A Complete History of Medieval Ireland

faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond.

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In the year 431, soon after the abandonment of Britannia by Rome's famed legions, a Romano-British monk arrived on the shores of the Emerald Isle. Schooled in the mystical practices of ancient Ireland's druids, and spurred on by a holy vision, this churchman came with a sacred mission, to save the pagan Irish and convert them to a new and enlightened faith. His name was St. Patrick, and with his coming, medieval Ireland was born.

Years before, as a meek teenager, Patrick had been taken captive by Gaelic Raiders, and carried across the Irish Sea. In slaved in a strange land, he spent his days hurting animals on lonely hillsides, learning the language and customs of the people who had taken him. After escaping and returning home, Patrick would one day come back, not as a captive, but as a missionary, determined to transform pagan Ireland through force of will alone.

Over the span of the medieval millennium that followed, Ireland emerged from the myths of ancient myth and legend to become a vibrant and distinct society, molded by the deeds of Gaelic High Kings, Viking adventurers, and Norman invaders. Monasteries became great centers of learning. Warriors fought bitter rivals for a chance of power, and bustling towns rose along the coasts, as Ireland opened itself to the wider medieval world. It is a rip-roaring tale, taking in the lands

of brilliant saints and the tyranny of oppressive warlords. But one thing shines through it all. The astonishing resilience of a dynamic Gaelic culture that helped forge the Ireland we know today. Now to help me chart the enthralling story of medieval Ireland, and with unpic of brown 2000 years of history, in considerably less time than that, un-thrailed it to be joined by historian James Hawes. Author of the new book, the shortest history of Ireland.

Welcome to God Medieval James. And thank you very much for having me. Well thank you very much. I really really enjoyed this book. And it covers more than just medieval history in Ireland, but listen, this is medieval podcast. So I think that we can start with the beginning as the medieval period. It's a tricky one to explicate. So I think we have to start there. So what does early medieval

Ireland look like? I mean, what's society arranged around who's got political control at that point?

“Well I think the most important thing about it is that it's unique in Western Europe.”

Because it has not been conquered by the Roman Empire, which means not only has its culture

not been to a deep cloud, first by Roman pagan isn't then by Roman Christianity, but it

has itself at the trauma of collapse of the Roman Empire, and then the extra trauma of being invaded by Germanic ex-Roman auxiliary warband to pick over. So it's every other country of his shattered, basically, and rebuilt up from the ground up. And then even when that settles down, you start to have the oh my ads coming in from the south of Europe. In the late 7th century, early 7th century,

then pushing the Slaves further west. So the whole of Western Europe between around 450,

“two about 750 is in a complete state of flux, except Ireland. Because it has not been attacked”

by the Romans, but at the angle of sex has never touched it. This is extraordinary thing about it.

No one has disrupted Irish society since the Bronze Age. Since the Bronze Age repopulation by what we were now called Western European, they're with their Western European common language, the Indo-Jerman language. This is a culture which now weigh over 3000 years old and has never been disrupted by anybody, except Christian missionaries who have had to, we noticed from the earliest results, the earliest annals talk of some Patrick, essentially as a kind of, as a druid, basically,

he had, in fact, been trained as a druid by when he was a slave, he was slave to a high-ranking druid. And had learned the secrets of it all. And so he's actually, what's come is what what Professor Keer and Martha in Oxford is called, a Brehonized Christianity. So yeah, Christianized Brehon society.

When the first Christian mission is come to Ireland, they find the only culture in Europe, which has

this kind of ancient rootedness still, and which they have to treat as an equal on its own terms. That's the extraordinary thing about it. So you have a country there entirely understructed for 3000 years. Economically, extremely well off, because there's one other disruption in this period, which you'll know of in most of your don't know of, there's a climate disaster between St. Browns between the six and eight centuries. Cracatore, we think, blows up, and the entire northern

hemisphere is blankety with ash. There's, you know, there are their crop failures, plagues all over the place. Now, Ireland, because it has this Atlantic, really climate, if things get a bit cold and a bit drier there, that's no big deal. It's a big deal if you're a farmer in South England, or central Germany, to get colder and drier as bad, but for the Irish who are entirely cattle-based, it makes it actually no difference. And so you have, for example,

hydrochological evidence of this. There have been more water mills, tidal mills, excavated in just the province of Munster in the, for the seven sweet centuries, than the whole of the rest of Western Europe put together. So Ireland is not only untouched by kind of foreign interference, it's actually the wealthiest and safest country in Europe. One of the things that's so interesting about early medieval Ireland and more particularly,

“it's economy is that it is cattle-based. Can you explain to us what this means and how it came about?”

The routes we go back in fact to the Neolithic, because the Neolithic farmers, with the first

to bring cattle cattle, not native to Ireland at all. There are no, there are no native bovine, they're caving with the first farmers around 4,000 BC. There was a climate change event, shortly we think shortly after the start of the Bronze Age, which meant that the climate is warmer even now in the Neolithic gets colder and wetter, and this means that arable crops become marginal in large parts of Ireland, so that the cattle, which are already important in the

Leo, if they become completely dominant in the Bronze Age, I mean one of the one of the extraordinary things and the wonderful things are walking through the Irish countryside particularly, you know, when you get into the West, is that there are everywhere, it is small ring, where they call ring forts, small man, as you see all over, it's every village has one, outside it's say, and these are cattle enclosures. They're built to shelter cattle either overnight

or wet or under periods of time, we're not entirely sure when, but they are built consistently from the Bronze Age up to about a thousand AD, people are still building them and using them. I mean, it's extraordinary continuity because cattle are all that matters. The entire tribal wealth is cattle. This affects everything, not to be the way of ways of warfare, because to this day, you know, if you, if you're anything that anyone knows anything about farming, you'll be aware

that my own grandfather was like, I was a dairy farmer, so I know this, your cattle are a very, very concentrated way of having your wealth. But you can shift them. This will become really important later with how this society resisted the Normans better, frankly than the Anglo-Saxons could. It's really quite simple. Think of this, if you're an arable farmer, your crops are in the ground. Obviously, that you've invested all this money, or your web time, that's your survival

package. If an attacker comes, you have got to stand and fight. You can't shift it.

