Monarchy of Ireland

In practice, conquered territory was divided amongst various Anglo-Norman noble families who assumed title over both the land and the people with the prior Irish inhabitants being either displaced or subjugated under the previously alien system of serfdom.

Though the revolutionary change in the status quo was undeniable, the Anglo-Norman invaders would fail to conquer many of the Gaelic kingdoms of Ireland, which continued to exist, often expanding for centuries after, however none could make any viable claims of High Kingship.

The following is a list of the main Irish kingdoms and their kings: Máire Herbert has noted that "Annal evidence from the late eighth century in Ireland suggests that the larger provincial kingships were already accruing power at the expense of smaller political units.

The renaming of a kingship ... engendered a new self-perception which shaped the future definition of a kingdom and of its subjects.Nevertheless, the achievements of Máel Sechlainn I and his successors were purely personal, and open to destruction upon their deaths.

He was also the last Gaelic one, as the events of the Norman invasion of 1169–1171 brought about the destruction of the high-kingship, and the direct involvement of the Kings of England in Irish politics.

He then celebrated the Oenach Tailteann, a recognised prerogative of the High Kings, and made a number of notable charitable gifts and donations.

Through the intercession of Lorcán Ua Tuathail (Laurence O'Toole), the Archbishop of Dublin, Ruaidrí and Henry came to terms with the Treaty of Windsor in 1175.

A low point came in 1177 with a successful raid into the heart of Connacht by a party of Anglo-Normans, led by one of Ruaidrí's sons, Prince Muirchertach.

They were expelled, Ruaidhrí ordering the blinding of Muirchertach, but over the next six years his rule was increasingly diminished by internal dynastic conflict and external attacks.

As various Cambro-Norman noble families died out in the male line, the Gaelic nobility began to reclaim lost territory.

Successive English kings did little to stem the tide, instead using Ireland to draw upon men and supplies in the wars in Scotland and France.

By the 1390s the Lordship had effectively shrunk to the Pale (a fortified area around the city of Dublin) with the rest of the island under the control of independent Gaelic-Irish or rebel Cambro-Norman noble families.

King Richard II of England made two journeys to Ireland during his reign to rectify the situation; as a direct result of his second visit in 1399 he lost his throne to Henry Bolingbroke.

For the duration of the 15th century, royal power in Ireland was weak, the country being dominated by the various clans and dynasties of Gaelic (O'Neill, O'Brien, MacCarthy) or Cambro-Norman (Burke, FitzGerald, Butler) origin.

Following the accession of the Catholic Mary I in 1553 and her marriage to Philip II of Spain, in 1554, Pope Paul IV issued the papal bull "Ilius" in 1555, recognising them as Queen and King of Ireland together with her heirs and successors.

However, in 1649, the Rump Parliament, victorious in the English Civil War, executed Charles I, and made England a republic, or "Commonwealth".

During the early 18th century, a significant number of Irishmen who had fled Ireland in the aftermath of the Treaty of Limerick continued to remain loyal to the Jacobite Stuart pretenders as Kings of Ireland (particularly the Wild Geese military diaspora in France's Irish Brigade), contrary to the House of Hanover.

However, Ireland was host to a large military establishment and thus, unlike Scotland, was not the ground for legitimist-royalist risings in the 18th century, turning instead, mostly to republicanism as dissention with the ascent of the United Irishmen.

27) Act, which removed the monarch from the constitution and, on 12 December, the External Relations Act,[9] which provided that the monarch recognised by Britain and the rest of the Commonwealth could represent the Irish Free State "for the purposes of the appointment of diplomatic and consular representatives and the conclusion of international agreements" when authorised to do so by the Irish government.

[12] The External Relations Act was repealed, removing the remaining duties of the monarch, and Ireland formally withdrew from the British Commonwealth.

The Acts of Union 1800, which came into force on 1 January 1801, was instituted in response to the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The changes in the royal style in the 20th century took into account the emergence of independence for the dominions from the Imperial Parliament of the United Kingdom.

[17] In 1906, Patrick Pearse, writing in the newspaper An Claidheamh Soluis, envisioned the Ireland of 2006 as an independent Irish-speaking kingdom with an "Ard Rí" or "High King" as head of state.

[18][19] During the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, some Republican leaders, including Pearse and Joseph Plunkett, contemplated giving the throne of an independent Ireland to Prince Joachim of Prussia.

[24]Ernest Blythe recalls that in January 1915 he heard Plunkett and Thomas MacDonagh express support for the idea at an Irish Volunteers meeting.

[25] Sinn Féin was established in 1905 by Arthur Griffith as a monarchist party inspired by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise which sought to create an Anglo-Irish dual monarchy.

[26] During the party's 1917 Ard Fheis, disputes between monarchists and republicans resulted in an agreement that the question of a republic versus a monarchy would be settled by public referendum after independence was achieved provided that no member of the House of Windsor could become king.