Strongbow and the Norman Invasion of Ireland

In a bitter irony, Irish history has more often than not been shaped by actions geared towards results much different than those ultimately achieved. For example, it is unlikely that those involved in the 1607 Flight of the Earls understood their bid for mainland Europe as the beginning of the end for the old Gaelic order. It is just as unlikely that, in 1835, Lord Lorton of Co. Longford could have known that the unfair evictions of his Irish tenants would give birth to the infamous Molly Maguire secret society. The 12th century Norman invasion of Ireland is no different.

In May 1169, the ousted King of Leinster, Diarmaid Mac Murchada, invited Norman mercenaries to join him in Co. Wexford. He believed they would win him back his kingdom. Instead, he triggered the beginning of over 800 years of direct English involvement in Ireland.

But let’s contextualize for a moment. In 12th century Gaelic Ireland, the country was made up of several primary kingdoms, each of which was itself composed of smaller, lesser kingdoms. At the top of the hierarchy was the High King, who did not rule Ireland as a whole, but worked to maintain peace and received tributes from the lesser monarchs. The country’s five top port towns, Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, and the all-important Wexford, were populated by Norse-Irish and had their own rulers. The High King was a powerfully-coveted title, hard-won by its holder through displays of wartime cunning and strength. This, of course, meant that at any given time, a High King of Ireland had more than his fair share of enemies, and an act betrayal was never far off the cards.

ENGLISH ALLIES

A depiction of Diarmaid Mac Murrough found in the margins of Giraldus Cambrensis's Expugnatio Hibernica, 1189. Mac Morrough allied with King Henry II in an attempt to regain his Irish crown.

The High King of Ireland in 1166 was Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair (Angelicized by some today as Rory O’Connor), of the province of Connacht. He had an ally in Tigernán Ua Ruairc (Tiernan O’Rourke), the King of Breffny (an ancient region now comprised of counties Leitrim and Cavan, along with parts of Sligo). Together, the two of them conspired to join their armies and lead a coalition against Mac Murchada, King of Leinster, in order to lay claim to his land. In this venture, they were successful, granting him only the mercy of retained lordship over his home territory, Uí Ceinnselaig.

Enraged and humiliated, Diarmaid fled Ireland, heading to England in order to ask King Henry II for aid in regaining his territory. However, the King’s response was a loaded one: Diarmaid could have permission to recruit English mercenaries and the full support of the Crown in his endeavor, but would be first required to swear his allegiance to England. Diarmaid accepted the King’s terms, and was introduced to the men who would ensure his success upon arrival back in Ireland. There was Richard de Clare, a dispossessed English nobleman often referred to as Strongbow; Robert FitzStephen, a Cambro-Norman soldier; Maurice FitzGerald, a Cambro-Norman baron; and Maurice de Prendergast, a Norman knight from Wales. In return for their assistance, Diarmaid promised Strongbow the hand of his daughter, Aífe, in marriage, as well as the kingdom of Leinster after his own passing, and swore that FitzStephen and FitzGerald would have rulership of the town of Wexford. Under Irish law, it would transpire, Diarmaid had no right to do any of this.

THE NORMAN INVASION OF IRELAND BEGINS 

A stone carving of Rory O'Connor at Cong Abbey, Co. Mayo. (Clint Malpaso / Wikimedia Commons)

Satisfied that he had secured the allegiance of the Crown, Diarmaid returned back to Ireland in 1167 to await the arrival of his promised mercenaries. And arrive they did: on May 1, 1169, FitzStephen and Prendergast sailed into Bannow Bay, Co. Wexford. In their wake came a minimum of 40 knights, 60 men at arms, and 360 archers. These numbers joined the some 500 men of Diarmaid’s own army. In the name of the reclamation of Leinster, the bloodshed began.

Wexford fell to the Norman forces after two relentless days. The territories further to the north of Leinster held out longer, although soon the raiding and pillaging became too much for them, too. The situation was fraught until, finally, the High King Ruaidrí acted, leading his own gigantic army from Connacht to Leinster in order to meet Diarmaid’s forces head on. Along the way, they were joined in support by soldiers from Breffny, Meath, and Dublin, all lead by their own respective kings. The two groups met at Ferns, Co. Wexford, where an agreement was reached: Diarmaid would be restored as the King of Leinster if he promised to dismiss his Norman allies for good, as well as submit to Ruaidrí as his superior. Diarmaid agreed, but his reputation had been so tarnished that his word alone wasn’t good enough—he was forced to hand over hostages to Ruaidrí to ensure compliance, one of which was his own young son.

But hostages or no hostages, Diarmaid’s ambition refused to be snuffed out so easily. He was by now determined to take the role of High King of Ireland. It wasn’t long after the deal made at Ferns that he beseeched his former comrade in arms, Maurice FitzGerald, to return to Wexford; and FitzGerald, it seemed, was more than up for the challenge. He brought with him 10 knights, 30 mounted archers, and 100 archers on foot. In a display of savagery and defiance, Diarmaid and the Norman forces marched to Dublin and laid waste to the settlement’s outskirts.

