Dublin

Who holds it

Name

John, as king and lord of Ireland; the citizens under their provost

Title

Lord of the city

Since

1171-72 (royal city)

Confidence

high

Lord in 1200

The king. The justiciar sits here; the citizens govern themselves under the charters through their provost (prepositus) and the hundred court. The archbishop (in exile) holds the liberty of St Sepulchre outside the south wall.

How things stand that morning

Secure royal city; its archbishop in exile and some of his lands in royal hands.

Threats

• Irish raids from the Wicklow mountains on the city's lands
• The quarrel between the crown and the archbishop

Charter

Henry II's charter (1171-72) gave the city to the men of Bristol with the liberties of Bristol. John's charter as lord of Ireland (1192) confirmed and widened the citizens' liberties, set the bounds of the city's land, freed them from toll through his lands, gave them their own courts and allowed them to form guilds. John's charters of 1204 (a fair) and 1207 come later.

Council

A provost (prepositus) and the hundred court of the citizens; the guild merchant, whose roll of members runs from about 1190; the first mayor comes only in 1229. The provost in office that winter is not pinned.

Communities

English burgesses from Bristol, Chester and the west country; Welsh and Flemings; the Ostmen of Oxmantown under the king's protection; Irish servants and traders.

Fairs and markets

No chartered fair yet: John grants an eight-day fair in 1204. Weekly markets in the city.

Militia

The citizens' watch and service; no muster recorded for 1199-1200 (the massacre of citizens at Cullenswood by the Wicklow Irish is in 1209).

Walls and castle

The Hiberno-Norse stone walls on the ridge; the Liffey bridge to Oxmantown. No royal castle: John orders one in 1204 and it is built over the following decades. Christ Church (Augustinian canons), St Patrick's (Cumin's collegiate church, begun 1191), St Mary's Abbey (Cistercian), St Thomas's Abbey (1177) and the Hospitallers at Kilmainham stand in and round the city.

Trade and crafts

The Irish Sea port for Bristol and Chester: wine of Poitou and Gascony in, hides, grain, wool and fish out; cloth and salt imports; the royal mint striking John's halfpennies and farthings.

Places of note

• Christ Church: Cathedral of the Holy Trinity
• Oxmantown: The Ostmen's suburb

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Charters well known; the provost's name is not pinned.

On the map: The city and its liberty as bounded in 1192, approximately.

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.