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The Normans were 'grandchildren' of the Vikings who had settled
in north-west of France in the 9th Century and following the
Battle of Hastings in 1066, conquered England. By 1100 they
ruled southern Italy and were establishing the Crusader States
in Palestine.
Dermot McMurragh, King of Leinster, was ejected by the new
High King of Ireland, Rory O'Connor and fled to the court of
King Henry II in Aquitaine. There he received royal protection
and permission to recruit mercenaries. It was perfect timing
as Henry Nicholas Breakspear, son of an English Cistercian monk,
had become Pope Adrian IV and gave papal approval for a conquering
crusade of 'heathen' Ireland.
The Anglo-Norman invasion began with the landing at Baginbun,
Co. Wexford in 1169. 'At Baginbun Ireland was lost and won'.
Neither the Irish nor the Vikings could match nor withstand
the Norman's advanced military technology of chain mail clad
heavy cavalry, backed by Welsh longbows - equipment previously
unknown in Ireland. Wexford was taken and the next year they
force marched through the 'impenetrable' Wicklow Mountains and
arrived at the gates of Dublin. They attacked Dame Gate (at
the present day junction outside Palace Street Gate). A second
attack by shock troops at the Christchurch end of town proved
decisive. 'The Vikings were slaughtered in their citadel' -
and so Dublin became a Norman settlement.
King Rory O'Connor laid siege on the town for two months. The
position of the Norman defenders was perilous when Strongbow
led a surprise sortie and scattered O'Connor's forces, at the
site of present day Phoenix Park. Tiernan O'Rourke, Prince of
Breifne, attacked Dublin three times in 1171. First his son
was killed and then he was killed in battle. It would be almost
three and a half centuries before Dublin would sustain such
assault again - the next would be that of Silken Thomas in 1534.
The Vikings were forced out and settled in Oastmantown (Norse
Town), now Oxmanstown, on the north side of the Liffey. King
Henry II arrived in September 1171, in order to keep his adventurers
in check, to assert his rule and to receive the submission of
Irish Bishops and Chieftains. One of Valdre's ceiling paintings
in St. Patrick's Hall commemorates the submission of Irish Chieftains
to Henry. He also 'granted, to his men of Bristol (England),
his city of Dublin to be inhabited, together with all the liberties
and free customs they had at Bristol and throughout his entire
land'.
The Normans strengthened the Norse walls, widened them to 1.5m
and raised them to 5.6m high. They normally consolidated each
territorial gain with a castle. It can be assumed that their
first castle in Dublin was a motte and bailey - a huge steep
earthen mound with wooden tower on top and palisade enclosure
and deep ditch at the base - on the present Dublin Castle site.
Archaeological evidence in the Bermingham Tower area, showed
that there was a wooden and stone castle on this site in the
1180's.
On the 30th August 1204, King John of England commanded the
erection of a (larger) strong castle with strong walls and good
ditches, for the defence of the city, administration of justice
and safe custody of treasure. The construction of Dublin Castle
was completed by 1230 and Henry de Londres, Justiciar and Archbishop
of Dublin, is credited with this major engineering achievement.
The Great Courtyard (the Upper Castle Yard) of today corresponds
closely with that fortification.
For a while, Dublin had sustained economic growth and the
population, including suburbs, may have reached 10,000. However,
the Norman townspeople were vulnerable to attacks by the Irish
Clans and fear of such violence was ever present. The O'Byrnes
and the O'Tooles, made frequent incursions from their strongholds
in the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains. The Castle treasury became
depleted as demands were made of the Justiciar to finance military
campaigns in Wales and Scotland. The neglect and near bankruptcy
of the administration prompted an Irish resurgence.
The fragile and precarious nature of the conquest was evident
when Edward the Bruce, brother of Robert - King of Scotland,
landed with an army in 1315, to set up a united Celtic Kingdom.
He was joined by many Irish Chieftains and crowned King of Ireland.
At the battle of Ardscull (Co. Kildare) he defeated the army
of Justiciar Edmund Butler. The Dubliners 'broke the bridge
of Dublin', demolished a number of buildings and used the stone
to strengthen the town defences. Lacking a siege train, Bruce
could not press his advantage and so, Dublin and the royal administration
was saved.
Thirty years later (1348) a far more deadly enemy hit Dublin.
The Bubonic Plague, known as the 'Black Death', had a deadly
effect on the confined crowded town of Dublin, where the woodened
framed, plastered, houses were two or three stories high and
where a citizen could walk from one side of town to the other
in less than nine minutes. The plague thrived in these conditions
and some contemporary writers hailed it as 'the end of the world'.
It left a base of infection in the town that was to surface
for decades to come.
In 1394, King Richard II came with a great army and many Irish
Chieftains submitted to him at his residence in Dublin Castle.
Irish Kingship differed completely from the English model of
direct inheritance by eldest son. An Irish King was elected
by his people and if he submitted, could be and often was, deposed
and the position given to the 'best man for the job' - who was
not necessarily from his immediate family. Richard's temporary
success could only have been maintained by a sustained effort,
for which the means were not available. His second military
expedition of 1399 cost him his crown. While he was in Ireland,
Henry Bollingbrook, of the opposing House of Lancaster, returned
from exile and rallied support. He was crowned Henry IV in Westminster
Abbey after Richard was murdered, at the age of 33, at the Tower
of London.
This caused the English dynastic quarrel that later burst into
the 30 year, 'War of the Roses', between the Houses of Lancaster
and York. During the 15th Century, England was marked by a succession
of wars and revolts and Ireland was 'not on anyone's agenda'.
The 100 Years War was reopened with France, and the English
armies won a series of victories including the famous Battle
of Agincourt. However, they were soon undermined by the campaigns
of Joan of Arc and within a generation, all the conquests were
lost.
Meanwhile, the existence of the Irish colonial outpost became
even more precarious and starved of resources, it shrank rapidly,
until the Dublin Government was effective only in the 'four
obedient counties of the Pale' - i.e. Dublin, Louth, Kildare
and Meath. That situation was to change dramatically, with the
accession of the Tudor dynasty to the English Crown.
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