 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "High King of Ireland" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| High King ofIreland | |
|---|---|
 Anachronistic depiction of High KingBrian Boru | |
| Details | |
| Style | Ardrí na hÉireann Rí Érenn Uile Imperator Scottorum |
| First monarch | Sláine mac Dela (mythical) Máel Sechnaill I (historical) |
| Last monarch | Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair |
| Formation | Prehistoric times |
| Abolition | 12th century AD |
| Residence | Hill of Tara |
High King of Ireland (Irish:Ardrí na hÉireann[ˈaːɾˠd̪ˠˌɾˠiːn̪ˠəˈheːɾʲən̪ˠ]) was a royal title inGaelic Ireland held by those who had, or who are claimed to have had, lordship over all ofIreland. The title was held by historical kings and was later sometimes assigned anachronously or to legendary figures.
Medieval and early modernIrish literature portrays an almost unbroken line of High Kings, ruling from theHill of Tara over a hierarchy of lesser kings, stretching back thousands of years. Modern historians believe this scheme was crafted in the 8th century from the various genealogical traditions of powerful dynasties, and intended to justify their status by projecting it far into the past.[1]John T. Koch explains: "Although thekingship of Tara was a special kingship whose occupants had aspirations towards supremacy among the kings of Ireland, in political terms it is unlikely that any king had sufficient authority to dominate the whole island before the 9th century".[2]
The concept of national kingship is first articulated in the 7th century, but only became a political reality in theViking Age, and even then not a consistent one.[3][4][5] While the High Kings' degree of control varied, they never ruled Ireland as apolitically unified state, as the High King was conceived of as an overlord exercisingsuzerainty over, and receiving tribute from, the independent kingdoms beneath him.[6]
Early Irish kingship wassacred in character.[7] In some early Irish sources, High Kings can gain their power through a marriage to, or sexual relationship with, asovereignty goddess. The High King is free from blemish, enforces symbolicbuada (prerogatives) and avoids symbolicgeasa (taboos).[8]
According to 7th- and 8th-century law tracts, a hierarchy of kingship and clientship progressed from therí tuaithe (king of a singlepetty kingdom) through theruiri (arí who was overking of several petty kingdoms) to arí ruirech (arí who was a provincial overking). (SeeRí.)
Each king ruled directly only within the bounds of his ownpetty kingdom and was responsible for ensuring good government by exercisingfír flaithemon (rulers' truth). His responsibilities included convening itsóenach (popular assembly), collecting taxes, building public works, external relations, defence, emergency legislation, law enforcement, and promulgating legal judgment.
The lands in a petty kingdom were heldallodially by variousfine (agnatic kingroups) of freemen. The king occupied the apex of a pyramid of clientship within the petty kingdom. This pyramid progressed from the unfree population at its base up to the heads of noblefine held in immediate clientship by the king. Thus the king was drawn from the dominantfine within thecenél (a wider kingroup encompassing the noblefine of the petty kingdom).
The kings of theUlster Cycle are kings in this sacred sense, but it is clear that the old concept of kingship coexisted alongsideChristianity for several generations.Diarmait mac Cerbaill, king of Tara in the middle of the 6th century, may have been the last king to have "married" the land. Diarmait died at the hands ofÁed Dub mac Suibni; some accounts from the following century state that he died by the mythicThreefold death appropriate to a sacral king.Adomnán'sLife tells how SaintColumba forecast the same death for Áed Dub. The same Threefold Death is said in a late poem to have befallen Diarmait's predecessor,Muirchertach macc Ercae, and even the usually reliableAnnals of Ulster record Muirchertach's death by drowning in a vat of wine.
A second sign that sacred kingship did not disappear with the arrival of Christianity is the supposed lawsuit betweenCongal Cáech, king of theUlaid, andDomnall mac Áedo. Congal was supposedly blinded in one eye by Domnall's bees, from whence his byname Cáech (half-blind or squinting), this injury rendering him imperfect and unable to remain High King. The enmity between Domnall and Congal can more prosaically be laid at the door of the rivalry between theUí Néill and the kings of Ulaid, but that a king had to be whole in body appears to have been accepted at this time.
