Ireland (8 page)

MacMurrough travelled to Wales where some Norman knights agreed to fight for him, one of whom was Richard Fitzgilbert de Clare. He was an expert with the longbow, a powerful weapon at the time, and was also known by the nickname ‘Strongbow’. He had been the Earl of Pembroke, but had lost his lands when he took sides against King Henry II in one of the many disputes that arose over who should be king of England. Strongbow was anxious to regain land and power, and saw his opportunity. He was also an ambitious man who wanted to be a king in his own right. He made a bargain with Dermot that if he could marry Dermot’s eldest daughter, Aoife, and become king of Leinster on Dermot’s death, he would be willing to help.

Dermot, desperate to have revenge on his enemies and regain his kingdom, agreed to this. It was a terrible decision for Ireland and would lead to 800 years of strife in the country. Even yet the effects of that decision can be seen in the division of the country into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Dermot sailed for Ireland with some Norman knights, and at first had some success in battle. Eventually, Rory O’Connor and his allies defeated Dermot and his Norman knights, but now Rory made a serious mistake. Instead of driving Dermot and the Normans from Ireland, Rory forgave Dermot and allowed him to be king of part of Leinster. Dermot, instead of being thankful, became more determined to regain the whole of Leinster, and sought more help from the Normans in Wales. In May 1169, a Norman force landed at Bannow Bay, County Wexford. They marched on Wexford and captured the town. MacMurrough joined them, still determined to win back the kingship of all Leinster, but as yet he did not have enough men.

This problem was partly solved in the spring of 1170 when Raymond le Gros, landed in Waterford with a large Norman force. Strongbow then arrived in August 1170 with 200 Norman knights and 1,000 soldiers. Joined by MacMurrough’s forces and those of Raymond le Gros, they marched on Waterford. The citizens fought bravely, but eventually the city was captured. Here, as promised, Strongbow married Dermot’s daughter, Aoife, thus ensuring that the Norman knight would become king of Leinster when Dermot died.

The Normans were very good soldiers. The knights wore suits of chain-mail armour and iron helmets and carried great swords or maces. The armour was so heavy that they would not have been able to walk very well while wearing it, and so they rode horses, which were also protected with armour. They must have made a terrific din as they rode along with all that metal clinking and clanking. Accompanying them were archers on foot who were experts with longbows. The longbow was so powerful that its arrows could travel an enormous distance and still kill an enemy. It’s said that when the archers released a shower of arrows you could hear them hiss as they flew threw the air, and that a shower of them could block out the sun. The Irish were not used to fighting such soldiers, which is why they were so quickly and easily defeated.

Strongbow, determined to secure his kingdom, now marched on Dublin, the most important Irish city. He captured the city, which was then in turn besieged by Rory O’Connor and his forces. After two months, Strongbow’s forces rushed out and attacked the besiegers. Rory O’Connor was swimming in the River Liffey at the time, and was not expecting such an attack. He and his soldiers were caught by surprise and defeated. Strongbow now held all of Leinster and when Dermot MacMurrough died in 1171, Strongbow became king of Leinster. With his superior Norman knights to fight for him, he was now the most powerful man in Ireland.

This situation worried Henry II, who feared that Strongbow would become king of Ireland, and threaten his own rule in England. Henry decided to sail to Ireland and claim the country for himself. He landed in Waterford in October 1171 with an army so powerful that even Strongbow dared not oppose him. Instead, Strongbow and most Irish kings pledged loyalty to Henry, who now claimed Ireland as part of his kingdom, declaring himself Lord of Ireland. It was another momentous event in Irish history. Because of it, today, 850 years later, an English monarch still reigns over the six counties of Northern Ireland.

Before Henry II sailed from Ireland he granted some Irish lands to his Norman kinsfolk. This caused anger and resentment among those native Irish who lost their lands, and brought them into conflict with the Normans. Henry left John de Courcy in Ireland to conquer the northern part of the country, whose kings had not pledged loyalty to him. De Courcy marched north with his army and captured Downpatrick, the main Ulster stronghold. To defend the territory, he needed a secure base and built a Norman castle at Dundrum, County Down.

