Barons and castellans · Lordship of Ireland · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Enniscorthy

The Duffry, the wooded country of north-west Wexford along the Slaney, with Enniscorthy as its centre: an English barony pushed into the land of the Ui Chennselaig, Mac Murchada's own people.

Who he is

Name
Philip de Prendergast
Title
Lord of the Duffry (Dubthir)
Since
By marriage to Maud, daughter of Robert de Quency, who had the Duffry from Strongbow (date not pinned)
Born
Not pinned
Family
Son of Maurice de Prendergast, one of the first invaders of 1169, who ended his life as a Hospitaller (death date not pinned)
Confidence
medium

Philip is a supporter of the justiciar Meiler in the Leinster quarrels of 1207-08.

Overlord

William Marshal, lord of Leinster

What it holds

  • The Duffry and Enniscorthy on the Slaney

How it was acquired

Marriage to the de Quency heiress

Allies and rivals

Mac Murchada and the Ui Chennselaig are his neighbours to the north.

How things stand that morning

Held in the valley; the woods are Irish.

Wealth

Slaney valley farms and woods.

Military

Motte at Enniscorthy (the stone castle is later).

Threats

  • Mac Murchada raids

Places of note

  • Enniscorthy: Centre of the Duffry

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Family and grant from Orpen; 1200 detail thin.

On the map: Approximate.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. G. H. Orpen, Ireland under the Normans, vols 1-2 (1911), Internet Archive

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.