Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath
Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath, 4th Baron Lacy, was an Anglo-Norman landowner and royal office-holder. He had substantial land holdings in Herefordshire and Shropshire. Following his participation in the Norman Invasion of Ireland, he was granted, in 1172, the lands of the Kingdom of Meath by the Anglo-Norman King Henry II, but he had to gain control of them. The Lordship of Meath was then the most extensive liberty in Ireland.
Drawing of de Lacy by Gerald of Wales
The keep of Trim Castle
Kilkea Castle (Front)
Motte-and-bailey built by de Lacy at Clonard, County Meath
Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland
The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land from the Irish, over which the kings of England then claimed sovereignty, all allegedly sanctioned by the papal bull Laudabiliter. At the time, Gaelic Ireland was made up of several kingdoms, with a High King claiming lordship over most of the other kings. The Anglo-Norman invasion was a watershed in Ireland's history, marking the beginning of more than 800 years of direct English and, later, British, conquest and colonialism in Ireland.
The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife (1854), by Daniel Maclise
"Henry authorizes Dermod to levy forces", from A Chronicle of England (1864) by James Doyle
"Henry at Waterford", from A Chronicle of England (1864) by James Doyle
A depiction of Raymond FitzGerald from Gerald de Barri's Expugnatio Hibernica