“You have to either fight or run and starve, and if the opponent is militarily superiors,”

you stand and fight and get killed. Now, if you've got cattle, of course, now you're in permanent danger of them being raided, which is why all the iris sagas are about raiding cattle. It's a quick way to make yourself rich and your neighbors poor. You nick their cattle. That's one of the

not through his beaten times. The place of honour in an Irish army was in the rear guard. Because you think you've done a cattle raid. You're bringing the cattle away. They're chasing you. The posse is after you. So you send the best guy. The hero stands behind the stolen cattle to face the

“oncoming posse and keep them back. That's why this is a complete different conception of warfare.”

Boosey, if you have cattle, you're attacked by someone. You can take those cattle away into the mountains or the bogs or somewhere. And this will become, this this explains cutting to the

chase a bit. You know, we can say when the Norman's finally come with their invincible cavalry,

while cavalry are not invincible in bogs and uplands. So you can take them away and survive to fight another day. In a way we should add a farmer just cannot. So it's a completely different arrangement of agriculture, which, of course, is the economy all over Europe. And this will become very, very important to the kind of survival power of gayly kind and this cattle-based notion. Something that we end up hinting at a lot on gone medieval. Particularly when we're talking

about, for example, the Christianization process in what is now England. Because it very much was the sort of thing where for a while we were looking at bouncing back and forth between very specific Irish forms of Christianity and Roman forms of Christianity. But I don't think we've

ever really talked in access about that. Yeah, well, and the, the, the, the animals of the

four masters record the beginnings of this tradition, which, which became embedded in the whole whole notion of Celtic Christianity, which, and they're, I say in Quebec, from memory here, that some Patrick caused the old books of Ireland to be brought towards him to be studied and corrected. And that's the fascinating thing. When the earliest Irish law court we have, the law court, sorry, called the censure some more, which is actually dateable to a manuscript

extraordinary love in the of the seventh century. It talks about, it asks the rhetorical question

“in Irish. You know, what is the tradition of the man of Ireland? What is it? What's kept it going?”

And it says, you know, something that recitation of true of elders, the law of nature, and augmented by the law of scripture. That's the, that's a fantastic phrase to me. It's not been replaced. It's been augmented. It's, so really, the bréhonsist, the Irish bréhonsist of law has been, in the Romans augmented by, they've assimilated Christian teaching without actually changing anything. So that the Irish church by, for I say, let's say, let's say,

around eight, about 750, let's say, is entirely different from the Roman church. And of course, Rome knows this very well and does not like it, which will be quite vital for our story. Of, because, for example, the, the obvious thing is that it's the Irish church is not run by bishops, but by

habits, habits are hereditary, which obviously means they can marry. They are always related to

the local ruling, ruling elites. So they are basically kind of the spiritual arm of the of kneels or the iconos or whoever, they, who's ever territory there, and they're related to them. They're privileged as I inherited, and they can use themselves as priests and blessed in ever and else, all the different forms of America's allowed under Brechon Law, which are very many and varied for a two detail for us to describe. But some of them, for example, were much more

beneficial to women than normal marriage in Western Europe. So it's an entire different church, which tolerates and encourages behaviour, which the church, the Roman church, as it starts to recover after Charlemagne, and really start to kind of centralise and become the Catholic church, we know, it gets more and more impatient with this. But it does not have the power in this stage because, as I just said, European Christianity is kind of under three. You know, three of the five

“patriarchy aches have gone to the Muslims now. And that's why Ireland sends forth this great”

wave of saints and scholars. It's actually driven by its economic boom and its security as a kind of base for Christianity. And so you have this extraordinary period about around from around said the late 700s to about a thousand, where all over Europe, there are monasteries found it, which were often called things in Germany, shot in this and shot in that, because the Irish were called Scotty in Latin, which are actually found by Irish missionaries. And these monasteries

were run on entirely different lines from the Roman ones. So you have this, it's quite a quite a different church entirely. Well, how do we then, from this kind of tribalistic form of cattle farming and cattle raids and the various different groups that this encourages? How do we get that into what become the kingdoms that I suppose we expect when we're talking about me violent? So Ulster or Conor or Munster? That is a good, the answer to that is we just don't know,

there from a guy I know very well, I should go back to Dr. Conor Newman from Goldle University,

“who's a great expert on it, saying that as far as we can tell, you know, both the written and”

the archaeological evidence suggests that they were in fact bizarrely, wonderfully. Well, the folk there was something very, very much like the present four provinces of Ireland, possibly five, because the area, to put it in the island, just north of Dublin, called Meas, where tar is and things that were there with a very good tar and new grage. It was sometimes a separate kingdom and sometimes not, because it has some of the best land in Ireland and the most

expensive land in Europe to this day, but that also means it's not very defensible. So it tends to be, it tends to be in play rather than a player. Do you see what I mean? But generally speaking, by the earliest records we have, people are talking about the provinces of Ulster, Conor, Munster, and Lens, the very much as we talk today. How these were formed frankly is just a matter of conjecture that what one assume one has to assume now is successful, dynasties, who simply

expanded and incorporated smaller ones in a familiar process going on everywhere, probably nothing particularly special about that, except in as much as the sense of there being within Ireland. And it's important to say within, within Irish Gaelic culture, differences, is very, very profound. Really, Aeron de Valère's own son, Ruri, who was like the chief archaeologist in Ireland for 20 years. He produces huge survey of the mega-lithing monuments we're talking in the neolithic here,

and he can trace something very, a very strong north-south divide and other south-west east-device right back to the neolithic. It appears there's a really interesting thing. If anyone is right, they could have map of Ireland, which you only want to do here, look at the road from modern Dublin to modern Galway. That goes across what is now known as the Great Central Play. And this was known in the early from the time of the early writings as Esqueria,

“or just simply, honestly, more, the Great Road. And Esqueria, it means the road for the track”

for driving herds along. And this was a gigantic virgin deciduous forest full of bears and wolves and wild boars. And it was very, very difficult to traverse, so we came, it became a north-south border. Very early on, this is really important. And for obvious reasons, perhaps, is not kind of foreground in modern Irish historiography, is that the vision of Ireland into north and south appears to have gone back to the neolithic. It's nothing to do with the Brits. And most of my Irish friends don't know

this at all. But it's there, you can check it out yourself really easily by looking at the four masters and things like that. Every Galway described from the earliest annals right up to the end of Galway culture as a kind of full spectrum culture. In the 17th century, they simply treated as axiomatic. There are two halves in Ireland called Lescouin and Lesmore. Lescouin means the Conns half, and Lesmore means Mox half. And the four masters describe a magical, a magical origin

to this. So, obviously, it was something was well established by the time of the first writings.

