Consider the following- The English were invited to invade Ireland in 1160s by the high Irish king Diarmait Mac Murchada. Kings in Ireland were different then in the rest of Western Europe their Kings were not absolute monarchs with direct control over their Kingdoms. Ireland was separated into four Kingdoms and Mac Murchada wanted Norman-Anglo help from King Henry the II to help suppress the other Irish Kingdoms. The first and only English Pope was Adrian VI and he gave Ireland to Henry II in a Papal Bull which is like the Popes executive orders. Adrian wanted Henry II to get Ireland under control since the Irish church and people were seen by the Pope and the rest of Western Europe as disorganized and barbaric. The high Irish King Mac used mercenaries recruited from all over Henrys Kingdom from places like Scotland, Wales, Flanders, and England to fight for him. The High Irish King took most of the island but died shortly after and then one of the Welsh mercenaries sent to Ireland to fight for the King briefly took over the Kingdom. Henry II raised an English army and invaded Ireland to help settle the situation also to gain more land and power. The massive English led army was able to subdue most of the Irish Kingdoms by 1171 five years after the rebellion against Mac had started. The Pope got his authority over the Irish church and was able to collect the churches taxes from the island in the form of tithe. And Henry got to expand his Kingdom. And Henry began to build castles and heavily fortified towns to cement his control over the island. The English would use fortified based like the ones they used in Ireland to occupy many other places in Africa and North America. Henry II compromised by giving rule to an Irish King who would pay homage to the English. He though this would produce a longer and less costly occupation of Ireland for the English state much like he had done when he took Scotland and other territories. But the new High King of Ireland was unable to control much of the southern part of the island in the Kingdom of Munster. Henry II was forced to intervene more directly to keep Ireland in English hands by dividing it up into fiefs to be managed by Englishmen and Irishmen or anyone else in the Kingdoms who was loyal to him. Henry convened a council in Oxford England to divide up Ireland into these fiefs in 1177 thus starting the Englands long history of occupying Ireland and attempts to acculturate the Irish people to English ways which would continue in one form or another till the early 20th century when they granted independence to 5/6s of the island in 1922.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 16:48:16 +0000
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