being executed the Monarch himself An. 1167. attended on by all the Kings and Nobles of Mounster Leinster Meath Breithsne Comhaicne Orghiall and Vlidia or Vlla which I take to have been then but a part of the now large Province of Vlster with all their Troops consisting of Nine and thirty thousand Foot and one and twenty thousand Horse march'd to Ardmach From thence of one side with those great Land Forces and from Doire now by us call'd London-derry on the other where his Fleet of a hundred and ninety Sail had landed he attacks Tir-Eoghain so furiously on every side that after the stubborn Forces of that Countrey being first retired into their Woody Fastnesses had not only in vain attempted to fall by Night on his Royal Camp but instead thereof by a great mistake had fallen fouly on one another in the dark they found it necessary on the fourth day to submit and deliver him Hostages This Expedition being ended so he breaks up his Camp dismisses his great Army the several Troops and Legions to their respective Countreys returns himself by the way of Assa Ruagh to Connaght with the two Mounster Kings in his Company entertains them nobly at his own Palace there and at their departure presents them richly But he had not rested above one week at home when he had intelligence brought him of Diarmuid mhac Mhurchadh the Leinster King's being landed in Cionnsallach with forein Auxiliarics possess'd already of Wexford Master besides of a great part of Leinster and a terrour to all the rest Those call'd the Annals of Ireland in Cambden which yet began no earlier than four years before this Monarch Ruiruidgs O Cenchabhar's Reign say these forein Aaxiliaries landed An 1168. But the right Irish Annals that record their landing in the former year 1167. are sollowed by Gratianus Lucius and him I follow However presently on the news Ruaruidh O Conchabhar the Monarch heading his Conacian Troops and joyning in his way the Militia of Meath and Dublin marches to Findorch finds out fights and defeats Diarmuid An atonement between them follows Diarmuid giving the Monarch seven Hostages for his future fidelity and paying a hundred ounces in Gold to Tighernan O Ruairck for the injury done him by the Rape And yet Diarmuid by new Tumults the very next Year giving new jealousies the Monarch marches against him the second time and fights and foils him again Though after all he was wrought upon to accept this second time of Diarmuid's submission promises and base Son for Diarmuid had none at this time remaining that was Legitimat as a new addition to the former Hostages In the same Year 1â—68 Ludos Taltinos dedit says Lucius That is he gave and held with great solemnity the publick famous ancient Games at Tailtean What these were and who ordain'd them first
other in substance than water yet his Cupbearer had orders to dash it lightly with red that he might seem to drink Wine Secondly towards the poor He never missed a day without seeing now Threescore now Forty and never less than Thirty of them fed in his own presence Besides far greater numbers of them maintain'd out of his Revenue constantly for a long time as we shall presently see As a Bishop he preach'd Repentance continually to the people of that opulent City who were prodigiously immers'd in drunkenness lust contentions rapin blood-shed and all kind of wickedness Yea and as a Prophet too he ceaâ—â—d not with Tears to warn 'em of their general destruction at hand if they did not speedily appease Heaven with unseignâ—d Repentance As a Bishop when this general calamity like the breaking in of the Sea came upon them suddenly in one day in one hour when the City was taken and sack'd and burn'd by Diarmuid na Ngall their incens'd King and his foreign Auxiliaries when their strâ—â—ts were all covered with the bodies of the slaughter'd Citizens and the Gutters ran with blood when the very Clergy were plunder'd and Churches riâ—led of all that was precious in them as a good Bishop I say it was that Laurence at this time first beholding with floods of Tears like an other Jeremy the slaughter of his people before his eyes then taking courage like the good Pastor in the Gospel thrnst himself upon the bloody swords of the Conquerors holding their Arms praying their mercy entreating them for some snatching others from their fury to Christian burial who had their Souls yet panting in their Bodies and when no more could be done by him in any other kind giving himself wholly now to that generous imitation of Tobias As a Bishop it was that although with great hazard still unto himself yet he used that Episcopal freedom with the King and his insulting Commanders that the Clergy were at last permitted their own Habitations and the Churches restor'd their Books and Ornaments As a Bishop he employ'd in the next place all his compassion and all his Revenue I mean what was left thereof unseized by the Military men or undestroy'd by fire yea and all whatever he could procure from others to relieve the few Survivors of the slaughter'd Citizens His very Bowels did yearn over them especially those whom he had so lately seen to flourish in all kind of Earthly happiness and now saw without House to lie in without Cloaths to cover their nakedness without meat or drink to preserve life without other comfort than that of miserable Captives under a most deadly Foe As a Bishop when an other general Famin had in his days lien heavy on all the Land he not only gave daily sustenance for three whole years to five hundred persons reduced before to the worst of conditions plain starving but in several parts of his Diocess provided meat and drink and cloaths and all other necessaries for three hundred more And in the same cruel season of scarcity it was that Mothers reduced to extream want laying their chrisom Babes in the night at his door and in the day also where ever they saw he was to pass he took care of them all providing Nurses from them and though two hundred in number at one time sent them to his own Stewards and Baylisâ—s to be kept on his own Land and when they were come to years of discretion and some abilities of Body recommended them about all the Province with the badg of a wooden Cross in their hands As a Bishop and a Legat too says the Author of his Life he conniv'd at no disorder in the Clergy no vice no sin and least of all at the scandalous one of Incontinency whether in Priest Deacon or sub-Deacon Which fleshly Vice he did so much abominate especially in them and found it so necessary to be proceeded against with vigour that even so great a number as a hundred and forty Priests convict thereof he sent together at one time for Penance and Absolution to Rome though he might otherwise have given them both at home by his own Authority As a Bishop yea as a Father of his Countrey in general he spent the little remainder as well of his Revenue as of his health and Life in crossing the Seas now again from Ireland to England from England to France in both Countreys following and solliciting peace from Henry II. to ease the common calamities of his Nation at this time And now the dissolution of his earthly Tabernacle being at hand how hecoming a most Christian Bishop and a most holy Apostolical Legat indeed not only his very last exemplary Ecclesiastical preparation for it but his very last answer to the Abbot of Auge on that occasion was For in his way through France to Normandy having fallen sick of a Feaver at Abbevil a Cambreusis Vit. apud Sur. gone forward nevertheless to Auge on the borders of Normandy when at a distance he saw the Church of our Lady there prophetically foretold his own departure in that place then enter'd that Church pray'd in it a little while thence gone to his Lodging and Bed sent for Osbert the religious Abbot of that Monastery confess'd his sins to him and receiv'd the holy Viaticum from him then for prosecuting his business to Henry II. dispatch'd his Chaplain David together with his own Nephew to that King on their return the fourth day with the joyful news of their success i. e. of the Peace granted by the same Henry II. to Roderick the Irish King seem'd transported with it for the sake of his Countrey how low soever he knew himself brought by his sickness upon the third day following desired of the said Abbot and his whole Monastery to be as a Member incorporated among them and this accordingly done then presently desired further and pursuant to his desire in all their presence receiv'd the last Sacrament which they call Extreme Vnction having I say pass'd through all these steps and very last Ecclesiastical preparatories for death when the good Abbot Osbertus considering him an Archbishop had according to custom minded him of making his last Will and Testament his Answer was in thâ—se few words Novit Dominus mihi ne nummum quidem sub sole relictum esse The Lord knows that I have not a penny left me under the Sun Besides how like the great Bishop of our Souls weeping over Hierusalem this Bishop of Ireland remembring and lamenting once more for all the condition of his own Countrey brake forth into these Expressions in his own mother Language Ah foolish and sottish People what will you do now who will bring you back from your strayings who will apply Balm to your wounds who will cure you or take care of you at all And this Lamentation which Nature express'd from him ended how then at last like an other Austin he behaved himself in the last moments of his Life
