Select document: a charter of Hugh II de Lacy, earl of Ulster, to Hugh Hose (2 March 1207)

In 1206, the year after he was created earl of Ulster by King John, the forces of Hugh II de Lacy (d. 1242) devastated the ecclesiastical civitas of Armagh for ten successive days and nights. Then, turning southwest into Monaghan, de Lacy laid waste ‘Teach Damhnata’ (Tydavnet), ‘Ceall Muragáin’ (Kilmore), and Clones, before striking northwards into Tír Eógain. There, he attacked Tullaghoge, seat of the king of Cenél nEógain, Áed Méith Ua Néill (d. 1230), reaching as far north as Ciannachta (bar. Keenaght, County Londonderry). This campaign, undertaken with the ‘Foreigners of Meath and of Leinster’, was followed up in the beginning of 1207 with another assault on Armagh around St Brigid’s day (1 February), which was severe enough to prompt Eugenius (Echdonn mac Gilla Uidir), archbishop of Armagh (d. 1217), to cross to the court of King John in order to ‘succour the churches of Ireland and to accuse the Foreigners’.