Edgars rule corresponds with statements in a charter granted by him at Gloucester, 964. In that document he claims to have subdued under his power, "by the propitious grace of God," together with the empire of the English, all the kingdoms of the islands of the ocean, with their fierce kings, as far as Norway, and the greatest part of Ireland, with its most noble city Dublin." It is probable that the "king of Ireland," mentioned in Rapin, is the Danish king of Dublin, who was also sovereign of all the Danes in other parts of the country, including Limerick and Waterford. How long the king of Dublin remained subject to the king of England is not reported; but coins exist which were struck at "Dyfelin," or Dublin, bearing the name of Ethelred, who was next but one in succession to Edgar on the English throne. Consequently there was a "mint" in the city, in the latter half of the tenth century.

The year 980 saw the Danes of Dublin routed by Malachi, king of Ireland, in an engagement at Tarah, and nine years afterwards, the same Malachi assailed them in their own quarters in Dublin, slew great numbers of them, remained there three-score nights, and pressed them so close in their camp on the shore outside the city, that they had no drink but the salt water. At length they submitted, and agreed to pay an ounce of gold out of every messuage and garden in Dublin, to him and his successors yearly at Christmas.

While these matters were transpiring, another

person was rising in power, who made his name one of the most famed in ancient Irish history. This was Brien Boroomh, king of Munster, who ere long became king of the whole country. In the year 999, the Dublin Danes ravaged a great part of Leinster, and brought back among other prisoners the king of the province, who was one of Brien's liegemen. Brien on hearing this marched with a select body of troops to Dublin, delivered the king of Leinster, banished the Danish king Sitricus beyond the seas, burned a great part of the city, and brought away a considerable quantity of gold and silver, with manufactured goods and other valuable effects. The citizens gave hostages, and were allowed to repair their works. Brien continued to pursue his conquests and depredations in other parts of Ireland. In 1013, however, the king of Leinster and the Danes of Dublin joined in a league against him. He laid the province waste to the very walls of the city, and, early in the following year, engaged many of the Irish princes to unite with him in a grand effort either to destroy the Danes or compel them to quit the country altogether. Their monarch, Sitricus, with the Leinster king, were not slow in making preparations to defeat him. Aids came from the Isle of Man and the Hebrides. On Good Friday, April 23rd, 1014, the hostile armies met on the plains of Clontarf, each resolved on victory or death. The place has thence been called the Marathon of Ireland. Both armies were in three divisions. The Danes

had a thousand men in complete armour, and nine thousand Leinster troops, with their auxiliaries, A portion of Brien's followers were absent. The king of Meath with a thousand soldiers came obedient to Brien's call, but had a private understanding with the king of Leinster, that he and his troops would desert Brien in the hour of battle. The conflict was tremendous; the carnage fearful. It began at sunrise, and till four in the afternoon the issue remained doubtful. The Irish battle-axe, wielded with one hand, cleft in twain the armed Dane at a single stroke; but prodigies of valour were performed by all the combatants, and on both sides the victors of one moment fell victims the next. According to some accounts, Brien's forces gained the day; according to others, the Danes at first gave way, but rallied, and at last prevailed. Brien, it is said, when he had harangued his forces in the early morning, and the signal for battle was given, was not allowed by his followers to head them in the strife on account of his great age, (eighty-three years,) but retired to his tent, where he was attacked at the close of the engagement by a party of Danes, and slain. On his side fell, also, his son, a long catalogue of princely and noble leaders, together with from seven to eleven thousand men. On the other side fell the king of Leinster, almost all his princes and chiefs, and three thousand men, while the Danes lost their principal officers and fourteen thousand men, including the thousand in coats of mail,

who, it is said, were all cut to pieces. After the battle, Sitricus with the Irish Danes returned to Dublin, and those from foreign parts went on board their vessels, and set sail homewards. Some report that Brien's body and his son's were interred at Kilmainham, "a village about a mile from Dublin, near an old stone cross;" but it is believed by others that his corpse was conveyed to Swords, and then removed, pursuant to his own directions, and buried in Armagh.

Brien Boroomh is renowned for his superiority in statesmanship and in music, equally as in war. What is said to have been his harp is preserved in the museum of the Dublin University; but its identity is apocryphal, and were it proved that the instrument was Brien's, a deep sigh would escape one on looking at the relic, that, unlike the harp of the Son of Jesse, it was seldom or never tuned to allay an evil spirit, or to celebrate the glorious grace of the Messiah's reign.

SECTION II.

DUBLIN SUBJECT TO THE ENGLISH PAPAL RULE.

WE have mentioned that the Danes of Dublin exchanged heathenism for Christianity in its Roman form about the year 948.

The Black Book of Christchurch has the following account of the origin of that edifice:66 Sitricus, king of Dublin, son of Ableb earl of Dublin, gave to the Blessed Trinity, and to Donate first bishop of Dublin, a place on which to build a church of the Blessed Trinity, where the arches or vaults were founded, with the following lands, viz., Beal-duleck, [now Baldoyle,] Rechen, Portrahern, with their villeins, cows, and corn; he also contributed gold and silver enough wherewith to build the church and the whole court thereof." The "arches or vaults," are thought to have been places which had been used for storing merchandise, though others conjecture that they were rather cells for devotion. Donate became bishop of Dublin in 1038, and died in 1074. The church of the Holy Trinity erected by him as above, afterwards became Christchurch cathedral. He also built the chapel of St. Michael,