CHAPTER VI

IRISH AFFAIRS

When news of Becket’s murder reached Henry at Argentan on 1st January 1171, he was terribly perturbed, and, retiring to his apartments, remained for three days in solitude, fasting and reviewing the situation. It must have seemed at first as if the officious knights by their rash action had wrecked his whole policy. The murder was bound to alienate many whose sympathy would otherwise have been with the king; it would put a fresh weapon in the hands of his enemies; and, above all, it would practically force the pope into that position of direct antagonism which he had hitherto skilfully contrived to evade. To extract himself from his position without complete loss of dignity and surrender of all for which he had fought was a task worthy of Henry’s diplomatic genius. It was necessary to be cautious but prompt, for his enemies were losing no time; before Henry had resumed public life the Archbishop of Sens, legate of France, King Louis and the Count of Blois had all written to Pope Alexander denouncing Henry as the murderer, and three weeks later the Archbishop of Sens had proclaimed an interdict upon the king’s continental dominions on the strength of a papal letter addressed to himself and the Archbishop of Rouen ordering such a course to be adopted in the event of the arrest or imprisonment of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Against this action the Archbishop of Rouen and the Bishops of Worcester, Evreux, and Lisieux at once appealed, and the interdict was temporarily suspended. About the end of January, when the appellants and the king’s special envoys started for the papal court at Frascati, news of the murder reached the pope. Accordingly when Richard Barre, the Archdeacons of Salisbury and Lisieux, and the other royal envoys reached Frascati they could not at first obtain a hearing, and it was generally believed that on Maundy Thursday, 25th March, the pope would excommunicate Henry and lay England under interdict. The efforts of the envoys, however, backed with the powerful argument of English gold, averted this danger, and the dreaded day brought forth only an excommunication of the actual murderers and their abettors. A month later, after hearing the appeal of the Bishops of Worcester and Evreux, Pope Alexander confirmed the sentence of interdict published by the Archbishop of Sens, but exempted the king and gave orders for the absolution of the Bishops of London and Salisbury. At the same time he announced his intention of sending legates to Henry to settle the terms of his absolution.

Henry meanwhile was preparing to carry into effect the plan which he had had to abandon in 1155 for an invasion of Ireland. The scheme possessed several attractions. To begin with, affairs in that island really called for his active interference; there was also the advantage that in Ireland he would be more completely out of reach of any unwelcome papal messengers than he would be in almost any other spot in the civilised world; and finally, by undertaking the reform of the Irish Church, which had been urged upon him by Pope Adrian IV., he would give to his expedition something of the nature of a crusade and would earn the gratitude of the pope.

Prior to 1166 Ireland had been practically exempt from English interference and had settled its own affairs by primitive methods of violence. Resembling their nearest neighbours, the Welsh, in many respects, the Irish were even more quarrelsome and less advanced in the social scale. Utterly lacking in political unity, their score of kings and princelets acknowledged the theoretical supremacy of their Head King, or Ard-Righ, for just so long as he could maintain his position by power of the battle-axe. The battle-axe, that excellent weapon for quick-tempered men, doing its work with complete finality in less time than a man can unsheathe sword or notch arrow to bow, was the constant companion of the Irishman and the arbiter of all his politics. By a not unusual combination the Irish were at the same time utter barbarians and consummate artists. Their poetry was of a high standard; in music no nation but the Welsh could compare with them; and in metal work, carving, and painting such fragments as have come down to us show a complete mastery of the beauties of line and colour. Commerce they left to the Scandinavian settlers along their seaboard. Possessing a fertile soil and a favourable climate they lacked the industry and stability for agriculture, but grazed great quantities of cattle, which served alike for the standard of exchange, coined money not being in use, and for the objective of raids during their incessant hostilities. When St. Patrick banished the reptiles and vermin it would seem that they must have left their venom and vice behind for the use of the inhabitants of the island, for never was there a race so prone to anger, so ungrateful and so treacherous, and even the miracles recorded of their saints were more often concerned with vengeance wrought upon sacrilegious offenders than with rewards bestowed upon faithful devotees.

