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Lordship of Ireland | |||||||||
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| 1177–1542 | |||||||||
 The Lordship of Ireland (pink) in 1300. Gaelic Kingdoms (beige) in 1300. | |||||||||
| Status | Papal possession held infief by theKing of England | ||||||||
| Capital | Dublin (1177–1361; from 1394) Carlow (1361–94)[b] | ||||||||
| Common languages |
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| Religion | Roman Catholic Judaism (until 1290) | ||||||||
| Government | Feudal monarchy | ||||||||
| Lord | |||||||||
• 1177–1216 | John (first) | ||||||||
• 1509–1542 | Henry VIII (last) | ||||||||
| Lord Lieutenant | |||||||||
• 1177–1181 | Hugh de Lacy (first) | ||||||||
• 1529–1534 | Henry FitzRoy (last) | ||||||||
| Legislature | Parliament | ||||||||
| House of Lords | |||||||||
| House of Commons | |||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
• Established | May 1177 | ||||||||
| June 1542 | |||||||||
| Currency | Irish pound | ||||||||
| ISO 3166 code | IE | ||||||||
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| Today part of |
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TheLordship of Ireland (Irish:Tiarnas na hÉireann), sometimes referred to retrospectively asAnglo-Norman Ireland, was the part of Ireland ruled by the King ofEngland (styled as "Lord of Ireland") and controlled by loyalAnglo-Norman Lords between1177 and 1542. The lordship was created following theAnglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169–1171. It was apapal fief, granted to thePlantagenetkings of England by theHoly See, viaLaudabiliter. As the Lord of Ireland was also the King of England, he was represented locally by agovernor, variously known as the Justiciar, Lieutenant, Lord Lieutenant or Lord Deputy.
The kings of England claimed lordship over the whole island, but in reality the king's rule only ever extended to parts of the island. The rest of the island – referred to subsequently asGaelic Ireland – remained under the control of variousGaelic Irish kingdoms orchiefdoms, who were often at war with the Anglo-Normans.
The area under English rule and law grew and shrank over time, and reached its greatest extent in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The lordship then went into decline, brought on by itsinvasion by Scotland in 1315–1318, theGreat Famine of 1315–1317, and theBlack Death of the 1340s. The fluid political situation and Normanfeudal[6] system allowed a great deal of autonomy for the Anglo-Norman lords in Ireland, who carved out earldoms for themselves and had almost as much authority as some of the native Gaelic kings. Some Anglo-Normans becameGaelicised and rebelled against the English administration. The English attempted to curb this by passing theStatutes of Kilkenny (1366), which forbade English settlers from taking up Irish law, language, custom and dress. The period ended with the creation of theKingdom of Ireland in 1542.
The authority of the Lordship of Ireland's government was seldom extended throughout the island of Ireland at any time during its existence but was restricted tothe Pale aroundDublin, and some provincial towns, includingCork,Limerick,Waterford,Wexford and their hinterlands. It owed its origins to the decision of a Leinster dynast, Diarmait Mac Murchada (Diarmuid MacMorrough), to bring in a Norman knight based in Wales,Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (alias 'Strongbow'), to aid him in his battle to regain his throne, after being overthrown by a confederation led by the newIrish High King (the previous incumbent had protected MacMurrough).Henry II of England invaded Ireland to control Strongbow, who he feared was becoming a threat to the stability of his own kingdom on its western fringes (there had been earlier fears that Saxon refugees might use either Ireland or Flanders as a base for a counter-offensive after 1066); much of the laterPlantagenet consolidation ofSouth Wales was in furtherance of holding open routes to Ireland.
From 1155 Henry claimed thatPope Adrian IV had given him authorisation to reform the Irish church by assuming control of Ireland. Religious practices and ecclesiastical organisation in Ireland had evolved divergently from those in areas of Europe influenced more directly by theHoly See, although many of these differences had been eliminated or greatly lessened by the time the bull was issued in 1155.[7] Further, the formerIrish church had never sent its dues ("tithes") to Rome. Henry's primary motivation for invading Ireland in 1171 was to control Strongbow and other Norman lords. In the process he accepted thefealty of theGaelic kings at Dublin in November 1171 and summoned theSynod of Cashel in 1172, this bringing the Irish Church into conformity with English and European norms.
