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Anglo-Norman Relations with Connacht, 1169-1224
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
Extract
Historians generally have accepted the view that the Irish kingdom of Connacht maintained an independent political existence until the death of Cathal Crovderg (1224). From the time of Henry II, however, individual Anglo-Norman adventurers cast envious glances at the broad lands ruled over by the house of O'Connor, and on more than one occasion in this period it seemed as if the foreigner would secure complete control of the province. An attempt will here be made to describe the successive endeavours to wrest their kingly power from the O'Connors before the death of Crovderg, and the circumstances which brought these to nothing.
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References
page no 136 note 1 O'Doherty, J. F, ‘ St. Laurence O Toole and the Anglo-Norman Invasion ’, in IE Record, series 5, 1. 604 (1937)Google Scholar.
page no 136 note 2 Ibid., p. 603.
page no 136 note 3 Alone of all authorities Giraldus Cambrensis (Opera, v. 278) alleges a form of submission at this time. The evidence against him is overwhelming: Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi Benedicti Abbatis, i. 25-6 (but see O'Doherty, op, cit., p. 605, for the value of the evidence from this source for the submissions of the Irish hierarchy, including the Tuam prelates); Historical works of Gervase of Canterbury, i. 235 Google Scholar; Radulphi de Diceto Opera Historica, i. 348 Google Scholar; Chronica Rogeri de Houedene, ii. 29–32 Google Scholar; Chronic a Rogeri de Wendover, i. 88. CfGoogle Scholar. A Tig., ALC, AU (under the entries for A.D. 1171); Orpen, (Normans, i. 264-5)Google Scholar and Curtis, (Med. Ire., p. 66)Google Scholar.
page no 136 note 4 Rymer, Foedera (Hague ed), i. 31; R. de Houedene, ii. 83 Google Scholar; Gesta Hen., i. 101 Giraldus, unlike the other contemporary chroniclers who, realising the importance of the treaty, give its terms in full, suppresses all reference to it. I accept Professor O'Doherty's reading of the development which brought about the treaty and its subsequent revision (op. cit., l. 611-25; li. 131-8).
page no 137 note 1 O'Doherty, op. cit., l. 623.
page no 137 note 2 I should hesitate to say, with Professor O'Doherty, that it was intended to invest Rory with the office of royal justiciar over the Irish provincial kings. This would have involved him in all the duties and obligations of an essentially feudal office. Rather, it is suggested, that, as Rory's dominus, Henry, in relation to the provincial kings, confirmed Rory in his position of high king, in virtue of which authority he was to secure the English tribute from the provincial kings in the manner in which such tributes were customarily exacted in Ireland. Professor O'Doherty's view so nearly approximates to my own that he implies that Rory's exercise of the office of king's justiciar would not interfere with the native polity.
page no 137 note 3 O'Doherty, op. cit., l. 623-4. Cf. Curtis, Med. Ire., p. 78.
page no 137 note 4 O'Doherty, op. cit., li. 133.
page no 137 note 5 Dimock calls them coadjutors; they may have been merely councillors (Girald. Camb., v. 334).
page no 138 note 1 Ibid., v. 338-9 ; O'Doherty, op. cit., li. 134 (quoting from Gesta Hen., i. 137). I follow Professor Curtis (Med. Ire., p. 11) in using this form to denote the north-eastern kingdom in Ulster, covered by the modern counties of Antrim and Down.
page no 138 note 2 Girald. Camb., v. 340 and n. 2 ; Curtis, , Med. Ire., p. 87, n. 1 Google Scholar.
page no 138 note 3 Girald. Camb., v. 346.
page no 138 note 4 Sluaiged la Gallaib Atha cliath & Tulca Aird (ATig., A.D. 1177). The latter place, which O'Donovan locates near Trim (AFM, i. 34, n.r), is mentioned from time to time in the annals, at this period, in a way which would indicate that de Lacy's Meath forces were centred there.
page no 138 note 5 In 1176, the Normans of Meath had already violated it, by a raid on Airghialla which had disastrous consequences for themselves (ATig.).
page no 138 note 6 I follow the account in ATig. which is very detailed. In AU and AFM, it is stated that Murchad brought the foreigners to Roscommon, which Orpen (ii. 26) takes to mean that they were invited by him. Giraldus, however, is silent concerning the part played by Rory's son.
