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Our Irish Ancestors

Paul Francis, 2010

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Our link to Ireland comes through the Knox Family. Edward Baldwin John Knox moved to South Africa in the 1870s. Oupa was his grandson. Edward's grandfather was Thomas Knox, the Earl of Dungannon, a very wealthy man who controlled much of County Tyrone. Back at this time, Ireland was largely controlled by wealthy Protestant landowners, the descendants of the English and Scottish "Planters" who had invaded Ireland in the 1600s, displaced the natives and appropriated their lands, becoming fabulously wealthy in the process. At first I thought that the story of our Irish ancestors would be entirely the story of these Protestant invaders. But with further research, it became more complex. Some branches of the family tree went much further back: to a previous wave of invaders, the Normans who conquered much of Ireland in the in the 1100s. And there were many cases of intermarriage with the old Gaelic aristocracy, giving us links back further still, to the Viking raiders of the 9th century, and the Kings of Leinster and Munster back into furthest prehistory. And it is with these kings that I will start... N.B. ancestors names are listed in bold where they are first mentioned.

Leinster was one of the historical kingdoms of Ireland, and occupied roughly to lower 2/3 of the current province of Leinster (see map above), stretching from the future site of Dublin south and west. This province got its name from the Laigin people, most likely a small group of Celts who invaded Ireland from Gaul (France) around 300BC, and intermarried with the locals. The annalists of Leinster ascribed this invasion to Labraid Loingsech, "The Exile" or "The Mariner". It is unclear whether he was a real figure, or the ancestor-deity of the Laigin. His grandfather had been High King of Ireland, but was treacherously killed by his brother, who also poisoned Labraid's father. Labraid was forced to eat the heart of his father and grandfather by their murderer, and was so traumatised by this that he was struck dumb. This dumbness remained until he was hit on the shin during a game of hurling, and cried out "I am hurt!" From then on he was called Labraid, "he speaks". He was exiled overseas for many years ­ most likely in Gaul, where he made a name for himself as a warrior. During this time, he came to the attention of the daughter of the king of Munster, Moriath, who fell in love with him, and send him a love song so beautiful that he decided to return to Ireland. Unfortunately, Moriath's mother disapproved, and always slept with one eye open to keep Moriath under watch. Labraid's harper, Craiftine, had however followed Labraid into exile, and played a lullaby so well on his harp that Moriath's mother fell asleep, and Labraid spent a night with Moriath. When she then became pregnant, Moriath's parents relented and let them marry. Eight hundred years later, Leinster was ruled by his distant descendant Bressal BÈlach (somewhere in the early fifth century AD). Two clans, who for the next thousand years would fight over the rulership of Leinster,

1. The Gaels of Leinster
It's hard to know where to start a family history like this. Our early Irish ancestors traced their pedigree all the way back to Adam, via Noah, various Israelite and Scythian kings and Milesius, a Spanish prince who after a stint as an Egyptian General, and having married the daughter of Pharaoh Nectonibus, settled in Ireland in 1699 BC. But the first ancestors for whom there is some trace of historical reality probably come from Leinster.

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were descended from him. From his son DÇnlaing macèndae came the UÌ DÇnlainge, while from his grandson ènnae Cennsalach came their bitter rivals, the UÌ Cheinnselaig. These family trees were very important to our ancient Gaelic ancestors, who would sit feasting while professional praise poets (bards) recited their ancestry. Ireland at this time was a Gaelic country. It was divided into literally hundreds of tiny kingdoms, each with its own petty king and warriors. People lived in wooden huts, and counted their wealth in cattle. In the fifth century, Christianity became established on the Island, though especially in the early days it would have been very much blended with previous pagan traditions. DÇnlaing macèndae's great-great-greatgrandson FÀelÀn mac ColmÀin was the true founder of the fortunes of the UÌ DÇnlainge. He was son and heir to ColmÀn MÀr mac Coirpri, king of Leinster, but was apparently rejected by his step-mother, and brought up instead by Saint CÑemgen (Saint Kevin) at his newly founded monastery at Glendalough. It is certainly true that his descendants were generous patrons of this monastery. The monasteries would develop into the largest towns in Ireland, complete with their own farms, industries, craftsmen and even armies. Life was violent for would-be kings in Ireland at this time. FÀelÀn is first mentioned in the annals when he defeated and slew CrundmÀel Bolg Luatha of the UÌ Cheinnselaig at the Battle of Duma Aichir in 628. Then in alliance with FaÌlbe Flann mac àedo Duib, the king of Munster, and Conall Guthbinn mac Suibni of the Clann CholmÀin, he defeated and slew Crimthann mac àedo, the UÌ MÀil king of Leinster, at the Battle of àth Goan in western Liffey and took his throne. His descendants had it no easier. For example, here's a brief account of the first ten years of

