Episode 16 English Invasion of Wales and Ireland

The Celtic World

Dr Jennifer Paxton (2018)

Film Review

During the early Middle Ages, Wales and England repeatedly raided one another. Wales also took advantage of disputes between and England’s regional kings. For example they allied with the pagan king of Mercia to kill King Oswald of Northumbria (ruled 634-542 AD). During the 8th century, King Offa of Mercia built a dyke to establish a clear boundary between the two countries and reduce the frequency of Welsh raids.

King Gwynnedd (ruled 1055-1063 AD) united all the Welsh kingdoms under a single monarch though the country refragmented again after his death. This meant the Welsh had no unified defense against repeated English invasions that steadily pushed the Welsh border westward.

By the 12th century, England was also more unified than Ireland, which was made up of four frequently warring provinces (Ulster, Connacht, Leinster and Munster). In the 1100s. the English controlled the western coast of France and much of Wales and had no interest in pursuing territorial gains in Ireland. However in 1155 AD, during the reign of Henry II, Pope Adrian IV (the first English pope) granted Henry the authority to invade Ireland to reform Ireland’s Catholic church.

Ousted as the king of the Irish kingdom of Leinster, Dermot MacMurrough (1110-1171 AD) sought help from Henry II in regaining his throne. When the English king declined, Dermot allied himself with the Welsh warrior Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare (aka Strongbow), who responded along with a number of vassals and mercenaries.

Henry, about to be sanctioned by the pope for murdering Archbishop Thomas Becket, eventually joined them with siege equipment and a sizeable army. The other Irish kings initially welcomed Henry’s military occupation, believing he would secure their rights against the Norman lords who were were continuing to usurp Irish land.

Having captured a small portion of Ireland on the east coast, in 1177 Henry II sent his youngest son John Lackland (later King John) to govern the territory conquered by Strongbow. Although subsequent English kings claimed sovereignty over the whole island, in reality the king’s rule only ever extended to isolated regions. The rest of the island – referred to as Gaelic Ireland – remained under the control of various Gaelic Irish kingdoms or chiefdoms. The latter were often at war with the Anglo-Normans lords who controlled large fiefdoms throughout southern Ireland.

The area under English rule and law expanded and shrank over time. It reached its greatest extent in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, prior to the arrival of the Black Death in 1348. The plague had its most devastating effects on Irish townships, which were mainly controlled by the English.

In 1361, Edward III’s son Lionel married an heiress to the Earldom of Ulster, and Lionel was sent to rule Ulster on Edward’s behalf.

In 1366 the Irish parliament (established by the Normans in 1264) passed the Statutes of Kilkenny, over concerns that Ireland’s English settlers were going native. Under these laws Anglo-Irish settlers:

• were forbidden to speak Irish among themselves.
• were forbidden to use Irish first or surnames.
• were forbidden to ride bareback (as the Irish did).
• were forbidden to wear Irish haircuts (short in front and long in the back).
• were forbidden to have Irish performers in their halls
• were forbidden to use Irish law to settle disputes.

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https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5701024/5701058