ABSTRACT
s. Anglo-Norman lords, therefore, had to look farther afield for suitably skilled urban tenants. Equally significant is the wider economic context in which the conquest of Ireland occurred. The economic development of the Anglo-Norman lordships in Ireland was consequently an integral part of the original seignorial design: it was not simply a response to favourable trading conditions. While the primary function of the Norman manor in Ireland, with the exception of royal and ecclesiastical estates, was to provide a permanent garrison, there can be no doubt that Norman lords made careful provision for economic development. A combination of internal and external factors determined the shape of the Anglo-Norman settlement in Ireland. That the conquest of Ireland was haphazard, incomplete, and unevenly sustained—even in areas dominated by theAnglo-Normans—constitutes one of those rare points on which historians are generally agreed.