the reign of his great-grandson Murchad mac Bran Mut: · He began his reign by an inaugural raid into Munster to Cashel in 715 · He fought off five raids from the Ui Neill (O'Neil) clan in 719 · He joined up with the King of Munster to attack Brega in 721 · But later that year the king of Munster changed sides and invaded Murchad's kingdom together with the high king, and enforced the payment of cattle tribute. · But a year later he rebelled and fought off the high king at the Battle of Allen. His son FÀelÀn mac Murchado, in turn, took the kingdom of Leinster by killing his brother DÇnchad mac Murchado at the Battle of Ailenn (Co. Kildare) in 728, and marrying his brother 's widow, Tualath ingen Cathail, daughter of the king of Munster. Their son, RuaidrÌ mac FÀelÀin, was in turn was defeated in the Battle of ñchtar Ocha (at Kilcock, near Kildare) by the high king of Ireland Donnchad Midi of the Clann CholmÀin, who then proceeded to lay waste to Leinster, burning farms and churches, and in the words of the annals of Ulster, "Great hosts ... pour forth for themselves streams of gore". And so it had been for countless centuries, endless fights over power, prestige and cattle tribute. Everyone lived in fortified houses, surrounded by wooden walls, ditches and mounds. Whenever a raiding party entered a clan's territory, the serfs would drive the cattle off into the forests, hills and bogs until it was safe to come back. The Gaels regarded themselves as great warriors and raiders. After reciting their ancient ancestry, their next-favourite pastime was telling incredibly exaggerated tales of their deeds in war. In a typical account, you hear of one king's son carrying a sword in

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each hand, and killing fifty enemies with every swing of each sword (and still losing the battle...). But compared to the next branch of our ancestors, they were rank amateurs at fighting...

2. Ragnar Hairybreeks and the Viking Invasion.
In the late 8th century AD, many countries in Northern Europe were shocked by vicious raids from the hitherto obscure Vikings, pagan barbarians from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The first raids did not target Ireland, and the Gaels continued happily fighting each other, oblivious of the storm that was about to engulf them.

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But in 795 AD, a small fleet of Viking ships, which had been raiding monasteries in England and Scotland, launched an attack on Gwynnedd in north-west Wales, but were repelled. They decided to try their luck across the Irish Sea, and in a year of terror sacked coastal monasteries all around Ireland. The ferocious iron-clad Viking warriors, with their long steel swords and swift longboats, seemed invincible to the Irish, who wrote many accounts of the amazing bravery and fighting skills of the invaders (who they called "Gauls" ­ a generic term for foreigners). But worse was to come. This fleet brought back to the Viking homelands tales of fantastically wealthy, poorly defended monasteries, and these came to the attention of another of our ancestors, Ragnar Lodbrok ("Hairy-breeks") The Vikings, just like the Gaels, loved storytelling, and Ragnar was one of their favourite topics for hundreds of years afterwards. As such, it is hard to tell the historical person apart from the many legends that grew up around him and his almost equally famous sons. Most likely he was a Jarl in the court of the Danish king, and he was certainly leader of the great raid on Paris in 845 AD. He is known to have launched much larger and better organised raids into Ireland, penetrating far inland and destroying monasteries beyond the reach of previous expeditions. A pagan, he was known for launching attacks on holy days when most soldiers would be in church. He would generally accept a huge payment to leave his victims alone, only to come back later and demand more riches in exchange for leaving. The Irish chronicles (written by monks) describe him as deliberately trying to destroy Christianity, with ceaseless raids on churches and monasteries. He didn't restrict his attentions to Ireland. In 845 AD he landed with a fleet of 120 ships in France, ravaged Rouen, then sailed up the

