text:
The Demise of an Irish Clan/Chapter IV

by
 * Terence Kearey

The Vikings land

 * Cinel Eoghain - The Central Lowlands – Battle of Clontarf – Boru - King of Thomond – Toomavara Parish – The Scholar of Aegus – New walled towns – Viking raids – King Murchertach – Lough Derg – River Shannon – O Connor – Killaloe – Nenagh – Friars Island.

The kingship of the Cinel Eoghain became lessened - dropped out of succession. By 976, Brian Boraime [Boru] asserted control over the whole of Munster. It was during this time that Amlaib Cuaran’s, 945-980, daughter and grandson were baptised and given Irish Christian names – Mael Muore and Gilla Ciarain. Later, during the Battle of Clontarf, 1014, Brian heralded the claim to the throne of all Ireland including the land held by the Ostmen. Support however by other Irish leaders was not forthcoming. A number of clans leaders populating north Leinster and Munster, one being Maelsheachlainn O’ Ciardha, bribed just before the battle to desert with his men, fought with the Norsemen - to remove Brian’s power in Limerick. This united gathering failed and Brian won a great victory although he never lived long enough to reap the rewards for he was killed in his tent pitched on the field of battle. Boru’s reign shattered the old order, his death allowed Máel Sechnaill II to be high king of Ireland until his demise in 1022. The Ostmen were allowed to remain and develop their towns, which gradually became main centres of importance. All those clans linked to the O’Neill’s, including the O’Ciardha, lost political power – new relationships were formed – some gained advancement others declined. The O’Ciardha clan started to split up - part moved to the kingdom of Man, others to the Isles and a further group retreated to western Munster – today’s Co Cork and Kerry, whilst others fled to the hills or joined other clans. The main nucleus of older members continued to maintain their old ways close to the ancestral home.

Enjoying large areas of land, what it produced, did not burden the Irish lord or leader. It mattered not to him that another might quote amounts, he was more concerned about ‘status’ according to whom he knew, who served him, and who needed his power and position. This was a major failing in the Irish leadership system accepting the rank others accorded him, showing greater deference, that ‘the other was the greater lord’. When he died all that deference died with him and there was turmoil, until the whole lot settled down again - to show a different order! The king was not a judge… he was there to lead his people into war and to be a chair at the various meetings. However, it was rare that the eldest male descendant or nominated leader was not accepted… he had to be strong enough to demand obedience, having proved his worth with deeds. The pagan brehons, previously known as the Druids, were the lawyers and governed the social system. They were not the poets or filid although holding the same high office.

Kincora was a stone built fortress guarding Loch Derg and was at one time Brian Boru’s capital. Cashel still represented the ancient seat of the Munster kings. Brian first established himself as king of Munster in place of the traditional Eoganacht king of Cashel, in 1002. Mael Sechnaill, king of Tara, who had been ruling since 980, acknowledged his supremacy.

Two years before, High king Murchertach presented Kincora to the Church where it became the seat for the new archbishopric of Munster. Gilla Espaic, or Gilbert, was made bishop of Limerick about 1106 and appointed papal legate. This action made an alliance between the High king and southern reformers - to the traditional head of the Irish Church. The O’Brian’s' moved to their new capital in Limerick ruling the Ostmen - their vassals. It was at Limerick, called by the Norse name, ‘the Lax Weir’, that salmon fishing was highly valued becoming a chief industry - many Viking ships rode at anchored in the Shannon lakes. Ostmen, meaning ‘Eastmen’, the name given to Christianized semi-Irish settlers in Ireland after 1014, were an established entity before the invasion of England by the Normans.

The waves of the sea and salmon depicted on the bottom-third of the family Coat of Arms suggests that the sea that feeds the river Shannon and Lough Derg played an important part in the life of the family - sufficient to be recorded on the O’Ciardha shield…

Murchertach divided Ireland up into twenty-four sees in 1111. This action replaced the old monastic order. Eight years later Turloch sought High kingship after Murchertach’s death. The O’Brian’s and the kingdom of Cashel never assumed great power again. Turloch had his fleet based on Loch Derg and his fortress at Dunleogha, which held Connacht and the bridges over the Shannon. Turloch had twenty-three sons all had land at the expense of others taken on as vassals or else thrown out. The aristocracy was so avarice, so numerous, that there was no other outlet for them but war. Munster was divided between three of his sons, Muirchertach, Diarmait, and Tadc who died within a month. Tribe extinction by war, expulsion, or ill health, was frequently the case…. about thirty years later, with the advent of the Cistercians some order restored.

Turloch More O’Connor, 1119 – 1156, was High king. He was the son of Rory O’Connor, king of Connacht in 1106. Ireland contained a hundred kinglets arranged into five bigger groupings roughly into today’s provinces. The High King also ruled one of the provinces - held the power base of these other provinces. In Ireland, there were three grades of kings. At the bottom was the king of the smallest kingdom called a túath, next in order an overking ruiri and finally king of overkings ri ruirech. By the middle of the twelfth century, these titles changed to one of lordship. Lower down the social scale came noblemen who were linked to the lord - normally by a feudal bond – owed an allegiance to. At the bottom of the scale came the commoners some freemen others not. Where a clan inhabited a border between counties or shared land with the diocese, which is the case of the O’Ciardha - Killaloe, the likelihood of that clan remaining strong, is slight. Wars and disputes undermined ancient rights especially when the warrior chiefs were away fighting... weaknesses were soon exposed.

THE MACLOCHLAINN KINGS OF CINEL EOGHAIN:  Murchertach [High King] 1156 – 66, Connor 1166 – 1170, Niall 1170 – 1176, Melachlin 1176 – 1185, Murchertach 1188 – 1196, Connor Beg 1201, Donal 1230 – 1281.

Already we have seen that the O´Ciardha clan chiefs were ‘vassals’ under the protection of another – in this case it was the O’Neill’s. They in turn had vassals… and so on. If one or other lost power there was an readjustment… if one clan was split-up through interclan wars they lost status – in some cases the clan became extinct – their land and rights forfeited. For clans to survive their chiefs had to demonstrate their strength, usually in battle… it was necessary to have allegiances to ensure security. The O’Ciardha was part of the Eoghanacht as were the O’Sullivans, O’Donoghue, O’Mahony and possibly the O’Carthys… as well as others. It is impossible to say which were the more senior or who favoured most.

The Irish clan system worked through the rent of land – the chief owed his position to an overlord to whom he paid either cash, cattle, service or all three for the land. He was expected to supply men to fight the lord’s battles and to give support and succour – safe haven, in times of defeat… all to contribute towards ‘payback’. Every family in the clan did similarly only towards the clan chief. In its simplest form it worked well but when more complicated broke down, especially when there was nothing to repay or barter for the sum owing. This is little different to other societies of the time. This hieratical grouping of families with a corporate entity gave a political and legal involvement recognised by those around them. A single person or group could represent the clan as long as they had political influence or property. Over a period, the clan rulers multiplied by birth and marriage, by so doing displaced those lower down the social scale. Even though you were of the leaders family this did not guarantee your position or likely inheritance.

The clan system revolved around ‘a common people’ based within an identifiable area of land, say, a valley. It was accepted that a particular man’s claim to noble rank and apparel was derived over many centuries. When the dynastic clanna covered the population of this area and its founder accepted as their common ancestor – the chief was born. To marry outside the valley – the community, was a rarity. The clan law in Ireland is a customary law, which is slightly different in Scotland and Wales.

The obviously more powerful Normans, whom Sechnaill showed devotion to, particularly towards Henry I, dominated the ruling bodies in Ireland. It was in 1163 that Giolla Ciaran O’Draighnan died at the Abbey of Fore a year before Abbot Moel Coenighin O’Gorman. Six years before Strongbow married Aoife after the subjugation of the native Irish by the Normans in 1169.

Domnall Mac Lochlainn, king of the Uí Néill, had total power of southern Ireland until he fell from office. [Ui Neills’ of Meath and Ailech ruled for over 500 years] Domnall lost his power after appealing to Henry II for help. The English invasion sanctioned and authorized by Pope Adrian 1155 was lead by Henry’s Cambro-Norman barons under the call to invade and help Domnall re-claim his land. Between 1169 and 1171 the Cambro-Normans, under the earl of Pembroke, Richard FitzGilbert de Clare, the earl of Strigoil, ‘Strongbow’, not only seized all of Leinster and Dublin but also invaded neighbouring provinces too defeating Rory O’Connor, high king of Ireland. This sizing of land was made under the guise that it was owed - a payback for help received. Henry II demanded and received fealty and tribute from all the surrounding kings. There followed a further diminution of the clans, O’Ciardha again elected not to show fealty although a liegeman of Ui Neill.

