The Early Phases
Above : Picture Of King Henry II
- A War of Plunder.—During more than a century Ireland was torn and harassed by the efforts of the Norman barons to occupy the lands thus allotted to their enterprise by their King. These grants were made, as we have seen, in utter disregard of the rights of the Irish owners ; they violated the spirit in which some of the Irish chiefs submitted ; many were in faithless breach of specific treaties ; others affected territories whose chiefs had never paid homage to Henry. Destitute of moral sanction, they had not even the excuse of successful conquest and future peace for the lands were not yet occupied, and could not be without bitter warfare. They were, in fact, an utterly callous inducement to a general war of extermination—” letters of marque authorising them to rob, plunder, and steal whatever they could, and to hold as of right whatever they could steal.”*
- Isolated Fighting.—The fighting that resulted was, for the most part, isolated and local. Each Norman endeavoured to seize his own particular piece of country ; each clan defended its own territory against the assailant. On neither side was there unity or cohesion. Th« barons were far from being loyal to the King, and the King, for his part, was far from trusting them; from the first the rivalries between the adventurers were fierce, and often broke out in open warfare, sometimes marked by treachery. But they were the attacking parties, and could choose their time and place, relying upon the power of the Crown until opportunity offered. The clans, on the other hand, content to restrict themselves to the defence of their respective territories, could not know when or whence an attack might come. It was a situation which demanded constant vigilance, but, too often, the opening for the attack was afforded by the rivalries of clans and the dissensions of families.
