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History, politics, and culture articles and forum discussions.

medieval

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Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans

Joan was born of a peasant family of Domrémy in eastern Champagne, a village where the peasantry has suffered particularly severely from the three way civil war between the Armanacs, the Burgundians and the English. Through flight, the loss of animals, and the general lack of law and order, the peasants had little regard for either their English conquerors or their own French nobility.

A chronicler of the time reporting that many “desperate people, lost children, who abandoned their fields and their houses, not to inhabit the strongholds and castles of the French but to lurk like wolves in the depths of the forests”.

Joan of Arc at the coronation of Charles VII. Painting by Dominique Ingres, 1853.

This was also a period in French history where the fortunes of the land owning seigniorial classes were at their weakest, and the peasants, through scarcity of manpower, were at their strongest, and had every reason to feel loathing towards the seigniorials. As such, many peasants may genuinely have seen the Valois king as their only hope.

According to legend, Joan,who as a girl had worked as a cowherd and had spent many hours in the parish church, claimed that she saw visions and from the age of thirteen had heard the voices of the the saints telling her that she must save France. In 1428, her uncle took her to a Dauphinist stronghold, where the garrison captain was unimpressed by her claims. However in April of the following year she arrived at the Dauphin’s court at Chinon. Here she was able to win over several soldiers and courtiers.

In May, with the army she had inspired, she raised the siege of Orleans and in the next month defeated an English force at Patay. In July she was able to take Charles VII? to be anointed in the cathedral at Rheims, which did much to improve his prestige in the eyes of his subjects. Joan now wanted to march on Paris, but this idea was only halfheartedly pursued and proved to be a failure.

In 1430, Joan was captured by the Armanac’s mortal enemy, the Burgundians, who handed her over to the English. The rest of her short life (she was just nineteen when she was executed) was one of torture, imprisonment, interrogation and finally execution.

After this short burst of activity inspired by Joan, the Valois court returned to their old ways and it would not be until the Burgundians changed sides, and the English invasion had lost momentum, that Charles was able to obtain Philip the Good’s recognition of his right to be King.

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Dermot MacMurrough

No doubt the Norman Barons that had conquered England with Duke William, in 1066, would at some time have turned their ambitions onto the lands that lay across the Irish Sea. As it turned out, there was no need for such aggressive action; they were invited.  It was a decision that the Irish would later regret.

Dermot MacMurrough (c. 1110-1170)

Dermot MacMurrough (or Dermot naNGhall, meaning Dermot, king of the Foreigners) was born in 1110 AD.  At the age 16, upon the unexpected death of his older brother (the king of Leinster) he was elected as the new Ui Cinnsealaigh (the ancient name for the Kings of Leinster).  This succession, however, did not go down to well with Turlough O’Connor of Connaught, the High King of Ireland, who for whatever reason was opposed to the election.

Turlough’s response was to have far-reaching effects, some of which have remained with us until the present day.  Turlough commanded a neighbouring chieftain, Tiernan O’Rourke, a man who had a reputation for his love of battle, to invade the lands of Leinster.  Tiernan took to the task with much enthusiasm, but in so doing broke one of the sacred Irish Laws.  The Daire’s Law specifically forbade the killing of cattle by an enemy for by doing so, you were forcing starvation on the common people (dairy products were their sole food source), and Tiernan killed the cows of Leinster.

The conflict between Dermot and Tiernan continued for many years and the lands of Leinster were subject to many raids and skirmishes, but finally in 1133 Dermot was able to fully recover his throne after attacking Tiernan’s homelands in Ossory, and sacking the town of Waterford, just like his great-grandfather had done before him.  The following two decades were mostly peaceful for Dermot, and he was able to avoid involvement in many of the wars that the other four provinces were waging on one another.

In 1152, war broke out once again when Dermot aided the High King Turlough O’Connor in a raid on Tiernan O’Rourke’s land.  Tiernan’s land was destroyed, his armies routed and his cattle killed and burnt.  As Dermot was traveling through Meath to return to Leinster, the King of Meath told him that Dervorgilla, Tiernan’s wife and the King of Meath’s sister, wished to run away from her brutal husband.  So Dermot turned around and picked up Dervorgilla with all her belonging, before returning home.  When Tiernan discovered his wife had been taken, he was furious and vowed revenge.  After a year, Dermot was forced to give Dervorgilla back, but Tiernan never forgave Dermot for this abduction and from then on they were the most bitterest of enemies.