Seine and captured Paris. The king of France, Charles the Bald, paid him the staggering sum of 7,000 pounds of silver not to destroy Paris. Ragnar claimed to be descended from the god Odin himself. Two of his wives were almost as famous as him. His first wife, Lathgertha was a notorious SkjaldmÔr (shield-maiden). She was the daughter of a Norwegian Jarl, who was killed by Frodo, a Swithian chiftain. Frodo announced that he was going to place the women of the former jarl's family into a brothel for public humiliation. Ragnar then arrived with a Swedish army to attack Frodo. Lathgertha disguised herself as a man, joined him and chose to fight among his men, leaving a strong impression on Ragnar. According to the Saxo Grammaticus, "Ladgerda, a skilled Amazon, who, though a maiden, had the courage of a man, and fought in front among the bravest with her hair loose over her shoulders. Allmarveled at her matchless deeds, for her locks flying down her back betrayed that she was a woman." Impressed with her courage, Ragnar courted her from afar. Lathgertha feigned interest but when Ragnar arrived to seek her hand, he was set-upon by a bear and a great hound which she had guarding her home. He killed the bear with his spear and choked the hound to death, and thus won the hand of Lathgertha in marriage.

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about, and flew round to the rear o f t h e e n e m y, t a k i n g t h e m unawares, and thus turned the panic of her friends into the camp of the enemy." (Ragnars Saga) When she returned to Norway, Lathgertha quarrelled with her new husband, killed him and usurped his power as Jarl, because, according to the Saxo Grammaticus, "this most presumptuous dame thought it pleasanter to rule without her husband than to share the throne with him..."

Painting of Aslaug, 1862
Ragnar was, however, allegedly still annoyed at having the beasts set at him. Some time later, he had sent some men ashore to bake bread in a remote part of Norway. They discovered a beautiful woman called Aslaug there, and confused by her beauty, allowed the bread to burn. When they told Ragnar what had happened, he was intrigued, and sent for the girl. But according to legend, to test her wits he commanded her to arrive "neither dressed nor undressed, neither hungry nor full and neither alone nor in company". She arrived dressed in a net, biting an onion and with only the dog as a companion. Impressed, Ragnar divorced Lathgertha, married Aslaug, and most likely, she was the mother of his famous sons Ivar the Boneless and BjÆrn Ironside. According to the legends Aslaug was the daughter of Siegfried and Brynhildr, the heros of Wagner 's ring cycle. Despite the divorce, Lathgertha still retained a soft spot for Ragnar. Several years later, he was losing a civil war in Denmark, and sent to her for help. She came, bringing her new husband and son, and apparently 120 ships. When Ragnar was losing the battle of Laneus: "Ladgerda, who had a matchless spirit though a delicate frame, covered by her splendid bravery the inclination of the soldiers to waver. For she made a sally

Ragnar met his death most likely in 865AD, when he was shipwrecked on the coast of Northumbria, captured by the king, and thrown into a pit filled with poisonous snakes (must have been interesting gathering that many poisonous snakes in Northumbria...). When his sons heard of this they gathered an immense army (the Great Heathen Army, as it was called by the hapless Anglo-Saxon chroniclers who were its victims). In 866 AD it landed in England. No longer was raiding their purpose ­ this time they came to stay. First they conquered Northumbria, whose king was killed in a particularly brutal way. Then they conquered Kingdom of East Anglia, then following reinforcements in 871 they conquered Mercia. The only remaining AngloSaxon Kingdom was Wessex, but under Alfred the Great, Wessex fought them to a standstill.

