Anglo-Norman Dublin
The year in 1169 is regarded by most Irish people as the nation’s year of destiny ‘when the Normans came’. The Norman Conquest of England had taken place earlier, in 1066. The small groups of influential people who had come with William the Conqueror to England and settled there had adapted to native life in many ways in less than a century.
After the Anglo-Norman captured Dublin in 1171 the town lost in importance on the European scene. Dublin was no longer an independent city state with trading connections reaching as far as Iceland and the Black Sea. Instead, it became the focus of a lordship wholly dependent on England, where the exchequer was located and from where the justiciar and his court would leave on their itineraries through the colony. It was only in the late-medieval period, when the colony was much reduced in size that Dublin itself became the main focus of administration .
After the Anglo-Norman captured Dublin in 1171 the town lost in importance on the European scene. Dublin was no longer an independent city state with trading connections reaching as far as Iceland and the Black Sea. Instead, it became the focus of a lordship wholly dependent on England, where the exchequer was located and from where the justiciar and his court would leave on their itineraries through the colony. It was only in the late-medieval period, when the colony was much reduced in size that Dublin itself became the main focus of administration .