[918] Four Masters, a. 1177 (O’Donovan, vol. iii. p. 35). Ann. Loch Cé, a. 1177 (Hennessy, vol. i. p. 155). Gir. Cambr. _Expugn. Hibern._, l. ii. c. 19 (Dimock, vol. v. p. 346). [919] Gir. Cambr. as above, c. 17 (pp. 338–343). Four Masters, as above, pp. 29–33. Ann. Loch Cé, as above, pp. 155–157. _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 137, 138. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 120. The bride of John “Lackland,” Alice of Maurienne, had died within a year of her betrothal.[920] The marriage-contract indeed provided that in case of such an event her sister should take her place; but the connexion had begun too inauspiciously for either Henry or Humbert to have any desire of renewing it; and Henry now saw a possibility of more than repairing within his insular dominions the ill-luck which had befallen his plans of advancement on the continent for his favourite child. In the autumn of 1176 John was betrothed to his cousin Avice, the youngest of the three daughters of Earl William of Gloucester, and Avice was made heiress to the whole of the vast estates in the west of England and South Wales which her father had inherited from his parents, Earl Robert of Gloucester and Mabel of Glamorgan.[921] But a mere English earldom, however important, was not enough to satisfy Henry’s ambition for his darling. In his scheme Avice’s wealth was to furnish her bridegroom with the means of supporting a loftier dignity. He had now, it was said, obtained Pope Alexander’s leave to make king of Ireland whichever of his sons he might choose. On the strength of this permission he seems to have reverted to his original scheme of conquering the whole island.[922] In May 1177 he publicly announced his intention of bestowing the realm of Ireland upon his youngest son John, and parcelled out the southern half of the country among a number of feudal tenants, who did homage for their new fiefs to him and John in a great council at Oxford.[923] As however John was too young to undertake the government in person, his father was again compelled to choose a viceroy. He fell back upon his earliest choice and re-appointed Hugh de Lacy;[924] and with the exception of a temporary disgrace in 1181,[925] it was Hugh who occupied this somewhat thankless office during the next seven years. With the internal history of Ireland during his administration and throughout the rest of Henry’s reign we are not called upon to deal here; for important as are its bearings upon the history of England, their importance did not become apparent till a much later time than that of the Angevin kings. [920] _Art de vérifier les Dates_, vol. xvii. p. 165. [921] _Gesta Hen._ as above, p. 124. Rog. Howden as above, p. 100. Cf. R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 415. [922] _Gesta Hen._ as above, p. 161. [923] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 162–165. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. pp. 133–135.