From about 1170 onwards, the English began to colonize Ireland. This was to the ultimate detriment of the old order of Gaelic kings; they were never to rule their own provinces again. It was from this point that clan O’Ciardha began to diminish once more – their lands and titles stolen - being distributed to English sympathisers. In 1171 O’Connor and O’Carroll with others were defeated in battle by Strongbow established the Normans as supreme. In 1175 Kerry, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary, the kingdom of Limerick [land of the O’Brian’s], was signed away by Henry II and given to Philip de Braose. Munster became more French than any other place outside France.

In 1189 Conor O’Connor, son of Rory - the last native king of Ireland, was turned out of Connacht and slain. His son Cathal Carrach, motto The Red Hand of Ireland, claimed the kingship, as did Rory’s brother Cathal Crovderg. De Courcy eventually recognised him as king of Connacht. When Ruaidri Ua Conchobair died in 1198, he was buried in Clonmacnoise… Gaelic Irish power ended. Limerick was fortified by the building of King John’s Castle set on the shores of the Shannon, to quell O’Brian’s kingdom of Thomond. In 1202 Crovderg, brother of Ard Ri, ‘of the Red Hand’ [O’Ciardha clan motto the same], inaugurated king by ancient ceremony at Carn Fraoich. The English considered him the greatest of all the Irish kings.

In the Dark Ages Kylkeary was considered an unwalled urban settlement. It had many streets and numerous inhabitants - Irish as well as immigrant English. It traded in wool and hides and supported itself with vegetable products. The church and nunnery provided a visiting place for travellers passing through. It covered an area of many hundreds of acres with Nenagh, its closest Manor Town – now owned by Butler, had ‘incorporation’ conferred upon it – a privileged position. The charter granted that any tenement held for a year and a day ‘was owned’, and if by an Irishman, to be declared ‘free as an Englishman’. There was of course an acceptance that one did not openly declare and display too many old Gaelic customs.

Towns like Nenagh began to be built-up with a gated retaining wall. Forests were felled and new methods of agriculture developed. Masons and stonecutters enticed to construct the walls and houses, helped by the inhabitants who mixed the mortar and carried the stone. The citizens help was not always voluntary even though it was for their safety. Laws were passed forcing the population to assist in the work. No one was left out of the labour force all had to give a hand. If a man could not work because of illness or work, having to be done in his own business his wife had to take his place. Nenagh felt secure and the town prospered. Churches were extended and re-built; education was ordained as being necessary. English laws were followed and a degree of prosperity was palpable.

The English language began to be the common means of expression. Art and science was imported together with the administration of finance and justice. Anglo-Irish dynasties gradually assumed the ruling hand - enclaves creating a frontier, which undermined the old feudal nobility. Many of these Anglo-Irish families still occupy seized lands to this day. What was a continuing feature in this subjugated and colonised land was that the colonists never thought of themselves as being natives but as Englishmen.

Between 1219 and 1232, Richard de Burgh’s nephew Hubert was temporarily in charge of England…this gave Richard considerable influence. It was his interests in Limerick and Tipperary that offered a suitable springboard to conquer and subdue Connacht…, which he proceeded to do. All this occurred close to the clan land of the O’Ciardha who had cast his lot in with O’Connor. The Munster chronicle reports for 1248 that ‘many of the kings’ sons of Ireland were slain that year. There was a great deal of killing and raiding, endless campaigns, fire-raising, cattle raids and pillage… the place was in turmoil.

The Lordship of Leinster, partitioned between the five daughters of William Marshal, husband of Strongbow’s daughter Isabel, resulted in Kilkenny being given its liberty from the crown. This was at the end of the thirteenth century. Another change just prior to this was the rise of William, baron of Naas – a tenant of the lords of Leinster. The lordship of Ireland granted to Edward 1 in 1254 and continued by his son who died in 1327. John Fitz Thomas of Offaly, earl of Kildare passed on the earldom to his son Thomas. In 1258, the sons of the king of Thomond, and associated nobility including the O’Ciardha met and conferred supreme authority to Brian O’Neill… unfortunately; he was killed… at the abortive Battle of Downpatrick in 1260.

One of Strongbow’s knights Hugh de Lacy, one of the largest landholders in Hertfordshire were granted the province of Meath, part of Longford and Offaly for the service of fifty knights. He in turn dolled out lordships – entire baronies and sub-divisions of manors, to his followers - who proceeded to erect fortified enclosures to protect new immigrants. Not all this went down well with the inhabitants! In Limerick and Tipperary, a sheriff was installed to collect revenues and impart his judicial and military powers. This pressure further pushed the O’Ciardha clan into the hills and inaccessible places. The result of the sub-division of land and the installation of overseers created an outpost for the barons to protect Leinster and Dublin from incursion and provided a jumping off place to subdue outer regions of southern and western Ireland.

In 1297, Tipperary County was required to send an elected representative to attend the Dublin parliament – towns within the county two years later and of both by 1300. This act had the effect of displacing the old order - the Gaelic Irish - the Gaelic nobility. The Normans took over all administrations and imposed themselves marrying into the Irish leadership, developing the towns and cities for their own. Enormous progress was made to integrate all the population in the new community. Forests were cleared to form cultivated land, new methods of agriculture introduced to produce more food. Trades and commercial enterprises contained within the newly built walled towns - like Nenagh. It was a period of prosperity, which allowed monastic houses to flourish.

A few years later a Gaelic reconquest swept away many of the Anglo-Irish ruling bodies - their manorial systems and associated village settlements. The old forms of address, writing, and reference returned to and life reverted - to before English rule. This was the pattern where the old order tried to reassert itself. It was crushed… the start of the gallowglass, as ’bondsmen’ of the future. They came originally from north-west Scotland - afterwards used by the Irish - acknowledging their usefulness. Their recruitment, of any number, could be from a single clan, or a number of clans - especially disposed clan leaders without land, home or roots. The lord had to be able to keep them and their families, provide food and a dwelling. As this was, a very expensive undertaking, few were employed. Using huge axes like the Normans and protected by chain mail they acted very much like samurai who, experienced in war, gave protection and allegiance unto death. They joined forces with O’Connor who sought help from King Haakon of Norway to oust the Normans from Ireland and become King. The plea came to nothing for King Haakon died before a landing made. Another attempt made by inviting Edward Bruce of Scotland in 1316 but this too failed after causing mayhem for three years – after being killed at the battle of Faughart.

In 1354, Ormond granted land to O’Meara near Toomevara. Four years later another parcel of land granted to the O’Kennedys’ only this time the land was in the manor of Nenagh. All together, it appears these two were granted all of Lower, and part of, Upper Ormond. The O’Carroll’s, Murrough of Uriel, chiefs of Ely, other prominent families connected to the O’Ciardha clan. These two clan families, the O’Carrolls and O’Kennedys, occupied land, which bordered and overlapped on ancient O’Ciardha territory. In legal parlance when a clan is without land, their legal claim to clanship revoked. This is what happened to the O’Ciardha clan. The ‘Statutes of Kilkenny’ passed by the Irish Parliament in 1366, prohibited colonists from intermarrying with the native Irish or learning their language. This change unsettled the population and created in its wake absentee property owners who did not want to return to ‘a land of unrest’. By 1364, there were considerable financial problems caused by these absconders. Thirty years later King Richard II created the first of a succession of Irish kings of arms. He wanted to control all those areas that the native Irish had reasserted their office in - their way of life. Heralds were needed to marshal the arms of the various knights, give military advice, and regularise the battles. This was the start of a continual battle. The Gaelic Irish, Anglo Irish, and Normans began to unite to form a united front against England. The Irish question began to reassert itself…

In the towns and villages of Ormond, which included Kilkeary, the Anglo-Normans had to negotiate and deal with local cultivators or freemen and the serfs called betaghs. This was similar to the English manorial system only not so efficient for the people too, were bought and sold with the land. Everything, their labour, animals, and produce taxed. Eventually, they tried to oust them to take over their property for they did not understand them nor want to integrate with them. They had tried to emancipate them but they would not pay the fee. However, they still wanted their labour, which they needed. This created a lot of bad feeling and resentment.

