ANNALS OF ROGER DE H0VEDEN. A.D. 1172. unable to attend upon him, then you are to send proper persons, in whom both you and we ourselves may be able to place full reliance, who, having publicly received his oath, in the presence of the church, that he is ready to pay obedience to our mandates, may thereupon absolve him. But if, brother archbishop, it shall not be in your power to give attention to this matter, then do you, brother bishop, together with the abbat of Pontigny, give your most diligent attention to the injunctions which we have given. Given at Tusculanum, on the eighth day before the calends of May." In the same year, Avigouth El Emir Amimoli, the emperor of the Africans, crossed the African sea and landed in Spain with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and, king Lupus, who was a pagan, being dead, took possession of his lands ; namely, Murcia and Valentia, and many other cities; and then, by the advice of Ferdinand, king of Saint Jago, entered the lands of Alphonso, king of Castille, and took by storm the cities of Cuenca and Octa,'3 and slaughtered all the Christians whom he captured therein, with the exception of a few, whom he doomed to perpetual slavery. In the year of grace 1172, being the eighteenth year of the reign of king Henry the Second, the said king was at Dublin, in Ireland, on the day of the Nativity of our Lord, which took place on Saturday, and there he gave a royal feast. Having stayed there until the beginning of Lent, he proceeded thence to the city of Wexford, where he remained until Easter. "While he was staying there, Theodinus and Albert, the cardinals who were sent as legates a latere by the Supreme Pontiff, came into Normandy. On their arrival being known, the king hastened to meet them ; but, before he left Ireland, he gave, and by his charter confirmed, to Hugh de Lacy the whole of the lands of Meath, with all their appurtenances, to hold in fee and hereditarily of himself and his heirs, by a hundred knights' service ; and gave in his charge the city of Dublin, and appointed him justiciary of Ireland. He also gave in charge * to Eobert Fitz-Bernard the city of Waterford and the city of Wexford, with their appurtenances, and ordered castles to be built therein. The festival of Easter approaching, the king's household 1 3 Probably the place generally called " Octaviolca ;" though it is » matter of dispute what is the present name of the place so called.