These first Norman castles were not built of stone. Instead, a wooden structure was built on a hilltop, or mound, called a motte. Here, the inhabitants could take shelter from their enemies. Below the mound a structure called a bailey was built. This was an area surrounded by a wooden palisade fence within which houses were built, and cattle and other animals and food and supplies kept safe.

Over the next 200 years the Normans captured more and more Irish land. Their success was often due to the fact that the Irish kings were always fighting among themselves. They even sided with the Normans against their own countrymen. Much of Leinster, Munster and Connacht came under Norman control. The Normans built great stone castles to defend their conquests and we can still see them today in the Irish countryside. These castles were built at Dublin, Kilkenny, Limerick, Carrickfergus in County Antrim, Trim in County Meath and at many other locations.

The Normans also developed the towns, which had been founded by the Vikings. Later they built great medieval cathedrals and introduced a number of religious orders to Ireland, like the Dominicans and the Franciscans. They also introduced the feudal system of land ownership, which was common in England and Europe. Under this system, the lord owned the land and protected the people who worked for him. They, in turn, owed complete allegiance to their master, and had to fight for him when necessary.

Over time, friendships and alliances were established between the conquerors and the native Irish. Marriages took place between both sets of people and the Normans began to adopt Irish habits and customs and language. This led to a saying that the Normans ‘became more Irish than the Irish themselves’. They began to think of themselves as Irish, and felt that they no longer owed allegiance to an English king. This attitude brought English kings to Ireland from time to time, determined to assert their authority.

Gradually the Normans’ real power base became centred in the eastern half of the country, especially around Dublin. They also controlled the main towns around the coast. Elsewhere, Irish kings, chieftains and Normans lived side by side, though as usual, there was a good deal of fighting among them, with alliances being formed and broken on a regular basis.

One of the most important points about the coming of the Normans to Ireland was that from then on the English monarchs claimed Ireland as part of their kingdom. But like the High Kings before them, they did not control the whole country. Yet this claim meant that Ireland’s destiny was, from 1171 on, closely linked with that of England. Whenever there was a dispute in England over who should be the reigning monarch, it almost always affected Ireland. Battles for the English crown were later fought in Ireland, bringing great hardship on the people, including the descendants of the Normans. There were also many rebellions in Ireland to try and win her freedom from English rule, and for the next 800 years, Ireland was the scene of invasions, wars, rebellions, battles, sieges and famines, in which a great deal of blood was shed and tens of thousands of lives lost.

Y
ou will have realised by now that kings always want to conquer other lands and become even more powerful and rich. Henry II had declared himself Lord of Ireland, and the English kings who succeeded him wanted to be kings of Scotland and Wales as well. This led to wars between England and Wales, and England and Scotland, and one of these latter conflicts brought war to Ireland.

After they had conquered England, the Normans took lands in Wales. You remember Strongbow was a Norman whose family seized lands at Pembroke. But yet no English king could truly claim to be king of Wales. It was not until 1272, when Edward I was king of England, that Wales was conquered. Edward didn’t like the Welsh or the Scots – he didn’t like the Irish either – and was determined to conquer Wales and Scotland. In 1272 he led a great army into Wales, conquered the country and declared himself king. He now built massive castles and from these impregnable fortresses his soldiers could ensure that any rebellion was quickly subdued.

Edward knew that the Scots would not be as easily conquered as the Welsh. The Romans, who had conquered much of the then known world, had never conquered Scotland. So when Scottish king Alexander III died after falling from his horse, Edward I saw an opportunity for his own son to become king of Scotland.

Alexander’s children had died before their father and his heir was his young granddaughter. Edward I arranged for his son to marry this girl, even though she was just six years of age. This would not have been a proper marriage, but still it would have been a terrible shock for the little girl. One day she’s happily playing with her dolls and the next day she is to be married and a queen. But in olden times, arranged marriages between royal children were common as a king sought to ensure that his family would continue to rule after his death.

