It was the latest-won dependency of the English crown which during these years gave the most trouble to its wearer. If Henry found it hard to secure fit instruments for the work of government and administration in England, he found it harder still to secure them for the same work in Ireland. At the outbreak of the barons’ revolt he had at once guarded against all danger of the rebels finding support in Ireland by recalling the garrisons which he had left in the Irish coast-towns and summoning the chief men of the new vassal state, particularly Richard of Striguil and Hugh de Lacy, to join him personally in Normandy.[905] Richard served him well in the war as commandant of the important border-fortress of Gisors;[906] and it may have been as a reward for these services that he was sent back to Ireland as governor in Hugh’s stead[907] at the close of the year. For the next two years, while the king had his hands full in Normandy and England, matters in Ireland went much as they had gone before his visit there; the Norman-English settlers pursued their strifes and their alliances with their Irish neighbours or with each other, and granted out to their followers the lands which they won, entirely at their own pleasure.[908] But the lesson which Henry was meanwhile teaching their brethren in England was not thrown away upon them; and at the close of 1175 it was brought home to them in another way. Roderic O’Conor, moved as it seems by the fame of Henry’s successes, and also perhaps by two papal bulls--Adrian’s famous “Laudabiliter,” and another from the reigning Pope Alexander--which Henry had lately caused to be published at Waterford,[909] at last bent his stubborn independence to send three envoys to the English king with overtures for a treaty of peace. The treaty was signed at Windsor on October 6. Roderic submitted to become Henry’s liegeman, and to pay him a yearly tribute of one hide “pleasing to the merchants” for every ten head of cattle throughout Ireland; on these conditions he was confirmed in the government and administration of justice over the whole island, except Leinster, Meath and Waterford, and authorized to reckon upon the help of the royal constables in compelling the obedience of his vassals and collecting from them their share of the tribute.[910] [905] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 136–141. Cf. above, p. 145. [906] Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), p. 137. [907] Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. i. c. 44 (Dimock, vol. v. p. 298). [908] For the history of these years in Ireland see Four Masters, a. 1173–1175 (O’Donovan, vol. iii. pp. 9–23); Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. ii. cc. 1–4 (Dimock, vol. v. pp. 308–314); Anglo-Norm. Poem (Michel), pp. 142 to end. [909] Gir. Cambr. as above, c. 5 (pp. 315–319). [910] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 101–103. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. pp. 83, 84.