Who ruled over Ireland between 1002 and 1166?

I'm doctor Colin Beach.

I'm a senior lecturer in medieval history at the

University of Hope.

I'm an expert in medieval Britain in Ireland,

focusing particularly on the articulation of power and

interaction of peoples in these two islands.

Today, we're going to be looking at the English invasion of

Ireland.

I call it the English invasion because that's how the invaders

identified themselves.

That's how academics today, therefore referred to them.

And as we'll see in one of the lectures,

there are good reasons, for,

for positioning this within the history of Englishness.

The first lecture will focus on Ireland itself.

For too long histories of colonization have focused just

on the invaders and treated the areas that they conquered as

being, without history or in stasis before their arrival.

And so to combat that,

we're going to first look at Ireland before the invasion.

Ireland before the English invasion was divided politically.

There were many different kings,

ruling small kingdoms throughout the island.

In the twelfth century,

the English observer William of Nubra observed that early

Ireland was quite like early Britain in this division

amongst different kingdoms.

From at least the seventh century, however,

the intellectuals of Ireland developed theories of socio,

social cultural unity.

That is to say,

the language of Ireland Irish was regularized,

by around the year eight hundred as old Irish.

That meant that the Irish that was spoken in the north of the

island was quite similar to that spoken in the south.

That was, very early for the middle ages.

In addition,

genealogies and histories taught that the people of

Ireland came from the same ancestor named Mil Espania,

who had traveled to Ireland from Spain.

So everyone in Ireland at least theoretically was related to everyone else.

They were unified as a people.

In addition to that, Irish jurists who are working outside

of, King's courts developed laws,

which they said had applicability throughout the island.

So you had this body of Irish law.

They said was to be,

was to be done because it was the custom and law of Ireland

that helped to construct an Irish identity.

All of this, however,

was done without an Irish king at the very top of the system.

So this is quite different than in England, France, or Germany,

where such community community construction handed to follow

the rule of one king who then imposed it upon the kingdom that they ruled.

In Ireland, it was done,

from the bottom up.

Now that's not to say that community construction was

devoid of a political or indeed religious, angle.

From the seventh century,

parallel ideological programs sought to have the O'Neil

Kingch of Tara recognized as the theoretical kinship of all

Ireland and for Arman to be seen as the head of the church in Ireland.

That was more or less successful,

and and we could tell that because, rivals to the kings,

to the O'Neil kings,

never sought to say that they shouldn't be kings of Ireland,

that there shouldn't be a king of Ireland,

but rather that their own dynasties,

the the Dalkash in in Monster, for instance,

should be kings of Ireland.

Though Neil managed to keep their monopoly on the kingship

of all Ireland for a time until the early eleventh

century when Brian Burroux from the Dalkash in in Monster broke that,

monopoly by defeating the O'Neil King and claiming all of

Ireland for himself.

He went to Arma and recognized Arma as the head

of the church of Ireland.

So this which which then gained him the legitimacy of the church.

So it's very important to understand that the idea of a

kingship of all Ireland was unified with the idea of a

church of all Ireland.

Now, Brian even went so far as to call himself imperator

Scatorum, the emperor of the Irish,

and he might have looked overseas towards Scotland,

But that's not what's important right now.

What's important is that when Brian died,

none of his sons could inherit his his kingdom,

and so the kingship of Ireland was opened to any who were

strong enough to take it.

So it went from, from king to king, depending upon who was

able to, get enough support for their kingship.

On the eve of the English invasion, the, the king of

Ireland, Mirkhetoch Maclachlan, died in eleven sixty six.

Some say that he was killed by his own men,

but this this allowed the king of Conoch a regional province

to become King of Ireland with his own supporters help.

This spell disaster for one of Markatuck, the old king,

supporters, Durham McMurah, the king of Lenster.

The new king of Ireland,

Rory O'Connor's followers attacked Durham for having

supported the Old king and drove him into exile overseas.

This was nothing new.

Irish kings had been driven out of their home provinces,

their home kingdoms before And Durham had a few things that he

could, do in order to get his kingdom back.

What he ultimately decided to do was to go to England to get

help from the king of England, Henry the second.

Durham was no stranger to the king of England,

Henry the second.

When Henry was trying to get his own kingdom, England,

in the eleven forties,

he had recruited mercenaries from Lenster via Dublin and the

Port of Bristol.

You see Dublin, was controlled by Lenster at this point,

and it had a thriving trade with the English ports of

Bristol and Chester.

So, henry the second, when he was trying to capture England,

recruited heavily from Ireland for that case.

More recently in eleven sixty five, Henry had even,

hired the fleet of the fleet of Dublin for his attack on Wales

when he tried to conquer Wales.

He had to have Durham's permission to do that,

and so the following year, in eleven sixty six,

Durham thought Turnabout was fair play.

He sailed to England to ask Henry the second for help.