Limerick

Who holds it

Name

John, as king and lord of Ireland

Title

Lord of the city

Since

About 1195

Confidence

medium

Lord in 1200

The king. The city has been in English hands since about 1195, after Domnall Mor Ua Briain's death; the English of Limerick are the backbone of William de Burgh's wars.

How things stand that morning

Royal city; a frontier base against Thomond.

Threats

• Cathal Crobderg's raid of 1200
• The Ui Briain

Charter

A charter of 1197 (the city's tradition and Wikipedia give it to Richard I; Irish town charters before 1199 are usually John's as lord, so the grantor is not settled), giving the liberties of Dublin.

Council

A mayor: Adam Sarvant (Servant) is remembered as the first; the year is not pinned (1197 or 1198). Burgesses under the charter.

Communities

English burgesses; the Ostmen and Irish in the Irishtown across the Abbey river; St Mary's cathedral founded by Domnall Mor.

Fairs and markets

A market (plundered by Crobderg in 1200); no chartered fair pinned.

Militia

'The English of Limerick' fight in Connacht and Thomond for de Burgh and for the Ua Briain princes.

Walls and castle

The island town (Englishtown) walled; the stone castle on the Shannon (King John's Castle) is begun about 1200-10 and is not built that morning.

Trade and crafts

Shannon river trade, wine, hides; a mint is recorded for John's lordship coinage of the 1190s (fair).

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)Crobderg plunders the Limerick market.Depends on: His Munster raid Stopped by: A stronger guard

Later, on the likely course

1. 12 January 1201 (later course)The honour of Limerick is granted to William de Braose; the city's relation to the grant becomes a question.Depends on: De Braose's favour Stopped by: His fall

Places of note

• St Mary's cathedral: Founded by Domnall Mor Ua Briain

Where the sources disagree

• Grantor of the 1197 charter (Richard I or John as lord) not settled.

Evidence: Wikipedia's history page; the first mayor's year not pinned.

On the map: Approximate city land.

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.