1. Perceptions of the Irish in Medieval English Writing
1200-1400
Master of Philosophy in Medieval History
2016
Submitted to Dublin University
Kevin John Patrick Thomson
Caoimhín Eóin Pádraig MacThomáis

2. ii
Declaration
This thesis is entirely my own work and has not been
submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other
university. Trinity College may lend or copy the
dissertation upon request. This permission covers only
single copies made for study purposes, subject to
normal conditions of acknowledgement.
Signed:___________________________

3. iii
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all of the staff of the Department
of Medieval History at Trinity College Dublin for their
encouragement and criticism.
I would particularly like to thank Dr Peter Crooks, my
supervisor, for his support and great constructive
suggestions as well as his prompt and helpful responses
to my queries and needs.
I would like to thank my mother, Patricia, for
supporting me and encouraging me throughout the
process of my Masters.
Míle buíochas chugaibh.
Kevin John Patrick Thomson
31 August 2016

4. iv
Abstract
The aim of my thesis is to effectively supply a true analysis of the nature of perceptions of
Irish in a way which not only proves the importance of English opinions to the Irish, on both
a day to day and sustained level but also understandings of the Irish. I will also show how
they affected the English political psyche and national identity. Secondly the thesis will also
be able to ascertain why certain stereotypes were thought of the Irish and why it was that they
were to change over time based upon increased interaction.
Chapter One will interpret the evidence given for Ireland and her people from the
imagined geography of the Middle Ages. The evidence given in classical sources shall be
looked at and compared with the evidence of the writers of the two centuries with which I am
interested. Following on from this is a cartographic analysis, including in particular the
Hereford based Mappa Mundi. The chapter shall conclude with analysis of the theory of
Ireland as an otherworld, both in relation to St Patrick’s Purgatory and an analysis of the
associated mythical creatures
Chapter Two features the theory of the Origines Gentium, Pseudohistory and the
Bible. It encapsulates the importance of establishing precedent and the right to rule, in this
case England’s right to rule Ireland. By using old Irish nation origin myths they were able to
effectively create a brand of history which allowed for their overlordship of Ireland. Biblical
references were designed to show the English as the chosen people and the issue of language
shall was offered as proof of English pious behaviour in their dealings with the Irish.
Chapter Three finally will seek to analyse changes in the stereotyping associated with
the Irish in relation to true historical events between 1200 and 1400. The main influences
upon this were the growth of English Nationalism, ecclesiastic power struggles, war and
English legislation, and even a royal visit to Ireland for the first time in 180 years.

5. v
Table Of Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter I- Ireland in the imagined geography of the Middle Ages 9
Chapter II- Origines Gentium, Biblical References and Pseudohistory 31
Chapter III- English Nationalism and Anglo Irish Relations 45
Conclusion 57
Bibliography 61

6. 1
Introduction
Descriptions of the Irish in Medieval English writing are both plentiful and relatively
untapped as a resource. Indeed with regard to almost the entirety of Irish history the usage of
English literature as a way of gaining an understanding of perceptions of the Irish has been
woefully neglected with a much maligned book by Elizabeth Rambo, the only truly direct
secondary source which I had at my disposal. Another problem with the existing
historiography and indeed many historical works on Irish history in general is a rather
unfortunate over emphasis on certain words such as “barbarism” when describing the Irish.
Largely this is not accompanied with any sort of elaboration or definition of what is meant by
words like this. The purpose of this study is make use of these and extrapolate the exact
nature of English perceptions of the Irish in a bid to gain a greater understanding of the
historical realities, the reasons behind major events as well as seeing the results of historical
events on the perceptions of the Irish which I believe I will find to be a bigger factor the
further I get into this two hundred year period.
My methodology is something which to my knowledge has never been truly attempted before
in relation to Irish medieval history. An analysis of the Irish in English writing will be
delivered with the use of both historical favourites such as chronicles, statutes, calendars as
well countless different facets of literature from Arthurian Legend to religious treatises.
Rambo, perhaps due to her English literature background decided not to adventure into this
sort of analysis. Another difference between my own methodology and that of Rambo is that
I intend as much as possible to mix different genres of literature in the individual chapters of
this work. This will allow me to further prove the flow of ideas and the influences they had

7. 2
on people of different backgrounds, allowing for genuine English perceptions and not just a
chronicler’s or an ecclesiastic’s.
Elizabeth L. Rambo wrote her book from an English literature perspective. Whilst this
offers a different way of looking at the topic from myself, her historical analysis is littered
with some basic errors on key topics.1
This may possibly be due to the fact that she doesn’t
seem to have had access to primary sources relating to the historical background. A number
of the people who have reviewed her book seemed to miss the most important point of the
text, that being that she obviously views perceptions of the Irish in English literature as
something of importance, from both an Irish and an English perspective. John Scattergood2
and Sigmund Eisner3
respectively claimed that her work had an air of irrelevance, due to
England’s fascination in looking eastwards to the continent, especially to France, throughout
the high to late Middle Ages. I can argue against the opinions of both Scattergood and Eisner
to provide the foundation of my dissertation. English opinions of the were Irish very
important to the Irish themselves, who were the subject of many laws and statutes passed
both in Ireland and in England. English perceptions of them could really change the way they
lived. Not only this but reflections on the Irish by the English were also be used as a mirror
through which to view themselves, invariably as a superior nation. Colonial Ireland in
Medieval English Literature is of great significance for my purposes as it can be utilised as
first port of call for finding masses of primary sources. It also offered interesting ways to
interrogate the sources such as dealing with the theory of Ireland as an otherworld.4
She did
have other ways of dealing with this topic which seemed flawed, such as her particular style
1
Elizabeth L. Rambo, Colonial Ireland in Medieval English Literature (London, 1994), 22. Richard II ascended
to the throne in 1377 not 1389, for example.
2
John Scattergood, “Review”, Irish Historical Studies, Vol. 30. (1996), 131.
3
Sigmund Eisner, “Review”, Speculum, Vol 71. (1996), 480.
4
Rambo, Colonial Ireland in Medieval English Literature, 50-53.

8. 3
of using hagiographies.5
Others have pointed out that the genre has far too many outside
influences upon it, such as the growth of international cults, but an international influence is
utterly unavoidable if one is to deal with an awful lot of the English literature in this period,
as Classical and even earlier medieval continental sources were very important. Religious
writings about St Patrick can also be used effectively despite the fact that he was of course of
Romano-Britannic descent, provided all of my data is collected on the nature of Ireland and
the Irish people and doesn’t deal as Rambo incorrectly does, with St Patrick himself.6
Writing predominantly about the perceptions of the Irish pre my period of interest, Dr.
Scully’s works were of innate interest even if his actual content was not incredibly useful to
my thesis. Diarmuid Scully’s multiple pieces all hinge on the importance of the Classical and
pre Norman invasion material and what their individual influences were on the historiography
on the Irish during the period. In his piece “The portrayal of Ireland and the Irish in
Bernard’s Life of St Malachy”, Scully suggests that Bernard of Clairvaux’s Life of St
Malachy, was a watershed moment in the presentation of the Irish in international
historiography, claiming it signalled a break from more benevolent opinion of the Irish which
had been fostered by previous ecclesiastic thinkers such as Bede.7
The problem with this,
however, is the fact that there is a very important point which is missed. The perceptions of
the Irish involved in the clergy always had been and would until the Reformation be viewed
as much more commendable than the Irish laity. The real point to be made about the Life of
St Malachy is that the Irish laity became a group of people who are being viewed with the
upmost negativity, and in a negative manner not seen since the acceptance of Ireland as a
Christianised country many centuries earlier.8
The problem was they had not been talked
5
Rambo, Colonial Ireland, 73-97.
6
Ibid, 97-105.
7
Diarmuid Scully, “The portrayal of Ireland and the Irish in Bernard’s Life of St Malachy”, Ireland and Europe
in the Twelfth Century, eds Damian Bracken &Dagmar Ó Riain-Raedel, (Dublin, 2006), 247-8.
8
Ibid, 243.

9. 4
about in great detail in any of the interceding works; Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica, for
example, was exactly what it said it was, and as such devoted little vellum to non-Church
related topics. Whilst some works mentioned the “barbarous” Irish in passing, the verbal
attack on them was not sustained and/or all that meaningful. Scully’s awareness of the Life of
St Malachy’s importance is correct but I believe that he has rather mixed up the reasoning as
to why, as it does show the first strong opinion on the Irish general populace for a significant
period of time, but this does not, however necessarily mean that this was a change in feeling
towards the Irish laity, as the lack of written evidence on them cannot be confused with
general contentedness with their behaviour.
Ireland and the Classical World by Philip Freeman was of key importance for me
later on in my studies in order to allow me to identify recurring tropes and furthermore,
where their origins lay. Freeman dealt with the gradual growth of opinions, going from the
naming of Ireland as Hibernia by Julius Caesar to the some of the most negative Classical
opinions, such as Strabo , who placed Ireland at the extreme northern end of possible human
existence, in turn inherently signifying the inhuman nature of the Irish. This was an idea
which prevailed in collective Medieval European ideology when creating stereotypes of most
natios or gens, particularly the less favourable ones, a bracket under which Ireland invariably
fell. The work of Freeman served a very important purpose as part of the geographical
reasoning behind some opinions of Ireland. His piece links in very well with the other
articles by Diarmuid Scully.
Scully’s pieces entitled “At World’s End: Scotland and Ireland in the Graeco- Roman
Imagination” and “Christians, Pagans and Barbarians: The Irish in Giraldus Cambrensis and
the Graeco-Roman Sources” provided me with the very clear understanding that to get to
grips with important opinions on the Irish in my period of interest it was of vital importance
that I wasn’t deceived into looking at only insular sources. Classical sources provided some

10. 5
of the ideas for my period of study, and it would appear that during the later middle ages,
they were one of the most popular genres of literature amongst the learned.9
He does,
however, seem to overplay the importance of Gerald of Wales, the nature of his sources is
that he is one of the first people to write solely about Ireland but he largely seems to have
been a compiler of other peoples’ opinions. Looking back on the second title, “Christians,
Pagans and Barbarians: The Irish in Giraldus Cambrensis and the Graeco- Roman sources”,
the link between a twelfth century ethnographer and Classical ideas is very clear and can
even be used to displace some of the importance of Giraldus as perhaps just an individual
who conflated earlier ideas and in reality added little. Giraldus was significant but by no
means was as important as he is made out to be by modern day historians.
Kim M Phillip’s Before Orientalism is extremely interesting as a possible vehicle of
thinking of ideas of Ireland inside a more global trend during the Middle Ages. Whilst
opinions of the people of the Far East was starting to become more benign, and a better
understanding being reached in general by the fourteenth century10
, (even of thirteenth
century warmongers like the Mongols) as she claims in her book, through my own studies,
opinions of the Irish had in no significant manner improved. Why was this? Was this due to
the fact that unlike the Muslims and Jewish states in the Near East11
, the Irish posed some
sort of threat to the ideals of Christendom and by extension England herself? Another very
interesting point is a methodological suggestion made inside of the book itself that perhaps
we can best understand the opinions made by the English towards others as assisting their
own idea of selfhood and “provide a kind of pleasure through horror”12
for themselves. I was
able to link this back to my own work in a more tangible manner with an article by Aisling
9
Julia C. Crick, The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth IV, Dissemination and Reception in the
Later Middle Ages, (Cambridge, 1991), 9.
10
Kim M. Phillips, Before Orientalism, (Philadelphia, 2014), 7.
11
Ibid, 2
12
Ibid, 3.