Ragnar being thrown to the snakes

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It is unclear how many of these stories about Ragnar are true. There may well have been two Ragnars, whose stories have been merged. What is clear is that Ragnar 's children were to have a decisive influence on history. He had at least seven children ­ it's unclear who came from which mother. The two that concern us the most are BjÆrn Ironside and Ivar the Boneless. Bjorn spent his early years raiding France, but in 860 led a large Viking raid into the Mediterranean. After a year attacking Spain, Gibraltar and Provence, he turned his attention to Italy, where he sacked Piza, and then proceeded inland to the town of Luna, which he believed to be Rome. Bjorn found himself unable to breach the town walls. To gain entry, he sent messengers to the Bishop that he had died, had a deathbed conversion, and wished to be buried on consecrated ground within their church. He was brought into the chapel with a small honour guard, then amazed the dismayed Italian clerics by leaping from his coffin and hacking his way to the town gates, which he promptly opened letting his army in. Flush with this victory and others around the Mediterranean (including in Sicily and North Africa) he returned to the Straits of Gibraltar only to find the Saracen navy waiting. In the desperate battle which followed Bjorn lost 40 ships, largely to Greek fire launched from Saracen catapults. The remainder of his fleet managed to return to Scandinavia however, where he lived out his life as a rich man. We will come back to one of his descendants later. Ivar was one of the leaders of the Great Heathen Army, but left it in 869 to move to the new Viking settlement of Dublin. For a period of some decades, the Irish had been left in peace, while the Vikings concentrated on building up their empire and raiding elsewhere. But the Vikings had founded a number of towns around the coast or Ireland, including Dublin, Wexford and Limerick, and

these rapidly became major trading centres, even if much of the trade was in captured Irish slaves. The descendants of Ivar (called by the Irish the Ui Imar) ruled many of these settlements from time to time. During this lull, the Gaels had resumed their customary in-fighting, and indeed several monasteries which had been missed by the Vikings were sacked by rival Irish kings or abbots during this period. But well before 900 AD serious Viking raiding had recommenced. A ninth-century scribe, taking comfort from the storm outside which made the sea impassable, wrote in the margin of his manuscript: "The wind is fierce tonight, It tosses the seas white hair, I fear no wild Vikings Sailing the quiet main" (Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland). Another chronicler wrote of "immense floods and countless sea-vomiting of ships and fleets so that there was not a harbour or land-port in the whole of Munster without floods of danes and pirates".

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3. Gormflaith and her three husbands.
Some time around 980 AD, King Morugh MacFinn of Leinster (the great-grandson of RuaidrÌ mac FÀelÀin), married off his beautiful young daughter Gormflaith to the elderly Viking lord of Dublin and York, ñlÀfr KvÀran, commonly known in Ireland as AmlaÌb CuarÀn, great-grandson of Ivar the Boneless. In his youth, Amlaib had ruled a vast empire on both sides of the Irish Sea, and was renowned for sacking churches, but by the time he married Gormflaith he was in his late fifties, and had lost much of his English empire to the resurgent Anglo-Saxons. He had, however, established Dublin as an extremely wealthy trading centre, and the marriage was a very desirable one for the kings of Leinster. Amlaib had converted to Christianity, and was to end his days retired to the monastery of Iona. Gormflaith bore him a son, Sitric Silkbeard, who was to succeed him as ruler of Dublin. Following Amlaib's death, Gormflaith married the high king of Ireland, MÀel Sechnaill mac Domnaill, who came from the northern Ui Neill clan, which had provided high kings of Ireland for centuries. The marriage was not a success ­ soon afterwards MÀel Sechnaill repudiated her (Njal's saga describes her as extremely beautiful and talented, but with a vicious temper and bad morals), and she moved back to live with her brother, MÀel MÑrda mac Murchada, who had inherited the kingdom of Leinster. Meanwhile, in Munster, a previously obscure member of a relatively minor clan was achieving remarkable military success. Brian Boru, together with his brother, had succeeded in defeating the Vikings of Limerick. A rival clan had killed his brother, but Brian's vengeance had been complete and had left

