The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

50 Ihe Highland MontJiLy.
with a fleet, but did not land, and is said to have been
successfully attacked and killed by the fleet of Ulster. On
the other hand, as we have already said, Dublin was not
taken, or even attacked, after the battle, and from the time
of the battle till the Conquest, the various Norwegian com-
munities settled at Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Limerick,
Cork, and some other towns along the coast, retained their
separate existence, with the rule over a certain territory
adjoining the town. They were, no doubt, subject, and
probably tributary, to the Provincial Kings in whose terri-
tories their settlements were, just as the subordinate Irish
chiefs and tribes were, but they retained, at least, as much
separate and independent authority as these chiefs did, and,
in the case of Dublin, the territory over which its king
ruled was of considerable extent, stretching along the coast
from Skerries to Wexford, and inland as far as Leixlip, on
the Liffey, being the point to which that river is navigable.
In the internal affairs of the country, they conducted them-
selves much as the native tribes did ; they made war,
ravaged and pillaged exactly like their neighbours, and
during the whole period from 1014 to 1172, we hear of
them—still under the name of foreigners—as engaged in
such operations as often, at least, as we do of any native
tribe. Indeed, on one occasion we hear that a number of
hostages were released from Dublin, which indicates that
the foreigners of that city were attempting to establish
dominion over some, at least, of the surrounding tribes.
They were the builders and possessors of the only stone-
built and fortified towns ; for neither in the native wars,
nor in the wars which accompanied the Conquest, do we
read of the siege of any Irish town or castle, with the single
exception of Armagh, which is said to have been besieged
for a week by the English conquerors ; and they conducted
all the foreign trade of the country, and amassed consider-
able wealth in their towns. It is to this source that the
pre-eminence which Dublin was attaining was, no doubt,
due, for we find that before the arrival of the English, it