three men That after some time being weary of their Habitation a ship board they landed again and quitting their ships cross'd many Countreys by Land from this Caspian Sea to the Pontic That here they shipp'd the third time but ere long meeting with an Island by name Caronia they put in and remain'd in it fifteen months where Eibher mhac Taith and Lamghlas mhac Adhnoin died That from hence departing under the Conduct of four Chiefâ—â—ins whereof Caichair the Magician or Druyd was one they arrived at the North end of the Riphean Mountains where the same Caichear prophetically told them * Hereby you are to correct what is otherwise said by a mistakâ— page 13. l. 〈◊〉 and 8. as if this prediction had been made by Caicheir to Milesius himself and but some years before whereas indeed it was made to his Predecessors many Agâ—s before he was born that neither that place nor any other was design'd for their lasting abode or Habitation till they came to the Western Island which we now call Ireland and that not themselves but their posterity after them should come to it That hence again but under the Command of Eibher Gluinfhiann they removed to Gothia where they contitinued a hundred and fifty years even to the eighth Generation from Eibher to Bratha For Bratha who led them hence first of all to Spain was the son of Deaghatha son of Earchadha son of Elloit son of Nuadhath son of Neinuill son of Eibhric son of Eibher Gluinfhionn and consequently was the eighth Generation from this Eibher Gluinfhionn That all the Travels of the Progeny of Gaodhel were first from Egypt to Creet from thence to Scythia from thence to Gothia from thence to South-Spain whether the foresaid Bratha led them and back again in the person of Galamh alias Mileadh Espain or Milesius the Spaniard great Grandchild of this Bratha to Scythia as before we have seen page 12. and thence also again to Egypt and so to Thracia and once more to Gothia and thence to Spain till at last the sons of this Galamh or Mileadh ventur'd for Ireland where they set up their prophesied Rest and long abode ever since to this present day Finally that Galamh alias â—ileadh in Latin Milesius who married the Daughter of Pharaoh Nectonibus king of Egypt and her name also or at least surname Scota for the same or like reason to that which gave so long before to their great Ancestor Niull's Wife Daughter to Pharaoh Cingeris the self-same denomination That I say this Galamh was the nineteenth Generation from Gaodhel Glas and the four and Twentieth from Noah the Builder of the Ark as appears by his Pedigree thus Mileadh son of Bile son to Breoghuin son to Bratha son to Deagatha son to Earchadha son to Alloid son to Nuadhadh son to Neanuill son to Eibhric or Eibherglas son to Eibher Gluinfhionn son to Laimhfhionn son to Adhnoin son to Taidh son to Ogamhuin son to Beaomhuinn son to Eibher Scot son to Sruth son to Easruth son to Gaodhel Glas son to Niull son to Feianusa Farsa son to Baath son to Magog son to Japhet son to Noah or as the Irish call him Naoih 43. And this in substance is the account which Keting has of these matters Though I confess there may be read in him a great deal more of that Scythian King Feinusa Farsa Father of Niull and Grandfather of Gaodhel Glas particularly of his great Learning and the most celebrated School kept in those days on the Plain of Sennaar and of his having studied the Sciences and Languages full twenty years in that place and of his having then employ'd another most skilful man by name Gaodhel but his surname was Ethoir to compose or at least to refine adorn and render copious that Language which ever since from his name is call'd Gaodhelc or Gaodhlec I mean the Irish Language And so likewise it may be found in D. Keting how it was in remembrance and honour of this Gathelus or Gaothel Ethoir the Author or at least Refiner of the Irish Tongue that Feinusa Farsa's foresaid Brother Niull in Egypt gave his first-born Child the self-same denomination or name of Gaodhel alias Gathelus tho sufficiently distinguish'd after by the addition of his surname Glas. But enough of these profound remote Antiquities as Cambden calls ' em And yet I am confident they may be far more easily believed by some and pass'd over by others than oppos'd at least disprov'd by any yea notwithstanding the names of Capacyront in Egypt and Caronia in the Pontick Sea and the Fleet of Pharaoh in the red Sea seized by a thousand of the unarmed Israelits * See Josephus 3. Book of Antiqu c. 6. Where he tells us expresly that all the Israelites were disarmed when Pharaoh pursued them though after that his six hundred Chariots and fifty thousand Horse and two hundred thousand armed Faotmen were drown'd in the Red Sea and the Tide had thrown up their Arms on the other Bank where the Israelites were saâ—ely arrived they armed themselves sufficiently and put under the Command of Niull That I may say nothing at all or scruple or boggle either at the two Scotas Daughters to those two Kings of Aegypt as already you have seen or at the two Scythian Kings of the same name Refloir and both kill'd by the Progeny of Gaodhel Glas the first of them by Taith mhac Daghnon and the second at least two hundred years after by Milesius himself as may be remembred out of the 12th page before But leaving the judgment hereof to the Reader 44. I proceed to my next Reflection which must be on page 8 and 9. There you are told How the children or posterity of Nemedus the Irish call 'em Clanna Neimheadh to avoid a dreadful and continual pestilence of many years departing in a thousand Vessels great and small under the Conduct of three Chieftains Simeon Breac Ibaath and Briotan the other two sailing to Greece Briotan with his adherents landed in the North of that Countrey which we now call Scotland and with his and their posterity remaining there gave the denomination of Brittain to this whole Island which is now called Great Brittain as holy Cormac the King of Mounster and Bishop of Cashel in his Psalter of Cashael together with all the Chronologers of Ireland affirm You are also told that surely in this particular these Irish Chronologers have at least much more probability of their side than any late Authors have that derive that name of Brittain from Brutus or his Romantick History in Galfridus or in any other Lastly you find this Question immediately follows For if from Brutus besides other reasons why not Brutannia rather than Britannia Though in this whole passage I follow'd my Author Keting and particularly for this Question put in the last place or at least for the reason involv'd therein I might also have alledg'd Polydor. Histor Ang. l. 1. Polydore Virgil who
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
Contemporaries so soon as it came out Which notwithstanding and whatever else I have given any where in this Reflection on my own foresaid eighth and ninth page I desire may be understood by the Reader as I intended it i. e. without any prejudice or diminution of the great and known both Antiquity and bravery of the Brittish Nation whencesoever they have truly derived the name of Brittons for themselves or that of Brittain for their Countrey Of the former I mean their Antiquity Julius Caesar is a witness beyond exception where he speaks in his Commentaries L. v. of the inland people of Brittain as if they had been Aborigenes without any derivation from elsewhere abroad quos natos in Insula memoria proditum dicunt says he Of the later both Tacitus and Beda Writers no less unexceptionable have recorded to Posterity very considerable Instances The one in his Annals and History and Agricola's Life telling their fierce Fights and sometimes their successes too against the Roman Generals in their own Countrey Great Brittain The other in his Ecclesiastical History of England acknowledging several great Victories had by them both in the same Island their own Countrey over his Countreymen the Saxons that invaded them nay particularly telling us in the 16th chap. of his First Book of two very special Victories the first under the leading of Aurelius Ambrosius the second in Black more about that place where Scarborough Castle is now called by Polidore in his History Mons Badonicus adding withal that after the first overthrow given by them although sometimes worsted yet they continued the War with great resolution worsting also not seldom their Foes until at last they hem'd them in about the said Hill or Mountain Badonicus and made a mighty slaughter of them there Which happened says Bede in the forty fourth year after the first landing of the Saxons Above all the Defence made by the Reliques of them in Wales after their Kingdom had been utterly destroy'd upon Cadwallador's withdrawing to France yea made and continued by them for seven hundred years and their fighting so long for their Liberty against the Saxons first and Normans after till they obtain'd honourable Conditions at last from Edward I. are sufficient arguments of their Martial Spirit and brave Souls however Fortune frown'd upon them And as I ought to be so ingenuous in acknowledging what I have now done concerning that Nation in general so likewise in reference to Jeffry himself I will be so just as to acknowledg what he says of the hand of God that lay so heavy upon them at last even to their utter destruction by the mortal Feuds and cruel Famine and most destructive of all the Pestilence that follow'd For besides this one particular of those three heavy scourges from God which I must confess are attested by V. Bede himself l. 1. cap. 12 14. there is little else of truth to be acknowledg'd in the whole Summary given before of that Romantick History of Galfridus Tho Richard White of Basingstoke has in our days written and printed a Latin History of his own pursuing in most particulars the good Example given by him and to make it the more known has prefix'd unto it an Epistle Dedicatory to Albertus Arch-Duke of Austria c. 45. In my 13. page I spake somewhat of the causes moving the eight sons of Milesius after his death to think seriously of invading Ireland But I might have added How their consultation about this matter was held in Breoghuin's Tower in Gallicia How it was from thence they employ'd Ith or Ithius their Uncle on the Father's side as being son to Breoghuin their great Grandfather in a ship well provided and man'd with a hundred and fifty stout Soldiers to discover the state of Ireland How Ith having landed in Mounster and there understood that Cearmada's three sons who as three Kings ruled Ireland alternatively were together at Oileach Neidh in the North but at some difference among themselves about the Jewels of their Ancestors went thither by Land accompanied with a hundred of his men the ship failing about with the rest to meet him there How being come to Oileach and honourably received by the sons of Cearmada and because he was a stranger and consequently indifferent in their dispute being chosen Arbitrator of it he decided their quarrel to all their satisfaction first by dividing the Jewels equally betwixt them and then exhorting them to mutual love and peace adding withal very much in praise of their delightsom plentiful Countrey How when he had taken leave of them to return to his ship for Spain the eldest of the Three reflecting on the high praises he gave the Land and fearing his design should be to bring others to invade them breaks his