Henry Expands the Angevin Empire
Strongbow! You are now on your way west!
Ensure that your actions are characterised by the utmost zest!
Henry had been happy for Strongbow to go to Ireland and had wished him every success. The problem was, Strongbow had been too successful. Would Strongbow now establish a kingdom which could rival and threaten his kingdom of England? Henry decided to nip any such emerging problem in the bud.
The King feared that the seeds of trouble, Strongbow would sow!
Henry would now act to prevent the emergence of any potential foe!
There was no choice, to Erin’s fair shores he must now go!
However Henry would have to persuade his barons that a foray to Ireland was a good idea.
Henry makes his nobles an offer that they cannot refuse!
He will tell them that they have everything to win, nothing to lose!’
He gathered them together for a sit down and banquet at Chinon in Normandy. After a superb dinner of locally sourced venison, Henry made his pitch. In doing so, he evoked the memory of their respective great-grandfathers. The dialogue probably went along these lines:
‘My proposition to you is the same as my great grand father, William the Conqueror, made to your great-grandfathers here in Normandy about invading England in 1066!
After giving him a hand at that skirmish over there at Hastings they were handed a real estate portfolio that surpassed their wildest dreams!
I propose that we deal with the Irish in the same way that our great-grandfathers dealt with the English! We win a battle, after which we erect a motte and bailey castle, and then move on to the next Irish tough guy!
There were murmurs!
‘Sire, those Irish are known to be savage beyond belief!’
Another:
‘Even the Romans left them alone’!
Yet another:
They are rumoured to be man-eaters!’
Henry put down his goblet, wiped his mouth, rose to his feet and made his announcement.
‘If your great-grandfathers had that attitude in 1066, you guys would still be hustling geese and onions in the mean streets around the market at Caen rather than lording it in your castles over in England!
I’m offering you and your families the best career opportunity in over a century!
If your answer is no!
You really don’t want to know!
Maybe! Maybe, you’re right! It ain’t the way to go!
I can talk to someone else!
I have some Sicilian friends, of Norman descent, and when they smell wealth the word fear disappears from their lexicon!
I hear that Palermo is a little hot and overcrowded at this time of year’
‘Perhaps those Sicilian guys might feel the urge to relocate!
Should they wish to…
In that case some Irish territory, to them, I might well allocate!’
The barons decided to follow their monarch. The king now made plans for a trip west. A formidable military force was assembled and Henry landed at Waterford in October of 1171.
Henry landing in Waterford, October 18th 1171.
As their great-grandfathers had done a century earlier against the English, the Anglo-Normans would defeat the Irish tribes in battle and then construct a motte and bailey castle. When the local clan chief had been pacified by whatever means necessary, the Anglo- Normans would divide the best land amongst his followers. There was no shortage of takers from England. Real estate opportunities were hard to come by during that time, and many were only too happy to make the journey to the ports of Bristol and Chester to travel to Ireland.
The long and troubled relationship between the two countries had begun.
A motte and bailey castle.