The business of Irish succession is rather complicated because of the nature of kingship in Ireland before theNorman take-over of 1171. Ireland was divided into a multiplicity of kingdoms, with some kings owing allegiance to others from time to time, and succession rules (insofar as they existed) varied. Kings were often succeeded by their sons, but often other branches of the dynasty took a turn—whether by agreement or by force of arms is rarely clear. According to Bart Jaski, "historians who have ventured to...discover the rules of succession have disagreed with each other to a remarkable degree."[9] The king-lists and other early sources reveal little about how and why a particular person became king.
To add to the uncertainty, genealogies were often edited many generations later to improve an ancestor's standing within a kingdom, or to insert him into a more powerful kindred. The uncertain practices in local kingship cause similar problems when interpreting the succession to the high kingship.
The High King of Ireland was essentially a ceremonial, pseudo-federal overlord (where his over-lordship was even recognised), who exercised actual power only within the realm of which he was actually king. In the case of thesouthern branch of the Uí Néill, this would have been theKingdom of Meath (now the counties ofMeath,Westmeath and part ofCounty Dublin). High Kings from the northern branch ruled various kingdoms in what eventually became the province of Ulster.
In 1002, the high kingship of Ireland was wrested fromMael Sechnaill II of the southern Uí Néill byBrian "Boruma" mac Cennédig of theKingdom of Munster. Some historians have called this a "usurpation" of the throne.[10] Others have pointed out that no one had a strict legal right to the kingship[6] and that Brian "had as much right to the high throne as any Uí Neill and... displayed an ability sadly lacking amongst most of the Uí Néill who had preceded him."[11]
Brian was killed in theBattle of Clontarf in 1014. Mael Sechnaill II was restored to the High Kingship but he died in 1022.[12] From 1022 through theNorman take-over of 1171, the High Kingship was held alongside "Kings with Opposition".
Even at the time the law tracts were being written, these petty kingdoms were being swept away by newly emerging dynasties of dynamic overkings. The most successful of these early dynasties were theUí Néill (encompassing descendants ofNiall of the Nine Hostages, such as theCenél nEógain), who, as kings ofTara, had been conquering petty kingdoms, expelling their rulers, and agglomerating their territories under the direct rule of their expanding kindred since the fifth century.
Gaelic and foreign[citation needed], pagan and Christian ideas were comingled to form a new idea of Irish kingship. The native idea of a sacred kingship was integrated with the Christian idea in the ceremony ofcoronation, the relationship of king to overking became one oftigerna (lord) to king andimperium (sovereignty) began to merge withdominium (ownership).
TheChurch was well disposed to the idea of a strong political authority. Its clerics developed the theory of a high kingship of Ireland and wrote tracts exhorting kings to rule rather than reign. In return, theparuchiae (monastic federations) of the Irish church received royal patronage in the form of shrines, building works, land, and protection.
The concept of a high king was occasionally recorded in various annals, such as an entry regarding the death ofMáel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid in 862 in the Annals of Ulster, which lists him asrí Érenn uile (king of all Ireland), a title which his successorAed Finliath apparently never was granted. It is unclear what political reality was behind this title.[13]
By the twelfth century, the dual process of agglomeration of territory and consolidation of kingship saw the handful of remaining provincial kings abandoning the traditional royal sites for the cities, employing ministers and governors, receiving advice from anoireacht (a body of noble counsellors), presiding at reforming synods, and maintaining standing armies.
Early royal succession had been by alternation between collateral branches of the wider dynasty, but succession was now confined to a series of father/son, brother/brother and uncle/nephew successions within a small royalfine marked by an exclusive surname.
These compact families (theUí Briain of Munster, theMeic Lochlainn of the North, theUí Conchubhair of Connacht) intermarried and competed against each other on a national basis so that on the eve of theAnglo-Normanincursion of 1169 the agglomeration/consolidation process was complete and their provincial kingdoms divided, dismembered and transformed into fiefdoms held from (or in rebellion against) one of their number acting as king of Ireland.[14]