And continues to be talked of by every Galway writer right up to the 1630s. And but this is there are these huge divisions within it. And that militates against the construction of a unitary state simply because they have been these well-known universally and knowledge differences within Ireland since literally, whenever, you know. I just think that it's a really interesting point because we have this tendency to think about things in terms of the couglomerations

of nation states as we see them now. There's a natural Ireland, there's a natural England, and really the early medieval period. It is a proof positive that that is true. But we have this modern superstition and you'll find this very, very often. And even that great and wonderful people aren't immune to it, which is this notion that if you propose, for example, that Andrethle Stan knows that how the nation is an English nation state, that's somehow a good thing

because it's somehow stronger. Now, that's not born out at all. Anglers Saxon England was far closer to a modern nation state than say Ireland in 1,000 AD. Anglers Saxon England was entirely destroyed

“by 1075 AD, whereas that's how you know, Gaelic Ireland was actually far more capable of”

resisting, so that a kind of centralised state is actually much easier to decapitate as well. So it's not necessary the best thing to be in terms of your culture surviving, look at someone like Afghanistan. If you know, a conglomeration of tribes, each with a very deep sense of belonging to a general culture, but with their own really tight local loyalties,

is actually the best culture for surviving attack from outside, whereas a calbio, if basically,

in a modern age state, say you reach the capital, you've won, you know.

And the Vikings are very happy to show up in Ireland, you know, as you say, this is an incredibly wealthy sort of place. There is a rather a lot to gain, I suppose, by rating it, but why do they come over to Ireland? Is it just to take advantage of the riches that are there, or is there also, I don't know, a political vacuum of sorts that they're taking advantage of? I think both, I mean, the Vikings go everywhere. If we have to imagine it was a kind of fleet

of people think probing attacks. They go everywhere, as you know, they go right down to Pisa, they burn Paris, the Pisa, Florence of Faces, but they go right down to what's now Kiev, and they're constantly probing like what's in the next river, who's there? Is there anything

“worth stealing or trading with? How tough is resistance here? You know, and that's what,”

now in Ireland, they find great wealth, as you go to the National Museum of Ireland, extraordinary things are the Dairy and a Flan Chalice. Absolutely priceless thing, pounds and pounds of pure gold in them. I work with you buried out of fear of the Vikings. The Vikings knew this stuff was there, because that's what they did. They found out what was there, and they said, "Get it, they took it." The modern thing about the warving, nice peaceful traders, I mean, please, you know,

so, I mean, honestly, so the Irish are shocked by this, because as I said, they've never been

attacked by anyone, including Anglo-Sax, that's really important thing for us to remember, by the way, in terms of the later history of Britain and Ireland. The idea of an ethnic clash, we can put that to bed. There have no Anglo-Sax and Kingdom ever attacked Ireland once. There was one raid in six, eight, four, eighty because one of the royal family of Northern Ireland had actually been educated in Ireland and according to Beed spoke through an Irish, because Ireland had the best

universities in the world of the time, and he got mixed up in Irish domestic politics. It was a raid. That's it. The English, quite ethnic English, whatever the core Anglo-Sax has never interfered with Ireland. The other way around, yes, they're not it that way around. So, the Vikings find a country which is simply not used to being attacked. It's used to warfare among each other, but not to being attacked from abroad. And this does help them out because the initial reaction of

the Irish is not to close ranks and say, kick out the foreigners. The initial reaction of Irish warlords and Irish minor kings and other kings is to say, "Ah, useful. Maybe I can use them against the O'Neill's, or against still Brian's or whatever. Isn't that what happens?" So,

for the first 30 or 40 years, basically they are constricted into Ireland's Indonesian warfare.

“Until their dead, but by, I think it's eight, I'm just like, really my memory now. I think it's”

eight, seven, eight. The animals record for the first time that the kingdoms of the South, Leith, Mover, and Leith, Queen, get together. And the Southern is hand over what's now County Kilkenny to the Northern is to get peace, and then they launch a joint assault on the Vikings, who are this time based entirely in the North. Now, Aido Neal, Aida's Hue in Irish, actually, destroys all the Viking bases in the North of Ireland. Thanks to this piece with the O'Neill's

of the South, and the Vikings are entirely kicked out by 902 AD, which is very, very different or, of course, by now they've taken over half of England in the Daimdor, and settled, and a colonelizing it. They're thrown out and then suddenly really interesting happens, which is the

second wave comes back. But these are different guys, because these are actually, they come from

the Western Isles and the Aida of Man, not directly from Norway. They already speak Gaelic. Now, the Annals call them Gael Gach. They're actually, they are foreign gales, meaning they're foreigners, but they speak Irish. So they're already bilingual, North and Irish, and they fit in much more easily to what's going on. So they're still coming as aggressors, of course. But it's not a kind of full-on culture clash, because they already speak the language. They found all of what

will become Ireland's cities, Limerick, Cork, Wexford, Washford, and they're all in the South this time. Now, we don't really know why, but it may be because their previous generation were all massacred by the Annals in 902 AD, and six dozen heads were broke before King O'Neill, as it says in the things. So they choose to go south this time, whatever reason. And this actually changes the whole of Irish politics. So this is the first time that Leith Mola, the southern half,

once Brian Barou, the great founder of the dynasty of the O'Brien's,

“it means Brian of the cattle tribute. Of course, the cattle vayner is important thing. He manages”

to defeat all the Vikings one by one, pick off their towns, but because partly because they're already gay, speaking, he let some stay on. He doesn't kick them out this time. He let some stay on. So they stay in Washford, and Wexford, Limerick, and Galway, and not Galway, North and Cork, and Limerick, trick trading, and making money, which Brian can now control. I know Irish King

still count their wealth in cattle. I love that so much. But for the first time now, the southern

“kings of Ireland have a way to generate actual money, silver bullion, the Vikings like bullion,”

not coins. And they have a navy, Brian Barou, because he's actually assimilated the Vikings, these semi-foreign gales. He now has a strategic navy, a Viking descent, which he can use and does use to say like the Shannon, and basically kick the shit out of the Norther's for the first time, and it's that, which enables Brian Barou to become the first non-Oneal high king. It's Switzerland, the whole power thing in Ireland has switched, because this is the second generation of Vikings

are being assimilated by the O'Brien's of Munster, and used to grab the high king ship. Can we talk a little bit about the offers of high king? How is this chosen? How does it differ from officers of king that we would see elsewhere in Europe at the time? It seems to me now, this is this again, we're on, it's not dodgy ground, it's just ground people that really know about, now I, but I think having comes with fairly fresh as a non-expert, it's somewhere else helps.

