The priory of Llanthony Prima and Secunda in Ireland, 1172–1541

Lands, patronage and politics

Arlene Hogan

 ‘[The author] paints a picture of medieval Ireland, its knights, lords and churchmen over a period of four centuries until its dissolution, giving us an insight into the workings of English controlled Ireland’, Books Ireland (April 2008).

‘The publication in 1953 of The Irish Cartularies of Llanthony Prima & Secunda, edited by Eric St John Brooks, the Irish Manuscripts Commission, made available a valuable new primary source for ecclesiastical and local historians in counties Meath, Westmeath, Louth, Dublin and Wicklow ... This edition was provided to help the interested amateur, but an excellent index indicated inaccessible contents. Now, fifty-five years later, the doors are thrown wide open to all with the appearance of The Priory of Llanthony Prima and Secunda in Ireland, 1172–1541. Here Arlene Hogan has provided a thorough and detailed study of the lands, patronage and politic, and has provided a complete translation of all the documents in Brook’s edition … The characters themselves have been given a new lease of life by their literate translation into English. They are accessible to historians and antiquarians who have not Latin, and Professor Brian Scott’s involvement is a guarantee of their reliability … Dr Hogan’s study has been deep and thorough: she as dealt comprehensively with her subject and has provided us with a great deal of information. The fine set of translations opens up much for other readers and researchers to discover for themselves. The is a welcome and useful publication!’, Anthony Lynch, County Louth Archaeological and Historical Journal (2008).

‘Historians of late medieval Ireland will warmly welcome the publication of this study of the Irish-related material contained in the surviving records of the two Augustinian houses of Llanthony in Wales and England … a book which medieval Irish history has needed for a long time, and one that should serve as an inspiration to future researchers’, Brendan Smith, EHR (August 2009).

'Given the vibrancy of current scholarship on the regular canons in the British Isles, this is a timely book … Arlene Hogan explores the establishment of the Augustinian priories of Llanthony Prima and Secunda, and the history of the settlement of the Irish estates on the canons. This is a rigorous and wide-ranging study that does much to illuminate the religious, political, tenurial and cultural development of important communities from their foundation to closure, as well as the patterns of grants in Ireland from c.1174 onwards … this study offers an accessible account of the relationship between the Llanthony houses and their Irish properties, and successfully explores the links between them and the benefactors in Ireland, particularly in terms of land and local politics. The full introduction is welcome for both a specialist and non-specialist reader … Hogan’s book adds significantly to similar studies of individual houses and ecclesiastical regions that consider the local significance of the relationship between patrons and benefactors in terms of land tenure, politics, family, and religious, social and cultural identity', Andrew Abram, Irish Historical Studies (May 2009).

‘Arlene Hogan is to be congratulated for making an important addition to our knowledge of Llanthony’s interest in Ireland that throws light on varied aspects of the English lordship in Ireland', Michael Staunton, Studia Hibernica (2008–9).

‘There is much of interest in Hogan’s study … [she] has produced a closely documented and detailed analysis of the Llanthony lands, which adds to our knowledge of the interaction between Ireland and Wales and the west of England', Janet Burton, Welsh History Review (June 2010).