By 1430, the original Irish lords only occupied the less fertile parts of the country. Those that did were no match for the Anglo-Irish who operated intensive farming methods. They were doomed if they continued to try to maintain the old ways of living. They were not slow in adopting a more conciliatory tone so they gradually assumed alliances both by marriage and sharing common goals. They began to drop the right to govern like royalty. The White Earl of Ormond related to both Mac Murchada of Leinster and Ua Neill of Ulster; held Tipperary and the majority of Kilkenny. Ireland was a land divided between the Anglo-English lords, as Butler earls of Ormond, and the Gaelic highly divided world of ancient custom, language, and local chief. The affect this had on the English crown was great for it occupied the attention of Richard II to the extent that Henry of Lancaster landed in England and sized the throne. Richard’s sally into Ireland in 1399 failed to unite the land under one king. There was not another landing in Ireland by an English king during the Middle Ages – the ‘War of the Roses’ took all the energy and finances making England weak. [In the mid 1400s, the County of Meath, central Ireland, split into two, the English and Irish half]. ‘The Pale’ was a fortified earthen rampart built in the fifteenth century to enclose the royal administration lands of Louth, half Meath and Kildare including Dublin – became known as the Pale [from palatinate – territory of feudal or sovereign lord]. Thomas Fitz Maurice [1456–78] was one of three surviving Anglo-Irish magnates. Previously, the earl of Kildare had been the most powerful. However, the earls continued to assert their right to maintain their own land even when faced by intervention by Edward IV and Henry VII. The Gaelic Irish chiefs began to assert themselves for they were now versed in better ways for making war – they had benefited from previous struggles. This was not the time to build but to claim back lost land...

In 1534, Thomas, Lord Offaly, the son of the ninth earl of Kildare and leader of the Anglo-Irish, declared, ‘to be the king’s enemy.’ He was after the governorship of Ireland. That stirred-up the pot of rebellion… again put down in no short measure by Skiffington - Henry VIII’s representative.

The Irish lords and military leaders still relied upon the ‘long, two-handed sword’ as their chief weapon of war – for close fighting. To discourage enemy horses ten-foot spears were anchored into the ground [the lancers resorted to short swords for infighting] whilst arrows kept their riders at bay. Chain mail, helmets, and heavy coats protected their bodies although still wearing sandals without stockings. How different this was to the mass of peasants who made up the army. Many were barefooted; none wore a headdress, axes, swords and clubs plain and unfinished. Their strength came from knowledge of the country, which they could exist on, and the hardships they could bear.

It is important to understand that it was not always the case that an elder son or any son at all, inherited the chief’s position. Naturally the chief, before he died, tried to ensure his son did take over his position and to that end he trained his son in such a way that this would happen. However, as I say that was not always the case? Quite often, when a chief died the elders who they wanted to lead them asked the clan, this was done by a show of hands. Normally it went to the strongest - the champion, one who could not be challenged. On the other hand, the old chief’s lands were issued according - to the antiquity of the person – to the clan elders, not necessarily to his family and his sons.

--Terence Kearey 23:02, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

 * Setting the scene (Introduction and Table of Contents)
 * ../Chapter III/: The birth and development of Clan Ciardha (Previous Chapter)
 * ../Chapter V/: Ireland under one king (Next Chapter)

title: The Demise of an Irish Clan/Chapter IV


license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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The Development of Nestorian Christianity in Asia

Preface
While doing some follow up research after reading The Secret History of the Mongols, I ran across a reference to a tribe called the Kerait1 - a Christian tribe of Turko-Eurasian ethnicity who had been absorbed by the Mongolian Federation of Tribes under Chinghis Khan in the 12th century. The women of this tribe -- with their auburn hair, fair skin and gray or green eyes -- were so renowned for their beauty that they are credited with saving their tribe from obliteration by serving as wives and concubines to the great Mongolian khans.

These women introduced two little known characteristics into the Mongolian ruling families -- auburn hair and pale eyes into an occasional offspring, and an obscure form of Christianity.

Missionaries from a Christian sect known as Nestorianism converted the Keraits, along with the Naiman and Merkit tribes, early in the 11th century. These Asian Christians became very different theologically from their counterparts in the West, and were perceived by Westerners as a strange and mythical cult. From this perception grew the fantastical legend of Prester John.

The Development of Nestorian Christianity
Nestorius (385-451 CE) was a monk from the European monastery near Antioch, who was famous for his eloquent preaching and austere life. He was appointed Patriarch of Constantinople in 428 CE by Emperor Theodosius II. Nestorius maintained that Christ was both divine and human, and that these two entities acted as one, but that they did not join in that union in a single individual. He supported the preaching of Anastasius, a presbyter from Antioch, that the Virgin Mary, having given birth to a human son, could be called the Mother of Christ, but could not be referred to as the Mother of God, as Christ received His divine spirit from His father. These teachings opposed Church doctrine, which taught that Christ's divine and human natures, although distinct, were joined together in His singular person. Nestorius was condemned for his views, and was declared a heretic in 430 CE at the synods in both Rome and Alexandria. In the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 CE, nineteen bishops recommended the removal of his title of bishop. Nestorius was excommunicated and banished to a monastery in Egypt.2

Nestorius and his followers retired to a monastery in Antioch. There, they confined themselves to the study of external faces to emphasize Christ's real humanity. They studied the Scriptures for grammatical rather than allegorical meaning; and from a purely historical viewpoint rather than a mystical one. Two men, Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, and his pupil, Theodore of Mopsuestia, became important leaders of this school of thought. Theodorus (called by Nestorians "The Interpreter") came to be considered the real father of Nestorianism. He affirmed the true humanity of Christ, and of His perfect sinlessness, due to His union with the Divine. Theodore taught that God and man formed a union within the body of Christ, and that Mary was both mother of man and Mother of God, which dwelled inside Christ as a separate entity. This doctrine was formally condemned at the 5th general council at Constantinople in 553 CE.3

After Theodore's death, Nestorius popularized his teachings, which lead the movement to be named after him. He was further exiled to Arabia, and his followers fled further to Persia, where they founded the Nestorian Church. Nestorian schools were established in Edessa and Nisibis, Turkey. From there, missionaries went to Malabar, India and Turkistan. In 625 CE, missionaries from Syria and Armenia reached China. By the end of the 10th century, the Church had been divided into provinces, which stretched from the Moslem world to China, India and Central Asia.

The St. Thomas Theory
One such missionary was thought to be Thomas the Doubter. According to the Acta Thomae,4 "when the apostles divided the countries of the world for their labors, India fell to Judas" or Thomas, as he was referred to in Syriac legend. The Acta Thomae was written at Edessa, and is treasured by Syrian Christians of Malabar as their authority for the story that St. Thomas had been in India. According to this work, Thomas arrived in India in the year 52 CE. He spent his time preaching, converting and performing miracles, and established seven churches in Malabar. He was eventually martyred on top of a mountain near Madras that now bears his name, and was buried in Mylapore. There is a story about Thomas building a palace for King Gundaphorus of India that reads as though it were borrowed from a Buddhist fable. And in the Gospel of Thomas, from the Acta Thomae, traces of Buddhist sources have been found. The Christians of St. Thomas on the coast of Malabar use Syriac language and formed a liturgy that has been traced back to Persia.

The existence of St. Thomas in India seemed to be backed by several medieval references to the tomb of St. Thomas in India, some that name Mylapore as its location. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle says that in 883 CE, King Alfred sent Sighelm, Bishop of Sherborne, with offerings to Rome and to St. Bartholomew, and Thomas of India, in order to fulfill a vow. The legend of the Three Holy Kings by Johannes of Hildesheim,5 written in 1378, tells that St. Thomas brought the word of Jesus to the people of India and their rulers, Melciur, Balthazar and Gaspar, and that they became converted and became his archbishops. After St. Thomas was martyred, the three kings had their subjects elect a patriarch Thomas to be their spiritual leader, and the temporal leader who would carry the title of Prester John, in honor of St. John the Evangelist. When the Kings died, Patriarch Thomas and Prester John ruled over India. In 1522, Portuguese explorers discovered a tomb with relics in India, some of which remain in the Cathedral of St. Thomas at Mylapore.

The first written record of Prester John is found in 1158 CE in the Chronicles of Otto, Bishop of Freising. It tells of a meeting between Hugh, Bishop of Jabala, and Pope Eugenius II on November 1. On that year Hugh had been sent by Prince Ramond of Antioch to enlist the Pope's aid for the Christian state that the Crusaders had established in the Near East. Otto related Hugh's story that Nestorian Christians had built a large monarchy beyond Persia and Armenia that was ruled over by a priest king named John. This king had made war on the kings of Media and Persia and had captured Ecbatana, that sat near their kingdom. Prester John was believed to be a direct descendant of the Magi. Inspired by the example of his forefathers, who had come to adore the newborn Christ he had planned to go to Jerusalem, but was prevented from doing so when his forces were unable to cross the Tigris River(6). Prester John's victory over the Persians is thought to be a distortion of this defeat of Seljuk, the Turkish ruler of Persia, by Jamugha (Gur Khan) of the Khitai in 1194 near Samarkand. Traders traveling from China to Syria on the Silk Road transformed the oral reports of this battle into the Prester John saga.