jealousie to the other two and with their consent and some armed Troops pursues Ith overtakes him fights him routs his men wounds himself deadly and leaves him in that condition of a dead man groveling on the Earth at a place called from that Fight and his Name Magh Ith. How the few survivers of his men headed by his own son carried away his body a shipboard where he died of his wounds but they nevertheless arrived in Spain and coming to their Cousins the eighth Brothers exposed it before them all of purpose to excite and hasten their revenge And in the last place how that although as well these as those i. e. all the Milesians in general and their Cousins and adherents made this killing or this murder which you please to call it committed on the said Ithius and his men the pretence of their Invasion and War and consequently of the justice of their quarrel and following Conquest of that Countrey by them yet the whole History makes it plain That 't was no other indeed but a meer pretence being Ithius went thither as a meer Spy to discover the Countrey and that they were resolved to invade it upon their return whetâ—er he had or had not met with any injury or pretence of injury there All which I note of purpose here because it may be usefully in the second Part of this Treatise on another occasion related to again 46. In the mean while and in this very place the Reader will give me leave to observe a thing that may prevent some question or some admiration about the sons of Cearmada chusing Ithius their Arbitrator For it may be peradventure ask'd how they understood one another or what Language did he or they speak their sâ—ntiments in or was it by Interpreters they Discours'd c. But the Irish Historians prevent such demands by telling us that all the several Invasions of Ireland only the first plantation of it by Ciocal which properly was no Invasion excepted whether by Partholan or Neimhedh or Feaâ—a-bolg or Tuath-Dâ—-Danan were by Scythians descended from Japhet who for their Language had the Irish Tongue Gaodhlec as 't is called originally by it self common to them all no
less than the Milesians themselves and all other Gathelians whatsoever had the same very speech their Mother Tongue though with some difference in the Dialect So that only those I called once the Aborigenes of Ireland I mean the progeny of Ciocal and his followers descended from the accursed Cham and come out of Africk had another peculiar Language of their own 57. Though I have page 15. said the Antiquity of the Milesian Irish to be no-where parallel'd if not peradventure among the Chineses only c. I hope no man will understand me so as to think I would not have still excepted the Children of Israel had I feared that any would entertain such a thought of my meaning as would need the exception I am sure none could justly do so that pleas'd to consider what I said before page 5. viz. That the Milesians had not before two hundred eighty three years after Moses's passing the Red Sea landed in Ireland For until then whatever they were called it is plain they could not be called Irish because this name they derived from that Island where they never lived before this time And 't is no less plain that before this time the Children of Israel had as a free and brave and conquering Nation inhabited Palestin at least two hundred and forty years had also lived forty years in the Wilderness and before that too had been a great numerous people in Egypt where they lived in all from the descent of Jacob out of Canaan thither till their departure under Moses through the Red Sea two hundred and fifteen years as Josephus expresly tells in his Antiq. L. iii. c. vi though under great bondage for some part thereof And therefore to them or their ancientness I could not intend to compare that of the Milesians nor as now become Irish no nor as Gathelians neither For Gathelus himself the original stock of all the Gathelians and consequently of the Milestans being these were only a branch of those was but a youth in Egypt with his Father Niull when Moses cross'd the Red Sea as we have lately seen at large 48. Yet in the 18th Page I must confess there is an Errour committed by saying that the six sons of Muredus alias in Irish Muiriach King of Vlster went to Scotland under the Monarchy of Laogirius or Laoghaire King of Ireland But I have corrected it page 93. where you read it was in the Twentieth year of this Monarch's Successor and son Lugha they invaded Scotland 49. Whether Niall Naoihghiallach did or did not order Albania to be call'd Scotia as Keting says he did whereof see the same 18th page you are nevertheless to know that the most eminent Antiquary Primâ—t Vsher hath sufficiently evinc'd de Primord page 784. That as neither Dalrieda nor Argathelia alias Argyle though the proper Seat of the Scots inhabiting Brittain until the year 840. so neither the whole Countrey of Albania even after that year had ever been called Scotia by any Writer until about the year of Christ 1100. when both Nations I mean the Picts and Scots were come by degrees to make one people And that Marianus Scotus who flourish'd at that time was one of the very first Authors that call'd it by this name of Scotia Where you are further to observe that according to this most learned Primat's account of the confinement of the foresaid Scots to their ancient Dominions of Dalriada and Argyle it was the year of Christ 840. before they had inlarged themselves by overthrowing and subduing the whole Kingdom of the Picts Which is a hundred years later than my account of this matter out of Cambden in my said 18. Page 50. Page 19. where I supposed that the Nine several Countreys or Nations forc'd to deliver every one of them Hostages to Niall the Great otherwise and from the nine several sorts of Hostages surnam'd in Irish Naoighiallach in Latin Noui-Obses were only the five Provinces of Ireland and the distinct Dominions of the Dal-Rheudans Picts and other Inhabitants of that Countrey we now call Scotland there I follow'd Keting But after having lighted on the Author of Cambrensis Eversus and found in him That the great Irish Antiquary Joannes Colganus in his Trias Taumaturga Gratianus Lucius page 299. * page 447. num 56. had otherwise counted those nine Countreys and Nations I thought fit as occasion was offered page 221. to count or give them as he did viz. Mounster Leinster Connaght Vlster the Brittons Picts Dal-Rheudans Saxons and Morini a People of France towards Calice and Picardy For the word Saxons is in the said later page omitted through the Printers fault And yet I cannot but acknowledg that if Niall the Great had any Hostages from the Saxons he must either have taken 'em at Sea or from the Coasts of Germany the Higher or Lower but by no means from Great Brittain Because Niall was kill'd in France anno Dom. 405. as the foresaid Author of Cambr. Euers Gratianus Lucius himself does write in the short Account he gives of this Monarchs Reign and the Saxons were not come into Great Brittain before the year of Christ 440. as Polydore Virgil in his Reign of Vortigern says that is forty four years after the said Niall the Great Naoighiallach had left behind him all his Hostages and ended all his Greatness in this World 51. With the Battel or loss or name of Coilus as King of Great Brittain mention'd by me page 19. though I took it from Keting and quoted Buchanan as he does and find by reading Buchanan himself that Keting has rightly quoted him yet now I am not my self otherwise affected with it than to reject it utterly And my reason is not only Buchanans fixing the time of that Battel fought as he says between Coilus King of the Brittons and Fergus I. King of the Scots eight or nine hundred years before this very Fergus came from Ireland nor only Buchanan's borrowing this whole story out of Hector Boethius whom Humphry Lloyd calls hominem impurissimum a most impure Author and Lucius Scriptorem corruptissimum a most corrupt Writer nay one who in the far greater part of his History scarce delivers any truth at all but the very name of Coilus here deriving its original from the fertil invention of Geoffrey of Monmouth's new History of Brutus For it is only in this Romance we find the first mention of any Coilus among the Kings of Great Brittain And there indeed I must confess we have not only one but three Monarchs of this Island bearing that name The first of them being the fortieth King in order of time the second being the seventieth second King and the last whom he names Coel. being the seventy ninth according to Geoffrey's disposition of them and my account out of him But I must withal acknowledg that he has not a word nor a syllable either of the first or last of these Three save only the bare names of Coilus and Coel hudled
Christ 498. the time of Fergus Mor as they call him son to Ercho Nephew to Eochadh Muinreamhar and of his five Brothers with him invading the North of Brittain And Tigernacus who commonly delivers in Latin what was done abroad as what was done at home in Irish has of the present subject this following passage Fergus Mor mhac Ercha id est Fergusius Magnus Erci filius cum Gente Dalrieta partem Britanniae tenuit ibi mortuâ—s est c. That is Fergus Mor the son of Erch with his people of Dal-Riada possess'd himself of part of Brittain and died there about the first year of the Popedom of Symmachus Which was the year of Christ 498. as Primat Vsher has rightly observed Besides the old Irish Book containing the Synchronism or if I may so speak the contemporariness not only of the Monarchs and Provincial Kings of Ireland but of the Kings in Albania too expresly relates how it was in the twentieth year after the Batâ—â—l of Ocha that the six sons of Ercho viz. the two Enguses the two Loarns some Copies have Coarns and the two Ferguses whereof one was this Fergus the Great pass'd over into Albania I say nothing how Nennius translated into Irish among O Duncgans Miscellanies says it was in the sixth Age of the World 〈…〉 〈…〉 the Dal-Riadans had conquer'd part of the Countrey of the Picts and the Saxons enter'd on other parts of Great Brittain Nor do I insist on O Duucgan himself though he most minutely prosecutes this Adventure of Ercho's Children telling the Families issued from them in Scotland which he calls Albain what Lordships or Lands each of them was possess'd of there and what Forces by Land or Sea they usually raised But what I am