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The Rise of Brian Boru
Ireland in the 10th century had been dominated by the power of the Uí Néill but, curiously, it was their own zealousness that led to the rise of their most effective opponent in the race for the High Kingship. In the mid 900s, the power of the dominant royal family in Munster, the Eóganacht, was being sapped by attacks from the Uí Néill. This allowed the Dál Cais who resided in the Shannon basin area of north Munster, to increase their dominance in the province. They were helped by the fact that the Shannon river was growing in importance with Viking trade.

In 976 Mathgamain, Lord of the Dál Cais, was assassinated by the Vikings of Limerick. The Vikings, who had converted to Christianity, ruled a territory around this settlement at the mouth of the Shannon. Although it was in the centre of Munster (see map), they were tolerated because they made little trouble and brought trade. However, this political act changed this. When Mathgamain's brother, Brian Bóruma (Brian Boru) succeeded him to become Lord of the Dál Cais, he wasted little time. Motivated by a desire for revenge for his brother's death, and undoubtedly a healthy dose of ambition as well, Brian Boru set about gaining power. Brian Boru is seen in an engraving on the left.

Brian Boru's first action was to attack the Vikings of Limerick. King Ímar of Limerick and his sons took refuge in the monastery of Scattery Island, but Brian Boru must have decided that he did not much care for sacred traditions. He broke into the sanctuary, slaughtered the Vikings and desecrated the church. Although only founded 50 years earlier, Limerick would remain in Munster's hands for the next two centuries. By 980 he had surpassed the Eóganacht and crowned himself King of Munster. Thirsty for more power, Brian Boru next formed a strategic alliance with the Vikings of Vadrefjord (Waterford) to penetrate his armies deep into Connacht and the relatively weak province of Leinster (Laigin) in the 980s.

Meanwhile, the Uí Néill became increasingly alarmed at the rise and rise of King Brian Boru of Munster and sought to limit his growth. During the 980s, King Máel Sechnaill 2nd of the Uí Néill tried various tactics, but by 997 came to the conclusion that he could not be lord over Boru. Therefore the two Kings held a meeting at Clonfert, within the Viking Kingdom of Dubhlinn and agreed to divide Ireland between them. Máel Sechnaill II granted Brian Boru effective High Kingship over Munster, Leinster and Dubhlinn and retained the allegiance of Connaught and his own province for himself.

However, not everyone accepted the arrangement. In 999, the Lords of Leinster and the Viking King of Dubhlinn revolted against his rule. Undeterred, Boru marched his armies back into Leinster and defeated them heavily at Glenn Máma. Descending on Dubhlinn at the height of winter, he attacked it, plundered the city and burned down its fortress. Eventually King Silkenbeard of Dubhlinn submitted to Brian Boru and, in the coming decade, was his supporter. In 1002, Máel Sechnaill II himself finally submitted to Boru. After this, Brian Boru set out to assert his control over the whole island. He made two circuits of the island in 1005 and 1006 when he penetrated the furthest reaches of the Kingdom of the Uí Néill. His power seemed almost complete.

The Battle of Clontarf
Perhaps tragically, Brian Boru was killed at the moment when he was about to realise his dream of becoming the true High King of Ireland. The dream had begun to unravel in 1013 when it became clear that it was only Brian Boru's military might, not any kind of allegiance, that was holding his islandwide kingdom together. When the lords of Leinster and the Viking King of Dubhlinn held a second revolt, this was accompanied by general anti-Boru discontent in the rest of Ireland. Boru had his armies despoil the Leinster countryside as far as the Wicklow mountains before laying siege to the city of Dubhlinn itself for 4 months. But the Vikings held out, and when they had not submitted by Christmas the weather forced Boru to retreat. Knowing Boru would return in the spring, angrier than ever, the Leinstermen and the Vikings spent the winter frantically rallying support from western Scotland and the Isle of Man and amassed an army in the city.

Brian Boru did indeed return, with his armies, in 1014. The two armies met at Clontarf, a fertile plain with a Monastery to the north-east of Dubhlinn. (Today the battle site is beneath the northern suburbs of Dublin city.) The battle was extremely bloody with several thousand men killed and, in the event, Brian Boru's army won and most of the Vikings took to their boats and retreated to the Isle of Man. However, Brian himself was killed (legends say he was hacked to death by an axe-wielding Viking who sneaked into his tent). In legend, the Battle of Clontarf has become one of the most famous in Irish history because it is seen as part of a national struggle, marking the expulsion of the Viking invader. However, it was probably not significant in that way: the power of the Vikings was already in decline after 980 and were being absorbed by the Irish. In reality, the battle actually marks the failed attempt by Leinster and Dubhlinn to assert their independence from Munster.

Nevertheless, the power of the Vikings was broken for good at Clontarf, and the future of Dubhlinn was now definitely in Irish hands. Although the Vikings were allowed to rule Dubhlinn themselves for another 70 years, it had been becoming more hibernicised over the previous century. As a city it was large for its time, rich and important. Thus, during the 11th century Dublin became an important aquisition for any King with eyes on the High Kingship and, by the end of the 1000's it had overtaken Tara to become the de-facto capital of the island. Dublin thrived and remained a wealthy trading city. Excavations in the 1970s at Wood Quay in Dublin found incredibly well-preserved remains of a thriving Hiberno-Viking city. The picture on the left shows the remains of a house from this period uncovered at Wood Quay. (The site has since been largely destroyed by the construction of the widely- despised Dublin council headquarters, although key archaeology was completed in time.)

