The
Context and Development of Irish Literature:
History, Poetry, Landscape
Chapter Two:
The Period of Conquest and Rebellion, page 1
The internal disputes between various Irish leaders erupted
spectacularly in the next stage in Irish history: in the
mid-1100's, two competing Irish Kings, Dermot MacMurrough of
Leinster and Rory O’Connor of Connacht,
feuded over the high kingship of Ireland. O'Connor won
his bid for the high kingship, and MacMurrough was sent into
exile. He then sought aid from Henry II, King of
England, and invited the British Earl of Pembroke,
subsequently known as Strongbow, to invade part of
Ireland and help him subdue his rival. Strongbow conquered
much of the east, including Waterford, Wexford, and Dublin [see map]. Henry II
wanted to insure that his lords did not set up an
independent, rival kingdom in Ireland; hence Henry subsequently claimed the
conquered lands as English domains. When O’Connor formally
submitted to Henry in 1175 (thereby becoming the last High
King in Irish history), the English conquest of Ireland
(and the first holding in the future British Empire) had
begun.
During the next two centuries English occupation in Ireland consolidated
itself, and the English married and mingled with the
"native" Irish to form the Old Anglo-Irish or Old
English, the
elite ruling class who constituted the great earldoms of the
14th century. Though English by descent, this class
soon considered itself Irish, so much so that an anxiety arose
among the English about the "gaelicization" of the
Anglo-Irish, resulting in the passage of the Statutes of Kilkenny in 1366. These statutes mandated the use of the
English language,
not Irish, required horses to be ridden in the English manner,
set up English legal codes and traditions, and enacted other
means to maintain the divide between native Irish and
Anglo-Irish. Thus a distinct class division was maintained
between the native Irish and their foreign, though somehow now
"Irish," rulers.
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