At that same time of that writing was the Otto Chronicles, a fictional letter that was sent to Rome, signed by Prester John, which said he was going to invade and liberate the Holy Land. Pope Alexander III returned a letter to him in 1177, hoping to open communications. The letter contained a statement of the Pope's authority over all Christians, that he had heard that John was a good and pious Christian, that the Pope would send his own physician and confidant, Master Phillipus, to teach Prester John Roman Catholicism. When Phillipus, who was sent with the letter, vanished without a trace, the existence of Prester John became universally accepted.

Another letter, which scholars have dated to 1165 CE, was presented to Pope Alexander by his supposed ambassador to Emperor Manuel Comnenus of Byzantium. It read:

John the Presbyter, by the grace of God and the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ, king of kings and lord of lord, to his friend Manuel, Governor of the Byzantines, greetings, wishing good health and the continued enjoyment of that divine blessing. Our Majesty has been informed that you hold our Excellency in esteem, and that knowledge of our greatness has reached you. Furthermore, we have heard from our secretary that it was your wish to send us some objects of interest, for our pleasure. Since we are but human we take this in good part, and through our secretary we forward to you some of our articles....

...We have made a vow to visit the sepulcher of our Lord with a very great army, as befits the lory of our Majesty, to wage war against and chastise the enemies of the cross of Christ, and to exalt his sacred name.

Our magnificence dominates the Three Indias, and extends to Farthest India, where the body of St. Thomas the Apostle rests. It reaches through the desert toward the place on the rising of the sun, and continues through the valley of deserted Babylon close by the Tower of Babel. Seventy-two provinces obey us, a few of which are Christian provinces, and each has it own king. And all their kings are our tributaries.

In our territories are found elephants, dromedaries, and camels, and almost every kind of beast that is under heaven. Honey flows in our land, and milk everywhere abounds. In one of our territories no poison can do harm and no noisy frog croaks, no scorpions are there, and no serpents creep through the grass. No venomous reptiles can exist there or use their deadly power.

In one of the heathen provinces flows a river called the Physon, which emerges from Paradise, winds and wanders through the entire province, and in it are found emeralds, sapphires, carbuncles, topazes, chrysolites, onyxes, beryls, sardonyzes and many other precious stones.

There is also a sandy sea without water. For the sand moves and swells into waves like the sea and is never still….And though it lacks water, yet there are found close to the shore on our side, many kind of fish which are most peasant and delicious for eating, the like of which is not seen in other lands.

Three days journey from the sea there are mountains from which descend a waterless river of stones, which flows through the south country to the sandy sea. Three days of the week it flows and casts up stones both great and small, and carries with it also wood to the sandy sea. When the river reaches the sea the stones and wood disappear and are not seen again. While the sea is in motion it is impossible to cross it.

Between the sandy sea and the mountains we have mentioned is a desert. Underground there flows a rivulet, to which there appears to be no access, and this rivulet falls into a river of greater size…and takes therefore a great abundance of precious stones. Beyond this river are the tribes of Jews, who although they pretend to have their own kings, are nevertheless our servants and tributaries. In another of our provinces, near the torrid zone, are worms, which in our tongue are called salamanders. These worms can only live in fire, and make a skin around them as the silkworm does. This skin is carefully spun by the ladies of our palace, and from it we have cloth for our common use. When we wish to wash the garments made of this cloth, we put them into fire, and they come forth fresh and clean...

For gold, silver, precious stones, beasts of every kind, and the numbers of our people, we believe that we are unequaled under heaven. There are no poor among us, we receive all strangers and pilgrims, thieves and robbers are not found in our land, nor do we have adultery or avarice.

When we ride forth to war, our troops are preceded by thirteen huge and lofty crosses made of gold and ornamented with precious stones, instead of banners, and each of these is followed by ten thousand mounted soldiers and one hundred thousand infantrymen, not counting those who have charge of the baggage and provisions...

The palace in which our sublimity dwells is built after the pattern of that which the apostle Thomas erected for King Gundafor...The ceilings, pillars, and architecture are of shittimwood. The roof is of ebony, which cannot be inured by fire. At the extremities, above the gables, are two golden apples, set in each one with are two carbuncles, so that the gold shines by day and the carbuncles shine by night. The greatest gates of the palace are of sardony, inlaid with the horns of the serpent called cerastes, so that none may enter with poison. The lesser gates are of ebony, the windows are of crystal. The tables at which our court dines are some of gold and some of amethyst, the columns supporting them are of ivory. In front of the palace is the square where we watch the judicial contests of the trial by combat. The square is paved with onyx, in order that the courage of the fighters may be increased by the virtue of the stone. In our palace there is no light burning, except what is fed by balsam. The chamber in which our sublimity reposes is marvelously bedecked with gold and all manner of precious stones…our bed is sapphire, because of its virtue of chastity. We possess the most beautiful women, but they approach us only for times in the year and then solely for the procreation of sons...

We feed daily at our table, 30,000 men, besides casual guests, and all of these receive daily sums from our treasury to nourish their horses and for other expenses. This table is made of precious emerald, with four columns of amethyst supporting it, the virtue of this stone is that no one sitting at the table can fall into drunkenness.

...In our hall there dines daily, at our right hand, twelve archbishops, and at our left, twenty bishops, and also the Patriarch of St. Thomas, the Protopapao of Samarkand, and the Archprotopapao of Susa, in which city the throne of our glory and our imperial palace are situated...

...that the Creator over all things, having made us the most supreme and the most glorious over all immortals, does not give us a higher title than that of presbyter, 'priest', let not your wisdom be surprised on this account, for here is the reason. At our court we have many ministers who are of higher dignity than ourselves in the Church, and our greatest standing is in divine office. For our household steward is a patriarch and a king, our butler is an archbishop and a king, our chamberlain is a bishop and a king, our marshal is a king and an archbishop, our chief cook is a king and an abbot. And therefore it does not seem proper to our Majesty to assume those names, or to be distinguished by those titles with which our palace overflows. Therefore, to show our great humility, we choose to be called by a lesser name and to assume an inferior rank…7"

The literary source of this letter can be traded to books like the biography of Alexander the Great by the German historian Ekkehard of Aura, the 10th century History of the Battles by Lei the Arch Priest, and tales of Sinbad from The Thousand and One Nights. Materials may have also been taken from various travelers' reports of the Far East. This letter was to become one of the most widely read documents of medieval Europe. It was translated from Latin into French, German, English, Russian, Serbian and Hebrew. The letter was reprinted until the 14th century, and became a compendium of medieval geography and folklore. By this time, much of the St. Thomas mythology had been included in the Prester John letter. References to miracles of St. Thomas were added, that St. Thomas delivered sermons in person, and that the income of Prester John's empire came from the pilgrims who went to see St. Thomas. It also became one of the greatest catalysts of exploration in the 15th century.

In the early 13th century, Jacques de Vitry, Bishop of Acre, wrote a letter to Pope Honorius III, who was trying to gain support for the 5th Crusade. This letter was meant to inspire confidence in the crusade, and said that many Christian princes in the East were massing under the banner of Prester John against the Saracens. The author of this letter realized that Prester John would have to be over 100 years old, so he reported that this must be the grandson of Prester John, King David of India, who was gathering forces.8 During the Mongol raid of Khwarizm in 1221, Jacques reported to the Pope that there was truth to his previous letter, that there really was an army marching through Persia, under King David of India, who, being either the son or grandson of Prester John, was commonly called Prester John. He went on to relate how the Caliph of Baghdad had been threatened with war by the Shah of Khwarizm, and had asked King David for aid, that King David had defeated the Shah, seized Persia, and was marching on Baghdad. He planned to go to the Holy Land, where he would vanquish the Saracens, and rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Jacques did not realize that the solders would face Nestorian Christians, the Kerait that rode with Chinghis Khan, and that the battle was actually an internal dispute among the Mongolian tribes resulting from a failed khiraltai, the election which was to have determined the next Great Khan (Khakhan) of the tribal federation. The only factual portion of Jacques' report was the defeat of the Prince of Khwarizm by an Asian warrior-king.

Queen Rusudan also identified the Kerait as Christian. In her letter to Pope Honorius III, she wrote: "they must be Christian, as they ride under a banner with an oblique white cross".9 The standard of the Mongolian army was a pair of shoulder blades of a sheep, crossed, with nine yak tails hung nine from the cross piece. In that same year as her letter, Andreas I reported the Battle of Kalka (a Mongolian invasion into Russia) to the Pope, in which he stated that the army of King David carried the body of St. Thomas and had killed 200,000 Russians and Cumans.

