privileges, subversive of all good government, his extravagant ideas of
Church power, the schemes he meditated, even to his death, to extend it
yet further, his violent and unreserved attachment to the Papacy, and
that inflexible spirit which all his virtues rendered but the more
dangerous, made his death as advantageous, at that time, as the means by
which it was effected were sacrilegious and detestable.

Between the death of Becket and the king's absolution he resolved on the
execution of a design by which he reduced under his dominion a country
not more separated from the rest of Europe by its situation than by the
laws, customs, and way of life of the inhabitants: for the people of
Ireland, with no difference but that of religion, still retained the
native manners of the original Celts. The king had meditated this design
from the very beginning of his reign, and had obtained a bull from the
then Pope, Adrian the fourth, an Englishman, to authorize the attempt.
He well knew, from the internal weakness and advantageous situation of
this noble island, the easiness and importance of such a conquest. But
at this particular time he was strongly urged to his engaging personally
in the enterprise by two other powerful motives. For, first, the murder
of Becket had bred very ill humors in his subjects, the chiefs of whom,
always impatient of a long peace, were glad of any pretence for
rebellion; it was therefore expedient, and serviceable to the crown, to
find an employment abroad for this spirit, which could not exert itself
without being destructive at home. And next, as he had obtained the
grant of Ireland from the Pope, upon condition of subjecting it to
Peter-pence, he knew that the speedy performance of this condition would
greatly facilitate his recovering the good graces of the court of Rome.
Before we give a short narrative of the reduction of Ireland, I propose
to lay open to the reader the state of that kingdom, that we may see
what grounds Henry had to hope for success in this expedition.