In this race of Ishmaelites there was one man of evil pre-eminence whose hand was against all men and all men’s against him. Dermot MacMurrogh, King of Leinster, since the beginning of his reign in 1121 had had even more than his share of fighting; his voice had grown hoarse with the shouting of his battle-cry; his borders had been enlarged at the expense of his neighbours, and the envy and hatred of rival chieftains had been incurred without gaining him the affection of his own subjects. In 1152

[Illustration: IRISH WOMAN PLAYING A ZITHER]

[Illustration: IRISHMEN ROWING IN A CORACLE

(From Royal MS. 13 B.viii)]

he had carried off Dervorgille, the beautiful but middle-aged wife of Tiernan O’Rourke, King of Breifny; as the lady was well past forty and Dermot some ten years older the elopement would seem to have been less a matter of romantic passion than a studied insult to Tiernan. Dermot was speedily forced by Turlogh O’Conor, then Ard-Righ, to give up Dervorgille, but escaped for the time any serious consequences. O’Rourke, however, did not forget, and at last, in 1166, found an opportunity to head a formidable combination against Dermot. Finding himself isolated Dermot seems to have looked to England for help, for “the chancellor of the Irish king” came to this country in 1166, and certain Irishmen appear to have visited Henry’s court at Woodstock early in the same year.[29] No assistance being obtained and resistance being impossible, Dermot, with some sixty followers, crossed to England and settled for a time at Bristol under the protection of the wealthy Robert Fitz-Harding.

In the spring of 1167 Dermot crossed to Normandy and had an interview with King Henry. The latter had his hands too full to meddle with Irish affairs, but the opportunity for getting some sort of footing in Ireland which might be useful in the future was too good to be missed; he therefore took Dermot’s homage and issued a general licence in vague terms encouraging any of his subjects to assist the exiled king. With this Dermot returned to Bristol, and after vain attempts to obtain assistance in England crossed into Wales, where he succeeded in interesting Richard of Clare, Earl of Pembroke, in his cause. The earl, whose extravagance had seriously impaired his finances, was attracted by the hope of plunder and broad lands and by the promise of Dermot’s daughter Eva in marriage, with the ultimate prospect of the throne of Leinster; he was, however, too cautious to risk his English and Welsh estates by embarking on this enterprise before he had obtained leave from King Henry. Dermot therefore turned to King Rhys of South Wales, who not only gave him a small force of soldiers but undertook to allow his prisoner, Robert Fitz-Stephen of Cardigan, to collect troops and cross over to Ireland. At last Dermot landed in his country once more with a small force, part of which was commanded by Richard Fitz-Godebert of Pembrokeshire. After a little fighting Dermot came to terms with his adversaries and dismissed his mercenaries.

For a short time Dermot remained quiet, but about the end of 1168 he despatched his interpreter, Morice Regan, to remind Robert Fitz-Stephen of his promise and to obtain other assistance. Fitz-Stephen accordingly crossed to Ireland early in May 1169. With him came Meiler Fitz-Henry, grandson of Henry I., and Miles, son of the Bishop of St. David’s, Maurice Prendergast and Hervey de Montmorency, the needy uncle of Earl Richard, and Robert de Barri, a nephew of Fitz-Stephen and brother of the historian Gerald. These adventurers landed with some three hundred followers at Bannow near Wexford, and here they were welcomed by Dermot and his son Donnell Kavanagh. An assault on Wexford was repelled with loss, but next day the city surrendered and was granted to Fitz-Stephen. This success was followed by an expedition against the King of Ossory, in which the English, by skilful manœuvring, drew the Irish out into open ground, where they were able to use their cavalry with deadly effect; the flying natives were further punished by an ambuscade of archers, and at the end of the day two hundred heads were laid before Dermot for that savage king to gloat upon. MacKelan of Offelan and O’Toole of Glendalough were defeated and plundered, but Roderic O’Conor, the Ard-Righ, was able to force Dermot to acknowledge his supremacy and to surrender his son as hostage. Tired of the somewhat unprofitable fighting, Maurice Prendergast and his two hundred men proposed to return to Wales, but Dermot refused to let them sail from Wexford. Maurice at once transferred his services to the King of Ossory and assisted his former enemy against his former friends until such time as he discovered that the jealous men of Ossory were plotting his destruction, when he withdrew his contingent secretly by night to Waterford and thence crossed into Wales.