The Search in China and Mongolia
The legend of Prester John was continued by European explorers and missionaries as they traveled through China. During the 3rd Crusade, John of Joinville, the chief chronicler for Louis IX of France, wrote of two envoys where were sent to Kuyuk Khan, bearing with them a chapel and necessaries for holding Mass (it had been understood that Kuyuk was Christian). Upon their arrival, they were received by Oghul, who explained that her husband, Kuyuk, had died. As she had become Regent until the next khiraltai, she accepted the chapel as tribute, and demanded similar offering each year. Joinville wrote that in a letter by the King of the Mongols, Prester John had been killed by the Mongolians. Modern speculation is that this story is based on the murder of Togrul Khan by Chinghis Khan in 1203.

In 1251, Friar William of Rubrik was sent by King Louis to Manke Khan, to enlist his aid in the Crusade against Egypt. Louis thought that the Mongols could be persuaded to attack the Saracens from the rear, while Europe could attack from the front. It was known that the Mongols weren't Moslems. It was hoped that Prester John lived somewhere in Mongolia, and could help convert the tribe to Christianity. Hope later faded when the Golden Horde accepted Islam instead.10

While among the Mongols, Friar William heard the story of the man Chinghis Khan had overthrown, and whom John Plano of Carpini (an earlier Franciscan traveler) had identified as Prester John. The man was a Nestorian shepherd who had lived in Black Cathay, who governed the Naimans, a Nestorian Christian tribe. His Chinese name, Ta-Yang-Khan, was translated by William into Great King John.

Marco Polo looked for Prester John while serving under Kubilai Khan in China.11 He was certain Prester John was a Mongol king, that he did not live in India with St. Thomas Christians or in Ethiopia. His first reference was to the Tartar of Manchuria, who had no sovereign, but who laid tribute to a great prince they called Khakhan, or Great Lord. Marco presumed this to be Prester John. He goes on to say that when the Tartar multiplied, Prester Jonn scattered them over various countries, so they would be too widespread to form any rebellions. When Chinghis Khan united the Tartars in 1200, he sent an envoy to Prester John to ask for his daughter in marriage. When Prester John refused, he was met on the battlefield by Chinghis, where Prester John died. Marco later identified this Prester John as the chief of the Keraits, Togrul Khan. He was the only Christian leader of all Eastern people, whose name translated to one that sounded like John. Marco went on to speculate that the descendants of Prester John continued to rule their kingdom from the old Kerait capital of Karakorum, and that this kingdom had become tributary to Kubilai Khan. The historical event from which this story comes happened in 1202, when Chinghis tried to arrange a marriage between his son Jochi, and Togrul's daughter Jaurbigi. When the offer was rejected, Chingis killed Togrul in battle, and absorbed the Kerait into his federation of Mongolian tribes.12 After the overthrow of the Christian missions in Asia, and the closure of land routs through India by Timur in the 15th century, Indian traditions filtered into Europe through African ports on the Red Sea.

The Legends in Ethiopia and Africa
By the 14th century, Europe had stopped its search for Prester John in Asia, partially because of the fall of the Mongol Empire, partially because of the expulsion of the Catholic churches from Asia, which cut East-West communications. It was thought that Prester John had ruled both Asia and Africa; that he had been conquered by his adversaries (the Mongols) to whom he had lost his Asian holdings; that he had moved to Ethiopia and Nubia where he still had land. Attentions were therefore turned to Ethiopia, which was considered to be one of the three Indias in medieval geography.

In 1290, a commercial treaty was signed between Genoa and Egypt. In 1306, emissaries from Ethiopia arrived in Genoa to aid the Spanish in their struggle against the Moslems. It was hoped that Spain would return the favor, aiding Ethiopia in their own battle with the Moslem King Amda-Seyon, who was persecuting Ethiopian Coptic Christians in Egypt by threatening to cut off the flow of the Nile and turn Egypt into a desert.13 These emissaries were interviews by the Italian geographer Giovanne da Carignano, who compiled a treatise on the government, customs and religion of Ethiopia. Carignani was the first writer to place Prester John in Ethiopia. The "Mirabilia Descripta" or Book of Wonders (written between 1330-40 by a French Dominican, Jordan of Severac) also referred to the Ethiopian emperor as Prester John. The author had heard this from travelers in the region.

In 1440 Franciscan friar Albert Berdini of Sarteano was appointed by Pope Eugenius IV as his papal legate to India. Albert left Venice with letters addressed to the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria, Emperor Prester John of the Ethiopians, and Emperor Thomas of the Indians; the purpose of which was to affiliate their churches with the Church of Rome.

In 1486, King Joao of Portugal made attempts to communicate with Prester John, in order to form an alliance with him. He sent two men---Alphonsus Paiva and Johannes Petreius---to find the legendary king. When they reached Aden (in southern Arabia), they found many Asiatic traditions, including the stories of Prester John in India and Ethiopia, to be confused. It was decided that Petreius would travel to India, and Paive would search in Ethiopia for their man. In India, Petreius found among the Nestorians of South India a story of Prester John, whose power had been overthrown by the Mongols. Paive found that the King of Ethiopia didn't correspond to the Prester John of historical dominion, but was rather that Prester was a title of priestly office. But by the 15th century, the fabled and popular imagination overroad the facts and by 1486 in Portugal and Spain, the history of Ethiopia and Absynnia was the story of Prester John, who became synonymous with the Emperor of Ethiopia.

By the early 16th century, most of Portugal had figured out that the Ethiopian king known as Prester John was unrelated to the legendary monarch of the 12th century. In 1502, Valentin Fernandez, a Portuguese scholar, published a translation of the journal of Marco Polo and other travelers.14 In the preface of this work, he stated that the Ethiopian king considered to be Prester John was not the Prester John of legend, who had been killed by the great khan who then took his lands. Valentin went on to state that the descendant who paid tribute to the great khan was a Nestorian Christian linked to St. Thomas; the King of Ethiopia was a Jacobite Christian, and not related to the Nestorian.

Exploration and the Spice Trade
In 1411, Queen Philippa of Portugal suggested that an armed expedition be sent to North Africa to find Prester John, as well as a new overland spice route. One of her sons, Prince Henry the Navigator, decided that the way to the Indias was not overland, but by sea. He died in 1460, before Portuguese ships had found the point of Africa. In 1461 Henry's nephew, King Alfonso, awarded the African trade rights to Fernao Gomes of Lisbon; in return he promised to discover 1000 leagues of coat per year. His son, King John sent Diego Cao on further expeditions. Cao thought he had discovered Zanzibar, on the East coast of Africa, where the kingdom of Prester John was presumed to be. Just as King John sent ambassadors with the news to Pope Innocent VIII, Cao returned to say he had been mistaken. He was replaced by Bartolomew Dias, who was more successful, and discovered the Cape of Good Hope.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese were still trying to penetrate the interior. In 1481, Afonso de Aveiro founded a trading post at Benin (modern Nigeria) where he had learned of King Ogane, who was highly revered, and who gave crosses as tokens of approval to chiefs when they came into power in that region. King Ogana received envoys while he was surrounded by silk curtains, revealing to the envoy only one of his feet. King Joan's geographers calculated that this king lived in Ethiopia. Since it had been reported that Prester John gave out crosses and was kept hidden by veils, it was assumed that this king must be Prester John of legend.

Portugal hoped to become independently established the spice trade by setting up trading posts in India and Ethiopia on the coast of the Red Sea---thus eliminating the Italian and Arabian middlemen. Winning the friendship of Prester John was essential to that goal. So in 1487, Diego de Covilhao and Alfonso de Paiva---courtiers of King John,---traveled to Aden. Covilhao sailed from there to India to study the Arabian and Hindi spice merchants, supply sources and shipping seasons. Three years later he went to Cairo. He was to have met up with Paiva, who had died there earlier after having returned from Ethiopia. In 1493 Covilhao entered Ethiopia, where he was received by King Eskender. The king promised to send him home with riches, but died before he could fulfill his promise. Covilhao was refused permission to leave by the next king, and ended his days there.

Manuel ascended the throne in 1495, and put Vasco da Gama in command of an expedition to explore the coast of Africa. They reached Mozambique in 1498, where da Gama was told by local merchants that Prester John held many coastal cities. Da Gama continued up the coast, looking for a route to India. They arrived in Calcutta in May of that year, and returned with spices to Lisbon in 1499. Over the next few years, Portuguese fleets continued to sail to Lisbon, establishing Lisbon as a European spice port. To protect against warring Moslems, they built a series of forts along this new route.

In 1505 the Portuguese stormed and sacked cities along the African shore, in order to strengthen their hold on the spice route. At the same time, Affonso de Albuquerque worked to capture the port of Ormud and Aden, in order to close the Moslem shipping ports. During his operations between 1506-09, Albuquerque tried to gain allegiance with Prester John and the Ethiopians; in order to capture Mecca, take Mohammed's coffin and use it to ransom the Holy Land.

