Gaelic Ulster in the Middle Ages: History, culture and society (Trinity Medieval Ireland Series)

The Plantation of Ulster followed from the perceived recalcitrance and military strength of its Gaelic lords. This book examines the prelude to their final rebellion. After a brief survey of medieval Ulster’s heritage from the Iron Age and Early Christian period, it gives a detailed narrative of Ulster history from the eleventh to the early sixteenth century, relating the politics and culture of the province to developments in the rest of Ireland and Europe. It then delves into the ‘plain living and high thinking’ of its somewhat enigmatic society, operating largely independently of towns or coinage, describing in turn its chieftains, churchmen, scholars, warriors, court ladies and other women, and the amusements and everyday life of the people. Nowadays, medieval Gaelic Ulster is virtually invisible. Physical evidence from the four centuries stretching between the invasion of the Anglo-Norman baron John de Courcy and the Plantation is rare. Although it left little physical trace, Gaelic Ulster was once a vigorous, confident society, whose members fought and feasted, sang and prayed. It maintained schools of poets, physicians, historians and lawyers, whose studies were conducted largely in their own Gaelic language, rather than in the dead Latin of medieval schools elsewhere in Europe. This monumental book explores the neglected history of Gaelic Ulster between the eleventh and early sixteenth centuries, and sheds further light on its unique society. The first section, "Political History", provides the reader with a chronological narrative, showing the influence of internal and external political change on the Ulster chieftains, while also illustrating how this northern province related to the rest of Ireland. The second section, "Culture and Society", aims to depict the world of Ulster during the Middle Ages. It delves into the "plain living and high thinking" of its somewhat enigmatic society, operating largely independently of towns or coinage, describing in its turn its chieftains, churchmen, scholars, warriors, court ladies and other women, and the amusements and everyday life of the people Cover 1 Title page 4 Copyright page 5 Table of contents 6 List of illustrations 9 Acknowledgments 11 Note on Irish place and personal names 13 Abbreviations 14 I. Political history 20 Introduction 22 1. Early background: Ulster’s central role in 34 2. Eleventh to twelfth centuries: Ulster’s growing isolation 70 3. The Ulster earldom to the late thirteenth century: co-existence and Anglicization 85 4. The fourteenth century: absenteeism and Gaelic recovery 111 5. The fifteenth century: ‘a balance of power’? Gaelicand Anglo-Irish paramount lordships 149 6 The Ulster chiefs and the Geraldine chief governors 187 Plates 226 II. Culture and society 248 7. Kings and kingship 250 8. The church in medieval Ulster 285 9. Ulster poets 352 10. Other Ulster ‘men of art/learning’ (áes eladan) 394 11. Warriors and warfare 421 12. Court ladies and the place of women in Gaelic society 452 13. The life of the people: popular assemblies, farming, houses, clothing and food 476 14. Epilogue 512 Bibliography 519 Index 560