Ui Chennselaig (Mac Murchada)

Who he is

Name

Not pinned: a descendant of Domnall Caemanach Mac Murchada (d. 1175), Diarmait Mac Murchada's son

Title

King of Ui Chennselaig (the Leinster royal line)

Since

Not pinned

Born

Not pinned

Family

The Meic Murchada (later the Kavanaghs); Isabel de Clare, the Marshal's wife, is Diarmait Mac Murchada's granddaughter

Confidence

low

The king lists give no Mac Murchada king with dates between 1175 and the later thirteenth century.

Overlord

The lord of Leinster (William Marshal), in English law

What it holds

• The north Wexford hills and woods round Gorey and the Blackstairs edge

How it was acquired

Dynastic right, now cut down by the English settlement.

Allies and rivals

Kin by blood to the Marshal's wife; neighbours of the Prendergasts.

How things stand that morning

Held as an Irish lordship inside the liberty of Leinster.

Wealth

Cattle, and the woods and bogs that shelter them.

Military

Their own following, raiding from the hills and woods.

Threats

• The Prendergasts of the Duffry
• The Marshal's officers

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Territory well known; the chief on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

On the map: Approximate; Irish lordship was over people more than bounded ground.

Primary sources for Other Gaelic lords

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
• 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 Topography of Ireland; The Conquest of Ireland, Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis) (Topographia 1187 to 1188; Expugnatio 1189, revised later). The Conquest ends in 1185 and the Topography describes the island as Gerald saw it in 1183 to 1185, so neither covers 1200, but they explain the lordship of Ireland as John found it: the grants of Leinster and Meath, the de Courcy conquest of Ulster, the Irish kings and their customs, and Gerald's advice on governing the country. Read online
• The Song of Dermot and the Earl, Anonymous (an Anglo-Norman clerk drawing on Morice Regan, Diarmait Mac Murchada's interpreter) (about 1200 to 1225). Ends in the 1170s, so it has no 1200 events, but it was composed about then for the Marshal interest in Leinster and lists the enfeoffments by which Strongbow and Hugh de Lacy parcelled out Leinster and Meath. Read online