Kingdom of Connacht

Who rules

Name

Cathal Crobderg Ua Conchobair

Title

King of Connacht

Since

1189-90

Born

About 1153

Family

Wife Mor ingen Domnaill Ui Briain; heir his son Aed (later king 1224-28); rival his nephew Cathal Carrach. His half-brother Ruaidri, the last high king, died at Cong on 2 December 1198.

Confidence

high

See Connacht (Ua Conchobair).

Overlord

None in fact

The realm that morning

Cathal Crobderg is king after the peace of 1199 with Cathal Carrach, who holds lands granted under it. Within the year Crobderg breaks the peace, drives Carrach into Munster, raids Meath (losing his ally Ruaidri Ua Flaithbertaig) and Munster, and is driven out by Carrach and William de Burgh.

Threats

• Dynastic war between the two Cathals
• William de Burgh and the English of Munster
• The English of Meath on the Shannon

Officers in 1200

• The sub-kings: Mac Diarmata of Moylurg (the chief vassal and kingmaker), Ua Cellaig of Ui Maine, Ua Flaithbertaig of Iar Connacht, Ua Dubda of the Ui Fiachrach, Ua hEaghra of Luigne
• No named court officers survive for that winter

Court

An itinerant royal household; inauguration at Carnfree.

Treaties

Treaty of Windsor (1175), lapsed in practice; the 1199 peace with Cathal Carrach.

Coinage

None: the Irish kingdoms strike no coin; wealth and tribute are counted in cattle, and silver comes through the ports.

Rome and the Church

Tuam is the metropolitan see of Connacht, held by the aged Cadla Ua Dubthaig (archbishop since 1167, dies 1200 or 1201). The archbishop of Armagh, Tomaltach Ua Conchobair, is of the royal house. Crobderg is a patron of the Cistercians (Knockmoy) and Boyle lies in Moylurg.

The host

The hostings of Connacht and its sub-kings; a fleet on Lough Ree and the Shannon; hired English knights (on wages that, unpaid, lead them to seize their employer, as in 1201). No figures.

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 breaks the 1199 peace and drives Cathal Carrach into Munster; William de Burgh and the English of Munster restore Carrach and Crobderg flees north.Depends on: De Burgh's price Stopped by: Crobderg keeping the peace or buying de Burgh

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201-02 (later course)Ballysadare and Kilmacduagh (1201); de Burgh switches sides and Carrach is killed (1202); Crobderg accepts de Burgh's overlordship and quarters his men on Connacht.Depends on: As above Stopped by: As above

Where the sources disagree

• The Four Masters date Crobderg's expulsion to 1199, Mac Carthaigh's Book to 1200; we follow 1200.

Evidence: Annals full but chronologically at odds.

On the map: Drawn through the king's and sub-kings' lord records.

Primary sources for this realm

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 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
• 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