In January 1520, Diego Lopez da Sequiera set out to gain control of the Red Sea. His party arrived in April in Massawa, where he met with the governor of Prester John's encampment, and were summoned to an audience. They met with a government official outside of Prester John's tent, who took their gifts---four bales of pepper, a sword, a dagger, four pieces of tapestry, cuirasses, a gilded helm, two cannon, for gun chambers, balls, powder and a world map into the tent. The visitors then retired to their own pavilions, where Prester John sent them gifts of 30 loaves of white bread, mead and a cow. The next day they were sent more bread and wine, and a calf encased in bread and stuffed with fruit and spices. Two days later, camp broke and moved on. The visitors were told that they could follow if they bought mules to pack their goods.

The king who was thought to be Prester John was Lebna Dengel, grandson of Queen Eleni, who had invited the envoy. Lebna, a Coptic, was normally hidden behind curtains, as royal invisibility was essential to the prestige of the Ethiopian king. But the Portuguese were most fortunate to be allowed to see King Lebna unshielded, as he sat upon his throne. He wore a gold and silver crown, held a silver cross in his hand; his mouth and beard were covered by blue taffeta. He was of moderate stature, chestnut brown, and about 23 years old. Lebna questioned them for days on religious matters, then gave his support to the building of a Portuguese fortress on the Red Sea at Massawa, so that he could open a road and join with the other Christian Princes. The Portuguese returned to Massawa in February of the following year.

Sequira wrote to King Manuel, who in turn wrote to Pope Leo X, saying that "the most powerful bishop of the Indian and Ethiopian Christians, Prester John, Lord of the Province of Absynnia, had been found. This letter was published in Latin. At the same time in Lisbon, a book was published containing this letter, news of the mission into the interior, facts pertaining to Ethiopian life and religion, and a letter by Queen Eleni to King Manuel in 1514. This may have been the letter Eleni wrote when she was visited by the two Joao's, in which she offered men to help fight the Moors. The letter was sent with her ambassador to Albuquerque, who had become viceroy of India. King Manuel sent the letter to the Pope, sayings that Prester John's ambassador had offered all possible aid and necessaries for the war against the enemies of the Catholic Church. This aid never surfaced. Albuquerque tried to take both Massawa and Aden, but died in the process. His campaign collapsed, as did Portugal's monopoly on the spice trade. Consequently, Portugal's search for Prester John ceased.

The Legend in Period Literature
Though disproved to the Portuguese, the rest of Europe still held that Prester John was real. He became the subject of chapbooks---pamphlets which were sold by street peddlers--like the dime novels of later times. These chapbooks dealt with popular themes, were illustrated with wood cuts, and were widely read.

One such author was Sir John Mandeville, who may have been the pseudonym for Jean do Borgogna (or vice-versa) as the text was unclear). A book called "Travels", dating to about 1366, was a compendium of works of other travelers, written in the form of a travelogue by the author when he presumably traveled himself. The work was from "the Secului Munde" by Vincent of Beaurait (who died in 1264), which itself included excerpts from the journals of John Plano of Carpini, romances about Alexander the Great, and quotes from Pliny, the Greek philosopher. To this Mandeville also added pieces from Friar Odoric of Pordenones accounts of the countries east of the Levant (eastern Mediterranean countries).

Prester John's 12th century letter to Pope Alwxander III was printed in Venice in 1478, in the Italian translation and with expanded text. The first Latin publication was printed in Germany in 1480, as part of a chapbook entitled "Da Rites ea Moribus Indorum" (the Rite and Customs of the Indians). With this letter was a 12th century document "Da Adventu" which told of the visit of Patriarch John of the Indians to Rome, and the telling of the miracles of St. Thomas. Both these stories were printed in chapbook form in 1490 in the Dutch city of Deventer. A chapbook published in Cologne the same year included an account of the travels of Joannes de Hese, which was written in 1381 and was patterned after Mandeville's book. It went on to say that Hese had reached terrestrial paradise and Eden's walls. Hese was said to have attended the court of Prester John, and viewed the body of St. Thomas in Hulna (a Kingdom in India).

There was also, in chapbook form, a treatise of the locations and sects of the Christians, giving brief accounts of Latin, Greek, Nestorian, Jacobite, Syrian Orthodox and other Christian factions. A separate category was given to Indians and their prince, Prester John. The rest of the chapbook included a fictitious letter from Sultan John of Babylon to Pope Pious II, as well as the Pope's (fabricated) reply.

In 1491 in Cologne, a printer by name of Cornelio da Zierikzee published in Latin the text of Prester John's letter and "De Adventu" as well as a treatise of the pontification of Prester John, from "Supplements Chronicarums" (Supplement to Chronicles) by an Itialian monk, Jacopo Filippo Forest of Bergamo, which had first been published in 1483. Forest's work was a general history of the world in 11 volumes, including an abstract from Giovanne da Carignano, a 14th century geographer. Included in this work was an account of the life, customs and times of Prester John, based on a work by Poggio Bracciolini, secretary to Pope Eugenius IV. Bracciolini was an Italian histogragher who specialized in discovering lost texts by studying fragments of authors, then matching the writing styles to texts not already attributed to them.15 His chief source for his work on Prester John was Niccolo di Conti, a Venetian merchant who had visited the tomb of St. Thomas. This account blended India and Ethiopia into one Christian realm, whose king and pope was Prester John.

Stories of Prester John continued to occupy chapbooks, poems and other literature. The most popular books of the 16th century may have been an anonymous work printed in Seville in 1515, detailing the fantasy travels of the Infante Don Pedro I of Portugal. Don Pedro was a son of King Joaa I. The book started with Don Pedro and twelve companions traveling through Venice, Cyprus and Greece; going from there on camelback to Norway; then to Babylon and the Holy Lands; to Armenia to look at Noah's Ark; to Egypt, Arabia and the Sinai; to Mecca to see Mohammed's coffin. Their travels presumably took them to the Amazon, inhabited by Christian women, who were the subjects of Prester John of the Indies; then to Judea; then the Indies, on a search for Prester John, who they found alive with a wife and son. They then returned home via the Red Sea and Morocco. This work continued to be published until the 18th century.

Footnotes 1. A tribe along the northern Chinese border, ruled by Toghrul Khan, allied with Temujin, who later became Chinghis Khan. The Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chinghis Khan, Paul Kahn, North Point Press, San Francisco 1984 2. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Charles Scribners Sons, NY 1951 3. Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol XIV, Robert Appleton Co., NY 1912 4. Acta Thomae, Apocryphal New Testament, Claremont Press, Oxford 1924 5. Historia Trium Regum by Johannes of Hildesheim, Sylvia Clare Harris, 1931, pub. London 1954 6. Otto of Freising Chronicum, G.H. Pertz, editor, 1867 7. The Realm of Prester John, Robert Silverberg, Doubleday & Co., NY 1972 8. The Devil's Horsemen: The Mongolian Invasion of Europe, James Chambers, Atheneum, NY 1979 9. See above. 10. The Quest for Cathay, Sir Percy Sykes, A&C Black, Ltd., London 1936 11. The Polos were in China 1275-1292, during which time they served in various capacities under Kubilai Khan. Marco served as governor of Yangchow, China for three years, and traveled extensively in Mongolia, China and India. Medieval People, Eileen Power, Harper & Row, NY 1963. 12. The Secret History of the Mongols. 13. References to this were in the journal of Simon Sigoli, who visited Egypt in 1384, and reported that the Sultan of Egypt paid a yearly ransom to Prester John, a Christian potentate who lived in India. The homage was paid to keep Prester John from opening the river sluices and drowning Cairo and Alexandria. 14. Also see the century journals of Odoric of Pordenone, John Marignolli, and John of Monte Corvino, who all served in various capacities in China during the mid 14th century. 15. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com

Additional Sources * Kublai Khan: Lord of Xanadu, Walter Chapman, Howard W. Sams & Co. 1966 * Silks, Spices and Empire Owen and Eleanor Lattimore, Delacorte Press, 1968 * Christian Mythology, George Every, Hamlyn Publisher's Group, Ltd., Feltham, Middlesex, England 1970   * The Saints, a Concise Biographical Dictionary, John Coulson, editor, Hawthorn Books NY 1957 * Butler's Lives of the Saints * Church History in Plain Language * The Christian World Social and Cultural History


text:
The Demise of an Irish Clan/Chapter V

by
 * Terence Kearey

Ireland under one king

 * House of Tudor - Henry VIII – Rebellion – English Pale – Conn O’Neill – Destruction of Gaelic world - Hugh O’Neill - The Connacht & Munster Councils – Presidencies in Munster - Down Survey – English migration to Ireland – Act of Plantation – Shane - Downfall of the last Gaelic lordships.

