Domination and Conquest: The Experience of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, 1100 – 1300

by R.R. Davies

This book, a revised and extended version of Professor Davies's 1988 Wiles Lectures, explores the ways in which the kings and aristocracy of England sought to extend their domination over Ireland, Scotland and Wales in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It analyses the mentalities of domination and subjection - how the English explained and justified their pretensions and how native rulers and societies in Ireland and Wales responded to the challenge. It also explains how the English monarchy came to claim and exercise a measure of 'imperial' control over the whole of the British Isles by the end of the thirteenth century, converting a loose domination into sustained political and governmental control. This is a study of the story of the Anglo-Norman and English domination of the British Isles in the round. Hitherto historians have tended to concentrate on the story in each country - Ireland, Scotland and Wales - individually. This book looks at the issue comparatively, in order to highlight the comparisons and contrasts in the strategies of domination and in the responses of native societies.

Genres: History, Medieval, Ireland, Scotland, Read For School, Nonfiction, Medieval History

156 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Sir Robert Rees Davies was a Welsh historian received a First in his degree from University College, London, where he later returned as a lecturer. In 1975, he was appointed Professor of History, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. In 1995, he was appointed the Chichele Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford and made a fellow of All Souls College. From 1995 to 2005 he served as Chairman of the Ancient Monuments Board for Wales. Davies was appointed a Knight Bachelor for services to history in the Queen's 2005 New Year's Honours.

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, readable look at the relationship between England and the surrounding regions of Wales, Ireland, and Scotland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. R.R. Davies sets out to demonstrate that the history of these peoples have been far too dominated by a chronology of battles and military conquests that historians claim mark decisive shifts in the relative autonomy the Welsh, Irish, or Scottish.

Instead, Davies lays out a more subtle account of domination - via settlement, marriages, economic advantages, gift exchanges, castles, or offers of knighthood. While violence was still a central part of all this (Davies nicely outlines the type of people who tended to be lords of the March), it was very often side by side with genuine cooperation and even friendship. While submission occurred on the part of the Irish or Welsh princes, it was often loosely defined and mutually beneficial. As Davies nicely sums it up, "conquest was not uniform in its results or exclusively military in its methods."

This relatively flexible method of domination gave out in the mid-13th century and eventually culminated in the outright and fairly comprehensive conquests of Edward I at the turn of the 14th century. There were several reasons for this shift - the increased use of writing, and the growth of the English bureaucracy, the desire to disseminate English law, the English loss of their continental lands, and an increasing tendency to demonize the Irish and Welsh - but perhaps the largest was a growing gap on what precisely domination entailed. While political submission for the Welsh and Irish tended to be loose and frequently temporary (Welsh and Irish politics at this point were pretty chaotic), for the English lords it was increasingly envisioned in a traditional feudal manner. Military service was pinned down to an exact number, land was viewed as being held in fief, and the native inhabitants were increasingly seen as being under English jurisdiction. This "intensification of lordship" paved the way for outright conquest by the later thirteenth century.

Davies does a really nice job outlining all of this. It's a really nicely written book, and it makes its arguments well, with a great knowledge of Welsh, Irish, and English sources. The only slight setback is that Scotland is mostly left out or left as a footnote. That's understandable - Scotland was in a much different situation than Ireland or Wales at this point, as a pretty centralized monarchy - but it may have been better had Davies either made a bit more room for it or left it for another book. Still, an essential read for anyone interested in the relationship between England, Wales, and Ireland in the medieval period.

[Alys Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

R. R. Davies was the one of the greatest Welsh Historians. The books is well researched and referenced. The bibliography is excellent.

The subject matter is well written.

My own concern and point of note. Rees Davies was a noted Welsh nationalist and at times the book is biased and partisan. However, that does not detract from a great piece of work.