particularly to observe is that of all hands among the Irish Annalists and Historians it is without any contradiction admitted That this Fergus the Great son to Ercho is the same with Fergusius I. King of the Scots though in Boethius Major Buchanan c. called in Latin the son of Ferchardus That the foresaid Battel of Ocha wherein the Irish Monarch Oillioll Molt perish'd was fought in the year of Christ 478. And that from this year to the year 498. there is no man but sees the just interval must be those twenty years on expiration whereof the foresaid Book of Syncâ—ronisin relates the passing of Fergus Mor to Brittain And the issue of all must be that certainly as to this particular either all the ancient Irish Annals and Monuments besides the late Histories of Keting and Lucius are extraordinary false or Buchanan and Hector Boethius and all other Scottish Authors follow'd by them are extreamly out Even so far out as to have at least inverted the whole succâ—ssion descent line and genealogie of their Kings by giving us a Catalogue with the Lives and Reigns of two or three and forty Kings as descended Lineally from Fergusius I. before he had been existent on Earth For Congallus is the Xliiii King in Buchanan c. and yet the eighteenth year of this very Congallus according to Buchanans computation must have been the year of our Lord 498. in which all the Irish Records place the landing of Fergus Mor in Scotland tho the very first of the Catalogue in him and other Historians follow'd by him Moreover and which yet is no less considerable than any of the former Arguments we may take notice that Buchanan and his Authors make Reuda the sixth King of those in his Catalogue descended from Fergus Then which nothing can be more plain against all the Irish Antiquities To say nothing of V. Bede in his Eccles Hist l. 1. cap. 1. whom you may consult at leasure But for the Irish Chronicles I am sure they tell us particularly that the Monarch of Ireland Conaire mhac Mogha Lauae had three sons call'd the Three Carbry's viz. Cairbre Muisck from whom the Tract of Musckry and Cairbre Baisckin from whom the Land of Corca bhaiskin both in Mounster has denomination and Cairbre Riada alias Riadhfada That this last of the Three was the first Irish Conqueror of the Countrey in Albania which bore his name being called in Irish Dal-Riada in English the Part of Riada and by Latin Writers Dal-rieta Dal-Reuda and the Inhabitants Dal-Reudini as Bede calls ' em And that his foresaid Father the Irish Monarch Conaire mhac Mogha Lauae having reign'd in Ireland eight years was kill'd in the year of the World 5364. being the year of Christ 165. Whence it must follow that his said son Cairbre surnamed Riada in Irish though by V. Bede and others called Reuda must have invaded the Picts and possess'd himself of that part of their Countrey named from him at least three hundred years before the time of Pergus the Great who as we have seen before invaded not Albania till the year of Christ 498. So wide in this very particular of Reuda is the Irish account and History from the Scottish in Buchanan How to reconcile the difference in either particular being it is so great and concerns so great a succession of Kings and Ages too for at least 819 years I leave to such as shall please to concern themselves in it more than my purpose in this place requires I should my self But let them withal take these further Animadversions to thought 1. That the Father of this Fergusius the Great however you call him Erck Ercho Ercha or either as Buchanan has it Ferchardus or any other name whatsoever was never King of Ireland as no more was Fergus Mâ—â— himself notwithstanding Buchanan's intimation to the contrary but only a Brother to Muirchiortach the Irish Monarch that reign'd over all Ireland from the year of Christ 503 to the year 527. wherein he was murder'd 2. That Joannes Major himself though a Scotchman has in his little History of Great Brittain cap. X. reflected on that Vulgar Errour in the Annals of Scotland where they place Fergusius I. before Reuda's time 3. That Hollingshed in his English Translation of Hector Boethius professes himself to be of Opinion That very many of those Kings related by the Scottish Histories to have reigned successively one after another in Scotland were such as neither successively nor in Scotland but together at the same time reigned part of them in Ireland and part in other adjacent lesser Islands 4. That Gratianus Lucius in his Camb. Evers page 93. adds moreover Himself to think not improbably that the Scottish Authors borrowed a great number of their Kings from those indeed that were Pictish Kings Where to ground this Opinion of his he produces an old Irish Translation of Ninnius I mean as to the Catalogue of Pictish Kings in that ancient Author and fixes in particular on eighteen of them by name among which is one Gregory albeit Gregory be the Lxxiii King of Scots in Buchanan's Catalogue and that King too in whom Buchanan glories so much as to record him to posterity by the
right truly there was no other limit of Brittain to be sought for Neither verily in the time ensuing did either the valour of Armies or Glory of the Roman name which scarcely could be stayed set out the Marches of the Empire in this part of the World further although with inroads they otherwhiles molested and endammaged them But after this glorious Expedition of Agricola when himself was called back Brittain as says Tacitus became For let neither was the possession kept still this far For the Caledonian â—rittons drave the Romans back as far as to the River Tine In so much as Hadrian who came into Brittain in person and reform'd many things in it went no farther forward but gave Commandment that the God Terminus who was wont to give ground to none should retire backwards out of this place like as in the East on this side Euphrates he did Hence it is that St. Augustin de Civ Dei l. 4. c. 29. wrote in this wise God Terminus who gave not place to Jupiter yielded to the will of Hadrianus yielded to the rashness of Julian yielded to the necessity of Jovian In so much as Hadrian had enough to do to make a Wall of Turf between the River of Tine and Esk well near an hundred miles Southward on this side Edenborough Frith But his adopted son Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius under the conduct of Lollius Vrbicus whom he had sent hither his Lieutenant repell'd the Northern Enemies back again beyond Bodotria or Edenborough Forth and that by raising another Wall of Turf namely besides that of Hadrianus as Capitolinus writeth Which other Wall that it was reared in this very place whereof I now speak and not by Severus as 't is commonly thought Cambden produces no other argument than twoancient Inscriptions digged up therein But when the Northern Nations viz. Picts and Scots in the Reign of Commodus having pass'd over this other Wall made much waste and great spoil in the Countrey Severus the Emperour repair'd the Wall of Hadrian Howbeit afterwards the Romans brought eftsoons the Countrey lying between under their subjection For Nemus hath recorded that Carausius under Dioclesian strengthened the Wall of Edenborough Frith an other time and fortified it with seven Castles Lastly the Romans when Theodosius the younger was Emperour fensed this Wall under the conduct of Gallio of Ravenna Now says Bede they made a Turf Wall rearing it not so much with stone as with Turfs as having no cunning Artificer for so great a piece of Work and the same to no use between two Friths or arms of the Sea for many miles in length that where the fence of Water was wanting there by the help of a Wall they might defend their borders from the invasion of Enemies Of which work that is to say a very broad and high Wall a man may see to this day most certain and and evident remains This Wall began as the Scots now say at the River Aven which goes into Edenborough Frith and ended at Dunbritton But Bede says it begins at a place call'd Pen-wael in the Brittish Tongue Pengual in English Penwalton in Scottish Ceual but all deriving no doubt from the Latin word Vallum and all importing the Head of the Wall two miles from Abercurving and endeth as the common sort think at Kirk-Patrick the native soil as some write of St. Patrick the Apostle of Ireland near unto Cluyd according to Bede Alcluid after Nennius Pen-alcloyt which do seem all one Now this Wall is commonly called Grahams Dyke either of Graham a warlike Scot whose Valour was especially seen when the breach was made through it or else of the Hill Grampie at the foot whereof it stood The Author of Rota Temporum calls it the Wall of Abercorneth that is of the mouth of the River Where in Bede's time there was a famous Monastery standing as he hath recorded Corneth on English ground but near unto that Frith or Arm of the Sea which in those days severed the Lands of the English and Picts Hitherto Cambden But I must confess Venerable Bede is in some things or some part more particular on this Subject For he tells us l. 1. c. 5. Eccl. Histor Anglor That Severus having come to the Empire anno Christi 189. the Xiiii. Emperour after Augustus and entred Great Brittain himself in person thought fit in prosecution of the War and for defence of the Roman Province there from the Caledonian Enemies to make a great strong Wall of Soads and Stakes or piles of Timber with frequent Towers upon it and a broad Ditch by it all along from Sea to Sea where nevertheless observe Paulus Orosius says this Wall was carried cross the Land for one hundred and thirty miles And the same has Ado Viennensis But George Buchanan l. 3. says 't is an error in the number and that instead of a hundred thirty two it should be only thirty two that Bede determines nothing of the place And in the xii Chapter of that same first Book he tells us at large of two other Walls even long after that time of Severus built from Sea to Sea The one which is that here described by Cambden built of Soads and Stakes by the Brittons themselves when the first supply of Romans come to beat back those Northern Foes having done so were upon their return home The other some time after of stone eight foot broad and twelve foot high built at both the publick and private charge by the joint concurrence of the Brittons and last Roman Legion come to defend them Besides in the same Chapter he tells us of the Towers built on the South of the Western Sea or that of Dun-Britton at convenient distances to defend the Brittons from the plundering Fleets of the Barbarians But for any Wall or Fence either of stone or Earth made under Theodosius the Younger Bede has not a word but rather plainly shews the contrary Chap. 13 where he tells in plain terms that Aelius to whom the Britons made their application for new supplies again refused to send them any and that as for that later Wall and those Castles of stone how strongly soever built they were soon scaled and forc'd by the Irish and Picts and the miserable Britons quite over-run by both a new even from all quarters of these very Fortifications of Lime and Stone 46. You find in the 25th Page that I make the first Danish Invasion of Ireland to have been anno Christi 820. For so Keting has it in the Reign of Aodh Ordnighe and him I follow'd there But here I must fix it earlier by eight years My warrant is from the Annals of France contracted by Eginhardus wherein you may read that in the Year of our Lord 812. Classis Danorum Hiberniam aggressa à Scotis praelio superatur the Danish Fleet invading Ireland was by the Scots for so they call'd the Irish then defeated in a Battel And Aymoinus where he relates in the