It's struck me towards the end of the book. When you study the way the brown, the brown law operated within tribes, within a tribe, it said any guy descended from the common great grandfather, father to son, anyone of fighting age, which could be dozens of people, was a legitimate successor,

and you were basically, you made your legitimacy real by kind of blinding killing doing away with

or making sub-mitting public, or your male relatives, and then you were crowning kick. That wasn't an exception to the rule, that was the rule, that was the way it was supposed to happen. It really confused Elizabethan's later when they said, "This guy's Shayna Neal, he's like murdering everyone

“to become top of the O'Neal, but that's what you did." That's how it was expected. It didn't”

affect anyone else, of course. It's like a fight in one of the top mafia guys. It doesn't affect the shopkeepers. They're still just playing their tax, you know, when the top mafia guns kill each other to see us the next top cover, it doesn't affect business. It's strictly limited bloodletting among the royal family, so here he is. That happens on a local level. Now, it occurred to me that actually, and that's far as we know, it's a thousands of year-old tradition. And when

it starts to become, when communication starts to get better and the priests are taking news from one promise to another, things start to pull together. They construct something which is basically like a nationwide version of that same thing, because the high kingship is not hereditary. Nor is it limited after Brian Baruch to the O'Neals. So basically, any member of one of the royal families can bid to become high king. And the route you do, this is very like the way you do it

in your own tribe. You would first be established in your own tribe, then you would say if you're on O'Neal Brian, in the south, you would have to make sure you could impose yourself on the other big country in the southern half, Lennster. So you'd have to make sure the Lennster meant also, and then you'd say, "I'm chief of Lethmover. Now I'm going to be high king. I'm bidding for high king." And if you could have forced that against the O'Neals, you would be selected. And then

“then you'd be crowned by everyone's agreement, just like a tribal king would be. But the important”

thing is that when you are deposed or dialed at killed or whatever, any member of any of the royal families in Ireland is then still an eligible king to bid for next high king, just as any grand someone was eligible within the family. So they've constructed this extraordinary extension of brown tribal law to cover the entire country in a kind of, frankly, it's a kind of medieval federalism.

After civil war, regicide and cromwells were public, the monarchy returned, but Britain would never

be the same. I'm Professor Susanne Lipscomb, and this month, or not just the tutors, we're transported back to the age of restoration royalty, from Charles II to Queen Anne and the birth of the Empire. Join me on not just the tutors from history hit, wherever you get your podcasts. [Music] Anne, what I've worked in thinking, that eventually the battle of clon tarf helps in terms of shaping

There's a very well-known song, of course, if everyone who goes to the nice faveners of it, you're willing your Vikings and Brian Baru and kick them back into the water. Unfortunately, this is entirely wrong. Brian Baru is actually the villain of the piece. Brian Baru

is in a lion, because they have his anti-viking alliance first. Now that this north

and south finally get together, and it says, you know, it's explicitly says in the annals, let's mower and let Queen come together and kick the Vikings out. But now is a problem, because there's a standoff, because the prize is the high king ship. You have Brian in the south, and it's got called Malsechnel of the O'Neill in the north, who have a light to kick out the

“Vikings from Dublin, which is the only place not yet assimilated. But the quest is now, right?”

Each one has their own half, whoever gets the Viking, the wealth of Viking Dublin on side is going to be high king. And this, this, this truth is not going to last. And it's Brian who actually breaks it. Brian, let's sit, trick back. Brian brings the Vikings back into Dublin. As to work, as his under kings, which he's been used to doing, of course, with the Vikings in Limerick, and Cork, and having them as his helpers. He's used to dealing with,

but he thinks I can control these guys. And with their wealth, it works. It seems to work. And then he's able to force Malsechnel to give up the high king ship. Without killing him, he's okay, fine, I can't find you plus the Vikings. Do you've broken the deal, but I give in. So Brian

becomes the first high king, not from the O'Neill. It does not last however, because the Vikings

“and the Austamen and the Lestermen all revolt against him. So the story of the battle of the”

Klontaf is not about, you know, a united idol throwing the Vikings out. It's this mad family story, and one hates to use the analogy, but it really is a big game of thronesy, you know, because citric of Dublin, the Viking king of citric, his mother is an Irish princess, who is now married or has married Brian Baruch a seal the deal. She then switches her marriage Malsechnel instead, and at the Battle of Klontaf, basically what seems to happen, which you look carefully

the animals, and don't think about the common story. What looks like how it happens is that Brian Baruch's army comes up from the south. It has to fight the Lestermen before the walls of Dublin with Viking assistance. These two forces more or less wipe each other out. At which point, Malsechnel of the O'Neill, who is notionally there as Brian's secondary command, but has actually just secretly married, Brian's ex-wife behind his back, keeps out of things

till the last minute, at which point he just marches into Dublin with, and his no casualty's mentioned in his army, Brian dies. Brian's son dies, all Brian's main general die, but Malsechnel and citric both live on, and far from being kicked out, the Viking the citric, the king of Dublin, comes back and reigns for a further 26 years, quite happily. So, you know, the legend of Brian Baruch kicking the Vikings out is entirely cackhanded. I'd this will actually be really,

“really important. It's so vital because exactly at this time, so Dublin is now firmly Viking again.”

And we'll be for the next 30 years, 20, 60 years, but forever for the next 100 years. Exactly at this time, England is totally conquered by the Vikings.