The Round Tower of Glendalough Many monasteries built high round stone towers, which could only be accessed by a ladder ­ when the Vikings arrived, they would retreat into the upper parts of these towers, pull up the ladder, and remain there in safety while the Vikings ravaged the rest of the monastery. Poorer people dug ditches and covered them over, hiding the entrances, and hid in these makeshift caves while the Vikings rampaged past. Some of these shelters are still being found today. By the late 10th century, the Vikings were less raiders than Gaelic magnates, running cities and posting tax collectors across the regions which paid them tribute. Those who couldn't pay the taxes were enslaved. They were becoming quite Irish, taking sides (for a suitable fee) in the interminable wars between the Irish clans.

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him as undisputed master of Munster and of the Vikings of Limerick. A brilliant general, in battle after battle he was establishing himself as the paramount lord in Ireland. The ancient kings of Leinster were not going to accept some western upstart as their overking. Neither were the Vikings of Dublin. So when Brian Boru moved his army against them in 999, MÀel Morda and his nephew Sitric Silkbeard met him in the battle of Glen Mama. By all accounts it was a drawn-out and bloody affair. Brian won, and in victory made the radical decision to be magnanimous. He gave MÀel Morda and Sitric back their lands and titles, as long as they were happy to acknowledge him as their overload. To seal the alliance, Brian married Gormflaith himself, and gave his daughter Slaine (from a previous marriage) in marriage to Sitric Silkbeard.

according to the chronicles, a maiden could walk from one end of Ireland to the other, carrying a golden ring upon a stick, and not be molested! This is almost certainly gross exaggeration by Brian Boru's partisans ­ his overlord-ship was in fact tenuous, and many kings waged their usual fights in this period. Gormflaith was repudiated by Brian too, though not before bearing him a son. Perhaps her bad character had overcome the attraction of her beauty once again. But she was still living in Brian's court when, in 1012, her brother MÀel Morda, still king of Leinster, arrived. He had come with a group of his men dragging a huge tree from a special forest. This tree was his tribute to Brian Boru ­ for use as a mast in the battle-fleet Brian was building. But in fetching the tree, MÀel Morda had apparently burst a button from his tunic, and he went to visit his sister Gormflaith in her rooms to get it sewn back on.

Two years later, MÀel Sechnaill, the High King of Ireland, surrendered the title to Brian Boru, who became the first (and so-far only) effective ruler of a united Ireland. For a ten brief years,

Brian Boru, by Ciruelo Cabral

Gormflaith took the tunic and threw it into the fire, reproaching him, in bitter and insulting language, for his meanness in submitting to be a servant or vassal to any man, and adding that neither his father nor grandfather would

Typical Irish Warrior of the time

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have yielded to such indignity. Needless to say, this left him in a bad mood as he went to the great hall. Here he saw Brian Boru's eldest son Murchadh playing chess with his cousin. MÀel Morda suggested a move to Murchadh, but it was a bad one and caused Murchadh to lose. Angered at the advice, Murchadh insulted MÀel Morda, saying that "it was like the advice you gave the Danes at Glen Mama". Incensed by this insult, MÀel Morda left in a furious temper early the following morning. Alarmed at his departure, Brian Boru sent a messenger to apologise for his son's rudeness, but MÀel Morda struck the messenger a violent blow on the head with a stick, and broke all the bones in his head. War was resumed. Both Brian and MÀel Morda gathered allies for the upcoming confrontation. Gormflaith had fled to Dublin, where she helped recruit her son Sitric Silkbeard to MÀel Morda's side.