that Nation at least of such as relate to their Monarchs And because all reason tells us that the Irish Antiquaries who give in a manner the most minute particulars of all the Invasions and Fights in that Countrey either amongst their own Princes or against Foreiners and Battels lost and Victories obtain'd at any time under any of the several Monarchs of Ireland for much above two thousand years until the English Conquest an 1152. would never have omitted at least these mighty Victories told us by Hanmer which if true would much more have made for the glory of their Nation than many or most or perhaps any of those other so exactly and minutely too not a few of them related in their Chronicles Secondly because of all these following particulars than which nothing is more clear and uncontested in all the Irish Chronicles or Histories that are not known Romances 49. For they particularly and unanimously tell us in the first place what in effect I have said before viz. that Gathelus himself otherwise by them and in their Languages named Gacidheal and surnamed Glas from whom originally the whole both Milesian and other Gathelian Irish descended and are therefore jointly callâ—d in Irish Clanna Gaoidheal i. e. the children of Gathelus not only never came to Ireland nay nor into Spain neither but was no where on Earth living some hundreds of years before Mileadh or Milesius was born That under Pharaoh Cingeris he was born in Egypt though begotten by Niall Brother to the King of Scythia That his Father Niull was both contemporary and acquainted with Moses and offered to do him service kindness too when the Children of Israel were upon the banks of the Red Sea to cross it over Niull being then by Pharaoh's gift possessor and Lord of a large Countrey near that place where the Israelites encamp'd at that time That as the Father Niull so the Son Gaodheal or Gathelus and children after him continued in Egypt until Pharaoh Intius banish'd the whole Race of them away and forc'd them to seek their Adventures elsewhere under the conduct of Sruth the son of Easruth son to the said Gathelus or Gaodheal Glas. That Mileadh or Milesius whose posterity long after invaded conquered and possess'd Ireland was the nineteenh Generation from the said Gathelus and Pharaoh Nectanibus being the XVth Pharaoh after Cingeris who had been drown'd in the Red Sea was the King of Egypt who gave his Daughter to Milesius in marriage That although it be from the said Gaodheal Glas the Milesian Race in Ireland and Race also of their Cosins that came with them out of Spain and those and these only of all the Irish be properly called Gaoidhil or Clanna Gaoidheal i. e. the children or descendants of Gathelus yet tste Irish Language is not from him called Gaodhealc but from an other Gathelus or Gaodheal former to him another I mean who either compos'd or at least refin'd and distinguish'd it into those five several different idioms or dialects for Poetry Law Genealogy c. so hard to be understood all of them by any one man that they would require the whole Age of a man to attain unto them Lastly that the posterity of the later Gaodheal I mean Gaodheal Glas and of his Wife Scota at least so called viz. the Milesian Race their Cosins had been possessors of Ireland near 1320 years before the birth Christ In which account or period of time even Cambrensis himself and Polichronicon agree as we have seen before page 6. And therefore that story of Hanmer derived from Harding and Meuin telling us of Gathelus and Scotas coming to these Northern parts or landing in Ireland anno Christi 75. must be one of the most ridiculous stories in the world They were dead well nigh two thousand years before and in their life-time never left Egypt for ought that may be known of them In the next place they tell us that Bartolanus whom they call Partholan enter'd planted and possess'd Ireland anno Mundi 1956. that is about 300 years after the Flood Argument enough that Hanmer knew nothing of the Irish History when he joyn'd together Bartolanus and the Milesian off spring as being of a company and entring Ireland at the same time for this also he does And yet we have seen before that the Milesians came not to Ireland before the year of the World 2736. that is 731 years after Bartolanus had setled there 50. Besides they tell us particularly and unanimously that as we have often seen already in that year of the World 2736. and before Christ 1308 years those Iherians the sons of Milesius landed and conquer'd Ireland How then could they be conducted thither and assign'd that Countrey for their Habitation by Gurguntius King of Great Brittain He was not in being then nor in many Ages after I am sure he was not King of Great Brittain by Hanmer's own relation until the year of the World 3580. Nor was he Conductor of those Iberians to Ireland nor did they swear allegiance to him until the year of the World 3592 and before the birth of Christ 376 according to Campions account That is full 858 years after they had conquer'd that Kingdom And therefore I need not quarrel either Campion or Hanmer about their relating those Iberians or Spaniards before their passing to Ireland to have dwell'd in Gascoign or towards Baiona or within the jurisdiction of that so great and Capital a City then though it be not true Nor need I expostulate with them about their affirming that Gurguntius had the Sovereign Rule of that Countrey and City and consequently of these very Milesians when they dwelt thereabouts before their adventuring to Ireland Enough is said already to ruin this whole story And by consequence enough to overthrow all the supports of that pretended subjection of Ireland to Gurguntius But if I mind you once more that Polichronicon nay Cambrensis himself who is the Ringleader as in many other so particularly in this matter to Campion Hanmer and other late Authors confesses the landing of those Iberians in Ireland full 1800 years before the mission of St. Patrick to Ireland by Celestinus in the year of Christ 431. then I doubt whether I have not said more than enough on the Subject I am sure that by this very computation or confession of Cambrensis and their own account of the year before Christ wherein Hanmer and Campion say Gurguntius met those Iberians at Sea this year before Christ and this meeting of Gurguntius at Sea must be later by a whole thousand years of the World than that assign'd by Cambrensis for the conquest made on Ireland by the same Iberians Moreover the Irish Antiquaries no less particularly tell us that Criossan Niad Nar was Monarch of Ireland Keting when our Saviour was born That this divine Generation happened in the 12th year of his Reign and his Reign lasted in all but four years more That
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
immediately after the great Victory got by Him over the remainders of the Nation call'd Fir-bholg who till then had kept and inhabited that Tract of ground where this Lake did so burst forth on a sudden and consequently That it happen'd before the year of the World 3751. because according to to the Irish Chronology Fiacha Laurainne came to the Crown of Ireland by killing his Predecessor Eochuidh Fuibherghlas in the year of the World 3727. and held it twenty years more or rather to the year of the World 3751. when himself was likewise kill'd by Eochuidh Mumho that succeeded him in the Sovereignty 3. That such and so early to have been the original of this Lake without either bestiality or Well or other enormous or miraculous cause mention'd by any Irish Records or Books Amhirgin the son of Amhalgadh mhic Mholruana had delivered in the Etymological Book which he not only compos'd of all the chief places Countreys Tracts of Ireland but rehears'd before Diarmuid O Cearbheoil the Monarch and other Princes and Peers of the Nation assembled together at Tarach about the year of Christ 500 adding withal in the same Book that some former Historians were of opinion This Lake had a long time yea many Ages after the beginning taken its denomination of Erne a Maid servant to the famous Meabh Chruachain Queen of Connaght drown'd therein Which Meabh Chruachain was Daughter to Eochuidh Feilioch the Monarch Author of the Pentarchy who ended both his Reign and life in the year of the World 5069. that is according to the account follow'd by Lucius a hundred and thirty one years before the Incarnation of our Lord. 4. That hence appears not only the falsity of the Relation it self but the Ignorance of the Relatour Cambrensis in the History of Ireland where he says That Church-Towers were seen in that Lake he describes to have had so prodigious an original insinuating hereby as if Loch Ern had its beginning after the plantation of Christianity in that Kingdom Whereas we have now seen it was broke out even 1427. before the very birth of Christ which was in the year of the World 5199. Besides it is most certain that those high round narrow Towers of stone built cylinder-wise whereof Cambrensis speaks were never known or built in Ireland as indeed no more were any Castles Houses or even Churches of stone at least in the North of Ireland before the year of Christ 838. when the Heathen Danes possessing a great