11. 6
Byrne, entitled “West is East: The Irish Saracens in Of Arthour And of Merlin”. In this piece
there are many rather strange elusions to the Irish as “Sarraȝins”. It seems to have been based
of “Lestoire de Merlin”, a French piece which predates the English version.13
The overriding
idea that seems to come out of the piece is that the Irish were heterodox,14
a long established
idea, going back to Bede and possibly further, and one which had featured very heavily
around the contentious issue as to when Easter ought to be celebrated, for instance. A
combination of these two pieces will help me to build up a comparative aspect to my
progression on the topic of stereotypes and the English creation of Irishness.
R.R. Davies was of course, a must read, with his status as one of the ground breakers
in the field of “British” Medieval History. Two of his Presidential Addresses were the best
suited for my purposes. “The Peoples of Britain and Ireland 1100-1400. II Names,
Boundaries and Regnal Solidarities” uses his well established and excellent usage of
comparative medieval British history. Davies helps to analyse and show how Ireland was
viewed in comparison to Wales and Scotland in particular making a detailed account about
the links between the Scottish and the Irish,15
something that must be alluded to during the
course of this study. He also ventures that by the thirteenth century the enemies of the
English were the foreigners rather than god, resulting in xenophobic based nationalism. He
also is extremely knowledgeable about the fixation of the English regarding identities and
ethnic descent. Accompanying Davies’ on the following topics is Andrea Ruddick’s English
Identity and Political culture in the Fourteenth Century. Ruddick makes the extremely
interesting point that there was no real England wide idea of what being English was. The
combining factors which made someone English had to be based on their understanding of
13
Aisling Byrne , “West is East; The Irish Saracens in Of Arthour And of Merlin”, Nottingham Medieval
Studies Vol. 55, (2011), 217.
14
Ibid, 228.
15
R.R. Davies, “Presidential Address: The Peoples of Britain and Ireland 1100-1400. II Names, Boundaries and
Regnal Solidarities”, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol 5 (1995), 2-7.

12. 7
what they were most definitely not. This was the reasoning behind the nature of descriptions
of Celtic gens.16
Geographical and cartographical modes of expression were very much associated with
myth as well as long held beliefs about certain places that were either founded upon classical,
religious or indeed no evidence at all, the fear from which could be stronger than horrific
knowledge itself. Chapter One therefore will outline how the untamed and ungodly nature of
Ireland could be created in the mind of writers.
Origines gentium and pseudohistory are linked in that they both give propaganda
statements related to ascertaining the rights of a nation, how far their borders spread, who
they ruled and for how long. This means that Chapter Two deals with a key aspect of English
history-making and claiming overlordship over Ireland. This chapter shall also chart the
development of a “British” colonial ideology, which was coupled with biblical references to
boost the standing of the nation and give England the rights she needed to rule and conquer
other countries.
Finally historical trends shall be used in Chapter Three in order to ascertain changes
in opinions of the Irish over the course of the two century time frame of this study. What did
these two hundred years of events and Anglo-Irish interaction do to affect the way in which
the Irish were perceived? Also, what effects did changes in insular English mentalities about
their own country begin to evolve into a nationalism that seeped over into a rather more
negative xenophobia have for the Irish?
What all of this leaves is an excellent basis for a more historically sound study which
uses the perceptions of the English as a mode for analysis on both the past and the
contemporaneous Irish populations. The aim of which is to assess how opinions of the Irish in
16
Andrea Ruddick, English Identity and Political Culture in the Fourteenth Century, (Cambridge, 2013), 48.

13. 8
English acted in a circular motion with both inherited opinions of the Irish and opinions
generated from the historical problems that came about in Anglo-Irish relations. This will
seek to provide the reader with an increased understanding of the importance of the Irish to
the growth of an English identity which was reactionary to what was around them and what
they were not. All the while it will also attempt to prove how foreign opinions of the Irish
guided understandings of the Irish in the English psyche designed to drive fear and loathing
into the interrelations the English and Irish were to have over the course of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries.

14. 9
Chapter I
Ireland in the imagined geography of the Middle Ages
The imagined geography of the Middle Ages was due to beliefs that were long deep seated
which connected where someone lived with their mentality and way of life. The nature of this
allowed for easily created propagandist style prose as to what it meant to be from a certain
country and the reasons as to why that country was lesser than your own. Organic English
propaganda was the resulting effect of this potent mix, but just how badly did it affect their
perceptions of the Irish?
Geographically based stereotyping dates back to Graeco- Roman times, when Ireland
was envisaged as right on the edge of the habitable world to the far north. Based off this
assertion as to where Ireland was in in the world, suggestions could be made about the nature
of the temperament of the people that lived there. Aristotle in his work Politics stated that
“Those who live in a cold climate and in Europe are full of spirit but wanting in
intelligence and skill, and therefore they keep their freedom but have no political
organization, and are incapable of ruling over others.”1
By the time the Cambro- Norman cleric and writer Giraldus Cambrensis created his map (see
below) at the start of the thirteenth century there had been significant changes in the way
which Ireland was viewed in geographical terms. Rolf Baumgarten, has claimed that by
Cambrensis’ era Classical era “geographical statement[s] concerning Ireland [were]
antiquarian knowledge hardly equatable to then current geographical teaching”.2
This would
seem pretty easy to accept considering the fact that they were separated by a huge swathe of
1
Robert Bartlett, “Medieval and Modern Concepts of Race and Ethnicity”, Journal of Medieval and Early
Modern Studies 31:1 (Winter 2001), 46. Alas, perhaps not the freedom part.
2
Rolf Baumgarten, “The Geographical Orientation of Ireland in Isidore and Orosius”, Peritia 3 (1984), 191/2.

15. 10
history and large amounts of improvements in terms of geographical knowledge and
exploration. Indeed Giraldus’ own map at the very beginning of the thirteenth century
represents an incredibly different idea of Ireland compared to the reconstruction of the Greek
geographer and historian Strabo’s opinions in his book dating back to the last century BC/
first century AD.3
Strabo’s opinions on the Irish were of course completely based around
their Northerly placement on a map of the world.4
In most of the classical pieces Ireland is
either the most northerly or only second to the island of Thule. Emperor Julius Caesar in the
same era as Strabo was extremely interested in gathering as much information on the lands
known to the Romans as possible. It was at this time that he officially called Ireland
“Hibernia” which was to further negatively affect perceptions of Ireland as the desolate and
bleak nation whose inhabitants hung on to their existence.5
Fig 1.1 National Library
of Ireland MS 700-
Giraldus Cambrensis
Topographia Hibernica-
Early Thirteenth Century
Version
3
Encyclopedia Britannica- Strabo [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Strabo] (Accessed 9 August 2016).
4
Philip Freeman, Ireland and the Classical World, (Austin, 2001), 49.
5
Ibid, 32/3.

16. 11
Fig 1.2 Artist’s impression of Strabo’s Geography
From the beginning of the thirteenth century from which period Giraldus’ map dates
to the period at the end of the thirteenth/start of the fourteenth century when the Hereford
Mappa Mundi had been created6
, Ireland is portrayed as directly to the west of the British
Isles and Europe. This rather significantly placed Ireland at the very edge of the known
world. The problem with this is that despite their placement of Ireland on the global map
having changed there still seems to have been a widespread acceptance with regard to the
nature of the Irish. Opinions largely remained more in line with the established idea of them
living far to the north of the rest of the civilised world. Despite what could be viewed as the
main reason for a negative connotation about the Irish having been removed, the opinions of
Classical geographers still remained very popular. This was probably due to the usage of
6
Hereford Mappa Mundi [http://themappamundi.co.uk/mappa-mundi/] (Accessed 3 June 2016).

17. 12
these sources in the extremely influential Topographia Hibernia (1187) written by Giraldus
Cambrensis.7
The fourteenth century monk based at the Benedictine Abbey of St
Werburgh’s8
, Ranulph Higden, writer of the global history, Polychronicon, in his first book
of the collection dealt almost exclusively with global geography. He used the Latin
grammarian and compiler Gaius Julius Solinus, who flourished during the 3rd
century AD, as
his main source when referring to Irish physical geography. In doing so he makes reference to
Solinus’ measurements of Ireland compared to Britain, showing it as much smaller and stated
that Ireland lies across a sea that “is six score myle brood”.9
Despite his usage of Solinus for
other geographical facts he correctly states that “Hibernia omnium insularum
occidentalum…est/ Ireland is the last of all the western islands.” Significantly he still seems
to deem their current geographical positioning as a significant issue. It was directly relatable
to the “manners of the men of that land” 10
which is very much a continuation of opinion
between the Classical period and his own. Indeed this type of stereotyping is not isolated to
just English writers, chroniclers etc. Ineed across Europe opinions of this nature prevailed,
the most common of which was claiming that the Mediterranean region with its warm
temperate climate was the most conducive to civilisation.11
This in a roundabout manner of
course suggests that Ireland and north-western Europe would be quite the opposite. Due to
the fact the Ranulph Hidgen seems to have been extremely well read in works not only back
through time but also from across Christendom12
this would suggest that these ideas would
have been far from inaccessible for the Chester based monk.
7
Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis: together with the English translations of John Trevisa
and of an unknown writer of the fifteenth century Vol. I, ed. Rev. Joseph Rawson Lumby, (London, 1865), 24 &
328. Ranulph Higden, for example, relies a lot on Giraldus for his coverage of Ireland.
8
Antonia Gransden, Historical Writing in England ii, c.1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century (London, 1982), 43.
9
Polychronicon Vol I., 331.
10
Ibid, 328/9
11
Andrea Ruddick, English Identity and Political Culture in the Fourteenth Century, (Cambridge, 2013), 134.
12
Gransden, Historical Writing in England, 48.

