kern

kern (Ir. ceithearn, ‘a warband’). Although the Irish word is a collective, with an individual member of the troop being described as a ceitheamach, the Anglo‐Irish used the word both for a band of lightarmed native Irish mercenary soldiers and for the individual members of such a band. In pre‐Norman times, ceithearn might describe a band of fianna, young men who left their homes to join a warrior cult, but from the last years of the 12th century onwards kerns are small freelance bands of mercenaries, typically numbering around 20, organized under their own captains, who wander the countryside looking for military employment, and meanwhile intimidate peasants into offering them hospitality. Fighting without armour or helmets, often equipped only with a sword and a bunch of wooden throwing‐darts, kerns were not suited to pitched battles, but were chiefly employed in harrying civilian populations, burning houses, and plundering cattle. In the mid‐14th century accounts of the justiciar Ralph Ufford these troops were paid a mere penny a day, where foot archers earned twopence. They were, however, indispensable in Irish conditions and formed the bulk of the rank and file in any Irish army.

Katharine Simms