n attempt having been made on his life
there by a fanatic, which happily did not prove fatal.[311]

The Archbishop of Dublin became an important functionary from this
period. Henry obtained the election of John Comyn to this dignity, at
the Monastery of Evesham, in Worcester, and the King granted the
archiepiscopal estates to him "in barony," by which tenure he and his
successors in the see were constituted parliamentary barons, and
entitled to sit in the councils, and hold court in their lordships and
manors. Comyn, after his election by the clergy of Dublin, proceeded to
Rome, where he was ordained priest, and subsequently to Veletri, where
Pope Lucius III. consecrated him archbishop. He then came to Dublin,
A.D. 1184, where preparations were making for the reception of Henry's
son, John, who, it will be remembered, he had appointed King of Ireland
when a mere child.

In 1183 the unfortunate Irish monarch, Roderic, had retired to the Abbey
of Cong, and left such empty titles as he possessed to his son, Connor.
De Lacy and De Courcy had occupied themselves alternately in plundering
and destroying the religious houses which had so long existed, and in
founding new monasteries with a portion of their ill-gotten gains. It
would appear that De Lacy built so far on his popularity with the
Anglo-Normans, as to have aspired to the sovereignty of Ireland,--an
aspiration which his master soon discovered, and speedily punished. He
was supplanted by Philip of Worcester, who excelled all his predecessors
in rapacity and cruelty. Not satisfied with the miseries inflicted on
Ulster by De Courcy, he levied contributions there by force of arms. One
of his companions, Hugh Tyrrell, who "remained at Armagh, with his
Englishmen, during six days and nights, in the middle of Lent,"
signalized himself by carrying off the property of the clergy of Armagh.
Amongst other things, he possessed himself of a brewing-pan, which he
was obliged to abandon on his way, he met so many calamities, which were
naturally attributed to his sacrilegious conduct.[312]

John was now preparing for his visit to Ireland, and his singularly
unfelicitous attempt at royalty. It would appear that the Prince wished
to decline the honour and the expedition; for, as he was on the eve of
his departure, Eraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, arrived in England, to
enjoin the fulfilment of the King's vow to undertake a crusade to
Palestine. As Henry had got out of his difficul