In 1175 theTreaty of Windsor was agreed by Henry andRuaidrí Ua Conchobair,High King of Ireland.[8]
The popes asserted the right to grant sovereignty over islands to different monarchs on the basis of theDonation of Constantine (now known to be a forgery). Doubts were cast by eminent scholars onLaudabiliter itself in the 19th century, but it had been confirmed by the letters ofPope Alexander III. The Papal power to grant also fell within the remit ofDictatus papae (1075–1087). WhileLaudabiliter had referred to the "kingdom" of Ireland, the Papacy was ambiguous about continuing to describe it as a kingdom as early as 1185.
Having captured a small part of Ireland on the east coast, Henry used the land to solve a dispute dividing his family. For he had divided his territories between his sons, with the youngest being nicknamedJohan sanz Terre (in English, "John Lackland") as he was left without lands to rule. At theOxford parliament in May 1177, Henry replacedWilliam FitzAldelm and granted John his Irish lands, so becoming Lord of Ireland (Dominus Hiberniae) in 1177 when he was 10 years old, with the territory being known in English as the Lordship of Ireland.
Henry had wanted John to be crowned King of Ireland on his first visit in 1185, butPope Lucius III specifically refused permission, citing the dubious nature of a claim supposedly provided by Pope Adrian IV years earlier.[9]Dominus (usually translated 'lord') was the usual title of a king who had not yet been crowned, suggesting that it was Henry's intention. Lucius then died while John was in Ireland, and Henry obtained consent fromPope Urban III and ordered a crown of gold andpeacock feathers for John. In late 1185 the crown was ready, but John's visit had by then proved a complete failure, so Henry cancelled the coronation.[10]
Following the deaths of John's older brothers he became King of England in 1199, and so the Lordship of Ireland, instead of being a separate country ruled by a junior Norman prince, came under the direct rule of theAngevin crown. In the legal terminology of John's successors, the "lordship of Ireland" referred to thesovereignty vested inthe Crown of England; the corresponding territory was referred to as the "land of Ireland".[11]
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The Lordship thrived in the 13th century during theMedieval Warm Period, a time of warm climate and better harvests. Thefeudal system was introduced, and theParliament of Ireland first sat in 1297. Some counties were created byshiring, while walled towns and castles became a feature of the landscape. But little of this engagement with mainstream European life was of benefit to those the Normans called the "mere Irish". "Mere" derived from the Latinmerus, meaning "pure". Environmental decay and deforestation continued unabated throughout this period, being greatly exacerbated by the English newcomers and an increase in population.
The Norman élite and churchmen spoke Norman French and Latin. Many poorer settlers spoke English, Welsh, and Flemish. The Gaelic areas spoke Irish dialects. TheYola language ofCounty Wexford was a survivor of the early English dialects. TheKildare Poems of c. 1350 are a rare example of humorous local culture written in Middle English.
The Lordship suffered invasion from Scotland byEdward Bruce in 1315–1318, which destroyed much of the economy and coincided with thegreat famine of 1315–1317. Theearldom of Ulster ended in 1333, and theBlack Death of 1348–1350 impacted more on the town-dwelling Normans than on the remainingGaelic clans. The Norman and English colonists exhibited a tendency to adopt much of the native culture and language, becoming "Gaelicized" or in the words of some "more Irish than the Irish themselves". In 1366 theStatute of Kilkenny tried to keep aspects of Gaelic culture out of the Norman-controlled areas albeit in vain. As the Norman lordships became increasingly Gaelicized and made alliances with native chiefs, whose power steadily increased, crown control slowly eroded.