part of that Countrey built them in several places to serve themselves as Watch-Towers against the Natives Though ere long the Danes being expuls'd the Christian Irish turn'd them to another and much better because a holy use that is to Steeple-Houses or Bell-Fries to hang Bells in for calling the People to Church From which later use made of them it is that ever since to this present they are call'd in Irish Cloctheachs that is Bell-Fries or Bell-Houses Cloc or Clog signifying a Bell and Teach a House in that Language And further yet my Author Gratianus Lucius adds out of the undoubted Monuments or Lives both of Columb Cille and S. Patrick that even as early as either of those holy men's time Loch Erne was the same it is now For O Donel writes in his Life of Columb Cill l. 1. c. 88. That S. Columb by his special blessing and Prayer to God obtained not only that fecundity of Fish to the Lake which ever since it has been blessed with but that the cataract or Fall of it should be lower than it was before whereby the leap of the Salmon became easier And S. Ewin writes part 2. c. 110. of S. Patric's Life that this great Apostle of Ireland to punish the frowardness of the Lord of the Countrey next adjoyning to the Northern side of this Lake curs'd the same side of it and so bereav'd it of its former fruitfulness Out of which Narrations or Lives whatsoever may be said or thought of the Miracles it is plain enough that so long before these narrow high round Turrets built by the Danes Loch Erne was the same it is at present 5. That Ptolomee who flourish'd about the year of Christ 153. describes Loch Erne in the same manner and place the modern Geographers do calling also the Inhabitants of that Tract Erdini 6. That nothing can be more clear and manifest than Girald and Cambden's contradicting one another or certainly both truth and experience each of them For Cambrensis plainly says that the River of Ban flows out of the Lake he reports to have had the foresaid prodigious original and Cambden no less plainly and positively averrs that Lake which had so strange a beginning to be the Lake Erne and yet all Ireland knows and Cambden himself in several places though more perceptibly to the eye in his Map of Ireland shews that the said River Ban flows not out of Loch Ern but out of another by name Loch Neauch which is at least threescore miles from the Lake Ern. 7. And lastly that there are no such Irish Annals known or heard of in Ireland which impute either that cause or effect of it whereof Cambden speaks to those Hebridians mention'd by him or to any other People or Nation whatsoever So that out of all we may safely conclude the whole Relation of the foresaid infamous Original of Loch Erne to be no better than an old Wives Tale. Which after I had lighted by chance on Gratianus I thought my self the rather obliged to observe here because I had formerly in writing and printing what you have in my 59 page either seem'd to be somewhat persuaded by the Authority of Cambden though only taking up the relation from Cambrensis and withal telling us I know not from whom of Irish Annals in the case or because at least I had not sufficienly cleared so injurious a Report 55. And now let me tell you on this occasion that e'n such another if not yet more injurious ill grounded false Report is that which the same Cambrensis is the only first Original Author of in his Topography of Ireland dist 3. cap. 25. where he tells us That the People of Tirconel a Countrey in the North of Vlster created their King in this barbarous abominable manner That all being assembled together in one place a white Beast was brought before them Unto which he that was chosen to be made King approaching declared himself publickly before them all to be such another that is a meer Beast Whereupon the white Beast was cut in pieces boil'd in Water and that done a bath prepar'd for him of the Broth. Into which entring and bathing and then feeding and all the People too about him feeding in the same manner on the flesh boil'd in it at last he drinks of that very broth wherein he had already bathed and this also not by reaching or taking it out of any Cup or other Vessel nay not so much as out of the palm of his
hand but by stooping and putting down his mouth like a Beast on all sides of the very bathing Cistern or Cauldron at large wherein he had wash'd Which being over the whole Rite and Solemnity of his inauguration was ended and he compleatly install'd in his Kingship of Tirconel So says Cambrensis intimating hereby as if this filthy custom held in that Countrey even in his own time But Keting has abundantly refuted this no less filthy abominable Fiction where he shews at large in the Reign of Brian Boraimh the known solemn decent and significant Rites yea and places too of Inaugurating every King and Prince in all the Provinces of Ireland and who were the Lords or which were the Families that bore the chief Offices at the respective Inaugurations Particularly as to the Prince of Tirconel namely O Donel of whose creation this Fable of Cambrensis must be understood the same Keting shews that the place both of his Election or Inauguration or Investiture was Cill-mhic-Creunain and the chief Officers at it were O Fiorghaill who carried before him and solemnly put into his hand the White Rod which was his Scepter and O Gallechuir who was his Marshal But Gratianus Lucius page 316 of his Cambrensis Eversus takes a little more pains in this particular He tells in the first place how when any was to be created O Donel all the Estates of the Countrey met together upon a certain Hill And how the Assembly being full one of the greatest Peers amongst them rising up and standing in the middle of the multitude with a pure white streight un-knotty Rod in his hand address'd himself to the new Elect in this manner and words Receive Sir the auspicious Ensign of your Dignity and remember to imitate in your Life and Government the whiteness and streightness and unknottiness of this Rod to the end no evil Tongue may find cause to asperse the candour of your Actions with blackness nor any kind of corruption or tye of friendship be able to pervert your Justice Take therefore upon you in a lucky hour the Government of this People and exercise the Power given you hereby with all freedom and security And how these words spoken he deliver'd the Rod into the Prince's Hand and so the whole Solemnity was perclosed In the next place Lucius desires it may be consider'd that the whole controversie in this matter with Cambrensis may be in short reduced to these Queries Whether we ought to believe one Hear-say-mans denial before the affirmation of very many both ear and eye-witnesses Whether Domestick Writers especially those whose peculiar employment calling charge it is are not more likely to deliver the truth of matters to Posterity than a meer Foreigner that not only never was in the Countrey he speaks of as Cambrensis was never in Tirconel but shews himself in too too many Instances a perfect Enemy even to all that wish it well And whether we owe belief rather to publick National Records and Monuments than to the Narration of a private man which was not more purposely invented by some Bard or Ballad-monger than desirously taken up by an invidious Writer Thirdly to these and after these Questions Lucius in effect answers and reasons thus That without question the Irish Chroniclers wrote of these matters to discharge the duty of their place but Girald both in his Topographical and Historical Books of Ireland such as they be yielded so far to passion even that of extream hatred as made him not only obscure the Truth but suppress it even with manifest Lyes and Fictions That no indifferent considering Person can believe that St. Patrick who accurately surveying this Countrey of Tirconel converted all the People of it and together with them instructed so their Prince Conall Gubhan in the austerest principles of Christianity that in a secular habit he lived an Hermits Life would have permitted such filthy dregs of Pagan superstition to remain Jocelin c. 138. had there been any such and this not only among the baser obscure sort of Plebeians but among the very most illustrious the very Princes themselves of the People That if such obvious and conspicuous turpitude had which is not credible escap'd the knowledg of St. Patrick who lived among 'em threescore years assuredly it could by no means have escap'd either the notice or reprehension of those many other Saints who in the succession of so many after-Ages of Christian Religion lived in that very Countrey of Tirconel That above fifty eminent Saints are upon Record of those descended from the Loins of that Conall Gubhan alone whereof the greatest part fix'd their dwelling there and built also there above twenty Monasteries That the two Episcopal Sees of Doire and Rapoth were constituted in those early days in the same most Northern Tract of Vlster wherein as many Bishops and Abbots succeeded one another so many religious Watchmen must be acknowledg'd to have been viewing far and near about them in such manner as it was morally impossible so hideous and withal so publick notorious a blemish could all along even for six hundred years compleat till the time of Cambrensis escape their animadversion That betwixt many of the Bishops and Abbots of those two Dioceses and the Lords or Princes or Kings which you please to call 'em of Tirconel there was often both very great familiar friendship and near kindred too That if the reverence of the Princes did awe other Prelates from reprehending this nasty bestial ceremony of their creation undoubtedly at least among their kinsmen Prelates some would have been found that out of Nature and for the sake of consanguinity would have admonish'd them and procured the reformation of it That no man can believe that the Saints Columb-Cille Bathenus Lasrenus Fergnaus Suibhneus Adamnanus and other most holy men who had both their extraction and birth and their Education too in all Piety in Tirconel and been such fearless undaunted tramplers under foot of all Vice and superstition would not have cut off by the root so hideous loathsom brutish a custom if any such in their days had been That in case these great servants of God had wanted power enough to do so yet surely the more powerful Saints Moelbridius and Malachias Primats of all Ireland who derived their extraction from that Countrey of Tirconel would not have suffer'd the example to continue That hesides it is beyond belief That the very Princes themselves of Tirconel whereof so many were famous for Humanity Liberality Piety Religion would have enter'd on their Princedom by so inauspicious and execrable a Rite Lastly that without any peradventure if they or their People had prov'd herein pertinacious yet so many pious excellent Monarchs of Ireland as we have before seen who had supream Authority over them would not have connived at it So in effect Lucius against this equally injurious vain ridiculous filthy Fiction vented first of any Mortal as the former of Loch Ern by Girald
