Invasions of Ireland from 1170 - 1320

Page 4 of 7

• 1. Background to invasion
• 2. The Anglo-Normans arrive in Ireland, 1169 on.
• 3. Henry II, Strongbow and Ireland
• 4. The Anglo-Norman colony is established in Ireland.
• 5. The Scots invasion, 1315
• 6. Declarations of national identity - the legacy of the invasions.
• 7. Find out more
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The Anglo-Norman colony is established in Ireland.

At the Treaty of Windsor in 1175, Henry in his turn made it clear that he also thought of himself as protector rather than conqueror, since he restored Ruadrai to his kingship of Connacht and to all the rights and honours he had had from other Irish lords before the coming of the English.

It wasn't Henry II's presence in Ireland that lost them their freedom, then, but his absence. With Henry in France, fighting off his children, his wife and the King of France, the Anglo-Norman barons had absolutely no intention of making his Irish settlement, with its careful attention to the claims of native Irish rulers, work.

What they wanted was a colony; the nice, obedient, feudal territory they had lost over in Wales, transplanted to Ulster and the east coast. And the first thing they did to make sure they got it, was to do what barons do best - build a castle that said - unmistakably - 'We're in charge'.

'It was a true colony, a completely imported world: craftsmen, artisans, peasant settlers, ironware - all brought across the Irish Sea.'

At first the castles were a primitive throwback to Norman history - just a heaped up earth motte with an encircling wooden 'bailey' wall. But it was enough to do the job of dominating the countryside against Irish attacks.

In due course came the much more formidable stone buildings, such as Carrickfergus Castle, which entrenched their power in Ulster beyond any possibility of eviction.

And from these power-bases, something utterly new was created in Ireland: feudalism. Within two or three generations, northern and eastern Ireland had been totally transformed, from a country living off herding and horses, and ruled by clans, to a place of manors.

The land taken - and taken is the word - by the Anglo-Normans, was divided up in the usual way and given to their knights, as reward for military service.

But somehow - and does this sound familiar everyone? - they weren't quite English either. Almost from the beginning they knew this, since one of the Anglo-Normans, Maurice fitzGerald, rather pathetically complained that no one would help his kind: 'for just as we are English as far as the Irish are concerned, likewise to the English we are Irish and the inhabitants of this island and of the other assail us with an equal degree of hatred'.

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Published: 2001-05-01