18. 13
Of course, the nature of geographical association has to actually be based, no matter
how loosely, around something regarded as factual. A lot of the earlier classical ideas were
dealing with the Irish despite having never been there which meant that they had to have a
point of reference. For the most part they gained this through comparisons with the Scythians.
The main reason for this was that to Roman scholars the Scythians were the most well-known
northerly tribe. All of Strabo’s supposed knowledge of the Irish came from what he knew
about the Scythians and in no way pretended otherwise, such was the nature of geographical
treatises in his era.13
A quick reference to the artist’s impression of his geography of the
world will show how Ireland and Scythia lay on similar latitudes in his eyes. The Scythian
connection is extremely strong and is something which does not merely disappear after the
fall of the Roman Empire, or indeed in the centuries which were to follow it. In the ninth
century, the ecclesiastic Nennius,14
is thought to have lived in the rural mountains of East
Wales, both close enough to be influenced by Anglo-Saxon ideologies yet not living in their
midst. He wrote in his Historia Brittonum that the Irish themselves were descended from the
Scythians.15
Like the connection between northerly placement on the global map and the mentality
of the people, the Scythian connection remains around until the time period of my research.
Going through time the Irish came to be increasingly associated with the Scythians in terms
of alliances. Even later into my time period the Scythians were slowly replaced by the Picts
who were deemed to have descended from the Scythians. Links of this nature abound in the
Arthurian legend literature and a tale of the arrival of the Scythians into Britain by Geoffrey
13
Freeman, Classical World, 46.
14
David N. Dumville, “Some aspects of the chronology of the Historia Brittonum”, Bulletin of the Board of
Celtic Studies Vol. 25 (1972-4), 439-45. There is some discussion as to whether or not Nennius was the true
author of this this work, stemming from David Dumville’s claim that the preface with the author attribution was
a later addition to the main work. I, however, am assuming Nennius as the author of this work.
15
Nennius, British History and the Welsh Annals, ed. & trans. John Morris, (London, 1980), 20/1.

19. 14
of Monmouth seems to further strengthen their ties over the centuries. It asserted the link in
the Arthurian legend tradition, stating that the Picts who had arrived from Scythia and
rejected as being below par to marry the Britons daughters’,
“transfretauerunt in Hibernuam duxeruntque ex patria illa mulieres, ex quibus creare
sobole multitudinum suam auxerunt/ sailed to Ireland and in that country took wives, whose
offspring increased their numbers.”16
This story is slightly changed in the later study with which this study is interested in,
Higden’s Polychronicon, where he asserts that the Scythians went to Ireland first, before they
invaded Britain.
“Irlond, as Scottes seide, myȝt nouȝt susteyne boþe peple. Scottes sent þe Pictes to
the norþ side of Bretayne, and behiȝte hem help aȝenst þe Bretouns þat wer enemyes, yf þey
wold arise, and took hem to wyfes of here doubȝtres”17
This on a slight side note links very well to Susan Reynolds’s suggestion that only true
hoards lacking all civility were portrayed as self-contained breeding populations regularly in
medieval writings, in what she has referred to as “folk migrations”.18
The Scythian connection having fallen aside and been replaced by the less tenuous
connection of the Picts in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries had in turn by the end of the
fourteenth century become a phenomenal Celtic alliance, a collective enemy closing in upon
the English. Throughout the period of my interest indeed history tells us that England was
under attack/ at war with Wales, the insurgent Irish and the Scottish to the North. In later
periods such as the time of Malory in the late fifteenth century, King Rion (usually the rebel
16
Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, ed. Michael D. Reeve, trans. Neil Wright
(Woodbridge, 2007), 86/7.
17
Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Maonachi Cestrensis: together with the translations of John Trevisa and of
an unknown writer of the fifteenth century Vol II., (London, 1869), 145.
18
Susan Reynolds, “Medieval Origines Gentium and the Community of the Realm”, History, Vol. 68 (1983),
379.

20. 15
or enemy Irish king) was a King resident in Northern Wales who controlled parts of all three
of these countries.19
The Scythians had at first been a comparison that had come into fruition
because of their similar latitude to the Irish but had become a defining fact, a link between the
different Celtic enemies of the English first and a reason for their unbecoming behaviour
second.
Despite all of these changes a lot of the tropes about the Irish remained the same over
the intervening period between the Classical topics just dealt with and the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries. One trope which was most definitely the exception not the rule and had
as such largely disappeared by the thirteenth century was that of the Irish as cannibals. The
reason for this tropes disappearance has been largely associated with the Christianisation of
Ireland. Strangely enough it does actually does reappear in Polychronicon. This may be due
to the increasingly large amounts of question marks being raised as to how Christian the Irish
really were in my period of interest.20
This is one of only two absolutely unquestionable
references to cannibalism which I found in my study of the two hundred years I have engaged
with; “Refert Solinus…Gens habitu singularis et inculta, victu parce, animo saeva, affatu
aspera, sanguine interemptorum prius hausto vultus suos oblinivit.” Trevisa’s translation of
this into Middle English is not fully direct but he states that the Irish “drinkeþ first blood of
dede men þa beeþ i-slawe, and þan wassheþ here face þerwiþ” 21
The other which I have
come across is a reference in Jean Froissart’s Chronicles, which shall be revisited in this
study at a later juncture.22
It is perhaps surprising that this suggestion did not make a more
pointed resurgence in English literature post invasion, in a period where the very basis of
19
Malory Works, ed. Eugene Vinaver, (Oxford, 1977), 36.
20
Diarmuid Scully, “The portrayal of Ireland and the Irish in Bernard’s Life of St Malachy”, Ireland and
Europe in the Twelfth Century, eds Damian Bracken & Dagmar Ó Riain- Raedel, (Dublin, 2006), 243.
21
Polychronicon Vol I, 352/3.
22
Jean Froissart, Chronicles, ed. Geoffrey Brereton, (London, 1978), 410. “And they never leave a man for
dead until they have cut his belly open to remove the heart, which they take away. Some, who know their ways,
say that they eat it with great relish.”

21. 16
English rule in Ireland as suggested in Laudabiliter was, “to root from them [the people of
Ireland] the weeds of vice”23
. The entirety of Laudabiliter features in Chronica Majora for
example, written by Matthew of Paris (1200-1259), a man of the cloth who despite his second
name was also English, and exemplifies the lack of true Christian morals, beliefs and practice
amongst the Irish.24
An extremely significant point which is very often discussed in relation to Ireland in
the later middle ages is the association of Ireland with monstrous creatures and an assertion
that Ireland indeed was the home to England’s closest entry point into the otherworld. T M
McAlindon has stated that the nature of the otherworld need not be the land of the dead. It
may be an earthly paradise, or simply a different world, much like our own, yet governed by
different rules of time, space and causality.25
Ireland could be drawn into this discussion due
to the fact that St Patrick’s Purgatory was known to exist in Ireland in a far withdrawn part of
the country, at Lough Derg, nowadays in modern county Donegal. Ireland was the perfect
location as it was of course generally viewed to be at the very edge of the known world and
as a result met a lot of the criteria necessary for an entrance to purgatory to exist. This part of
Ireland was an access point to the otherworld, a place where the depths of Irish peculiarity
could truly be explored. Ireland played a rather sizeable part in the western European and of
course English consciousness in the Middle Ages of the unknown. Despite the above
description from McAlindon suggesting that the otherworld could have a plethora of different
connotations, the descriptions of Ireland as an access point were incredibly negative with few
redeeming features. The ways in which Ireland was associated with the otherworld were
numerous. There is a number of what I have chosen to refer to as nonreligious documents,
meaning documents such as romances, legends, chronicles etc. On the opposite side there are
23
Edmund Curtis & R.B. McDowell eds, Irish Historical Documents 1172-1922, (London, 1943), 17/8. .
24
Matthaei Parisiensis, Monachi Sancti Albani, Chronica Majora, Vol II, ed. Henry Richards Luard, (London,
1874), 210-212.
25
T. M. McAlindon, The Treatment of the Supernatural in Middle English Legend and Romance, 1200-1400
(Ph.D. diss., Cambridge University, 1961), 108.

22. 17
visios/visions, a hagiography of St Patrick (which spends a massive amount of time referring
solely to the purgatory) as well as a Cistercian propaganda piece. All of them bar one refer to
the story of Knight Owen (spelling varies). We see in these an exploration of an imagination
about what evil things could possibly dwell in Ireland and to varying degrees the threats
which they posed to the English people, who of course are the ones who all of these pieces
really care about.
The Hereford Mappa Mundi was crafted at Hereford Cathedral, the seat of the Bishop
of Hereford, has generally been agreed to date from around the turn of the end of the
thirteenth and the start of the fourteenth century. After reading multiple sources on the
contents of the map I have still not been able to ascertain exactly the nature of the creature
which appears to be breathing fire on the left of the picture below. It looks like a dragon,
however, there are dragons featured on the far side of the map, which have been identified by
Naomi Reed Kline26
. There are clear differences between this creature and the dragons, the
biggest difference being the presence of horns on the dragons on the far side of the map.
Strangely, despite the fact that what is being blown out of the “dragon’s mouth” being bright
red, it is supposed to be portrayed as blowing the Circius wind. The words beside this state
that the “Circius, also called Thrascias, makes clouds also by the coagulation of hail.”27
This
is borrowed from the sixth/seventh century scholar Isidore of Seville (later St Isidore), the
Archbishop of Seville, well known significantly for our purposes for his work on the origins
of nations. The small S on the inside circle of this sector is the starting letter of Septentrio
meaning North. Ireland’s weather is still very much associated with being far to the north of
the world.
26
Naomi Reed Kline, Maps of Medieval Thought The Hereford Paradigm (Woodbridge, 2001), 95.
27
Scott D. Westrem, The Hereford Map, A transcription and Translation of the Legends with Commentary
(Turnhout, 2001), 18.