The 11th century saw Irish politics become more like that of the rest of Europe. Kings spend longer and longer away from home fighting battles, and so they had to employ staff to govern their Kingdoms. Individual regions, fortresses, and the few cities, were given governors to oversee the day-to-day management and the Kings began to set out laws and taxes across their entire realms. Warfare too was modernised. The Irish had long adopted Viking weapons such as long axes, but now they were utilising technology such as Cavalry and navies. These gave rises to new posts of office, such as Admirals and military Commanders. Most of these posts were held by subservient Lords from the King's own kingdom.

It also became more common to reward allegiance and encourage subservience by granting land to noblemen who were able to rule them as Lordships within the control of the King. For example, the King of Connacht made his son the Lord of Meath in the early 1100's, although he did not prove to be up to the task. Other land was given by charter to the church, although not always with purely divine motivations. In 1101, the King of Munster granted the fortress on the rock of Cashel to the church who promptly set up an Archbishop at the site.

The picture becomes clearer by the start of the 1100s. At this point there were four main Kingdoms in Ireland: Munster, ruled by the O'Brien dynasty, of whom Brian Boru was part; Connacht, ruled by the O'Connor dynasty; the Uí Néill (whose land was called Tir Eoghain), ruled by the Mac Lochlainn dynasty and Leinster, ruled by the Mac Murchada dynasty. From 1086 until 1114, the High Kingship was in dispute. King Muirchertach O'Brien of Munster was the most powerful, but King Domnall Mac Lochlainn of the Uí Néill was sufficiently strong to stop him becoming supremely powerful.

This all changed with the succession of Turlough O'Connor to the throne of Connacht. He immediately set about fortifying his Kingdom, building 'castles' around his borders and amassing a large army and navy. Between 1115 and 1131 he systematically destroyed the power of Munster, and then spent the rest of his reign trying to become High King of all Ireland. Upon his death in 1156, the task fell to his son, Rory O'Connor who had duly become King of Connacht. Rory knew that he had to capture Dublin in order to claim to be High King, but others had their eyes on Dublin too. The Kings of the remaining two provinces, King Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn of the Uí Néill and King Dairmait Mac Murchada of Leinster formed an alliance to make a rival bid for the High Kingship. While not achieving this goal, they did manage to hold Connacht's aggression at bay. They also managed to subdue Dublin itself, although it proved very difficult to control a city that did not wish to be controlled.

Although the weak partner in the alliance, Mac Murchada was able to use his powerful Northern allies to keep his enemies in Munster and Connacht at arms length. This all changed in 1166 when, in a stroke of fate, King Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn of the Uí Néill was assassinated by vassals from his own Kingdom. Suddenly without his northern ally, Mac Murchada was dangerously exposed and it is no surprise that the Dubliners wasted no time in pairing up with King O'Connor of Connacht to take their revenge. They easily captured Leinster and drove Dairmait Mac Murchada entirely out of Ireland. At this point, Mac Murchada appealed to the King of England for military assistance and thereby changed the course of Irish history.

There were those in Ireland who set about reforming the church, but additional help came from the church in Europe who had been busily reforming the French church. The Europe-wide revivial in Monasticism saw new Monastic orders bring Irish establishments under their control. The Cistercians were the first of the medieval orders to set up in Ireland, when St Malachy set up an abbey at Mellifont in 1142. Other orders would follow in the coming century founding new abbeys and taking over old ones.

The Archbishop of Canterbury in England wanted to assert control over the Irish church, and set about establishing links with the church in the influential former Viking city of Dublin. However, when the Irish church was reformed, over the course of three synods at Cashel (1101), Ráth Breasail (1111) and Kells-Mellifont (1152), the church was organised under an Archbishop placed at St Patrick's monastery at Armagh, much to Canterbury's displeasure - although the church in Dublin remained under Canterbury's control for some further time. The country was sorted into dioceses, church leaders had to obey stricter moral guidelines and the monasteries were stripped of much of their land. All in all, the reforms were at once a triumph and a disaster. A triumph because the church was now much less corrupt, but a disaster because it destroyed the basis of Irish learning, poetry and script.

The Normans were the descendants of Vikings who had settled in an area of northern France known as Normandy to this day. In a complex interplay of lines to the throne and broken promises, Duke William of Normandy decided the English throne was his. He invaded England in 1066, and through a series of battles, most notably at Hastings, took the throne and was crowned King William 1st of England, although he is better known as William the Conqueror. This was the phase in European history when all kings were seeking to expand, and England was no exception. Bordered to the north by the newly-united kingdom of Scotland, the King of England instead penetrated into Celtic Wales and, though inter-marriage and other means, controlled half of France by the mid 1100s. It is no surprise, therefore, that when the opportunity arose to spread his royal rule across the sea to Ireland, the English king took it.

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Related Topics:
Bookshop - Books on pre-Norman Ireland
Bookshop - General Irish history books

The Anglo-French
Invasion