The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-04-14

Apropos of the Queens visit to Ire
land the Dublin Freemans Journal
publishes in brief the history of several
occasions upon which the country was
visited by kings of England, or by
princes who afterward became kings of
England
The first royal visitor to Ireland was
King Henry IL, who came to initiate
that conquest Of Ireland still incomplete
after seven eventful centuries and the
source of such evils to both countries.
King Henry landed at Crook, near Wa
terfOrd, on October 10, III. There is no
sovereign of the dark ages of whom
so many details remain by which we
can realize the man-brave, brilliant
e clever, cruel. Two pastimes he had
which he loved above all things-to
read and discuss literature with learned
men and to hunt; he had always. says
a chronicler either book or bow
in his hand" When he landed in Ire
land he was 80 years of age, and had
already been the hero of the most IA
mouse love affair and the most famous
tragedy Of the age-his intrigue with
the fair Rosamond and the martyrdom
of st. Thomas of Canterbury. He
marched through aud subdued Lem
ster; at Christmas held his court on
what is now College Green, and there
astOnished the Irish by the splendor Of
his entertainments and conCiliated
many by his courtesy and tact. He
spent exactly six months in Ireland and
then left the country for ever. One most
interesting relic of King Henry's visit
still remains. Dublin was in those days
Danish town, and the Dublin Danes
resisted the English. They were slaugh-
tered or driven out, and the city was
left uninhabited. King Henry was
brought over 10 Ireland in ships be-
longing TO the merchants Of Bristol,
and as a reward the king gave by char
Ter his city Of Dublin to the men of
Bristol to inhabit." This charter from
Henry, King Of England, Duke of
Normandy, Duke Of Aquitane and
Count Of Anjou." is etill extant in the
strong room Of the Dublin corporation,
and was produced as the root of the
corporations title to certain dues
claimed in an action against Messrs.
Iedcastle tried about ten years ago
by the late Judge O'Brien 1t is in Nor
man French and written on small 4
piece Of parchment about the size of a I
half sheet of notepaDer
KING JOHN.
That royal backyard" King John. |
was twice in lreland-once as yicerov /
and once as King. 1t is said. indeed, /
tnat II was the intention Of his father, |
Henry H., to create Ireland into a sep
arate Kingdom for John, his favorite
son; that Pope Urban had ratified the
princes title TO the irish kingdom and |
sent him golden crown: that it was
only the jealousy Of the kings other
sons that prevented the design being
carried on. John sailed from Milford.
and landed in Waterford on Easter
Thursday, 1lS5. He simply bore himself
with characteristic raa-alty from the
first. allowed his courtia1s to play rude
practical jokes on the Irish chiefs who
waited on him, spent on wantons the
revenues of the kingdom. and lived
life Of diegraceful debauchery In
series OF unsuccessful engagements
with the Irish he lost almost his entire
army, and several of the newly-erected
Norman castles were sacked by the ma
tive princes. After an inglorious So
1ourn of eight months he returned to
Ireland in 1910, and although he only