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power, though diminished, was not destroyed; for, in the
commencement of the ensuing century, Brian Boriomhe,
in order effectually to crush them, found it necessary
to form a confederacy of most of the subordinate kings
of Ireland. The result was the celebrated battle of Clon-
tarf, fought in 1014, in which the Danes were totally
defeated, and the shattered remains of their army forced
to shut themselves up in Dublin. But the triumph of
the conquerors was diminished by the death of their
leader, who received a mortal wound at the moment of
victory: his son, a number of his nobles, and 11,000
of his soldiers shared his fate. The Danes still kept
possession of the city. In 1038, Christ-Church was
founded by Sitric the king, and by Donat, the first
Danish bishop of Dublin; Aulaffe, Sitric’s son, who
succeeded him, fitted out a large fleet in order to rein-
state Conan, the prince of North Wales, who had fled
to Ireland to escape from the cruelties of Grufydd
ab Llewelyn, an usurper, and had afterwards married
Sitric’s daughter. The expedition, though at first so
successful as to have gained possession of Grufydd’s
person by stratagem, ultimately failed; for the Welsh,
on hearing of his capture, assembled in great numbers,
rescued Grufydd, and drove Conan and his Danish
auxiliaries to their ships with great slaughter. A second
expedition fitted out the ensuing year was equally unfor-
tunate: the greater part of Conan’s fleet was destroyed
by a tempest and himself driven back on the Irish shore.
He made no further attempt to regain his throne, but
spent the remainder of his life with his father-in-law in
Dublin.
The city was soon after exposed to the assaults of a
new enemy. In 1066, Godred Crovan, King of Man,
obtained possession of it and overran a large portion of
Leinster, over which he assumed the title of king, which
he retained till his death, together with that of Man and
of the Hebrides. On.his demise the sovereign power
again devolved on the Danes, who elected Godfrey
Meranagh to succeed him. The Danes, though con-
stantly exposed to the hostilities of the natives, against
whom they had great difficulty in maintaining their
position in the country, increased their difficulties by
their internal dissensions. In 1088, those of Dublin
besieged the city of Waterford, which was also inha-
bited by a colony of the same nation, entered it by
storm and burnt it to the ground; and in the following
year, the united Danish forces of Dublin, Wicklow, and
Waterford proceeded to Cork with a similar intention,
but were routed on their march thither and forced to
return with considerable loss. For some time after the
district appears to have been subject to the kings of
Ireland, as no mention is made of any Danish ruler
there. At the same time it appears that the kings of
England endeavoured to obtain some influence in the
affairs of Ireland, for it is stated that Rodolphus, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, by the orders of Hen. I., conse-
crated one Gregory Archbishop of Dublin, in 1121, and
that this act was done with the concurrence of Turlogh
O’Brien, then King of Ireland. Afterwards, however,
Dermod Mac Murchad, or Mac Murrough, King of
Leinster, exercised paramount authority in the city. He
founded the nunnery of St. Mary de Hogges, and the
priory of Allhallows, both in its immediate vicinity,
and, after overrunning all the surrounding country,
forced the Danish residents there to acknowledge his
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supremacy, which he retained until the commencement
of the reign of Roderic O’Conor, King of Ireland, who,
on his attainment of the supreme monarchy, was recog-
nised as King of Dublin by the inhabitants, and they
in return received from him a present of four thousand
oxen.
After the reduction of Wexford by the English forces,
who landed at Bannow bay, in 1169, under the com-
mand of Robert Fitz-Stephen, to assist Dermod Mac
Murrough in the recovery of Leinster, the combined
force marched upon Dublin. The garrison, intimidated
by the reports of the numbers and ferocity of the as-
sailants, sued for peace, which was granted on the pay-
ment of tribute secured by hostages. Asculph Mac
Torcall, the Danish king, was suffered to retain the
government, and Dermod retired with his English auxi-
liaries to the southern part of Leinster, where he was
joined by Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, who had landed
with a reinforcement of fifteen or sixteen hundred men,
and taken Waterford by storm from the Danes. The
combined army thus enforced resolved upon another
attack on Dublin, either in consequence of a second
revolt, or, as the Irish writers assert, to gratify the vin-
dictive feelings of Dermod, who hoped thus to revenge
the injury and insult of his former expulsion. Roderic,
King of Ireland, hearing of the intended movement,
levied an army of 30,000 men, which he posted at Clon-
dalkin to oppose the invaders; but on their nearer
approach he disbanded his troops, and retired across
the Shannon. The citizens perceiving themselves thus
abandoned, again had recourse to treaty; but while
they were preparing to select the hostages required of
them, Milo de Cogan, one of the English leaders, forced
his way into the place. Asculph and most of the Danes
took shelter on board their fleet, and the city was, after
much slaughter, taken possession of by the English.
Roderic now made a second attempt to expel the
strangers, for which purpose he invested Dublin with
an army of double the number he had formerly collected,
and reduced the place to such straits, that Strongbow
deputed Laurence O’Toole, the archbishop, to treat with
him for a surrender. The terms offered by the Irish
king were not only the surrender of all the towns held
by the English, but their total evacuation of the country.
When these humiliating conditions were reported, Milo
de Cogan protested against thus relinquishing the earn-
ings of so many hard-fought battles, and proposed a
general sally upon the enemy. His advice was adopted.
The English forces, leaving behind them in the city
their Irish auxiliaries, on whose fidclity they had less
reliance, and led on by Milo, proceeded to Roderic’s
head-quarters at Fingluss, which they assaulted so sud-
denly that he was obliged to escape half dressed from a
bath, and his whole army was dispersed.
Strongbow being soon after called to England, As-
culph Mac Torcall, during his absence, arrived in the
harbour of Dublin with a fleet of 60 ships and an army
of 10,000 men levied in the isle of Man, the Orkneys,
and Norway, and proceeded at once to storm the city.
His main body was led on by John de Dene, a Norwe-
gian of great military repute, who was repulsed by Milo
de Cogan, with the loss of 500 men; and the Danes
being unexpectedly attacked in the rear by another body
of the garrison, which had made a sally from a different
quarter, they were utterly routed, and their king Asculph