Orkneys and to the Viking lord of the Isle of Man, in return for their help. Not at all clear how she was going to marry both had she won. But on 24th April 1014 AD, within sight of the walls of Dublin, the two armies met in the colossal battle of Clontarf. The battle was long and bloody. On the walls of Dublin, Sitric and his wife Slaine (Brian's daughter) watched. As evening came, it became clear that Brian had won. Slaine taunted Sitric with this, and he, losing his temper, gave her a blow which knocked out one of her teeth. Brian Boru had won. But the cost was heavy. Brian himself had been killed by a party of Vikings. With Brian's death, his supporters went back to in-fighting. MÀel Sechnaill resumed his high king-ship as if nothing had happened. The Vikings resumed their trading and selling themselves out as mercenaries to the highest bidder. But one thing had changed. It was now clear to every petty king that it was possible, if they were ambitious enough, for them to aspire to the high-kingship. The result was two centuries of increasingly large-scale war. And for hundreds of years afterwards, any Irish family with pretensions of nobility tried to trace descent an ancestor who had fought at Clontarf.

4. Normandy
We now need to make a detour to Wales and Normandy, two places where the next wave of migrants to Ireland will come from. In the year 911, the Viking chieftain Rollo, a veteran of many successful raids on France, was defeated by the Frankish King Charles the Simple. Rather than paying him to go away, Charles came up with a novel plan ­ he would let Rollo keep the coastal lands he had already occupied, give him his daughter to marry and appoint him a duke, in return for Rollo

Gormflaith and Sitric spent the winter recruiting allies. She promised herself in marriage to both the Viking lord of the

The Battle of Clontarf

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swearing feudal allegiance to the King of France, and defending the coast against other Viking raiders. So Rollo became Duke Robert I of Normandy. Rollo and his descendants kept their word for a bit, but before long were using their new base in "the land of the northmen" (Normandy) as a base for raids into neighbouring regions of France. As time went on, due to continued Viking immigration and marriage with the French, they began to form a distinct race, part French and part Viking. A thousand years later, their descendants would claim that this race combined Viking vigour with French sophistication. It is certainly true that the Normans never saw a neighbouring country without deciding "I'll have that". Most famously, in 1066, Rollo's great-greatgreat grandson William "the Conqueror" led a large force of Normans across the channel where they defeated King Harold of England and took possession of the country. William divided England up between his various supporters, as a reward for their help in the conquest. Some were content with their new lands, but many started looking around for yet more lands to conquer.

Medieval Welsh Kingdoms
Their enemies, and sometime allies, were the Welsh kingdoms. The ancient Welsh were in many ways very similar to the gaels of Ireland ­ ancient people given to fighting, speaking a Celtic language. The strongest kingdom in Wales was Gwynedd, in the north-west of Wales (centred on Snowdonia and the Isle of Anglesea). The kings of Gwynedd traced their ancestry back to Roman times or even further (Geoffrey de Monmouth, in his self-admittedly partially fictional "History of the Kings of Britain" traced them back to the Trojan Aeneas, himself a son of the goddess Aphrodite). In 1039 AD, the king of Gwynedd was killed by one of his own men, and the kingdom usurped. His son Cynan ap Iago fled to Dublin, where he took refuge in the court of Olaf of Dublin,son of Sitric Silkbeard and Slaine. He married Olaf 's daughter Ragnaillt, who bore him a son, Gruffydd ap Cynan. His father died while Gryffyd was still young, but his mother Ragnaillt told her son that he was really lawful king of Gwynedd. He was to spend most of his life trying to reclaim his kingdom. Three times he took back the throne of Gwynedd, and three times he was deposed again, sometimes by Welsh rivals and

5. Wales and the Welsh Marches
Perhaps the most warlike and independent of all the Norman lords were the Marcher Barons ­ those with lands along the Welsh borders. For hundreds of years these lords would alternately fight and ally themselves both with the Welsh kingdoms to their west, and the Norman kings of England to their east.

