There can, however, be no doubt that Edward Bruce came to Ireland on the invitation of the Irish. Donnell O'Neill, claiming to be the true heir to the chief kingship, and the other chiefs, in the famous remonstrance which they addressed to John XXII., informed that Pope that they felt helpless for want of a leader, but were determined no longer to submit like women to Anglo-Norman oppression, and that they had therefore invited over 'the brother of the most illustrious Lord Robert, by the grace of God King of the Scots, and a descendant of the most noble of their own ancestors,' and that they had by letters patent constituted him king and lord. The blood of Roderic O'Connor and of Eva evidently went for something, but the chiefs also believed that Edward Bruce was 'a person of piety and prudence, of a chaste and modest disposition, of great sobriety, and altogether orderly and unassuming in his demeanour.' Scottish historians are not entirely of the same opinion. It is indeed probable that Bruce had no other idea than to carve out a kingdom with his sword, like a genuine Norman as he was. He had the memory of Earl Richard, of Fitz-Stephen, and of De Courcy to guide him; and if a more modern instance was required, there could be none better than that of his brother Robert. [Illustration: IRELAND ABOUT 1300.] CHAPTER V. FROM THE INVASION OF THE BRUCES TO THE YEAR 1346. [Sidenote: The Irish never united. The O'Connors are almost destroyed by the De Burgos.] The Irish invited Bruce, but they made no regular or general effort in his favour. Their total incapacity for anything like national organisation had forbidden the idea of a native sovereign, and perhaps the majority of them thought one Norman baron no better than another. The year 1316, in which Bruce landed, witnessed the almost total destruction of the O'Connors, the tribe which had last held the chief kingship. Their relationship with the De Burgos, Berminghams, and other Anglo-Normans may be traced in great detail in the annalists. Felim O'Connor, whom the Connaught historiographers call undisputed heir presumptive to the sovereignty of Erin, formed one of those great confederacies which occur so frequently in Irish history, and which so seldom had any results. The O'Kellys, MacDermods, O'Maddens, O'Dowds, O'Haras, O'Kearneys, O'Farrells, MacMahons, and many others were represented; and the Anglo-Normans, who also mustered in great force, were commanded by the Red Earl's brother, Sir William de Burgo, and by Richard Bermingham, fourth baron of Athenry, at the gate of which town the decisive struggle took place. The Irish were defeated with the loss of something like 10,000 men. Felim O'Connor fell, and his tribe never recovered its position in Connaught. In late times we have O'Connor Don and O'Connor Roe in Roscommon, O'Connor Sligo, O'Connor Kerry near the mouth of the Shannon, and O'Connor Faly in what is now the King's County, but the De Burgos became supreme in Connaught.