Historic note

Very little is known about the life of Raymond de Carew before his landing at Dun Domhnall in May 1170. He was a younger son of William FitzGerald, a Welsh nobleman whose lands included Cilgerran Castle in the Barony of Emlyn as well as Carew Castle just north of Pembroke. It was from the second fortress that his family derived their surname and amazingly, some 845 years later, the descendants of Raymond’s elder brother still own the ruined fortress (though it is administered by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park). Raymond’s extended family included the Bishop of St David’s, the Constable of Pembroke, and Robert FitzStephen who led the first Norman advances into Ireland in 1169.

At the age of seven Raymond, like all boys of his rank, would’ve been sent to serve in a noble household and begin the long road to becoming a knight. The Raymond portrayed in Lord of the Sea Castle is probably ten to fifteen years younger than his real-life counterpart but, given his father’s feudal ties to the House of Pembroke, it is likely that he would have been sent to serve Richard Strongbow’s father or mother as a page around 1140. At this time Gilbert Strongbow was one of the most powerful men in the whole of the kingdom and still possessed Pembroke Castle as well as the vassalage of many knightly families. As a page, Raymond would’ve received training in courtly manners as well as learning the basics of combat. This ‘education’ would’ve been repaid by serving food, cleaning armour, running messages as well as a hundred other small tasks. It was perhaps during this period that the chubby Raymond received the nickname of Le Gros which he would bear for the rest of his life.

At fourteen Raymond would’ve graduated to the role of esquire, at which time he was given better training in martial practices as well as greater responsibility over his lord’s weaponry, armour and animals. Older esquires would often become pseudo-knights, serving in the same capacity, but at a lower scale of pay, in his lord’s band of horsemen. At twenty-one he would’ve either advanced to the rank of a knight or become a miles – a Norman cavalryman who performed the same duty as a knight without the accompanying noble rank. I can find no reference that Raymond was ever afforded the rank of knight and have surmised in these pages that his father’s loss of the barony of Emlyn in 1164 may have made it quite impossible for Raymond to pay for all the trappings and expenses essential for this elevation.

It is probable that Raymond was part of the retinue which followed Strongbow to Germany in early 1168 when he accompanied King Henry II’s eldest daughter Matilda to her marriage in Saxony. The attack by bandits mentioned in these pages is entirely fictitious, as is his enmity with Walter de Bloet. The lord of Raglan Castle in this period was from the Bloet (later Bluett) family and, given Strongbow’s lack of an heir, he would have, in all probability, inherited Striguil.

Raymond’s good service to Strongbow’s family meant that in 1170, when he needed a trusted man to lead his advance party to Ireland, he was the man selected. Baginbun Point is well worth a visit and is easily accessible through Fethard-on-Sea in County Wexford. The fort (called Dun Domhnall in 1170) is much as described in the novel, with beaches on both sides and bounded by high cliffs. The remains of the earthworks that Raymond and his men created are still there, as well as a small plaque to remember the occasion. Raymond actually landed in Ireland around May 1st, but I have postponed this in Lord of the Sea Castle to July 1st to allow Raymond to attend the coronation of Henry the Young King at Westminster Abbey on June 14th. As far as I know there was no tournament before this ceremony. Henry the Young King was only fifteen at the time and there is no way that he would have been permitted to take part in such a dangerous sporting event. He did go on to make something of a name for himself in later life on the tourney circuit under the tutelage of the famous William Marshal who did, as portrayed, become his teacher at the behest of King Henry II in 1170.

Hubert Walter is another character plucked from history to appear in this novel. The younger brother of my own paternal ancestor Theobald, Hubert was, it seems, already a man of significant influence at court in the 1170s thanks to the patronage of his uncle Ranulph de Glanville. He would later rise to become Archbishop of Canterbury under King Richard I and became so authoritative that, upon Hubert’s death in 1205, the chronicler Matthew Paris has King John remarking that “for the first time I am king” to indicate his subject’s power.

It was probably in June or early July that Raymond’s fort was attacked by a force of between two and three thousand men. The bulk of the army seems to have been drawn from the Uí Drona tribe who were led by the Uí Riagháin (O’Ryan) from modern County Carlow and the Uí Fhaolain (O’Phelan) who ruled the Déisi and hailed from what is now County Waterford. However, command seems to have fallen upon three Ostmen from Waterford called Ragnall Mac Giolla Mhuire and two named Sigtrygg. Little is known about any of the Ostmen leaders and though the names are taken from history, the deeds of Ragnall, Jarl Sigtrygg and Sigtrygg Fionn in Lord of the Sea Castle are all fictionalised. There was an Ostman town at Cluainmín (Clonmines) though the character of Trygve and Raymond’s time at the longfort is totally invented. The town has since disappeared but it continued to thrive well into the seventeenth century.

The fighting at Dun Domhnall is as close to the historical record as I could possibly make it. Raymond did sally out of the fort to attack the enemy as they journeyed southwards from Waterford (possibly in the townland of Battlestown). The attack of so few horsemen did not prove enough to stop the Gael and Ostmen, and, according to the chronicler Gerald of Wales, the Normans arrived back at Dun Domhnall so hotly pursued by their enemy that the gates could not be closed. Raymond and the leper William Ferrand took on the entire army in Gerald’s retelling, but he leaves out Raymond’s ruse using the cattle. This trick is, however, not lifted from the film Zulu, but from The Song of Dermot and the Earl written in the early 1200s. The source gives no indication if the Normans deliberately caused the stampede or simply took advantage of the animals’ terrified reaction to the noise of the battle going on around them.

The Song of Dermot and the Earl also introduces Alice of Abergavenny to the story. In this version Alice is a ‘wench’ driven mad by the death of her lover in battle and snatches up an axe to behead all the Ostman prisoners. In Gerald of Wales’ version of the tale, Alice is not mentioned and the blame for the executions is placed squarely on Sir Hervey de Montmorency’s shoulders. In my view neither source, given their bias towards Raymond, can be trusted to tell the truth about this awful moment in history. I remain extremely doubtful that Alice ever existed as anything other than a patsy for Raymond and Hervey’s crime. Her character in Lord of the Sea Castle is complete creation, as is her brother Geoffrey, and their alleged relationship to Sir William de Braose.

Basilia de Clare was actually the sister of Richard Strongbow rather than his illegitimate daughter. The historical figure only married Roger de Quincy (in reality, Robert) the year after her brother invaded Ireland.

Raymond’s victory at Baginbun, in my opinion, did not win or lose Ireland as the famous verse claims, but the savagery and ease of his triumph must’ve shocked many of the local princes. Within a few weeks of Raymond’s victory at Baginbun his lord, Strongbow, the most famous name to arise from the tale, would arrive on Irish shores. At his back was the biggest army yet seen in the story of the Norman invasion, and his eyes were firmly set on claiming both Waterford and Dublin as his own.

To my agent, David Riding at MBA, and my editor Greg Rees, as well as the whole team at Accent Press, my thanks for their vital contributions. I’d also like to express my appreciation to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for their kind support, to Shea Cashman and the Deise Medieval Society for their information about life in Ostman Ireland, to Emma Barr for advising me about all things equine, and to my dad Ricky for keeping me right on ships and the tides.

Ruadh Butler, April 2017