page no 139 note 1 Op. cit., li. 135.
page no 139 note 2 In 1179 or 1180, de Courcy may have been back in England, but Henry seems in no way to have countenanced the northern expedition. No satisfactory evidence exists to show that a grant in Ulster was ever made to him, and whatever royal title he had depended on the exceedingly doubtful legality of the speculative grant alleged, in the ‘ Song of Dermot and the Earl ’, to have been given him orally in 1171-2. The statement in this source is therefore ‘ of at least questionable reliability ’ (above p. 20), and was summarily dismissed by J. H. Round in his life of de Courcy in DNB, as no other evidence exists to show that the latter set foot in Ireland before 1176.
page no 139 note 3 According to Giraldus, who is followed by Orpen and by Mr.Wood, Herbert (‘ The office of chief governor of Ireland, 1172-1509 ’, in Proc. RIA, vol. xxxvi, sect. C, p. 218)Google Scholar, de Lacy was named procurator general, but Professor O'Doherty (op. cit., li. 136, n.) rightly questions this, pointing out that, in his account of these proceedings, Giraldus is in serious error. No other king's representative in Ireland was similarly described and it was evidently Henry's intention that Prince John should become a resident ruler, as an official record establishes the fact that he was at this time created justiciar (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1307-13, p. 161, quoted in Wood, loc. cit.). Consequently like his immediate successors (John de Lacy and Richard de Pec) de Lacy was presumably merely custos of Dublin.
page no 140 note 1 Op. cit., li. 136-7.
page no 140 note 2 Gesta Hen., i. 162-5Google Scholar; R. de Houedene, ii. 133-5Google Scholar; Girald. Camb., v, 347 Google Scholar, and n. 6; Norgate, Kate, John Lackland, pp. 14-5Google Scholar.
page no 140 note 3 The Irish annalists are as innocent of any knowledge of this Norman inter-position in Desmond as is Giraldus of the treaty of Windsor.
page no 140 note 4 O'Doherty, op. cit., li. 138; it is hardly necessary to refer to the mistaken tradition, accepted in older works such as Leland (History of Ireland (1814), i. 129), which confused FitzAudlein with William de Burgh and assigned him a grant of Connacht at this council of Oxford (Orpen, ii. 7, n.; Knox, History of Mayo, p. 51).
page no 141 note 1 From ATig. we learn that in 1178 de Lacy, in the course of a predatory expedition, cast envious eyes on the wealth of Clonmacnoise, but the ecclesiastical city was under the protection of Rory O'Connor, and the Norman, with a wholesome respect for the high king's military forces, withdrew. Evidently this and similar actions formed the basis of the complaint to Henry in 1179, possibly on behalf of the high king, for de Lacy is reported to have lost the royal favour in consequence, and, two years later, at a time when de Lacy had evidently made his peace with Rory by marrying the latter's daughter, he was superseded in the office of custos of Dublin, as he was suspected of aiming at the Irish crown (Gesta Hen., i. 221, 270; Girald. Camb., v. 353; R. de Houedene, ii. 253-4; TCD. MS, 1281 (H. 1. 7), A.D. 1180, which may not be an independent source for the marriage).
page no 141 note 2 ‘ Annals of Boyle ’, in Charles O'Conor, Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores, ii; ALC.
page no 141 note 3 ‘ Annals of Boyle ’ (hereafter referred to as AB), AU, ALC, AFM.
page no 141 note 4 ALC.
page no 141 note 5 AFM.
page no 141 note 6 This is the conclusion from references to the English in Connacht in AFM (A.D. 1189). As will be seen later, these could not have been invaders.
page no 142 note 1 Gesta Hen., i. 339 Google Scholar, quoted in Orpen, ii. 182.
page no 142 note 2 ALC, i. 196, n, 8.
page no 142 note 3 AB, AU.
page no 142 note 4 A.D. 1189.
page no 143 note 1 From time to time evidence appears to show that the tribute was either paid or admitted to be due (ALC, A.D. 1186; R. de Houedene, ii. 253 Google Scholar).
page no 143 note 2 AB, AU, A.D. 1186.
page no 143 note 3 AFM, A.D. 1186.
page no 143 note 4 ALC, A.D. 1186.
page no 143 note 5 Normans, ii. 115 ff., 180 ffGoogle Scholar.
