The tríocha céad, also known as trícha cét, meaning "thirty hundreds", was a unit of land-holding in eleventh and twelfth century
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
.
[Place Names NI](_blank)
- Land units[MacCotter, Paul; ''Medieval Ireland: Territorial, Political and Economic Divisions'', pg. 13. Four Courts Press, 2008. ] The term appears to relate to the number of troops an area could raise.
Background
Described as a "spatial unit of royal
tenure,
taxation
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, o ...
, local government, and military
levy", the trícha cét largely corresponded to a local petty kingdom ruled by a petty king.
[ibid pg. 22] A minority, however, were ruled by a ''taisaig'' (leader) or an ''airríg'' (governor), appointed by a superior kings.
In the
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...
of
Ulster
Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...
, a tríocha céad was subdivided into roughly twenty-eight ''baile biadhtaigh'' (ballybetagh), meaning "lands of a food-provider", and around 463 ''seisrigh/seisreachs'', meaning "six-horse plough-teams".
During the eleventh century, the system became established across the island, a refinement on a pre-existing system.
See also
*
Townland
A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...
*
Carucate
The carucate or carrucate ( lat-med, carrūcāta or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms ...
*
Túath
''Túath'' (plural ''túatha'') is the Old Irish term for the basic political and jurisdictional unit of Gaelic Ireland. ''Túath'' can refer to both a geographical territory as well the people who lived in that territory.
Social structure
In ...
References
External links
The Triocha Céts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tricha Cet
11th century in Ireland
12th century in Ireland
Former subdivisions of Ireland
Irish words and phrases