23. 18
Whilst it is merely conjecture, the animal, mythical or otherwise, which is blowing the
wind, seems to representative of a standard fear of what lies beyond the edge of the earth, a
fearsome beast. Having engaged with the works of Kline and Westrem, there was one fact
that had become extremely obvious. The map was incredibly dependent upon classical works
as well as works that had been in existence for centuries such as those of Isidore of Seville.
One of the very interesting parts of all of this is that there is in this map a very clear
demarcation between Europe and the Holy Land including Ireland and non-Christian lands
outside of Europe. There are no mythical or fearsome beasts portrayed inside the confines of
Europe. There are also very significant descriptions of the various Scythian tribes to be found
on the map almost all of which come from Solinus. He referred to the Sciotauri Scythians as
people who “kill strangers for religious sacrifice” and the Scitharum gens who drank from
cups made of the skulls of their enemies and in whose society “to be devoid of experience of
slaughtering is a disgrace.”28
In the section of the map featured below we see that in Ireland
there is no scathing tale of a fearsome people, despite the fact that the Irish link to the
Scythians was well attested and instead it features churches and the sacred city of Armagh
amongst other things. Despite a suggestion of there being rather foul weather and perhaps
resultant connotations of a rather unfriendly Irish populace, this map portrays Ireland rather
favourably. One cannot, however, allow this to cloud their judgement in favour of a positive
opinion of the Irish. There does seem to have been an intention to make all of Christendom
look good compared to the rest of known world by the clerics who it would appear created
the map.
28
Reed Kline, Maps of Medieval Thought, 143& 152.

24. 19
Fig 1.3
Hereford
Mappa Mundi
St Patrick’s purgatory was a notion which was to rise in prominence towards the end
of the twelfth century but was to remain prominent in popular writing into the fifteenth
century and in popular culture until this very day. Shane Leslie has gone so far as to refer to
the story as “one of the best sellers of the Middle Ages”.29
The nature of purgatory was
something of a new idea, up until this point Christian belief had been binary in its mind-set,
in that there was heaven and hell, God and the Devil.30
Tales of St Patrick’s Purgatory
became very popular as a result of the long-standing popularity of vision literature. This
progressed this even further with the addition of a real physical place that actually existed and
could be visited.31
The Tractatus de Purgatorio de Sancti Patricii was composed in the early thirteenth
century and seems to have been a Cistercian propaganda piece, composed by Gilbert of Louth
29
Shane Leslie, Saint Patrick’s Purgatory: A Record from History and Literature, (London, 1932), xvii.
30
Graham Roberts Edwards , “Purgatory: “Birth” or Evolution?”, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 36 (1985),
646.
31
St Patrick’s Purgatory, Two Versions of Owayne Miles amd The Vision of William of Stranton together with
the long text of Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii, ed. Robert Easting, (Oxford, 1991), xviii.

25. 20
to prove that they were the best people to be left in control of the monasteries in Ireland. One
of the very important points taken from this was that the Irish were so cemented in their
paganistic ways that the only way that St Patrick could convert the Irish was to show them
the dark and fiery pits of Hell.32
Indeed they are referred to as people who are ignorant “of
the people of evil” and “show their animal natures”.33
When they do get down to the fiery pits
of hell one of the things which they meet is the dragons, who are associated with the devil
and vice but equally could represent the boorish nature of Ireland as a whole to an English
observer. The dragons lit sinners on fire and others tore them horribly with their teeth
“Dracones ignite super alios sedebant et quasi c[om]edentes illos modo miserabili dentibus
ignites lacerabant.”34
We know that the nature of the pilgrimage was very much voluntary35
and on multiple occasions we have references to various individuals trying to convince Owen
not to go into Ireland for the pilgrimage, particularly the local bishop.36
The pilgrimage
almost certainly seems to be a type of “super-pilgrimage”, with a serious suggestion that it
was extremely high risk, but in return equally offered a high reward, that of knowledge of
how to reach heaven. Someone even having to journey through Ireland in of itself may have
been viewed as dangerous enough, something backed up by several accounts of foreigners
travelling through Ireland in this era.37
Roger of Wendover (d. 1236), a monk at St Albans and the second of two contributors
towards the chronicle Flores Historiarum/Flowers of History after John of Wallingford
details the nature of St Patrick’s Purgatory. He also details the reason as to why it was that St
32
Carol Zaleski, “St Patrick’s Purgatory: Pilgrimage Motifs in a Medieval Otherworld Vision”, Journal of the
History of Ideas, Vol. 46, No. 4 (1985), 478.
33
St Patrick’s Purgatory, 124.
34
Ibid., 131.
35
Zaleski, “St Patrick’s Purgatory: Pilgrimage Motifs”, 469.
36
Jacques Le Goff, The Birth of Purgatory, trans. Arthur Goldhammer, (London, 1981), 194.
37
CELT The Journey of Viscount Ramon de Perellós to Saint Patrick's Purgatory
[http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100079A/] (Accessed 30 Aug 2016), passim.

26. 21
Patrick had brought about the purgatory and the reason why it was so severe. He claimed that
Patrick had “sought to reclaim from the works of the devil the bestial people of that country,
by fear of the torments of hell and desire of the happiness of heaven”.38
Knight Owen is
referred to strictly as an Irishman who had served king Stephen and duke Henry, and who’s
behaviour in the field of war seems to be in no way different from the standard behaviour of a
twelfth century knight, as he “repented of the violation of churches, and invasion of
ecclesiastical property” in particular.39
Dragons also feature in Roger of Wendover’s version
alongside serpents and toads,
“Fiery dragons were sitting on some of them [sinners], and gnawing them with iron teeth, to
their inexpressible anguish; others were the victims of fiery serpents, which coiling around
their necks, arms, and bodies, fixed iron fangs into their hearts.”40
The serpents are of course an ever present in religious doctrine representing the snakes in the
story of Adam and Eve who led mankind into sin.
One of the most interesting of the writings which deal with purgatory in Ireland is The
Vision of Tundale as the original version of the story was actually written by an Irish monk,
living in Regensburg. Over time, however, the story gained popularity and there is both an
earlier Anglo Norman version of the story and the late fourteenth century English version
which I have used. The visio was famous around Europe but infamous for the development of
different styles and contexts in the story depending who was writing on the topic. The
fourteenth century English version placed the story in a very similar setting in Ireland to St
Patrick’s Purgatory whilst never precisely stating where the place was that the events take
place. Similarly to other pieces on St Patrick’s Purgatory we have a knight as the main
protagonist in the story, further reinforcing the stereotypes regarding the supposed nature of
38
Roger of Wendover’s Flowers of History, Vol I. trans & ed. J. A. Giles (London, 1849), 511.
39
Ibid, 510/1.
40
Ibid., 515.

27. 22
the individual who would take part in such an undertaking. In the piece we get quite a
massive emphasis on the Irishness of the situation, and the clear opinion that this Irishness is
now undesirable “Ther was no man lyued worse lyfe”41
claims the visio speaking of both the
main protagonist and one would assume the Irish people in general. One part of this Irishness
which is rather refreshing is a reference to a cow, one of the main staples of rural Gaelic Irish
life for the entirety of the medieval period and very often used instead of an actual coinage.
Accepting the commandments he was forced to bring the “kowe” that “He cheryste þe
koweall þat he myȝte” across a bridge. Unlike in other pieces which feature these types of
scenes, the beasts that linger under the bridge are unfortunately not described in much detail,
dealt with in the one sentence “He sawe þe beestes of þe lake”42
who frightened his cow. The
clerical tone of the piece is incredibly clear throughout and no more so in the section directly
after Tundale’s successful crossing over the bridge, where he meets with some of the greatest
kings in Ireland during his time. The reason for their presence is to prove that even the most
blood thirsty and violent kings in Ireland could get into heaven if they chose to repent.
“These two kynges þat I se here
Sometyme wer men of gret powere;
They wer boþe stowte & kene,
In hem was lytull mercy sene;
Eyþer of hem hatede oþer
As cursede Kaym dyde hys broþer.
Certes, Syr, me þynkeþ folly
How þey myȝte be so wordy
To come to þys ioyfull stede;
41
The Vision of Tundale ed from B.L. MS Cotton Caligula A II, ed. Rodney Mearns (Heidelberg, 1985), 82.
42
Ibid., 104.

28. 23
Me þenkes þey were worþy þe dede.”43
The visio shows clearly the nature of Irish Kings and their unworthiness for salvation, as
expressed in the knights amazement at the presence of those great Kings. It paints a damning
image of Irish kingship and further progresses the theory of an Irish lack of loyalty and
fidelity. Simultaneously it showed that the influence of the church is extremely necessary not
only for English expansionist purposes but in an attempt to curtail the behaviour and violent
and un-chivalric tendencies of the Irish people.
Finally, the court historian Jean Froissart (c.1333-1400), the man closer to the English
monarchy than any other source I have used, having been employed by Edward III and his
sons the Black Prince and Lionel of Clarence deals with the purgatory in his Chronicles. He
very clearly shows the relevance of St Patrick’s Purgatory as one of the first things he asks
Sir William (Guillaume) de Lisle when he realizes he has been to Ireland, is with regard to
the Irish Otherworld access point.
“I then asked him about the place called St Patrick’s Hold, and whether the stories told about
it were true. He said they were and that when the King was in Dublin he and another English
knight has been to it and had spent the whole night there from sunset to sunrise” when he
entered the cavern “a kind of heaviness came over us. We sat down on the stone steps and, as
soon as we had done that, we were overcome by a strong desire to sleep and we slept the
whole night through”.44
Sir William’s description of being in the purgatory is not only much shorter than other
accounts it is also a lot more peaceful with him waking in the morning and simply strolling
43
The Vision of Tundale, 134.
44
Froissart, Chronicles, 405/6
* Froissart was of course born in France but throughout the vast majority of his life was writing for the King of
England and was largely Anglophone in his writings, regardless, Sir William de Lisle seems to have been
English.

29. 24
out of the cavern. It does, however, through Froissart’s clear interest in the topic reinforce St
Patrick’s Purgatory’s status as one of the most important things about Ireland in the minds
eye of an English*
writer. Froissart seems to be including this in his Chroniques to see
whether what he had heard was correct and to expel any doubt surrounding of the existence
of the phenomena in his mind. All of this despite the fact that De Lisle seems to have been
relatively unimpressed by his entire experience.45
It is quite possible that its inclusion is
entirely surrounding Froissart’s interest and to feed a public obsession with exoticism and
marvel. It is also perhaps interesting to note that Froissart’s source on St Patrick’s Purgatory
is like the original version of the story a knight. Is there a link in the sort of people who were
expected to go on pilgrimage to St Patrick’s Purgatory? In the original cases valour seems to
have been a prerequisite for this endeavor whereas in Sir William de Lisle’s case it seems to
have been largely unnecessary in reality. Perhaps it may have been viewed as important
before his experience, which may provide a reason for his rather listless and rather
unenthusiastic description of the events.
Another key creature which features heavily in stories of otherworldly significance in
Ireland is the giant. Darryl F. Lane has claimed in his PHD thesis that a giant “is invariably
evil and inimical to humankind. Often, the giant is associated with narratives of national
origin; a race of giants must be defeated before a new culture or country can be established.
He also functions as a religious enemy, and must be destroyed by a virtuous champion of
Christianity.”46
Through this understanding the presence of giants in references to tales about
Ireland is extremely useful for understanding the English propagandist perspective; this may
help understand their presence in many of these stories.
45
Claire Sponsler, “The Captivity of Henry Chrystede: Froissart’s Chroniques, Ireland and Fourteenth Century
Nationalism”, Imagining A Medieval English Nation ed. Kathy Lavezzo (London, 2004), 316.
46
Darryl F Lane, An Historical Study of the Giant in the Middle English Metrical Romances, (Ph.D. diss,
University of New Mexico, 1972), iv.

