Henry granted Hugh de Lacy "the land of Meath in as full a measure as Murchadh Ó Maoilsheachlainn or anyone before or after him held it." The technical name of this grant was a Liberty and it meant that, within his Liberty, de Lacy’s power of jurisdiction was equal to that of the king himself with one reservation, that the king could dispose of Church lands anywhere. The person enjoying such liberal delegation of royal jurisdiction was known as a Count and the territory over which he ruled was called a county. One of the privileges of a Count Palatinate, such as de Lacy in this case, was that he could create barons or inferior lords who held their land from the Count. Some time after 1196, the son of Hugh de Lacy, named Walter, granted "the whole land of Rathtowth" to his younger brother, Hugh. Hence we have now the sub-division of the county Meath named the Barony of Ratoath and it has the distinction of being perhaps the first instance that the term, barony, was used in Ireland for a division of a county.