A year after the Battle of Planta, basically, two years possibly, depending on when we

rebate the collapse. England is now totally ruled by King Knot of Denmark. It's part of his Scandinavian empire, and he has clearly has a special relationship with Viking Dublin, who are from the same culture as he is. We know that, for example, King Knot goes to Rome in 1028, 1027, sorry. Citric does exactly the same thing a year later and converts to Christianity. He builds the first Christian, because he is the first of the Vikings there in Dublin. We're just still there to this this day,

Christchurch Cathedral, and he sends the first bishop to be consecrated, not in Amar, but in Canterbury, by Knot's Viking English Church of England, Vicka, the archwisher of Canterbury. This is the first time ever in the history of Ireland that anyone in England has claimed to run anything in Ireland. And it's brought him by this relationship between Citric, the King of Dublin, and Knot, the King of England. That's where the trouble starts. If you're indeed, yeah, we're

going to fast forward about a hundred years at this point in time, because you've already mentioned this briefly, but in the 12th century, around about 1169 or so, we start having the invasions of Ireland that are launched from England. And you know, I would argue that this is kind of a normal phenomena, you know, this is what they do, you know, what is causing this to happen? Why do the English suddenly notice that Ireland is over there at this point? What's the first thing if I am a

and incorrectly say the English, this is really funny. We have to, and this is something which

“patriotic English historians kind of just resist even acknowledging, but it's so clearly the historical”

truth, the people who invaded Ireland were entirely French speaking, in some cases French and Welsh speaking, Strongbow and the future Fitzgeralds, they were all Cambrot Normans and called themselves thus, but they did not speak English at all. Henry II did not speak a word of English as far as we

know. He may have had one reference that he may have understood a bit, but he certainly never wrote it,

and there's no record of it speaking. He was French, he wasn't even Norm of God's sake. So, England's elite are 100% French speaking. There are Taken Island, it's really, it's part of the second crusade, really, and like the second crusade in the northern branch of it, it's really driven by climate change, because the medieval warme period or the medieval climate anomaly, as it's sometimes called, is in full swing by now. The climate of Europe is much, it's significantly warmer even than

now, having been colder beforehand. Vines are growing as far as Lester in England. Places like the South of Ireland are now extremely desirable wheat farming places, wheat gives you the highest

“acre, the highest energy per acre, that's why it's always the prime thing people want, compared to”

it's some barley. And the population of all northern Europe expanding, everyone wants new land. The tutonic nights go east to find it, but also there's this thing, South of Ireland, where they have all this cattle and stuff, that could be fantastic wheat country now, they think. And this is the driver, it's economic expansion driven by population expansion, driven by climate change, rather fascinating for our own age. The immediate trigger for it is the church,

because in 1151 Ireland is actually coming very close to being united under the O'Connor Kings of

Conorct, and the Pope sends a legot for the first time officially to Ireland, it's like, okay,

we'll end this fight between the Irish and Roman churches. We're going to reform the Irish church within reason, not the we're not going to force too much, and the other thing is taken away from

“Canterbury, and made it into an archbishop of it. So now the Norman archbishop of Canterbury”

is furious, it's called Theodore DeBec, and he's just been robbed of a sea, a medieval archbishop was not like being robbed of seas. He and his secretary are direct friends, you can do this wonderful link paragraph you wanted to with the greatest influence of the age, some burned of Clairville, who is the guy who inspires the whole second crusade, and some burnered sits down, having failed to convert the Irish church through some Malachi. He found it, they still won't give up their

Celtic ways, and he writes this one of the most seminal texts of the middle of the century called the life of some Malachi, in which he absolutely denounces the Irish as, quote, Christians in name in fact, Pagans, which is, and this is the very same guy, the same man who had just, that year, in fact, sent the Tutonic Knights crusading, saying, "White them out, literally until their nation's or their region is exterminated." And he's now saying the Irish of Pagans, like brackets,

like the Slavs guys, and so the Norman archbishops, who all know him personally, and their

secretaries, they go off to Rome and get the Pope, who is, of course, the first English Pope,

aged in the fourth, the first and only English Pope, to give an invitation to Henry, go get him. The bull Lord of Billetaires, go get them, go get the Irish, force the church, make them change their church into the Roman church at last, and we will bless you as king of the place. And it doesn't happen bizarrely for another 11 years, because Henry of the things too busy. Nothing happens until he gets a get-in, when one of the kings line, King of Lester,

Dermat, MacMara, who decides to cross his the High King, Rory O'Connor, has to flee. And goes to Henry, having helped Henry in English in civil war, yet another Irish in to mention in England, not the other way around. He helped his fleets, help Henry, who's based in Bristol, took to win the throne of England. So he calls in his favor, he's a look, you know, I helped you in your civil war. With the Empress, with your mother, the Empress, and you, I helped you,

fight against King Stephen. Yeah, so come on, now deliver. I'm offering you a country. The Pope's offering it to you, too. I'm telling you, this place is right for the taking, because I'm King of Part of it. In fact, I'm the rightful king, he says. And, vitally, this is also in Jeffrey, Jeffrey, of Momous Arthurian tales. They have no armour. This is a really important part of what's the information trickling out of Ireland, is that the Irish

interested, as I am deeply in military history. What's happened now is that the Normans, if we could

“rewind to the Normans, be tangless, Saxon, England, partly, by check out the details of the”

bird history. It's the first depiction in European art of them using a lance, couchant,

under the arm, with a shield going head on, that's never happened before. It's not the Norway

cavalry fight, in any period of history. The Normans have got this weapon. It's known as the Frankish charge. It shatters whole Muslim armies in the First Crusade, because no one's face is kind of thing before. This is the force, which Derman McMurray now invites to England. Henry still doesn't come, but his Cameroon Norman warlords do, and they have something else. They don't just have the Frankish charge, they have well-slung those. The reason that they became Cameroon

Norman's is that unlike the English, what has to say this, I mean, people don't like it, but the Welsh fought much harder than the English against the Normans. There's no natural barrier, stopping in Norman invasion or south of Wales, but they were held up, largely by a huge Welsh

“victory at Kriegmauer, 1133, where an army bigger than the army at Hastings was white-touching”

tired, including 2000 Norman cavalry apparently. And Geralt of Wales recalls that the long most evil of this stage could, quote, a pin-and-arm at night straight through his armor onto his horse. So the Normans marry the local Welsh elite, unlike an Anglo-Saxon England, their regard was okay, we're going to deal with you. The result is that when they invade Ireland, the Cameroon Norman warlords, the future Fitzgeralds stronger, they can dispose of the most terrifying

shockweapon, military historians, and the most terrifying missile weapon. Of the day, and the Irish

have no chance against it, they've never faced a head-on cavalry charge of armored cavalry,

they've never faced long goes, and now they have to face them both at once, which explains why in the first few battles, it's clearly a shock to them, because the hiking, Rory O'Connor, although he must as against them, he obviously, it's quite clear if he has he avoids a pitched