Dermot MacMurrough received permission from Henry II to reclaim Leinster.

Tiernan’s revenge came in 1166 when once again the country was ablaze with war.  Dermot’s ally, the High King Muirchertach O’Lochlainn, was defeated and Tiernan seizing the opportunity gathered together a number of other chieftains and raided Leinster.  Tiernan was out for revenge, the rest for plunder.  Vastly outnumbered Dermot barely escaped with his life and in desperation he decided to go to England for help.  From Bristol he went to Wales, where he found no shortage of volunteers willing to return with him to Ireland.  The Normans, since their conquest in 1066 had taken over Wales from the Celts, and many of these dispossessed Celts, together with a number of willing Norman adventurers welcomed the opportunity to obtain new lands and plunder.

In 1167 Dermot MacMurrough landed in Waterford with a force of Normans and Welsh to be followed later by others, including in 1170 by Strongbow, Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, whose ancestors had been Lords of Clare in Suffolk.  Strongbow was to marry Dermot’s daughter Eva, and when Dermot died of an illness the following year, Strongbow became the new King of Leinster.

The Irish chieftains were no match for Dermot’s new force of mercenaries and within a short space of time he had conquered Ossory, Waterford, and Dublin, and reclaimed the throne of Leinster.  Dermot was still not satisfied.  He marched on the High King of Ireland, Rory O’Connor (Turlough’s son), and demanded the High King’s submission.  Dermot gambled that Rory would not harm the Leinster hostages that the High King held, and these included Dermot’s own son and nephew.  For a while Rory hesitated, but then Tiernan, Dermot’s bitter enemy stepped back into the story again.  Tiernan convinced Rory to slaughter the hostages and return their bodies to Dermot in a sack like a bullock would be delivered to market.  With this Dermot lost the will to fight.  His army disbanded and he returned to his capital-Ferns where, a few months later, he died.

Notes on sources

I wrote this article some years ago for a another Newsgroup.  At the time I could find very little published material available on Anglo-Norman Ireland, but with the help of a number of Web Sites I was able to compose the above from various sites.  Sorry, I can not now recall all the sites visited but the text is my own interpretation based on my research.

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How much water did people through history actually drink?

splashing-275950_640We hear today that people need to drink lots of water daily (anywhere up to 100 oz.) for proper hydration – despite the fact that most people live rather sedentary lives in which perspiring or strenuous exercise are only a small part of a daily routine.

With that in mind, I have a question or two: how much did people from history actually drink?  Also, were they sufficiently hydrated?

A few observations first:

  • Civilizations, cities, and towns typically emerged near constant supplies of potable water (e.g. rivers)
  • Certain civilizations (e.g. Romans) were able to supplement water supplies with outside water quantities that rivaled the amount of water used per person today
  • At certain points in history, water potability either decreased or was perceived to be decreased so that preferred beverages came from other sources (e.g. beer)
Lucas van Leyden, Resting Pilgrims, c. early 1500s. These pilgrims needed food energy during their travels, but what about water?
Lucas van Leyden, Resting Pilgrims, c. early 1500s. These pilgrims needed food energy during their travels, but what about water?

At least some societies were able to enjoy an abundance of water even when not close to an original water source.  The great example I can think of is that of Nimes, France, where (according to my notes) each individual had access to 100 gallons of water per day(!).  To put this in perspective, the average daily use by modern Americans is 176 gallons per day. But even if some civilizations could readily drink water, it seems that it must have been rather difficult for people living in more rural areas – or traveling through them – to maintain proper hydration.  This must have been especially true in areas where natural water supplies were tainted.  If we consider an example of travelers during the Middle Ages going on pilgrimage, should we presume that dehydration – or even death thereof – was a common problem?  With increased perspiration from travel, increased climate during the medieval warm period, and scarcity of water sources, how did they ever manage to survive?  Of course, this would not have been a problem confined to the Middle Ages, but would have been present in any age and place where clean water was not in adequate supply.

While I do not recall hearing about any specific historical deaths resulting explicitly from dehydration*, I do not think it unreasonable to think that this would have been the direct cause of a significant percentage of deaths.  After all, when disease strikes, fatalities result not so much because of the disease itself but because of the inability to replenish and retain fluids.  But setting aside cases of infirmity, was hydration recognized as being an important part of all-around health?  This is an open question.

* I recall, however, the case of over-hydration (allegedly) killing one individual – astronomer Tycho Brahe in 1601

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