Above: Norman Adventures

I95. In the month of May, 1169, a force of 100 knights and men-at-arms in coats of mail and about 600 archers, under Robert Fitzstephen and Maurice Pren- dergast landed at Bannow in Wexford with Hervey Mountmaurice, Strongbow’s uncle. As knights and archers had attendants, the total force was about 2,000. Having been joined by Dermot and his son, Donall Kavanagh, with 500 horsemen, he advanced on the town of Wexford, which after a valiant defence was surren- dered to them. Then Dermot granted Wexford and the adjoining district to Robert Fitzstephen and Maurice Fitzgerald -the latter of whom had not yet arrived. He granted also to Mountmaurice the district lying between the towns of Wexford and Waterford. Dermot and his allies next attacked Ossory and forced its chief Mac Gilla Patrick to submit.

Above: Arthur Mac Murrogh Kavanagh

The man that gave most. trouble during the reign of Richard II (from 1377 to 1399) was Art Mac Murrogh Kavanagh, king of Leinster, born in 1357. In early youth, even in his sixteenth year, he began his active career as defender of the province; and at eighteen (in 1375) he was elected king of Leinster. Some time after his election, he married the daughter of Maurice Fitzgerald fourth earl of Kildare; where- upon the English authorities seized the lady’s vast estates, inasmuch as she had violated the Statute of Kilkenny by marrying a mere Irishman. In addition lo this, his black rent-eighty marks a year-was for some reason stopped, soon after the accession of Richard II. Exasperated by these proceedings, he devastated and burned many districts in the counties of Wefcrd, Kilkenny, Carlow, and Kildare; till the Di.blin council were at last forced to pay him him black rent.

Above: Century of Turmoil

King John was succeeded, in 1216, by his son Henry III, who was then a boy of nine years old. The century that elapsed from the death of John to the invasion of Edward Bruce was a period of strife and bloodshed, a period of woe and misery for the common people. There was as usual no strong central government, and the whole nation was abandoned to anarchy.