Kingdom of Desmond

Who rules

Name

Domnall Mor na Curra Mac Carthaig

Title

King of Desmond

Since

1185

Born

Not pinned

Family

Son of Diarmait Mac Carthaig (killed 1185); his brother Finghin is a rival who imprisoned him in 1194.

Confidence

medium

See Desmond (Mac Carthaig).

Overlord

None in fact

The realm that morning

Domnall Mor is king and at war with the English of Munster; the country from the Shannon to Feardruim was laid waste by the English in 1199.

Threats

• William de Burgh and the English of Cork and Limerick
• Family division

Officers in 1200

• Sub-kings: Ua Donnchada of Loch Lein, Ua Caim of Fir Maige (Finghin, d. 1201), Ua Mathgamna, Ua hEidirsceoil, Ua Suilleabain, Ua Donnabain of Ui Chairpre (Amlaib, killed 1201)

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

The Desmond sees (Cork, Cloyne, Ross, Ardfert) answer to Cashel; the bishop of Cork's see sits in the English city.

The host

The Desmond hostings. 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.

1. 1201 (later course)A great hosting by de Burgh, the Ui Briain and the English of Cork harries Desmond; a legate and the Munster bishops make peace.Depends on: De Burgh's war Stopped by: A Desmond victory

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Mac Carthaigh's Book covers Desmond well.

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 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 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
• 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