his arrival finding the Irish had retreated, and having nowhere to
lodge, he pursued them and killed a hundred and fifty.
Giraldus states that the castle was rebuilt by Raymond le Gros, who had
marched to its relief with Strongbow, having joined the expedition on
the day of his marriage.
King John stayed at Trim, but he did not lodge in the castle, although
one of the towers is called after him, and his signet ring is said to
have been found in the enclosure.
In 1215 letters were sent from the King to Thomas Fitzadam to surrender
the castle, and five years later it was restored by William Peppard,
Lord of Tabor.
At this time Meath was wasted by the quarrels between William, Earl
Marshal, and Sir Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster.
There was an order in 1224 from Henry III. to the Lord Justice to allow
Walter de Lacy to occupy a hall, rooms, and chambers in the castle. The
same year the fortress was besieged.
De Lacy died in 1241, and through the female line the castle passed
into the hands of Roger Mortimer, who landed in Ireland in 1308 and
took possession.
Upon the invasion of Edward Bruce, Mortimer fled to Dublin, and Lord
Walter Cusacke occupied Trim.
Orders for repairing the great hall were issued in 1326, and it was
most likely at this time that the two arches which formerly crossed the
northern division of the keep were erected, for when they fell in 1820
the plaster showed they had been added after the walls were built.
In 1330 Edward III. granted to Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, the
moiety of Meath and the privileges exercised in Trim Castle. He was
hanged as a traitor the same year, but Trim was restored to his widow.
Roger, Earl of March, was killed by the Irish in 1398, and the next
year Richard II. landed at Waterford to avenge his cousin’s death, with
Humphrey, son of the Duke of Gloucester and Henry (afterwards Henry
V.), son of the Duke of Lancaster. The boys he brought with him as
hostages, and upon returning to England he left them as prisoners in
Trim Castle. A very small steel spur, inlaid with silver, was found in
the castle yard in 1836, which may have belonged to one of the princes.
In 1400 Henry IV. appointed a custodian to the late Earl of March’s
records at Trim and elsewhere. At this time the castle was in his
hands owing to the minority of the heir.
The Privy Council in England (1403) notified to the King that the
castle was in a most dilapidated condition.
From this time forward Parliaments were continually held at Trim, while
in 1418 the Earl of Kildare, Sir Christopher Preston, and John Bedlow
were imprisoned in the castle.
Four years later Richard Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, resided in the
fortress, and in 1425 Edmund, Earl of March, died there while Lord
Deputy.
But, perhaps, the most palmy days of Trim Castle were in 1449, when
Richard, Duke of York, came to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, and held his
court there.
The mint was opened in 1460, and the following year Christopher Fox was
appointed Comptroller.
A Parliament held at Trim in 1465 enacted that any one discovered
robbing might be killed, and in Meath their heads were to be sent
to the Portreffe of the town of Trim, to be put on the castle wall.
Several skulls have been found in the moat.
In 1495 an Act of Parliament passed at Drogheda provided that only
Englishmen should be constables of Trim and the other principal castles.
The liberty and lordship of Trim were at this time annexed to the Crown
for ever.
In 1541 an order was issued to restore the castle, half the cost of
which was to be paid by the country.
A grant was made to Sir James Carroll, Lord Mayor of Dublin, in 1610,
to build upon the ruins of the castle a house for the King, and also a
jail within the castle enclosure.
Colonel Fenwicke occupied the fortress with a regiment of foot and some
troops of horse in 1647. It was in the Royalists’ hands until the fall
of Drogheda, in 1649, and the garrison disobeyed the Duke of Ormond’s
instructions to destroy the place before letting it fall into the
hands of Sir Charles Coote and his army.
It is stated that the yellow steeple near having been treacherously
delivered into the hands of the Cromwellians, was used as a vantage
point to make the castle untenable, and that afterwards when the
Governor of the castle was reinstated he had one side of the tower
blown up. It was in a sally from the town of Trim that Sir Charles
Coote lost his life.
It is reported Cromwell-spent one night in the castle, but there is no
evidence that this is the case.
Adam Loftus sold the castle to Sir James Shean in 1666, and it seems
to have been in military occupation in 1690. The whole property was
purchased by the Wellesleys, who afterwards sold it to Colonel Leslie.
It is now in Lord Dunsany’s possession.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
R. Butler, “Castle of Trim.”
W. Wilde, “The Boyne and Blackwater.”
E. Evans, “Trim.”
P. Joyce, “Irish Place Names.”
_Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row, London._