Raymond
le Gros and Molana Abbey
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
On a former island in
the lower Blackwater River, opposite Ballynatray House, lies Molana Abbey.
Founded in the sixth century by St. Molanfide, it was reformed in the early
twelfth century into an Augustine Abbey. The abbey continued to exist until the
Dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1540-1541. After which it
became a private home for a number of decades before left fall into ruin. In
the early nineteenth century the fabric of the abbey was “restored” into the
ruin we see today. As part of the works, the then owner, Gracie Smyth, had
erected a tomb in the dining hall of the old abbey which he claimed was the
tomb of Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald, one of the first Norman invaders of
Ireland in 1170. But was Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald actually buried at
Molana?
The east end of the church in Molana Abbey
Raymond
“le Gros” Fitzgerald
Raymond “le Gros”
Fitzwilliam Fitzgerald was the son of William Fitzgerald of Carew and younger brother
of Odo de Carew. He came to Ireland in 1170 and landed near Waterford where he
fortified a promontory. After fighting off a combined Ostman and Irish army he
advanced on Waterford where he played a leading role in its capture. Over the
next few years Raymond was Richard de Clare “Strongbow”’s right hand man. The
two fell out in 1172 when Strongbow refused to give his sister Basilea to
Raymond as his wife and the constableship of Leinster.
Raymond then returned to Wales to his father’s castle of Carew.
In the spring of 1173
King Henry sent William Fitz Audelin over to Ireland as viceroy. Raymond “le
Gros” Fitzgerald was sent as his right-hand man. While
there the Irish rebelled, using the troubles of King Henry’s war against his
sons as an opportunity. The troops of “Strongbow” refused to serve under Hervey
de Montmorency (Strongbow’s uncle) and wanted their arrears of pay. Raymond “le
Gros” Fitzgerald was made commander of the troops and soon after raided the
land of Uí Faoláin in Waterford and sacked Lismore to get the money needed. After
this the authority of the Normans was restored and Raymond asked for the hand
of Basilea. Strongbow again refused and Raymond left for Wales with the excuse
that his father, William Fitzgerald had died.
Hervey de Montmorency
was again made constable of Leinster and head of the army. In 1174 while on an
expedition to Cashel part of the Norman army was wiped out in Kilkenny. A
general rebellion against the Normans then erupted and the Normans were pushed
back to the ports. Richard de Clare summoned Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald to
come to Ireland and led the relief troops with the promise of Basilea’s hand in
marriage. Raymond landed in Wexford but would not advance before he had married
Basilea. After the wedding Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald went off across
Leinster and Munster to push back the Irish. On his approach to Dublin, Rory O
Conor withdrew his forces west across the Shannon. After a series of victories
Raymond Fitzgerald advanced on the O’Brien stronghold of Limerick and took the
city in October 1175. Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald was still in Limerick when
he heard that Strongbow had died in May 1176.
After the death of
Strongbow, Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald was made royal governor of Ireland. His
term of office was brief as William Fitz Audelin was again sent from England to
be viceroy.
Over the next few years Raymond operated between Ireland and Wales. In 1182 he
rescued his uncle Robert Fitzstephen in Cork.[5]
The subsequent history
of Raymond is unknown. He was alive in 1185 when Prince John came to Ireland.
When Gerald of Wales, a great admirer of Raymond, finished his book Expugnatio
Hibernica in 1189 he did not
record the death of Raymond. His widow Basilea married Geoffrey Fitzrobert
between 1189 and 1201.[6] The burial place of Raymond
“le Gros” is unknown although Molana Abbey and Christ Church, Waterford claim
his resting place.
Lands of Raymond “le Gros” in County Cork
A document in the Carew papers at Lambeth Palace provides the earliest
reference to Molana Abbey as the grave of Raymond “le Gros”.[7] Can we trust this document?
This claim of Molana appears to be strengthened by folklore. This has it that
Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald refounded Molana Abbey from a Irish monastery into
a Continental abbey of Augustinians. The founder or re-founder of an abbey
usually gets the honour of burial within that abbey. Many old Irish monasteries
in the twelfth century changed over to the new Continental orders. This change
also happened in other parts of Europe. For Irish monasteries the Augustinian
Order was the most favoured. The actual date of changeover in these monasteries
is unknown and the date of the Molana changeover is equally unknown. It could
well be that Molana was already an Augustinian abbey before the Norman
invasion.
