| Diarmait Mac Murchadha | |
|---|---|
| King of Leinster | |
 Diarmait as depicted in theExpugnatio Hibernica, c. 1189 | |
| King of Leinster in Ireland | |
| Reign | 1126–1171 |
| Predecessor | Enna mac Donnchada Mac Murchada |
| Successor | Domhnall Caomhánach mac Murchada |
| Born | c. 1110 Leinster, Ireland |
| Died | c. 1 May 1171 |
| Burial | |
| Spouse |
|
| Issue | |
| House | Uí Chennselaig |
| Father | Donnchadh mac Murchada |
| Mother | Orlaith ingen O'Braenain |
Diarmait Mac Murchada (Modern Irish:Diarmaid Mac Murchadha;anglicised asDermot MacMurrough orDermot MacMurphy;c. 1110 – c. 1 May 1171), wasKing of Leinster in Ireland from 1127 to 1171. In 1167, he was deposed by theHigh King of Ireland,Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair. To recover his kingdom, Mac Murchada solicited help from KingHenry II of England. His issue unresolved, he gained the military support of theRichard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (otherwise known as "Strongbow"), thus initiating theAnglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.
In exchange for his aid, Mac Murchada promised Strongbow the hand in marriage of his daughterAoife and the right to succeed to theKingship of Leinster. Henry II then mounted a largersecond invasion in 1171 to ensure his control over Strongbow, resulting in the NormanLordship of Ireland. Mac Murchada was later known asDiarmait na nGall (Irish for "Diarmait of the Foreigners"). He was seen in Irish history as the king that invited the first-ever wave ofAnglo-Norman settlers, who were planted by theNorman conquest.[1][2] The invasion had a great deal of impact onIrish Christianity, increasing the de facto ability of theHoly See to regulate Christianity in Ireland.
Diarmait was born around 1090[3] or 1110,[4][5] a son ofDonnchadh mac Murchada,King of Leinster andDublin, and Orlaith ingen O'Braenain. His father's paternal grandmother, Derbforgaill, was a daughter ofDonnchad, King of Munster and thus a granddaughter ofBrian Boru.[4][6] In 1115 his father attackedDomnall Gerrlámhach,King of Dublin, but died in the ensuing battle. The citizens of Dublin buried him with the carcass of a dog, considered to be a huge insult.
He had two wives (as allowed under theBrehon laws), the first of whom, Sadhbh Ní Faeláin, was mother of a daughter named Órlaith who marriedDomnall Mór, King ofMunster. His second wife, Mór ingen Muirchertaig, was mother ofAoife / Eva of Leinster and his youngest son Conchobar Mac Murchada. He also had two other sons,Domhnall Caomhánach mac Murchada and Énna Cennselach mac Murchada (blinded 1169). Diarmait is buried in the Cathedral graveyard ofFerns village.[7]
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After the death of his older brother,Énna Mac Murchada, Diarmait unexpectedly becameKing of Leinster. This was opposed by the thenHigh King of Ireland,Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair (Turlough O'Conor) who feared (rightly) that Mac Murchada would become a rival. Toirdelbach sent one of his allied kings,Tigernán Ua Ruairc (Tiernan O'Rourke) to conquer Leinster and oust the young Mac Murchada. Ua Ruairc went on a brutal campaign slaughtering the livestock of Leinster and thereby trying to starve the province's residents. Mac Murchada was ousted from his throne, but was able to regain it with the help of the Leinster clans in 1132. Afterwards followed two decades of uneasy peace between Ua Conchobair and Diarmait. In 1152 he even assisted the High King to raid the land of Ua Ruairc who had by then become a renegade.
Mac Murchada also is said to have abducted Ua Ruairc's wifeDerbforgaill (English:Dervorgilla) along with all her furniture and goods, with the aid of Derbforgaill's brother, a future pretender to thekingship of Meath. Other sources[who?] say that Derbforgaill was not an unwilling prisoner and that she remained inFerns with Mac Murchada in comfort for a number of years. Her advanced age indicates that she may have been a refugee or a hostage; in any case, she was under his protection. Whatever the reality, the "abduction" was given as a further reason or excuse for enmity between the two kings.
