Anglo-Normans

So the Bronze Age, right? Then fast forward, you have the Vikings in the 9th and 10th centuries, a significant disruptive force in the history of Ireland.

Then the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion and later the plantations and the English, right? So in my view, the six literal invasions of Ireland or arrivals mirror exactly what's in, not exactly, sorry, but they mirror this theme of arrivals and displacement, which seems to be the entire story of Ireland.

God, you just contexted it there and just condensed it brilliantly into those six.

Anthony Murphy is with us on Light Launch.

I'm going to start with that story so that those who have previously heard the episode can listen to this new story without having to sit through the entire episode, although you might enjoy listening to it again as we approach Halloween.

The new ghost story comes from the ecclesiastical history of the 12th century Anglo-Norman monk, Oderich Vitalis.

Orderic assures us of its veracity, as it was related to him by the priest who actually experienced it.

More about that later, but first, the story.

As you might be able to tell, the translation is from the mid-19th century and a bit fuzzy.

I revised it in parts using Marjorie Chibnall's now standard translation.

Orderic Vitalis belongs to a remarkable coterie of Anglo-Norman historians who flourished in the first half of the 12th century.

Although Oderich is admired by modern scholars for his careful and often critical use of his written and oral sources, he was not writing scientific history.

Yeah.

And I'm going to go even further, and I'm going to crib completely from Mikhail Meredj, who wrote a very good article about this, which really keys into the fact that William of Nubra is an Anglo-Norman.

You mentioned third culture.

Yeah.

And this is the period of transition where...

the Anglo-Norman kind of identity is really consolidating itself.

It's no longer like we are the French conquerors, that we're a new thing.

And I'm going to quote Madesh.

But then in 1108, Louis VI becomes king of France, and he's determined to restore France's dominance across Europe.

And in particular, he sees Henry and the Anglo-Norman realm as his main threat.

So he wants to curtail that power and ideally split England and Normandy as it had been before.

So in 1109, he demanded that Henry pay homage for the frontier castle of Guisor.

And they're sort of the spine of the game by which you all dance around.

Mm-hmm.

But this is the thing, many of the 12th century Anglo-Norman nobility would agree with your way of thinking.

They think, look, lovely, okay, we'll swear the oath because Henry's scaring, we can't really not do what he says, but actually, fingers crossed, I prefer Cleto.

from england the irish chieftains bought slaves who continued to be kidnapped in bristol in spite of all that william the conqueror and lanfranc and the good bishop wolfston of worcester could do to check the practice the time had now come to bring england and ireland more closely together william the conqueror had intended an attack upon that country and in church matters at least some subjection to england had been recognised by the irish chieftains and by the irish bishops william and lanfranc had been to some extent known and obeyed in ireland henry was determined to make this subjection real soon after his accession he obtained from pope adrian the fourth the only englishman who has ever been bishop of rome a bull granting him by a power which the popes claimed over all islands to have ireland for himself in order to subject its people to the rule of law and to root out therefrom the weeds of vice it was not till eleven seventy that henry took advantage of this grant in eleven sixty six dermot king of leinster came to him for aid against other irish princes who had expelled him from his realm henry allowed richard of clare earl of stregill or pembroke to assist him first there went maurice fitzgerald and robert fitzstephen who established themselves at wexford then came earl richard who took waterford thence they marched to dublin and took it From all these towns they had driven the Norwegian Ostmen who ruled there.

The attacks of the Northmen and the Irish failed to dislodge the invaders, and the Anglo-Norman knights soon held sway over Meath and South Munster as well as the seaports.

Henry himself crossed to Ireland after the murder of Becket and kept Christmas 1171 at Dublin, when all the Irish kings save those of Ulster submitted to him.

the irish bishops who had long warned their people against the slave trade with bristol by which many english folk were brought into captivity in ireland and who regarded the invasion as a punishment for the people's sins accepted henry and at a synod at cashel at which he was present agreed to many wise measures of reform and to bring their church into conformity with the english henry returned to england in april eleven seventy two earl richard now ruled in ireland and hugh de lacy was the king's justiciar in eleven eighty five the king sent over his youngest son john whom he wished to make lord of ireland but the prince's rash folly prevented the plan from being successful At the end of Henry's reign Ulster had been conquered and the English pale or boundary included Meath, Leinster and part of Munster.

Yeah.

I'll tell you that it is it is derived from the old English but also involves some Anglo-Norman and thus like a little bit of French influence

this sounds I mean like immediately this sounds to me like somebody who makes chords but it can't be that simple somebody

who wanes chords