Lands of Raymond “le Gros” in County Cork
If Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald did not re-found Molana in terms of its
religious life could he be connected with Molana by donating property. During
his life Raymond acquired lands in Wexford, Carlow and north-east Cork around
Glanworth and Kilworth. Raymond left two illegitimate children, Walter and
Richard but no legitimate children.
Thus some of his property passed to his sister Mabel and her husband Nicholas
de Caunteton. From this couple the late Condons of Cork and Wexford descend - but no Molana.
We go backwards now to
about 1182 when Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald succeeded to half the Kingdom of
Cork which his uncle Robert Fitzstephen had earlier acquired. This property was
given to Raymond’s illegitimate son, Richard de Carew. This Richard died in
about 1205 as lord of Imokilly and half of Desmond. The family subsequently
lost Imokilly but Richard’s great grandson, Maurice de Carew recovered it in
1307. His son Thomas de Carew quitclaimed Imokilly and Olethan to David de
Barry in 1336 and gave the Desmond inheritance to Maurice Fitzthomas of Shanid,
1st Earl of Desmond, before 1329. Thomas de Carew then died without
children.[9]
The Cork lands of
Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald do not mention Molana Abbey.
The
Carlow lands of Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald
To find Molana we have
to go back to Odo de Carew Fitzgerald, elder brother of Raymond “le Gros”
Fitzgerald. Odo de Carew married Margaret, a daughter of Richard Fitz Tancred,
constable of Haverford and was living at St. Mary’s Abbey, Dublin in 1202. Odo
de Carew was succeeded by his son William de Carew to the Welsh lands of the
family sometime before 1213. It is said the Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald
enfeoffed his Carlow lands around Idrone to this William de Carew. When Raymond
died without legitimate issue these lands reverted to Strongbow’s heiress,
Isabel de Clare. From her William de Carew received a regrant of Idrone and
held the place by 1202. Sometime before September 1213 William de Carew was
dead and was succeeded by his son Richard de Carew, styled Lord of Carew Castle
in Pembrokeshire. Richard de Carew was in turn succeeded by 1247 by his son,
William de Carew.
In 1247, at the partition of the Marshal
estates (heirs of Strongbow) William de Carew, lord of Carew, was recorded as
holding 5 knight’s fees in Pembroke. By 1278 William de Carew was succeeded in
Ireland and Walsh by his son, Nicholas de Carew in which year Nicholas
travelled to Ireland. An inquest in 1306 found Nicholas de Carew holding 5
knight’s fees at Idrone. Nicholas de Carew died in 1311 and was succeeded by
his son John de Carew.
Before his death
Nicholas de Carew had arranged in 1295 for his son John de Carew to married
Eleanor, daughter of William de Mohun. Eleanor de Mohun was about fourteen
years old at the time having been born in August 1281. John de Carew died in
1324 leaving two sons, Nicholas and John.
But Nicholas de Carew junior didn’t enjoy his inheritance long as he also died
in 1324. The family property then passed to John de Carew and he was succeeded
in turn by his son Sir Nicholas Carew of Ottery Mohun in Devon. Sir Nicholas
was succeeded by his son Sir Edmund Carew (1464-1513). It was this Sir Edmund
who mortgaged Carew castle to Sir Rhys ap Thomas.
Sir
Peter Carew
Sir Edmund Carew was succeeded
in his Devon lands by his son, Sir William Carew of Ottery Mohun. Sir William
had a third son called Sir Peter Carew, born in 1514.
Sir Peter Carew led a life
of adventure that was not too far from that of his ancestor, Raymond “le Gros”
Fitzgerald. He attended grammar school in Exeter, where he was a frequent
truant. Afterwards he was sent to France in the service of a French knight but
Carew demoted in 1526 for refusing to obey orders. He was saved by some friends
on the way to the siege of Pavia and joined the company of a marquis when the
knight died. This marquis soon after died in battle and Carew changed sides to
fight with the Prince of Orange.
