lliam de Burgo) submitted to him. But the poet had been sent to seek
refuge in Thomond. The chief pursued him there also, and laid siege to
Limerick.[319] The inhabitants at once expelled the murderer, who
eventually fled to Dublin. After receiving tribute from the men of
Connaught, O'Donnell marched to Dublin, and compelled the people to
banish Murray to Scotland. Here he remained until he had composed three
poems in praise of O'Donnell, imploring peace and forgiveness. He was
then pardoned, and so far received into favour as to obtain a grant of
land and other possessions.

The Irish bishops were, as usual, in constant intercourse with Rome.
Several prelates attended the fourth General Council of Lateran, in
1215. The Annals give the obituaries of some saintly men, whose lives
redeemed the age from the character for barbarity, which its secular
literature would seem to justify. Amongst these we find the obituary of
Catholicus O'Duffy, in 1201; of Uaireirghe, "one of the noble sages of
Clonmacnois, a man full of the love of God and of every virtue;" of Con
O'Melly, Bishop of Annaghdown, "a transparently bright gem of the
Church;" of Donnell O'Brollaghan, "a prior, a noble senior, a sage,
illustrious for his intelligence;" and of many others. A great number of
monasteries were also founded, especially by the Anglo-Normans, who
appear to have had periodical fits of piety, after periodical
temptations to replenish their coffers out of their neighbours'
property. We may not quite judge their reparations as altogether
insincere; for surely some atonement for evil deeds is better than an
utter recklessness of future punishment.

Henry III. succeeded his father, John, while only in his tenth year.
William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, was appointed protector of the
kingdom and the King. The young monarch was hastily crowned at Bristol,
with one of his mother's golden bracelets. Had the wise and good Earl
lived to administer affairs for a longer period, it would have been a
blessing to both countries. Geoffrey de Marisco still continued Governor
of Ireland. Affairs in England were in an extremely critical position.
The profligate Isabella had returned to her first husband, Hugh de
Lusignan, whom she had before forsaken for King John. Gloucester,
London, and Kent, were in the hands of the Dauphin of France. Some few
acts of justice to Ireland were the result; but when justice is only
awarded from motives of fear or interest, it b