Medieval settlement hierarchy in Carlow and the ‘Carlow Corridor’ 1200-1550 (original) (raw)
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The catalysts and constraints of castle-building in Suffolk c.1066-1200
Twenty-seven Suffolk castles were built between 1066 and 1200. This thesis summarises the modern multi-disciplinary surveys of six of them, with the objective of identifying their location, morphology, form and function. The majority of Suffolk castles were built between the late 11th and mid- 12th-century and reached their largest number during the civil wars c.1135-54. However, a few remained operational after c.1200 and those that did are characterised as either royal or baronial caput castles. Moreover, almost all Suffolk castles were originally earth and timber, whereas the surviving examples were rebuilt in stone before c.1300. Therefore, those castles that survived beyond or were established after c.1200 are unrepresentative. Instead this thesis focusses on the period 1066 to 1200, when the more common sub-baronial, earth and timber Suffolk castles were evidenced. Chapter one identifies the key issues. Chapter two critiques each of the current paradigms in castle studies and rejects them in favour of a modified Annales model. Chapter three identifies the constraints of the longue durée, identified as the environmental factors, defined as the climate, topography, geology, hydrology and timber supply in the vicinity of the castle. Chapter four identifies societal constraints, which are sub-divided into structural, social and cultural, and focusses on the Abbey of St Edmund’s, its cult, viceroyship, ecclesiastical autonomy and barony, its relationship with the new elite and how it influenced castle building. Chapter five focusses on three of the six surveyed castle earthworks to establish the evènement level of the model, which identifies the castle building agents and the specific historical and political context in which these castles were built. Chapter six brings the different sources and levels of data together to offer a new model, a more nuanced definition of a castle and a comprehensive assessment of the conflicting demands of the catalysts and constraints operating upon the construction of castles in Suffolk. In this it is supported by over two hundred figures and plans, numerous tables, a comprehensive set of appendices and an extensive bibliography.
William Marshal’s Castle at Kilkenny in about 1395: A New Reconstruction
A new reconstruction drawing of Kilkenny Castle, commissioned for a new visitor's guidebook, attempts to show the castle as it might have appeared at the height of its medieval development. Based on a hypothetical working plan of the greater castle derived from an analysis of the extant remains, contemporary documents, post-medieval maps, and drawings of the castle from the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, a picture emerges of a formidable concentric fortress that was essentially complete by the middle of the thirteenth century. The evidence for the reconstruction is discussed together with the importance of the castle in medieval Ireland. (Main Text) During a long visit to Ireland in 1394-5, Richard II of England spent the month of April 1395 in the Earl of Ormond's great castle at Kilkenny. As part of the process of producing a new guidebook to Kilkenny Castle by Jane Fenlon (2007), a new reconstruction of the castle was commissioned. A series of earlier reconstructions of the castle by Jenny Baker showed what the castle might have looked like in the early thirteenth century, shortly after it was first completed in stone by William Marshal and again in the late seventeenth century and the late nineteenth century (Friel 1989, 4-5, 12-13 and 18-19; Sweetman 1999, Fig. 41). The new reconstruction drawing discussed here, modified slightly for this article from the version that appeared in the recently published guidebook, attempts to show what the castle might have looked like at the height of its medieval development, around the time of Richard's visit (Fig.
Residence, Ritual and Rulership: a state of the art for royal places in early medieval Ireland
Norwegian Archaeological Review, 2021
This article explores the nature of royal residences in early medieval Ireland. Through the excavated evidence, it examines key themes of long-term dynamics, architectures and networks of power. It presents a synthesis of excavated evidence for often overlooked residential elements to provincial capitals, and subsequently, interrogates the development of several key royal sites regarded as archetypal residences. It argues that there are important distinctions between the earlier and later phases of many such sites that relate to their role in diverse strategies of rulership. In particular, ritual, ceremony and violence are key early characteristics, whereas a residential element often only appears relatively late. While these changes may be related to wider realpolitik, it is suggested that they also embody the crystallization of residential foci within new strategies of rulership during the seventh to ninth centuries AD.
“To Serve Well and Faithfully”: The Agents of English Aristocratic Rule in Leinster, c.1272-c.1315
2003
The period between the early 1270s and ca. 1315 was a turning point in the history of the English lordship of Ireland. It was during these years that the balance of power between the English settlers in Ireland (the Anglo-Irish) and the Gaelic Irish began to change, the balance starting to tip in favor of the native Irish who consequently began to encroach on the Anglo-Irish settlements. As far as landholding in Ireland by lords based in England is concerned, the period has been seen as a critical one that led to changes in how English lords viewed their lands in Ireland, and in their capacity to administer and defend these lands from a distance. This is a view that can be challenged in various ways, and in this paper a prosopographical approach to the study of the men who administered the Irish estates of four major English lords in the province of Leinster in this period is employed. This demonstrates that these English lords maintained a close interest in their Irish lands throughout the period, taking care to employ experienced and trustworthy men as seneschals whenever possible, and to keep a close eye on the activities of these seneschals through the agency of council members, attorneys , auditors, and messengers. It concludes that English lordship in Ireland was clearly still a viable option for the lords of the substantial liberties of Leinster in this period, and that the employment of Anglo-Irish knights , particularly as seneschals, was integral to this success, bringing as they did military and political advantages to the administrations they headed.
Recent and ongoing research by this author has confirmed medieval Cheshire to have been a semi-regal county held by powerful Anglo-Norman earls, with a separate identity from England (Swallow 2015). Within this context, research has been undertaken into the number, location, distribution, nature, function and character of Cheshire’s castles built between c. 1069 and 1237 – beyond which date, the county reverted from the earls of Chester to the Crown. Research draws upon a number of disciplines and multiple sources of evidence. Such research has given rise to new insights into fortified élite residences within Cheshire, considered in the wider context of the Anglo-Norman world. Set within current historiographical debates, research and publication both take into account the full geographical area of medieval Cheshire hitherto insufficiently researched in either depth or breadth. The whole of medieval Cheshire has thus been considered, and its fortifications from this period have been contextualised in relation to earlier and later developments in the region. This paper aims to provide a summary of the key findings of this research to date.
History: the Journal of the Historical Association, 2023
Over the last number of decades, the relationship between king and magnate in medieval Ireland has been prominent in scholarship, but less attention has been given to the tenantry below. Drawing on a range of sources from chancery material to chronicle evidence, this article analyses one such tenantry community, the 'barons of Leinster'. During the first half of the thirteenth century, the Marshal lords of Leinster clashed with royal authorities in Ireland on three occasions, and in these circumstances, the tenants of Leinster had to choose between their king and their lord. For the lords of Leinster, the support of their tenantry was not to be presumed, and hence they had to relentlessly compete for the allegiance of their tenantry with the other lords in Ireland and the king of England. This essay argues that status and marital ties influenced tenantry allegiance in Ireland, in particular that assimilation into a new lord's household was more important for the lesser tenantry who held land in both Ireland and Wales than for the great landed barons who also benefited from royal patronage. Hence, this study contributes to the rich ongoing discussion on the importance and role of tenantry communities in the Plantagenet dominions. 1 'his sworn men and knights, in whom he trusted'.