Wars of the Irish kings : a thousand years of struggle from the age of myth through the reign of Queen Elizabeth I / edited by David Willis McCullough.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

McCullough, David W.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ireland--History--To 1603.

Ireland.

History.

Physical Description:

xxxi, 348 pages : illustrations, maps ; 27 cm

Edition:

First Crown edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Crown, [2000]

Summary:

For the first thousand years of its history, Ireland was shaped by its monasteries and its wars. The artistic flourishing of the monasteries has received a good deal of attention, but the violent and varied wars have in recent years gone unremembered. In Wars of the Irish Kings, David Willis McCullough has turned back to the earliest accounts of these struggles to present a rich tapestry of Ireland's fight for its identity.

Beginning with the legends of ancient wars and warriors, moving through a time when history and storytelling were not separate crafts, into a time when history was as much propaganda as fact, Wars of the Irish Kings tells of tribal battles, foreign invasions, Viking raids, family feuds, wars between rival Irish kingdoms, and wars of rebellion against the English.

This collection is peopled with familiar names: Cuchulain, Finn MacCool, Brian Boru, Mad King Sweeney, Strongbow, Edward and Robert Bruce, Queen Elizabeth I and Lord Essex, Hugh O'Donnell, and Hugh O'Neill.

Battles formed the legends and history of the land: the Da Dannan meet the Fir Bolgs near Sligo, Brian Boru faces the Vikings at Clontarf in Dublin Bay, High King Rory O'Connor confronts the English invaders near Waterford, O'Briens battle the English (and other O'Briens) at Dysert O'Dea near Limerick, guns are carried for the first time in battle at Knockdoe near Galway, the Bruces from Scotland and their Irish allies overwhelm the English at Connor in Ulster, and Hugh O'Neill ambushes General Bagenal near Armagh. The book ends near Cork in 1601 when the English defeat O'Neill and his Spanish allies at Kinsale.

Common people as well as kings appear in these pages. A foot soldier in the early days of gunpowder accidentally sets off a disastrous explosion, a harper's disembodied head is sent by error to the king of England, who displays it as that of the king of Ireland, and a Welsh camp follower named Alice is given the job of executing Irish captives during the English invasion.

The sources for these stories and many more range from ancient manuscripts telling of mythical battles to a seventeenth-century siege diary. There are excerpts from such Irish literary masterpieces as The Cattle Raid of Cooley (The Tain), the monumental Annals of the Four Masters, passages from Gerald of Wales's account of the English conquest in the twelfth century, pages from an Icelandic saga, and even a blistering letter from Queen Elizabeth I to her inept commander in Ireland ("You do but piece up a hollow peace...").

The result is a surprisingly immediate and stunning portrait of an all-but-forgotten time that forged the Ireland to come.

Contents:

Introduction: Nothing but Trouble xvii

I. Mythical Wars and Warriors

The Second Battle of Moytura 5

The Cattle Raid of Cooley: Cuchulain 21

The Palace of the Quicken Trees: Finn MacCool 29

The Frenzy of Sweeney 55

II. Kings and Battles

Brief Sketches of Three Irish Kings / Geoffrey Keating 69

The Annals of the Four Masters: Ninth- and Tenth-Century Entries 79

III. The Vikings

The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill: The Early Viking Raids 87

The Freeing of Cellachain, King of Munster 91

IV. Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontarf

Njal's Saga: A Viking Account 107

The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill: An Irish Account 115

V. The Norman Invasion

The Normans Arrive, 1169 / Gerald of Wales 139

The Song of Dermot and the Earl: Another Version of the Invasion 155

Henry II Comes to Ireland / Gerald of Wales 175

VI. John De Courcy and the Conquest of Ulster

The Book of Howth: The Northern Conquest Begins, 1177 185

VII. The Scots

Edward Bruce Invades Ireland / John Barbour 197

Ireland During the Bruce Invasion From Holinshed's Chronicles of Ireland 213

VIII. Warfare in the Kingdom of Thomond

The Triumphs of Thurlough: The Battle of Dysert O'Dea / John mac Rory MacGrath 225

IX. The Battle of Axe Hill

The Book of Howth: Battle of Knockdoe 239

X. Hugh O'Neill Triumphant

The Annals of the Four Masters: The Battles of Clontibret and Yellow Ford 249

O'Neill's Victories / Philip O'Sullivan Beare 255

The Papers of Sir John Harington: Essex and Elizabeth 269

XI. The Battle of Kinsale

The Annals of the Four Masters: O'Donnell and O'Neill Head South to Kinsale 281

An Englishman's Siege and Battle Diary / Fynes Moryson 287

The Annals of the Four Masters: The Battle of Kinsale, An Irish View 315

Afterword: The Flight of the Earls 319.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0812932331

OCLC:

45185141