ded to the Fate and Fortunes of _Dermod_, under the
Conduct of _Strongbow_, Earl of _Pembroke_; whose casual Success in
_Ireland_, against _Roderick_ (owing _more_ to the general Defection, at
that fatal Period, of the _Irish_ Chiefs against their lawful Sovereign,
than to any _superior Valour_ or Address of those Adventurers) induced
_Henry_ to a deliberate and grand Invasion of a Kingdom, to which he could
lay no Claim on the Score of Nature, Reason, or Right, and whither his
pretended Mission, on the Score of collecting St. _Peter_'s Dues, (which
St. _Peter_ himself never once thought of, or imagined) was as
_ridiculous_ as _groundless_. The _Summa Dies_, however, arrived: and the
People of _Ireland_, wearied out with intestine Strife, acknowledged
_Henry_ for their Sovereign Lord; and a grand Charter of Rights and
Covenants, mutual Protection and Allegiance, was entered into, anteriorly
to that of _England_. How well this Charter was _observed_ on the
_protective_ Side, the absolute Anarchy of near four Centuries, from its
original Date and Perfection, to the Reign of Queen _Elizabeth_,
demonstrates: A whole Nation, that sought Protection, and that _agreed_
for quiet, regular, and lawful Government, upon rationable Terms, deprived
of the Power of ordaining Laws for its own Security and Well-being, and
precluded (all to four or five great and favourite Families) from the
Benefits and Advantages accruing from those of that Kingdom, to which it
had voluntarily united itself; exposed, through such a Length of Time, to
arbitary Depredations, and unpunished, unredressed, uncensured Rapine,
_Quis talia sando temperet a Lachrymis_!

King _Henry_ called back into _England_, to lay the Storms raised by his
rebellious Sons, with whom and _Thomas Becket_, Archbishop of
_Canterbury_, he was so constantly embroiled to the End of his Life, that
he could little attend to the Settlement of the Affairs of this new
acquired Sovereignty.

_Richard_ the First, his immediate Successor, called away to the Holy Wars
against the _Saracens_, had as little Leisure as his Predecessor to
promote the Quiet, or Happiness of _Ireland_.

From the usurped Authority of King _John_, a continued Series of Papal
Animosity, Bloodshed, Calamities and Piracies, closed at last by Poison;
little beside political Disasters of all Sorts, could be expected.

_Henry_ the Third, through a Reign of Fifty-six Years, was continually
involved in Troubles and Hosti