The Normans
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
Above : Picture Of Normans Knight
It is necessary to understand who and what were those Normans to whose King the deposed Diarmuid had gone for support against his fellow-countrymen.
Arrival Of Henry
Sunday, May 11th, 2008
Above : Picture Of Henry II
On the 18th October, 1171, Henry’s fleet of 400 ships arrived in Waterford Harbour, and the King landed at Crook with a fully equipped army of nearly 10,000 men. From the first he professed to come not as a conqueror, but to curb his lawless subjects and to protect the Irish from their aggression. When the people of Wexford handed him over their prisoner, Fitz-Stephen, he ordered him to be fettered—but released him in a few days. At the same time, however, he claimed an acknowledgment of his over-lordship as a powerful and protecting sovereign.
The “Submissions” & The “Grants”
Friday, May 9th, 2008
Above : Another Picture Of Henry II
It will be seen, therefore, that so far as the submissions made to Henry II by the Irish chiefs were concerned, there was not so much difference between the Irish and feudal conceptions of their meaning. In Ireland, from time immemorial, the chiefs of a tribe or an oi^-jm’ acknowledged the supremacy of the \u without sacrificing the internal independence or the possessions of his clan. Nor did the homage paid to the •cV.jvo-’Rt before the time of Brian confer upon him any right to interfere in the jurisdiction of such of the ” provincial Kings” as acknowledged him. The removal of the ” provincial Kings ” had left the political integrity of the clans unimpaired, although their chiefs now submitted to the High King himself direct. Similar personal submissions conferring no right of interference in internal affairs were well known under feudalism. Henry himself paid homage to the King of France, but had absolute dominion over his duchies of Normandy and Aquitaine and his other possessions, and he was, in fact, at constant war with his liege lord. The dukes and counts who ruled most of what is now France were similarly placed, and so also were the kings, dukes and electors who comprised the Empire of the Germans. Kings of Scotland had frequently paid homage and fealty to English Kings, but they still ruled their own Kingdom.
