Early history The
Gaelic Kingdom of Leinster before 1171, considerably smaller than the present-day province, usually did not include certain territories such as
Meath, or the
Viking cities of
Wexford and
Dublin. The first part of the
name Leinster derives from , the name of a major
tribe that once inhabited the area. The latter part of the name derives either from the
Irish or from the
Old Norse , both of which translate as 'land' or 'territory'. (Hugony the Great), who supposedly built the
hill fort of , near
Kilcullen in
County Kildare, united the tribes of Leinster. He is a likely, but uncertain, candidate as the first historical king of Laigin (Leinster) in the 7th century BC. Circa 175/185 AD, following a period of
civil wars in Ireland, the legendary re-founded the kingdom of Laigin. The legendary Finn Mac Cool, or , reputedly built a stronghold at the
Hill of Allen, on the edge of the
Bog of Allen. In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, after
Magnus Maximus had left
Britain in 383 AD with his
legions, leaving a power vacuum, colonists from Laigin settled in
North Wales, specifically in
Anglesey,
Carnarvonshire and
Denbighshire. In
Wales some of the Leinster-Irish colonists left their name on the
Llŷn Peninsula (in
Gwynedd), which derives its name from . In the 5th century, the emerging dynasties from
Connacht conquered areas of Westmeath, Meath and Offaly from the and of the Laigin. attempted to exact the (cattle-tribute) from the Laigin from that time, in the process becoming their traditional enemies. By the 8th century the rulers of Laigin had split into two dynasties: • Northern Leinster
dynasty: (d. 727), King of , and joint leader of the Laigin • Southern Leinster dynasty: (d. 738), King of , and joint leader of the Laigin After the death of the last Kildare-based King of Laigin, in 1042, the kingship of Leinster reverted to the
sept based in the southeast in present-day
County Wexford. This southern dynasty provided all the later
Kings of Leinster.
Kingdom of Ireland period Leinster includes the extended "
English Pale", counties controlled directly from Dublin, at the beginning of the 1600s. The other three provinces had their own regional "Presidency" systems, based on a Welsh model of administration, in theory if not in fact, from the 1570s and 1580s up to the 1670s, and were considered separate entities. Gradually "Leinster" subsumed the term "
The Pale", as the kingdom was
pacified and the difference between the old Pale area and the wider province, now also under English administration, grew less distinct. The expansion of the province took in the territory of the ancient
Kingdom of Mide encompassing much of present-day counties
Meath,
Westmeath and
Longford with five west
County Offaly baronies. Local lordships were incorporated during the
Tudor conquest of Ireland and subsequent
plantation schemes. Other boundary changes included
County Louth, officially removed from
Ulster in 1596, the baronies of
Ballybritt and
Clonlisk (formerly
Éile Uí Chearbhaill in the county palatine of
Tipperary) in
Munster becoming part of Leinster in 1606, and the 'Lands of
Ballymascanlon' transferred from Armagh to Louth . The provincial borders were redrawn by
Cromwell for administration and military reasons, and the Offaly parishes of
Annally and
Lusmagh, formerly part of
Connacht, were transferred in 1660. The last major boundary changes within Leinster occurred with the formation of
County Wicklow (1603–1606), from lands in the north of
Carlow (which previously extended to the sea) and most of southern Dublin. Later minor changes dealt with "islands" of one county in another. By the late 1700s, Leinster looked as shown in the above map of 1784. ==Geography and subdivisions==