Lords, Land and Labourers

From Hugh de Lacy’s effective conquest of Meath in the 1170s and the establishment of Anglo-Norman power, through to the demise of what has been termed the ‘landed aristocracy’ at the beginning of the twentieth century, the county’s history has been shaped by the struggle for land and the wealth and power that it confers. The system of landed estates that evolved through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was marked by both continuity and change. This collection of pieces from historians and academics explores this fascinating aspect of the long history of Meath.