Asking of Leinster, in the years 1140–70 Diarmait commissioned theIrish Romanesque buildings of:
He sponsored convents (nunneries) atDublin (St Mary's, 1146), and around 1151 two more atAghade,County Carlow and atKilculliheen nearWaterford city. The abbey of St. Mary Del Hogge in Dublin was named after theHoggen Green or Haugr meaning gravesite in old Norse. This site later became 'College Green' after the Reformation and the establishment ofTrinity College. It's said that in the late 1600s that Viking graves were still to be seen at Hoggen Green.
He also sponsored the successful career of churchman St Lawrence O'Toole (Lorcán Ua Tuathail). He married O'Toole's half-sister Mor in 1153 and presided at thesynod ofClane in 1161 when O'Toole was installed asarchbishop ofDublin.[8]
In 1166, Ireland's High King and Mac Murchada's main allyMuirchertach Ua Lochlainn had fallen, and a large coalition led byTigernán Ua Ruairc (Mac Murchada's arch enemy) marched onLeinster. The newHigh KingRuaidrí Ua Conchobair deposed Mac Murchada from the throne of Leinster. Mac Murchada fled to Wales and from there to England and France seeking the support ofHenry II of England in the recruitment of soldiers to reclaim his kingship. Henry authorised Diarmait to seek help from the soldiers and mercenaries in his kingdom. Those who agreed to help includedRichard de Clare and half-brothersRobert FitzStephen andMaurice FitzGerald. Robert was accompanied by his half-nephewRobert de Barry. Strongbow was offered Diarmait's daughterAoife in marriage and promised the kingship of Leinster on Diarmait's death. Robert and Maurice were promised lands inWexford and elsewhere for their services.
On returning to Wales,Robert FitzStephen helped him organise a mercenary army of English and Welsh soldiers. Landing atBannow Bay, they laidsiege to Wexford which fell in May 1169. After a period of inactivity, they went on to raid theKingdom of Ossory. They then launched raids in the territories of the Uí Tuathail, the Uí Broin, and Uí Conchobhair Failghe. Mac Murchada gambled that KingRuaidrí would not hurt the Leinster hostages which he had, which included Mac Murchada's son, Conchobar Mac Murchada. Although he had been distracted by disturbances elsewhere in the kingdom, King Ruaidrí could no longer ignore this powerful force.
He marched his forces into Leinster and, with the mediation of the Church, the commanders of the two armies began negotiations atFerns, Diarmait's political base. An agreement was reached, whereby Diarmait was allowed to remain King of Leinster with Diarmait for his part recognising Ua Conchobair as High King. Some historians maintain that the treaty with Ua Conchobair included a secret agreement whereby Diarmait undertook to bring in no more foreign mercenaries and to send awayRobert FitzStephen and his men as soon as Leinster was subdued.[9] It's possible that Mac Murchada's hand may have been forced by the arrival atWexford in May 1170 ofMaurice FitzGerald, Lord of Llanstephan and his force of 10 knights, thirty men-at-arms and a hundred archers and foot soldiers. Mac Murchada and FitzGerald marched on the OstmanNorse–Gaelic city ofDublin which surrendered. Within a short time, all Leinster was again in Mac Murchada's control. Emboldened by these victories, he sent Robert FitzStephen to the assistance of his son-in-law,Domnall Mór Ua Briain, theKing of Thomond.
In the opinion of some historians, Mac Murchada's plans may have been limited to the recovery of his throne; only later when the superiority of the mercenary arms had overawed theGaelic nobility of Ireland did he consider tilting at the high kingship itself.[10] According to the contemporaryGerald of Wales, he was advised byRobert FitzStephen andMaurice FitzGerald to write to Strongbow requesting assistance. Strongbow sent an advance party underRaymond le Gros, arriving himself in 1170 at the OstmanNorse–Gaelic settlement ofWaterford. Following the fall of Waterford, the promised marriage of Aoife and Strongbow took place. As a result, Richard FitzGilbert, count of Strigoil, became lord of Leinster.[11] The marriage was imagined and painted in theRomantic style in 1854 byDaniel Maclise.