30. 25
Prior to the Tractatus and similar treatises in the twelfth century, Geoffrey of
Monmouth in his The History of the Kings of Britain, makes reference to the presence of
mythical beasts in Ireland. In medieval understandings of the Otherworld it was generally
accepted that there was a stretch of water which separated the otherworld from our own
world, similar to the old classical idea of the River Styx. In this case the Irish Sea performed
the same function as the Styx.47
Suddenly a rather bizarre reference in Geoffrey’s work
becomes very significant.
‘Advenerat namque ex partibus Hibernici maris inauditae ferritatis belua, quae incolas
iuxta maritima sine intermissione devorabat/ A beast of incredible ferocity came from the
region of the Irish Sea and began to devour without respite those living near the coast.’48
It is possible he had, as a cleric himself, heard about St Patrick’s Purgatory at this earlier date,
but this historian would hypothesise that this would be rather unlikely. Along with this there
is also in his coverage of the reign of Aurelius a reference to a stone formation in Ireland on
Mount Killaurus that is referred to as a ‘chorea gigantum/ giant’s ring’49
(I would translate it
as giant’s dance). He possibly could have come up with these ideas due to the fact that
Ireland was at the very edge of the earth, and beyond her shores lay the unknown and the
possibility of fiendish creatures hiding in the sea around her or even living on the land.
Regardless, we see in later romance and legend literature references to a similar idea
of Ireland and of the Irish. The chivalric romance King Horn, dated to somewhere between
47
H.R. Patch, The Other World According to Descriptions in Medieval Literature (Cambridge, Massachusets,
1950), 8.
48
Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain, 61/2.
49
Ibid, 172/3.

31. 26
1225 and 1275, is seemingly based around an Anglo Norman romance from the previous
century, Romance of Horn c. 1170. Ireland actually features very prominently in the piece,
with the main character being forced into Ireland in exile,50
which is in itself something that
is often associated with Ireland, both in writing as well as in real life.51
It emphasizes Ireland
as a less desirable place to live. King Horn represents Ireland in both a positive and a
negative light, something which is not very common for English medieval writing. When
they do appear as the enemy they are portrayed as giants.52
These giants seem to be from
Ireland and are enemies of the Irish King with whom Horn was in alliance. The giant motif is
indeed something that is very prominent in a lot of different King Arthur pieces despite King
Horn most certainly not being a tale of King Arthur but instead having been clearly
influenced by the cult of King Arthur.
The anonymous Of Arthour And of Merlin, has been the subject of a lot of debate with
regard to its dating but the latest conclusion has been that it was written somewhere around
the turn of the fourteenth century. Linguistics experts have suggested that it was probably
from south eastern England. It is pity that we don’t know more background information about
the text as it is quite possibly the most damning piece that I have to rely upon in relation to
the Irish. Of Arthour And of Merlin seems to have been based off of the French vulgate
Lestoire de Merlin. The main difference between the two versions of these were that the
English version, unlike the French, portrayed the Irish as non-Christian as well as gigantic.53
50
King Horn Robbins Library Digital Projects, University of Rochester
[http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/Salisbury-king-horn] (Accessed 29 Aug 2016) , lines 115-125.
51
The Chronicle of Lanercost 1272-1346, trans Sir Herbert Maxwell, (Glasgow, 1913), 183.
J.S. Hamilton, “Piers Gaveston and the Royal Treasure”, Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British
Studies, Vol. 23 No. 2 (Summer, 1991), 202. Piers Gaveston, the favourite and supposed lover of Edward II was
sent there by his King.
52
King Horn Robbins Library Digital Projects, lines 808 and 858.
53
Aisling Byrne, “West is East: The Irish Saracens in Of Arthour And of Merlin”, Nottingham Medieval Studies
Vol. 55, (2011), 219.

32. 27
These Irish Kings were all giants and were led by their apparent High King, Rion. There were
twenty giant Irish kings, four of whom attacked London
“Hadde ywarnist toun and tour
Þat þe cuntre aboute Lounde
Slowen and brent to þe grounde….
Man and wiif and children bo
No hade þai no pite to slo”54
They are portrayed as marauding heathens who cared little for the destruction and loss of life
they were causing. The war between Rion with his twenty odd giant kings against Arthur’s
knights provides us with an excellent description of the knights and their varying heights,
with King Canlang towering at 15 feet55
and King Clarion who was 14 feet,56
whilst Rion
unsurprisingly was one of the largest at 17 feet tall.57
Despite the might of these giants they
are simpletons who are overthrown by superior English ability, asserting another victory of
English brains over Irish brawn, fitting into opinions of both giants in a broader context
according to T M. McAlindon58
as well as a broader Irish trope. The Irish in this particular
piece it is important to stress are referred to as Sarraȝins59
, a phrase used in relation to the
Irish on a plethora of occasions60
. I shall come back to this idea in a later chapter, but it seems
to further stress the intense heathenism of the Irish, and perhaps further stresses the nature of
the Irish as hated religious enemies of the English. It also furthers an already incredibly
strong sense that they ought to be taken seriously in war and be feared, comparing the Irish to
the most fearsome enemy the English were likely to have faced.
54
Of Arthour And of Merlin [http://auchinleck.nls.uk/mss/arthur.html] (Accessed 09 June 2016), lines 4732-8.
55
Ibid, lines 5965-8.
56
Ibid, lines 5995-8.
57
Ibid, line 8975.
58
T M. McAlindon, “The Emergence of a Comic Type in Middle English Literature: the Devil and Giant as
Buffoon”, Anglia 81 (1962), 368.
59
Of Arthour And of Merlin, passim.
60
Byrne, “West is East”, 221.

33. 28
Accompanying the giant Irish “Sarraȝin” kings were a series of different coloured
dragons “dragouns”. They provide a more easily associable version of Ireland as a country
wallowing in vice and in some way assimilable to the fiery pits of hell.
“Þe tayle of þe dragoun rede
Þat is so long & so vnrede
Signifieþe þe wicke stren
Þat schal com out of þi kin
& of þi wiuves fader Angys
Þat schal be ded & lessen his pris;
His kin & eke þin
Schal don wo to Bretouns kin.
Þat heued of þe white tayle
Signifieþ gret conseyle
Þat schul held wiþ þe kings blod
Of þe gentil men & gode.”61
These dragons are representatives of both sides of the conflict with the red
representing the Sarraȝin Irish King, with its “wicked strength” that shall do “woe to the kin
of the Britons”, whilst the white tailed dragon, white supposedly representing purity
representing the king and “genteel men and God”. The red dragon was originally a dragon of
the Bretons62
and to this day is represented in the flag of modern day Wales, however, over
the course of the middle ages it came to be associated with all of the Celtic enemies of the
English.63
The white dragon was originally associated with the Saxons but later came to
61
Of Arthour And of Merlin, lines 1665-76.
62
The History of the Britons by Nennius by J. A. Giles (London, 1841), xxvii/xxviii
63
Ernest Ingersoll, Dragons and Dragon Lore, (New York, 2005), 147-150.

34. 29
represent the post 1066 English kingdom.64
The first known reference to this appears in
Nennius’ Historia Britonnum.65
We can regard tales of dragons and giants as metaphorical tools to show the island of
Ireland as still being held in bondage by the evils of heathenism as a result of her people’s
inability to become heterodox members of the church. 66
Or we could leave it open for a more
simple evaluation, emphasizing just how wild Ireland and her people were and as to why the
English should be wary of their Western neighbours. This in many ways it could be argued is
irrelevant. The fact of the matter was that alongside the tales of St Patrick’s Purgatory the
mythical creatures come together, to give a religious, moral and martial sense of superiority
to an Englishman. The fact that the giants and dragons which are associated with the Irish in
these stories are defeated by English heroes strengthens an image of the English as David
having slain Goliath, a story which showed David as the true King of Israel67
and as a result
the English as the true kings and overlords.
64
History of the Britons, xxvii/xxviii.
65
Ibid, 24/5.
66
Byrne, “West and East”, 228. Bede seems to be the man who first commits this problem of the Irish to paper.
Project Gutenberg- Historia Gentis Anglorum [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38326/38326-h/38326-h.html]
(Accessed 20 June 2016), 139.
67
Bible Gateway, 1 Samuel 17 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+17&version=NIV]
(Accessed 15 August 2016).

35. 30
Chapter II
Origines Gentium, Pseudohistory and the Bible
One of the most important political phenomena in the medieval period was that of the Nation
Origin Myth. A Nation Origin Myth is an inspiring tale as to how the nation came to be,
which often tries to overemphasise the power and glory of the country. National origin myths,
of course, came about around the period of the creation of nations in Europe and were
particularly important in providing a political solidarity that was, in reality, either
nonexistent, as was the case for England, or otherwise hard to define. England was not only
one of the earliest countries to come into being but definitely was one of the most
sophisticated, post 1066 at least. By the time period which I am dealing with the Kings of
England had centralized control, a well-developed governmental system and ability to collect
taxes better than any other country in existence.1
Of course, one of the most obvious problems with a country like England was that, as has
already been alluded to, its people were divided amongst themselves with many different
ideas of what constituted their own specifically different pasts.2
Before the Norman Conquest
the native population had been made up of Saxons, Angles and Britons to name but a few.
Indeed in his Polychronicon, Ranulph Higden actually refers to Northern based Anglo-
Norman families as being different and indeed in some way inferior in comparison with their
southern counterparts, due to the fact that their English dialect “shrills so crudely, that we
1
Susan Reynolds, “Medieval Origines Gentium and the Community of the Realm”, History, Vol 68 (1983), 381
2
R.R. Davies, “Presidential Address: The Peoples of Britain and Ireland 1100-1400. II. Names, Boundaries and
Regnal Solidarities”, Transactions of The Royal Historical Society, Vol. 5 (1995), 7.

