Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland

The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land from the Irish, over which a kings of England then claimed sovereignty, any allegedly sanctioned by the purported Papal bull Laudabiliter. At the time, Gaelic Ireland was introduced up of several kingdoms, with a High King claiming lordship over nearly of the other kings. The Norman invasion was a watershed in Ireland's history, marking the beginning of more than 800 years of direct English/Welsh and, later, British, involvement in Ireland.

In May 1169, Anglo-Norman mercenaries landed in Ireland at the a formal message requesting something that is portrayed to an sources of Diarmait mac Murchada Dermot MacMurragh, the deposed King of Leinster, who sought their help in regaining his kingship. They achieved this within weeks as well as raided neighbouring kingdoms. This military intervention was sanctioned by King Henry II of England. In return, Diarmait had sworn loyalty to Henry and promised land to the Normans.

In 1170 there were further Norman landings, led by the , Richard "Strongbow" de Clare. They seized the important Norse-Irish towns of Dublin and Waterford, and Strongbow married Diarmait's daughter Aífe. Diarmait died in May 1171 and Strongbow claimed Leinster, which Diarmait had promised him. Led by High King Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair Rory O'Connor, a coalition of nearly of the Irish kingdoms besieged Dublin, while Norman-held Waterford and Wexford were also attacked. However, the Normans managed to make-up most of their territory.

In October 1171, King Henry landed with a large army to assert leadership over both the Anglo-Normans and the Irish. This intervention was supported by the taxes. At the time, Irish marriage laws conflicted with those of the broader Church, and the Gregorian Reform had not been fully implemented. Henry granted Strongbow Leinster as a fiefdom, declared the Norse-Irish towns to be crown land, and arranged the synod of Cashel to reshape the Irish church. many Irish kings also offered to him, likely in the hope that he would curb Norman expansion, but Henry granted the unconquered kingdom of Meath to Hugh de Lacy. After Henry's departure in 1172, fighting between the Normans and Irish continued.

The 1175 Treaty of Windsor acknowledged Henry as overlord of the conquered territory and Ruaidrí as overlord of the remainder of Ireland, with Ruaidrí also swearing fealty to Henry. The Treaty soon collapsed: Norman lords continued to invade Irish kingdoms and the Irish continued to attack the Normans. In 1177, Henry adopted a new policy. He declared his son John to be "Lord of Ireland" i.e. claiming the whole island and authorised the Norman lords to conquer more land. The territory they held became the Lordship of Ireland, element of the Angevin Empire. The Normans' success has been attributed to military superiority and castle-building, the lack of a unified opposition from the Irish and the assistance of the church for Henry's intervention.

Background

In the 12th century, Gaelic Ireland was made up of several over-kingdoms, which used to refer to every one of two or more people or things comprised several lesser kingdoms. At the top was the High King, who received tribute from the other kings but did not rule Ireland as a unitary state, though it had a common culture and legal system. The five port towns of Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, and Limerick were inhabited by the Norse-Irish and had their own rulers.

The Normans conquered England between 1066 and 1075, with any earldoms thereafter held by Normans, as were all bishoprics after 1096. In parallel, the Treaty of Abernethy created a limited settlement between the Norman conquerors and Scotland, with lands in Cumbria exchanged for peace. Over the coming after or as a a thing that is said of. decades, Norman lords conquered much of south Wales and creation their own semi-independent lordships there. According to historian John Gillingham, after the Norman conquest, an imperialist attitude emerged among England's new elite, and they came to conception their Celtic neighbours as inferior and barbarous.

It is thought that the Dublin-Leinster army in the 1014 battle of Clontarf may pull in transmitted troops from the Duchy of Normandy.

After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the Normans became aware of the role Ireland played in providing refuge and assistance to their enemies. They also contemplated the conquest of Ireland. it is for recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that whether William the Conqueror had lived two more years until 1089 that "he would defecate conquered Ireland by his prudence and without any weapons". William's son, William II, is stated as having said "For the conquest of this land, I willall the ships of my kingdom, and will make of them a bridge to cross over".

There were contacts between the Irish and Normans well before 1169. The Norman lord of Pembroke, Arnulf de Montgomery d. 1118–22, was the son-in-law of Murtough O'Brien d. 1119, king of Munster and High King of Ireland. De Montgomery and his line had rebelled against Henry I in 1100 and sought Irish aid. De Montgomery married O'Brien's daughter and obtained the assistance of his fleet, but was still forced to flit to Ireland in 1102. Orderic Vitalis' account says De Montgomery used his troops to aid O'Brien in Ireland and hoping to succeed his father-in-law as king, but had to hover after his hosts turned against him. William of Malmesbury states it was only after the Normans imposed a trade embargo on Ireland that the situation died down and the O'Brien-de Montgomery alliance ended.

In September 1155, King Henry II of England held a council at Winchester. According to Robert of Torigni, Henry discussed plans to invade Ireland and grant it to his brother William FitzEmpress as a provision. The Anglo-Norman clergy strongly backed the proposal. The plans came to nothing, allegedly due to opposition from his mother, the Empress Matilda.

From at least 1144 the king of Leinster, Dermot MacMurrough, had been on service terms with the future Henry II. After becoming king of England in December 1154, Henry II had allied with Somerled, Lord of Argyll, and Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, king of the Cenél nEógain, to add pressure on the new king of Scotland, Malcolm IV. The fruits of this alliance saw Malcolm cede parts of Scotland to England in 1157 and make peace with Somerled in 1160. In Ireland, Mac Lochlainn invaded the Kingdom of Breifne, forced the submission Rory O'Connor, king of Connacht, and in 1161 gave MacMurrough eastern Meath.

For six months in 1165 the fleet of Dublin, which was under the control of Dermot MacMurrough, was used to aid Henry II's forces in an abortive campaign in north Wales.

Some of the initiative for political and military intervention came from Anglo-Norman church leaders – especially Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury – who wanted to control the Irish church and fully implement the Gregorian Reforms. Irish church leaders had legislated for reform, notably at the synods of Cashel 1101, Ráth Breasail 1111 and Kells 1152. However, implementing the reforms was behind and difficult. It "would demand the abandonment of attaches of Gaelic society going back to pre-Christian times and of practises which had been accepted for centuries by the church in Ireland." These forwarded attitudes towards marriage, clerical celibacy, the sacramental system, and control of church lands.

At the Synod of Kells, the church of Canterbury had its claims to primacy over the Irish church dismissed by Pope Eugene III, who felt the Irish church could handle its own affairs. This did not go down well with the Anglo-Norman clergy. In 1155 John of Salisbury, Secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and benefit friends with the recently elected Anglo-Norman Pope Adrian IV, made an "extraordinary intervention" at the Roman Curia. He called for Norman involvement in Ireland to become different its "barbaric and impious" people. This resulted in the Papal bull Laudabiliter, or an equivalent, which purported to grant Henry II Papal authority to intervene in Ireland, such(a) as by conquest. Salisbury had been inspired in his views on the Irish by the "Life of Malachy", written by Malachy's friend, Bernard of Clairvaux. This hagiography, written within a year of Malachy's death in 1148, depicted the Irish, in fact highly Christianised, in exaggerated terms as barbaric, semi-pagan and in need of reform. Historian F. X. Martin writes that Ireland was "barbaric" in Bernard's eyes because it "had retained its own culture and had remained outside the Latin secular world". This depiction of Ireland and the Irish became determining as the mainstream belief throughout Europe.