Ireland, (English) Lordship of

An expedition of Cambro-Norman knights with an army of about six hundred lands at Bannow Strand in present-day County Wexford on May 1, 1169.

It is led by Richard de Clare, called Strongbow due to his prowess as an archer.

The invasion, which coincides with a period of renewed Norman expansion, is at the invitation of Dermot Mac Murrough, the king of Leinster.

In 1166, Mac Murrough had fled to Anjou, France, following a war involving Tighearnán Ua Ruairc, of Breifne, and sought the assistance of the Angevin king, Henry II, in recapturing his kingdom.

In 1171, Henry arrives in Ireland in order to review the general progress of the expedition.

He wants to re-exert royal authority over the invasion, which is expanding beyond his control.

Henry successfully re-imposes his authority over Strongbow and the Cambro-Norman warlords and persuades many of the Irish kings to accept him as their overlord, an arrangement confirmed in the 1175 Treaty of Windsor.

The invasion is legitimized by the provisions of the Papal Bull Laudabiliter, issued by Adrian IV in 1155.

The bull had encouraged Henry to take control in Ireland in order to oversee the financial and administrative reorganization of the Irish Church and its integration into the Roman Church system.

Some restructuring had already begun at the ecclesiastical level following the Synod of Kells in 1152.

There has been significant controversy regarding the authenticity of Laudabiliter, and there is no general agreement as to whether the bull was genuine or a forgery.

In 1172, the new pope, Alexander III, further encourages Henry to advance the integration of the Irish Church with Rome.

Henry is authorized to impose a tithe of one penny per hearth as an annual contribution.

This church levy, called Peter's Pence, is extant in Ireland as a voluntary donation.

In turn, Henry accepts the title of Lord of Ireland, which Henry confers on his younger son, John Lackland, in 1185.

When Henry's successor dies unexpectedly in 1199, John inherits the crown of England and retains the Lordship of Ireland.

Established European states integrate the populations of subject peoples in adjacent lands: Swedes colonize southern Finland; Danes colonize the lands of the Wends, forcibly converting them to Christianity; Germans colonize Holstein, Lauenburg, and Mecklenburg; Anglo-Normans colonize Ireland.

The invasion of Ireland, undertaken from Wales by a force of loosely associated Norman knights summoned by the ousted King of Leinster, is the beginning of Anglo-Norman domination of Ireland.

Angevin king Henry II creates the Lordship of Ireland for his northwest European empire.

The Revolt of 1173-74 is a victory for Henry II, whose sons, along with the other rebels in Normandy, England, are reconciled to his rule.

William the Lion signs Treaty of Falaise, under which Henry II maintains hold on his territories and several Scottish castles, including Berwick and Edinburgh, are transferred to him.

Kilkenny, an area of low hills and plains watered by the Barrow, Nore, and Suir rivers in southeastern Ireland, becomes a part of of the Lordship of Lenister created in the wake of the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169-71.

Richard de Clare, or Strongbow, had in 1171 become Lord of Leinster.

Strongbow in 1172 had constructed the first castle, a wooden fortress, near what is now Kilkenny Castle.

This was possibly on the site of an earlier residence of the Mac Gilla Pátraic (Fitzpatrick) who was in control of the Kingdom of Osraige.

The building of Norman fortresses, walls, castle and town begins.

In an attempt in 1173 by the Gaelic clans to resist the Normans, O'Brien and Mac Gillapatrick destroy Strongbow's fortress.

Philip of Flanders now declares his neutrality towards Henry, in return for which the King agrees to provide him with regular financial support.

Henry now appears to his contemporaries to be stronger than ever, and he is courted as an ally by many European leaders and asked to arbitrate over international disputes in Spain and Germany.

He is nonetheless busy resolving some of the weaknesses that he believes had exacerbated the revolt.

Henry sets about extending royal justice in England to reassert his authority and spends time in Normandy shoring up support among the barons.

he King also makes use of the growing Becket cult to increase his own prestige, using the power of the saint to explain his victory in 1174, especially his success in capturing William.

Henry had undertaken a wave of castle-building during his visit in 1171 to protect his new territories—the Anglo-Normans have superior military technologies to the Irish, and castles give them a significant advantage.

Henry hopes for a longer term political solution, however, similar to his approach in Wales and Scotland, and in 1175 he agrees to the Treaty of Windsor, under which Rory O'Connor is recognized as the high king of Ireland, giving homage to Henry and maintaining stability on the ground on his behalf.

This policy will proved unsuccessful, as O'Connor will be unable to exert sufficient influence and force in areas such as Munster.

John de Courcy, of Stoke Courcy, in Somerset, had come came to Ireland around the year 1171 as part of the Norman invading forces, brought in as mercenaries working for Dermot MacMurrough, the ousted King of Leinster, to help him regain his position as King.

John is very ambitious and wants lands for himself.

He had decided to invade the north of Ireland which was controlled by the Irish clans.

He assembles a small army of twenty-two knights and three hundred foot soldiers in early January 1177 and marches north at the rate of thirty miles a day, skirts the back of the Mourne Mountains and takes the town of Dun de Lethglas (later Downpatrick) by surprise.

After two fierce battles in February and June 1177, de Courcy defeats the last King of Ulaid, Ruaidrí Mac Duinn Sléibe.

He has done all this without the permission of his king, Henry II.

After conquering eastern Ulster, he establishes his capital at Carrickfergus, where he builds an impressive stone castle.

He marries Affreca, daughter of Godred II Olafsson, King of Mann.

It is likely that the marriage, as in the case of many kings and those aspiring to be kings during this age, is political, to seal an alliance with her father, who pays homage to the King of Norway.

The site of Belfast, located in northeastern Ireland, on the Lagan River at the head of Belfast Lough in a valley between the Hills of Down and the Antrim Plateau, has been occupied since the Bronze Age.

The Giant's Ring, a five thousand year-old henge, is located near the city, and the remains of Iron Age hill forts can still be seen in the surrounding hills.

Belfast remained a small settlement of little importance during the Middle Ages.

De Courcy builds a castle on what is now Castle Street in the city center in the twelfth century, but this is on a lesser scale and not as strategically important as Carrickfergus Castle to the north, built in 1177 by de Courcy.

The O'Neill clan has a presence in the area.

Henry II of England knights his heir, John of England, and sends him to Ireland to enforce English control.

According to Gerald of Wales, the only witness to chronicle the expedition, it is a disaster in which money is wasted on alcohol and the Irish chieftains are scorned into uniting against a common enemy.

John by the end of the year has returned to England in defeat.

Nonetheless, Henry has him named King of Ireland by Pope Urban III and procures a golden crown with peacock feathers.

The Butler family dominates Tipperary, a hilly inland county in southern Ireland in the province of Munster, from 1185.

The Anglo-Normans had finally captured the area around Limerick in 1195, under John when he was Lord of Ireland.

Local legend claims that Limerick in 1197 was given its first charter and its first Mayor, Adam Sarvant.

A castle, built on the orders of King John and bearing his name, is completed around 1200.