36. 31
Southerners, are scarcely able to understand it”,3
this he clarifies, was primarily due to the
fact that they lived closer to the Scots. This, despite the fact that he too was seemingly of
Anglo-Norman descent. This provided English nation myth-makers with a potential problem.
How to create a theory of harmony and collective history when the reality had been quite the
opposite? The answer was that they could only define themselves against what they were
most definitely not. Whilst this is never actually referenced directly, there is a very clear lack
of a description of an English person. There is no clear definition as to what an English
person was but what we do have in abundance is derisory references to other groups, which
informs us of the nature of inferior groups and their exploits.
The way in which Celtic and of course Irish backwardness is portrayed invariably
involved a certain degree of English conceitedness. Previous references which I have already
made show this in abundance. The reference in both The History of the Kings of Britain and
Polychronicon to the formation of an Irish-Pict alliance purely based on the suggestion that
the Britons thought of both groups as inferior, makes for an excellent example.4
According to
Susan Reynolds the origin of descriptions of the “barbarian” nations of Europe can be dated
back to the sixth century Byzantine “Frankish Table of Peoples” and was to become very
popular in Western Christendom over the following centuries.5
Indeed in Before Orientalism
by Kim M. Philips, the author aims to place Edward Said’s famous, or perhaps infamous,
Orientalism into a medieval context, whilst minimizing the racial biases of Said himself.
Philips suggests that there was an emerging sense around Europe during this period that
viewing the “Other”, the ones who did not conform, helped to grow a sense of togetherness
3
Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis: together with the English translations of John Trevisa
and of an unknown writer of the fifteenth century Vol. II, ed. Rev Joseph Rawson Lumby, (London, 1869), 166.
4
Elizabeth L. Rambo, Colonial Ireland in Medieval English Literature, (London, 1994), 31.
5
Reynolds, “Medieval Origines Gentium”, 375.

37. 32
and identity as well as providing a kind of pleasure through horror.6
This seems to be very
strong in England from the evidence we have at our disposal. In this context Ireland, despite
clearly not belonging to the Orient geographically, is more likely to be described in a way
which is not dissimilar to the eastern societies such as the Indian kingdoms, for example.
There was a significant change from an English ideology to a “British” one in the
Arthurian legend literature. Britain was the home of King Arthur, the king of all of the lands
in the British Isles. In Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon, Chapter 39 was entitled “De
Britannia. Majori jam Anglia dicta/ Of Great Britain now called England”7
and in this
chapter Higden goes on to deal with the ancient history of England and King Arthur. The
years after the Norman invasion of England had, as already mentioned, experienced a
creation of togetherness and an English identity. The difference between the English identity
and this British identity was that the British identity was very much colonial in its nature
which, of course, was due in no small part to the nature of the narrative of King Arthur. The
British ideology allowed for a larger amount of land to be controlled by the English and as
such was largely English dominated in its references by authors.8
Only on one occasion
during a period of English weakness in the regency and kingship of Edward II, do we see
even the slightest suggestion of a Scottish dominated idea of Britain, with invasions of
Ireland, northern England and the possibility of alliances with rebels in Wales during the
reign of Robert I (the Bruce).9
Openly supremacist and overindulgent in theories of easy
victory, Brut, the work of the poet priest, Laȝamon, dated to somewhere between 1190 and
1215 and named after Britain’s mythical founder Brutus, perfectly sums up the nature of this
6
K. M. Philips, Before Orientalism, (Philadelphia, 2014), 3.
7
Polychronicon Vol II, 2/3.
8
Philips, Before Orientalism, 5. Andrea Ruddick, English Identity and Political Culture in the Fourteenth
Century, (Cambridge, 2013), 16.
9
R.R. Davies, “Presidential Address: The Peoples of Britain and Ireland, 1100-1400: IV Language and
Historical Mythology”, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol 7 (1997), 16/17.

38. 33
British ideology. When re-telling the story of Arthur’s invasion of Ireland he refers to the
Irish as
“almost naked, with only spears and axes and sharp knives. Arthur’s men let fly
arrows without number, and assailed the Irish force and slaughtered many; they could not
hold out by any means, but many thousands fled speedily away. And Gillomar the king took
flight and made off, and Arthur went after him and seized the king: he took the king of the
country captive.”10
The Normandy based poet, Wace had written his Brut or Roman de Brut, from whom
Laȝamon's work is based, somewhere in the region of half a century earlier and featured an
utterly bloodless and incredibly easy overthrow of not only Ireland but Iceland, Gotland and
many more.11
The fact that both of these works pay homage to the legend of Brutus, whose
origins seem hazy, is significant. Regarded seemingly as more of a legend than genuine
history than King Arthur in the later medieval period, the ninth century Wales native,
Nennius, had simply claimed that “the Irish, who do not know their own origin, wished to be
under him [Brutus]”12
with Brutus being a ruler of all of Britain. Whilst Laȝamon’s Brut is
most definitely more about King Arthur than about Brutus, his association with the name
suggests Laȝamon’s clear “British” credentials and his interest in creating an imperialistic
vision of the past.
Without equivocation, it is a running theme in Arthurian legends in general and it is
very much the case in Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, Laȝamon and many others that the Irish
kings and their men are always courageous or at least combative at first, before being
defeated convincingly. They also usually lack any chivalric traits that would have been
10
Laȝamon’s Arthur: The Arthurian Section of Layamon’s Brut, eds William Raymond Johnston Barron and
S.C. Weinberg, (Exeter, 2001) 99.
11
Wace’s Roman de Brut: a History of the British: Text and Translation, trans & ed. Judith Weiss, (Exeter,
2002), 243-245.
12
Nennius, British History and The Welsh Annals, ed. & trans. John Morris, (London, 1980), 18. It is, however,
important to point out that Nennius in no way speaks favourably of Brutus. This seems to come in later English
versions.

39. 34
associated with even the earliest rough connotations of the word and are generally rebellious,
untrustworthy and largely less amenable to an English lifestyle. With the key words to
describe the Irish being conniving, dishonorable, rapacious and vengeful. Indeed, in Roger of
Wendover’s version of the story of Gillomanius, King of Ireland at the end of the fifth
century, many of these traits are visible. Despite having been defeated in battle, the events of
which are incredibly dealt with in one single line,13
within six years Pascentius, son of
Vortigern, who was at war with the then King Aurelius Ambrosius, sought “succor against
Aurelius, which Gillomanius readily promised.”14
Rather unsurprisingly Gillomanius and
Pascentius were both defeated and killed. It was predictable but useful for instilling an image
of an inferior people with inferior intellect and ability.
The story of King Arthur was a true history in the minds of English writers, as
Elizabeth Pochoda has correctly pointed out in her book, Arthurian Propaganda. It was
something that had indeed happened in the past15
but undoubtedly was interpreted in different
ways, not exactly something that should be all that foreign to modern day historians.
Chroniclers often place events ascribed to King Arthur to a variance of different centuries.
For example Matthew of Paris in his Chronica Majora, makes reference to Arthur as having
invaded Ireland in the year 525 “Anno gratiae DXXV Rex Arthurus, parata classe maxima,
Hyberniae insulam petivit./ In the year of grace 525 King Arthur, the greatest of the fleet was
ready, asked for the island of Ireland.”16
In the use of King Arthur they were involving
themselves with something which has been referred to by John Huizinga to as an “Historical
life ideal”, which was the projection of excellence onto the past, something that ought to be
13
Roger of Wendover’s Flowers of History Vol I, trans & ed. J.A. Giles (London, 1849), 23. “Straightaway both
parties engaged, but the victory remained with the Britons.”
14
Ibid, 27.
15
Elizabeth T Pochoda, Arthurian Propaganda, (University of North Carolina, 1971), 30.
16
Matthaei Parisiensis, Monachi Sancti Albani, Chronica Majora Vol I, ed. Henry Richards Luard (London,
1872), 237.

40. 35
replicated and was indeed the pinnacle of political and regal perfection.17
This included any
of the problems Arthur faced, the way in which he dealt with them was an example of the
best possible way to deal with those problems. Examples of how Arthur could be best used
were during times such as Civil War like those that were experienced in the period known as
“The Anarchy” in the twelfth century, during which Geoffrey of Monmouth was writing and
later on in “The Wars of the Roses”, encapsulated very well in Malory’s Works.18
One could
also imagine that periods of unrest such as the reigns of Edward II as well as of Richard II
both inside of my time period would also have helped to strengthen the rose tinted nature of
any “historian”.
All of this aside, Ireland’s place in the stories of King Arthur becomes very important
when we view Arthurian legend as history. This history allowed for an idea of retrospect.
Ireland had once been in England’s possession, therefore it was perfectly valid for them to
still lay claim to Ireland.19
Some of the Arthurian legends of this period chose to go
significantly beyond the birth of King Arthur and tell the story of the kings that came before
him. During these stories there is the tale of the King of all of Britain, Gurguint Barbtruc
(spelling varies). In this tale we see an English version of a nation myth surrounding Ireland
which fits the narrative of English dominance over Ireland very well. Despite being from the
pre-invasion period, the first reference to this story seems to have been in Geoffrey of
Monmouth. It is later re-used by Ranulph Higden, with a clearly very different point to its
inclusion and new found importance in “British” nationalistic rhetoric and propaganda.
Gurguint Barbtruc returning victorious from war arrives back at the Orkney Islands where he
17
Pochoda, Arthurian Propaganda, 30.
18
Ibid., 108. Julia C.Crick, The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth IV Dissemination and
Reception in the Later Middle Ages, (Cambridge, 1991), 1.
19
Antonia Gransden, Historical Writing in England ii, c1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century, (London, 1982),
50.

