The slave trade of Dublin, ninth to twelfth centuries

Abstract

From the ninth century, the taking of slaves was an integral part of Viking warfare. Though never the prime motive for raiding, it was a means of indicating defiance and was followed up by the extraction of ransom and tribute. Slave-trading with Scandinavia and Iceland developed slowly. In the eleventh century, when the Irish internal struggle for over-kingship escalated, the taking of slaves became a widespread phenomenon. Warring Irish kings sold prisoners of war in the Dublin slave-market and Dublin experienced a growing slave-trade with western Europe. In the second half of the eleventh century, there seems to have developed a specific Irish-Sea slave-market, but in the twelfth century Norman legislation against the slave-trade seems to have been effective and Dublin’s control of the Irish Sea was broken.

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