Henry VIII’s dissolution of Irish religious houses began in the English Pale – an area encompassing Dublin, in 1539, three years before he was declared ‘king of Ireland. Ireland had been a ‘lordship’ of the Norman English crown, now Hugh O’Neill 1540–1616, became second Earl of Tyrone in 1585, leading an uprising with Spanish help to usurp Henry’s power… this petty uprising was defeated in 1601. After this set back Ui Neill, rather than submit to English influence, chose exile, as did O’Donnell and ninety of his followers. Amongst those to leave were O’Ciardha henchmen who chose the Netherlands. Dermot O’Ciardha of Offaly stayed to create an opposition movement and to oversee the scattered clan families. The establishment in 1570 of presidencies in Munster and Connacht saw a push by the English to take a grip of the land north of the river Shannon. It had been a hard task to subdue the lords of Munster, who excommunicated the queen. A 1500 map, gives what we know as Tipperary today as, 'of a great lordship' - Earldom & Supremacy of Ormond, only citing O’Kennedy as the only minor lord. The old lands of O’Carroll and O’Kennedy to the east of Lough Derg above Cashel – encompassing ancient O’Ciardha lands, were not within the English marches until, The Connacht and Munster Councils of 1569-71. There was rebellion in 1579, which ended in the defeat of Tyrone, who surrendered four years later. Ireland was now a conquered land. Queen Elizabeth had succeeded where others had failed.

The suppression of the monasteries in Ireland’s southern half, outside the Pale, took place some years later during the reformation… an action that lead to civil disturbances and the destruction of many church treasures. The churches of Keary and Fethard in Co. Tipperary, and Askeaton in Co. Limerick were ravaged… important statues and other treasures were destroyed, although some rare wooden statues and bronze processional cross from Ballylongford, Co. Limerick, and an embroidered cope from Waterford, survived. Another vast emigration to continental Europe followed. The English administration did everything in their power to Anglicize the customs of the few remaining native Irish. The few Gaelic adherents that survived the Tudor and Stuart Plantations were eventually ruined by the anti-Catholic legislation enacted by the Dublin Parliament after the victory of William III. These laws stopped estates being handed down to the eldest son instead they had to divide them between all the children which resulted, over-time, to estates being whittled down to that of just small freeholders. The chiefs were unable to maintain patronage within their clans, which eroded the social systems - developed over many years. From that time, the clan system gradually wilted away even though the local peasantry continued to support the old ways.

The process known as plantation began in the Tudor period, but mainly by James I, in Ulster and Munster, and led to the settlement of 40,000 Scottish and English immigrants by 1641. There was much more to come…both plantation and unrest!

In the Down Survey of 1646, the O’Kennedy, the O’Mera and the McGrath families, owned the land of Toomevara parish. Many of the O’Ciardha clan were integrated into the O’Kennedys’ for protection assuming their name and customs. The ancient ecclesiastical foundation for women established by St Ciardha was still a recognised site, although a ruin.

Migration from Britain into Ireland continued apace throughout the pre-Protestant years mainly to areas, mainly eastern, which were fertile – had access to natural resources and the sea. This influx greatly improved social and material benefit from the skilled workers and farmers passing through. This movement had the additional effect of enlarging the knowledge and horizons of those who were involved. This caused a split in the society – both religious and social. The clans were always at odds with each other - trying to gain more power and space. It was an age-old way of life, which not only sapped the strength of family groupings but also did nothing to advance society. Many families were being pushed out by the aggressive and vibrant newcomers – those given plantation lands. Many moved into Tipperary from neighbouring Leinster gradually easing out the inhabitants…

Colonel Owen Roe O’Neill, a nephew of the great Hugh O’Neill, spent his entire career in the Spanish army of the Netherlands – he was not the only one. At this time, there was an almost greater alliance between the Irish nobility and the Spanish, particularly in the Nethlands, than towards the English and Anglo-Irish. Certainly, this existed with ‘the old order’. Colonel O’Neill and Colonel Thomas Preston attempted to expel the Scottish Covenanters, who unbeknown to him at the time, had connections with Cromwell’s army…Needlesstosay, he failed.

The population of Ireland in the 1650s now divided into those who were actively disloyal – the original native Irish; the old English subjects who were now through intermarriage and assimilation Gaelic and Catholic and the newer loyal English who were Protestant landowners and titleholders who included the latest Scots settlers in Ulster. The Act of August 1652 declared that all the Irish and Anglo-Irish, who could not prove “Constant Good Affections”, to the Cromwellian cause should lose one-third of their estates, the remaining two-thirds made over as ‘new areas for transportation’. The settlements changed the character of Ireland forever and with that the landowning aristocracy as well.

In Ireland’s Natural History, published in 1652 and jointly dedicated to Cromwell and Fleetwood, debated the possibility that Protestants from Europe induced to settle the island. Cromwell’s concern was that there might be either an uprising in Ireland or incursions from abroad by Catholics. In this, history proved him right. There was a need for a new start in colonising Ireland by settlement this time by reliable people - educated Protestants.

September 1653 saw a new Act of Plantation. This time grants were given to English towns - to entice skilled tradesmen to immigrate. Adventurers were apportioned estates and the Army paid for in gifts of land. Whole areas made over in this way to the English. Two thirds of all Ireland were distributed and within those areas was all of Leinster, Kilkenny, Kildare, Kerry and Carlow; Kilkeary was not included coming within the County of Tipperary. Other than a small strip made over to the English, Clare and Connaught were left to the Irish. Whereas this action may have been sensible as a way to control the population and prevent an uprising, it was undoubtedly immoral and caused great resentment. A quarter of Wicklow, Wexford, Kildare, Kilkenny, and Carlow were very English and had been for generations since Henry. Everybody else being forcibly removed - from towns and villages, compatriots, and children included. Some people could stay but they had to declare themselves Protestants. People with prefixes O, M, or Mac were banned and their land forfeited. However, these Gaelic prefixes could still be used in Irish areas. In this manner great estates were built up by the English moneyed classes who were in the main the ruling Protestant aristocrats and gentry.

In Upper and Lower Ormond, and throughout much of Ireland, some of the old established catholic, landowning families, the O’Ciardha amongst them, took refuge in the hills and other outlying places to escape domination and subjugation to the Protestant forces. This broke up many of the clan families after losing their land. Eventually their legal rights were forgotten - and thereby forfeited - by lack of use, neglect, and absence. The descendants of the old order took their dead to ancestral graveyards in Ballinaclogh and Kilkeary – perpetuating their ancient rights.

--Terence Kearey 11:54, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

 * Setting the scene (Introduction and Table of Contents)
 * ../Chapter IV/: The Vikings land (Previous Chapter)
 * ../Chapter VI/: Thomas the first born (Next Chapter)

title: The Demise of an Irish Clan/Chapter V


text:
The Demise of an Irish Clan/Chapter VI

by
 * Terence Kearey

Thomas the first born

 * End of nine-year war – Conquest of all Ireland – A land of forts – Flight of the Earls – Plantation – Uprising - Thomas Baintreadhachd - Keary of Fore – Saint Fechin’s Abbey – Thomas & Mary O’Ciardha – Orangemen – Transportations – Parish of Kilkeary – Limerick hold out - Act of Union.

It would appear from documented sources that at this time the name Thomas was always retained for the first-born son of the head of the clan. 'Thomas O’Ciardha of Offaly, Fore, a branch of the Cahill family of Connaught, derived from Cathal, [No. 102 of the Cahill of Connaught pedigree] also known as Thomas Baintreadhachd [Thomas the Widower] was the ancestor of Keary of Fore from Co. Meath. In Hart’s Irish Pedigrees of 1887, pp 499, Keary/Carey [O’Ciardha] of Fore, Co Westmeath, were descended from Dermot O’Ciardha of Offaly. During the 1650s reverted to the Keary form of spelling because another member of the family, using the C, had become protestant.

'Thomas O’Ciardha was killed by Cromwell’s Parliamentarian troops in 1654 at the burning of Saint Fechin’s Abbey. The monastery was an important monastic centre founded in AD 630 later to become a small-fortified town defended by two gates, a canal, a mound, and a ditch. The monastery withstood several burnings and raids eventually becoming an Anglo-Norman Priory under the rule of the order of St Augustine. The last Prior, William Nugent, surrendered the house and possessions to Henry VIII. The town of Fore was now allied to the English - being close to the English ‘Pale’. It was during the sacking of the Abbey of 1654, by the English Parliamentarians, that Thomas’s three sons: Thomas, who married Mary O’Brian of Naas, niece of Hugh O’Byrne, Patrick, and James escaped and found refuge with Hugh O’Byrne of Dublin, one of the Confederate Catholics. In the early 1600s, the O’Byrne family owned vast estates round Clare, Naas in Kildare, and Wicklow.