About the time that Maurice Prendergast left Ireland Maurice Fitz-Gerald, a half-brother of Robert Fitz-Stephen, had landed with some hundred and forty soldiers, and not long afterwards, in the early summer of 1170, the Earl of Pembroke obtained leave from King Henry to undertake the Irish adventure. He first sent a small force under the redoubtable Raymond the Big, who threw up a temporary fort at Dundonuil, where they had hard work to defend themselves. By the ingenious device of driving a herd of cattle before them the invaders shattered the Irish ranks and, profiting by the confusion, slew many and captured seventy prisoners. By the advice of Hervey de Montmorency the prisoners were butchered, the business of beheading them being entrusted to a bloodthirsty Welsh girl whose lover had been killed in that battle. Shortly afterwards Earl Richard landed with Maurice Prendergast, Miles de Cogan, and other barons and fifteen hundred men. Two days later, on 25th August, the attack on Waterford began, and its capture was celebrated by the marriage of the earl and Eva, daughter of King Dermot. The king and his English allies next marched against Dublin, avoiding the great host assembled against them under the Ard-Righ on Clondalkin moor. The city was not prepared to offer armed resistance, and the terms of surrender were being discussed between Morice Regan, Dermot’s representative, and the saintly Archbishop Laurence O’Toole and Hasculf Torkil’s son, the Scandinavian lord of Dublin, when suddenly, without warning, Miles de Cogan, who had no intention of being deprived of his anticipated loot by the peaceful surrender of the city, raised his war cry and stormed the walls. Hasculf and such of the inhabitants as were fortunate enough to gain the ships escaped by water, but very many were slain and the city was given over to plunder. Miles was rewarded for his treacherous act by the grant of the custody of the city, while Earl Richard retired to Waterford and Dermot to his capital at Ferns, where on 1st January, 1171, he died.

By the death of Dermot MacMurrogh, Earl Richard became virtual King of Leinster. But the success of the earl and his companion adventurers was by no means a cause of satisfaction to King Henry, who had no intention of allowing a warlike and independent kingdom to grow up so close to his own realm. He accordingly made his feelings on this subject obvious by seizing the Earl of Pembroke’s English estates, and the earl hastened to clear himself from the charge of disloyalty by sending his lieutenant, Raymond the Big, to place all his conquests at the king’s disposal. Henry, who had gone so far as to forbid the sending of any assistance in men or munitions to Ireland and to order the immediate return of the adventurers on pain of perpetual banishment, was not appeased, though he determined to profit by the earl’s submission. Raymond seems to have returned to his lord with an order for the latter’s personal appearance before the king. Matters, however, were too involved to permit of Earl Richard’s immediate departure. Under pressure from Archbishop Laurence O’Toole King Roderic O’Conor had summoned a great force for the siege of Dublin, and all the native chiefs had rallied round him, glad of an opportunity of revenging the wrongs they had suffered at the hands of the foreign invaders. Provisions soon began to fail in the city, and an attempt to come to terms having failed, the Ard-Righ insisting upon the surrender of all the conquered territory except the three towns of Dublin, Waterford, and Wexford, the only course open was to risk all in an attack upon the besieging host. The attempt might well seem desperate in view of the disparity of numbers, but its very boldness proved its salvation. Leaving a small garrison to guard the city, some six hundred picked men marched out in three columns, under Miles de Cogan, Raymond the Big, and the earl himself. The surprise was completely successful; secure in the knowledge of their numbers the Irish had neglected outposts or guards and were caught quite unprepared; many of them were actually bathing when the English cavalry dashed into their camp. Discouraged by this severe defeat, in which they lost very heavily, the Irish forces broke up and drifted away. Earl Richard was now free to attempt the relief of Robert Fitz-Stephen, who, after dangerously depleting his own forces to strengthen the garrison of Dublin, had been gallantly standing a siege in his castle of Carrick near Wexford. The earl’s forces, after a desperate action in the pass of Odrone, in which Meiler Fitz-Henry particularly distinguished himself, reached Wexford to find the

[Illustration: IRISH AXEMEN

(From Royal MS. B.viii)]

town in flames, Carrick Castle fallen and Fitz-Stephen a prisoner. The earl now turned to Waterford and prepared for an expedition against MacDonnchadh, King of Ossory, but the latter offered to come in and make terms if his old ally Maurice Prendergast would obtain him a safe conduct. This Maurice did, but when MacDonnchadh came before the earl, King O’Brien of Munster, who was acting at this time with the English, urged his arrest and execution, and it was only by the vigorous action of Prendergast, who brought his men-at-arms on the scene, that the barons were prevented from thus treacherously breaking their oaths.