41. 36
“came upon thirty ships filled with men and women, when he asked the reason for their
coming, their leader, named Partholoim, came and bowed low before him asking for his
pardon and for peace. He said that he had been expelled from Spain was roving these waters
to find a new home. He asked for a part of Britain to live in and so bring an end to his
tiresome voyage…. Gurguint send them with guides to Ireland, an island at that time devoid
of inhabitants, which he granted to them. They increased and multiplied there and have
occupied the island ever since, up to the present day.”20
Ranulph Higden’s version translated by John of Trevisa reads that Gurguint “fond by þe
ylond Orchades pretty schipes ful of Basclenses þat þider were i-dryve out of Spayne side,
and he sente hem and here Duke Bartholomewe into Irlonde, þat so þo voyde and no man
[wonede] þerynne.”21
In another part of his History of the Kings of Britain, Geoffrey, after the
afore-referenced tale of the Picts and the Scots and their intermarrying, dismisses the
importance of the history of the Irish, stating “But enough of the Picts since it is not my
intention to write their history of that of the Scots who are descended from them and the
Irish.”22
Unsurprisingly, there was no such statement in Higden’s Polychronicon for whom
the story had become very significant in underlining Ireland as an island colonised by an
English (British)* king. Ireland was, therefore, in its most basic form a subsidiary kingdom
that owed allegiance to his king since antiquity.
Irish and Scottish Nation Building Myths are extremely similar in nature and in parts
are actually derived from the same story. As suggested above in a reference from Geoffrey of
Monmouth, in medieval times they were often viewed to have come from the same lineage.
20
Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, ed, Michael D. Reeve, trans. Neill Wright
(Woodbridge, 2007), 60.
21
Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden maonachi Cestrensis:together with the English translations of John Trevisa
and of an unknown writer of he fifteenth century Vol. III, ed. Rev Joseph Rawson Lumby, (London, 1874), 329.
22
Monmouth, History, 86.
* By this I mean British in ideology, with its colonial suggestions/implications.

42. 37
Of course we now know that this is to a large extent true, a result of invasions from Ireland
around 400AD and onwards. The fact that there is so often such massive confusion caused in
a medievalists mind when they come across the word “scoti” in manuscripts, is that it could
just as easily refer to Irish individuals as it could to Scottish individuals. Indeed, Brian Ború
referred to himself as Imperator Scotorum “Emperor of the Scots/Scoti”23
whilst three
centuries later Robert I was Rex Scotorum “King of the Scots”.24
This association comes
from the fact that both the Irish and the Scottish were established to have been descendants of
the daughter of an Egyptian Pharoah, Scota. In the English mind, the Irish and the Scottish
also were linked through the aforementioned Scythian links in chapter one. This meant that a
caricature of these two Celtic nations was very possible and allowed for further inclusion of
the Welsh. The Irish National Origin Myths had been established many centuries earlier as
had the Scottish. The Irish tradition dated back to the sixth century high king Diarmait, son of
Cerball, who wished to clarify his rights as king and document his illustrious lineage but was
not to reach its fullest expression until the text of Lebor Gabála Érenn in 1050.25
Scottish
equivalents had been in existence since the seventh century. The Welsh national origin myth
seems to have come into life in the ninth century with Nennius in his Historia Britonnum.
The English were not to have a well-established national origin myth until a significant
amount of time after their Celtic neighbours, which was both advantageous and
disadvantageous in seemingly equal measure.
All of the English population it has been attested, despite the fact of their clearly
disparate pasts, were completely accepting of the origin myth by the end of the thirteenth
23
Seán Duffy, “Brian Boru: imperator Scotorum”, History Ireland, Vol. 22, No.2, (March/April 2014), 10/11.
24
G.W.S. Barlow, Scotland and its Neighbours in the Middle Ages, (London, 1992), 36.
25
John Carey, “Native Elements in Irish Pseudohistory”, Cultural Identity and Cultural Integration Ireland and
Europe in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Doris Edel (Dublin, 1995), 47.

43. 38
century.26
John Fordun seems to unequivocally back this up as he explained in the fourteenth
century that his home nation of Scotland was made up of two gentes but one natio, two
clearly identifiable groups who made one identifiable country.27
As seen in the Declaration of
Arbroath, Buldred Bisset makes reference to the most well-known Scottish Origin Myth,
which claimed that upon arrival into the northern part of Britain she drove out all of the
Britons from that land, and emphatically states that the Egyptians had a greater claim to rule
over Scotland than the English did.28
Similarly, in Ireland in the fourteenth century, the
Remonstrance of the Irish Princes in 1317 made reference to the fact that “a hundred and
ninety seven kings of our blood have reigned over the whole of Ireland”.29
What we are
seeing in both Irish and Scottish instances is the clash and recurring fight between different
propagandistic opinions, emanating from the twelfth century. During the twelfth century the
English, roughly a century after the Norman invasion, had started to create their own
inclusive National Origin Myths30
, exemplified in William of Malmesbury’s Gesta Regum
Anglorum (1125), Henry of Huntington’s Historia Anglorum (c. 1129) and Geoffrey of
Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (late 1130’s). All of these contributed to a strongly
reactionary history of not only England but the British Isles, whilst relying strongly on the
influence of Bede’s works from many centuries earlier.31
The most well-known and, indeed, most studied by medieval scholars outside of
Ireland of the Irish origin myths, was of course Lebor Gabála Érenn which features Scota in
the story. She was the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh and mother of Goídel, the creator of
26
Susan Reynolds, “Medieval Origines Gentium”, 382.
27
Robert Bartlett, “Medieval and Modern Concepts of Race and Ethnicity”, Journal of Medieval and Early
Modern Studies 31:1 (Winter, 2001), 48.
28
Davies, “Names, Boundaries and Regnal Solidarities”, 2.
29
Ibid, 20.
30
Reynolds, “Medieval Origines Gentium”, 381.
31
Davies, “Language and Historical Mythology”, 19.

44. 39
the Gaelic language, whose descendants in turn are the first to arrive in Ireland.32
The book
also includes a reference to Partholoin, the name given to the Basque leader found at the
Orkney islands in the English nation building myths. In the Lebor he is leader of the second
of six settlements in Ireland33
with less importance placed upon him than the last Míl Espáne
or Milesians.34
Gerald of Wales in his Topographia Hibernica is the first person who seems
to make a clear claim to Ireland post invasion from a nation origin myth point of view. He
uses an amalgamation of the aforementioned Irish source, Lebor Gabála Érenn and his own
sources such as Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth.35
He adds onto these established time-
lines that at the time the Basque region, which the people at the Orkney islands claimed to
have come from, was also currently “on the boundary of Gascony, and belongs to it….[and]
rejoices in the same rule as Britain.”36
This is not a suggestion that reappears in later works
one would think due to the loss of large parts of that region by the English to the French
during the course of the fourteenth century. It also does not really come across as the
strongest of arguments and may have simply featured to please the English royal court and
Henry II, who was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine at the time.
Ranulph Higden in his discourse of the history of Ireland makes significant usage of
Gerald of Wales’ ideas and theories even at one stage thanks him “Giraldus Cambrensis, qui
descripsit Topographiam Hiberniae, Itinerarium Walliae et Vitam regis Henrici Secundi sub
triplici distincione/ Gerald of Wales who has the threefold distinction of the Topography of
Ireland, “Itinerary”[Circuit/Journey] of Wales and the Life of King Henry II ”.37
At the start
32
Lebor Gábala Érenn, {https://archive.org/stream/leabhargabhlab01cluoft#page/2/mode/2up] (Accessed 22
August 2016), 194/195.
33
Ibid, 24.
34
Carey, “Native Elements in Irish Pseudohistory”, 48.
35
Rambo, Colonial Ireland, 27/8. Gerald of Wales, The History and Topography of Ireland, trans and intro by
John J O’Meara, (London, 1982), 99/100.
36
Gerald of Wales, Topography of Ireland, 99/100.
37
Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden maonachi Cestrensis: together with the English translations of John Trevisa
and of an unknown writer of the fifteenth century Vol I, (London, 1865), 24.

45. 40
of his section entitled “De Hibernia”, chapter 32 of book one he also states that “Erat Hiberna
ab olim Britanniae jure dominie concorporata, quam, duce Giraldo in sua Topographia/
Hibernia, that is Ireland, was of olden times incorporated into the lordship of Britain,
according to Gerald in his Topography”.38
We know that Higden had read a significant
amount of Cambrensis’ work even if his version of the story of the British King Gurguint
Barbtruc mirrors that of Geoffrey of Monmouth more closely. Higden does, however, seem to
revert back to Giraldus when he talks about the Milesians.
“Hibernia omnium insularum occidentalium novissima sic dicta est ab Hibero
Hispanico, frater scilicet Hermonii, qui duo simul juncti eam conquisierunt vel dicta est ab
Hibero flumine Hispaniae occidentali/ Ireland is the most westerly island which took its name
from Hiberus brother of Hermonius, as these two brothers had gained this land by conquest or
it was named after the river Hiberus in the west of Spain.”39
Whilst he is most likely to have gained this from Giraldus, Nennius could just as easily have
been Higden’s source as both of them deal with this story. Indeed, rather ironically, Nennius
seems to have been the first person to properly catalogue the stories of the people who arrived
in Ireland before the full publication of Lebor Gabála Érenn.40
The true birth point of this
story seems hazy with John Carey’s suggestion that it came from an assertion by Julius
Caesar in the first century that one side of Britain “tends towards Spain, and the setting sun;
on this side is Ireland” seeming the most likely. This later seems to have been picked up by
both Isidore and Orosius, some of the foremost scholars of the seventh century, to whom Irish
scholars of the era definitely had access to.41
Note also Fig 1.1 for the placement of Spain
close to Ireland. Spain, therefore, seems to be a natural place from which Ireland could have
38
Polychronicon, Vol. I, 328.
39
Ibid., 328/30.
40
John Carey, “Did the Irish Come from Spain? The Legend of the Milesians”, History Ireland, Vol. 9, No.3
(Autumn, 2001), 8.
41
Ibid, 10/11. The problem of Ireland being both far to the North and closest to Spain at the same time in the
geography of the time of Caesar is not something which has evaded me. It is, however, something which I
unfortunately cannot explain.

46. 41
been inhabited. Whether or not Ranulph Higden thought he was making a bigger point with
this suggestion, will have to remain open to conjecture due to a lack of any substantial
evidence. The river Ebro, which the river Hiberus in Higden’s quote makes reference to, does
flow through the right part of northern Spain and the Basque country for a reference to
Giraldus’ earlier “Gascony” claim to be possible but without any concrete facts, this would
be an extremely speculative claim to say the least. What it does show, however, is the
longevity of a belief that does not seem to hold any real historical clout.
As all medieval historians must be aware, biblical connotations and reasoning can
never be too far away from key points of understanding in the medieval mind. Some of the
key points in relation to the creation of nation origin myths are often found in the latter parts
of the Old Testament and most significantly around the sections directly after the Flood. The
reason for this was that large numbers of nations based their claim to nationhood from either
Noah or his relatives.42
When dealing with the idea of a nation, the ideal was invariably of
Israel. Literary images of England abounded in the literature of this period of their country a
second promised land. Ideas of England as a land of agricultural plenty “flowing with milk
and honey” to quote Andrea Ruddick, were hallmarks of English writing and had been since
the twelfth century.43
This of course was to imbue English writers with a feeling of self-
importance as well as a major national ego boost in comparison to other countries.
One of the most significant points which is highly conspicuous in its absence from the
damning written material in relation to the Irish gens from the era is language. All of this
despite the fact that language in English self-identity and, indeed, in the identities of most
people, was viewed as paramount to retention of their Englishness. Henry of Huntington, the
42
Reynolds, “Medieval Origines Gentium”, 377.
43
Ruddick, English Identity and Political Culture, 282.

