Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Above : Picture Of Diarmuid Macmurrough
It was, apparently, towards the close of the year 1166 that Diarmuid furtively left his dun of Ferns and sailed across the Irish Sea for the coast of Wales. He first made his way to Bristol, then the chief city of the West of England, with close associations with the people of Leinster. Thence lie journeyed to seek Henry of Anjou. That King was then in Aquitaine, a great province lying south of France, of which he was Duke under the nominal suzerainty of the King of France. Henry was busily engaged at the time in fighting his own subjects of Aquitaine and also his liege lord, the King of France. He was so much occupied by his ambitions for Continental power that he was unable to give personal assistance to Diarmuid. But he welcomed the exile, and sympathised with his story of revolted subjects and an unjust suzerain. Besides, he had for some time fostered designs upon the western island. Accordingly, he gave liberty to Diarmuid to recruit such of the Norman adventurers on the Welsh marches as might be enticed into an enterprise in Ireland.
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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.
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