“battle, because the first few scourishes have shown that these guys have something completely new,”

which the unarmoured Irish foot-saw just have no chance against. Well, how does the invasion then play out? I mean, it would we say that the angevans actually achieve what they were aiming to when they show up? It looks like it's initially, by politics, any of the second is a really clever politician, when he lands at Waterville, he does not go to Dublin, he goes straight to Cacheau, which is the HQ of the Southern

Branch of the Irish Church, it's been split like your Cancanto Bruna on the English model, so the Southern is to hate the Northern as of course, because they're their brim burrows, guys, and he goes straight to them and says, "You know what? I'm only here to do that." He calls a sinner, and says, "I'm only here for the church, and he rolls out this invitation for 155." So that the Pope's invited me for God's sake, I'm not here to take it, I'm just here to kind of,

you know, do the Pope's bidding. The combination of this and the heavy cavalry and the archery is just too much for the hiking Rory O'Connor, he's politically outflanked, and he's outgunned,

and it looks like complete victory, so Henny then just rolls into Dublin, and he basically declares,

"Okay, strong will you get to keep lends to, as your, uh, uh, uh, under me, I keep doubling Wix award for this royal towns, and you guys, you delay see, uh, marshals and people, you take what you can, just like after 1066, go get it, guys, because we've won." That's where it looks like, and he heads off again in a straight way, leaving Ireland by grants of conquest to people like the Delacis, meaning they can just basically get, if they get it,

it's theirs, says Henny the second. They quite clearly expect to walk over with, this is what what's really fascinating, is it doesn't happen in Ireland, totally unlike Anglo-Saxon England, because even though he's been badly hurt, the hiking Rory O'Connor is able to regroup, very spectacularly, and two years later, 1173, he's able to destroy the Delacis big grace at trim, and he goes then goes down south to Thirlers, where he makes an alliance with the

southerners, and actually stops strong going south at the Battle of Thirlers. So suddenly, it's all changed, this is not Anglo-Saxon, hold on, this society is able to survive in the way Anglo-Saxon wasn't, and Henny then does this really interesting change, because as a politician, he's, as you, as you said right at the beginning, he's not interested in modern ideas of national to ethnicity at all, he runs theinge of an empire, which has all sorts of people and languages in it.

As far as he can see, suddenly, the strong-minded island is Rory O'Connor. So he calls Rory's envoy over, and they have the Treaty of Westminster of 1175, he says, "Look, okay, you're the tough guy now, so I'm going to control Dublin and Lester at a strip down to Dungavan,

and it could have been. Unfortunately, that this isn't, Rory doesn't even understand how to

“know that he's actually up against someone totally new here, even now. And what he does with this,”

he tries to use the Normans in his own battle to kill the southerners and force monster into submission. Chaos in the series, the Henry thinks, geez, I've got the wrong horse, and he declares a direct family rule. Okay, I'm rude, he tears up, he tears the thing up, and says, "Right now, my son, John, is Lord of Ireland, instead now." So you've had your chance. It's a really, it's an equetic, extraordinary moment, where you can see an entire alternative history, where

Gaelicine is ruled by Gaelicine as part of the Andrew in Empire, but preserving its own identity.

Unfortunately, he can't Rory O'Connor's not up to really seeing just how powerful the Normans are,

and how much he cannot use some just like he used to use the Vikings, you know.

“After civil war, Regicide and Cromwell's Republic, the monarchy returned, but Britain would never”

be the same. I'm Professor Susanne Lipskum, and this month, or not just the tutors, we're transported back to the age of restoration royalty, from Charles II to Queen Anne and the birth of the Empire. Join me on not just the tutors from History Hit, wherever you get your podcasts. [Music] Well, you've mentioned it already. You know, this comes then under the allspaces of our good friend John

Lackland, which I still find it very funny to call John the first that. But what does this new

situation mean for the Irish? I mean, is this new more direct edge of an role, particularly fugitive, would you say? It becomes absolutely a watershed. John at first tries to make the iconic kings of Conoch the New and New kings of Elster into Vassels. It does not work. They refuse to give in their sons as hostages, which given what John does to hostages is actually a really good move on their part. But they refuse to do it. So what he does is he switches everything around,

but he has a huge big castle built in Dublin. And he says that from now on, it's what we would nowadays say law fair instead of warfare. He says, okay, I can't you're not surrendering to me. I can't beat you. So from now on, all law in Ireland is English law. Irish law just does not count as law. Anyone who does not use English law is automatically an outlaw. And this is really a really fascinating change because it's a festival of Bartlett,

of St Andrews, has said this. It's a complete clash of laws, which you find nowhere else in Europe. It's the most extreme clash more extreme even than in the way I'd Spain or on the marches of Saipode and in Germany, in the southern Germans. It's absolute 100% law clash here. And the reason's quite fascinating is because everywhere else in Europe, all the law is a churchmen. And all their laws are derived from Roman law books, Justin's code and so forth. Now bizarrely,

Normans and Irish are outliers here, because Breton law and what we now call the English common law which is a normal invention are actually just codifications of National custom. That's all they are. They're not derived from any philosophy or any silly codes at all. So when John says that that English law, IE, Norman Common Law is the law in Ireland. You now have a situation where you

have two systems of law in collision, which are both basically just laymen, not churchmen, laymen,

with records of their National Customs. There's nothing to discuss. I say to you, my National Customs says this, and you say, well, tough, my National Customs says this. It's a complete clash.

“And that's what really sets the fault line in Ireland, the rest of the medieval period.”

I think this is a really important point. This is the sort of things that historians love. We love a little bit of a legal clash because it gives us great records. But it is this really interesting point. There is a phrase that is often used very specifically within the same kind of law fair in essentially European context where people will refer to the old and customary law. And which is almost a legal formulation that you bring up. And I think that especially

looking, I suppose, at the earlier English kings, as just lawyers, actually. There's some people who

“have got a lot of cows, and they're really, really good at making legal arguments. This is a huge”

blow to the way that people live their lives and see government as working, I suppose. Yeah, I mean, you cannot use the law which you've been using for that by now, nearly 4,000 years. Let's say, over in Ireland, any more without being automatically a criminal, then there is no place for this law anymore. The one thing that we do have to remember, again, to get away from these modern conceptions is it's called the English colon law. It's

confusing. And we have to be very careful here. The people doing this called themselves "Lays on Glee." But in French, that meant the other ones are called "Lays from seas" in Norman French. What it meant was people loyal to King John essentially, people loyal to the Throne of England as opposed to the Throne of France, but they're all speaking French. So when you read the word "Lays in Glee," it doesn't mean ethnic English. It means French speakers

“loyal to the Throne of England. That's why it's in French, okay? It's a no-brainer, really.”