In 1653-65 Leinster was one of four equal land provinces of Ireland made-up by areas such as Kilkenny, assigned by the English parliament as security for soldiers and adventurers, Carlow and Kildare, retained as a government reservation and Queens, an area included in the plantations of the Catholic James I. The throne of England was, after James II, occupied by Mary and William of Orange – hence Irish Protestants becoming ‘Orangemen’. This reign effectively destroyed the Catholic landowning classes.

The aftermath of the Cromwellian plantation period found some Irish catholic citizens selling-up, others left to reside up in the hills and depopulated areas, and others who refused to sell up, be evicted or give up their Irishness, executed. The transportations completed finally in July 1655. There were many arrests for failing to transplant, in fact so many that the goals were full… hangings made space available until an excuse was made to let some go. Those picked on were landowners not the landless. A few years later some of the new owners sold up to others who increased their grants by purchase to become the new ‘gentlemen’. It was generally a clearance of the old landowners and even in the Restoration; things were never the same again - the old ways in Kilkeary superseded. Some old freeholders went to Irish counties whilst others went aboard, mainly to Spain and Holland - away from English influence changing their names and making a fresh start. By this time, the clan was almost non-existent.

In the Civil Survey of 1654-1656, the Parish of Kilkeary, spelt Kylkerry, showed even at that late stage spellings were not regularised, it also suggests that the parish was considerably larger containing several townships and parcels of land. The parish began at the ford of Bellasuillsane, at the river of Geagh, bounded with the parish of Kylnaneafe followed the river southward to Poellacholla, which adjoins Tampledony, Ballymacky, Grenanstowne and Lisbony. The parish was described in the survey as having good arable meadows and pastures, several springs and a number of plough-lands. The Hearth Money Rolls indicate that several members of the family living in Co Tipperary started to use the English form of Ceary, or other derivations, to retain their estates. They were better off under the Restoration settlement, for they received back three-fifths of their land. That was before the 1691 Jacobite War… by the end they had even less. Those of the family who retained their Gaelic native Irish name lived outside Clonmel’s walls.

Many of the old gentry, including the O’Ciardha and the O’Kennedys, had been evicted from their estates. In exchange they had been given ‘fractions’ - huts to live in, where they had to stay without possessions. One of the clans, the O’Kennedys of Ormond, had their ‘fraction’ confiscated in the Williamite wars – because forty-eight of the clan families wished to maintain their Gaelic inheritance… this did not go down well with the Anglo-Irish who expected them to conform. Other families, related to the old gentry, hid under another name for fear of losing what little they had managed to retain. The O’Ciardha and O’Kennedys were not the only clans to live by deception. It is clear that few of the old families realigned back to their former allegiances. They had not been happy under the previous relationships and wanted to make a change. Some, of the elderly stayed at home and worked for their new masters, tilling their own land… others, wishing to leave were allotted land in Connaught. In Ormond, the more adventurous gentry took refuge in the inaccessible valleys of Glenculloo between the Slieve Felim hills, from where their descendants still carried their dead to be buried in the churchyard at Kilkeary. In 1659, Kilkeary, in the barony of Upper Ormond, held 769 households with a population of about four thousand persons. Kilkeary was a direct grantee land made over to a new sitting owner James Dalton. Some years later, during the Restoration period, some of the transferred settlement land given, perhaps shared, in some cases bought back, by the old landowners. These old landowners included the O’Meara, O’Connor’s' and, Charles and Antony O’Carroll. Catholics held twenty percent of the land - in Kilkeary, Toomyvara and Nenagh. This percentage became reduced during the 1700s. In Petty’s Census of 1659, the O’Ciardha made up the largest percentage living in the Baronies of Scrine, Co Meath and Ballybritt, south Offaly. The McCareys' of Moycashel Barony, Westmeath were also in abundance.

Ireland was still massively a Catholic population ruled and given their laws by an Anglo-Irish hierarchy. The country’s link to Rome gave it its cultural base allied to the Continent through the Irish Colleges in France; the Italian military academies and those businesses engaged in overseas. To the English the Irish appeared a threat even though Ireland was a poorer cousin. The Irish population in 1690 was now nearly two million and growing. Limerick was a prosperous seaport and used as bastion against British influence… it was the last to hold out. The Jacobite used the town and its river to retreat to… Limerick’s city walls held… but only just! William confiscated all the land belonging to those Catholics who later escaped to France. The result of the defeat was The Treaty of Limerick in 1691 – it was the third great defeat. Thomas and Bridget Carey of Legbourne in 1692 saw the defeat of the Catholic cause. A number of families allowed to retain their property if considered docile enough - accepting English law; however, all Catholics were subject to Penal Laws.

This eldest son of Thomas Baintreadhachd, 'Thomas O’Ciardha, had three sons: Thomas the Elder, died in Spain nine years later, Patrick who escaped from Limerick at the same time entered Spanish service in the military and Hugh who married Margaret O’Brian daughter of Dermot O’Brian of Naas. Their son John O’Brian married Mary daughter of Owen M’Kewen of Clontarf and Swords. Their second child was a daughter born in 1749 who married in 1780 Hugh O’Moore of Longford, Castlepollard, in the County of Westmeath. The whole family were Catholics - held Gaelic allegiances to language and habit. At that time, there were a number of landholding and public office Acts that restricted the rights of Catholics - prevented them assuming state office and property. If an individual wished to ‘get on’- ‘improve his lot’, he had to go where there was money to be made, skills passed on and property to be bought. That goal could only be accomplished by appearing to adopt the Protestant religion, using a name translated into English, or adopting a more recognisable English name.

In the diocese of Killaloe, which included Kilkeary, there were only a few beneficed clergymen. Less who actually resided in the area? There were about three Catholic priests to one clergyman. Churches were not maintained allowing rotting roofs and broken walls to let in the damp and rain. This state - the paucity of the clergymen, also affected other church property, including glebe houses. Idleness was also recorded when it came to tithe collecting and ministering to their parishioners. Those who opted to use K rather than C were fewer in number suggests that there was a split in the clan. . There was an exodus from the countryside as there were few opportunities for the ambitious and capable. The landowners patronised the tenant farmers who at onetime had been self supporting - now relied upon handouts and loans because of the potato blight. The problems were so acute that stealing crops was carried out, to survive and prevent children starving. Not long before generations of families had lived in harmony together, populating land not belonging to them with the knowledge that they would not be evicted... this was not the only time the English Parliament had taken their land away from them...

The O’Ciardha family had lost much in the confiscations, but some poor land kept as insurance… for hasher times ahead. Irish politicians blamed the depressed state of the economy to English restrictions on Irish trade. The poverty of the rural economy was blamed on those who maintained pasturage instead of promoting the growing of seed and potatoes. This put down to the shortness of tenures – farmers were not allowed to think long-term, for it was a hand to mouth existence. The local opinion as opposed to that of Dubliners was under the threat of the quaterage tax. This tax was about people who wished to pursue a profession or trade but for whatever reason, usually because they upheld the old Gaelic traditions, thereby, excluded from membership of the relevant guild. The annual pilgrimage to Loch Derg still went on although forbidden by law… the Church too, also frowned upon these acts of piety much to the chagrin of the local population who benefited from the additional circulating-cash. Economic fluctuations prompted by taxation, which upset the normal domestic industry, particularly the cost of seed, potatoes, and livestock, created unrest. Rebellion was in the air and tensions increased in rural areas releasing sectarian antipathies – there was a general collapse of Protestant morale for looking towards the Catholic majority… they were outnumbered. There were several threats both real and imaginary of invasion, rebellion, and insurrection coming from France and Spain.

Tenant farmers, working from small farms in the diocese of Killaloe, mainly produced vegetables and corn, larger farms grazed cattle. Leases could last for up to forty years. Farmers made their own repairs and improvements, draining the land and rotating their crops. The landowners made sure their land was occupied so that land did not lie to waste and become overgrown. When a farm became vacant, the new lease ran according to periods of prosperity or want – in times of plenty they were short term. The result being, tenants not taking a long-term view of their future by planning ahead, keeping back some of their produce to use as next years seed… nor did they have a planned rotation of crops or devise ways to improve the drainage by digging ditches and drains. Unfertilized land soon makes itself felt: the crops get smaller every year, will not stand up to bad weather, infected sooner. If you cannot foresee a future, you might just as well live for the present.

--Terence Kearey 12:31, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

 * Setting the scene (Introduction and Table of Contents)
 * ../Chapter V/: Ireland under one king (Previous Chapter)
 * ../Chapter VII/: Unrest & Salvation (Next Chapter)

title: The Demise of an Irish Clan/Chapter VI


text:
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