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sometimes by Normans, who had designs on the kingdom themselves. Each time he fled back to Dublin, raised new troops and tried again. He spent several years as a captive of the Normans in Chester, before being rescued by a former supporter who, seizing his chance while the captors were at dinner, picked Gryffydd up, fetters and all, and carried him out of the city. Finally, with the aid of a fleet under the command of King Magnus III "Barefoot" of Norway, he was able to re-take his kingdom from the Normans. His descendants would become kings of both Wales and Scotland, and will come back into the history of Ireland much later. His distant cousin Rhys ap Tewdwr,king of the southern kingdom of Deuheubarth, had a similarly turbulent life ­ twice having to take refuge from rebellions. In the end, however, he managed to cut a deal with the Norman King Henry I of England which kept Deuheubarth safe and independent during his lifetime. But after his death in 1093, the Normans over-ran most of Deuheubarth.

Rhys' daughter Princess Nest of Deuheubarth was a legendary beauty, which was probably a curse. After her father 's death, King Henry I took her into his protection, and he protected her so well that she bore Henry at least two children, out of wedlock. Henry then married her off to one of his followers, Gerald de Windsor, whom he appointed as constable of Pembroke Castle, putting him in charge of the pacification of newly conquered Deuheubarth. They had five children, one of whom, Maurice Fitzgerald, we will come back to. During Christmas 1109, Nest and Gerald were visited at their home (most likely Cilgerran Castle) by Nest's cousin, Owain ap Cadwgan, prince of the still independent kingdom of Powys. Owain was so taken by Nest's beauty that he and fifteen companions attacked the castle, seized Nest and carried her and her children off. Gerald escaped only by jumping down a garderobe (toilet chute). Nest bore Owain two sons, but Gerald applied so much pressure that Owain then handed her and her children back, and then fled the country to avoid retribution. This left Owain's father to bear the brunt of Gerald's anger ­ he lost his lands. When Owain came back to Wales, Gerald ambushed and killed him in combat, as retribution for kidnapping his wife and children. What Nest though of all this is not recorded.

Gruffydd ap Cynan escapes from Chester, Illustration by T. Prytherch in 1900

Cilgerran Castle, likely site from which Nest and her children were abducted. Page 12




After Gerald's death, Nest became the lover of Stephen, constable of Cardigan, and had yet another child, Robert Fitz-Stephen, by him. Robert, together with his half-brother Maurice, we will come back to.

and noted for his voice hoarse with shouting over the din of battle. For 20 years there was an uneasy peace between Dermot and Tiernan, but in 1166, the High King (Dermot's ally) was deposed, and Tiernan put together a huge coalition and attacked Leinster again in overwhelming force. They over-ran the kingdom with ease, and Dermot and his wife only just managed to flee in time. It's what happened next that put Dermot's name firmly in the history books. With his wife he took refuge with friends in Bristol, but then, in the time-honoured fashion of exiled Celtic kings, Dermot set about trying to recruit allies to help him reclaim his kingdom. First he traveled to Aquitaine in France, where he met King Henry II of England and his famous wife Eleanor of Aquitaine at their splendid and cultured court. Dermot obtained permission from the King to recruit some of his subjects to help reclaim the throne of Leinster. Back in Wales, Dermot set about recruiting allies. He looked for help among the Marcher Barons ­ probably because of their close links with Ireland, and their reputation as fierce warriors. He first recruited two sons of Nesta, Maurice Fitzgerald and Robert Fitzstephen. Robert was, at this time, imprisoned in the dungeons of Rhys ap Gryffydd (Princess Nesta's nephew, who was busily liberating Deuheubarth from the Normans), but Dermot persuaded Rhys to release him. Maurice and Robert then went about recruiting an army of Norman and Welsh mercenaries. They struck gold when they managed to recruit Richard de Clare, the 2nd Earl of Pembroke, commonly known by the nickname of "Strongbow", because of his frequent use of Welsh archers in his various battles.

6. Dermot McMurrough and the Norman Invasion
Back in Ireland, a hundred years have passed since the time of Brian Boru and Gormflaith. A hundred years of endless fighting between the different kingdoms of Ireland. In Leinster, the UÌ Cheinnselaig clan have replaced their bitter rivals the UÌ DÇnla