After the death of the
Prince in 1530 Carew returned to England and served King Henry VIII. In the
1540s he fought against France in the wars of Henry VIII and was knighted in
1545. In that year Sir Petr Carew was elected a Member of Parliament. In 1549
he severely put down the religious rebellion in the south-west of England. At
first he supported Queen Mary but before her reign was out he changed to
support Princess Elizabeth. For this he spent some time in the Tower of London.
When Queen Elizabeth ascended
the throne Sir Peter Carew was well placed to secure some benefits. Early in
the 1560s Sir Peter Carew laid claimed to be the owner of the above mentioned Carlow
lands by descent of Odo de Carew, and also of Coshbride and Desmond in Cork by
a false descent from Robert Fitzstephen.[15] Sir
Peter Carew was heavily encouraged in his claim by Sir Henry Sidney, Lord
Deputy of Ireland. The government in the 1560s was trying to reduce the power
of the two great southern lordships of Butler (Earl of Ormond) and Fitzgerald (Earl
of Desmond). In December 1568 the government formally granted Idrone to Carew
without any compensation or process of appeal for the two occupiers of the
land, Sir Edmund Butler and the Kavanagh family.
As part of the claim
many documents were produced one of which claimed that Raymond “le Gros” was
buried at Molana. This assertion would help Peter’s claim to Coshbride as a
knight was usually buried in an abbey he founded or endowed with property. When
Molana Abbey was dissolved in 1540 the only property it held was some land in the
parishes of Kilcockan, Kilwatermoy and Templemichael in County Waterford along
with some property in south Kerry and a church in south-east Limerick. None of
these places were associated with Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald. For more on
Molana abbey see the article on Molana abbey at = http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/09/molana-abbey-in-county-waterford-ireland.html
The land of the three
parishes, known collectively as Ofhearghusa, was granted in the 1180s by Prince
John to Gerald Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, 1st Baron Offaly. Before that
the land was still held by the naïve Irish. From Gerald Fitzgerald the land
passed through the generations to his great granddaughter, Julianne Fitzgerald,
in 1275 and to her husband, Thomas de Clare. Thomas de Clare was succeeded by
his son and grandson and in 1321 by his daughter, Margaret de Badlesmere. After
the death of Margaret’s son, Giles de Badlesmere, the land of Ofhearghusa was
divided among his four sisters and their English husbands. By about 1460 the 7th
Earl of Desmond had acquired the four absentee estates and was lord of most of
Ofhearghusa. When Sir Peter Carew filed his claim for Coshbride, the new name
for Ofhearghusa, the land was held by Gerald Fitzgerald, 16th Earl
of Desmond. As it turned out Sir Peter Carew was unsuccessful in claiming
Coshbride.
The medieval cathedral at Waterford - now lost
In 1574 Sir Peter Carew
returned to Ireland to secure other Cork lands. By 1575 he seemed to be on the
verge of success in Cork as Lords Courcy and Barry Óge along with others were
prepared to acknowledge Sir Peter as their lord in the area between Cork city
and Kinsale. Sir Peter ordered a residence to be prepared at Cork and made his
way there but while at Ross he died on 27th November 1575. He was
taken to Waterford cathedral and buried on the south side of the chancel. His
servant and biographer arranged the erection of a monument in Exeter cathedral.
Waterford
Christ Church and Raymond’s tomb
The burial of Sir Peter
Carew in Waterford cathedral raises an interesting angle on where Raymond “le
Gros” Fitzgerald is buried or supposed to be buried. The old medieval cathedral
in Waterford was almost completely knocked down towards the end of the eighteenth
century and a new Georgian style cathedral erected in its place. As Sir Peter
Carew made so much of Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald in his efforts to gain Irish
lands once held be Raymond could folklore, without the aid of any medieval
evidence in a now totally rebuilt cathedral, joined two and two and made the
grave of Sir Peter Carew into the grave of Raymond himself.
If Raymond “le Gros”
Fitzgerald was indeed buried in the old Waterford cathedral would not observers
of the cathedral before it was destroyed noted his tomb? So far as I have been
able to find, no observer noted the tomb of Raymond. But would those observers
know what to look for even if the tomb was there?