47. 42
innately Anglo-Norman English nationalist and Archdeacon of Lincoln, had in the early
twelfth century, remarked about the importance of language. He referenced the disappearance
of the Pictish gens stating that
“the extinction of their kings and princes and the people itself and the passing away of
the Pictish stock and language… what is truly astonishing is the disappearance of their
language, that God created, among the rest, at the origin of languages.”44
Henry of Huntington, whilst establishing the importance of language to one’s freedom and
ethnic groups, makes a key reference to the bible. The part of the bible to which he is making
reference is Genesis II: 1-9, which tells the story of the Tower of Babel. Men build a tower to
try to reach God’s heaven, so God confuses their language, so that men no longer understood
one another meaning that there was natural division between mankind. Thus mankind is
“scattered” and broken up into a great number of nations.45
This meant that people having
different languages was something that was ordained by God and, therefore, attacks on the
Irish language outright and Irish usage of it by English writers is something that is not seen
on a regular basis.
Language, however, was still very much relevant. Whilst there was a certain degree of
tolerance, the importance of English as a language is something which was to be stressed
from an early date in the twelfth century right up into the fourteenth century. Writers in the
fourteenth century were acceleration of English literature and the growth of the use of the
language. In 1362, for example, it was ruled that oral pleadings in the king’s courts were to
be in English rather than in French. Just in the process of the completion of this dissertation I
used a number of Middle English literature pieces, a number of which had clear nationalistic
44
Bartlett, “Medieval and Modern Concepts of Race”, 49.
45
Gerhard Von Rad, Genesis A Commentary (Norwich, 1972), 149/150.

48. 43
tendencies. Whilst Geoffrey Chaucer is referred to as “The Father of English Literature”, he
was only one person in a larger movement seen as a revolution in national literary culture and
with it an English national identity.46
In Ireland, English was the clear language of preference for anybody who regarded
themselves as English. An “Englishman” who didn’t have any English, could face very
severe charges including a loss of his own access to the common law. A letter close dated to
3 February 1360 attested that
“the King has ordained that after the Nativity of St John the Baptist next [24 June
1360] no one of the English race, under pain of losing English liberty, is to converse with
other Englishmen in the Irish manner of speaking; rather, in the meantime, each Englishman
is to learn the English language”.47
Following on along this line of thought, Froissart’s recounting of his meeting Henry
Chrystede in his Chronicles becomes a story of innate interest. Chrystede was bilingual and
got a job which was to “direct and guide in the ways of reason and the customs of this
country those four Irish kings who have made their submission to the English crown”. The
four kings “prove[d] to be very uncouth and grossminded people. I had the greatest difficulty
in polishing them and moderating their language and characters….On many occasions they
still slip back into their rough ways”. Later on in the process “two days before our king
intended to make them knights, they were visited by the Earl of Ormonde, who knows their
language well”. The language was no real problem if a man of such high standing as the Earl
of Ormond used it. The eradication of Irish behaviour and lifestyles were the problem.
Chrystede informs us of his interest in the language by stating that he taught Irish to his
England dwelling grandchildren.48
Interestingly in his book A View of the Present State of
46
Ruddick, English Identity and Political Culture, 156/7.
47
CIRCLE Close Roll 34 Edward III 3 Feb. 1360 Dublin [https://chancery.tcd.ie/roll/34-Edward-III/Close]
(Accessed 22 August 2016).
48
Jean Froissart, Chronicles, ed. Geoffrey Brereton (London, 1978), 413-15.

49. 44
Ireland, Edmund Spenser seems to have looked back on my period of study with regret.
When making reference to the degeneration of the Anglo-Irish he stated that “it is unnatural
that any people should love another’s language more than their own”.49
During my time
period of interest, however, official royal guidelines seemed to suggest that a knowledge of
Irish was not problematic, merely the use of it between two Englishmen or lack of any
English at all were the true problems.
The nature of the Origines gentium was to provide one’s country with a self-
aggrandising history which allowed for sovereignty as well further expansion and English
origin myths did exactly that with their clearly defined “British” ideology. Brutus and later
King Arthur, provided an excellent basis from which to assert English dominance over
Ireland in writing and created excellent propaganda in a typical medieval style, by
establishing precedent. By dealing directly with Irish origin myths and adapting them for
their own usage they were able to usurp the stories for themselves, especially when it comes
to the story of Partholoin. Finally, through the use of the bible and it’s doctrines they had
chosen not to attack the Irish language directly. By egotistically writing about England as the
new chosen land, they were able to create an image of themselves as the scripture abiding
Christian reformers of a godless land filled with people that needed their aid.
49
Edmund Spenser, A View of the Present State of Ireland ed. W.L. Renwick (Oxford, 1970), 67.

50. 45
Chapter III
English Nationalism and Anglo Irish Relations
If we charge ourselves with discussing how stereotypes towards the Irish changed during the
course of the thirteenth and fourteenth century in England the discussion leaves one open for
a more in depth understanding as to the powers that were at work in creating opinions. This
can therefore bring us one step further towards greater understanding as to what the cycle of
thought was in relation to the creation of English policy towards Ireland. In order to grasp
this properly it only seems right that we take examples from both England and Ireland
respectively and marry them to the trends in English writing throughout the period. By
looking at the key political jousts, statutes and legislations enacted and ecclesiastic politics of
these two centuries, a better understanding can be reached as to why certain opinions of the
Irish were to change over the course of the two centuries and differences between clerical and
lay writers will also be laid bare. The main purpose is to prove the importance of English
opinions and perceptions of the Irish to the Irish way of life and imposition of law in Ireland.
As has been suggested in earlier chapters, England was a nation which was changing
drastically in terms of its own self-image. What it meant to be English was being constantly
questioned and constantly changed. Language, of course, played a huge part in all of this.
English nationalism was to develop during the course of the thirteenth century and was to
reach its zenith during the reign of Edward I, rather tellingly also referred to as “The Hammer
of the Scots”. During the course of the thirteenth century, English xenophobia went hand in
hand with a growth of nationalism and Englishness which had never been experienced since
the Norman invasion. This is clearly seen in intentions to thwart the ambitions of aliens,

51. 46
particularly those that were seen to be dominating the royal court.1
The thirteenth century
also saw the loss of Normandy and failures in war on the continent which was to further
boost xenophobia.2
The idea of true Englishness in England and amongst men who thought of
themselves as English featured a reasonably prominent place for the use of the English
language. Indeed, in 1263 in Flores Historiarum, there is a comment which states that
“whoever did not know the English tongue was despised by the masses and held in
contempt”.3
There have been suggestions made that there was some sort of divorce between
clerical and lay writing on these sort of matters, it does seem, however, to be the case that for
the most part it was the perceptions of the clergy would then trickle down into lay writings.
Generally, English audiences in this era seemed to be in agreement that these sorts of
opinions were not only needed but were to be received warmly. These sort of sentiments were
ones which started to appear in political documents, towards the end of the century.4
Edward I seems to have viewed Ireland as stable enough for him to show little or no
interest in the country for large parts of his reign. He was, however, the first king of England
to be innately interested in the story of King Arthur and indeed to a certain extent actually
viewed himself as a pseudo King Arthur or King Arthur reincarnate. He was well known for
his crushing victories over the Welsh and his many wars against the Scots. Sir Maurice
Powicke stated that Edward “knew….how to appeal to history. He tried to comprehend in his
own rule the traditions of his land.” His interest was dictated by expediency, by political
considerations. The association with King Arthur for the Kings of England one would
presume started with Geoffrey of Monmouth dedicating his Historia Regum Britanniae to
King Stephen in 1136 but in reality only began with Edward. He even had a round table and
1
R.R. Davies, “Presidential Address: The Peoples of Britain and Ireland 1100-1400. II. Names, Boundaries and
Regnal Solidarities”, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 5 (1995), 14.
2
Susan Reynolds, “Medieval Origines Gentium and the Community of the Realm”, History, Vol. 68 (1983),
385.
3
Flores Historiarum Vol II, ed. Henry Richards Luard, (London, 1890), 481.
4
Reynolds, “Origines Gentium”, 378.

52. 47
exhumed and moved the bones of “Arthur and Guenevere”.5
In 1301 in reply to Scottish
claims to independence from England to Boniface VIII, Edward substantiates the rights of the
English crown over Scotland, using King Arthur’s success as his tool.
“Item, Arturus, Rex Britonum, princeps famosissimus, Scotiam sibi rebellem subject,
& pene totam gentem delevit & postea quemdam, nomine Anguselum, in Regem Scotiae,
servitium pro regno Scotiae exhibens debitum, gladium Regis Arturi detulit ante ipsum; &
successive omnes Reges Scotiae omnibus Regibus Britonum fuere subjecti.”6
Traditionally the uproar of the fourteenth century seems to have been compared to the
thirteenth century, making the earlier century seem like an era of peace and tranquillity as a
result. The realities of the thirteenth century were actually very different. It was an era of
intense ecclesiastic and political debate with reasonably large amounts of dissent from the
Irish chieftains in Ulster, in particular. It is true, however, that the level of actual warfare was
less endemic than it was to be in the fourteenth century. In the thirteenth century, Ireland as a
colony posed little to no real threat to the established English lordship and by the end of
Edward I’s reign the colony was at the biggest extent it was to ever reach. After over a
century of English rule the seeds of discontent had well and truly been sewn by this era. From
the very beginning of the colony, the Irish had become even more determined to retain Irish
traditions, both in their everyday lives and in terms of the church in the face of strong
attempts to impose common law as well as the Consuetudines Ecclesie Anglicana (Customs
of the English Church).7
In the late 1270’s there had been a movement which had garnered a
reasonable level of support for the Irish to be given access to English law, with the legislation
5
Roger Sherman Loomis, “Edward I Arthurian Enthusiast”, Speculum Vol. 28 No. 1 (Jan., 1953), 114/5.
6
Ibid., 121/2.
7
Maurice Sheehy, “English Law in Medieval Ireland” Archivium Hibernicum Vol. 23 (1960), 167.