MACSWEENEYdisaster, as Art ceaselessly harried the English. At a
failed parley, Art—described as a tall handsome man
with a stern countenance—told Richard’s envoy that
he would never submit. The landing in England of
Henry Bolingbroke forced Richard to return home in
July 1399. Despite Richard’s departure, Art promised
his wife never to rest until Norragh was restored to
her—traveling to Munster in August to aid Maurice
Fitzgerald, fifth earl of Desmond, against Ormond.
There he recruited mercenaries and encouraged his ally
Tadhg O’Carroll to harry the lands of Ormond. Upon
his return to Leinster, Art set about reenforcing his
kingship over the eastern part of the province—
attacking the English of Wexford in 1401.
At this stage his fame was such that there exists a
strong possibility that the letter from the Welsh leader
Owain Glyndwr (d. c. 1416), intercepted at Waterford
in November 1401, urging the Irish kings to join him
in a struggle against the English, was intended for Art.
He also resumed his routine of extracting black rents
from the English of Leinster—receiving 10 marks for
his defense of New Ross. In 1405, he again flexed his
military muscle to force the government to pay him
his fee of 80 marks, ravaging Castledermot, Wexford,
and Carlow until it was paid. The next year saw the
government try to clip his wings. The Lord Lieutenant
Thomas of Lancaster, James Butler, fourth earl of
Ormond, Thomas Fitzgerald, sixth earl of Desmond,
and Prior Thomas Butler of Kilmainham campaigned
into Art’s territory to loosen his grip there. While
they failed in their ultimate objective, this did not
prevent them from trying again. During late August or
early September 1407, the government attacked the
MacMurroughs, fighting an inconclusive battle. A
considerable reverse to Art’s ambitions was the kill-
ing of Tadhg O’Carroll by the English at Callan on
September 9. The pressure on Art possibly encour-
aged the English of Wexford to resist his demands
for protection money. In June 1408, Art punished
them—devastating the cantreds of Forth and Bargy
in southern Wexford. During the following year, Art
pressed the Dublin government, laying charges
against the Wexford English for non-payment of his
fee. In response the administration authorized the
payment to Art of his 80 marks. In spite of this, Art’s
struggle with the English of Wexford intensified.
MacMurrough power was further demonstrated in
1413, when he destroyed the town of Wexford.
Arguably this was the high point of MacMurrough
power in Leinster. In his last years, Art declined and
his sons lacked his ability. This new MacMurrough
weakness became clear in 1414, when the English of
Wexford burnt Idrone (Co. Carlow) and captured Art’s
second son, Gerald MacMurrough. Although Art’s
eldest son, Donnchad MacMurrough, rescued his
brother, it was a sign of decline. Significantly during
this period Art and the Butlers became allies as evi-
denced by the marriage of Donnchadto Aveline Butler,
the half sister of Ormond. This may have been a reac-
tion to the arrival in Ireland during 1414 of the Butlers’
enemy, the Lord Lieutenant John Talbot. Furthermore,
in 1415 Art also dispatched his son Gerald Kavanagh
to England with Abbot John Doun of Graiguenaman-
agh, to take an oath of loyalty to Henry V. In the context
of Art’s alliance with the Butlers, the MacMurroughs’
devastation in 1416 of the Wexford liberty belonging
to Gilbert Talbot (d. 1419), the lord lieutenant’s elder
brother, makes some sense. The annals are divided on
the date and circumstance of Art’s death. One account
records that he died in his bed during December 1416,
while another tells that the greatest of the medieval
kings of Leinster was fatally poisoned at New Ross in
January 1417.
EMMETTO’BYRNEReferences and Further Reading
Barry, Terry, Robin Frame,and, Katharine Simms, ed. Colony
and Frontier in Medieval Ireland. London: Hambleton Press,
1995.
Bartlett, Thomas and Keith Jeffrey, ed. A Military History of
Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Byrne, Francis. Irish Kings and High-Kings. London: B. T.
Batsford Ltd, 1973.
Colfer, William. Arrogrant Trepass. Enniscorthy: Duffry Press,
2002.
Hore, Herbert and James Graves, ed. Social State of the South-
ern and Eastern Counties of Ireland in the Sixteenth Century.
Dublin, 1870.
Lydon, James. The Lordship of Ireland in the Middle Ages.
Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003.
Nicholls, Kenneth. “The Kavanaghs, 1400–1700.” Irish
Genealogist,v,no. 4 (1977): 435–436.
–––––.Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland. Dublin: Lilliput Press,
2003.
O’Byrne, Emmett. War,Politics and the Irish of Leinster
1156–1606. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003.
O’Corrain, Donnchadh. “The Ui Cheinnselaig Kingship of
Leinster 1072–1126.” Journal of Old Wexford Society 6
(1976–1977): 48–52.
Otway-Ruthven, Jocelyn. A History of Medieval Ireland.
London, 1969.
Simms, Katharine. “Warfare in Medieval Irish Lordships.” Irish
Sword12 (1975–1976): 98–105.
–––––.From Kings to Warlords. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1987.
See alsoKings and Kingships; Leinster; MunsterMACSWEENEY
The Mac Sweeneys (Mac Suib[h]ne) were a galloglass
family (from gallóglaigh—warriors from the Innse
Gall or Hebrides—Scottish mercenaries who fought as
heavy armed foot in Ireland), which were to the forefront