Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford. It was thus
via inheritance, and not conquest, that the main
line of the de Clare family came to hold land in
Ireland.
Both Earl Richard and his son, Gilbert the Red
Earl, visited their lordship of Kilkenny. Earl Richard’s
brief trip in 1253, however, was probably made out
of pique at the fact that Henry III would not allow
Richard to accompany him abroad. Richard seems to
have been much more interested in his lands in the
march of Wales; perhaps understandably, as they were
worth some £2,000 to £2,500 per annum, whereas
his lands in Ireland were valued at £350 in around
- Earl Gilbert the Red’s sojourn in Ireland in
1293 to 1294 was a more prestigious affair, accom-
panied as he was by his wife, Countess Joan. The
earl’s purpose in traveling to Ireland in 1293 was a
double one, and at least partly prompted by the king.
The earl first undertook to effect “the pacification of
Kilkenny” following disturbances by the native Irish
of Leinster. He was later present (probably as the
king’s unofficial representative) at the suit between
John FitzThomas, the lord of Offaly, and William de
Vescy, the justiciar and lord of Kildare who had been
accused of speaking treasonably against the king.
Gilbert may have been more interested in his lands
in Kilkenny than his father was; he certainly took
the opportunity afforded by this trip to investigate,
and attempt to expand, his rights in the lordship of
Kilkenny. This interest was probably focused on opti-
mizing the revenues available to be sent to the earl
in England.
Gilbert the Red was the last of the earls of Gloucester
to visit his Irish lands. Nevertheless, his death in 1295
did not represent the end of direct de Clare involvement
in Ireland. In 1276, Thomas, one of Gilbert’s younger
brothers, had received a speculative grant of Thomond
from Edward I, to be conquered from the Uí Briain.
Thomas, a favoured household knight, sought to follow
in the footsteps of his famous predecessor, Strongbow,
in carving out an hereditary patrimony in Ireland with
the sword, and has hence been regarded as a “throw-
back” to the late twelfth century. Thomas made a name
for himself, posthumously at least, by betraying his erst-
while ally, Brian Ruad, as recorded in Caithréim Thoird-
healbhaigh. Whether this attempt at conquest could
have worked is open to debate; certainly it was not
helped by Thomas’s early death from disease in 1287
or the minority (and then absenteeism) of his son
Gilbert. Effective de Clare lordship in Thomond ended
at the battle of Dysert O’Dea in 1318, when Thomas’s
second son, Richard, was killed. De Clare lordship in
Kilkenny had already ended by this point with the
death of the last de Clare earl of Gloucester at the
battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
The de Clare lands in both Thomond and Kilkenny
passed into the hands of heiresses, but this was not
the end of the family’s involvement in Ireland. One-
third of Kilkenny passed to Gilbert’s youngest sister,
Elizabeth, who also inherited Clare in England,
whereby she became lady of Clare. In addition to her
inheritance in Kilkenny, Elizabeth continued to hold
dower lands from her marriages to John de Burgh
(d. 1313) and Theobald de Verdon (d. 1316) in Ulster,
Connacht, Munster, and Meath until her death in
1360.
BETH HARTLANDReferences and Further Reading
Altschul, Michael. A Baronial Family in Medieval England: The
Clares, 1217–1314.Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, 1965.
Davies, R. R. Lordship and Society in the March of Wales
1282–1400.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Dictionary of National Biography.Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1917 –
Frame, Robin. Colonial Ireland, 1169–1369. Dublin: Helicon, 1981.
Frame, Robin. English Lordship in Ireland, 1318–1361Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1982.
Lloyd, Simon. “Crusader Knights and the Land Market in the
Thirteenth Century.” Thirteenth Century England2 (1987):
119–136.
Simms, K. “The Battle of Dysert O’Dea and the Gaelic Resur-
gence in Thomond.” Dal g Cais5 (1979): 59–66.
See also Anglo-Norman Invasion; Fitzgerald;
Gaelic Revival; Kilkenny; Leinster; Marshal;
Munster; O Briain; Strongbow; Verdon, deCLASSICAL INFLUENCE
The question of knowledge in medieval Ireland of
Classical Greek and Latin literature is controversial
and complex. A great deal of research remains to be
done into the lines of transmission of the Greek mate-
rial that is to be found in Hiberno-Latin, given that
the general orthodoxy is that Greek had disappeared
from Western Europe by the end of the fifth century.
The great bulk of Hiberno-Latin literature that shows
an extensive knowledge of classical Greek and Latin
literature survives in manuscripts written outside of
Ireland. Much of it was written by emigrés like
Columbanus, Johannes Scottus Ériugena, Sedulius
Scottus, and Martin of Laon, so that there remains a
doubt about the actual extent of knowledge of clas-
sical literature within Ireland. It cannot be denied that
Irish expatriate scholars such as these contributed a
great deal to the dissemination and use of Greek
literature in Carolingian Europe, but few would
accept that their knowledge of Greek had a founda-
tion in their native schools. However, there is no
doubt that there was some knowledge among the IrishCLARE, de