Expugnatio Hibernica: the Conquest of Ireland by Gerald of Wales

Michael Weldon

Manuscripts:
National Library of Ireland, MS 700

Editions:
Camden, W., Anglica, Hibernica, Normannica, Cambrica a veteribus scripta…ex bibliotheca Guillelmi Camden…Francofurti 1602; 2nd ed. ibid. 1603

Dimock, J. F., Giraldi Cambrensis opera, 8 vols, vol. 5: Topographia Hibernica et Expugnatio Hibernica, London, 1867

Expugnatio Hibernica: the Conquest of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis, ed. and tr. A.B. Scott and F.X. Martin (Dublin, 2002)

Giraldi Cambrensis opera, in Rerum Britainnicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores, 8 vols, London 1861-91

O’Meara, John J., Giraldus Cambrensis in Topographia Hiberniae.  Text of the first recension, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 52, section C (1948-50) 113-178.

Translations:

Expugnatio Hibernica: the Conquest of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis, ed. and tr. A.B. Scott and F.X. Martin (Dublin, 2002)

Forester, T., The Historical works of Giraldus Cambrensis.  Containing the Topography of Ireland, and the History if the Conquest of Ireland, tr. By Thomas Forester.  The Itinerary through Wales and the Description of Wales, tr. By Sir Richard Colt Hoare.  Revised and ed. T. Wright, London 1863 (Bohn’s antiquarian library).

Holinshed, R., The first and second volumes of chronicles…Now newly augmented and continued…to the year 1586 by John Hooker alias Vowell gent. and others…, London 1587.  The second volume contains Hooker’s translation of the Expugnatio.

Description:

Completed in 1189, Expugnatio Hibernica is Giraldus Cambrensis’ (Gerald of Wales) second work on Ireland.  Written in Latin, Book I comprises forty-five chapters while Book II contains thirty-seven.  A detailed account of the Normans coming to Ireland and their claim to its conquest, the concluding two chapters present strategies for the entire subjugation of the Irish nation and recommendations for how the Irish people ought to be governed.

Importance for the Study of Angevin History:

Having accompanied Henry II’s son, John, on a military expedition, Gerald of Wales in his second work on Ireland reminds the reader of ‘the five-fold right’ of the English king over the nation.  By citing Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Brittaniae, placing Irish origins in the province of Gascony, and recalling that the kings of Ireland paid tribute to Arthur, it is through the mythic lens which Gerald of Wales writes that Henry II’s invasion and conquest of Ireland is justified.

Bibliography:

Davies, J. C., ‘Giraldus Cambrensis 1146-1946’, in Archaeologia Cambrensis 99 (1946-47), pp. 85-108; 256-280.

Lydon, J. F., The Lordship of Ireland in the Middle Ages, Dublin 1972.

Martin, F. X., ‘Gerald of Wales, Norman Reporter on Ireland’, in Studies 58 (1969), pp 279-92.

-----, ‘The first Normans in Munster’, in Cork Hist. Arch. Soc. Jn. 76 (1971), pp. 48-71.

Richardson, H. G. and Sayles, G. O., The Administration of Ireland, 1172-1377 (Irish Historical Manuscripts Commission), Dublin 1963.

Ryan, M. T., The historical value of Giraldus Cambrensis’ Expugnation Hibernica (typewritten M. A. thesis submitted to University College, Dublin, 1967.

Sheehy, M. P., ‘The Bill Laudabiliter: a problem in medieval diplomatique and history’, in Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 29 (1961), pp. 45-70.