of Wales 56. Of Aonach Tailltinn the most celebrated Irish Fair both for Antiquity and resemblance of the Olympic Games of Greece exhibited therein which I only mention'd in my foresaid 95 page the Author was Lugha Lambfhada the Twelfth King of Ireland after Slanius but Third of the Nation called Fir-bholg e'en so long since as betwixt two and three hundred years before the Milesians conquer'd that Kingdom The occasion this When the Ninth and last Fir-bholgian King of the Posterity of Dela by name Eoghan was kill'd in Battel and the Kingdom seiz'd by new Invaders the Nation of Tuadedainin it happen'd that Tailtinn Daughter to Madhmor King of South-Spain but Widow and Queen to the said Eoghan having married Eochadh Garbb a Nobleman of the new Conquerors bred the foresaid Lugha with great care and kindness in his youth Wherefore he when he came to the Crown retaining thereof a most grateful remembrance and holding himself bound to requite her love in the best manner he could thought fit to ordain as accordingly he did for a perpetual memory of her one and thirty days in all viz. the fifteen immediately preceding our first day of August and the other fifteen next following it to be solemnly kept in all Ages both by a general concourse of the bravest men out of all parts of the Kingdom at a place in Meath called Tailtinn from her name and by all sorts of manly Games and Exercises there as those of Running Hunting Wrestling Leaping Vaulting Tilting c. and by prizes also given to the Victors That so lately before the English Conquest as the year 1168. Ruaruidh O Conchavair the last Irish Monarch held this great Fair of Tailtinn and exhibited those Olympick Games with much solemnity For so Gratianus Lucius has told us in his Roman phrase Ludos Taltinos dedit as we have seen elsewhere And the same Author adds That the Calends or first day of August though in after-times among Christians at least those of the Roman Church dedicated to the Chains of St. Peter and therefore in the Roman Calendar call'd Petri ad Vincula has nevertheless in all Ages been as it is at present in memory of the foresaid King by all the Irish Nation call'd in their Language Lugh-Nasa which imports in English the Remembrance of Lewis for Nasa is remembrance and Lugh the same with Lewis or Luis But Keting says that Queen Tailtinn whom he honour'd so much had been his own Wife though whether in a third Venture or no he does not say 57. There is mention made page 122 and 213 of the Monarch Ollamh Fodhlas's having ordain'd in every Town a Receiver and Entertainer of Strangers But the particulars of that Ordinance and practice of it as I find them in Keting and Lucius being very singular I thought fit to give here the rather because the Character of Gens inhospita that is an inhospitable Nation is given the Irish by Gerald of Wales Top. dist 3. cap. 10. so much against Truth And certainly for what concerns the more ancient times it will appear out of what here follows of their extraordinary care to provide entertainment for all Comers that their Hospitality in those days of yore was unmatchable in Europe I am sure it was so in any place or Countrey that ever I have read of The dignity of an Entertainer says Lucius no where else used was among the Irish bestow'd only on those descended of Noble Families Nor was any capable of it that was not Lord Proprietary of seven Towns I mean Feeding Towns as Keting says the Irish call in their Language all towns whatsoever properly such Bailte Biatha each Town consisting of twelve Plow-lands of Irish Measure which is three or four times twelve of English He must besides have had seven Ploughs continually going and withal been Master of seven Herds of Cows each Herd consisting of a hundred and twenty full His Mansion House so seated as to have been accessible by four several ways A Hog a Sheep a Beef always ready in the Pot or on the Spit to the end that every hour without delay whoever came might be instantly fed The like number of Beasts ready kill'd and fley'd to be put to the fire as the former was taken up Every order and degree of men according to their quality had their Entertainment both meat and drink assign'd by Rule so as the Entertainer if he defrauded any was certain to be fined for it by the proportionable lessening of his immunities and other Priviledges Sundry sorts of drinks were serv'd in sundry sorts of Cups In Glass Wine in Brass Water in Silver Whey in white Cups of Ash Beer and in brown ones made of Fig-tree Milk Hitherto Lucius in his Camb. Evers page 130. Who yet farther adds in the same place out of Keting what you will peradventure no less if not much more wonder at the exceeding great number of those Free-cost entertaining Towns or Houses deputed in such Towns by the publick throughout Ireland In Connaght 900. in Vlster the like number in Leinster 930. in Mounster a 1030. 58. In my 217 page there is likewise upon a far other occasion some little mention made of the victorious Monarch Tuathal Teatchtmhor though much more elsewhere before in one or two places However this place is that which as I was reviewing it has brought to my remembrance what follows here out of Keting As 1. That before his time Ireland was equally divided into Mounster Leinster Connaght and Vlster each of these Divisions meeting at a place and of the sides of a great stone fix'd in that place called Visneach which is in the Countrey that goes now by the name of West Meath 2. That when he had after twenty five years war totally subdued the Plebeian Rebels and restor'd both the Gentry to their Estates and the true Royal Blood and Heirs to their respective Provincial Kingdoms he thought fit to take as he accordingly did with their consent from each of those Divisions a considerable Tract of ground which was the next adjoyning to Visneach one East an other West a third South and the fourth on the North of it and appointed all four under the name of Meath but as comprehending our Counties now of East and West Meath to belong for evermore to the Monarchs own peculiar Demain for the maintenance of his Table 3. That on those four several portions he built four several Kingly Pallaces for himself and his Heirs viz. Tleaghtghae on that of Mounster side Tailltin House on Vlster's an other at Tarach on Leinster's portion and the fourth on the West of Visneach taken from Connaght ordaining withal great Solemnities at each of them to be kept on certain days yearly for ever At Tlaghtghae the sacred but Idolatrous Fire to be kindled on our All Hallows Eve All Magitians of the Kingdom to come thither that night and sacrifice to their Deities in that Fire All the other Fires throughout the Kingdom to be
ancient Irish Septs even at this very time In short as their name turn'd English must be the Children or descendents of Roderick for thus we render the Irish name Ruadruidh so they had that name as they lineally derive their descent not from either of the two Irish Monarchs call'd by that name though to pass by the later who was the very last of all the Milesian Kings of Ireland yet the former of them was so long before as the LXX Monarch in order of the same Milesian Race who came to the Sovereignty of Ireland in the year of the World 4907 that is before the birth of Christ 392 years but much earlier from Ruadhruidh mhac Sithghe that descended from Ir one of the eight Sons of Milesius Which Ir being dead before or at least upon the first partition of Ireland betwixt the two surviving Brothers Heber and Herimon and their Cosins and the foresaid Ruidhruidh mhac Sitghe succeeding in the Lot of Ir which was in the North he establish'd both himself and his posterity there and in process of time became the great stock of a most numerous warlike stubborn People and among 'em Lords and Princes and Kings too whereof such as continued still within that portion of Ir Northern Division are by the rest of the Irish call'd Na Faoir Vlltaigh which words import in our Language the right Vlster men And not only they that so remain'd within that Vlster Lot but those that issued from them into the other Provinces of Ireland where many of 'em acquir'd large Territories have always gone under the name of Clanna Ruidhruidh and by it are distinguish'd still from all other Families descended either from Herimon or Heber or Ith or any else whatsoever of those very first Milesian Conquerours Of those of them who had so issued forth into other Provinces are the progeny of Connall Cearnach in Lease a Territory of Leinster and those Septs in Connaght which go by the peculiar name of Comhaicne Chonnacht besides other Families in Corcaigh Moruadh and Kiarruigh parts of Mounster Third Observation is That so many rich Presents made in one Progress by a Provincial King must argue Ireland to have been at least in those days of Paganism whereof Benuinn writes for he himself flourish'd about 1200 years since a Countrey fraught with exceeding great Riches And verily there are several other strong arguments to persuade us it was so 1. The golden Mines discover'd there under the X. Monarch of the Milesian Conquest by name Tighernmhais and a long time after made use of In so much that the Countrey abounding with gold the next Monarch after him viz. Munemhon who died in the year of the World 3872. ordain'd that all the Gentry should wear golden chains about their Necks And his next Successor Allerghoid's reign is noted in the Irish Chronicles for golden Rings therein first used in that Nation 2. The great number of Silver shields made by the command of Euno Airgtheach the Xvii Monarch of the Milesian Conquest and together with Caroches and Horses bestow'd by him on persons of Worth He reign'd seven years and in the year of the world 3882. was kill'd in Battel by his