ANGLO-IRISH RELATIONS
claimed—partly on the basis of Bede’s Ecclesiastical
History—to be primate of all Britain, including Ireland.
This claim was given some foundation when the
bishop-elect of Dublin, Gille-Pátraic, went to him for
consecration in 1074. Moreover, Lanfranc professed to
be doing no more than following the practice of his
predecessors. The Irish link with Canterbury brought
with it relations with English monastic foundations
such as St. Albans and Winchester.
These ecclesiastical contacts were supplemented in
the eleventh and twelfth centuries by political connec-
tions. Ireland’s long association with Welsh politics,
including the fact that the founder of the Welsh ruling
dynasty of Gwynedd, Gruffudd ap Cynan (d. 1137),
was born in Dublin, inevitably brought it into contact
with the Normans occupying the Welsh march. The
king of Munster and high king, Muirchertach Ua Bri-
ain (d. 1119), had a Norman son-in-law in the lord of
Pembroke, Arnulf de Montgomery. And in 1165, the
year before Diarmait Mac Murchada was expelled
from Leinster and sought military aid from King Henry
II, the native Welsh chronicle reported that a fleet from
Dublin (a town under Diarmait’s control) came to
Henry II’s aid in his abortive campaign against the
native Welsh.
England and the Lordship of Ireland
Ireland’s connection with England was, therefore, long
standing by the 1160s. But the Anglo-Norman inva-
sion, and more particularly the expedition of Henry II
of 1171–1172, brought England and Ireland into a
formal relationship that has present-day ramifications.
King Henry II became the “lord of Ireland” and the
land of Ireland became vested in the English crown.
There was large-scale peasant migration from England
to settle the new acquisition, and with the settlers came
English institutions, law, castles, and the introduction
of a manorial economy.
It is wrong to imagine that Henry II was forced into
this relationship with Ireland by the actions of Anglo-
Norman adventurers led by Strongbow. No less than
his predecessors, Henry II was happy to add Ireland
to his empire. It has been suggested that the notorious
papal privilege Laudabiliter(1155), which sanctioned
an invasion of Ireland, was sought by the archbishops
of Canterbury in order to regain primacy over the Irish
Church; but if so, the archbishops required royal sup-
port. Moreover, there is evidence that, as early as 1155,
Henry II was planning to make Ireland an appanage
for his brother William. The Anglo-Normans who trav-
elled to Ireland to aid Mac Murchada from 1167 did
so with the consent of King Henry II. If they briefly
believed they could act independently of the king of
England, then Henry II’s expedition of 1171–1172
stamped royal authority on Ireland.
One consequence of the invasion was that “Anglo-
Irish relations” came to mean the connections between
England and the English colonists in Ireland. The
Gaelic population was rapidly eliminated from the
equation. In the thirteenth century there were sparse
contacts, such as when the king of Connacht, Feidlim
Ua Conchobair (d. 1265), fought in the Welsh cam-
paign of King Henry III in 1245. But Gaelic contact
with the king of England was exceptional rather than
commonplace.
Ireland’s exact constitutional position in relation to
England was initially ambiguous, and various plans
were made for the lordship. In 1177 the lordship of
Ireland was granted to the king’s fourth son, John
(d.1216), the future king of England. It may be that
Henry II intended that Ireland would descend as a king-
dom in the cadet line of the English royal house, though
probably remaining subject to the overlordship of the
king of England. A crown was sent by the pope to make
the Irish monarchy a reality, but the scheme was not put
into effect. When John became king of England in 1199,
Ireland once again became vested in the kingship of
England. The constitutional position of Ireland was clar-
ified in 1254. In that year King Henry III (1216–1272)
granted Ireland to his eldest son Edward, the future king.
However, Henry III stipulated that Ireland should never
be alienated from the English crown. He retained the
ultimate authority over Ireland for himself, and on
Edward’s succession in 1272 the two lands were once
again reunited. This remained the situation until King
Henry VIII adopted the title “King of Ireland” in 1541.
The key figure then in the relationship between
Ireland and England was the English king. He was
lord of Ireland and was required to protect his subjects
there. Yet he was most notable for his absence. Henry
II and his son John both visited Ireland. But after
1210, despite some good intentions, the only medi-
eval king to visit the lordship personally was Richard
II (1377–1399), who made two expeditions, in
1394–1395 and 1399. It is difficult to assess the
impact of this absenteeism. Exhortations to the king
to visit Ireland and remedy the colonists’ ills became
frequent from the fourteenth century. But it is unclear
what—short of an aspirational renewed conquest—
would have strengthened the lordship. There is a
strange tendency among Irish historians to favor
Kings John and Richard II, seemingly on the sole
basis that they crossed the Irish Sea. In fact their
expeditions were in many ways damaging and
patently unrealistic.
Neglect of Ireland stemmed from the king’s preoccu-
pation with other enterprises, in Britain and in continental
Europe. In the thirteenth century Ireland was exploited to