the danger, Henry deemed it wise to purchase the future alliance of the Count of Boulogne with an annual subsidy.[1]
On the king's return from the continent, early in March, 1170, a violent storm overtook his fleet in the night, and dispersed it. Henry himself, with some difficulty, made Portsmouth, but all the ships were not equally fortunate; and one especially, conveying the royal physician, a great noble named Henry de Agnellis, the latter's two sons, and several personages of the king's household, foundered with all on board.[2]
The conquest of Ireland had been for some years a cherished project with Henry, but his continental preoccupations, and his long quarrel with Becket, had prevented him from putting it into execution. Excuses were not lacking, though the leading motive was doubtless a desire for extended dominion, coupled with statesmanlike consciousness that Ireland, so long as it remained congeries of petty principalities in normal condition of anarchy, must be a permanent source of trouble to England. One of the ostensible excuses was that certain Irish had taken some English men prisoners and sold them as slaves.
But while Henry thus desired the conquest of Ireland, he might still have postponed action had he not been drawn into it in 1171 by forces which have since on innumerable occasions brought about the extension of the British Empire. These forces were set in motion by the conduct of private adventurers. Ireland was at the time divided into several small kingships, one of which was Leinster. Dermot, King of Leinster, being expelled by his oppressed subjects, aided by two of his royal neighbours, applied for aid to Henry, who was then engaged in France. Assistance, but at some indefinite time, was promised; and Dermot, unwilling to wait until the Greek Calends, came to England, and laid his case before several of the nobles, who agreed to help him at once. First among his sympathisers was Robert FitzStephen,[3] a son of Stephen de Marisco by Nesta, sometime a mistress of Henry I. In 1169 FitzStephen led thirty knights, sixty men-at-arms, and three hundred archers to
- ↑ Gerv. of Cant., 1402.
- ↑ Ib., 1410; Hoveden, 296b; Brompton, 1060.
- ↑ With FitzStephen was Maurice FitzGerald, subsequently Baron of Offaley, ancestor of the Dukes of Leinster, and of the Earls of Kildare and of Desmond. For several centuries the FitzGeralds were practically rulers of the English part of Ireland, and their arms have provided the so-called "St. Patrick's Cross," which does duty for Ireland on the Union flag. The family has given several officers to the Royal Navy.