Leinster was now pacified and a further imperative summons from King Henry, already on his way towards Pembroke, necessitated the departure of Earl Richard. Hardly had he gone when Hasculf, the former lord of Dublin, landed with an army raised from Norway, the Isles, and Man, under the command of a man known from the berserk fury of his valour as John the Wode, or the Mad. These well-armed Scandinavians were foes of a different type from the wild Irish, but Miles de Cogan boldly charged upon them from the east gate, while his brother Richard, with a small force of thirty men-at-arms, rode secretly out of the west gate to take them in the rear. John the Wode, wielding his great axe with fearful effect, forced back the English, and had even gained footing within the gate when Richard’s attack threw his men into confusion. Rallying his forces Miles charged again upon the Northmen, who broke and fled; John the Wode was killed fighting gallantly, and Hasculf was captured and beheaded. Another assault on the city, early in September, by the forces of Tiernan O’Rourke, ended disastrously for the Irish, and Dublin was left in peace.

Henry had landed at Portsmouth on 2nd August, and after a visit to the aged Bishop Henry of Winchester, then on his deathbed, had marched towards Bristol. At Newnham, in Gloucestershire, he was met by Earl Richard, who surrendered to him the cities of Dublin, Waterford, and Wexford, receiving in return the royal favour and a grant in fee of the residue of his conquests. About 8th September, when the English army was approaching the borders of Wales, King Rhys ap Gruffudd came to meet Henry with the offer of a tribute of horses and oxen. This tribute Henry soon afterwards respited, taking only thirty-six horses as a token of friendship; at the same time he restored to Rhys his son Howel, who had long been held as hostage. Rhys showed his appreciation of the king’s friendship next year by sending Howel to the English court to serve King Henry. The peaceful passage of the English army in Pembrokeshire, where the fleet was assembling at Milford Haven, had been secured by this tactful conciliation of King Rhys, and a troublesome chieftain, Jorwerth ap Owain, was reduced to order by the capture of his castle of Caerleon-on-Usk before Henry reached Pembroke. For some three weeks the English host lay weather-bound at Pembroke, part of the time being spent by Henry in a pilgrimage to St. David’s, where he offered in the cathedral and visited the bishop, David Fitz-Gerald. At last, on 16th October, the wind shifted and the fleet of some two hundred vessels crossed over to Crook, near Waterford. For a fortnight Henry remained at Waterford, the government of which town he had entrusted to Robert Fitz-Bernard. Here he received the submission of the kings and chieftains of Ireland, with the exception of the lords of Ulster and Roderic O’Conor, the Ard-Righ. Hither also the men of Wexford, in accordance with an undertaking given to Henry at Pembroke by their envoys, brought Robert Fitz-Stephen and his fellow-prisoners; and Henry, whose personal intervention in Ireland had been influenced in some degree by complaints of the tyranny of some of the adventurers, thought it politic to appease the natives by committing Robert to prison for a short time. If he was mindful of the demands of justice he was still more mindful of his proposed reformation of the Irish Church, and having received the homage of the Irish bishops he summoned a council or synod at Cashel in November.

At this Council of Cashel canons were passed for the observance of the degrees of affinity in marriage, the performance of baptisms by priests in the church--the local custom being for the father of the child immediately after its birth to plunge it three times into water, or into milk if the family were noble or wealthy--the payment of tithes, and the immunity of clerks and church property from secular exactions. As soon as it was over Henry sent an account of the proceedings, and of the submission tendered to him by the bishops and princes of Ireland, to the pope by the hands of the Archdeacon of Llandaff. It would seem that he also endeavoured to obtain from Alexander a confirmation of Pope Adrian’s commendatory letter issued in 1155, at the time when the conquest of Ireland was first proposed. Alexander did not grant this confirmation, but wrote letters to Henry, to the bishops and to the kings of Ireland, expressing his satisfaction at the steps taken to remedy the monstrous irregularities of which the Irish had been guilty, and his hope that Henry’s supremacy would make for the peace and better government of the island. These letters must have reached England some time in the summer of 1172. Henry, however, does not seem to have been satisfied with these expressions of papal approval; possibly he had in the first instance obtained the submission of the Irish prelates by representing himself as commissioned by Pope Alexander to reform their Church; however this may be, it would seem that a synod was held at Waterford to which William Fitz-Audelin brought probably Alexander’s letters and certainly the letter of Adrian (that famous centre of controversy “the Bull _Laudabiliter_,” so called from its beginning with the word _Laudabiliter_ and, as befits an Irish document, its not being a Bull),[30] and with it a confirmation by Pope Alexander, which was almost undoubtedly a forgery.

