MILITARY SERVICE, GAELICfrom the Western Isles. By the late fifteenth century
they were able to do the unthinkable—billet their Mac-
Domnaill galloglass upon the Pale before levying
coyne and livery upon Englishmen for the maintenance
of these troops. The Dublin government’s first priori-
ties following the defeat of the Kildare rebellion in
1535 was to shore up the frontiers of the Pale and
extend royal jurisdiction throughout the country. This
process demanded reform and the dissolution of the
private armies maintained by the great Irish lords and
English magnates in Ireland. Accordingly, the govern-
ment demanded that common law be the only observed
writ in the country. By seeking the abolition of coyne
and livery, the Dublin government intended to destroy
the military power that underpinned the power of both
the Irish and English nobles of Ireland. With the rees-
tablishment of the royal writ, successive chief gover-
nors backed by English forces strove to ensure that all
military service was due alone to the monarch.
E
MMETT
O’B
YRNE
References and Further Reading
Barry, Terry, Robin Frame, and Katharine Simms, ed.
Colony
and Frontier in Medieval Ireland
. London: Hambleton Press,
1995.
Bartlett, Robert and Angus McKay, ed.
Medieval Frontiers Soci-
eties
. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Bartlett, Thomas and Keith Jeffrey, ed.
A Military History of
Ireland
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Lydon, James. “The Hobelar: An Irish Contribution to Medieval
Warfare.”
Irish Sword
2 (1954–1956): 13–15.
–––––, ed.
Law and Disorder in the Thirteenth-Century Ireland
.
Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997.
–––––.
The Lordship of Ireland in the Middle Ages
. Dublin:
Four Courts Press, 2003.
Morgan, Hiram.
Tyrone’s Rebellion
. London: Boydell Press,
1999.
Nicholls, Kenneth.
Gaelic and Gaelicized Ireland
. Dublin: Lil-
liput Press, 2003.
O’Byrne, Emmett.
War, Politics and the Irish of Leinster
1156–1606
. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003.
Otway-Ruthven, Jocelyn. “Knight Service in Ireland.”
Journal
of the Royal Society of Antiquities
79 (1959): 1–7.
–––––. “Royal Service in Ireland.”
Journal of the Royal Society
of Antiquities
98 (1968): 37–39.
–––––.
A History of Medieval Ireland
. London: Ernest Benn, 1968.
Simms, Katharine.
From Kings to Warlords
. Woodbridge: Boy-
dell Press, 1987.
See also
Chief Governors; Common Law;
Feudalism; Military Service, Gaelic; Tuarastal
MILITARY SERVICE, GAELIC
According to Brehon law, an Irish king at an
óenach
(“general assembly”) could exact military service from
his followers by issuing a legally binding summons to
arms—provided that the
garmsluaigh
(“hosting, rising
out”) was just. The attendance at the rising out dem-
onstrated the king’s power over the people of his coun-
try, as his real wealth lay in the farmers living under
his protection. Accordingly, these farmers owed mili-
tary service in return for this protection. All the able-
bodied population of a country—apart from the
learned and the clergy—were eligible for service either
as horsemen or footmen. To enforce a call to arms,
Irish kings appointed officers to ensure their fighting
men obeyed the summons. These officers were also
entrusted with the levying of fines upon those who
choose to ignore the call. For example, MacCarthy
Mór of Kerry in 1598 expected the men of his country
to answer his summons within three days—with vict-
uals and sufficient weapons—while anyone who failed
to serve was required to pay a fine of 20s. In the
neighboring palatinate of Kerry,a horseman who failed
to answer a summons paid a fine of three cows or 15s.,
while an absentee footman had a choice between a fine
of a cow or 5s
.
The most important and lucrative office
within the military hierarchy of an Irish kingdom was
that of the
marasgal
(“marshal”). This prestigious
office was hereditary and was confined to members of
a noble family close to the king. The origins of the office
of the marshal are probably to be found in the much
older office of
dux luchta tige
(“the head of the king’s
household”). In the execution of his duties—particularly
those of levying and billeting troops—the marshal was
assisted by a team of submarshals. Billeting troops
upon the people of the kingdom was the principal task
of the marshal—this was known as
coinnmheadh
(“quartering, billeting”) later more commonly known
as “coyne.”
Permanent standing forces were also a feature of
Irish warfare. From at least the eleventh century, the
Irish kings were maintaining small permanent fighting
forces. These forces were known as
teclach
or more
aptly
lucht tige
(“troops of the household”). These
household troops were well-equipped footmen and
marcsluag
(“cavalry”) skilled in the use of arms, living
upon the king’s mensal lands. The majority of these
highly mobile and well-armed horsemen were drawn
from the upper classes. A major development in Gaelic
military service of the Middle Ages was the increasing
dependence of Irish kings upon retained bands of mer-
cenaries. The origins of the much-demonized sixteenth-
century
cethern
(“woodkerne”) are to be probably
found among these
ceithirne congbála
(“retained
bands”) or in the large recruited companies of merce-
naries known as
rúta
(“routes”). As early as the 1100s,
Irish kings—particularly of Ulster—were recruiting
among the large communities of Hebridean-Norse
fighting men in the Western Isles of Scotland hiring
large forces and fleets for service in Ireland. Irish kings
also hired English or Welsh mercenaries, as Diarmait