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.