Additionally, thePlantagenet government increasingly alienated the Irish chiefs and people on whom they often relied for their military strength. It had been a common practice for the Norman lordships as well as government forces to recruit the native Irish who were allied to them or living in English controlled areas (i.e.Leinster includingMeath andOssory,Munster and some parts ofConnacht). This was easy to do as the native Irish had no great sense of national identity at that time and were prone tomercenarism and shifting alliances. But the Irish chiefs became increasingly alienated by the oppressive measures of the English government and began openly rebelling against the crown. Some of the more notable among those clans who had formerly cooperated with the English but became increasingly alienated until turning openly anti-Norman and a thorn in the side of the Dublin administration were theO'Connor Falys, theMacMurrough-Kavanagh dynasty (Kingdom of Leinster), theByrnes and theO'Mores ofLeix. These clans were able to successfully defend their territories against English attack for a very long time through the use of asymmetrical guerrilla warfare and devastating raids into the lands held by the colonists. Additionally, the power of native chiefs who had never come under English domination such as theO'Neills and theO'Donnells increased steadily until these became once again major power players on the scene of Irish politics. Historians refer to a Gaelic revival or resurgence as occurring between 1350 and 1500, by which time the area ruled for the Crown – "the Pale" – had shrunk to a small area aroundDublin.
Between 1500 and 1542 a mixed situation arose. Mostclans remained loyal to the Crown most of the time, at least in theory, but using a Gaelic-style system of alliances based on mutual favours, centered on theLord Deputy who was usually the currentEarl of Kildare. TheBattle of Knockdoe in 1504 saw such a coalition army fight theBurkes in Galway. However, a rebellion by the 9th Earl's heirSilken Thomas in 1535 led on to a less sympathetic system of rule by mainlyEnglish-born administrators. The end of this rebellion andHenry VIII's seizure of the Irishmonasteries around 1540 led on to his plan to create anew kingdom based on the existingparliament.
English monarchs continued to use the title "Lord of Ireland" to refer to their position of conquered lands on the island of Ireland. The title was changed by theCrown of Ireland Act passed by theIrish Parliament in 1542 when, on Henry VIII's demand, he was granted a new title,King of Ireland, with the state renamed theKingdom of Ireland. Henry VIII changed his title because the Lordship of Ireland had been granted to the Norman monarchy by the Papacy; Henry had been excommunicated by the Catholic Church and worried that his title could be withdrawn by theHoly See. Henry VIII also wanted Ireland to become a full kingdom to encourage a greater sense of loyalty amongst his Irish subjects, some of whom took part in his policy ofsurrender and regrant. To provide for greater security, aRoyal Irish Army was established.
QueenMary I, one of Henry VIII's daughters, would take the English throne in 1553. As a Catholic, she sought to smooth relations with the Pope.Pope Paul IV would grantPhilip II of Spain (Mary's husband) and Mary the title of King and Queen of Ireland in 1555, endorsing the position that the Tudors were indeed the rightful Irish monarchy.[12] This grant would not work as Paul IV had expected, as Mary died in 1558 and was succeeded as Queen of England and Ireland by her half-sister Elizabeth I, a Protestant.
The government was based in Dublin, but the members of Parliament could be summoned to meet anywhere, whether Dublin or Kilkenny:
The insignia of Ireland have variously been given by early writers. In the reign of Edward IV, a commission appointed to enquire what were the arms of Ireland found them to be 'three crowns in pale'. It has been supposed that these crowns were abandoned at the Reformation, from an idea that they might denote the feudal sovereignty of the pope, whose vassal the king of England was, as lord of Ireland
1175: Treaty of Windsor between Ruaidri Ua Conchobhair, high-king, and Henry II. 1183: Ruaidri Ua Conchobhair deposed.
| Preceded by | Lordship of Ireland | Succeeded by |
FormerBritish Empire and currentBritish Overseas Territories | |||||||
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![Coat of arms[a] of Ireland](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aCoat_of_arms_of_the_Lordship_of_Ireland.svg)
