Airgialla and Airthir, covering much of County Louth
and southeast Ulster. In 1194 John made his most
sweeping grant yet when de Burgh was allocated all
Connacht. John’s generosity was linked to his rebel-
lion against his brother, Richard I, his land-grabbing
henchmen being opposed by established loyalist bar-
ons like the de Lacys and John de Courcy. After his
return to England and John’s restoration, Richard
intervened on behalf of Walter de Lacy to secure his
succession to Meath and gave Leinster to Strongbow’s
son-in-law, William Marshal, which John had tried
to prevent.
But when Richard died in April 1199 the lord of
Ireland became king of England. John’s new freedom
of maneuver produced another spate of land grants
(the most noteworthy his revival in 1201 of the claim
of the Welsh Marcher baron William de Briouze to
Limerick), castle construction, and westward coloni-
zation that had no regard for the sensitivities of the
indigenous rulers. These years saw intense (and con-
fusing) jostling for power among the barons as they
rushed to breach the Shannon frontier, and warfare
broke out between competing factions, each sponsor-
ing rival O’Conors. These civil wars persisted through-
out the first decade of John’s reign. He encouraged
Hugh II de Lacy to oust de Courcy in 1204, rewarding
him in 1205 with a grant of Ulster as an earldom (the
first in Ireland), but had fallen out with de Lacy (and
Briouze) in turn by 1208.
John was sufficiently worried to make prepara-
tions for an Irish expedition, but it did not materialize
until 1210. Anxious to bring his troublesome barons
to heel, John began with a display of generosity to
the native kings, who willingly accepted him as lord,
Donnchad Cairbrech Ua Briain being knighted and
receiving a charter for an (albeit petty) estate. However,
the contemporary
Histoire des Ducs de Normandie
describes John quarrelling with Cathal Crobderg Ua
Conchobair; the latter, having marched with John to
Ulster to capture Carrickfergus from the de Lacy and
Briouze factions, refused to hand over his heir as
hostage (presumably because of John’s treacherous
reputation), whereupon John seized four of Cathal’s
sub-kings and officers, whom he brought back to
England with him. Also, John entered negotiations
at Carrickfergus with the most powerful northern
king, Áed Méith Ua Néill, but the annals are clear
about the outcome: “Messengers came to him [Ua
Néill], to his house, to seek hostages, and he said:
‘Depart, O foreigners, I will give you no hostages at
all.’ The foreigners departed and he gave no hostages
to the king.”
Thus, whatever the successes elsewhere of John’s
1210 campaign (he dealt effectively with his Anglo-
Norman opponents and is said to have brought Ireland’s
law and government into line with the English
model, establishing an exchequer at Dublin), he
failed to produce a settlement with his Irish subject-
kings. The breakdown in relations was followed by
a government backlash, the king instructing John de
Gray, bishop of Norwich, to protect vital Shannon
crossings with castles at Clonmacnoise and Athlone.
Connacht was twice invaded by the colonists rival
members of the Ua Conchobair dynasty, and Ua Néill
too suffered, an English army going northwards in
1211, although it was routed by an alliance of north-
ern kings. De Gray himself went north in 1212 and
built castles at Cáel Uisce on the Erne and Clones,
County Monaghan, launching raids into the heart of
Ua Néill’s kingdom while Thomas of Galloway’s fleet
attacked Derry to the rear.
Yet de Gray was defeated, little progress was made
in undermining northern resistance, and John contem-
plated another Ireland expedition in 1213, although
this became impossible when his baronial crisis struck.
Most Irish barons (like the Welsh Marchers) remained
loyal during the emergency, and John sought to win
Irish support, taking Cathal Crobderg into his protec-
tion and ordering Henry of London, archbishop of
Dublin, to buy scarlet cloth for robes for the Irish
kings. But the Irish generally took advantage of the
barons’ preoccupation with English affairs and staged
a recovery. In 1214, Ua Néill defeated the English in
Ulster, demolishing Cáel Uisce and Clones and razing
the port of Carlingford. In 1214–1215 Cormac Ua
Máel Sechnaill attacked the castles of Meath and
Offaly, John instructing his justiciar in July 1215 to
ensure that the barons immediately fortified their lands
in the marches.
About February 1216, Pope Innocent III ordered
his legate in Ireland to “put down conspiracies
against the king throughout the kingdom of Ireland,”
while another papal letter of the same date orders the
punishment of clerics “who communicate with those
excommunicated for insurrection against the king.”
John died in October 1316, but in the following
January the papal legate was instructed “to take mea-
sures to preserve to [the new] King Henry [III] the
fealty of his subjects in Ireland, and to recall those
who have opposed him,” another mandate of April
1217 urging him “to fulfill his office faithfully and
prudently in bringing about a peace between the Irish
and the king.” This suggests that the Irish and the
new king were at war, but that was the legacy left by
King John. It is little surprise that nearly two centuries
passed before another English king visited his Irish
lordship.
S
EÁN
D
UFFYJOHN (1167–1216), KING OF ENGLAND