But before this synod of Waterford was held much had happened. Christmas in 1171 had been spent by the king at Dublin, where an elaborate palace, built of wattles in the native fashion, had been erected for him, and where the magnificence and luxury of his household, simple though it was if judged by continental standards, struck surprise into the minds of the Irish. But if the royal table presented a spectacle of unwonted luxury to the natives, the food of the country, the absence of wine, and the impurity of the water proved disastrous to the English. An exceptionally stormy winter aggravated the scarcity of provisions and consequent mortality, prevented operations against Roderic of Connaught, and by severing all connection with England left Henry a prey to unappeasable anxiety. Early in March 1172, news having possibly reached him of the arrival of the papal legates in Normandy, he moved down to Wexford, the greater part of his army going at the end of the month to Waterford; but for over six weeks the weather rendered the crossing to Wales impossible, and it was not till Easter Monday, 17th April, that Henry landed near St. David’s, whence he made his way to Portsmouth, from which place he crossed to Normandy early in May.

The arrival of the papal legates, coupled with rumours of a conspiracy being formed by the young King Henry and his brothers, had compelled Henry to return from Ireland without attempting the subjugation of the Ard-Righ and without strengthening his hold upon the portions of the island already conquered by the erection of a series of castles. Before leaving, however, he took measures intended apparently to weaken the power of the original adventurers alike for action independent of himself and for the oppression of the natives. The government of Dublin, with the province of Meath, he granted to Hugh de Lacy, a man of character and ability, who justified his selection by adopting a just and conciliatory policy towards the Irish. With him were associated in the charge of the city Robert Fitz-Stephen and Meiler Fitz-Henry, while Waterford and Wexford were committed to Robert Fitz-Bernard. Earl Richard retained possession of Leinster, and was apparently recognised as in control of the conquered portion of Ireland; while the province of Ulster, whose chiefs had refused to accept the English supremacy, was handed over to John de Courcy to subdue and enjoy as best he might.

The earl, who had made Kildare his chief seat, had bestowed his daughter in marriage upon Robert de Quency, whom he created hereditary constable of Leinster; but not long after the marriage Robert was killed in an expedition against O’Dempsey of Offaly, leaving an infant daughter, who eventually married the son of Maurice Prendergast. Raymond the Big then demanded the hand of the earl’s widowed daughter, with the constableship, and upon his demand being refused retired into Wales. About the same time, in the summer of 1173, Henry, hard pressed by the rebellion of his sons, summoned some of the leading barons from Ireland, including Earl Richard, whom he made governor of Gisors. The appointment was of short duration, and the earl was soon invested with the government of Dublin, Waterford, and Wexford, and sent back to Ireland with letters recalling Hugh de Lacy, Fitz-Stephen, Fitz-Bernard, Prendergast, and others, who crossed at once, in time to take part in the battle at Fornham on 17th October 1173. The English forces in Ireland were thus seriously depleted, and an expedition led by the earl and Hervey de Montmorency into Munster having ended disastrously, all Ireland began to rise and endeavour to shake off the foreign yoke. Earl Richard hastily sent for Raymond, promising him the hand of his daughter, for which he had asked in vain before; Raymond responded to the offer, landed with a small force at Waterford and marched to Wexford, where he reduced the town to order and obtained his coveted bride. Next year, in 1175, he led a force into Limerick and captured that town, but his successes, and possibly his excesses also, were displeasing to King Henry, and early in 1176 he was summoned to England to account for his actions. The state of affairs at Limerick, however, was too desperate to permit of his absence, and after relieving the garrison he thought it good policy to obtain a renewal of their oaths of fealty to the king of England from the kings of Connaught and Thomond. Raymond was therefore still in Ireland at the beginning of June 1176, when Earl Richard died and William Fitz-Audelin landed as procurator or justiciary of Ireland.

