King's demesne

Who he is

Name

John

Title

Lord of Ireland and king of England

Since

1177 (lordship); 6 April 1199 (crown)

Born

24 December 1166

Family

See Lordship of Ireland

Confidence

high

Administered by the justiciar and royal keepers; John is in his French lands on 1 January 1200.

What it holds

• Dublin, its Ostman suburb of Oxmantown and the royal manors of County Dublin: Newcastle Lyons, Saggart, Crumlin and Esker
• Waterford city and its district; Hamo de Valognes had custody of Waterford from 1193
• Cork city and the cantred of the Ostmen about it, reserved in the grant of the kingdom of Cork in 1177
• Limerick city, in English hands since about 1195-97 and chartered by John in 1197
• The castles of John's 1185 campaign: Ardfinnan and Tibberaghny on the Suir and Lismore on the Blackwater (Tibberaghny is granted to William de Burgh during 1200; keepers on 1 January not pinned)
• Dungarvan and the coast of the Decies, claimed as royal (thin)
• The prise of wine in the ports, the mint and exchange, pleas of the crown, wardships and escheats
• Lands of the see of Dublin in the king's hand during Archbishop Cumin's exile (how much is still held that morning is not pinned)

How it was acquired

Henry II's reservation of the ports in 1171-72 and the settlement at Oxford in 1177; John's 1185 expedition added the Suir and Blackwater castles; Limerick was won about 1195-97.

Allies and rivals

The citizens of Dublin, Waterford and Limerick are the crown's surest friends in Ireland. The liberty-holders resent royal officers inside their bounds.

How things stand that morning

Held by royal officers under the justiciar. The cities are safe; the Suir and Blackwater castles sit on a frontier where the Irish of Desmond and the Decies still raid.

Wealth

The farms of the cities, tolls and customs on wine, hides and wool, the prise of wine, the profits of the mint and of the justiciar's courts, rents of the Dublin manors.

Military

Castle garrisons in the cities and the 1185 castles; the citizens' own watch; the justiciar's household knights. No figures.

Threats

• Raids from Desmond and the Decies on the Blackwater castles
• Irish raids from the Wicklow mountains on the Dublin manors
• Barons treating royal castles as their own

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 1200 (not pinned)Tibberaghny castle is granted to William de Burgh.Depends on: John's favour to de Burgh Stopped by: De Burgh falling from favour

Later, on the likely course

1. 12 January 1201 (later course)The honour of Limerick goes to William de Braose; the city itself becomes a question between crown and grantee.Depends on: De Braose's bargain with John Stopped by: De Braose's fall

Places of note

• Royal manor of Newcastle Lyons: Royal demesne manor
• Royal manor of Saggart: Royal demesne manor
• Ardfinnan castle: John's castle of 1185 on the Suir
• Tibberaghny castle: John's castle of 1185 on the Suir
• Lismore castle: John's castle of 1185 on the Blackwater

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The royal cities and the 1185 castles are certain; keepers and farmers for that winter are not pinned.

On the map: The cities are drawn in their own town records; only the manors and castles are drawn here.

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.