Strongbow’s
tomb at Christ Church
The tomb of Raymond’s
brother-in-law, Richard “Strongbow” de Clare is well famous in Christ Church
Cathedral, Dublin but the present tomb said to represent that of “Strongbow” is
not twelfth century. The so-called tomb of “Strongbow” is a design more fitting
to the 1330s than to 1176. Yet by Tudor times the tomb was ascribed by popular
standing as that of “Strongbow”. Even the design on the knight’s shield was
taken as that of de Clare but are in fact of an unknown member of the
FitzOsbert family.
Thus in the days when tomb had few, if any, written inscriptions, it was
possibly for people to give the wrong identification to a tomb.
The
Raymond Tomb at Molana
Returning now to Molana
Abbey, Co. Waterford and the tomb erected by Gracie Smyth in the early
nineteenth century which he claimed marked the burial place of Raymond “le
Gros” Fitzgerald. Why would Gracie Smyth erect such a tomb? The Act of Union,
joining the Parliaments of Britain and Ireland into one Parliament, had come
into effect in 1801. The two countries were now truly one country. What better
way to celebrate the antiquity of Ballynatray estate, home of Gracie Smyth,
than to have the tomb of one of the people who made the process of one country
possible in the 1170s. Indeed it could be said with reasonable correctness that
Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald saved the Norman invasion of Ireland from collapse
and total failure. Without his support among the troops and his key victories the
whole invasion may have needed before it barely began.
The supposed tomb of Raymond in Molana Abbey
Establishing
connections to the past to support current political motives is a common
occurrence in history. But did Gracie Smyth know that Raymond “le Gros”
Fitzgerald was indeed buried at Molana? The location of the tomb, in the dining
hall of the old medieval abbey, would be a location well approved by Raymond
with his nickname of “le Gros” – fat or big man – a person well fed.
Yet if Raymond was
buried at Molana a more appropriate location for his tomb would be in the abbey
church near the high altar. Such a place was often given to a person who
founded or re-founded an abbey. The ruined walls of the abbey church clearly
define the church but the floor of the church is so covered in earth, a few
feet in height, that no medieval tomb is to be seen. If the earth was removed a
tomb may appear but then again it may not. When Molana Abbey was a private home
in the late sixteenth century in the possession of Thomas Harriot many changes
were made to make the abbey into a private home. Having tombs in your main
reception room would not look nice, especially when those tombs were of old
Catholics in a very Protestant time.
What of the tomb in the
dining hall? Could it be excavated? It could be excavated but if indeed there
is a skeleton under the tomb how are to know the skeleton of a knight who died
sometime around the late 1180s from any other skeleton? There may be metal
objects found that could be said to be those of a knight yet the tomb of
“Strongbow” is that of a knight but not “Strongbow”.
The wonder item of our
day – DNA – could identify the skeleton as that of Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald
as it did with the skeleton in the Leicester car park was shown to be the late
King Richard III. The DNA identification of Richard III was only possible
because an unbroken line of female descent was found from Richard’s mother to
the present day. Without this unbroken female line the DNA could not identify
the skeleton as that of Richard III.
Finding an unbroken female
line from fifteenth century royalty is one thing – trying to find such a line
from a knight of the late twelfth century when we don’t even know when Raymond
died is quite another task. As Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald was a descendent of
Princess Nesta, the mother of most of the chief Norman invaders, it may be
possible to find an unbroken female line but only may be. Surviving medieval
documents were not in the habit of recording female children, and their female
children, only if those females ended up as heirs to a landed estate. But even
then the male offspring of that female heir would more likely be the only
recorded child, and the eldest male child at that.
Establishing such an
unbroken female line would be a first step before any excavations at Molana or
Waterford or at a third place in search of Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald could
be even attempted. Without available DNA to prove the identity of any skeleton
found then any skeleton found would be just another skeleton. Carbon 14 dating
could get some date range for the skeleton but would not prove the identity of
that skeleton.
Conclusion
In the end of this
search for Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald we are no nearer to finding him than we
were at the start. The claims of Waterford and Molana to hold the remains are
equally valid and equally groundless at the same time. The possibly of
somewhere in Pembrokeshire as the final resting place of Raymond is as strong
as any Irish claim for we don’t even know when Raymond died.
In the final analyst,
as they would say, why let fact get in the way of a good story. The real
monument to Raymond “le Gros” Fitzgerald was that the Norman invasion succeeded
and all of subsequent history happened as a result. Without him history would
be very much different.
==============
End of post
===============