Mac Murchada was devastated after the death of his youngest son, Conchobar, retreated toFerns and died a few months later.
The scholarÁed Ua Crimthainn was probably Diarmait's court historian. In hisBook of Leinster, Áed seems to be the first to set out the concept of therí Érenn co fressabra, the "king of Ireland with opposition", later more widely adopted. This described Diarmait's ambitions and the achievements of his great-grandfatherDiarmait mac Maíl na mBó.[12]
In Irish history books written after 1800, Diarmait Mac Murchada was often seen as a traitor, but his intention was not to aid anEnglish invasion of Ireland, but rather to use Henry's assistance to become theHigh King of Ireland himself. The imperialism of the English, and later British, empire must not be placed anachronistically on the events of 1166. The adventurers who answered Diarmait's call for help were reacting to the opportunity for land and wealth.Henry II did not wish to invade Ireland, he was forced to react to earl Richard's aggrandisement. The counts of Strigoil had been supporters ofKing Stephen, and Henry II did not forget easily.
Gerald of Wales, a Cambro-English cleric who visited Ireland in 1185 and whose uncles and cousins were prominent soldiers in the army of Strongbow, repeated their opinions of Mac Murchada:
Dermot was a man tall of stature and stout of frame; a soldier whose heart was in the fray, and held valiant among his own nation. From often shouting his battle-cry his voice had become hoarse. A man who liked better to be feared by all than loved by any. One who would oppress his greater vassals, while he raised to high station men of lowly birth. A tyrant to his own subjects, he was hated by strangers; his hand was against every man, and every man's hand against him.
AfterStrongbow's successful invasion,Henry II mounted a second and larger invasion in 1171 to ensure his control over his subjects, which succeeded. He then accepted the submission of theIrish kings in Dublin in November 1171. He also ensured that his moral claim to Ireland, granted by the supposed 1155papal bullLaudabiliter, was reconfirmed in 1172 byPope Alexander III, and also by asynod of all the Irish bishops at theSynod of Cashel. He added"Lord of Ireland" to his many other titles. Before he could consolidate his new Lordship he had to go toFrance to deal with hissons' rebellion in 1173.
Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair was soon ousted, first asKing of Ireland and eventually asKing of Connacht. The Lordship directly controlled a small territory in Ireland surrounding the cities ofDublin andWaterford, while the rest of Ireland was divided between English lords and courtcuriales. The 1175Treaty of Windsor, brokered bySt Lawrence O'Toole with Henry II, formalised the submission of the Gaelicclans that remained in local control, like theUí Conchobair who retainedConnacht and theUí Néill who retained most ofUlster.
Diarmait's male-line descendants includedArt Óg mac Murchadha Caomhánach (d. 1417), who revived thekingship of Leinster, andCahir mac Art Kavanagh (died 1554) who continued to rule parts of Leinster independently of the English until theTudor conquest of Ireland in the 16th century. The last proclaimed King of Leinster,Domhnall Spáinneach Mac Murchadha Caomhánach, died in 1632. Later senior descendants who retained the position among the Irish upper-classes includedArthur MacMorrough Kavanagh (1831–1889) and his son,Walter MacMurrough Kavanagh 1856–1922).Dermot McMorrough Kavanagh (d. 1958) was recognised asChief of the Name of ClannCaomhánach (Kavanagh) in his lifetime.
Diarmait died about 1 May 1171[13] and was buried inFerns Cathedral, where his reputed grave can be seen in the outside graveyard.[7]
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In the playThe Dreaming of the Bones byW. B. Yeats, the ghosts of Dermot andDerbforgaill rescue an Irish rebel during the Easter Week rebellion, and reveal that they are bound until an Irishman can forgive them for bringing the Normans to Ireland.[14]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dermot Mac Murrough".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 74.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) | This articlecontains a list that has not been properly sorted. Specifically, it does not follow theManual of Style for lists of works (often, though not always, due to being in reverse-chronological order). SeeMOS:LISTSORT for more information. Pleaseimprove this article if you can.(October 2023) |
| Preceded by Énna Mac Murchada | King of Leinster 1126–1171 | Succeeded by |
