Medieval Ireland. An Encyclopedia

jealous protection of his rights was not untypical. In
1294, a protracted legal dispute between him and the
chief governor, William de Vescy, led to mutual slan-
dering and a challenge to decide the case by wager of
battle. John fitzThomas lost by default when he failed
to appear in court.
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were a period
of great instability in English politics, and parties in
England frequently attempted to gain support in Ireland.
For instance, in the confusion following Edward II’s
deposition in 1327, Roger Mortimer attempted to curry
favor in Ireland by creating the earldoms of Ormond
and Desmond in 1328
−

1329. In doing so, he was play-
      ing to one side of a factional dispute that had plagued
      Ireland throughout the 1320s. After Mortimer was
      overthrown in 1330, Edward III was highly suspicious
      of the Anglo-Irish nobility. They had come to expect
      that they could act independently of royal authority
      with impunity, and a number of decades were to pass
      before the king came to rely on them again as instru-
      ments of government. Meanwhile, fissures were grow-
      ing between the Anglo-Irish and the officials born in
      England who were imposed on the Irish administra-
      tion. A crisis was reached in 1341, and the problem
      recurred throughout the medieval period as the
      “English born in Ireland” increasingly emphasized
      their autonomy.
      Modern historians have stressed that factionalism
      was one of the great weaknesses of the colony and
      contributed to its inexorable decline, but it is possible
      to exaggerate this development. Royal authority cer-
      tainly diminished in the late Middle Ages, but faction-
      alism was hardly the principal cause. Admittedly the
      development in its place of strong local lordships cen-
      tered around the earldoms of Kildare, Ormond, and
      Desmond led to intense competition for control of the
      office of chief governor. From 1414, there was a pro-
      longed struggle for political power between the earl of
      Ormond and the Talbot family. When the Wars of the
      Roses gripped England from the 1450s, the opposing
      houses of Lancaster and York became identified in
      Ireland with the earls of Ormond and Kildare, respec-
      tively. This Geraldine-Butler feud continued into the
      early modern era. However, the intricacies of these
      various conflicts have only casually been studied, and
      we should be cautious about attributing to them the
      “decline” of English lordship in Ireland. The great
      lineages survived in frontier conditions by employing
      unorthodox but expedient methods. Their private
      armies and networks of power admittedly could be
      used for destructive purposes, both against each other
      and against the administration. However, although they
      were technically illegal, it was arguably these methods
      that ensured their survival and contributed to the

endurance rather than decline of English control over

much of Ireland.

P

ETER

C

ROOKS

References and Further Reading

Empey, C. A., and Katharine Simms. “The Ordinances of the

White Earl and the Problem of Coign in the Later Middle

Ages.”

Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy

75 section

C (1975): 161

−

187.

Frame, Robin.

English Lordship in Ireland, 1318–1361

. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1982.

. “Ireland and the Barons’ Wars.” In
Ireland and Britain,
1170
−
1450
, edited by Robin Frame. London: The Hamble-
don Press, 1995. First published in
Thirteenth Century
England I
, edited by P. R. Coss and S. D. Lloyd. Wood-
bridge: Boydell and Brewer Ltd., 1992.
Griffith, Margaret. “The Talbot-Ormond Struggle for Control of
the Anglo-Irish Government.”
Irish Historical Studies
2
(1940
−
1941): 376
−
397.
See also
Anglo-Norman Invasion; Chief Governors;
Courcey, John de; Desmond; Fitzgerald; Henry II;
John; Kildare; Lacy, de; Lacy, Hugh de;
Lancastrian-Yorkist Ireland; Leinster; Marshal;
Mide; Mortimer; Ormond; Racial and Cultural
Conflicts; Strongbow; Ulster, Earldom of

FAIRS

See

Agriculture;

Feis

; Manorialism; Óenach; Trade

FAMINE AND HUNGER

Sources from the early Christian period contain little

specific information on the subject of hunger and fam-

ine. While the best evidence for specific periods of

hunger comes from the various sets of Irish annals, the

evidence is only as reliable as the sources themselves.

Saints’ Lives describe miraculous cures of diseases

that affected both cattle and people, but they almost

never refer to feeding the hungry. By the time of the

Viking Age and after, sources that describe not only

the facts of famine and hunger but also the causes and

long-term effects are far more common. It is clear that

since bread and dairy products were medieval Ireland’s

food staples, anything that negatively affected grain

crops or reduced the milk production in cows had the

potential to cause hunger and famine. At the worst

times, diseases then struck the weakened population.

Weather conditions were a primary cause of famines.

Prolonged droughts, although rare in Ireland, reduced

the grain crops. More common were periods with

too much rain. In the spring this could drown young

crops; later in the year too little sun could stunt crop

growth. A cold spring meant the planting must wait.

FACTIONALISM