maid MacMurchada, king of Leinster, by whom a trembling sod was made of all Ireland … died of an insufferable and unknown disease, for he became putrid while living through the miracle of God and the saints of Ireland whose churches he had profaned and burnt. He died at Ferns without making a will, without penance, without the body of Christ, without unction, as his evil deeds deserved.’ The ‘Book of Leinster,’ on the other hand, states that ‘he died after the victory of unction and penance,’ adding, ‘thenceforward is the miserable reign of the Saxons, amen, amen.’ His son-in-law, Earl Richard, at once attempted to exercise all Dermod's powers as king of Leinster, but he found a powerful rival in Roderick O'Connor [q. v.] Henry II, on his arrival in person at the close of 1171, received the submission of natives and invaders alike, and set on a permanent basis that subjection of Ireland to England which was the inevitable outcome of Dermod's appeal to the English king.
[Annals of the Four Masters, 1166–71; the Works of Giraldus Cambrensis (Rolls Series), vol. v.; the Song of Dermot and the Earl, translated by Goddard H. Orpen, Oxford, 1892; Dissertations on the History of Ireland by C. O'Connor of Balenagar; the History of Ireland from the Invasion of Henry II, by T. Leland, D.D., i. 1–52; the Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, by the Rev. J. H. Todd, Introd. pp. ix–xi; Book of Leinster (Facsimile), p. 39 a, and Introd. pp. 7, 8; Ussher's Works, iv. 546–9.]
MACMURROGH or MACMURCHAD, ART (1357–1417), styled also Cavanagh, Irish chief, born in 1357, was descended from Donall, illegitimate son of Diarmaid or Dermod MacMurchada [q. v.], king of Leinster. The sept of which he was the head was so numerous and important that the name of 'Cavanaghs' country' was applied to districts occupied by them, which are now comprised in the counties of Carlow, Wexford, and Wicklow. Under a compact with the government at Dublin, an annual subvention was long paid to the head of the Cavanagh sept for protection which he agreed to afford to the English settlers in their district. In connection with this subvention, which occasionally remained unpaid, disputes from time to time arose between the governmental officials and MacMurchad. By native writers he was extolled as courageous, liberal, and hospitable. He married Elizabeth Veele, who, as heiress to Anglo-Norman settlers, was entitled to lands of considerable value in Leinster. These were seized by the crown on the plea that she had forfeited them by her marriage. Richard II when in Ireland in 1395 propitiated MacMurchad, and, according to Froissart, conferred knighthood on him at Dublin. The king's representatives also concluded an agreement with MacMurchad for the restoration of his wife's lands and the payment of the subvention as formerly. The subsequent non-fulfilment of this agreement led to hostilities by MacMurchad, and Thomas de Spencer, earl of Gloucester, was delegated to negotiate with him when Richard II revisited Ireland in 1399. Some details of the interview between them have been chronicled in verse by Creton, a contemporary French writer. He mentions that their meeting was between two woods near the sea, that MacMurchad, a fine large man, marvellously agile, stern in aspect, rode on a very swift horse of high value, and bore a spear in his right hand, which he used with great dexterity. The discourse, according to Creton, lasted for some time, but led to no satisfactory result. King Richard subsequently by proclamation offered a hundred marks of gold for MacMurchad, alive or dead. The meeting between MacMurchad and Gloucester formed the subject of an elaborate drawing in colours and gold in Creton's manuscript, now in the British Museum (MS. Harl. 1319), and an accurate reproduction of it will be found in the 'Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of Ireland,' edited by the present writer. After the deposition of Richard II the representatives of Henry IV in Ireland entered into new negotiations with MacMurchad, which were, however, often broken off. The death of MacMurchad in 1417 was ascribed to poison administered by a woman.
[Patent Rolls of Chancery, Ireland; Carew MSS., Lambeth; Archæologia, xx. 1823; Annals of the Four Masters, 1848; Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland, 1865; Annals of Loch Cé, 1871.]
MACNAB, Sir ALLAN NAPIER (1798–1862), Canadian soldier and politician, was born at Newark, now Niagara, Ontario, 19 Feb. 1798. His father, Allan MacNab, who had served as a lieutenant in the 3rd dragoons and the queen's rangers, and had been aide-de-camp to General Simcoe, settled in Upper Canada with his young wife, the daughter of Captain William Napier, commissioner of the port and harbour of Quebec. Soon after their son's birth the family moved to Toronto, where the father became a clerk in the office of the provincial secretary, William Jarvis, and young Allan was sent to a district school, and proved a dunce. He was fifteen at the time of the American invasion in 1813, and went to the front with his father in a small force of regulars and militia, which was driven back on Kingston.
