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outside by posts, prevailed on his men to make a third
assault and direct their whole force against this quarter.
They began by hewing down these posts, and the house
falling, drew away with it such a portion of the walls
as made a breach wide enough to admit the besiegers,
who rushed in, bearing down all opposition, and the city
became a scene of indiscriminate carnage and rapine.
Reginald, King of the Danes, and Malachy O’Feolian,
prince of Decies, had been seized and were just on the
point of being put to death, when the sudden arrival of
Dermod M c Murrough, King of Leinster, and his forces,
with Fitzstephen and other English leaders, prevented
further slaughter. Dermod embraced his new associates,
and introduced his daughter Eva to her affianced hus-
band, Strongbow; the marriage having been im-
mediately solemnized, he departed with his allies, and
leaving a sufficient garrison in Waterford, proceeded to
lay siege to Dublin.
Earl Strongbow, on his return from the conquest of
that city, with the lordship of which he was invested,
received a summons from Hen. II., who was at that time
in Normandy, to attend him: and leaving his forces
quartered in Dublin and Waterford, he obeyed the sum-
mons, and offering to deliver up to the king these cities
and other principal towns, on condition of having the
remainder of his acquisitions confirmed to him and to
his heirs, the king agreed to his proposals, and im-
mediately prepared to follow him to Ireland. Henry’s
fleet, consisting of 240 vessels, having on board from
400 to 500 knights and 4000 soldiers, arrived in Water-
ford harbour in October, 1172; and on the festival of
St. Luke, the king landed to take possession of the
kingdom as its rightful sovereign, by virtue of Pope
Adrian’s bull, and was joyfully received by the English,
and by the Irish nobility who were in alliance with
them. Strongbow immediately made a formal surrender
to the king of the city of Waterford, and did homage
to him for the principality of Leinster; and Henry
received here the submission of the people of Wexford,
and of Dermot M c Carthy, King of Cork. He afterwards
proceeded to Lismore, Cashel, Dublin, and other prin-
cipal towns; and on his return to England, aware of its
great importance as one of the principal maritime towns,
he left the city of Waterford in the custody of Hum-
phrey de Bohun, Robert Fitz-Bernard, and Hugh de
Gundeville, with a train of twenty knights. A new
garrison was soon afterwards placed in the city, which
at the same time was greatly enlarged, and surrounded
with new walls; the old fortifications were repaired and
strengthened with towers and gates, and the inhabitants
were also made freemen by royal charter. Strongbow
being soon after invested with the sole government of
Ireland, removed Robert Fitz-Bernard and his garrison
to Normandy; and agreeably to the king’s instructions,
took upon himself the government of this city, as well
as that of Dublin. In all the predatory expeditions
which the English made into the territories of the
natives, this city was always the centre of action in the
south, the general rendezvous of the invaders, and the
place in which all their spoils were deposited; but
Strongbow having sustained a considerable defeat in
Ossory, suddenly found himself shut up here in equal
dread of an attack from without and of an insurrection
within. From this distress, however, he was speedily
relieved by Raymond le Gros, who arrived from Eng-
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land with a fleet of twenty ships, having on board 20
knights, 100 horsemen, and 300 archers and other in-
fantry; and uniting his forces with those of Strongbow,
they marched to Wexford, leaving Purcell governor of
the city. But Purcell attempting to follow them in a
boat on the Suir, was intercepted and slain by the
Danish inhabitants, who also put to death all the Eng-
lish in the city, except a few who saved themselves in
Reginald’s tower, where they defended themselves with
so much resolution and success that the insurgents
yielded up the city to them on conditions little favourable
to themselves. In 1177, soon after the arrival of Fitz-
Andelm, as chief governor, in Ireland, an assembly of
the Irish clergy was held in this city, in which the brief
lately granted by Pope Alexander and the bull of Pope
Adrian, granting to Hen. II. the sovereignty of Ireland
(under the authority of which the first act of that mo-
narch was the appointment of Augustine to the vacant
bishoprick of Waterford, whom he ordered to be con-
secrated by the archbishop of Dublin), were solemnly
promulgated, and the English sovereign’s title to the
dominion of Ireland was declared in form, with dreadful
denunciations against any who should impeach the
grant made by the Pope, or resist the sovereign autho-
rity of that monarch. In 1179, Robert le Poer, who
was governor of Waterford, was associated with Hugh
de Lacy in the government of the English settlements,
and subsequently received a grant of the entire county
of Waterford, with the reservation of the city and the
cantred of the Ostmen.
Waterford, from its situation and importance, be-
came the centre of communication with England, as
well as one of the chief places of trade in the island;
and during the same year, Robert Fitzstephen, Milo de
Cogan, and Philip de Braos landed here with fresh forces
from England. In the Easter of 1185, John, Earl of
Morton, son of Hen. II., accompanied by Ralph Glanville,
Justiciary of England, and other distinguished persons,
and attended with a retinue of 400 or 500 knights
and about 4000 men, disembarked at this port to
take upon himself the office of Lord Chief Governor
of Ireland, and was received with congratulation by the
different native chiefs. The earliest coinage in Water-
ford, of which indubitable evidence remains, is that of
John, while Lord of Ireland, of which several silver
halfpence, weighing from 10 to 10½ grains, are still
preserved. After his accession to the throne of England,
John granted to the citizens, in 1204, a fair for nine days,
and in 1206 a charter of incorporation, apparently in
many respects little more than a recital and confirma-
tion of privileges previously granted. In 1211, that
monarch landed here on his way to Dublin to arrange
the affairs of the Irish Government; and during his
stay in the city, he ordered pence, halfpence and far-
things to be coined there, of the same standard as in
England, to be equally current in both countries. In
the early part of this century were founded nearly all
the religious houses that anciently existed here, of which
the Benedictine priory of St. John’s was by King John
and the others by the inhabitants. In 1232, Hen. III.
granted a new charter, in which the election of a mayor
is first mentioned: the citizens, by this charter, were
also empowered to choose a coroner, and to have a
guildhall, a prison, and a common seal in two portions.
In 1252, the city was burned to the ground; and in 1280