page no 143 note 6 AU, ALC, AFM, A.D. 1186. Curtis, , Med. Ire., pp. 103 ffGoogle Scholar.
page no 144 note 1 AU, ALC, AFM.
page no 144 note 2 AFM.
page no 144 note 3 AFM, A.D. 1189.
page no 144 note 4 AFM, A.D. 1191. He died in 1198 at Cong, to which he seems to have again retired after his failure to regain the throne in 1191.
page no 144 note 5 AFM, A.D. 1193.
page no 144 note 6 AFM, A.D. 1195. Evidently his descendants were subsequently moved to southeast Mayo, as Fr. Paul Walsh points out, where a modern barony bears their name. This movement may have followed the settlement of the de Burghs about 1240.
page no 145 note 1 Orpen, , Normans, ii. 147 Google Scholar, and authorities there cited.
page no 145 note 2 Ibid., ii. 147-52.
page no 145 note 3 AFM, A.D. 1195.
page no 145 note 4 Cal. Gormanston Register, pp. 143-4, 191.
page no 145 note 5 Normans, ii. 155 Google Scholar.
page no 146 note 1 AFM, ALC, A.D. 1195.
page no 146 note 2 There is no evidence that at this date Crovderg undertook to enter into any feudal relationship with John. Probably he was sufficiently strong to secure the recognition of his title to Connacht without any conditions as to vassalage or tribute. At a later date, when de Burgh had made himself a power in Connacht, Cathal was ready to do fealty in return for a more definite and regular recognition of his position.
page no 147 note 1 Wood, , ‘ Office of chief governor of Ireland ’ in Proc. RIA, vol. xxxvi, sect. C, p. 219 Google Scholar.
page no 147 note 2 Cal. Doc. Ire., 1171-1251, nos. 87, 92-9, 103-4, 146; Orpen, , Normans, ii. 162-78Google Scholar; Curtis, Med.Ire., pp. 108-11.
page no 147 note 3 Cal. Doc. Ire., 1171-1251, nos. 168, 177-8; cf. the mandate regarding the vacancy in Limerick diocese (ibid., no. 364, and corrigenda).
page no 147 note 4 This may have been prompted by the killing of a grandson of Rory O'Connor by the foreigners at Limerick the same year.
page no 147 note 5 Normans, ii. 183.
page no 147 note 6 Ibid., ii. 90.
page no 148 note 1 ALC, i. 222, n. 2.
page no 149 note 1 Cal. Doc. Ire., 1171-1251, nos. 137, 153.
page no 149 note 2 Ibid., no. 157.
page no 149 note 3 Normans, ii. 190 Google Scholar.
page no 150 note 1 According to AFM and Annals of Clonmacnoise the decision to attack Crovderg preceded the killing of the Normans; but the account in ALC appears more probable.
page no 150 note 2 ALC; Cal. Doc. Ire., 1171-1251, no. 181.
page no 150 note 3 Ibid., nos. 205, 209.
page no 150 note 4 Ibid., nos. 213, 214, 215, 230.
page no 151 note 1 Ibid., no. 222, The statement that Cathal had already quit-claimed to John two-thirds of Connacht is inaccurate, a point for which I am indebted to Professor Eoin MacNeill. The original reads ‘ quod Rex Connaciae nobis quietas clamaret… ’ (PRO, Close Rolls (Chancery), 6 John, m.18, 31 August 1204), and not ‘ clamasset ’ as it reads in Rymer, Foedera, i. 91; Analecta Hibernica, no. 6, p. 257 (following Nat. Lib. Ire., Harris MSS., i. 31); Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum, i. 6 Google Scholar.
page no 151 note 2 Ca. Doc. Ire., 1171-1251, no. 279.
page no 151 note 3 Ibid., no. 288.
page no 151 note 4 ALC places the event early in 1205.
page no 151 note 5 Cal. Doc. Ire., 1171-1251, nos. 279, 311.
page no 152 note 1 ALC, A.D. 1210.
page no 152 note 2 ALC, A.D. 1212.
page no 152 note 3 Cal. Doc. Ire., 1171-1251, nos. 653-4.
page no 152 note 4 ALC, A.D. 1221. There are two letters from Crovderg to Henry III in PRO, Treasury of Receipt, Misc., 54/11/2, 16 (Cal. Doc. Ire., 1171-1251, nos. 1174, 1184; Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ire., plates 71, 72).