Waterford City
A Brief History of Waterford
City
Waterford City was
founded by the Vikings in the late 9th century and evolved to become their most
important stronghold in Ireland after Dublin . Following the Norman Invasion of
Ireland in 1169, Waterford was one of the first city's to be conquered. Henry II
of England formalised the conquest with a visit in 1171. His son, King John
granted the town a charter in the late 12th century and set the ball rolling for
the town's development as a major seaport and commercial outpost. Progress was
considerably checked during the Henrician Reformation of the 16th century when
the town's leading merchants and church bosses were thrown in prison or
otherwise removed from power. The citizen's resisted Oliver Cromwell's advances
in 1641 but ultimately surrendered to King Billy's massive Protestant force in
1691, ushering in a new age of industrial and architectural boom-time, best
captured by the work of John Roberts and the Waterford Crystal Factory.
God-Fearing Vikings
It's generally accepted that Waterford was founded in 853AD as
a wee safe-haven for the friends and family of a Danish fellow called Sitric the
Viking. Vadrefjord (or "Ford of the Waters"), as Sitric skilfully called it, was
a perfect location for enterprising Vikings to hang out. The River Suir on which
it stands is a deep and navigable river with the nearby Barrow and Nore
off-shoots powering north into the fertile agricultural lands of Wexford,
Carlow, Tipperary and Kilkenny. It was thus very easy for the fearless blonde
Viking giants to clamber on board their dragon-prowed long-ships and hightail it
inland in pursuit of invaluable bounties and stray novice nuns from Medieval
Ireland's famously wealthy monasteries and abbeys. Over the next 300 years,
Vadrefjord developed to be the most important Viking stronghold in
Ireland.
Now Sitric was one of those 9th century nutcase Vikings who believed
in Thor and Valhalla and drinking neat brandy from axe-splintered skulls. His
clan were also fans of the Airgead Sroine (Nose Money), a tribute which the
subjugated Irish population of Vadrefjord were expected to pay; failure to pay
said tribute meant having one's nose removed. However, somewhere along the way,
Sitric's Viking descendants (known as "Ostmen") decided this sort of carry on
simply wasn't acceptable.
One of these fellows was Reginald and, as Governor
of Waterford, he built a wooden church (incidentally, on the site of the present
Christ Church Cathedral) in about 1050 AD. He may or may not be the same
Reginald who erected the rather magnificent 73 foot high circular tower at the
east end of Waterford's Quay in 1003 (known ever since as "Reginald's Tower").
And he may or may not be the same Reginald who, otherwise known as Ragnall, was
King of the Isle of Man and father-in-law to John de Courcy, the great Norman
adventurer and first Earl of Ulster. (I won't get into it now but it's important
to understand that all these Vikings, Normans, Manx and Gaelic chieftains were
in cahoots with one another from the word go).
Oh! Lah! Lah! The Papal Go Ahead
At any rate, despite innumerable assaults by local Irish
chieftains, the Viking settlement of "Vadrefjord" was still going great guns in
August 1170 when a bunch of French-speaking land-hungry bandits drifted across
the sea from Wales and up the Bannow Estuary, looking for a fight. The
axe-wielding Vikings didn't fare too well against the highly-skilled and
fanatically organised Norman crusaders, cavalry and archers (who, on form, could
apparently loose off upwards of 50 flaming arrows a minute). Soon the town fell.
The Viking chieftain of Waterford was escorted to Reginald's Tower, laid his
head on the block and was brutally despatched. The remaining Ostmen were slung
in prison or ran away to the hills and the seas and Iceland and
Canada. Waterford was declared a Norman city. Indeed, until Viking Dublin was
conquered a year later, Waterford was the most important city in Norman Ireland.
A middle-aged rogue named Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, (better known
as Strongbow) was the main man in the Anglo-Norman community of Ireland at this
time. His sidekicks included a moody Welsh chap called Robert Fitzstephens and
the rampantly xenophobic Giraldus Cambrensis, from whom the Fitzgerald family
are descended. The beleaguered King of Leinster, Dermot MacMurrough, had
selected Strongbow as a personal confidante and, in 1168, promised him vast
estates if he crossed the Irish Sea and wiped out Dermot's enemies. Now the
Welsh-Normans were here and they wanted their reward. Strongbow scooped the
added bonus of Dermot's daughter and heiress, Aoife MacMurrough, who he wed in
Reginald's Tower. The party apparently lasted three weeks; others tend to think the
hoolie went on for round about 800 years. At any rate, this was the first in a
long and intriguing line of weddings between a Norman knight and an Irish
chieftain.
Meanwhile, back in England, bold and brash King Henry II was
increasingly unhappy about the new power of these Anglo-Norman knights living it
large in Waterford. A rival Anglo-Norman kingdom in Ireland was the last thing
he and his supporters needed if they were to have any joy in consolidating the
Norman Conquest of Britain, commenced a century earlier by the great William the
Conqueror. Hence, Henry tugged his bushy beard and decided, sod it, I'll
head over myself and see what all the fuss is about. He set off, armed with a
fleet of 400 ships. This trip to Ireland in 1171 was a whopping success. All the
Normans and heaps of Irish chieftains swore allegiance to him. Those that didn't
play ball - such as Fitzstephens - were bopped over the back of the head and
escorted off to Reginald's Tower in shackles. But for the most part everyone
agreed that Harry was a great man and it would be an honour to serve him. For his
part, Harry granted the Normans a charter of protection, suggested everyone work
hard on making Waterford somewhere to write home about, and cantered north to see how the crack was in Dublin.
The Normans of Waterford said "fair enough" and proceeded to wall and fortify
their new HQ.