Dublin

Who holds it

Name

John Cumin (Comyn)

Title

Archbishop of Dublin

Since

Elected 1181 by the Dublin clergy meeting at Evesham; consecrated at Velletri by Lucius III on Palm Sunday, 21 March 1182

Confidence

medium

An Englishman of Henry II's service. Lucius III confirmed to him the see's manors and lands round Dublin, which became the manor of St Sepulchre. Prince John, as lord of Ireland, granted him the bishopric of Glendalough (to be united with Dublin later) and further legal rights. He pulled down an old parish church and built St Patrick's next to his palace of St Sepulchre, making it a collegiate church (1190s; it later became a cathedral).

When the justiciar Hamo de Valognes seized some of his lands (1197) he fled to Normandy; Innocent III intervened on his behalf, but John stayed hostile until they were reconciled in 1206. So on 1 January 1200 he is still in exile, which answers the campaign's open question. Dies 25 October 1212.

What it holds

• The manor of St Sepulchre: the archbishop's palace south of Dublin's walls and the collegiate church of St Patrick beside it; the later liberty of St Sepulchre grew from it
• Swords, the chief rural manor north of Dublin, with Lusk and Finglas
• Clondalkin, Tallaght, Rathcoole and Shankill, south and west of the city
• Ballymore (later Ballymore Eustace) on the Liffey, at the edge of the Wicklow hills
• Glendalough: granted by Prince John to be united with Dublin, but not yet joined (claimed)
• Legal rights granted by Prince John on the archbishop's lands

How it was acquired

Lands of the Hiberno-Norse see confirmed by Lucius III (1182); grants and confirmations from Prince John as lord of Ireland.

How things stand that morning

Cumin is abroad and out of John's favour. How much of his land is still in royal hands that morning is not pinned; the church's courts and officials go on working.

Wealth

The grain lands of Fingal (Swords, Lusk); rents close to Dublin; profits of the archbishop's courts.

Threats

• Further seizures by the justiciar's officers
• Raids from the Wicklow mountains on the southern manors
• John's continuing hostility

Advocates and rivals

The justiciar of Ireland, whose officers seized lands in 1197; the city of Dublin; the archbishop of Armagh over the primacy; the Irish of the Wicklow mountains behind the southern manors.

Places of note

• St Sepulchre and St Patrick's: The archbishop's palace and his collegiate church outside Dublin's walls
• Swords: The archbishop's chief manor in Fingal

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Cumin's career is well known; the list of manors is the see's standard later holding, not checked manor by manor for 1200.

On the map: Manors are drawn as small districts; their real bounds are not traced.

Primary sources for Lordship of Ireland

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Clonmacnoise, Anonymous; English translation of a lost Irish chronicle by Conall Mac Geoghegan (medieval original lost; translated 1627). A midland chronicle, tied to Clonmacnoise and the kings of Meath and Connacht, surviving only in a 1627 translation. Read online
• Annals of Inisfallen, Anonymous (monks of Inisfallen, Kerry, and earlier of Emly and Lismore) (the manuscript was written in 1092 and continued at Inisfallen in many contemporary hands to 1450). The Munster chronicle, written in Kerry in a hand close to the events. Read online
• Annals of Loch Ce, Various (compiled for the Mac Diarmada of Moylurg) (compiled 1580s from older annals; the medieval section rests on a Connacht chronicle). The fullest Connacht account of the year: Cathal Carrach's seizure of the kingship, Cathal Crobderg's flight north, the Connacht expedition of de Courcy and the Ui Neill on Crobderg's behalf and its defeat, William de Burgh's role, and the devastation of the province's churches, with the names of the Connacht nobles and clergy who died. Read online
• Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, Various; compiled by Micheal O Cleirigh and others (1632 to 1636, from medieval annals now partly lost). A seventeenth century compilation but it draws on lost medieval annals, so its 1200 entries add names and incidents missing elsewhere: the Connacht war and the English of Meath and Munster, the deaths of Irish kings and churchmen across the island, and raids in Thomond and Desmond. Read online
• Annals of Ulster, Various; compiled by Cathal Mac Maghnusa (compiled about 1498 from much older annals; the entries for 1200 derive from contemporary record). The most reliable Irish annal for the north. Read online
• Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
• Mac Carthaigh's Book (Miscellaneous Irish Annals), Anonymous (a Munster compilation) (compiled in the later Middle Ages from Munster annals; manuscript of the 17th century). A Munster annal with a Mac Carthaig and Desmond slant, giving for the years around 1200 the kings of Desmond and Thomond, their wars with each other and with the English of Cork and Limerick, and the castles the settlers were building. Read online
• The History of William Marshal, Anonymous (a poet called John, writing for the Marshal family) (about 1224 to 1226). A knight's view of the Angevin succession: the council at Vaudreuil in April 1199 where the Marshal and Hubert Walter argued for John over Arthur, the Marshal's crossing to secure England, John's coronation, and the Marshal's part in Normandy in 1199 and 1200 as holder of Longueville and Orbec and a go-between with Philip. Read online

7 more in the sources library for The British Isles.