Cusack - Plunder & Ransom

Plunder & Ransom

There were many attacks on the Norman invaders by Irish Kings and their armies so Geoffrey and his companions saw regular service. The practice of raiding the fiefdoms of others was rife and we are fortunate to have a record of Geoffrey de Cusack doing just this.

1177 was the year de Cusack saw Connaught for the first time however the raid across the Shannon back-fired, and Geoffrey and his friends returned ruefully rubbing their bruises. If plunder is an index of success, 1178 could be counted a good year for they plundered Clonmacnoise. (AFM; cf, Curtis, HMI, p. 80; Orpen, ii, p. 92)

This was an era of chivalry, at least for the knights who fought. You might be defeated, wounded and captured but not killed. A knight was worth more alive, for ransom, than dead. The Cusacks did not escape this ignominy.

Geoffrey II and his brother William revolted against King John and were defeated, along with de Lacy, at Carrickfergus Castle in 1210. The record shows that Geoffrey II, had set against him '100 marks for his liberation' and the Justiciar was enjoined 'to take no nonsense and to see to it that de Cusack promises his faithful service (to King John) before his discharge'. (CDI, i, n.529)

Note a 'mark' is described as being equal to 8oz of silver (ransoms ranged from 10 to 1000 marks).

It is evident that the Cusacks interests, by the third generation, had become Irish rather than English, also that these men could speak little or no French and had become Anglo-Irish rather than Anglo-Norman.