STRONGBOW ARRIVES

The seal of Richard de Clare, also known as Strongbow, who led the Norman invasion of Ireland. (Wikimedia Commons)

Meanwhile, across the sea, Strongbow was also working in his own interest. By 1170, he had secured financial funding for an invasion on Ireland from a wealthy Jewish merchant, and ordered a large advance guard to dock in Bannow Bay. They began to plunder the countryside, but were set upon by a much larger army of Irish and Norse locals. However, Strongbow’s men managed to drive a frantic herd of cattle into their assailants. Chaos ensued, and over 500 Irish and Norse fighters were killed. The hostages didn’t last much longer.

On August 23, Strongbow himself landed with an astoundingly large army of 1,200 men. Joining with his pre-existing force in Waterford, they attacked the county, some battles even spreading to village streets, which saw upwards of 700 non-soldiers killed. Diarmaid and his own men soon joined the group, and shortly after, Diarmaid made good in overseeing the marriage of Strongbow and his daughter, Aífe.

After a council of war, Diarmaid and Strongbow concurred that the time had come to take Dublin. Though the High King deployed massive forces to prevent their entry, Diarmaid and the Normans bypassed them entirely by traveling around through the Wicklow Mountains. The sieges of the greater Dublin area that followed were vicious. Monastic settlements such as Clonard and Kells were burned and ferociously raided. In response to the extent of these violations of the agreement from Ferns, High King Ruaidrí was left with no choice but to execute the hostages he had taken from Diarmaid, including the man’s own son.

In light of what had happened to Diarmaid’s child, it is perhaps a strange poetic justice that in May 1171, he returned to Ferns, where he had handed him over to the High King, and died suddenly. As per his agreement with Diarmaid in England, Strongbow thus took the title of King of Leinster. However, by Irish law, Diarmaid had been in no position to make such promises—a fact Strongbow learned when Diarmaid’s brother, Murchad, contested his right to kingship. Norman aid, it appeared, had only been appreciated by Diarmaid’s allies while the man himself headed the campaign, and now that he was gone, the waters began to look all the more troubled.

An attempt by the exiled king of Dublin to re-take his city was thwarted, and he was publicly executed by Norman forces. The High King led an army (made up of troops hailing from most of the Irish kingdoms) to encircle Dublin, and a Norse-Gaelic fleet blocked out the horizon on Dublin Bay. At last, the Normans appeared to be overwhelmed. The siege of Dublin lasted for two months, with the Irish seemingly intent on starving out the invading army.

Strongbow and his men were forced to enter into negotiations, and offered up the suggestion that, should Ruaidrí allow them to keep the land they had conquered, they would be content to submit to him as their High King. Ruaidrí countered that he would give them Dublin, Wexford, and Waterford only. This wasn’t enough for the Normans, and they expressed it by sending launching a surprise attack on the High King’s camp in Castleknock. In the peaceful dead of knight, the Normans managed to surprise and kill hundreds of Ruaidrí’s men, and, following the shock of this defeat, the Irish forces withdrew.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST

King Henry II as depicted in a 17th century English painting by an unknown artist. (National Portrait Gallery / Wikimedia Commons)

In 1171, King Henry II decided to step in on the situation in Ireland, wishing to bring both the Norman invaders and the native Irish under control. There are some who say he was inspired by Strongbow’s actions until this point, though the 12th century English historian William of Newburgh described it, Henry “wanted to have the glory of such a famous conquest” for himself. That October, he landed in Waterford with an army of about 4,500 men. This was the very first time an English monarch had ever set foot on Irish soil, and marked the beginning of 800 years of English (and, later, British) rule on the island.

The Norman forces were quick to hand their surrendered land over to the King, and he declared Dublin, Waterford, and Wexford to be land now owned by the Crown. A total of 15 kings gave in to Henry II’s demands, likely in the hope that doing so would prevent further loss of life to conflict with the Normans. Ruaidrí refused, effectively becoming the first of many public figures would would refuse to bow down to Ireland’s English occupants over the next 800 years.

The immediate aftermath of the Norman invasion of Ireland was the significant loss of lands held by native Irish (in green). (Edouard Rainaut)

But it wouldn’t last. On October 6, 1175, Henry II and Ruaidrí signed the Treaty of Windsor in Windsor, Berkshire, an agreement that left Ruaidrí as High King of all of Ireland but the province of Leinster, provided that he swore his loyalty to the King, and paid fealty to him. The position Ruaidrí found himself in darkly echoed that of Diarmaid of Leinster from so many years before, and, like Diarmaid, he agreed. However, the Treaty’s effects didn’t last long. Henry was either unable or unwilling to reign in the Anglo-Norman lords, and Ruaidrí proved powerless in keeping the Irish kings in check. Conflicts resumed and raged, and when Strongbow died the following year, Henry appointed William FitzAldem as his new stand-in in Ireland. Less than twelve months later, he was replaced by Hugh de Lacy.

King Henry II held a a council at Oxford in May 1177 in an effort to establish a new policy towards Ireland. Declaring his ten-year-old son as the new Lord of Ireland, he claimed that he would become king of all Ireland by the time he came of age. Thus, the territory held by the Anglo-Normans became the Lordship of Ireland, and Henry encouraged the invaders to capture more territory within it. Over the following months, their conquests would continue to pile up, slowly paving the way towards an Ireland that would eventually be completely under English rule and influence. And, as we all know, the passage back to freedom would be a thorny one.