10-Pound Castles

As promised earlier, here's a little more info on 10-pound castles. Dotted about the Irish landscape, many of these small fortresses still exist, in varying states of ruin. But first, a little background on Irish history. For such a peaceful image that Ireland conveys today (excepting tensions in the North and even they have toned down considerably) the island has had a turbulent history. The Celts came to the island about 600-500 BC, displacing and assimilating earlier peoples. St. Patrick showed up in 432 AD and almost singlehandedly converted everybody to Christianity and for about 400 years, everything was relatively peaceful.

Then along came the Vikings. For the next few hundred years the Irish battled the Vikings.....and each other. One item I read stated that during one period (50 years or so) historical records indicate that 29 major Irish-Viking conflicts occured. At the same time, almost 80 Irish-Irish battles took place.

Anyway, after putting an end to the Viking scourge and a bunch of slaughter amongst themselves, a deposed Irish king fled to England and enlisted help from the Norman-English crown in 1170 AD or so. I'm rambling on here but the point is to show how the Norman conquerors of England were invited to invade the Irish by one of their own sore-loser kings. So as the Anglo-Normans extend their holdings in Ireland, the Irish, naturally fight back (and each other).

So several hundred years* pass, the Anglo-Normans intermarry with the Irish, the Crown becomes worried about losing control of their holdings in Ireland and takes some action. They forbid intermarriage with the Irish, ban the speaking and teaching of Irish, and in 1430 or so King Edward VI (or Henry IV) granted 10 pounds** to anyone who would build a castle to defend the "pale"***. The result was hundreds of small tower castles consisting of a fortified tower surrounded by a high wall. Not as impressive as earlier Norman castles, they nonetheless were suitable to withstand the raids of the time. So there you have it, 10-pound castles!

*With the United States barely over 225 years old and a little over 500 years since Columbus sailed the ocean blue, the age of European countries and traditions is mind-boggling for me at times.

**10 pounds must have been a sizable amount in those days. Enough so that it would provide an incentive to build lots of these castles. The actual edict (probably more than you want to know) read: It is agreed and asserted that every leige-man of our Lord the King of the said counties (viz. Dublin, Meath, Kildare, and Louth), who choose to build a castle or tower sufficiently fortified, within the next ten years, to wit, twenty feet in length, sixteen feet in width, and forty feet in height or more, that the Commons of the said counties shall pay to the said person to build the said castle or tower, ten pounds by way of subsidy.

***The "pale" refers to the area of Ireland under English control.