GATHELUS.
HERE Gathelus being intituled by the name of a king, deuised and ordeined lawes for
He maketh lawes and or dinances.
his people to liue by, that the citie might not onelie be fensed with strong walles, but also
with good and holsome statutes and ordinances, the chiefest fortifications that may be for all
cities and countries. And bicause he would not onelie haue his said people to liue vnder
one law, but also to be knowne and called by one name, he gaue commandement that they
should be all called Scotishmen (as before is said) of his wife Scota. In continuance of
time, this nation grew to a woonderfull multitude, so that the Spaniards doubting the woorst,
The Spaniards fight with the Scots infortunatlie.
determined to foresée remedie in time, and herevpon purposing vtterlie to destroie them,
got them againe to armour, and with their whole puissance comming vpon the Scotishmen,
gaue them a sore battell, though in the end they were put to flight, the victorie remaining
with the Scotishmen, albeit not without great bloudshed on either part, as the Scotish historie
saieth. At length a necessarie peace was agréed vpon betwixt both parties, the conditions
A peace concluded.
whereof were these: that aswell Scotishmen as Spaniards should liue after their owne lawes,
and neither of them to inuade other.
Gathelus hauing peace thus with his neighbors, sat vpon his marble stone in Brigantia,
Gathelus ministred iustice.
A description of the seat.
where he gaue lawes, and ministred iustice vnto his people, thereby to mainteine them in
wealth and quietnesse. This stone was in fashion like a seat or chaire, hauing such a fatall
destinie, as the Scots say, following it, that wheresoeuer it should be found, there should
the Scotishmen reigne and haue the supreme gouernance. Hereof it came to passe, that
first in Spaine, after in Ireland, and then in Scotland, the kings which ruled ouer the Scotishmen, receiued the crowne sitting vpon that stone, vntill the time of Robert the first king of
Scotland. The inscription also of the stone, though ingrauen long time after, as should
appeare, was this:
Ni fallat fatum, Scoti quocúnq; locatum
Inuenient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem.
Which may be thus translated:
Except old sawes doo faile,
and wisards wits be blind,
The Scots in place must reigne,
where they this stone shall find.
But to returne where I left touching Gathelus. When he perceiued that his people
Galitia not sufficient to find the Scots.
multiplied in such wise, as the countrie which was appointed him by the last agréement, was not
able to susteine them, he was loth to breake the peace which he had established with the
Spaniards, by séeking to inlarge the bounds of his dominion with breach of couenant: and
The Scots séeke new seats.
therefore vnderstanding that there was an Iland lieng north ouer against Spaine, wherein
were but few inhabitors, he caused all such ships as he was able to make, to be brought
togither into an hauen néere vnto Brigantia, and commanding a great armie of his owne
people and subiects to be assembled, he appointed his two sonnes whome hée had by his
wife Scota, the one named Hiberus, and the other Himecus, to conueie them ouer into that
Iland, which afterwards they named Hibernia, after Hiberus, but now it is commonlie called
Ireland.
At their first arriuall there, they came into the hauen of Dundalke, where getting on land,
The Scots ariue in Ireland.
they first incamped themselues néere the shore, and then sent foorth certeine of their folks
to search if they could learne what people inhabited in the countrie, by whome at their returne, and by such as they had happened vpon and brought with them, they vnderstood how
there was no great number of inhabitants in that Ile, and that they which dwelled there were
verie simple, such I meane as liued onelie by milke and herbs, with other the like things as
Irishmen liue by milke and hearbes.
Irishmen are gentlie intreated.
the earth by nature brought foorth of hir owne accord, without mans helpe or vse of anie
tillage. Herevpon Hiber with his brother Himecus, went not about with force, but by gentlenesse to win those people, minding to ioine them in friendship so with their Scotishmen,
that both the people might be made as one. Neither was this hard to be doone, sithens the
inhabitants (perceiuing the Scotishmen not to go about to harme them) came flocking in
wholie about them, submitting themselues into their hands with gladnesse.