Unfortunately, this little girl died before she could marry. This, too, was quite common then. Even a simple illness could kill, as there were few medicines available to treat disease. When the child died, Edward nominated John Balliol to be king of Scotland. He was a weak man, and was Edward’s puppet. Under pressure from the Scots, who didn’t like him, Balliol resigned. Edward was furious and he led his army into Scotland and in revenge murdered thousands of people in the town of Berwick.

This enraged the Scots, and one of them, William Wallace, rebelled against Edward, who now claimed to be king of Scotland. At first, Wallace was successful, but eventually he was defeated and executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered, not at all a pleasant way to die. After his death, Robert Bruce became the leader of the Scottish rebellion, but eventually was forced to flee Scotland. Legend claims that he took refuge in a cave on Rathlin Island off the coast of County Antrim, where he decided to give up his resistance to Edward. But then Bruce saw a spider trying to spin a web in a corner of the cave. Seven times the spider tried to spin the web and seven times it failed. At the eighth attempt it succeeded. This showed him that if you kept on trying you could succeed.

Bruce returned to Scotland and renewed his fight against the English. This time he was successful in battle and was crowned king of Scotland at Scone in 1306. Over the next eight years he captured most of the English-held castles in Scotland. Meanwhile, Edward I died and his son, Edward II, became king of England. He was enraged that Bruce should claim the Scottish crown, and in 1314, Edward marched north with the largest army ever seen in England. He was intent on defeating Bruce and declaring himself king of Scotland.

The Scottish and English armies met at Bannockburn, south of Stirling, on Sunday, 23 June 1314. The English numbered about 23,000 men, which included knights in armour and archers, while Bruce probably had about 9,000 men. He was greatly outnumbered, and seemed certain to be defeated.

But a famous incident before the battle gave the Scots great heart. An English knight, Henry de Bohun, spotted Bruce sitting on his horse. Bruce was not wearing armour and de Bohun charged him, certain that he could kill his enemy and cause the Scots to lose heart. An armoured knight charging at full gallop on a huge warhorse would have terrified any man. But Bruce was a brave man and instead of galloping to safety, he stood his ground. While his soldiers watched on in terror, certain that their leader was about to die, Bruce nimbly turned his own horse aside as de Bohun reached him. As the knight charged past, Bruce struck him on the head with his battleaxe, slicing through de Bohun’s helmet and splitting his skull in two. Bruce’s reaction was to complain that he had broken his battleaxe and ask for a new one.

The incident was seen as a good omen by the Scots and despite being outnumbered almost three to one, they won the battle which raged for two days. The English army was routed and Edward II fled for his life. Robert Bruce, or as he was more generally known, Robert the Bruce, was now the undisputed king of Scotland and reigned until his death in 1329.

Robert the Bruce had a brother, Edward, and after the victory at Bannockburn the brothers turned their attention to Ireland. They decided that a war there would weaken the English, who would have to send soldiers to Ireland to defend their territory. This could prevent the English from becoming strong enough to attack Scotland. The Scots had also been asked for help by the O’Neills and other Irish kings and chieftains, who were trying to keep their lands from being taken by the Normans and their Irish allies.

The Irish and Scots were closely linked. They had a common language and many Scots were of Irish descent, while many of the Irish in the north of Ireland had Scottish blood. You remember that Irishmen from the north had gone to Scotland and settled in Argyll. Some of them had become kings of Scotland. There were also links between the two countries because of the Irish missionaries like Columcille who had preached the gospel in Scotland. Soldiers from Scotland, called Gallowglasses, helped Irish kings fight the Normans. The Irish and Scots also disliked the English, whom they both saw as ruthless conquerors.

In May 1315, Edward Bruce landed near Larne, County Antrim with an army of 6,000 men. He was joined by O’Neill and other chieftains, and began to win back territory held by the English, but not without great slaughter and bloodshed. In June, at Carrickfergus, he was acknowledged by the Irish as King of Ireland, though in reality he never controlled more than the north-eastern part of Ireland.