successour having first derived from those Silver Targets the surname of Airgtheach which imports Silver'd 3. The numerous company of Goldsmiths every where in that Kingdom I am sure that as Keting in Tighernmhais's reign takes special notice of his name who was the very first Master Goldsmith in those days so does Gratianus Lucius enough of latter days I mean as to that matter of the great number of Goldsmiths in 'em among the Irish For in his 118. p. he observes out of O Duuegan that even S. Patric had in his own private Family of them at work three namely Essuus Bidus and Tassachus He further adds that scarce in the Irish Histories may be found an instance of any Chalices Vials or Utensils whatsoever dedicated to holy uses at the Altar or in the Church other than of pure Gold or Silver Besides that the very coverings not only of Reliques but of Books all of Silver and Gold were so many throughout that Kingdom since it became Christian as might easily persuade any indifferent man that of necessity their number of Goldsmiths must have been very great 5. The spoils of foreign Countreys which for so many long Ages the Irish gather'd home to Ireland as elsewhere in this Treatise has been said 5. Their being so excellently seated for Trading that in those days of old they were mightily frequented by Merchants out of Spain France Great Brittain c. but without question much more than Great Brittain was For proof we have the testimony of so knowing and sure a Writer as Cornelius Tacitus in his Life of Agricola where speaking of Ireland in reference to Brittain he has these words Melius aditus portusque per commercia negotiatores cogniti signifying That the Havens and Ports of Ireland were better known by Commerce and Merchants than those of Brittain 6. The ounce of Gold yearly paid for every Nose in Ireland to the Danish Victors whilst their Dominion lasted there which also we have seen before out of Keting 7. The acknowledgment of Gerald of Wales himself even for his own time that is for the time following the horrible desolation of that Countrey by the long and cruel Danish Wars and the frequent continual plundering of it by the Norvegians and other Easterlings for about a hundred and fifty years at least Yet Gerald who in the second or third Age after so much Riches had been carried away thence by those plundering Heathens was an Eye-witness himself of what remain'd still even in King Hen. II. reign professes that Ireland at this very time abounded with Gold For Aurum quoque quo abundat Insula are his own words Expug Hib. l. 2. c. 15. where if you joyn with it his seventeenth Chapter you may observe him not only in three several places referring to and exaggerating this very subject of the Irish Gold but withal supposing in the last of them that without Irish Commodities Commerce our Island of Great Brittain could not subsist Besides I might peradventure to the same purpose of shewing the plenty of Treasure among the Irish and that even but a very little time before the days of Cambrensis I am sure I might pertinently enough for shewing their liberality and Piety both extended even to Forein Parts alleadg out of the Chronicle of St. James's Benedictin Cloister seated at the West-gate of Reinsburg alias Ratisbona in Germany those vast sums of Gold and Silver besides the great proportion of other rich Donaries bestow'd by the Mounster King Conchabhar O Brien surnamed Slapparsalach and other Irish Princes upon Dionysius Christianus and Gregorius three successive Irish Abbots of that Cloister and sent unto them by their own Irish Messengers come of purpose out of Germany at three several times and with the Emperour Conrad's Letters
the other then Buchanan has before him nay wider from it as to the later Question than either Campion or Hanmer or any other follow'd by them These for so much had the good luck to yield to the Authority of V. Bede in his Eccles Histor l. 1. c. 1. where he expresly tells us to this purpose 1. That when the ancient Britons had possess'd themselves of the Southern Parts of this Noble Island which derives its name from them it happen'd that the Nation of Picts departing from Scythia entring the Ocean wind-driven to Ireland landing there desiring the Inhabitants the Scots to afford 'em Elbow-room for Cohabitation and being denied this but nevertheless directed by 'em to the Northern Tract of Great Brittain and withal promis'd their assistance if need should be to conquer it by force they by this direction and promise encourag'd put to Sea presently for that same Northern Tract and landing therein made it their habitation 2. That wanting Women and desiring Wives of the Scots they had 'em on this condition That whenever the succession to the Crown amongst their People should chance to be controverted the Female's line Royal should prevail and the King be chosen thence Which is even to this day observ'd among the Picts says Bede speaking of his own time 3. That they had a peculiar Language of their own For in the same Chapter he notes particularly how according to the number of the Five Books of Moses wherein the Divine Law had been written Brittain in his time praised God in five divers Languages viz. those of the English Britons Scots Picts and Latins this last made common to them all by their studying the Holy Scriptures Yet notwithstanding this plain account of the Picts given by V. Bede as to their great Antiquity or Time of their first appearance in these Western Islands and the Countrey whence they came to them being that of Scythia not only Buchanan but Cambden by little Criticisms and other weak conjectures would fain persuade us they had only been a part of the ancient Britons retired from the South and power of the Roman Legions in the same Island of Great Brittain c. into the more uncouth inaccessible Northern parts thereof That they were no earlier known by the name of Picts than the Reign of the Roman Emperours Diocletian and Maximian Herculeus And that their Language differ'd not in substance but only in a certain kind of Dialect from the Brittish Tongue spoken by the rest of their Countrey-men the other Brittons But the words of Bede are clearer and his authority greater than the arguments they bring are able to elude or impeach Nor indeed can any thing more be desired to end these two vexatious Questions concerning that Pictish Nation save only the particulars given by Keting out of the most ancient authentick Records of Ireland These are of such irrefragable authority that I am persuaded were they known to Cambden he had never disputed the matter At least I believe he should not if he had well consider'd of it The Irish were the Nation that by the confession of all sides from the beginning press'd longest and hardest of any upon that Northern Countrey inhabited by the Picts in Great Brittain They were the Nation that by degrees conquer'd so many of their Provinces planted so many Colonies in 'em establish'd a King of their own over the same Provinces long before the Romans attack'd either Yea they were the Nation that utterly subdued at last the whole Pictish Kingdom and extinguish'd in it the very name of Picts Wherefore it is plain that as the Irish were most concern'd so they had the best means of any to know both the time of their first appearance and Countrey too from whence they came as the Picts themselves were pleas'd to tell ' em And seeing it is no less plain out of what has been said elsewhere in these Discourses that the Irish Nation in all times had their publick Registers wherein with the greatest care and certainty could be all the Concerns of their People both at home and abroad together with all other matters they thought fit were recorded it must follow that their account of the Pictish Nation as to those two controverted points ought in reason to silence any other fancied by men of later days Now in that Irish account besides what you have seen already out of Venerable Bede there are many more particulars given at large by Keting out of the Psalter of Cashel whereof the chief heads are these 1. That in Thracia this People we call Picts serving Policornus the King of that Countrey in his Wars for pay but under a General and other Commanders of their own it happen'd that their General whose name was Gud understanding for certain how the King had design'd to ravish his beautiful Daughter if he could not otherwise make her his Whore prevented him by taking away his Life 2. That thereupon this Gud flying immediately with those of his Soldiery who were resolv'd to run his fortune put to Sea where he found convenience and roam'd up and down till he arriv'd in Gaule where being well entertain'd by the King of that Kingdom his Daughter's beauty prov'd the second time his bane after he had built or at least began the building of Pictavis from his People so called we call it now Poictiers For then observing that this Gaulish King also had the same design upon her that the Thracian had he saw there was no abiding there without sacrificing her honour to his Lust And therefore in all haste but as privately as he could he put to Sea again with his own People where he was toss'd so long till the occasion of all his woe his beautiful Daughter died and soon after he and his People arriv'd safe in Ireland at a place call'd in the Irish Tongue Inbher Slaine or the Mouth of the River Slane in Leinster which now we call the Haven of Weixford 3. That one by name Criomthann Sciatbheal being then Commander of Leinster under Herimon the First Milesian Monarch of Ireland hearing of their landing came to them and seeing them brave men entertain'd 'em willingly of purpose to assist him in fighting some Brittish Troops whom the Irish Books call Tuath Fiodhgha whose Lances and Arrows were poison'd to such degree that whoever was wounded by 'em could have no cure but Death 4. That after this League of Friendship made one of the Picts called Trosdan a great Magitian understanding of the common danger from those poison'd Weapons advis'd the said Leinster Commander to provide against the day of Battel a 150 white milch crumple-horn'd Cows to be milk'd all together when the Fight began the Milk put into a Hole prepar'd of purpose hard by and the wounded men to run presently and bath therein which being observ'd the effect prov'd answerable to expectation and the Brittains were quite overthrown with the loss of most of their Lives upon the spot 5.