We think about it, but we're so used to see things in kind of es de nationalism. It's hard to

say, one of the things I always, the killer, the killer bit, but I've always shown to my Irish friends,

in 1265 William Marshall fortifies his new port, which is, but you're rival to the royal port of Waterford, they're called New Ross. And he builds a beautiful sector walls, which is still there. Sadly ignored largely by the population, but it's still there, and a poem is written to celebrate this. And that poem is in French, because their poet begins by saying, "I'm using the language, everyone will understand, because if you don't understand it,

it's not worth a clove of garlic." Which is lish. You can't get any more French than this. So the guy, this is a hundred years after Henry II has come in. The people who are doing the conquering, still speak French. They, they, all the bosses speak French. There is almost no record of ethnic English people in Ireland. There's not one single word of English from Ireland in the whole 13th century. Or not even from Dublin, where if anything, most of them are Dublin and

wexford, they're probably, there are people there, we think. But in terms of numbers, it's really,

really small, and they are of no social account. As they are not in England, still, that's what we always

forget. And this, I think, accounts for something really fascinating and strained, which really puzzled the crowd at the time. Is it in the Dublin Parliament of 1297, which is the first kind of properly constitutive modern-style Parliament? We have the records a bit wonderfully. And they are complaining that the Irish-y getting bolder and bold. It's like Tolkien, and the minds of Maria. You know, they're coming closer and closer. We can't hold them back.

The roads are getting overgrown. And, quote, the English also being degenerate in these times, are adopting Irish clothes, cutting their hair like Irish and going Irish. And at first,

“this is really weird. Why would they be doing that? But then, can you remember that these people”

in England were second-class citizens? When they're enticed over to Ireland by then, not by their French-speaking landals, they are still second-class citizens to their French-speaking landlords. But just across the river, just across the real grand-day, just across the state line, there is Gayly Crumbunk's Shes Freedom. And it seems as though, it's bizarre as it sounds to us, that the Irish were ready to accept these dissertes, because the same Dublin Parliament records.

I said, "This is why it often happens that people who are actually English get mistaken for the Irish by us and killed by the authorities, because they gone completely ice, and it seems being accepted by the Irish." If you cut your hair right, the language, why not? And for the English, why wouldn't you rather be a free Irish tribesman than the second-class Saxum peasant? Which, as Gerald of Wales, is the Attitude's best summed up by Gerald of Wales, the great poet

of King John's Invasion. The English are the most wretched nation in heaven, mere slaves of the Normans in their own country. But in Ireland, they have right across the fence, an alternative culture, which, if they can marry into it or whatever, and it appears they can. So from 1297, it's really, and I didn't do nothing about this for a British book. But from 1297 onwards, rights up to some of the penal laws in the late 70th century,

this word is used degenerate, King James uses it, Cromwell's Underlings use it.

The same word, always, Elizabethians use it all the time. It means the common English turning Irish.

You know, nothing could be further away, ladies and gentlemen, from this fantasy of an SNU nationalist collision. Yeah, please get that into our heads.

when you have this form of quote unquote degeneracy,

“but that the English settlers are succumbing to, it also shows that there is a kind of vibrant”

Irish culture that's still happening. This is an alternative to what is being offered within the Norman legal districts. Now, absolutely. And the the best and like recommend any of your listeners to get, you can find easily yourself in online look for some early early early Irish stats you've already ever. The statues of Kilkenny, wonderful. It's such fun and sort of a revelation to read them. This is not actually an anti Irish law. The whole point of the statues of Kilkenny is to stop

the English inhabitants of the only 10 counties which still obey the King. I can't list the

very come off the very, but it's space in the southeast. To stop them turning Irish, it's

there in black and white. It says, it says, you know, it is a greed and told that no Englishman can marry an Irishman. He cannot call himself O' or Mac. He cannot bring in Irish

“singers into his house. And this best with his, he cannot play early. It says, they cannot play”

the gaming men call her early. So they obviously are, right? It's extraordinary. And the most mad thing about it all is, of course, it's all in French. So the English settlers of 1366 are being ordered in French to stop becoming Irish. You couldn't want it. It would be such a fantastic trialing your TV drama. I want to write the series. You know, they're marrying the Irish, they're actually forbidden because the Kilkenny statues say, don't do this. He says,

when you please stop calling new coming, Englishman English dogs, and this is the dress to the English. The vibrancy is, it's clear. It's, it's, it's winning. This is the thing, and this is the big takeaway, the people forget. So easily, it's not just resisting. This thing called the gaelic revival, which starts earlier than most people think it starts around 1250, 1260. By now, it is clearly winning. You have the royal authorities by 1385,

writing to King Richard saying, we are screwed here. Unless our Lord, the King, come in person, this colony is finished. The Irish, our complete gaelic art is absolutely winning. A this stage is a complete comeback. That's my family from Kilkenny. So, you know, if you told me that I couldn't enjoy the sport of hurling, well, I would rather die. Thank you. Okay, not good enough. Okay, let's kind of get from creeping towards the end of the medieval period.

When we hit the 15th century, Ireland has a really outside role in diagnostic politics that are happening over in England, right? Like, in during the reigns of Richard II and Henry VI, why is that? Well, it's one of the things that, and this is something I really want the listeners to get in their heads, and it's so easy to forget, because we tend to think in the light of now. Throughout the whole medieval period, right up to the active union, right up to the

famine indeed, the population of Ireland is approximately half that of England. And nothing like

the power relations now. Ireland is much bigger than Scotland and Wales. It's much more powerful.

