Colonisation And Conquest In Medieval Ireland

This book examines the development of English colonial society in the eastern coastal area of Ireland now known as county Louth, in the period 1170-1330. At its heart is the story of two relationships: that between settler and native in Louth, and that between the settlers and England. An important part of the story is the comparison with parts of Britain which witnessed similar English colonization. Fifty years before the arrival of the English, Louth was incorporated into the Irish kingdom of Airgialla, experiencing rapid change in the political and ecclesiastical spheres under its dynamic ruler Donnchad Ua Cerbaill. The impact of this legacy on English settlement is given due prominence. The book also explores the reasons why well-to-do members of local society in the West Midlands of England in the reigns of Henry II and his sons were prepared to become involved in the Irish adventure.

First published in 1923, this formative history of Ireland is an extensive study of the period from 1086 – 1513. Beginning with the O’Brien High Kinship, Edmund Curtis takes us through the Anglo-Norman conquest and its sequel, ending with the death of Gerald ‘the Great Earl’ of Kildare in 1513, a date when the second English conquest of Ireland (the ‘Tudor Reconquest’) became imminent. This is a reissue of a definitive landmark study of Irish history by one of greatest Irish historians of the twentieth century.

No part of Ireland was unaffected by the military and political activities of the Anglo-Normans, who upset existing power-structures and faced Irish rulers with complex pressures and choices. This book examines the processes of conquest and colonization.

In this collections of essays Robin Frame concentrates upon two themes: the place of the Lordship of Ireland within the Plantagenet state; an the interaction of settler society and English government in the culturally hybrid frontier world of later medieval Ireland itself. As a prelude of both these themes, "Ireland and Britain, 1170-1450" begins with a discussion of why 'the first English conquest of Ireland' has been viewed as a 'failure'. The first group of essays addresses such topics as the changing character of the aristocratic networks that bound Ireland to Britain; the impact of the Scottish invasion led by Edward and Robert Bruce in the early fourteenth century; the identity of the 'English' political community that emerged in Ireland by the reign of Edward III; and the case for a broadly conceived English history, incorporating rather than excluding the English of Ireland. The subsequent group explore the character of Irish warfare, the adaptation of English institutions to a marcher environment; the exercise of power by regional magnates; and the complex practical interactions between royal government and Gaelic Irish leaders.

First published in 1923, this formative history of Ireland is an extensive study of the period from 1086 – 1513. Beginning with the O’Brien High Kinship, Edmund Curtis takes us through the Anglo-Norman conquest and its sequel, ending with the death of Gerald ‘the Great Earl’ of Kildare in 1513, a date when the second English conquest of Ireland (the ‘Tudor Reconquest’) became imminent. This is a reissue of a definitive landmark study of Irish history by one of greatest Irish historians of the twentieth century.

This provocative book shows that Europe in the Middle Ages was as much a product of a process of conquest and colonization as it was later a colonizer. "Will be of great interest to. . . . (those) interested in cultural transformation, colonialism, racism, the Crusades, or holy wars in general. . . ".--William C. Jordan, Princeton University. 12 halftones, 12 maps, 6 diagrams.

Discussion of medieval European expansion tends to focus on expansion eastward and the crusades. The selection of studies reprinted here, however, focuses on the other end of Eurasia, where dwelled the warlike Celts, and beyond whom lay the north seas and the awesome Atlantic Ocean, formidable obstacles to expansion westward. This volume looks first at the legacy of the Viking expansion which had briefly created a network stretching across the sea from Britain and Ireland to North America, and had demonstrated that the Atlantic could be crossed and land reached. The next sections deal with the English expansion in the western and northern British Isles. In the 12th century the Normans began the process of subjugating the Celts, thus inaugurating for the English an experience which was to prove crucial when colonizing the Americas in the 17th century. Medieval Ireland in particular served as a laboratory for the development of imperial institutions, attitudes, and ideologies that shaped the creation of the British Empire and served as a staging area for further expansion westward.