Gaelic lordships · The British Isles · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Other Gaelic lordships

The Gaelic lords of Leinster, Meath and the midlands whose old kingdoms were granted to English barons, and the Ulaid beyond de Courcy's colony.

None of them answers to a provincial king any longer: they live in the mountains, bogs and woods on the edges of the liberties, owe tribute or service to the English lord when he can take it, and raid the settled plains when he cannot. They are the people of the raiding belts.

Who rules

Name
The free Gaelic lords who answer to none of the provincial kings
Title
No common ruler
Confidence
medium

The Leinster and midland dynasties (Mac Murchada, Ua Tuathail, Ua Broin, Mac Gilla Patraic, Ua Mordha, Ua Conchobair Failge, Ua Mael Sechlainn, Ua Cerbaill of Eile, Ua Fergail of Annaly, Mac Cochlain of Delbna Ethra, Ua Ciardha of Cairpre) and the Ulaid outside de Courcy's land.

Overlord

None in fact

The realm that morning

In the hills and bogs: the Ui Thuathail and Ui Broin in Wicklow, Mac Murchada in north Wexford, Mac Gilla Patraic in upper Ossory, the Ui Mordha round the Leix castles, Ua Conchobair Failge in west Offaly, Ua Mael Sechlainn and Mac Cochlain on the western edge of Meath, Ua Cerbaill in Eile, Ua Fergail in Annaly. Ua Ciardha burnt the English town of Clonard in 1200 after the English there killed one of his kin.

Threats

  • The English liberties' advance
  • Famine in raided country

Officers in 1200

  • No common officers

Rome and the Church

Their churches (Glendalough, Clonmacnoise, Kildare, Ferns, Leighlin, Ossory) are passing into English hands in the east; Clonmacnoise is still Irish.

The host

Raiding parties from the hills; no common host.

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. 1200 (Four Masters)Ua Ciardha burns Clonard to harm the English in it, after the English of Clonard killed Mathgamain son of Gilla Patraic Ua Ciardha.Depends on: The Meath frontier war Stopped by: Peace

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Many chiefs are not pinned for 1200.

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 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

Sources and studies

  1. G. H. Orpen, Ireland under the Normans, vols 1-2 (1911), Internet Archive
  2. Annals of the Four Masters 1172-1201, CELT
  3. Mac Carthaigh's Book 1200-1211, CELT

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.