Fitz-Audelin and his two coadjutors, Miles de Cogan and Robert Fitz-Stephen, were recalled in 1177, and Hugh de Lacy was appointed justiciary, Fitz-Audelin being associated with Robert le Poer in the custody of Waterford and Wexford, Miles and Robert receiving South Munster, and North Munster, as yet unsubdued, being granted to Philip de Braose,[31] from which he got as little good as he deserved. For the next seven years Henry left Ireland pretty much to itself, and Lacy continued to strengthen the position of the English settlement by building castles and by a firm but conciliatory attitude towards the natives. Unfortunately his success, coupled with his marriage with a daughter of the king of Connaught, aroused Henry’s jealousy, and in 1184 he was removed from office. As early as 1177 Henry had declared his intention of making his young son John king of Ireland, and in 1185 the furtherance of this design afforded an excuse for keeping the beloved boy from the distant dangers of the Crusade. John was at this time in his nineteenth year, vain, pampered, vicious, and as completely void of any redeeming virtue as any young man could be. His father, to whom he was as the apple of his eye, could hardly have found in all his broad realms any person more dangerously incompetent to undertake the difficult government of Ireland.

On 31st March 1185, the king knighted his son at Windsor, and almost immediately afterwards John set out, under the charge of Ranulph de Glanville, the justiciar, for Gloucester. After a few days’ stay in that city the heavy baggage and provisions for the expedition, with the greater part of the forces, were sent on to Bristol, while John himself with the remainder passed on to Milford Haven, whence he sailed for Waterford on 24th April. His force was of imposing dimensions--it is said to have contained three hundred knights--and as we find such men as William le Poer and Stephen le Flemeng each bringing fifty horses, the total number of the cavalry must have been large; there was probably a contingent of Flemish mercenaries, as Godescalk, “the master of the Flemish serjeants,” came from Kent, and there must have been the usual proportions of archers and foot soldiers. Significant is the entry on the Pipe Rolls of payments for Roger Rastel and other huntsmen with horses and dogs who went from Somerset into Ireland, and still more significant are the entries of large sums spent in furnishing John’s kitchen and bakery. The bulk of John’s followers were Norman courtiers, despising their English companions, who in turn regarded the Irish as despicable savages. On John’s arrival the friendly chieftains came to welcome the son of the most powerful prince in Christendom, but found an ill-mannered youth surrounded by a crowd of fashionable effeminate flatterers. The Normans mocked at the barbaric dress of the native princes, and carried their ill-bred insolence so far as to pluck them by their long beards. In justifiable anger the princes left the court at Waterford and went to warn their compatriots of the treatment in store for them. The kings of Connaught, Limerick, and Cork, who had meditated tendering their fealty to John, now naturally held aloof, and soon the faithful natives were driven by the insults and injuries suffered at the hands of the invaders into active revolt. Meanwhile the newcomers had completely alienated the early settlers, depriving them of their hard-won conquests and distributing offices of importance and honour with a complete disregard for the fitness of the candidates. The Norman courtiers, used to the luxurious life of large towns and the aristocratic campaigning of the Continent, utterly refused to endure the hardships inseparable from service in the interior of the country, and clung to the seaboard towns where alone wine was available. Hugh de Lacy and the barons who had won and held Leinster by their strength and military ability kept grimly aloof and watched disaster after disaster overtake the incompetent and inexperienced army of invasion.

Matters soon reached such a pitch that it was clear that some man of ability must be put in command, and accordingly in the autumn of 1185 John de Courcy, whose conquest of Ulster had proved him to be a warrior of consummate skill and daring, was appointed chief governor with excellent effect, and two months later Prince John returned to England. He had no difficulty in persuading his infatuated father that his failure was due to the treachery of Hugh de Lacy, and it was with unconcealed delight that Henry heard of Lacy’s murder in 1186. Early in that same year Pope Urban III. had acceded to Henry’s request for the coronation of John as king of Ireland, and had even sent him a crown of gold and peacocks’ feathers--borrowed plumes sufficiently suitable for the empty head they were to adorn. John was therefore despatched to Ireland to seize Lacy’s great fief into the king’s hand in August, but before he could sail news arrived of the death of his brother Geoffrey, and he was recalled. For the remaining three years of his reign Henry was too busy with English and foreign affairs to devote his attention to Ireland.