It's much more worth conquering for tax. That's the whole route of it. It's more like England now trying to control the country, the size of Poland. So we tend to think of Ireland being like a tense, the size of yourself. It's not at all. It's a big powerful country when King John tries to escape his parents by giving the pope control of both his kingdoms. A third of all the money is supposed to come from Ireland. So Ireland is regarded as a proximity half, the kind of

GDP, power, military of England. And this is really important. It accounts for why it's able, as you rightly said, this is fascinating. Like, it actually defines the war the roses in many many respects. Now, anyone has rich Shakespeare will know what is the approximate cause of

“rich of the second's fall. It is the fact he's stuck in Ireland. That's what enables Henry”

Bollingbroke to do it. It's in shape. He comes back from Ireland and it's too late. And he's stuck in Ireland because he had to go there because his heir, his appointed heir, the heir of March, Richard Mortimer, was killed even in supposedly loyal County Carlo. So the whole colonist collapsing if Richard who's now trying to be kind of a dictator, if we're in Britain with another bad Parliament or a kind of thing, he has got to maintain his personal rule. He has to go to Ireland

because his heir has just been killed. If he can't control it and he comes back with telloting his legs and that's the end of it. So Ireland actually sparks off the wars of the roses. And it interferes germanely in them. One of the, to my astonish at least known bits as a whole story of Ireland in England is that in 1459 and again in 1487, wait for it, the Irish invade England. They invade England

the Yorkers to buy their support have guess what, recognized Irish independence. The declaration of the

“Irish Parliament, 1461 under Richard of York, that's not just home rule. It says it's free. And”

it's so free that Henry VI sends an envoy to Dublin and says, "Hand over Richard of York." He's a traitor and draw they do. They hang draw on court with a messenger instead as a traitor to the hatfire of dubbing. Unlike messenger, but it goes to show how completely independent the Irish felt by then. So they invade England to make sure the House of York wins in that, so that their independence will be recognized. It's such a little stuff. And again, we know

despite Shakespeare writes about it for God's sake. I could quote it by memory now. You know, the Duke of York is newly come from Ireland. And with a prison and a mighty power of galoglasses and stoutcurns is marching, heatherwood, didn't proud array. The Irish, after menacing England, this is such a turn around to a whole thing about this kind of eight-chundered years of a small

“country fighting a gigantic neighborhood. No, no, no, no. You have a very powerful, small, a powerful,”

small country, only half the size of England, which is constant interfering in England. I'm actually invading it twice in the late States in full culture. Well, crazy towards the end of the medieval period here, how far can we say the crown in England controls Ireland, say at the ends of the century or around the 1490s? Is this really a place that the English crown has control of, or are we looking at something entirely different? It controls it precisely as far as the modern

told point to Killcock on the motorway after Dublin, Westwoods. Right, and to one of my favorite things, people in Dublin, and I often say Dublin is like a kind of different world. And the motorway told point to Killcock is where most people think the probably price is Dublin prices, stopping, et cetera. It is literally on the border, which was a hard border by now. The 1488 Parliament orders in desperation that the English crown has been telling the things that the statues of Killkennet

has been ordering at subjects not to become Irish for the last 300 years. It's not working. By now, the crown only controls essentially the greater Dublin commuter area of today. Almost exactly, it's quite extraordinary how accurate that is in fact. And it's saying, okay, that's okay, it's not enough for us to order you to. We're going to build a hard border. And pointing this Parliament orders the construction of a bank and double ditch at least six feet tall all around this area.

It can keep it in there are four simple places. The crown rule in Ireland is reduced, as they too, literally, the modern area where Dublin transport runs and no further than that. By the 4090s, and it's still shrinking in 1517 as a deputation of the kind of good loyal burgers of Dublin. Dublin has done lightly saying this, but the structure is waiting. Dublin is not only the crown

“HQ, but when the Scots invaded 1317, and again, in any minute, now in 1535, it is the only thing”

holding out for the crowd. You're a bunch of Brits. You know, it's like kind of things are done. Which is why you're like football. So, um, it's only the loyalist of Dublin, but Pouchy Fidelis at Maxim E. Dublin says there's a Latin court has put it who saved the colony. And they are even, by 1517, they are complaining to the same bit, the wall's not working. The Irish language is taking over even here within this fortify wall. As we come to the end of the medieval period, you

would bet that English rule in Ireland is about to be extinguished. The Earl of Kilder, the Lord

left hand, is basically running it entirely as if he owns the place. He's only paying taxes to

Henry VII's, and even the young Henry VIII, without account, as it was called. He means what it says. He just ships enough gold to keep Henry VIII, the young Henry happy. Another way is he does whatever the hell he wants. He's basically acting as King of Ireland. And the annals of the period, maybe by favorite entry in all the annals of the Four Masters, check it out, ladies and gentlemen. It's for 1504. It's a huge battle between the Earl of Kilder and his rivals, within Ireland.

And there is not, when the annalist rights system in 1504, it could be 704. There is no mention of any King of anyone being assassin or a foreigner or author that it says, "Let's Queen,

beat Sleph Mulder." It's literally like the crown has never arrived. The comeback is almost complete.

Oh my god, and then we have the Reformation. But that's another story. Right? So that's too tantalizing. Because I think you've argued in others'

in the same vein and not necessarily come to the attention so much of the English crap.

“Absolutely not. I mean, if we can just ship slightly into the early modern period, let's say we're”

still kind of medieval. One of the proudest things I've ever seen, because I'm not a professional

historian. So the first taste of looking Denmark and a professor from Harvard said, "I wish to

hell, I'd seen that before I wrote my book on the British Empire." And it's this. We know what the records, which you can look up, ladies and gentlemen, the previous council records. I love this,

“because it's the timeline. We love the timeline history, right? First of May, 1546. The previous”

council records say, "You know, this French Empire, we've been going for 5 years, it's finished. We have to clear out of a balloon, we've been trying to call it, we're done with France. Calate maybe for the last 10 years, we're done. 500 years of foreign policy ends." Four days later, the previous council writes to the previous council of Ireland saying, "The king requires you in your own hand to answer how this realm may best be run to his

prophet and honour." In other words, Henry VIII has been England, the Crown, has finally been

kicked out of Europe and immediately turns on his one other realm, which is Ireland. And it's in air in the documents, it's four days that kind of changed the world. This is the change of English foreign policy away from Europe into fest the archipelago and then, well, go west, you know.

James, what an incredible journey through several centuries of Irish history. Thank you so

so much for coming on to talk to me about one of the most interesting kingdoms in medieval Europe. It really is, and thank you so much for having me. Thank you once again to James for joining me, and thank you for listening to Gomedieval from history ahead.

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