The Age of Conquest

The medieval records that were in the Public Record Office of Ireland largely, but not completely, came from the English government in Ireland as it attempted to govern the settler community and extend its rule into the territories of the Gaelic Irish kings and lords.

English rule in Ireland expanded in the centuries after the conquest of 1170, but was checked by the revival of Gaelic Ireland in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, after which English direct rule by the Crown contracted to the areas immediately around Dublin. Other record collections linked in this portal were produced in Dublin’s commercial urban centre and for the cathedral of Christ Church. Both English and Gaelic Ireland were also connected to the web of international sea trade that reached across the Irish Sea to Britain and south to France and the Mediterranean.

This portal provides access to the key medieval collections in VRTI, which have been listed below with a brief description of their contents. 

What can I find here? 

This Portal contains multiple Gold Seams and curated Collections, allowing you to search and browse across the entire Age of Conquest (1169-1500).

CIRCLE 2.0

Documents issued by the English government in Ireland between 1244 and 1509 have been reconstructed and calendared by the CIRCLE project, edited by Dr Peter Crooks. All the c. 15,000 known documents issued by the Irish Chancery can be found in this Gold Seam.

Royal Revenue

The Irish exchequer was responsible for all finance relating to the lordship, including payments made to officials, suppliers and the occasional Irish king, and the receipts from taxation, the courts and rents of royal manors, among other things. This Gold Seam includes Philomena Connolly’s edition of the Irish Exchequer Payments for the Irish Manuscripts Commission and our new edition of the receipt rolls. It covers the period 1250 to 1485.

Guild of St Anne

Now part of the collections of the Royal Irish Academy, the records of the Guild of St Anne provide an unparalleled collection of material relating to medieval everyday urban life in Dublin. Based on the calendar of Leonard Beiler, this collection presents the deeds alongside their images for the first time.

Christ Church Deeds

The Christ Church Deeds were the oldest collection of material lost in the fire of 1922. They had been deposited in the PROI for safe keeping in the nineteenth century, recording the lands and gifts that the cathedral had been granted in the centuries of its existence. This collection draws on the calendaring work of Michael McEnery of the PROI, for the period 1100 to 1690, and has been completed by Dr Stuart Kinsella, archivist at Christ Church.

Irish Kings and English Rulers

After around 1350, the English government in Ireland regularly made legal agreements with Irish kings. The most famous are the submissions of over eighty Irish kings and lords to Richard II in the winter and spring of 1394 to 1395. They were translated by Edmund Curtis in 1927, and are available here alongside new translations of other agreements covering the period 1370 to 1500.

Memoranda Rolls

Only a very few original medieval records survived the fire in 1922, including just two of the memoranda rolls, the working memory of the Irish exchequer. Fortunately, however, the memoranda rolls had already been recognised as an important resource for Ireland’s medieval history by historians and antiquarians. This collection offers a first glimpse at the treasures that can be recovered for these lost rolls, for the period 1294 to 1500.

Merchants and Mariners

Timothy O’Neill created this collection of index cards relating to Irish trade to bring together the sources he used for his 1987 book. It gives references to primary sources as well as to key secondary publications relating to trade in the period 1300 to 1500. It is arranged by place and by topic, including piracy. It has been updated for the Virtual Treasury by Daryl Handley Rooney.

Published sources including:

The Calendar of Documents Relating to Ireland, 1171–1307 (5 volumes);

The Calendars of Justiciary Rolls (3 volumes);

Early Statutes of Ireland series (5 volumes);

and Dublin City Royal Charters.

This portal’s content was curated by Dr Elizabeth Biggs, Dr Peter Crooks, Dr Paul Dryburgh and Dr Lynn Kilgallon with Dr Daryl Hendley Rooney, Dr Stuart Kinsella and Dr Theresa O’Byrne.