the early fourteenth century as a merchant family. They
then progressed to careers in law. That the descendants
of the new Sir Robert Preston of 1361 went on to
become viscounts of Gormanstown shows the extent
to which an upwardly mobile family could succeed
over a few generations.
The Non-Noble Class
Most colonists, of course, were not noble. They were
tenants on the great lordships, and, together with the
unfree laborers, they kept the manorial economy of
Anglo-Norman Ireland operating. The pioneering
study of Anglo-Norman agriculture by Professor
Otway-Ruthven revealed several grades within tenant
society. Free tenants held their lands perpetually either
by feudal tenure, meaning that they owed military
service to their lords, or else by payment, a fixed
annual money rent. Farmers also leased their lands but
for a finite term of years, and they often owed their
lords labor services in addition to rent. Gavillers and
cottiers were less secure again, being tenants at will
who owed heavier labor services and money rents.
They appear, however, to have been personally free,
and in this respect are distinct from the betaghs. The
term “betagh” comes from the Irish biatach, referring
to a food provider in Gaelic Ireland. The Gaelic
biatach was not servile, but on the Anglo-Norman
manors, the betagh seems to have become bound to
the land and to have had a status equivalent to the
villein or serf of medieval England. They owed labor
service rather than money rent and, being unfree, had
no legal recourse other than the manor court of their
immediate lord. The various services such as plowing,
reaping, and carrying crops that were owed to Anglo-
Norman lords in Ireland were considerably less oner-
ous than was normal in England. This no doubt acted
as an incentive for the first peasants to migrate to
Ireland. The prospect of burgage tenure also made
Ireland attractive to prospective settlers. Burgesses—the
tenants of a medieval borough—were granted liberties
often based on the Law of Breteuil (from the small town
of Breteuil-sur-Iton in Normandy), such as the right to
their own court, the right to sell their burgage lands, and
the right to marry freely. As a result, they were
extremely common in Ireland. The boroughs they lived
in sometimes grew into towns, but it was not uncommon
to find the residents of tiny rural settlements exercising
the rights of burgesses. In practice, these various grades
were as fluid as were those of the nobility. In the later
Middle Ages, as labor services came to be commuted
in favor of rent, the distinction between servile and free
tenants became increasingly blurred. By the end of the
medieval period, serfdom had disappeared.
PETER CROOKS
References and Further Reading
Cokayne, G.E. Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland,
Great Britain and the United Kingdom. edited by V. Gibbs,
et al. 12 volumes. London: St. Catherine Press, 1910–59.
Frame, Robin. English Lordship in Ireland, 1318–1361. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1982.
Given-Wilson, Chris. The English Nobility in the Later Middle
Ages. London and New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987.
MacNiocaill, Gearóid. “The Origins of the Betagh.” The Irish
Jurist, new series 1 (1966): 292–98.
Otway-Ruthven, A.J. “The Organization of Anglo-Irish Agri-
culture in the Middle Ages.” Journal of the Royal Society of
Antiquaries of Ireland 81 (1951): 1–13.
See also Agriculture; Anglo-Irish Relations;
Chief Governors; Feudalism; John; Lordship
of Ireland; Manorialism; Ulster, Earldom ofSOCIETY, GRADES OF GAELIC
Gaelic Ireland was divided into a number of social
classes. Each class was based on qualifications in terms
of property, learning, or skill. The members of these
classes were subdivided into distinct grades, each with
its own legal attributes.
Some of these classes were considered to be nemed,
“noble” or “privileged.” According to the law text
Bretha Nemed toísech (the first collection of the Judge-
ments of Privileged Persons), these were the poets, the
clergy, the men of ecclesiastical learning, and the lordly
grades. The lordly grades (which included the kings)
derived their wealth and political power by advancing
cattle to clients.
A person’s grade affected their legal rights. For
example, no one could offer legal protection to a per-
son of a higher grade. Their grade also determined the
size of the retinue they were entitled to have with them
when exercising their rights to hospitality. Most impor-
tantly, each grade had its own honor price (eneclann
or lóg n-enech). A person’s honor price determined
part of the payment they received in the case of legal
offenses against them (for these were considered to be
a slight against their honor). It was paid to them if they
agreed to submit themselves to a lord and thereby
become his “base client.” A person’s right to act inde-
pendently in making a contract, or giving a gift of
property, was usually restricted to the level of his own
honor price. Likewise, a person could act as a surety
or guarantor to the contracts of others only up to the
level of his own honor price.Secular Grades in the Early
Medieval Period
Free persons were divided into two main classes: the
noble freemen (grád flatha) and the common freemen
(grád Féne). The members of both classes owned theirSOCIETY, GRADES OF ANGLO-NORMAN